Tag Archives: Loncon 3

Hugo Statistics Dress Sad Puppies in Black Armbands

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First The Good News: Julie Dillon is the first woman to win the Best Pro Artist Hugo in 45 years. [*] And as I write, you can see a fine example of her work on the masthead of A Dribble of Ink, winner of the 2014 Best Fanzine Hugo.

Yes, Aidan Moher has finally won the Hugo he has coveted for so long. What we began with a certain amount of mutual irritation has evolved into a gentler, almost Fred Allen/Jack Benny-style feud (see for example here and here) – so congratulations, and better Aidan should win than a stranger!

Far more startling was to see Sarah Webb win Best Fan Artist on the first ballot while every other nominee registered fewer first place votes than No Award. For all the discussion in social media of the best way to tactically vote No Award, it’s a surprise to find that having the most impact in a category with no connection to the politics that fueled it.

And Now, The Rest of the Story: Meanwhile at Monster Hunter Nation HQ, it’s time to lie back and stop thinking of England. No matter what people hoped or feared would happen as the Hugo Awards were announced, only one of the 7 shortlisted nominees endorsed by Larry Correia finished ahead of another nominee in their category – basically, they ran last.

Corriea had asked his readers to nominate his novel Warbound plus a slate of 11 other recommendations. Warbound and 6 other beneficiaries of the “Sad Puppy” campaign made it. The most successful among them was Toni Weisskopf, who actually received the most first-place votes in the Best Editor – Long Form category, though she finished fourth in the runoff.

Correia took the high road in his Hugo Aftermath Post —

First off, some people are upset and saying there was fraud. I understand your disappointment but I truly don’t think so. In all of my dealings with LonCon they’ve been totally professional and honest. On things like Toni’s, yes, that is confusing as hell, but that is how the Australian system works. One of the original goals of Sad Puppies was to test the Hugo nomination process just because there had been allegations of “lost” noms in prior, and as a retired auditor, I’m a sucker for statistical analyses. SP1 gathered data, and SP2 gave me comparisons. I saw zero indication of fraud. I’ve only been awake for an hour, so I’ve only skimmed the new numbers, but they appear to have shaken out about where expected. So don’t get mad at LonCon, they did their job (and as I can attest, getting accused of fraud without evidence is annoying as hell.)

He followed by explaining yet again why he thought his “Sad Puppies” campaign was justified and how the voting results prove his point – because it’s not as if he was going to suddenly smack his forehead and exclaim, “Wait, I was wrong!”

In the general exchange of social nukes set off by “Sad Puppies” it was a surprise (though by no means a disappointment) that No Award failed to take a single Hugo category.

Furthermore, the nominees receiving the most first place votes in a category tended to win wire-to-wire.

Suspense mounted in the Best Novel category leading up to the vote because no one could predict the impact of Larry Correia’s voting bloc or the strength of support for the Wheel of Time series, while Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, despite winning the Nebula, seemed handicapped by the publisher’s refusal to put the complete book in the Hugo Voter Packet.

The suspense was unwarranted, as it turns out. Ancillary Justice began with a comfortable lead, getting 1,335 first place votes. The Wheel of Time series had the next largest number of first place votes, 658. However, Wheel of Time finished in fourth place in runoff voting.

There were only a couple of really tight races.

Lightspeed Magazine won the Best Semiprozine Hugo by 16 votes. Two UK-based publications, Strange Horizons and Interzone, hung with Lightspeed Magazine for the first four passes, however, the home-field advantage did not hold true. When Interzone was eliminated almost one-third of its votes dropped out (having listed neither of the survivors in next place) and the remaining votes were divided almost equally between Interzone and Hugo-winner Lightspeed.

Only in a few cases did the eventual winner ever trail. In Best Novella, “Six-Gun Snow White” had a 14 vote edge on “Equoid” after four rounds, but lost by 83.

In Best Dramatic – Long Form, “The Rains of Castamere” was only 11 votes ahead of “The Day of the Doctor” after the fifth pass, but picked up a majority of the votes left after Orphan Black was eliminated, and won by a comfortable margin.

