I hate this time of year. First off, it’s tax time, so I have spent most of the last three days dealing with little bits of paper, to get things in order for my accountant. The process was less painful this year, since I had my valiant assistant, Ty Franck, to help with the process — but that doesn’t mean it was fun. Taxes are the price we pay for civilization, and I don’t mind paying them, really I don’t. It’s just the bloody record keeping that drives me mad.

Ah, well. It’s done now. Everything is in the hands of my accountant, and in a few weeks he’ll get back to me and let me know how much I owe. (A lot. You guys buy a lot of books. Do keep that up, please).

Meanwhile, spring has come to Santa Fe. Flowers are popping up, leaves are appearing shyly on trees, grass is growing. Which means my allergies are popping up as well. That’s the other thing I hate about this time of year. Sneezing, sniffing, watery eyes, popping pills.
Bah, humbug. ‘Winter is coming’ may sound ominous, but it’s ‘spring is here’ that makes me blood run cold. Ah – CHOOO. sniff sniff sniff

There’s cool news too. Awards and more awards.

Let’s see. The audiobook of DREAMSONGS (vol 1), produced by Janet Stark and Random House Audio, and featuring a stellar cast of readers including Yours Truly, has been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award as the best science fiction audiobook of 2007. We’re up against Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Diana Paxson, and Jack Finney. For a full list of all the Audie nominations, visit http://www.theaudies.com/

And DREAMSONGS (vol 1) is also up for the Golden Chazzie. Actually, it’s up for two Golden Chazzies — one for Best Fiction, and one for Best Audiobook. To tell the truth, I don’t know much about the Golden Chazzie. If you go to http://www.needcoffee.com/2007-chazzie-nominations/ you will know as much about the Chazzies as I do. It appears to be an award given by some guys who need coffee. Hey, if I win, I’ll send them some! (Or would that be considered to be bribing the judges?) I hope it’s made of real gold.

The Hugo nominations are also out. I was thrilled to see Daniel Abraham make the list in novelette, and very pleased that the novel list included Michael Chabon’s novel. I liked the Campbell finalists as well.

Got to say, though, I was disappointed by some of the other categories… not so much because of who made the ballot, but because of who didn’t. We missed our last chance to honor Ellen Asher for her long decades of great work as editor of the Science Fiction Book Club, and that’s a shame. And the Best Fanzine nominators continue to ignore the growing importance of blogs and websites. One day a blogozine will win a place on the ballot, and one day John Howe and Alan Lee and the other deserving artists I wrote about last month will get some recognition… but not this year, it seems.

Oh, well. As the Brooklyn Dodger fans of my childhood were wont to say, “Wait’ll Next Year.”

Current Mood: null