The Spectrum 24 Awards were presented at a ceremony in the historic Folly Theater in Kansas City on April 22 during Spectrum Fantastic Art Live.
Gold and Silver Awards recipients were selected by a jury consisting of Christian Alzmann (Senior Art Director ILM), Laurie Lee Brom (gallery painter), Mark Newman (sculptor), Victo Ngai (illustrator), and John Picacio (illustrator) in eight categories. Also presented were the Spectrum Rising Star Award (for an emerging talent) determined by Kristine and Colin Poole and the Spectrum Grand Master Award (for lifetime achievement) selected by the Spectrum Advisory Board.
The awards this year were newly designed, sculpted, and cast by artist, SFX creator, past Spectrum juror, and Face-Off competition-winner J. Anthony Kosar.
The award-winning works and the other art selected by the jury will be included in Spectrum 24: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by John Fleskes and published in November by Flesk Publications.
SPECTRUM RISING STAR AWARD
Alexandra Pisano
Alexandra Pisano – Rising Star Award
ADVERTISING CATEGORY
Silver Award: Greg Ruth “Daredevil”
Gold Award: Bayard Wu “Hunting”
Bayard Wu – “Hunting”
BOOK CATEGORY
Silver Award: Edward Kinsella III “Danneee”
Gold Award: Brom “Lamia”
Brom – “Lamia”
COMIC CATEGORY
Silver Award: Dave McKean “Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash”
Gold Award: Jeremy Wilson “Chimera Brigade #5”
Jeremy Wilson – “Chimera Brigade #5”
CONCEPT ART CATEGORY
Silver Award: Iain McCaig “Minion 5”
Gold Award: Sean Murray “Court of the Dead: Voxxingard”
Sean Murray – “Court of the Desd: Voxxingard”
DIMENSIONAL CATEGORY
Silver Award: Akihito “Nephila”
Gold Award: Jesse Thompson “Dress-Up Frog Legs”
Jesse Thompson – “Dress-Up Frog Legs”
EDITORIAL CATEGORY
Silver Award: Galen Dara “Seven Salt Tears”
Gold Award: Tim O’Brien “Beyonce ‘Lemonade'”
Tim O’Brien – “Beyonce: ‘Lemonade'”
INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY
Silver Award: Ed Binkley “William Finds Some Flowers and a Giant”
By Carl Slaughter: Robot Revolution, the latest in James Patterson’s New York Times bestselling House of Robots series, came out in January 2017.
HOUSE OF ROBOTS
Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez has never had an easy time fitting in at school. His mother is an inventor, his father is a graphic novel artist, and his beloved little sister has an immune condition that keeps her confined to the house. His best friend Trip has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And then, there are the robots: a houseful of his mother’s creations, programmed to do everything from housework to tutoring, plus some that don’t do anything useful at all.
When Sammy’s mother insists that he take a robot named E to school with him, he knows that he’s in for a record-breaking amount of teasing and trouble-and when E starts insisting that he is Sammy’s brother, the situation goes from bad to worse. Sammy refuses to have anything to do with E at school, even when the robot’s popularity starts to eclipse Sammy’s and Trip’s.
But when E is kidnapped, Sammy realizes that he was starting to get fond of his robot brother, and he teams up with friends (both human and robot) to solve the mystery of E’s disappearance.
ROBOTS GO WILD
In book two of the House of Robots series, it’s ‘bot brains versus ‘bot brawn in an all-out war!
Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez and his “bro-bot” E are making new friends every day as E works as his bedridden sister Maddie’s school proxy. But disaster strikes when E malfunctions just in time to be upstaged by the super-cool new robot on the block–and loses his ability to help Maddie. Now it’s up to Sammy to figure out what’s wrong with E and save his family!
ROBOT REVOLUTION
Robots on strike! Sammy’s underappreciated mechanical helpers are causing chaos in book 3 of the bestselling House of Robots series.
After a few early glitches in their relationship, Sammy and his “bro-bot” E are now fast friends. In fact, E is such a valued member of the family that the other electronic occupants of the House of Robots are feeling sorely unappreciated. And when Sammy’s inventor mom becomes distracted by a top-secret project, the robots soon begin to fall into disrepair.
Cue a robot revolt, with the droids wreaking harmless havoc in the house! Armed with pranks like glue in the shampoo bottles and flying toast missiles, the robots demand to be cared for. It’s up to Sammy and his disabled sister Maddie to keep the peace until his mom reveals her secret project…and why it was worth the wait.
PRAISE FOR JAMES PATTERSON’S HOUSE OF ROBOTS SERIES
“Underlying the novel’s laughs are themes of friendship, compassion, and family, particularly in regard to Sammy’s devotion to his younger sister…and his deepening relationship with his ‘bro-bot.'” ? Publishers Weekly
JIMMY PATTERSON IMPRINT
James Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers, including Middle School and I Funny, and his books have sold more than 325 million copies worldwide. He received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the 2015 National Book Awards. A tireless champion of the power of books and reading, Patterson has created a new children’s book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is simple: “We want every kid who finishes a JIMMY Book to say, ‘PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER BOOK.'” He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and funds over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities. He has also donated millions to independent bookstores and school libraries. Patterson will be investing his proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.