In Best Pro Editor – Long Form, Ginjer Buchanan trailed Toni Weisskopf by 7 votes after the third pass, but ended up winning by over 200 votes.

The “Who are you mad at?” index shows more voters listed the following nominees behind No Award than any others (except for Toni Weisskopf, who is included for comparison, and Wheel of Time which was controversial for a different reason.) (Not ranked in order).

Sad Puppies Finalists Runoff votes No Award
Warbound 1161 1052
The Chaplain’s Legacy 999 602
The Butcher of Khardov 1222 687
The Exchange Officers 1146 736
Opera Vita Aeterna 855 1232
Toni Weisskopf 568 186
Elitist Book Reviews 510 334
Wheel of Time 1306 672

But if the “Sad Puppies” say they had it tough, just show them the “take no prisoners” mentality at work in the fan categories. Many finalists got fewer first place votes than No Award — the fate of 4 out of 5 nominees for Best Fan Artist, 4 out of 7 nominees for Best Fancast, 3 out of 5 nominees for Best Fan Writer, and 1 out of 5 nominees for Best Fanzine.

Turning to the nominating statistics, Vox Day compiled this list of the number of nominating votes that put each of the “Sad Puppies” on the ballot, and scoffed at the supposed “bloc vote” —

Larry Correia 184 (Best Novel)
Toni Weisskopf 169 (Best Professional Editor – Short Form)
Brad Torgersen: 111 (Best Novella)
Dan Wells 106 (Best Novella)
Brad Torgersen 92 (Best Novelette)
Vox Day 69 (Best Novelette)
Sarah Hoyt 38 (failed to make final ballot for Best Short Story)

Just the same, the bloc vote for Vox Day’s Opera Vita Aeterna kept Ken Liu’s “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” off the ballot.

Paging through the rest of the nominating statistics I observed that Neil Gaiman, by declining a nomination for The Ocean at the End of the Lane, allowed Mira Grant’s Parasite on the ballot – it finished third.

Ender’s Game came within six votes of being shortlisted for Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form. With another couple of nominating votes, two more Doctor Who episodes could have been finalists in Short Form (which would have thrilled my friends who run Gallifrey, I’m sure.)

On a personal level I found it rather surrealistic to see that in the Best Fanzine category the next five top vote-getters after the finalists were essentially the zines that would have been on the final ballot just a couple years ago – Banana Wings, The Drink Tank, Argentus, SF Signal and File 770. Time marches on.

Update 08/19/2014: As Arnie Fenner points out in his comment below, Diane Dillon, along with husband Leo, won the Hugo for Best Artist in 1969 and deserves the “first-ever” designation, though Julie Dillon’s win is still a breakthrough since she is the first woman to win the Best Artist Pro Hugo in 45 years.

A Few Comments on Loncon 3

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Overview of the Fan Village at Loncon 3.

Overview of the Fan Village at Loncon 3.

By Leigh Strother-Vien: I’m thrilled that younger fans are having a good fandom to come into. But we older fans *sigh* need softer floors, smaller venues, or reallyreally fast medical breakthroughs — everything aches. Aside from that, LonCon 3 has been a friendly place to be. I’ve enjoyed chatting with random people: in queues, and sitting in food courts, standing next to dealers’ tables, waiting for a lift, etc.

The Art Show was, unsurprisingly, Very High Quality, and I’m glad to say that the artists are asking for prices that reflect more accurately their worth, i.e., I couldn’t afford what I Really Liked (at least, not yet).

The Dealer’s Area was diverse with lots of booksellers as well as the usual Neat Stuff.

But, mostly what struck me was the general feeling of Good Will. And, I believe, the exceptions were mostly due to aches and pains (and jet lag). Which are inevitable with a large con, apparently.

Good Con. Kudos to the ConCom and their volunteers.

Loncon 3: Random Notes On Programming

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ExCel hallway during Loncon 3.

