The 2017 Hugo Awards ballot is now live, and I am stunned and honored and delighted to announce that I am on it not once, but twice.

Every Heart a Doorway has been nominated for Best Novella. This is the book of my heart: this is the one I look at and dare to hope for, because I want it so badly, and I am so touched by its inclusion. Thank you to everyone who has looked at this little book and thought "how far can we help it go?" We have gone so far.

But that's not the stunner.

The stunner is that this year is the first time the Hugos have featured a category for Best Series. It's a trial run, a test, for a way to honor books and settings that work best in the context they create for themselves. Book eleven of something ongoing may not be the best candidate for Best Novel, but it may be part of something that, overall, is just as glorious.

And October Daye is up for Best Series.

I am stunned. I am overjoyed. I am not going to win--but winning isn't always the point. I have been given this honor, and I am not giving it back.

Thank you all so very, very much.

I will do my best not to let you down.

Last Thursday, while in a car on the way to Half-Price Books, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number, and so I answered warily, all too aware of the various scams people are currently conducting. "Hello," said a woman. "I'm looking for Seanan McGuire?"

"May I ask who's calling?"

She identified herself as from SFWA (the Science Fiction Writers of America). I identified myself as Seanan. Lots of identification happened, all while I was going "no, this can't be what I want it to be, because that doesn't happen."

She said, "I am pleased to let you know that your novella, Every Heart a Doorway, has been nominated for a Nebula Award."

I made a noise that only bats could hear. The driver did not run us off the road. The woman laughed. I said the right, polite things. I hung up.

I cried.

This is the first time I have ever been nominated for a Nebula Award (if you don't know what that is, details are here). I have wanted one for as long as I could remember, since I was a little girl and reading anthologies and authors with that amazing word on the cover. And now I'm nominated.

I am so happy.

The nomination period for the 2017 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is now open, and that means it's time to go over the list of what I published in 2016. Please keep in mind that you must have been a member of last year's Worldcon, OR be a member of this year's Worldcon, OR be a member of next year's Worldcon to be eligible to either nominate or vote.

A lot of people have put up their eligibility posts, and you can check the eligibility of your favorite authors by hitting their personal blogs. Here is mine.

Novels.

Indexing: Reflections
Chaos Choreography
Velveteen vs. The Seasons
Once Broken Faith
Feedback (as Mira Grant)

Novellas.

"Every Heart a Doorway"
"All the Pretty Little Horses" (as Mira Grant)
"Coming to You Live" (as Mira Grant)
"Dreams and Slumbers"

Novelettes.

"Swamp Bromeliad"
"Waking Up In Vegas"
"Stage of Fools"
"In Little Stars"
"Full of Briars"
"The Voice of Lions"

Short stories.

"Heaps of Pearl"
"The Jaws That Bite, the Claws That Catch"
"Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands"
"Regulation"
"Long Way Down"
"Threnody for Little Girl, With Tuna, At the End of the World"
"Tailed"
"The Levee Was Dry"
"In the Desert Like a Bone"
"In the Before, When Legends Were True"
"Sleepover"
"Forbidden Texts"
"Falls Like Snow"

The things I am probably proudest of from this year would have to be "Every Heart a Doorway," "In the Desert Like a Bone," and Feedback. The 2017 Hugo Awards will have a special category for Best Series, and because of the release of Feedback and RISE during the 2016 calendar year, Newsflesh is eligible. Feed was my first Hugo nomination, and it would be sort of amazing to have a second shot at a rocket for one of my first and best beloved books. "Every Heart a Doorway," on the other hand, is...

If that had been the only thing I ever published, I would still have had something to be proud of.

Turning away from me, I would ask you to consider Sheila Gilbert for Best Editor, Long Form; John Joseph Adams and Ellen Datlow for Best Editor, Short Form; Chris McGrath and Aly Fell for Best Artist; and Moana for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long.

What do you think people should be considering for this year's awards?

The nomination period for the 2015 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is now open, and you can find more information at this link. Please keep in mind that you must have been a member of last year's Worldcon, OR be a member of this year's Worldcon, OR be a member of next year's Worldcon to be eligible to either nominate or vote.

A lot of people have put up their eligibility posts, and you can check the eligibility of your favorite authors by hitting their personal blogs. I posted a list of everything I published in 2014, and technically, it's all eligible, but let's be honest: that's a lot of stuff. If you were considering nominating any of my works, you're going to have a lot of reading ahead of you, and a probably split pool.

(Mira, with one novel and one novella, is in a slightly less conflicted place.)

Turning away from me, I would ask you to consider Sheila Gilbert for Best Editor, Long Form; Christie Yant for Best Editor, Short Form (the story of mine she edited, "Each to Each," is one of my best, and it's because of her); Chris McGrath and Aly Fell for Best Artist; The Librarians episode "And the Apple of Discord" for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short; and Book of Life for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long.

What do you think people should be considering for this year's awards?

A joint statement:

It has become customary in recent years for authors of Hugo-nominated works to provide the members of the World Science Fiction convention who get to vote for the awards with electronic copies of their stories. The ball started rolling a few years ago when John Scalzi kindly took the initiative in preparing the first Hugo voters packet; since then it has become almost mandatory to distribute shortlisted works this way.

Unfortunately, as professionally published authors, we can't do this without obtaining the consent of our publishers. We are bound by contracts that give our publishers the exclusive rights to distribute our books: so we sought their permission first.

This year, Orbit—the publisher of Mira Grant's Parasite, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and Charles Stross's Neptune's Brood—have decided that for policy reasons they can't permit the shortlisted novels to be distributed for free in their entirety. Instead, substantial extracts from the books will be included in the Hugo voters packet.

We feel your disappointment keenly and regret any misunderstandings that may have arisen about the availability of our work to Hugo voters, but we are bound by the terms of our publishing contracts. The decision to give away free copies of our novels is simply not ours to take. However, we are discussing the matter with other interested parties, and working towards finding a solution that will satisfy the needs of the WSFS voters and our publishers in future years.

Finally, please do not pester our editors: the decision was taken above their level. Don't pester anyone else, either. The issue is closed.

Signed,

(Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire), Ann Leckie, Charles Stross)

You can see the full ballot for this year's Hugo Awards here, to be given out at this year's Worldcon, Loncon 3, to be held August 14th to 18th, 2014, in London, England. Supporting and Attending Memberships are still available.

Why am I saying this?

I am saying this because Parasite, written under the name Mira Grant, has been nominated for Best Novel.

It's a good ballot this year. It's a complicated ballot this year. It's a terrifying ballot this year. It's a troublesome ballot this year. But I am sharing it with some of my favorite people in the entire world; I am sharing it with Cat Valente's wonderful "Six-Gun Snow White," which is in the Best Novella category (and is hence not up against me YAY); I am sharing it with Charles Stross's Neptune's Brood, make it our first shared Hugo ballot since we became friends; I am sharing it with Pacific Rim and Mark Oshiro and Foz Meadows and Sheila Gilbert and so many amazing people. I want to hug them and shriek about how we made it, before we get raging drunk together, and it's wonderful.

If you nominated, whether you nominated me or someone entirely different, thank you. We are shaping the future history of science fiction, and that's amazing.

I will do my best to be worthy of you all.

Well, it's that time again: time to inform the world "this is what I did last year, please remember me as you begin filling out your nomination forms." It's a strangely nerve-wracking time, combining "everybody does it" with "but people will still yell at me for excessive self-promotion." And I'll be honest: I really struggled with the question of whether or not I should make a post this year. Not because I think I'm going to be nominated for All The Things, but because last year's fun adventure in "she posted twice, BURN THE WITCH" was basically my definition of anti-fun.

At the end of the day, I decided that I will make my posts, as I have always made them; this is my career, and if you don't want to read about it, you don't have to. But I will also acknowledge, and continue to acknowledge, that two posts and a handful of tweets is not excessive self-promotion: it's doing my damn job. I'm going to keep saying that until people stop trying to say otherwise.

Now, on to the work!

Novels.

Midnight Blue-Light Special
Chimes at Midnight
Parasite (as Mira Grant)

Note that the 2013 Velveteen collection was not eligible for most awards, as it contains stories originally published prior to 2013.

Novellas.

"Hook Agonistes" (co-written with Jay Lake)
"We Both Go Down Together"
"How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea" (as Mira Grant)

Novelettes.

"Bad Dream Girl"
"Married in Green"
"Sweet Poison Wine"
"The First Fall"
"Loch and Key"
"Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea"
"Forbid the Sea"

Short Stories.

"Laughter at the Academy: A Study in the Development of Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder (SCGPD)"
"Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust"
"Homecoming"
"Train Yard Blues"
"Frontier ABCs: The Life and Times of Charity Smith, Schoolteacher"
"Red as Snow"

Best Related Work.

Stars Fall Home (second edition, blue cover)

This one requires a bit of explanation. Basically, the original album was released in 2007, and was the best we could do at the time. For 2013, we remastered all the tracks; re-recorded some of the instrumentals; totally redesigned the liner notes and album art; and added a bonus track. Because encyclopedias and other works which frequently have multiple editions have been eligible in this category in the past, and because more than 20% of the album was changed, I believe it fits the eligibility requirements for this year's award season.

I will make a post later about things I hope we'll remember as the nominating season gets moving, although I'll say now that I would really love it if people would consider Sheila Gilbert for Best Long-Form Editor and John Joseph Adams for Best Short-Form Editor. They make me better. They make a lot of people better.

That's all for now.

Amy McNally has revived the proposal for a "Best Young Readers" Hugo (defining the category as "YA, Middle Grade, and Children's Books"), and has a beautiful, thoughtful deconstruction of many of the arguments against.

Go. Read. And remember...

We complain about younger people not getting into the community. About seeing teenagers pack up their toys and go home at a certain point. About wanting more people to become lifelong readers, and lifelong members of our social hyperspace. But we also tend to write off YA as "juvenile" (as if that were an insult; as if Heinlein and Norton and Gaiman didn't write for young adults), and all too often, shame the people who read it. We scoff at covers that cater to teen sensibilities, instead of adult aesthetics. We don't listen.

There is amazing stuff happening in YA. Concepts and stories are being built and explored there in ways that are difficult to impossible in adult fiction. From the big blockbusters like The Hunger Games to the sneakier stories like Unspoken, it's a medium that's bursting with potential, and bringing our younger voters in by recognizing what many of them are reading, while also bringing more adult readers to this amazing work...I just can't see that as a bad thing. At all.

This is Amy's ballgame, so while you're welcome to comment here, I am declaring comment amnesty, and will only answer if I feel like it. Although I will moderate if folks get snappy. Remember, we're all in this together.

...while y'all are free to continue discussing the Hugos here on my blog, I am declaring comment amnesty for myself on those two entries, in favor of accomplishing things that have deadlines.

Have fun!

All right: we're getting some semi-heated discussion about the idea of a "Voting Membership" for the Hugo Awards. This proposal assumes the following:

1) That some people who want to vote, fairly and by reading/watching as many of the nominated works as possible, are prevented by the cost of a Supporting Membership.
2) That there is thus an untapped source of revenue for Worldcon, in the form of the Voting Memberships, and that this would be a large enough group to make up for the decrease in Supporting Membership sales.
3) That this would not interfere with the Hugo Voter's Packet.

