Ann Leckie

Or, as my phone would insist, Nebulae.

So, I went to San Jose last weekend for the Nebula Awards. Mostly I went because it was an excuse to dress up and hang out with my friends, and really anything else was gravy. I mean, it was all gravy to begin with, so I guess anything else would be, what, an extra helping of super-special gravy?

Every now and then someone would ask me if I thought I would win. And I really had no idea. And wasn’t giving the possibility much serious thought. I mean, look at the list:

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler won the PEN/Faulkner award, and there’s a really good reason for that. It’s fabulous.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman is, you know, by Neil Gaiman. And this is widely considered to be one of his best.

Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon won the Compton Crook award–in fact, it beat Ancillary Justice.

Hild, by Nicola Griffith is amazing and lovely and has just been named a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

The Red: First Light, by Linda Nagata, is as far as I can tell, the first ever self-published book to be nominated for a Nebula.

A Stranger in Olondria, by Sofia Samatar has already won the Crawford Award and is–well, I’ve probably already bored you in the past telling you to go read it. Go read it if you haven’t. Sofia also had a short story on the Nebula ballot, and is nominated for the Campbell (NOT A HUGO) this year, so, you know, yeah.

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker is a book I’ve seen turn up on lots of year-end-best lists, and with good reason.

Basically, it really, truly is an astonishing honor to have my book listed among those books, and I would have been happy to see any of them win.

Any of them didn’t win. Ancillary Justice did.

It’s a good thing I had a speech ready just in case, and written all the way down. I know at least one nominee who had only a small kind of post-it thingy with some bullet points jotted on it. She won and proceeded to speak very well. I could not have done that. I probably would have only been able to gibber.

You guys. I am so astonished. This year. It has been such an amazing year. And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the folks who have read and enjoyed Ancillary Justice. It’s been an amazing year largely because of you all. Thank you.