Best Novel

(699 Ballots)

* Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
* The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
* Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
* Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
* Wake, Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
* The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Both Boneshaker and Palimpsest are in my to-read pile and I can’t wait to get my hands on The Windup Girl.

Best Novella

(375 Ballots)

* “Act One”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
* The God Engines, John Scalzi (Subterranean)
* “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless)
* Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow (Tachyon)
* “Vishnu at the Cat Circus”, Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
* The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette

(402 Ballots)

* “Eros, Philia, Agape”, Rachel Swirsky (

Tor.com 3/09)
* The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
* “It Takes Two”, Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
* “One of Our Bastards is Missing”, Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
* “Overtime”, Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
* “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”, Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

Best Short Story (432 Ballots)

* “The Bride of Frankenstein”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
* “Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
* “The Moment”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints)
* “Non-Zero Probabilities”, N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
* “Spar”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

This is the category I love the most. As always, I will be rooting for Kij to win but Jim Gunn alumni Lawrence Schoen will also be cheered for.

Best Related Book

(259 Ballots)

* Canary Fever: Reviews, John Clute (Beccon)
* Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees, Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
* The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children’s and Teens’ Science Fiction, Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
* On Joanna Russ, Farah Mendlesohn (ed.) (Wesleyan)
* The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms, Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
* This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)

Best Graphic Story

(221 Ballots)

* Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
* Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
* Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
* Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
* Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

Batman vs. Girl Genius. I’d have a hard time picking which to vote for. I’ve enjoyed Fables but I’m several volumes behind.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

(541 Ballots)

* Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
* District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
* Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
* Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
* Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

Can you believe I haven’t seen a single one of these? I know, bad fen. The past couple years haven’t included much of an entertainment budget.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

(282 Ballots)

* Doctor Who: “The Next Doctor” Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
* Doctor Who: “Planet of the Dead” Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
* Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars” Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
* Dollhouse: “Epitaph 1″ Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
* FlashForward: “No More Good Days” Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

Epitaph 1, hands down. This was the Dollhouse episode that took everyone straddling the fence and sent the reeling into the fanboy camp.

Best Editor, Long Form

(289 Ballots)

* Lou Anders
* Ginjer Buchanan
* Liz Gorinsky
* Patrick Nielsen Hayden
* Juliet Ulman

Best Editor, Short Form

(419 Ballots)

* Ellen Datlow
* Stanley Schmidt
* Jonathan Strahan
* Gordon Van Gelder
* Sheila Williams

This is an extraordinarily difficult category to choose just one person from; all are awesome editors. I’m also disappointed John Joseph Adams didn’t make the list. I’ll be interested to see how the votes stacked up.

Best Professional Artist

(327 Ballots)

* Bob Eggleton
* Stephan Martiniere
* John Picacio
* Daniel Dos Santos
* Shaun Tan

Best Semiprozine

(377 Ballots)

* Ansible edited by David Langford
* Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
* Interzone edited by Andy Cox
* Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
* Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fan Writer

(319 Ballots)

* Claire Brialey
* Christopher J Garcia
* James Nicoll
* Lloyd Penney
* Frederik Pohl

Go Fred! First Fan Writer nomination at 90, and damn well deserved.

Best Fanzine

(298 Ballots)

* Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
* Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
* CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
* Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
* File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
* StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Artist

(199 Ballots)

* Brad W. Foster
* Dave Howell
* Sue Mason
* Steve Stiles
* Taral Wayne

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

(356 Ballots)

* Saladin Ahmed
* Gail Carriger
* Felix Gilman *
* Seanan McGuire
* Lezli Robyn *

*(Second year of eligibility)

All in all a positively awesome Hugo line up. Congratulations to all of the nominees and consolations to those that missed the cut off.

So better late than never, I’m happy to announce that I’ve applied to Clarion and Clarion West. These are kind of a big deal as far as writing workshops go. They receive hundreds of applicants every year and only a handful are accepted. The odds are not in my favor but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Even if I do get accepted, there are a lot of obstacles standing in my way. There’s the house for sale in Illinois and a few lingering divorce debts that must be paid before anything else. I’m working hard at that and things are moving in the right direction. Then there’s taking six weeks off of work. I think I can pull that off, but it means I’m going to be pulling a lot of long hours in the months beforehand to make up for it. A worthy sacrifice, if I get the call.

I only have one hard deadline coming up in March. The next quarter of Writers of the Future closes at the end of the month and I plan to have a third consecutive story ready for them. Aside from that I’ll be doing lots and lots of editing. I’m calling a moratorium on new stories until I get some of these drafts revised and into a submission-worthy state.

Good luck shout outs to my tribe mates, Christie and John, who also applied to Clarion. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all of us.

I’m putting the grind wheel and polish to my as yet untitled story for the Scheherazade’s Facade anthology, due February 28th.  It’s shaping up into something that makes me happy. I pushed myself when writing this and for that reason I’m also considering using it as my second Clarion story.

I’ll be getting back to schedule after these deadlines have passed. I’m behind on updating my goals and schedule but the progress I’ve made, despite being knocked on my ass for a few weeks, is satisfying.

I’m still struggling with revisions. I got critiques back on two of my stories this week. The crits were brutally honest, the way I like them, and resonated with things I’d been trying to figure out myself. One thing I’m uncovering is that I don’t read critically enough. Having a third party point out an issue is great. I don’t always agree, but I usually see their point of view. It’s not easy but I’m trying to be honest with myself about the stories I’ve written.

