Last week I was interviewed by fanzine editor James Bacon for Journey Planet, the official fanzine of EasterCon, on the subject of fanzines and being nominated for the Best Fan Writer Hugo last year. Unbeknownst to the good Mr. Bacon, at the time we were talking I knew I was also nominated for Best Fan Writer this year, but because the nominations had not been officially announced I had to keep mum about it. So when he asked questions like “would you like to be nominated for Best Fan Writer again?” I had to pretend like I hadn’t been, yet. Cognitive dissonance is a funny thing. Sorry, James. I would have told you if I could have.

In any event, it’s a pretty good interview, and all of Journey Planet is well worth reading (and looking at, since it features sketches by Neil Gaiman), and you can get the PDF version of the zine here. My interview begins on page 21.

Phil Plait (of the Bad Astronomy blog) is getting an asteroid named after him. I’m so jealous I think my head might just explode. Congratulations, Phil, you lousy bastard.

Note to astronomers: if you happen to have any unnamed asteroids lying around you want to name after me, you just let me know. I don’t want to want to say I’ll bribe you — that would be wrong – but, you know. I’ve named characters after astronomers before. I’m just saying.

A depressing little story in the Columbus Dispatch: Almost one in ten Ohioans receives food stamps, and thanks to rising food costs (one presumes both because of rising transport costs and the fact that everyone’s planting corn for ethanol now, rather than food crops) that $1 per meal per person doesn’t go anywhere as far as it used to. As much as it would be easy and dismissive to suggest all these folks just need to get jobs, I’m guessing a lot of them do have jobs, just jobs whose pay sucks, and now sucks more because what they get paid buys even less (related story: people now using 25% of their paychecks for gas). The rejoinder: They should get better jobs. Yes, well. Welcome to Ohio, home of a collapsing manufacturing economy, where the motto is “At least it’s not as bad as Michigan. Yet.”

Note to self: Next Whatever charity drive: Local food bank.

I’m in the mood for promotion, both in the “self” and “other” flavors, so here we go:

* First, the final print edition of Subterranean magazine is available for pre-order, and for Old Man’s War completists, it includes the magazine debut of “Questions for a Soldier,” my short story which was previously only in chapbook form (and which is currently available, when it is available, for like $100). “Q4aS” slots in between Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades in the OMW timeline, and features the first appearance of places of and characters that recur in The Last Colony (and Zoe’s Tale). So if you love series continuity — and I know you do! — this is where to get it. Plus, the magazine also features new fiction by Sarah Monette, Jason Erik Lundberg, Michael Marshall Smith and a bunch of other folks. All for $6. I tell you, that’s value for your entertainment dollar.

* Second, my pal Mary Robinette Kowal has been nominated for the Campbell Award this year, which is awesome, and recognizes that as the only short-story writer in the bunch, she has an uphill battle for reader recognition, which is sad. So she’s hand-picked a selection of stories for you to peruse, for free, which tips the scales back into “totally awesome” territory once again. Enjoy, and if you’re a voter for this year’s Hugos and Campbells, please give her due consideration.

* Third, but wait! Here’s more Campbell-nominated goodness! Campbell-nominated author Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey has been released in free eBook form, also presumably for your awards voting consideration. Go here, and then scroll down to the bottom for the link to the downloadable version.

* Fourth, for those of you starting the rest of your Hugo story consideration, SF Signal is keeping track of and updating the list of nominated fiction available online — here’s where it stands at the moment, and if you go back from time to time, you may see it updated with new links.

(For those of you wondering when I’ll make The Last Colony available to Hugo voters in electronic form: It’s coming. Have to do a few things first.)

Having now primed the pump, I declare this an open pimp thread, in which you can feel free to promote the stuff you like right now, and/or promote something you have out there in the world. Promote friends! Promote yourself! Promote good dental hygiene! Because, really, there’s not enough of that in the world.

(Standard note: adding more than one link per comment may punt your comment into the moderating queue. Don’t panic if that happens; I’ll release it sooner or later.)

So: What do you want to tell us about?

This is definitely one of those “you either get it or you don’t” things.