Monthly Archives: March 2013

Buy Loncon 3 Memberships with Installment Plan

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Loncon 3, the 2014 Worldcon in London, is offering attending memberships on an installment payment plan that permits fans to spread the cost over 3 quarterly or 4 monthly installments.

The plan calls for fans to buy a supporting membership first (currently 25.00 British pounds or US$40.00) and then pay the amount needed to convert it to an attending membership by installments.

The total charge for the membership will be frozen at the time of signing up for the Plan. (Note also that a rate hike is coming May 1, 2013.)

The plan is available to Adults, Young Adults and Families.

Complete details are on the Loncon 3 website — http://loncon3.org/instalment-membership-plan

The full press release follows the jump.

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Baen Podcast Available

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The new Baen Free Radio Hour, a weekly podcast, offers listeners the initial chapters of David Weber’s Shadow of Freedom in audiobook form as part of a special agreement with Audible.com. It will be serialized with one new chapter each week.

Baen’s podcast will draw content from Baen authors and other top names. There will also be news features, discussions, writing and reading suggestions, plus fiction and drama based on the works of Baen authors. The podcast posts new installments weekly on Friday at noon.

“We’re absolutely convinced that serializing Shadow of Freedom will draw listeners to the complete audiobook available on Audible.com, and to David Weber’s great Honor Harrington series available in print and ebook form,” says Baen Publisher Toni Weisskopf. “The podcast itself is a showcase of all things Baen, and revolves around our authors, their books, and the interests of our wonderful reading community. And with audiobook serials and audio dramas, the podcast is packed with both information and entertainment for listeners.”

Corflu Chair Says Don’t Miss the Block Party

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The 2013 Corflu room block expires in a few days warns Dan Steffan. Everyone planning to attend — please make your room reservations soon.

Corflu XXX takes place May 3-5 at The Red Lion Hotel Portland – Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. While the convention room rate of $99 per night will continue in effect, the availability of rooms after that date will be first come, first served.

Also, time is running out to vote in the Fan Activity Achievement Awards. Get your ballots in to Andrew Hooper by April 6 – discussion and links to the ballot here (or go straight to the Corflu XXX site.)

Frankel’s New Hobbit Parody

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Parodies are the cornerstone of Valerie Estelle Frankel’s career. Now the author who’s sent up Harry Potter, Buffy, and The Hunger Games has twisted The Hobbit into a Gordian knot of mirth, judging by her description on Amazon:

An Unexpected Parody: The Unauthorized Spoof of The Hobbit revisits the film with mayhem, mirth, and magic missiles—or at least, crumpled newspaper missiles. Torn Teepeeshield, the Hot Prince of the Dwarves, puts aside his developing stardom in dwarf cabaret to quest to the LameOldMountain and destroy the dragon Erpolushun, or in the common tongue, Smog. Gonedaft the Grey, formerly known as Gonedaft the Grizzled and Gonedaft of the Rainbow Tie-die that He So Can’t Pull Off, recruits Bumble Baglunch, country gentleman and professional coward, since as an avid comic book fan and all-around geek, Bumble’s too smart to fall prey to obvious fantasy clichés. Together with Bobbin, Noggin, Rover, Clover, Sloppy, Ploppy, Frappe, Hottie, Spottie, Quaff, Sloth, and Ezekiel the dwarves, they journey across Renfair Earth to revive their franchise. Destiny may be a word writers use to pave over plotholes, but Bumble is determined to triumph nonetheless and play as good a game of goblin golf as his ancestors.

It will be quite some book if it sustains this level of humorous invention all the way through

[Thanks to Willard Stone for the story.]

David B. Silva (1950-2013)

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Horror author and editor David B. Silva, 62, died of unknown causes on March 13; he had been in declining health for some time.

He had almost 60 published short stories — “The Calling” won a HWA Bram Stoker Award (1991), and some were selected for The Year’s Best Horror, The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, and The Best American Mystery Stories. There were four collections of Silva’s stories, These Dreams That Sleep Disturbs (1992), Through Shattered Glass (2000) an International Horror Guild award winner, A Little White Book of Lies (2006) and The Shadows of Kingston Mills (2009).

His novels include All the Lonely People, Child of Darkness, Come Thirteen, The Disappeared, The Presence, and The Many.

Silva’s small-press magazine The Horror Show received four World Fantasy Award “special award, nonprofessional” nominations, winning once in 1988. It became the primary magazine for new writers Poppy Z. Brite, Nancy A. Collins and Bentley Little. And his Hellnotes (edited with Paul Olson) was a frequent Bram Stoker nominee.

