This year, I received nine nominations across four categories—more nominations than I’ve ever received in a single year before. Probably more nominations than anyone has received in a single year before.
It also brings me up to a total of 52 nominations across the last 11 years.
Let’s talk about these nominations.
I got 3x Best Novel, 4x Best Short Fiction, 1x Non-Fiction Work, & 1x Magazine.
At the very least, this means I published 3 novels, 4 short stories, one non-fiction work, and a whole-ass magazine in 2021 that were good enough to nominate.
Every year, I see people complain about how the Ursa Majors allow a person to black out whole categories. People are always careful to not actually blame me, which is kinda… nice? Sorta?
But it’s still painfully obvious every time it happens that they’re complaining about me.
I have, in fact, once blacked out a whole category in the Ursa Major Awards. Back in 2014, every short story on the ballot was mine. It was the first time I actually won one, and still one of only two wins.
Generally, when I’ve had multiple shorts on the ballot, I don’t win.
And yet, year after year, people complain about blacking out categories. And you know what gets me most about that?
They’re dismissing the people who did make it onto the ballot, acting like my multiple nominations somehow make the people with only one nomination not count.
So, yes, I have four short stories on the Ursa Major ballot this year. But the fifth story? IT’S AWESOME.
Seriously, “Dance of Wood and Grace” by Marie Croke is amazing, gorgeous, and carries such an important message. People should go read it.
And seriously, what awards actually disallow people from having multiple works nominated per category in a year?
Is that a thing with any major award?
‘Cause, if so, I’d love to see some actual citations of awards that do that. I never see any with these complaints.
Because, mostly, when people complain about my nominations — while carefully not mentioning my name, but, uh, I’m the one with all the nominations — it just sounds like sour grapes from people who don’t write and publish as much as I do in a year.
I worked for those nominations.
The first few years I knew about the Ursa Major Awards, I went to local writer groups and told people about my eligible works; I printed out posters and put them all over Further Confusion, offering free downloads of my eligible works; I bundled my works into special e-books.
I campaigned like crazy to get my works on the Ursa Major ballot back when I first discovered it, and those strategies proved really effective at getting me nominations and new readers. (Far less effective at getting wins.)
As I’ve become more known, I’ve eased way off.
But even with minimal campaigning (basically just posting a list of my eligible works), I still get a lot of nominations — largely because I put out A LOT of HIGH QUALITY furry fiction every single year, AND I label it as furry fiction.
(If every furry work of fiction were actually labeled as furry when it was released, the field for novels/short stories in the Ursa Majors would probably look really different, but so many of the best works don’t get labeled and thus aren’t noticed until years later.)
So, what’s my point here?
I want to celebrate my nominations instead of feeling like I have to be embarrassed about them and walk on eggshells around everyone in my small, generally-supportive writing community.
The furry writing community is awesome. And you want me in it.
So, if you feel jealous that someone got 4/5 Best Short Fiction nominations or 3/5 Best Novel nominations… rather than grumble about the rules, maybe think about just how goddamned much work that person must be doing in the furry writing field and focus on your own paper.
Anyway, now I’ve spoken up, and that will just give the jealous people ammunition, I guess.
But as a woman about to turn 40, I’ve spent my whole life being subtly told to make myself smaller and more palatable.
But I am not small. I’m a goddamned big deal.
I’m the most nominated person ever in the Ursa Major Awards, and 8 of those noms have been for works I edited.
I never wanted to be an editor, but I’ve taken on that role as an act of service to the furry writing community, working to lift up other authors and the whole genre.
I had my spouse look this over (as I often do before posting, to see if there’s any way to fortify against the backlash successful women generally get on the internet), and he pointed out:
I also founded a whole furry award and ran it for years; it’s the one writers respect.
So, if you feel like whining about how the Ursa Major rules allow me to have multiple short stories or novels nominated in a single year and think it will be a victimless complaint… it’s not.
I hear. And I feel less welcome.
The furry writing community is still small.