I’ve now survived the Nebula Award Weekend which was a fun event, but rather focus consuming. The full list of winners is over at the SFWA site and if you want to you can watch the archived footage of the awards ceremony.

The highlight for me was the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.

I was amazed at how emotional I got as it lifted off. I’d heard about the sound, which beat at my chest and was felt rather than heard but the light of the fire stunned me. It was like watching the sun.

Being there really drove home the fact that we are strapping a team of people to the top of a bomb, shooting them into airless space and saying, “Go, do science.” Really, this was the very definition of “Boldly go.”

The picture is of the mushroom cloud that lingered for about ten minutes after Atlantis lifted off.

Oh, and I was elected to Vice President of SFWA.

Today, I turned in my platform to run for the vice president of SFWA.  I’m running with a slate of other candidates that include:

• John Scalzi for President
• Bob Howe for Secretary
• Amy Sterling Casil for Treasurer
• Sean Williams for Overseas Representative

Here is the letter I posted in the 2010 Election area on the SFWA discussion forums. Continue reading I’m running for Vice President of SFWA

You know, I just got a piece of fan mail — actual hard copy, through the postal service fan mail — for my work as Secretary of SFWA.  This has totally made my day.  People say this is a thankless job and they are just wrong.

I started out the morning doing SFWA stuff, largely relating to dues and the new membership software. I’m deeply pleased about all the people paying dues online with the new system this year.

The biggest thing today was the we finally, FINALLY, opened the beta version of the SFWA website to visitors.*  There are still things we’re working on but the amount of content that we have to shift to the new system is huge and you know, at a certain point, waiting any longer just seems silly. So we’ll be rolling out new things, but the bones of the site are in place and ::knock on wood:: are not imploding.

This is due to the very hard work of Jon Armstrong, Nancy Fulda, Chris Hansen, Jeremy Tolbert, Christie Yant, Brandie Tarvin, Nathan Lilly, Scott Danielson, Jamie Todd Rubin and all the other volunteers who have been patiently going through the early stage testing.

Not that we’re finished, but dang, it feels good to hit this stage.

*When the site comes out of beta, the address will go back to being sfwa.org.

Somehow the two weeks that I had off turned into rehearsing for two shows, doing props for a third and finishing an essay, a short story and the SFWA website.  Oh yeah, and I have a novel to write.

Clearly, my time management involves the need for a TARDIS. And yet I don’t have one.

Blogging will be, shall we say, extremely light this week.

• 13:34 Talking to Jodi who wonders if I am twittering. I wasn’t. Now I am. #
• 15:53 I guess this is a milestone… My ARC is on ebay. That was fast. #
• 16:30 I’m strangely nervous. I just invited about twenty people to play in SFWA’s new forums as a test run. I wonder how it will break. #
• 17:28 Rob and I are going to see Star Trek at the 7:00 show at the Ziegfeld tonight. Who’s in? #
• 18:47 The Ziegfeld is packed, but there’s a dearth of Klingons. Rob thinks they are in Queens. #
• 22:00 Well. That totally rocked. Some gratuitous action, but who cares! Boldly go. #

If you wonder what I’ve been working on recently, besides the usual intestines and things, I’ve had several projects for SFWA.

I’m very pleased that one of them, our new volunteer management system, is now live.

You might recall that when I ran for secretary, I felt that the volunteer management was one of the biggest problems SFWA faced.  We have a lot of dedicated, enthusiastic and extremely hardworking volunteers and no real support structure for them. When I started working as the Volunteer Coordinator there was no system of tracking volunteers nor any sort of hierarchy of communication. Although people accomplished a lot, there was also a lot of duplicated effort and dropped balls. We also burned volunteers out by asking them to do too much for too long.

Because SFWA is so geographically spread out, we needed a way to track what people were doing and to facilitate communication between them.

The new system will make it easy for volunteers to sign up based on the how much time they have or what they are interested in doing. Only have time to do a quick project? No problem. Have time for a longer commitment? Great! Want to learn a new skill? We can sign you up.

In fact, why don’t you visit the new system and register for the areas you might have an interest in. It’s possible to sign up to get more information about volunteering, without committing to a specific task.

Check out the list of possible volunteer opportunities.

Reason number 37: Exchanging emails with Larry Niven. I can haz fangirl squee?

A quick reminder that the price for attending the Nebula Awards Weekend goes up on March 15th. The current price for the full weekend is $135, after that date, it will be $150. Banquet-only prices will also rise from $80 to $100.

http://www.nebulaawards.com/index.php/nebulaweekend is where all the information on the weekend can be found, including hotels, our Keynote Speaker Chuck Lorre, Toastmistress Janis Ian, Grand Master Award recipient Harry Harrison and much more.

Should be a fun weekend.

Upon a procedural review, we discovered an error in the final Nebula tally. Two works that should be on the final ballot were not listed: the novelette “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” – James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s, Feb08) and “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” – Ruth Nestvold (F&SF, Jan08) in short stories. No other changes have been made to the final ballot. We apologize for the error and have made changes to the procedures to keep this sort of mistake from happening again.
Continue reading Correction to Nebula Final Ballot

I spent most of the day tending to SFWA matters, including getting my platform for re-election turned in.  Yes, I’m running for Secretary again. Why? Because contrary to popular belief, it’s really not so bad. It helps that the board is active, engaged and generally gets along.  We’re also doing good work and it’s exciting to be a part of that.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet day. Rob ironed and listened to opera, which was his Saturday routine back when we were courting.  I know. The boy likes ironing, what can I say.

Anything else exciting?  I cut his hair?  Yeah, when I’m between shows life is pretty dull.

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You can register for the Nebula Weekend online now.  Besides one of the industry’s best ways to mingle with top notch SF writers, editors and agents, this year’s weekend also includes some key notables, like, um Joss Whedon, who will be there in person.

LOS ANGELES—Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America will descend on Los Angeles, Calif., with an all-star lineup slated for the 2009 Nebula Awards® Weekend April 24-26.

Harry Harrison will be honored as the next Damon Knight Grand Master, while M.J. Engh will be honored as Author Emerita. Joss Whedon will receive the Ray Bradbury Award. Singer/songwriter Janis Ian will be on hand to serve as toastmistress. Award-winning creator, executive producer and writer Chuck Lorre will give the keynote address.

You can register for the weekend via The Nebula Awards.

I’ve just returned home from the SFWA reception which seemed to be a rousing sucess. Kudos to Bud Sparhawk, the Eastern Regional Director, for arranging it. It was my first one, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. It turns out that it’s very much like an opening night party, without a show attached to it. Folks dress up, chat and generally seem to have a good time.

I took Rob along since people have been making cracks about my invisible husband at cons. I don’t think he minded and he even smiled in a photo. (Ellen, will you send me that?) I was amazed by how many people I knew. There just wasn’t time to talk to everyone.

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!