Exciting day

[eve_prime]

Today was exciting in two ways. First, I got the book proposal submitted, whew! I also have a backup plan if this publisher isn’t interested, which helps reduce my stress level.

Second, and more interesting – the Hugo finalists were announced today! For best novel, I already own and have read three of the six books. I started a fourth but had to give it back to the library before I got very far; I expect to get it again soon. I also own (but haven’t read) one of the novellas, and gave J one of the graphic novels for Christmas, and own all of the books in one of the nominated series (but haven’t read the last one yet).

Both of the games we nominated were on the list, and J will probably want to play at least one of the others a bit.

I was also quite puzzled that Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance was on the list. Was it “related to science fiction and fantasy” because she’s also the author of a science fiction series? Because if the fact that it’s about meta-narratives is sufficient, my own eventual book would also qualify – and it will actually mention some SFF, which Inventing the Renaissance did not.

Anyway, the list portends lots of fun for the next three months!

Comments

[heleninwales]

I can never vote in the Hugos, even when I qualify to vote because I've never read enough of the list to make a fair judgement.

I don't know why the Ada Palmer book is included either, but it would be great if your book was short-listed in a future year.

[eve_prime]

For the novels, my rule for myself is that I should read them all, or at least enough to have an opinion. Then I encourage J to read the ones I think he'd most like - I think he read three last year (for example, there was little point in asking him to read the one with the Regency setting, nor the one where there was little actual plot until the final chapters).

For the games, we try to familiarize ourselves enough with each to have opinions on the theme, the art, and (for J) a bit of the gameplay.

Those are the two we're most likely to vote on. Last year we didn't realize how much information was in the packets, or we probably would have read some of the shorter works too.

It was obvious last year, for the long-form dramatizations (and I think for the games), that a great many of the voters had only seen one or two of the works, and that seemed so unfair to the works by the smaller studios.