2024 Rhysling Award Longlists

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has posted the Rhysling Award Long Lists of poems published in 2023.

One hundred and one members nominated 98 short poems and 62 long poems. Juries will now take these lists and narrow them down to 50 for the short category and 25 for the long category. The selected poems will appear in the 2024 Rhysling Anthology and will be on the ballot for SFPA members to vote on.

The jury will have their selections made no later than April 30. The Anthology will be sent shortly after that date, and voting will begin July 1.

SHORT POEMS (98 nominees)

  • Alternating Current • F. J. Bergmann • North American Review Vol 308 No 1
  • Apposite and Opposite • Michael Bailey • HWA Poetry Showcase X
  • As Does the Crow • Beth Cato • Uncanny 53
  • As the Night Sky Burns • Eugen Bacon • Texture of Silence (Independent Legions Publishing))
  • Attn: Prime Real Estate Opportunity! • Emily Ruth Verona • Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection Volume II
  • Bathsheba’s Corsage • Elena Sichrovsky • The Deadlands 30
  • The Beauty of Monsters • Angela Liu • Small Wonders 1
  • Beloved Death • Rebecca Marjesdatter • The Owl Kingdom and Other Poems
  • Binary Star System • Lae Astra • Strange Horizons November
  • The Blight of Kezia • Patricia Gomes • HWA Poetry Showcase X
  • The Broken Blade • Denise Dumars • JOURN-E, The Journal of Imaginative Literature 2.1
  • Chemical Rebalance For Young Cyborg Housewives • Mahaila Smith • Radon Journal 4
  • The chittering moon • P S Cottier • Body of Work, ed. C.Z. Tacks (Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild)
  • Conspiracy Theories • Vince Gotera • The Ekphrastic Review May
  • The Day We All Died, A Little • Lisa Timpf • Radon 5
  • The Dead Man • Robert Wooten • Dreams and Nightmares 125
  • Deadweight • Jack Cooper • Propel 7
  • Dear Mars • Susan L. Lin • The Sprawl Mag 1.2
  • Dispatches from the Dragon’s Den • Mary Soon Lee • Star*Line 46.2
  • Dr. Jekyll • West Ambrose • Thin Veil Press December
  • Dracula Considers Writing a Memoir • LindaAnn LoSchiavo • Quail Bell Magazine October
  • Dragon Sighting • Patricia Hemminger • Carmina Magazine September
  • Einstein’s Eyes • G. O. Clark • Dreams and Nightmares 123
  • First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare • Emily Jiang • Uncanny 53
  • Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness • Ali Trotta • The Deadlands 31
  • For the attention of my future self • Brian Hugenbruch • Haven Speculative 12
  • Gods of the Garden • Steven Withrow • Spectral Realms 19
  • A Good Soul, Really, When You Know Them • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Worlds of Possibility October
  • The Goth Girls’ Gun Gang • Marisca Pichette • The Dread Machine 3.2
  • Guiding Star • Tim Jones • Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, ed. Lee Murray (Clan Destine Press)
  • Hallucinations Gifted to Me by Heatstroke • Morgan L. Ventura • Banshee 15
  • The Hatter Shakes • Christina M. Rau • Neologism Poetry Annual April
  • heart sings to changeling heart • Rasha Abdulhadi • The Sprawl Mag • 1.2
  • Hell Rising • Michael Pendragon • Evermore 2
  • hemiplegic migraine as willing human sacrifice • Ennis Rook Bashe • Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice
  • Hi! I am your Cortical Update! • Mahaila Smith • Star*Line 46.3
  • Hora Somni • Tiffany Morris • Uncanny Magazine 54
  • How Noah Saved the Dinosaurs–a Litany • David Clink • The Black Ship
  • How to Help Hubble • Mary Soon Lee • How to Navigate Our Universe
  • How to Make the Animal Perfect? • Linda D. Addison • Weird Tales 100
  • How to Plant an Olive Tree on the Moon When All Is Lost • Elena S. Kotsile • The Future Fire June
  • I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon • Jennessa Hester • HAD October
  • In Your Dreams • Silvatiicus Riddle • Spectral Realms 18
  • Invasive • Marcie Lynn Tentchoff • Polar Starlight 9
  • Janeway Was Absolutely Right to Kill Tuvix • Jordan Hirsch • Strange Horizons July
  • kan-da-ka • Nadaa Hussein • Apparition Lit 23
  • Language as a Form of Breath • Angel Leal • Apparition Lit October
  • The Lantern of September • Scott Couturier • Spectral Realms 19
  • Let Us Dream • Myna Chang • Small Wonders 3
  • Look into the Christmas Box • Amabilis O’Hara • Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Made of Glass • Anna Madden • Haven Speculative 12
  • The Magician’s Foundling • Angel Leal • Heartlines Spec 2
  • The Man with the Stone Flute • Joshua St. Claire • Abyss & Apex 87
  • Mass-Market Affair • Casey Aimer • Star*Line 46.4
  • Masters of the Future • Bruce Boston • Asimov’s July/August
  • Me • Jamal Hodge • Qualia Nous 2
  • Metal Lullaby • Herb Kauderer • The Book of Sleep
  • Mom’s Surprise • Francis W. Alexander • Tales from the Moonlit Path June
  • Mother Hubble Tames the Unicorn Black Hole • Sandra Lindow • Dreams & Nightmares 125
  • Much After the Fact • Zebulon Huset • Phantom Kangaroo 29
  • A Murder of Crows • Alicia Hilton • Ice Queen 11
  • My Grotesque Treasure • Abi Marie Palmer • Star*Line 46.4
  • My Mother Dreams of Endlessness • Angel Leal • Strange Horizons December
  • No One Now Remembers • Geoffrey Landis • Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov./Dec.
  • orion conquers the sky • Maria Zoccula • On Spec 33.2
  • Patchwork Girl • Deborah L. Davitt • HWA Poetry Showcase X
  • Pines in the Wind • Karen Greenbaum-Maya • The Beautiful Leaves (Bamboo Dart Press)
  • The Poet Responds to an Invitation from the AI on the Moon • T.D. Walker • Radon Journal 5
  • Poul Anderson’s Lay • Frida Westford • Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: a Critical Anthology
  • A Prayer for the Surviving • Marisca Pichette • Haven Speculative 9
  • Pre-Nuptial • F. J. Bergmann • The Vampiricon (Mind’s Eye Publications)
  • The Problem of Pain • Anna Cates • Eye on the Telescope 49
  • The Return of the Sauceress • F. J. Bergmann • The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February
  • Rubik’s Cube • Colleen Anderson • The Lore of Inscrutable Dreams (Yuriko Publishing)
  • Sea Change • David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ann K. Schwader • Scifaikuest May
  • Seed of Power • Linda D. Addison • The Book of Witches ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins)
  • Self-Internalized • Maxwell I. Gold • Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums June
  • Shipwrecker’s Ball • Alannah Guevara • The Crow’s Nest December
  • The Singing Girl • Kim Salinas Silva • Abyss & Apex 87
  • Sleeping Beauties • Carina Bissett • HWA Poetry Showcase X
  • Solar Punks • J. D. Harlock • The Dread Machine 3.1
  • Song of the Last Hour • Samuel A. Betiku • The Deadlands 22
  • Sphinx • Mary Soon Lee • Asimov’s September/October
  • Storm Watchers (a drabbun) • Terrie Leigh Relf • Space & Time
  • A Stranger There • Eugen Bacon • Texture of Silence (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • Sunflower Astronaut • Charlie Espinosa • Strange Horizons July
  • Tea Leaf Reading • Juleigh Howard-Hobson • Myth and Lore 7
  • Three Hearts as One • G. O. Clark • Asimov’s May/June
  • To the Emperor’s Nightingale • Adele Gardner • Collected Winning Poems from the Poetry Society of Virginia
  • Troy • Carolyn Clink • Polar Starlight 12
  • Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary • John Grey • Medusa’s Kitchen September
  • Uncensored Footage of the Cyborg at the U.S. Embassy • Abu Bakr Sadiq • Boston Review June
  • Under World • Jacqueline West • Carmina Magazine September
  • Walking in the Starry World • John Philip Johnson • Orion’s Belt May
  • We Are Orphans • Avra Margariti • Heartlines Spec Fall/Winter
  • When We Could Finally See Our Ribcages • Angela Nicole Duggins • Chrome Baby 120
  • Whispers in Ink • Angela Yuriko Smith • Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Whole World • Colleen Anderson • Polar Starlight 12

