Straight to the news this month, because it’s huge…

News

Worldbuilding for Masochists is now a SIX-TIME Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fancast!

Huge thanks to everyone who nominated us, and congratulations to all our fellow nominees! It’s wonderful to see so many friends’ names on that ballot. And of course, enormous thanks to my co-hosts, Marshall Ryan Maresca and Natania Barron, as well as to all our fabuous guests.

So, come the end of August, I will be at WorldCon in Anaheim wearing an absolutely fabulous yet-to-be-determined dress.

And, look, I’m not playing around, I would love to win this year. I mean, I’d love winning any year, but this year would be particularly good for a number of reasons, including though not limited to actually being able to say “I’m going to Disneyland” if anyone asks me “You’ve won a Hugo Award, what are you going to do now?”

We lost by a single vote last year. One. Just one. The Hugos are an award where every vote really, really does matter, and that’s particularly true in all of the fan categories, which tend to get far less attention than the headliner categories like Best Novel. Ours was (clearly) the closest margin, but there were several other categories decided by less than 20 votes.

If you’d like to vote for us, and all the other amazing nominees that you love, you need to be a WSFS Member for this year’s convention. (And if you bought a membership for this year to nominate, the same one is good for voting!) You don’t have to attend the con! The “WSFS Membership Only” is $50 — and for that, you get an absolute deluge of media in the voting packet. The value of the nominees for Best Novel alone would more than cover that fee, but you also get graphic novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, audio, video, poetry — all sorts of things. So if you’ve got 50 bucks, want a mountainload of reading material, and would like to support Worldbuilding for Masochists in our 6th year on the ballot, I heartily encourage you to become a member and vote! You can find more information on the LA WorldCon website.

Upcoming Events

Coming up this very weekend is RavenCon! And I’ve got my schedule:

This is my hometown con, and I always have a great time, but this year is going to be particularly wonderful because my friends K.B. Wagers and Mur Lafferty are both Guests of Honor!

So, I’ll be out and about at other times beyond my panels. I’m intending to go to the Star Wars cosplay meet-up, and I do find karaoke and dance parties nigh-irresistible.

The following weekend, May 1-2, I’ll be at Encounter at Twin Suns in Lancaster, CA. This is just play for me, and I’m delighted about that. I’m in charge of nothing; I just get to show up and be in character for a couple of days. I can’t wait. It’s going to be such a treat. Following which, I’m going to attend the Los Angeles Immersive Invitational on May 3 and Star Wars Nite at Disneyland on May 4. Yes, I expect that will be absolutely wild — and it’s my first time ever at Disneyland! Though I will be back later in the year…

Because Worldbuilding for Masochists got nominated for a Hugo again, I will definitely be at LA WorldCon, August 27-31. I don’t know yet if I’ve been accepted to programming, but I certainly hope to be, so I’ll have more info on that when I know anything about it!

I am fully intending to be at ArmadilloCon again, September 11-13, and I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been accepted as a guest at Multiverse Con in Atlanta, October 14-16! This one’s new to me — I’ve heard wonderful things about it, so I’m quite looking forward to it.

What I’ve Been Reading

It turns out I can get through quite a lot of audiobooks while I’m attempting to assemble furniture and unpack an apartment.

• The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

• the witch doesn’t drown in this one by amanda lovelace

• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

• The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

• This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint

• Books & Bewitchment by Isla Jewell

• Shadow Baron by Davinia Evans

• The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

• Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent

• The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

There were a lot of bangers in this set, too! I think my favorite was This Immortal Heart, which is really just breath-taking in ways that appeal to me. I’ve bounced off of Saint’s mythological retellings before, but this was my Aphrodite, gorgeously rendered. Very close to that was The Raven Scholar, which was fascinating on a lot of different levels. It makes some interesting and brave narrative choices, and while it’s a chonker, it’s well-worth the time investment.

Wrapping It Up

You might notice I said nothing in there about any writing. That’s because I haven’t been doing much of it lately — moving into a new apartment sort of ate all of my attention and energy, plus I’ve been struggling to unsnarl some problems with the draft. But, I think I’m about ready to get back into it — in-between all my upcoming travel, that is.

We’re about to start charging into the wildest time of year for me! I get a little bit of a break in May, but once June hits, it’s off to the races with camp season, which launches straight into fall con season and my birthday and then the holidays and — sometimes it feels like there really isn’t an un-wild time of year. But as stressful as it can be, I’d still always prefer to be busy.

It’s also about to be my favorite time of year. I love late spring; I love the month of May. I hope it treats you well!