(1) UNORTHODOX APPROACH. Beginning July 18, a weekly podcast will be hosted by Sixth & I in Washington DC — “Harry Potter and The Sacred Text”.
What if we read the books we love as if they were sacred texts? What would we learn? How might they change us? Harry Potter and the Sacred Text is a podcast the reads Harry Potter, the best-selling series of all time, as if it was a sacred text.
Just as Christians read the Bible, Jews the Torah, and Muslims read the Quran, Harvard chaplains Vanessa Zoltan and Casper ter Kuile embark on a 199 episode journey (one chapter per week) to glean what wisdom and meaning J.K. Rowling’s beloved novels have in store.
The chaplains read the beloved series through the lens of instructive and inspirational text and extract lessons that can be applied to our own lives.
At the end of 199 weeks will something more emerge from these readings?
First the good news: professional orchestras are filled with women today, a vast contrast to 40 or 50 years ago when orchestras were almost entirely male. This is now a viable career for the most talented women instrumentalists.
The bad news is that the picture is not nearly as rosy for women composers, who are not well represented on orchestral programs. And women conductors are no better off than composers.
The growing numbers of women in professional orchestras at every level can be traced to a single innovation that began around 1970: “blind auditions,” where competing candidates for open orchestral jobs play behind a screen. The selection committee does not know if it is hearing a man or a woman. The rapid change in the makeup of orchestras since 1970—casually visible and backed up by the numbers—is compelling evidence of the opposition women orchestral players faced before that innovation.
… In an article titled “Orchestrating Impartiality,” published in 2000 in The American Economic Review, researchers Claudia Goldin and Cecilia Rouse concluded that “the screen increases—by 50 percent—the probability that a woman will be advanced from certain preliminary rounds and increases by severalfold the likelihood that a woman will be selected in the final round.” Their conclusion is backed up by 25 pages of charts, graphs and statistical studies.
(3) CON OR BUST AUCTION. The Con or Bust annual fundraising auction has begun and runs until May 7 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Con or Bust, Inc., is a tax-exempt not-for-profit organization that helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions.
The Kitty Hawk Flyer is an electric aircraft that, in its current version, looks a bit like a flying Jet Ski. Cimeron Morrissey, who test flew the aircraft, wrote in a review that the final version would look quite different from the prototype, which doesn’t look all that practical.
A New York Times profile of the Flyer describes it as “something Luke Skywalker would have built out of spare parts.” The vehicle weighs about 100 kilograms and, according to Morrissey, can travel up to 25 mph. She likened the Flyer to “a toy helicopter.”
Go to the Support Peter Beagle website and use the button there to contribute to a fund to help pay for Peter Beagle’s legal costs. You can leave a message for Peter in the paypal field; I am told he will receive and read all messages sent this way.
BUY THE HUMBLE BUNDLE!
Peter Beagle has curated a Humble Bumble of unicorn fiction, called “Save the Unicorns.” You can pay as little as $1 to get a ton of novels to read, and support Peter Beagle at the same time! Important: In “choose where your money goes,” pick 100% Tachyon Press. Peter Beagle will get royalties and such from Tachyon for these Humble Bumble sales.
I can imagine your fan mail. I can’t imagine your hate mail.
I’ve gotten lots of hate mail over the years. I’ll probably get more once the television series comes out. But I’m not advocating for one thing or the other. I’m saying that what kind of laws you pass — those laws will have certain kinds of results. So you should think carefully about whether you want to have those results or not.
If you’re going to ban birth control, if you’re going to ban information about reproduction, if you’re going to defund all of those things, there will be consequences. Do you want those consequences or not? Are you willing to pay for them or not?
Listen to the “Patt Morrison Asks” podcast and read the full interview at here.
(8) WHO’S THAT SHOUTING? Two writers here for the LA Festival of Books indulge in shenanigans. (Hm, just discovered my spellchecker has a different opinion of how shenanigans is spelled than I have – dang, it did it again!)
True story: after hanging with @ChuckWendig in the bar last night, said to him, "Well, see you in all caps on Twitter tomorrow." pic.twitter.com/fGYnqxImGn
Relatively little else is known about the big purple light as yet but it appears it is not an aurora as it does not stem from the interaction of solar particles with the Earth’s magnetic field.
There are reports that the group called it Steve in homage to a 2006 children’s film, Over the Hedge, where the characters give the name to a creature they have not seen before.
Roger Haagmans of the ESA said: “It is amazing how a beautiful natural phenomenon, seen by observant citizens, can trigger scientists’ curiosity.
“It turns out that Steve is actually remarkably common, but we hadn’t noticed it before. “It’s thanks to ground-based observations, satellites, today’s explosion of access to data and an army of citizen scientists joining forces to document it.”
In the early days of the 20th century, the United States Radium Corporation had factories in New Jersey and Illinois, where they employed mostly women to paint watch and clock faces with their luminous radium paint. The paint got everywhere — hair, hands, clothes, and mouths.
