I woke up this morning to some exciting news: Casual has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.

What followed was a few hours of shock and excitement and a whole lot of not working at work. (Sorry, I’ll make up for it). Followed by a lot of anxious “how do I say thank you to people for showing their support and excitement about this?” I decided I’d write a little blog to say thank you to everyone who posted encouragement about the nomination.

What’s the Philip K. Dick Award?

First, for my mom who probably has no idea what the Philip K. Dick Award is. I’ll take it straight from NorWesCon’s site:

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States during the previous calendar year. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by Norwescon. 

Again, for my mom who’s now asking who Philip K. Dick is. He wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and A Scanner Darkly, among other books, and a ton of Hollywood films were based on his books. You’d probably know Bladerunner, if nothing else. For me, being associated in any way with his legacy is pretty amazing.

How’d Casual End Up Here?

Now that we’ve caught my mom up on the basics, let’s get to the real question I keep asking myself of how Casual ended up on this list, among some amazing books by amazing writers.

I wrote Casual when I was on maternity leave with my second child. I have to be grateful that I live in a country where I am able to take two years of paid maternity leave, and that I was able to really sink into the post partum emotions that I was going through. They fueled a lot of this book, which looks at mental health and pregnancy in the age of technology and government oversight. After I wrote it and edited it, I sent it out to a couple of agents, and then immediately trunked it. It was too personal and I was too raw to publish it.

Enter Tenebrous Press

It was a couple of years later that I stumbled across Soft Targets, published by Tenebrous Press. That book was so weird. So different. So… strange, that for the first time I thought maybe Casual could have a home. Maybe there are people out there that want to read stories like mine, and maybe there’s a publisher that will handle it with care.

Matt and Alex at Tenebrous have been extremely supportive with this book. When they offered to publish it, I felt, for the first time, that someone really cared about this book and saw it as something that others would appreciate. It was amazing. Then they got to work putting it together. Including finding two absolutely amazing artists to create the cover (Cristina Bencina) and internal illustrations (Helen Whistberry). They also made sure the book got out there to readers around the world. People were actually reading my book!

Enter the Readers

Releasing a book is a bit terrifying. Even with a publisher supporting it, you don’t really know how readers are going to react. This is especially true for a book like Casual that felt like it didn’t fit neatly in the sci fi genre or weird genres. But in those first days, and over the past year, readers have been so enthusiastic about this book. I feel like, in a lot of ways, I’ve been seen and accepted. And it has been amazing. Even today, several people posted their congratulations on the nomination, and I was filled with such a feeling of warmth and acceptance. For someone who has social anxiety and has spent most of their life feeling misunderstood and unseen, it has been truly meaningful for me.

Enter the Other Books

One of the best things about getting nominated for an award is seeing your book rub shoulders with other books you respect. It is so amazing to see Casual sitting among some really good books from the past year, and to see my name listed with other authors whose work is amazing. Not only from this year, but throughout the legacy of this award. It’s a heady feeling that seems a bit impossible, but apparently it happened. Which… cool!?!

Okay — now that I’ve got that off my chest, back to work.