LONG POEMS (62 nominees)

  • Archivist of a Lost World • Gerri Leen • Eccentric Orbits 4
  • As the witch burns • Marisca Pichette • Fantasy 87
  • Below the Bible Belt • Lauren Scharhag • Thanatos 2
  • Between Scylla and Charybdis • Carina Bissett • The Future Fire June
  • Brigid the Poet • Adele Gardner • Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice
  • Chantress • Akua Lezli Hope • Unioverse
  • Coding a Demi-griot (An Olivian Measure) • Armoni “Monihymn” Boone • Fiyah 26
  • Consent For Facial Reconstruction With the Shelley Concepts Inc Custom Patient-Fitted Reconstruction Prosthesis • Katie R. Yen • Apparition Lit 21
  • Cradling Fish • Laura Ma • Strange Horizons May
  • The Creature from the Black Lagoon is Your Father • Brandon O’Brien • Strange Horizons October
  • Cupid Visits the Archery Club • Lisa Timpf • Illumen Summer
  • Don’t Make me Come Back • Gerri Leen • Eccentric Orbits 4
  • Dragons Got Wings • Ruth Berman • Dreams and Nightmares 124
  • Dream Visions • Melissa Ridley Elmes • Eccentric Orbits 4
  • Eight Dwarfs on Planet X • Avra Margariti • Radon Journal 3
  • The Empress Chides the Hermit • Ali Trotta • Small Wonders 0
  • The Giants of Kandahar • Anna Cates • Abyss & Apex 88
  • Glitterman • Richard Stevenson • The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February
  • The Grey Witch’s Haibun: Japan 1870 – 1871 • Calie Voorhis • Strange Horizons August
  • Had She Lived • Lori R. Lopez • Dreams and Nightmares 124
  • Hades Baedeker • Ken Chen • Granta 27
  • Hamelin in the Distance • Maria Schrater • Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 58
  • How A Xenomorph Knows • Annika Barranti Klein • Kaleidotrope winter
  • How to Haunt a Northern Lake • Lora Gray • Uncanny 55
  • How to Make Love to a Saguaro Cactus • Spencer Nitkey • Cream Scene Carnival August
  • hyphae hot pot • D.A. Xiaolin Spires • Eye to the Telescope 48
  • I Was on My Way to Tell You There Is a Vast Machine Intelligence Plotting Our Downfall, Or, the Time Machine • David Clink • The Black Ship
  • Imposter Syndrome • Robert Borski • Dreams and Nightmares 124
  • The Incessant Rain • Rhiannon Owens • Evermore 3
  • Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis • Angela Liu • Strange Horizons November
  • Knight of Wands, Six of Swords • Ali Trotta • Uncanny 54
  • The Lay of Géac Ettinfell • Adam Bolivar • Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology December
  • Little Brown Changeling • Lauren Scharhag • Aphelion 283
  • Lost Lines from Ariel’s Song • Gretchen Tessmer • Fantasy and Science Fiction 768
  • Lying Flat • Lynne Sargent • Strange Horizons October
  • A Mere Million Miles from Earth • John C. Mannone • Altered Reality April
  • The mirror-backed cabinet in oak • Richard Magahiz • Otoliths 69
  • Never an Oasis • Brian Hugenbruch • Star*Line 46.1
  • The Nomad • Marge Simon • Fantasy and Science Fiction Mar./Apr.
  • Pilot • Akua Lezli Hope • Black Joy Unbound eds. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle (BLF Press)
  • Protocol • Jamie Simpher • Small Wonders 5
  • Robin Hood’s Larder’s Torn Roots • Kim Malinowski • Fairy Tale Magazine Spring
  • St. Sebastian Goes To Confession • West Ambrose • Mouthfeel 1
  • She Seeks a Home • Beth Cato • Small Wonders 0
  • Skinner • Frank Coffman • What the Night Brings August
  • Sleep Dragon • Herb Kauderer • The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)
  • Slow Dreaming • Herb Kauderer • The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)
  • The Thing That Leaps • Elis Montgomery • Apparition Lit 23
  • To the Far-Shooting God of Poetry, Healing, and Sunlight • Calliope Mertig • Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice
  • Tomorrow I’ll Be Five • Jamal Hodge • Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Troop No. 80085 • Marisca Pichette • The Deadlands 32
  • The Truth Is As Intimate As The Teeth That Bit Your Legs Off First • Elizabeth McClellan • Sand, Salt, Blood: An Anthology of Sea Horror
  • The Two of Coins • Lauren Scharhag • Decomp Journal 6
  • Value Measure • Joseph Halden and Rhonda Parrish • Dreams and Nightmares 125
  • A Weather of My Own Making • Nnadi Samuel • Silver Blade 56
  • Welcoming the New Girl • Beth Cato • Penumbric October
  • What You Find at the Center • Elizabeth R McClellan • Haven Spec Magazine 12
  • When the Honeymoon is Over • Lauren Scharhag • Aphelion 282.27
  • The Witch Makes Her To-Do List • Theodora Goss • Uncanny 50
  • Would You, Empress • Tara Campbell • Voices of the Winter Solstice December
  • The Year It Changed • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Star*Line 46.4

