Hugos, Helsinki
I vacillated for a bit but eventually paid my money and voted for the Hugos and the 2017 Site Selection.
The Hugos were of course a mess but ironically it made them less work that most years since there was so little to read. That said, I really enjoyed the Graphic Novel category and was also glad to have the ballot remind me how great the semiprozine landscape is currently.
As for 2017, I was happy to rank Helsinki first. It's no secret that I was a bit meh about their initial run, which I felt started off strong and enthusiastic but seemed to lose a lot of momentum. This time around things have looked much stronger and better organized. Plus the team has been better and getting across reasons to go to Helsinki specifically. Fingers crossed they'll win, though aside from the weather DC could be pretty great too.
I'll be sad missing Worldcon this year, especially with it being (relatively) close, but it's good to get swept back into its gravitational pull; voting, reading online discussions, watching friends start their prep for the con, and then eventually following the social media chatter during the con and the reports afterwards. Even if I can't be there this all makes it harder to drift too far out of the loop with work and other mundane distractions.
~Originally posted over on my website
The Hugos were of course a mess but ironically it made them less work that most years since there was so little to read. That said, I really enjoyed the Graphic Novel category and was also glad to have the ballot remind me how great the semiprozine landscape is currently.
As for 2017, I was happy to rank Helsinki first. It's no secret that I was a bit meh about their initial run, which I felt started off strong and enthusiastic but seemed to lose a lot of momentum. This time around things have looked much stronger and better organized. Plus the team has been better and getting across reasons to go to Helsinki specifically. Fingers crossed they'll win, though aside from the weather DC could be pretty great too.
I'll be sad missing Worldcon this year, especially with it being (relatively) close, but it's good to get swept back into its gravitational pull; voting, reading online discussions, watching friends start their prep for the con, and then eventually following the social media chatter during the con and the reports afterwards. Even if I can't be there this all makes it harder to drift too far out of the loop with work and other mundane distractions.
~Originally posted over on my website