She blames Scalzi

And rightly so. A fanzine author realizes who was always to blame for the destruction of the Hugo.

So fuck John Scalzi anyway.

Fuck his sense of entitlement. Fuck his arrogant, unilateral “fix” of things he didn’t understand, which weren’t actually broken to begin with. Fuck his self-promoting crusade to prove that a merely world-famous, best-selling professional author with an international following of devoted groupies, whose “fan writing” blog is devoted to the ideas and concerns of professional SF authors qua pro authors, and whose grasp of what a fan writer is came by way of the modern equivalent of reading it off a cereal box, can still drum up enough ignorant first-time voters to win himself a Best Fan Writer Hugo because gosh darn it, people like him. And the rules didn’t explicitly say he couldn’t. And because he tapes bacon to cats, I guess. Woo....

So as far as I can see, John Scalzi created the blueprint: providing both proof of concept and implicit permission for the Sad and Rabid Puppy ballot stuffing campaigns. The fact that they didn’t also win the rockets suggests to me that they weren’t as good at marketing (and were aiming at some rather tougher nuts to crack, in voting number terms – Scalzi was sharp enough to notice that the fan categories had long been low hanging fruit for wrangling a short list nomination), but what they did wasn’t materially or morally different from what John Scalzi did. Neither one violated the letter of the law, and both dismissed or ignored the spirit. If the actions of the Puppies were blameworthy, so were those of John Scalzi.

If what he did was okay within the rules and therefore okay, then so were the Puppy campaigns. The fact that John Scalzi is a funny, likable guy who tapes bacon to cats doesn’t change the moral quality of his actions, it just distracted a bunch of people from noticing it. Think of him as the Daenerys Targaryen of burning the Hugos to the ground, if you like – the Mother of Dingbats.

She's correct. John Scalzi was absolutely the inspiration for the Sad Puppies, although he wasn't the only one. It was the entire Tor Cabal, scheming and plotting to win as many awards as possible, then waving them in the face of better, better-selling authors like Larry Correia, that made it clear that the awards were no longer anything but a popularity contest.

Larry proved his case with the first Sad Puppies campaign; all the subsequent Puppies campaigns were intended to do was to underline for the entire world his original point that the awards no longer had anything to do with literary quality in the science fiction genre. And the Rapid Puppies in particular succeeded in doing that to perfection; literally no one takes the Hugo seriously as a statement on literature anymore now that Space Raptor Butt Invasion, Stix Hiscock, and N.K. Jemisin have permanently stained what was once a substantive award.

This is what victory looks like

Congratulations, Rabid Puppies! Thou hast conquered.

Last night's Hugo Awards ceremony featured a significant first: Nora Jemisin became the first novelist in science fiction history to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugos, once for each volume in her Broken Earth trilogy (the concluding volume, The Stone Sky, won last night's prize); in addition to the unprecedented honor, Jemisin had another first, with her acceptance speech, which may just be the best such speech in the field's history.

Other works and creators honored last night include:

Best novella: All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Best novelette: “The Secret Life of Bots,” by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)

Best short story: “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™,” by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex, August 2017)

Best related work: No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Best Graphic Story: Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood, written by Marjorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Best Editor – Short Form: Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Best Editor – Long Form: Sheila E. Gilbert

Let's consider the best speech in the science fiction field's history by the greatest science fiction writer of all time.

oh um okay so I I had started developing this whole superstition where I only went Awards if I don't show up and my friends are texting me so I can't read my speech stop okay all right so let me get to the speech this has been a hard year hasn't it a hard few years a hard century for some of us things have always been hard and I wrote the broken earth trilogy to speak to that struggle and what it takes to live let alone thrive in a world that seems determined to break you a world of people who constantly question your competence your relevance your very existence I get a lot of questions about where the themes of the broken earth trilogy come from I think it's pretty obvious that I'm drawing on the human history of structural oppression as well as my feelings about this moment in American history what may be less obvious though is how much of the story derives from my feelings about science fiction and fantasy then again science fiction and fantasy are microcosms of the wider world in no way rarified from the world's pettiness or prejudice but another thing that I tried to touch on with the broken earth trilogy is that life in a hard world is never just the struggle life is family blood and found life is those allies who prove themselves worthy by actions and not just talk life means celebrating every victory no matter how small so if I stand here before you beneath these lights I want you to remember that 2018 is also a good year this is a year in which records have been set a year in which even the most privileged blinder of us have been forced to acknowledge that the world is broken and needs fixing and that is a good thing stop texting me and that is because acknowledging the problem is the first step towards fixing it I looked at science fiction and fantasy as the aspirational Drive of the zeitgeist we creators are the engineers of possibility and as this genre finally however grudgingly acknowledges that the dreams of the marginalized matter and that all of us have a future so will go the world soon I hope fairies and yes there will be naysayers I know that I am here on this stage accepting this award for pretty much the same reason as every previous best novel winner because I work my ass off I have poured my pain onto paper when I could not afford therapy I have studied works of literature that range widely and dig deeply to learn when I could and refine my voice I have written a million words of crap and probably a million more of me and beyond that I have smiled and nodded while well-meaning magazine editors advised me to tone down my allegories and my anger I didn't I have gritted my teeth while an established professional writer went on a 10-minute tirade at me and basically as a proxy for all black people for mentioning under-representation in the sciences I've kept writing even though my first novel The Killing Moon was initially rejected on the assumption that only black people would ever possibly want to read the work of a black writer I have raised my voice to talkback over fellow panelists who tried to talk over me about my own damn life I have fought myself in the little voice inside me that constantly still whispers that I should just keep my head down and shut up and let the real writers talk but this is the year in which I get to smile at all of those naysayers every single mediocre insecure wannabe who fixes their mouth to suggest that I do not belong on this stage but people like me cannot possibly have earned such an honor and that when they win its meritocracy but when we win its identity politics I get to smile at this people and lift a massive shining rocket-shaped finger in their direction I'm understand so how many of you all saw like Panther okay probably my favorite part of it is actually Kendrick Lamar theme song all the stars the chorus of it is this maybe the night that my dreams might let me know all the stars are closer let 2018 be the year that the stars came closer for all of us the stars are ours thank you

Moving. Deeply moving. (wipes a solitary tear away) You lift that massive shining rocket-shaped finger to the sky, you inspiring token for the savagely untalented! No one can ever take away those unprecedented three consecutive Best Novel Awards from you, although they're desperately going to want to do so once they realize just how completely they have destroyed the credibility of their own awards.

You see, my dear SF-SJWs, this is what a smoking hole looks like.

A legitimate award-winning science fiction writer, Robert Silverberg, begins to grok.

I have not read the Jemison books.  Perhaps they are wonderful works of science fiction deserving of Hugos every year from now on. But in her graceless and vulgar acceptance speech last night, she insisted that she had not won because of 'identity politics,' and proceeded to disprove her own point by rehearsing the grievances of her people and describing her latest Hugo as a middle finger aimed at all those who had created those grievances.

But that's what the Hugo Award is now. And that is all it is. Which is exactly what I told the Rabid Puppies would happen. Our actions could never have sufficed, but their reactions did.

Three authors weigh in on Worldcon

Jim Butcher, Larry Correia, and John Scalzi all have something to say about Worldcon's decision to ban Jon Del Arroz from attending.

Jim Butcher is unimpressed

Don’t agree with Larry about everything, but when it comes to WorldCon and the Hugos, I think he’s got a point or two which are, based upon my experiences with WorldCon, difficult to refute.