Pixel Scroll 1/1/24 All These Pixels Are Someone Else’s Fault

(1) SOME PEOPLE SHINE. Let Looper introduce you to “Stephen King’s Harry Potter: The Fan-Made Concept That’s Too Weird To Be Real”. This is quite something.

When it comes to accomplished fiction writers, you don’t get much more prodigious than Stephen King. So iconic is his work that the YouTube channel Yellow Medusa created an artificial intelligence-driven video that hypothesizes how the “Harry Potter” films would look like if King — and not J.K. Rowling — created the franchise. This is one of several videos where the channel reimagines the “Harry Potter” movies if they were directed or written by other famous creators….

(2) SFPA MEMBERS NOMINATE FOR AWARDS. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association reminded members today of the deadlines to submit nominees for three annual awards.

RHYSLING AWARD NOMINATIONS The 2024 Rhysling Chairs are Brian U. Garrison & David C. Kopaska-Merkel. Nominations are open until February 15 for the Rhysling Awards for the best poems published in 2023. Only SFPA members may nominate one short poem and/or one long poem for the award. Poets may not nominate their own work. All genres of speculative poetry are eligible. Short poems must be 11–49 lines (101–499 words for prose poems); Long poems are 50–1,199 lines, not including title or stanza breaks, and first published in 2023; include publication and issue, or press if from a book or anthology. Online nomination form: bit.ly/2024RhyslingNom. Or nominate by mail to: SFPA, PO Box 6688, Portland OR 97228, USA.

DWARF STARS AWARD NOMINATIONS The 2024 Dwarf Stars Chair is Brittany Hause. Nominations due by May 1, but poems may be suggested year-round. Enter title, author, and publisher of speculative micro poems published in 2023 at https://bit.ly/ dwarfstars or by mail to: SFPA, PO Box 6688, Portland OR 97228, USA. Anyone may suggest poems, their own or others’; there is no limit.

ELGIN AWARD NOMINATIONS The 2024 Elgin Chair is Felicia Martínez. Nominations due by June 15; more info will come by MailChimp. Send title, author, and publisher of speculative poetry books and chapbooks published in 2022 or 2023 to [email protected] or by mail to: SFPA, PO Box 6688, Portland OR 97228, USA. Only SFPA members may nominate; there is no limit to nominations, but you may not nominate your own work. Books and chapbooks that placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in last year’s Elgin Awards are not eligible.

(3) BE ON THE LOOKOUT. [Item by Steven French.] “Fiction to look out for in 2024” in the Guardian includes an SF novel tipped for the Booker:

…in September, there’s my early pick for this year’s Booker: Creation Lake (Jonathan Cape) by Rachel Kushner. It’s a wild and brilliantly plotted piece of science fiction. This is the story of a secret agent, the redoubtable Sadie Smith, sent to infiltrate and disrupt a group of “anti-civvers” – eco-terrorists – in a France of the near future where industrial agriculture and sinister corporations dominate the landscape. Think Kill Bill written by John le Carré: smart, funny and compulsively readable….

(4) NO MCU? REALLY? Rolling Stone calls these “The 150 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time”.

…So when it came time to rank the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, we couldn’t stop at 100. Instead, we went bigger and bulked it up with an extra 50 entries, all the better to pay lip service to more of the pulpy, the poppy and the perverse entries — not to mention some of our personal favorites — that don’t normally get shout-outs in these kinds of lists. There were more than a few arguments when it came to the picks. (It was also decided early on that superhero movies as a whole usually fall out the parameters of science fiction, so you won’t the MCU, et al., canon on this list — with one very notable exception.) Here are our picks for the best the genre has to offer. Live long and prosper. May the force be with you….

