Some links and a rant

NASA is trying to grow potatoes on Mars. According to a Wall Street Journal article, scientists are trying to find a potato that will grow at cold and low-pressure conditions, and is also good for food. Of course, they can't grow in the open air on Mars:

the temperature averages minus 84 degrees Fahrenheit, with lows of minus 284 degrees, according to NASA. It has high levels of radiation and over 60% less gravity than Earth. Its atmosphere has 96% carbon dioxide, with only a tiny amount of oxygen. Then there are the dust storms and salty water.

Still, to test the soil conditions, scientists are planting crops in soil from the Pampas de La Joya Desert in southern Peru. If the tests are successful, then a simulator will be made that mimics the conditions the plants would endure in a dome on Mars.

When I first read this headline: Wolverines Are Now Being Trained to Find Avalanche Survivors, I thought it was some sort of Marvel Comics promotion. D'oh. No, it's an actual effort to use wolverines, the actual animals, to hunt for people in avalanches. Wolverines are small, smart, and work well in the snow. The trick is getting the wolverines to imprint on humans soon after birth, as well as breeding them in captivity.

My friend Michael Sensei went spelunking and took some photos and video of Yugen Cave. Makes me want to head up to Bellingham and visit that cave I went to with friends once.

Children have been doodling all throughout time. I love these scraps of art by a 7-year-old boy named Onfim living in 13th century Novgorod, Russia.

Optical illusions are not universal, which was a surprise to me. There's a couple of examples of how people perceive illusions differently in the article. Be sure to read the comments, lots of insight and some corrections there.

This documentary sounds fantastic. I wish I lived near enough to an IMAX theater to go see it.

George R. R. Martin has an epic response to a writer who thinks, for some bizarre reason, that because Martin once purchased a story from him that Martin must therefore love everything that writer has ever written. The reasoning is so twisted and wrong it hardly bears giving any thought to, but Martin calmly and completely demolishes it and the writer (who, incidentally called Martin a liar, to boot). Nicely done, Martin.

Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens has a round-up of people's responses to being included on this year's rabid puppies slate. Many asked to be removed and were not. Some support the rabids. Because this year the rabids included "human shields" in their slate, the overall situation is much more complicated than last year, in which a near-total rejection of the slate was reasonable, as very few of the nominations were Hugo-worthy. This year the rabids included works that would certainly have made it to the final ballot... but other good works were still kicked off. Voters are going to have to decide if it's more important to them to punish the slate or more important that a good work get the Hugo. It will not be an easy choice.

One last Hugo rant after the fold. Feel free to skip it.

Here I Go A-Gathering Links...

My friend Lou Anders has had a short story published in Boys Life. I used to steal my brother's Boys Life magazines and read all the fiction and cartoons before he even got a chance to glance at them. I still want to read the entire comic adaptation of the Tripods trilogy... I never saw the whole thing.

Ancient footprints are already pretty cool artifacts, but now they are even cooler since professional trackers have been brought in to make sense of them. I love this type of history story... looking at a problem from a different, yet totally obvious, direction.

How about a tale of a very long-running experiment? I've heard of some experiments that have been going for many years, but this is a bit of a surprise. Seeds in bottles, buried in an effort to see how long the seeds would last.

So, Free Comic Book Day is coming. Here's some sneak peeks of Doctor Who comics. I need to figure out what comics we already ordered from DCBS so I know which ones to get when Eric and I go to the store next week.

I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading a book the other night/morning. I haven't done that for ages because I've been too responsible to risk being dead at work, for all the good it did me. But I really enjoyed the book and will be writing about it soon, probably not for tomorrow's reviews, but maybe next Sunday. It was Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon, and I strongly recommend it for any young woman, ages 8-18, who isn't very princess-y or girly and likes snakes and slugs and dirt and work. It's very good.

David Gerrold has a post about Hugo asterisks. I just want to say, the asterisks were there the instant the puppies gamed the Hugos. Putting them into physical form didn't make it any worse, since the damage was already done. On the contrary, the asterisks let some of us have a physical memento of their first time voting in the Hugos (me!) and raised money for a worthy cause. The people who were hurt by the asterisks deserved to be hurt because they are the ones who put the asterisk there in the first place by gaming the Hugo nominations. The fact that they still don't get it only proves the point. And it still amazes me that they are stupid enough to think that people gamed the Hugos before they did. The utter willful ignorance of the puppies is astounding.

