Michael Capobianco finishes his last day as SFWA’s president today by announcing that his pet project, the Nebula Awards website is open for beta testing.

I only have a half-hour or so to go as President, and, as my last official act, I’d like to make the official announcement that the Nebula Awards website, nebulaawards.com, is now open and ready for beta testing. Everything is more or less in place, and the content management system ExpressionEngine is handling everything very well. There will be a few tweaks, updates, and additions over the next few days, but the basic set-up is there and ready to go.

It is so nice to see such a professional site promoting the genre. Kudos to Michael Capobianco, David De Beer (editor) and Tony Geer (website designer).

Stop by the new Nebula Awards website and check it out.

Yesterday was the last official day of the workshop portion of the event. We critiqued three stories, including mine. I’m pretty relieved by my feedback and also realized that I have a pattern in the way I write stories.

I tend to trust the reader and don’t like hitting people over the head with things, so I don’t put down every plot detail or world building element that I think of. And then the first time I hand it to readers, I get to see which things I need to clarify and which things I can leave alone. In this particular story, I needed to clarify that my character’s allergy is a contact allergy and then almost all everything else makes sense.

As much as I want to sit down and go through the notes on my story and rewrite it RIGHT NOW, I’m not going to. I’m finishing the revisions on my novel.

Last night, Mom made dinner. Oh, yes people. We are living the high life here.

That’s right. Join Codex and you get to attend workshops where, not only is your story critiqued by a multiple-award winning editor, you also get my mother’s cobbler. Need I say more?

The Nebula Awards Website is launching soon. (And it is gorgeous.) The website will function as a repository for information about the Nebulas and a showcase for the Weekends. Our target audiences are writers of both SFWA and non-SFWA memberships, readers, and of course, bookstores and librarians.

Among the regular features are interviews with Nebula nominees, starting with this past ballot.

In addition, the Nebula blog will invite members of the SF&F field to offer their opinions about a subject of interest to the field. Most of these guest blog entries will stand alone, although certain subject angles will appear in a series, or semi-regular routine (bi-monthly or quarterly). That will be the exception, not the rule. For both participants and subject matter, the guest blogs will be broadened beyond the Nebulas. These guest blog entries will appear one to four times per month.

The website content editor, David De Beer, is now accepting pitches on subjects from people interested in blogging about the field.

Submission Guidelines

What to send:

Non-fiction blog posts, not essays. We are seeking posts that are subjective, opinionated and contain the human element — the emotion and beliefs — as much as the content.

Note: This is not a platform for rantings at specific individuals, magazines, publishers, et al within the field. While criticism can be valuable, it needs to be directed constructively.

Length: Approximately 1000 words.

Payment and Rights: This is a volunteer gig as a way for individual writers to help advance public awareness of science fiction and fantasy. We ask for donations of non-exclusive electronic rights and the right to archive your post. Any author wishing their post removed has the option of requesting it. All authors receive byline credit, bio and link.

How to submit: email: debeer dot david at gmail dot com, put Nebula Guest Blog in the subject line. In the body of the text, a brief paragraph on the topic you want to blog about, whether you’re interested in doing it as a stand alone, a series, or semi-regular blogging.

Please provide a sample of your non-fiction writing as an attachment or link.

Response Times: One to three weeks.

The show that used the moose head ended today and Rob handled the process of picking the props up from the theater for me. He just sent me this email about moving the moose.

It’s in our hall now but we had to walk it up the stairs. Comically, we managed to coax it into the elevator but the slight difference in door geometry on our floor sent us cursing back down to the lobby.

Even on the 50 foot walk from the curb to our building, two people (New Yorkers no less) stopped to gawk, chat, and one took a photo.

I thought you might like the attached images for your blog.

Today we critiqued four stories. By now, I’m getting a sense of whose critiques resonate with me most, which is good because– well, if I’m hearing advice that I think is spot-on to fix someone else’s story, if that same person tells me to fix something in mine, then chances are that they are right. Or at least that we have similar taste.

Garrett Winn did a workshop on time management focused on writing. One of the things I thought was interesting came up as a tangent. The old question of whether one should set wordcount goals or time goals. As James Maxey put it, you’re paid by the word, not the time in the chair.

Personally, I work with wordcount goals BUT I’ve also timed myself writing so I know that I write about a thousand words an hour. Which means that if I want to write 2000 words a day that I need to block out a minimum of two hours a day to do that.

Then there was a group discussion about what makes a story stand out as exceptional. I think about the only thing we all agreed on was “specificity.” Lots of other things were bandied about, but no golden key appeared. Granted, I left early to finish cooking dinner, which was….

Polenta and Black Bean Casserole
Wax Beans from Mom’s Garden
Green salad with optional tomatoes, onion and mushrooms.