At the bottom:

150 ‘Tank Girl’ (1995)

What would the post-apocalyptic world look like if the hero was a riot grrrl and the soundtrack was curated by Courtney Love? Behold the adventures of Tank Girl (Lorri Petty), as our hero roams through the decimated Outback, years after a comet hit earth and an evil corporation seized control. It’s got some of the hallmarks of a traditional sci-fi adventure — a jet-flying sidekick played by Naomi Watts; an army of half-kangaroo, half-man beings, including one played by Ice-T — but Rachel Talalay’s adaptaion of the cult British comic diverges from the typical dystopia formula by layering everything over a very 1990s alt aesthetic, all bright colors and snappy, sexualized wisecracks. “No celebrities, no cable TV, no water — it hasn’t rained in 11 years,” Tank Girl explains early on in the film. “Now 20 people gotta squeeze inside the same bathtub — so it ain’t all bad.” —Elisabeth Garber-Paul

Rated number one:

1 ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)

It begins at the Dawn of Man and ends with the rebirth of humanity, with Homo sapiens having finally been granted one last evolutionary level-up. In between those two poles of the human experience — one in our prehistoric past, the other light years into our future (hope springs eternal) — Stanley Kubrick give us what still feels like the benchmark for science fiction cinema that engages you in mind, body, and soul. It’s not just that his adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel” has become part of our collective consciousness, enough that Barbie could kick off with an extended riff on one of its most famous scenes and everyone got the joke. Or that 2001 contains what may be the single best example of film editing as a communicative art form unto itself. Or that the closest the film has to an antagonist, the self-aware HAL 9000 supercomputer who discovers that machines are no more immune from neurosis and malice than its flesh-and-blood programmers are, is the character we end up feeling the most sympathy towards. “Daissss-yyyy… daisssss-yyyyy…”….

…The wisecrack was always that 2001: A Space Odyssey was exactly like the big, black monolith that connected its eon-spanning chapters: gorgeous, meticulously constructed, inhuman in its perfection and inscrutable in terms of concrete meaning. Conventional wisdom is that it’s actually closer to the Star Child — something that takes the entirety of the universe in and stares at it in awe, reflecting back how far we have come and how far we still have to go. —DF

(5) LAWYERS ASSEMBLE! We know this, but it’s a new year so let’s pretend it’s news: “Mickey Mouse Hits Public Domain With Disney’s ‘Steamboat Willie’” at Deadline.

As of today, the traditionally protective Walt Disney Co will have to deal with an onslaught of Mickey Mouse parodies, mockeries and likely rather explicit variations as the iconic character slips into the public domain.

Sorta.

In the sober light of 2024, Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short that effectively launched the empire that Walt built, can now be used by anyone and everyone. The legal status of Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy, from earlier that same year, has been long fought over and probably not something to which Disney was looking forward. Yet, in a new year that also sees Virginia Woolf’s groundbreaking Orlando, Peter Pan, Charlie Chaplin’s The CircusBuster Keaton‘s The Cameraman and Tigger from AA Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner now in the public domain, if you are anticipating a Steamboat Willie free-for-all, think again.

Besides Disney being notoriously litigious, the color version of Mickey that came into being in 1935’s The Band Concert, is a lot different in 2024 than the non-speaking Mickey of Steamboat Willie in 1928. Evolving over the decades, the brand icon that is today’s Mickey has a lot more meat on his bones, is full of many more smiles, has that chirpy voice and a far less rough disposition, wears white gloves, and clearly looks a lot less a rat than the Steamboat Willie Mickey – and, to paraphrase MC Hammer: you can’t touch that.

“More modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions, and merchandise,” a Disney spokesperson said of the dos and don’ts of the sound-synched film entering the public domain today….

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born January 1, 1954 Midori Snyder, 70. This first novel by Midori Snyder that I read was The Flight of Michael McBride, a three decades old work by her set in the old American West blending aspects of  First Folk, Irish-American and Mexican folklore. A most excellent read. 

Like Pamela Dean with her Tam Lin novel, she’s delved in Scottish myth as her first novel, Soulstring, was inspired by the Scottish legend of Tam Lin

Midori Snyder

It was however not her first published work as that was “Demon” in the Bordertown anthology, the second of the Bordertown series.  She would later do two more Bordertown stories, “Alison Gross” that’d be in Life on the Border, and “Dragon Child” in The Essential Bordertown.

Now don’t go looking for any of these as ePubs as, like the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror series which I noted in Ellen Datlow’s Birthday a few days ago, ePub rights weren’t written into the publication contracts. 

The newest Bordertown anthology, Welcome to Bordertown, is available as an ePub.

Next up is a trilogy of books that remind me of Jane Yolen’s The Great Altar Saga in tone  — New MoonSadar’s Keep, and Beldan’s Fire. They were published as adult fantasy by Tor Books starting thirty four years ago where they were The Queens’ Quarter Series. Interestingly they would be reprinted as young adult fantasy by Firebird Books just eighteen years ago as The Oran Trilogy. I see that Firebird is no longer the domain of Sharyn November which it was explicitly related for.

Now I positively adore The Innamorati which draws off the the Commedia dell’Arte theatre and the Roman legends as well. This stellar novel gained her Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. It is without doubt her best novel – great characters, fascinating setting and a wonderful story.

Hannah’s Garden was supposed to be one of the novels inspired by a painting by Brian Froud. (I remember de Lint’s The Wild Wood and Windling’s The Wood Wife are two of the others but I forget the fourth. I know they got their novels with his art but I don’t if she or the fourth writer did.) It’s a more personal novel, more scary in tone I think than her other work is. 

Except the Queen was written by her and Yolen. It’s a contemporary fantasy featuring two fey who are banished here in the guise of old women. I’ll not spoil what happened next. That was her last novel and it was published thirteen years ago. 

