The annual awards post, part one:

Auuugh. I see it's the time of year again when we all pimp our various tales and doings and hope that our fellow writers and voters will notice. Did I say, auugh? Probably not loudly enough.

So this year, I'm splitting this into two posts. In this one, feel free to help ME vote by recommending award worthy novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, graphic novels (otherwise Hugo is just going to get the usual OZ IS GREAT vote from me), and independent films available through the internet published/released in 2011. This can be your own stuff, or someone else's. This is your chance to grab my vote, and although I don't have the readership of a John Scalzi, I do have a few SFWA members (Nebula voters) and WorldCon attendees (Hugo voters) perusing this blog on a regular basis, so you never know.

I'll just note that this year, I'm seeing several different works popping up on everyone's year's best lists, which is pretty cool, and suggests that the fields are wide open. Also, if you wish, you too can be a Hugo voter if you purchase a supporting membership, which also helps support WorldCon. Yes, it's $50, but on the other hand they send you free ebooks for your membership.

I'll lead off by mentioning a few things by mostly complete strangers to me which I haven't seen on too many other lists:

1) The brilliant The Booth at The End, eligible for the Bradbury Award (Nebula), an independent film that asks just how far people might go to get what they want. I was mesmerized. (I'd really like to see this earn a Nebula nomination – this is the sort of independent work that the Awards should be nominating, and it might help convince papersky that honoring filmed works isn't as pointless as she generally believes.)

2) Charlie Jane Anders Six Months, Three Days (novelette; I am admittedly a complete sucker for this sort of thing)

3) Ken Scholes, Making My Entrance Again With My Usual Flair (CLOWN! MONKEY!) (short story, and not the sort of thing that typically wins the Nebula or Hugo, but did I mention the clown and the monkey?)

4) Megan Arkenberg, Lessons from a Clockwork Queen (short story) (Shortly after I put this up I saw that this story has in fact appeared on a few other lists, so…go read it anyway.)

(Full disclosure: after I watched and praised The Booth at the End on Twitter, its creator, Christopher Kubasik began following me on Twitter, although we've never met in real life. I've been told that Charlie Jane Anders and I have been in the same room together; Megan Arkenberg and I have occasionally shared a TOC; and Ken Scholes and I like clowns and monkeys. But I've never spoken to them.)

For Best Fan Writer (Hugo), may I recommend Abigail Nussbaum, James Nicoll, Cleolinda (for years of unrecognized work), and anybody that might get nominated in the comments.

Go ahead and add stuff!

Award nominating, part two:

And now for my stuff:

Novelette: Trickster. Not just my first sale to Clarkesworld, but also a story that I was quite pleased with, and which, as far as I'm concerned, already received the very best type of award in the form of a complete stranger who read it and got exactly what I was trying to do. I rarely pay attention to reviews but I have to admit that one gave me a strong sense of satisfaction.

Short story:

To my genuine surprise, Love in the Absence of Mosquitoes earned a Locus Recommendation and several favorable reviews, this mostly because, to be honest, I didn't think that people deliberately reading a journal about weird bugs would bother to read the one story in the issue without any bugs. Maybe they just needed the break. In any case, this was probably my second or third most popular/favorably received story of the year, a story of love, its absence, changed social relations, and oh yes, mosquitoes.

The most popular story, however, based on emails and blog comments, was probably Sister and Bones, which even earned praise from Terri Windling.

Hands down, however, the story gaining the strongest emotional reaction from pretty much everyone was, not at all to my surprise, The Woods, Their Hearts, My Blood, my happy little cannibalism tale.

Frankly, I have a hellish time choosing between those three stories: "Sister and Bones" is the lyrical piece; "Love in the Absence of Mosquitoes" the intellectual piece; and "The Woods, Their Hearts, My Blood," the emotional piece. They were all favorites from this year, and I suspect I'll be sneaking back into the Nebula forums to throw another one up, just because.

Also eligible: Green, which was my mother's favorite of everything I published this year; In the Pits of Isfhan, which hasn't had time to get much reaction from anyone yet; and Twelve Days of Dragons, which I loved, but is a holiday story, which awards tend to avoid.

