Please Read These Instructions Carefully Before Casting Your Ballot

Eligibility To Nominate

You may purchase a membership in LoneStarCon2 by completing the appropriate information on this ballot and enclosing a check for the membership fee. If you are already a LAcon III or LoneStarCon2 member, do not send any money with your ballot. Just fill in your name, address and (if you already have it) your membership number so that we can verify your membership. Please print or type.

Deadline

Ballots must be postmarked by April 1, 1997, and received by April 6, 1997, to ensure that they will be counted. Please mail as early as possible. Overseas members should send their nominations airmail.

Mail your ballot to: 1997 Hugo Awards, Nina Siros, Voting Administrator, 1208 Devonshire Drive, El Paso, Texas 79925-2300, U.S.A. We strongly recommend that you use an envelope; stapled mail will usually be mutilated or rejected by the post office. Taping the ballot shut is permissible in the U. S. domestic mail only. Do not e-mail your ballot.

Please be sure to fill in the previous page and mail all four pages. We cannot count your ballot if you do not do this. For faxed ballots, it is not necessary to send the instruction page or a cover sheet.

How to Nominate

You may nominate up to five persons or works in each category. However, you are permitted (and even encouraged) to make fewer nominations or none at all if you are not familar with the works that fall into that category. The nominations are equally weighted: the order in which you list them has no effect on the outcome.

Don't bother to nominate "No Award" (unless that's the title of a story or magazine you want to vote for). "No Award" will appear automatically in every category on the final ballot.

Please include source information whenever possible. This is not mandatory, but makes it easier for us to identify the work you intend to nominate. For the Fiction Categories, Dramatic Presentation, and Non-Fiction Book, space has been provided for this. In the continuing categories (Professional Editor and after) there is less room, but if your nominee is not well-known we would appreciate your writing in a source where his or her 1996 work in that category may be found.

Please type or print clearly. We cannot count illegible ballots.

The five top vote getters in each category (more in case of ties, fewer if not many nominations are cast in that category) will appear on the final Hugo Awards ballot, which will be distributed with LoneStarCon2 progress report #5 (scheduled for publication in May 1997). Only members of LoneStarCon2 (including those who join after January 31, 1997) will be eligible to vote on the final ballot.

Eligibility

Works published in 1996 are eligible for the 1997 Hugo Awards. Books are considered to have been published on the "publication date" which usually appears with the copyright information on the back of the title page. If there is no stated publication date, the copyright date will be used instead. A dated periodical is considered to have been published on the cover date, regardless of when it was placed on sale or copyrighted. Serialized stories or dramatic presentations are eligible in the year in which the last installment appears. A work originally appearing in a language other than English is eligible both in the year of its original appearance and in the year in which it first appears in English translation.

Exclusions: The LoneStarCon2 Committee has irrevocably delegated all Hugo Adminstration authority to a subcommittee. Therefore, only Nina Siros, Scott Cupp, Tim Illingworth and Karen Meschke are ineligible for the 1997 Hugo Awards.

Other rules of eligibility are given with the specific categories.

Reproduction

Reproduction and distribution of this ballot is permitted and encouraged, provided that it is reproduced verbatim (including voting instructions), with no additional material other than the name of the person or publication responsible for the reproduction.

This ballot must be postmarked by April 1, 1997 and received by April 6, 1997.

Best Novel A science fiction or fantasy story of 40,000 words or more that appeared for the first time in 1996.
Author & Title _________________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Publisher _______________________

Best Novella A science fiction or fantasy story between 17,500 and 40,000 words that appeared for the first time in 1996.
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________

Best Novelette A science fiction or fantasy story between 7,500 and 17,500 words that appeared for the first time in 1996.
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________

Best Short Story A science fiction or fantasy story of less than 7,500 words that appeared for the first time in 1996.
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________
Author & Title _________________________________________ Where Published ____________________

Best Non-Fiction Book A non-fiction work whose subject is the field of science fiction, fantasy or fandom that appeared for the first time in 1996.
Author/Editor & Title ______________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author/Editor & Title ______________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author/Editor & Title ______________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author/Editor & Title ______________________________________ Publisher _______________________
Author/Editor & Title ______________________________________ Publisher _______________________

Best Dramatic Presentation A production, in any medium, of dramatized science fiction or fantasy that was publicly presented in its present dramatic form for the first time in 1996. Individual episodes or programs in a series are eligible, but the series as a whole is not; however, a sequence of installments constituting a single dramatic unit may be considered as a single program.
Title ______________________________________________ Studio/Series _______________________
Title ______________________________________________ Studio/Series _______________________
Title ______________________________________________ Studio/Series _______________________
Title ______________________________________________ Studio/Series _______________________
Title ______________________________________________ Studio/Series _______________________

Best Professional Editor The editor of a professional publication devoted primarily to science fiction or fantasy in 1996. (A "professional publication" is one that had an average press run of at least 10,000 copies per issue.)
Editor _____________________________________________________
Editor _____________________________________________________
Editor _____________________________________________________
Editor _____________________________________________________
Editor _____________________________________________________

Best Professional Artist An artist or illustrator whose work appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy in 1996. (A "professional publication" has an average press run of at least 10,000 copies per issue.)
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________

Best Semiprozine A generally available non-professional publication (average print run of fewer than 10,000 copies per issue) devoted to science fiction or fantasy which has published 4 or more issues, at least one of them in 1996, and met at least two of the following criteria in 1996:

1. Had an average press run of at least 1,000 copies per issue.
2. Paid its contributors or staff in other than copies of the publication.
3. Provided at least half the income of any one person.
4. Had at least 15% of its total space occupied by advertising.
5. Announced itself to be a "semiprozine".

Best Fanzine A generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction, fantasy or related subjects which has published 4 or more issues, at least one of which appeared in 1996, and which does not qualify as a semiprozine.
Title _____________________________________________________
Title _____________________________________________________
Title _____________________________________________________
Title _____________________________________________________
Title _____________________________________________________

Best Fan Writer A person whose writing has appeared in fanzines, semiprozines or in generally available electronic media in 1996.
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________

Best Fan Artist An artist or illustrator whose work has appeared in fanzines, semiprozines, or was publicly displayed in 1996.
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________
Artist/Illustrator ________________________________________________

John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo) (Award for the best new science fiction writer, sponsored by Dell Magazines) A writer whose first work of science fiction or fantasy appeared during 1995 or 1996 in a professional publication. (See Eligibility) (A "professional publication" is one that had an average press run of at least 10,000 copies per issue.)
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________
Author _____________________________________________________

Eligibility to Nominate

Please check one:
[ ] I am a member of LoneStarCon2; my membership number is
_______________________________
[ ] I was a member of LAcon III; my membership number was
_______________________________

Signature _______________________________________

If you are not a member of LoneStarCon2 or LAcon III and wish to make nominations for the Hugo ballot you must purchase a supporting membership ($25) or an attending membership ($120) for LoneStarCon2. Please provide the appropriate information below if you would like to purchase a membership.

[ ] My check is enclosed
[ ] Charge my credit card

[ ] Visa [ ] Master Card [ ] American Express [ ] Discover

Name (as it appears on the card) ___________________________________
Card Number _____________________________________________
Expiration date ____________________________________________

This ballot must be postmarked by April 1, 1997 and received by April 6, 1997.

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