Here we are once again in the middle of the week – I do love Wednesdays! And this Wednesday for me signifies just a couple more days in work before a well-earned vacation. Don’t worry, I have something slightly different planned for the WWW post during my absence which will be scheduled to go up regular as clockwork *grin*
1) 200 SFX Features
Over here in the UK we have a magazine called SFX (I’m pretty sure it is delivered to foreign climes as well!) and it covers all manner of genre topics. They are celebrating the 200th issue with a nice little feature on their website: showcasing a number of their articles, pictures, interviews, reviews in a potluck fashion. Should give you plenty to read!
2) Genre Diversity
Mark Charan Newton is up to his old tricks – he has posted on his blog about those review sites that are tackling some of the older works of speculative fiction, and how this diversity is good for the genre. The comments are particularly illuminating.
3) National Buy A Book Day
I urge you all – if you never ever click through to any of the other links I provide each week, please click on this one. Philip Athans speaks passionately about the bookselling industry and the fact that it finds itself in dire straits. He invites every one of us to go out on 7th September and buy a full-priced book from a bricks and mortar store to keep alive the industry that provides each and every one of us so much entertainment.
4) Today’s superheroes send wrong image to boys!
Steve from Steve’s Fantasy Book Reviews read this post which declared that superheroes send the wrong images to boys and was prompted to write a two post rebuttal. Well worth reading!
5) Twitter for Authors
An odd link, this one. I know that only a few of our readers will be authors, but I think these handy posts about using Twitter might be useful for anyone who wants to engage more with other readers.
6) Favourite SF/F Settings
The latest Mind Meld from SF Signal deals with favourite SF/F settings.Which are yours?
7) Forbes Highest Paid Authors
For all those would-be writers out there, these numbers might make you think more seriously about whipping that manuscript into shape – the names on this list of highest paid authors are the exception rather than the rule though!
8) More Awards!
Although we often complain that genre fiction is not recognised by the literary prizes, we do have such a large number of awards that are dedicated to speculative fiction. Here we have the list of the World Fantasy award Nominees. Have you read any of those nominated?
9) 10 Reasons Why Transformers is PURE awesome!
You’ll have to forgive me this one *grin*. I am a massive fan of the Transformers animated movie (none of this live action rubbish!) and it turns out that James from Speculative Horizons is just as much of a fanboy, giving 10 reasons for why the movie is so awesome!
10) Untapped Audience for SF Magazines
Another blog post where the comments section is actually of more interest than the post itself – here Will Ellwood guests over on Damien G. Walters’ blog about the untapped audience for SF magazines.
That’s all folks! I’ll be sunning myself on a beach next Wednesday, so do think of me jealously!
I read Newton’s post, and was kind of boggled at the vitriol in the comments. I like seeing reviews of the shiny new thing, and I like seeing reviews of older stuff (like all the cheesy-covered gold Kat keeps finding) and I like to read old books when a good one crosses my path…why is there so much hostility about this, I wonder? Bleh.
I believe in supporting local bookstores but a lot of times I go to my local Borders to get something that was released a day or two ago and they still don’t have it out on the shelves. Then they will order it and ship it to my house for free. which is OK for me but I don’t see how they can make money on the book that way.
I have a favorite local bookstore, and lucky for me, they’re really heavy on the UF and PNR. :thumb: Plus they have used books, and that’s where I’ve gotten a lot of the old stuff I’ve found lately, like the Eileen Kernaghan book.
Some of my favorite SFF settings are C.J. Cherryh’s Alliance/Union universe + Herbert with the Dune series and Dosadi.
Reading Newton’s post I wondered. I started reading SFF decades ago :choked: with Simak and Sturgeon : they opened new worlds for me, as did Tolkien. But nobody refer to them nowadays. I have not read them for a few years now, but I do think they could still be good to discover. Should re-read them and write a review. ;-)