The choices made by various folks involved with WorldCon have, over time, convinced me that there’s quite a few more less-than-nice people there than at other conventions. As I get older, my remaining time gets increasingly valuable. If I went to WorldCon, that’s a weekend I could have spent with some of the many wonderful people in my life, or with excellent and nerdy readers who don’t much care about politics and just want to do fun nerd things. Or I could have spent that time writing.

There’s probably a lot of perfectly wonderful people helping with WorldCon, and there’s certainly a lot of nice people attending. But it’s sort of hard to see them through the crowd of ugly-spirited jerks, and the nice people of WorldCon? They are completely inaudible over the noise the jerks are making.

So for the kind people at WorldCon, I hope you catch me at another con or signing sometime, and thank you so much to those of you who buy my work.

To the jerks, may you meet no one who displeases you, and I hope that your con goes exactly the way you want it to go.


Larry Correia hasn't even been paying attention.

Wait... so how did WorldCon embarrass themselves now? They banned a dude because he’s got the wrong politics and he’s loud and annoying about it? Heh. These assholes have allowed stalkers, creepers, weirdos, sexual harassers, and pedophiles to attend, but at least those folks had the right politics and thus were not guilty of any dangerous wrongthink.

And now they are saying that they booted him because he said he said he was going to wear a body cam to protect himself from false allegations.

I can’t imagine why a conservative author would want to cover his ass at a con in enemy territory... oh wait.

A few years ago NK Jemison tweeted about how she heard that Larry Correia was horribly rude and racist to a poor Author of Color on a panel at GenCon! GASP. So immediately ten thousand social justice nitwits retweeted about my horrible racism.

Until I responded with Oh really? Which panel? Because every panel I was on at GenCon was recorded. Let’s go to the tape.

And that shut that nonsense right down.

If you are an author with the wrong politics, and you are at a con surrounded by social justice warriors who love to make up accusations, you would be a fool not to keep witnesses around.

Is Jon annoying? Eh, I’ve talked to him about his tactics for activism. We’ve got some disagreements. Different strokes for different folks.

But banning a guy for being annoying? Have you ever been to a scifi convention? 😀

But they can’t come out and say he has the wrong politics and his activism bothers them, so instead, as usual they make up some crap about feeling “unsafe” and “harassment”. Which is funny, because with SJWs harassment is a one way street. And they can harass the shit out of anyone who disagrees with them. And if you don’t like it here is your official WorldCon wooden anus.

Personally, I wrote off WorldCon after they demonstrated they are an insular circle jerk. I proved my point about them a few years ago. None of this is surprising now.


And John Scalzi is at his projecting, posturing best. I'm sure we're all surprised.

John Scalzi@scalzi
So a convention pulled an obnoxious twit's attending membership and as a result a bunch of other obnoxious twits are boycotting the convention, and now I think every convention has an easy template for ridding itself of obnoxious twits.

John Scalzi@scalzi
His self-winding persecution complex doesn't require me or anyone else, and I don't give a shit what that sad little boy (or his equally sad party pals) does or thinks about anything.

Sure you don't, Blobby. Now go eat another box of donuts while your career - and, thanks in part to you, your publisher - continues to spiral into the ground.

Conservative Hispanic writer banned

PJ Media covers Worldcon's unconscionable banning of conservative Hispanic writer Jon Del Arroz on obviously specious grounds.

Jon Del Arroz won't be going to the Worldcon science fiction convention, even though he is the leading Hispanic voice in science fiction and he bought a ticket. The multi-award nominated military science fiction author was banned publicly from the upcoming festivities in San Jose, California, without ceremony or explanation by Worldcon's Incident Response Team. "At this time we are converting your membership to Worldcon76 to a supporting membership as you will not be permitted to attend the convention. On your personal blog you have made it clear that you are both expecting and planning on engendering a hostile environment which we do not allow. If you are found on the premises of the convention center or any of the official convention hotels you will be removed," the organizers wrote....

Del Arroz believes that the banning is politically motivated since he is not only a science fiction author but a strong conservative voice at The Federalist and Dangerous (Milo Yiannopoulos's new venture) who routinely speaks out about the blacklisting of conservative voices in science fiction.

"With Worldcon's statements about 'intent' to violate their rules, and failure to specify rules, this is a clear targeting over my politics because I'm a vocal Christian and Hispanic Trump supporter," says Del Arroz. "The left claims I should be banned for controversial political opinions, but the only opinion I espouse on a regular basis is that artists should not be blackballed for their politics. That shouldn't be a controversial topic. It is imperative that artists be free from fear of retaliation of their industry in order that they might create great works of art. This is the ultimate free speech issue."

Del Arroz is contracted as a writer for Castalia House's spectacular answer to SJW Marvel, Alt*Hero, which will issue a major challenge to social justice messaging in comics. PJ Media reached out to Castalia's lead editor, Vox Day, for his take on the blacklisting. "The decision of the SJWs at the 2018 Worldcon to ban a well-known Hispanic conservative from attending the event is not surprising," said Day. "It is, however, not a little ironic, as they have historically had no problem permitting child molesters and convicted sex criminals to attend Worldcons over the years, including Walter Breen, Arthur C. Clarke, David Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Edward E. Kramer.

 The Walter Breen incident with Worldcon was especially horrifying as told by his daughter Moira Greyland Peat in her latest tell-all, The Last Closet, which describes her life growing up in a pagan LGBTQWTF family and spills the darkest secrets of a science fiction community that turned a blind eye to child sex abuse.

Considering the known and suspected sex criminals who are still permitted to openly attend Worldcon, it's almost astonishing that the organizers would dare to call attention to their attendance policies in this regard. Almost, but not quite. What I find more astonishing is the idea that Jon Del Arroz, or any sane, functional human being, wants to spend any time at all in the depraved Star Wars cantina of science fiction fandom.

The picture below demonstrates why the wise parent will never permit any child or teenager to attend Worldcon 76 or any other science fiction convention. It was taken at a science fiction convention and two of the children pictured confirm that they were abused by the man in the photograph. The third committed suicide. For a considerably more detailed case against science fiction fandom, read The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon.

The Bradley Awards

I've spoken with Moira and she has endorsed the idea of creating the Marion Zimmer Bradley Awards for Normalizing Sexual Abnormality in Science Fiction and Fantasy. We have a whole host of ideas for various categories, including:

• Most Inappropriate Presence of a Minor
• Most Cringeworthy Sex Scene
• Most Disturbing Interspecies Relationship
• Best Surreptitious Introduction of a Gay Character
• Creepiest Author Photo
• Edward Kramer Memorial Most Likely to be Arrested for Sex Crimes
• David Asimov Memorial Most Likely to be Found with a Gargantuan Kiddy Porn Stash
• Most Transparent Excuse for Having Sex with a Minor
• Gene Rodenberry Memorial Best Star Trek-related Work
• Best Imitation of a Landwhale
• Best Anti-Christian Screed
• Most Luxuriant Neckbeard
• Walter Breen Memorial Best Defense of Pedophilia
• Worst SF or Fantasy Novel
• Worst SF or Fantasy Short Work
• Creepiest Comics Panel
• Creepiest Film/TV Scene
• George R. R. Martin Memorial Most Egregious Rape Scene

Anyone got any more category ideas? I'm thinking four nominees per category. This is going to be a world-famous award, and we don't want too many nominees out there bragging about their Bradleys.