She wrote the title short story for Windling The Armless Maiden and Other Tales for Childhood’s Survivors anthology anthology about child abuse survivors. Grim reading but recommended. It was nominated for an Otherwise Award.

It’s one of a not deep number of short stories she’s written, none collected so far. 

She did the text to the “Barbara Allen” graphic story Charles Vess illustrated and first published in his Ballads chapbook in 1997 which I’ve got here somewhere. Let me go see… yes, it’s also in the autographed copy of The Book of Ballads that he sent me. That came out on Tor seventeen years ago. God, time goes by fast! 

Though not about her fiction writing, she would win a World Fantasy Award for her editorial work on Windling’s Endincott Studio website. It is a fascinating site covering what Terri, Midori and others think is interesting in fairy tales, myth, folklore, and the oral storytelling tradition. It is here now.

(7) EASING A BARRIER TO CHINA TOURISM. For the next wave of fans who may be thinking about the trip: “China to simplify visa applications for US tourists as both countries seek to improve relations” at the South China Morning Post.

China will simplify the visa application process for tourists from the United States as part of its efforts to step up interactions between people from the two countries.

Beijing has also been seeking to woo more international visitors as part of its wider efforts to boost its sluggish economic recovery.

Starting from January 1, those applying for tourist visas within the US will no longer need to submit proof they have a round-trip air ticket and hotel reservation, as well as their itinerary or a letter of invitation, according to a notice published on the website of the Chinese embassy in Washington on Friday.

The measure aims to “further facilitate people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States”, it said.

It added that “since visa applications are processed on a case-by-case basis”, applicants should still refer to the Chinese embassy and consulates-general for specifics….

The move follows a cut in visa fees for US applicants of around 25 per cent until December 31, 2024 announced earlier this month, and a previous decision to allow walk-in visa applications.

(8) WHAT, ME WARP? Currently open for bids at the Heritage Auctions site is “Jack Rickard MAD #186 Star Trek Cover Original Art”. It was up to $1,950 when I last checked.

Jack Rickard MAD #186 Star Trek Cover Original Art (EC, 1976). Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) join Vulcan officer Alfred E. Neuman (who will likely soon meet a terrible fate, hinted at by his red shirt) tap dance their way across the cover of the parody magazine to promote the “Star Trek” Musical buried within its pages. Spock looks surprised to see Neuman sporting a pair of pointy Vulcan ears, with the adage “Keep on Trekin'” printed on his uniform. A fun poke at the beloved sci-fi TV series painted in gouache on illustration board with an image area of 16″ x 16.75″, matted and Plexiglas-front framed to 27″ x 28.5″. Light frame wear. Signed by Rickard in the lower right corner and in Excellent condition.

(9) TROLLING WITH A MAGNET. “He Has Fished Out Grenades, Bikes and Guns. Can Fame Be Far Behind?” He couldn’t make a living streaming himself playing video games – but people want to see what his powerful magnet retrieves from the waters around New York.  

… The grenade was not without precedent. Two months before, Mr. Kane managed to pull a gun out of a lake near where he lives. It might have been used in a murder, he suggested, and he was told there was a chance he might be subpoenaed. He was eager to avoid that entanglement.

On that unseasonably warm November afternoon, Mr. Kane, who is 39 and looks a bit like the actor Seth Rogen playing a deckhand, just yanked the thing right off his magnet. It took quite a bit of effort, given that the magnet (from Kratos Magnetics, for $140) was advertised as having a “pull force” of 3,800 pounds. The gunpowder had been emptied out of the bottom, so he figured the corroded explosive was something that would put him on the map, rather than blow him off it. Still, he put it on the ground and covered it with a plastic bucket — just in case.

As he dialed 911, he paused to wonder: Would the operator remember him? Was he something of a known quantity by now? Just the week before, he’d found a top-loading Smith & Wesson in Prospect Park Lake. And he’d also found a completely different grenade about a month ago, which he said led the police to evacuate a restaurant near the United Nations. But to his disappointment, that day’s dispatcher didn’t react.

“You’re gonna know Let’s Get Magnetic,” Mr. Kane told the operator, referencing the name of his YouTube channel. “I’m getting famous.”

His partner, Barbie Agostini, continued filming as the police arrived. Two beat cops who showed up took some pictures of the grenade on their phones. Meanwhile, a woman pushed a baby carriage inches away from it. More cops eventually came to cordon off the area, but the content creation did not stop there. Another officer squatted on the ground to take more close-ups. Wanting a wider-angle view of the ruckus he’d wrought, Mr. Kane moved slightly down the sidewalk and kept fishing.

It wasn’t long before a well-put-together young woman in a pinned-on hat stopped and stared as Mr. Kane pulled a hunk of junk out of the water with his magnet.

“What are you guys fishing for?” she asked.

“Anything metal,” he told her. “This is a bed frame from the 1900s.”

The woman looked astounded at this dubious bit of history.

“God bless you,” she said….

…After lunch, Mr. Kane, Ms. Agostini and Jose returned to their duplex. Mr. Kane pulled out a Styrofoam chest full of his favorite finds. They included the magazines from four guns, the barrel of a sniper rifle and two tiny cannonballs that might predate the city itself, which he plans on giving to the American Museum of Natural History.

Evidence of a collector’s lifestyle exists throughout the apartment — unopened retro video games and hand-painted Japanese anime figurines covered nearly every spare inch of wall space. Mr. Kane pulled out some tiny pieces of metal from the cooler, one in the shape of a bow and arrow, and another that looked like a ball-peen hammer.

“This is black magic,” he said. “One hundred percent.” Then came a key fob for an Audi that still lit up when he pressed a button. “This unlocks a car,” he said. “We just don’t know where the car is.” Then came his collection of iPhones, which he proudly displayed on his purple couch. All of them worked. Well, all but one. “It smokes if you turn it on,” he said. “But that’s the only problem.”…

(10) BUT IF HE TELLS – THEN WE’LL KNOW! No, content moderation is not supposed to be a big secret. “Elon Musk’s X Loses Bid To Change California Content Moderation Law” reports Deadline.

