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.