Last night I lost a Nebula. I did this lying on Patrick Swenson's living room floor, since SFWA "broadcast" the ceremony in Florida on streaming video, which Patrick then sent through his computer onto his giant enormous very large Blue-Ray HD TV. This should have made us all feel as if we were present, but something got lost in translation: the visuals were at times blurry. Once they disappeared altogether as someone evidently knocked against the camera and we viewed several minutes of ceiling. Nor was the sound clear. However, it was still better than nothing, and we all got to see Mary Robinette Kowal's very pretty dress, the slides shown by keynote speaker David Levine of the Mars simulation site in Utah, and Paolo Bacigalupi's joy at winning Best Novel for THE WIND-UP GIRL (a much deserved win).
I was surprised, however, that the show had so few viewers. A little number on the screen showed how many other people were on the website, and at no point did the number exceed 150. Not exactly an Oscar audience. But, then, their cameras tend to stay focused.
Meanwhile, I have been informed that I have two nominees for the Seiun Award, Japan's equivalent of the Hugo, for translated works. The entire Probability series (PROBABILITY MOON, PROBABILITY SUN, and PROBABILITY SPACE) is nominated in Long Fiction, and "Beggars in Spain" in Short Fiction. I am pleased by this, of course, but also a bit surprised since I wrote "Beggars" in 1990 and the Probability books more than ten years ago. I can't travel to Japan for the con, and I doubt I can watch it on streaming video. But -- you never know. Technology marches on.
2 comments:
The sound was actually bad in real life, unfortunately. The hotel sound system was not, shall we say, particularly robust. The rest? Well, that's all learning curve.
I will say that 150 people is actually a significant number for a streaming video. I'd love to see it reach more people but we didn't broadcast it much past the SFWA membership because we weren't sure it would really work.
I'm also glad you liked the dress.
I don't have to go lie on a carpet somewhere to lose a Nebula. I can lose a Nebula anywhere, any time.
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