Podcast of my story "Maps of the Bible"

Dunesteef Audio Fiction magazine has created a kick-A podcast of my story "Maps of the Bible." The story is a mashup of Southern experiences from my youth, including religion, family, ghost stories, friendship, and fire ants. Many thanks to Big and Rish for the great work, and for doing this while simultaneously dealing with the complete destruction of the hard drive at the heart of their podcast empire (which they discuss after the performance of my story). As someone with an older computer, I recoiled in horror at their descriptions of total computer failure.

Too bad you can't cash good karma

Want to be a writer? Then be prepared for jerks continually trying to take advantage of you. After all, to these jerks what you do isn't real work. So why should you profit off your labor?

To illustrate this point, here's a wonderful email email exchange between author Steve Almond and literary agent/writer Mark Reiter titled "The Payoff Will Be in Good Karma." Basically, Mark wants Steve to contribute to a book he's editing with Richard Sandomir called The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything.

When Steve asks how much contributors would be paid, Mark says, "Alas, there’s no money in it for contributors." But not to worry, the writing will only take Steve "three hours tops" and will be fun to do. Mark adds, "Now, the good news. Assuming that you don't do anything with your contribution too far before our March '07 pub date, you have all the rights to the material. There’s no reason you can't sell your bracket to the appropriate publication as a kind of first serial."

When Steve persists, directly asking "who IS getting paid, if not the contributors," Mark replies that "Richard Sandomir and I are sharing an advance of $50,000. That’s $25,000 each." But he insists this advance doesn't mean they can pay contributors. "We can't pay some people and not others, but if we did offer payment--less than $500 would be pointless--to everyone, the math says we’d be in the red. Royalties in excess of the advance (should they materialize) go to Richard and me. That’s the economics of this project." Marks then implies this book is essentially a charity case because "I collaborate once or twice a year on books with celebrated people where my minimum fee is $250k, so devoting six months to this project for $16k pretax is costing me plenty. I just like the idea of the book."

The best quote: When Mark says "the payoff (for contributors) will be in good karma." That causes Steve to go off, ranting "If asking contributors to write for free then collecting 50K is good karma, what's bad karma, Mark?"

I almost couldn't believe this exchange was real, but it appears to be true. I mean, you have a $50,000 advance but can't pay contributors? That's simply wrong. Yes, there are times when exposure for a writer is worth taking a lesser pay check, but this is absolutely not one of those cases. If Mark felt so strongly that this was a book worth doing because it was "fun," then he should have put his advance toward paying contributors.

Anyway, if you want to be a writer read this exchange. And remember there's nothing wrong in demanding to know what a publisher or editor will pay for your work. If someone doesn't answer that most simple of questions--or hems and haws in their response--remember it isn't good karma for writers to be shafted while someone else lands a big payday.

Free GUD subscription for Million Writers Award winner

I'm now compiling the list of notable stories for this year's storySouth Million WritersAward. Look for the release of the notable stories on April 1.

In addition, we now have a new prize for the award winners. Greatest Uncommon Denominator magazine has offered a year's subscription to the overall winner, and PDFs of the magazine to the runner-up and third place winners. That means the prizes break down as follows:

  • $400, plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate and a GUD Magazine subscription, for the first place winner;
  • $200 for the runner-up, plus PDFs of GUD magazine;
  • $50 for the honorable mention (third place), plus PDFs of GUD magazine.

Million Writers Award prize money

The preliminary judges have been sending me their picks for this year's list of storySouth Million WritersAward notable stories. I'm still waiting for a few final selections, but it looks like we're still set to announce the notable stories on April 1.

Thank to generous donations, we now have $650 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. This means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award breaks down as follows:

  • $400, plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate, for the first place winner
  • $200 for the runner-up
  • $50 for the honorable mention (third place)

Of course, if more donations come in we'll bump those prize amounts even higher.

Below are the donors who have pitched in for this year's prize money. Many, many thanks to them. Without their support we wouldn't be able to bring as much attention to deserving online stories.

