Back on April 1st I posted the list of the Full Ballot that I had submitted for my first time nominating works for the Hugo Awards.

This past Easter weekend the internet lit up with posts discussing the list released by the Hugo Awards committee of the finalists for each category.

I stand by my nominees, and was thrilled to see that in the Best Professional Artist category four out of the six (there was a tie) finalists were artists I championed for nomination. As you will see below, I missed it in several other areas.  My thoughts on various categories and nominees follow the list.

Continue reading And the Nominees Are… →

Over on SF Signal this weekend is an article that I edited as part of a series I am doing with author Alex Scarrow. You may be familiar with the name because of reviews I have done for his wonderful SF series featuring a spunky twenty-year old protagonist, Ellie Quin.

Alex Scarrow has a successful traditionally published series in the TimeRiders books, which my wife is currently enjoying, and he made the decision to self-publish the Ellie Quin series. In this article Alex Scarrow talks about that decision from both the positive and negative angles.

Those of you who are writers, or dream of being writers, should check this out, there is some very good information to be had from his experience thus far.

(Michael Whelan’s rendering of Shallan, part of the interior artwork for Brandon Sanderson’s new novel, Words of Radiance. Artwork copyright Michael Whelan and Tor Books)

Tuesday, March 4th is a day that has been marked on calendars for some time now. It is the day we see the release of the second volume of The Stormlight Archive series: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson.

The first book in the series, The Way of Kings, was something of an old-school approach to book publishing in that it contained colored interior art and was produced as its own work of art. Sanderson talks about that and about thick tomes of epic fantasy in this article. I cannot encourage you strongly enough to step away from this post briefly to read what Brandon Sanderson has to say. It expresses the kind of passion for genre and for books as objects that I hope all authors have about their work.

Now, to the question in the title: Do You Want to Read a Book?

Continue reading Do You Want to Read a Book? →

I recently wrote about my excitement to be participating in the Hugo nominating process for the first time. The Hugo Awards are open to anyone who wishes to participate, provided you are at least a Supporting member of World Con.

The annual Locus Awards are genre fiction awards that you also have a voice in, with one exception being that anyone can vote regardless of willingness/ability to invest your hard-earned cash. If you are a subscriber, or want to become one, your vote counts double, so there is an option to participate financially and receive an extra benefit from so doing.

The online ballot for nominations is now live and the staff at Locus have pre-seeded the ballot with works from their Recommended Reading list.  However, you have write-in options for each category and do not have to pick from the list.  The categories are:  Best SF Novel, Best Fantasy Novel, Best YA Book, Best First Novel, Best Collection, Best Anthology, Best Nonfiction Book, Best Art Book, Best Novella, Best Novelette, Best Short Story, Best Magazine or Fanzine, Best Book Publisher, Best Editor (Pro or Fan), and Best Artist (Pro or Fan).

You can nominate in any or all categories and can nominate up to 5 works/people in each category, ranking them 1-5.  Nominations are live until April 15th, with voting from the short list to come sometime after nominations are closed.

As the image included in this post indicates, the Year in Review issue of Locus Magazine is now available in digital and print format.  I can tell you from personal experience that this is a dangerously delightful must-buy if you are a fan of genre fiction and enjoy the annual “best of” lists that crop up on blogs and websites at year end.  I promise you that no matter how much you are in touch with the genre, there will be works here that you haven’t heard of.  The “dangerous” part of the delight is that the issue will undoubtedly add to your to-read list.

I encourage you to get out there and nominate.  Any work released in 2013 world-wide is eligible.  Take advantage of the opportunity, and let your voice be heard.