The Hugos

One of the great honours of being Fan Fund Delegate was being invited to present one of the Hugo Awards.  I've been very excited about it all weekend.

I popped into the rehearsal during the afternoon, where I was briefed on what to do. I made sure I knew how to pronounce all of the names of the nominees.

I was in a programme item until 6, after which I had to rush back to my room to get changed (I wore a black suit, which was fairly formal, but matched it with a tie covered in LEGO minifigs in an effort to not be too serious), and then rush back to the convention centre for the pre-Hugo reception. This was already in full flow, so I had a drink to make sure I was composed (but only one, so I wasn't too composed), and chatted with nominees and presenters (and others lucky enough to have an invite).

Soon we were ushered down to the big hall where the ceremony was taking place. I sat next to Gina, the NAFF delegate (who was presenting the award before me, so there was no danger of me forgetting when it was time to get ready to go on stage).

Garth Nix was then announced as the master of ceremonies for the evening, and he gave an amusing speech about shoes, though I wasn't paying very much attention as I was going over what I would say.

Then the awards started with the non-Hugo awards, and the Campbell, and then Gina was up to present Fan Artist. I took my place at the side of the stage, and went up to present best Fanzine. I said a few words about how fanzines are something unique to us as science fiction fans and how much they had defined our fandom over the years. At least that's how I hope it came out. Then I opened the envelope.

I had really been hoping for James Bacon and Chris Garcia to win for Drink Tank, as James has been one of my very best friends for a very long time. Sadly that was not what I saw when I opened the envelope, for it was StarShipSofa, but they are also very worthy winners.

The rest of the awards brought a great mix of results, and although I was disappointed for some people I know who'd been nominated, I thought all the winners were very worthy choices.

Best of all was the Best Novel category, which was a tie between China Miéville and Paolo Bacigalupi. I thought it was really nice to see the co-administrator Kate bring out the second award and stand next to Vince, and it was great that two very excellent writers both got the award.

At the end, all the winners, acceptors and presenters were invited back on stage for a photo session. I didn't really feel I belonged there, so I just stood at the front with my camera, but someone spotted me and called me up on stage.

It was then on to the losers  party, which was really good. The full results were already available with all the votes broken down, which I thought was really good, and I know the administrators worked really hard to get out so soon.

In all it was a fantastic evening. I was really honoured and delighted to have had the chance to present a hugo.

Congratulations to all the winners, and I hope the losers will have opportunities to win one in the future.