Congrats to Jim Shepard (Like You'd Understand, Anyway), Vincent Lam (Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures), and British author Tessa Hadley (Sunstroke and Other Stories) for being finalists for the Story Prize.

This is a bittersweet moment. Back in July I attempted to contact Vincent Lam about doing an interview for the 2009 NSSWM as one of the new authors we feature. Unfortunately, I never got a hold of him. It's nice to know I have good taste, and I do understand why he probably didn't get back to me, but he would have rounded out my selection nicely.

However, I was able to contact some amazing debut novelists. I've been finishing the article over the last few days, so I'm especially psyched right now. I got to speak with Gary D. Wilson (Sing, Ronnie Blue), Marcia Laycock (One Smooth Stone) and Camille DeAngelis (Mary Modern), while one of my freelancers interviewed Fiona Maazal (Last Last Chance). You'll get to read all about them in the 2009 NSSWM.

All of them wrote excellent books, but I have to rave a bit about Mary Modern. It's this fabulous tale of family and the weight of expectations and desires, and clones. Trust me, go read it. I don't physically force books on my friends very often, but this was one that I did. If you don't at least appreciate how good it is, you can come back here and throw tomatoes at me.