Below the fold, depressing stories...

I have my Asterisk!

A friend picked one up for me and delivered it via my husband, who went to Rose City Comic Con this weekend. I intend to keep it as a souvenir of starting to vote, recommend and nominate for the Hugos. I'm lucky to have a physical object with six exclamation points made by a robot with lasers to remind me of when and why I finally took the jump and joined Worldcon.

Linkdump

My cold has hit... thank goodness for Labor Day. Maybe I can recover enough by tomorrow that I won't be miserable at work! Here's some links to keep you busy:

Do you want to wear a book? Try a litograph. I'm sure my hubby would like this one or this one. Personally, I wish the tattoos were smaller and a bit less expensive, because I'd love to put some literary quotes on the back of my hand, where I usually put my temporary tattoos (one of these days I need to figure out a way to get the Aquaman "A" logo from the current books as a temporary tattoo for my hand).

If you'd like to watch the Hugo award ceremony, there are four videos of it here to watch the ceremony itself, skip the first video entirely, it's just the annoying pre-Hugo show (although the guests aren't too bad) and start at 1:07:15 into the second video.

Also, if you want something strange, H.P. Lovecraft explains the Sad Puppies.

The final attendance for Sasquan was 5,171 people actually there and a total membership of 11,648. Last year's Loncon 3 had 6,946 people in attendance and a total membership of 10,718. Sasquan's total membership broke records. The attending membership was high, but not the highest, with perhaps eight other Worldcons having more attendees.

Another fun stat to look at is how many of those members each year voted in the Hugo Awards. There were 5,950 this year, but only 3,587 last year. There were only 1,848 the year before that and 1,922 in the year 2012. It's impressive how fandom reacted when a small clique attempted to take over the Hugo Awards - like antibodies after a virus, fandom swarmed and prevented the clique's nominees from getting awards.

Nerds don't understand politics.

These Vintage Computers aren't so old. I remember using a lot of them. They aren't old!

I don't read Detective Comics right now, but this has to be my absolute favorite non-Aquaman variant cover in a long time:

Linkdump

Hugo Recommendation Weeks are coming. Get your thoughts in gear for trying to post some great works.

Another cool Smokecane photo from Sasquan.

Never give fans an opening... A comment left open-ended on File 770 led to a hilarious thread of things fandom says while facing the Balrog. It continued for some time.

Some people are complaining about diversity in Science Fiction and Fantasy... they seem to forget. We've always been here. We just didn't get respect until recently.

Photos from Sasquan by Olav Rokne.

A very stupid book was published, and prompted a parody called "John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular: How SJWs Always Lie About Our Comparative Popularity Levels" by an author who is not John Scalzi. However, someone thought it would be really funny if Scalzi read the audiobook... and Scalzi agreed to do it if $2,500 was raised for a fan charity that helps people get to conventions. Fans contributed more then $10,000 and the audio is up.

Halloween is coming

A book that provides clean water. Literally. The pages are water filters. A single book can filter water for one person for four years.

The Birdwatching Narwhal by Ursula Vernon.

Dalek Rainier Presents at the Hugo Awards

Hugo Post-mortem (part 2)

So, yesterday I posted a big long post about the rankings of the Hugo nominees. In the same document, we find out what else got more than a handful of nominees and therefore, we learn what the puppies pushed off the ballot.

More possible math, and possibly a long post, so after the cut it goes...

Hugo Post-mortem (part 1)

In case you didn't already figure it out, Eric and I watched the Hugo Awards live together Saturday night. We had only one technical glitch during the stream, when they announced the winner of the Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form, so I had to find out who won from comments on File 770.

The full results have been announced, including how the voting went. The first pages of the Hugo Final Report list how the actual voting went. The more disturbing information is later in the report, where we learn what the puppy slates pushed off the ballot (and also get an idea of how many puppies there actually were nominating).

