BOOK JUNKIE: Seattleite nominated for sci-fi award

Hot off the heels of an award given by the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Assocation for Boneshaker, Cherie Priest has been nominated for a Nebula Award. Prizes will be awarded in Cape Canaveral, Florida in mid-May. The Nebula Awards are voted on and presented by active members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded in 1965, the organization originally had seventy-eight members. It now has over 1,500 members, many the leading practioniers of sci-fi and fantasy writing today.

Priest writes on her blog: "I am flabbergasted that this has actually happened. I have no idea what to say in response except thank you to the members of the SFWA who have given this weird, interstitial, difficult-to-talk-about book a chance. I am absolutely honored and amazed. It is a privilege to appear on this list, and I feel both nervously humbled and giddily thrilled to be there. Beyond that, I’m speechless."

The book, published by Tor, is a fantastic 19th-century story about a drill, the Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine, used to get to the gold underneath Alaskan ice during the Klondike boom. Things go awry. Awry, as in the destruction of downtown Seattle and a gas that turns anyone who breathes it into the living dead.

City Arts congratulates Priest on her nomination and suggests you pick up a copy of Boneshaker at your earliest opportunity.