They were called the shining girls, because they quite literally glowed in the dark. And they were dying.
Kate Moore’s new book The Radium Girls is about the young women who were poisoned by the radium paint — and the five who sued United States Radium in a case that led to labor safety standards and workers’ rights advances.
Peggy Whitson has broken the record for most days in space by a US astronaut.
Dr Whitson already holds records for the most spacewalks carried out by a woman astronaut and is the first woman to command the International Space Station (ISS) twice.
Now she’s beaten the record previously set by Jeff Williams, who had a total of 534 days in space.
President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka have called Dr Whitson to congratulate her.
This weekend the second Silicon Valley Comic Con took place, featuring robotics, virtual reality and a wax statue of Steve Wozniak. But everyone knows that Comic Con is really about one thing, and that’s the jaw dropping cosplay. From menacing Jokers to an adorable Hatsune Miku costume, enjoy this roundup of some of the most eye-catching costumes at the show…
(13) DOC WEIR AWARD. British Eastercon members voted the 2017 Doc Weir Award to Serena Culfeather and John Wilson.
The Doc Weir Award was set up in 1963 in memory of fan Arthur Rose (Doc) Weir, who had died two years previously. Weir was a relative newcomer to fandom, he discovered it late in life – but in the short time of his involvement he was active in a number of fannish areas. In recognition of this, the Award is sometimes seen as the “Good Guy” Award; something for “The Unsung Heroes”.
(14) SCIENCE QUESTION. I thought you could only get hit by a meteorite? (Unless it’s being smacked by a wet echinoderm he’s worried about.)
Oooh #HugoAwards voting is now open! I'll have to get a safety ballot in, in case I get hit by an asteroid
April 24, 1184 B.C. – Traditional date of the Fall of Troy, calculated by Eratosthenes.
April 24, 1990 – Hubble Space Telescope launched.
(16) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY SCHLOCK MEISTER
Born April 24, 1914 – Filmmaker William Castle
(17) CARTOON OF THE DAY. “Cat City” by Victoria Vincent on Vimeo explains what happens when a cat runs away from home to become a hairdresser and drinks too much!
(19) NOVELLA INITIATIVE. The Book Smugglers published the first 2017 entry in their Novella Initiative last week, Dianna Gunn’s novella Keeper of the Dawn.
In Keeper of the Dawn, the first novella from Book Smugglers Publishing, author Dianna Gunn introduces readers to strong-willed Lai. All her life she has dreamed of following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother and becoming a priestess in service to her beloved goddesses. But even after lifelong preparation, she fails trials and her next instinct is to run away.
Off in the north kingdom of Alanum, as she works to recalibrate her future, Lai becomes the bodyguard of a wealthy merchant, who is impressed by her strength and bravery. One night she hears stories about a mountain city where they worship the same goddesses she does. Determined to learn more about these women, these Keepers of the Dawn, Lai travels onward to find their temple and do whatever it takes to join their sacred order. Falling in love with another initiate was not part of the plan.
Keeper of the Dawn, rich with female empowerment, is a multi-layered LGBTQIA YA Fantasy story about fate, forgiving yourself, and the endurance of hope.
In many ways Lai’s story also mirrors the story of my own career. I’ve dreamed about being an author since the age of eight, and as a child I stubbornly believed I would have my first novel published before my eighteenth birthday.
Well, my eighteenth birthday came and went some years ago, and only now is my first book coming out. But I have already been a working writer for six years, writing marketing materials for many different companies and non-profits. More importantly, my dream still came true—just a few years later than planned.
(20) CLARKE AWARD CONTENDERS. A couple of Shadow Clarke jurors take their turn discussing what have proven to be group favorites, while another visits less familiar ground.
Part of the way it reworks things is that it’s not about the Up and Out, but the ups and downs. The rigors of life are always present: people make decisions, those decisions impact life, and they rarely have anything to do with that giant monstrosity towering from the south that hurls people into outer space. The Central Station of Central Station is a mere landmark, an economic hub and cultural icon, but as Maureen K. Speller points out in her review, “…even in science fiction, that so-called literature of the future, nothing lasts forever. The symbolic tropes – space ships, robots, AIs – will all eventually be absorbed and become part of the scenery.” The Central Station of the future is the airport of today: not that big of a deal.
This is a difficult, intractable, Gordian knot of a novel, the kind you recommend to like-minded friends more out of curiosity to see what they’ll make of it than from any reasonable belief that they’ll enjoy the book. Whether this novel – formally and stylistically perfect though it is, a rare gem of a debut that hints at that rare beast, a writer who knows precisely where he’s going and what he wants – can be enjoyed on anything other than a purely intellectual level is a debatable point; whether it can be enjoyed as science fiction still more so.
The Underground Railroad is about as significant a novel as American literary culture is capable of producing in the first quarter of the 21st century.