$100 donations

$50 donations

$25 donations

Other donations

A magazine reading frenzy

For the last two weeks I've been reading nothing but magazines. Here's what's excited me of late on this front:

  • Interzone 227, which contains very good stories from Mercurio D. Rivera, Chris Beckett, and many more. My favorite is the sublime "Flying in the Face of God" by Nina Allan, about a harsh method of space travel and what it does to the people who dare embrace the stars. I'd be surprised if Allan's story isn't on the shortlists for the Year's Best anthologies and the major awards.

    As a side-note, this issue should soon be available in U.S. bookstores, so look for it. Interzone also recently accepted another science fiction story of mine (titled "Millisent Ka Plays in Realtime"). That means I have two stories forthcoming in the magazine.
     

  • I'd heard rumors that The Baffler, the great magazine of fun-to-read cultural and political criticism, had returned from the dead. Last weekend I discovered a copy in a local bookstore and am pleased to announce it is as good as ever. If their next issue is as good as the current one, I'll likely subscribe.
     
  • Issue 5 of Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine arrived in the mail and I'm having a great time reading it.  First off, the cover art is amazing, and to my shock I've enjoyed almost all of the poetry inside (especially the poems by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Lucy A. Snyder, and Alicia Adams). Since I'm very picky about the poetry I read, this is quite impressive. There's also a interesting essay on computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart. I'm still reading the fiction, but so far my favorite story is the science fiction "Getting Yourself On" by Andrew N. Tisbert. If you haven't read GUD before, this is a cutting edge literary journal well worth checking out.
     
  • Finally, the editor of the new online magazine NOTHE asked if I'd pass the word on their call for submissions. Consider it passed. The magazine plans to launch their first issue in May.

Two stories on the British Fantasy Award longlist

Two of my stories have made this year's British Fantasy Award longlist. They are:

  • "Sublimation Angels" (available as a PDF download) in the Best Novella category. "Sublimation Angels" was originally published in the Sept./Oct. 2009 issue of Interzone and is also a finalist for this year's Nebula Award for Best Novella.
     
  • "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows" in the Best Short Story category. This story was originally published in the Nov./Dec. 2009 issue of Interzone, and is scheduled to be reprinted shortly in Apex Magazine.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed reading these stories, and to those who nominated them for this award. British Fantasy Society and FantasyCon members can vote for their top three choices in each category by going to the online voting form. If any member needs a copy of these stories, simply drop me a line.

Do writers suck as readers? Prove me wrong.

The Polyphony anthology series, published by Wheatland Press, is asking for people to pre-order the seventh volume in their acclaimed cross-genre short fiction series. If they can land 225 pre-orders, then they'll bring out the new volume. If they don't, they'll refund the money and close the anthology series.

Even though Wheatland Press has been beating the drums about this since November, they have sold less than half the needed pre-orders to publish the anthology. And as Deborah Layne stated today, this is shocking because in "a typical submission period of 45 days we receive 650 submissions. During a last gasp desperation sales period of over three months, we received fewer than one fourth that many orders."

WTF? I mean, come on you author-type people. I have long heard that writers constantly submit to places they don't even bother to read, but this is ridiculous. If even a quarter of the authors who submitted to Polyphony pre-ordered a copy, they'd be set.

And don't give me that BS about writers shouldn't be the only ones to support a market. Of course not. But if writers don't read the markets they're writing for, why would you expect non-writers to bother? 

Even though I haven't submitted to Polyphony, I just pre-ordered a copy. Please do the same before this Friday on the Wheatland Press home page. Otherwise, don't whine when there's one less short story market looking to publish your precious little stories.

Shine anthology, Million Writers Award, other updates

Shine A few updates:

  • The most eagerly awaited anthology of 2010 has to be Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF, edited by Jetse de Vries. I've already pre-ordered a copy, and I suggest others do the same. As a sweetener, I have a very very short prose poem in the anthology--a piece of Twitter fiction I wrote last year for the Outshine Twitter magazine will help introduce Holly Phillips' story "Summer Ice." I'm thrilled to have a tiny part in the anthology, and can't wait to read the book.
     
  • The preliminary judges have started submitting their selections for the Million Writers Award notable stories of 2009. So far it looks like a great lineup, and I'm eager to read the stories. I will release the complete list of notable stories on April 1st--and April Fool's Day be damned!
     