The story I’ve been trying to edit? Broken. Not hopelessly so, but it’s going to require enough work to fix, and my voice has changed enough since I originally wrote it, that a rewrite is in order. Off to the salt mines it goes, until I decide it’s ready to play nice again. I’m accepting that there are practice stories. I don’t remember where I saw the term mentioned recently, but it stuck with me. These are the stories written that were useful to move from one phase to the next but are critically damaged as-is. You can either spend the time to rewrite and fix them, or stick them in the trunk and move on. The option to revisit is always there later.

Part of this process is re-evaluating my goals on a regular basis. If something doesn’t work, change it. I’m going to give myself a break from stressing over revisions this week, instead focusing on finishing the new story I’m working on and the essay that I want to write. February is going to focus more on revision. Fixing what’s broken, instead of putting a pretty coat of paint on a broken plot or weak characters.

I’m still struggling with revisions. I failed my weekly goals this week, getting almost no editing done nor my outline for the Dollhouse essay. The essay contest’s deadline has been extended by two weeks, so I’ve adjusted my goals to reflect that. What I think I need to do is set more specific revision goals. A page a day, maybe. I do well when I’m working against a deadline but I have way too many stories sitting neglected that don’t have a hard stop against them. I’m never going to get more submissions out the door if I don’t start revising on a regular basis.

“Out of the thousands of stories that get submitted to the contest, a small percentage make it this far,” Wentworth continued. “Past Honorable Mention stories have gone on to see publication elsewhere. That is how competitive this contest is. The contest quality of submissions is the best of the best.”

I am pretty pleased to see my name on the list of Honorable Mentions. It certainly shook me out of my funk. I’m one for one so far, so We’ll see if I can keep up the streak with my Q1 submission. Now to see if I can find a good home for the Q4 story.

As an aside, is there any benefit to adding “received Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future Q4 2009″ to a stories cover letter? My guess is no, since a shiny rejection is still a rejection and not relevant to the new market.

I have a theme (thank you, upcoming anthology). I have the kernel of a plot and main character. Tonight, I write without  my safety net. I’m curious to see what this change in process produces. With luck, I’ll end the night with a coherent idea of where this is going.

I set three goals for the week:

• Write at least 250 words every day
• Decide on topic for Dollhouse essay
• Reread The Descent of Iron Hammer and make editorial notes

I ended up averaging 507 words/day, hitting 3,555 words on the redraft of Recycled Dreams. If my pace continues it will be ready to rest in a deep, dark desk drawer by the end of the weekend. I picked the topic of my Dollhouse essay but it’s a closely guarded secret for now. Then there was The Descent of Iron Hammer, my mash-up of Dwarves, airships, and steampunk, but with lightning instead of steam. I had some nice editorial comments from it from the PARSEC contest lo those two years ago. I read through it again tonight. Wanting to set the manuscript on fire and dance naked in the snow as its ashes scattered is probably a good sign that I’ve made some improvement since I wrote it. Broken, but fixable.

In other writing news, I have my application stories (Clarion, Viable Paradise) out to a couple readers. Once those comments come back I’ll make another pass of edits and then out into the pool of hopeful writers they go. Two submissions out, both to Writers of the Future. Results for 2009 Q4 are trickling in so I should hear back soon (I will be trudging off to the post office tomorrow to check the mail). I have a third story that I really should send back out but I haven’t worked up the nerve to send it back out. It’s had good rejections, bad rejections, and a rewrite request. I’m torn on what to do next.

Say you have a story that you think is good, but doesn’t really reflect the quality of your writing today. In other words, your internal editor says, Hey, we can do much better if we rewrite this, only you’ve already rewritten it a couple times and you’d rather be working on newer things. Do you keep sending it out, lowering your sights until it finally finds a home or do you end up trunking it, convinced better to never see the light of day than get a credit that you’re afraid to list on your cover letter?

Jeff VanderMeer’s Seven Points to Consider When Submitting Short Fiction would argue that even that non-paying market that’s more accepting is a good post to the uncertain ego of a newer writer. I see the validity of that, but maybe I haven’t exhausted my list of preferred markets yet and even if they reject them, maybe there’ll be a tiny bit of feedback that’ll resonate. Things for me to consider.

It’s really too early to tell how things are going to work out long-term but so far I feel good. Not overwhelmed by keeping my spreadsheets updated or gut checking my short-term goals. I’m right where I want to be. I hope I can say the same thing a week and a month from now.

I’m writing a little bit every day. I’ve surpassed my 250 words/day goal. It may not seem like many but that’s a novel-worth of words a year. I write longhand — my moleskin and fountain pen are never far from my side. Usually I’m a slow writer, bogged down by my internal editor. Not so much lately. The words are coming out fairly smoothly.

Travel

Today, there was some conversation on twitter about air travel that caught my eye. I’ve done a fair amount of travel for the day job over the years and know the pains of (in)security checkpoints, TSA ineptitude and airport delays. I really wish the train were a viable option for business travel, but 5 hours of flying, plus a day on either side to catch up on sleep, beats the 3-4 days the train would take. Still, I think it’s something Andrea and I will do when we can afford to take a vacation in a couple of years. A trip through the Canadian Rockies, then down the west coast to visit Seattle, Portland and parts of California sounds about right.

Reading

I’m probably a quarter of the way through Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch. It’s weird. It’s noir. It’s awesome. I’ve read some of his short fiction and enjoyed it. Obviously, I’ve read Booklife and City of Saints and Madmen is sitting on my side table. This is apparently my winter of VanderMeer. I’ve fallen behind on reading in the last few years. Coming back to it feels a bit like rediscovering and old friend moved in next door.