BRAM STOKER AWARDS® Speech Addendum

For those folks who were sitting within earshot when my name was called, you know exactly how I was feeling in that moment…

.

.

“Oh fuck”

.

.

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

• WINNER: 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Page Street)

• The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar, Robin R. Means Coleman & Mark H. Harris (Saga)

• A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, Claire Fitzpatrick, ed. (IFWG)

• The Art of the Zombie Movie, Lisa Morton (Applause)

• Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Lee Murray & Angela Yuriko Smith, eds. (Black Spot)

(the whole list of nominees & winners)

There is a cute family photo of winners HERE

“And the award goes too…”

You know when people say, “my heart was beating out of my chest”, I have never felt a cliched saying so hard in my entire life. It actually did feel like my heart was pounding outside of my body and my mind was scrambled. I don’t remember getting out of my chair or how I got on stage. I do remember giving Sarah Read a hug as she held my statue and asking, “Can I stay here with you?”

(she said no)

So up to the mic I went with my heart in my throat and my mind emptied of anything resembling a thought—you can see what I managed to say in a room full of people perceiving me, here

Now, after the tremors in my body have settled and I have enjoyed some distance from all those urgent emotions, I have more feelings of gratitude to share. First, to acknowledge the importance of the HWA in my life, I joined the HWA back a few years when there wasn’t quite a category for my writing. I was making enough money as a freelance horror fiction reviewer to qualify for Active membership but the HWA didn’t have a method of tracking/verifying so many different revenue streams. It was a dream of mine to be able to recommend books to the reading list and vote on the preliminary and final ballots. I worked very closely with the membership team to initiate my Active member status. And I am very grateful for their efforts to make sure I could be included. A big thank you to the HWA and its members

I also want to acknowledge my fellow nominees,

Robin R. Means Coleman & Mark H. Harris, Claire Fitzpatrick, Lisa Morton, and Lee Murray &

Angela Yuriko Smith

just a staggering amount of talented people to be nominated alongside. It is an incredible honor to even be listed among them.

Also, the dream is to find yourself an editor that looks at you the way my editor, Alexandra Murphy looks at me. This book was her idea. She believed in me. She envisioned me as the author of this book and asked me to write it. When I hemmed and hawed, she told me I was the one to write this book. I followed her lead on this journey and it was my goal to make her proud. Alexandra does everything within her power to support me and preserve my voice so that my book sounds exactly how I want it to sound—like a conversation the reader is having with their friend who is obsessed with horror books—that’s all. She gets me. And it’s a gift to have her in my life. She is currently accepting horror submissions! HERE

Everything else I managed to say in my speech. I am so proud of this book, that it’s out there in the world making friends and living its life. It has a sibling waiting to be born but is still in its formative stages, so it’s getting all my attention these days. More on that Horror child soon. A full rundown of my entire and first ever StokerCon experience will be on my Patreon, this Friday

xx

Sadie