If you care enough about books to be reading this kind of essay then chances are that you have either purchased or taken an interest in this novel. Far from being organic and spontaneous, your decision to purchase Colson Whitehead’s latest novel is the result of almost every facet of American literary culture coming into alignment and choosing to imbue a single work with as much cultural significance as those institutions can conceivably muster. Already a winner of many prestigious literary awards and a beneficiary of both the Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, Colson Whitehead has now seen his sixth novel celebrated not only by Pulitzer and National Book Award judges but also by the – arguably more influential and economically important – face of Oprah’s Book Club.
(21) DOCTOR TINGLE AI. Applied Digital Studies Project uses a twitter bot to form new titles based on novels by Dr. Chuck Tingle. Not surprisingly, there is a good deal of butt and pounding in these titles. Still, some of them are funny.
The terror of my ass being haunted by Trains Living inside My Own Butt
Although Readercon is modeled on “science fiction conventions,” there is no art show, no costumes, no gaming, and almost no media. Instead, Readercon features a near-total focus on the written word….
Cinephiles, rejoice! Criterion Collection will be adding a major science-fiction classic to its roster this summer: a restored version of Stalker, directed by Solaris filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.
Based off the 1971 Russian science-fiction novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Stalker was originally released in 1979. The film follows a man known as “the Stalker” as he leads an expedition into a mysterious, forbidden area known as “The Zone.” In the book, the mysterious Zone is the location of an alien visitation decades before the story, littered with fantastic pieces of technology and dangers; in the film, its origins are more obscure. But in both cases, reality there is distorted, and somewhere inside is a room that will grant visitors’ innermost desires. The journey to get there is physically and philosophically arduous, and it tests the trio of men traveling there.
(25) SUBTITLES IN I KNOW NOT WHAT LANGUAGE. The Justice League Official International Trailer dropped today.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy.
The Marvel Studios offices are located on the second floor of the Frank G. Wells Building on the Walt Disney Studios lot. When you exit the elevators, you are greeted by a wall-to-wall mural featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy, and a big Marvel Studios logo.
Marvel Studios began in a tiny office in Santa Monica that they shared with a kite factory. After that, the company moved to an office above a Mercedes dealership in Beverly Hills. They were based out of Manhattan Beach Studios for a few years before Disney asked them to move onto the Burbank lot in 2014. But it wasn’t until a few months ago that Marvel fully decorated their offices….
A group of domino builders in Michigan created the world’s largest “circle bomb” using nearly 80,000 dominoes.
The Incredible Science Machine team broke the Guinness World Record for “Most dominoes toppled in a circle bomb/circle field” by creating a series of 76,017 dominoes that toppled from the center of a circle to its outer edge.
“The Incredible Science Machine Team is very passionate about domino art and sharing it with an audience to amaze and inspire them,” team leader Steve Price, 22, said.
A total of 18 builders from the United States, Canada, Germany and Austria spent 10 days constructing the domino formation at the Incredible Science Machine’s annual event in Westland, Mich.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Cat Eldridge, Mark-kitteh, Martin Morse Wooster, Chip Hitchcock, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mart.]
The five Philip K. Dick Award judges for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original format in the United States during the 2017 award year are:
Robert Onopa
Deborah J. Ross
James Stoddard
Amy Thomson
Rick Wilber
The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society.
The 2017 winner will be announced in 2018 at Norwescon, hosted by the Northwest Science Fiction Society.
ASFA, the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists, has announced the nominees for the 2017 Chesley Awards. ASFA members have until May 14 to cast their votes for the winners.
The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 as ASFA’s peer awards to recognize individual works and achievements not otherwise recognized by the Hugo Awards, during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later renamed to honor famed astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell after his death in 1986. The awards are usually presented annually at the World Science Fiction Convention or at the North American Science Fiction Convention when the Worldcon is held outside of North America.
2017 Chesley Award Final Nomination List (for 2016 Works)
Online voting for the 2017 Hugo Awards is now available and will continue until July 15 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
Members of Worldcon 75 have been emailed personalized links to the final ballot. Voting by postal mail is also an option — a printable version of the Hugo ballot was included in Progress Report 4, which can be downloaded from the convention’s website.
Those voting online can make as many changes to their ballots as they want up to the deadline. A copy of their current ballot will be emailed to them an hour after they finish modifying it.
The Hugo Voter Packet will be available by May. An announcement will be made when it is ready.
By Carl Slaughter: Remember Dean Wesley Smith’s Star Trek anthology series? It’s back, minus Smith, and not coincidentally on the 50th anniversary. New author and Michigan creative writing teacher Kelli Fitzpatrick broke in through Simon & Schuster’s Strange New Worlds contest. Her story, “Sunwalkers,” is based on a Season 7 of Next Generation and is about Dr. Crusher dealing with the departure of her son while simultaneously responding to a medical crisis on an alien world. Fitzpatrick followed this by writing a review of the Season 3 episode “Ensigns of Command” for the forthcoming Outside In anthology.
Carl Slaughter: How did you get interested in Star Trek?
Kelli Fitzpatrick: I grew up watching Voyager with my Dad. He also had boxes of Star Trek books which I loved reading (and still do). As an adult, I once went camping just so I could read Star Trek novels for three days straight, uninterrupted.
