I’m just hitting the fast highlights because I’m beat.

I went to the Codex breakfast this morning. Fantastic to see familiar faces and to meet people that I’ve previously only know in two dimensions. Much fun. Then it was off to my workshop on how to give an effective reading. It had twenty-five or so people attending, which was a good size for this. It gave me a chance to do some audience participation.

From there to the SFWA board meeting, which bordered on fun. It’s nice to be working with a group of people towards a common goal and they are good people.

I had a massage tonight, which was a Very Good Thing. I hit the Tor party and the SFWA suite before giving up and deciding I was too tired and need to go to bed.

Which, really, I’m doing as soon as I finish typing this.

We’re still looking for volunteers to help out with the SFWA’s Table in the Dealer Room at Denvention3. Now that the preliminary schedule is out, I figure it should be easier for folks to look at their plans and see if there’s a time when you can volunteer.

In particular, we need help on Thursday. I, personally, need someone to cover my shift Thursday at 1:00 because I’ve been scheduled for a signing that I wasn’t expecting. I’ll pick up a different shift, but I don’t want to leave a hole there.

Just as a reminder, here’s what we’re asking folks to do.

* Job Title: SFWA table representative
* Estimated Time Required: 1-2 hours per shift, 34 shifts needed
* Job Description:
o Help SFWA by being a spokesperson at World Con.
o Set up and staff a booth to draw in new members.
o Be willing to answer questions and be friendly.
o Sell books and other printed material. Attract people to the
Table: tell them that the most wonderful stories in the world are sitting on the table and they’ll never forgive themselves if they pass it by. As a salesperson should, be outgoing & friendly.
* The membership committee will supply you with brochures and a list of talking points. Benefits: Visibility at con, good way to meet new people
* Skills required: Friendly., All Workers must be paying members of the convention. (Sorry, no freebies for working the Table.)

If you’re willing to help, please email me with how many shifts you are willing to take and a list of your conflicts (panels, meetings, departure date). You can also volunteer to take a specific time, but those will go on first come basis. Glenn Gillette, our table czar, will get you set up with a time slot.

Many thanks!

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.

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.

SFWA is doing a serious overhaul of the website in an effort to bring it into the twenty-first century. Interested in helping make it user friendly? Then this job might be for you.

Edited to add: This position is for an editor, not a webmaster or designer. You would be dealing with the content of the site, but we have someone else to do the heavy lifting on the design.

Estimated time required: 15 - 25 hours per month (Initially more, but workload would vary seasonally.)

SFWA Content Editor/Webstaff Administrator

Job Description:
The person in this position would perform the following tasks:
1. Advise the Board on the future direction of SFWA web presence, set priorities for SFWA web presence, and assist in recruiting volunteers as needed.
2. Gather, organize, and provide content to the SFWA webmaster.
3. Organize webstaff volunteers, determine staffing priorities, assign jobs, and maintain communication within the webstaff. Develop a plan for updating sfwa.org in a timely manner.
4. Serve as liaison between the SFWA webmaster and webstaff and the Forum and Bulletin editors, Executive Director, Other SFWA committee chairs as directed by the President. Coordinate duties with the webmaster.

Requirements:
Qualified candidates should have excellent organization and written communication skills, as well as an understanding of current web technology. Understanding budgetary organization is helpful. Membership in SFWA is required.

Benefits: Resume worthy credit, close contact with established SF professionals, help shape the face of SFWA. Stipend offered. Interested parties should submit resumes to sfwavolunteer@gmail.com no later than June 15, 2008.

Please pass this along to anyone that you think might be interested. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Some time ago, I read Andrea Kail’s Soft, like a Rabbit in Fantasy Magazine and loved it. At the moment it has eight, count them, 8, recommendations for a Nebula. Its eligibility expires at the end of this month. If you are an active SFWA member, I highly recommend reading this story in the next couple of days.

The interactive Nebula Award Report is up and running again, so there’s no excuse.

I managed to miss both of the panels yesterday and think I have a taste of what the next year will be. Why? Because I was in meetings rather than at the panels. Strangely fun meetings, I’ll grant, but nonetheless.

The Nebula weekend is largely unstructured, providing the members a chance to hobnob with each other. Frequently I found myself chatting with someone and then realizing that they were either a) famous or b) I knew them online or c) I wish I had known them all my life. Noticeably more people were here on day two and the demographic evened out considerably in terms of age. SFWA is still very, very, very white and it would be good to see it become more diverse, y’know? We people our SF and fantasy with dozens of different species, for crying out loud, and somehow can’t manage to integrate in real life. Gotta improve that. I’m looking forward to WisCon because it’s got panels looking at these issues.

But that’s not what I was planning on chatting about this morning. You’re here to hear about the banquet, right? The food wasn’t bad and — these things are important too — the table arrangements were lovely. Watching these writers receive their awards moved me more than I expected. Particularly people like Michael Chabon, who spoke so eloquently about the field and the wonder of SF that I actually got a little weepy. I felt like, yeah, that’s why I write and read this stuff, too.

Oh, and everyone dressed. Men in tuxedos, ladies in evening wear and all of them belonging in the tribe of SF. Heaven.

The election results were announced today at the business meeting.

President: Russell Davis
VP: Elizabeth Moon
Secretary: Mary Robinette Kowal
Treasurer: Amy Casil
Eastern Regional: Bud Sparhawk
Overseas Regional Directon: Ian Whates

Because the current secretary, Alma Alexander, couldn’t be here, I dived right in by taking minutes of the meeting. Fortunately, I don’t have any official duties until July 1, which will give me time to get the volunteer coordination organized so I can hand it off to someone else.