I think that covers it.

The not exactly a holiday wrap-up.

Ok. It is fairly clear by now that I'm not going to get around to writing up a summary of the past couple weeks, so instead, a bullet point list of various things:

1. Most unexpected theme of the holiday period: rubber duckies. Lots and lots of rubber duckies. First, little Christmas rubber duckies began appearing in unexpected corners of the house and unexpected corners of my bedroom. I have been assured that this was done by magic or by the cats, although given that the cats have more usually been known to attack my rubber duckies I am slightly skeptical of this second story. Then, by sheer coincidence, anaisis sent evil rubber duckies, and on my birthday, my brother surprised me with Wizard of Oz rubber duckies.

2. Greatest failure at teaching multicultural lessons: At Epcot, when a kindly woman in a sari and with a bindi on her forehead helped me with the door to one of the disabled stalls, drawing this comment from the crowd, "See, Nicki, not all Muslims are bad people!"

3. Fireworks. I'm honestly not sure why I love them so much. I mean, intellectually I know they are basically just sending piles of smoke into the environment and sending huge bangs everywhere for an effect that only lasts a couple of seconds.

But oh, those seconds. Those seconds when colored fire and stars shine against the night sky –

I love fireworks. This year I managed to see Epcot's twice, plus the overabundance of the neighbors, and it convinced me that next year I need to see more.

(I'm talking about the ones that actually send up lights. I could do without the things that just go bang! that are incredibly popular in my neighborhood and must just be endured. Fortunately the neighbors also sent up glittering lights.)

(I do, however, have to laugh at the way Epcot continues to hope for peace on earth by lighting up gunpowder. Yay!)

4. Tea. I realize, of course, that the high tea at Grand Floridian is an expensive, silly indulgence. But, oooh, I love that too. Little sandwiches and cakes and your very own fresh pot of tea….

5. Marvelously tacky holiday stuff: So, apparently deciding that the Osborne Festival of Holiday Lights is just not enough tackiness for our area, Seaworld threw up some artificial trees in their large lake area and set THEM alight and dancing to music as well.

I LOVED it. Ok, I am, I admit, a sucker for tacky holiday displays.

I'm going to try to drag my mother there early next December, before the hellish crowds hit.

6. Bears. Look, what can I say? I love bears.

7. The other holiday theme: So apparently everybody but me got to see false killer whales this holiday season, and by everybody, I include not just those who saw them at Seaworld, but a brother who got to see them in the wild in the Florida Everglades.

Years of looking for dolphins in Florida and all I see are bottlenose dolphins and unpleasantly stranded pilot whales and pygmy sperm whales, and my brother takes one trip out there and sees false killer whales. And bottlenose dolphins on another day. Sigh.

8. Last comment on Seaworld, I promise: I haven't seen the Shamu show for years, and I have to say that I found it a bit discomfiting. It begins with a general salute to our troops, thanking "Britain and other allies" (Seaworld, we do have a lot of Canadian tourists too, just saying, but moving on), and then moves on to suggesting that we are all one world, interconnected, blah blah.

I don't really have a problem with either message; it's the juxtaposition that I find a little – awkward? But more discomfiting is the fact that the next bit of the show is just the orca leaping around gloriously enough with colored lights and splashing water. It's gorgeous, and it goes right back to a growing tradition at Seaworld to dim the education in favor of the entertainment.

It's not that Seaworld ever went to huge efforts to teach people about orca, mind you, but in previous years they would add a couple sentences explaining something about these magnificent creatures, instead of just saying that water is lovely.

On the other hand, Seaworld now has adorable little monkeys. And I want one. That's saying a lot.

9. As it turns out, yes, I can go from Hollywood Studios to Epcot without having to take the boat or deal with the excitement of having to take the scooter on the bus. (That can be done but is a bit of a pain.) Downside: this method involves a lot of ducks. Upside: this method involves passing a place with fudge. That is always a positive point.

10. Yes, I am addicted to Downton Abbey. It's just one of those things.