Camestros Felapton

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Surveying the Dragon Awards

Last year I tried to collate people and groups publicising nominations for the Dragon Awards (e.g. https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/time-for-those-dragon-projections/ ). I intend to do the same thing again this year. The purpose is so that when nominations are released, it’s possible to see the impact of campaigns and self-promotion for the Dragons – mainly for curiosity value but also to see how the awards function.

I’m already collating links. Jon Del Arroz’s “Happy Frogs” published a slate back in May and Declan Finn listed some possibilities back in March. I’m also collecting links to posts by individual authors  (for example). If people see relevant links, particularly in less obvious groupings or ecosystems, can you drop a link in the comments?

I’ve not seen anything from last years surprise Red Panda Faction but also currently Vox Day hasn’t posted a slate. The past two years have also seen works nominated around different groups such as Inkshares last year.  Overall, my general impression is a decline in interest. It’s possible that last year’s winners having many trad-published works have reduced interest in individual authors hoping to get a nomination.

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58 responses to “Surveying the Dragon Awards”

  2. We’re not going to suggest nominations for the Dragon Awards this year. We’re focusing on a Get Out The Vote campaign encouraging people to simply vote since it seems that the more voters there are, the less skewed from mainstream tastes the results will be.
    We are, however, interested in the appearance of a new track at DragonCon, the Diversity in Speculative Fiction & Literature Fandom Track (http://www.dragoncon.org/?q=diversity_track). We still don’t know what to make of this. Is it a silo to house SJWs to keep them from complaining about the SciFi and Fantasy tracks or to preempt criticism by pointing to it? Who knows?

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  3. It’s starting to look like the Dragons are gonna wind up a thing that travelers from antique lands relate about…

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  5. The usual suspects seem uncommonly silent regarding the Dragons this year. I haven’t seen anything from the Mad Genii, nothing from Superversive, nothing from the Castalia House blog, nothing from Brian Niemeier, etc…

    I just submitted my own Dragon Awards nominations a few days ago BTW. And contrary to tradition, I did not nominate myself, even though I actually have an eligible work this year.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I’ m curious about what will happen with the new track – it may be related to the controversy about track leadership since they fired Charlotte Moore and Richard Blaylock publicly quit. Some tracks are already great places for discussions of diversity (gaming, comics, academic track) but SF has a core of conservative activists running it and a (small) core of diehard fans who will freak out over any change. This did not stop them from firing Moore and replacing her with a conservative friend to the SF/puppy promoting crew. Creating a new lit track may have been the only way to get around how bad the existing SF lit track is. We won’t know until we we the schedule – but it’s weird that it covers so much more than SF lit.

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    • Sorry- by “this did not stop them” I mean that fear if track fan reaction did not stop them.

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    • It’s the Fantasy track that’s had a change of leadership, right? You’re saying the new Fantasy leader is now more in line with the Baen-y SF track?

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      • Yeah, she’s buddies with John Ringo, is a regular LibertyCon attendee, quotes Hoyt on her Facebook wall, and some of the other stuff on her Facebook wall is just… thinly-veiled dog whistles. 😦

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  7. quick note – based on the track FB group for the track, it looks like the track was a bottom-up effort within the organizing group and the people who did it are some of the people within Dragon Con who have been advocating for more diversity. I think it’s a positive step.

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  8. RedPandaFaction: “I know some folks dismiss DragonCon, but the organizers do not represent the vast majority of attendees.”

    Well that’s your next issue, and the same for most cons. All of these convention organizers who have fought against having codes of conduct, enforcing the codes consistently towards their famous buddies, doxxed complaining authors, and generally sprouting pro-harassment, anti-diversity screeds, etc., they are able to abuse their positions because they’ve been put in those positions. It’s going to take the attendees and others involved in the con to change things and replace those abusive people with ones who will do a professional, competent job and actually serve the attendees.

    But that’s a long process. It’s great that you are doing a get the vote out campaign.

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  9. JDA trying to outsmart and out-quip Nick Mamatas on Twitter is the crossover event I’ve been waiting for. That’s a Draggin’ Award right there.

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  10. When can we nominate until?

    Did Tim/Puppy have anything in the eligible period? (why they don’t use calendar years like everyone else…)

    Has anyone tried marshaling the mighty SJW army that is Tumblr? Red Panda — have you asked them to GOTV? All those queer brown costumer girls have Opinions, I’m sure.

    Cora, what was your eligible work? I probably read it, but again, who knows WTF their wacky deadline.

    Also, as far as trad pub goes, what was out when?

    (Ooh. Was Janelle Monae’s “Dirty Computer” out in time? Undeniably SF and you can dance to it.)

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    • Dirty Computer sadly isn’t eligible, since the Dragons have a film and TV category, but not the more general “dramatic presentation”, so something like Dirty Computer or clipping falls through the cracks. Though nominating Black Panther, The Last Jedi, Luke Cage or The Handmaid’s Tale should piss off the puppies.

      As for what else is eligible, anything from the first few months of 2018 definitely is as is anything that came out in late 2017.

      As for myself, “Freedom’s Horizon” is science fiction and novel length and should therefore be eligible. It will also be reduced as part of Smashwords annual summer sale starting next week.

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      • Ooh, I did read and like that.

        “Dirty Computer” is a short film which aired incessantly on the MTV channels. It came out in April and is 49 min. long, all of which I think makes it a TV show. A feminist, lesbian, black TV show. (Tessa Thompson is edible in it.)
        https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8343642/?ref_=nv_sr_1

        Black Panther goes without saying. It was an amazing movie, good characters, and such a spectacle.

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      • Though a novel by SFWA rules, “Freedom’s Horizon” is also under 70000 words and therefore too short. Not that the Dragon Awards particularly care, since plenty of indie SFF was nominated and indie books are often on the shorter side.

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