Starfire Wins an Eppie!

Major congratulations to Stuart Vaughn Stockton, who has won this year's Eppie Award in the science fiction category for his debut novel, Starfire. Many of you know Starfire is dear to my own heart. Stuart allowed me to use Starfire as the novel written by my character S-Man in the Kanner Lake series.

Wilbur, Bailey, and all the other folks at Java Joint in Kanner Lake are thrilled for S-Man. Er, Stuart. "I always knew that boy was gonna be a star," Wilbur told me. "Tell you what, he wins a second award, I'll let him sit on my stool for a day."

That's a huge offer, coming from Wilbur.

The Eppies are given by EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Connection, a professional organization for published and contracted e-book and print authors. EPIC was established to provide a strong voice for electronic publishing. Its Eppie Awards for ebooks began in 2000.

"I'm so proud of Stuart's accomplishment with this award," said Jeff Gerke, who runs Marcher Lord Press, which published the novel. "Not only did he beat out every other Christian science fiction in the contest, he beat out all the science fiction novels of all kinds. This is a terrific affirmation of Stuart's grand, alien vision and excellent fiction skills."

Here is the complete list of 2010 Eppie winners. Note that Marcher Lord Press saw a second win--in the fantasy category. Jill Williamson won for By Darkness Hid. And the publishing house also took away awards for two covers--one for By Darkness Hid and one for Summa Elvetica. Not bad for a small, independent press.

"I'm thrilled that Starfire has won the Science Fiction category of the Epic Authors award," said Stuart. "It's very cool to see Starfire engaging audiences from many different walks of life."

A biggie latte toast to you, S-Man!