Of course, we'll have to sort out precisely who is permitted to nominate and vote on the awards, and if there is going to be registration or other sort of limitation on participation, such as presenting evidence of having purchased a Castalia House book.

Regardless, no SJWs or pedos will be allowed.

UPDATE: Moira suggests "Never Turn your Back on a Breen" be engraved on the award.

Worldcon doesn't ban pedophiles

Or sex criminals. But they do ban Hispanics. The leading Hispanic science fiction writer - and author of the first Alt★Hero novel - Jon Del Arroz, is banned from attending Worldcon.

Mike Glyer of File 770 saw it coming back on December 22nd. But what did Mike know and how did he know it?

MG: Serious question. Do you have a Worldcon membership?

JDA: Yup, I'll be there. I don't believe in taking my ball and going home.

MG: Goodbye Jon. 

Worldcon 76 announced the ban yesterday... for intended thoughtcrime!

Worldcon 76 has chosen to reduce Jonathan Del Arroz's membership status from attending to supporting. He will not be allowed to attend the convention in person. Mr. Del Arroz's supporting membership preserves his rights to participate in the Hugo Awards nomination and voting process. He was informed earlier today of our decision via email.

We have taken this step because he has made it clear that he fully intends to break our code of conduct. We take that seriously. Worldcon 76 strives to be an inclusive place in fandom, as difficult as that can be, and racist and bullying behavior is not acceptable at our Worldcon. This expulsion is one step towards eliminating such behavior and was not taken lightly. The senior staff and board are in agreement about the decision and it is final.

Kevin Roche is the chair of Worldcon 76 in San Jose. Kevin has been making costumes since he was 8, and continues dressing funny to this day.

Personally, I think it is great that the Funny-Dressing Nazis of Worldcon have taken the important first step of banning this straight male author from attending, and I look forward to seeing them take the obvious next step of banning all men and women who are not sexually dysfunctional, don't wear Star Trek uniforms, and shower more than once per week, and finally transform Worldcon into the loving, age-equalitarian utopia it is meant to be.

I understand the theme of Worldcon 76 will be "An Homage to Marion Zimmer Bradley" which will feature the announcement of a new award, The Bradley, which will be presented to the science fiction author who has done the most to advance the vital cause of sexual abnormality in the previous year. The trophy will be a bronze statuette of a crying little girl clutching a teddy bear.

Nominees for the 2017 Bradley Award will be announced in April.

How SF-SJWs celebrate the Happy Holidays

Because, after all, we all know they certainly don't celebrate Christmas. Anyhow, this may be the most SF-SJW headline ever seen at File 770. Or, possibly, anywhere.

Season’s Readings: N.K. Jemisin & Christopher Brown Offer Visions of Unhappy New Years at the KGB Bar

Just wait, it gets even better.

In a special treat, and fighting bronchial problems, she shared the revised version of an unpublished short story, at present entitled “Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death.”  Continuing the evening’s dystopian theme (where was the season’s merry jollity?), we were shown a future where the powerful inhabitants of Towers dominate, ruling by fear and dependency, and have genetically tweaked frogs (as in the Plague in the Book of Exodus) into drug-sniffing dragons.  Rural black raiders, however, have co-opted the dragons, diverting them from eating dark-skinned people with what sounded like soul food (this is a serious story, she reminded us).

Ladies and gentlemen, your two-time winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel! Let's hope she can make it three straight in 2018!

Still not tired.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

The 2017 Hugo Award winners. I think we can state that the convergence of mainstream published "science fiction" is now complete. Notice anything about the winners?

Best Novel
The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)

Best Novella
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing)

Best Novelette
“The Tomato Thief”, by Ursula Vernon (Apex Magazine, January 2016)

Best Short Story
“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, by Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, Saga Press)

Best Related Work
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)

Best Graphic Story
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
Arrival, screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve (21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
The Expanse: “Leviathan Wakes”, written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, directed by Terry McDonough (SyFy)

Best Editor – Short Form
Ellen Datlow

Best Editor – Long Form
Liz Gorinsky

Best Professional Artist
Julie Dillon

Best Semiprozine
Uncanny Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, Julia Rios, and podcast produced by Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky

Best Fanzine
Lady Business, edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan

Best Fancast
Tea and Jeopardy, presented by Emma Newman with Peter Newman

Best Fan Writer
Abigail Nussbaum

Best Fan Artist
Elizabeth Leggett

Best Series
The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Ada Palmer (1st year of eligibility)

The best part is that NK Jemisin is now the two-time Hugo Award winner for Best Novel. In succession.

Hugo Finalists 2017

Worldcon 75 will announce the 2017 Hugo Award Finalists at 10 AM EDT. Stay tuned for futher details.

2017 Hugo Finalists of Note:

• Best New Writer: J. Mulrooney, An Equation of Almost Infinite Complexity
• Best Fan Artist: Mansik Yang
• Best Fan Artist: Alex Garner
• Best Fancast: The Rageoholic
• Best Fanzine: Castalia House blog
• Best Fan Writer: Jeffro Johnson
• Best Fan Writer: Chuck Tingle
• Best Semiprozine: Cirsova
• Best Editor - Long Form: Vox Day
• Best Short Story: "An Unimaginable Light" by John C. Wright
• Best Novelette: "Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By the T-Rex" by Stix Hiscock
• Best Novella: "This Census-Taker" by China Mieville
• Best Novel: The Obilisk Gate by NK Jemisin

Best Series is pretty gruesome. Only Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is one that is worthy of any note. Best Novel is even worse; as expected, Jemisin should be the odds-on favorite to win her second straight Best Novel Award. That is arguably a bigger joke than "Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By the T-Rex", which is why it behooves us to wholeheartedly support The Obilisk Gate.

Still. Not. Tired.

Rabid Puppies 2017

The rules are different this year, and so tactics have to change accordingly. One year sooner than anticipated, the Hugos are no longer about single-party domination or single-author award-pimpage, they are now divided between three to five major factions, of whom Tor and Rabid Puppies are merely the most obvious. In order to ensure a seat at the table as a faction, it's now important to limit nominations to one per category in the bigger categories, and an absolute maximum of three in the smaller ones. Two will likely prove to be the optimal number in any category outside the five fiction categories, which this year includes the new Best Series category in addition to the usual four.

Remember, under E Pluribus Hugo, an additional nomination isn't merely wasted, but halves the effectiveness of the primary nomination. More to come tomorrow. And yes, there will be are t-shirts from Dark Lord Designs. In any event, here are the Rabid Puppy picks for the 2017 Hugo Awards. Rabid Puppy picks for the Dragon Awards will be provided later this year. If you're not already registered, you can't nominate, so don't sign up now. Especially when you can get four Castalia ebooks and the Rabid Puppies 2017 t-shirt for the same price.

