It started with a standard publicist e-mail, letting me know author Nick Harkaway was available for interviews in conjunction with the upcoming release of his new novel Angelmaker.

Is he? I thought? Is he really?

To the Twitters!

Hey, @Harkaway! Got an e-mail from your publicist saying you're available for interviews! I'm gonna set up an interview ALL ABOUT STOATS.

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John Scalzi (@scalzi) February 06, 2012

1. Do you like stoats? 2. Any compelling stoat stories? 3. If you were a stoat, what sort of stoat would you be? @harkaway

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John Scalzi (@scalzi) February 06, 2012

@scalzi You know the difference between a polecat and a ferret?

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Nick Harkaway (@Harkaway) February 06, 2012

@Harkaway Please limit your responses to stoats only, please.

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John Scalzi (@scalzi) February 06, 2012

@scalzi 1. Yes. They are elegant little killing machines made of cute.

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Nick Harkaway (@Harkaway) February 06, 2012

@scalzi 2. No. Stoat stories are sprawling narratives dealing loosely with hunting rabbits. They eschew character and plot for religion.

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Nick Harkaway (@Harkaway) February 06, 2012

.@scalzi An apostoat.

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Nick Harkaway (@Harkaway) February 06, 2012

I'm totally blogging those, you know, @harkaway.

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John Scalzi (@scalzi) February 06, 2012

And so I have.

Angelmaker, by the way, out March 20 here in the US. No guarantees as to any content regarding stoats. But you never know.

The Nebula Awards nomination period is rapidly coming to a close (it ends on February 15) and there’s about five weeks left to nominate works for the Hugo Awards (including the Campbell Award). As I am involved in both awards this year — I’m the president of SFWA and the toastmaster of Chicon 7, this year’s Worldcon — I want to encourage everyone who is eligible to nominate for either of these awards to do so. One way to do that is to ask folks to suggest potential nominees. Last month I gave space to writers/artists/editors to suggest the works they did that are eligible; today I’d like to open it up to science fiction and fantasy readers and fans.

Why here? Because up to 50,000 people read the site a day, and many of them are Nebula and/Hugo nominators, and some of them would really appreciate some suggestions. This is a good place to make such recommendations.

Before we begin, a couple of quick rules:

1. Please make sure that what you’re suggesting, work or person, is actually eligible for awards consideration this year. Generally speaking that means the work was published (or otherwise produced) in the last calendar year (i.e., 2011). If you’re not sure what you’re suggesting is eligible, please check. Otherwise you’re wasting your time and the time of everyone reading the thread for recommendations.

Also, it’s helpful if, when making a suggestion, you identify the category the work would be eligible for; so if you were going to suggest a novel, writing “Best Novel: [name of work, author of work]” up front would be awesome. This is especially useful in short fiction categories, where there are short stories, novelettes and novellas.

2. If the work you’re suggesting is (legally) readable online, feel free to provide a link, but note that too many links in one post (usually three or more) might send your post into the moderation queue, from whence I will have to free it in order for it to show up. If this happens, don’t panic, I’ll be going through the moderation queue frequently today to let posts out.

3. Only suggest the work of others. Self-suggestions will be deleted from the thread. If you want to suggest something you created, use the creators thread instead.

4. Don’t suggest my work, please. I’ve already posted here about what of mine is eligible; this thread is for everything else.

5. The comment thread is only for making recommendations, not for commentary on the suggestions others are making or anything else. Extraneous, not-on-topic posts will be snipped out of the thread.

So, readers and fans: This year, for the Hugos, Nebulas and other science fiction and fantasy related awards, what (and who) would you suggest other people keep in mind when they fill out their nomination ballots? Please tell us in the comments!

They are:

1. Patrick Nielsen Hayden is not only a Hugo-winning editor over at Tor, and my editor, but he’s also a damn fine guitarist, and plays in a rootsy rock band known as Whisperado. That assemblage of musical ne’er-do-wells have just released their first full-length album, I’m Not the Road. If you wished, you could purchase it, in physical form at CD Baby, or in non-corporeal form either at CD Baby or iTunes.

Here, have a listen to their song, “Over You”:

If you’d like to hear more, PNH has put up more samples on his own site.

2. Brian Francis Slattery is not only a writer of complex and interesting science fiction, but is also a damn fine musician, which I know first hand because he and a group of his friend provided musical accompaniment for me, Lev Grossman, Cat Valente and Scott Westerfeld at our group reading at the New York Public Library last year; he and his friends did me in 7/8 time, or as I like to call it, “Sting’s favorite time signature.” Slattery and the band (now known as the “Slick Six Five”) also have a new release out, Pictures From a Liberation, with lyrics derived from Slattery’s novel Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America. The album’s up for a listen and download over at Bandcamp, and it’ll be one of the more adventurous musical listens you’ll have today.

3. Joe Rybicki is not only one of my former editors, but also a damn fine guitarist (sensing a theme here, are you) who puts out music under the nom de rawk of Johnny High Ground. But before that, he was in a punk band called “Whatever…”, and you may imagine I get a kick out of that. Fans of that band (and those who just enjoy old school punkishness) will be glad to know Whatever…’s discography is now available on Bandcamp. It’s just like moshing, in digital form.

There, you’re all music’d up and ready to face your Monday. Go get ‘em, tiger.