blood, taxes, and the Hugos

[sergebroom]

I wanted to write about Ted Chiang’s wonderful story The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate yesterday, but I had to take care of the taxman and of a cactus. A few wintery weeks ago, one of the backyard’s watering pipes had sprung a major leak, right under a cactus. By the time I was done tearing the cactus out and digging thru the cold muddy soil, I didn’t feel like cleaning up the mess. The weather having finally become warmer, I could procrastinate no further. On the bright side, I shed blood only once while taking the cactus debris from the yard’s upper level down to the minivan. As for the taxman, I bled a large amount to the IRS yesterday, and nothing to the state, but checks had to be written to the state and to the IRS for the estimated quarterly taxes, what with Sue being self-employed.

All this to say that, after a trip to the dump with the cactus bits, I was exhausted.

This year, for the first time in many years, I'll be voting for the Hugos. That decision was helped by my having already read many of the nominees in Asimov’s. Others came from Dozois and Strahan’s anthology The New Space Opera, which I already owned but had not read until a few days ago. Another source of Hugos was F&SF, to which I do not subscribe, but I have bought individual issues, and its nominees are all available online. I should definitely subscribe.

By the way, I seldom vote because I already have lots of stuff eagerly awaiting my letter-hungry eyeballs. Besides, I do not like being in a situation where I have to read a specific something - as opposed to doing so as a decision of my own. This year’s headstart has made me reconsider this attitude, as I am enjoying this after all. I may even vote for the preliminaries next year. Goodness knows that there are stories that should have been nominated this year, from sources such as Realms of Fantasy, but they weren’t. And it is my fault, in a way.

I see by the clock on my laptop that it’s almost time to take Agatha to the vet for her first tuneup, so I’ll stop for now.