Should have used sunscreen. (Dark Phoenix, image from The Verge.)

June 8 is the birthday of SF editor John W. Campbell, who is often credited with creating (or at least helping create) SF’s Golden Age; most notably through Astounding Science Fiction. While Campbell’s racism and other political views are problematic now, he helped shape the field as it is today.

In word-related news, I did not know that stymie could be a noun. I was certainly familiar with it as a verb, (to block or obstruct), but as a noun it is a golfing term that means the same thing; when your ball lies between your opponent’s ball and the cup, that’s a stymie.

Awards:

George R.R. Martin received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award.
... Read More

Rainbow. Image by Pexels

Awards:

The Neukom Awards were announced.

Books and Writing:

Last month Nerds of a Feather reviewed Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes.

Fran Wilde talks about permanence and impermanence in “The Fire Opal Mechanism,” on Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog.

MacMillan’s parent company of Tor, will... Read More

Golden Gate Bridge, image from Pixabay.

The Golden Gate bridge had a birthday this week. It wasn’t a milestone one. The bridge opened to traffic on May 27, 1937.

Awards:

Selmaa Ahmad was awarded the first A.C. Bose Grant from the Speculative Fiction Foundation. The award is presented to a South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. Ahmad’s stories sound wonderful.

The Ursa Major awards, for excellence in the furry arts, were awarded on May 26, at AnthroOhio.

Also honoring the anthropomorphic, the Coyotl awards, presented in Portland, Oregon. (I’m tempted to write something with a... Read More

Phoenix Sculpture by Xu Bing. Image from Walkaboutny.com

Awards:

Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal, Bo Bolander and Aliette de Bodard among others for their Nebula wins last weekend. The full list of winners can be found here. Congratulations and thanks to all the finalists for providing us with such wonderful ideas, characters and stories.

Crimefest awards were announced, with Robert Galbraith AKA Read More

This week’s word for Wednesday is spelaean, an adjective, meaning like a cave. That’s no real surprise since I’m sure it’s from the same root as the verb spelunk. 

Awards:

It’s awards season! And you don’t need an antihistamine to enjoy it!

File 770 wins the award for Most Meta; a list of Best Awards! The Awards Award. No surprise that the Hugo and the Nebula top the list, but I was surprised to see the Shirley Jackson award so low.

Paul Tremblay won a Bram Stoker award for The Cabin at the End of the World. The other winners are included in the link.

Apologies if I’ve already posed this; The Dartmouth Neukom Institute Read More

Red rhododendrons at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden. Photo by Marion Deeds, 2019

Cons:

SpikeCon, scheduled for July 4-7, 2019, will be held in Utah. This year’s convention will be a blend of NASFIC and WesterCon. NASFIC is the North American convention that is held in any years that WorldCon is not held in the USA.

Awards:

The finalists for the Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.

I did not know there was a Woman’s Award, but there is, and Madeline Miller’s Circe made the finalist list, alon... Read More

(I was out of town most of last week and the weekend with no time to do a links column. Instead I am posting my observations of a TV adaptation of the Roswell High books by Melinda Metz. Links will be back on May 8!)

Roswell, New Mexico, the CW.

I watched the first season of the CW’s Roswell, New Mexico, and I have Thoughts. I’m a sucker for “aliens among us” stories, so this reboot of the tale was a natural for me. Am I embarrassed to admit that I sometimes watch the CW? I’m not. I’m not their demo, but I know a few people in my age group who watch it too. It’s like we’re aliens hiding in plain sight among their viewership.

In 1999, the CW tried a show called Roswell, based on the YA series ROSWELL HIGH by Read More

Awards:

Voting for the semi-finalists of the Alliance Award for excellence in Christian speculative fiction closed yesterday. (Thanks to File 770.)

Housekeeping:

I will be out of town the rest of the week and early next. I will post a column on 5/1, but it won’t be links.

Valley and volcanoes in Iceland. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Books and Writing:

This Hawaiian Business Magazine article explores native Hawaiian culture as one that practices the scientific method and incorporates respect for the environment.

It’s embarrassi... Read More

Gene Wolfe. Image (c) Locus Magazine

Obituary:

Gene Wolfe died on Sunday, April 14. Wolfe was a master writer who is probably best known for THE BOOKS OF THE NEW SUN. Wolfe’s work dealt with identity, memory and mystery, often featuring a main character who didn’t realize that he (and it was usually a “he”) had only a small part to play in a much larger story. His prose is amazing, and he will be missed. Tor.com celebrates the life of this master storyteller.

Awards:

File 770 presents the long list for the Best Books in Transla... Read More

This week’s word for Wednesday, courtesy of Haggard Hawks: the noun babby-laker, meaning a person who engages in foolish speculation or ideas. Try to use it in a sentence sometime this week.

Books and Writing:

Shelf Awareness and Sarah Pinsker discuss favorite books.

Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer will judge the 2019 Neukom Awards. The Awards gives a $5,000 prize for excellence in a speculative fiction work that honors the imagination. (Thanks to Locus Read More

This week’s word for Wednesday is velutinous, an adjective, meaning to have a soft, velvety surface, usually used to describe plants.

Obituary:

Vonda McIntyre, author of the award-winning Dreamsnake and The Moon and the Sun, passed away on April 1. McIntyre had announced eight weeks earlier that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. McIntyre founded Clarion West in 1970 and ran it for three years. McIntyre’s work was an inspiration to imagination, and she personally was a source of great encouragement and support for emerging writers.

Spring Wildlflowers, image from Sierra Club.

Awards:

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Wow, that month went by fast.

Awards:

Gabriela Damian Miravete has won the James Tiptree award for 2018 with They Will Dream in the Garden.

The Horror Writers Association awarded their Specialty Press award to Raw Dog Screaming Press. There’s an evocative name.

Conventions:

(Re)Generation Who 5, a Doctor Who convention scheduled for this upcoming weekend, has cancelled abruptly. (Thanks to File 770 for this item.)

Author Brian Fie...

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In honor of the first day of spring, here is a video of spring thaw in Yosemite, CA. (Some may find the guitar music annoying.) It’s more of a photo album of the park and the valley, but still. Happy spring for those of us in the northern hemisphere. southern hemisphere folks, happy autumn. (Is that right?)



Awards:

Of course there is an award for best vampire fiction; did you ever doubt it? The Lord Ruthven Awards for 2019 were announced, with Theodora Goss’s European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman winning for best work of long fiction. A work by Amy J Ransome, I Am Legend as American Myth, won for best nonfiction.

Conventions: Read More

Books and Writing:

Joshua Bilmes founded Jabberwocky Literary Agency. In this interview with the Odyssey Writing Workshop, he provides some valuable information on the role of agents and dispenses writing advice.

Nerds of a Feather spends a few minutes with writer and editor Catherine Lundoff, who shares some book recommendations.

According to the U.K. Guardian, the release of Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale will be a media event, com... Read More

Awards Finalist Lists:

The Nebula short-list has been announced.

Housekeeping:

There will be no column next week, March 6, but expect some photos from FOGCon on March 13, and check the Twitter feed for tweets from Terry and me during the convention.

A Sahara Desert dune.

Lawsuits:

The writer and internet personality who sued the San Jose WorldCon Committee last year has had four of his five charges dismissed by a Santa Clara judge. Two failed as a matter of law because the plaintiff claimed he was discriminated agains... Read More

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