The Sword and Laser discussion

It's nominating time.

Go ahead and make suggestions here.

For me:

Best Graphic Story: Afterlife With Archie #6: The Nether-Realm (AKA: Sabrina meets Cthulhu)

Dramatic Presentation Longform: Patema Inverted

For Me

Best Novels The Martian by Andy Weir and Soda Pop Soldier: A Novel by Nick Cole

Best Novelette Cold War by Adam Christopher

Graphic story Would be Seconds: A Graphic Novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley and Serenity: Leaves on the Wind by Zack Whedon

Dramatic Presentaion Long form, "Guardians of the Galaxy", "Cap America Winter Soldier", Joss Whedons "In your Eyes". Then Maybe X-Men and Big Hero 6.

D>P> Short Form Im very Torn...
Agents of Shield "Turn,Turn,Turn"
Walking Dead either "still" or "the Grove"
Game of Thrones "The Laws of Men"
Arrow...TBD too many good ones last year Way too many...any suggestions?

Not to start to much of a sidetrack, but I don't believe The Martian is eligible since the e-book version was first published in 2012, and the first audio book was published in 2013. If someone knows differently, please correct me. By the way , if it was eligible, I would probably vote for it as well.

I did not become a member last year, because of reasons, but I do intend to become one again this year. So, I'll have to give the overall subject more thought.

Best Novel: Erh, I haven't read very many published in 2014, though I have a dozen or so of the most hyped on my tbr shelve. For now: Ancillary Sword

Graphic Story, of which I have read a fair amount for a change, a toss up between: The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act and Strong Female Protagonist Book One

Dramatic presentation Long Form: After giving it some thought, I'm going to jump on Jim C. Hines campaign to get Legend of Korra: Season 4 nominated.

Don't forget Sword and Laser for fancast! It was almost nominated last year. WE CAN DO THIS.

Oh snap, I just busted out the WSFS constitution. It doesn't appear complicated at all, it's just a matter of whether Tom or Veronica made 1/4 of their income last year on Sword and Laser. I doubt they did.

IMO Writing Excuses the podcast might've been in Related Work because the Fancast category is relatively new. Related Work is always the catch-all.

> Writing Excuses is produced by Brandon Sanderson's company

That explains it. Didn't see how they made any money at all, outside of the book this year obviously.

But yea Boing Boing generated revenue since they provided the advertisers. But I doubt it provided much revenue.

> It's not impossible but the problem with the professional vs non-professional is *knowing*.

I agree. However it's not really our problem. Unless you really are maxed out with people you want to nominate for Fancast, it doesn't seem like an issue at all. Just nominate them and let WorldCon deal with it.

OK, so is there a problem in us trying to get S&L nominated in related works instead of fancast? I haven't reread the rules, but since it is more then just a podcast (but a community, publisher, and store as well), I think this makes sense anyway. Then we don't have to worry about how much T&V make off of the property.

Also, I just got my pin, after becoming a supporting member again about 2 weeks ago. I forgot I had until March 10th to nominate, I though I only had until January 31st.

I got my nomination notice too, we should all get our ducks in a row, because it doesn't take much to get a nomination through, for related work (52 votes last year) or fancast (35 last year - S&L got 29).

Winning in related works takes a bit more (597 1st place votes/1282 final votes) than for fancast (209/566).

Well, I guess I should have read the rules again before posting. From the Hugo website.

Best Related Work: Awarded to a work related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year or which has been substantially modified during the previous calendar year. The type of works eligible include, but are not limited to, collections of art, works of literary criticism, books about the making of a film or TV series, biographies and so on, provided that they do not qualify for another category.


While S&L has evolved over the years, I'm not sure that in 2014 it changed enough to make it eligible. But if someone else has a compelling argument for, I'd be open to changing my mind.

I feel like the related work category would be more appropriate for a single episode of S&L whereas the fancast would cover the year's output.

How often does this happen? I feel like all year round I'm hearing about some convention and if you go to the convention you can vote on SF awards.

I ended up nominating Sword and Laser for Fancast. I'm hoping that I filled out the form right. I guess all I can do is hope, and possibly try to get others to nominate it.

Eric wrote: "How often does this happen? I feel like all year round I'm hearing about some convention and if you go to the convention you can vote on SF awards."

It's called WorldCon, it happens once per year in different cities.

http://sasquan.org/ in 2015, Spokane, Washington
http://midamericon2.org/ in 2016, Kansas City, Missouri

You can join as a supporting member for like $40 or so and nominate and vote. (Though to nominate you'll have to join Sasquan like today.) But even better is to go to the convention, it's way fun.

Ulmer Ian wrote: "Eric wrote: "How often does this happen? I feel like all year round I'm hearing about some convention and if you go to the convention you can vote on SF awards."

It's called WorldCon, it happens o..."

Are there other awards that have similar requirements? Again, I feel like I'm hearing this year-round.

