So, cousin, ya think we'll win Best Picture? Erik Killmonger and Prince T'Challah. Photo from Vox.com

Cons (Shameless Plug):

For any of our readers in northern coastal California, FOGCon is coming up, March 8-10. Guests of honor are Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) and Becky Chambers (A Closed and Common Orbit). Your humble reviewers, Terry Weyna and me, will be on panels. Terry will participate on “Down to Earth; the Future of Green Burial,” and “Discovering Short Fiction.” I will be part of the panel titled “Just What is She Looking For?” and “It’s Never Too Late,” or as I like to call it, the old writers’ panel. (Seriously, you can be successful after 30! That’s the tagline.) It’s not too late to register. If you�... Read More

El Alamein Fountain, Sydney, Australia (courtesy of Wikipedia)

This week’s word for Wednesday is a noun. A prebuttal is an argument constructed anticipating a counter-argument. (“Some out there might say, isn’t speculative fiction just mindless escapism? Let me explain why it isn’t.”) I didn’t know this word existed but I should have because it is a perfectly logical construction.

Books and Writing:

Lit Hub strolls through one-star Amazon reviews of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury; a little sad, a little entertaining.

Lisa Lucas, Director of the Nationa... Read More

The Puppy Bowl:

Captain Marvel, 2014 (Image courtesy of The Comic Book Store)

The big game was on Sunday. For anyone who missed it, this year’s Puppy Bowl trophy went to Team Ruff. The score was 59-51 against the odds-on favorite, Team Fluff. Before you ask, I have no idea how they score this thing.

Books and Writing:

If you’re a big Robert Heinlein fan this notice of a “new” novel, an alternate version of Number of the Beast, will get your attention. The story is based on a 185,000 manuscript by Heinlein, which deviates at the end from the original published work.

We all love the story of ... Read More

Exploding Star, Courtesy of NASA

A word for Wednesday; from Dictionary.com, this noun, oillionaire, is Canadian slang for a millionaire who made their wealth in the petroleum industry.

This is last column of January. Federal employees will again get pay checks for their work (or return to work if they were furloughed) and should have their back pay starting tomorrow.

How’s your 2019 going so far?

Books and Writing:

“Comp titles” (or comparative titles) are one vital element in the underrepresentation of certain groups in literature, according to some work done by the LA Review of Books. The selection of comps goes a long way to ensuring that the publishing field stays white. This is an interesting and not surprising article.... Read More

A word for Wednesday: Mopsical (adjective), meaning  mopey, spoiled or petulant. The word may have literally meant “mopey-eyed” (or shortsighted) originally.

Books and Writing:

Rackham imagines Ligeia

Mary Robinette Kowal announced she is running for SWFA President. Here is her announcement and her platform. John Scalzi has already written a ringing endorsement.

Jonathan Swift said he wished to “vex the world, rather than divert it... Read More

Awards:

The 2019 Hugo nomination window is now open. Members of the 2018 WorldCon or the 2019 Dublin WorldCon may nominate. Thanks to Locus.

Serafina, (c) 2019, 2005 Jessica Joslin

Books and Writing:

Sherilyn Kenyon has accused her ex-husband Lawrence Kenyon and a woman named Kerrie Plumb of poisoning her over several years. This story would be fascinating if it weren’t so frightening. In other social media, Kenyon has Read More

Awards:

Nnedi Okorafor was named 2018’s Person of the Year by the Society for Africans in Diaspora. Thanks to File 770.

Books and Writing:

The anthology Unfettered III directs the proceeds to writers needing health care. File 770’s article talks about the history of great stories for a good cause.

On The Mary Sue, Princess Weekes talks about Riri Williams, whose superhero name is Ironheart. She was a new one for me.

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This will be the final column of 2018. A safe and happy New Year's Day to everyone who observes it.

Books and Writing:

Academy Award winner Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions is accepting screenplay submissions.

In the solving-the-problem-we-didn’t-know-we-had category, Tor.com offers an essay on how to make beer on a generation ship.

Sarah Gailey writes about seven books that helped her make it through a hard year. What I liked about this essay is that she tells us when and where she read each book.

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Christmas Horse by Vladislav Erko (c) Vladislav Erko

Awards:

This year’s Parsec Awards, for excellence in speculative fiction podcasts, were announced on December 17.

Obituary:

She didn’t work much in genre unless you consider the film Big conventional fantasy (since it contains magic), but Penny Marshall, who also directed A League of Their Own and Awakenings, died on December 18. The cause of death is given as complications from diabetes.

Books and Writing:

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Quite a few video clips this week! 

Books and Writing:

NPR reviews the graphic novel Parallel Lines by Oliver Schrauwen.

Snow Queen by Vladislav Erko (c) Vladislav Erko

 

Sarahmay Wilkinson shares the pleasure, and process, of developing a book cover for a debut writer.

Scribner and Sons will retire its Touchstone imprint, and Susan Moldow, the president of Touchstone, will retire, both at the end of the year. Touchstone’s genre properties will move to Atria a... Read More

A Joyous Hanukkah to all those who observe.

A Joyous Festival of Lights.

Conventions:

In addition to electing new officers Arisia has banned some people and restricted the involvement of others, in the wake of the report of their mishandling of a sexual assault complaint.

Scotland, known already for its Fringe Festival, will hold its first speculative fiction/horror fiction literary festival.

Afua Richardson will be a featured artist at WorldCon in Dublin, Ir... Read More

Jovian Close Encounter. Image Courtesy of NASA

Those of you in the USA, or who observe the holiday, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Everyone else, have a great day tomorrow!

