Fantasy Book Critic: Auctions and Contests News (By Mihir Wanchoo)

This coming Friday, the 15th of June the David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy will be held at the Magic Circle Headquarters in London. These fantastic awards play an important role in spreading public awareness of the fantasy genre and rewarding excellence within the field while also remembering David Gemmell and honoring his contributions to the fantasy field.

In order to raise funds and keep these great awards running, an auction is held every year at the ceremony. This year, Anna Gregson, Commissioning Editor of Orbit Books has been helping to organise the auction lots, and They include:

- Have your name featured in an upcoming Terry Brooks novel!

- A Star Wars Moleskine notebook containing the signatures of over 40 SFF authors including Brent Weeks, Robin Hobb, Peter Brett, Joe Abercrombie, China Miéville, Patrick Rothfuss, Peter Hamilton & many more

- Have 10,000 words of your manuscript, plus submission letter and synopsis edited by the exceptional editor Gillian Redfearn at Gollancz

- The original pencil sketch by the artist Didier Graffet of the cover for The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

- And Many more items…

Please see details of these lots and more here. They can also be found on the Gemmell Award homepage. All of these lots will be auctioned off at the award ceremony on Friday 15th June. However, for those who would like to bid on an item but can’t attend the event, highest bids can now be submitted by email to "christineharrison_007@hotmail.com" in advance of the ceremony on the 15th June.

In other contest news, James Rollins's newest book Bloodline is due to be released in the month of June and to coincide with that he's holding a contest in lieu with The Human Society of the United States. The contest details are given in this blog post and therein lies the explanation to become immortalized in the Sigma novel next year. To quote Jim "Visit the Sigma Store (where ALL profits go to help endangered or abused animals) and order a piece of Sigma logo wear. I'm looking for the most creative use for any of that gear: t-shirt, hoodie, tote bag. Stain them with blood-red paint, burn in some bullet holes, write messages on them, use them in ways unimaginable. In other words, go wild!

As per the rules in the author's own words "Send a photo or appear at one of this summer's book signings wearing any of the altered gear. The photos will be collected and featured on my Pinterest page." At the end of July, James will pick his favorite one--and that person's name will appear in the next Sigma novel coming out in 2013.

NOTE: Banner and author picture courtesy of the DGLA Website and David Sylvian. DGLA Announcement courtesy of Anna Gregson.