Some of the concerns are as follows:

1) That the potential for voter fraud would increase with the reduction in initial price (IE, someone who was trying to vote-fix could buy three $40 memberships for the cost of two $60 memberships, thus allowing for a higher number of false/purchased votes).
2) That the decrease in Supporting Membership sales would not be countered by the increase in Voting Membership sales (Mary and John always buy Supporting Memberships, for $60, so they can vote; now that they can buy Voting Memberships for $40, they do that instead; Worldcon has essentially lost $40 in revenue).
3) That reducing the price too much would cause publishers to rethink participation in the Voter's Packet.

All of these concerns are valid.

The Hugos, like everything else about Worldcon, are a volunteer organization. They are not run by a fully trained team of crack voter fraud investigators; they're run by fans like you and me. Anything that increases the chances of voter fraud is something we need to seriously think about, for which reason I would not recommend reducing the cost of voting rights below $40—although I would also at that point suggest the creation of a "school age" voting membership, which costs $20 and is only available to fans ages 14-20 (high school and start of college). Trust me, when I was a senior in high school, $20 was a fortune, and I was not committing voter fraud. But I was growing into someone who would absolutely support and believe in these awards. Could someone buy themselves a Hugo? Yes. But someone could buy themselves a Hugo now. If Oprah wants a Hugo, she can buy it. People will gossip, and the community will find out, but Oprah will have her Hugo.

Now the finances are an important consideration. A lot of each Worldcon's seed money, according to my understanding, comes from Supporting Memberships and pre-Supports. If you take that away, we could wind up in a situation where there are no Hugos, because there is no Worldcon. And if the idea that the convention costs a lot of money, consider this: they have to make rockets, and Hugo rockets ain't cheap. They're incredibly high-quality pieces of statuary, produced in far too small a number to start getting "mass production discounts." (When I print a CD, for example, the first disk costs about $2,000. But the next 999 are free.) So in order to open the doors wider, we're threatening the income that keeps the infrastructure of the awards stable. That's part of why I don't recommend rushing into anything: I just think the conversation is a good thing to have.

Finally, there is the voter's packet, and that's where things get hinky. There's no guarantee, year to year, that the packet will exist; publishers are under no obligation to allow their works (often their most popular, and hence most potentially profitable) to be given away for free, and that's what this essentially is, since neither they nor the authors are seeing any royalties from this distribution channel. I am okay with that—for me to have gotten on the ballot in the first place, a lot of folks have to have read my stuff—but I don't make the final call. So what happens if we say "Voting Memberships are $40" and the publishers say "Great, you can't have our books"?

I don't know.

I know the first thing would be the authors getting punished. Orbit chose not to make the books by their nominees available in all formats this year, and while I do not criticize them for that choice, it did result in my receiving email that flat out said "I was going to vote for you and now I'm not because I hate this file format." People can be petty when thwarted, and I guarantee that if four authors have their books in the packet and one does not, that fifth author is losing, as well as taking a lot of shit. I don't like taking shit. I have plenty.

So what we need is a) a price point that does not cause the Worldcon to lose money to the point where it becomes unstable, and b) does not upset publishers, while also c) allowing fans who really want to be a part of this process to participate. And that's why I don't want to see the amendment that would keep this from ever becoming possible to go through. Not because I think the Hugos should be free, or want to see it turn into an even bigger popularity contest than it already is: because I think it's important to encouraging participation in the awards from an ever-growing number of fans. Whether it's saying "individuals can cede their voting rights to the convention to be re-sold for a lower than Supporting rate to low-income fans" or "teens vote cheap" or "we need time to think," I believe that thinking is what needs to happen. Not closing off the conversation when it's just getting underway.

All right: here's the skinny.

The Hugo Awards are given annually at the World Science Fiction Convention, which moves around the world (although statistically, it mostly moves around North America, and it's always exciting when it actually goes somewhere else) according to the votes of the membership. These awards represent the best of the science fiction and fantasy world, or at least the best things that a) attract the right kind of attention ("Hugo bait"), b) get enough votes to be nominated, and c) get enough votes to win. (Sometimes I wish we called the award "So You Think You Can SF/F," said "most popular," and let Cat Deeley host the award show.) Items b) and c) are not always the same thing, because of the migratory nature of Worldcon; a book that is vastly popular with the residents of San Francisco, California, may not win when it's voted on in Volgograd, Russia, even though it made the ballot.

The Hugos are both nominated for and voted on by the members of the World Science Fiction Convention, attending or supporting (this is an important distinction, and we'll be coming back to it). This means that if, say, you can't fly to Russia, but you really want to have a say in the Hugos, you can buy a Supporting Membership for a reduced rate, and still cast your ballot into the uncaring wind. Historically over the last ten years, Supporting Memberships have generally been between $40 and $60, and this revenue is important to the operation of the Worldcon. But it's still a lot of money. I know there were years when I did not pay for voting rights, because I couldn't afford it. There have been some suggestions in recent years that we institute a "Voting Membership" tier, where you pay less, don't get any of the physical perks (like the program book), but do get voting rights.

There are some people who really don't like that idea. Follow the link to see Cheryl Morgan's beautiful deconstruction of the proposal to forbid Voting Memberships from ever becoming a thing, but here is the bit that spoke most honestly to me:

"Without cheaper supporting memberships, it might seem that Hugo voting cannot get any cheaper, but that’s not the case. There is nothing in the WSFS Constitution that would prevent a Worldcon from adopting a new class of membership: a Voting Membership. It would carry with it no rights other than voting in the Hugos, and would therefore be pure profit for the Worldcon. If it was priced suitably, it could result in a significant additional source of income, as well as increasing participation in Hugo voting.

The purpose of this new motion is to prevent Worldcons from ever creating this sort of membership.

"That is, its purpose is to prevent the 'Wrong Sort of Fan' from participating in the Hugos: young people, poor people, people from countries where $60 is a huge amount of money, and so on.

"The commentary on the motion is a piece of ridiculous sophistry. A membership is a membership. There is no reason why creating a new type of membership would be a 'distortion,' unless you have the sort of mindset that holds that allowing people who are poorer than you to vote is a 'distortion.'

This motion is an attempt by people who already have voting privileges to prevent those privileges from being extended to others."

But that's not all the fun that's happening right now. There is also a motion to do away with the Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer, and Best Fan Artist categories. John Scalzi has beaten this suggestion with a stick to see what would fall out; what fell out was a bunch of wasps. Because look.

I started organizing conventions when I was fourteen. I have worked every level, from grunt to chairperson. I have stayed awake for three days solid to help people have a good time. I have elevated masochism to an art form, and I enjoyed it, because I am a fan. Fans are the lifeblood of this community, and one of the things I have always loved and respected about the Hugos is the way that they recognize people for their fannish accomplishments. Yes, they're all creative fannish accomplishments, because the Hugos are a creative award, but they are still being held up with the greats of our genre, as greats of our genre, for being fans. If that is not one of the most devastatingly inspiring notions ever, I don't know what is.

Jim Hines winning Best Fan Writer last year did not in any way reduce the honor of Betsy Wolheim winning for Best Editor (Long Form). If anything, it elevated them both, because here is our industry saying "we need you both to survive." Mark Oshiro's nomination for Best Fan Writer this year did not in any way reduce the honor of my being nominated in several professional writing categories—and whether we win or lose, we will always have shared a ballot, we will always have this in common. We are of the same community. We elevate each other.

Please, if you are attending this year's Worldcon in San Antonio, Texas, join me and others at the WSFS Business Meeting to help us vote these measures down. The first will be Friday morning at 10am.

We have the power to keep this from happening. It's not the power of Grayskull, but I still think it's pretty damn neat.

Let's keep these awards for everybody.

ETA: Here's a great historical perspective on the "Fan Hugo" argument, from Chuq Von Rospach.

To all those of us with memberships for the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention...have you remembered to cast your vote for this year's Hugo Awards? Because if you haven't, you're sort of running out of time; July 31st is your last day to vote. And hey, did you know that anyone can nominate, and vote, for the Hugo Awards? All you have to do is become a Supporting Member of this year's World Science Fiction Convention, which costs $60, but gets you access to the entire Hugo Voter's Packet, a veritable cornucopia of incredible fiction! We're coming up on the end of the "I can reasonably make it through everything in the packet" period, so this is a choice that should be made soon!

The Book Smugglers hosted this amazing post about the Hugos, and I want to quote one bit that really stood out to me:

"I highly encourage everyone, especially people who believe, like I do, that there’s space for YA recognition, more women, non-white, and international voices, to look at the membership options and if joining the process and the conversation around it is possible, give it a shot. See if it’s worth investing in each year. Nominate the people and things you love. Vote for the stuff you think represents the best of genre, the best of all the things that the future science fiction and fantasy fandom should remember."

We can shape the future of the genre, everybody, and that's amazing.

I'm going to be upfront here: I'm on this ballot, and there's no way people are going to look at this post and not think I'm shaking the tree for votes. And I do want to win! I'm not exactly alone in that—I'm pretty sure each and every person on the ballot wants to win, because we accepted the nominations. Wanting to win is human. But almost as much as I want to win, I want to know that if I lose, it will be because every possible voter looked at the works up for consideration, looked at their ballot, and made their choice fairly and well. I want you all to vote. I want to lose because I lost, not because there was a sale at Ben and Jerry's and we all got rightfully distracted because dude, ice cream.

Please. If you are eligible to vote, it has never been easier to get a clear view of the entire ballot. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Hugo committee, we have an electronic voting package that is a bibliophile's dream; you can read and consider absolutely everything that's asking for your vote. And if you're not a member yet, but were thinking about it, you can still register with full voting rights if you do it soon.

And because I really love this quote, I am once again quoting Cat Valente (with updates to the cost of supporting membership made by me). Specifically: "A final note: you do not have to go to Worldcon to nominate and vote for the Hugos. You can buy a supporting membership for $60 and get that perk. I realize $60 is a lot to express an opinion, but every year we hear complaints about the ballot and every year I hope that my generation will vote a little more, because the Hugos are kind of a bellwether for the field, and I want new crackly risktaking goodness in there, too. Since I have no control over the price of the supporting membership all I can say is—give it a thought, if you have the scratch."

Make this year's Hugo winners the ones you think deserve those shiny rocket ships.

Vote.

And if you need some testimony about the non-fiction parts of the ballot, here are a few links (links do support my views):

spectralbovine has posted about why you should vote Mark Oshiro for Best Fan Writer. Mark is an incredible human being, as well as being a remarkable fan writer and just plain fan. I am so glad to have met him.

Joshua Starr has posted about why Sheila Gilbert deserves your consideration for Best Long Form Editor. Sheila was my first editor. She has enriched my work and my career in ways I can't even begin to describe, and I'm going to make my own post very soon. The amount of work she does for her authors is staggering. She has my vote even when she's not on the ballot.

