Blast and bedevilment, it's Ditmar time again, and the hoary old arguments are coming out. Apparently, it is an offense against nature to lobby people to nominate you, or to nominate stuff that you, and they like. So my little pony, sorry, magazine, shouldn't get its members together to nominate a whole bunch of artwork and stories that we've published over the last year. This despite the fact that other groups will do this.

Note that I do not say vote for a work when it's on the ballot. That's a whole different question, with a whole different group of responders. Anyone who's involved in fandom, or who is known to a few fans, can nominate works for a Ditmar. Only those who are members of this or last year's Natcon can vote for the final ballot.

Okay, for instance: Sean Williams' The Changeling is eligible, and I'm going to tell everybody I can that it should be nominated, because I think it's one of the best things he's written. In fact, I'm going to try to organise for it to be on the ballot. I also think that Dirk Flinthart's story "This is not my story" deserves a place on the ballot, and, again, I'll tell everybody I can to nominate it. Because I'm a member of the ASIM collective, I'll suggest to them that Dirk should get a guernsey. Now, for some people, this is a foul crime, offensive to the purity of the turf. I says it's what groups do, and have been doing as long as the Ditmars have been in existence, and I've been around to watch about thirty of the award ceremonies.

There are those who believe that we should sit on remote mountaintops and never discuss the works that surround us, never say that you'll like something if you read it, or that this is a piece of crap. I'm a reviewer, and I do it for a living. Lots of people do it as conversation. So what? Discussion as to the worth of a story or a piece of artwork is normal, and will influence what you nominate.

Note that I do not say organise bloc voting for the final ballot. Yeah, I know it's been done, but that goes too far. You get five (or seven) choices in the Ditmar ballot, culled out of all the nominations. Far too frequently, good stories just do not get on the ballot, because too few people nominate them. Sometimes it's just because they have been published in some inaccessible journal, sometimes it's timing; people have short memories. They lose their one chance to gain recognition, for what it's worth, because they're only eligible for a single year. I have a story in my collection Son et Lumiere called "Shark in a Foggy Sea." It's a pretty good story, got an honourable mention in a year's best, that sort of thing. Wasn't nominated for anything, possibly because it was published in Nemonymous 3. Ever heard of that journal? No, I didn't think so. It was republished in Son et Lumiere, and got a few good reviews. Can't be nominated, because it's a reprint, even though this is its first Australian publication. I should have got a few people together, the year that it was published, to nominate it, because I think the story deserved it.

We at ASIM have done the noble thing over the years and gone our own separate ways in nominations. I'm damned sure that hasn't been the case for other groups. Consequently, even though we've published a lot of short stories, we don't figure much on the ballot. Ah, the fruits of nobility: holding one's virtuous head high while the people who write and illustrate our magazine don't get the recognition they deserve.

My predictions for the ballot? Well, they'd have to do with fictional planets.

Later

And I'm back. The Ditmar nominations are open, at last, for 30 days at least. I feel a little confused about the rules, but such is often the case with the Ditmars. My major area of confusion is what, exactly, is eligible. It says that anything published in the year preceding the Natcon is eligible, but that might mean that things that were eligible for nomination at last year's convention are eligible again. It seems to mean that anything published this year is ineligible, even if there was more than a year between Natcons. I might just nominate things and let the committee sort it out.

There's the familiar problem with self-published works, as well. Last year, there was a heated debate about whether they were professional or fan, and that really doesn't seem to have been resolved. I'd like it to be clear, because Son et Lumiere, the collection, is eligible this year for one category or the other. In some ways, I'd prefer it to be eligible in the fan category, because it's up against Dreaming Again and a couple of other biggies in the pro category. But that, in turn, raises the question of what category the stories within it can be nominated. Are they fan or pro?

It's the familiar old confusion.

Later.

I wish this blog was as expert as those I see when I look at others. Right now, it's bare and bleak. Time will improve it, I hope (although that goes against experience; time rarely improves things. Wine, perhaps, although too much time will destroy any vintage. Cheese, up to a point. The lies our lives are made of? Questionable. The whole "age shall not wither nor custom stale" thing really does not work.)

I've just returned from tutoring one of the little casualties of our education system. Nice kid, but has been fucked around by both his life to date and the school he's at. I dare not tell him that the relief teacher he had for a term was either lazy or incompetent or both, since she has returned absolutely none of his work to him for an entire term, so I have no examples of extended writing to work with. The kid's okay, but can't express his ideas, because he's never been properly trained to write. He lacks confidence and stumbles over his expression, always attempting to achieve perfection, instead of just getting the bloody thing down and getting perfection later.

I stayed a little late, and, consequently, missed the tree lopper who was going to do something about our feral garden. It's a jungle out there, with giant powton trees (you know; those sweet trees with big leaves and lovely flowers that grow to thirty-metre monsters in six months), zamia palms encrusted with wisteria, bottle brush that threaten the power lines. Tarzan would love it, but I ain't no Tarzan. Back later.

I sincerely hope this works. The last time I tried to post a comment, it came out in Hindi. Okay, this seems to be staying in English.