Regularly having your fiction nominated for awards is obviously a good thing, and it’s probably basically not cool to say this…
But regularly losing awards is kinda hard.
I used to have the energy to excitedly congratulate everyone who actually won awards I was up for… But after more than a decade of losing multiple awards per year, I kinda just want to hide under a rock and ignore the whole thing.
It feels really risky to say stuff like that. I’m basically drawing a target on myself and begging people to shoot arrows.
But hey, I’m regularly nominated for awards, and I shouldn’t have to feel like it’s hubris to mention it or taboo to admit having real feelings about it.
You know, when it comes down to it, it’s easier to react gracefully to things that don’t happen before noon.
I am not a morning person. And I have an expansive definition of morning.
I see so many writers say things like, “I’m gonna write a story about [such and such] animal!”
And I see how few people even know there’s a word for fiction with animal main characters.
And it makes me want to just go around pointing at all those statements, saying, “Furry!”
Mostly, I don’t, because, well, I mean, it’d be weird, right? Like imagine doing the same for sci-fi:
“I’m gonna write about a robot on a spaceship!”
“That sounds like sci-fi!”
But then, most people know what sci-fi is…
Then there’s the whole other side where people might be offended.
But…
Fiction about animal characters is called furry. That’s the word for it. Helping writers
identify the name of the genre they’re writing when they don’t know it should be helpful, not offensive.
And yet.
I don’t want to make everyone hate me because I just run around pointing at everything with animal characters and shouting “Furry!”
But I DO want to be able to easily find stories with animal characters. And people do. not. make. that. easy.
So start accepting the word. Please.