CS: How did you get interested in writing science fiction?
KF: Science fiction was the genre that captured my imagination when I was scouring libraries for reading material as a teen. There’s something inherently optimistic—and important—about looking to the future of our world and envisioning what might be. I enjoy inhabiting that creative space.
CS: How did you find out about the Strange New Worlds contest?
KF: I found out about Strange New Worlds by searching for writing contests online (I participate in quite a few of them). When I saw it was a Star Trek related contest from the official publisher of the franchise, I was in.
CS: What were the submissions guidelines?
KF: The submission guidelines were essentially to submit a story between 7,000 and 10,000 words based on any of the Star Trek TV series or films (minus the animated series and the new alternate timeline films). The contest encouraged creative, engaging stories that fill gaps in the existing narrative, that might easily fit into the universe as untold episodes.
CS: What’s the gist of “The Sunwalkers”?
KF: My winning story, “The Sunwalkers,” is set in late Season 7 of The Next Generation, picking up right after “Journey’s End.” At the end of that episode, Doctor Crusher must suddenly say goodbye to her son, Wesley, and I wanted to have her explore the emotional fallout from such a loss, which is never really dealt with in the series. In my story, she must also simultaneously deal with a medical crisis on an alien world. There’s some action and some touching moments—overall I really like the way the story turned out.
CS: Didn’t Dean Wesley Smith do Strange New Worlds anthologies for a while? Wasn’t that discontinued? Is there a connection?
KF: Yes, there were ten volumes of the Strange New Worlds anthologies issued by Pocket Books prior to this one. I own all ten of them—there are some fantastic stories from very talented writers in those pages, including my good friend Derek Attico who is featured in SNW 8 as well as in the current edition. The reason to relaunch the contest with slightly different guidelines was not specified by the publisher, although the release did coincide with Star Trek’s 50th anniversary.
CS: What is Outside In: The Next Generation?
KF:Outside In: The Next Generation is a forthcoming print anthology of episode reviews from ATB Publishing that will contain a review of every single episode of TNG, each written by a different writer. The reviews can be creative in format (such as recipes or log entries), with many being humorous, and all are meant to illuminate some significant or thought-provoking aspect of the episode. One of ATB’s previous volumes—Outside In Boldly Goes—which reviewed all episodes of TOS, was extremely fascinating to read and included contributors such as Larry Nemecek and Robert Greenberger.
CS: What’s the gist of “Not Lost in Translation: The Ensigns of Command”?
KF: I was honored to be invited to contribute to the Outside In: TNG anthology, and I chose to review the Season 3 episode “The Ensigns of Command,” in which Data must convince a group of human colonists to evacuate Tau Cygna V before the Sheliak arrive and take their planet back by force. The angle of my review focuses on analyzing the language theme of the episode, which manifests in several unexpected ways.
CS: Do you write a lot of Star Trek fan fiction?
KF: No. I loved writing my Strange New Worlds story, and hope to write more Trek stories in the future, but I would prefer to do so through officially licensed opportunities. In the meantime, I’m hard at work on original fiction and poetry.
CS: What other type of Star Trek fan activity do you participate in?
KF: I’m fairly active in online circles of Star Trek writers and commentators, who happen to be some of the most amazing, hilarious, kind-hearted professionals I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and learning from. I regularly attend conventions like ComicCon, and have just been scheduled as an Author Guest for Shore Leave 39.
CS: How do you use Star Trek to teach writing to high school students?
KF:Star Trek has informed and inspired my teaching in two capacities: providing great role models, and instilling in me an unquenchable thirst for exploration, which I strive to pass on to my students. Captain Janeway has always been a role model of mine in that she is a force to be reckoned with in her professionalism and drive, yet also has a big heart and a fiercely firm conscience. That is very much a description of how I run my classroom. Doctor Crusher inspired me to learn to work well under pressure, and to go above and beyond to help those in my care, which I believe is a necessary trait of any good educator. Learning is all about exploring unknown ideas, and there is no frontier so vast and teeming with new discoveries as the stars, or the blank page; that’s why my classroom library is space themed, with Hubble images hanging over my walls of books. I want my English students and the students in my writing club to yearn for understanding—of themselves and of the universe—and that is the core wonder Star Trek is built around.
CS: Do you write any type of science fiction other than Star Trek?
KF: Yes! I have written several science fiction short stories and flash fiction pieces, one of which—“To Stick a Star”—took 4th place in the international NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge this year. Several of my stories are currently under submission to sci-fi magazines, and I’m working on several more, as well as novels in the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, and YA. While I have written in almost every genre imaginable, sci-fi will always be my first love, and I’m proud to have joined the ranks of writers who help shape the way humanity views our future and our place in the cosmos.
