:Raised eyebrow: You would think that a three-time Hugo nominee…

…(Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary) would at least get a personalized rejection slip for his short story, instead of a form letter.  Particularly when it’s been submitted to, and forgive me for saying this, an online SF magazine that is not perhaps as well known as Taylor’s webcomic.

Please understand, I’m not in any sort of nerdrage over this; for all I know, the story was crap.  It’s just a little… startling that the publisher didn’t jump on the chance to get a “name.”  Possibly it’s a good startling, but it’s startling all the same.

How to vote for the Hugo.

Ian Tregillis – author of Bitter Seeds, which is eligible for a Hugo this year (more later) – has provided links on where to submit nominations for the 2010 Hugo award (which is, of course, the premiere award for science fiction). I’m half-tempted to shell out the fifty bucks for voting privileges myself; goodness knows that my original career path got short-circuited about ten years ago, but it’d be nice to have have at least some connection to that aspect of my life.

As to Bitter Seeds itself, I quite liked it: it was a good horror/supernatural/sorta-kinda-superhero-not-really alternate-history World War II book that did not hesitate to allow a significant change to history, well, significantly change history.  This is always a bit of a problem with WWII alternates that have supernatural and/or metahuman elements to it: what’s stopping the metahumans from using their powers to end the war?  It can be explained – and explained well – but it’s kind of refreshing to have a book that confronts the problem head-on.  Worth picking up.

Continue reading How to vote for the Hugo.