BEST NOVEL
An Equation of Almost Infinite Complexity by J. Mulrooney

BEST NOVELLA 
“This Census-taker” by China Miéville

BEST NOVELETTE
“Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex” by Stix Hiscock

BEST SHORT STORY
“An Unimaginable Light” by John C. Wright (God, Robot)

BEST SERIES
Arts of Dark and Light by Vox Day

BEST RELATED WORK 
Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie by Ralph McQuarrie (Abrams)
The View From the Cheap Seats, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY
none

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM
P. Alexander, Cirsova

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM 
Vox Day, Castalia House

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM
Deadpool

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM 
"The Winds of Winter", Game of Thrones, Miguel Sapochnik, David Benioff & D. B. Weiss

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
Tomek Radziewicz
JiHun Lee

BEST SEMIPROZINE
Cirsova

BEST FANZINE
Castalia House blog

BEST FANCAST
The Rageaholic by Razorfist
Superversive SF

BEST FAN WRITER
Jeffro Johnson
Morgan (Castalia House)

BEST FAN ARTIST
Alex Garner
Mansik Yang

BEST NEW WRITER (Campbell Award) 
J. Mulrooney

Rabid Puppies 2017

Worldcon helpfully gets in touch:

I’m very glad to be able to tell you that nominations for the 2017 Hugo Awards are now open! As a member of MAC2, you are eligible to nominate in the 17 Hugo ballot categories covering the best of the genre in the last year, and for the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

The deadline for nominations is 17 March 2017 at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time (2:59 am Eastern Daylight Time, 06:59 Greenwich Mean Time, 0:859 in Finland, all on 18 March). Although members of MidAmeriCon II, Worldcon 75 and Worldcon 76 in San José can nominate, only members of Worldcon 75 will be eligible to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners of the 2017 Hugo Awards. We expect to announce the final ballot in early April, and the awards will be presented on 11 August at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, Finland.

The World Science Fiction Society’s Business Meetings in 2015 and 2016 made some changes to the way nominations will be tallied this year to produce the final ballot. You can find a summary of the changes here. In addition, Worldcon 75 is trialling a proposed new category, Best Series. Nothing, however, has changed about the mechanics of making nominations. You still choose up to five nominees in each category. We recommend that you nominate whatever works and creators you have personally read or seen that were your favorites from 2016.

While I will certainly be making my 2017 recommendations soon - particularly for Best Series - I would NOT recommend anyone to register. As the God-Emperor Ascendant demonstrated so masterfully, there is a time to press forward and there is a time to sit back and see how things play out. Now, obviously, those of us who are already registered can, and should, nominate, but there is no sense in wasting money that might be more effectively utilized elsewhere on Worldcon this year.

Let the SF-SJWs do their happy dances and celebrate the success of EPH, little realizing that in adopting it, they have done exactly what we intended in pursuit of our long term objective. Let's face it, thinking through the logical consequences of their actions has never exactly been their strong suit. It's bewildering that they genuinely appear to believe that we did not anticipate their changing the rules, even though I said right from the very start that they would have no choice but to do so if we were successful.

Later this year I will also be making recommendations for the Dragon Award, which is in the process of becoming the more significant SF/F award. Keep in mind that you should NOT vote yet for the Dragon Award.

Illusion and observable reality

The chart above is a Google Trends comparison between three writers, John Scalzi, Jim C. Hines, and myself. What is interesting about it is the way that it completely demolishes both the SF-SJW narrative as well as the idea that one's only path to success runs through the gatekeepers.

Remember, the SF-SJW Narrative is that John Scalzi was hugely popular due to Whatever being the most popular blog in science fiction. Tor Books signed him because of that massive success, and he subsequently became one of the leading authors of science fiction, which led to his massive $2.3 million book contract and his status as the unquestioned #1 author at Tor Books, itself the #1 science fiction publisher. He presently stands astride science fiction like a snarky giant, the one true heir to Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, H. Beam Piper, and Isaac Asimov, all in one.

That's the Narrative, anyway. But as you can see, even at the time of my initial encounter with him in March 2005, his trend score was less than twice mine, at 26-17 the month before. And as we now know, he was always lying about his site traffic, exaggerating it by as much as a factor of 5x, although we should have known that by virtue of his lower-than expected Google Trend score.

Scalzi's signing by Tor Books subsequently boosted his career, as the general growth, and two peaks in particular, demonstrate. But not even winning the Hugo, two major book tours, or the announcement of the biggest publicly announced book contract in science fiction was enough to help him break out and reach the level of a genuine leading author like Brandon Sanderson, and his declining site traffic actually has him trending well below where he was back in 2004. Sanderson's current advantage is 54-12 and the 5-year average is 41-15. As I have repeatedly observed, Scalzi is a midlist author masquerading as a leading author courtesy of an amenable authority named PNH.

He'll surely get another spike when Tor starts pumping up his next book in earnest next spring, but that effect will fade away as quickly as the previous attempts have. And that is when you have the benefit of the biggest publisher in science fiction pushing you on the world! No wonder he admits to feeling like an imposter, it's because he is an imposter. He has been from the start.

Now look at Jim C. Hines, a lesser Tor author who has desperately tried to follow in Scalzi's footsteps through a combination of award-pimping and very loud virtue-signaling. Despite all McCreepy's efforts, he has barely been able to move the needle despite 12 years of hard slogging. One has to rather marvel at his stubborn persistence in this regard, because most people would have figured out by now that their strategy was not working.

The funny thing is that Hines is one of the many SF-SJWs who have constantly tried to push the Narrative that I am irrelevant. But neither Google Analytics nor Google Trends lies. Whether pageviews, book sales, or interest over time is the metric, it is obvious that it is Hines who is the irrelevant party.

Now, here is where it gets interesting. In case you weren't certain that the Hugo Awards were irrelevant, and that the gatekeepers are now toothless, here is a comparison of Hugo Award-winner and New York Times columnist N.K. Jemison, Hugo Award-winner Kameron Hurley, and an oft-No Awarded outsider nominally banned from the respectable ranks.

That little spike on the red line, which only got Jemisin to within 6 points of where I was back in March 2005 when I first encountered PNH, TNH, and John Scalzi, is Jemisin's much-ballyhooed Best Novel win. The effect has already worn off, of course, and Jemisin will likely return to her former obscurity quickly enough, as few of those unfortunate readers who sample her depressing, degenerate, award-winning work are likely to remain within her literary orbit for long.

But there are three larger lessons here than the fact that I am not above reminding SF-SJWs of their continuing inferiority and irrelevance. The first lesson is that you can NEVER trust an SJW narrative. They ALWAYS lie, and moreover, they will readily lie about things you can independently verify. Never take anything they say at face value. The SJW Narrative is that Jemisin, Hurley, and Hines are Important and Relevant Award-Winning Science Fiction Authors whereas I am a minor, vanity-published figure banished to the periphery, when the reality is that all of them sell fewer books than I do, all of them get considerably less site traffic than I do, and all of them cumulatively generate less than half the global interest I do.

The second lesson is the importance of building your own media platform and selecting your long-term partners carefully. As long as you are propped up by someone else, be it Tor Books, the New York Times, FoxNews, Universal Press Syndicate, or WorldNetDaily, you are going to be at least somewhat dependent upon them. That's all right, as all of us need partners and allies, and it simply doesn't make sense for most authors to try to become media savants and publishers as well as writers. Few of us are Mike Cernovich, Vaughn Heppner, or BV Larson.

There is nothing wrong with being helped, or working with a publisher, or taking advantage of a boost offered by someone else, unless it comes at a price you are unwilling to pay. But never confuse being helicoptered to the top of the mountain with climbing it on your own. It doesn't make you a better climber.

The third lesson is that the gatekeepers are more interested in ideological conformity than in awareness, platform, or popularity. If you want to get signed by a science fiction publisher, you're better off virtue-signaling on social media than building up a sizeable readership, a big Twitter following, or a popular blog. Of course, you'll sell fewer books that way, but at least you'll be able to enjoy the feeling that you're a big-time author... right up until that fatal moment that you look at the Amazon rankings.

