2017 Year-End Writerly Post

It's that time of the year when writers blog about their award-eligible works published in the last calendar year. Well, I only had one work published in 2017:

If you read and enjoyed Kangaroo Too, please talk it up anywhere and everywhere you like!

And now I'm going to direct your attention toward some other writers who have published outstanding fiction in 2017. In no particular order:

• Claire Humphrey
• A. Merc Rustad
• A.C. Wise (ADD 30 Dec 2017: see also her What Have You Done, What Have You Loved? 2017 Edition blog post)
• Rich Larson
• Caroline M. Yoachim
• John Wiswell
• Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
• Erica L. Satifka
• Kelly Robson
• A.T. Greenblatt

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have personal connections to all of the above writers through conventions, workshops, professional organizations, and/or living in the Pacific Northwest.

Check out Cat Rambo's 2017 roundup for a more complete list of award-eligible works.

And don't forget, if you want to nominate for next year's Hugo Awards, you need to buy your Worldcon membership by this coming SUNDAY, December 31st!

My OryCon 39 Schedule

This coming weekend I'll be at OryCon, a science fiction/fantasy convention held annually in Portland since 1979. This year it's at the Red Lion Hotel on Jantzen Beach. When not at the bar, here's where you can find me (moderator for each session in bold):

Friday, November 17th

2:00pm-3:00pm
Getting Your First Professional Sale
Thrawn - 252
An author can struggle for months or years before achieving their first success, but even after writing their opus, they can be tripped up by a process which is both entirely new to them and yet critical to their success. This panel describes what an author may experience as they revel in their first success.
Clayton Callahan, Tina Connolly, Curtis C. Chen, Sheila Finch, Annie Bellet

4:00pm-5:00pm
Comics Created Our Modern Mythologies
Wenatchee - 166 Parlor
How comics conquered our art, stories and media.
Lee Moyer, Curtis C. Chen, Benjamin Hsu, Eva L. Elasigue

6:30pm-7:00pm
Endeavour Awards
East Ballroom
The Endeavour Award honors the best SF/F book written by a Pacific Northwest writer. This year's finalists are Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine, Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia McKillip, Eocene Station by Dave Duncan, Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, and Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis Chen.
Page Fuller, Jim Fiscus, Curtis C. Chen, Sheila Simonson, David Levine, Sara Mueller,
Patrick Swenson, Brenda Cooper

Saturday, November 18th

10:00am-11:00am
SFWA Regional Business Meeting
Thrawn - 252
The Secretary will give a briefing on the latest in SFWA and the business, as well as answer questions.
Curtis C. Chen, Jim Fiscus

12:00pm-1:00pm
Publishing Ethics
216 Presidential
What should the relationship between publishers and writers look like? Between writers and readers? Both require respect. What does that look like?
Patrick Swenson, Curtis C. Chen, Susan R. Matthews, Ann Gimpel, Doug Odell

3:00pm-4:00pm
Star Trek: Discovery
Lovejoy
Whoo hoo! Another Star Trek series! It's been far too long. What do you think?
John C. Bunnell, Rob Wynne, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Jennifer Willis, Curtis C. Chen

8:00pm-9:00pm
Sci Fi Ask Me Another! (Quiz Show)
216 Presidential
Curtis Chen and Jeff Soesbe present a variety of games involving science fiction and fantasy trivia, puzzles, and wordplay. Audience participation is required, and rewarded! Can you make it to the final Elimination Game? Come have fun while competing for prizes!
Jeff Soesbe, Curtis C. Chen

Sunday, November 19th

1:00pm-2:00pm
Trades versus Weeklies Economics
Wenatchee - 166 Parlor
Comic collections or issues? Why have one when we already have the other?
Robert B McMonigal, Eva L. Elasigue, Jeff Soesbe, Curtis C. Chen

Check out the full OryCon 39 schedule on SCHED.



And if you can't make it to the con, I'll also be at Powell's "Sci-Fi Authorfest" in Beaverton on Sunday afternoon from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. Come meet 20 different speculative fiction authors, buy our books, and get them signed!

Here endeth the schedule.

My Can*Con Schedule

Next weekend (October 13-15) I'll be at Can*Con, the Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature in Ottawa. And no, I am not Canadian, but they're letting me crash their party anyway. (Thanks to my literary agent Sam Morgan, last year's Agent GoH, for paving the way!)

Here's where I'll be:

Saturday, October 14

9:00AM - Salon B
SFWA: Supports for Writers & Routes to Membership
An overview of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) with current and former Secretaries and our current Volunteer Coordinator. Light breakfast fare and coffee will be available!
Curtis C. Chen, Susan Forest, Derek Künsken

11:30-12:00 - Dealer's Room, Chapters Table
Signing Session
Titles will be available for sale by Chapters, but no purchase is necessary – feel free to bring something with you for us to sign!
Curtis C. Chen, Yves Meynard

13:30-13:45 - Salon B
Reading
A scene from KANGAROO TOO, and possibly something from the new work in progress!
Curtis C. Chen

Sunday, October 15

2:00PM - Salon D
Leveling Up Your Writing with Formal Courses
Previous participants in courses like Clarion, Odyssey, Taos Toolbox, MFAs, etc. discuss (1) the benefits and drawbacks of residential vs. online writing courses, (2) how they got in, (3) what they learned there vs. other places to learn.
Curtis C. Chen, Suzanne Church, Timothy Gwyn, Leah MacLean-Evans, Kelly Robson (moderator)

Visit the Can*Con web site for complete Panel Descriptions & Schedule and more information.

Follow @curtiscchen or @CanConSF on Twitter for additional shenanigans!



P.S. Has it really been almost two months since my last blog post here? Maybe I ought to put up or shut up on this whole blogging thing. :P

I Got Yer Oscar Nominations RIGHT HERE

TL;DR: I care about the Academy Awards and I care about data reporting.

This year's Oscar nominations (honoring films released in 2016) were announced on January 24th, and ever since then I've been checking Oscars.org periodically to see if they've published the "view by film" tab on the nominations list. Several news outlets reported on the numbers of nominations different films received, but usually the Academy posts a full list of nominations for each film.