The business meeting Sunday morning tackled the problem head-on with the elegant but poorly understood E Pluribus Hugo proposal. It passed the first vote 186-62 after much discussion, and will have to be voted on and pass again next year before taking effect in 2017. This makes me wish I could get to MidAmeriCon II even more, now, so I can vote for it in the business meeting (I'm listed in the Aug. 6 Member List as an Attending Adult, which is not the case. I bought a supporting membership. I'm going to have to contact them to correct it.). Another proposal aimed at reducing the effect of slates, 4/6, also passed. This proposal would ask nominees to list only four choices, then there would be six nominees on the final ballot.

Let's see... Ursula Vernon has been incredibly gracious about losing out a nomination to the slates. The excellent "Jackalope Wives" would have made the ballot if not for the slates. Many people, seeing the works the slates pushed off the ballot, are furious all over again at the slate-movement and the slate leadership's dubious tastes.

Next up, I'm going to do math and speculate and think about things that probably would be better off left alone. I'm putting it all after the cut so you don't have to slog through it.

Hugo Awards...

So... How am I doing?

The Campbell - I voted for Chu. He won.

1-0

Fan Artist - I put Schoenhuth first and Leggett second, Leggett won.

1-1

Fan Writer - I put No Award first, then Mixon. Mixon won.

1-2

Fancast - I put Tea and Jeopardy first, then Galactic Suburbia Podcast. Galactic Suburbia Podcast won.

1-3

Fanzine - I put Journey Planet first. It won.

2-3

Semiprozine - I put Lightspeed first. It won.

3-3

Related Work - I put No Award. It won.

4-3

Graphic Story - I put Saga first. Ms. Marvel won.

4-4

Editor: Short Form - I put Brozek first, then Resnick. No Award won.

4-5

Editor: Long Form - I put Gilbert first, then Sowards. No Award won.

4-6

Professional Artist - I put Dillon first. She won.

5-6

So far this has been a complete rejection of the slate nominees.

A dalek comes out to present the dramatic presentation awards... I think it's Clara, but I'm not sure. Dalek Rainier?

Dramatic Short Form - I put Doctor Who first. Orphan Black won.
Video blanked out during the announcement, so Eric and I missed it.

5-7

Dramatic Long Form - I put Edge of Tomorrow first, LEGO movie second. Guardians of the Galaxy won.
This is the first win for anything that was on a slate.

5-8

Short Story - I put No Award first. No Award won.

6-8

Novelette - I put No Award first. The Day The World Turned Upside-Down won.

6-9

Novella - I put No Award first. No Award won.

7-9

Novel - I put The Goblin Emperor first, then Ancillary Sword. The Three-Body Problem won.
The award was announced from the space station.

7-10

Well, dang. I am really no good at this.

Smokecane!

So the reports are coming in from Sasquan 2015, aka Worldcon in Spokane. The biggest initial impression made by the location was the smoky skies due to the numerous wildfires in the area. I can categorically state that my corner of the state is in better condition. Yeah, we're getting smoke here, but it's not nearly as bad as what I'm seeing in those photos. Fortunately, most of the wildfires near here have been put out or are at least contained.

Anyway, because I'm not at the con, I'm relying on Twitter and blogs to keep me up-to-date with the events at Sasquan. Here's some of the fun stuff I've culled from the maddening crowd so far (most of it will be after the cut so people who don't want to read a whole ton of links can just skip this post).

We'll start with my favorite photo of the red sun so far, taken by Alan Boyle and posted to Twitter with the caption: "Super-spooky sun over Spokane in a smoky sky setting for #Sasquan".

To me it looks like the Eye of Sauron, Spokane-style.

A Very Lucky Puppy

Update on the Hugo mess after the cut...

Hugo Update - How to shoot yourself in the foot, puppy style

Lou Antonelli, an author who had two works nominated by both the sad and rabid puppies for the Hugos this year, managed to well and truly screw himself up. It remains to be seen whether or not he is really sorry for his actions, although his apology seems genuine enough. Details after the cut for people bored with the whole Hugo Mess.

Hugo Voting

George R. R. Martin has a post on his Not A Blog about Hugo voting. In short, there's only a week left, and if you plan on voting online, try not to wait until the last day and overload the Sasquan servers.

