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.

• 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.

Dear SFWA members:

I’m running for the position of Vice President. For the last two years, I’ve been privileged to work with an extremely active and committed board as Secretary of SFWA. We’ve made great strides in organizational issues, such as the new Nebula rules, the new website, and the draft of the new bylaws. I’m excited by the changes that are coming to the organization and I would very much like to continue helping SFWA regain solid footing so that it can continue to inform, support, promote, defend and advocate for our members.

• I have been an Active member of SFWA since 2007 and served on the board since 2008.
• In addition to my Board duties, I have also supervised the team which built your new website, sourced and manage the new membership management software, and researched options for health insurance.
• I was the 2008 Campbell Award Winner for Best New Writer.
• I’ve sold two fantasy novels to Tor, with my debut novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, appearing this summer.
• In addition, I’ve sold 30 short stories to markets such as Asimov’s, Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld as well as appearing in several Year’s Best. Last year my short story, “Evil Robot Monkey” was on the Hugo ballot.
• Besides writing, I am a professional puppeteer and voice actor and have worked in the arts for the last twenty years. I served on the Board of Directors and as the Vice President of UNIMA-USA, the American branch of the international puppetry organization.
• My work in the arts has give me experience in how effective non-profits function, as well as grant-writing and volunteer management.

• I live with my husband, Rob, in Portland, OR.

My primary focus as Vice President would be to continue the work that the current board has done to give SFWA organization stability. In addition, to the points in John Scalzi’s overall goals I would like to improve our outreach to industry professionals. Since our new website went live last summer 132 new members have joined SFWA, compared with 98 total in 2008. While this upward trend is good, it is obvious that we can improve our communication to both the membership and the larger SF and Fantasy community.

I look forward to continuing my work for SFWA as part of the 2010-2011 Board of Directors.

Yours,

Mary Robinette Kowal

]]> http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/im-running-for-vice-president-of-sfwa/feed/ 12 http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/fan-mail/ http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/fan-mail/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:21 +0000 Mary Robinette Kowal http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/?p=6088 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The awards will be presented at the 2009 Nebula Awards® Weekend, April 24-26,2009 in Los Angeles, California. For more information on the awards and the Nebulas Weekend, please see http://www.nebulaawards.com/index.php/nebulaweekend

Novels

Little Brother – Cory Doctorow (Tor, Apr08)
Powers - Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt, Sep07)
Cauldron - Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov07)
Brasyl - Ian McDonald (Pyr, May07)
Making Money – Sir Terry Pratchett (Harper, Sep07)
Superpowers – David J. Schwartz (Three Rivers Press, Jun08)

Novellas

“The Spacetime Pool” – Catherine Asaro (Analog, Mar08)
“Dark Heaven” – Gregory Benford (Alien Crimes, ed. Mike Resnick, SFBC, Jan07)
“Dangerous Space” – Kelley Eskridge (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
“The Political Prisoner” – Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF, Aug08)
“The Duke in His Castle” – Vera Nazarian (Norilana Books, Jun08)

Novelettes

“If Angels Fight” – Richard Bowes (F&SF, Feb08)
“The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” – James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s, Feb08)
“Dark Rooms” – Lisa Goldstein (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 07)
“Pride and Prometheus” – John Kessel (F&SF, Jan08)
“Night Wind” – Mary Rosenblum (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08)
“Baby Doll” – Johanna Sinisalo (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, ed. James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Tor, Jun07 [trans. from the Finnish by David Hackston])
“Kaleidoscope” – K.D. Wentworth (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

“The Button Bin” – Mike Allen (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07)
“The Dreaming Wind” – Jeffrey Ford (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Viking, Jul07)
“Trophy Wives” – Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, DAW Books, Jan08)
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”- Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, Jul08)
“The Tomb Wife”- Gwyneth Jones (F&SF, Aug07)
“Don’t Stop” – James Patrick Kelly(Asimov’s, Jun07)
“Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” – Ruth Nestvold (F&SF, Jan08)

Scripts

The Dark Knight – Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer (Warner Bros., Jul08)
WALL-E” Screenplay – Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter (Walt Disney June 2008)
The Shrine – Brad Wright (Stargate Atlantis, Aug08)

Norton

Graceling – Kristin Cashore (Harcourt, Oct08)
Lamplighter – D.M. Cornish (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 2, Putnam Juvenile, May08)
Savvy – Ingrid Law (Dial, May08)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt and Company, Apr08)
Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) – Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt, Sep08)

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.

