Last month at the World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon, I had the pleasure of introducing HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and special guest Stephen Jones not once, but twice. First, I introduced him during the opening ceremonies on Thursday; then I introduced him during the awards presentation on Saturday night. Believe me, it wasn’t my choice to do both; but I was asked by two people I have a great deal of respect for (Alan Clark for the Opening Ceremonies, and Steve himself for the awards presentation) to present the intros, and there was no way I was going to say “no” to either one. Fortunately Steve had the marvelous Michael Marshall Smith to conduct the traditional guest interview with him during the con, and HWA managed to tape the proceedings (thanks to John Palisano). Here’s a link to the video on HWA’s YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SshIpTN6MMM And here are my intros. Thank you, Steve, and congrats again.
Stephen Jones Opening Ceremonies intro Each year, HWA presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to an individual – quote, unquote – “whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre.” Since Stephen King has already won the award, the next obvious choice was Stephen Jones. I will confess that I’m too lazy to total up all the books Steve has written or edited over his four-decade career, so let’s just glance at some highlights: He’s edited 24 years’ worth of Best New Horror, has covered virtually every famous monster in the Mammoth Book of series, and has won every major horror award multiple times, including the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the British Fantasy Award. He’s written nonfiction books about Stephen King movie adaptations, he’s provided commentary on Clive Barker DVDs, and he’s created definitive collections of the works of Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. For cryin’ out loud, Joe Hill’s written a story about this guy, and I have no doubt that the reason horror conventions don’t have trivia contests is that we know Steve Jones would win every frigging one of them. Please join me in welcoming HWA’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Stephen Jones.
Presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Stephen Jones Since I already had the pleasure of introducing HWA’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Stephen Jones at the opening ceremonies on Thursday, I’m going to take a different approach with this particular introduction, and I hope you’ll pardon me for getting completely narcissistic with this… See, here’s the thing: I owe whatever career in horror I have to this guy. That’s not an exaggeration or something you say because you want everyone in the audience to go, “Awww, that’s so cool.” Go look at my list of credits, and you’ll see this name Stephen Jones pop up a lot. Back in 1993, I attended my first World Fantasy Convention; this was back before we had World Horror Conventions, and horror was the little red-headed bastard stepchild who had to beg Big Daddy Fantasy for a place at the table. I was coming off a…ahem…colorful career in Hollywood, which of course means that I’d found enough success as a screenwriter to be deeply embarrassed by every one of the atrocities that bore my name as writer. My Southern California homies Dennis Etchison and Roberta Lannes took me by the hand and led me through this strange new world of writers’ conventions, and one of the first people they introduced me to was Stephen Jones. By the end of our first conversation, Steve had, for whatever insane reason, given me an open invitation to submit stories to him. I was just venturing into the world of prose fiction, hoping to recover the wispy, tattered shreds of self-esteem that had survived my screenwriting ventures, and Steve actually bought the second story I sent him. And the next one, and the next one, and a lot after that. Most recently, I was especially honored that Steve asked me to write one of the two stand-alone novels for his Zombie Apocalypse! series. The fact that his acknowledgment in that book thanks me for writing a novel that will never be reviewed on Fox News proves that he’s obviously an editor of astonishing tolerance. All of this is by way of saying that I’m guessing I’m not the only writer who owes much of their resume to Steve Jones. Steve’s edited nearly a quarter-century of the yearly Best New Horror anthologies, as well as dozens of other books, including six volumes of Dark Terrors, every major monster in the Mammoth Book of series (including my personal favorite, the spectacularly titled Mammoth Book of Psychomania!, complete with exclamation point), and dozens of other anthologies. He’s won more awards than any other editor, with the possible exception of his unholy twin Ellen Datlow, and he’s also written extensively about the genre. You only need to visit his website to see photos of him with the likes of Robert Bloch, Neil Gaiman, and Anne McCaffrey to realize that this guy has walked beside legends…for one obvious reason. Thank you, Steve Jones, for everything you’ve done for the genre of dark fiction, and I’m completely thrilled to be the one handing you this Lifetime Achievement Award tonight.
Please visit http://www.stephenjoneseditor.com/ for more on Steve’s amazing career.