Today I was named as one of the three finalists for the 2012 Journey Prize, for the short story ‘To Have To Wait,’ which originally appeared in The Malahat Review early this year. The image above is a screenshot from the Writers’ Trust of Canada website, and it likely proves that I did not hallucinate the whole thing as part of a whiskey fuelled fever-dream.

I’ve had a lot of congratulations today and I’ve said a bunch of thank you’s, but I want to thank everybody again for supporting my work. Some very good writers are in The Journey Prizes Stories 24, all of whom are a fair amount more reputable than I am. Nonetheless, The Malahat Review gave my story a shot and Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter got what I was trying to do and chose the story for the top three.

Now I have to go to some a fancy dinner and some kind of gala to see if I can win the whole thing. I might even have to dress up, shave, wears shoes, and so on. I also have to find a picture of my head that isn’t utterly ridiculous so that the Writers’ Trust can put it up on their webpage. None of those are particularly bad problems to have.

Anyway, that is the news from today. The winner won’t be announced until November 7th, so, in the meantime, you should go out and grab a copy of The Journey Prize Stories 24, and read all of the writers in there, not just the buggers who made it through to the finals. I’m not gonna lie to you though, if you read my story the most I will throw you a high five.

I will keep you posted if anything else happens, and I will have an update on my latest novel soon as well. Until then, take care, thanks from deep in my surly guts for all of your support.

Here are a couple of items from today’s newscycle about the announcement, as well as the announcement of the shortlist for Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction prize, which you gotta scroll past to get to the Hardcastle:

CBC

Quill and Quire

National Post

The Toronto Star

NOW Magazine

The 24th edition of The Journey Prize Stories will be released today, and includes my story ‘To Have To Wait,’ which was originally published back in January by The Malahat Review.

All of the thirteen stories in the anthology are in contention for The Journey Prize, a $10,000 award meant to identify the very best emerging writers in Canada. The prize is made possible by James A. Michener’s generous donation of all Canadian royalties from his novel Journey. On Wednesday morning The Writers’ Trust of Canada will be announcing the finalists for the prize, and the eventual winner will be announced on November 7th.

Along with the stories, you will also find a very interesting introduction by the jury with some insight into the selection process, and some kind words about each story that was chosen. Also, some of the authors in the anthology show up in a questionnaire at the end, sharing their ideas on how not to entirely eat shit as an emerging writer. There is some pretty good stuff in there.

You can buy this sucker online through Amazon, Indigo, or directly from McClelland & Stewart, who graciously runs the competition and publishes the anthology. There are some fine stories amongst those pages, by some very good up and coming writers. But I hear that this particular collection of tales gets especially awesome from page eighteen to page thirty-six…

Thanks go out to the The Malahat Review for giving ‘To Have to Wait’ a shot (John Barton, Julie Paul, Rhonda Batchelor, Susan Sanford Blades, etc.), and to Anita Chong and the rest of the staff at McClelland & Stewart, as well as the jury who chose the stories in the anthology: Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter. Special thanks to all the folks I’ve met along the way who have read, edited, or otherwise supported my work, namely Leah Chamberlain, Lindsay Clarke, A.F. Moritz, and Cort McMeel.

I’m in the final stages of revision on my second novel, which I hope to have out to my agent, Meghan Macdonald, by early October. Win or lose, it is a big deal to be included in The Journey Prize Stories anthology, and perhaps it will help get one of these novels sold. No matter what happens, I will keep putting in work, and you’ll probably see a bunch more of it out there over the next couple of years.

Keep your ears to the ground. I’ll post more as it comes…