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 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 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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>

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

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

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.

1. It lacks continuity.
2. There are no clear lines of communication
3. The public interface is out-dated.
4. Volunteers’ time is not efficiently managed.

Here is how I would like to tackle those items.

1. When I was the Secretary of UNIMA-USA (The American branch of the International puppetry organization, which is the oldest continually operating arts organization in the world), I was responsible for updating and maintaining an Officer’s Handbook. This contained, not only the minutes and the bylaws, but also a detailed description of the goal of each committee and the semi-annual reports of the committees.

I would like to implement a similar system for SFWA.

2. At the moment, when a committee is created, it exists as an entity of its own, without reporting to a specific member of the board. The problem with this is that when a committee becomes inactive, it can languish in this condition for months or years without anyone noticing. Several times during the past months, I’ve contacted a committee chair, only to have them say, “Oh. Am I still on that committee?”

I would like to re-evaluate the committee structure, and rebuild it using more vertical lines of communication. This will create more accountability and a smoother line of communication. For your interest, I have done a diagram of the current committee structure and a proposed restructuring.

3. We all know the website is outdated. Rather than using a committee to redesign this, because we all know how successful design by committee is, I would like to see SFWA hire an actual web-designer to do a complete revamping of the system, including adding a forum.

In particular, I want to see redundancies removed. For instance, we have a team of extremely hardworking volunteers who update the Nebula Recommendations. It is all hard-coded with HTML in several different places. This is something that cries out for automation, so that the volunteers merely need to moderate it and check for errors.

4. SFWA uses the principle “Want something done, ask the busy person” so that the brunt of the effort comes down on a few people. I want to implement online volunteer management software, which will track availability, hours, and skills. Let’s stop burning out the volunteers.

About me: I have spent most of the past seventeen years working in the non-profit sector. Volunteers are the backbone of non-profits and I’ve managed them on projects ranging from running a week-long festival to getting envelopes stuffed to making a cyclops head. In addition to being a writer, I’m a small business owner and freelancer. I’ve got the publishing credits to be an active SFWA member, but more importantly, I know how to run a non-profit efficiently.

Short Stories — 7
Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse – Duncan, Andy (Eclipse 1: New Science Fiction And Fantasy, Jonathan Strahan, Ed., Night Shade Books, Oct07)
Titanium Mike Saves the Day – Levine, David D. (F&SF, Apr07)
Captive Girl – Pelland, Jennifer (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
Always – Fowler, Karen Joy (Asimov’s, May07 (apr/may07 issue))
For Solo Cello, op. 12 – Kowal, Mary Robinette (Cosmos, Mar07 (Feb/Mar07))
The Padre, the Rabbi, and the Devil His Own Self – Fletcher, Melanie (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
The Story of Love – Nazarian, Vera (Salt of the Air, Prime Books, Sep06)

2007 Preliminary Nebula Ballot

Novels – 13
Vellum: The Book of All Hours – Duncan, Hal (Del Rey, Apr06 (Macmillan hardcover Nov05 (UK)))
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling, J. K. (Scholastic Press, Jul07)
Odyssey – McDevitt, Jack (Ace, Nov06)
Mainspring – Lake, Jay (Tor, Jun07)
The Accidental Time Machine – Haldeman, Joe (Ace, Aug07)
Species Imperative #3: Regeneration – Czerneda, Julie E. (DAW, May06)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union – Chabon, Michael (HarperCollins, May07)
The New Moon’s Arms – Hopkinson, Nalo (Warner Books, Feb07)
Blindsight – Watts, Peter (Tor, Oct06)
Rollback – Sawyer, Robert J. (Analog, Feb07 (serialized in Oct06 through Jan/Feb07 issues; Tor book, Apr07))
The Outback Stars – McDonald, Sandra (Tor, May07)
Strange Robby – Rosen, Selina (Meisha Merlin Publishing, Jul06 (E-mail selinarosen@cox.net for copies))
Ragamuffin – Buckell, Tobias (Tor, Jun07)