Thanks to the graphic magic of Tara O'Shea, there are new wallpapers on the October Daye Wallpaper page, this time allowing you to dress your monitor in the fine, fine image of "In Sea-Salt Tears." You can find the wallpaper here:

http://seananmcguire.com/wallpapers.php#short

I am still, to be honest, a little bit staggered by this story's inclusion in this year's Hugo ballot. Not that I'm not staggered by every single nomination—because I am; for some people I may have become a predictable choice, but for me, this is only the third year that I've been on the ballot at all—but this one is...it's special. It's a purely urban fantasy story, for one thing, and stories in that sub-genre don't often get recognized at this level. And it's about women, just women, two women who loved each other for as long as they were allowed. There's no grand battle or flashy challenge.

There's just women.

People talk about "writing what you know," and the parts of this story that are what I know are the parts with kitchens and farmer's markets and Italian dinners and love. So much love. Love that seems like it could change the world forever, even when you know that it can never really change anything but you.

I got urban fantasy on the Hugo ballot.

I'm a little proud of that.

The 2013 Hugo Awards ballot has been announced, and is as follows:

Best Novel.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
Blackout by Mira Grant (Orbit)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (Tor)
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Stars Do Not Lie by Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)

Best Novelette.

“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)
“Fade To White” by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
“In Sea-Salt Tears” by Seanan McGuire (Self-published)
“Rat-Catcher” by Seanan McGuire (A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

Best Short Story.

“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld, June 2012)
“Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Note: category has 3 nominees due to a 5% requirement under Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

Best Related Work.

The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature Edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge UP)
Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press)
Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press)
I Have an Idea for a Book... The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John Helfers (The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box)
Writing Excuses Season Seven by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story.

Grandville Bête Noire written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)
Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
Saga, Volume One written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)
Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form).

The Avengers
The Cabin in the Woods
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hunger Games
Looper

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).

Doctor Who: “The Angels Take Manhattan”
Doctor Who: “Asylum of the Daleks”
Doctor Who: “The Snowmen”
Fringe: “Letters of Transit"
Game of Thrones :“Blackwater”

Best Editor (Short Form).

John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

Best Editor (Long Form).

Lou Anders
Sheila Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist.

Vincent Chong
Julie Dillon
Dan Dos Santos
Chris McGrath
John Picacio

Best Semiprozine.

Apex Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore and Michael Damian Thomas
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker
Lightspeed edited by John Joseph Adams and Stefan Rudnicki
Strange Horizons edited by Niall Harrison, Jed Hartman, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Abigail Nussbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Dave Nagdeman and Rebecca Cross

Best Fanzine.

Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
The Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia and James Bacon
Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Emma J. King, Helen J. Montgomery and Pete Young
SF Signal edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

Best Fancast.

The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester, John DeNardo, and JP Frantz
SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)
StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Writer.

James Bacon
Christopher J Garcia
Mark Oshiro
Tansy Rayner Roberts
Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist.

Galen Dara
Brad W. Foster
Spring Schoenhuth
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2011 or 2012, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).

Zen Cho
Max Gladstone
Mur Lafferty
Stina Leicht
Chuck Wendig

Those of you with keen eyes may have noticed my name a time or two. So here are my firsts for this year:

First woman to appear on the ballot four times in fiction categories alone.
First person to appear on the ballot five times in a single year.
First person to appear on the ballot with a purely self-published work ("In Sea-Salt Tears," Best Novelette nominee).

Here are some other fun facts: this is the first time Sheila Gilbert, my editor at DAW, or Chris McGrath, who is responsible for the October Daye covers (as well as many, many more) have appeared on the Hugo ballot. As of this year's ballot, every novella or novel-length work in the Newsflesh series has appeared on the Hugo ballot. I have essays in two of the works in Best Related Work. Urban fantasy in any form rarely makes award ballots, and I have two October Daye-universe novellas on this ballot.

Fringe is on the ballot for the first time ever this year. So is Mark Oshiro of Mark Reads, which is just amazing. The whole ballot is amazing.

I have eaten nothing but ice cream today. I have cried a lot.

I am grateful and honored and terrified and fragile and amazed, because this ballot represents the best of 2012 in a very concrete way. I see so many works there that blew my mind, and I look forward to experiencing the rest.

Thank you so much. I will try very hard not to let you down.

Hi.

My name is Seanan McGuire, and I'd like to talk to you about the Hugo Awards.

I'm going to be upfront here: I do have a potential horse in this race. I've posted about my eligibility for this year's awards already, and I've never made any secret of the fact that I really would love to win a Hugo for fiction. In my perfect world, this would be my year, because a Hugo for Blackout would be like a Hugo for the whole trilogy. There's no way I could make this entry without these facts being considered, because if I didn't state them up front, it might seem like I was trying to hide them, and I'm not. I just want you to set them aside for a moment, and focus on the awards as a whole.

Did you know that anyone can nominate, and vote, for the Hugo Awards? All you have to do is become a Supporting Member of this year's World Science Fiction Convention by January 31st. (You could also become a full member and attend the con, if you've been hankering for an excuse to go to Texas and see lots of cool people, like me, and Paul Cornell, and probably more than that, but let's be honest. Me and Paul in the bar for the weekend would be a pretty good time.) The Book Smugglers hosted this amazing post about the Hugos, and I want to quote one bit that really stood out to me:

"I highly encourage everyone, especially people who believe, like I do, that there’s space for YA recognition, more women, non-white, and international voices, to look at the membership options and if joining the process and the conversation around it is possible, give it a shot. See if it’s worth investing in each year. Nominate the people and things you love. Vote for the stuff you think represents the best of genre, the best of all the things that the future science fiction and fantasy fandom should remember."

We can shape the future of the genre, everybody, and that's amazing.

Now that I've made my plea for the awards in general, and made my own horses known, I'd like to bring up three horses that I have nothing to do with, but which I still think deserve your consideration, if you have the opportunity.

Fringe season four, episode 19, "Letters in Transit." Oh my sweet Great Pumpkin. This is an amazing hour of television, it's just breathtaking, whether you're a Fringe fan or someone who doesn't know the show. Fringe hasn't made the ballot before, and seriously, I think that may be a crime against televised science fiction. Please consider this episode for Best Dramatic Short Form.

Phineas and Ferb season three, episode 18, "Excaliferb." Phineas and Ferb is some of the best science fiction being made for television today, and the fact that it's primarily geared at eight-year-olds doesn't stop it from being enjoyable and accessible to an adult audience. This was the first part of the time-slip chronicles, and is basically a Princess Bride parody with a fire-breathing dragon/platypus hybrid. Please consider this episode for Best Dramatic Short Form.

And finally, my biggest horse...Mark Oshiro, of Mark Reads. Mark produces interesting, hysterical, thoughtful videos and blog posts almost daily, and has built a huge, inclusive, interactive, exciting fan community dedicated to discussing and dissecting his reviews and analysis of speculative fiction. Seriously, this is some of the best deconstruction of genre I've ever seen. Plus the man is a living reaction shot. When he is not prepared for something, he is totally not prepared. Were he to win a Hugo, his acceptance speech would probably go on to receive an Oscar nomination, because it would be the ultimate in unpreparedness. He's a great guy who runs a great blog and provides some of the best fan writing I've seen on the Internet in years. Please consider Mark Oshiro, of Mark Reads, for Best Fan Writer.

Those are the horses, and those are the reasons you should put yourself into a position to choose some horses for yourself. The Hugo Awards are a big deal, and participation, while not free (or even affordable for everyone), is well worth the cost if you can swing it. Be a part of history. Be a part of choosing what the community etches into the roll of heroes. Help somebody win a medal so big and shiny that it'll make all of Felix's medals wet their pants (did I mention that I want Wreck-It Ralph to win everything, forever?).

Thank you for your time.

It's 2013; the nomination periods for many awards are now open; this is my "what I did in 2012 that is eligible" post. There are many such posts on the internet, but this one is mine.

Novels.

Ashes of Honor
Blackout (as Mira Grant)
Discount Armageddon
Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots

Novellas.

"San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats" (as Mira Grant)

Novelettes.

"Rat-Catcher"
"In Sea-Salt Tears"

Short Stories.

"No Place Like Home"
"We Will Not Be Undersold!"
"One Hell of a Ride"
"The Flower of Arizona"

Best Related Work.

Chicks Unravel Time, featuring my essay, "Waiting for the Doctor: The Women of Series Five."
Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them, featuring my essay, "Summers and Winters, Frost and Fire."

...so that's my horses in this potential race. And while they aren't my horses, exactly, I urge you to consider my editor, Sheila Gilbert, for Best Editor, and my cover artists, Christian McGrath, Aly Fell, and Lauren Panepinto, for Best Artist.

I will be posting more shortly about the Hugos in specific, and why you both can and should be a part of the process, but this is mostly about my eligible works. Having put them down for your consideration, I will now go away again. Bye!

I am...really, I am overjoyed, and staggered, and a little bit dizzy over this:

Ashes of Honor is #16 on the New York Times Bestseller List for September 23rd, 2012.

This is the first time I have appeared on the print list (i.e., "the top twenty") under my own name. Late Eclipses and Discount Armageddon both made the list, but they were in the 30s, not the teens.

I am on the print list.

I am a New York Times Bestseller.

I am having real trouble not informing everyone I meet of that fact, including the guy at Starbucks who fixed my pumpkin spice latte. This isn't bragging. It's shock and delight and bafflement and awe.

Thank you all.

Thank you all so much.

Wow.

I made history three times this year.

Wicked Girls was the first single-artist CD (as opposed to a compilation) ever to be nominated for the Hugo Award.

I was the first woman ever to be nominated four times in a single year, although several men had managed to accomplish that particular hat trick.

I was the first person ever to be nominated four times in a single year...and actually win something. Every other four-timer has proceeded to lose all four times, thus providing that splitting your voting block is a dangerous thing.

Thankfully, this third bit of "making history" was not pointed out to me until the absolute last minute, since otherwise, I think I would still be under my bed, hissing madly at anyone who tried to poke a stick under there and get my attention. (I know my friends. Many sticks would be involved.) We're talking full-on "Seanan goes feral," which differs from "Seanan goes wild" in that it features less naked, more bitey.

I am still a little bit stunned.

I am home.

I am recovered.

I am well-rested.

I am the proud owner of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Fancast.

YES. YES, I WON A FUCKING HUGO AND IT'S IN MY HOUSE AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND IT HAS MY NAME ON IT AND I THINK IT STARTED OUT AS CAT'S (I'M PRETTY SURE WE TRADED AT LEAST ONCE) AND I DON'T CARE BECAUSE IT'S MY HUGO!!!! I HAVE A HUGO!!!! I AM A HUGO-AWARD WINNER!!!!!!!!

...be really glad you can't see my uncoordinated geek dance. You might go blind.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who voted. This truly means the world to me. Y'all gave me a Hugo for never shutting up.

Message received.

It is August now. The Hugo voting is closed; the ballots have been cast, and what remains is fussing and fretting, putting on our finest things, and walking to the presentation room like Tributes to the Hunger Games (although we don't have to kill each other to win, which is probably* a good thing). Nothing we can do now changes anything.