ExCel hallway during Loncon 3.

By Francis Hamit: With over 600 items available and no way to attend them all, I can only write about the few I saw myself. Those were interesting, and well prepared, by people with professional background. Effort was obviously expended by the organizers to provide geographical balance in the spirit of a “World” science fiction convention.

The panel “How Does Bookselling Shape The Genre We See” included Guest of Honor Malcolm Edwards. “It’s been ‘gloom and doom’ (in bookselling) since the 1970s,” Edwards said. The impact of e-books and the pricing policies of Amazon.com have driven many brick-and-mortar stores, including the Borders chain in the USA, to the wall or out of business entirely.

For all of that, publishers still rely upon early feedback from booksellers, communicated through reps, for feedback. Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) are routinely sent, and the pre-publication orders influence decision-making. Early enthusiasm can make a best-seller. In some cases, the relationship is defined by money. Shelf allowances are routinely paid, as if books were simply another item in grocery stores (my local Ralphs’ is my local bookstore). There is another method, where the publisher tries to influence the buyers for the chains to gain larger initial orders (you can’t sell it if you don’t have it). Waterstone’s, a UK bookstore chain, has 330 shops, but normally only orders 250 copies of a new title. Per Malcolm Edwards, individual buyers have now become teams of buyers, who are very cautious, and tend not to order books by authors who are not recognized brands, at all. Management generally prohibits local managers from buying directly from local authors, because space is at a premium. Independent stores exert influence over their customers through word-of-mouth and hand-selling. Publishers traditionally made a lot of money on back-list books, because nobody wants to start with Volume 3 of a series. “The amount of space dedicated to a particular author in a store has been squeezed,” said Malcolm Edwards, “Shelf presence, having three books or more by one author, is needed to create buzz, or word-of-mouth.”

E-books and online discounts do have an impact, but customers still come in to read and find new books. Brick and mortar stores are still viable, because they offer more choices without being confusing due to massive amounts of data. However, less choice actually helps increase the volume of sales, and e-books sell better if they are also available in print editions. Publishers now prefer Trade Paperbacks because they have higher margins. Mass market paperbacks do not make as much money and are probably going away. A related panel was called “The Politics and Economics of Cover Art”. This drew a standing-room-only audience, and emphasized the role of design in appealing covers with the goal of getting a customer to actually pick up the book. (Social Science research indicates that if someone actually does this, the chances that the book will be sold are about 50/50; a sense of ownership is created even before the sale). Panelists agreed that in an ideal world, the design should match the content. Said one panelist, “A lot of covers do suck, and are gender-inappropriate and offensive (there are objections to the tits-and-ass approach, where it has nothing to do with the content and to ‘white washing’ or using an image of a white person when the protagonists are not white).” Another panelist said, “I have to ask, is this how I want my company to be represented, or my author represented?” While another pointed out, “We’re being a little irresponsible if we don’t acknowledge that the publisher’s job is sell a lot of books.” “Who reads the majority of books? Women! So why are we marketing to boys? We need to be very leery of boy-versus-girl marketing.” No covers were shown to back up these points. “We have a really closed group of illustrators who get most of the work; they are almost entirely male, there are not a lot of female illustrators doing this work, so we see the same guys over and over, and we only see their esthetics. Product consistency and on-time delivery are more important than innovation.” But as another panelist pointed out, if people weren’t buying the books, we wouldn’t have this problem. It’s driven by what people are buying, and we have no idea what works.” Two-thirds of books are sold in non-bookstore locations (such as grocery stores). They don’t want to give shelf space to anything that will not sell through. And very simply, small presses do not have the resources to access these channels.

"Military SF: continuity and change." with Ashley Pollard, Rohan Shah, Joe Haldeman, Jean Johnson and Myke Cole.

“Military SF: continuity and change.” with Ashley Pollard, Rohan Shah, Joe Haldeman, Jean Johnson and Myke Cole.

