Well, its the moment I, at least, have been waiting for. I just updated my nomination ballot for this year's Hugo awards, after finishing the excellent first trade paperback of Jeff Lemire's Descender, which will probably have to fight a very brutal cage match fight against Noelle Stevenson's Nimona should both works end up on the final ballot. 'Tis a pity that there can be only one winner.
Voting in Sasquan was very easy, and I do not say that with a great deal of pride. With all due respect to George R.R. Martin, who advocated trying to be fair, the Puppies were not trying to be nice. They were trying to dominate the ballot, they were trying to alter the Hugo to reflect their own parochial views for petty reasons---oh, and the stories sucked, too! No Award was always an option, and, under the circumstances, a justified response.
Fortunately, this year Vox Day's Rabid Puppy ballot appears to be an attempt to poison pill the ballot by placing nominees with broad appeal alongside nominees who, to be charitable, are not the most...copacetic authors writing right now. He's trying to sink the ballot by wanting us to nuke the ballot again this year. This makes him easy to ignore. He's not playing the game fairly, or, indeed, at all, just lashing out from a position of spite. The Sad Puppies (in theory) are putting forth a "recommended reading list" that could be diluted if turnout is high enough. I am not sanguine about their chances this year, but we cannot afford to let complacency override our responsibilities.
I am not a perfect fan: I'm submitted four nominations for best novel, and I fear that I will not be able to nominate anything for best novella. I am limited to what I can get from the web, since money (as always) is tight, and I simply can't read everything. It is simply not realistic. But if you were a Sasquan voter, one of the many fans who jumped to the line when the Puppies spread their shit across the award, I implore you to once again stand and be counted.
I don't want a repeat of last year, and I doubt you do either. Let's do our part to make sure this is about the fiction, and not politics!