Well, that tab still hasn't appeared as of this writing, but on a whim, I back-hacked the URL based on last year's site, and you know what? The data's actually there. It doesn't appear to be fully cleaned up (the original song nominees are sorted incorrectly), but it's better than nothing:

https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2017?qt-honorees=1#qt-honorees

However, I had already compiled my own list from the per-category nominations page, so I'm posting that information here for everyone else's handy reference. Please note that I'm only listing films with more than one nomination below. For everything else, please refer to the broke-ass page linked above.

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La La Land – 14 nominations
Best Picture - Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt, Producers
Directing - Damien Chazelle
Actor in a Leading Role - Ryan Gosling
Actress in a Leading Role - Emma Stone
Writing (Original Screenplay) - Damien Chazelle
Cinematography - Linus Sandgren
Costume Design - Mary Zophres
Film Editing - Tom Cross
Music (Original Score) - Justin Hurwitz
Music (Original Song) - "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)"
Music (Original Song) - "City of Stars"
Production Design - David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Sound Editing - Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
Sound Mixing - Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow

Arrival – 8 nominations
Best Picture - Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder and David Linde, Producers
Directing - Denis Villeneuve
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Eric Heisserer
Cinematography - Bradford Young
Film Editing - Joe Walker
Production Design - Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte
Sound Editing - Sylvain Bellemare
Sound Mixing - Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye

Moonlight – 8 nominations
Best Picture - Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
Directing - Barry Jenkins
Actor in a Supporting Role - Mahershala Ali
Actress in a Supporting Role - Naomie Harris
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Cinematography - James Laxton
Film Editing - Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon
Music (Original Score) - Nicholas Britell

Hacksaw Ridge – 6 nominations
Best Picture - Bill Mechanic and David Permut, Producers
Directing - Mel Gibson
Actor in a Leading Role - Andrew Garfield
Film Editing - John Gilbert
Sound Editing - Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
Sound Mixing - Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace

Lion – 6 nominations
Best Picture - Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Angie Fielder, Producers
Actor in a Supporting Role - Dev Patel
Actress in a Supporting Role - Nicole Kidman
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Luke Davies
Cinematography - Greig Fraser
Music (Original Score) - Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka

Manchester By The Sea – 6 nominations
Best Picture - Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck and Kevin J. Walsh, Producers
Directing - Kenneth Lonergan
Actor in a Leading Role - Casey Affleck
Actor in a Supporting Role - Lucas Hedges
Actress in a Supporting Role - Michelle Williams
Writing (Original Screenplay) - Kenneth Lonergan

Fences – 4 nominations
Best Picture - Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington and Todd Black, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role - Denzel Washington
Actress in a Supporting Role - Viola Davis
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - August Wilson

Hell Or High Water – 4 nominations
Best Picture - Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn, Producers
Actor in a Supporting Role - Jeff Bridges
Writing (Original Screenplay) - Taylor Sheridan
Film Editing - Jake Roberts

Hidden Figures – 3 nominations
Best Picture - Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams and Theodore Melfi, Producers
Actress in a Supporting Role - Octavia Spencer
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi

Jackie – 3 nominations
Actress in a Leading Role - Natalie Portman
Costume Design - Madeline Fontaine
Music (Original Score) - Mica Levi

Deepwater Horizon – 2 nominations
Sound Editing - Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli
Visual Effects - Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton

Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them – 2 nominations
Costume Design - Colleen Atwood
Production Design - Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock

Florence Foster Jenkins – 2 nominations
Costume Design - Consolata Boyle
Actress in a Leading Role - Meryl Streep

Kubo And The Two Strings – 2 nominations
Animated Feature Film - Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
Visual Effects - Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff

A Man Called Ove – 2 nominations
Foreign Language Film (Sweden)
Makeup and Hairstyling - Eva von Bahr and Love Larson

Moana – 2 nominations
Music (Original Song) - Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Animated Feature Film - John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer

Passengers – 2 nominations
Music (Original Score) - Thomas Newman
Production Design - Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – 2 nominations
Sound Mixing - David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Visual Effects - John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould

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If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, you're welcome to join us at our Oscar Party on February 26th. (Message me for details if you haven't already received an invite, and apologies for the oversight!)

Finally, everyone on the Internet is welcome to follow me on Twitter for #OscarTrivia that day. (Teaser: you'll find out which one of this year's nominees I worked with on a project back in 2011! Feel free to speculate in the comments.)

How Far I'll Go

Short answer: Hong Kong, in April.

Long answer: Below is a list of all my currently scheduled author events and appearances in 2017. Bookmark curtiscchen.com/events for the most current details, and contact me if you'd like to invite me to something in your neck of the woods!

• January 28th (Saturday), 2pm - reading/signing at Vintage Books in Vancouver, WA with fellow local author Alexis Radcliff.
• January 31st (Tuesday), 7pm - SFWA Reading in Kirkland, WA with Fonda Lee and Randy Henderson.
• February 2nd (Thursday), 7pm - SFWA Reading in Portland, OR with Fonda Lee and Randy Henderson.
• February 10th (Friday), 8pm - the SMART Alphabet Ball (fundraising dinner and auction) at the Portland Art Museum, where you can bid on a personalized short story written by me and illustrated by the fantastic Natalie Metzger!
• February 15-19 (Wed-Sun) - Rainforest Writers Village 2017, Session One, where I'll be giving a talk entitled "Dying is Easy, Young Man, Comedy is Harder."
• March 2-5 (Thu-Sun) - Emerald City Comicon 2017 in Seattle, WA, where I'll be one of the guests for a live recording of the "Inconceivable!" game show podcast. Other schedule items TBD.
• April 13-16 (Thu-Sun) - Norwescon 40 in SeaTac, WA, where I'll be one of the panelists for "First Page Idol." Other schedule items TBD/TBA.
• April 19-20 (Wed-Thu) - Melon Hong Kong, a new conference intended to "bring together Asia's best Science Fiction writers, filmmakers, game developers, technologists and investors."
• May 18-21 (Thu-Sun) - Nebula Conference and Awards Weekend in Pittsburgh, PA.
• June 20 (Tuesday) - Kangaroo Too launch party featuring Ariel Waldman at The Bindery, The Booksmith's new event space in San Francisco, CA!
• July 9 (Sunday) - SF in SF with Megan E. O'Keefe!
• November 17-19 (Fri-Sun) - OryCon 39 in Portland, OR.