Honorable mentions: CARNIVAL OF SOULS (Criterion); CARRIE (Shout)
BEST COMMENTARY
WILLIAM PETER BLATTY (The Exorcist III)
Runner-up: STUART COHEN (The Thing, 1982)
Honorable mentions: TOM WEAVER (Undying Monster); DAVID DEL VALLE (Theater of Blood)
BEST DVD EXTRA
THE THING (Interviews with John Carpenter, Keith David, Wilfred Brimley, others)
Runner-up: EXORCIST III (‘Legion’ cut of the film);
Honorable mentions: CAT PEOPLE (French interview with director Jacques Tourneur); CARRIE (Interviews with Nancy Allen, others)
BEST INDEPENDENT FILM
HUSH, directed by Mike Flanagan
Runner-up: I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE
Honorable mentions: THE MONSTER; MODEL HUNGER; THE DARK TAPES; WERESQUITO: NAZI HUNTER
BEST SHORT FILM
H.P. LOVECRAFT’S THE BEAST IN THE CAVE, directed by Cameron McCasland
Runner-up: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Honorable mentions: WRAITH; THE STYLIST; THE PUPPET MAN; UFO DIARY
BEST DOCUMENTARY
FOR THE LOVE OF SPOCK, directed by Adam Spock
Runner-up: KONG: LONG LIVE THE KING
Honorable mentions: FLESH AND BLOOD: THE HAMMER HERITAGE OF HORROR; JUST DESSERTS: THE MAKING OF CREEPSHOW
BOOK OF THE YEAR
SOMETHING IN THE BLOOD: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal
Runner-up: BELA LUGOSI IN PERSON by Bill Kaffenberger and Gary Don Rhodes
Honorable mentions: FANTASTIQUE: Interviews with Horror, Sci_fi and Fantasy Filmmakers, by Tony Earnshaw; BEWARE THE MOON: The Story of An American Werewolf in London; SCORED TO DEATH: Conversations with Some of Horror’s Greatest Composers, by J. Blake Fichera
BEST MAGAZINE
RUE MORGUE
Runners-up: HORRORHOUND; VIDEO WATCHDOG
BEST MAGAZINE (classic)
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND
Runner-up: SCARY MONSTERS
Honorable mentions: LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS; CLASSIC MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES; FILMFAX; MONSTER
BEST ARTICLES (Two winners)
‘Dracula and the It Girl,’ by Andi Brooks, SCARY MONSTERS #100. (Lugosi and Clara Bow)
‘I Am the King of My Kind,’ by Constantine Nasr, LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #36.
Runners-up: ‘The Great American Werewolf Reunion,’ by David Weiner, FAMOUS MONSTERS #284; ‘A HorrorHound’s Guide to Documentaries,’ by Nathan Hanneman, HORRORHOUND #60.
Honorable mentions: Madness, Myth and the Modern Prometheus,’ by Dejan Ognjanovic, RUE MORGUE #171; ‘The Witch of North Bennington,’ by April Snellings, RUE MORGUE #170; ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre: Variations and Version Bllod,’ by Tim Lucas, VIDEO WATCHDOG #182; ‘Uncle Forry: A Century of Inspiration,’ by Cliff Robertson, SCARY MONSTERS #102.
BEST INTERVIEW (Award goes to interviewer)
Jason Hignite interviews Cassandra Peterson, HORRORHOUND #61
Runner-up: Mark Mawston’s expanded interview with Ray Harryhausen, SCARY MONSTERS #100
Honorable mentions :John Bowen interviews Don Coscarelli and David Hartman, RUE MORGUE #166; Preston Fassel interviews H.G. Lewis, RUE MORGUE #173 Trevor Parker interviews Barbara Crampton, DELIRIUM #11;
BEST COLUMN
The Doctor Is In-Sane, by Dr. Gangrene (SCARY MONSTERS)
Runners-up: Larry Blamire’s Star Turn (VIDEO WATCHDOG); It Came from Bowen’s Basement, by John T. Bowen, RUE MORGUE
Honorable mentions: Rondo Remembers by Ron Adams (MONSTER BASH); They Came from the Crypt, by Jon Kitley, HORRORHOUND
BEST COVER
FAMOUS MONSTERS #284 by Rick Baker
Runners-up: DIABOLIQUE #24 by Mark Spears
Honorable mentions: SCARY MONSTERS #102 by Scott Jackson; HORRORHOUND # 57 by Jason Edmiston
TRIBUTE TO BERNIE WRIGHTSON (Creature Features, Burbank)
Runner-up: Elvira inducted to Horror Host Hall of Fame (HorrorHound Weekend)
Honorable mentions: Guillermo Del Toro exhibit in L.A.; American Werewolves in Santa Rosa
FAVORITE HORROR HOST
SVENGOOLIE
Runner-up: Dr. Gangrene
Honorable mentions: ?Penny Dreadful; Count Gore De Vol; Lord Blood-Rah; Karlos Borloff
BEST HORROR COMIC BOOK
AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla)
Runners-up: John Carpenter’s Tales For a Halloween Night Vol. 2; Haunted Horrors
Honorable mentions: Creeps; Tales from the Acker-Mansion; Providence
BEST CD
STRANGER THINGS SOUNDTRACK VOLS. 1 AND 2
Runners-up: John Carpenter’s Lost Themes II; H.P. Lovecraft; Midnight Syndicate: Zombies!