Here's the ballot. You have to be a registered member of Sasquan with a pin. You can still register at this site, but it takes a few days to get the pin, so if you register now you are really cutting it close.

If you're a member, you can also vote for the 2017 site selection. I voted for Montreal due to personal connections with people running the bid, but I have no problem with any of the locations getting Worldcon. They all look like fairly solid bids to me.

I've voted, and I'm not sure my votes will change any more in the next few days. I've read some more and pondered some voting options and changed a couple of things on my ballot since I posted it, but I think I'm done now. No, I'm not going to list the changes I made. I'd probably have to compare the two to figure out what I changed anyway, and I'm too lazy to do that now.

So... if you are a Sasquan member and haven't voted, go do so now. If you have voted, honestly and after reading the nominations, my thanks to you. If you are slate voter, I hope you are forced to read "Wisdom From My Internet" over and over until your eyes bleed and your brain turns into pulp.

Convention Business Meeting Video

One of the big things expected to happen at the Hugo Business Meeting this year is that people will be proposing a method to prevent slates from taking over the Hugos in future years. For the Hugos, it takes two years for a proposal like this to pass, so if it passes, it won't be effective until the 2017 Hugo nominations.

Because of this, the business meeting might be interesting this year. To introduce people who may have never participated in a business meeting before to the concept, Kevin Standlee made the following video that describes the procedures used in the meeting. This is mostly old hat for me, since I cover city council and school board meetings for the newspaper, but some people may find this eight-minute video enlightening. Even with my experience, I found a couple of things about convention business meetings to be different to the kind I usually attend.

If you have any intention of going to the Hugo business meeting, or if you might want to get involved in other conventions' meetings, this video might be useful to you.

Randoms

There are some amazing costumes on this San Diego Cosplay photo set. I particularly like the Frozen/Mad Max crossover. The body art Green Lantern and Batman were also... interesting. And there's even a Mayor McCheese - wow. Anyway, lots of cosplay: IGN's 17 best, massive gallery, Bleeding cool outside the convention center, more from Friday, day two, Blastr Day 1, Blastr Day 2 and Blastr Day 3.

Just in case you ever wanted to, The Guardian has a post on how to draw a horse.

Dr. Science explains How to vote in the Hugo Awards, with a focus on this year. I did not read this until I finished my own voting, but there's some interesting stuff in there.

Just as a reminder, you can go to Renay's Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom or the Hugo Nominees 2016 Wikia to look for works that will eligible for a Hugo in 2016 so you can read them for possible nomination. Both the spreadsheet and wiki allow submissions, as well, so add your own favorites to get them a little more widespread attention.

My Hugo Ballot

So, below the cut is the "rough draft" of my Hugo ballot. I will continue to read and consider right up until the deadline, and I reserve the right to change my mind. I will not be posting another version of this, since I suspect this is close enough. There are two categories in which I haven't quite decided yet... those are my focus for the next few days. Again, I won't be updating you on how I decide. There must remain some mystery in the world.

Overall I found the experience to be fun and interesting, although there were enough works that were just plain bad to make it painful at times as well. I approve of trying to get more people to vote and nominate in the Hugo awards, but slates are for losers. The puppies managed to prove how bad slates are this year by nominating stuff that was just awful. Fortunately, some decent works got in despite the slate-mongering morons.

Of particular joy for me was The Goblin Emperor and Ancillary Sword. Goblin was like a comfort read while Ancillary was a mind-twist that I very much enjoyed. I'm looking forward to reading the first novel. I was also delighted to see Edge of Tomorrow, a movie I would not have picked up if it were not on the Hugo ballot. It's become one of my favorites in recent years. I also enjoyed the look into the world of 'zines, and I may end up picking up more of them to look for likely nominees for next year. And lastly, Wesley Chu was a nice find. I'm looking forward to reading more of his works.

In addition, the controversy introduced me to Mike Glyer's File 770 and the fantastic comment sections there. Unfortunately, I've gotten so many book and story recommendations from those threads it may take me a year just to get through them all. What a fine problem to have!

Hugos: How Did I Do?

Let's work out for this week what puppy works there were in my reviewed categories and what I thought of them for the Hugo ballot.

