By MIchael Grossberg
J. Kenton Pierce insists he’s no master craftsman.
“I’m a maladjusted ape with a keyboard and a lifetime subscription to Maladaptive Daydreaming With ADHD,” Pierce wrote in a July post on his Substack column Tales from the Long Night.
Yet, somehow, Pierce’s first novel A Kiss for Damocles won the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel. Moreover, in this past year’s highly competitive process, Pierce’s novel beat out four other widely admired and first-rate novels ranked as finalists, each written by a well-respected previous Best Novel winner.
“I’m still having some trouble wrapping my brain around this. I’ve read in many places over the years that the conventional wisdom is thus: a writer’s first novel is mediocre at best, and even that’s considered unlikely. Yet here I am, sitting on a debut novel that’s placed ahead of authors who’ve written some of my favorites,” Pierce wrote.
Who’d a thunk it?
Pierce’s modesty earns respect, reinforced by his obvious gratitude and extensive praise for the many people who helped guide him on his journey to become a science fiction writer.
“I’m no genius, creative or otherwise…. I’ll cop to a journeyman’s skill at the craft of writing. Tops. I know damn well I’m no master craftsman. I’ve simply had the good fortune to fall in among a great team. Repeatedly,” Pierce writes.
He singles out for special mention “the crew at Raconteur Press,” which published his novel last year and has published two sequels so far this year.
“(They) liked my short stories enough to say “Hey, you have some novels in this setting, don’t you?” (This was before they perfected the “Hey, does my handkerchief smell like chloroform to you?” technique.).”
Others thanked by Pierce include his family, friends, his first Beta Readers, his “ancient times gaming group” and the folks in the Writer’s Dojo, the North Texas Troublemakers, and the Alpha Mercs.
ADVICE TO FELLOW WRITERS
What makes Pierce’s column especially worth reading, though, is his unsolicited advice to fellow writers – especially those early in their careers as novelists.
First, though, and characteristically, Pierce prefaces his advice with a caveat that reflects his modesty.
“It’s not Expert Writing Advice, because I’ve a long way to go before I achieve something resembling Mastery. This is more like the journeyman who can tell you how to hold a basic tool and remind you about eye protection,” Pierce writes.
So what is his advice for other aspiring fiction writers?
Basically, its to be open to a variety of feedback and tips – but not so wide open that you give up or become unbalanced in your perspective.
“Don’t ignore the many youtubes on writing, many have provided excellent food for thought and tips, just don’t take them as gospel,” he writes.
‘The gold standard for improvement is when a beta says “Who’s saying what in this conversation? I’m confused” or “Wait, when did this guy get there? I thought he was off fighting the swarming sociopathic snogfobblers in the other town?”
“Or just ‘Dude, this part just kind of drags on. Might want to tighten it up. You done gone and told us that twice earlier in the chapter.’ When multiple betas raise a similar issue, pay attention, but keep an eye on whether they’re commenting on a matter of taste or an actual technical issue.
“Just don’t treat every beta comment as gospel either. Treat them as a warning light you need to check out, examine, and then make a determination.
My determination: All that sounds like pretty fair and balanced advice.
And much of it can apply not only to writers, but to all of us, no matter what our area of expertise or focus or expert, when we receive criticism at work or at home.
And we all get criticism – even critics.
FOR FURTHER READING
For more information about and by Pierce, including updates on Ravati Aziz and the Ghosts of the Long Night, the next novel he’s currently writing in his Tales of the Long Night series, visit his Substack column at jkentonpierce.substack.com
PIERCE TO SPEAK AT THE 46TH PROMETHEUS CEREMONY
As a 2026 Prometheus Awards winner, J. Franklin Pierce will be accepting his Best Novel prize for A Kiss for Damocles at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony, with a speech from his home in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Now scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (Pacific time) Sunday Aug. 16 (1 p.m. Eastern Time), the roughly hourlong Zoom event will be emceed by LFS President William H. Stoddard and will be open to the public.
Keynote speaker Ilya Somin (a law professor, nonfiction author, Cato Institute scholar and lifelong SF/fantasy fan) will discuss “Libertarianism and Science Fiction” and present the Hall of Fame category, with a Pulitzer-winning author and Aldous Huxley’s two grandchildren accepting for Brave New World.
Two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran will give a speech about the vital importance of writing SF/Fantasy for new and younger generations of readers, and present the first Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction to Dave Freer for Storm-Dragon.
Here is the Zoom link to watch the roughly 65- to 75-minute awards show live:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87824388418?pwd=CsoznF4wtlLNTYvEotlIpVJkCoGb9I.1
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of the 106 works that have won a Prometheus since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
