Voted on Hugos
Whew. Having spent the past week and a half, on and off, reading and discussing all of the Hugo short-fiction nominees, I've now finally sent in my ballot.
(I also made a set of predictions about results, just for fun, but I'm not gonna post those here just yet.)
Remember, the deadline for voting is July 31.
Important: Ballots must be received by that date, not just postmarked by that date.
You can vote online only if you have a Hugo PIN; that number appears on your mailing label if you're receiving (papermailed) progress reports, but if you're not, you have to either obtain a PIN in advance (by sending email to hugos@conjose.org), or print out and mail in the paper ballot instead. You can vote only if you're a member (supporting or attending) of this year's WorldCon (but you can send in your membership form and check with a paper ballot if you're not currently a member). Plan ahead! Especially if you don't have your Hugo PIN; even if you think you have it, go make sure before you decide to wait 'til the last minute and vote online. For the last two years, I've sent in my ballot extremely late; I'm not even sure it arrived in time to be counted. The year before last, that was because I thought I could vote online at the last minute, and didn't realize I was missing a key item of identification until something like the day before votes had to have arrived.
Note about voting online this year: at the top of the form, there are blanks where you enter identifying information about yourself (name, address, etc). At the top of the form where you supply that info is a button labeled "Send Form." I assumed I had to send my ID by clicking that button, and then it would show me the ballot. No such luck; that button submits the whole ballot. So instead of pressing that button, after you've filled out the ID form, scroll down to get to the voting area. Fill out the ballot, then use the other "Send Form" button at the bottom of the page to submit the ballot.
Other note about voting in general: as always, if you aren't familiar with IRV, I strongly recommend that you go read up on it before voting. It's a kinda non-intuitive system in some ways, despite being very good at providing good results if used properly.
If you haven't read some of the short-fiction nominees and would like to, go to John Lorentz's page of links to free online versions of the nominees. Note, in case anyone missed my earlier mentions, that as of this past Monday, thanks to the magazines and the authors and the fabulous Fictionwise folks, all but one of the short-fiction nominees are available for free online; the only one not available online is Le Guin's "The Bones of the Earth."
For a handy collection of info about all of the Best Fan Artist nominees, see Frank Wu's Best Fan Artist page. Frank's one of the nominees, but he's provided (with permission of the other nominees) summaries and samples for the other nominees, along with links to their sites. That's class.
More in separate postings.