Congratulations! You have a paper zygote!

In celebration of having two pages of my paper (pseudo-)written, I meme! (Blame Props to dulcinbradbury.)

"This can be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes."

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (yes, all of it)
Dream Work by Mary Oliver
The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by Hans Christian Andersen
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Wolfwalker by Tara K. Harper

No explication. For, as the White Rabbit said, "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" (At least I'm just facing a grad school professor tomorrow and now the Queen of Hearts. Although I'm also facing two final exams and having to write another paper, so maybe it is equivalent to that dastardly personage.)

Locus Awards 2009 - Finalists

My paper is now a fetus! Hurrah! Er... what that means: My paper is an absolute mess, but at least it's seven pages of absolute mess. This means I get to take another break to bring you... the Locus Award finalists!

(By the way, I totally haven't read all of these but that's not going to stop me from underlining my favorites to win based on either having read the book and liking it or just random guessing!)

LOCUS AWARDS 2009 - FINALISTS

The top five finalists in each category of the 2009 Locus Awards are:

Science Fiction Novel: Matter Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK); City at the End of Time by Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey); Marsbound by Joe Haldeman (Ace); Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow); Saturn's Children by Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace).

Fantasy Novel: The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (Morrow); Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt); The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip (Ace); The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick (Tor); An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe (Tor).

First Novel: Thunderer by Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra); Black Ships by Jo Graham (Orbit US); Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey); The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, Knopf); Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko (Tor).

Young-Adult Novel: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor); The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury); Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (Knopf); Nation by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins); Zoe's Tale John Scalzi (Tor).

Novella: "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 10-11/08); "Pretty Monsters" by Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters); "The Tear" by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires); Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman (Knopf); "True Names" by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2).

Novelette: "Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories); "The Ice War" by Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s 9/08); "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 3/08); "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" by Cory Doctorow (Tor.com 8/08); "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel (F&SF 1/08).

Short Story: "King Pelles the Sure" by Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads); "Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (Fast Ships, Black Sails); "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two); "The Kindness of Strangers" by Nancy Kress (Fast Forward 2); "After the Coup" by John Scalzi (Tor.com 7/08).

Magazine: Analog; Asimov's, F&SF; Realms of Fantasy; Subterranean.

Publisher: Ace; Baen; Night Shade Books; Subterranean Press; Tor.

Anthology: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin); Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC); The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's); Eclipse Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books); The Starry Rift, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking).

Collection: Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books); The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial); Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link (Viking); The Best of Lucius Shepard by Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press); The Best of Michael Swanwick by Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press).

Editor: Ellen Datlow; Gardner Dozois; David G. Hartwell; Jonathan Strahan; Gordon Van Gelder.

Artist Bob Eggleton; John Picacio; Shaun Tan; Charles Vess; Michael Whelan.

Non-Fiction/Art Book: Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books); What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon); Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press); Coraline: The Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins); Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic '09).



Who else thinks it's a spectacularly bad idea for nonfiction and art books/graphic novels to be the same category? And how can we lobby them to change that?