Ah, ok. I guess it's the noms and then the voting.

Well, S&L just got my nomination for Fancast :)

WorldCon offers a Hugo voters package if you can't go. $40 US gets you all the materials and the right to vote. Publishers have been good about providing the full material nominated for voters. Last year Tor provided the entire Wheel of Time; Orbit had most of the other favorites, so they only provided a sample of theirs. Even then, there was easily $40 of value in there.

This is interesting, Peter David asks for Hugo votes.
http://www.peterdavid.net/2015/01/22/...

Why hasn't he ever gotten a Hugo? He's a terrific writer. Is it because people think he only writes movie tie-ins and Star Trek? His Star Trek is fantastic, by the way.

Thane wrote: "This is interesting, Peter David asks for Hugo votes.
http://www.peterdavid.net/2015/01/22/...

Why hasn't he ever gotten a Hugo? He's a terrific writer. Is it because people..."

There are literally thousands of terrific writers who have never won a Hugo. The whole "this great writer has never won a Hugo, this proves the Hugo's are broken!" line of reasoning coming from various quarters just seems so nonsensical to me. There is only author per year (well, more technically, when there's a tie) who can get the best novel Hugo. This means the vast majority of deserving writers will never get one. That's inherent to awards full stop. Not a problem with the Hugo's specifically.

I can't get too excited about the awards.
Quick- Who won the award 10 years ago?
It's probably a good book but now its not even available as a ebook.
(Good grief- killing a tree just to read a story- How 20th century.)

Funnily enough 10 years ago the Hugo went to a massively commercially successful bestseller - the kind of book people say the hugo never goes to.

(also definitely available in e-book)

Thane wrote: "This is interesting, Peter David asks for Hugo votes.
http://www.peterdavid.net/2015/01/22/...
"

He's being a bit dramatic about it and is making the case in absolutely the wrong way. It's called writing a eligibility post and there's nothing wrong with it - there's no need to "remain silent". Especially when it comes to short stories/novellettes/novellas its not obvious who has what available for nomination when.

(Also Sword and Laser should really write an eligibility post).

But asking people to nominate your book this year because of books you wrote in other years seems to miss the point.

Warren - If you're referring to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, it still gets talked about. I've seen it mentioned at least three times in the last few weeks (different places), all positively. It's available in ebook. Just checked - it's also a 32-hour audiobook (which might be a bit harder than reading it, given the book is filled with footnotes).

My error I meant 20 years ago.
I recently started looking for Mirror Dance by Losis Bujold. I thought that being a Hugo winner would guarantee the books availability. No such luck. Bujold…Geez, its not like she a one hit wonder. End of rant
We need a bigger library:
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Library...

Warren wrote: "My error I meant 20 years ago.
I recently started looking for Mirror Dance by Losis Bujold. I thought that being a Hugo winner would guarantee the books availability. No such luck. Bujold…Geez, its..."

You mean this one http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Dance-Vo...

Definitely available in ebook. I just finished the 1958 winner The Big Time which is available in ebook. Most Hugo winners are, if not all.

I'm actually doing a personal challenge of reading all Hugo, Nebula and Locus winning novels.

I love love love Poul Anderson's Tau Zero and wondered why it was only nominated for a Hugo and didn't win. Then I checked the winner that year: Ringworld. Talk about bad timing...

Kim wrote: "Warren wrote: "My error I meant 20 years ago.
I recently started looking for Mirror Dance by Losis Bujold. I thought that being a Hugo winner would guarantee the books availability. No such luck. B..."
Thank you. I don't know why it didn't come when I did a search. GMTA-I'm going through the Hugo list looking for books I haven't read.

Has Hugh Howey, the author of Wool, come out with anything new in 2014?

Warren wrote: "My error I meant 20 years ago.
I recently started looking for Mirror Dance by Losis Bujold. I thought that being a Hugo winner would guarantee the books availability. No such luck. Bujold…Geez, its..."

Does your library do OneClick Digital? They have an audio copy of it. Plus at plenty of other Bujold.

Alex wrote: "Has Hugh Howey, the author of Wool, come out with anything new in 2014?"

I think he had a short story collection. On phone, though, so not easy to search.

terpkristin wrote: "Alex wrote: "Has Hugh Howey, the author of Wool, come out with anything new in 2014?"

I think he had a short story collection. On phone, though, so not easy to search."

Ah, found some on his website:

The Shell Collector
Sand Omnibus

Don't forget to send in your Hugo nominations by March 10 (this Tuesday!) midnight PDT.

I put in my S&L vote.

And now they are almost closed. Only a few more hours folks. :)

I'm so excited to see what the nominations are. I looked it up and last year they were announced April 19th and they were due March 31st. So hopefully their turn around time is just as fast this year.

To be announced April 4: http://www.thehugoawards.org.php53-4....