Nominations for Best of 2007?

[Robert_Moriyama]

It's early -- the last batch of eligible material won't go online until about 3 weeks from now -- but I would appreciate any nominations for Best of 2007 (Short Stories in particular, but I suspect the other Editors wouldn't mind some hints for Serials/Novellas, Poetry, etc.).

You can post suggestions here, or send them to me via e-mail or Private Message.

According to recent tradition, the Best of 2007 will be announced and re'print'ed in the first Aphelion issue of the new year, in February 2008. That means that stories published in the February 2007 through the upcoming December 2007/January 2008 editions are eligible. Unless, of course, Dan wants to do 'Best of' in the December/January issue, in which case I'm screwed, because I've been reading new material instead of reviewing stuff from past months...

[Robert_Moriyama]

Dan has confirmed that the "Best of 2007" will be announced and republished in the February 2008 edition. So this is a good time to think back about what stories, novellas, and poems really stayed with you -- in fact, it's exactly the ones that you remember without going back to review all the monthly indices that deserve nominations!

So c'mon -- make your opinions known! This is much less work than doing a detailed critique in the forum (on a per-story/novella/poem basis).

RM

[Robert_Moriyama]

This is your last chance to nominate stories (novellas, poems) for Best of 2007 honors!

The following are on my Short Stories "Best of 2007" short list ...

February 2007

The Periambulant Oracle (Frederick Rustam)

Hollow (Frank Byrns)

April 2007

World Without Boats (Michael J. Martineck)

May 2007

Whitechapel (Martyn Taylor)

June 2007

The Zeitsev (Michael Hart)

July 2007

A Pocket Filled With Posies (Michelle Dutcher) - also nominated by GDJ

Flight of the Dragon (Tara McFadden)

August 2007

Talking to Stones (Joel Doonan)

Chef (Coffee Anderson)

September 2007

Walking the Cobblebones (Jaimie L. Elliott)

Daddy's Game (A. K. Sykora)

The Moonborn (L. J. Geoffrion)

October 2007

Kristallnacht (J. B. Hogan)

November 2007

A Study in Silicon (McCamy Taylor)

The Organist (Stephen H. Wallenfels)

Audience of One (John Hickman) - nominated by GDJ

December/January

The Ouroboros (S. H. Hughes)

Inside Out (E. S. Strout)

***************

Please suggest any additions to the (sort of) short list as soon as possible, or express your support for one or more of the stories already listed. The final selection will be announced (and links provided) in the upcoming February Aphelion, along with some new stories (number dependent on how long the FINAL list turns out to be). I will also be posting the Challenge winners in some form that does not depend on the Forum (to be determined)...

RM

[kailhofer]

As I said in November, if "Listening to the Words" by Joseph Jordan isn't in the list, then life's not fair.

Of course, no story I've nominated for anything (best for the year, best of the last 10 years, etc) has ever made any final list, so maybe that will be the kiss of death for it.

Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

You'll have to rattle McCamy Taylor's cage on that one -- it was in the Serials section, I presume, since it wasn't in Short Stories.

But since I'm the one begging here, did you have any sub-7500-word favorites in 2007? (I have asked to have the October and November issues added to the Back Issues Index so people can review material from those months -- dunno if anybody is listening to me.)

RM

[Robert_Moriyama]

Will McCamy be taking nominations for best serial on this forum or should we send a PM or email for that?

Dunno. Probably best to do both (thereby increasing the odds that she will see the message, and encourage others to make some noise). The same would apply for poetry. (Of course, the other Editors will give me a sound thrashing for causing them to be pestered by partisans...)

RM

[Robert_Moriyama]

Are editorial mafia stories allowed to be best of 2007? If so, I would nominate McCamy's The Sorceror from Sand Creek.

-- david j.

I'll add her piece to the list. I think editorial mafiosi should be eligible for "Best of" selection, but should get at least one (and preferably more than one) outside endorsement if nominating something of their own that appeared under their Areas of Absolute Power. (For example, I didn't nominate any of my own stories in the "Best Short Stories" category, no matter how wonderful they were in my completely unbiased opinion.)

RM

[kailhofer]

You'll have to rattle McCamy Taylor's cage on that one -- it was in the Serials section, I presume, since it wasn't in Short Stories.

But since I'm the one begging here, did you have any sub-7500-word favorites in 2007? (I have asked to have the October and November issues added to the Back Issues Index so people can review material from those months -- dunno if anybody is listening to me.)

