Don’t Forget to Nominate for the Dragon Awards

The reason for this post was that a friend of mine sent me a PM this morning, that they had announced the Hugo nominations, and gave me a link. Being retired from trying to cure Puppy Related Sadness, I only gave the list a brief cursory glance, saw the names of many proper goodthinkers, and counted like a dozen(+) nominations for Tor, so it appears that balance has been restored to their sainted halls of Trufans enjoying themselves in the proper approved manner. I’m sure many wooden buttholes will be sacrificed upon the altar of Social Justice.

So anyways, that was a good reminder that I need to tell everybody that they can still vote in the Dragon Awards.

http://awards.dragoncon.org/

Wrongfans having wrongfun are still welcome. Vote for what you enjoyed the most*. The Dragon Award is open to everybody. It is free to register, free to nominate, and free to vote. As an added bonus DragonCon won’t treat you with sneering condescension.

And authors, it is okay to campaign for yourself! Spread the word. Get out your fan base. Authors and publishers have always campaigned for awards, they just pretend not to have afterward. DragonCon knows how it actually works, and they want enthusiastic creators to reach out to their enthusiastic fans. It’s okay to be excited.

*Except don’t vote for me. Son of the Black Sword won Best Fantasy last year. I figure once I win an award then it is time to get out of the way and give other people a chance for the fans to show them some love too. Nobody likes some jerk hogging up 50 Hugo noms (Yes, jackass, from the trackbacks I know you read my blog).

Enter to win a leather bound limited edition copy of Monster Hunter Vendetta (outside the US only)
Peter Grant wins the 2nd Annual CLFA Award

57 thoughts on “Don’t Forget to Nominate for the Dragon Awards”

  1. I am laughing very much at this year’s Hugo list. Apparently, the way you prove an award is not hopelessly left-wing political, is to make it left-wing political to eleventy.

    1. If you squint at it hard enough, one could argue that an openly-rigged system is ethically superior to a secretly-rigged system.

      1. I have to say that makes sense to me, and I am not alone, because openly rigged systems seem to be gaining popularity in general.

    1. But Ghostbusters managed a nomination. Which was earned totally and completely on its merits and not at all to stick it to the neckbeard manboys. Nope.

  2. Shared! And hey, fellow Correia-fans . . . my novel “A Place Outside The Wild” qualifies this year. It’s bargain-priced (free with KU), on Amazon and has garnered praise that still leaves me flabbergasted. For your consideration, in the post-apocalyptic category.

    1. Shouldn’t *Fade* also be eligible? I’m about 85% through and really enjoying it, so unless you’ve completely messed up the last 15%, you’ve probably got my nomination in the fantasy category.

      1. Wow, thanks! Glad you’re enjoying it, I have some pretty neat plans for more in the series.

        I knew it was in the window but I honestly didn’t think about it, even though it’s my “favorite child.” I guess if this would be the best year to go for it since there’s no new Dresden book out. 😉

  3. Thanks Larry. I was considering getting a membership and voting again. At least I was until I saw the list. Nothing from my list made the cut. Only a couple of titles I recognized and the only novel on the list that I have read I detested. But then I prefer work that has me soaking in the tub until the water turns cold, howling with laughter at well crafted lines. (That explains the Stig)

    Wish Dragon’s would add shorter work. Ah well, maybe down the road.

    1. From the list of rules on the dragoncon nominating page. Do not nominate a book for more than one category. If the same book is added more than once, all your nominations will be null.

  4. Just checked out the Hugo list. I literally have not even heard of any of the nominated novels, and fantasy/sci-fi is my primary reading genre(s).

    Though it looks like the trolls managed to get one or two nominees on the list. Good for them. Nice to know that someone’s stuck around to poke the smugs with a stick after everyone else proved their point and moved on.

    At least I’ve heard of most of the nominated movies. I quite enjoyed Deadpool and Ghostbusters. They were both absolutely hilarious. (Chris Hemsworth is some kind of comic genius. Seriously. That dude needs to do more comedies.) Although the whole movie and TV categories for the Hugos feels more like the Hugos trying to make themselves more important by associating with successful movies than anything that would actually be a feather in the movie’s cap. How many blockbuster movies do you see advertised as Hugo-winners? “Congratulations. We, the Hugos, have bestowed this award on you.” “The whats? Who are you? Oh, uh, thanks, I guess. Just leave it with my secretary.”

