So apparently the winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, Sam Stone, has returned her prize. The Guardian also notes that Stone is the partner of David Howe, who is the coordinator of the BFAs. In addition many of the winners/nominees were published by Telos which is run by, yup, David Howe. Nothing funny going on here, nosiree!
Sam Stone also won for Best Short Story. Editor Stephen Jones describes it thusly:
The Best Short Story award went to Sam Stone. She cried a lot, thanked her partner—David Howe—and told us what a surprise it was to win. Presumably, David had not told her over the washing-up, nor had she sneaked a peek at the plaques he had brought down to stick on the award statuettes.
The August Derleth Award for Best Novel also went to Sam for the third book in her vampire trilogy published by Terry Martin’s small press imprint, The House of Murky Depths. Sam heroically didn’t cry. I suspect that the other nominees—Adam L. Nevill, Tom Fletcher, Gary McMahon and Graham Joyce—probably did.
Hopefully the awards get their act together or I predict FantasyCon may be creating their own award by the next convention.
There Is No Easter Bunny 