As you know, “Babylon’s Song” received a nomination for New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Award. If you’ve read the story and enjoyed it and think it deserves award recognition, please register a nomination. It’s free and there are only a few days left. Kōsa Press is blogging about it this week and you can find more information about the process here.

I’m surprised at how excited I am about the nomination. Apparently, I am human after all. Jokes aside, receiving the nomination was like Lady Luck stroking my face softly and whispering in my ear, “There is still hope for you yet.” It feels good. For those who don’t yet know, “Babylon’s Song” is a novella I wrote for Interspecies published last year by Kōsa Press.

The official plot description:

At nine-years-old, Samantha Babylon’s innocence was violently torn from her as she and her sister find themselves in New Zealand, now home of the inlari nation. Separated from her sister on arrival, a storm of guilt and fear threatens to rip Samantha apart while she desperately clings to a fragile hope of uniting with her sibling, escaping the island, and returning to their beloved Barren Mountain in New South Wales.

The unofficial plot description, or rather, the one I wrote fresh from finishing the story:

There are no happy endings. Only revenge.

Samantha “Sam” Babylon has honed her skills over time to become one of the deadliest warriors fighting against the inlari invasion. She is a member of the Queensland Devils—an elite commando unit who gets their orders directly from Colonel Thaddeus James and his Council of Redeemers. But her efficiency came at great cost and the scars in her soul run deep. The inlari had made her an orphan at nine years old, and she has made it her life’s mission to pay them back—one rotting carcass at a time. This is the story of her origins. Of the ordeals that shaped her, that molded her soul and set the stage that would eventually turn an innocent nine-year-old into a dispassionate soldier, hellbent on wiping all inlari from the face of the Earth.

Please check out the post and nomination process on Kōsa Press.

As for this week, “Art of Fantasy 114” comes out tomorrow. I’m still writing the “Obscure Tales” episode for this week. I’m featuring a Persian hero and it involves a fairy king, a winged demon, and the power of love. Exciting stuff.

Cheers!

Woelf