Vote vote vote--and rec rec rec rec

[ellen_datlow]

Ok. Here's my impassioned plea/push/nag for anyone who reads this blog and is eligible to recommend stories and or novels for the various peer group science fiction, fantasy, and horror awards.
I know that some people feel that awards themselves are a bad thing and that they should all be abolished. I'm not talking to you. I don't believe that and I know I'm not going to change your minds.

Awards are NOT going to go away but they could become less visible (which I think is a bad thing). As an editor I really appreciate it when the stories/books I edit make final award ballots and win awards. And I think most writers are even more appreciative of this. It gives a sense of validation for what you're doing by your peers (for the Nebula and Stoker).

Right now is "award rec season" and there are discussions on both the SFWA Bulletin Board and the HWA Bulletin Board about how their respective awards are dying --not enough members are recommending works to even make a preliminary ballot.

Now some people think that this might be because no one likes the work being published.
Others that no one is reading enough short fiction to be interested in recommending works in those categories.
I have a really difficult time believing the first reason. I've been reading sf/f/h short fiction for twenty five years and have found no drop off in quality in any of those fields.

I can't answer for the second but I hope it's not true because if so my profession will die and I love editing short fiction.

If you care at ALL for the genre short story then I urge you to recommend the stories that you think are worth bringing to the attention of your peers.

This is totally off the cuff and I know if I thought about it more I'd have more to write--but I'd also probably just delete the whole post...

Comments welcome!

Comments

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

Well, he has failed to be much different.

No old-fashioned guys talking like they are from 1959 tooling around the asteroid belt in any of those stories though, as far as the Analog sort of thing goes, and not much core sf except one massive blast of a story.

Other than that, and the odd pretty mainstream story (although that happens elsewhere, nothing that you wouldn't find in a bunch of other places.

Dragon hoards, girls turning into mice, zeppelins and sorcery, dead wives, fantasy princesses, conquering overlords, writing/book references, body part removal, etc., etc.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

Subject matter is not necessarily the problem.

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

Same sort of writers, too. Not like he has a bunch of new Vietnamese or Latvians or Guatemalans producing stuff for him, here.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

Oh? Who of the Analog Mafia has Clarkesworld published?

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

Mafia?

I thought already said there wasn't any Analogesque stuff in there? Might have been a reply elsewhere.

If Analog is what you detest, then no, it isn't like that. Or if it is a particular bunch of writers you don't like, then you can pretty easily see if they are in there. :)

If you detest Asimov's and FSF and Strange Horizons etc. etc. then you can avoid this one, too.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

Mafia?

Google it.

I thought already said there wasn't any Analogesque stuff in there? Might have been a reply elsewhere.

You did say there wasn't any Analogesque stuff in there, but then you said it was the same sort of writers. If there aren't any Mike Resnick impersonators, that's a step up.

If you detest Asimov's and FSF and Strange Horizons etc. etc. then you can avoid this one, too.

All of them publish stuff I like from time to time. But as Nick pointed out, they have a lot of slots to fill and a lot of reasons for filling them.

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

No, nothing I would call Resnick-like I think, from what I have read of his. One close, perhaps, and there's a woman goes into the past mysteriously to an earlier time that is a bit similar in tone (perhaps) to a recent decent Resnick JBU story about a guy stranded on a planet. That is about it, though.

Same sort of Northern Hemisphere Western usual thing, barring one Filipino angle story, was what I meant, really, sorry. Nothing different to see.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

More diversity would certainly be nice, but again, I refer you to Nick's actual complaints up-thread.

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

Sure, he has complained about it, and done nothing different that I can see, apart from 'Analoglessness', if you want to call it that. Although a story or two would probably fit there. Eyecam implant voyeurism perhaps not their thing though? :)

No elves, dwarves, or knights in armour, or farm boys going to get rid of dark lords?

So chance of broad appeal, given it is all similar to what is out there (and he isn't publishing happily ever after romance or Star Wars stories) would seem to be practically none.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

Again, what the stories are about is not necessarily the problem (http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/12643.html?thread=219491#t219491).

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

Then what?

The impressiveness of the writing? It isn't that great in general. The people you have heard of aren't going to suddenly become heaps better just because they are on Clarkesworld website. There was one good story by someone I think I wasn't aware of, and some of the standard quality were as well.

If not writing or content, then what are you looking for? Given the flat and old fashioned type of thing we have already dismissed.

Amazing new ideas? Politics? Nasty horror (probably not if you are intersted in SFF mainly)? Has to have old people/young people? . Can you pin that down?