Change made as requested.

Thanks for the mention, which I wasn’t really expecting. These days, I don’t really see myself as a fannish writer. It’s not that I’m not writing, but I’m tending to write academic criticism of various hues, and not much of it for fanzines. This doesn’t mean I disparage my time writing for fanzines – I learnt a hell of a lot about how to write from that – nor that I won’t go back to fanzines. It’s just not what I’m writing at the moment.

If people want to read some of my stuff, there are links off my weblog: http://tonykeen.blogspot.com.

As you can see if you check out the laconiv.org, the updated site that John and I would rather you link to is…

http://johnhertz.sciencefictionleague.org/

Thanks!
-Chazz

When I first started to get nominated for the Hugos there were people who yelled loudly for me to be disqualified on the grounds that work published online was not eligible. Those days are long gone. As long as you write well, and are interesting, you stand a chance of winning.

The issue isn’t so much how or where you write, as who knows you and who those people are. Getting nominated for a Hugo is partly a question of how popular you are, and partly a question of whether the people who like what you do actually vote. That’s really all there is to it.

I’m wondering how much the internet is changing the flavor of the Fan writer Hugo, other than allowing people besides David Langford to win (and congrats on that Cheryl!). I’m not sure how one outside of Fandom would have found their writing pre-internet; I know I didn’t even though I actively sought out most of the Hugo fiction winners. I find it excellent that now even fans like me (who aren’t really part of Fandom) can easily access lots of interesting writing about SF online, and it’s happily provided me the opportunity to join in the conversation.

But would an outsider from Fandom even have much of a chance of making the short list – or has John Scalzi’s win opened it up to people who merely blog?

Page for Kate Yule and David Levine, where they have all the issues of Bento available.

Here’s a couple of my own favorites who were not mentioned by anyone else:

Mark Plummer, who is the other editor of Banana Wings, does not get as much attention as Claire. But I think he’s as interesting as Claire in his topics and approach, and sometimes a little more focused.

Tony Keen has had material published by Mark and Claire, and covers an unusual range of historical topics as well as personal experience. He’s an elegant writer, too.

I am glad that Steve Silver suggested Fred Lerner and David Levine. Saves me the trouble. I’d also add Kate Yule, David’s wife and joint editor of their fanzine Bento. Together they make that fanzine a tiny treasure.