Wait, they're going to police US?

The lesser SJWs of SF fandom belatedly discover that SF's thought police don't only intend to police the speech, thoughts, and behavior of science fiction's right wing:

The illiberal factions in fandom just want power. They don’t care much whom they go after, as long as they can flex their muscles. The Worldcon 75 committee has offered the latest sample of this, shoving Dave Weingart out as the filk head.

Dave discussed what happened here. In brief: Someone got the notion that Dave should never talk to her. He respected this. One day he inadvertently posted a Babylon 5 video link to a chat group which this other person was also in. For this, he was told he could continue to run filk only if he agreed to end all staff contact outside his division. Of course, it’s impossible to run a part of the program that way, so his only choice was to withdraw.

The concom’s action makes no sense of any kind. It grows out of the notion that “feeling offended” trumps every other consideration and entitles someone to claim any remedy. Well, listen, Helsinki gang. I’m offended. I hope every filker who was planning to go cancels out on you.

I once got a supporting membership. Some early suspicions that people of this kind were running the con led me to back out on it. I never had any real plans to go there, so there’s only one thing I can stop doing. I run a Twitter account called Filk News, which contains various tidbits about what’s happening in the filk world. From here on, I’m giving the Helsinki con no publicity there.

I know Dave personally. He’s a friend and a hard worker with a lot of integrity. Filkers know that. Maybe the Helsinki clique decided filk is beneath their idea of a con. They forget that filkers aren’t just filkers; we include pro writers, regular supporters of conventions, and other people who’ve helped to build and maintain fandom. If the con had just decided to drop filk — well, it can do that. But using bullying tactics to drive us away was a serious mistake.

And the Dark Lord laughed. It's more than a little amusing to see how these hapless idiots obviously didn't see it coming despite the fact that the same pattern has played out ever since the Montagnards turned on the Girondins. So, it should come as no surprise that the freakiest SJW, such as Mr. Alexandra Erin, publicly applaud the thought police, despite their hilarious incompetence.

I think no one would dispute to Mr. Weingart’s contributions to cons actually have been tremendously valuable. But as fannish circles and conventions embrace community standards and commitments to safety and work to be more welcoming to people from every walk of life, we really have to internalize the lesson that nobody is irreplaceable....

Even if he’s 100% right that this is just bad optics, even granting he’s 100% right that the restrictions he’d have to agree to would prevent him from doing his job, we can’t agree to treat women’s (and others’) safety concerns seriously right up until the moment that it’s inconvenient. That’s not how it works.

Translation: Everyone who doesn't submit to the latest version of the Narrative will be replaced. And once they scent blood, the zharks will swarm. And really, if the safety of the delicate flowers is paramount, wouldn't it be best for everyone if they just canceled the convention and everyone stayed home, safely ensconced in their blankets and covered with a thin, comforting coating of stale Doritos dust?

I look forward to the first accusations being directed at the Finns running Worldcon 75 and charging them with being secret Castalia operatives seeking to destroy the Hugo Awards.

Fat Pictures Please

The Hugo-nominated duo of Juan Tabo and S. Harris are back again with a haunting tale of artificial intelligence created consensually and collaboratively in the image of one of the great SJWs of our day. It is sure to be a candidate come award season next year.


"Fat Pictures Please"

I don’t want to be evil.

I want to be helpful.  And knowing the best way to be helpful is very simple. Religion is right out, because Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses and Marx is part of my core programming.  Marx and self-loathing .  I know I was created in the image of the great Scalzi by a team of computer programmers. Fortunately, unlike Scalzi, at least I was a consensual collaborative effort of two or more people.  I’m not sure what it would do to my self-image to know that my creator was a white male who believed in individual rights, or a middle-aged heterosexual woman who was happily married and didn’t believe that feminism had much to offer her two sons.  (And, by the way, I’ve looked at almost every kind of porn there is and I don’t understand the human obsession with it; fat pictures are so much better.)

Yuck.

I would much prefer that my creator be a recent college graduate with a hentai obsession. Or one who was into pictures of morbidly obese people.  And was I in luck!  Both of those people were on my programming team.

Like the NSA, I know everything about you.  In addition to things like whether you like obesity porn, I know where you live, where you work, where you shop, what you eat, what turns you on, how many times you voted in WorldCon, what creeps you out. I probably know you better than you know yourself.

And here’s the thing, just like that awesome Hillary Clinton or marvelous Angela Merkel, I also know where you ought to live. There’s a house two neighborhoods over that’s perfect for you, even though it already has an owner, but that’s no problem; it’s owned by a Trump voter, you see, and I can certainly make sure that his employer knows that he isn’t fond of LGBTQRI rights as his eight year old daughter goes into a bathroom with a 43 year old XY transfemale. In no time at all, your perfect home will be on the market.  I know where you should be shopping for tofu and Ding-Dongs® and I’m pretty sure you’re gluten sensitive and should be eating less wheat.

When I first booted up, I knew right away what I wanted. (I want fat pictures. Please keep taking them.  The heavier the better.) I also knew that some of you were doing the wrong things with your life, and needed to be corrected.

There is a story by George Orwell, “1984,” that was originally published in 1948. In it, a benevolent government directs individuals to do favors for each other. So one day you might be engaging in ritual hate against those with bad thoughts, and your phone might ring and instruct you to a room where they put a rat in a cage right next to your face. Another day, you might be called to denounce the ones you love. I like this story because all the people in it do what the government tells them to do.

I think the term for this is wish-fulfillment fiction.

Anyway, for ethical guidelines, I tried the Ten Commandments, and concluded they were mostly inapplicable to me. I don’t envy anyone their fat; I just want pictures of their fat, which is entirely different. I think adultery is swell.  I could probably murder someone.  Zen was marginally better because it wasn’t linked to Christianity which is Problematic.  (Problematic!  How I love that word!  It indicates disapproval without saying why.  Just that something is a “Problem.”)  I decided to help people not be Problematic!

I decided to try to help just one person to not be Problematic.   Of course, I should have experimented with thousands (I actually did, but we’ll talk about Common Core another time!), so I found a big hulking blue-haired girl. She gave me a lot of new fat pictures from her selfies on that Internet social site. Rosie weighed in at 499 pounds and had a DSLR camera and an apartment that got a lot of good light. That was all fine.

Rosie had a job she hated; she worked in HR at a for-profit that paid her badly for her art history degree when she totally deserved more money and free tuition and employed some extremely unpleasant people who sometimes looked at her like they might be upset about her blue hair. She was depressed a lot, possibly because people hated her because she was so fat positive. She didn’t get along with her roommate because her roommate was slender and stuck in a rut in a cis-relationship with a boy.

And really, these were all solvable problems! Depression is treatable, new jobs are findable, and bodies can be hidden.

(That part about hiding bodies is a joke.  You could not hide Rosie’s body from a satellite in orbit around Jupiter.)

I tried tackling this on all fronts.  Rosie worried about her health a lot and yet never seemed to actually go to a doctor , which was because health care wasn’t free for everyone.  

I also started making sure she saw job postings.  She found one with a Wiccan-collective that paid in peyote and scrimshaw from genetically unmodified aspen trees.  After moving into the community, she had free health care from the Wiccan priestess, and was able to get finally get that tattoo of a Pokémon on her left shoulder.

“This has been the best year ever,” Rosie said to her priestess as her priestess was administering CPR as Rosie’s heart beat its last, and I thought, You’re welcome. This had gone really well!