Robert Smartwood posted a lengthy tribute to his friend Silva, part of which gives his background and importance to the horror fiction field.

From February 1997 until September 2002, and from late 2004 until the present, Silva has served as editor of Hellnotes. Originally a weekly subscription newsletter dedicated to the horror professional and horror fan alike, Hellnotes was recently purchased by JournalStone Publishing and is currently a free blog, updated several times a day by Silva with latest news in the horror genre.

Anybody familiar with this blog knows just how much I loved Dave’s work. I must admit, The Horror Show was before my time, but in high school I read several issues of Cemetery Dance, which I later learned had been inspired by The Horror Show. In fact, when Jesus Gonzalez showed me some past issues of The Horror Show, it was clear that CD had used it as a model — the layout, formatting, everything.

The Horror Show was groundbreaking and seminal and it launched the careers of so many writers. Talk to any horror writer over forty years old and they’re apt to tell you just how much The Horror Show influenced them. In many ways, it helped shape and nurture the horror genre as it is today.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Aurealis Awards Finalists

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The 2012 Aurealis Awards shortlist has been announced. The winners, as well as the recipient of the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence will be announced at the awards ceremony on May 18 in North Sydney, Australia.

FANTASY NOVEL
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (Random House Australia)
Stormdancer by  Jay Kristoff (Tor UK)
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
Flame of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier  (Pan Macmillan Australia)
Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier (HarperVoyager)

FANTASY SHORT STORY
“Sanaa’s Army” by Joanne Anderton (Bloodstones, Ticonderoga Publications)
“The Stone Witch” by Isobelle Carmody (Under My Hat, Random House)
“First They Came” by Deborah Kalin (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 55)
“Bajazzle” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
“The Isles of the Sun” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
Suited by Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
The Last City by Nina D’Aleo (Momentum)
And All The Stars by Andrea K Host (self–?published)
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Walker Books)
Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (Harper Collins)

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
“Visitors” by James Bradley (Review of Australian Fiction)
“Significant Dust” by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
“Beyond Winter’s Shadow” by Greg Mellor (Wild Chrome, Ticonderoga Publications)
“The Trouble with Memes” by Greg Mellor (Wild Chrome, Ticonderoga Publications)
“The Lighthouse Keepers’ Club” by Kaaron Warren (Exotic Gothic 4, PS Publishing)

HORROR NOVEL
Bloody Waters by Jason Franks (Possible Press)
Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
Blood and Dust by Jason Nahrung (Xoum)
Salvage by Jason Nahrung (Twelfth Planet Press)

HORROR SHORT STORY
“Sanaa’s Army” by Joanne Anderton (Bloodstones, Ticonderoga Publications)
“Elyora” by Jodi Cleghorn (Rabbit Hole Special Issue, Review of Australian Fiction)
“To Wish Upon a Clockwork Heart” by Felicity Dowker (Bread and Circuses, Ticonderoga Publications)
“Escena de un Asesinato” by Robert Hood (Exotic Gothic 4, PS Publishing)
“Sky” by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls, Twelfth Planet Press)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Dead, Actually by Kaz Delaney (Allen & Unwin)
And All The Stars by Andrea K. Host (self–?published)
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Walker Books)
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
Into That Forest by  Louis Nowra (Allen & Unwin)

YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
“Stilled Lifes x 11” by Justin D’Ath (Trust Me Too, Ford Street Publishing)
“The Wisdom of the Ants” by Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld)
“Rats” by Jack Heath (Trust Me Too, Ford Street Publishing)
“The Statues of Melbourne” by Jack Nicholls (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 56)
“The Worry Man” by Adrienne Tam (self–?published)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)
Brotherband: The Hunters by John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
Princess Betony and the Unicorn by Pamela Freeman (Walker Books)
The Silver Door by Emily Rodda (Scholastic)
Irina the Wolf Queen by Leah Swann (Xoum Publishing)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)
Little Elephants by Graeme Base (author and illustrator) (Viking Penguin)
The Boy Who Grew Into a Tree by Gary Crew (author) and Ross Watkins (illustrator) (Penguin Group Australia)
In the Beech Forest by Gary Crew (author) and Den Scheer (illustrator) (Ford Street Publishing)
Inside the World of Tom Roberts by Mark Wilson (author and illustrator) (Lothian Children’s Books)

