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Forgotten Glory
by ~TaralWayne, Apr 8, 2012, 12:18:51 PM
Journals / Personal
I've been keeping a secret for quite some time now. The beans could have been spilled a couple of days ago. However, it's April 8th. and I'm seeing the news all over the internet before it even occurred to me that I was free to speak up. Strange to say, I forgot all about it!
I've hinted every year around this time that I was up for a Hugo again. Nominees always got the news a few weeks ahead of the official public announcements, and are asked to keep it under wraps until then. About a month ago, I received the news that I was on the Hugo ballot for Best Fanartist for the 11th. time, and solemnly swore the oath of secrecy. Then, as soon as the e-mail was off, I phoned up friends and told them.
Not everyone who is a friend, mind you. Just those I really like. Bob always told me about his Hugo nominations, and how could I keep a secret from Steven, whose stories I steal for my fan articles? Then there's Schirm, a fellow fanartist and confident who I've known for 35 years. Steve Stiles and I usually blow our covers too, since it's an easy guess that if one of us is nominated, so is the other. One or two people who weren't even in fandom would hear about it. And my sister. The word usually didn't go much farther than that.
As well, I played mind games on-line. I belong to a couple of forums where I'd drop a heavy-handed hint that I'd have important news in a few weeks or a month, and refuse to answer anyone who guessed correctly. Although a total breach of trust, nobody in fandom ever set foot in these forums, so what did it matter? I needed someplace to let a little steam out or else burst…
In the past, I've always been fairly excited about the whole Hugo business. For reasons I probably can't justify, I thought there was a fair chance of actually winning the Hugo. This is not to say I was necessarily optimistic. From year to year, there were noticeable differences in my mood. I began moderately hopeful. Next year I was sarcastic. The year after that, indignant. This year, however, I realized I wasn't excited at all. I won't go so far as to say I was indifferent to the nomination… but I felt little need to tell anyone about it. I dropped no hints and kept the news pretty much to myself.
Worse... the date for the official announcement of the ballot came and went. I didn't even realize until I started to see comments about the Hugo ballot on-line that I had actually forgotten all about it!
Okay, so here it is. I've been nominated again. 11th. time. Yada yada...
I won't win – I'm resigned to that. If I was ever going to, it would have been at the 2009 Worldcon, where I was the Fan Guest of Honour, right?. If I couldn't win with that advantage, what are the odds that I can win at all? But, people told me not to give up, that perhaps the voters will realize "he ought to have won last year." It wasn't likely to at the 2010 Worldcon, though, because that was held in Australia. The local fanartist of note – "Ditmar" – would be the logical winner. You think? Perversely enough, he wasn't even on the ballot. Then there was the 2011 Worldcon in Reno, the first worldcon back in North America, and the last conceivable chance that voter's remorse might come to my aid. It didn't, so I suppose the odds from now on will only grow slimmer.
Especially as I don't seem to be drawing all that much, lately.
The internet guy is on the ballot again… for the second time. I'm thinking this is the beginning of the end for fanzine artists of the old school, and that sooner or later it's inevitable that strangers in Hong Kong or Mexico, who post popular internet comics, will push traditional fanzine art off the ballot entirely.
Until that day, I'll have to be content with collecting the little pins that come with a nomination. I've had worse deals.
7 Comments
Listening to: Televison likely, Tom Waits, Yes, or Blondie.
Reading: "Julian Comstock", Robert Charles Wilson
Watching: ...the little words moving across the screen
Playing: With little toy cars (1l18 scale).
Eating: Yes, but trying to watch my weight.
Drinking: Are you paying the tab? I'll have a Drambouie.
by ~TaralWayne, Apr 8, 2012, 12:18:51 PM
Journals / Personal
I've been keeping a secret for quite some time now. The beans could have been spilled a couple of days ago. However, it's April 8th. and I'm seeing the news all over the internet before it even occurred to me that I was free to speak up. Strange to say, I forgot all about it!
I've hinted every year around this time that I was up for a Hugo again. Nominees always got the news a few weeks ahead of the official public announcements, and are asked to keep it under wraps until then. About a month ago, I received the news that I was on the Hugo ballot for Best Fanartist for the 11th. time, and solemnly swore the oath of secrecy. Then, as soon as the e-mail was off, I phoned up friends and told them.
Not everyone who is a friend, mind you. Just those I really like. Bob always told me about his Hugo nominations, and how could I keep a secret from Steven, whose stories I steal for my fan articles? Then there's Schirm, a fellow fanartist and confident who I've known for 35 years. Steve Stiles and I usually blow our covers too, since it's an easy guess that if one of us is nominated, so is the other. One or two people who weren't even in fandom would hear about it. And my sister. The word usually didn't go much farther than that.
As well, I played mind games on-line. I belong to a couple of forums where I'd drop a heavy-handed hint that I'd have important news in a few weeks or a month, and refuse to answer anyone who guessed correctly. Although a total breach of trust, nobody in fandom ever set foot in these forums, so what did it matter? I needed someplace to let a little steam out or else burst…
In the past, I've always been fairly excited about the whole Hugo business. For reasons I probably can't justify, I thought there was a fair chance of actually winning the Hugo. This is not to say I was necessarily optimistic. From year to year, there were noticeable differences in my mood. I began moderately hopeful. Next year I was sarcastic. The year after that, indignant. This year, however, I realized I wasn't excited at all. I won't go so far as to say I was indifferent to the nomination… but I felt little need to tell anyone about it. I dropped no hints and kept the news pretty much to myself.
