DemiCon

DemiCon in Des Moines was a lot of fun. Amy and I flew down on Thursday so we’d be there for a booksigning at B&N, where Lyndsey kindly gave me a Smudge necklace made from a d20, and Chris showed up to drop trou and display his Jig the goblin tattoo. Oh, and I signed some books, too.

Friday afternoon was our trip to the zoo, and then it was convention time! As author guest of honor, I got to hang out a bit on stage with artist GoH, cosplayer, and all-around lovely person Megan Lara; fan GoH, chocolate priestess, and kind-hearted, bubble-blowing queen Michelle Clark; and Toastmaster, actor, and occasional Scottish Texan person Tadao Tomomatsu.

Tadao x 2

DemiCon has the feel of a smaller con, but not too small. It was friendly, relaxed, and everything I saw seemed to be running smoothly. Major props to the concom and the rest of the volunteers for that!

I did a handful of panels, all of which were either solo or me and one other person. Sunday morning, that meant spending an hour geeking out about The Flash. The one complaint we had about the show was the way the two female characters had so little agency and story of their own. Happily, someone from the show must have been at that panel, because last night’s episode started to address that problem. Behold the power of convention panels!

Also, Rachel Bussan made me the awesome Smudge hat I’m wearing in this picture with Megan!!!

Megan Lara, Jim Hines, and Smudge hat!

Other highlights include getting author Adam Whitlatch to lick his own book, meeting author (and Invisible 2) contributor Lauren Jankowski, lots of fun cosplay, and just getting to see and meet so many cool fans, readers, friends, and fellow geeks.

The full album of DemiCon pics is up at Flickr, if you want to see the rest. Here are a few more of my favorites from the weekend:

My thanks again to the convention for inviting me and my wife, to Amanda for liaisoning us all over the place, and to everyone who worked so hard to put together such a fun weekend.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Hugo Thoughts: The Editors

Hugo voting has officially begun. It sounds like the Hugo voters’ packet won’t be available until later this month, so I’ll probably hold off on sharing my thoughts on most categories, but I thought I could at least jump in and look at the editors on the ballot.

For those looking for a completely puppy-free ballot, there are zero candidates in these two categories who weren’t on the Sad Puppy and/or Rabid Puppy slates. The (SR) after a person’s name means the individual was on both slates. The (R) by Vox Day’s name indicates that he only appeared on his own slate.

Best Editor, Long Form

• Sheila Gilbert (SR): Disclaimer – Sheila is my editor, and has been for almost a decade. Sheila is one of two senior editors and co-owner of DAW. She was on the Sad Puppy slate this year, but has also made the Hugo ballot twice before without bloc voting or ballot-stuffing shenanigans. I think she could have earned this nomination without canine assistance, just as she’s done in the past. Beyond that, I think she’s a good editor and a good human being. I count myself lucky to be able to continue working with her.
• Toni Weisskopf (SR): Weisskopf took over at Baen Books after the death of Jim Baen. This is her third year on the ballot. Sad Puppies have pushed her nomination all three years. While I disagree with her on some things (the same could be said about anyone), she’s done some excellent work at Baen.
• Jim Minz (SR): Minz is the second Baen editor on the ballot this year. (Trivia: He originally worked for Tor.) He’s edited folks like Larry Correia, John Ringo, Hal Duncan, Eric Flint, Terry Goodkind, Nancy Kress, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Frederik Pohl,and many more. This is Minz’ first time on the ballot, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable for him to be there.
• Anne Sowards (SR): Sowards is an editor at Ace, and her authors include Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, Kelly McCullough, and others. She’s never made the Hugo ballot before, but like Minz, she’s certainly earned some cred as an editor.
• Vox Day (R): No.

Best Editor, Short Form

• Edmund R. Schubert (SR): “My name is Edmund R. Schubert, and I am announcing my withdrawal from the Hugo category of Best Editor (Short Form). My withdrawal comes with complications, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll do my best to explain…” His full post is very much worth reading, if you haven’t seen it yet.
• Jennifer Brozek (SR): Disclaimer – I had a story in Brozek’s anthology Human for a Day. Brozek is a hard-working editor and author, and has been making a name for herself in several areas. She edited four anthologies that came out in 2014: Bless Your Mechanical Heart, Beast Within 4: Gears & Growls, Chicks Dig Gaming (non-fiction), and Shattered Shields (with Bryan Thomas Schmidt). This is her first Hugo nomination, and in many ways, I think that’s a shame, because I think she’s been reaching the point where she could have gotten there without the puppies.
• Mike Resnick (SR): Resnick has won at least five Hugos, but he’s never won for his work as an editor, though he’s been nominated in that category twice before. He’s the editor of Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, and has edited a number of anthologies over the years, though I’m not seeing any from 2014. (It’s possible I’m just not finding them.) Reading the 2014 issues of Galaxy’s Edge would probably be the best way to get a sense of Resnick’s editorial tastes and skill.
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt (SR): Disclaimer – I’m one of the folks Schmidt denounced as “rotten meat looking for a place to stink” last year. Schmidt has been moving up in the editorial world, including co-editing a couple of anthologies for Baen. That said, I don’t believe there’s any chance he’d have made the ballot at this point in his career without the Rabid and Sad Puppies. I also question his editorial professionalism, based on things like the submission guidelines he posted last year for World Encounters. Among other things, stating “no assholes allowed” and that he won’t bother with anyone who has “slandered [his] name” or “resents [him] for not sharing your views” seems inappropriate to me, particularly when I’ve watched Schmidt’s overreactions to disagreement and seen the kinds of things he characterizes as slander.
• Vox Day (R): No.

I’ll be voting No Award over at least some of the candidates here. Others, in my opinion, have earned some recognition through their work in the field. It annoys me that I can’t support any of them without in some way also supporting or validating the slate-voting mechanism that got them there. It’s a problem I expect to have in most of the categories.

Basically, is my desire to vote for a handful of these candidates stronger than my desire to vote against the bloc voting and other destructive crap?

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.