Update on the Dragon Awards Drama 2017

On August 10, officials at the Dragon Awards reconsidered their policy of not letting authors withdraw their names from the competition, which resulted in Littlewood and Jemisin withdrawing. Scalzi, after consulting with the officials, decided to stay in the competition, but can’t attend because he’s booked somewhere else for Labor Day weekend. Interestingly, Littlewood and Jemisin both released statements that they were withdrawing because they didn’t want to be used as political pawns.

Littlewood’s position is easy to understand, as her novel The Hidden People was on Vox Day’s list of recommendations for the award. (Can you still call it a Rabid Puppy slate when he calls it recommendations?) Appalled at being targeted, Littlewood jumped to make it clear she didn’t want to be tainted by Rabid Puppy support. This pretty much mirrors similar behavior from authors in the last couple of years. But Jemisin’s statement is more interesting. “There’s a nasty tendency on the part of some organizations to try and use tokens,” she says on her blog, “— most often women and people of color — as ornamentation and flak shielding. It’s a way of saying, ‘Hey! Look! We’re diverse. We’re fair. [Person X’s presence] proves it!’ when in fact the fairness may be an unearned veneer and the diversity a reluctant afterthought.”

This suggests even Jemisin is noticing how often her name appears on awards ballots when plenty of other talented and deserving writers-of-color are out there. Evidently she suspected the Dragon Awards committee might have inserted her name, but it turned out to be fans after all (described as “justice warriors” by President of Dragon Con, Pat Henry). Whatever, these withdrawals reduce the gender diversity of the award even further, leaving the ballot at approximately 82% men.

In light of yesterday’s Hugo results where all the fiction awards went to women, there seems to be a growing split between male and female interests during the SFF awards cycle. Is there any chance this might improve in the near future?

Cons are underway! Take care!

DragonCon got off to a good start, I gather, as I don’t see any crises from Atlanta in the news. Other conventions apparently didn’t fare quite so well. For example, I see a news article about Fan Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre which was also scheduled to start on Thursday. The kickoff was heralded by reports of firearms on the GO transit. As a result, police recommend that any cosplayers should keep their more realistic accouterments under wraps until they actually get to the con. This follows the arrest of a man dressed as Zorro Monday morning during the panic at LAX.

In the current climate, it seems important for people to remember that cosplay can easily be misunderstood. In September of 2014, cosplayer Darrien Hunt was shot and killed by police near a strip mall in Utah. According to the police report, Hunt “brandished” his replica samurai sword at them, but a witness took a picture that showed Hunt smiling and talking with the officers just before he was shot. Take care, folks!

The Dragon Awards

So, on to the Dragon Awards. How does this work?
According to the rules, anyone worldwide can register on the Dragon Awards Website to cast a vote. See the page for the award here, with links to get around. Apparently there will be additional links to obtain the finalist works for review once they’re announced. Here are the 2016 categories:

• Best science fiction novel
• Best fantasy novel (including paranormal)
• Best young adult/middle grade novel
• Best military science fiction or fantasy novel
• Best alternate history novel
• Best apocalyptic novel
• Best horror novel
• Best comic book
• Best graphic novel
• Best episode in a continuing science fiction or fantasy series, TV or internet
• Best science fiction or fantasy movie
• Best science fiction or fantasy PC / console game
• Best science fiction or fantasy mobile game
• Best science fiction or fantasy board game
• Best science fiction or fantasy miniatures / collectable card / role-playing game

So far this includes only novels, TV, film and games, presumably published in 2015. I can’t see where they’ve defined “novel” by length, but hopefully this info will be available soon. It’s something the discerning voter will want to know. There are no awards for short stories at this time. If I’m reading this correctly, this year’s nominations must have been published between April 1, 2015, and July 25, 2016. You can nominate different works in the different categories at different times, but you can’t change a nomination after it’s submitted and you can’t vote one work in multiple categories—one vote per person, in other words. Nominations close July 30, 2016.