Elon Musk‘s X on Thursday has lost its bid to change a California law on content moderation disclosure by social media companies.

X sued California in September to undo the state’s content moderation law, saying it violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and California’s state constitution.

Today, U.S. District Judge William Shubb dismissed the social media company’s request in an eight-page decision .

The law requires large social media companies to issue semiannual reports that describe their content moderation practices. They must also provide data on the number of objectionable posts and how they were addressed.

“While the reporting requirement does appear to place a substantial compliance burden on social medial companies, it does not appear that the requirement is unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law,” Shubb wrote.

X did not immediately respond. The company’s content moderation policies have long been contentious, dating to before Musk bought the company.

(11) ANOTHER INKLING NAMED LEWIS. This postcard ad for The Major and the Missionary edited by Diana Pavlac Glyer caught my eye and reminded me to kick off the new year by mentioning this collection of letters of interest to Inklings fans.

After the death of his brother, Warren Lewis lived at The Kilns in Oxford, spent time with friends, edited his famous brother’s letters, and did a little writing of his own. Then, out of the blue, he got a letter from a stranger on the far side of the world. Over the years that followed, he and Blanche Biggs, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, shared a vibrant correspondence. These conversations encompassed their views on faith, their politics, their humor, the legacy of C. S. Lewis, and their own trials and longings.

Taken as a whole, these collected letters paint a colorful portrait that illuminates not only the particulars of distant times and places but the intimate contours of a rare friendship.

Edited and introduced by Bandersnatch author Diana Pavlac Glyer.

[Thanks to Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Scott Edelman, Mark Roth-Whitworth, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peer.]

2023 Rhysling Award Winners

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the 2023 Rhysling Award Finalists.

There are two categories: Short poems of 11–49 lines (101–499 words for prose poems) and Long poems of 50–299 lines (500–1999 words for prose poems)

The selected poems appear in the 2023 Rhysling Anthology which can be purchased here.

SHORT POEMS

First Place

[Tie]

  • “Harold and the Blood-Red Crayon” by Jennifer Crow, Star*Line 45.1
  • “In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White” by Terese Mason Pierre, Uncanny 46

Second Place

  • “Bitch Moon” by Sarah Grey, Nightmare Magazine 118

Third Place

[Tie]

  • “First Contact” by Lisa Timpf, Eye to the Telescope 44
  • “The Gargoyle Watches the Rains End” by Amelia Gorman, The Gargoylicon: Imaginings and Images of the Gargoyle in Literature and Art, ed. Frank Coffman (Mind’s Eye Publications)

Short Poem Honorable Mentions

  • “Field Notes from the Anthropocene” by Priya Chand, Nightmare Magazine 116
  • “Near the end, your mother tells you she’s been seeing someone” by Shannon Connor Winward, SFPA Poetry Contest
  • “Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga” by Stephanie M. Wytovich, Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, ed. Lindy Ryan (Black Spot Books)

LONG POEM CATEGORY

First Place

  • “Machine (r)Evolution” by Colleen Anderson, Radon Journal 2

Second Place

  • “The Bone Tree” by Rebecca Buchanan, Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press)

Third Place

  • “Igbo Landing II” by Akua Lezli Hope, Black Fire—This Time, ed. Kim McMillon (Aquarius Press)

Long Poem Honorable Mentions

  • “Herbaceous Citadel” by Avra Margariti, The Fairy Tale Magazine, January 4
  • “Living in Rubble” by Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 3, ed. Wendy Van Camp (Dimensionfold Publishing)
  • “The Thing About Stars” by Avra Magariti, The Saint of Witches (Weasel Press)

PRESENTING THE SHORT POEM WINNERS

Shy and nocturnal, Jennifer Crow has never been photographed in the wild, but it’s rumored that she lives near a waterfall in western New York. Her work has appeared in a number of print and electronic venues, including Uncanny Magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Wondrous Real and Analog Science Fiction. Curious readers can catch up with her on Bluesky @writerjencrow.bsky.social.

Terese Mason Pierre is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Uncanny, Star*Line, and Fantasy Magazine, among others. Her poetry has been nominated for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, the Aurora Award, and the Ignyte Award. She is one of ten winners of the Writers’ Trust Journey Prize, and was named a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. Terese is the co-Editor-in-Chief of Augur Magazine and the author of chapbooks, Surface Area (Anstruther Press, 2019) and Manifest (Gap Riot Press, 2020). Terese lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

Sarah Grey’s poetry and short fiction have appeared in LightspeedNightmare, Uncanny, Strange HorizonsFantasy Magazine, and elsewhere. She has degrees in Art History, Medieval Studies, and law, speaks multiple languages poorly, and enjoys world travel and roller skating. She lives in California with her family and an excessive quantity of cats.

Lisa Timpf is a retired HR and communications professional who lives in Simcoe, Ontario. Her speculative poetry has appeared in New Myths, Star*Line, Triangulation: Seven-Day Weekend, Polar Borealis, and other venues. Her collection of speculative haibun poetry, In Days to Come, is available from Hiraeth Publishing. You can find out more about Lisa’s writing projects at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/.

Amelia Gorman spends her free time exploring forests and fostering dogs. Read her fiction in Nightscript 6 and Cellar Door. Read her poetry in Dreams & Nightmares and Vastarien. Her chapbook, the Elgin-winning Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota, is available from Interstellar Flight Press. Her microchapbook, The Worm Sonnets (2023), is available from The Quarter Press.