If you'd like to get periodic reminders and related updates in your inbox, sign up for my mailing list. Also feel free to follow me on Twitter, or "like" my Facebook Page.

My OryCon 38 Schedule

Next weekend (Nov.18-20) I'll be reading, paneling, and drinking at Oregon's premier, fan run, annual science fiction/fantasy convention held in Portland. Please stop by the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront if you're around. We can raise a glass to freedom, if nothing else...

Thursday night 11/17 (pre-con)

Karaoke with friends. Contact me for details, if we be friends.

Find me to get KANGAROO swag!

Friday 11/18

4pm - Reading from Kangaroo Too - Hawthorne (2)
You won't believe where the superpowered secret agent is going next, in the forthcoming sequel to Waypoint Kangaroo! #clickbait

5pm - Panelist: "Social Media and the Modern Writer" - Meadowlark (3)
with Lizzy Shannon, Stephanie Weippert, Elton Elliott, Katie Lane
Websites, Facebook fan pages, email lists, contests, twitter, tumblr, Pinterest, ads, blogs and that annoying thing called a "platform": what works, what doesn't, and why you need to care (spoiler: you do).

Saturday 11/19

11am - Moderator: "First Page Idol" - Douglas Fir (3)
with Annie Bellet, Doug Odell, David Levine
Submit the first page of your novel to our talented author panelists, and listen to them read aloud that first page(keeping the writer's identity anonymous) and give thoughtful reactions. ADD(14 Nov 2016): E-mail your first page submission (please omit the author name) to: ww@orycon.org

2pm - Panelist: "How to Blurb Your Novel" - Meadowlark (3)
with Dale Ivan Smith, Tori Centanni, Lizzy Shannon
We all need them, we all hate them. Summing up our books may be harder than writing them in the first place! Learn techniques to write compelling book descriptions (aka "blurbs"), and hook readers.

3pm - Co-Host: "Sci Fi Ask Me Another! (Quiz Show)" - Columbia (L)
with Jeff Soesbe
Curtis Chen and Jeff Soesbe present a variety of games involving science fiction and fantasy trivia, puzzles, and wordplay. Audience participation is required, and rewarded! Can you make it to the final Elimination Game? Come have fun while competing for prizes!

7pm - Moderator: "The Star Trek Universe: My, How You've Grown!" - Columbia (L)
with Alma Alexander, Jennifer Willis, Phyllis Irene Radford
A wide ranging panel, with the changes (or consistencies) found in TOS, TNG, DS9, and all movies being fair game. Gene Roddenberry tried to create a future without racism or hatred, and a Federation that prioritized peace and non-interference. Yet disagreement, jealousy, envy, war, and a monetary system for keeping score of one's successes are all excellent literary plot devices. With the benefit now of 20/20 hindsight, did the writers succeed? Is the Star Trek future one you'd want to live in?

Sunday 11/20

11am - Panelist: "Feedback Workshop" - Douglas Fir (3)
with Susan Matthews, David Weber, Richard A. Lovett, David Levine
Bring your questions, manuscripts, critiques, etc. A hands-on workshop on how to apply the feedback you get from readers, editors, writer's workshops, critique groups, etc.

1pm - Autograph Session - Autograph Area (LL1)
with Blythe Ayne, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Deborah Ross, David Dvorkin
Get your books (or whatever) signed by your favorite authors!

2pm - Panelist: "Hold on to Your Reader" - Douglas Fir (3)
with Caroline M. Yoachim, Maura van der Linden, Shawna Reppert
The wrong word choices can throw your reader right out of the story. Learn how to maintain suspension of disbelief.

4pm (offsite) - Powell's Sci-Fi Authorfest 10 (Cedar Hills Crossing)
"A starfleet of science fiction and fantasy authors descends for one galactic booksigning event. Meet Brent Weeks, Timothy Zahn, Daniel H. Wilson, Annie Bellet, Tina Connolly, David Levine, Curtis Chen, Lili Saintcrow, Dave Barra, Wendy Wagner, Jennifer Brozek, Mike Moscoe/Shepherd, J. A. Pitts, Devon Monk, Steve Perry, Patrick Swenson, Rhiannon Held, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Kevin James Breaux, and Deborah Ross."

For complete details, visit: orycon38.sched.org

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ALSO: I will not be running the ORCs (Open Read & Critique sessions) this time around, but I've passed the torch to three new facilitators! If you're a writer looking for some fast feedback, see if any of these sessions will fit into your OryCon weekend:

1. Friday 1pm with Jeremiah Reinmiller
2. Friday 2pm with Stephanie Weippert
3. Saturday 1pm with Stephanie Weippert
4. Saturday 2pm with Mark Niemann-Ross
5. Saturday 3pm with Jeremiah Reinmiller
6. Sunday 1pm with Mark Niemann-Ross

Look for ORC rules and sign-up sheets outside the Willamette room (lobby level).

Saturday Night's Alright for #WritersWithDrinks

September's Writers With Drinks includes multi-award-winning author Anuradha Roy. Plus survival poetry, kickass comedy, and tons of science fiction and fantasy!

When: Saturday, September 10 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open 6:30 PM
Who: Anuradha Roy, Margaret Wappler, Hollie Hardy, Naamen Tilahun, Dominique Gelin and Curtis Chen!
How much: $5 to $20, all proceeds benefit the CSC
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St., San Francisco, CA

About the readers/performers:

Anuradha Roy's latest book, Sleeping on Jupiter, won the DSC Prize for Fiction 2016 and was nominated for the Man Booker prize 2016. It has been nominated for various other literary prizes, including the FT/ Oppenheimer Prize, Hindu Prize for Best Fiction 2015, the Tata Book of the Year Award 2015, and the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Fiction Prize 2015. She won the Economist Crossword Prize for her second novel, The Folded Earth. Her first novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, has been widely translated and was picked as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post and the Seattle Times. It has been named by World Literature Today as one of the 60 most essential books on modern India and was shortlisted for the Crossword Prize. Anuradha Roy won the Picador-Outlook Non-Fiction Prize in 2004 for her essay, "Cooking Women". She works as a designer at Permanent Black, an independent press which she runs with her husband, Rukun Advani. She lives in Ranikhet, India.