  • One story beloved by the judges was "Quella, Querida, Quintessa" by Matt Bell, published in Guernica. Unfortunately, the story was published this year so can't be considered for the award, but I wanted to still mention it here.
     
  • Finally, Mark Watson gave a very nice review of my Interzone story "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows" on his Best SF website, while on IncWriters Andy Hedgecock mentions me alongside other great Interzone authors "who offer idiosyncratic revelation, in rich but elegant language and in a form that, however fragmented, however innovative, has what Graham Joyce has called the primal pulse of storytelling at its heart." Many thanks to both Mark and Andy for the kind words!

Winners of the great TOTU giveaway

Here are the winners in the great Tales of the Unanticipated giveaway. I asked people to explain why they were worthy of receiving a free copy of this great semi-prozine. I then picked the four best responses.

My favorite response was from Aaron:

I need a free copy because I just blew my discretionary magazine allowance on an Interzone subscription, which is entirely your fault because "Sublimation Angels" kicks ass . . . although that Eugie Foster "Sinner Baker Candlestick Maker" story kicked ass too, but don't try to change the subject . . . and also I like that they publish Jason Stoddard a lot, but I thought you and he were the same person for the longest time, so I'm blaming you for that, too.

That's right. Play on my guilt. But in this case it worked.

Shaun kept things short and sweet:

TOTU is my literary soulmate, destined to spend our leisure time together since the ancient Golden Age. Thus, I want a copy.

Who am I to deny someone a leisure-time merging with their literary soulmate?

John won a copy for this plea:

I'm an avid fan of Norm Sherman's Drabblecast - a podcast I'm thinking you're aware of, what with the links to it from your "Book Scouts of the Galactic Rim" on Dunesteef. From what I've just been looking into, there'll be stories in issue 30 of TOTU that will remind me of some of the work presented on Drabblecast!

In any case, a simple request seems in order. Just a simple one, now. So, to ask nicely for one rare duplicate: Please?

What pushed John's pleasant request into the winner's bracket was how he hid my name in the last two sentences as a riddle (and in full confession mode, he also thankfully told me about the riddle, otherwise I'd have missed it). Even if he misspelled my name, that brought a smile to my face.

Last but not least, William confessed that deep, dark gardening secret all genre fans have contemplated:

I'm TOTU worthy because I once kept a secret garden in which I planted discarded computer circuits, hoping robots would grow from them.

Congrats to all the winners. And don't forget, you can order copies of Tales of the Unanticipated issue 30--which contains my "Twenty-First Century Fairy Love Story"--directly from TOTU Ink.

I promised myself I wouldn't rant, but then...

I promised myself I'd cut back on my outrage at humanity. After all, it's so easy to get outraged these days. In fact, everyone's doing it. Outrage seems to be the de facto normal state for people in today's world.

So I promised myself I'd let all that go. Simply focus on my fiction writing. Finish running this year's Million Writers Award.

But then I read Norman Spinrad's latest On Books column "Third World Worlds" in the April/May 2010 Asimov's. So many statements in this review made me want to throw the magazine across the room that, in the end, for my own sanity I had to rant.

For example, Spinrad says, "With the exception of the Japanese, I at least, am at a loss to point to any science fiction that I know of that has evolved independently in non-European languages or cultures disconnected there from."

Right off my head I can name a few: Juntree Siriboonrod, the "father of Thai science fiction." Or how about Rimi B. Chatterjee of India, or perhaps more well known in SF circles in the United States, Vandana Singh. Or, good grief, what about science fiction in China, where the most widely read SF magazine on the planet--Science Fiction World--is published.

Perhaps Spinrad would discount all this by saying these SF authors, and the cultures which produced them, didn't evolve independently. But in today's world, what culture is truly independent of each other?

Still, I might have avoided this rant if that was the only statement I screamed at. But there was more. For you see, Spinrad refers to Mike Resnick as follows:

So, for now at least, and in the apparent absence of a significant body of science fiction written by born and bred Africans, this Caucasian American is probably the closest thing there is or has been to an African science fiction writer, with the exception of Octavia Butler. Who did write the same sort of thing, and did it well, and was Black to boot, but I use that politically incorrect word rather than “African American” because aside from her genetic heritage she was no more African than Mike Resnick.