Novellas – 5
Kiosk – Sterling, Bruce (F&SF, Jan07)
Memorare – Wolfe, Gene (F&SF, Apr07)
Stars Seen Through Stone – Shepard, Lucius (F&SF, Jul07)
The Helper and His Hero – Hughes, Matt (F&SF, Mar07 (Feb07 & Mar07))
Fountain of Age – Kress, Nancy (Asimov’s, Jul07)

Novelettes – 13
The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom – Kail, Andrea (Writers of the Future Volume 23, Algis Budrys, Ed., Galaxy Press, Sep07)
A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange – Bernobich, Beth (Asimov’s, Jun06)
The Fiddler of Bayou Teche – Sherman, Delia (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter – Ryman, Geoff (F&SF, Nov06)
Sister of the Hedge – Hines, Jim C. (Realms of Fantasy, Jun06)
The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change – Johnson, Kij (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Things That Aren’t – Burstein, Michael A.; and Greenberger, Robert (Analog, Apr07)
Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders – Resnick, Mike (Asimov’s, Jan08)
Safeguard – Kress, Nancy (Asimov’s, Jan07)
Tonino and the Incubus – Robinson, Peg (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue — #2))
The Children’s Crusade – Bailey, Robin Wayne (Heroes in Training, Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines, Ed., DAW, Sep07)
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate – Chiang, Ted (F&SF, Sep07)
Not of this Fold – Shunn, William (An Alternate History of the 21st Century, Spilt Milk Press, Sep07)

Scripts — 7
Children of Men – Cuaron, Alfonso & Sexton, Timothy J. and Arata, David and Fergus, Mark & Ostby, Hawk (Universal Studios, Dec06)
The Prestige – Nolan, Christopher and Nolan, Jonathon (Newmarket Films, Oct06 (Oct 20, 2006 — based on the novel by Christopher Priest))
Pan’s Labyrinth – del Toro, Guillermo (Time/Warner, Jan07)
The Discarded – Ellison, Harlan and Olson, Josh (Masters of Science Fiction, ABC-TV, Apr07)
V for Vendetta – Wachowski, Larry & Wachowski, Andy (Warner Films, Mar06 (released 3/17/2006 — Written by the Wachowski Brothers, based on the graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd and published by Vertigo/DC Comics))
World Enough and Time – Zicree, Marc Scott and Reaves, Michael (Star Trek: New Voyages, http://www.startreknewvoyages.com, Aug07 (Aired 8/23/07))
Blink – Moffat, Steven (Doctor Who, BBC/The Sci-Fi Channel, Sep07 (Aired on SciFi Channel 14 Sep07))

Norton Books — 4
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling, J. K. (Scholastic Press, Jul07)
Into the Wild – Durst, Sarah Beth (Penguin Razorbill, Jun07)
Vintage: A Ghost Story – Berman, Steve (Haworth Positronic Press, Mar07)
Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog – Wilce, Ysabeau S. (Harcourt, Jan07)

Note that the Norton Jury may add to this. I’ve asked them to let me know by Monday morning if the intend to do so.

Once they post the official preliminary ballot, I’ll share it here, because a couple of my favorites have made it as well. I’m tremendously excited for the authors and want to see them make it to the final ballot.

I am so, very, very excited and pleased today.

My opinion on the Nebulas is that one of the primary benefits comes from the ballot itself. Simply put, any story that makes it on the ballot will automatically get a much wider readership as people review stories for voting. So, when I’m recommending stories, I’m choosing stories that I think people ought to read, whether or not I think the story is ultimately likely to win the award.

Getting on the ballot is a boost to writer because it does raise their profile, and thus, people are more likely to notice their other work later. It might not be a conscious thing, but you see someone on the Nebula ballot and next time, by golly, you’ll see their name and think, “I’ve heard of her.”