I mostly haven't talked about my feelings about the Hugos, because it felt a little too much like campaigning to me, like even saying "I liked this" or "I didn't like this" would be casting too much weight behind an opinion. I'm not saying that my feelings are accurate; I've seen a lot of people dissect the ballot, and I don't think any less of them, and they didn't sway my votes. But it's hard to ignore the small, scared voice in your head that says "don't do that, it's not allowed," and I've been too tired to fight it.

I have strong feelings about almost every category. I have the Winners I Want, which may or may not bear any resemblance to the Winners Who Win. And no, I am not the Winner I Want in every single category. While I desperately want to win (please, Great Pumpkin, please), I actually want to be beaten in at least one category. I want to see people I love win. I want to see people I respect win. All the nominees are incredibly deserving of victory. Barring a statistically unlikely mass tie, not all the nominees are going to win.

And yes, I'm terrified. I'm the first woman ever to make the ballot four times in a single year, which is amazing, but if I become the first woman ever to lose four times in a single night, I'm not going to be in a very good mental place. More like a "hand me the port, lock me in the bathroom, and walk away before the crying starts" place. And it's not that I'm a bad loser, and it's not that I don't know every single winner will deserve it. It's that broken hearts are painful, and I've met me enough times to know that I'll be devastated, no matter how often I'm told not to be.

It is an honor to be nominated. I do, genuinely, want to win. I don't think there's anything wrong with my expressing that honest sentiment after voting has closed; it can't change anything, and no matter who does win, I know that they'll deserve it.

This is huge. It is amazing. It is an honor to be nominated, it is mind-blowing to look at the ballot and think, "these are some of the giants of science fiction and fantasy, and there I am, me, and my friends, some of my best friends, and we're with them, and to a little girl like I was, looking at this ballot in twenty years, we'll be them." When I was a little girl looking at pictures of Isaac Asimov's Hugo Awards, I asked Santa to bring me one (maybe I should have asked the Birthday Skeleton). Now I have the chance to get one the legitimate, non-supernatural-being-initiated way. And it's huge, and it's terrifying, and I have a very pretty dress, and two very pretty dates for the ceremony, and...

And it's August. It's almost here.

Oh Great Pumpkin who waits for Harvest, hallowed be thy patch...

(*Only probably. The Valente/Hines/Cornell/Bear/McGuire alliance would take out half of the science fiction community before we were forced to turn on each other. My dress has big skirts. You can hide a surprising number of knives under big skirts.)

One last time...

Ladies and gentlemen of the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention membership...have you remembered to cast your vote for this year's Hugo Awards? Because if you haven't, you're sort of running out of time; July 31st is your last day to vote.

I am reasonably sure that each and every person on that ballot wants to win. I am no different. But almost as much as I want to win, I want to know that if I lose, it will be because every possible voter looked at the works up for consideration, looked at their ballot, and made their choice fairly and well. I want you all to vote. I want to lose because I lost, not because there was a sale at Ben and Jerry's and we all got rightfully distracted because dude, ice cream.

Please. If you are eligible to vote, it has never been easier to get a clear view of the entire ballot. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Hugo committee, we have an electronic voting package that is a bibliophile's dream; you can read and consider absolutely everything that's asking for your vote. And if you're not a member yet, but were thinking about it, you can still register with full voting rights if you do it soon.

And because I really love this quote, I am once again quoting Cat Valente. Specifically:

"A final note: you do not have to go to Worldcon to nominate and vote for the Hugos. You can buy a supporting membership for $50 and get that perk. I realize $50 is a lot to express an opinion, but every year we hear complaints about the ballot and every year I hope that my generation will vote a little more, because the Hugos are kind of a bellwether for the field, and I want new crackly risktaking goodness in there, too. Since I have no control over the price of the supporting membership all I can say is—give it a thought, if you have the scratch."

Make this year's Hugo winners the ones you think deserve those shiny rocket ships.

Vote.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen of the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention membership...have you remembered to cast your vote for this year's Hugo Awards? Because if you haven't, you're sort of running out of time; July 31st is your last day to vote.

I am reasonably sure that each and every person on that ballot wants to win. I am no different. But almost as much as I want to win, I want to know that if I lose, it will be because every possible voter looked at the works up for consideration, looked at their ballot, and made their choice fairly and well. I want you all to vote. I want to lose because I lost, not because there was a sale at Ben and Jerry's and we all got rightfully distracted because dude, ice cream.

Please. If you are eligible to vote, it has never been easier to get a clear view of the entire ballot. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Hugo committee, we have an electronic voting package that is a bibliophile's dream; you can read and consider absolutely everything that's asking for your vote. And if you're not a member yet, but were thinking about it, you can still register with full voting rights if you do it soon.

And because I really love this quote, I am once again quoting Cat Valente. Specifically: "A final note: you do not have to go to Worldcon to nominate and vote for the Hugos. You can buy a supporting membership for $50 and get that perk. I realize $50 is a lot to express an opinion, but every year we hear complaints about the ballot and every year I hope that my generation will vote a little more, because the Hugos are kind of a bellwether for the field, and I want new crackly risktaking goodness in there, too. Since I have no control over the price of the supporting membership all I can say is—give it a thought, if you have the scratch."

Make this year's Hugo winners the ones you think deserve those shiny rocket ships.

Vote.

1. So I have been forced, by the technical limitations inherent to LJ, to change my Friending policy. Specifically, I am now at MAXIMUM FRIENDOCITY, and adding any more Friends will cause me to be instantly sucked into a horrifying shadow dimension where demons will feast on my delicious bones. Read also, "LJ won't let me Friend any more people." So while I am still a Friend/Unfriend amnesty zone, I will no longer be automatically Friending back. Also, I have now typed the word "Friend" so many times that it has lost all meeting. I shall have to Foe some people.

2. You know it's summer when the Maine Coons felt their bellies by sleeping in their water dish, and you have to take them back to the groomer to be shaved. Again. In other news, guess who gets to take forty pounds of cranky kitty to the groomer? Good guess.

3. I've been scarce recently because a) I've been trying to catch up on some things, and b) I have 600+ comments to answer and it scares me. I will endeavor to post more, if y'all will be understanding about it taking me a while to answer you. S'good? S'good.

4. Disneyland was awesome, except for the part where I twisted my ankle and spent Sunday in a wheelchair. It turns out that I'm still surprisingly good at navigating myself when I need to, and Vixy pushed me when we weren't in spaces that required fine cornering and control. Neither of us died, but wow, was that not an experience that I am in a hurry to repeat.

5. I will, however, say this: if you see a girl pushing a manual wheelchair down a hill, maybe stepping right in front of that wheelchair is not the world's best plan. Especially if that wheelchair contains a person larger than the girl doing the pushing. Because you know what neither of us was able to do in that situation? Stop. In other news, I ran over some idiot-ankles, and I am not sorry.

6. The Hugo Voter Packet has been updated, and now contains the files for Best Related Work. That means that, for the first time ever, a full length filk CD is included in the Hugo packet. So. Cool. It's not too late to register and get your voting rights into the bag! Check out https://chicon.org/membership.php for details.

7. The new season of So You Think You Can Dance has started, and that means that my urge to write InCryptid is returning to normal. This show is totally restorative, in the best, weirdest way possible. I am a happy bunny.

8. Other things that make me happy: the San Diego Comic-Con exclusives have been announced for this year, and they include a new Monster High doll (Scarah Screams) and a new My Little Pony (Derpy Hooves/Bubblecup). I am a sucker for toys.

9. Other things I am a sucker for: Australia. My Mira Grant Q&A on Saturday was the most marsupial-centric Q&A I've ever been a part of. It was sort of impressive, in a "why are we talking about this again?" sort of a way. It may have had something to do with the fact that I had a plush Perry the Platypus on the podium...

10. Jean Gray is still dead.

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is currently open for voting! This award uses the same nomination and voting mechanism as the Hugos, even though the Campbell Award is not a Hugo, and will be presented this year in Chicago, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony. Having been on the Campbell ballot in 2010, I can testify that it is a huge, huge honor to be nominated, and that it gets your name in front of a lot of eyes that might not otherwise have heard of you.

(I can also testify that winning is amazeballs best thing oh my sweet Great Pumpkin corn maze paradise wonderful. But that's probably true of winning most awards that you really, really want.)

If you are currently a member, either Attending or Supporting, of Chicon 7, you are eligible to vote for the Campbell Award, along with the Hugo Awards. If you're not a member, either Attending or Supporting, you can view the membership rates by clicking right here. A Supporting Membership comes with voting rights and the complete Hugo packet, and is only $50.

Because writers who are eligible for the Campbell are, by their very nature, relatively new writers, it's possible that you don't know anything about this year's candidates. Jim Hines has sensibly decided to help you with this little problem, and has conducted interviews with all five of this year's nominees. Go, read, and be enlightened!

We have a truly awesome class of Campbell nominees this year; any one of them is worthy of the tiara. Because remember, the Campbell is one of only two major genre awards that comes with a tiara (the other is the Tiptree).

In closing, I present the comic strip I drew to commemorate my own eligibility:



TESTIFY!

Voting for the 2012 Hugo Awards is now open for all Attending and Supporting members of the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention, ChiCon 7. ChiCon will be held this August in Chicago, Illinois, where attendees will be able to see such wonders as me tending bar for Barfleet, Amy fiddling for everyone in the known universe, and Cat and I in full-on flustered fairy tale princess mode. Super-fun!

Now, if you're not going to WorldCon, you may wonder why this is relevant to your interests. I have two words for you: voter packet.

All Supporting Members receive, in addition to Hugo voting rights, a copy of the Hugo voter packet. This includes all the nominated works for the year. Novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, graphic stories, and yes, related works (so this year, they had to figure out how to include MP3s of an entire filk album—I am a living complication). Strictly speaking, this is well over a $50 value. I mean, the Related Works category alone would probably cost you around $80 if you bought all the physical media, and that doesn't go into the fiction categories at all. So you save a lot, while getting a neat little packet containing electronic copies of what the community thought was best about the previous year. And oh, I forgot to mention there's also samples of the Fan Writer nominees, and art, and and and and...

And here's the thing. I can't pretend that I don't have a vested interest in this year's Hugos: I said last year that no one accepts a nomination when they don't want to win, and I meant that sincerely and without embarassment. It's even worse this year, when I'm on the ballot four times and terrified of losing four times. I want to win. But even more, if I'm going to lose, I want to lose fairly. I want to lose because the community spoke, and what they said was "this one over here should be the victor." That means people need to vote.

Every year, when the Hugo ballot is announced, some people say "these things, these things are wrong." Then, after the votes are counted, some people say "these wins, these losses, they are also wrong." But the only way to change the wrongness is to participate. That means nominating, and that means casting your vote. It's never been easier, and it's never been more...balanced, for lack of a better word. $50 isn't peanuts. There have been years where I wouldn't have been able to afford that. On the other hand, you get a lot of bang for your bucks, and you get to be a part of shaping our community's history. And if you register now, you may even have time to read everything before the deadline!