The John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo)

I was not surprised to discover that four of the five nominees for this award are on the puppy slates. Cordova, English and Raymond are all on both slates while Nelson is only on the Rabid slate.

No surprise, Chu, who was far and away the absolute best choice in the category, was not a slate nominee. I wish he'd had worthy competition.

Professional Editor (Short Form)

I knew that VD was a slate nominee, but I was surprised to find out that all the nominees were on slates. That just makes me wonder how much better/different the nominees would have been if the puppies hadn't dishonestly gamed the nomination system. In any case, VD was only on the Rabid slate while all the others were on both slates.

Brozek was my top pick and Resnick second, though I could have just as easily gone the other way with them.

Professional Editor (Long Form)

This was another category that only had slate nominees. Again, VD was only on the Rabid slate and all the others were on both slates. Again, I wonder how different the slate would have been without scumbags gaming the system. Honestly, it makes me want to go and put "No Award" at the top for both editor categories and list my picks below, especially after having read the so-called Related Works category.

Anyway, Gilbert took the top spot in part due to her absolutely brilliant contribution to the packet that I hope and fear every long form editor in the future will follow, while Sowards got the second spot.

Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

The Lego Movie, Interstellar and Guardians of the Galaxy were all slate nominees on both slates. Edge of Tomorrow and Captain America were not on slates. Edge of Tomorrow is one of my top choices while Captain America is at the bottom. I'm still not sure which movie will get the top spot on my ballot, Edge of Tomorrow or The Lego Movie. That's going to be a tough choice for me.

Summary

I almost wish I hadn't bothered with the editor categories. Almost. If I'd known/remembered that they were all puppies, I probably wouldn't have bothered. They were really tough to decide, and would be in any year. Knowing that both categories were entirely tainted makes all that effort seem pointless.

I'm very glad I watched Edge of Tomorrow, and it was nice to have some extra movie nights with my hubby. I really did enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy and Interstellar, though I'm really glad I had the ability to pause Interstellar and take a break. The movie watching was probably the easiest and the most stressful of the categories, but the library came through for me and I ended up watching pretty much all the movies without any problems.

Lastly, I've set up a page on the blog that lists all my Hugo posts and has some useful links to other resources. I'll try to keep it updated, but no promises.

Hugo Viewing - Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

This is probably the most fun category for me, since I don't usually see a lot of movies in a year. Because I'm trying to vote on the category, my husband decided that he would help me hunt down and watch each of these movies. Four extra movie nights with hubby! That's a good thing. Only four because I have seen one of the movies before. In fact, I have one of these movies on DVD. So let's start with that one.

• The Lego Movie
  This was the only movie of the lot that I had already seen, and I loved it so much that I bought a copy for myself. Is it Hugo-worthy? I think it had a deep lesson about imagination and some great homages to science fiction... it was also filled with fantasy tropes like the wise mentor, most of which got turned on their heads in an often hilarious way. In short, I have no problem with this being on the list, and I clearly love it as well. To decide whether or not it's my top pick, though, I've got to see the other movies.
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  Well, this is a comic book in movie form, obviously. I enjoyed it for what it is, but I don't consider it the most excellent movie I've seen from last year. I mean, it does what it says on the tin, it's a good comic book movie, but... it's a comic book movie. It's almost as two dimensional as a comic book. There's no powerful twist at the end, it's all fairly straightforward in a comic book way. Is it worthy of the Hugo? No, I don't really think so.
• Guardians of the Galaxy
  I have never been a fan of the interstellar type of comics. Kree and stuff don't interest me. But honestly, this one is fun. It starts out with a major downer and turns into a bit of a romp as it goes along. However, in the end, it's just a popcorn movie. It's fun and I think it's slightly better than Captain America at what it does, but it's not something I would give a Hugo.
• Edge of Tomorrow
  I was not expecting much from this movie. I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise, and that was literally all I knew about it going in. But it quickly became interesting with the five-minute recap of the situation on earth and the stakes in the coming battle. Cruise was understated enough to be watchable, and the action moved along at a nice clip, never going over the same ground too often despite being a movie entirely about going over the same ground over and over. The movie didn't underestimate the audience, either, sometimes covering ground that hadn't been covered and expecting the audience to pick up on the nuances. In short, this was actually a really good movie. It was also seriously milSF, with awesome mech fights that only sometimes got long enough to become boring. This is going to give the Lego Movie a run for the top spot on my ballot. I'm actually going to have a tough choice for the top position!
• Interstellar
  Coming in at almost three hours long, this was not a movie I could have sat through in the theater. Some of the scenes definitely would have benefited from being on the big screen, though, so it's slightly sad that I can no longer handle the horrible theater seats long enough to watch a movie like this. There wasn't a lot of wasted scenes in this, either. The scenes that I thought, why are they showing this? generally had a callback later on in the movie. I have some serious problems with some of the science, but I'm fine skipping over it. I think the biggest issue I had was in the resolution. I groaned when I realized (spoiler-rot13) ur jnf urnqrq vagb gur oynpx ubyr. And then there was the very final bit. If you're going to make it a happy ending, finish the job and show us the freakin' happy ending, darn it.

