The Hugo nominations for 2014 have just been announced as Eastercon in the UK, and other conventions around the world.  You can find the full list here:

http://loncon3.org/2014hugos.php

GAME OF THRONES has been nominated in Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form this year, for "The Rains of Castamere," the infamous Red Wedding episode, scripted by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by David Nutter.  Congratulations, all.  The nomination is just the latest confirmation that David, Dan, T'Other David, Richard Madden, Oona Chaplin, Michelle Fairley, and the rest of our cast and crew did an amazing job on this one, creating a moment that will live in the annals of television for a long, long time.  No novelist has ever been more fortunate in the people who came forward to translate his work from the page to the screen.

I would love nothing better than to have David, Dan, David, Bryan, and a whole contingent of our cast drop by this year's Hugo Awards.  London is not that far from Belfast, after all.  Whether that will happen or not, I cannot say, but I'll do my best.  It would be great to have them all at worldcon.

(Mind you, however, I think the odds of GAME OF THRONES actually winning this year are remote.  "The Rains of Castamere" is up against an episode of ORPHAN BLACK, and four (4!!!) episodes of DOCTOR WHO, which has dominated Short Form since the category was created.  Last year, in San Antonio, "Blackwater" broke DOCTOR WHO's long streak of victories, but I suspect that only served to rouse the Whovians, and this year the con is on their home ground in the UK, where they are legion.  So GOT is a long shot at best, but hey… it IS an honor just to be nominated).

Speaking of which… I am REALLY jazzed to be able to reveal, at last, that Jet City's MEATHOUSE MAN has also been nominated, in the Graphic Novel category.   MM the graphic novel is the work of the amazing and talented Raya Golden, my sometime assistant and all-around minion, and long-time friend and quasi-goddaughter, based on a novelette that I originally wrote for Harlan Ellison's THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS back in the dawn of time (well, mid-70s) and eventually published in Damon Knight's anthology ORBIT 18.  Written at one of the lowest points of my life, the novelette "Meathouse Man" is probably the darkest and most twisted thing I've ever written, a story so personally painful to me that I can hardly stand to re-read it even now… that Raya chose this tale, out of all my stories, to adapt and illustrate as a graphic novel, producing a work capable of earning a Hugo nomination… well, that's just bloody incredible, and a real testament to her dedication, her talent, and her madness.  Bravo!

And that's my Hugo news.

As for the rest of the ballot… well, the good news is, more people nominated this year than ever before.

And the bad news… well, you guys are smart, you can figure that out for yourself.  And if you can't, there a hundred blogs that will tell you.  I expect it will only be a matter of hours before someone starts talking about "Hugofail."  Prepare for the internet to go to war again.

I will leave that to others.  I am just thrilled for David and Dan and David, for HBO, and most of all for Raya.  (FWIW, a couple years back, James S.A. Corey was nominated for Best Novel [should have been nominated again this year, actually], and James S.A. Corey is half Ty Franck, who was my assistant at the time.  And now Raya is nominated.  I think I may be the first writer to have two assistants to be nominated for the Hug.  Cool).

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