Skip to main content

Coming This Summer: WorldCon 76 and Elections—for Hugos


A rocket in launch.
Button with stars and the word 'Vote'.
Credit: Pixabay.com





California’s primary elections are this Tuesday but the voting doesn’t stop there in my home state. In fact, it doesn’t even stop with California. No, I’m not talking about the other states’ elections or the national elections in November. I’m talking about the elections for the Hugo Awards! The Hugo Awards are taking votes from now until the end of July and the winners will be presented their awards at WorldCon 76 in San Jose, California. As much as I’m “next door” to the location of this world science fiction convention (I live in Sacramento) I found out about it only a couple of days ago. And it’s this August 16 through 20! So if you’re interested in attending, I suggest you get your tickets and accommodations fast. Nearby hotels are already booked! What makes this con so big is that it presents the Hugo Awards which many world famous science fiction and fantasy authors and artists have been awarded. If you register for WorldCon, you may be able to make your favourite unknown author or artist world-known!


WorldCon


WorldCon started back in 1939 in New York City and has been going almost every year since. The location for it is voted on a couple years in advance each year. The location voted for can be anywhere in the world. This world science fiction/fantasy con has been hosted here in the U.S. several times as well as in other countries such as Scotland and Japan. I attended the one in Los Angeles (Anaheim, to be more precise) back in 2006 and it was far out! That is, as in awesome, of course, not distance (though it was a little bit of that for me too, but it was worth it)! It was there where I actually shook hands with author Harlan Ellison who gave me super advice for my writing and that was: “Make them give you money [for my writing].” And so I have done that ever since. I saw the now late Ray Bradbury speak for the second time in my life (the time before was back in the ‘90s when he spoke at California State University Fresno during my semi-desert stranded years). And I might have seen Forry Ackerman, founder and editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, speak at a panel. I can’t quite remember because, at the time, I wasn’t as familiar with himas much as I’ve read Famous Monsters since I was a kidand I had popped in on the panel late.

WorldCon gets authors and artists, both famous and obscure, from all over the world and it holds writing workshops and panels run by professional fantasy and science fiction writers who can critique your work. There’s also cosplay featuring some of the grooviest costumes in the universe and gaming. There’s plenty of media fandom as well for fans of such TV shows and movies as Star Trek and Star Wars and, at the upcoming WorldCon, probably Game of Thrones since that’s been the biggest fantasy TV series to date. For more info, visit WorldCon 76’s web site

The Hugo Awards


The Hugo Awards offer fantasy and science fiction awards for work in several categories, some of the broadest being literary fiction, art and movies but many subcategories as well. Although nomination for creators and their works ended in April, you can still vote for the finalists from now until July 31, 2018. But in order to do so, you must be a member of the World Science Fiction Convention (a.k.a. WorldCon). Learn how you can purchase membership by visiting WorldCon 76's membership page.  Many world famous science fiction and fantasy authors became such by getting awarded Hugos! You can help an obscure author or artist become world renowned if you register for membership and vote!

The Hugo Awards began in 1953 and went annual two years after. Interestingly, the World Science Fiction Convention also presents Hugos for past years such as this year’s 1943 Retrospective Hugo Awards! So the Hugos will be taking a trip back in time this year!

That’s the gist of it, convention and Hugos. More on WorldCon 76 to come!

Until next time . . .




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book-To-Movie: ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’

Credit: Wikimedia Commons I apologise for posting outside our regular post-day which is late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. However, I got behind on several things last week and so had to postpone the post to today.  I’ve been a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books ever since I was 11. What I’ve always liked so much about the series is that, like a good horror story, the stories often take place in dark settings and involve bizarre cases. Conan Doyle’s novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, definitely contains these elements. It’s a detective story that crosses over into the gothic horror genre. Several movie adaptations of the novel have been made that go as far back as a 1915 German silent film. In 1959 Hammer Studios released a version starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. As much as I’m a fan of the Hammer horror films, I have not seen that one yet. The only one that I’ve seen so far is the 1939 adaptation starring that other big name in classic Bri

Book-To-Movie: ‘I Am Legend’

A vampire similar to the ones in 2008's "I Am Legend" which starred Will Smith. Credit: Pixabay.com It’s time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, I review a book and its movie adaptations. This month’s book and its movies based on it is I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. While vampires were no longer in in the American pop culture of the the 1950s, science fiction horror in general was. So Matheson’s I Am Legend brought the scientificising of vampires into the pulp literary scene of that era. Not too long after, in the early ‘60s, the first of three book-to-movie adaptions appeared and was renamed The Last Man On Earth which starred Vincent Price. The other two were The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston in the ‘70s and I Am Legend starring Will Smith in the 2001s. Even though each one debunked the myth of the vampire as a supernatural being, each had its own depiction of the creature. ‘I Am Legend’, The Book Set in a near post-apocalyptic fu

Book-To-Movie: Stephen King’s 'The Raft'

Credit: Pixabay.com It's the third Saturday of the month and so that means it's time for another Book-To-Movie ! In a Book-To-Movie we review a book and its movie adaptation. One of the reasons I as a horror fan don’t read a lot of Stephen King’s work is because most of it consists of novels that go more than 400 pages. I have a short attention span when it comes to reading, ironically since I consider myself an avid reader, and so I normally won’t read a work that is much more than the equivalent to a 350-page mass market paperback. The other reason why I don’t read a lot of King’s work is that, as literary scholars will tell you, a lot of his writing is poor. However, he does have some good writing in his works, especially his earlier stuff, including his short horror tales. So if I read anything by Stephen King it’s usually his short stories or novellas. One of his collections I’ve read is Skeleton Crew which includes some of his good, or at least better, fi