So here are writers who I want to support and think that you should read their stories.

Novelettes
Andrea Kail: The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom (Writers of the Future Volume 23) This is a brilliantly done epistolary tale told in a series of letters from Tutankahmen to Abraham Lincoln. Trust me, it makes perfect, chilling sense when you read it. Beautifully and heart-breakingly done.
It also has eight recommendations and its eligibility ends in March. Go! Recommend it! Do you really want to see it not make the ballot because you didn’t take the twenty minutes it will take to read this gorgeous story? I didn’t think so.

Ted Kosmatka: The Prophet of Flores (Asimov’s, Sep07) Holy cow! This is a freaky blend of SF and alternate history. The deep-story to this one? Intelligent design is real. The earth is only 5800 years old and carbon-dating proves it. And then someone finds a fossil that turns everything upside down. Seven recommendations thus far, but this one has eligibility until September, so I’m not quite as frantic about it making the ballot. But, you’ll be missing out if you don’t read it.

Livia Llewellyn: The Four Hundred Thousand I don’t know how to describe this one without giving away the creepy turns this chilling SF story takes. To grossly over-simplify it, this is about the right to choose. But, look, there’s a link so you can go read it. And do.

Jennifer Pelland: Mercytanks The person who pointed this one out to me said that it was the first time they’d really seen far-future done well. And how.

Short Stories:
Richard Bowes has two I liked: A Tale for the Short Days (Coyote Road, Trickster Tale) and King of the Big Night Hours(Subterranean, Sep07). The thing that he does, particularly with the King of the Big Night Hours, is tell a story that seems so absolutely, totally grounded in reality that it makes you wonder why you haven’t noticed any magic happening in your life. I mean, these seem like they are things that actually happened.

Vylar Kaftan: Kill Me Extremely evocative SF. The story is deceptively simple. A professional masochist has a device which records her thoughts so that she can be killed and brought back. But there’s a price; there’s always a price.

Andrea Kail: Soft Like a Rabbit I read this the first time as I was typesetting Fantasy. It stopped me cold. I forgot what I was supposed to be doing and just read the story. When I finished I couldn’t understand why I’d never read anything of Andrea Kail’s before. She’s a power-house and tells economical and wrenching stories. Have tissues standing by when you read this.

Nancy Kress: End Game I listened to this one at Escape Pod. Again, SF. Have you ever wished you could just concentrate on one thing at a time? Listen to this and rethink your wish.

David D. Levine: Titanium Mike Saves the Day This is probably the first light-hearted one I’ve mentioned. People always need tall tales; why should outerspace be any different? A fine example of yarn-spinning.

Lisa Mantchev: Six Scents Six tales in one. I could sum this up as tales of famous fictional women and their favorite perfumes, but really, it would not do justice to the brutally clever writing here. For example: “Men find it hard to fall in love with a dead girl. They tell her it’s a turn-off that they take her hand at the movies and a finger lands in the popcorn.”

Joy Marchard: Pallas at Noon lives in the uncanny place between things that could actually happen and the magic that lies just on the other side of that. I don’t even know how to describe this story, but definitely find a copy of Interfictions and read this. It will make you weep and feel hope and despair all at the same time.

Holly Phillips: The Oracle Spoke is quite possibly my favorite story this year. It’s the one that I desperately wish I had written. Please read it.

Cat Rambo: Foam on the Water You think Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid has a chilling ending? Ha! He could have taken lessons from Cat Rambo’s story.

I’m not doing mini-reviews of the novels, because I know you won’t have time to read any between now and then. But here are some that I think you should read after the first of the year.

Chris Barzak, One for Sorrow; Tobias Buckell, Ragamuffin; Jay Lake, Mainspring; Ekaterina Sedia, The Secret History of Moscow.

And finally, I will finish with a totally shameless self-pimp.

Look! For Solo Cello, op. 12 has six whole Nebula recommendations. This is makes me squee with girlish pleasure.

All right folks, there’s still reading to do. Go forth recommend stories! (And I hereby open this up for shameless promotion. Got a story you want read? Link away!)

