Nebula finalist and a new job
It’s been a wild start to 2021.
First, I was hired full-time by CBS, where I’ve freelanced since about 2014 for their business section, CBS MoneyWatch. (And I’m so happy about that — I love the team and the work I’m doing.)
Two weeks ago, I got a call that my short story “Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math” made the finalist ballot for the Nebula awards. It was thrilling, crazy and created all the emotions. When I was a geeky kid in suburban New Jersey, I’d go to our local bookstore and pick out whatever science-fiction and fantasy paperbacks they had in stock. Often the cover would say something like “Nebula finalist” or “Nebula winner” — and it seemed so magical to me.
The 1970s edition that I read as a kid in the 1980s … I loved the art on the cover, which also had the tantalizing words “Hugo and Nebula Awards."
The Nebula awards are voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (or SFWA), the professional organization for science fiction and fantasy writers (or SFF) writers. It’s not easy to get into SFWA — I know this because it took me several years to get the professional sales needed to qualify. (I’m now a full member, and I carry my membership card in my wallet!)
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) hosted an incredible debut for the Nebula finalists this year, with actors reading 1-minute excerpts of our stories. So proud to be amongst these amazing writers!
That means getting a nomination means your peers have voted for you, said they believe your story is one that is worthy of that honor. And so I am completely honored and humbled by this, especially given the amazing stories that are on the ballot with me and all the incredible stories published in 2020 that are equally worthy of honor.
And I’m so, so thrilled for my story. It’s so close to my heart — it mashes something I love (portal fantasies) with something I very much DON’T love (word problems) — with a feminist spin that’s critiques why some people are picked as heroes in stories. Why do we pick certain types of people to walk through a portal, and ignore others? I’m glad that these questions also hit a nerve with other readers.