Welcome, friend! December 1 marked the announcement of the finalists and winners for the inaugural Small Spec Book Awards. I’ve had the pleasure of covering these awards throughout the year, including spotlighting the semi-finalists back in September.
Each title was rated by readers on a scale of one to ten across ten questions, from whether the characters were memorable to whether the story delivered that elusive wow factor.
In this post, I’m delighted to bring you a special feature highlighting the finalists — and the winner — in the Fantasy category. I asked each author three questions about their book and what this recognition means to them. Let’s hear from them.
Featured Finalists + Winner
Michael J. DeLuca’s The Jaguar Mask (Stelliform Press)
Finalist
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Mayanist noir revolutionary fantasy novel
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
It feels great! Watching legendary markets for short science fiction and fantasy fiction go under, generative AI encroach on human creativity and shipping prices skyrocket, 2025 has been a rough time to be an indie writer and publisher. To discover this award and its robust and enthusiastic community and find that they deem THE JAGUAR MASK worthy of finalist status has been a very hopeful experience for me.
What draws you to write in the realm of the fantastical?
I feel like it’s a definitive characteristic of who I am and how I see the world. I’ve loved fantasy and wanted to participate in making it since I was a kid reading Narnia, the Prydain Chronicles, The Dark is Rising, Earthsea. The only other area of experience which produces that kind of joy in me (with the possible exception of nerding out about Mesoamerican archaeology and culture) is nature. In some ways, writing ecological fantasy acts like religion for me, letting me dream about the numinous and powers beyond our own capable of changing the human-touched trajectory of the earth for the better.
Also, I really love writing descriptions, and I feel like fantasy is the form of writing best suited to long, rhapsodic passages about mindblowingly profound and beautiful things.
Gabby Hutchinson Crouch’ Cursed Under London (Farrago Books)
Finalist
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Bisexual Tudor Romcom, Myth, Magic
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
Incredible. Having a small indie publisher is a blessing in so many ways, as Duckworth are very caring and personal, and give me so much freedom – but we will often get overlooked for the big names so it’s amazing to have a book awards just for us self pubs & indie guys. To have made it into the finalist list is a great feeling. I’m just so glad that the readers enjoyed it, and the award definitely helps with the Sisyphean task of publicising the books.
What draws you to write in the realm of the fantastical?
I am at heart a comedy writer, and fantasy sits with comedy incredibly well. Both often deal with surprises, subverting norms, the interplay of the extraordinary and the mundane, both can hold up a funhouse mirror to our own world. That’s the sweet spot I always aim for. I like writing stories where, say, the heroes are woken by a vampire attack one minute and then the next, they’re worrying about where to get a decent cup of coffee – where they go to a strange new land but are worried about whether their passports are still in date. I’ve always loved comedies like Discworld, Hitchhikers and Red Dwarf, that throw fantastical problems at protagonists who worry as much about admin and what’s for dinner as they do having to fight a monster. The premise of Cursed was to do that, but as a romcom, with fantasy problems getting in the way of mundane issues as well as getting in the way of the protagonists’ romance. I wanted to write a romcom where a couple would simply love to kiss but they can’t right now, as a dragon is trying to eat them.
Evan J. Peterson’s Better Living Through Alchemy (Broken Eye Books)
Winner
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Weird. Fun. Compassionate. Bizarre. Unique.
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
It feels amazing, of course! I’ve hoped for this kind of response to my work for twenty years. Especially to win a new, smaller award–it shows that my work is reaching the audience that “gets” it. I want to get my stories into the world and into the hands of the folks who’ll love them.
What draws you to write in the realm of the fantastical?
I’ve always had a strong imagination, and I guess I have hyperphantasia. What’s in my imagination can feel real a lot of the time. I have to direct that power toward goodness. My physical body, my financial status, and my connections to other real people will always come with limits, disappointments, etc. So I spend a lot of time in my head, making weird worlds and protean people and magical drugs. It’s fun in here, and the villains don’t get in without an invitation.
Other Fantasy Finalists
Also recognized in the Fantasy category:
- Tree Gods by R. Lee Fryar (Goodreads)
- The Extravaganza Eterniaby Kristin Osani (Ghost Orchid Press) (Goodreads)
The Fantasy finalists and winner showcased here are a wonderful reminder of the range and imagination thriving in small-press and independent speculative fiction today. Thank you to the authors who took the time to participate, and to the readers who supported and engaged with the awards along the way.
It’s been a pleasure following the Small Spec Book Awards throughout the year and celebrating the stories that resonated most strongly with readers.
Sci-Fi and Horror finalist round-ups will be coming up next. I’ll also be reading the winning titles and, once I’ve spent time with the book, will be reaching out to the winner for a more in-depth conversation grounded in the reading itself.
Check out the links below for updates on the Small Spec Book Awards: Official Page, X, Instagram, BlueSky.
Fantasy 2025 SSBA
Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about Better Living Through Alchemy and the award!