“Military Science Fiction” included Ashley Pollard (a nurse with military experience), Joe Haldeman (a Vietnam veteran who made his reputation with The Forever War, which was his MFA thesis, and is still in print forty years later), Robin Shah (from the Economics field with an interest in the military), and Jean Johnson (who has no military experience of her own but is extremely enthusiastic about the military), and the Moderator, Myke Cole (a Lieutenant in the US Coast Guard, who is writing a military fantasy series called “Shadow Ops”; Cole has served three tours in Iraq in Special Operations and is still on active duty).

Said Lt. Cole, “You do not have to serve in the military to have a military consciousness. Joining the military is a bit like being put in an orphanage. The genre has become a bit discontinuous, and strong male protagonists are the tradition. Readers have been really pleased to see more strong female protagonists. The military is as complicated as the larger society is, and reflects many of the same issues, and what is happening today in the real military is the change in the nature of casualties. While more lives are saved on the battlefield, there is a huge increase in the number of psychiatric casualties. Killing is not a fundamental human activity. Drone operators are getting PTSD, despite their remoteness from the battlefield. During the Cold War, we developed an addiction to high technology. We’re now in an age of insurgent warfare, with a renewed focus on Special Operations. That affects the kind of training I get.”

“Does Military Science Fiction need to change to remain relevant?” asked Ashley Pollard. “Physical Fitness is much less, because fewer people do hard manual labor, such as farming or (heavy) factory work, and in wars, it’s about breaking things and people. There is a cognitive dissonance, and the larger society gets about a minor amount of casualties, compared to previous wars. If the culture is unwilling to sacrifice people, then wars are likely to be lost.” (It becomes a matter of political will; this was why the Vietnam War was lost.)

"Spies We Still Love" with Tim Phipps, Elizabeth Bear, Nicholas Whyte, Gillian Redfearn, Stefanie Zurek.

“Spies We Still Love” with Tim Phipps, Elizabeth Bear, Nicholas Whyte, Gillian Redfearn, Stefanie Zurek.

The “Spies We Still Love”, was moderated by Nicholas Whyte, who vaguely admitted to having some background in real life, and included Tim Phipps, American author Elizabeth Bear, UK publisher Gillian Redfearn, and German small-press publisher Stefanie Zurek. Whyte began with a trip down memory lane with television series from the 1960s, such as Mission Impossible and I Spy. Phipps said that Mission Impossible was a very tightly structured show that played espionage very very straight. Elizabeth Bear pointed out that, “What is interesting is the caper aspect of that show, and how are they going to pull that off? Whereas The Avenger” and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. are parodies, making fun of James Bond.” The John LeCarre novel, and then mini-series, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was groundbreaking. Tim Phipps said, “It takes State conflict, and makes it very personal.” Which led to the series known as Spooks in the UK, and as MI5 in the US. Phipps also really likes Person of Interest which has as a protagonist a super-computer, aided by a billionaire and an extremely burned-out CIA agent. Other series were discussed, but as yet it seems that none of the panelists have yet seen the new groundbreaking series about deep-cover KGB operatives during the Reagan administration called The Americans.

Kansas City Wins 2016 Worldcon Race

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Midamericon II guests of honorThree’s a charm? Kansas City fans won the right to hold the 2016 Worldcon in a vote at LonCon 3 – the city’s third appearance on the site selection ballot in the past 11 years.

The vote was Kansas City 651, Beijing 70, reports Petréa Mitchell.

MidAmeriCon II will be held August 17-21, 2016, and chaired by Ruth Lichtwardt, Jeff Orth, and Diane Lacey. (More members of the concom are listed here.)

Guests of honor will be Kinuko Y Craft, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Tamora Pierce, and Michael Swanwick, with Toastmaster Pat Cadigan.

Full information about membership rates and conversion fees are contained in Progress Report Zed along with photos of tasty-looking barbecue.

2014 Hugo Award Winners

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The winners of the 2014 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were announced at Loncon 3 on August 17.

