Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers launched a new award for aspiring debut novelists, in June last year. The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize. Since the deadline for submissions on the 31^st December 2012, the team have spent many hours reading, reporting and discussing over 500 entries that were submitted for the £20,000 advance publishing contract.

The shortlist are, in surname order:

The Unspoken Death of the Amazing Flying Boy by Jean Burdett

Bloodline by Sophie Constable

The Hive by Alexander Maskill

The Way Through the Woods by Robin Pearson

A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin

The Shadows of Annwn by Catherine Whittle

The six shortlisted books cover a breadth of topics and sub genres, imagination and alternate worlds. Each shortlisted entry was chosen for their skilful writing, vast imaginative powers and ability to tell a good story!

The winner will be judged by Sir Terry Pratchett, Rob Wilkins, Alex Veasey from Forbidden Planet, Simon Taylor, Editorial Director at Transworld Publishers and Lynsey Dalladay Sir Terry Pratchett’s Publicist. The winner will be announced on the 31^st May 2013.

Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers would like to thank everyone who submitted an entry to the prize.

2012 has started well for author E.J. (Emma) Swift. Her short story The Complex appears in the January issue of Britain’s premier science fiction magazine Interzone, marking her debut as a professional author. Her work will appear in the upcoming issue alongside stories from Carole Johnstone, Tyler Keevil and Ray Cluley. The Complex was Emma’s first short story and, as such first time success is rare, it suggests that she has all the attributes necessary to make a career as an author.

Emma’s story has a mid-fifties woman facing freedom after serving forty years on a hellish prison planet. Her sentence is over … but she thinks it’s about to start.

Interzone #238 will begin mailing out around 13 January 2012. So, with that issue, Emma will join the ranks of Interzone authors like Brian Aldiss, Terry Pratchett, and J.G. Ballard, along with Liz Williams and Alastair Reynolds who established their writing careers in its pages.

Emma is 28 and has a BA in English and American Literature from the University of Manchester and an MA in Creative Writing (Royal Holloway, London). She now works at the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, an affiliation of eight dance, drama and circus schools, and is responsible for communications and events. She takes time out from writing and the day job by exploring circus skills such as trapeze classes at Circus Space in London, and hula hooping.

Emma plans to make a career of her writing and is represented by Zeno Agency. Her novel, Osiris, the first in a planned trilogy, is currently waiting for a publisher’s decision.

The list of books to be given away during the 2012 World Book Night has been announced, with the inclusion of some genre books. Alongside classics both old (eg. Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities and Rebecca) and new (eg. The Road by Cormac McCarthy), the list also includes such titles as The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, Misery by Stephen King, Let the Right One In by John Ajvde Lindqvist and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

The full list and article about this can be found at theBookseller.com

The Telegraph  reports that Sir Terry Pratchett is preparing for a High Court battle over plans to make a film of his book Mort.

The  novelist has apparently issued a writ against Paul Bamborough and Camel Productions, who had an option on film rights for the story.  Sir Terry argues that the rights ran out and is seeking a legal declaration to that effect.

If he is successful, it would open the way for another company to make a film based on Mort, the fourth title in his Discworld series.

At a glittering ceremony in Brighton on 2 October 2011 the following were announced as winners of the British Fantasy Awards 2011:

KARL EDWARD WAGNER SPECIAL AWARD: Terry Pratchett

BEST NOVEL: Demon Dance, Sam Stone (House of Murky Depths)

BEST NOVELLA: Humpty’s Bones, Simon Clark (Telos)

BEST SHORT STORY: “Fool’s Gold”, Sam Stone, from The Bitten Word, ed. Ian
Whates (NewCon Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY: Back from the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror
Stories, Johnny Mains (ed.) (Noose & Gibbet)

BEST COLLECTION: Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)

BEST NON-FICTION: Altered Visions: The Art of Vincent Chong (Telos)

BEST ARTIST: Vincent Chong

BEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL: At the Mountains of Madness: a Graphic Novel, Ian Culbard (Selfmadehero)

BEST MAGAZINE/PERIODICAL: Black Static, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)

BEST SMALL PRESS: Telos Publishing

BEST FILM: Inception

BEST TELEVISION: Sherlock

SYDNEY J. BOUNDS AWARD FOR BEST NEWCOMER: Robert Jackson Bennet, for Mr Shivers (Orbit)