As part of a study on contracts, SFWA is seeking to enlarge and update their database of representative contract terms from the major publishers. Authors interested in participating may email e-contracts, or scans of their paper contracts, to president@sfwa.org or mail paper copies to SFWA, Attn: Michael Capobianco, at P.O. Box 877, Chestertown, MD 21620. Please redact anything that you don’t want to reveal.

If possible, please note if the contract is boilerplate language or if it has been negotiated. Of particular interest are e-book rights.

I’m starting to get volunteers paired with tasks.

For instance, I asked one of our graphic design volunteers if he wanted to whip up a t-shirt in response to something Jim Hines said. I quote from his comments.

I asked earlier about reasons for joining and staying with SFWA. The best answer I’ve seen all day was posted in the newsgroups tonight.

While talking about SFWA’s PR today in the newsgroup, I made the following comment:

“I’m not trying to say we need a bunch of SFWA cheerleaders running around sprinkling happy dust and farting rainbows at people…”

Within a few hours, we had Nebula-winning authors volunteering to chair the Farting Rainbow committee. And then this link:

http://www.zazzle.com/sfwa_farting_rainbow_t_shirt-235210275612449275.

Why stick with SFWA? Because it’s full of delightfully insane authors who do things like this.

Please note that all proceeds go to the Emergency Medical Fund.

See how much fun volunteers can have? All of this new support makes me fart rainbows of joy.

I’ve volunteered to help SFWA by chairing the Service to SFWA committee, which has been revamped to recruit, retain and reward volunteers. Any service organization, like SFWA, relies on its members to be active participants in supporting its goals. More specifically, it relies on its active members to set those goals.

I have not been happy with a number of things about SFWA lately, however, when I look at the organization as a whole it has accomplished some very good things. Griefcom, the Legal Defense Fund, the Emergency Medical Fund, raising the pro-rate standard from 3 -5 cents… These are good things that volunteers accomplished. At its core, SFWA exists to promote and aid Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers.

That’s me. I am a science-fiction and fantasy writer.

So my choice is to walk away from the good things or to try and change the things that I don’t like. I want an organization that represents me and that represents my interests. From working with other non-profits, I’ve found that quickest way to be taken seriously is to volunteer. So that’s why I’m doing this.

And that’s why, if you aren’t happy, I think you should consider volunteering. Shift the balance. Help me.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can help your fellow Science-Fiction and Fantasy authors, please fill out the following questionnaire and email it to sfwavolunteer@gmail.com or leave it in the comments here.

1. I am interested in volunteering for SFWA — [short-term/long-term] (ie.a quick one-time job, versus an ongoing position)

2. I can offer [x] hours per month for volunteer work.

3. I am interested in learning more about volunteering to help with
a) Website
b) Writing related advice
c) Legal advice or issues (ie contracts, copyright, etc.)
d) Outreach (ie, Youth, Speaker’s bureau, Conventions, etc.)
e) Publicity (ie publications, Nebulas, PR, etc.)
f) Operations (ie audits, procedures, run for office, etc.)
g) Grunt Work (ie stuffing envelopes, sorting lists, lifting tables, etc.)
h) Other (ie I got mad skillz you don’t even know to ask about, teleportation, graphic design, an active fan base, FTL travel, etc.)

4. My SFWA membership status is: [non-member, affiliate, associate, active]

Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to working with you.

Mary Robinette Kowal

Edited to add: You don’t need to be a member to volunteer for anything except those things that involve voting, such as running for office or chairing a committee. All you need is an interest in support science-fiction and fantasy writers, or concern with helping to shape the future of the organization.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
(In comments, would you please let me know if you’re eligible, why or why not? Anonymous comments are fine.)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Please pass the word along. I’d like to get a bigger cross-section than just the people who read my website and LJ.

Edited to add: I would prefer it if the comments on this post were restricted to your opinions and experience only. Please do not refute others’ comments at this time, no matter how tempting it gets. Thanks!

Further edited to add: To make an anonymous comment, use an obviously fake name. Your email will not show up and is only used to verify that you are not a spambot.

I want to know what it’s going to take to organize a new Genre Writers’ Guild.