If you can afford a Supporting Membership, I highly recommend it. It's a fair value, and it lets you participate. Everybody loves participation, right?

This ends today's public service announcement.

I'm trying not to be the all-Hugos, all-the-time channel right now (believe me, it's hard), but there is something I really wanted to talk about, and that's my nomination in the Best Related Works category. Wicked Girls, the CD I released in January 2011, has been nominated for the brass ring. This is the first time a single-artist filk CD has been nominated for the Hugo Awards...except for where it's not a single-artist CD. My name may be the only thing on the cover, but it's not the only name that was involved with the project. And that's what makes this so amazing. Because Wicked Girls is the thing I did with some of the people I love best in all this world, and I think that it shows. I really do.

This is the album where half the songs were written specifically so Vixy could sing them with me, or specifically for Amy's fiddle breaks. This is the album where my "I love you more than fairy tales" songs for my friends all got recorded, "Wicked Girls" and "Mother of the Crows" and "The True Story Here" and so many others. It was an amazing experience, recording this. And I credit that entirely to the people who recorded it with me.

Vixy, who sings with me on almost every track. Amy, whose screaming electric fiddle is the first primary instrumentation on the album. Kristoph, who tolerantly listened to me trying to explain what I wanted, and then gave me a hundred times more. Mary, and Betsy, and Sooj, who took the time to come to the studio and make things amazing. They put the heartbeat into the songs. Paul, who I loved first and best as a guitarist. Tony, who makes magic with strings. Margaret, who harps like it's going to be banned tomorrow. And others, and others, and others, forever.

Tara designed the cover; Beckett designed the liner notes. Mia made the pendants that inspired almost half the songs. Deborah listened, and loved, and helped in a thousand ways, as did Kate, and Cat, and all the members of my scattered family.

After more than thirty years, the filk community has representation on the Hugo ballot, and it's for an album that contains members of Southern filk, Midwest filk, Pacific Northwest filk, and California filk. And that is amazing. I am amazed.

I think I'm going to be amazed for a while.

The odds are decent that you've seen this by now, if you were online at all this past weekend. But since I'm going to be posting about the Hugos a bit this week, I thought it might be kind of me to put the whole ballot up here for people to review. If you don't need to know, don't click the cut. Life is simple!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Hugo Awards, they are given each year at WorldCon to celebrate the best the science fiction and fantasy fields have to offer. They are voted on (and people are nominated by) the members of the World Science Fiction Society. You can become a member by joining the current year's World Science Fiction Convention.

This is important, and we will talk more about it later. But what you should know right now is a) if you're going to WorldCon, you can vote, and b) if you're not going to WorldCon, but you want to have a say in what we, as a community, recognize, you can obtain the right to vote by purchasing a Supporting Membership to the current WorldCon. Supporting Memberships cost $50, and get you access to the entire electronic Hugo Voter's Packet, which contains all the nominated fiction of the year, as well as other exciting goodies. This is a more than $50 value, grants you the opportunity to find out what we as a community think warranted inclusion on a Top 5 list for the previous year, and lets you be a part of making history.

And now...the ballot.

( Click here if you're curious, or just want the reminder.Collapse )

...and between myself-as-me and myself-as-Mira, I am on the ballot four times. Which is the first time a woman has ever been on the ballot four times in a single year. I'm nominated for...

Best Novel, Deadline.
Best Novella, Countdown.
Best Fancast, The SF Squeecast.
Best Related Work, Wicked Girls.

I am both insanely excited and paralyzed with fear, which means I feel sort of sick to my stomach. Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times to everyone who nominated; it means the world to me, and we have made history this year.

Congratulations to all the nominees, especially Jim Hines (Best Fan Writer), Betsy Wolheim (Best Long Form Editor), the voice of Toby, Mary Robinette Kowall (Best Novella), Paul Cornell (Best Novelette) and my beloved Cat Valente (Best Novella). I'll post the full ballot soon, when I get over the twitching and the nausea.

Thank you so much. This is such an honor. I am so lucky. I can't stop crying.

Thank you.

10. Orders for the second run of Wicked Girls shirts are now open, and will remain open until May 18th. Please read the post carefully, as it includes important ordering information. We're planning a more gender-neutral shirt next, probably saying "My story is not done," but we need to get through this batch, first. In other news, I am a glutton for punishment.

9. A bit of confusion has arisen relating to my East Coast trip. So here's the skinny: I am going to the East Coast, I am not attending any conventions while I'm there, I may or may not be doing any appearances. It's all still up in the air. I'll sign books at any bookstores I stumble over, but that's about all I can guarantee right now.

8. If you're in New York, however, and enjoyed Repo: The Genetic Opera, might I recommend looking at the tour dates for The Devil's Carnival? It's the new project by the same people, and it looks awesome. I'll be attending the 7pm showing in Manhattan on April 26th, and more people always make for a better party. Unless there's a limited amount of cake.

7. One of my favorite comic books, The Boys, is going into its final story arc. I am going to miss it so much when it's gone. On the other hand, I said the same thing about Preacher, which was this creative team's former collaboration, and look what it got me. I'm excited to see what comes next.

6. I am trying not to be nervous about the Philip K. Dick Awards, which happen Friday evening, while I'm, you know, a state away. I have managed not to get my hopes up too high, although I have to admit, it would be awesome to win. It really is just an honor to be nominated.

5. To the two girls dressed as Jean Gray who called the girl dressed as Emma Frost a skank this past weekend at Emerald City: Not cool. We're all geeks here together, and while you may have been giggling in character, she wasn't with you.

4. To the extremely pretty girl dressed as Emma Frost who got called a skank this past weekend at Emerald City: You looked absolutely stunning, and your confidence and poise as you walked made it even better. Don't let people bring you down. You are amazing.

3. And yes, that message would have been the same if it had been two Emmas and a Jean. I only noticed because the costumes caught my eye.

2. In further comic book news, my comic book store tried to incite a Sharks vs. Jets throw-down between Avengers fans and X-Men fans last night. Apparently the Avengers were winning...until I walked in the door. Turns out, I'm a destructive force of nature where my comics are concerned. Who knew, right?

1. Zombies are love.

VERITY PRICE!!!!!!

Ahem. Discount Armageddon has debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list, in position #35. This is otherwise known as "the best position," because it is mine, and I love it. I am...I am overjoyed. I am SO EXCITED I COULD DIE. This is my second time on the list (my first was with Late Eclipses), and to make it with my very first book in a brand new series is like a dream come true.

This is my crazy little book about a ballroom dancing cryptozoologist cocktail waitress with talking mice in her closet and nothing in her fridge, and it's on the New York Times Bestseller list. I can't believe it.

Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you to everyone who bought this book during release week. I am so glad, and so grateful, and so excited. Above everything else, I am so excited.

Discount Armageddon made the list.

Point the first: If you are a member of Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, who joined before January 31, 2012, you are eligible to submit a nomination ballot for the 2012 Hugo Awards. The nomination deadline is now less than a month away. Please, please, consider nominating for the Hugos if you are eligible to do so. (Note: This is not the same as saying "please nominate me." The ballots are secret, and you can nominate whatever you damn well want. Nominate the best things you saw in 2011.) If you are not eligible to nominate, remember that buying a supporting membership now means you will receive the electronic voter packet, and be eligible to vote on the final ballot.

Point the second: If you're wondering who is or is not eligible, many authors have made convenient posts delineating their eligibility. My eligible works are listed here. Because I am occasionally lazy and do not want to do work that other people have already done for me, I wish to direct you to this fabulously hysterical post by Jim Hines, which helpfully links to a bunch of "what I am eligible for" posts by other people. Sometimes my laziness gives me an excuse to expose others to awesome. My life, so hard.

Point the third: As you know, I watch a lot of television, and hence often have very strong feelings about the Best Dramatic Short Form category (there's a shocker). I sometimes feel like American science fiction television winds up at a disadvantage compared to UK television, not because it's bad, but because the seasons are so much longer that it's far easier for us to "split the vote" during the nomination period, resulting in a ballot with three episodes of Doctor Who and nothing from, say, Fringe, which I would only love more if the producers started arranging for cupcake deliveries to my house every time there was a new episode. (Seriously, the episode "Peter" from season two should have been on last year's ballot, with bells on. It was sheer genius.) So I am asking you, as people who may not watch quite so much television, to consider a specific work for the 2012 ballot.

Specifically, I am asking you to consider Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension, which is within the length-limit for the short form category. It's real science fiction, folks, seriously. Only with songs and a secret agent platypus. This show is inspiring the science fiction fans of tomorrow in a way that very little else currently is, and it inspires me, daily. You can view the whole thing on Netflicks; it re-runs regularly on Disney and Disney XD; and it's available on DVD. Please, if you haven't seen it already, give it a gander, and consider whether it might be worthy of your nomination.

"Every day is such a dream
When you start it with a monotreme..."

—from "Everything's Better With Perry."

Hey, guys. Just a quick reminder that tomorrow, January 31st, 2012, is your last chance to obtain a Chicon 7 supporting membership with full Hugo nomination and voting rights. You will be able to obtain a voting membership after this, but you won't have the opportunity to nominate. You can find details here, on the Chicon 7 website. Supporting memberships are $50 USD.

Why is this a good deal?

$50 is a lot of money, right? So why is this a good deal? Two reasons, really.

Everybody likes books.

The Hugo Awards now come with an electronic voting packet that contains all the nominated fiction, and a lot of the nominated non-fiction. So that's between four and six novels good enough to make the ballot, four and six novellas, novelettes, short stories...it's like a giant Kinderegg of fictional goodness. No matter how you cut it, $50 for that much reading material is a pretty damn good deal, and that's just the fiction. It's a great way to see what the community considered worthy of recognition in any given year, like a really super-sized version of the Hugo nominee anthologies I used to read when I was a kid.

Be part of the process.

The Hugos are nominated, and voted, by a relatively small percentage of the overall community, and every year, people complain about how the winners aren't their choices. Okay. So change it. By putting in a nominating ballot, you shape the final ballot. By voting, you shape the winners. If we want this award to represent our whole community, we need to participate.

It has never been easier to read all the nominated material. It has never been easier to be a part of the process. If you want the Hugos to reflect the material you believe should be winning, you need to participate.

$50 ain't cheap. But what you get for it isn't cheap, either. You get books; you get a voice; and you get to shape what our community recognizes.

It's pretty damn cool.

10. Well, that's that: I am officially out of "skip days" until after March. My friend Debbie rather unexpectedly pinged me Tuesday to say that she would be in San Francisco starting Wednesday and would I have dinner with her? So we had dinner (and I dragged her along on the usual round of Wednesday errands, because there's "taking a skip day" and then there's "committing professional suicide"), and now I have to make word count every day from now to March 15th. Yes, that includes the days when I'm at conventions. I have no regrets.

9. ...okay, I have one regret: I am so far behind on everything I watch that it's not even funny. The only shows I've managed to keep up with are Fringe and Glee, and that's because I prioritize them in bitey, bitey fashion. Because I have to preserve my questionable sanity somehow.

