Writing : Spontaneous Derivation

All posts filed in “Writing”

We're running a bit late.

As luck would have it, I'm on call for a little while. The real haul stretches into next week. Expect things to be pushed back by about four days.

2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Best Semiprozine and Best Fanzine

Jul. 1st 2008 in Hugo Awards — No Comments

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Science fiction zines have always been the bread and butter of SF aficionados, because as geeks we all love to read about the stuff we’re reading and watching, and talk bout the stuff we’re reading and watching. The readership can be very meta at times.

This entry covers both the semiprozine and the fanzine Hugo nominees. A fanzine is what it sounds like—a non-professional regular publication. The semiprozine bridges the gap between the fanzine and the professional magazine. A more complete definition of “semiprozine” is available on Wikipedia.

The schedule as planned:

Short Stories - June 10
Novelettes - June 12
Novellas - June 14
Dramatic Presentation (long form, short form) - June 16
Related Books - June 18
Editors, Long Form - June 22
Editors, Short Form - June 22
Artists - June 28
Semiprozines and Fanzines - July 1
Fan Writers and Artists - July 3
Best New Science Fiction Writer - July 4
Novels - July 6 & 7

Continue »

2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Correction to Best Professional Editors, Long Form

Jun. 30th 2008 in Hugo Awards — No Comments

Patrick Nielsen Hayden corrected me on Beth Meacham’s edited books for the year. The correction is now live here. Thanks, Patrick!

If anyone has more corrections, please let me know. In fact, if someone can help me Ginjer Buchanan’s edited books I would be very grateful—that’s the last piece of missing information I have for the Hugo 2008 Countdown.

Update: Ginjer was on vacation, but Cameron Dufty was kind enough to give me three for now. Fortunately I did get two of the books right—Halting State and Galactic North. Thanks, Cameron!

2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Best Professional Artist

Jun. 28th 2008 in Hugo Awards — No Comments

Science fiction and fantasy: where would they be without visuals? Humans are visual creatures, and while we can visualize the images behind the words of stories and novels, it’s the artists who bring those images to life.

The schedule as planned:

Short Stories - June 10
Novelettes - June 12
Novellas - June 14
Dramatic Presentation (long form, short form) - June 16
Related Books - June 18
Editors, Long Form - June 22
Editors, Short Form - June 22
Artists - June 28
Fan Awards - July 1
Best New Science Fiction Writer - July 3
Novels - July 6 & 7

Continue »

2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Best Professional Editors - Short Form

Jun. 22nd 2008 in Hugo Awards — No Comments

best-sf-and-fantasy-of-year-big

This is the companion article to the one for Best Editors - Long Form.

It’s been fun putting together the names and faces together of the men and women who manage with the insanity of writers on the one hand, the chaos of publishing on the other, and don’t go postal with a chainsaw on the slush pile.

The schedule as planned:

Short Stories - June 10
Novelettes - June 12
Novellas - June 14
Dramatic Presentation (long form, short form) - June 16
Related Books - June 18
Editors, Long Form - June 22
Editors, Short Form - June 22
Artists - June 28
Fan Awards - July 1
Best New Science Fiction Writer - July 3
Novels - July 6 & 7

Continue »

2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Best Professional Editors - Long Form

Jun. 22nd 2008 in Hugo Awards — 2 Comments

We don’t appreciate editors enough sometimes.

For they’re the ones who choose the writers and works and shepherd the manuscript through the publishing process. In the case of the short form (meaning magazines like Asimov’s) they go through slush piles that would make your knees knock together. And in the case of the long form (novels and anthologies), they deal with the insanity that is publishing.

Because editors oversee so many projects, and sometimes don’t even have a website of their own (they’re waaay too busy), this took a bit longer than I expected to put together.

Schedule Change

The revised schedule:

Short Stories - June 10
Novelettes - June 12
Novellas - June 14
Dramatic Presentation (long form, short form) - June 16
Related Books - June 18
Editors, Long Form - June 22
Editors, Short Form - June 22
Artists - June 28
Fan Awards - July 1
Best New Science Fiction Writer - July 3
Novels - July 6 & 7

Continue »

2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Best Related Book

Jun. 18th 2008 in Hugo Awards — 3 Comments

Definition: related book

A book that isn’t a science fiction or fantasy story presented in text (or mostly text). This includes books that present material about the genre, usually in the form of essays or art, as well as picture books and graphic novels.

I must add that the final nominee in this category is rather unique.

Schedule Change

We’re actually going to take a turn and save the novels for last (or nearly last). This is a countdown, and the novels are among the showstoppers of the lot.

The revised schedule: