MidAmericon II has finally announced the replacements for the two Hugo nominees who withdrew from the ballot as originally announced.

Replacing BLACK GATE in Best Fanzine is LADY BUSINESS, which can be found here http://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/

Replacing “The Commuter” by Thomas Mays in Short Story is “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer, which was originally published in CLARKESWORLD http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/

I am not familiar with either of the new nominees… but since they were not part of any slate, I think both of them are likely to be strong contenders. I look forward to checking them out.

(As I said in a previous post, sixth place has never been so important).

((Though I am curious as to whether these two new finalists were indeed sixth. It seemed to take MAC a rather long time to announce the replacements after the withdrawal, something that could presumably be accomplished in minutes just by looking at the list and seeing who was next up — unless, perhaps, there were other withdrawals along the way? We’ll find out come August)).

Short Story and Fanzine were two categories where the Rabid Puppies had swept the field, top to bottom. Accordingly, they were also two categories that I had earmarked as being in need of Alfies. But the withdrawals and replacements broke the Rabid stranglehold, leaving me with a decision to make — do I still present Alfies in those categories, or no?

I am going to need to ponder that for a while.