So, the Hugos and the Campbell...

[nolly]

Fan Artist:
I voted for Dave Howell; the winner was my 4th choice. But all the candidates who provided samples were good; congrats to Brad W. Foster!

Fanzine:
StarShip Sofa. This annoys me to no end. In fact, I bought my supporting membership in large part to vote against this nominee. (Drink Tank was my first choice; Argentus second.) It's not simply the question of whether a podcast can be a fanzine; it's a) there are better genre podcasts b) the host's attitude while campaigning for the nomination and votes -- and oh, how he campaigned! Way, way, way beyond what's socially acceptable in the community, and with an offensively ignorant and disrespectful attitude to boot. Paraphrasing (though only a bit), but encapsulating the attitude: "Let's show those old stick-in-the-mud fuddy-duddies that a fanzines doesn't have to be done on a typewriter!" He's apparently completely ignorant of efanzines.com and the actual state of the fanzine community. I mean, I'm not even a fanzine fan, really, and I know this.

And now I have to listen to him gloat for months. Well, I'll skip over those bits, really, since he's finally added a feed for a version with chapter marks, which makes that easier, but it's still kind of a pain, and sometimes the marks are not in all the places they ought to be, and I'll probably have to listen to a bit to find out what the section is. Yes, I do listen to it -- he usually has good stories read by people who aren't him, so they aren't full of obnoxious verbal tics and rambling sidebars. I occasionally listen to the non-fiction contributions -- also from people who aren't the host -- but not always, because some of them are boring, rambling, or just not interesting to me. Grr argh. It would be interesting to me to know how many ballots voted for this without ranking the other fanzines, and especially how many of those voted in only this category. I'm sure they were all legitimate individuals who purchased their memberships and followed the rules; I'm just wondering how many people Mr. Obnoxious convinced to do so.

Fan Writer:
Fred Pohl, my second choice won, no gripes.

Semiprozine:
Clarkesworld, again my second choice, won; no gripes.

Pro Artist:
Shaun Tan won; I love his work, and he was my first choice. Congrats Shaun!

I skipped voting the editor categories as I was insufficiently familiar with the 2009 work of the candidates, but I have enjoyed the winners' work in the past; I've also enjoyed the other nominees work, at least in short form. (Probably also in long form, but there are a few names there I'm not familiar with.) Congrats to Ellen Datlow and Patrick Nielsen-Hayden! (Editors, especially long form -- a list of your work for the year would be useful in the Hugo Packet!)

I also did not vote in the dramatic presentation categories as I had not seen most of the candidates and didn't have time to do so.

Graphic Story:
I love Girl Genius, and I'm delighted it won, although I actually ranked it second to Fables; if I could have had two #1s, they would have gotten them; it was a tough call.

I skipped Best Related; congrats to Jack Vance!

Short Story:
A tough one; I didn't care for most of the nominees. In the end, I ranked the Resnick first and the winner, Bridesicle, was my second choice. This seems to be a pattern...

Novelette:
And here, the pattern breaks; I didn't even rank the winner. I read the beginning, but couldn't get in to it. "Eros, Philia, Agape" was my first choice, followed by "It Takes Two".

Novella:
Again, the winner is one I just couldn't get in to; I ranked it 6 of 6. I voted for The Women of Nell Gwynne's, followed by Shambling Towards Hiroshima.

Novel:
This category had several strong contenders. I didn't have time to read them all all the way through, so I read the first several chapters of each, and voted based on beginnings; I might have voted differently, had I had more time. That said, I'm delighted to see The City and the City, the only nominee I have read completely in the tie for the win; I haven't read The Wind-Up Girl yet, but I've heard great things about it. However, I didn't find the beginning as strong as that of Julian Comstock, which really grabbed me; that and City were my top two.

And last, but certainly not least -- the Campbell: congratulations seanan_mcguire!!!

Comments

[ashi.livejournal.com]

I can't remember which of the two novel winners I picked, cause it was close. I also voted for your top Novella pick. I didn't vote on fanzines.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I had to cross-check the emailed copy of my final ballot to remember which way I voted in some categories, especially graphic story, which I really had a hard time deciding on.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

Just realized how FB-centric I've become in that I posted my response to your post from there, and it seems to be my trend.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I really have, too; I know I have some readers here that aren't on FB, so I post things here when I want to be sure both groups see it, especially if they're long -- any public post I make on LJ, I cross-post But I haven't really been caught up on reading LJ in months. Of course, I'm not exactly caught up on FB right now, either, but I spend a week out of town followed by a con, followed by being a lot busier at work, so...

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

It's not just us. For a while LJ was where the fans hung out, but now I have more fannish friends on FB than here. I've noticed that in the old days I'd load 150 f-list entries in LJ (3 pages) and sometimes it was just 1 day's activity, usually 2-3. These days it's usually a week's activity.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

FB is just easier for short / quick updates and for link-sharing.