Helloooooo!

Was a bit busy round Father’s Day last week so missed out and the new job is a bit draining - after five days a week of Microsoft Teams meetings it is really hard at the moment to do online book events! But good news I seem to be doing ok in the new role I do expect to be fairly busy though.

We are halfway through the year and the nights in the UK are getting shorter! But I sorta like late summertime.  Its warm. The garden is full of life, birds are tweeting all the time and it’s been nice just to chill and not rush about recent nights. I’m not sure lockdown is ending properly next month and think caution is advised (although booked Fantasycon just in case). Hopefully by the end of today I will have finished week 7 of couch potato to 5k – the furthest I’ve ever got without injury or work taking over my evenings – one massive advantage of losing my 90 minute commute. Running for 25 minutes is something I seriously never thought I’d do and key lesson this time is it is about building stamina not speed – that may come later. Jogging as well as some good health benefits is actually quite nice to settle thoughts over. Fingers crossed two more weeks and this is the new norm for me!

Things feel settled so next month I can restart readalongs with a vengeance, finish SCKA nominees and carry on my ARC catch up. I feel pleasantly enthused about blogging again now I’ve got some balance back in life!

Awards

The Kitschies are always an interesting award that look for the most progressive intelligent and entertaining books in the SF genre. The shortlist ahead of announcements on the 21st July are listed here I may try to get through the three best novels I’ve not read yet before then! They look good!

The Locus Award winners have been announced here this weekend and quite a strong shortlist has revealed some impressive winners (always nice to compare with Subjective Chaos lists!) I really need to catch up on Murderbot this year!

The Hugos are not announced until December this year but already Worldcon have managed to make a has of it twice this year which has now claimed two hugo admin committees and two con chairs on the simple matter of checking how many people are actually able to travel to the US while the world is in the middle of a global pandemic (spoilers the UK and US are not the only parts of the world). Basically arbitrary limits were set at the start of the year then the con backtracked saying nominees would be consulted and again they were not. That’s been reversed and new leadership is in place again so third time lucky I guess.

I do not understand now how every year Worldcons who claim to representing the Members only keep making a mess of treating with respect those the Membership want to acknowledge for their contribution to the genre. This past week I’ve seen people claim there are secret cliques organising hidden slates to get friends elected (at a mere cost of £50 dollars each; that it is insane to want to praise your entire staff on a fanzine even not taking into account that in the 21st century many people are working hard at other jobs to keep heads above water (and aren’t cons themselves supposed to be a collective?); that fandom has been spoiled by such recent categories such as film and tv to ensure we don’t become mundanes and laughably its all about middle class British people complaining. And special mention to the person who said if people complain Worldcons will only make things harder for non-white nominees in ignorance of how many those listing issues the last few years aren’t white!

The organisation of the Hugos really needs to improve and just simply saying each Worldcon team are their own group so mistakes will happen is quite frankly putting the head in the sand of a recurring bug not a feature. As a project manager I do need to stress early and regular engagement with your stakeholders is part of good planning and focusing on the bits of an event that could give you the worst publicity and damage to your reputation may deserve a lot more focus. I’m getting bored of an event that says it is celebrating the World of SF & Fantasy and seems oblivious to how the rest of the world actually operates. Can this change? I’m doubtful but I do think more events trying to deal with international fandoms (perhaps with bigger online dimensions) will have to show Worldcon teams there are other ways to do things first. Personally, I’m getting bored of the incompetence and lack of ownership in a group that feels increasingly behind the curve of fandom and just want to see human beings treated with respect so they feel happy to be nominated all the way up to the event and afterwards. That’s what most other events manage to do.

Things I listened to

I finished the second season (a year later) of 13 Minutes to the Moon which this time focused on the Apollo 13 incident. Using a lot of interviews with those involved it mananges to build tension even though the outcome is well known.

There was also a brilliant Breaking the Glass Slipper interview with Charlie Jane Anders on identity in SF&F well worth hunting down for some good insights on when it is used well and not so well.

What I’ve Been Watching

Lupin Part 2 was a joy to watch and the last two episodes show all I want in a good heist. A scene set to classical music in a theatre was beautiful and how the wider plot was reframed. Very much looking forward to more of this series.

Restarted Battlestar Galactica, Black Sails and unusually Elementary which seems to be relaxing. Now can I restart The Untamed this next month?  

What Have I been reading?

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri – excellent start to an epic fantasy series with two really impressive lead characters and a fascinating world and look at how rebellion start. This looks like it could be very very very good.

Anna by Sammy H K Smith – a hallowing piece of dystopian SF horror exploring sensitively abuse and surviving it. Dark, violent and troubling it was a good read but I advise caution on the subject matter.

Ten Low by Stark Holborn  - an action packed yet character focused trip on a strange moon that pulls in horror, sf and fantasy elements combined with a western. Holborn has been doing great stuff and this may be their best yet that I’ve read!

What am I Going to Read?

In the near future Vamps, Darkness, Ghosts, the World, Shards, Gloss and an empire.

And so much more!! Good luck for the future – we will get there. See you in a week!