I know, I know, I’m weird about some things.
Let me explain.
So it was lovely and I really do appreciate that so many people nominated me for a Hugo last year and then so many people even voted for me. That really was something else and I’m proud that people felt that way. Yes, it is validating and often felt like lots of nice people giving me a nice warm hug without it being a weird sort of hug.
But it also made me feel very self-conscious. It wasn’t some terrible emotional burden or made me feel bad about myself. I wouldn’t want people to think that in being nice and supportive they were accidentally doing the opposite. However, it really, really makes it harder to write things *specifically here* if I become overly aware of what I’m writing.
As frequent readers will have noticed, this is a blog of first or early drafts of things that maybe get some typos corrected but otherwise don’t get revised very much ever again. It’s what in my head when I get up in the morning that I think is worth my time typing. When I start thinking about it too self-referentially, what I write looks like this:
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And that is sort of how I felt writing in that interval between getting nominated (which, seriously was awesome) and the Hugo ceremony (which was also awesome and special thanks to the lovely person who represented me there). It was a great ego-boost and very special but also felt like it was an extra obstacle to writing stuff here.
It’s rather like the injunction to just ‘be yourself’, except with the added complication that I’m often being people other than myself.
Put another way: the nomination etc WAS fun and nice but it made writing the blog less fun and less nice. Not in any terrible angsty torture like way but enough that I’ll skip the experience for 2019. That’s not a ‘NEVER AGAIN!’ just a ‘the view is lovely but I’m a bit puffed out from walking up this hill and tomorrow I’d like to stay in the pub and look at the next big hill from below in the beer garden, thanks’. It was also a bit like eating celery but that analogy requires more explanation and really doesn’t help get the point across.
Speaking of fun.
Looking back and collating posts from 2017 and making a huge Hugo packet thing was great fun. So I will do that again but I’ll do it after Hugo nominations are closed.
In the meantime, there are lots of awesome people to vote for in Fan Writer!
42 responses to “So, I’m not doing an eligibility list this year…sort of…”
Ah well, you just opened up a slot on my best fan writer ballot for someone else on my personal shortlist.
I’m looking forward to the collected Best of 2018 BTW.
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Yes, it’s quite a bit of work, and you don’t get most of the benefit from it if you don’t attend in person. But I was proud to nominate/vote for you in the past, so I’ll be sad not to.
Perhaps we can convince you to attend the one in New Zealand in person.
Oh, I should tell you about the plot to take a “photograph” of you at WorldCon 76 in San Jose. I met Foz Meadows when we were on a panel together, and after that, she a friend of hers, a black gay guy from New York, joined Eric and me at our table at the reception for Hugo Finalists. He and I had great fun chatting, and somehow we ended up suggesting that Eric take a picture of him, Foz, and me, and caption it “Camestros Felapton, Foz Meadows, and Greg Hullender.” Then quietly wait to see what the puppies did when they “discovered” you were black.
Someone spoiled it by pointing out that we kinda ought to ask your permission first. 🙂
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That sounds like excellent fun! You probably made the right decision but I think I’d have said “yes!” 🙂
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Greg, that’s hilarious.
Camestros, thanks to the robot icon on your blog I have to admit I picture you as a less cranky version of Murderbot.
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Harsh but true 😉
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Harsh? Murderbot is really a sweetheart, once you get by the crankiness and the ability to slaughter humans in large quantities. Which they only did once.
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🙂
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Actually, that would have been hilarious, but both Cam and the black guy from New York might well have gotten crap from the puppies about this.
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And great would have been to take another photo at the next Worldcon with a *new* Camestros Felapton.
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We are all CF.
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I completely relate to that feeling. But as long as we’re here talking privately on the internet, with Abigail Nussbaum taking herself out, and now you, people I want to vote for are getting thin on the ground.
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I agree. Some of the people I have nominated in the past are no longer putting out the amount of Fan Writing content that they used to, which has reduced possibilities. And while I recognize the value of politically-themed writing done by fans like Camestros, most of it doesn’t fall under my definition of “Fan Writing”, it’s “Political Writing”, and I won’t nominate based on that.
