Even though I'm not attending Dragon*Con this year, I still fulfilled my duties last night and finished judging the groups I was responsible for in the 2007 Parsec Awards. The Parsecs are given out for the best podcasts in various categories and are judged on Audio Quality, Content and Presentation.

Some categories were easier to judge than others, some were damn close. I initially was to judge the Anime and Graphic Literature categories, but I was also asked to step in and judge the Speculative Fiction (GOD, I hate that term!) Short Story and Novel categories. In each of the categories, we were given snippets of the shows to listen to and make our decisions. We had between 7.5 to 10 minute cuts to listen to, and some had stronger entries than others.

Some of the podcasts had cool guests on them. I know one of them had Alan Moore and another had Josh Whedon. Ah, the power of the interviewer *grin*.

The Parsecs will be awarded at Dragon*Con this year and I wish the best to each and every one of the nominees.

( And the nominees are . . . )

All in all, it was an enjoyable task to judge these, especially the novel categories. There's some good stuff being offered out there for free from new authors and people who've been in the business for a while. One of the novels is being done by Tracy and Laura Hickman (of DragonLance fame).

If you're going to Dragon*Con and have some time, I heartily recommend checking out the podcasting track.