The Board of Trustees of the Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce that the 2010 Silver Hammer Award is being awarded to Angel Leigh McCoy. The Hammer Award is given periodically to an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for the organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996, and is decided by a vote of HWA’s Board of Trustees.
The award is so named because it represents the careful, steady, continuous work of building HWA’s “house” – the many institutional systems that keep the organization functioning on a day-to-day basis. The award itself is a chrome-plated hammer with an engraved plaque on the handle. The chrome hammer is also a satisfying allusion to The Beatles’ song, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” a miniature horror story in itself.
Angel McCoy currently oversees HWA’s Dark Whispers blog, which promotes members’ books to hundreds of librarians, booksellers, and readers; under Angel’s management, the blog has been redesigned to include a Twitter feed, making it even more popular and timely. Angel also built and oversees HWA’s Wiki, on which members can promote their accomplishments and their books, and she works behind the scenes with HWA’s web team to ensure that the organization’s massive website is as up-to-date and streamlined as possible.
Past winners of the Silver Hammer Award include Lawrence Watt-Evans, Sèphera Girón, Kathy Ptacek, Robert Weinberg and Douglas Winter.
The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service was instituted in 2000 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2000 while serving as HWA’s President. As its name implies, it is given by HWA’s sitting President.
The award is presented to a volunteer who has served HWA in an especially examplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.
HWA’s current President Rocky Wood has chosen Michael Colangelo to receive the 2010 Richard Laymon Award. Michael serves as HWA’s Membership Chairman, overseeing applications of both new members and of upgrades for current members.
“Michael Colangelo soldiers away every week working almost invisibly to keep the turnstiles to the park that is HWA open,” President Wood said in regards to his choice for the 2010 Award. “Dealing with new member applications and verifying membership levels for those new members is far from glamorous but also absolutely vital and Michael completes the task with a suitably diplomatic hand. For that I as President and our entire membership show our respect by bestowing the Richard Laymon Award.”
Past winners of the Richard Laymon Award include Kathy Ptacek, Judi Rohrig, Lee Thomas, Lisa Morton, Stephen Dorato, Christopher Fulbright, Mark Worthen, John R. Little, and Vince A. Liaguno.