Margaret Wappler is the author of Neon Green, which has been praised by Edan Lepucki and Joe Meno. She has written about the arts and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Elle, Cosmo, New York Times, and several other publications. Neon Green is her first novel. She lives in Los Angeles and can be heard weekly on the pop culture podcast, Pop Rocket.

Hollie Hardy is the author of How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014), winner the 2016 Annual Poetry Center Book Award. She teaches writing classes at the SF Creative Writing Institute, SFSU, and Berkeley City College. She co-hosts Saturday Night Special, An East Bay Open Mic, curates Litquake’s Flight of Poets, and is a founder and core producer of Oakland’s Beast Crawl Literary Festival.

Na'amen Gobert Tilahun has spent most of his life shuttling between San Francisco and Los Angeles. He writes many different things that have appeared in/on io9.com, Fantasy Magazine, Queers Dig Time Lords, Stone Telling, Full of Crows, The Big Click, faggot dinosaur, Spelling the Hours, Eleven Eleven and others. He was recently named one of 13 Bay Area Writers to Watch/Read in 2016 by 7X7 magazine and his debut novel, a second-world epic/urban fantasy, The Root was published by Night Shade Books in June.

Dominique Gelin is a comedian in San Francisco who offers strong opinions on stupid things, -isms, and assholes. It’s all very fascinating. Before moving to the Bay Area, she was a finalist for the Ultimate Miami Comedian and was a part of the Boca Raton Comedy Festival. Dom has also touched the stage of a really famous comedy club that one time. She co-hosts two comedy shows, Millennials Ruin Everything and The Lazy Brunch Hour.

Curtis Chen is the author of Waypoint Kangaroo. His short fiction has appeared in "Daily Science Fiction" and SNAFU and will be featured in Baen's MISSION: TOMORROW. On top of all that, he's a former software engineer and once built a cat feeding robot. He lives in Vancouver, Washington.

About Writers With Drinks:

Writers With Drinks has won numerous "Best ofs" from local newspapers, and has been mentioned in 7x7, Spin Magazine and one of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels. The spoken word "variety show" mixes genres to raise money for local causes. The award-winning show includes poetry, stand-up comedy, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction, erotica, memoir, zines and blogs in a freewheeling format.

My MidAmeriCon II Schedule

If you're going to Worldcon later this month, here's where you can find me:

SFWA Autographing: Curtis Chen
Friday 16:00 - 16:50, SFWA Table (Kansas City Convention Center)
I'm volunteering to staff the SFWA Table, and I'll be there starting at 3:00pm along with Ed Lerner. Stop by and say hello!

Reboot! Changing Up Comic Characters
Friday 18:00 - 19:00, 2204 (Kansas City Convention Center)
"Spider Gwen, Amadeus Cho, Thor, Captain America. We've seen a lot of rebooted characters in the the last couple of years with dramatically altered social and cultural backgrounds. The panel discuss how these 'new' old characters have changed the Marvel Universe, for better and worse."
Mr. Robin Wayne Bailey (M), Nina Niskanen, David VonAllmen, Mr. Curtis Chen

...and I'll otherwise be wandering around, probably in search of barbecue and/or booze.

If you run into me at the con, ask for a "TEAM KANGAROO" ribbon to decorate your badge and show your support for the hapless hero of my debut novel Waypoint Kangaroo!



Last but not least, my friend, Clarion West classmate, and all-around awesome person Marlee Jane Ward is organizing a Karaoke Extravaganza on Thursday night. This is a private(ish) event, so if you're interested, message me on Facebook and I'll invite you!

The Kanga-Roundup

Yesterday was the "book birthday" for my debut novel WAYPOINT KANGAROO, and I did a bunch of guest blog posts and interviews to coincide with its release! But first things first...

Tor.com is running a sweepstakes to give away five copies of the book! Enter before 12noon Eastern Time this Friday, June 24th (US/Canada only).

And now on to the blog posts! Some of these may be more interesting to writers and other publishing professionals, but I hope they give every interested party some more insight into what went into creating Kangaroo:

John Scalzi, one of my instructors at Viable Paradise XII, was kind enough to offer me a spot on The Big Idea.

Mary Robinette Kowal, erstwhile Portlandian and all-around outstanding human being, generously let me ramble on about My Favorite Bit.

Alex Shvartsman, editor of the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series, hosted my breakdown of WK's opening chapter on The Hook.

Sally 'Qwill' Janin—who, coincidentally, founded The Qwillery on my birthday in 2008—interviewed me about a variety of writing-related topics for the Qwillery's 2016 Debut Author Challenge.

Stephen Geigen-Miller, a fellow writer in Toronto and friend of the fabulous Claire Humphrey, interviewed me about Breaking In as a writer.

BONUS: related to "My Favorite Bit" above, you can hear an excerpt from the forthcoming audio book!


Thanks to everyone for supporting WAYPOINT KANGAROO. Launch day was fantastic. Now let's see if we can push this rocket all the way to Mars... and beyond!

My Preliminary Westercon 69 Schedule

Two blog posts in one week? Madness! (But it is technically a different month, so.)

I've received my draft schedule from the Westercon 69 programming department, and it's pretty light (as I requested):

Curtis Chen Reading
Madison
Fri Jul 1 3:00pm - 3:30pm
Curtis Chen reads from a selected work.
Curtis Chen

Choosing a Writing Workshop
Roosevelt
Fri Jul 1 4:00pm - 5:00pm
From one-day workshops and moderated critiques to residential programs and even MFAs — what are the possibilities? How do you figure out what you need, and when? Panelists with experience as students, instructors, and program administrators review the pros and cons and answer questions.
Curtis Chen, David D. Levine, Karen Anderson (moderator), Manny Frishberg

Saturday 10am Kaffeeklatsch
Multnomah
Sat Jul 2 10:00am - 11:00am
Small group discussions with authors, artists, and other interesting personalities (referred to as "hosts") Sessions are limited to the host and a small group of attendees.
Anthony Pryor, Carol Berg, Curtis Chen, David D. Levine, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Sonia Lyris, Tod McCoy

Autographs
Autographs
Sun Jul 3 10:00am - 11:00am
Get your goodies signed!
Anthony Pryor, Curtis Chen, Emily Jiang

Of course, I'll be around all weekend. I'm always around.

Any updates to the above will be published in the official online schedule. If you're into Facebooking, feel free to add yourself to my rogue event listing for possible additional updates. And, of course, follow me on Twitter for my most up-to-the-minute blathering.