    1. Best line in the movie: “Which picture do you think makes me look more like a doctor? Me playing the saxophone, or me listening to the saxophone?”

      I quite liked Ghostbusters, myself. Not as good as the original, but way better than a lot of the 70s/80s nostalgia reboots being made. Hemsworth was fantastic, and McKinnon also put in a great performance. I just wish it had had a really epic Ghostbusters-esque villain like Gozer and Viggo instead of basement-dwelling-creeper.

  5. Although, judging from the reactions on a very progressive forum I still lurk on, the Rabid Puppies are now being deceitful and treacherous by nominating works from folks like Mieville and Gaiman. It’s obviously a ploy to make themselves look respectable and/or influential!

    1. Uh, just because I don’t agree with everything Gaiman says doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy his writing, and I might well vote for something he writes, as he entertains me when he puts the story over the message in priority. The sad puppies, as I recall, were about nominating fun things to read rather than doing it based on politics, and if the rabids are pushing gaiman, it’s to get him dqed by his own fans because it makes vox either giggle or belly laugh in an amused fashion as he moves another chess piece.

  6. Everyone knows, and has known since this nonsense started in the mid-’90s when Harlan Ellison flagged it on his opinion piece of Sci-Fi Channel, that Tor’s Editors are the ones who’ve been f***ing with the Hugo voting — the NHs especially, but Tor’s editing staff in general.

    To that end: The awards need to be renamed from “one of the Founding Fathers of fandom” to “a crippled, retarded, degenerate who bows and scrapes to the Darkness”.

    In short: They should now be called “the Torgo Awards”….

  7. My favorite reaction so far is the guy at a certain blog who’s saying: “Man, all those Tor nominations must be making Puppy heads explode!”

    Please. Our craniums can handle the completely expected.

    1. Particularly given that this year’s SP isn’t even up yet, because the point has been made. Now the Torlings going to have to deal with the Volksdeutsche Expatriate exclusively.
      It’s a pity that they can’t BOTH lose.

    2. “We did exactly what they said we’d do! HAH! We showed ’em!” Yup, that’s about the intelligence level you get, with the Trufan gerbils.

      The only question remaining is, will Charlie Jane quietly knife Nora, when Nora wins? Or will Nora quietly knife Charlie Jane, when Charlie Jane wins?

      Jemisin has plenty of Patroen robofans to load the vote. As does Charlie Jane, via io9.

      Who gets the bigger Victim crown, in this equation? The trans white dude, or the angry black chick? Social Justice Zealot voters face a bit of a conundrum, on that one. My money is on Nora taking it. White is always < black, even with the trans modifier. Though Charlie Jane could roll a natural 20.

      And if by some miracle, a dark horse steals the trophy from either Nora or Charlie Jane . . . oh my goodness, the backdoor bloodletting is going to be epic.

      1. If I were a suspicious man–and I am–I might think Vox was happy not to dominate the nomination process this year so as not to give Torlings single points of focus to rally behind (e.g., isolated entries in categories or Noah Ward). Go ahead and let those vicious little fan bases slice and dice each other while his Ilk remain fairly quiet. Then focus the voting attention on single entries per category and thus become a kingmaker, turning the ceremony itself into the blazing pyre (“and best editor, long form, goes to….”) instead of the nomination date.

        Nah, Vox wouldn’t think of anything like that so far in advance, though. I mean, it’s not like he’s a game designer or anything.

        1. Vox Day published an analysis of how to game the Hugo awards under the current rules, an analysis that even his bitterest opponents can use to their advantage. The answer is that you want all the people in your faction to have only a single goodchoice, while the advocates of badchoice have multiple alternatives and split their votes on the first ballot. I am not sure if he right, but that is the strategy his faction is using.

          I confess that the notion that it is relevant that the winner is in part determined by the fact that the author is a trans white dude or an angry black chick — I am not advocating that those descriptors are accurate — could not easily have been published in an SF story 50 years ago. SF stories have to be believable, and fifty years ago only a crazy person would have readily believed that the author’s race, etc., could be dominant in determining the winner. You would have needed a very creative author to write an acceptable story along those lines. You know, like the author whose tale credibly put a young lady in a chain mail bikini on the cover of Analog.

      1. I said: “They couldn’t possibly be that stupid, could they?”

        One of these days I really have to learn that yes, they can.