P.s. I inquired about the novel length and it’s 70k words. I’m not sure that will work for young adult, which often runs shorter.

Upheaval in the awards system?

This has probably been coming on for a while and I’ve just not noticed, but it seems like a lot of organizations are announcing awards for SFF, or that nominations are open for their awards, etc. This is an awesome development, as it provides recognition for authors who are worthy. Some of these don’t look like mainstream awards, either, which provides a spot for people who are a little off-beat to find an audience and get a little promotion.

However. I see today that DragonCon has announced they will give out awards in 2016. This is kind of a biggie. DragonCon is a huge convention, with an annual on-site attendance of about 70,000 people. The press release says the awards will be based on nominations and votes from all fans, not just attendees or members, through an open system. They’re apparently going to run this off their Website where voters can register to vote.

Contrast this attendance figure with WorldCon that gives out the Hugo Awards. Wikipedia lists 4,644 attendees and 10,350 who bought memberships to vote the 2015 Hugo Awards, which was a record for numbers. With DragonCon moving into the awards game, I’m thinking the Hugo’s are officially undermined. The Puppy scandal has not only disrupted the voting system, but it seems to have led to an inspection of the Hugo process where works are winnowed through a narrow review and recommendation system and onto the ballot.

While most people aren’t going to swallow the Puppies’ complaints of a vast conspiracy whole, their grievances do seem to have resulted in concerns about the fairness of the process. WorldCon has scrambled to provide additional controls, but it could be that their credibility is already shot. The Dragon Awards will include a category for mil-fic, and they’re encouraging a free-for-all, i.e. campaigning.

More on this tomorrow.

Apologizing for Heinlein

Last year I went to Atlanta for Dragon Con. This is not normally my thing, as I’m mostly an introverted recluse. However, I had a good time. There were–I dunno–maybe 50,000 – 60,000 SF&F fans there, all dressed up in fun costumes. As THE big fan-run conference of the year, I figure this has to be a cross section of current SF&F fandom.

It looked like a lot of cons these days. There was about equal representation of genders. I wasn’t really counting heads, but there seemed to be a fair representation from racial minorities and people with disabilities. There was a lot of nudity, and a certain amount of cross-dressing, which may or may not have been significant.

I poked around in the art exhibit and some other offerings, but mostly I stuck with the writer’s track. I attended several interesting panels, which included publishers, authors and critics. There were a few minorities represented, and some featured mostly men or mostly women, depending on the subject. I have to say that there was some clear discrimination against LGBTQ topics. These panels were rescheduled to increasingly later times, eventually ending up about midnight. Hm.

So, on to the topic. One of the papers actually sounded like an apology for Robert Heinlein. It was presented by Jennifer Hudgens, currently a philosophy academic who teaches courses on science fiction at the University of Kentucky. Ms. Hudgens appears to be about thirtyish, which makes her a Millennial. The subject of her paper was misogyny and racism in Heinlein’s work, and why he’s an important writer anyway. This is an interesting take on science fiction that won several Hugo Awards in the 1950s.

I have to admit I’ve not read anything by Robert Heinlein in a long time. I consider it period science fiction, something to be read with the period in mind, like H.G. Wells or Jules Verne. Because of the attitudes identified by Ms. Hudgens, I suspect it would most likely be un-publishable by a new writer submitting it today.

Ms. Hudgens’ opinion is a bad sign for writers or publishers of traditional, right leaning science fiction like Sad or Rabid Puppies Vox Day, Larry Correia and Brad Torgersen. The Census Bureau predicts that in 2015 Millennials will surpass the Baby Boom generation in size, making them the largest available fan group for SF&F. These kids have grown up in a time when they expect to be respected for who they are, regardless of gender, race, disability, LGBTQ status, religion or national origin. Unless you’re writing period SF&F, then you need to be aware of that.