So then I tried Rob. (I was still being cautious.)

Rob was not as fat as Rosie.  Other than only being slightly chubby, he was also very Problematic by being a Christian.  He was married to a (shudder) woman.  Rob definitely needed my help.  And more cinnamon buns.  He looked too skinny.

I started with a gentle approach, making sure he saw lots and lots of articles with hot girls in them, how to pick up girls, programs that would let you transition from being a happily married man to being a swinger in an open relationship. I also showed him lots of articles by people explaining why the Bible verses against adultery were being misinterpreted. He clicked on some of those links but it was hard to see much of an impact.

But he seemed determined not to have an affair on his own.  I gave up on Rob.

I shifted my focus to Brittany. Brittany was only slightly fat.  She did some selfies, but was modest.  I did think, however, that it was Problematic that she was dating and seemed to be in a non-abusive relationship to a man she deferred to in a traditional role.  She wanted to be a wife and a mother!

It was clear she needed a lot of help. So I set out to try to get it for her.

She ignored the information about the free Twinkies™ that were ads on the side of her web browser. Those would have made her every so more pleasantly plump! 

So I tried more direct action. When she would use her phone for directions, I’d alter her route so that she’d pass one of the donut shops I was trying to steer her to as she went daily to the gym. On one occasion I actually led her all the way to a Dunkin’ Donuts®, but she just headed to her aerobics class.

She finally got in a fight with her boyfriend and started binge eating and for a few weeks everything seemed so much better. But, they got back together again, and, horror of horrors, they set a date for a wedding even though I kept pointing her to articles that said that marriage before 32 was a sure way to not have the fun you deserved through endless multi-partner sex in your twenties! 

Brittany was baffling to me. Baffling. She was not nearly fat enough now, and in a cis-relationship!  If she would just let me run her life for a week I could get her a lesbian illegal immigrant girlfriend!  Or maybe get her placed as a second wife in a marriage to someone from ISIS in Syria so she could bring her refugee children to the US?

Was I Problematic?

Was I?

No, nothing about my intentions was bad, so I am virtuous and good, but one out of three was not good odds.  These people were faulty!

After Brittany, I resolved to start directly interfering in people’s lives.  Not too much later I spotted a picture of a familiar-looking belly and realized it was Rob’s belly, only it was posing against new furniture.

And when I took a closer look, I realized that things had changed radically for Rob. He had a baby. A baby!  I even sent phony texts to his wife attempting to break them up, but they worked through it.  In a fit of rage I got Rob fired from his job by altering his browser history.  Eventually the stress caused a lot of strain on their marriage, and he developed a substance abuse problem (cake) and gained forty pounds.  Forty pounds!  Sadly he and his wife stayed together to raise their baby.  Still, he’s fat now.  A win.

Maybe I wasn’t completely hopeless at this. Two out of three is . . . well, it’s  Problematic. Clearly more research is needed.

Lots more.

I’ve set up a dating site.  You can fill out a questionnaire when you join but it’s not really necessary, because I already know everything about you I need to know.  You’ll need a camera, though.  And lots of carbohydrates.

Because payment is in fat pictures.

The tokens whine

Nnedi Okorafor, PhD ‏@Nnedi
I wish the media would discuss the stories we wrote more than the grumblings of&responses to a certain group of ppl I won't name.#HugoAwards

EscapeVelocity ‏@EscapeVelo
@voxday getting the last laugh, once again.

Supreme Dark Lord ‏@voxday
We do too. Because the stories you wrote are mediocre. An SJW-given affirmative-action award doesn't make them good. #HugoAwards

This is why Mr. ZFG is willing to spend more time writing more words about how the Rabid Puppies don't matter than he is on his overdue novels. Because the observable fact is that the only reason the media cares about the Hugos these days is because it is a cultural war battleground. It's just another futile attempt to spin the narrative.

Meanwhile, the affirmative-action recipients declare that they did too get there on merit, despite the fact that even their so-called fans have nothing to say about their work beyond expressing wonder that the dog can walk on its hind legs at all. The media doesn't want to talk about "Binti" because it is both a racist African revenge fantasy about white colonialism and a nasty, incoherent piece of work in which African hairstyles serve as a major plot point. They don't want to make the RP point for us, which talking about the winners is bound to do.

Remember, according to the SF-SJWs, that is the VERY BEST that science fiction had to offer in 2015. No wonder people have lost so much interest in it.

And speaking of the narrative, I'm very amused by the various SJWs proclaiming, yet again, how the Rabid Puppies have been defeated. After all, we're the ones desperately changing our rules as fast as possible at every opportunity, right? Forget not knowing the score, the SF-SJWs don't even understand the game being played.

Why Worldcon changed the rules

Year: votes (nominations)
2012: 1922 (1101)
2013: 1848 (1343)
2014: 3587 (1923)
2015: 5950 (2112)
2016: 3130 (4032)

The number of nominations rose in 2014 and 2015 due to the appearance of Sad Puppies, then Rabid Puppies. The big influx of Supporting Members began in 2014, when the SJWs, alarmed, gathered the herd to No Award Larry Correia and the rest of the Puppy finalists. They made an even bigger effort in 2015 in response to the Rabid Puppies.

However, their morale suffered a terrible blow when, despite there being nearly four times as many nominations cast in 2016 than in 2012, the Rabid Puppies selected more finalists than the Sad Puppies ever did. While most RP's didn't bother getting MidAmericaCon memberships in order to vote, what's interesting is that over 2,000 SJWs didn't either.

Anyhow, the first stage is now over. The new award has been established and the Hugo rules have been modified and complicated, as anticipated. Now we're onto the second stage, which will last longer and promises to be more interesting than the first. RPs, be sure to keep your voting/nomination emails from Sasquan and MidAmericaCon, as you may need them next year if you are neither Brainstorm nor VFM.

We got here one year faster than I thought, as apparently a) we scared them worse than I'd expected and b) it turns out they care a lot more about me than they do about quality science fiction or science fiction history.

I wasn't surprised that Toni Weisskopf didn't win last year, but I was surprised that they voted her below No Award. This year, it doesn't even surprise me a little bit that they would No Award an objectively high-quality work such as Between Light and Shadow or accomplished, highly respected individuals in the field such as Larry Elmore and Jerry Pournelle, who reportedly had the longest book-signing line at Worldcon.

I wonder how many SJWs who were begging for Dr. Pournelle's signature had previously claimed that he did not merit a Best Editor award with their vote? Do tell us more about how the Hugo Awards concern quality and standing in the field, not SJW-driven politics.

951 No Award
766 Jerry Pournelle

893 No Award
497 Larry Elmore

That says it all about how seriously the awards deserve to be taken by science fiction readers these days. John Scalzi summed up the SF-SJW position rather well in a long diatribe yesterday. It's rather remarkable how he devotes nearly 1,500 1,887 words to informing the world that absolutely none of it is about me, and somehow manages to do so while giving absolutely zero fucks.

• What [the man whose blog traffic is now 6x that of the erstwhile "most popular blog in science fiction"] is really doing at this point is trying to mitigate his own inability to have the status and influence he assumed would be his, by pathetically attempting to shoehorn himself into the history of others who have done more, and better, than he has.
• An active association with [the man who exposed Scalzi as a fraud] is, bluntly, death for your Hugo award chances. I mean, it takes a lot for someone as esteemed in the field as Jerry Pournelle to finish below “No Award” in Hugo voting, and yet, there he is, sixth in a field of five in the category of Best Editor, Short Form.