PRESENTING THE LONG POEM WINNERS

Colleen Anderson lives in Vancouver, BC and has a BFA in writing. A multiple award nominee, her work has been widely published in seven countries, in such places as Lucent DreamingHWA Poetry Showcases, and the award-winning Shadow Atlas and Water: Sirens, Selkies & Sea Monsters. “Machine (r)Evolution” is part of Tenebrous Press’s 2023 Brave New Weird. She is author of two poetry collections, I Dreamed a Worldand the just released The Lore of Inscrutable Dreams. She served as a 2023 HWA Poetry Showcase judge and co-taught a poetry workshop through Crystal Lake. 
www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com

Rebecca Buchanan is the editor of the Pagan literary ezine Eternal Haunted Summer and is a regular contributor to ev0ke: witchcraft*paganism*lifestyle. She has published short stories, novelettes, and poems in a wide variety of venues, most speculative in nature. When she is not writing, she is baking chocolate chip cookies and avoiding yard work. A complete list of her publications can be found at Eternal Haunted Summer.

Akua Lezli Hope, a Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry (SFPA), is a paraplegic creator & wisdom seeker who uses sound, words, fiber, glass, metal, & wire to create poems, patterns, stories, music, sculpture, adornments & peace. She wrote her first speculative poems in the 6th grade and has been in print since 1974 with nearly 500 poems published. Her collections include Embouchure: Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (Writer’s Digest book award winner), Them Gone, & Otherwheres: Speculative Poetry (2021 Elgin Award winner). A Cave Canem fellow, her honors include the NEA, two NYFA fellowships, Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association award & multiple Best of the Net, Rhysling, Dwarf Star & Pushcart Prize nominations. She won a 2022 New York State Council on the Arts grant to create Afrofuturist, speculative, pastoral poetry. She created the Speculative Sundays Poetry Reading series. She edited the record-breaking sea-themed issue of Eye To The Telescope #42 & NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators, the history-making first of its kind (Sundress Publications, 2021). Her short fiction is included in the ground-breaking speculative anthology Dark Matter, and in the new, celebrated, Africa Risen anthology (Tor 2022,) among others. She founded a paratransit nfp in her small town that needs a vehicle. She exhibits her artwork regularly, practices her soprano saxophone, and dreams of access and freedom in the ancestral land of the Seneca.

[Based on a press release.]

2023 Rhysling Award Finalists

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the 2023 Rhysling Award Finalists.

There are two categories: Short poems of 11–49 lines (101–499 words for prose poems) and Long poems of 50–299 lines (500–1999 words for prose poems)

The selected poems will appear in the 2023 Rhysling Anthology and will be on the ballot for SFPA members to vote on beginning July 1.

SHORT POEMS (50 FINALISTS)

  • A Creation Myth, John C. Mannone, Songs of Eretz, Spring
  • A Spell for Winning Your Personal Injury Lawsuit, Marsheila Rockwell, Dreams and Nightmares 120
  • Biophilia, Sarah Grey, Strange Horizons, Fund Drive
  • Bitch Moon, Sarah Grey, Nightmare Magazine 118
  • Blå Jungfrun, Deborah L. Davitt, Strange Horizons, September 26
  • Black Pastoral: On Mars, Ariana Benson, Paranoid Tree 17
  • Cassandra as Climate Scientist, Jeannine Hall Gailey, California Quarterly 48:4
  • Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, ed. Lindy Ryan (Black Spot Books)
  • Exulansis, Silvatiicus Riddle, Liquid Imagination 51
  • Field Notes from the Anthropocene, Priya Chand, Nightmare Magazine 116
  • First Contact, Lisa Timpf, Eye to the Telescope 44
  • Fracking-lution, Linda D. Addison, Hybrid: Misfits, Monsters and Other Phenomena, eds. Donald Armfield & Maxwell I. Gold (Hybrid Sequence Media)
  • Gosh, it’s Too Beautiful to Exist Briefly in a Parallel Planet, Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan, Strange Horizons, November 21
  • Harold and the Blood-Red Crayon, Jennifer Crow, Star*Line 45.1
  • If I Were Human, Marie Vibbert, Star*Line 45.2
  • In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White, Terese Mason Pierre, Uncanny 46
  • Intergalactic Baba Yaga, Sandra Lindow, Dreams and Nightmares 122
  • Jingwei Tries to Fill Up the Sea, Mary Soon Lee, Uncanny Magazine 45
  • Laws of Exponents, John Reinhart, NewMyths.com 59
  • Leda Goes To The Doctor, Pankaj Khemka, Carmina Magazine, September
  • Lines to a Martian (Palabras a un habitante de Marte), Alfonsina Storni, Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December
  • Medea leaves behind a letter, FJ Doucet, Star*Line 45.1
  • Mind Compression, Madhur Anand, Parasitic Oscillations (Random House)
  • Monitors, David C. Kopaska-Merkel (with Kendall Evans), Star*Line 45.1
  • Near the end, your mother tells you she’s been seeing someone, Shannon Connor Winward, SFPA Poetry Contest
  • Necklace, Carolyn Clink, Frost Zone Zine 6
  • New Planet, Kathy Bailey, Dreams and Nightmares 122
  • Old Soldier, New Love, Vince Gotera, Eye To The Telescope 45
  • On the Limitations of Photographic Evidence in Fairyland, Nicole J. LeBoeuf, Eternal Haunted Summer, Summer Solstice
  • Petrichor, Eva Papasoulioti, Utopia Science Fiction, April/May
  • Pittsburgh Temporal Transfer Station, Alan Ira Gordon, Star*Line 45.2
  • Please Hold, Anna Remennik, NewMyths.com 58
  • Raft of the Medusa, Marge Simon, Silver Blade 53
  • Regarding the Memory of Earth, Angela Acosta, Radon Journal 1
  • Sabbatical Somewhere Warm, Elizabeth McClellan, Star*Line 45.4
  • Shipwrecked, Gretchen Tessmer, The Deadlands 12
  • Status Transcript, Lee Murray, A Woman Unbecoming, eds. Rachel A. Brune & Carol Gyzander (Crone Girls Press)
  • Strange Progeny, Bruce Boston, Hybrid: Misfits, Monsters and Other Phenomena, eds. Donald Armfield & Maxwell I. Gold (Hybrid Sequence Media)
  • Tamales on Mars, Angela Acosta, The Sprawl Mag, October
  • The Epidemic of Shrink-Ray-Gun Violence Plaguing Our Schools Must End, Pedro Iniguez, Star*Line 45.3
  • The Gargoyle Watches the Rains End, Amelia Gorman, The Gargoylicon: Imaginings and Images of the Gargoyle in Literature and Art, ed. Frank Coffman (Mind’s Eye Publications)
  • The Long Night, Ryfkah, Eccentric Orbits 3, ed. Wendy Van Camp (Dimensionfold Publishing)
  • The Optics of Space Travel, Angela Acosta, Eye to the Telescope 43
  • The Watcher on the Wall, Rebecca Bratten-Weiss, Reckoning 6
  • Time Skip, Alyza Taguilaso, The Deadlands 16
  • We Don’t Always Have to Toss Her in the Deep End, Jordan Hirsch, The Future Fire 62
  • Werewolves in Space, Ruth Berman, Dreams and Nightmares 121
  • What Electrons Read, Mary Soon Lee, Simultaneous Times 31
  • What the Old Woman Knows, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Listen to Her UNF, March 23
  • What Wolves Read, Mary Soon Lee, Uppagus 54