8. I'm pondering a post on the financial realities of the Hugo Awards and the electronic voting packet, but for the moment, if you are eligible to nominate for the 2012 Hugos, and you haven't, why not nominate now? WorldCon isn't getting any further away.

7. Tax time is approaching. This means I need to clean my entire house, so that I can get my receipts into something vaguely approximating order. Oh, goodie. It also means it's time to make my annual pledge to set up a better filing system than "the bottom of my purse is full of receipts and Luna Bar wrappers, look in there." Although my faintly peanut butter-scented receipts are always nice.

6. Ryan is coming to visit! Which is wonderful, and will lead to much hugging and adoration (and also to the dry cleaning of the guest room duvet). Also much doll photography, since Ryan has promised to take some pictures of my unnervingly glossy-eyed collection for the edification of all those who think it can't possibly be that bad trying to sleep in my room.

5. I fly to Seattle tomorrow for Conflikt, where I am doing absolutely nothing official. It's going to be great. I get to spend the weekend hugging my friends, working on the books I have coming due, and going to Barnes and Noble to sign books. Plus the hotel is walking distance from the airport, so no one has to get up at four a.m. to drive me. That'll be nice for everybody. Well, except me. I still have to get up at four a.m.

4. I want to go back to Disney World. I find myself grumbling slightly at my taxes because I know that self-employment income (i.e., "writing") means that I'll be paying more than the cost of a really nice Disney World vacation. I actually like paying taxes, except for the "finding my receipts" part, but sometimes the sheer amount of tax that I have to pay makes me weep for Babylon.

3. Mailing is ongoing! At this point, there are only a few shirts I can't find, and I'm hoping they're buried under the more popular styles/colors. I got a list of inquiries on status from Deborah this morning, and I'll be answering her tonight, but really, patience is king. I'm doing this alone. Any future batches of shirts will be super-limited, because even aside from the part where some people are annoyed (and I'm sorry about that), I just can't process 300+ shirts in 30+ size/color/style combinations in anything resembling a timely manner. Like, it is physically impossible to do that and go to my day job and not miss my deadlines. And sadly, "pays the mortgage" and "makes my publishers happy" beat everything else.

2. I have been playing a little tappy game called "Pocket Frogs" during my admittedly limited free time. I don't think the game's designers intended it to be played quite like this, since I have a very "gotta catch 'em all" approach, but it makes me happy. As does slowly watching the breed counters go to 100% as I breed all 368 possible individuals.

1. Zombies are love.

So, uh. That happened. Deadline—the second installment in the Newsflesh trilogy—has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. This is a juried award, and, to quote the website, "The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States."

Distinguished science fiction. Screw winning (although naturally I'd like to win; I am only human, and pretending I don't dream of winning the things I'm nominated for seems needlessly coy and a little idiotic): I have been nominated for an award because I wrote something that's regarded as distinguished science fiction.

Dude. What.

Orbit, which has three books in the list of seven, has already posted a gleeful post of gleeful congratulations, which made me feel very loved. I'm seriously over the moon about this.

The full ballot for this year:

The Company Man, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Other, Matthew Hughes (Underland)
A Soldier’s Duty, Jean Johnson (Ace)
The Postmortal, Drew Magary (Penguin)
After the Apocalypse, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer)
The Samuel Petrovich Trilogy, Simon Morden (Orbit)

I am very excited, and very flattered, and yeah, a little hopeful, because who wouldn't be? This is amazing.

Yay.

This morning, I awoke to find the annual award season argument raging on my Twitter. It's a familiar dance (we dance it every year), and it goes like this:

PERSON #1: "Here are my eligible works!"
PERSON #2: "That's crass and inappropriate!"
PERSON #1: "But...how else am I supposed to make sure people know what's actually eligible?"
PERSON #2: "SILENT HATEFUL MAGIC."

(I always get Ursula from The Little Mermaid in my head right about now. "You'll have your looks! Your pretty face! And don't underestimate the importance of body language...")

This was followed by the second loop of the award argument:

PERSON #2: "I will never ever ever ever vote for or nominate someone who announces they're eligible."
PERSON #1: "But...that just penalizes the people you know about."
PERSON #2: "I KNOW ALL THINGS."
PERSON #1: "What about conversations in bars? Isn't it better to be upfront and public?"
PERSON #2: "ALL THINGS."

Cue the Sea Witch.

So here, then, is the big conundrum of authors during award season: If we say "I am eligible, and here is what I am eligible for," we get people complaining about crass, inappropriate self-promotion, no matter how gently we word it. If we say nothing at all, we get people complaining about how we didn't remind them about our eligibility, with a side order of "why didn't you make sure I knew nominations were open in the first place." In short, we cannot win for losing. So which option causes more unhappiness? Which option is more problematic, in the long run?

In this case, I'm going to say...silence. Because here's the thing: the only way a zero promotion model works is if there is genuinely zero promotion. If one person with a lot of friends makes an off-hand comment in a bar, that can change everything, especially with as narrow a margin as most fannish awards tend to have—and yes, that includes the Hugos and the Nebulas. Since zero promotion is impossible to enforce, the best option is for everyone who cares about the horses they have in the race to say, publicly, politely, and without hiding behind the veil of anonymity, "I am eligible for these things, in these categories, thank you for considering me, please remember to consider all the worthy works from this past year."

I have horses in this year's race. So do an enormous number of my friends, and an enormous number of authors and creators who are not friends of mine, but whose work I respect and admire. And I genuinely want to see the ballot reflect what we, as a community, think, not what I think, or what Bob thinks, or what Bob's fifty friends who he took out for drinks last Friday night might think. I want us to be global, and that means sometimes, creators will need to open their mouths and say "I am eligible." There's no shame in that. Saying it every day for a month, on the other hand, will get me slapping you in the back of the head with a tentacle.

Just saying.

So first off, I'm not dead. I am, however, home from Disney, and coping with my own flare-up of food poisoning, which haunted my party during our Disney World adventure. Getting sick on the plane is awesome! But anyway...

It's award eligibility season! Nominations are now open for both the Nebulas and the Hugos. Nebula nominations are open until February 15th for SFWA members only. Hugo nominations are open until March 11th, and to quote the website: "Nominations are open to members of the current year's Worldcon, the members of the past year's Worldcon, and, starting with the 2012 Hugo Awards, the members of the following year’s Worldcon." This means that if you had a membership to Renovation, you are eligible to nominate. If you didn't, you have until January 31st to purchase a membership for Chicon if you want nominating as well as voting rights on this year's ballot.

Anyway, this is what I did in 2011. If you are eligible to nominate, please consider these works, as well as many others by many awesome people.

Novel:

Late Eclipses
One Salt Sea
Deadline (as Mira Grant)

Novella:

Countdown (as Mira Grant)

Novelette:

Through This House

Short Story:

"The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells."
"Gimme a 'Z'!"
"The Alchemy of Alcohol."
"Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box." (as Mira Grant)
"Riddles."
"Uncle Sam."
"Cinderella City."
"Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage."

Of these short stories, many of which I am very proud of, "The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells" can be read for free at Apex Magazine, "Uncle Sam" can be read for free at The Edge of Propinquity, and "Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage" can be read for free at Fantasy Magazine (soon to merge with Lightspeed Magazine, which may change the way they archive things, I don't know).

Best Related Work:

Wicked Girls

I'm serious. According to the Hugo website, this category is..."Awarded to a work related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year or which has been substantially modified during the previous calendar year. The type of works eligible include, but are not limited to, collections of art, works of literary criticism, books about the making of a film or TV series, biographies and so on, provided that they do not qualify for another category." I believe that filk albums would thus be "related works," not dramatic presentations. Also, the idea cracks me up.

Best Fancast:

The SF Squeecast, in which I babble about all things awesome with Paul Cornell, Cat Valente, Elizabeth Bear, and Lynne Thomas.

I think that's everything. 2011 was amazing for me, publication-wise, and I am so happy and so pleased that all of you were there with me. And now, to quote the lovely Cat, who reminded me to make this post myself...

Quoth Cat: "A final note: you do not have to go to Worldcon to nominate and vote for the Hugos. You can buy a supporting membership for $50 and get that perk. I realize $50 is a lot to express an opinion, but every year we hear complaints about the ballot and every year I hope that my generation will vote a little more, because the Hugos are kind of a bellwether for the field, and I want new crackly risktaking goodness in there, too. Since I have no control over the price of the supporting membership all I can say is—give it a thought, if you have the scratch."

So if you have the funds and you want the voice, consider it. You could be a part of science fiction history.

Happy New Year!

This past weekend, I was in Ohio for OVFF (the Ohio Valley Filk Festival). I go as often as I can, usually every year, and I always have a wonderful time. This year, I was honored to be represented twice on the 2011 Pegasus Ballot, once for "Best Bad-Ass Song," for "Evil Laugh," and once for Best Song, for "Wicked Girls." My beloved Amy McNally, meanwhile, was on the ballot in the "Best Performer" category. It was an exciting year.

It was also a brutally hard ballot. Voting for the Pegasus Awards is never easy, but it's usually a little easier on my heart than this. There was absolutely nothing bad on that ballot, and nothing that I could even really say "well, that's perceptibly weaker than the things around it" about. It was all amazing. The only thing I was sure of was that I couldn't predict the results; the only result I was really praying to the Great Pumpkin for was in the Best Performer category, where I desperately wanted Amy to win.

Best Romantic Song was the first announced, and went to "As I Am" by Heather Dale. We all clapped and cheered, and laughed at her pole-axed acceptance. Best Bad-Ass Song was the second announced, and went to...me. And my dinosaurs. I sort of staggered to the front, blinked a lot, said dinosaurs were cool, and went away. My table clapped and cheered. Best Writer/Composer, S.J. Tucker.

And then...Best Performer, Amy McNally. My table, which had, again, clapped politely when I won, EXPLODED. Literally. Screaming, shouting, applause. Amy wasn't able to attend this year, so Brooke, Vixy, and I went up, announced that we were Amy's Angels, and accepted the SHIT out of that award.

I am so proud of her.

Best Classic Filk Song went to "The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar. More clapping and cheering. And then Best Song...

Best Song went to "Wicked Girls." Oh, my heart.

I have coveted that award. I won't pretend that I haven't. I've wanted it, very badly, from the day I understood what it was. It is the ultimate "you are an awesome songwriter and you have written an awesome song" of filk, and I wanted it. I did not cry, but only, really, because I was still in shock and full of delight over Amy's win. We are wicked. We are fair. We can all of us save ourselves.

The winners for 2011:

Best Filk Song: "Wicked Girls" by Seanan McGuire
Best Classic Filk Song: "The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar
Best Performer: Amy McNally
Best Writer/Composer: S. J. Tucker
Best Badass Song: "Evil Laugh" by Seanan McGuire
Best Romantic Song: "As I Am" by Heather Dale

Some interesting facts:

This is the first time the entire Pegasus slate has been won by women. No co-writers were harmed in the granting of these awards. Go team Wicked Girls!

Amy McNally's win marks the first time someone who is primarily an instrumentalist has been awarded Best Performer. So well-deserved.

