The last Wednesday of March, so let’s celebrate with our by-now customary trip through the byways of the Internet, seeking out all the stories and announcements you might have missed in the excitement of instantly clicking to FanLit (because that’s what you all do, right?!)

1) How Do You Organise Your Library?fantasy and science fiction book reviews

We all love a gratuitous look at other people’s shelves, and find out how/whether they organise their books, and Grasping For The Wind asked the blogosphere the question ‘how do you organise your library?’ Many bloggers, including our very own Bill, offered up their own methods so feel free to drool/throw jealous comments towards them. In a similar vein, you can find some ‘Beautiful Bookshelves‘ here as well!

2) Introducing Speculative Book Review

A few of our fellow bloggers have joined forces to create a monumental new review site, called Speculative Book Review. Go and show them some love! (But not too much! FanLit should be your only true love!) As well as book reviews, they are providing some nice articles, including this one where Peter William attends a reading/signing by Patrick Rothfuss.

3) The Heroes

This news has sent the Internet aflutter over the last day or so: Joe Abercombie‘s forthcoming fantasy The Heroes has had blurb and cover art attached — many blogs have run with this news but I shall send you particularly to The Speculative Scotsman for his take on The Heroes.

fantasy and science fiction book reviews4) Anyone for a new Twilight novella?!

Atom brought us news that Stephenie Meyer has penned a new novella in the world of Twilight, entitled The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. My Favourite Books have brought us the complete press release dealing with Stephenie Meyer’s new novella!

5) World Horror Con

On the weekend of March 25th-28th, Brighton in the UK hosted the World Horror Convention. The event was sold out for months beforehand, and well attended by a huge number of horror fans. Some of the highlights included Neil Gaiman popping in as a surprise guest to interview James Herbert, which no doubt delighted those there. Adele (Hagelrat) over at Un:bound gives us the rundown on her visit to WHC in two parts: WHC Part 1 and WHC Part 2.

6) A new direction for publishers?

In an acknowledged innovative new method for publishers to deal with online reviews, Headline books invited a vast crowd of UK bloggers to attend a party at their HQ along with six of their authors. There are a number of write ups of the Headline Blogger Party, including this one by Alex Bell (author of Lex Trent Versus the Gods), and this one by Carolyn over at Book Chick City.

fantasy and science fiction book reviews7) Protagonist Analysis

I pulled out Paul C Smith’s blog last time around, and encouraged you to click because of the quality of his work, and then he goes and starts a series of articles on famous speculative fiction protagonists — starting with the greatest anti-hero of them all: Elric of Melnibone. Look out for more in this series!

8) Bram Stoker Awards

As part of the World Horror Con (which you’ve read all about now thanks to my links above? *grin*) the Bram Stoker Awards winners were announced. Mihai (happy birthday) over at Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews had already asked the nominees how it felt being nominated for the award and now he brings us the list of winners. Congratulations to all the winners!

9) And they say SF is dying!

With a heading lifted directly from the original post, Fantasy Book Critic bring us the glad news that SF is not dying! This is a list of 41 SF novels currently on the ‘long list’ for the Arthur Clarke award (the shortlist of which will be announced on March 31st — so should be floating around on the blogosphere as you read this, and will no doubt be brought to you on a later edition of WWW).

10) 24-hour Read-a-thon!

Yes, you did read that right! Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-thon is taking place on Saturday 10th April and running through until Sunday 11th. It literally is exactly what it says: 24 hours of unadulterated reading bliss, with various mini challenges and cheerleaders to add to the fun! If this one is coming up on you a little too fast to sign up, it also takes place in October 2010.

In the immortal words of Looney Tunes: “That’s all, folks!” See you next Wednesday!

Author

  • Amanda Rutter (guest)

    AMANDA RUTTER, one of our guest reviewers, used to be an accountant in the UK but she escaped the world of numbers and is now living in a fantasy world she creates. She runs Angry Robot's YA imprint, Strange Chemistry. And we knew her when....