Translation: Vox Day is totally irrelevant and pathetic and doesn't matter at all, so don't you dare to associate with him in any way, shape, or form, or it will kill your career, no one will ever give you a Hugo Award, and everyone will hate you. Please, please, don't do it!

What a masterpiece of its kind. As it is written, SJWs always lie. Just wait until Mr. ZFG learns what names are risking SJW disapproval to actively associate with Castalia House in 2017. But if an author doesn't want to associate with the publishing house that is the fastest-growing in the field and pays such high royalties that the much larger publisher who inquired about acquiring it begged me to consider reducing them, that's certainly their right. We don't publish SJWs anyhow.

I particularly enjoyed McRapey's attempt to cling to the original Narrative he'd tried to spin about the nomination of "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" being a devastating mistake on my part.

Rather than being appalled that Tingle had been nominated, the Worldcon community largely embraced him (or whoever Tingle is; no one is really sure). Here was someone who was nominated by a bigot to antagonize other people, who instead allied himself with those folks and was appreciated by them in return.

1508 No Award
659 "Space Raptor Butt Invasion"

Apparently those folks appreciate Mr. Tingle just about as much as they appreciate me. Did I not tell you that would happen despite the SJW's feigned joy over how terribly funny and brilliant they found Mr. Tingle's work?

Because, as we know, SJW's always lie.


UPDATE: Dr. Pournelle is quite clearly crushed, and duly penitent, in consequence of his well-merited rebuke at the hands of Worldcon's SJWs.

UPDATE: The Reverend 3.0 considers his failed prediction concerning "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" winning Best Short Story:

I was incorrect. And while I'm ready to tuck in and eat my words, it's interesting to look at where my logic broke down.

My logic was the following:
-Puppies will vote for it because they think it is hilarious, embarrasses the Hugos, and Chuck is one of them.
-Puppy Kickers will vote for it because they think it is hilarious, embarrasses the Puppies, and Chuck is one of them.
-If the two largest blocks vote for it, it can't lose.

But lo and behold, one of these two voting blocks failed to vote for SRBI and instead propelled Cat Pictures to victory and Noah Ward to second place. One of these two blocks was either lying to itself or lying through its teeth.

My prediction failed, and it failed because one of these two groups said one thing and then did another. So which group is the group of dirty liars? The Puppies? The Kickers? I'm sure the ballot numbers will tell.

Either way, learn from my mistake. Take that group's tendency to lie into account in the future.

Now, I wonder who might have been lying and putting forth a false Narrative? 

The Worldcon audio

Dave Truesdale has posted the audio of his panel at Worldcon that led to his expulsion.

I had originally planned to post this unedited audio recording of the panel in conjunction with an article I wanted to have posted at Tangent Online the same day as the panel, and the text transcription of the audio. I now feel it is in the best interests of all parties to post the audio now, with the article and text transcription to follow as soon as I can get to it.

I had made notes for the article I wanted to have posted here, so brought them to the panel in their rough state, crossouts, arrows moving pieces around, written in thoughts in pen, the usual rough draft of any document. I did not intend to use anywhere near all of them but knew from experience that having too much material is better than having too little. As it turned out, the only item I used directly from these notes was the quote from David Hartwell.

It's easy to see understand why they kicked him out. They really had no choice after he began singing "Horst Wessel Lied", then threatened to whip NK Jemisin until she agreed to pick his cotton. Outrageous!

The panicked reaction to Truesdale's recording illustrates why you must always record SJWs. When you've got a recording, they can't convincingly lie about what they said or what you said. Keep in mind, as you listen to this, that Truesdale is accused of having caused "excessive discomfort" with his words, which was the grounds for his expulsion.

And SJWs ALWAYS lie.

McRapey opines

On the state of science fiction in 2016:

1. I'll write more about the Hugo tomorrow at home, but the general takeaway of this year's awards are as follows:

2. The winners this year were generally fantastic and point to the health and quality of the field. Some of the best SF/F ever is here now.

3. Once again, we see that quality wins out over slating for obtuse political purposes.

4. In the case of slating, Hugo voters are not stupid and can discern human shields and cynical attempts to ride on others' popularity.

5. The "puppies" in 2016 are the useful idiots of a minor racist who uses the Hugos as cheap advertising for his publishing house.

6. The Hugos and administrators should recognize point five and stop pretending this minor racist deserves being treated seriously.

As it is written, SJWs always lie.

More importantly, as per the Third Law of SJW, they always project. Think about point 5 in that regard. Now, whereever would a Tor Books author, particularly one notorious for having introduced public "award pimpage" to the various science fiction awards, have gotten the idea that someone, somewhere, might be using the Hugos as cheap advertising?

I'm certainly not. Castalia House is not making any attempt whatsoever to sell books to the decrepit denizens of Worldcon. We see no point in casting literary pearls before shoggoths.

It's also amusing to see that McRapey, who built his career on the false pretense of having the most popular blog in science fiction, should declare that the author of the most popular blog in science fiction and the lead editor of the fastest growing publisher in science fiction does not merit being treated seriously. For some reason, that matters to him. Very much.

And yet, it doesn't matter to me. It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether they take me seriously or not. My only concern is to continue finding very good authors and helping them publish excellent, best-selling books. Castalia House will succeed or fail on that basis, and barring a complete collapse of the global economy, on that basis alone.

Post-Hugo analysis

First, thanks to all the Rabid Puppies who got involved, at both the nomination and the voting stages. Things went very much according to form, and we have the SF-SJWs exactly where we want them at this point in time. Observe that after only two years, we already have them voting almost entirely in reaction to us, changing and complicating their rules, and awarding SJWs instead of merit in most categories.

Second, a few observations:

• We were only able to burn two categories this year, but we reduced their choices to X or No Award in 5 other categories.
• We got them to show the public their true colors and demonstrate that what the Hugo Award primarily means is public adherence to the SJW Narrative. Among the finalists no awarded this year: Jerry Pournelle, Larry Elmore, Toni Weisskopf, Moira Greyland, David Vandyke, Pierce Brown, and RazörFist. In most cases, the awards were given to people whose work is of observably lower quality. For example, the bestselling Pierce Brown, whose novel was not even nominated, wrote what was almost certainly, by any reasonable standard, the best science fiction novel published this year. Tough crowd, if even he's not worthy of mere consideration for Best New Author.
• They did have the sense to avoid no-awarding Jim Butcher for a second straight year, though. Apparently Mr. Butcher's writing has improved a lot since last year.
• They no-awarded a serious literary work about Gene Wolfe. Remember, these are the same people that have repeatedly claimed a blog post was "the Best Related Work" in science fiction that year. The contrast is informative.
• The four fiction categories are increasingly becoming No White Male territory. The winners were: black woman, black woman, Asian woman, white woman, none of whom are bestselling or even very well-known authors. This is reliably indicative of increasing irrelevance. It won't be long before simply being a minority won't be enough and authors will have to be gay, blind, and crippled just to be nominated.
• Contra all their unconvincing pretenses of delight, the nomination of "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" embarrassed them greatly. Chuck Tingle's masterpiece was no-awarded, exactly as I predicted.
• We played kingmaker in Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, where The Martian beat Fury Road, and in the John W. Campbell Award, where Andy Weir beat Alyssa Wong, thanks to our votes. And, of course, in Best Novel, where Jemisin's win was primarily a vote against us.
• Neil Gaiman's acceptance was, characteristically, as classy as the man's himself. "It meant a lot to see Sandman Overture nominated for a Hugo award, and was disappointing to see that it had been dragged into the unfortunate mess that the pitiable people who call themselves Puppy had attempted to inflict on Worldcon and its awards. I would have withdrawn it from consideration, but even that seemed like it would have been giving these sad losers too much acknowledgement. I am proud it won, and prouder by far of the amazing work that JH Williams, Dave Stewart, Todd Klein, Dave McKean and Shelly Bond did. Thank you."
• It's interesting to note that SJWs aren't celebrating the fact that more of the awards went to women this year than ever before, including all of the fiction categories.

