The Kitschies, it has to be said, are pretty cool awards for ‘speculative and fantastic’ fiction. They were launched just five years ago by Jared Shurin and Anne C Perry founders of Pornokitsch. I’ve followed The Kitschies since they began. So I’m absolutely thrilled that my dystopian story, A Calculated Life, is a finalist for the Golden Tentacle Award for debut novels. I’m in fabulous company and I can’t wait to meet the other finalists – for the Red, Golden and Inky Tentacles – at the awards ceremony (12 February) at London’s Seven Dials Club. There’s an impressive line-up for the Red Tentacle including Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge.

Jared Shurin told Allison Flood in The Guardian yesterday: Read more