This is my first Nebula Weekend, so I don’t have anything else to compare it to except other cons. After checking in, I found my way to where they were handing out free books. I mean, hey, books, you know? Gotta keep your priorities straight. Every member got two heeping grocery bags of hardbacks. Good titles, too, like Michael Chabon’s latest, Gentlemen of the Road.

From there, I headed to the hospitality room. Important note: Texans know how to lay out a spread. Homemade cookies, people.

I spent a while hanging out there meeting new people and started to notice an interesting thing. The demographic of people who attend the Nebula Weekend seems to consist of people in their late forties and up. Yesterday, the only people my age or younger that I saw were nominees. Granted, due to the membership requirements, the organization will self-select to an older crowd because one needs time to establish a writing career. Still. It seems disproportionate. I understand more people are arriving today, so I’ll take note at the business meeting and the banquet tonight.

At three I headed to the panel on Publishing Contracts by Sean P. Fodera. This was an excellent, excellent discussion. I took notes, but I need to make them into something that people besides me can read before I post them. His closing remark was that in doctors, lawyers… all of these people need to do continuing education to stay abreast of what’s going on in their field. That they need to continually practice in order to maintain their license. People with artistic licenses think that they don’t have to do so, but it’s just as important for us if we want to be professionals. I am in total agreement with this. ¹ I wish the panel had not been so sparsely attended. It was the only panel yesterday and had only 22 attendees. Yes. I counted.

The mass autographing session made an easy way to greet people, but, again, felt very sparsely attended. This might be because half the attendees were sitting down to sign things. I’d really like to see more general public at an event like that.

Dinner, I spent with David Levine and Kate Yule. We went out for Indian food, which was not bad, considering that we are in Texas.

I hung out in the hospitality room afterwards until my sleep deprivation forced me to retreat to my room. Mmm… sleep. Broken by a wake-up call at 5:30 am. A wakeup call which I did not request. I was annoyed, but not as annoyed as whoever didn’t get their call.

Looking forward to today.

1. The worst business-of-writing advice I’ve gotten was from OSC because he’s thirty years out from being a beginning writer and a LOT has changed in that time. Plus, he’s a major writer so gets to play by different rules. [↩]

I was getting into Austin at noon Friday for the SFWA Nebula Award weekend, but I’ve had to rebook my ticket. I need to get some things done for the show I’m working on and really, really need the morning to get it done. Alas. So, if you are going to Austin, I’ll see you laaaate Friday night or on Saturday.

I do love my job, but there are days when I wish the hours were shorter.

Edited to add: After spending an hour on the phone, I discovered that, even though I can see a flight that is only $50 more expensive than mine, it would cost $435 more than my original ticket to change my flight. Can’t do that. Gah! Need more hours in the day.

Jim MacDonald posted a reminder on Making Light

A reminder: The ballots for the SFWA presidential election must be received by 19 April 2008. Mail early! And weigh the envelope — it’s on the border of needing two stamps.

For those of you just tuning in, here’s a link to my platform. Please feel free to ask me questions here or there.

The code for the banner, should you be willing to pass it around is:
<a href="http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/i-am-running-for-sfwa-secretary/"><img src="http://maryrobinettekowal.com/MRKforSecretary.gif" alt="Mary Robinette Kowal for SFWA secretary" /></a>

The 2007 SFWA(R) Final Nebula Awards(R) Ballot is up. I figure that everyone and their uncle is posting the whole list so I’m just linking to it. “For Solo Cello” didn’t make the cut. Sadness.

BUT Titanium Mike by David Levine did, which has me very pleased because I liked that story a great deal.

SFWA is creating a new, updated website for the Nebula Awards and is looking for a SFWA member to partner with the professional web designer they’ve hired to do the heavy lifting.

Estimated Time Required: 10-30 hours per month, (Variable depending on time of year. Heaviest commitment: March, April, and May)

Job Description:
1. Advise the Board on the nebulaawards.com web presence, set priorities for nebulaawards.com consistent with the overall goal of promoting the Nebula and Norton Awards, the nominees, the winners, the Awards weekend, SFWA anthologies, and through them all, the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Assist in recruiting, training, and coordinating volunteers as needed.

2. Review existing Nebula-related and other genre promotional material and its organization to remove extraneous and confusing material and create an organizational map that is easily navigable and makes relevant material easily discoverable.

3. Suggest, gather, organize, and provide content to the Nebula webmaster, including interviews, opinion essays, images, and bios/essays from Nebula and Norton Award winners.

4. Serve as liaison between the sfwa.org webmaster, Nebula webmaster, Bulletin and NAR editors, Executive Director, and SFWA members.

5. Create press releases regarding important Nebula website updates and work with media representatives as necessary to publicize the website.

Benefits: Extensive networking, connection with the redesign of a high-profile website suitable for resume mention, and increased visibility in SFWA.

Skills required: A high level of organization, ability to lead a team, editing and document management experience, experience with content management systems, blogs, and making video/audio material web accessible. Any level of SFWA membership

If you are interested, send a brief introductory letter to sfwavolunteer@gmail.com

They just posted the works whose eligibility for next year’s Nebulas expires at the end of January. I noticed that Cat Rambo’s story, “Foam on Water” published in Strange Horizons, has seven recommendations. I loved this and recommended it a while ago.

The story only lacks three recommendations to be on next year’s preliminary ballot.

May I recommend, especially if you are a SFWA member, that you read it?

This takes the Little Mermaid and makes it look like Hans Christian Andersen was writing stories made of cotton candy.