Now I like Mike Resnick as a person and love his writings (especially Santiago, one of my favorite SF novels). Resnick isn't responsible for what Spinrad wrote, and would probably laugh at that comment. But seriously. Is Spinrad saying Resnick is the closest there's ever been to an African SF writer. Excepting Octavia Butler, who Spinrad then dismisses as not "African" enough? But Resnick is?

Must. Control. My. Need. To. Scream. And. Rant!

Err, what about writers like Nnedi Okorafor? Doesn't she count? In fact, by a funny coincidence Okorafor recently wrote a fascinating essay titled "Is Africa Ready for Science Fiction?" where she gives some examples of African SF. All of this information could have been found with a simple Google search.

To Spinrad's credit, he admits he is ignorant of much of the world's literature, being limited to what is translated into English. And he is also specifically talking about science fiction, not the larger speculative fiction traditions which include fantasy and magic realism. But come on! The SF community had been talking about world science fiction for the last year, especially in light of Lavie Tidhar's excellent anthology The Apex Book of World SF (which, again, focuses on more than only science fiction) and Tidhar's related blog.

I don't have the patience tonight to dissect all that is wrong with Spinrad's column. Because I swear if I don't get off the computer right now it will be weeks before I can stop ranting.

Casting the SFWA election ballot

My ballot for the 2010 SFWA election arrived today and I have cast my vote for the following:

I really like the changes SFWA has instituted in the last two years, which are helping return the organization to its former glory. I'm confident if these candidates win they will continue the hard work needed to finish revitalizing the SFWA. 'Nuff said.

The great TOTU giveaway

TOTU30I've received my contributor and subscription copies of Tales of the Unanticipated issue 30 and, in the interest of bringing attention to this long-running semipro magazine, I'm giving away four copies.

Inside is my "Twenty-First Century Fairy Love Story," which is a story I loved writing. There are also a number of great stories by other authors. Among my favorites are "If You Enjoyed This Story..." by Sarah Totten and Matthew S. Rotundo's "Ashes, Ashes." In addition, I absolutely loved "Personal Jesus" by Martha A. Hood, and believe it should be considered for the year's best lists.

If you'd like a free copy of issue 30, email or DM me on Twitter; be sure to explain why you are TOTU worthy. :-) I'll pick the four best responses I receive by next Wednesday and give each a copy. Please note I'm only able to ship these issues to addresses in the US, Canada, and Mexico. My apologies for international readers, but TOTU is a hefty magazine/anthology and what little money I have is being squeezed tight.

Writers should also be aware TOTU will open to submission from March 15 to 30. Be sure to read their complete guidelines. And whether or not you receive a free issue, consider purchasing a subscription and helping support this great semiprozine.

Why the new Nebula Award rules ... rule

In both my comments as part of the new Mind Meld at SF Signal, and my editorial in the new edition of StarShipSofa, I praise the revised Nebula Award rules. I believe the new rules helped create one of the best Nebula final ballots in years. Obviously this is a somewhat delicate position to take since I'm finalist. But I'd be saying this even if I wasn't because so many of the authors and works I've praised for the last year are on the final ballot.

However, not everyone agrees with this view. In the comment section of that Mind Meld, Steve Berman says the following:

I think Mr. Sanford is a bit deluded if he thinks there's no logrolling happening with the new rules--which I think are a vast disappointment. How many members voted early and then saw that, by Feb. their nominations had no choice to make the top 6? A lot. How many of these people then made changes, which could be done to the very last moment!?

As for logrolling, it's actually easier. See an author you like that needs votes to reach the top? Switch your vote or send out advocacy emails. See an author you dislike near the top? Switch your vote to block them. If Mr. Sanford thinks this isn't being done he's mistaken.

The Nebulas have, as Sandra McDonald put it, "become American Idol-ized."

I totally disagree with this. The traditional definition of logrolling is the "trading of favors or quid pro quo." The old Nebula rules encouraged this by making it easy to both nominate friends and supporters for the preliminary ballot (by letting members nominate so many stories) and to verify that these people were returning the favor, since all nominations were public.

