2016 Hugo Awards

Hello Everyone!

Here I am again for my once a year post -- maybe there will be more this year.  Miracles do happen.

We've been at MidAmericon in Kansas City for the past few days, and tonight, of course, is Hugo night.

Here is the usual roll call.  Congratulations to all the winners!!!!

John C. Campbell Award (not a Hugo) -- Andy Weir

Best Fan Artist -- Steve Stiles

Best Fan Writer -- Mike Glyer ( accepted by John Hertz)

Best Fancast --  No Award

Best Fanzine -- File 770 --Mike Glyer (accepted by John Hertz)

Best Semi-Prozine -- Unanny Magazine -- Edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

Best Related Work -- No Award

Best Professional Artist -- Abigail Larson (Accepted by Randall Shepherd)

Best Editor Long Form -- Sheila E. Gilbert

Best Editor Short Form --  Ellen Datlow

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) --  Jessical Jones: "AKA  Smiles", written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Television; Tall Girls Productions; Netflix)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) -- The Martian , screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)

Best Graphic Story -- The Sandman: Overture, written by Neil Gaemen, art by J. H. Willian's III (Vertigo)

Best Short Story --  "Cat Pictures Please", by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)

Best Novellete -- "Folding Beijing", by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine Jan - Feb 2015)

Best Novella -- "Binti", by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

Best Novel -- "The Fifth Season", by N, K, Jemisin (Orbit)

The Hugo's were tonight.  They just finished.the 2015winners at Sasquan are below.

At the beginning of the show we were told quite clearly both in the program and by the presenters that even though it did not appear in the program, the option for No Award is always present.  At that time, No Award, had only been given 5 times in the past history of the Hugo.  We found out, as the award ceremony progressed, why we were so carefully informed of this event.

John C. Campbell Award (Not a Hugo) --  Wesley Chu

Best Fan Artist -- Elizabeth Leggett

Best Fan Writer -- Laura J. Mixon

Best Fancast -- Galactic Suburbia Podcast by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner  Roberts (Presenters), and Andrew Finch (Producer)

Best Fanzine -- Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Christopher J. Garcia, Colin Harris, Alissa McKersie, and Helen J. Montgomery

Best Semi-Prozine -- Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant

Best Professional Artist -- Julie Dillon

Best Editor-Long Form -- No Award

Best Editor-Short Form -- No Award

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) --Orphan Black: "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried"  written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Apace/BBC America)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) -- Guardians of the Galaxy  written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, directed by James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)

Best Graphic Story -- Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal  written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt (Marvel Comics)

Best Related Work -- No Award

Best Short Story -- No Award

Best Novelette -- "The Day the World Turned Upside Down" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt; Lia Belt translator (Lightspeed, 04-2014)

Best Novella -- No Award

Best Novel -- The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu; Ken Liu translator (Tor Books)  -- first time ever that this award has gone to a translated novel ( according to Ken Liu).

Congratulations to Everyone!!!!!

And the Winners are....

The Hugo's were tonight.  They just finished.the 2014 winners at Loncon 3 are

John C. Campbell Award (Not a Hugo) -- Sofia Samatar

Best Fan Artist -- Sarah Webb

Best Fan Writer -- Kameron Hurley

Best Fancast -- "SF Signal Podcast"  Patrick Hester

Best Fanzine -- "A Dribble of Ink" edited by Aidan Moher

Best Semi-Prozine -- Lightspeed Magazine  edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki

Best Professional Artist -- Julie Dillon

Best Editor-Long Form -- Ginjer Buchanan

Best Editor-Short Form -- Ellen Datlow

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) -- Game of Thrones: "The Rains of Castamere"  written by David Benioff and D. H. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in asssociation with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) -- Gravity  written by Alfonso Cuaron Jonas Cuaron; directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Esparanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)

Best Graphic Story -- "Time" by Randall Munroe (XKCD)

Best Related Work -- "We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle, and Slaves Narrative" by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

Best Short Story -- "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere"  by John Chu  (Tor.com, 02-2013)

Best Novelette -- "The Lady Astronaut of Mars"  by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com / Tor.com, 09-2013)

Best Novella -- "Equoid" by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)

Best Novel -- Ancillary Justice  by Ann Leckie  (Orbit US / Orbit UK)

Congratulations to Everyone!!!!!

We Have Passport!!!!

Airport here we come.

London and Worldcon-- here we come!!!!

Packing Phase 3 --The Wait

We finished packing and made it all the way down to San Diego last night, well, early this morning.  I slept most in the car most of the way down.

