Well, thanks to Jack Bell, I just listened in on Connie Willis reading out the winners for the Best Novelette category at the Nebulas. My story, 0wnz0red, didn’t win, alas. However, I am here to tell you that standing in a hotel in Linz, phone clamped to ear, listening to someone read out the Nebula winners thousands of miles and nine timezones away, was enough to set my heart racing. Thanks to everyone who nominated me and voted for me. It truly is an honour just to be nominated. Eileen Gunn would have given my acceptance speech, had I won, may as well reproduce it here for alternate historians:
If there’s anything worse than a long award-speech, it’s a long award-speech by proxy, so this is short. I deeply regret not being there tonight, and I am thrilled down to my boots by this honour. In this age of Neil Gaiman’s Hugo speeches, it’s a cliche to say, “Holy fuck, I’ve won a Nebula,” but really, after all, holy fuck, I’ve won a Nebula.
Thanks to everyone, but especially to my editors, co-workers and copyfighters, to my agent Don Maass and the Gibraltar Point workshop, and to all the slashdotters and other netizens who downloaded this from Salon.
And thanks to Eileen for letting me make her say “fuck” twice, er, three times, in front of all of you.