Under the new Nebula nomination rules, this ability to pimp unto each another is limited because members are limited to 5 nominations in each category (meaning fewer spots to waste on pimping), and nominations are now private. This last point is extremely important, and is why most democracies have the secret ballot--when no one can see who you vote for, you're more likely to vote for the best person instead of your best friend.

Now is it possible some SFWA members agreed to vote for each other's works? Yes. In fact, this likely happened. But the difference this time is that thanks to the changes mentioned above, such practices were far less likely to affect the final outcome. In addition, another change undercut the ability to logroll. Under the old rules, if you could convince 10 of your friends to vote for your story, you made the final preliminary ballot (from which the final ballot was then voted on--see the comment from Geoffrey Landis below for more details). This time, the top six vote getters in each category were finalists. None of this year's finalists made it onto the ballot with only 10 votes; in fact, all were far above that mark. There is a limit to how far logrolling can carry you, and with the Nebulas the bar has been raised far above even the highest rolling log.

I also disagree with Steve labeling the changing of one's vote as logrolling. Yes, a number of members changed their votes as the process unfolded. But that's democracy. If a story you like wasn't doing well in the voting, but another story you liked just as well was close to making the ballot, why not switch your vote? There's also nothing wrong with asking someone to consider a story or novel for the Nebula. If someone asks me to read their story, I'll likely do it, and if it's a great one I'll even thank them for bring it to my attention. But this is a far cry from people telling me that they'll vote for my story if I vote for theirs, and that if I don't they'll verify this nasty slight and enact a hideous revenge on me at some point (okay, maybe this last part was more implied than stated under the old rules :-).

To me, there are two easy ways to analyze the outcomes of the old and new Nebula rules, and see why the new rules, well, rule. First, participation and nominations appear to be up. The other proof of the new rules' success is that so many of the authors now making the Nebula final ballot for the first time have previously been finalists for, or have won, the Hugo, World Fantasy, and other major awards. I have trouble believing these authors are only now worthy of being a Nebula finalist. Instead, the more obvious explanation is that the old rules did not work as well as they could.

Anyway, I'm thrilled with the new Nebula Award process, and commend everyone at SFWA for setting up and running this year's awards. And if you're an active member of SFWA, don't forget that voting for the overall winners is now open through March 30th on the SFWA website.

And yes, if you want to change your vote at any time during the voting process, you're still allowed to do so.

A few updates, and an apology

At midnight this year's storySouth Million WritersAward closed to reader and editor nominations. I'm still sorting everything out, but it looks like we experienced the most nominations ever. Look for an update on all this in a day or two. The next step is for the preliminary judges to report back to me with their selections for the notable stories of the year, which will be released by April 1st.

In other news, I recorded an editorial discussing the recent Nebula Award finalists and also supporting StarShipSofa for a Best Fanzine Hugo. Unfortunately, I messed up a few facts, so I apologize to everyone for that, and especially to Cheryl Morgan and John Klima. I've now recorded a corrected editorial, which you can listen to here. The editorial will also be released on Wednesday as part of StarShipSofa's new podcast. Thanks to Tony and all of the Sofa's listeners for putting up with my irritatingly mistaken ways on this.

Finally, I received my contributor's copies of Tales of the Unanticipated issue 30. While I'm still reading the issue, it looks to be a strong one. So far Martha Hood's story "Personal Jesus" (based on the Johnny Cash cover of that famous song) and Matthew S. Rotundo's "Ashes, Ashes" are my favorites. Consider ordering your issue ASAP.

Final days to nominate stories for the Million Writers Award

There are only a few days left to nominate stories for the storySouth Million WritersAward. We currently have more than 65 sets of nominations from editors of online magazines, and almost too many reader nominations to count. Remember, the deadline to make a nomination is February 28. Go here for reader nominations and here for editor nominations.

Thank to generous donations, we now have over $600 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. This means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award will break down as follows:

  • $400 plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate for the first place winner
  • $150 for the runner-up
  • $50 for the honorable mention (third place)

Of course, if more donations come in we'll bump those prize amounts even higher.