    3. Ah, the “the caricatures of the people I hate will HATE this!” line? I doubt we need to actually hate something, have our heads explode, etc. Those “helpful” people will claim it happened anyway! *eyeroll*

  8. Re: Dargon Awards
    Nominated In Dread Silence by C. J. Carella for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel and Witchy Eye by D. J. Butler for Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal).

  9. Well, as long as we are all shamelessly, self-promoting here: My novel, Escaping Infinity, is eligible for Best Science Fiction novel. It’s just $2.99 on Amazon and free with KU. Give it a read and see if you feel its nomination-worthy.

  10. I have honestly never seen a book as heavily promoted as all the birds in the sky. They must have spent a fortune marketing that thing. I saw it in ads on all kinds of web pages, spammed emails, sponsored social media content, etc. It’s like they are in the red for publishing the thing.

  11. I, for one, appreciate them doing the work of separating boring stories about (e.g.) exploding spaceships, beautiful princesses, and fighting werewolves with automatic weapons from Important Literature about (e.g.) why the darkness knobs on toasters are inherently racist.

    1. Do you mean fighting against werewolves with automatic rifles or werewolf soldiers with automatic rifles.

  12. I’m impressed with how October Daye got on the list for best series when they won’t give Dresden Files any consideration at all.

    I’ll admit I only read the first book in the October Daye series before I stopped because it seemed like a poorly done Dresden Files rip-off. It is possible the series got better after that, but with the other stuff I’ve read from that author, I doubt it.

    1. Yeah, but Butcher would get more noms if he wasn’t “Puppy-adjacent*” (eyeroll)

      *Yes, that is an actual term the kickers are using now.

      1. Wait, what? Are they going to start going after people who are adjacent to the Puppy-adjacent next?

        1. Are you now, or have you ever been a member of, or read anything by, or been a friend or acquaintance of a member of, or acquainted with someone who has read anything by, or looked at blog belonging to, or linked to the Sad Puppies?

    2. Seanan McGuire has a cadre of dedicated fans who are very supportive of her work and of fandom in general. Their votes are perfectly acceptable.

      Jim Butcher, on the other hand, is supported by a bunch of angry white guys who don’t actually read and aren’t part of fandom. Their votes and preferences are unquestionably suspect and therefore should not be counted.

      That’s the difference.

      (and yes, I am being sarcastic. But only a little; read some of those threads on the Dresden Files on Tor.Com, and you’ll understand why)

    3. For something to be eligible in the Best Series Category, a new work has to be published in the year considered. While I think Butcher put out 1 or 2 short stories in 2016, I don’t think that they had a high-enough reader/voter cross pollination to get it on the ballot. Each of the series listed had a novel released in 2016. Wait for Peace Talks to drop, I bet you’ll see a nomination then. (Presuming they keep the Best Series Hugo.)

  13. I’ve already shelled out a full membership for Helsinki (WorldCon 2017), mostly because its an excuse to visit Finland for the first time. Which means I’ll once more be able to vote for the Hugos.

    For the most part, if your name isn’t Lois McMaster Bujold, John C. Wright, or Neil Gaimen, I think its safe to say I’ll probably be No Awarding you. Might glance at whatever ends up in the Hugo Packet, but first blush tells me there is little in this year’s noms I find of any interest.

    It was a valiant effort to save the award, but now it looks like it is thoroughly on the road to irrelevancy. What a shame.

        1. Not as awesome as one might hope. I live here. Lots of very lefty thinking people. Remember that Soviet Union had a lot to say as to how things were run here after the wars. And their favorites got a strong stranglehold of education…

          But, anyway, I still haven’t decided if I want to see WC or not, the local fans who run it are also, I’m afraid, rather in the puppy kicker approved TrueFan category. But if I do – how could we recognize each other? Might make the whole thing somewhat more fun, instead of ending with laments of “Why oh why did I put good money on this…”.

      1. If you move there, the Finns expect you to be on your best behavior, and LEARN THEIR LANGUAGE to boot. Ask a lingust, learning Finnish is no mean feat.

      2. Also the Baltics. The Prime Minister of Lithuania, when asked why his country had no refugees, said “Because they aren’t coming.”

  14. Oh, neat, both Language of the Land (steampunk fantasy) and A Carpathian Campaign (alt-history) meet the requirements. I’ve been so busy with Day Job I forgot to check.

  15. So I guess John D. Brown was right after all. He said we need to create a new award for the fans and we did.

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