Inhuman Swill

I promised earlier to write more about the Hugo nominations today, but what I really wanted to do was take some time to do what I was too pressed to do this morning and congratulate everyone else who made the ballot. Particular congratulations to folks I know like Robert Reed, Sheila Williams, Gordon Van Gelder, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, David Hartwell, Kevin Maroney, Gardner Dozois, Gavin Grant & Kelly Link, and John Scalzi!

In the short story category I'm delighted to see tim_pratt, whose "Impossible Dreams" is the kind of story that makes you wish desperately that it was true. It was a pleasure to get to know him at the Blue Heaven workshop last year. I don't know Paolo Bacigalupi well, but I'm very stoked that we'll get to hang out together at this year's Blue Heaven and try to figure out how to write novels. I don't really know anyone in the novel category, either, but I feel related-by-collaboration to Peter Watts, since both he and I have recently written stories with Derryl Murphy.

And then there's paulmelko, a great guy whom I had known for a few years but was lucky enough to really get to know well last year at Blue Heaven. I'm excited for him for the way he's burst onto the scene over the past few years, and for his evident work ethic and commitment to the SF cause via SFWA involvement. But I'm also happy because our two novellas, which appear in the same issue of Asimov's, have managed to garner both Hugo and Nebula nominations. (Hugula, dude!) The only thing that could possibly top this ride is for the two of us to tie for the Hugo.

Of course, as I said in Paul's journal earlier, with Robert Reed, Michael Swanwick, and Robert Charles Wilson, all of whom I admire very much, as fellow nominees, I figure I can just rest easy and enjoy the awards ceremony knowing this is not my year to set off airport security with a rocket in my luggage. (Bob Reed's novella in particular I thought was brilliant.)

That's it for the folks I know. Congratulations now to everybody! Great work, and good luck!