Saturdays here at Amazing Stories can sometimes be a bit problematic; it’s supposed to be the one day of the week that I personally devote solely to family, home, etc. But the internet has needs too, at least one of which is MORE NEW STUFF!
So I try to balance those two by offering up something relatively light, generally informative – lets call it brunch fare – interesting websites, commentary on a (presumably) fairly safe topic and such.
More often than not I know what the post is going to be well before Saturday, but every once and a while the muses fail me and I have to scramble for something to write about early on a Saturday morning when I really ought to be doing something else.
Today is one of those days. It’s complicated by that fact that I’m also in-between commutes to Arisia (I’ll be leaving shortly for the Saturday session) and there are a bunch of things about/from the con that I’d like to be writing about that are intruding on the “light and fluffy” mood that ought to be prevailing.
After wrestling with all of that for a good hour or so, I’ve decided to give in to what fate apparently has in store for me today and default to a simple message:
Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon, announced yesterday that nominations for the Hugo Awards have opened and will be closing in March.
You need to be a registered member of the convention/WSFS in order to nominate. THAT little obstacle is easily overcome with the minimum of a Supporting Membership (currently $40.00), which itself is convertible to an Attending Membership should you choose to go to the convention.
You will also gain the right to vote on the final ballot for the awards themselves later on in the year.
In this day and age of (inappropriate) vote mongering and the sad intrusion of politics external to fandom into the rhetoric surrounding the voting, it is more important than ever to participate. One of the very few defenses the award has against being twisted out of all recognition by special interest groups (I wanted to use a different noun there) is volume.
The more people who vote honestly, personally and their conscience (as opposed to sycophants acting as proxies for special interest), the less influence voting blocks and messianic shouting from atop molehills will have on the outcome of the awards.
You can find details here
