paulmelko

I'm dilly-dallying in my hotel room for the moment, waiting to take a taxi to the airport through a Spring thunderstorm in Austin Texas. The hotel has a flat metal roof that tops the 20 story high atrium. The rain beating is a constant roar, and the thunder is a random counterpoint. Amazing. Laura and Bill are off to Chicago, and I hope the rain doesn't delay them.

It was a well-run Nebulas. Everything went smoothly, except for the missing projector and screen for my presentation. Everything that I was associated with at least. My presentation of GriefCom went well. It was attended by two dozen people, a good turn-out for 10am. Several people came up to me afterwards telling me that it had been very useful. And I got a volunteer to man an open spot on the committee. :)

Afterwards the new board met with the old president. By now everyone knows that Russell Davis is the new president. He has a bold initiative he wants complete by WorldCon. The new board will support him as much as we can! Aggressive but necessary.

Then was the SFWA business meeting, not too exciting, except when we debated the merits of membership for graphic novelists. I don't think anyone in the room had much knowledge of what graphic novelists did, what problems they faced, or even if they wanted to be members of SFWA. Didn't stop us arguing however.

I hung out in the bar afterwards until the Nebula Awards ceremony. I saw too many people to list them all. :)

The awards ceremony was well-run. Joe Lansdale is a funny man. I did my part with Nancy Jane Moore, reading the novelette nominees and winner. Afterwards I shook Chabon's hand and made sure Bill did too, the big sissy.

Well, the rain has slowed, so hopefully we'll get out of here on time. I have too much to do to be delayed. :)

Today is a day off from work to prepare for my trip to Austin for the Nebulas. I haven't had a day off to catch up in a while. With four kids, an MBA program, book promotion, book edits, and book writing, things just pile up. But today, I'm trying to get everything done. Or if not done, then out of my sight.

So, what am I up to at the Nebulas, you ask. Well, let me tell you. First, I am co-presenting the Novelette Award. This is apparently consolation for losing the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards last year. :) On Saturday at 10am, I am presenting on the workings on the Grievance Committee. I enjoyed putting this presentation together, and I think people will get a lot out of it. Friday night I'll be at the mass signing at the Omni. I will be signing any book you put in front of me. I will also sign body parts.

I'll also be hanging with friends and colleagues. I hope to see you there.

Paul

Here is a link to the preliminary, preliminary Nebula Ballot. The Jury may add some additional items to each category.

Lots of good stuff, and all the categories seem pretty full.

For those of you in SFWA, note that December 31st is the last day to get your recommendations in for next year's ballot. We already have 9 novels, 2 novellas, 6 novelettes, 4 short stories, 4 scripts, and 3 Nortons qualifying. I think we could use a few more entries on the prelim ballot, don't you? Quite a few works are near to qualifying. What else are you doing this next week? Read some good fiction. Go on! I'll wait here.

Nope! I didn't win a Nebula. It went to James Patrick Kelly, his very first after 9 losses. In fact he was sitting at the table with Jack McDevitt and together they were 0-21. I'm happy for both of them. As I've said from the beginning, I'm happy just to be nominated (but I better not go 0-9!)

In other awards news, I won the Asimov's Readers Award for best novella! Yes! Other winners were my Blue Heaven pals Paulo and Tim. The Awards were handed out at the annual Awards Banquet, which was brunch at the Nebula hotel restaurant, Roy's. Pretty Yummy, though someone stole Connie Willis' bagel.

Election results were announced. Despite a strong write-in surge from Angelina Jolie, I won the Southern-Central Director position. An olive branch has been extended to Ms. Jolie's camp; no response. Congratulations and condolences have been coming in in equal measures.

I saw and met lots of people, more than I can write about here. A good time was had by all, but it would have been better if my wife had come along with me. Definitely next year. It's good to be home again!

Two podcasts of interest for those with an interest in me. ;) First, Steven Gould (of Jumper fame) interviewed me for the Viable Paradise podcasts. You can find that one here.

Also available is the first half of my novella "The Walls of the Universe," read for the local public radio podcast Beam Me Up. It's a weekly radio broadcast on Rockland, Maine's WRFR. The podcast can be found right here. My story starts at around the 19:30 timemark. The second half should be up next week.

SF Signal has reviewed the nominees here. "The Walls of the Universe" got a positive review, as did everything else in the Novella category.

The final nebula ballot is out. As expected, the four novellas on the preliminary ballot made it to the final. And no jury pick was added, so it's me, Shunn, Kelly, and Burstein duking it out for the prize. I'm looking forward to my NYC trip; much fun will be had by all. Only one question remains: should I wear a tuxedo to the banquet?

In other SFWA news, no other candidate stepped forward for the South Central Regional Director position I'm running for. In fact none of the positions are contested at this point. I guess I get to be a SFWA director. ;)

The fine folks at Asimov's have posted the text of "The Walls of the Universe" at their site. Go read, if you'd like.

Also on-line is Bill Shunn's fabulous "Inclination" and Daryl Gregory's similarly fabulous "Second Person, Present Tense".

Look at that. Three good stories for free.

It's official! I've made the Preliminary Nebula Ballot. Unofficially, I've made the Final Nebula Ballot as well, since there's only us four in the novella category.

Woo!

"Walls of the Universe," my novella from the April/May Asimov's issue of this year, has made it onto the Nebula preliminary ballot! Woo!

For those who don't know, the Nebula is one of the premier awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy. It's voted on by the membership of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The process is such that there is a preliminary ballot -- announced at the end of the year -- of many works, which is then voted down to 5 works in each category. These 5 works are voted on by the membership and the winner gets the slab of lucite called the Nebula.

In the novella category, there are only 3 works currently on the list. If we voted on the final ballot right now, "Walls" would make it on. However, recommendations remain open until the end of the year. There are 2 other works that are very near the qualifying level, and I expect these 2 will make it. Both are by well known and highly regarded authors. Still that's only 5, so unless a dark horse comes out of nowhere during the last two months, it looks like "Walls" will probably make it onto the final ballot.

But we'll see. It's good just to make the preliminary ballot. Thanks to all who read and recommended the story.

For any SFWAns out there, I've posted the list of works with expiring eligibility for the Nebulas this month at this location. This should be for SFWAns only, I'm afraid. Recommend early and often.

FYI, works are eligible for the Nebulas for twelve months after their official date of publication. All the works on the list above are about to pass twelve months, and some are pretty close to qualifying for the preliminary Nebula ballot. A couple more recommendations are all they need.