BEST NOVEL

  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit US / Orbit UK)

BEST NOVELLA

  • “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)

BEST NOVELETTE

  • “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com / Tor.com, 09-2013)

BEST SHORT STORY

  • “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)

BEST RELATED WORK

  • “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative” by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

  • “Time” by Randall Munroe (XKCD)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM)

  • Gravity written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM)

  • Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM

  • Ellen Datlow

BEST EDITOR – LONG FORM

  • Ginjer Buchanan

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

  • Julie Dillon

BEST SEMIPROZINE

  • Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki

BEST FANZINE

  • A Dribble of Ink edited by Aidan Moher

BEST FANCAST

  • SF Signal Podcast Patrick Hester

BEST FAN WRITER

  • Kameron Hurley

BEST FAN ARTIST

  • Sarah Webb

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2012 or 2013, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).

  • Sofia Samatar

Scenes from Saturday at Loncon 3

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More photos taken by Francis Hamit around the convention on Saturday, August 16. (Hover cursor over photo to see caption.) Includes a shot of Brad Templeton attending the con via telepresence (!)

Long lines are everywhere at Loncon 3.
Bryan Talbot signing at Loncon 3.
“Military SF: continuity and change.” with Ashley Pollard, Rohan Shah, Joe Haldeman, Jean Johnson and Myke Cole.
Officer Sue Smith Interrogates Brad Templeton, attending Loncon 3 via telepresence.
Nick Whyte in control of Press Room.
Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games.

A Bouquet of Masquerade Photos From Loncon 3

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Francis Hamit took pictures of some of the popular entries in the Loncon 3 masquerade. (Will try to fill in the missing names tomorrow.)

70's Doctor Who Monsters won the Best Re-Creation award in the Novice category.

70’s Doctor Who Monsters won the Best Re-Creation award in the Novice category.

Puff and Perry on the Other Side of Boring won the Best Workmanship award and Best in Class award in the Novice category.

Puff and Perry on the Other Side of Boring won the Best Workmanship award and Best in Class award in the Novice category.

The entry titled Aratalindale won the Best Workmanship and Best Presentation award in the Masters category and Best in Show at the Loncon 3 masquerade.

The entry titled Aratalindale won the Best Workmanship and Best Presentation award in the Masters category and Best in Show at the Loncon 3 masquerade.

The Slender Man won the Most Creepy award in the Novice category.

The Slender Man won the Most Creepy award in the Novice category.

Masquerade hosts hold paparazzi at bay.

Masquerade hosts hold paparazzi at bay.

Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Lady Loki, a Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Coliseum (Peter Westhead and Jackie).

Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Loncon 3 masquerade entry.

Update 08/17/2014: Here are the Masquerade results from the Loncon 3 daily newzine:

Masquerade Results

Young Fan Division:
Best Time Traveler — Alberta Gear (Tali Semo)
Most Beautiful and Coolest — Elsa (Nicole Keller)
Special Judge’s Award— Elsa (Nicole Keller)
Most Original and Creative— Lost and Found (Olivia and Eleah Flockhart)

Novice Division:
Most Creepy —The Slender Man (Andrew Wishart)
Best Recreation — 70s Doctor Who Monsters (Christine Halse and Joseph Halse)
Honourable Mention for Fabric Manipulation —Fish Pond (Emma Roberts)
Best Workmanship — Puff & Perry on the Other Side of Boring (Petra Kufner and Antje Brand)
Best Presentation — Tribal (Rebecca Lale)
Best In Class, Group — Puff & Perry on the Other Side of Boring (Petra Kufner and Antje Brand)
Best In Class, Solo — Tribal (Rebecca Lale)

Journeyman division:
Judge’s Favourite — Life is a Dream (Loretta and Tim Morgan)
Best Workmanship — A Glamorous Evening of Galactic Domination (Jennifer Skwarski)
Best Presentation — A Message from the Ministry of Magic (Sabine Furlong)
Best In Class — Coliseum (Peter Westhead)

