How I Became a 2016 Philip K. Dick Award Judge by Lisa Mason (@LisaSMason)
How I Became a 2016
Philip K. Dick Award Judge
by
Lisa Mason
After
my Omni story, Tomorrow’s Child,
optioned and then sold outright to Universal
Studios, I went off for some years to study screenplay writing. I wrote
half a dozen, including Tesla: A Worthy of His Time,
now an ebook.
As
generous as the people were who helped me with the Tomorrow’s Child
deal, the Hollywood Machine is even more difficult to deal with than New York Publishing.
Anyway,
writing prose is my first love.
When
the e-book revolution took off in 2010, I devoted time to uploading Summer of Love, The Gilded Age, a number
of my longer previously published stories, a story collection Strange Ladies: 7 Stories
of previously published short fiction, an urban fantasy, The Garden of
Abracadabra, and a historical romantic suspense, Celestial
Girl (A Lily Modjeska Mystery).
Four
years of relaunching into ebook publishing just wasn’t enough, though, and I
returned to my roots: writing short stories. I spent some months in 2014
writing stories. Two of them sold, “Teardrop,”
published in the May-June 2015 Magazine
of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and “Tomorrow
Is A Lovely Day,” to be published in the November-December Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
The
editor who acquired both stories was Gordon
Van Gelder, the eminent publisher of The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a venue that has published
continuously since 1949 and featured Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Jane Yolen,
and other renowned authors.
While
preparing a story for publication, Gordon asked me in January, 2015 if I might
be available to serve as a judge for the 2016
Philip K. Dick Award.
Of
course I jumped at the chance.
The
Philip K. Dick Award is conferred each
year by a panel of five judges, four of whom are themselves professionally
published authors and the fifth an academic. Each year, there are four Finalists and one Winner.
Serving
as a judge has been an amazing experience for me. Publishers—large, medium, and
small—have sent me their original trade and mass market paperbacks for the
year. I’ve been fascinated to read what SF authors are writing and publishers
feel strongly enough about to invest in.
This
year’s judges are Eric James Fullilove,
James Glass, David Higgins, Lisa Mason
(that’s me), and Jack Skillingstead.
A
series of events then led me to assume the duties of the Curator of The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle.
So
there you have it, my friends. The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle includes
Aestival Tide by Elizabeth Hand
(PKD Finalist), Life by Gwyneth
Jones (PKD Winner), The Cipher by
Kathe Koja (PKD Finalist), Points of Departure by Pat Murphy (PKD Winner), Dark Seeker by K. W. Jeter (PKD Finalist), Summer of Love by Lisa Mason (PKD Finalist), Frontera
by Lewis Shiner (PKD Finalist), Acts
of Conscience by William Barton (PKD
Special Citation), Maximum Ice by
Kay Kenyon (PKD Finalist), Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams (PKD Finalist), and Reclamation by Sarah Zettel
(PKD Finalist).
The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle runs only until October 15. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Download yours today at http://storybundle.com/pkdaward
and enjoy world-class, award-winning reading right now and into the
holidays.
Thank you, Lisa. The whole history of the PKD award and how it's bestowed is fascinating. It will be exciting to see which book and author receives the award this year.
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