Well, the Nebulas are over. The winners announced, the new board of SFWA sworn in, and everything. I may not have pictures, but I have some thoughts.
First, I want to congratulate all the winners and finalists. Félicitations! You’ve all earned it, and especially in short stories and novelettes, the stories were really strong this year. Choosing a winner must have been a trial.
But I’d especially like to congratulate Naomi Kritzer and our old friend, Ai Jiang. Naomi’s two finalists were a joy to read and a breath of fresh air – hope for the future. In her acceptance speech for the winning novelette, “The Year Without Sunshine,” she spoke of its inspiration – of wanting to kick against the idea that there could be no handicapped people in the apocalypse, and how a community comes together around their neighbor in need. That’s the kind of message, and the kind of science fiction, we need today.
And as for Ai Jiang, I Am AI was a moving piece about the power of art under capitalism.
But it wasn’t all awards and speeches. There were many, many great panels this year – just of the ones I attended, Novellas and Novelettes, Setting as Character, and the LGBTQ+ meetup were standouts. The ones I missed, I’ll be watching the videos and taking notes.
I even sat on a panel (again!) this year. Last year, it was “Unusual Short Story Formats.” This year, “Religion in Worldbuilding.” With Rachel Gutin, Sue Burke, Shvarta Thakar, and Natalie Wright, (a Quaker, a Jewish woman, a Unitarian Universalist, a Hindu, and an atheist, respectively), we ranged from why religion might be important (even in science fiction) to practical polytheism. The audience’s questions were great, too. Afterward, we adjourned to the Cooper Suite to continue the conversation, where a Friend from Ville Québec interrogated me about how hard it is for me to write Quakers.
Seriously. Hindu characters, Jewish characters, Catholics, atheists and Episcopals? Fine. No problem. Writing Quakers? Haven’t succeeded yet. …well, maybe once.
Speaking of my own writing…
I had an office hour with an editor who really understood Doña Ana Lucía. That’s right, To the Future! is out in the mail. Win, lose, or draw, I’m glad there’s someone in the industry who smiles when I say “it’s everything I thought was cool when I was 14” and understand the importance of nice, long names. Hold me in the Light while she considers To the Future!.
Which brings me to my last point. After office hours and some instructive panels, I’m making some changes to my independent writing career. I’m approaching the dirty thirty short stories, where each new title gently boosts sales on all the old titles. That’s fine, especially since they all sell rather modestly. But I’m going to move away from short stories.
Instead of one short story a month, I’m going to focus on (a) getting Doña Ana Lucía Serrano …to the Future! traditionally published, and (b) releasing a novella every three to six months. They’ll be 25,000-40,000 words – short enough to finish in an evening, long enough to sink your teeth into. And I’m going to start experimenting with series again, something I haven’t really done in a decade (aside from Doña Ana Lucía herself). Series, shared worlds…my stories are going to get bigger, in every way. I’m already gathering ideas, from swashbuckling lesbian space pirates to fantasy Quakers (because, hey, what’s the point of writing if you don’t challenge yourself?).
The diversity of voices, depth of characterization, and lived-in worlds that you’ve all praised for the stories in The Night Meeting will still be there. They’ll just be full meals every three months, instead of snacks every month. Trust me, they’ll be worth the wait.
This also means pivoting away from some of the intense marketing I’ve been sucked up into. Marketing is a gas – it will expand to fill the available space. I’m scaling back to blog updates every other Friday, and one update per month on the Innerspace newsletter and Patreon. But they’ll be richer for it – I’m incorporating more of the new prose I’m writing into the newsletter and into Patreon, so there’ll be more of the fiction you love coming to you.
That’s all the news that is news at the top of the hour. See you in two weeks!
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