A few writing updates (including success with foreign reprint markets)

I haven't posted about my writing progress for a few weeks. I'm still tracking my writing, but figured it wasn't worth bugging people about. I'm basically spending 8-10 hours a week writing and revising short stories. I'm still trying to transition to my novel, but I still need to finish a few more stories.

The big thing recently was the Nebula nomination, but other exciting news includes:

Obviously the last two weeks have been great for reprints. Author Mike Resnick often says that he makes a significant portion of his income on reprint sales to foreign markets. I see what he means.

For foreign markets to submit to, check out Douglas Smith's Foreign Market List.

Serving some generational change with that Nebula Awards ballot

Yesterday the finalists for the Nebula Award were announced, and I'm really excited about the line-up. Yes, part of my excitement is because my novella "Sublimation Angels" made the final ballot. Nothing I can do to change this very personal need to jump up and down in happiness. So if you believe this makes me too biased to ruminate on the other Nebula finalists, I suggest you find something else to read.

Anyway, here's why I'm excited about the other names on the ballot: This Nebula ballot represents a sea change in speculative fiction, a change in terms of recognizing the next generation of speculative fiction writers. This doesn't mean all these writers are young things--their ages vary a good bit--and this doesn't mean the more established writers on the list aren't also worthy of inclusion. For example, I couldn't be more thrilled that Richard Bowes' great novelette "I Needs Must Part, The Policeman Said" is a Nebula finalist.

That said, here are the authors (besides myself) for whom this is their first time being a Nebula finalist:

In addition, a few authors on the ballot have been nominated before without winning, but still strike me as notable additions. These include Paolo Bacigalupi, Kij Johnson, and China Miéville.

I'm not going pretend all these writers are at the same point in their literary careers. Some, like Scalzi, Miéville, and VanderMeer, are established best-selling authors. Others, like Ahmed and Jemisin, are brand new authors (with Ahmed only publishing his first stories last year). And they all write a vast array of stories across different styles and genres.

But the reason I'm excited to see them on this ballot is they represent the writers who are bringing new passion and readers to the speculative fiction genres. They are literally the genre's future.

Unfortunately, some in the speculative fiction establishment have been slow in recognizing these exciting new voices. For example, Eugie Foster's nominated story "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast," which remains one of my favorite stories of 2009, was overlooked by all of the Year's Best anthologies and the Locus Recommended Reading List (although there are still many great stories on both the list and in the anthologies). But the fact that so many people have praised the story, and that it is also a finalist for the BSFA Award, shows that despite being overlooked it is still finding its audience.

Another work I'm excited to see on the ballot is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Named one of the best books of the year by everyone from Time Magazine to Publisher's Weekly, this is another case where the speculative fiction establishment has partially overlooking a groundbreaking piece of fiction. While The Windup Girl has received many glowing reviews, I was shocked when the Locus Recommended Reading List only named Paolo's book to their "First Novels" listing. This is the best science fiction novel of the year. Period. But somehow many of the critics who select for that list felt it was only worthy of a "first novel" nod. (Note: See "Update 2" below.)

Now I'm not stupid. I realize there isn't some monolithic SF establishment holding new writers down. In addition, many of the more established members of the SF community have worked long and hard to promote the writers listed above. No, this isn't an frakking conspiracy. Instead, the SF community is like all cultures and has difficulty quickly recognizing the accomplishments of the next generation. But such recognition does eventually come, and as proof of this I present this year's Nebula Awards final ballot.

And that is why I'm so excited--because the writers I love and read are being recognized by their community. I hope this recognition helps them to thrive and grow, and create even greater stories for us to enjoy.
 

Update: 

A SFWA member emailed and said the ballot's many first-time nominees results more from the new Nebula nomination and voting process than mere generational change. Basically, the old system was subject to "logrolling" because SFWA members had to publicly state who they were nominating. When combined with members being able to nominate so many stories--I believe it was up to 10 in each category--the result was people nominating each other. In short, a daisy chain of "You pimp my story, I pimp yours."

Under the new Nebula nomination rules, this ability to pimp unto each another was limited because nominations were private (meaning no verification that one had indeed been pimped) and members were limited to 5 nominations in each category (meaning fewer spots to waste on pimping). The result was a final ballot filled with stories SFWA members actually liked.