Afterwards, Mom made blueberry cobbler, served with ice cream.

Oh, Dad, Luc and Danielle played music for us. We’ve discovered that the Star Trek theme is perfectly suited to the musical saw. I’ll try to get a recording before the week is out.

In between all this, I started in on the novel revisions. I was pleased to discover that they really weren’t all that bad. Most of the things people brought up can be fixed in one or two sentences. Whew.

Pretend that I came online and told you about all the wonderful things we are doing in Chattanooga.

My husband, wrote an article about New York city winery in Decanter magazine.

This autumn a new winery will open its doors among the luxury shops, avant-garde theatres and loft residences of New York’s SoHo

City Winery is New York’s first ‘private label winery’ where members can vinify their own barrel of wine, managing its life from fermenter to barrel to bottle.

We’re starting the mornings with breakfast foods laid out, but people on their own. Some crazy fools went jogging this morning. My feeling is that running is appropriate if something large is chasing you, otherwise not so much.

We had three presentations today: One on brainstorming story ideas by Luc Reid ((I skipped this one because I still had some reading to do for critique sessions tomorrow,. Other people report favorably on it.)) one on reading aloud (by me), and one on Medieval Studies, by Michael Livingston. I learned that people in the Middle Ages did bathe, that the Bubonic Plague was the first germ warfare and went horribly wrong, and that knights in armor actually could stand up if they fell down.

For lunch we had sandwiches. I know. You’re thrilled.

Then two novel critiques, which was interesting. It’s the first time I’ve done a novel critique session and find it the same as and also quite different from a short story critique. Mostly we dealt with Big Issues and not so much on line notes.

For dinner, now, that’s a beautiful thing. We went to Couch’s barbeque. This place has been there since my Dad was a child. It is one of the things for which I will gleefully break my pose as vegetarian. We were having really lively conversations until the food hit the table and then everyone became silent. Mmmm… A couch’s bbq sandwich with hot slaw on it, sides of baked beans and cole slaw. It just doesn’t get any better.

Tomorrow we have the first of our sessions with Ellen Datlow. Should be fun.

My nephew upon learning that I am working on a novel called, “Good Housekeeping,” insisted that I had stolen his idea. To prove it, he posted his story by the same name.

A teaser:

to keep a good house you need to write it, then publish it before you meanie face jr aunt cant steal it! which she will! she will slowely earn you trust…. then she will steal it! she will steal it like a person who cant write a good metaphor/simile!

It makes me giggle.

The workshop officially starts tomorrow. Today, a friend of mine came in and helped me set up — wait. Let me back up. When I got in last night, I discovered that my parents had already done everything. Beds were made, conference tables were set up in the workshop room. I mean… really.

So my friend and I headed out to the store to pick up groceries. She made walnut cake and bakclava. I made dinner.

The Menu
Quinoa Mushroom Risotto
Sauteed Mizuna greens with olive oil and lemon
Green salad with shitake vinaigrette.

Our first guests arrived around 5:00 and the rest of the gang showed up around 11:00. We’ve got another bunch of folks arriving tomorrow. I was relieved to see that I wasn’t the only one that was still frantically reading manuscripts.

Which I need to go back to doing now.

• 19:33 In the Charlotte airport on the way to Chattanooga. The flight was easy and I got the Giant Battle Scene written. One chapter left. #
• 19:41 Mental note: Next time, when packing lunch for the plane, don’t forget to pack a napkin as well. I have Wasabi Mayo on my face. #
• 20:46 And now the Happy Reunion scene has happened. Yay! #
• 22:07 Have arrived in Chattanooga. Mm. Humidity. #

I’ve arrived at Woodthrush Woods and had a good time catching up with my parents. Just in case there were any doubts about the success of this workshop? Mom has made a poundcake.

I just logged on to update my blog and then saw that Kermit Love died last night.

From the NY Times obituary:

Although Mr. Love collaborated with luminaries of dance like George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Robert Joffrey, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, it was the 8-foot-2, yellow-feathered Big Bird and his 7-foot, woolly mammoth-like friend Mr. Snuffleupagus — both perennially 6 years old — that brought him global attention.

I only met him the one time but he was the nicest man. And genius. Oh, I am very sad. I feel like my best friend’s dad died, you know?

The flight from La Guardia was completely without incident. We sat on the runway for a while, but I just read one of the stories I’m supposed to critique for the workshop.

What?

Would you really have finished them all before you got there? I didn’t think so.

Plus! I finished the Giant Battle scene in the novel, which means that I have one chapter left. I’m only coming on line long enough to let you know that I’m not dead.

• 08:17 Packing to go to Chattanooga. #