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
WRITER OF THE YEAR
April Snellings
A true horror journalist, April Snellings has delved deeply intio the reality surrounding monsters and supernatural lore. from the secret history of opuija boards to a look at Shirley Jackson’s impact on horror, April is one of Rue Morgue’s most prolific staff writers. Recipient of a Society of Professional Journalists award, April also has ventured into radio drama with a well-received episode of Tales Beyond the Pale.
Runners-up: David Weiner, Nathan Hanneman, Larry Underwood, Tim Lucas, Tom Weaver, Tim Paxton
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Mark Maddox
When it comes to monsters we’ve known and loved, the work of Mark Maddox is everywhere. Whether reawakening the familiar (Dracula, Rodan), or the obscure (Doctor Who aliens, Carmilla), Mark is a fan favorite and an editor’s delight. No wonder his work is nominated for several covers each year.
Runners-up: Daniel Horne, Scott Jackson, Gary Pullin, Frank Dietz, Jason Edmiston, L.J. Dopp, Peter Von Sholly, Mike Hill, Ama Lea, George Chastain
LINDA MILLER AWARD FOR FAN ARTIST OF THE YEAR (In memory of the late Linda Miller)
Malcolm Gittins
The art of Malcolm Gittins is raw and day-glo, taking observers back to the very essence of monster magazines, toys and fandom. Malcolm doesn’t go for hyper-realism but for the essence of what attracted kids, and Monster Kids, to the movies in the first place. In short, he paints what we used to see.
Runners-up: John Sargent, Jerrod Brown, Eric Swartz, Belle Dee.
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Forrest J Ackerman square
Monster fans in L.A. had a dream — naming a square near Forrest J Ackerman’s favorite haunt, the House of Pies, after FJA himself. With the help of Los Feliz Councilman David Ryu, fans Joe Moe, Sean Fernald, Paul Davids and others made it happen. (And yes, the period after J has been removed!)
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Pierre Fournier, Return to ‘Frankenstein Lake’
Frankenstein scholar Pierre Fournier spearheaded the idea to hold a remarkable reunion in the Malibou Mountains last spring. That’s when Sara Karloff met Don Watkins, son of Marilyn Harris who played ‘Little Maria,’ at the exact same spot where the Monster threw Watkins’ mother into the lake in the 1931 Frankenstein. ‘All is forgiven,’ Watkins told Sara, but the moment was surprisingly emotional, even 75 years later.
MONSTER KIDS OF THE YEAR
Don and Vicki Smeraldi
During a time when print magazines face ever more obstacles, Don and Vicki Smeraldi took on the challenge of keeping SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE alive. After publisher Dennis Druktenis’ retirement, the Smeraldis took over with #101, ensuring the ‘Only Real Monster Magazine’ will live on!
THE MONSTER KID HALL OF FAME
BOB FURMANEK
Bob Furmanek has spent a lifetime preserving, seeking and celebrating the lost classics, with a special eye to the third dimension. Bob founded the 3-D Film Archive in 1990, and helped restore films such as IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and GOG to 3-D glory.
JOHN STANLEY
While he rarely dressed as a ghost, John Stanley was a true horror host, helming ‘Creature Features’ in San Francisco for six years after Bob Wilkins moved on. Erudite and playful, Stanley interviewed Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and others. Now a writer, his movie guides recall the days before VHS, when monster movies ruled TV.
RICHARD HARLAND SMITH
Critic and writer Richard Harland Smith has the rare gift of being able to explain the nuances of horror movies to those who know little about the genre. Richard’s Movie Morlocks blog at TCM found new audiences for some of the channel’s cult films. A writer for VIDEO WATCHDOG, a founder of the Mobius Home Video Forum and a frequent DVD commentator, RHS always bring a fresh take on the odd, or the familiar.
VINCE ROTOLO
Podacsts often are hit-and-miss, odd schedules, flexible formats. Not so at B-Movie Cast, where the late Vince Rotolo, his wife and crew discussed B-movies every Sunday. The show influenced many, including Derek Koch of Monster Kid Radio who was a frequent guest and called him a mentor. Vince explained his passion this way: ‘Just because you grow old doesn’t mean you have to grow up.’
MARK MILLER
The late Mark Miller was a film historian who focused on British cinema and classic horror. His filmographies of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee,are the definitive references. A teacher for 30 years, he was a frequent contributor to monster magazines and books, and always a major presence at Cinevent in Ohio and the Fanex conventions in Maryland.
(1) BORN ON THE SEVENTH OF JULY. In “Spinning a high-tech web”, the LA Times provides an elaborate, photo-illustrated preview of Tony Stark’s upgrade to the new Spider-Man suit that will be seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming, due in theaters July 7.
(2) FILK HALL OF FAME. The 2017 inductees to the Filk Halll of Fame were announced at FilkOntario this weekend:
Now, HBO is “moving toward a production commitment” (via Variety) on a feature-length adaptation of Bradbury’s 1953 novel starring Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Chronicle, Fantastic Four) as the protagonist Guy Montag and Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, Boardwalk Empire) as Montag’s boss, Captain Beatty.
