- Why I’m spending today swapping out the dialect in my novel | Mary Robinette Kowal – My project today is replacing all the dialogue spoken by Antiguan characters in Of Noble Family with dialogue rewritten by Antiguan and Barbudan author Joanne Hillhouse. Let me explain why I’m doing this.
- Google Groups – An code name is quickly picked for the exploration of Earth 1/4 Billion: Green Door. Like 'tanks', 'Manhattan District' or many other project names, it is designed to give away as little as possible about the project. As usual, the Soviet hear about GD in a few weeks.
- EPONA – Third stone from taranis – Imagine that you have just landed on a planet twenty-one light years from Earth. You are about to enter a lush world where things are more than just a little different! Evolution has taken exotic paths and a whole new kingdom of life reigns over land, sea and air! You are the leader of a first contact mission on the planet named Epona. The mission you have organized has journeyed here in an interstellar craft that orbits Epona. Your hand-picked crew must provide all the information you will need about Epona from the 21st Century technology available to you. Your objective is to unlock the secret of Epona's remarkable life-forms and discover if there is intelligent life you can communicate with.
- Markov Chains – Markov chains, named after Andrey Markov, are mathematical systems that hop from one "state" (a situation or set of values) to another. For example, if you made a Markov chain model of a baby's behavior, you might include "playing," "eating", "sleeping," and "crying" as states, which together with other behaviors could form a 'state space': a list of all possible states. In addition, on top of the state space, a Markov chain tells you the probabilitiy of hopping, or "transitioning," from one state to any other state—e.g., the chance that a baby currently playing will fall asleep in the next five minutes without crying first.
- The Mouth of the WWE « – In a match between a 15-time World Champion and the most dominating real-life wrestler in the world, Paul Heyman is somehow the best pro wrestler in the story line. So forget Cena and Bryan and Orton and Roman Reigns — Paul Heyman is the face of the WWE. How in the world did that happen?
Lucy over Lancashire
Hugo Awards: Editors and Retro Hugos
So I’ve said before that I wasn’t sure if I was going to vote for the editor awards. I’ve ended up not doing so for a couple of reasons, mainly because I haven’t the faintest what makes for a good editor and I would mean largely voting by name recognition. Even with the stories/novels provided in the voters package it’s hard to say how much or how little the editor mattered for the success of them.
The Retro Hugos on the other hand I did vote in, though only in the fiction and artist categories.I know too little about the fan categories to make an educated choice there:
Best novel:
- The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White (Collins)
- The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1938)
- Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith (Astounding Stories, February 1938)
- Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Argosy, February 1938)
- Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (The Bodley Head)
Best novella:
- “Who Goes There?” by Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1938)
- “The Time Trap” by Henry Kuttner (Marvel Science Stories, November 1938)
- “A Matter of Form” by H. L. Gold (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938)
- “Sleepers of Mars” by John Beynon [John Wyndham] (Tales of Wonder, March 1938)
- No Award
Best novelette:
- “Werewoman” by C. L. Moore (Leaves #2, Winter 1938)
- “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, May 1938)
- “Hollywood on the Moon” by Henry Kuttner (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938)
- “Dead Knowledge” by Don A. Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding Stories, January 1938)
- “Rule 18” by Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1938)
Best short story:
- “How We Went to Mars” by Arthur C. Clarke (Amateur Science Stories, March 1938)
- “Hyperpilosity” by L. Sprague de Camp (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938)
- “Hollerbochen’s Dilemma” by Ray Bradbury (Imagination!, January 1938)
- “The Faithful” by Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938)
- “Helen O’Loy” by Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938)
Ubermawkish, sexist “Helen O’Loy” better not win.
Best Professional Artist
- Virgil Finlay
- Alex Schomburg
- Frank R. Paul
- Margaret Brundage
- H. W. Wesso
Damn, there were some great artists doing sf and fantasy illustrion back then. Any of them is a worthy winner.
Hugo Awards: Best Novella
The last major fiction award I still need to talk about: the best novella. A bit of a mixed bag this category, with stories that are in that awkward stage halfway between novel and short story. Indeed, at least one could’ve been published as a short novel in its own right. As with some other categories, the two struck through candidates I haven’t considered due to reasons described in my first post.
To be honest, the remaining three stories were good but not spectacularly so, not nearly as good as some of the entries in the short story and novelette categories.
- Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
As the title indicates, this is a Wild West retelling of the Snow White fairy tale. Well done. - “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10-2013)
This is a great story about several generations of an African-American family living near the lake used to film Tarzan movies and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but the fantastical element is minimal. - “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
A typically fun, manic Laundry story about unicorns. The Butcher of Khardov by Dan Wells (Privateer Press)“The Chaplain’s Legacy” by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jul-Aug 2013)
Hugo Awards: Best related work
This was a relatively easy category to decide upon, though since it contains one blog post/essay, a podcast and three books, also one of the more confusing ones. My final vote was as follows:
- “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative” by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink): a great essay and an important essay, which is why it gets the nod over everything else.
- Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It Edited by Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damian Thomas (Mad Norwegian Press): I’m not that interested in Doctor Who or its fandom, but this is a good book to show that at least some corners of speculative fiction indeed can be and are of special interest to queer people.
- Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary by Justin Landon & Jared Shurin (Jurassic London): would’ve finished higher if they’d asked me to contribute, but they didn’t, so feck them.
- Writing Excuses Season 8 by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson: a decent enough podcast but no more than that.
- Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer, with Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image): This was not for me.