Who Just Got Paid Once for Each Thumb He Has?

I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count:

For the record, that's a check from University Book Store for sales of Thursday's Children trade paperbacks, which Duane Wilkins was kind enough to stock at their table during this year's Rainforest Writers Village and Norwescon; and a check from SFWA for my "Special Synopsis Sauce" blog post, which editor extraordinaire Christie Yant encouraged me to write and submit.

And speaking of blogs, I know it's been several months since I posted here, and the business of writing (as shown above) is a big part of what's kept me away. I stopped doing my weekly "The I in Meat" posts because they were taking time away from more important, possibly income-generating things, and IMHO social media has supplanted blogging as online tools of choice for personal oversharing.

But just like Slack is no replacement for e-mail, there's still a place for blogging in the new internet landscape. I'm going to spend a little time re-figuring out how best to use this platform, especially since I'll be traveling a lot this summer and it might be nice to record some of those experiences.

Meanwhile, Happy Memorial Day Weekend, fellow Americans!

I applied to Clarion West SIX TIMES

Applications for the Clarion West Summer Six-Week Writers Workshop in Seattle are now open. If you apply before February 10th, the fee is only $30; it goes up to $50 after that date. The last day to apply is March 1st. This year's instructors are Paul Park, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Bear, N. K. Jemisin, Sheila Williams, and Geoff Ryman.

As the title of this post says, I applied to CW six times (every year starting in 2008, only skipping 2012 because of WarTron) before I attended the workshop in 2014. My classmate Shannon Fay recently posted her CW personal essay—requested as part of the application; they want a "description of your background and your reasons for attending the workshop"—and I remember having the same experience she describes, of wondering what it was I should say about myself and how much weight the essay (vs. the writing sample) would carry with the decision-makers who selected each year's students.

So here's my own CW2014 personal essay, which was used "to introduce [me] to the workshop’s instructors" after my acceptance. Did the people reviewing the initial applications even read it? I don't know. On some level, I was really writing this essay for myself, to codify my own thinking about where I was with my fiction writing and what I wanted to work on next.

NOTE: hyperlinks below were not included in the original document, but have been added here for reference.

HAPPY NEW YEAR (BACKGROUND ESSAY)
by Curtis C. Chen

Hello again! Here's what I've been up to (writing-wise) since my last Clarion West application in 2013:

I started querying my science fiction spy novel, WAYPOINT KANGAROO (the writing sample attached to this application), and the first place to which I sent it was literary agent Janet Reid's "Query Shark" blog. I'd never written a query letter before, and I figured it would be good to get some impartial feedback. Of course, there was no guarantee she'd even look at my e-mail, but it was a good way to set an external deadline--and those really help me get things done. (More on that later.)

So imagine my surprise when Janet Reid wrote back three days later to tell me she was posting my query on the blog. Not only that, but she wanted to read the novel! Now I really had a deadline to meet.

I cranked through the rewrites-in-progress, finished them in less than a week, and sent Janet Reid the full manuscript. Two months later, she replied--saying "it's not ready yet" but offering very detailed advice on how I might improve it. She also said she'd be glad to take a look at the next revision.

"Chuffed" doesn't begin to describe how I felt. I've done a lot more work on KANGAROO since then, and plan to get a new draft back to Janet Reid before the end of March--which would [be] one year since the Query Shark post. Deadlines are good.

Speaking of deadlines, I also wrapped up my "512 Words or Fewer" blog project last year. In October of 2008, I set myself the goal of posting an original piece of flash fiction every Friday. I wanted to force myself to write more and different stories, and this compact format seemed like the perfect way to experiment and actually finish things.

Why 512 words? Mainly because I used to be a professional software engineer, and thus have an affinity for powers of two. (2^9 = 512.) It also seemed like a manageable amount to produce on a weekly basis. In fact, that was one of the first things I learned: my first draft of any scene tends to come out around 1,000 words. Cutting that by half can be painful, but it was an invaluable exercise in critical thinking--I had to decide which words were absolutely essential, and which darlings I could murder. Learning to see the forest for the trees was one of the most important things I learned from the 512s, and it's something I've been able to apply to all my writing.

I concluded the 512s in August, 2013, after 256 consecutive weeks. Not all of the stories were great, but the process of creating them has made me a better writer. I'm aware of how much more clarity I now have when thinking about capital-S Story, even if it's simply heckling a sloppy plot contrivance on Downton Abbey. (Seriously, eight months later, he's still got the damn ticket? C'mon, guys.)

To commemorate the 512 Words project, my wife helped me select 117 of the most interesting stories to include in a collection which we published on January 31st of this year. That process taught me a lot about what it takes to design and produce both a printed paperback and an electronic version. The 512 book (which we titled THURSDAY'S CHILDREN, ha ha) was also a fun project, but I'm not sure I'd want to self-publish again--I would much rather have help navigating the business side of publishing.

In fact, I recently had a very good publishing experience with a novelette I sold to Leading Edge. They're a BYU publication, and as such have guidelines about explicit language and sexual content--which required me to revise my story featuring foulmouthed police detectives and cloned prostitutes. They were willing to copy-edit the swear words themselves, but also wanted me to consider rewriting one of the final scenes.

So I cleaned up the language, rewrote the scene in question, and did some minor touchups here and there--but otherwise was pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the piece. (Good job, past me!) And the whole process, from contract to rewrites to final copyedits, was about all of us pulling for the same goal: getting the story in shape and into print.

I want to write fiction people want to read. That means developing my skill as a writer, and also understanding markets, editors, and audiences. I believe Clarion West will help me with all of those things.

Thanks for reading!

I don't know what factors, apart from me improving as a writer between 2008 and 2014, led to my finally getting into CW. To be honest, when I was working on this essay, I thought of it like Red's final parole board hearing in Shawshank Redemption: it was more important to speak honestly than to try to game the application process. Because, in the end, all you have is your own integrity.

And it doesn't matter how many times you fail, as long as you always fail better. Getting a result means you're making the attempt. You can't succeed if you don't try.

I Will Be at Some Conventions This Year

(Wow, has it really been a whole month since my last blog post here? I'm a terrible person.)