Master Division:
Most Beautiful — The Odyssey Dress (Miki Dennis)
Workmanship and Attention to Detail — We Dance (Laura Hunt)
Best Workmanship — Aratalindale (Maggie and Mike Percival)
Best Presentation — Aratalindale
Best In Show — Aratalindale

Loncon 3 Handles WSFS Business

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While sensible fans were enjoying the con their dedicated peers at Loncon 3’s business meeting slaved over proposed changes to the rules of the World Science Fiction Society. (Kevin Standlee has done little else and many of these items are cribbed from his myriad social media outlets. It’s even possible to watch videos of the business meetings on Kevin’s YouTube account.)

All seven amendments to the WSFS Constitution passed for the first time last year were ratified. These include:

  • Two parallel changes lowering the requirement for certain votes to a 2/3 majority (from 3/4);
  • Requiring more detailed self-indentification data in the financial reports of past Worldcons;
  • Defining eligibility of a person for Best Fan Artist Hugo to include non-professional display of their work (instead of a display, generally);
  • Removing the geographic zone requirements for membership in the Mark Protection Committee;
  • Making permanent the Hugo Award Rest of World Eligibility Extension.

Four new amendments got a split reception.

The business meeting voted against proposals to:

Earning first passage were two other proposals.

  • Popular Ratification requires that changes to the WSFS constitution be ratified by a vote of all Worldcon members. The mass vote would take place after an amendment receives its second passage at a business meeting.
  • A Story by Any Other Name clarifies the of status of audiobooks under the Hugo rules.

Two Standing Rules changes proposed by the Worldcon’s own committees also passed. (These are not constitutional amendments.)

  • Hugo Finalists: A proposal to change the term for works/people appearing on the Hugo Shortlist to “Finalist” (instead of “Nominee”).
  • Value The Vote: A change to the Membership Types and Rates would keep committees from selling memberships with WSFS voting rights for less than their supporting membership rate, tied in to what the Voting Fee was when they were selected.

There was no proposal for a YA Hugo – a hot topic referred by last year’s business meeting to a committee chaired by Dave McCarty. McCarty reported no progress was made (his and other members’ comments on the WSFS Business Meeting Facebook Page indicate no work was done during the year.) Chris Barkley, who had made plans to submit a proposal of his own once again, said he has been persuaded waiting for a committee report is a better idea.

[Thanks again to Kevin Standlee for his yeoman work sharing the results with the world.]

Update 08/17/2014: Identified Standing Rules changes more clearly.

Loncon 3 in the News

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London’s Channel 4 News has posted two video reports from the Worldcon. There’s a 3-1/2 minute tour of the con emphasizing cosplay, queues and collectibles, and a 5-minute interview with George R.R. Martin (“Everyone wants the books finished – no-one as much as me.”)

Fans of everything from vintage X Men and epic fantasy, to Japanese Manga and space travel, have come from all over the world for a chance to dress up and geek out at a range of talks, games, workshops and socials. Tributes to the late sci-fi writer Iain Banks are planned, along with a keynote address from Audrey Niffenegger, author of the hit novel The Time Traveler’s Wife.

The Guardian’s article World Science Fiction Convention 2014 beams into London is more catholic in its tastes, with coverage of filk, academe, the morning “stroll with the stars,” increased representation of minority groups, the egalitarianism of fans and pros (Paul Cornell recalls seeing George R.R. Martin in lines) and motivations for attending:

[Connie] Willis, the most awarded contemporary science fiction writer, said as she wandered the convention halls, accosted by fans: “The sum total of all human knowledge is at every science fiction convention. They come from all walks of life they have a thirst for knowledge and a sense of excitement about the world and that everything is worth knowing and everything it’s interesting. So my goodness, why wouldn’t I want to be with these people?”

Loncon 3’s own newzine reported yesterday that the convention so far has 10,535 total registrations and 6,222 members present.

[Via Twitter. I have given the Channel 4 website an assist here by correcting their bizarre spelling of Audrey’s surname with G’s where the F’s belong.]