There will be no column next week. I’ll be back on December 5, 2018.

Books and Writing:

Unbound Worlds will no longer be providing original material as a blog, although features may be incorporated into other venues within Penguin Random House.

Last week Jonathan Franzen posted 10 Rules for Writing. They might be useful for emerging writers; they were definitely useful for established writers of all genres (but particularly speculative fiction) wh... Read More

Obituaries:

Stan Lee

I chose Polygon’s obituary of Stan Lee, the creator of what we now call the Marvel universe, over the many articles. Lee passed away on November 12, at the age of 95. Lee’s impact on the American culture will take decades to fully reveal itself, but the ugliness of the past two years, with elder abuse charges and restraining orders, are only a blip in the long life of a man who has given each of us indelible memories and heroes with whom we can identify.

Insider compiled all of Stan Lee’s cameos over the ye... Read More

Happy Diwali, or Festival of Lamps, to those who observe the holiday.

Flower Tower, by Reared in Steel. (c)Reared in Steel, LLC 2018

Awards:

File 770 has the World Fantasy Winners. Congratulations to Victor LaValle and Fonda Lee; to Charles de Lint and Elizabeth Woldheim, and to startup Sf literary magazine Fiyah, which showcases the work of writers of the African diaspora.... Read More

Awards:

Karen Lord has been named as one of the judges for the Commonwealth Award in 2019.

Conventions:

A few more details on the cancellation of Steamposium. And a new Steampunk resource, (new to me, anyway,) the Steampunk Explorer.

Books and Writing:

Happy Halloween!

Last week PBS unveiled America’s Favorite Book in the Great American Read; it was... Read More

Awards: 

N.K. Jemisin

The British Fantasy Awards were announced and winners include  Victor LaValle, N.K. Jemisin, Joe Hill, Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda among others. 

Books and Writing:

This is one of the Read More

Awards:

Maryse Conde was awarded the alt-Nobel this year. (Remember, this is the year of the Alternate Award. Here’s the recap.)

Turnip o' lantern.

Books and Writing:

This writer praises the photocopy and discusses digital books from the standpoint of economic equality in a country where books are prohibitively expensive.

I’d heard of Margaret Cavendish, but it’s odd tha... Read More

Awards:

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association announced the Aurora awards on October 6. Fonda Yee won for Best Novel with Jade City and tied for best YA novel with Exo. File 770 has the full list.

Conventions:

Locus Magazine has a report on this year’s DragonCon.

The 13th Doctor with Companions Yaz (l) and Ryan (r) (c)BBC America 2018

Books and Writing:

An ancient library was un... Read More

Scarecrow, (c) Garry Gay

Awards:

The Commonwealth Prize is currently open for unpublished short stories between 2500-5000 words for writers from Commonwealth countries. You may know (or be) someone who qualifies. I’m not one, but I’d love to read a story collection of the finalists.

New York state has named Colson Whitehead as their State Writer. He is the twelfth Writer of the State.

The Ringo Awards – not John Rin... Read More

Awards:

Locus has the Man-Booker Prize short list.

Tananarive Due received the Octavia Butler Award.

Happy Autumn! Autumn Leaves, courtesy of Amazon

Conventions:

I don’t think this is behind a paywall; Amy Brennan writes about Nine Worlds, accessibility issues and the convention in general. The panel on “Cheese and Cheese” sounds funny.

Books and Writing:

Gary Trudeau Read More

Greg Van Eekhout

Conventions:

Hector Gonzalez was one of the recipients of the MexicanX Initiative this year at WorldCon. The Artist Guest of Honor created MexicanX to empower more Mexicanx people to attend the convention. Now, those, participants are writing about their experiences and what the stipend meant to them. Hector is the first to do so.

Mercedes Lackey was briefly hospitalized while attending GenCon in Indiana, apparently in reaction to exposure to fumes and outgassing from new hotel carpets and furniture. Lackey was soon released and is doing well.

Giveaway and Author Event:
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Cummudge is “cosy and comfortable” according to Haggard Hawks. Definitely adding that one to my everyday vocabulary!

Books and Writing:

Tor.com is looking for bloggers. They pay by the article.

LitHub profiles the author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

“In the history of epic fantasy, following this analogy and paradigm, there has always been a voice in a minor key, a strain of fantasy with antiheroes, shades of dark grey and darkness, worlds where hope and optimism are not valued or are even punished. Violence is the name of the game, dystopic amorality the norm and the worlds are often the succe... Read More

Awards:

The Dragon Awards were announced at DragonCon September 2, 2018. Winning works included: Artemis, by Andy Weir, best SF Novel; Oathbringer, by Brandon Sanderson, best Fantasy Novel, Sleeping Beauties, by Stephen King and Owen King, best Horror Novel; Read More

Hugos:

File770 looks at instances of 3-in-a-row (threepeat) winners and finds that in the novel/novella categories N.K. Jemisin has pulled off a “first.”

Here’s the text of Jemisin’s acceptance speech.

The UK Guardian approves of Jemisin’s threepeat. Deeper into the essay they seem to imply that her characters aren’t rounded, and that is not correct.

Conventions:

Have I mentioned recently that I love Read More

It’s going to be a short column this week.

Awards:

N.K.Jemisin was awarded the Best Novel Hugo for The Stone Sky, while Martha Wells won for best novella with All Systems Red. The full Hugo awards are listed here. There are two other awards I’ve broken out for an item under WorldCon.

WorldCon:

Mike Glyer wa... Read More