If you're a SF/F convention-goer, here are some 2016 events I'm definitely attending and which I would recommend to any fan:

• Norwescon 39 (March) - my kick-ass agent Sam Morgan will be there
• Westercon 69 (July) - I volunteered to be Scalzi's GOH liaison, so get used to hearing me say "COKE ZERO OR GTFO"
• Worldcon 74: MidAmeriCon II (August) - everything's up to date in Kansas City
• OryCon 38 (November) - down by the river

A few others are undecided, but watch my author Twitter stream for announcements.

Plus my friend Claire Humphrey and I are working on a mini-book tour for our debut novels this June (Spells of Blood and Kin and Waypoint Kangaroo, respectively). More details on that as we figure it out.

I'm also like 90% sure I'm going to the Star Trek 50th anniversary thing in Las Vegas this August. Don't even act surprised.

I Am Eligible for Some Awards or Something

Hello, readers! I know, it's been a while since I actually wrote one of these Wednesday blog posts. I've been working on other writing projects lately (like my first novel) and have also started an author newsletter which will eventually be archived on my other, theoretically more professional web site. (Stop laughing.) But for now, I'm still pushing some content into this space.

So we're coming to the end of 2015, and writers are starting to post lists of their award-eligible works. Nominations for the Nebulas are open, the battle for next year's Hugos looms on the horizon, and I'm sure there are other honors to be won by works more worthy than mine.

Please note, this isn't me projecting some false modesty in an attempt to reverse-psychology you into nominating me; I have personally read more interesting, more groundbreaking, and more well-wrought tales than the ones I got published this year. I've worked pretty hard and I'm happy that my stories are finding homes. But my stuff isn't award-worthy when compared to the whole wide world. I wouldn't vote for me, and neither should you.

So, for your consideration, here's a short list of genre fiction writers who had eligible works published in 2015. Even if you don't plan to nominate, please go read their stuff, because it's good:

• Alison Wilgus
• Caroline M. Yoachim
• Catherynne M. Valente
• Fran Wilde
• Julie Steinbacher
• Marlee Jane Ward
• Megan E. O’Keefe
• Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein
• Tiffani Angus
• Wendy Wagner

For my own bookkeeping purposes, here are my publications from calendar year 2015. Online stories are linked directly; print stories link to the anthologies in which they appear:

• "Laddie Come Home" (2016 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide)
• "Ten Days Up" (Mission: Tomorrow)
• "Bounty Call" (Perihelion SF)
• "Godwin's Law" (The Future Fire)
• "It's Machine Code" (Unlikely Story #11: The Journal of Unlikely Cryptography)

For the record, most of those stories started out as 512 Words or Fewer flash pieces, and one of them was originally part of my application for Clarion UCSD (I didn't get in). But this is one of the most important things I've learned in the last decade or so: not everything I write is for publication. In fact, probably most of it isn't. But it all counts.

A lot of the words in my early drafts get revised out of the final manuscripts. Sometimes I write things for exercises or workshops or classes, and some of those could be turned into full stories, but the majority of them are just for practice or demonstration. It's okay that they'll never make it "into print." That wasn't their purpose. It's like going to the gym, or practicing a musical instrument, or rehearsing a live performance: you don't always do it for an audience; you do it to prepare and to improve.

There are countless people—professional authors included—who spend innumerable hours writing fan fiction which can never be published. They're doing it for love, and whether intentionally or not, they're also sharpening their skills at storytelling. And that is a great way to develop those muscles (so-called): thinking about characters you love, whether or not you created them and the world they inhabit, and doing your best to give them the tribulations and triumphs they deserve.

My OryCon 37 Schedule

Hey science fiction and fantasy lovers in or near Portland, Oregon! It's that time of year again: time for OryCon!

This Friday through Sunday, hundreds (if not thousands) of fans will gather at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront for a variety of fannish activities and events. Come find out who wins the Endeavour Award this year, check out the Costume Contest, or catch a reading by your favorite author. There's plenty to see and do!

Here's where you can find me this weekend (when I'm not at the bar):

Friday, November 20

1:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session A)
Same as it ever was: bring the first ~3 pages of your work to read aloud and get instant feedback from fellow writers. Sign-up sheets will be available outside the Salmon room (3rd floor) by Friday morning. See detailed ORC Rules and FAQs.

ETA (19 Nov 2015): to get to Salmon, take the hotel elevator to the 3rd floor. You'll see the fitness center in front of you when you come out of the elevator. Turn left, then turn left again immediately at the next corner (don't go outside), and Salmon will be the first room on your right. Look for the ORC sign-up sheets on a chair just outside the doors!

2:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session B)
Let's do the time warp again. See note above on how to find Salmon room!

5:00pm
DC vs Marvel
Someone thought it was a good idea to put me on this panel, which will be moderated by my pal Claude Lalumière. They may regret their choices. I REGRET NOTHING.

8:00pm
Sci-Fi Ask Me Another! (Quiz Show)
Contestants wanted! My fellow VP alum Jeff Soesbe and I need audience volunteers to compete in our grand experiment, a live game show modeled after the NPR program but themed for genre fans. All are welcome! (We'll sneak you in even if you don't have a con badge. Don't tell Registration.) It'll be great! You'll love it! DID I MENTION WE ARE GIVING AWAY BOOKS AND OTHER FABULOUS PRIZES?

Saturday, November 21

11:00am
Extra, Extra!
I'm moderating this panel with two other local actors. Come hear about Leverage, Grimm, and how you too can sign up to maybe get directed by this guy.

1:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session C)
This again? See note above on how to find Salmon room!

2:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session D)
THE NEXT GENERATION. See note above on how to find Salmon room!

5:00pm
Intro to Computer Science Jargon for Authors and Editors
And then there's Maude.

Sunday, November 22

Nothing scheduled, but I'll be wandering around the con until I head over to Powell's Authorfest and then wrap up the weekend with some Sunday night karaoke. If you're reading this, you're invited!

Follow @curtiscchen on Twitter for further updates.

I Am One Year Older Than I Was

On August 2, 2014, my wife DeeAnn drove me home from Seattle, where I'd just finished the Clarion West Summer Six-Week Workshop.

The week before the workshop started, we were in California for our nephew Jared's wedding. DeeAnn drove me to the Sacramento airport while we listened to the audiobook of Neil Gaiman's novelette "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains." We hadn't reached the end of the story when I got to the airport, but I had enough time to download the text version before boarding, and finished reading it on the plane.

