It’s the hush before the ballot.
The nominations are in, and the BSFA Award Administrator is working, tabulating them.
It seems as good a time as any to introduce myself. As Niall has told you, I’m Shana Worthen, and I’m taking over from him as features editor at Vector. This also means that I’m joining the group blogging here at Torque Control.
In addition to updating you with the highlights of forthcoming Vectors and the details of BSFA events, I have two projects I’m intending to pursue.
The first is my own interest in becoming better-read in science fiction criticism. I will be writing about much of what I’m reading as I go. This should be useful both for knowing the field better, but also in the hopes that when next year’s BSFA awards roll around, I will have already read more of the possible non-fiction award nominations than I had this year. If it keeps the rest of you thinking about the non-fiction award along the way (and, indeed, the BSFA awards in general), so much the better.
The second project is a followup to Niall’s fantastic survey of the best science fiction novels written by women in the last ten years. I will be reading a book a month from that list over the course of the next eleven months, and hope that many of you will join me in this. Each month, I will be posting and collating discussion about each book here on Torque Control.
Look for more details on group-reading the top eleven books from the survey, including the reading schedule, in the coming week.
vector-bsfa.com 
Hi Shana
Am looking forward to keepng up with Torque Control in 2011
Book from Niall’s list do you think you’re going to start reading first?
Tom: Thanks for asking. I’ll be starting with Gwyneth Jones’ Bold as Love. (Contrary to initial appearances, the rest of the books will not be in the order listed from 11-1, however.)