Kritzer, Lady Business Added to Hugo Ballot

MidAmeriCon II has backfilled the vacancies on the 2016 Hugo Awards ballot created by the withdrawal of Thomas A. Mays and Black Gate.

The official announcement on Facebook reads:

Thomas A. Mays has withdrawn his short story “The Commuter”. It will be replaced on the ballot by the story “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015).

John O’Neill has withdrawn the fanzine Black Gate. It will be replaced on the ballot by Lady Business, edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan.

Naomi Kritzer’s “Cat Pictures Please” also a 2016 Nebula nominee, can be read at Clarkesworld. Her blog is Will Tell Stories for Food.

Click here to read Lady Business.

60 thoughts on “Kritzer, Lady Business Added to Hugo Ballot

  1. I have to soberly note that this was due to the honorable and selfless decisions of Thomas A. Mays and Black Gate.

    Then I have to squeeeee at having a great short story on the ballot and another fine fanzine.

  2. Fifth! And seconded.

    Moar Cat Pictures Plz!

    The honourable withdrawals have given us another two unspoilt nominations, best wishes (and thanks) to them both.

  3. I did prefer So Much Cooking, but we now have an untainted short story fully worthy of the award.

  4. Cat Picture Please is a great addition.

    I haven’t read Lady Business before – is it a good fanzine? Any obvious highlights recently that people can suggest to look at?

  5. Yay!! Some of my nominees are floating to the top! I think I was the saddest about not getting to vote for “Cat Pictures Please” — loved, loved, loved that story — so this is very good news. (I haven’t read Thomas Mays’s “The Commuter,” so I am not offering an opinion on it.)

    I am sorry to lose Black Gate, another good choice, but I hope they will be rewarded for their integrity in future Hugos.

  6. But I nominated So Much Cooking, not Cat Pictures, Please! I smell a conspiracy, here.

    Congratulations to both new finalists!

  7. I honor the withdrawees and the new nominees alike! I was very amused by “Cat Pictures Please” when I read it (I no longer remember whether it made my top five but if it didn’t, it wasn’t by much) and I hear good things about Lady Business and look forward to checking them out.

  8. Did not, myself, nominate either “Cat Pictures Please” or Lady Business.

    Am not even slightly displeased about their appearance on the ballot.

    Congrats to them, kudos to Mr. Mays and to Black Gate.

  9. Well, I _loved_ “Cat Pictures Please” and am delighted it’s now on the ballot. Thank you, Thomas Mays, congratulations Naomi Kritzer.

  10. Naomi Kritzer has put her two short-story collections on sale on Amazon to celebrate. (Also available on Amazon UK, and possibly others)

  11. It’s nice that people have a(nother) worthy finalist, but it bothers me that even with a process to make sure people accept their nomination, we still have people churning the ballot after it is announced. In general (and I realize the current situation is possibly atypical), what this means is that people go into the voting knowing the relative positions of at least some of the finalists. It happened before when there was some confusion abut the 5% Rule, and a ballot was published with only three finalists in several categories, but then later these were increased to five. So people knew who had done well in the nominating process and who had just squeaked in, so to speak.

  12. Yay, and full props to Mays and Black Gate.

    I, too, preferred “So Much Cooking”, but this one is a fine story, too.

    @Peter J, thanks for the tip! I can report that they’re each going for $2.99 omenana.com BN.com.

  13. Congratulations to the new finalists, and all respect to Mays and Black Gate for their withdrawals.

    (Okay, and a little squee in particular for “Cat Pictures, Please” because that was on my nominating ballot)

  14. Evelyn C. Leeper: …(and I realize the current situation is possibly atypical), what this means is that people go into the voting knowing the relative positions of at least some of the finalists.

    Because these are atypical years, it’s not clear what the harm is.

    Two of the 2015 replacement nominees won.