It's not exactly what you'd call a romantic story, but it helped me feel connected to my wife as I was leaving. (I did see her a few times, online and in person, during the workshop, but this was going to be the longest time we'd lived apart since 2000. It all turned out fine in the end. Well, not for the guy in that story. Never mind. Moving on.)

After I landed in Seattle, erstwhile volunteer Caren Gussoff drove me from the airport to the sorority house where I'd be living for the next six weeks. She was only the first of many fantastic humans I'd meet and get to know during that time.

Having attended Viable Paradise in 2008, I knew generally what to expect from Clarion, but I could not have imagined the precise dimensions of what my experience would be: as wide and deep as any ocean, and similarly teeming with strange and wondrous life.

I cried a lot in Week One (ahead of schedule, I know). Jim Kelly said he'd blurb my first novel. In Week Two I saw Snowpiercer and witnessed Kij Johnson reading "Spar" aloud and literally sparring with students. (As in wrestling. Bourbon may have been involved.) Ian McDonald guided us through improv exercises in Week Three, our regular movie nights began turning into a Kurt Russell film festival, and I received an offer of representation from Sam Morgan, who is now my literary agent. (For the record: I spent fifteen days researching JABberwocky before signing the retainer.)

I may have made Hiromi Goto's Week Four classes more difficult than necessary, but I'm glad our whole group could talk about how magical Negroes and hysterical women are Bad Tropes. (And then we watched Steven Universe!) Week Five with Charlie Jane Anders was a whirlwind of karaoke, half-price sushi, and poetry. Week Six ended with Ted Chiang, illegal beach bonfires, and John Crowley telling dirty jokes (not all at the same time).

And, oh yeah, I wrote some stories too.

"Paradise Lost" will almost certainly never see the light of day. I'm retooling "Space Race" right now. "It's Complicated" doesn't really hold together, but I'll probably strip-mine it for thematic material later. "My Labour and My Leisure Too" was a weird experiment. "Destination: Murder!" probably needs to be longer. And "Moonrise" is too big for me to contemplate at this very moment, but it's a novel I need to write someday.

Meanwhile, I've sold two other novels and two three other short stories since coming home last August. The first novel, Waypoint Kangaroo, will be published by Thomas Dunne Books next summer. My story "Laddie Come Home" is in the 2016 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide, due out early next year. And "Ten Days Up" is in the Baen anthology Mission: Tomorrow, now available for pre-order. ADD_2015-08-07: How could I forget "It's Machine Code" in The Journal of Unlikely Cryptography?

As the kids say: What is even my life anymore?

This isn't everything I could tell about my six weeks at Clarion West. It wasn't just a boot camp for writers, and though I'd certainly call it "life-changing," that term doesn't fully encompass what I got out of CW.

I was changed--for good, even--but more than that, it inspired me to actively work at changing my life, and myself. Those six weeks showed me what I was doing right and how I need to improve, and introduced me to some amazing people who will be lifelong friends. I am incredibly grateful for all of it.

This wasn't the end of my journey. It was just the beginning.

And I'm not stopping for a long time.

I Have Rendered Unto Caesar

And this year, my wife and I--both of us being essentially freelancers--will be filing quarterly estimated taxes. It's the first year we've really needed to do it, now that we're (A) no longer full-time employees and (B) actually making enough annual income that it matters (i.e., no longer just living off our savings--which, BTW, is a weird loophole in pretty much all US finance regulation, but that's another story).

Chances are you've never cared about estimated taxes, because you're a W-2 wage earner whose paycheck includes automatic withholdings for various taxes (Social Security, Medicare, etc.). Well, when you're a freelancer, those things don't get automatically withheld when clients or customers pay you, but the IRS wants their money all the same. And, as Scalzi says in his excellent "Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money" blog post, "the government quite sensibly doesn't trust freelancers to pay their taxes in one lump sum."

So how does it work? Well, I'm sure not qualified to explain it to you, so I'll let my friend Nicole tell you in her well-researched "Surefire Tax Estimating Process for Freelancers" article on The Billfold. And after you absorb all that great information, follow up with The Billfold's other articles on estimated taxes.

It's not actually that much more work, especially since the system is designed to make it easy for you to plan for the coming year when you file your previous year's tax returns; though it's "quarterly," the first deadline of the year is actually April 15th, the same as your federal and state returns. So you can do all the math in one fell swoop, which is what my wife and I did this week. (It helps that she actually enjoys doing taxes, and we live in Washington state, which doesn't collect state income tax.)

Finally, the Treasury Department offers an Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) which lets you pay your taxes online without going through a fee-charging third-party payment service. And for more info on estimated taxes from the horse's mouth, see the IRS's Estimated Tax FAQs and Publication 505: Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

I Have Trouble Asking for Help

I was going to rant and rave today about how badly The Newsroom crashed and burned in its last season, but honestly, that ship has sailed. Do go read Abigail Nussbaum's breakdown, though; she's much more articulate about the situation than I would ever be. (I also started this Facebook thread, which has some good insights by other folks.)

Instead, I'm going to fill this week's column-inches (OH GOD I'M OLD) by juxtaposing two TED talks by amazing women:

Amanda Palmer: The art of asking

http://youtu.be/xMj_P_6H69g

Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability

http://youtu.be/iCvmsMzlF7o

I'm a writer, and many of my friends are writers or creative artists of some kind. (Yes, that includes puzzles.) And we all struggle to figure out how to make money doing what we love.

There is, I think, an essential tension between confidence and vulnerability here: an artist needs to have the confidence to believe that people will find value in her art, and to put herself out there to connect with people (some of whom may be jerks--you never know); but an artist must also retain a sincere vulnerability (especially online, but also in person) to make her supporters feel good about supporting her work and helping her out, either financially or by donating their time (assisting with promotion, sharing food, providing couch-surfing space, etc.).

I've seen this dynamic played out in many a failed project on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and any number of other crowdfunding sites. Because those are the places where the intersection of an artist/maker's confidence and vulnerability are laid bare. You have to self-promote your project, but you can't seem like a jerk when you do it. And that can be a very fine line to walk. (#PROTIP: when in doubt, be humble, be grateful, and be nice. In all things, really.)

