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| 70th World Science Fiction Convention (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
For those of you who don't know, a
Hugo Award is arguably the ultimate accolade in the realm of science fiction and fantasy. It's the Oscar of the nerd media set. And, in a very indirect way, I've been nominated for one.
More directly, the blog
SF Signal (for which I once contributed before reclaiming my
Geekend gig) and the
SF Signal Podcast (on which I continue to appear three to four times per year) have been nominated as
Best Fanzine and
Best Fancast, respectively. The complete
2012 Hugo nominations list is available here. If any of you are heading to
Worldcon 2012 (AKA Chicon 7) this year, and you're so motivated to vote, the SF Signal Irregulars would be grateful for a ballot checkmark or two in our favor.
Now, I cannot stress enough how
little I had to do with either of these nominations. I haven't thrown in a SF Signal post in well over a year, as my precious and rare writing bandwidth now goes almost exclusively to paying gigs, the
Louisville Digital Association (who suffers with me as its President) and
ConGlomeration (which suffers with me as its webmaster). Despite persistent and generous invitations to the SF Signal Podcast, I only show up every month or so due to similar time constraints (though I'll be recording with them tomorrow night, I believe). Heck, despite a
2011 Tangent List entry, I haven't written any fiction in over a year, which the 2005 version of myself would find unforgivable and mind-boggling.
The Hugo credit belongs to everyone who contributes (more regularly than me) to both SF Signal properties, but most especially to
John DeNardo, the head man at the SF Signal Blog, and
Patrick Hester, the audio mogul who produces and hosts the SF Signal Podcast. Frankly, I'm far more pleased and excited about these nominations than I ever was of the Tangent mention because, first, it's a
Hugo, and second because it shines a much overdue spotlight on good people doing good work for no reason other than a love of seeing it done.
That I am connected by the slimmest and most undeserved thread to these glories is irrelevant. John D., Patrick and every other SF Signal Irregular have earned this moment of praise. If you haven't heard of them, seek out their work. If you know them, thank them for their contributions to the sci-fi and fantasy community. We're all the better for it.
Now, let's
bring home that rocket.
