Two things have defined the 2023 Nebulas for me:
- I went virtual. Again. So in between panels on branding and the state of 2022 short fiction, I changed Lyra’s diapers and discussed dinner plans with Melissa. For the awards, we put the Sprout to bed and gathered around Melissa’s iPad with glasses of wine on the couch in our pyjamas.
- I not only sat on my first panel, I hosted my first panel. Unusual Short Story Formats was the highlight of my weekend
I took extensive notes on all the panels I attended (including effectively livetweeting the Exploring Possibilities with Legal Systems in SF/F to my personal Discord) and came away bursting with ideas. I’m already enjoying the ongoing benefits of my attendance, catching up on the panels I wanted to see but missed (Latine SF and Queer Imagination first and foremost). You’ll be seeing some changes around here and in the newsletter based on the Branding and Marketing panel, and seeing more experimental flash and poetry out of me based on Unusual Short Story Formats.
We had a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation, from applying the forms of poetry to how close to hew to other types of writing when writing in that milieu. Whether it’s the wiki edits of “Wikihistory” or the forum posts of “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather”, we coined the term “neo-epistolary” to cover those short stories that come in the form of chat logs, court proceedings, even archaeological EIRs. A partial list of the stories that Ann LeBlanc, Carina Bissett, and I discussed is available here, including Nebula finalist Oghunechevwe Donald Ekpeki’s recommendations.
As mentioned, we put Lyra to bed and curled up on the couch together. Melissa wept at Robin McKinley’s speech, her age and grace, her insight and her pain. All of my predictions lost, and, frankly, they lost for all the right reasons. I voted for “Give Me English”, expected “Destiny Delayed,” but nodded over my wine glass when “Rabbit Test” by Samantha Mills won the short story Nebula. Because that was the right choice. Most of them were like that – and certainly all the ones I’d read. They were right, and it gives me hope for science fiction that we are able to discern which stories really are the best of the year.
(Also, Uncanny had a really good year at the Nebulas this year.)
And on Monday, I sat down, and started working on “Doña Ana Lucía Serrano y el sanctuario de Asherah.” Because I didn’t get much chance to write with all the publishing work I did over the previous four days, and the writing is what it’s all about. Stay tuned to this frequency, there’s going to be a lot of interesting stuff coming over the waves.
It was a wild ride! Glad to be by your side, my writing buddy 😉