It's ridiculously easy for things to go wrong online, especially when you're compressing your deep thoughts into 140 characters or fewer. Even if you think you're saying the right thing, other people might interpret it differently. I'm fairly paranoid about this, so I always re-read my tweets and e-mails (and blog posts!) before sending them into the ether. I'm painfully aware that I will be judged harshly for any perceived breach of etiquette because reasons.

There's another reason I've always had trouble asking for help. Whether it was computer programming or fiction writing or even just cooking dinner, I always felt that I was "stupid" if I didn't know something and couldn't figure it out on my own; and if I had to go to someone else for help, that made me a failure, and that was shameful. Maybe that's a common neurosis, but in my case, I always suspected it was a conceptual hybrid of Chinese academic pressure and American cowboy independence. I'm finally getting over that now, in my forties, but it's worth saying out loud. Everyone needs help sometimes. Learning to recognize that, and knowing how to ask for help, is a big part of being a grown-up. (Writing: cheaper than therapy, folks.)

Back to the main point. I don't know if (or when) I'll get into a situation which many other artists have encountered, where they're facing financial ruin due to some health or other personal issue and decide to turn to their friends and fans for help. I don't know how I would handle that, because--other than asking for a raise at my first job--I've never been in a situation where I had to ask someone for money. Again, cultural taboos, blah blah blah. But I hope I'll have figured it out by the time that becomes an issue.

I Have Not Seen Most of These Movies

But I still have opinions about this year's Best Picture nominees. I'm talking about the Academy Awards, of course. Feel free to stop reading now if you don't care about any of this.

I won't say too much about the whole #OscarsSoWhite thing, except this: it's Hollywood, man. It's always been white. You know, like most of mainstream America. Being angry about injustice is fine, but I've gotten over my anger and am now looking for ways to actually make things better. Yelling at people isn't really the best way to change their minds about anything.

Anyway. Let's talk about the eight Best Picture nominees. In alphabetical order:



Actually, let's not talk about that one. Because reasons. Moving on:



DeeAnn and I saw this with our good friend Matt at the lovely St. Johns Theater. I enjoyed it for what it was: a moderately pretentious exercise in omphaloskepsis (SEE WHAT I DID THERE) featuring some great performances, technical flair, and a somewhat unsatisfying, "literary" ending. I mean, I understand what the filmmakers were going for. I just didn't dig it as much as some other folks did. Diff'rent strokes and all that.



Yeah, it's a stunt, but it's a very impressive one. And even if people haven't seen the movie, they've certainly heard about how it took twelve years to make. I expect it'll be a talky indie like all of Linklater's stuff, which probably works against it; Oscar voters tend to like stuff with a little flash and fanfare. But I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to reward the effort here.



Haven't seen this one either. Expect it'll be like all of Wes Anderson's stuff: quirky and twee. Long shot for Best Picture.



We saw this with our friend Karl during last year's #XmasMovieThon, and it was very good, despite a few patches of lazy writing (I mean did they really need to hammer this exact line three times) and playing fast and loose with actual history (as all biopics do; not a complaint, just an observation). I suppose I'm partial to stories about intelligent people solving hard problems—what some might call puzzles—but still. I'd call this one the frontrunner.



Haven't seen it yet, but IMHO it's pretty ridiculous that anyone has rustled up controversy around this film. See above (and below) for how movies are not journalism. There's a federal holiday and a road in every major American city named after this man, for fuck's sake. Get over it.



Haven't seen this one, either, but again, I don't expect it to be a precise and accurate accounting of Stephen Hawking's life. (DeeAnn thinks it's weird that they made a biopic about someone who's still alive, but that's nothing new.) Judging from the marketing, though, I suspect it's too "soft" and/or esoteric to win, especially against Imitation Game, which also features a genius Brit protagonist, and—let's not mince words here—is literally Gay Benedict Cumberbatch Fighting Nazis. Would you bet against that?



Missed this one in theaters. Yeah, I'm sure it's good, but Best-Picture-good? I'd put money on Grand Budapest Hotel before this one, simply on apparent scope. Small stories don't win big at the Oscars. Would peg this one for Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons doing that thing he does), maybe Film Editing or Adapted Screenplay (Damien Chazelle, who also directed the movie), and possibly Sound Mixing. It is about drumming, after all.

And that's all my blathering for now. If you're hosting an Oscar Party on Sunday, feel free to print some Acceptance Speech BINGO cards, and watch for my #OscarTrivia posts on Twitter!

I Do Not Write Award-Winning Short Fiction

...and I don't expect I will for several more years, if ever. I'm just not that kind of writer! (He said coquettishly, batting his eyelashes.) But it does seem to be that time of the year, and it'll be a nice retrospective if nothing else.

I had two short stories and one novelette published last year, including my first SFWA-qualifying professional sale:

• "Zugzwang" (SF short story) in Daily Science Fiction, magazine edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden, September 19, 2014
• "Making Waves" (horror short story) in SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror, anthology edited by Geoff Brown, July, 2014
• "Somebody's Daughter" (SF novelette) in Leading Edge Issue 65, magazine edited by Diane Cardon, January, 2014

I suppose Thursday's Children: Flash Fiction from 512 Words or Fewer is also technically eligible, but I have no idea what category that would be. More to the point, nobody cares about a self-published short fiction collection.

I'm not fronting humility here. My work last year was nowhere near the best that the field had to offer. Have you read "As Good As New" by Charlie Jane Anders or "The Hymn of Ordeal, No. 23" by Rhiannon Rasmussen or "Brute" by Rich Larson or "Tasting Gomoa" by Chinelo Onwualu or "Con/Game" by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang?

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, dude. My potatoes are the smallest.

So if you're attending Sasquan, or a current Active or Associate members of SFWA, please go nominate someone else for the Hugos and Nebulas, respectively. Here are just a few links to get you started:

• Tor.com’s Hugo and Nebula-Eligible Fiction from 2014
• Scalzi's SF/F Authors/Editors/Artists/Fans 2014 Award Awareness Post
• SFWA's Nebula Awards Suggested Reading List (requires SFWA login)
• Writertopia's eligibility list for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Exercise for the reader: Do a Google search for "award eligible work 2014" and see what else turns up. Add the name of your favorite author/editor/artist for possibly better results!