My brother, for reasons of his own, always says "Bang! Bang!" whenever anyone says the word Chicago. I mention this so that I can have explanation points in the title of this post, enticing you to read further.
In an hour or two, we'll leave George Rowe the Dog to watch over the house for the weekend (since we're going out of town, we're letting him have houseguests). And then we'll drive the great boring diagonal across Indiana (well, the overpass at Columbus is kind of cool) to wind up in Chicago, where we'll see some friends and I, at least, will spend most of Saturday paralyzed with, what? Anticipation? Worry? General frazzledness? All this in anticipation of tomorrow night's Nebula Awards. And there's that.
There's also this. If you're someone who has read some science fiction and fantasy in the last year and would like to vote in the largest popular award in those fields you still have a couple of days left to participate in the Locus Award. Unlike the Nebula--which is voted on by members of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America--and the Hugo--which is voted on by attendees of World Science Fiction Conventions--the Locus Award is voted on by readers at large. It's sponsored by Locus Magazine, which is kind of like Publisher's Weekly specifically for sf, fantasy and horror. Adding Locus Online to your list of periodically perused websites might be a good idea too.
I'll get back with y'all later.