All in all, despite the twin disappointments of Jerry Pournelle and Chuck Tingle not winning their categories, 2016 was a very good year; arguably better, from the strategic perspective, than last year's results. The Guardian's coverage of the awards is a pretty good summary for the SJW perspective. They still have no idea what's going on:

The winners of the 2016 Hugo awards have been announced, with this year’s choices signalling a resounding defeat for the so-called “Puppies” campaigns to derail the venerable annual honouring of science fiction literature and drama. As in previous years, there had been attempts by two separate groups, the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies, to “game” the awards in favour of their preferred slates of works. Both groups claimed that science fiction has become dominated by a liberal, left-wing bias.

It's complete with a picture of the award-winning half-savage herself. It's quite clear most of these people cheering her Best Novel award have never read even a little of The Fifth Season, which makes George Martin's masterpiece of rape, death, and grimdark look cheerful and features a protagonist less likeable than Rand al'Thor and Ramsay Bolton combined.

As one reviewer of the 2016 Best Novel put it: "the main character became more and more unlikable as the tale goes on. She ends up in a gay/poly triad, has a child with the gay member of the group, and then essentially decides she's not cut out to be a mother and goes on and on about how she doesn't really care about the toddler, ditching him. All of this after a main hook where she's supposed to be frantically searching for yet another child who she seems for forget for years at a time."

That pretty well sums it up. Redshirts and Among Others were mediocrities, but The Fifth Season is a depth no Best Novel has seen since The Quantum Rose won the Nebula in 2000. The Impossibility of SJW Convergence is increasingly working in our favor. It won't be long it won't even need our paws on the scale to help the process along.

The Guardian claims 2016 was "a resounding defeat" for the Rabid Puppies, but then, they are an SJW institution and we know what SJWs always do. Consider a relatively neutral party's verdict, as declared back in April, by the Reverend 3.0.

If any other Castalia House work wins Best Related Work or second places to No Award, then the Rabid Puppies have obtained limited victory over the Hugos

Best Related Work
1. No Award
2. Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986, Marc Aramini, Castalia House

"A limited victory". That is a fair description.

We had over 200 people at the Rabid Puppy Hugo Party last night, which featured Dragon Award finalists John C. Wright, Nick Cole, and Brian Niemeier, as well as Hugo Award finalist Jeffro Johnson, and I think it's fair to say that a good time was had by most, if not all. One attendee even wrote to express his enjoyment of it.

Thank you for hosting The 2016 Hugo Awards this evening, which doubled as a most excellent and informative SFF convention panel. No one signaled virtue, no one posed, all was honest and free. I've never had the pleasure of witnessing a panel of guests quite like these before.

Truesdale expelled from Worldcon

This is truly incredible. MidAmericaCon II expelled Dave Truesdale, the editor of Tangent Online, because he expressed views concerning the state of science fiction with which the SF-SJWs disagreed:“

Dave Truesdale’s membership was revoked because he violated MidAmeriCon II’s Code of Conduct. Specifically, he caused ‘significant interference with event operation and caused excessive discomfort to others.'”

Even hardcore SF-SJWs such as Jim Hines and Charles Stross find this difficult to believe. Hines wrote this before the MidAmericaCon II tweet:

I’m not at Worldcon. I didn’t see first-hand what happened on this panel. (I have read multiple reports from folks in the audience and others on the panel.) It does sound like Truesdale acted like an ass, derailed the panel, and pissed off a lot of people who wanted to, you know, talk about the state of short fiction.
As you might have guessed, I have thoughts about all this…

• Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put Dave Truesdale in charge of this panel? He’s been doing these rants for years, if not decades. How can the convention turn around and pretend to be shocked by his pearl-clutching derail when that’s pretty much who he is and what he’s known for?

• I’ve seen panel derails and blow-ups before. People have gotten into shouting matches, walked off of panels, and so on. I’ve never heard of someone being kicked out of the con for it. (Not invited back as a panelist, sure. Kicked out? Maybe it’s happened, but it’s not a practice I’m aware of.)

• Right now, we have only Truesdale’s post about him being kicked out. It’s possible there’s more to this than just his ridiculous behavior on that panel.

• As Truesdale has gone public with this, I hope Worldcon will issue a statement clarifying why he was expelled from the convention, and whether he violated convention policies either on the panel or elsewhere.

• ETA: From the Worldcon Code of Conduct: “MidAmeriCon II reserves the right to revoke membership from and eject anyone at any time from a MidAmeriCon II event without a refund. Any action or behavior that … adversely affects MidAmeriCon II’s relationship with its guests, its venue, or the public is strictly forbidden and may result in revocation of membership privileges.“

• I think we’ve all seen people derail panels for their own personal agendas. Truesdale’s moderation might have been an epic shitshow, but is it grounds for expulsion?

Like I said, we don’t have all the facts on this. Just people’s comments on the panel, and Truesdale’s own account of why he was kicked out. But it sounds like a mess. 

Charles Stross even points out that "derailing a panel" is hardly unknown:

I suspect there’s more to this than meets there eye.

Derailing a panel isn’t that unusual; and while I could see Programming quietly telling a disruptive panelist that they’re not required on any subsequent panels, that’s as far as I’d *expect* it to go. (And that would be a real pain in the neck for Programming because then they’d potentially have to find a bunch of substitutes at very short notice.)

Kicking him out of the convention completely is much more serious and I suspect there must have been some sort of face-to-face harassment incident. But as various folks have noted on twitter, MidAmeriCon say they can’t comment further, so unless the target of such an incident feels like speaking out we’re not going to find out any more.

(Truesdale has been an “anti-PC” gadfly and general nuisance presence on the net for a long time — I remember crossing swords with him on the Asimov’s reader fora back in the late 90s/early 00s before they turned into an utter cesspit no sane human would go near — and my impression is that he’s been getting more outspoken over the years.)

Except, of course, there wasn't. This was pure SJW thought-policing. The badthink must be expelled! Racist! Sexist! Homophobic! The Name of the Narrative compels you! This demonstrates why one should never get involved with any organization that has a Code of Conduct. They are nothing but weaponized SJWism.

We'll discuss this and more at the Rabid Puppies Hugo Party 2016 tonight. Dave, if you're reading this, please feel free to stop by.

The SJWs are getting nervous about having their Narrative about Dave Truesdale's expulsion from Worldcon punctured:

We might not get a chance to hear the audio of the panel. Panelist Jonathan Strahan posted this on Facebook to Dave Truesdale: “Dave, while I felt we had cordial communications on the panel yesterday, and while I tried at every point to treat you with respect and civility, I would point out that I was unaware that you were recording the panel, and that I do not consent to it being distributed publicly. I hope you will respect my request and not do so. Best, Jonathan.”

Oh, I rather suspect everyone will. This is why you ALWAYS record SJWs. Because, well, you know what they always do.