The vocal minority of this journal's readership can skip the first couple of paragraphs of this entry, while I explain to the much beloved majority (consisting mostly of people I'm either related to, went to high school with, or both) exactly what a Nebula is in the context of, well, me.

Okay, there's this bunch of people, right? Called SFWA, right? Which is pronounced "sefhwah," okay? That stands for Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (don't ask why there's only one "F" in the acronym--it was before my time and apparently there were some people hospitalized over that very question back in the seventies).

Anyway, they give one of the big deal awards in science fiction (and fantasy) and I have NOT won one, nor even been nominated, and even if I won ELEVENTY-NINE of them there would be NO MONETARY COMPONENT TO THE PRIZE. It's called the Nebula and the rules for how one lands a piece of fiction on the ballot are only slightly less complicated than the Treaty of Versailles. Suffice it to say it's a two round elimination thing and I have placed a story in the equivalent of the semi-finals.

(Full readership of journal begin reading from this point)

So it comes out today that my story, "The Voluntary State," is one of the six "novelettes" (quiet down, brother Fred) that have made what's called the preliminary ballot. Sometime in early February, the membership of SFWA will vote on the Final Ballot and a total of five of those stories will move forward. Sometime later in the year, the membership votes again and whichever story wins will be awarded the 2004 (not 2005--Treaty of Versailles, remember?) Nebula Award for Best Novelette of the Year. Awards will also be given to the Best Novel, to the Best Novella, to the Best Short Story, and to the scriptwriters of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

It's an honor, as they say, just to be preliminarily recommended.

Many of you recall that the last time I was up for a big prize (Adair County High School Driver's Education Award, Boys Division, Class of '87), I was unfortunately unable to attend the ceremony owing to the fact that I was in the hospital following a car accident.

I'm as dazed now as I was then.