The film will be directed by Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes, At Any Price), who is co-writing with Amir Naderi (99 Homes, The Runner). David Coatsworth (production manager on Underworld: Evolution, Ender’s Game, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) will serve as producer.
It’s the largest black hole ever discovered and is heavier than our Sun by 40 billion times (40, 000, 000, 000) in the last observation.
If you plug in the equation above, you’ll find that this black hole has a Schwarzschild radius of about… 119 billion kilometers, along with a said diameter of about 236,39 billion km.
It may look simple enough on the box, but The Lord Of The Rings’ Tower Of Orthanc is actually a real tough cookie. Because most of its 2,359 pieces are jet black and slim, working out which bit goes where is the stuff of nightmares (in, um, a good way). The Treebeard that comes with it will make the struggle worth it… honest.
Pays tribute to authors and books and their social and cultural contribution to the world
(7) DID YOU KNOW? Last year the International Costumers’ Guild participated in a “friend of the court” brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, joining Public Knowledge, the American Library Association, and others, asking the Court to protect the rights of clothing designers and costumers to freely practice their craft.
Netflix is betting that filming closer to home will produce better content. In 2015, the streaming giant has announced that it would be doubling its output of original content, and it is aiming to have original productions make up half of its of its streaming catalog in the coming years. The goal is to entice users to come to the service by providing content that can’t be found elsewhere, but that goal is proving to be a strain on the existing film studio infrastructure. To cope, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos announced that the company would be investing $6 billion to expand infrastructure in California, rather than chase tax incentives offered by states.
Sarandos explained to The Wrap that the company determined that going after the incentives leads to diminishing returns when it comes to their final products. Filming out of state is hard on the actors and crew of a project, and the move will help bring projects back home to California. That could prove to be costly for the company, even as California has increased its own tax incentive program in recent years. While remaining in the state will likely cost Netflix more, Sarandos seems to think that the extra cost will be worth spending.
(9) SQUEAK UP. YouTube’s TheBackyardScientist set up 10 megaphones end-to-end to see how loud a noise he could make.
The video, posted to YouTube by TheBackyardScientist, features Kevin Kohler explaining he was inspired by Bart Simpson‘s prank in the season 8 Simpsons episode The Secret War of Lisa Simpson to place 10 megaphones end-to-end and test the results.
Bart’s experiment led to a shock wave that shattered all of the windows in town — as well as Homer’s fridge full of beer — but Kohler quickly ran into a problem Bart didn’t face: a feedback loop.
Basically, you don’t want Fido in a situation where a battery could hiss and explode in its mouth. It’s obviously possible that a child could bite through the battery as well, but the likelihood of him / her piercing through the battery is lower.
(11) ARTIFICIAL DOG INTELLIGENCE. Amazing. How is it mine doesn’t do that?
You know you've been writing about the Hugo Awards too much when your autocorrect capitalises "puppy" by default.
(12) FIX THE SLATING PROBLEM FOREVER. That’s what Greg Hullender would like to do. At Rocket Stack Rank he summarizes his views about the effectiveness of 3SV, EPH(+) and their combination. He says, “I think it makes it really clear that we need both 3SV and either EPH or EPH+. Otherwise, even small slates (100 to 200 people) will be able to control a significant amount of the final ballot, including adding embarrassing nominees.”
For each year, we produced two theoretical maximum graphs. A “finalist graph,” which shows what percentage of finalists a slate could have captured for a given number of slate voters, and a “sweeps” graph, which shows what percentage of entire categories a slate could have captured.
Looking at those four pairs of graphs (2.1-2.4 below), we will draw the following conclusions;
Std (5/6) by itself is far too weak.
EPH doesn’t protect enough finalists, but it is excellent at preventing sweeps.
EPH+ is an improvement on EPH, but it’s still not enough by itself.
3SV is much stronger for protecting finalists, especially for modest numbers of slate voters, but it’s vulnerable to sweeps, and it breaks down for slates above about 300 people.
The 3SV/EPH and 3SV/EPH+ combinations are far, far stronger than either component alone. Either combination is probably sufficient, but the second one is stronger.
Accordingly, we conclude that the Business Meeting should ratify both EPH+ and 3SV. That should protect the Hugos from slating interference for the nonce.
(13) DREAM CASTING. Enjoy “Miles To Go” hosted at Archive of Our Own. Note – Password = Vorkosigan (as it says at the post).
There once was a man who dreamt of the stars…
A fanvid based on the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.
…Obviously, it’s not so easy to make a feast for a fandom with no existing visual source. But where there’s a will, or in my case an enormous and driving folly, there’s a way. It was always going to be an ensemble vid, with Miles as the star, but the question was how to cast it. I did eventually solve that problem, and I won’t discuss my solution in detail here because… spoilers.
[Thanks to Carl Slaughter, Cat Eldridge, Robin Reid, JJ, Doctor Science, Greg Hullender, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories, Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kurt Busiek.]