My takeaway from the (now annual) kerfuffle surrounding the Hugos (and now the Arthur C Clarke award, as it has just been announced to have an all-male shortlist) is twofold:
1. I must spend more time developing my friends list, Twitter follows, and Facebook friends*, because clearly women who write urban fantasy will only be nominated for such crap if they have a lot of brainless girl readers who are willing to boost them up**, since after all, books people just like to read obviously shouldn’t end up on award ballots.
2. I really should write that climate change trilogy. And then find a UK publisher for it as well as a US one. In my copious free time. :)
*This is not inherently a bad idea, award season aside. Unfortunately the only way I can really see to do it is to write books that more people like more than what I’ve written so far. :)
**Please note that I am rolling my eyes so hard here that I have a headache. Imagine the above in a sarcasm font, or whatever works for you, just in case it’s not clear that I’m exasperated with that mindset. The truth is that while I’m sure it would be nice to be nominated for these kinds of things, I lack the energy to pursue them, possibly lack the fan base (although I don’t know, I’ve never asked my entire fan base to pony up $60 so they could vote for me in something o.O), and out of 20+ books at this stage, the only thing I’ve written that I’d consider award-worthy is BABA YAGA’S DAUGHTER, which is problematic because it’s a collection, not a novel. So I’m not being bitter here, before anybody feels the need to reassure me or tell me I am award-worthy in their minds. :)