I'm thrilled to announce that I've been named winner of the 2009 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award for Imaginative Fiction, as chosen by Rosebud Magazine's judge Nina Kiriki Hoffman. My winning story, "The Freak Museum" will appear in Rosebud's spring issue.

I'm such a fan of Mary Shelley, a fact which prompted me to enter the contest to be begin with. She was a woman of talent and illumination at a time when it couldn't fully be appreciated. She loved deeply, lost greatly, and died too young. She wrote many works of probing fiction, which I recommend reading, of course, but her novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is a great introduction.  And if you're wondering which tea to drink while you read her compelling tale, visit my blog post at English Tea Store.com to find my recommendation.