Picked up a post from Charles Stross at http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/2009-hugo-nomination..., which discusses the fact that Hugo Nominations are now open for the 2009 Hugo awards.

If you're not familiar with how the Hugos work, here's it in a nutshell: People with memberships to the next Worldcon (currently AussieCon4) and the last Worldcon (Anticipation, which was in Toronto last year) are able to nominate various works. These nominations pile up until some point in time (I'm not sure when at the moment), where they're then totaled up, and the most nominated five items from each category are then voted on by the members of AussieCon4. The winners are then announced during AussieCon4, and receive a shiny trophy, which they get to carry around until the end of the convention and show off.

Happily, you don't need to buy the several hundred dollar membership to attend AussieCon4, which for our local Denver folk is probably a bit pricy to attend. Instead, for only $50, you can become a supporting member of the convention, which gives you the advantages of nominating and voting, as well as all the fun news about the convention, as well as getting to Nominate next year for Reno.

Take a look at Mr. Stross's post about the importance of nominating, and check out some of the interesting comments below, and give a good thought to joining up and helping to make sure that the Hugos do include the best of 2009!