Let's take a moment to talk about the Hugo Awards.

[seanan_mcguire]

Hi.

My name is Seanan McGuire, and I'd like to talk to you about the Hugo Awards.

I'm going to be upfront here: I do have a potential horse in this race. I've posted about my eligibility for this year's awards already, and I've never made any secret of the fact that I really would love to win a Hugo for fiction. In my perfect world, this would

Comments

[spectralbovine]

Mark would probably be the first gay person-of-color to be nominated for Best Fan Writer, too, I'd guess. Do it for DIVERSITY. Also because he totally deserves it. Do it for DESERVITY.

Mark Oshiro is also of Mark Watches, and he spent the last year writing about Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse, and, without fail, he gave me a renewed and new appreciation for each show, discovering themes I'd never picked up on before and illuminating character arcs I hadn't paid much attention to. Mark makes me love things more than I already did, and, you guys, I already love things a lot.

[seanan_mcguire]

Mark is like an overflowing ocean of love inspiration.

[tygerversionx]

Well hello there, spectral... fancy meeting you over here...

[spectralbovine]

Hello! I don't recognize your name here. Who are you over there?

[beccastareyes]

Someone (John Scalzi? Sure, let's blame him!) also suggested nominating 'Mark Reads Shadow War of the Night Dragons' for the short-form best performance. If you can fit it on your ballots for things other than Phineas and Ferb and Fringe. (Mostly I want to see more things in that category that are not Doctor Who. Because while I appreciate Doctor Who, having it have more than half the ballot slots is a bit excessive.)

[spectralbovine]

Blame Scalzi for everything!

(Especially this, because it really was him.)

(And while it would be cute to get that on the ballot, Mark has a much better chance of making it on the ballot for Best Fan Writer. In 2011, it only took 30 nominations. In 2012, it took 41. I know for a fact that more than 41 people read Mark's sites! If only they all had memberships..)

[beccastareyes]

True. I know Mark is going to be one of my picks for Fan Writer.

(And I don't watch many shows, so he'll probably get on the Short Form from me anyway. Because I'd rather nominate awesome things than leave a category blank.)

[tygerversionx]

Scalzi enjoys taking blame for everything. And laughing maniacally about it. Possible hand-rubbing in villainous glee, too.

[reedrover]

Thank you for introducing me to Mark. I had not known of him, and there he is, reading Tortall of all things. Of course I'm going to love him and hug him and call him... Mark. And I have a ballot with a nice empty line sitting in front of me just waiting for his name.

In case there are lazy LJ-readers like me out there, you can subscribe to his feed at http://markreadsnet.livejournal.com/ and have it come straight to LJ.

[spectralbovine]

I will say that the comments on Mark's sites are almost as fun as-if not more fun than-the reviews, and Tamora Pierce comments on the Tortall posts.

[seanan_mcguire]

Yay!

[filkferengi]

Thank you very much for sharing this link!

[wendyzski]

Thank you.

This is the first time I've ever been eligible to nominate, and other than a few quick OMG MY FAVORITE then I started getting overwhelmed with the choices and the sheer volume of material that's eligible. Combine that with my vague confusion about what makes some of the categories different (I have never keep short story and novella straight in my head) and I had a three page ballot with like 3 things written down.

So I really appreciate people in the know who post clear not only "Here is the stuff I did that is eligible" but also "Here is stuff I think is worthy of nomination and here is where you write it down". I don't always take the advice given - sometimes either I didn't read it or I didn't like it, but it's helpful to have some actual yes/no choices laid out for me as opposed to DECIDE ALL THE THINGS!!!!!

[seanan_mcguire]

Exactly. No one's going to stand over you and fill out your ballot ("NOMINATE THIS OR I WILL HATE YOU!!!!"), but having guides and suggestions can really help to make choices clearer, and make it more likely that the things you do want to nominate will have a shot.

[tiferet]

I can't afford to sign up in time to nominate unless I get a windfall before the end of the month (I just got hit with the hugest and scariest student loan thing) but I have put down the date that I have to join by in order to vote for you after you get your nomination (and I do believe you will).

[seanan_mcguire]

<3