Hugo Blatherings

So I decided to go ahead and vote in the 2017 site selection for Worldcon. In order to do so, I had to purchase an Advance Supporting Membership, which not only allows me to vote for the site selection, but also gives me a supporting membership in the convention in 2017, no matter which of the four locations it ends up at. That's pretty cool.

Anyway, the four choices are Washington, D.C.; Nippon (Japan); Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and Helsinki, Finland. I don't have an issue with any of the places, but I do happen to know someone working on the Montreal bid, so I put Montreal in first place. I don't think there's any possibility of me making it to any of them, regardless of who wins, but it's nice to have a say in the vote.

After voting for 2017's location, that left a gap in my World Science Fiction Society membership for 2016... So I went ahead and bought a supporting membership to MidAmeriCon II, which is the 2016 Worldcon. I would love to go, as the guest list impresses me and I've always wanted to visit Kansas City for personal reasons. However, like Sasquan (which would be much easier to get to), I'm not going to be able to afford the trip, hotel or time off (It's killing me now to know that Sasquan is a mere three-hour drive away and I cannot go. The horror! The horror!).

Still, it means I'm going to be part of Worldcon for at least the next two and a half years. I'll be voting in two more Hugos after this one. And I'll be trying to actively look for things to nominate, as well. I'll be checking out Renay's Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom and the Hugo Nominees 2016 Wikia regularly once I've finished with this year's packet to look for suggestions to read. I've already got a couple of things I plan to nominate, and a few more I haven't finished reading yet but I think might make my list. I'll post a few lists of possible nominations as I go, and once the deadline for nominations has passed, I might even post my actual nomination form.

The round-ups at File 770 have slowed down, mostly because there just isn't that much to talk about the Hugos right now. Everyone is busy going through the packets or have finished voting and are just waiting for the convention. I fully expect another fake outrage to be manufactured soon, but I can't guess what direction it will come from. I've been continuing to read David Gerrold on Facebook... he's the guy that got me into this whole kerfuffle in the first place. I don't think I would have cared as much if not for him.

Personally, I've got another string of reviews prepped for this week. I haven't seen all the movies yet, but I've started my reviews of them. This week I'll have posts on the Related Work category, Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category and the 'zines. I may have my write-up on the Novels category done by Friday, in which case I'll post that as well (and Denise, I'll post the round-up with the answer to your question on Saturday if I do that). If I can get through all five this week, I'll have four more categories to go: The Campbell, Dramatic Long Form, and the two editor categories. The editor ones will be the hardest, based on the reading/checking I've done so far. I still have more reading to do for the Campbell award and two more movies to watch for Dramatic Long Form.

The Hugo nominations are due about the time I'll be headed to San Diego for Oz Con International (the big reason I don't have any money and can't take any more time off for Sasquan). At this moment I'm committed to attending three conventions each year: The Oz con, Emerald City Comicon and Anglicon. The addition of Anglicon has made it difficult to get enough time off to go to all of them, and I guess adding Worldcon to the mix is too much to ask.