Unless you’re a hermit or living under a rock, you’d know that here has been a huge amount of talk(*) about the Hugo Awards lately. Arguments about the award have filled my feed for weeks.

I’m curious, so I started to have a look for some data. When I couldn’t find anything useful I pulled together a basic demographic study on Best Novel. Once that post was up a few people wrote to me and asked me to have a look at the other categories, so here they are. I’ve only done the creative writing ones, sorry.

I’m not an expert in this field, so if you see any errors, please just let me know. I’ll have a bit more of a play soon. Right now I’m a bit sick of both the Hugos and Excel.

Best Novel is awarded to the best science fiction or fantasy story of 40,000 words or more published in the prior calendar year. My little study is here. <Added, April 21st > With significant help from a mystery benefactor we’ve also now produced a study on the demographics of Best Novel’s nominees. You can find it here.

Best Novella is awarded to the best science fiction or fantasy story of between 17,500 and 40,000 words published in the prior calendar year. My little study is here.

Best Novelette is awarded to the best science fiction or fantasy story of between 7,500 and 17,500 words published in the prior calendar year. My little study is here.

Best Short Story is awarded to the best science fiction or fantasy story of less than 7,500 words published in the prior calendar year (different criteria before 1967). My little study is here.

(*) Calling it talk is probably being generous.

In this post I look at the demographics (sex and nationality) of the winners of the Hugo Award for Best Best Short Story.

I originally only intended to cover Best Novel, so sorry if things are a little disorganised. You can find a parent post for these little studies here. Continue reading →

In this post I look at the demographics (sex and nationality) of the winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

I originally only intended to cover Best Novel, so sorry if things are a little disorganised. You can find a parent post for these little studies here. Continue reading →

In this post I look at the demographics (sex and nationality) of the winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novella.

I originally only intended to cover Best Novel, so sorry if things are a little disorganised. You can find a parent post for these little studies here. Continue reading →

Sooooo, after an extremely long and naughty hiatus (shaaadup, writing a novel) the lovely Di, who blogs here, tagged me in this blog hop.

Some of the other members of my writing group have also ‘hopped’. You can find Jessie’s post here and Marg’s here.

It looked like a fun break from the novel and I didn’t want to be a bad sport, so here goes. Continue reading →

After a long (and naughty) break from blogging, I’ve done a guest blog for my fantastic writing teacher, Karen Whitelaw.

You can find it here; http://karenwhitelaw.com/2013/09/18/guest-post-aidan-walsh/

Go over and check it out. And read the rest of her blog while you are there, it’s good stuff.