Bill Katz of Writertopia created this Campbell Award countdown widget thingie, and it's pretty cool. The link on it will bring you to the list of this year's Campbell Award eligible writers. The Campbell Award, in case you don't know, is the award given for the best new science fiction and fantasy writer of the year. I'm on the list, by the way, as are many other talented writers who debuted in 2006 and 2007. So if you were a Nippon 2007 member, or if you have a Denvention 3 membership and want to nominate people for the Campbell (and the Hugos), go over to Writertopia and check out the list and pick your favorites. As I understand it, not a lot of people nominate or vote for the Campbell, so be a good SFF citizen and do it.

Oh, did I mention that I was eligible for the Campbell? I'm sure I did, but it doesn't hurt to say it again, right? :)

This weekend I was going to blog all about the really fun Marx Brothers burlesque show I went to with a bunch of friends last Friday night. And since I'm on hiatus this week, I was going to spend all seven days writing. I have a story I've been working on for a month and this was the week I was going to finish it. I was going to write a bunch of emails I've been putting off. I was going to do laundry...

Well, all that went south when my sister called Saturday morning to tell me our Great Aunt Angie had fallen and broken her hip. Bad news for any person, really really bad news when said person is 100 years old. So Angie had to have surgery to put a pin in her hip to stabilize it--surgery, also not a good thing on a 100 year old woman--but thankfully, she came through it well. So well, in fact, that she went back to the nursing home yesterday. All the nurses and staff were happy to have her back. Apparently, Angie's quite a favorite there. She's a very small woman, so they think she's cute, and they're impressed that she's 100 years old and does almost everything on her own. Angie hates having people help her. Which is the thing that's really worrying me about this. I think she can recover from the broken hip. What could really kill her is being immobile and having to rely on others. She's always been a really upbeat person with a great sense of humor--aside from that whole maudlin Italian streak all us guineas got going on. But I'm worried this is going to send her into a depression that she can't get out of. Particularly because she's so hard of hearing that communicating is difficult for her.

And if I have to have the "Oh my god, she's 100? Well, don't you have good genes!" conversation one more time...

I swear this past 12 months or so has been my year to come face to face with the fact that we're all going to, like, you know, die. Why I didn't come to this conclusion when my grandmother passed away, I don't know. Maybe that was because I was in my 20's then, and mortality didn't really seem like something that could touch me. But in August, Angie turned 100 and I guess that ceased to be just a big, round number to me this week. And early in '07, my father, who turns 80 this year, was very ill and in the hospital for three months and it took that to make me realize how old and frail he was. What the hell happened? Where did all the time go?

All of which leads me to publicly announce my new life plan. Here it is:

I'm just not going to get old.

I'm just not.

And I'm going to win the lottery.

Over at his Whatever blog, John Scalzi has listed 10 things he's done that other people probably haven't, and he's invited others to post their lists. It sounded fun, so I thought I'd play along. Now, I'm not normally a name dropper, but because of what I do for a living, my list is especially celebrity heavy. Here it is in no particular order:

• Stood six feet away from Elvis Costello/U2/David Bowie/Bruce Springsteen/Sting/Elton John/Billy Joel while they sang
• Shook Bono's hand
• Was invited to dance by Bruce Springsteen
• Was called a "dumb c**t" by actress Denny Dillon
• Have met all the members of Monty Python except Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam
• Pissed off actor Topol (Who's calling, please? Topol. I'm sorry, who? Topol. Topol? Yes, Topol! Like the smoker's tooth polish?)
• Was party to stealing a monsignor's car and joy riding around Alphabet City when it was still a really bad neighborhood
• Almost walked into the Thompson Square Park riot
• Attended a mob wedding and hung out/danced with several members of the Gambino crime family (including one button man)
• Drove 110 mph on the FDR Drive at 2:30 in the morning OR drove across the Brooklyn Bridge at midnight at 60 mph while singing along to "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"

How many years in hell do you think I'll get for laughing at this story?

Well, the the official preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards is out, and my story "The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom" is on it.

