I received Interzone 234 today so I can officially announce the big news: My novelette "Plague Birds" is the co-winner of this year's Interzone Readers' Poll, tying with Nina Allen's amazing story "Flying in the Face of God." This is the third year in a row I've either won outright or tied in the Readers' Poll.

I'm particularly pleased that Nina's story is the co-winner. I voted for her story in the poll and it's great to know so many other people loved "Flying in the Face of God" as much as I did.

My novelette "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas" placed third in the poll – you can read the story in my new collection Never Never Stories – followed by "The Shipmaker" by Aliette de Bodard, "The Shoe Factory" by Matthew Cook, and "Dance of the Kawkawroons" and "In the Harsh Glow of Its Incandescent Beauty" by Mercurio D. Rivera.

Congrats to all of these great authors, and thanks to all the people who voted in the poll. Interzone is an amazing magazine with even more amazing readers.

If you want to read "Plague Birds," click here to download it as a PDF. The sequel to "Plague Birds" has also been accepted by Interzone and will be published in the next few months. The story, titled "The Ever-Dreaming Verdict of Plagues," follows Cristina de Ane as she settles into life as a plague bird, a person containing a powerful AI which is both police officer, judge and executioner to the human/animal hybrids who inhabit her future world.