Day: February 21, 2009

The reason I was in DC this weekend was that I was officiating the wedding of my friends Emily Weise and Michael King (now each taking the name of Weise-King), and I have to say it was a whole lot of fun, from the robot cake toppers to the part where a significant portion of the men dropped their pants, linked arms in a circle and bellowed lustily to the strains of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” At which point, someone there turned to me and said, “Are you totally blogging this?” Well, yes. I totally am. It was brilliant, frankly.

And I’m delighted to say that the ceremony portion of the wedding went like a dream; it was one of the smoothest-working weddings I’ve been part of, either as officiant or as part of the wedding. I’ll have to remember what I was doing in this one and carry it over to whenever I do this again. A very smart and organized wedding party helped. Of course, I was delighted to play even a small part in this wedding. I love weddings, especially when they involve people I like and hope are happy for the rest of their lives.

And now, to pack, because I have to get up early and drive back to BWI and see how much travel karma is this time around. Think good thoughts for me.

Hey there, folks — I’ve been asked to remind all you potential Hugo nominators (that would be those people who attended last year’s Worldcon, Denvention 3, and/or have registered for this year’s Worldcon, Anticipation) that there’s just a week to get your nomination ballots in, and that if you’re submitting your nominations online, sooner is rather better than later, since there’s often a last minute crush to get those nominations in, and computers, they can be twitchy. So don’t wait until the 28th: soon is good.

If you need some Hugo and Campbell nomination suggestions, I put up a thread a couple of weeks ago for people to put suggestions in. And they did! So that’s good too.

Also, and on a personal note, while there are Hugo categories I hope you might consider me for, I’ll remind folks that this year I’m actively encouraging people to nominate people other than me in the Best Fan Writer category, on the principle that there is a lot of excellent writing by fans out there (even fans who also happen to be pros), and that it would be a good thing to spread around the Far Writer Hugo so that some of that excellence can be recognized.

While I won’t specify which five people I put in the Fan Writer nomination slots (except to say I didn’t nominate myself in the category), here are some of the people I think are doing good fan writing right now, in no particular order: Chris Garcia, John Hertz, Cheryl Morgan, Kate Nepveu, Mike Glyer, Steve Silver, James Nicoll, Nicholas Whyte, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, Toby Buckell, Thomas Wagner.

Those are just off the top of my head; there are others who deserve to be considered as well. Indeed, if you, gentle reader, would like to suggest someone worth nominating in the Best Fan Writer category — and who has not won the award in, oh, let’s say, the last 20 years — please add their name to the comment thread. I’m serious about getting people to nominate in this category, and recognizing good fan writing. Let’s get this Hugo in the hands of more people.