Gratuitous Hugo Self Promotion Post 2021

It's that time of year again. Nominations are open for the 2021 Hugo Awards, to be held at WorldCon 2021 in Washington, DC*. 

I am eligible in the category of Best Fan Writer. After several years on the longlist, I made it onto the shortlist last year, which was very nice, even if I didn't have a chance of winning (as proved to be the case). The Wertzone and Atlas of Ice and Fire are both eligible for Best Fanzine, but again the majority of my work is here on The Wertzone.

To nominate, you must have been a virtually-attending or supporting member of the New Zealand WorldCon last year, and either be a supporting or attending member at this year's WorldCon in DC. The nomination form can be found here. This, of course, also allows you to nominate for all of the Hugo Awards, including Best Novel, Best Editor, Best Dramatic Presentation and so on.

You can join WorldCon 2021 here, although I don't believe you can register and nominate immediately (happy to be proven wrong there).

Please check out some of the work by other bloggers in the field: Paul Weimer, Foz Meadows and Aidan Moher are among those whose work is well worth checking out, along with last year's winner, Bogi Takács, who has recused emselves from the Hugos this year (but read eir blog anyway!).

Some of my articles last year which might be worth a look (ranging from the trivial to the long):

• Doctor Who becoming the first TV drama to air in seven successive decades (it was later joined by Star Trek).
• A guide to the Time Lords of Gallifrey, also from Doctor Who.
• A beginner's guide to the Star Trek franchise.
• A deep dive into why no Dungeons & Dragons fiction is being published.
• A deep dive into the current status of George R.R. Martin's novel, The Winds of Winter.
• An assessment of last year's Hugo Awards ceremony and its issues.
• An analysis of why J.R.R. Tolkien never won a Hugo Award, despite being eligible multiple times (and even having a special award created for him, which someone else won).
• An analysis of Time Magazine's "Best Fantasy Books of All Time" list.
• A retrospective of Fallout 4 and its treatment of the "post-post apocalypse" genre.
• A character assessment of Ahsoka Tano before she appeared in The Mandalorian.
• A retrospective of the TV series Orphan Black.
• A familiariser for the Cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying game and its video game spin-off, Cyberpunk 2077.
• A familiariser for the Command & Conquer video game franchise, which got a major remake last year.
• A deep dive into the question of what timeline Star Trek: Discovery and Picard are taking place in.
• A distance map of Westeros.
• A map of Joe Abercrombie's First Law world.
• A series of huge maps of the Forgotten Realms world (part of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game).
• A map of Jack Vance's Lyonesse novels.
• Maps of the Dune universe.
• A map of J.V. Jones' Book of Words and Sword of Shadows series (nicely, apparently now being used by the author herself in writing the last two books of the latter series).
• A new world map of Steven Erikson's Malazan series.
• A new Wheel of Time continental and world map.

Good luck to everyone and hopefully there'll be an actual WorldCon to go to this year!

* Although it's not yet certain if this will be a virtual or walk-in convention, or if it will be held in August or December, due to the ongoing COVID pandemic.