The Drink Tank 341 - Handicapping The Hugos 2013 That’s a cover by the awesome Keliana Now, here’s the annual Handicapping SO, this year, there’s a lot to talk about Tayler (http://kiki-tayler.deviantart.com/). I issue. It’s the big one, typically, and I’ve been and I’m lucky enough to be joined by some great hope we’ll have more of her awesome work driving myself crazy trying to get the thing done, folks in this one. There’s James Bacon, with his in our pages! All the photos in this issue are but here it is. BAM! It was a tough road to make three nominations, writing on comics, and Best from the great Richard Man and, officially are it this year, so much to go through, but it was Fancast and Fan Writer nominee Tansy Roberts, Copyright (C) 2011-2013 Richard Man http:// also very much worth it! Lots of good stuff on has a piece on the Hugo for Best John W. Cambell richardmanphoto.com. There’s also art from the ballot this year. Award for Best New Writer! There’s more, of Steve Stiles, Galen Dara, and the return of Mr. And lots of great stuff was left off, sadly. course, and as I’ve been swimming through all Teddy Harvia! Woohoo! More on that later... Some I’ll beweep in more detail in the various the categories, my eyes are still a bit crossed sections. Every year there’s amazing stuff not put from all the work of putting this one together! Indeed! It’s the 7th consequetive year on the ballot, but there are some very important that The Drink Tank is on the ballot! This is stuff to me personally that didn’t end up on the awesome and there are so many folks to thank! ballot and that makes me Of course, James Bacon, for coming along and personally sad. making it so much more fun to do this thing! And maybe that’s Bill Burns, of course, who has made it possible a part of my personal to do this thing by providing eFanzines.com! attachment to these There’s also Taral Wayne, the finest writer and awards. Between my Dad’s one of the biggest things missing from the ballot introducing me to them, to this year. Mo Starkey, MO!, who we love and has my own personal infatuation been great for us at The Drink Tank and whose with the winners over the win last year was a very special moment. Steve years, and the road I took to Stiles, Ditmar, Taral, Hilary Pearlman, Claire the ballot and to the Rocket, Garcia, Ric Bretschneider, and so many others! I’ve got a lot of connection And there are the writers. Deb Bretschneider, with the Hugos as a general Jason Wiener, Lloyd Penney, Tangylwyst, and on concept, and to many of and on and on. We had a lot of great folks in the the specific nominees. pages of the Drink Tank and I am so grateful that Nothing makes me happier we’re on the ballot again! than seeing a friend on the And also for Journey Planet! We’re on ballot for the first time (Mo the ballot along with Emma King and Helen Starkey will attest to this Montgomery (The Gender Parity issue) and as I nearly killed her with Pete Young (the Blade Runner issue). 2012 was a jumping tackle hug when the best year yet for Journey Planet and I’m so she first told me), and seeing glad we can be on the ballot with the three of some left off, especially them, the best trio I could imagine working with! people whose work I love It’s always a good thing. and admire, makes me sad. Photo Copyright (C) 2011-2013 Richard Man http://richardmanphoto. How Handicapped Are The Hugos? Just Because It’s Not a Hugo Doesn’t Mean their final year of eligibility. By howeird It’s Not Awesome. Sadly, just as one sign of ageing is the way that dentists, doctors, policemen and The Doctor There has been a lot of discussion in By Tansy Rayner Roberts all start to look alarmingly young, another is the Tweetland, on the Book of Face and even on The John W Campbell award occupies an some journal sites (live and dreamy) about Hugo way that a ballot of Best New Writers is more odd sort of space at the bottom of the Hugo nominations and even the Hugos themselves likely every year to be a list of you haven’t got ballot. It’s not a Hugo, people are quick to add, being decided by the popularity of the authors around to reading yet, or have not even heard of. rather than by the quality of the work. but fewer and fewer each year know why that is That was how it was for me this year, so I think there is some truth to that. the case. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a Bad I set out on an quest to find out who these [Short answer: because it’s funded by Thing™. Here’s why: New Writers are, and why I should be paying sponsorship from Dell Magazines, not the Author popularity is a spiral. An author attention to them. writes something we enjoy, word gets around, Worldcon, and instead of a Hugo trophy you get others read and enjoy it. And word gets around a tiara] some more. Once we read and enjoy, we are Previous winners of the Campbell have now more aware of the author, and make of point of seeking that person’s work – both included C.J. Cherryh, Orson Scott Card, Lucius future and past. I’m pretty sure this is how most Shepard, Karen Joy Fowler, Ted Chiang, Mary of us “collect” our list of favorite authors. Doria Russell, Nalo Hopkinson, Cory Doctorow, If an author continues to produce work John Scalzi and Seanan McGuire. we enjoy, we are bound to read it, tell our friends, nominate it for a Hugo, vote for it for Previous nominees who have not in fact a Hugo. Those of us in a club such as BASFA won, incidentally, include George RR Martin, Suzy will also nominate and vote for the works of McKee Charnas, Joan D Vinge, Bruce Sterling, club members – not just because they are our Sheri S Tepper, Tad Williams, Lois McMaster http://richardmanphoto. friends, but because they are our very talented friends whose work we enjoy. Bujold, Delia Sherman, Kage Baker, Tobias S. So yes, Hugo nominations are a popularity Buckell, Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie contest. A contest where the contestants’ and Gail Carriger. popularity is based on the quality of their work. So, just making it as far as the ballot is a pretty big deal, right? Writers are only eligible for this during the two year period after their first professional sale, which means it’s a constantly changing ballot, and many of this year’s nominees are on Man Richard (C) 2011-2013 Copyright Photo Zen Cho (second year of eligibility) and as a magical legal thriller) was published in maxgladstone.com/ A Malaysian living in London, Zen is mostly October 2012. On Twitter: @maxgladstone known for her short stories and novelettes. Publisher’s Weekly said: “The combination Her novella “The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo” is on of legal thriller and steam-powered fantasy may Mur Lafferty (second year of eligibility) Amazon and available free on her website1 - she seem improbable, but Gladstone makes it work A podcaster long before the rest of the describes it as an epistolary romance set in the with an appealing cast and a setting rich with spec fic world caught up to the potentials of 1920’s. imaginative details, like a priest who shows his the form, Mur began using podcasts to discuss I have to say the thing that leaps out at devotion to a fire-god by chain-smoking, junkies her geek interests and share essays with “Geek me most about Zen during my research is her getting high on vampire bites, cops who become Fu Action Grip” which launched in December gorgeous talent for naming her stories. Her part of a hive-mind when on duty, and the binding 2004, and then “I Should Be Writing,” which short story titles include “The Earth Spirit’s of divine power by legal contracts.”3 documented her adventures as a developing Favourite Anecdote” (ASIM) and “First National Max was interviewed at Diverse Pages, writer. She also began podcasting her fiction in Forum on the Position of Minorities in Malaysia,” talking about the experience of writing a book serial form. (Fantastique Unfettered) a story which was a with a woman of colour as the main protagonist, Mur’s podcasting cred led to her becoming finalist in the Selangor Young Talent Awards 2011 and also how the global financial crisis inspired editor of Escape Pod (from 2010) and running and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. his novel: the Angry Robot podcast. Meanwhile, she made “In terms of style, I like what P. G. “This invisible world, populated by her first professional short fiction sale, “1963: Wodehouse says about there being two ways immortal, immaterial entities, was falling apart, The Argument Against Louis Pasteur” to Ann to write novels: “One is mine, making a sort of and its destruction had a real effect on how & Jeff VanderMeer’s anthology The Thackery T. musical comedy without music and ignoring real people lived their lives.