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SFWA Nebula Conference
May. 18th, 2016 07:59 amAgain, I'm a bit behind, but I thought I should say a few words about the Nebula Conference that I went to last weekend.
I've never gone to a Nebula Award weekend before, but this year my friend Naomi Krizter's short story "Cat Pictures, Please" was nominated. (You can listen to the audio here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_01_15b/) So I went with the sole purpose of being Naomi's wingman, because these things are always better when you have someone to share them with, win or lose.
Naomi didn't win--which was a disappointment for her, I'm sure. On the other hand, there's a new tradition at the Nebulas that legitimately takes the sting out of losing. For the past few years Henry Lien has organized the "alternate universe acceptance speeches." The idea being that the people who didn't win get to still get applause and read their speeches. Maybe it sounds corny, but it wasn't... not a all. In fact, I'm not sure there was a dry eye in the house when Kelly Robson got up and talked about her first moment of stumbling across science fiction in Asimov's magazine and... experiencing 'intellectual curiosity' for the first time in her life. Then Charles E. Gannon just about killed me when he talked about how the cliche about it being an honor to be nominated should really be thought of like this: when you go to a museum you don't go into a room labeled "Renaissance" and see only one picture. You see a gallery. And, they all represent the best of their time, no single picture does that in isolation.
And then I cried some more because it's all true, and it makes me remember what is awesome about SF/F fandom and prodom.
The rest of the conference was a bit of a blur. I got to see "Zootopia" with my friend Kyell Gold, which was awesome. I might have cried through some of that, too. But, mostly what stood out to me about the Nebula Conference in comparison to other cons was that people knew who I was. I never really had imposter syndrome because everyone seemed genuinely aware of my work. That happens a lot less at "regular" cons. Thing is, I think writers are more aware that careers have fits and starts and fallow periods and very few people there think that writing is magical and without bumps and scraps. What was amazing about that was how welcoming it felt. It made me want to always go to the Nebula Weekend...
And maybe I will.
I've never gone to a Nebula Award weekend before, but this year my friend Naomi Krizter's short story "Cat Pictures, Please" was nominated. (You can listen to the audio here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_01_15b/) So I went with the sole purpose of being Naomi's wingman, because these things are always better when you have someone to share them with, win or lose.
Naomi didn't win--which was a disappointment for her, I'm sure. On the other hand, there's a new tradition at the Nebulas that legitimately takes the sting out of losing. For the past few years Henry Lien has organized the "alternate universe acceptance speeches." The idea being that the people who didn't win get to still get applause and read their speeches. Maybe it sounds corny, but it wasn't... not a all. In fact, I'm not sure there was a dry eye in the house when Kelly Robson got up and talked about her first moment of stumbling across science fiction in Asimov's magazine and... experiencing 'intellectual curiosity' for the first time in her life. Then Charles E. Gannon just about killed me when he talked about how the cliche about it being an honor to be nominated should really be thought of like this: when you go to a museum you don't go into a room labeled "Renaissance" and see only one picture. You see a gallery. And, they all represent the best of their time, no single picture does that in isolation.
And then I cried some more because it's all true, and it makes me remember what is awesome about SF/F fandom and prodom.
The rest of the conference was a bit of a blur. I got to see "Zootopia" with my friend Kyell Gold, which was awesome. I might have cried through some of that, too. But, mostly what stood out to me about the Nebula Conference in comparison to other cons was that people knew who I was. I never really had imposter syndrome because everyone seemed genuinely aware of my work. That happens a lot less at "regular" cons. Thing is, I think writers are more aware that careers have fits and starts and fallow periods and very few people there think that writing is magical and without bumps and scraps. What was amazing about that was how welcoming it felt. It made me want to always go to the Nebula Weekend...
And maybe I will.