Are You Eligible For the John W. Campbell Award?

I don't think any of us write with the goal of being showered with awards. We write because we love words and we love stories.

On the other hand, if someone wants to give me an award, I'm not going to spit in their eye.

There are a ton of awards out there, most of which I have no knowledge of. But since I don't live under a rock, I at least know about the Big 3:

Before I die I'd like to be nominated for one of them. Hey, a guy can dream, right?

Now, I don't exactly follow the awards circuit with baited breath. But, you can be sure I'm going to check in on the nominees and winners on an annual basis to see what stories I need to read. After all, they're the best.

The last time I was on the Hugo site, I spotted a link for the John W. Campbell Award which, unbeknownst to me at the time, "is given to the best new science fiction or fantasy writer whose first work of science fiction or fantasy was published in a professional publication in the previous two years". They have a whole list of definitions for "professional publication" but the one that caught my eye was any publication that pays out a minimum of 3 cents/word and a total payment of at least $50. I've had a couple of those. Sure enough, I shot the administrator an email and my name was added to the list of 2015 eligible authors!

I'm not telling you this to brag (although I'm super honored to have my name listed with such talented folks, even though I don't have a snowball's chance of winning), I'm telling you so that you can check to see if you qualify! Check out the rules and the FAQ page! See if you qualify! If you don't look you'll never know!

Award Catsup

"The blog awards poured forth across the earth smiting all manner of beast and man. They smote creatures that crawl in the dust and creatures that fly in the heavens. Then, for good measure they smitted some fish, because they could and fish are slimy. Finally they converged upon the lowly blog of a writer of questionable hygiene with every intent to smite the living bejesus out of him. But the odd looking writer was crafty and built a fortress forged from stacks upon stacks of rejection letters, holding the smite-happy blog awards at bay. Finally a truce was agreed upon involving banana pudding and peace fell over the land. The writer and the blog awards lived happily ever after. 

-The End-  

I was super busy last week and didn't get the chance to post much so I'm playing catch up. While I was off taking and grading finals, several generous individuals were kind enough to bestow my humble blog with an award! 

Pamela over at The Death Writer  and T.Z. Wallace at One Year Until Book Launch both bestowed me with The Versatile Blogger Award! 

Rather than follow the rules I'm going to follow Pamala's lead and post a picture of myself (and my beautiful wife) with a cigar.

Honeymoon Cruise!

Also, L.G. Keltner at Writing off the Edge was kind enough to give me the Fabulous Blog Ribbon and the Stylish Blogger award!

 

Again, rather than follow the rules, I'm just going to post a few pictures of some of my study animals because they are both stylish and fabulous!

Spawning fish.

Beaver live-trapping.

Sleepy elk.

Grizzly bear cub (drugged, not dead).

Curious deer.

Thanks to everyone for the awards! 

Kreativ Blogger Award

The always lovely and potential dangerous Vero Sicoe has honored me with the Kreativ Blogger Award! I know people hand out these blog rewards like HPV at a frat party, but since this is my first one I'm pretty stoked.

First the rules:
1. Thank & link back to the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the ten questions below.
3. Share ten random facts/thoughts about yourself.
4. Nominate seven worthy blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award.

Now the results:

What's your favorite song?

Impossible question to answer. Instead, I'll give you the three songs I'm listening to the most right now.

What's your favorite desert?

Hooray for pie!!!

What ticks you off?

People who are more than ready to shove their opinion or belief structure down your throat but throw a hissy fit as soon as the conversation starts to look like any kind of intelligent debate.

And Swedish people.

What do you do when you're upset?

Drink myself into a blind stupor and shoplift? No, I cook or write or work out or kill aliens on my X-Box. Honestly I don't get upset very often and when I do it usually doesn't last long. Oh, and I bitch to my wife. That's a big one.

Pippin on top of the world.

Which is your favorite pet?

PIPPIN!!!!!

Which do you prefer, black or white?

What kind of racist BS is this? Where does this blog award come from, Idaho? MOVING ON!

What is your biggest fear?

Death

What is your attitude mostly?

I'm that nice fella who helps you move and likes to talk about literature and beer. Then every once in a while I'll say something so off color that you wonder what the hell is wrong with me.

What is perfection?

A town in Nevada plagued by giant burrowing alien worms.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Baked goods. You put a tray of snicker-doodles in front of me, you'd better stand back or you'll lose a hand.

Ten Random Facts

1. My pinky toes don't touch the ground when I walk. I might be the next step in human evolution.
2. My mom still calls me Pumpkin' Pie.
3. I've never watched "Dirty Dancing", "The Breakfast Club", or "The Life Aquatic" and I didn't care for "The Big Lebowski" even though I quote it occasionally.
4. I've broken three ribs, two arms, one leg, several fingers, and dislocated one kneecap. None of them were mine.
5. I've got nothing against it but I've never smoked pot.
6. I'm trying to learn to play the guitar. So far all I've managed to do is make my fingers sore and piss off the dog.
7. I'm a beer fanatic. I've probably tried somewhere between 300-500 different kinds of beer from all over the world. Some of the longest conversations I've had in the last year have been about beer.
8. I teach an on-line class for Oregon State University called "Field Sampling for Fish and Wildlife".
9. My wife and I will have been married for 7 years on May 28th.
10. At 6'4", I'm the tallest person in my family.

Yeah Beer!

 My seven extremely worthy tags:

1. The Mad Ravings of a Feaky Snucker 
2. Morgan Shamy
3. Myself as Written
4. Cara Bertrand
5. Dangling on the Edge of (In)Sanity 
6. Strands of Pattern
7. The Death Writer

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

This years Oscars were a little lame. Only 2 songs nominated for Best Original Song?  Seriously? And I think most folks will admit that the Best Picture category was lackluster at best. Besides Billy Crystal (who I love) there just wasn't much to get excited about. That is UNLESS you love animated shorts, which I do.

This years very deserving winner in the Best Animated Short category was "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore". This beautifully animated story stole my heart. It's delightful story is something anyone can appreciate but it's something especially special if you're a writer. I've never seen anything that so completely captures the feeling of why writers write. It's wonderful! It made me cry!

Take 15 minutes and check it out.

You won't regret it!