The preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards was recently announced. Don't go rushing off looking for my name, because it's not there. The Nebulas are nominated and voted on by SFWA, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, and they have yet to discover the, um, joys of reading my work. In past years I might have grumbled a bit about an anti-Analog bias, but there are seven pieces nominated from Analog this year. OK, so it's just me, apparently. SFWA makes the nomination info available to its members, and my story "Dibs" hasn't received a single nomination (it takes ten to get on the preliminary ballot). I might take that to mean the story was not very well received, but two earlier stories of mine won the popularity contest that is Analog's readers' poll with nary a mention in the Nebula process. On the other hand, one of my stories actually made the prelim ballot a few years back, and that one wasn't really one of my best (but who am I to judge my own work?).

I just can't figure out these awards, so I just write what I write and don't worry about it. And you folks read what you read and make up your own minds about what you like. Most industry awards are self-congratulatory things meant to publicize the industry that gives them out. Winning one would be a neat thing to mention on the cover letter I send along when I submit stories to magazines. Some people are impressed by that sort of thing.