Julia Ecklar won the John W. Campbell Award in 1991. I won it in 2010. This is the first time, ever, that both Best Filk Song and Best Classic Filk Song have been won by professional authors.

It was a very good year. Thank you to everyone who voted, and thank you to everyone who believed that we could fly.

Oh, and Amy? Congratulations, sweetheart.

Hooray hooray, the 2011 Pegasus ballot is live at last! And this is a good, good year.

The ballot for the 2011 Pegasus Awards for Excellence in Filking is now live for voting, and holy cheese, there are some awesome nominees this year! The ballot...

Best Filk Song

"Die Puppen (The Dolls)" by Eva Van Daele-Hunt.
"Joan" by Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps.
"Paper Worlds" by Talis Kimberley.
"Somebody Will" by Ada Palmer.
"Wicked Girls" by Seanan McGuire.

Best Classic Filk Song

"Gone Filkin'" by Tom Jeffers.
"Little Fuzzy Animals" by Frank Hayes.
"Nessie Come Up" by Dr. Jane Robinson.
"The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar.
"Storm Dancing" by Tom Smith.

Best Performer

Amy McNally.
Playing Rapunzel.
Stone Dragons.
Toyboat.
Tricky Pixie.

Best Writer/Composer

Barry Childs-Helton.
Dr. Mary Crowell.
Phil Mills.
Ben Newman.
S. J. Tucker.

Best Badass Song

"Crispy Danish" by Andrew Ross.
"Evil Eyeball" by Sibylle Machat.
"Evil Laugh" by Seanan McGuire.
"My Brother, My Enemy" by Ada Palmer.
"Tough Titty Cupcakes" by Betsy Tinney.

Best Romantic Song

"As I Am" by Heather Dale.
"One Small Boat" by Marilisa Valtazanou.
"Rain On Berlin" by Eva Van Daele-Hunt.
"Starlight & Saxophone" by Tom Smith.
"Too Many Years" by Bill Roper.

I mean, just look at all that awesomesauce. The Best Song Category alone contains representatives from four nations (America, Canada, England, and Germany), and so many of my favorite people are on this ballot that it boggles the mind. It's like a big delicious biscuit of amazing, and I am overjoyed and honored to be on it. (Also, "Wicked Girls" is up against two of my favorite songs, "Paper Worlds" and "Joan." It's a good year to be a filker.)

The Pegasus homepage has all the song samples and lyrics you could need to educate yourself on some totally amazing music, and some totally amazing people. Check it out for fantastic!

I am home from Reno! Finally. I think I may be half-dead, and I definitely need a lot more of a nap than I'm going to be getting in the near future. Here, then, is my extremely truncated and specialized convention report.

The Good.

* Joe's Diner! Kate, Victor, and I arrived early, and were able to wander around, running errands. This led us to discovering an awesome little diner, just far enough from the convention center to be inaccessible if you didn't have a car (and thus entirely uncrowded throughout the weekend). Cheap, delicious food, real malts, and a waitress who came to know us all by name as we returned again and again for delicious meals. Yay!

* Also during our running around, I found a hardcover copy of Hellspark, one of my favorite hard-to-find books. (Actually, Victor found it. But he is a loving Victor, and he gave it unto me.) I will love it always.

* I wound up in two hotel rooms, one shared with Kate (and connected via adjoining door to Victor), one shared with Wes, Mary, and Amy. Both rooms were awesome in different ways, and I couldn't have asked for better roommates.

* "Just A Minute," where I not only became the new champion, I got to do it while hanging out with awesome people (including two of my favorite people, Paul and Caroline). Betcha John regrets telling me that lists were legal...

* Lauren Beukes's sloth! I nearly stole that thing. I still want to.

* Delivering an impassioned verbal smackdown during the zombie panel.

* Interviewing Tricky Pixie, Bill Wellingham, and this year's COMPLETELY AWESOME Campbell nominees. All on different panels, but still. I could not have shared a stage with more delightful people.

* Kaja hugs.

* Having a signing line longer than George R.R. Martin. It was bizarre and confusing, and totally fantastic.

* Brunch with Daniel and Kelly.

* Breakfast with Sheila.

* Surprise DDR with Kate and Vixy and Lauren and Amy.

* Dinner with Mike and Marnie and the posse, during which I received my official Barfleet tags. They're orange and green! I am truly loved.

...honestly, there were a lot of amazing people at WorldCon this year, but if I try to list them all, someone will be left off, because I am exhausted, and then we will all be sad. So please believe that I love all my friends, and I am so excited to have seen them, and I would not have survived this convention without them. Seriously. I would be dead.

The Bad.

* The one day when I didn't have, basically, a team of people handling me, I was unable to get any food for eleven hours, was repeatedly grabbed by people I don't know, and was even followed into the bathroom stall. Not the bathroom. THE ACTUAL STALL. Needless to say, I was not left alone again, resulting in my friends feeling put-upon, my feeling like I had to hide in my hotel room to have any privacy, and everyone being tense. Being grabbed is bad. It scares me.

* Smoking is allowed indoors in Reno. We were in Reno. I am not as sensitive to smoke as some of my friends, but I still feel pretty lousy, even after being home for almost two full days.

* The convention center was almost a mile away from my hotel, resulting in lots of walking back and forth in the extreme heat. Also, if I managed to forget something at the room, it stayed gone until I went home in the afternoon. This decentralized layout prevented a single Barcon from coalescing, and I am hence still faintly sad.

* The decentralized layout also meant that I saw some people I really care about rarely, if at all. Kate put it best when she noted that if you weren't part of the amoeba, we barely saw you.

* Finding things was almost impossible. I didn't even figure out where open filk was until Friday night, when I was doing "Whose Line?" across from it (an 11pm to 1am panel, so no, I didn't join the circle afterward). I made it to the dealer's hall twice, both times for under twenty minutes.

The Unhappy.

So. The Hugos. That happened.

You're not supposed to talk about being sad that you lost; it's considered poor form. Unfortunately, in this internet age, it's impossible to avoid addressing it at least a little if you have any sort of decent web presence. Not only is it obvious that you're avoiding an elephant, people keep hijacking other posts and other threads to tell you how sorry they are. That's worse for my sanity than having a few people sigh meaningfully at me, so I'm going to talk about this once, and have done.

Yes, I lost.

Yes, I am very sad about that. I wanted to win. Everybody wants to win. Wanting to win is human nature, and if you don't want to win, you decline the nomination. End of story.

Yes, I am aware that I lost by a very narrow margin. This doesn't make it easier. If anything, it makes it harder; what could I have done to make my book just twenty votes better? Rationally, I know this isn't a quantifiable thing, but, well. Me and numbers. It's a thing.

Yes, I hope that I get another shot next year.

No, I will not be responding to comments directly relating to the Hugos. I hope you understand why not. Congratulations to all the winners, and huge, huge thanks to everyone who voted. I came in second. I beat Bujold in the voting. That's a damn big deal. Maybe next time, we can win.

That was WorldCon, and now it's not. See you next year, in Chicago.

Remember when Feed was named one of NPR's Top 100 Killer Thrillers? So do I. Good times, my friends, good times.

Now NPR is looking for the Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy Titles. And the Newsflesh trilogy, by Mira Grant, is on the list.

To be fair, this is a popularity contest. Some amazing books are missing. There's a heavy bias toward titles published in the last five years. But still. Wouldn't it be nice to make the list?

Go ye forth, and vote!

Today is July 31st; voting for the 2011 Hugo Awards closes today.

The details on the awards can be found here; you must be an attending or supporting member of Renovation to vote. And yes, at this point, it's probably too late to buy a membership just so you can vote.

As anyone seeing this post is probably aware, Feed is up for this year's Best Novel Award. And yes, I would like to win. Who wouldn't? But more, I would like to look at the voting results when all is said and done and go "wow, we had a record voter turn out; more members of the community shared their opinions than ever before, and most of them thought that X, or Y, or Z was a better book than mine." I mean. I want the Hugo. Who gets nominated for one of these things and doesn't want it? If I win, I will have Kate knit little hats for it, and probably carry it around for a month, just so everyone can see it. I will take pictures of my Hugo in ridiculous places. But I want whoever gets the Hugo to get it fairly, and because everyone voted.

If you have the right to vote in this particular pool, please, remember that today is your cutoff. If you want to influence the 2011 Hugo Awards, this is where it has to happen.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen of the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention membership...have you remembered to cast your vote for this year's Hugo Awards? Because if you haven't, you're sort of running out of time; July 31st is your last day to vote.

I am reasonably sure that each and every person on that ballot wants to win. I am no different. But almost as much as I want to win, I want to know that if I lose, it will be because every possible voter looked at the works up for consideration, looked at their ballot, and made their choice fairly and well. I want you all to vote. I want to lose because I lost, not because there was a sale at Ben and Jerry's and we all got rightfully distracted because dude, ice cream.

Please. If you are eligible to vote, it has never been easier to get a clear view of the entire ballot. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Hugo committee, we have an electronic voting package that is a bibliophile's dream; you can read and consider absolutely everything that's asking for your vote. And if you're not a member yet, but were thinking about it, you can still register with full voting rights if you do it soon.

Make this year's Hugo winners the ones you think deserve those shiny rocket ships.

Vote.

A kind soul who dislikes my ability to sleep helpfully compiled a list of the weirdest Pokemon ever. And for "weirdest," read "most horrifically fucked-up and likely to cause you to have nightmares which rock the very foundations of your soul. Seriously, Pokemon is totally breeding the horror writers of tomorrow, today. It's awesome.

Speaking of horror, "Everglades" made the Honorable Mentions list for The Year's Best Horror. Yay! Maybe "Pavlov" or "The Box" can make the actual cut in 2011. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Zombies are the new black. If you've been here for a while, you probably already knew that, but this is a fun article, and I contributed a quote, so hey. No loss here.

Tentacle pot pies. Yeah, you're welcome. I want to make an adorable Lovecraft theme dinner, and have everything be a) cute, and b) horrifying if you think about it too hard.

Speaking of horrifying, this was not designed for me. Or maybe that's not so much "horrifying" as it is "proof that life isn't fair." Woe to me, that I do not have this dress.

And yet Amy Mebberson drew Amy Pond as a My Little Pony to make me happy, so maybe the world isn't such a horrible place after all.

...that's all for right now. I still have roughly a metric ton of links to post, but most of them are reviews or things which require actual thought. So I leave you with this lovely dish o' random to get you through this gloomy Wednesday night.

See you tomorrow!

Dear Great Pumpkin;

It has been some time since I last wrote to you, but you have never been far from my thoughts. I just thought you might like me to do my own planting for a change. Since our last correspondence, I have not started any political movements or debunked any major scientific theories for my own amusement. I have loved my friends and looked upon my enemies with tolerant disdain, as opposed to reaching for the machete. I have shared my cookies. I have not brought about the end of all mankind, nor lured the unwary into the cornfield. I have continued to make all my deadlines, even the ones I most wanted to avoid. I have not talked about parasites at the dinner table. Much. So obviously, I have been quite well-behaved, especially considering my nature.