Well, it's down to The Lego Movie and Edge of Tomorrow for the top spot on the ballot. I adore the Lego Movie, but in the end there is a lot of fluff there compared to Edge of Tomorrow, which was smartly written, funny and explored a serious SF concept in ways that were not quite mind-blowing. Still... Lego Movie. Everything is Awesome. But... mechs! Time travel done right! I may go right up to the deadline, switching my votes on those two.

The third spot is Interstellar. I may be a comic book fan, but neither of the comic book movies were quite as good as the other options. Guardians gets the fourth spot and, sorry, Cap, but The Winter Soldier will take up the rearguard for me.

And with that, my viewing/reading is technically done. I've got another two weeks to read further and possibly change my mind on some of these, but my initial review of the material is done. I wish I'd had another month or two to do it in, because I really do feel like I'm going to have to go back over some of these works to make sure I've given them a fair shake.

Hugo Reading - Editor, Long Form

Editing is not something that is easy to judge if you aren't a writer being edited. But my general notion is that bad editing sticks out like a sore thumb while good editing is totally invisible. Long form editing is even harder to judge than short form... with short form you can look at a variety of stories and say, "these are all competent" and sometimes even be able to tell if the same issues run from story to story. But long form requires more effort to read and figure out what contribution the editor likely made.

• Vox Day
  This person did not submit anything to the Hugo packet, and I'm not willing to go looking at the cesspool of misogyny and racism on his website for more information. He's off my ballot.
• Toni Weisskopf
  The packet notes say to check out this editor's work at Baen Books. However, once on that website, there is no clear indication which of the many books published by Baen she has personally edited. Apparently she's the publisher of Baen now, which is fine and dandy, but I'm not judging publishing. I'm judging editing. And without a list of works, it's pointless to try. She's off the ballot.
• Jim Minz
  Same as Weisskopf, except there is nothing in the packet notes at all about this nominee. In short, he's a big blank. So I looked him up online and found that he's also a Baen editor. Again, there is no information that can be easily accessed about what novels he worked on in 2014, so he's off the ballot. I don't see any reason to give him a chance if he can't be bothered to give the very minimum needed to judge his work.
• Anne Sowards
  The packet has a list of works she edited in 2014, including Skin Game by Jim Butcher (I've already read the excerpt in the packet) and Maplecroft by Cherie Priest which immediately moved up on my to-read pile. I liked Skin Game, although there were placed it could have been tighter. Maplecroft was fun, but again, there were places it needed just a nip and a tuck to make it read better. Still, both were excellent and I can't fault this editor for her work.
• Sheila Gilbert
  This editor is pure evil. She put together a sampler with the first chapter each of a ton of books she's edited. Yes, teasers. Yes, they draw you in. I like the way she thinks. THIS is how you do a Hugo packet as a long form editor. I feel like I ought to put her at the top of the ballot just for this lovely trick, since it's almost certainly going to lead to me buying more books. Yes, there were a few really good first chapters in there, enough to make me nod my head and think, this person is deserving.

