(For those of you who don’t know, the Hugo Awards are a Pretty Big Deal in the sci-fi and fantasy publishing world. Winning a Hugo is kinda like getting a Grammy, or an Emmy, or an Academy Award.)

Anyway, I was really excited when I read Tarol’s blog, because it made me realize I still had a chance to submit my nominations for this year’s Hugos.

And, embarrassingly enough, I don’t think that’s something I’ve ever done before.

It’s something I *mean* to do every year. And it’s something I *can* do because I almost always go to Worldcon. And it’s something I *should* do in order to be a responsible member of the publishing community….

But the truth is, I’m King of not having my shit together.

Well… that’s a little extreme. Maybe I’m only the Duke of not having my shit together. But I’m probably also the Marquis of forgetting what day it is sometimes, and the Earl of losing track of things when I get busy, and I own substantial lands in the Barony of being profoundly fucking clueless.

It’s pretty complicated. There’s a lot of subinfeudation going on.

The upshot is that I was the kid who couldn’t go on the field trip because he forgot to get his permission slip signed. And I grew up into the guy who typically thinks about voting on the Hugos two or three days before the award ceremony.

But I’m getting better. Last year I managed to vote on the Hugos. And this year, thanks to that well-timed blog, I’m going to submit my nominations and help determine who gets on the ballot in the first place.

Which leads me to the point of this blog.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. If you’re eligible to vote, I’d like you to consider nominating my editor, Betsy Wollheim, for Best Long Form Editor.

The simple reason is this, if not for her The Wise Man’s Fear simply wouldn’t exist.

Not only did Betsy take a risk on publishing big fat novel by an unknown author back in 2007. But when I was struggling with The Wise Man’s Fear, she gave me the time I needed to finish it.

She didn’t give it grudgingly, either. When I turned in my horrendously rough, patchwork first draft, Betsy told me that we needed to move the publication date so I had the time I needed to make the book better. I fought her on it, but she insisted. In doing so, she not only kept book two from being a incoherent, patchwork mess, but she she probably saved my entire career as well…

Luckily, Betsy knows what she’s doing. If not for her, I would have panicked, rushed, cut corners, and the end result would be that The Wise Man’s Fear would have been ‘meh’ at best. And more likely it would have been an absolute pile of shite.

So yeah. That’s all. I’m not going to go on singing her praises. That makes me feel like a lobbyist. The simple fact is that Betsy Wollheim was responsible for a lot of the goodness in The Wise Man’s Fear. She supported me when I really needed it, and gave me time to write you a book that I’m proud of. I’d like to see her get some recognition for that.

If you’re interested in nominating people for Hugos, here’s the link.

The deadline is for nominations is January 31st. If you’re like me, you might want to go in and vote now, before you forget.

pat

P.S. Some of the Worldbuilders auctions will be ending soon. If you know of someone who’d be interested in getting their unpublished manuscript read by professionals, I’d you might want to point them in the direction of this link.

Imagine my delight when The Name of the Wind came in #3 in the top 10, right behind Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and Gaiman’s American Gods.

Imagine my further delight when I found out they were asking authors to do little write ups about each of the books that made the top 10.

“Would you like, to do a write up for American Gods?” they asked me. “We know you’re a bit of a Gaiman fan….”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes I am.”

So I wrote a little piece about American Gods.

As part of the same poll, John Scalzi wrote piece about how he first encountered The Name of the Wind. It’s a shameful tale that includes the details of how I stalked him like some sort of stealthy, cowardly… something. Perhaps a tree lizard of some kind. Or an ocelot. Or maybe one of those deep-sea fangly fish.

Here’s a link to his post, which is much more entertaining than mine.

I’m still sorting through the photos from the contest. There were more than a thousand of them in all, with very little chaff, so it’s taking some time. But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing them soon…

pat

It takes up a whole city block. As I mentioned before on the blog, I’ve only been there once, and that was only for a bare 45 minutes or so. Even so, that was enough time for me to get lost.

And I’m not speaking metaphorically here. I was actually physically lost. Lost as in, “I don’t know where I came in or how I can get out.”

Simply said, if heaven turns out to be something like Powell’s, I wouldn’t complain too much.

As if that weren’t enough coolness all by itself, a friend recently stopped there and snapped a few pictures of what he found.

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Awww…. Thank you Powell’s.

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Wow. That’s unprecedentedly forthright. Thanks again, Powell’s.

And just a couple days ago, someone sent me a link to Powell’s “Puddly Awards” where customers and staff pick their favorite books. Even better, Powell’s then sells those books at a discount until the end of February. So you’ve still got a week or so to take advantage of it.

That’s the hat trick. Thanks a third time, Powell’s.

More soon,

pat

Right now I’m at GenCon, hunting the wily catgirl in her natural habitat.

While I’m busy, here’s something interesting from the New Yorker.

Yeah. Seriously.

pat