Novelettes - 13

The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom - Kail, Andrea (Writers of the Future Volume 23, Algis Budrys, Ed., Galaxy Press, Sep07)
A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange - Bernobich, Beth (Asimov's, Jun06)
The Fiddler of Bayou Teche - Sherman, Delia (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - Ryman, Geoff (F&SF, Nov06)
Sister of the Hedge - Hines, Jim C. (Realms of Fantasy, Jun06)
The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change - Johnson, Kij (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
Things That Aren't - Burstein, Michael A.; and Greenberger, Robert (Analog, Apr07)
Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders - Resnick, Mike (Asimov's, Jan08)
Safeguard - Kress, Nancy (Asimov's, Jan07)
Tonino and the Incubus - Robinson, Peg (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue-- #2))
The Children's Crusade - Bailey, Robin Wayne (Heroes in Training, Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines, Ed., DAW, Sep07)
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate - Chiang, Ted (F&SF, Sep07)
Not of this Fold - Shunn, William (An Alternate History of the 21st Century, Spilt Milk Press, Sep07)

Last year at this time I was amazed that I personally knew 4 people on the preliminary ballot and now, 12 months later, I'm on it myself. That's a pretty humbling experience. And I mean, seriously, have you seen the names on that list up there? Every time I look at it I feel the urge to giggle and sing "One of These Things Is Not Like the Others." But feelings of inadequacy aside, I am really and truly honored to be in such company.

And to make this happy event even happier, Bill Shunn, Mary Robinette Kowal, Toby Buckell and Robert Sawyer have also made the ballot. Congratulations to all of you. Just like last year, I'm amazed that I have such talented friends.

A couple of hours ago, I stopped a mugging.

I walk home from work every night and tonight when I got to 20th street and 2nd avenue, a woman suddenly began walking very close to me talking loudly on her cell phone about how she was meeting whoever she was talking to on the corner of 20th and 1st. Now, I hate being forced to listen to other people's personal conversations, so right off the bat, I was annoyed. Combine that with the fact that she was walking right next to me and no matter how fast I went, I couldn't shake her off, by the time I got halfway down the block, I was totally ticked off.

But then very near the corner of 1st avenue, the sidewalk narrowed due to construction and some ill-placed garbage bags and there was room for only one person to pass at a time. Being a couple of steps ahead of the woman on the cell phone, I went first. Next thing I hear is her scream and I look over my shoulder and see two girls pulling her hair. Now the first thought that flashed through my mind is that these are friends of hers who have snuck up on the her and that this is a joke, but then cell phone woman starts screaming "Help" and I realize that, no, these aren't friends, she's being mugged.

So without even thinking, I turn back around and start running towards them, swinging the calendar I'd just bought at Barnes and Noble like a weapon and screaming something to the effect of "Back off." Well I'm not exactly sure what I thought I was going to do once I got to them, but luckily the sight of me angry and swinging a green B&N bag was enough to make them run off--and without getting the woman's purse, who, when I helped her up off the pavement, explained to me that she'd been walking so close the whole time because she knew that the girls who'd attacked her had been following her for several blocks. And the cell phone call wasn't real. Speaking so loudly about meeting someone on the corner was her way of warning off the two muggers. Too bad it didn't work.

Now, a number of things piss me off about this, aside from the obvious.

One: that it happened on my street. I've lived on or near 20th street for over two decades, so for this shit to go on here--man, that makes me mad.

Two: we were literally a block away from the 13th precinct and the police academy. Damn, those are some ballsy muggers.

And Three: when the two muggers ran off, they ran right past this guy who had been walking behind us. He saw the whole thing, but did he help? No. He didn't run to assist the woman getting mugged. He didn't run to help me when I went after them. He just kept right on talking on his cell phone, walking at a very leisurely pace till he got to us and then he put his phone down and asked the woman "Hey, you all right?"

Uh, yeah, thanks, dude. Thanks for that manly display of concern.

Fantasy Magazine is asking people to vote for their favorite story published in Fantasy in the past year. Go on over there and take a look...and if you happened to have read my story, "Soft, Like a Rabbit," and want to vote for it, well, I wouldn't object.

Hint hint, nod nod. Say no more, say no more.