Read Prize-Winning Fiction Online!

Ed Champion's blog was the first place I saw this year's Hugo winners, awarded by fantasy and science fiction fans (those in the World Science Fiction Society) to their favorite writers and artists. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell took the prize for best novel, which reminds me again that I haven't even started it yet. But the big news, at least for me, is that all of the winners in the shorter fiction categories are available online. Charlie Stross has released his novella "The Concrete Jungle" under a Creative Commons license, and Kelly Link's novelette, "The Fairy Handbag," is on her website. (It's not CC-licensed yet as far as I can tell, but based on the success Link's had re-releasing Stranger Things Happen, l bet it'll happen one day.) And Asimov's Science Fiction published Mike Resnick's short ghost story, "Travels With My Cats."

Speaking of Kelly Link, she recently did an interview with fellow SF writer Jeff VanderMeer, who's known for asking some pretty goofy questions. Like "What is your response to those people who buy Magic for Beginners expecting it to be a how-to manual and are horribly disappointed?"