It is an honor to be nominated

[womzilla]

Once again, NYRSF did not win the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine ; Locus did. I was of course immediately disappointed, but very quickly realized how happy I was for them. Editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi, in her acceptance, pointed out that this was the first victory for Locus in which Charles Brown was not on the ballot. Thus, she and managing editor Kirsten Gong-Wong finally have a win all their own, which fills me with delight. This is also Locus's last year of eligibility; a new rule defining Professional Publication for purposes of both Semiprozine and Fanzine were ratified at this year's Worldcon, and under the new definition, Locus is unmistakably not eligible for either category, so if they were ever going to get the separate recognition they deserve, this was the year for it.

I believe that when one is nominated for an award (that one cares about), one owes the award the courtesy of assuming one might win it. Thus, as I have for the last few years, I wrote an acceptance speech:

Wow. Thank you all. I have a choice now between being a bit dry or being a complete wreck. So, dry.

I hope you'll forgive me for running on--there are a lot of people who deserve thanks for this, and I've been waiting 15 years to do it.

I have to thank all the people who worked directly on the magazine now: my co-editors David, Kris, and agrumer; our webmaster, Alex Donald; and our staff and crew, Jen Gunnels, Ann Crimmins, Eugene Reynolds, drcpunk, Heather Masri, A. P. Canavan, Anne Zanoni, M'jit Raindancer-Stahl, and Eugene Surowitz. Thanks to all those who have gone before us. And of course to all of our contributors, too, too many to list. It takes a lot of people to make a monthly magazine.

I'd also like to thank the various members of the Semiprozine reform committee. Thank you also Weightless Books, Gavin Mike & Kelly, for becoming our new home in the ebookosphere; you were the life preserver we so needed.

Thanks to my father, John, whose bookshelves were my first and best library of sf; and to my brother, Tim, my first fannish model, who would pretend to be unimpressed by all this.

And thanks, above all, to my wife, nellorat, and to my co-husband, supergee, for understanding exactly how important all this craziness is to me.

On the bright side, in all of the other categories in which I could have an informed opinion, my preferred choice won. So, congratulations, SF Encyclopedia, ursulav, catvalente & matociquala & all the other Squeecasters, and papersky! I bloody well told each of you that you would win, but you wouldn't believe me.

Comments

[patricksmalone.livejournal.com]

Well done, sir.

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

It's a good speech. I'm sorry you didn't get to give it!

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Very well done! And at any rate, congratulations on being nominated, and on continuing to publish it all, which is quite an accomplishment in the current economy.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I hope some day you'll get to deliver this in person!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You were right, and I wonder why all the rest of us were so wrong?

Also, it was great to see you.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

It was great to see you!

I was right because I was unclouded by the certainty of loss. Because you are all humble people, you had to assume that you would lose, but I could see otherwise.