I agree with this assessment. Many of the writers who are first-time nominees for this year's Nebula have been multiple-time nominees for the Hugo Awards. So it's likely had these new rules been in place earlier, we'd have seen many of these writers already being named Nebula finalists.

Still, no matter how this ballot came about, it remains an overdue generational shift--and one I'm excited to witness.

Update 2:

I guess this post exposed my ignorance on multiple levels. As was kindly pointed out to me, first novels are traditionally placed on the "first novels" category of the Locus Recommended Reading List. While I could quibble about this, if such is the practice then such is what gets done. I also don't mean to suggest that anyone not loving both Paolo's novel and Eugie's story like I do is a fool. Obviously we all love different types of stories and novels, and what works for one person won't always work for another.

My novella "Sublimation Angels" is a finalist for the Nebula Award!

That headline says it all. But in case you want more details, here they are:

  • "Sublimation Angels" is one of six finalists for the Nebula Award for Best Novella.
     
  • The novella was originally published in the Sept./Oct. 2009 issue of the British magazine Interzone, and is eligible for the Nebulas due to also being published in their electronic e-book edition.
     
  • To read the novella, you can download a PDF copy from my website. You can also download the novella as an RTF file, which is perfect for e-book readers and Kindles. However, please note that due to size limitations the RTF file lacks the art created by Paul Drummond.
     
  • To see all the Nebula finalists, please jump over to the SFWA's offical release.

I'll have more to say about the other Nebula finalists in the next day or so (although I agree with John Scalzi that this is one of the best Nebula ballots in years, and proof that the new nomination system works). Until then, I want to share why being a finalist means so much to me.

As I child, my entry into science fiction was through my grandfather, who read and collected SF magazines and books. The small office in his home was covered in homemade bookshelves, each lined with enough science fiction to excite any young kid. One of my best childhood memories is sitting in his office during a hot Alabama summer and reading Fritz Leiber's classic story "A Pail of Air." I read the story in one of my grandfather's worn magazines, and the idea of the main character surviving on a frozen earth resonated with me, especially since I'd only seen a dusting of snow once or twice in my life.

When I recently reread Leiber's "A Pail of Air," all those memories came spilling back. So with "Sublimation Angels" I decided to create my own frozen world where people struggle to survive and understand life.

My grandfather died when I was 14, well before he could read any of my SF stories. Still, I think he would have enjoyed reading my novella and seeing it become a Nebula finalist. After all, his bookshelves were full of Nebula anthologies and award-winning stories, each of which he read countless times.

Before I forget--and I hope this doesn't sound like one of those stupid Oscar thank you speeches--I want to thank Andy Cox and the Interzone editors for publishing the novella, everyone who read the novella, everyone who nominated it for the final ballot, and the many people like Rachel Swirsky, Colin Harvey, Gareth D Jones, Sam Tomaino, and John DeNardo who gave the novella glowing public reviews and praise. There are also many others who have supported me and my writing, and it's impossible to thank them all. But thank you anyway.

Crap. Sounds like I fell straight into the cliched land of Oscar thank you speeches. But my words are still sincerely meant.

Million Writers Award update

I've behind on storySouth Million WritersAward updates, so here we go:

  • A ton of reader and editor nominations are coming in. So far, editors at 56 online magazines have nominated their favorite stories for the award. The deadline to make a nomination is February 28. If you want to make a nomination or see what others have nominated, check out the reader nominations here and the editor nominations here.
     
  • Thank to generous donations, we now have over $500 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. I'm behind on creating the page listing the donors, but I plan to have that up soon. At the moment, this means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award will break down as $350 plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate for the first place winner, and $150 for the runner-up.

In addition to these updates, I also wanted to draw attention to some of the stories which are catching the eyes of our preliminary judges. This doesn't mean the judges will select these as notable stories of the years. But these are stories some judges have mentioned in excited tones, so take that as you will.

The judge who mentioned those two stories to me said both "take topics that have been covered a million times before and do something really fresh and surprising with them. While I'm at it, I was impressed by the overall quality of stories from both these publications."

The judge who mentioned this tale said "I loved this story! Great writing, fun characters, and very imaginative. I wouldn't mind seeing this one get lots of attention."