One that promotes the work of the up-and-coming writer as well as the old guard.

One that recognizes the power of teh internetz as a promotional tool, and is open to new formats–including, but not limited to–CCL.

One that fosters and encourages creativity and speculation and all of the things that fantasy and science fiction stands for.

What does it take? Where do I sign up? Let’s cease trying to fix something that is broken–at least, by MY definition of the word, because it is no longer serving/meeting MY needs as a writer.

Make a list, people. Let’s get this ball rolling.

In comments, I posted this response.:

I have to say that I think this is not a good idea.

They have screwed up royally, but the organization already has name recognition and relationships with publishers. Do you know how long it will take to wrest power away to an upstart organization? Years. Meanwhile, what we would then have is yet another schism which would weaken the power of both groups. And then, in ten years, when you have established a reputation and are making a difference, some group of misfits will be elected and screw things up. Thank you, I’ve seen this done with other groups. It makes you feel good now…

Or, you can put all of this energy into getting a really vibrant group of people to run for SFWA next year. Start campaigning now.

You don’t like the way the organization is being run? You’ll note that these candidates ran uncontested until the last possible moment. I personally didn’t notice anyone trying to fix something that was broken. I just see people complaining about it.

I’m planning on running for office.

In honour of Dr Hendrix, I am declaring Monday 23rd April International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. On this day, everyone who wants to should give away professional quality work online. It doesn’t matter if it’s a novel, a story or a poem, it doesn’t matter if it’s already been published or if it hasn’t, the point is it should be disseminated online to celebrate our technopeasanthood.

Whatever you’re posting should go on your own site. I’ll make a post here on the day and people can post links in comments to whatever they’re putting up on. If you are a member of SFWA, or SFWA qualified but not a member (like me) you get extra pixel-spattered points for doing this. If other people want to collect the links too, that would be really cool. Please disseminate this information widely.

I will be posting a link to the free fiction I already have up, plus a new story. I will also have the delight of making a very cool and entirely appropriate announcement. Yes. Yes, you have to wait a week to hear it.

Finally, there’s a candidate I can support. Jed Hartman, of Strange Horizons, announced his write-in campaign today. I think, if you read his platform, you’ll agree that this is a candidate worth endorsing.

Edited to add: For reasons that are unclear, YouTube seems to have taken the video down. It was up for about two hours. Conspiracy? Thank heavens there’s this other company Google–wait.

Why thank you, thank you very much. Here’s another.

(Yes, Eric, I know I need to add the fast voiceover at the end.)

If you are an active member and have lost/tossed your ballot, you are entitled to a replacement, and I urge you to ask for one and vote, no matter who your choices might be. SFWA needs contested elections.

I also serve on the Membership Committee. We are in theory up to date with applications. If you have applied and not gotten a response, it’s time to make sure your application didn’t vanish in a computer glitch.

I figured it was buried and worth noting.

The story originated as part of a flash challenge contest at Liberty Hall. It’s now about twice the length that it was. Damien Broderick, the fiction editor, is a sweetheart and gave me a rewrite request on this story and then, bless him, had been willing to work with me during the rewrite process. It’s a much stronger story and that’s due to his insights.

Plus!

Each short story is accompanied by a lavish double-page illustration commissioned especially for each piece of original fiction we publish

I love art. Oh, happy, happy dancing.

SFWA? Oh, yes. Although they don’t have Cosmos listed, so I’m filling out the SFWA qualifying form and then I’ll apply for membership. Ha ha!

Exhibit One.
The banner at the top says, “A Madcap Blonde and Her Reckless Lover Challenge a World of Rollicking Chaos”

Hell’s Pavement by Damon Knight, the founder of SFWA.

Look at these beauties.

I’m particularly fascinated by the cover for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Star of Danger. I always think of the Darkover novels as being fantasy, even though I know it’s technically science-fiction. I’m sure it’s an effect of marketing. When the book first came out, in 1965, science-fiction was the hot thing.

Look at the difference in the 1965 original cover (which I picked up at the kolaport) , the 1985 cover, and the 2000 cover.