  15. So Much Cooking was the Kritzer story on my ballot, but Cat Pictures Please was certainly in my top 10. I don’t quite remember where I landed with Lady Business, but I’ve enjoyed reading them and had them in my list of potential nominees.

    However, even if I detested both finalists, I’d still be celebrating.

  16. Congrats to Naomi Kritzer and the ladies of Lady Business and thanks to Thomas Mays and Black Gate for making way for these nominees. I’m really happy about these replacements, since both were on my nomination ballot as well (so was Black Gate BTW). Plus, we’ve finally got a proper candidate in the short story category. Cause while I would like to see Chuck Tingle honoured somehow, a Hugo for best short story is not it. As for S.R. Algernon, the story itself was okay, but his mealy-mouthed non-statement annoyed me.

  17. I had both So Much Cooking and Cat Pictures Please on my nominating ballot, but in different categories. Just me?

  18. BigelowT: No, not just you. “So Much Cooking” was–a novella, I think? At least a novelette. “Cat Pictures Please” is definitely a short story.

  19. Oh man I didn’t put Lady Business together with the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom which I relied on and pointed others to.

    ETA: edited out autocorrect nonesense

  20. Hooray! Best wishes to Thomas Mays and Black Gate. I loved “Cat Pictures Please” and nominated it, so I’m so happy I get to vote for it too!

  21. My nominations did not include Cat Pictures, so I propose to sulk.

    Actually, this may be the time to educate people on the difference between a sulk and a flounce.

    But it is not this day; This day we fight

  22. Ira, should it more properly be Lady Business’s Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom? I’m not sure if it’s a Renay thing, a Lady Business thing or a subset of the editors thing.

  23. Well, I didn’t nominate “Cat Pictures Please,” but it was on my longlist. I’m sure as heck happy to have a legitimate nominee to vote for.

  24. “Cat Pictures, Please” was literally the first thing I put on my list. When it came out in January, well over a year ago. It really deserves to be there, and I thank Mays for doing the honorable thing. Obviously people liked and remembered it; often, work which comes out so early in the year gets forgotten.

    Congrats Naomi!

  25. Ira on May 6, 2016 at 6:21 pm said:

    ULTRAGOTHA, Renay was the one who started it, but so many people contribute to it that it’s probably better to call it a Lady Business project. We have a page on our blog for it here.

    Is that a permanent URL? Because if so, you might consider asking The Hugo Awards web site to add it to their “Third Party Recommendation Sites” sidebar.

  26. I’m feeling quite pleased, since this increases the number of my nominees that made the shortlist by two. And increases the number of categories where I have positive options to vote for.

  27. Just read “Cat Pictures, Please” and quite enjoyed it. No decision yet on Hugo worthy, I will have to let it marinate a bit. Glad Lady Business is on the ballot too!

    Also picked up the 2 short story collections, a steal for 99 cents each!

  28. I’m really pleased by this news; both of these entries were on my nomination form. 😀

  29. @ULTRAGOTHA: The URL changes every year, as each year gets a fresh Google document. But we can either ask them if adjusting the link year to year is okay, or make a centralized post for all the spreadsheets on Lady Business and link to that. Thanks for pointing this out!

  30. Thanks for the kind words!

    I am curious to see where “So Much Cooking” falls on the longlist, and I wish that some of the fantastic short stories I read last year were on the Short Fiction ballot with me.

  31. Ira: The URL changes every year, as each year gets a fresh Google document. But we can either ask them if adjusting the link year to year is okay, or make a centralized post for all the spreadsheets on Lady Business and link to that. Thanks for pointing this out!

    I think making a page on your blog to hold links to all the recommendation spreadsheets is a good idea. That gives you a link which everyone can post which will remain the same forever, and people will still be able to go out and look at past recommendations if they wish. 🙂

  32. Naomi Kritzer: Thanks for the kind words!

    You realize that you’re going to be expected to show up at the File770 Park when cat  Filer pictures are taken, right? 😀

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