RM

Well, I wish I could honestly say that I'd read more than half the stories this year, but I can't. Real Life and fiction challenges take up too much time.

Jan - The Tree by Jeffrey Swencki
Aug - Shotgun Christmas by James M. Black
Sept - Rain by Craig Cornwell
Nov - A Study in Silicon by McCamy Taylor


And some more serial nominations:

Plan by David Alan Jones (Sept/Oct)
and...
The Blind Collaborators by these fellows we all might happen to know... ::)(Sept)

Nate

[kailhofer]

Is February just a "Best of" issue? Or will there be new stories in that issue too? I need to know because I have already accepted two for February, but I can change them to March.

Nominate whatever you like, but I only know the stories from about September on which is when I took over. I can go back and re-read the ones from before that which are nominated or just put them on the list and let people vote for them. Is that how they are selected? By general vote?

Please enlighten me.

Wow. I guess we know who was sent for coffee and donuts at the last editorial meeting... :) I'm no mafioso, but there's always been new stories with the "best" in the past.

If past practices are any gauge... Robert did nominations and polls last year, but before that Dan chose the best of. Jeff seemed to pick his own choices rather than rely on nominations.

Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

My impression was that each Editor generally picked his or her favorites (with Dan being arbiter for Mare Inebrium material). Hence you could try to impose upon Jeff to make suggestions for the pre-Taylor portion of 2007, ask for suggestions from the readers, or use an n-sided die from an old D&D set. As far as I know, I'm the only one who has asked for reader nominations since I stumbled into Cary's job (fell -- or was pushed?) -- and the number of nominations received has been pretty sparse.

I will be posting at least 5 or so new stories in addition to some number of "Best of" picks. Dunno what Iain will be doing.

RM

[Robert_Moriyama]

I think I understand. How many "Best of.." stories are we looking for?

As with everything else, now that the task has been delegated to the section Editors, it's up to us. You could look at last February's Back Issue (or the one before that) to see what Jeff
did; but the number you pick depends on how many pieces you (or those who bother to PMessage you) think stood out. (I'm thinking as few as four or five short stories, and definitely less than ten. Maybe a 50-50 split between "Best of" and new shorts? But that's just me.)

RM

PS Oops -- February 2007 was (maybe) a bad example, since it was "Best of Aphelion's First Decade". In February 2006 I had 6 "Best of" and 8 new stories (plus 2 new Mare Inebrium entries). On the other hand, Jeff had 1 new novella, and NO "Best of"... (sigh). And in February 2005 -- ah, geez. I don't think we really have a consistent 'tradition' in recent years. Do whatever feels right.

[kailhofer]

I will also be posting the Challenge winners in some form that does not depend on the Forum (to be determined)...

RM

I know at some point you had mentioned that it would be easy to translate forum formatting for html. Do you need any help with the challenge winners? I've always said I'd be of any assistance I could be when it came to posting the winners.

I've always made web pages using Adobe's GoLive, which does the formatting for you in CSS, but I don't know if that would work for you.

Anyhow, just let me know how I might help.

Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

... if you could extract the YaBB coded sections containing the winner(s) for each month, and e-mail them to me as .txt files, I should be able to convert the YaBB tags into the corresponding HTML tags without too much trouble (he said with naive optimism). I'm not sure if I will combine them in one file or give each month's winner(s) their own links (I suppose I could do both -- build a file which contains links to each winning flash piece, so there would only be one link on the main Shorts index page).

RM

[kailhofer]

... if you could extract the YaBB coded sections containing the winner(s) for each month, and e-mail them to me as .txt files, I should be able to convert the YaBB tags into the corresponding HTML tags without too much trouble (he said with naive optimism). I'm not sure if I will combine them in one file or give each month's winner(s) their own links (I suppose I could do both -- build a file which contains links to each winning flash piece, so there would only be one link on the main Shorts index page).

RM

Right. I'm on it.

Nate

EDIT: Done! I sent them to your "Shorts" account.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Nate has supplied me with files to be used for Challenge Winners to be included in the upcoming "Best of" (plus new material) February Aphelion. With luck, the winners may garner a few more comments with their stories will be accessible outside the Forum. (Not that this is any guarantee ...)

ANY OTHER NOMINATIONS ASIDE FROM THOSE MENTIONED ALREADY?? We're only 11 days away from the theoretical deadline for prepping material, and I have to pick and prep some new stories (from September submissions), too, so sooner is better.

RM