I do have to say that I enjoy reviews by Charles Payseur, James Davis Nicoll, Liz Bourke, and Cora Buhlert‘s reviews and fannish commentary. Ursula Vernon’s Twitter feed is a fannish delight.
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I was going to say something about eligibility issues for some of these, but then I reflected that the actual rule – anyone whose work appears in (among other things) publicly accessible electronic media – undoubtedly lets them all in, whatever the intention behind it, so if they are the best qualified candidates, go for it.
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Thanks, JJ. And also thanks for reminding me to include James Davis Nicoll on my now dwindling long list.
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A bonus from not competing this year will be to make Fan Writer more of a project category e.g. ideas for nominations, types/sub genres of fan writing etc. Stir up interest 🙂
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Micro SF/F Stories on twitter (@MicroSFF) is my current favourite now when Mike and Camestros have removed themselves. Therebis a genius behind that account.
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I’m a fan
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Cam, please let my comment out of the doghouse, Phantom is acting bizarre and scary in here. 😀
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I knew I was forgetting some people.
There’s also Bonnie McDaniel (redheadedfemme), who is a fairly prolific book reviewer, and whose book reviews I find really insightful and helpful.
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There’s also that “JJ” character who keeps writing good things at 770…
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@JJ
Awww….. (blush) Thank you. I appreciate that.
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Oh, and another great Fan Writer is Steve J. Wright (no relation). His reviews are so consistently good at highlighting both the parts where works excel and where they fall down, I invariably end up including a ton of them in the Hugo Review Roundups.
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[…] (11) NO HUGOS, PLEASE. Camestros Felapton does his best to let us down easy – but he doesn’t want to be nominated for Best Fan Writer again: “So, I’m not doing an eligibility list this year…sort of…” […]
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So we can all just vote for Timothy instead, right?
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Or Susan. I think I’d prefer Susan, honestly.
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TimThulhu 2019 – why vote for the lesser evil?
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My blog’s really good if you guys wanna respect Camestros’s wishes and find another great spot to nominate this year — though it’d be better to do one of my short stories like “Unsafe (In) Space”. Trigger warning. 🙂
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Hi Jon!
Are you going to stop harassing people and make restitution to those people you’ve harassed?
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You don’t have to apologize to us for deciding you don’t want to participate in an award, CF. It’s not a moral failing, lol. (Although I will be amused at how Puppy frothers will try to spin it.)
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IF I have a spot left over, I’m still nominating you anyway. So there. Nyah.
Or possibly Susan, who really has cogent analysis.
@Greg: I so wish you’d done that!
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Susan would be an excellent best fan writer finalist and also the first ever triceratops nominated for a Hugo Award. And knowing how fond the puppies are of dinosaurs, it would be a laugh.
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“If You Were a Hugo Finalist, My Love”.
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Cam, it’s a good thing you made your wishes clear early, because I just got my Hugo nominating link. 🙂
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Nominations close mid-march – I think we need another round of panic blob!
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I so get this! External affirmation and appreciation would be nice once in awhile (so, so much energy and supportiveness going out, very little coming back ) — but attention makes me self-conscious and uneasy.
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I should comment more regularly !! — ask for external affirmation, go to office and receive notice of major promotion. 🙂
So far, a happy new year! (** immediately looks into booking a fab holiday **)
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Congrats!
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Thank you! I feel a little shell-shocked from the news still, but looking forward to the new title and nominal raise (which I just spent by booking a summer trip to Argentina).
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Also, don’t forget Foz Meadows! I really like her long-form pieces; they get into the weeds, but they’re really insightful.
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BTW, SOMEONE bought me a Dublin membership (looks meaningfully at this group), so Thanks!
Or possibly “Thanks?” since now it’s another year of Mandatory Mount TBR. 🙂
I hadn’t checked my email for a week or so, so I was most puzzled when the top one was from Dublin regarding hotel reservations, but I figured it out farther down.
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Wow!
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That’s really nice! I can nominate based on my SJ membership (I think), but I haven’t bought my Dublin one yet. It’s hard to budget fifty dollars out of my disability money, so I need to remember to put a bit away for a couple months.
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