I found out while I was in Europe last week that I’m a finalist for two Locus Awards. Wow! So I’m a finalist for Best Artist and for Best Art Book (COVER STORY: THE ART OF JOHN PICACIO). Couldn’t be more pleased, and I’m very grateful for the kind consideration. Thanks so much! It’s been quite an amazing six weeks over here….getting married; doing honeymoons on two continents; being nominated for two Hugo Awards, and now discovering that I’m a finalist for two Locus Awards. Again, I’m very grateful.
If you’re curious about the art book, COVER STORY is still available from the big stores (Amazon.com; Barnes & Noble; Borders; Books-A-Million), but please consider some of these terrific independent booksellers as well. Many of them have a few autographed copies remaining, at no extra charge…Borderlands Books, DreamHaven Books, Bud Plant, The Other Change of Hobbit, and many more. While I was in the Netherlands last week, I signed lots of copies for The American Book Center which is located in Amsterdam. (Thanks, Karin!) So if you live in or near the Netherlands, or saw the book at the Elf Fantasy Fair, they’ve got signed copies now.
One more note — three cheers for MonkeyBrain Books, as they’re the publisher of my art book, and it’s terrific to share the book’s Hugo and Locus Award noms with them.
In addition, MonkeyBrain’s MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE by Win Eckert, and BLOOD & THUNDER: THE LIFE & ART OF ROBERT E. HOWARD by Mark Finn both finished as finalists in the Locus Awards’ Best Non-Fiction category.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to illustrate the covers for both of those, as well as Jeffrey Ford’s THE EMPIRE OF ICE CREAM (Golden Gryphon), which is a finalist for Best Collection. Congrats to all!
John-Heya! Just got my copy of the World Horror Con book and it’s just fantastic! Lots of nice pix, esp your stuff and I liked all the inks by Gary Gianni. Happy to be part of it!
Hope you’re well,
Bob
Hey, Bob!
Yeah, wasn’t that book amazing? Steve Jones and Michael Marshall Smith did the design work and I thought it was first-class all the way. I had never heard of a convention souvenir book being done as a formal hardcover book, but apparently it has been done before. I can’t imagine there’s ever been one done more nicely than this though. Yeah, I was really honored to just be a part of the whole package. Love your blog, by the way!
John – The 1976 worldCon in Kansas City (MidAmericon) had a hardback souvenir book designed by Tom Reamy and Arnie Fenner (I believe) with a nice George Barr cover featuring Heinlein. It is a treasured item in my collection.
For some reason, comments on the Elf Fantasy Fair blog post are not enabled to me.
Oh well.
In any case, congrats again on the Locus Awards noms (and my poor memory on the Sunday about them: that’s what you get if I go out with my brother the night before…;-).
Just to say that I had a terrific Sunday night at Elf Fantasy Fair with you and Traci and big D, little B, the prof, and Chris Geere. Barely made the last train home!
Hey, Scott —
Yeah, that sounds like a good one. I was blown away by the WHC book, even though I knew it wasn’t the first time this had been done….I’ll show it to you sometime, if you haven’t already seen one.
Jetse —
Looks like your comment showed up after all. Yeah, it was a great time with you in Utrecht. I’m very glad you made it….thanks to you, I think everyone had a blast that night. Glad you made your train! We’ll be in touch, I’m sure…and congrats to INTERZONE as well on the awards love….