WWWednesday: February 20, 2019

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’re there, we’d love to meet you!

Books and Writing:

Colleen Doran will adapt Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples for Dark Horse comics.

The James Tipree, Jr. Foundation announces two new Tiptree Fellows. The foundation awards grants to writers whose work encourages the exploration and expansion of gender. (Thanks to File 770.)

With the still-fairly-new Best Series category in the Hugos, File 770 has opened a Best Series discussion.

Curiosity Quills Press has run into financial difficulties and will be pulling back on some of its projects, according to an article in Locus.

Last month, Chuck Wendig wrote about the process of being a writer; specifically, a “failed novelist.” (Warning for language.)

The U.K. Guardian asked people what book they recommended (this is a regular feature). There are a couple of genre offerings on the list, and just some good books in general.

New Releases:

I’m eager to get my gaze on New Suns, the anthology edited by Nisi Shawl featuring works by under-represented writers. Check out other new releases, here… as always, lots of tasty stuff.

Nakia and Shuri. Photo from Black Enterprise.

Movies and TV:

Kenneth Turan writes about why Black Panther should win an Oscar for Best Picture.

This is only tangentially a Game of Thrones story, but I could not resist this headline. The special goats who star in GoT are endangered because of a semen shortage. The goats are bred in Iceland. The article is actually a serious one about a breeding program designed to bring these goats back from extinction. A suggestion: stop letting the dragons eat them!

As many people expected, Netflix has cancelled the two remaining Marvel’s Defenders series; Jessica Jones and The Punisher.

Starz is cancelling its alternate-history spy drama, Counterpart. This means last Sunday’s episode effectively ends the show on a cliffhanger.

AV Club has tidbits about the Avatar sequel… and the article says that there will be five Avatar movies. Smart of Cameron to pick a storyline that doesn’t end with a boat sinking, I guess.

IO9 asked readers to share their favorite spaceship reveal and got more than they bargained for. Is your favorite in here?

Games:

Peter Tieryas waxes nostalgic for Silent Hill games. (Warning, spoilers.)

Internet:

Over at Tedium (style points for the name!) the author wants to take boring things and make them interesting. Here is an article about musical instruments you have probably never seen nor heard or (nor heard).

Would you like to wear the words of your favorite speculative fiction book? What looks like a fine weave on these shirts is actually the prose of the book. (Thanks to Sandy.)

Earth:

Smithsonian Magazine provides a link to an interactive map of the planet that models what the world looked like millions of years ago. You can put in your own address and see how the neighborhood has changed. (It’s no surprise that my home was underwater.)