Even with the field narrowed to two, I almost can't make up my mind. At the moment, Gilbert is just a little higher than Sowards on my ballot. As I read a bit more and seek out other works (or finish some of those books I got samples of) I might change my mind. But they will both be on the ballot, certainly. "No Award" will also be on the ballot. Again, I'm not sure where it will fall in relation to the people who get on my ballot, but it'll be there.

Hugo Reading - Editor, Short Form

The editor categories are going to be incredibly difficult to judge. A good editor fades into the background. If the editing is excellent, the reader will hardly be aware of it. If the editing is bad, however, it's painfully obvious.

As a professional writer, although not of fiction, I have learned a lot from my editor. He's grumpy and gruff and really good at what he does. My first six months on the job I simply made the changes he suggested, and learned from each one. By the end of the first year I was making my own changes based on what he'd found. Sometimes things that were perfectly clear to me made no sense to him. Seeing my work through another person's eyes was invaluable. The experience has been constantly educational and often embarassing. However, I would be a far poorer writer without his editing. My blog is not edited, and sometimes the most horrible mistakes get through.

So I feel slightly qualified to judge editing. The problem will be whether or not the nominees have given me enough information to judge by. The absolute ideal, and absolute most unlikely, would be to get a story in rough and final forms. The next best would be a couple of stories or a single long work to read. The least best is just a list of stories to read, Which I can hopefully find and then make some judgements on the quality of the editing. For short form, this should not be too difficult. So... into the fray I go.

• Vox Day
  This is the person who approved those awful Wright stories. That alone, ignoring everything else I know about him, is enough to keep him off my ballot. Add in the other works he claims to have edited from "Riding the Red Horse" and this guy is what I would call a useless editor. Every one of those pieces needed a lot of work to make them good enough for publication, much less good enough to be considered for an award.
• Jennifer Brozek
  There's an entire collection edited by this nominee in the Hugo Packet. Even more amusing, she lives in a town I lived in 10 years. Hopefully that tidbit won't influence me too much. The theme of the stories in the anthology are robots, and I actually like the majority of them. As with any anthology, there's a couple that don't ring with me, but mostly it's an excellent collection with some interesting ideas explored. I didn't see any evidence of poor editing, most of the works were tightly written and ended at the right moment. Brozek will be high on my ballot.
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt
  There's an anthology in the packet, but it's a co-editing job with Brozek. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to figure out which editor did the bulk of the work on any given story. I definitely would have preferred something he claimed sole editorship on, if he had any such works in 2014. Still, this is what he gave me, this is what I'm going to go by. The stories are all war stories, and many of them are not very interesting to me. In fact, I had to struggle to get through a lot of them. They didn't seem as tight as the stories in Brozek's solo effort, with a few going on too long and many rambling a little in the middle. Very few of them touched me or made me say, "wow" as I finished them. I don't know if that's a problem with Schmidt's editing, a symptom that Brozek isn't as great when working on a different theme, or just me not being fond of the subject matter. Whatever it is, Schmidt's further down on the ballot than Brozek.
• Mike Resnick
  This is a name that is very familiar to me from dozens of anthologies I've read and enjoyed throughout the years. I'm delighted to read more. The Hugo Packet had a list issues of Galaxy's Edge from 2014, so I searched a bit and found a "Best of Galaxy's Edge 2013-14" collection that contains many of the stories. I read the 15 or so stories that were in the book and on his list, and they are good. Admittedly, there were a couple of stories that could have used another once over, but it was a fun selection. It was nice to not have a theme, as well. In short, I'm pleased with the offerings here.

I'm going to have to give Brozek a slight edge here. While I didn't love every story, all of them seemed very solidly constructed and clean. Resnick gets the second spot. The stories were uniformly fun and interesting, but I felt some of them needed one last edit. Schmidt will get the third spot. Nothing in that collection jumped out and really stunned me. They weren't bad, but some of them definitely could have been better. VD isn't on my ballot, but "No Award" will be. I'm not entirely sure where I'll rank "No Award" in relation to the other entries, but I certainly believe both Brozek and Resnick deserve honors for their work.

There was a fifth nominee, Edmund R. Schubert, but he withdrew from consideration due to the slates. I respect him for that, and hope he gets a serious look from nominators in a year when no idiots are running slates.