Today, Great Pumpkin, I am asking for the following gifts:

* A smooth and successful release for Deadline, with books shipping when they're meant to ship, stores putting them out when they're supposed to put them out, and reviews that are accurate, insightful, and capable of steering people who will enjoy my book to read it, while warning those who will not enjoy my book gently away. Please, Great Pumpkin, show mercy on your loving Pumpkin Princess of the West, and let it all be wonderful. I'm not asking you to make it easy, Great Pumpkin, but I'm asking you to make it good.

* Please let me finish the current draft of Blackout on time and without anything exploding when it's not supposed to, drawing this trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. I've never finished a series before, Great Pumpkin, and I admit, I'm nervous. I want to do this world, and these characters, justice; I want to make the people who've been with me since Feed was a crazy idea called Newsflesh proud. I know it can be done, and that I have the skills necessary for the task. All I ask is that you help me do it.

* And when that is done, o Prince of Patches, I ask that you help me to find my way back into the depths of Ashes of Honor without that changing-genres stumble; let Toby and her world open their arms and welcome me home, that I might transcribe the story that is already making my fingertips ache. There is so much that I want to do in this book, and only so many pages for me to do it in. Please help me find my way, and help me tell this story. It needs telling.

* I thank you once again for my cats, Great Pumpkin, who are everything I could ever ask for in feline companions. Alice is huge, puffy, and utterly without dignity. Lilly is sleek, smug, and satisfied with herself. Thomas is playful, expanding rapidly, and too smart for his own good. I have never been happier with the cats who share my life than I am with this trio, who delight me in all ways. Please, Great Pumpkin, keep them healthy, keep them happy, and keep them exactly as they are.

* I haven't said anything up to now about what I really want this year, Great Pumpkin, but...you know I've been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. You know, because you know everything. You know that if I win, I'll be given a rocket ship in Reno, with my Amy and my Vixy in attendance. Neither of them could be there in Australia, and it would mean the world to all of us if they could be there to see this happen. Please shine your holy candle upon the Hugo, Great Pumpkin, and, if you see fit, I will thank you in any speeches I have to give (you know I'm good for it, I did it last time).

I remain your faithful Halloween girl,
Seanan.

PS: While you're at it, can you please turn your graces on Harvest? I sort of really want to tell this story. It centers on Halloween, you're going to love it.

I am...honored and delighted and a little stunned to announce that Feed, written under the name "Mira Grant," has been nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The award will be given this August, at Renovation, the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Reno, Nevada.

Yeah.

I've been nominated for a Hugo.

And yeah, I cried.

This is such an honor. This is...this is one of those things I never expected, that I get to have for the rest of my life. "I was nominated for a Hugo Award." Winning would be awesome, but in a way, it's icing on an already delicious cake, because I was nominated. Out of everything published in 2010, enough people said "Feed was the best" that I made the ballot. Me, and four other people, out of all the books there were.

I am honored and stunned and delighted and terrified, and it's something I've dreamed of literally since I found out Ray Bradbury had a Hugo Award, so I must have been, like, eight. And now my name is on that ballot.

When will I Rise? I don't think I could Rise any higher than I am right now.

Thank you all so much.

The ballot for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award has been announced. Shirley Jackson is one of those writers I've admired since before I really fully understood that the people whose names were on the front of books had written them, rather than nurturing them in strange gardens, where they were watered with blood and cream, and bloomed only under the light of the full moon. Although maybe, that's what writers really do, and when we talk about "writing," we really mean "plundering the hearts of our neighbors for seeds." Who knows?

Shirley Jackson wrote "The Lottery," and The Haunting of Hill House, which has scared the crap out of me on a regular basis since I was seven. The Shirley Jackson Awards were established with the approval of her estate, to honor "outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic."

This year, Feed is on the ballot.

To quote the website, the award is "voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors." It's a jury of my peers, and whether I'm found guilty or not, it is truly an honor to be brought before them. I'll be really honest here: I never expected this. I don't think of myself as writing the kind of books that get nominated for awards, no matter how much I love them. My garden bears strange fruit, but not the kind that takes the ribbon at the County Fair.

But there I am. On a ballot with Peter Straub and Robert Jackson Bennett and Neil Gaiman and Michelle Paver...and it's amazing.

It's just amazing.

Hugo nominations are drawing to a close, and that means it's time to remind people about eligibility and whatnot. Works are eligible if they were published in the calendar year preceding this one (2010). Statistically speaking, you'll probably know if you're eligible to nominate (an vote). For the Hugos, you need to have been a member of Aussiecon IV (WorldCon 2010) or be a member of Renovation (Worldcon 2011) to nominate. You must be an attending or supporting member of Renovation to vote, once the ballot has been decided upon.

My eligible works:

Short stories.

* "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On."
* "Everglades."

Technically, all of "Sparrow Hill Road" is eligible, but I would have to recommend looking at "Good Girls Go To Heaven," "Last Dance With Mary Jane," "Faithfully," or "Thunder Road" if you were considering nominating one of these.

Novels.

* A Local Habitation.
* An Artificial Night.
* Feed (as Mira Grant).

...it's a little scary, seeing my 2010 book publications boiled down to something that streamlined. It's also a little scary realizing that I published three books in 2010. I need a nap.

Best Related Work.

* Chicks Dig Timelords (I was a contributor, along with many others).

I am no longer eligible for the Campbell Award, although I will be in Reno to pass the tiara to the next honored recipient.

To be quite honest, it would be an honor beyond reckoning, and also the scariest thing in the history of ever, if I were nominated for a Hugo award. For anything, really. I'm proud of pretty much everything I did in 2010, including my failure to faint during the Hugo Award Ceremony in Australia. I think Feed may be the most solid stand-alone book I have ever written, so there's that.

Anyway, that's my eligibility. I'll try to have more in this listing next year. And please, if you're eligible, nominate. Not "please nominate me," or "please nominate my friends," just...nominate. That's how we do right by this big, beautiful field of speculative madness.

1. I have done mailing! Very nearly all the mailing, in point of fact; the only things that are a) paid for/contest prizes, and b) still in my possession are Lu's posters (trying to make sure I didn't double-pack them) and seawench's ARC (returned by the post office, only just got confirmation that it was safe to ship a second time). So there is no mail waiting for me to do something with it! I dance the dance of joy.

2. Since this weekend is the Traveling Circus and Snake-Handling Show's fourth appearance at Borderlands, my mother's been cleaning my house from stem to stern, to get it ready for company. This, naturally, upsets the cats. Thomas has been expressing his displeasure by sulking in the kitchen and knocking over the trash can. He doesn't seem to understand that neither of these behaviors is going to do anything beyond getting him scooped and scolded.

3. Having assessed my current stress levels and their effect on my ability to get things done, I have taken a major step toward reducing them. Namely, I have set aside the to-be-read pile, turning my back on all those beguiling new stories and unfamiliar authors, and have picked up my dearest, most faithful literary companion: I am re-reading Stephen King's IT for the first time in well over a year. This is seriously the longest I have gone without reading this book since I was nine. So yes, it will be sweet balm for my stressed-out soul.

4. Safeway has two-liters of Diet Dr Pepper on sale for eighty-eight cents this week. This, too, is sweet balm for my stressed-out soul, but in a different way. A more hyperactive, I CAN SEE THROUGH TIME, kind of a way.

5. Still on the New York Times bestseller list. I check every day, just to see if I'm still there. Call it part of my monitoring routine against dimensional slide, and let it go. I feel like I should do something to celebrate, like another round of book giveaways or something, but that's going to have to wait until my capacity to cope catches up with the rest of me. Say around next Tuesday, at the current rate.

6. I am the Rain King.

7. Last night's episode of Glee made me happy the way the show used to make me happy in season one, and that was a wonderful thing. I'm glad I bought the soundtrack before the episode actually aired; it let me get used to the original songs the way I am to the covers, and assess the performance on the show based on the actual performance, not on "WAIT WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY SINGING." It's a thing.

8. Last night I dreamt a detailed remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, updated for the modern era, without sucking righteously. It was scary and strange and really awesome, and it says something about my psyche that I still don't think it was a nightmare. Sadly, I woke up before the end. Stupid alarm clock.

9. The bigger my cats get, the more I realize that I need a bigger bed. Which means I need a bigger bedroom. Which means I need a bigger house. Anyone know where I can find Dr. Wayne Szalinski's shrinking/enlarging ray?

10. Zombies are love, be excellent to one another, and party on, dudes.

Friday night, I was chilling at my computer when an acquaintance of mine congratulated me. On what?, I wondered. A link was provided. I clicked the link. The link took me to the New York Times Best Sellers, which seemed like a bit of a cruel joke, since I would have known if I had made the list. Right? Right?

I scrolled down the list.

Late Eclipses, the fourth October Daye adventure, held the #32 slot.

I stared at it for a few minutes before calling Vixy and asking her to click the link. I didn't tell her why, because let's face it, I wanted to know if she could see it, too. She made inquisitive noises as she scrolled...and then she started shrieking. Okay, so yeah. She could see it.

Lots of screaming and flailing followed, as well as a phone tree that managed to double back on itself about seventeen times. Oxygen was not a priority. The Agent eventually returned my call, and then we spent a lovely half-hour or so going "Oh my God" a lot, which is basically what I was hoping she would do (sometimes, being coherent is for other people). The cats watched all of this with disdain, thus proving that the essential laws of reality had not changed, and eventually, I watched Fringe and went to bed.

I'm a New York Times bestselling author. Me.

I still can't believe I'm not asleep.

Okay, folks, it's time for the official reminder that the deadline is fast approaching to gain the right to nominate for the 2011 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. This means that if you have an interest in shaping this year's final Hugo and Campbell ballot, you need to fulfill the requirements like, super-soon. And what are those requirements? Simple:

To be entitled to submit a nomination ballot you must join Renovation as a Supporting, Attending, or Young Adult member by January 31, 2011, or have been a Supporting or Attending member of Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon. Nomination ballots must be received by Saturday, March 26, 2011, 23:59 PDT. Translation: If you didn't go to Aussiecon 4, you need to be a Supporting, Attending, or Young Adult member of Renovation before the end of this month. You have six days left. I'm just saying.

Since I'm basically cribbing from the official announcement anyway, here's the next chunk:

"After the finalists are announced, all Supporting, Attending, and Young Adult members of Renovation (including all members who join prior to the closing date of the final ballot) will be invited to submit ballots to select the Hugo winners. Renovation members will also be eligible to nominate for the 2012 Hugo Awards to be hosted next year by Chicon 7, the 70th Worldcon, in Chicago, Illinois."

See? Two nominating periods for the price of one!

More seriously, every year, I see people complaining about how the Hugos don't represent "their" idea of the best science fiction and fantasy out there. Well, this is your opportunity to put your money where your mouth is, and shape the year to come. You have six days to decide.

And now, the official:

More information about the Hugo Awards, including details about how to submit a nominating ballot, is available from http://www.renovationsf.org/hugo-intro.php.

For additional information, contact hugoawards@renovationsf.org.

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