So, the other day the Horror Writers Association announced the preliminary ballot for the 2009 Bram Stoker Awards. I’m very pleased to note that my own Little Graveyard on the Prairie is one of several Bad Moon Books titles that made it to this stage of the process.

To celebrate the event, Bad Moon Books and Horror Mall are offering a 20 percent discount on copies of the book. Yes, it’s still pricey, but it’s a limited edition hardcover. (If you’re an active HWA member and want to read it, just drop me a line and I’ll send you a PDF. I might even be able to provide an ARC in a few days.)

The HWA doesn’t seem to have the preliminary ballot posted anywhere on its public site, so I’ve stolen the list and posted it in here. There are really a lot of fine titles and nice people represented. I mean, if I was still a member, I’d have a hard time narrowing down my choices this year. You judge for yourself.

Superior Achievement in a Novel:

– "Quarantined" by Joe McKinney (Lachesis Publishing)
– "As Fate Would Have It" by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)
– "Patient Zero" by Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
– "Cursed" by Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
– "Sacrifice" by John Everson (Leisure)
– "Audrey’s Door" by Sarah Langan (Harper)
– "Eternal Vigilance II: Death of Illusions" by Gabrielle Faust (Immanion Press)
– "Twisted Ladder" by Rhodi Hawk (Tor/Forge)
– "Voracious" by Alice Henderson (Jove)
– "The Bone Factory" by Nate Kenyon (Leisure)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel:

– "Damnable" by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
– "The Black Act" by Louise Bohmer (Library of Horror)
– "Slaughter" by Marcus Griffin (Alexandrian Archives Publishing)
– "Breathers" by S. G. Browne (Broadway Books)
– "The Little Sleep" by Paul Tremblay (Henry Holt)
– "Solomon’s Grave" by Daniel G. Keohane (Dragon Moon Press)
– "Dismember" by Daniel Pyle (Wild Child)
– "Slights" by Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot)
– "The Dead Path" by Stephen M. Irwin (Hachette Australia)
– "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan (Delacorte Press/Random House)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction:

– "Mama Fish" by Rio Youers (Shroud Publishing)
– "Hunger of Empty Vessels" by Scott Edelman (Bad Moon Books)
– "Diana and the Goong-Si" by Lisa Morton (Midnight Walk)
– "Doc Good’s Traveling Show" by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)
– "The Gray Zone" by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
– "The Lucid Dreaming" by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
– "Dreaming Robot Monster" by Mort Castle (Mighty Unclean)
– "Little Graveyard on the Prairie" by Steven E. Wedel (Bad Moon Books)
– "Rot" by Michelle Lee (Skullvines Press)
– "Black Butterflies" by Kurt Newton (Sideshow Press)

Superior Achievement in a Short Fiction:

– "In the Porches of My Ears" by Norman Prentiss (PS Publishing)
– "Blanket of White" by Amy Grech (Blanket of White)
– "Keeping Watch" by Nate Kenyon (Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror)
– "One More Day" by Brian Freeman (Shivers V)
– "The Crossing of Aldo Ray" by Weston Ochse (The Dead that Walk)
– "Where Sunlight Sleeps" by Brian Freeman (Horror Drive-in)
– "The Night Nurse" by Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-in)
– "Plague Dogs" by Joe McKinney (Potters Field 3)
– "The Outlaws of Hill County" by John Palisano (Harvest Hill)
– "Nub Hut" by Kurt Dinan (Chizine)

Superior Achievement in a Anthology:

– "Midnight Walk" edited by Lisa Morton (Dark House)
– "Poe" edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris)
– "Harlan County Horrors" edited by Mari Adkins (Apex Publications)
– "He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson" edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
– "Lovecraft Unbound" edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Books)
– "Dark Delicacies 3: Haunted" edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb (Running Press)
– "Butcher Shop Quartet 2" edited by Frank J. Hutton (Cutting Block Press)
– "Grants Pass" edited by Amanda Pillar and Jennifer Brozek (Morrigan Books)
– "Mighty Unclean" edited by Bill Breedlove (Dark Arts Books)
– "British Invasion" by Chris Golden, Tim Lebbon and James Moore (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Collection:

– "A Taste of Tenderloin" by Gene O’Neill (Apex Book Company)
– "Shades of Blood and Shadow" by Angeline Hawkes (Dark Regions Press)
– "Martyrs and Monsters" by Robert Dunbar (DarkHart Press)
– "In the Closet, Under the Bed" by Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe Press)
– "A Little Help from My Friends" by Michael McCarty (Sam’s Dot)
– "Got to Kill Them All and Other Stories" by Dennis Etchison (Cemetery Dance)
– "Dark Entities" by David Dunwoody (Dark Regions)
– "Shards" by Shane Jiraiya Cummings (Brimstone Press)
– "Unhappy Endings" by Brian Keene (Delirium Books)
– "You Might Sleep…" by Nick Mamatas (Prime)

Superior Achievement in a Nonfiction:

– "Writers Workshop of Horror" by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
– "Stephen King: The Non-Fiction" by Rocky Wood and Justin Brook (Cemetery Dance)
– "Cinema Knife Fight" by L. L. Soares and Michael Arruda (Fearzone)
– "Esoteria-Land" by Michael McCarty (BearManor Media)
– "Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues" edited by Loren Rhoads (Simon & Schuster)
– "The Stephen King Illustrated Companion" by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection:

– "Chimeric Machines" by Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy Publishing)
– "Mortician’s Tea" by G. O. Clark (Sam’s Dot)
– "Double Visions" by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions)
– "Voices from the Dark" by Gary William Crawford (Dark Regions)
– "Barfodder" by Rain Graves (Cemetery Dance)
– "Starkweather Dreams" by Christopher Conlon (Creative Guy Publishing)
– "Toward Absolute Zero" by Karen L. Newman (Sam’s Dot)
– "North Left of Earth" by Bruce Boston (Sam’s Dot)
– "Grave Bits" by Todd Hanks (Skullvines Press)