The emergency passport replacement appointment was at 8:30am.  After a bit of confusion finding parking, we finally made it into the passport agency with only a short wait.  The agent put the roomie's passport application on urgent, since we have a flight leaving LAX at 4:45pm.  We were told to go have breakfast and come back in an hour.  So we did.

10:15am--we are back at the passport agency.  The passport is still not ready  They are not certain when it will be ready.  They will call our number when it is.  The problem--normally the passports are not ready to give out to the recipients until after 3pm.  The agency closes at 4pm.  The flight is at 4:45pm.  We havre approximately a 2 hour or more drive to LAX, where we need to drive the car.  We need to be at the airport 2 hours aheand of time.  But at least we are already checked into our flight.

Hopefully, we will get to the airport early enough to recharge the iPads.  We weren't expecting to be sitting in a room with no outlets for several hours.  Batteries are slowly draining.  We definitely want a full charge before we get on the plane.

Packing Phase 2--I know I just saw it somewhere

That missing passport, that is.  Not my passport, but another member of the traveling team.  We've looked everywhere and still no sign of it.

We've missed our flight.

Another flight has been scheduled.

An appointment to acquire an emergency replacement passport is in the process of being made.  A few hours ago we were told we would have to go down to the passport office in San Diego tomorrow and wait on standby.  There was a good chance we would get in.  Otherwise the first appointment was on Wednesday.  Waiting to see what the current status is.

Looks like we may, depending on appointment status, be renting a car and heading down to San Diego to visit roomie's Mom and our birds (she's pet sitting) tonight.  Just so we can be at the passport office bright and early tomorrow morning.

Basically, we will toss all of the roomie's potential packing items into the car, along with my packed bags and run.  Roomie will pack tonight, and car will be ready to rush to LAX.

Still haven't found lace top.  Substituted another.  May have over packed.  But I should be able to remove a couple days of items from luggage if we are heading out a day later.

Opened up guitar case to find that 2 of the bases had unraveled.  The strings are very difficult to replace on this guitar.  Packed extra sets, just in case.  Will replace strings later.  Why is it always the bases that unravel mysteriously in the darkness of the case on classical guitars??

Packing Phase has begun

And it is beginning a bit more slowly than I would like.

Step 1--checked my suitcase to see if the items I think I am missing might just be there.  And "it's a miracle".  I've traveled so much in the last few years that I've started leaving many items in the suitcase.  It's just easier to find them that way.  Including clothing that I use only for trips.  It was all still there, so I will only have to sort through a few items to remove and add a few more, and then figure out what will go in my carry-on.

Step 2-- where the heck is that blouse that I wear with my formal?  Can't find it anywhere.  It should have been in the suitcase.  Wait, I remember seeing it recently.  Now where was that?

Step 3--  toiletries, toiletries everywhere.  Which to take in carry on, and which to put in luggage.  Remember luggage limit is 50 pounds....

Step 4-- MacBook, iPad, Blackberry (yes, I still use a Blackberry)--where are all the chargers????  Oh, there they are.  All neccessary brain extenders charging.  Movies downloading to lap top because iPad is over stuffed.  Remember to set up external hard drive.  Where are the international outlet adapters??  They should be here somewhere.

Step 5-- Fresh Duct tape to patch huge hole in luggage from 4 trips ago, and newer small hole from last trip.

Step 6--where is my travel guitar?  Where is the music I promised I would try to memorize.  Where is my Optics textbook?  Did I remember to download the midterm and next assignment??

Step 7--drown the potted pants and set up the automatic waterers.  Did we remember to get enough plastic water bottles?

Step 8--Stop mail.  Set phones and iPads to international operation.

Step 9-- what am I forgetting????

Is it Monday yet??  I don't think I scheduled time to sleep....  What time does the driver arrive?

4 Days to WorldCon in London and Counting

Or is it 5.  I suppose it is all in the matter of how you decide to count the time.  Since Sunday is just barely begun, we should count today.  And LonCon begins on Thursday.  So that makes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday.  That's 4.5 days.  But then again, we fly out tomorrow afternoon and we arrive Tuesday morning, and in the process we loose a day.  So does that make 3.5 days? In either case, it's not 5.  And we do gain a day on the flight back.

Time travel can be very confusing.

TV Writer's Summit with Ellen Sandler

Yup that's right.  I'm currently 1 hour into a TV writer's summit.  Ellen Sandler is the first speaker.  She's talking about the basics of creating a TV series, in general.  It's not intended to be an in depth workshop, just a light advice and information introduction.

This, of course, is not the place I thought I would find myself this morning.  But here I am.  While I am unlikely to ever find myself writing a pilot, this is still an interesting semimar.  It gives me a view of another side of the writing life that I am completely unfamiliar with.  It is interesting, though definitely no less difficult that fiction wrting for short stories and novels.