ILLUSTRATED BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL
Blue by Pat Grant (author and illustrator) (Top Shelf Comix)
It Shines and Shakes and Laughs by Tim Molloy (author and illustrator) (Milk Shadow Books)
Changing Ways #2 by Justin Randall (author and illustrator) (Gestalt Publishing)

ANTHOLOGY
The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011 edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)
Bloodstones edited by Amanda Pillar (Ticonderoga Publications)
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Volume 6 edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books)
Under My Hat edited by Jonathan Strahan (Random House)
Edge of Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan (Solaris Books)

COLLECTION
That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote by K. J. Bishop (self–?published)
Metro Winds by Isobelle Carmody (Allen & Unwin)
Midnight and Moonshine by Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga Publications)
Living With the Dead by Martin Livings (Dark Prints Press)
Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren (Twelfth Planet Press)

Good SF Day in the LA Times

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Nalo Hopkinson gives a very interesting interview to reporter Mindy Farabee, “Nalo Hopkinson’s science fiction and real-life family”.

Nalo Hopkinson is trying to mess with your mind. The much-lauded writer of science fiction and fantasy sits at one of her favorite Mexican joints, Tio’s Tacos, a funky art-strewn restaurant near the campus of UC Riverside, where she has taught creative writing since 2011.

There’s also a video interview with George R. R. Martin who comments about the good reception for a game based on his “Song of Ice and Fire” series, then reveals he hasn’t played video games for decades.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t like them,” Martin told the Los Angeles Times on the red carpet. “It was that I liked them too much. I think I probably lost a novel or two there.” 

2013 Hugo Nominations Break Record

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For the fifth consecutive year Worldcon members have cast a record-breaking number of Hugo nominating ballots. LoneStarCon 3 received 1,343 valid nominating ballots, exceeding the 1,101 received by Chicon 7 last year. Prior to that, Renovation received 1,006 in 2011, Aussiecon 4 received 864 in 2010 and Anticipation received 799 in 2009, each a record-setting figure at the time.

This record-setting trend likely gained momentum from a rules change effective in 2012 which broadened the voting base. Since last year, members in the forthcoming Worldcon have been allowed to nominate too, just as members of the current and previous Worldcon have long been able to do. LonCon 3 in 2014 is a European Worldcon, and I would guess has many members who don’t typically join when the con is in North America, making the universe of potential Hugo nomination voters that much larger than it was in 2012 when the pool consisted of members of three U.S. Worldcons (Renovation, Chicon 7, LoneStarCon 3).

The 2013 Hugo Award nominees will be announced on Saturday, March 30, starting at 3 p.m. CDT.

The nominations announcement will be made simultaneously at four conventions in the United States and United Kingdom, with the shortlists being published through the LoneStarCon 3 website immediately afterwards.

Conventions taking part in the announcement are:

  • Norwescon 36, in Seatac, WA (1 p.m. PDT)
  • Minicon 48, in Bloomington, MN (3 p.m. CDT)
  • Marcon 48, in Columbus, OH (4 p.m. EDT)
  • EightSquaredCon, the British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon), in Bradford, England (8 p.m. GMT).

Nominations will also be released category by category via the LoneStarCon 3 Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LoneStarCon3 and the LoneStarCon 3 Twitter feed at twitter.com/LoneStarCon.

The full press release follows the jump.

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SF Exhibit at SDSU

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strange2_0Greg Bear’s lecture today, March 22 at 2:00, kicks off San Diego State University’s exhibit of science fiction items from its collection, Strange Data, Infinite Possibilities.

An SDSU alumnus, Bear sold his first short story to Famous Science Fiction at age 15 and, along with high-school friends, helped found San Diego Comic-Con. At SDSU, he was a teaching assistant for Prof. Elizabeth Chater’s science fiction course and went on to be a quite successful writer of hard science fiction, fantasy and horror. Bear is the recipient of two Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards and has had more than 60 works published. His newest book, Halo: Silentium (Tor Books, 2013) will be available for signing.

Other lectures in this series will be given by Larry McCafferey (April 18) and Vernor Vinge (May 16).

The library built its SF collection with contributions from SDSU English professor Elizabeth Chater, who in 1977 began donating her science fiction books to Special Collections in Love Library; William D. Phillips, Jr.; Larry McCaffery; and Edward E. Marsh. 

Strange Data, Infinite Possibilities will remain in the library’s Donor Hallway through late August 2013. 

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]