Tuesday, August 11, 2009

2009 Hugo Award Winners

2009 Hugo Award Winners were presented at Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention, in Montréal, which was held from August 6-10, 2009.

The Winners:

  • Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
  • Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
  • Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
  • Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
  • The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: David Anthony Durham
  • Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)
  • Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
  • Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
  • Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
  • Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
  • Best Editor Long Form: David G. Hartwell
  • Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
  • Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
  • Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
  • Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
  • Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu
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Congratulations to all the winners!

source: The Hugo Awards

Saturday, August 1, 2009

So, why is there nothing new?

After I had to write a post like this last year, I honestly hoped I won't have to do it again. I don't know what is with those summers, but they seem to be our weakest point - last year, we were simply lazy, and this year we're too busy to write anything.

First of all, Thrinidir has regular job now, and although it's only a half-time one, he still has less spare time than usual. I had a summer job up until yesterday, an annoying, tiresome and badly paid thing, but I couldn't afford to drop it since this year nobody seems to want a student for a summer job. Every time I called a potential employer, there were cca 30 other girls who also wanted the same job. You can imagine that I was pretty happy when my mother made me a lecture about how I really need to pass all of my remaining exams (no shit, Sherlock) and offered to pay me whatever money I would otherwise earn with the aforementioned job. It's not the ideal solution (I hate to financially depend on my mother), but right now, I'm too happy about never having to return to that annoying job to care.

The second thing is that we (me and Thrinidir, that is) decided to move in together. It was a quite sudden decision, and we didn't have much time to find an apartment (until the end of August, because then I'd have to sign my student room lease), so you can imagine we were quite busy in the last few weeks. I promised to myself that I'd write an update for RoSF, explaining everything, when we find an apartment and sign the lease. We did that on Wednesday and I've been writing this ever since, because I found out that there is so much to an apartment than just finding it - we still had to paint the walls (and it took us 4 days, preparations included, while we were so sure it will take a day or maybe two) and now we have to decide what to bring with us and what to leave behind. There is probably not enough room for all of our books, let alone all of our things. But it's our apartment and I'm really happy about it, especially now it's all clad in bright colors.

There are my upcoming exams as well. Two of them should present no problem, but there's a third one which is a pain and the main reason why I haven't been able to relax all summer (ie. July). There is also an extra one which is supposed to be easy and will serve as a boost for my grades, because the criteria for my scholarship all of the sudden went sky high. The exams are also the reason why there were no reviews from me in June (except for the Blood of Ambrose one). All in all, the sooner I get rid of those damn exams, the happier I'll be.

I think that's mostly it. It's the first year I've been too busy to spend at least one weekend at sea, I've read all of 2 books in the whole month and I feel really, really bad about not updating RoSF. I just wanted to explain why there are no new reviews and when to expect them (when I'm through with my exams, so this can be either September or October). Sorry, folks. I'll do my best not to keep you waiting for too long.

~Trin~

 

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