Great News! for Several Friends

First, hearty congratulations to all my friends who garnered Nebula Award nominations! Several of the stories I nominated made the ballot (this was the first time I’ve been able to nominate, having recently upgraded my SFWA membership), and everyone on the list deserves a round of applause. The complete list is linked here, but I’m happiest for the folks I’ve gotten to know on-line or in-person — some very recently and some with whom I’ve been friends for several years — namely,

Mary Robinette Kowal, nominated for “Kiss Me Twice” (novella)
Kij Johnson, nominated for “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” (novella)
Ken Liu, nominated for “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (novella) and “The Paper Menagerie” (short story)
Rachel Swirsky, nominated for “Fields of Gold” (novelette)
Brad R. Torgersen, nominated for “Ray of Light” (novelette)
Ferrett Steinmetz, nominated for “Sauerkraut Station” (novelette)
Katherine Sparrow, nominated for “The Migratory Pattern of Dancers” (novelette)
Jake Kerr, nominated for “The Old Equations” (novelette)
Tom Crosshill, nominated for “Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son” (short story)
Aliette de Bodard, nominated for “Shipbirth” (short story)
Nancy Fulda, nominated for “Movement” (short story)
David W. Goldman, nominated for “The Axiom of Choice” (short story)

Now, of course, I have to figure out who I’m going to vote for. Along those lines, I’ll resurrect the line from my “Playing Politics” song: “I don’t know how much they’ll bribe me, I’ll just have to wait and see.”

Second, congratulations to my friend Jeff LaSala on the release of his Foreshadows project. (Full disclosure: Jeff and I are both slimy contractors for Baen Books.)

(Sample of Talon Dunning’s art for Foreshadows, from the Foreshadows web site.)

Foreshadows: The Ghost of Zero is an ambitious multi-media project combining original music, original fiction, and original artwork. Jeff, his brother, and several others collaborated on it, and the end result is very impressive.

I haven’t read many of the stories yet, but I’ve listened to all the music and it’s very evocative. (I admit that I’m not a big fan of “techno” and much of this music is of that style, but in terms of conveying the emotional undertones of the stories I think it works well.) My favorite of the songs is “Made in Brazil | Living in Japan.” The artwork, too, is extremely well done.

Check it out at http://foreshadows.net/!