Worse... the date for the official announcement of the ballot came and went. I didn't even realize until I started to see comments about the Hugo ballot on-line that I had actually forgotten all about it!
Okay, so here it is. I've been nominated again. 11th. time. Yada yada...
I won't win – I'm resigned to that. If I was ever going to, it would have been at the 2009 Worldcon, where I was the Fan Guest of Honour, right?. If I couldn't win with that advantage, what are the odds that I can win at all? But, people told me not to give up, that perhaps the voters will realize "he ought to have won last year." It wasn't likely to at the 2010 Worldcon, though, because that was held in Australia. The local fanartist of note – "Ditmar" – would be the logical winner. You think? Perversely enough, he wasn't even on the ballot. Then there was the 2011 Worldcon in Reno, the first worldcon back in North America, and the last conceivable chance that voter's remorse might come to my aid. It didn't, so I suppose the odds from now on will only grow slimmer.
Especially as I don't seem to be drawing all that much, lately.
The internet guy is on the ballot again… for the second time. I'm thinking this is the beginning of the end for fanzine artists of the old school, and that sooner or later it's inevitable that strangers in Hong Kong or Mexico, who post popular internet comics, will push traditional fanzine art off the ballot entirely.
Until that day, I'll have to be content with collecting the little pins that come with a nomination. I've had worse deals.
7 Comments
Listening to: Televison likely, Tom Waits, Yes, or Blondie.
Reading: "Julian Comstock", Robert Charles Wilson
Watching: ...the little words moving across the screen
Playing: With little toy cars (1l18 scale).
Eating: Yes, but trying to watch my weight.
Drinking: Are you paying the tab? I'll have a Drambouie.
This Time For Good!
Boy... some customers will do anything to get out of paying up! This is true, but I’m also making a joke in very bad taste. Let me explain. I had already announced that I would no longer be doing any more commissions. I meant it, too. However I can be an easy touch at times, and I've broken my vow of retirement more than once ... and usually regretted it for one reason or another. But the last commission I did as a favour to a fan backfired badly. To begin with, it was a quick freebie. No charge. But then the guy wanted the original drawing, and said he would pay well for it, and would foot the cost of postage. Okay. I agreed. But then was delayed a repeatedly before finally he promised to send a money order the next time he was in town. I crossed my fingers. A little more time went by with no money order, but unexpectedly he reported on FaceBook that he had had a heart attack! Oh, fudge, I thought, trying to be compassionate and not thinking about the money. I decided he
Untitled
DeliquentArt has been getting wonkier and wonkier with time. Recently, it's been classifiying almost all my art as "not fit to be seen," even when it is as clean as a whistle. I should know... I'm a well practiced whistle blower ... or, in plain speech, a complainer! I'm tried re-setting the posted art, but it doesn't seen to take affect. Instead, one post after another of mine has been blanked out of view unless the viewer is an adult member. I don't know what gives, but it brings to mind an old saying, modified somewhat -- you get what you pay for... and DelightfulFart is free.
No One Excepts the British Succession
I got up today to discover that the Queen was dead, God Save the King and all that... My first couple of years were under George VI, but of course, I remember nothing of that. All my life, the Queen has sat on the thrown, and – like that – history has moved on. I feel nothing about the Queen, really – a lady who brought dignity and a sense of determination to the crown. I had a desire to see her live to 100, but 96 isn’t shabby – longest reign in British history, even all the way back to the Anglo Saxons and dark ages. Nor was her reign one free of debacle and tumult. There were wars on her shift, the enormous black eye that Diana’s death forced on the Royal family, the “Annus Horibilis” in which Windsor Castle was badly damaged in a fire, the assassination of the Queen’s uncle, Louis Mountbatten, by Irish terrorists, and recently the ignominious retreat from the European Union by the British Government. It’s a wonder all the crockery at Buckingham Palace wasn’t cracked by
Wee Beastie
For some time, now, I've been finding little "presents" around my apartment that tell me that a mouse has taken up residence. I've seen it a number of time, and more brazenly each time. Two weeks, I saw it saunter out into the living room, as confident as though it were the owner. It disappeared, as before behind a cabinet that I'm unable to move without a tremendous amount of trouble. So, I've ignored it, figuring that my place is clean, I leave no food around, and my groceries are all in jars or cans, or refrigerated. Eventually, the mouse would stop coming around here without finding food. Making a living is tough enough for a mouse, without wasting effort. So far, it seemed to be working. I hadn't seen the pest for those last too weeks. But I spoke too soon. Yesterday, I used the washroom and noticed movement in the bath tub. I looked and fund it was my mouse! I don't know how it climbed up the tub in the first place, but plainly it was unable to climb out. The presents suggested
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Comments8
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Didn't you post this like a year ago? Or was that to another site? I sorta had to jump from FA to here cus I couldn't get along with the administrators. The problem was that I like to use logic, reason and well-tought out arguments, and they liked to twist the context of my images into something it was never intended just so they could punish me cus they didn't like me using logic and reason, basically. So I'm a bit disoriented when it comes to finding the people I was watching over here.
I think I said it before but "consistently almost made it" is a very interesting sort of legacy, I cant quite decide whether its good or bad, but I see why it would be frustrating and eventually just sorta "meh".
I think I said it before but "consistently almost made it" is a very interesting sort of legacy, I cant quite decide whether its good or bad, but I see why it would be frustrating and eventually just sorta "meh".