LONG POEMS (25 FINALISTS)

  • The Bone Tree, Rebecca Buchanan, Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press)
  • Corvidae, Sarah Cannavo, Liquid Imagination 50
  • The Dead Palestinian Father, Rasha Abdulhadi, Anathema: Spec from the Margins 15
  • Debris, Deborah L. Davitt, The Avenue, May 18
  • EMDR, Marsheila Rockwell, Unnerving Magazine 17
  • ex-lovers & other ghosts, Herb Kauderer, Cold & Crisp 518
  • field notes from an investigation into the self, Max Pasakorn, Strange Horizons, August 29
  • From “Poem without Beginning or End”, Vivek Narayanan, Poetry, May
  • Georgia Clay Blood, Beatrice Winifred Iker, Fantasy Magazine 80
  • Herbaceous Citadel, Avra Margariti, The Fairy Tale Magazine, January 4
  • How to Skin Your Wolf, G. E. Woods, Strange Horizons, December 19
  • Igbo Landing II, Akua Lezli Hope, Black Fire—This Time, ed. Kim McMillon (Aquarius Press)
  • Interdimensional Border Town, Lauren Scharhag, Unlikely Stories, August
  • Living in Rubble, Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 3, ed. Wendy Van Camp (Dimensionfold Publishing)
  • Machine (r)Evolution, Colleen Anderson, Radon Journal 2
  • The Machines Had Accepted Me For So Long, Angel Leal, Radon Journal 2
  • Matches, Rebecca Buchanan, Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press)
  • Mouth of Mirrors, Maxwell I. Gold, Seize the Press, June 14
  • My Great-Grandmother’s House, Madalena Daleziou, The Deadlands 11
  • Queen of Cups, Crystal Sidell, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December
  • The River God Dreams of Death By Water, Ryu Ando, Abyss & Apex 84
  • The Second Funeral, Kurt Newton, Synkroniciti 4:1
  • Spring, When I Met You (Spring, When I Woke), Gerri Leen, Dreams and Nightmares 121
  • The Thing About Stars, Avra Magariti, The Saint of Witches (Weasel Press)
  • Who Came from the Woods, Lev Mirov, Strange Horizons, January 3

2023 Rhysling Award Longlists

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has posted the Rhysling Award Long Lists of poems published in 2022. Juries for the long and short categories will now take these lists and narrow them down to 50 for the short category and 25 for the long category. The selected poems will appear in the 2022 Rhysling Anthology and will be on the ballot for SFPA members to vote on.

The jury will have their selections made no later than April 30. The Anthology will be sent shortly after that date, and voting will begin July 1.

SHORT POEMS (105 nominated poems)

  • After the Quest is Over • Lisa Timpf • Eye to the Telescope 46
  • Air Born • Brian U. Garrison • Corvid Queen, November 18
  • Angels • Frances Skene • Polar Starlight 6
  • Anima • Thomas Zimmerman • Pages Literary Journal, November 9
  • Animal House Speech • Dave Chandler • Failed Haiku 83
  • Anodized Titanium • Mary Soon Lee • Eye to the Telescope 44
  • Aswang Shaman Communing with Diwata for the First Time • Vince Gotera • Eye to the Telescope 46
  • Australopithecus • Jessica Lucci • How To Steal A Purse, April
  • bathroom chatter • Matteo L. Cerilli • Augur 5.2
  • Beneath Everything The Future Still Exists • Maggie Chirdo • Little Blue Marble: Warmer Worlds, ed. Katrina Archer (Ganache Media)
  • The Best Ambassadors • Adele Gardner • Felis Futura: An Anthology of Future Cats, ed. CB Droege (Manawaker Studio)
  • Big Brother, Little Brother, and the Sea • Geneve Flynn • Space & Time Magazine 142
  • Biophilia • Sarah Grey • Strange Horizons, Fund Drive
  • Bitch Moon • Sarah Grey • Nightmare Magazine 118
  • Bla Jungfrun • Deborah L. Davitt • Strange Horizons, September 26
  • Black Pastoral: On Mars • Ariana Benson • Paranoid Tree 17
  • Blond Date in a Laundromat • Mary Turzillo • Best of 22 (Ohio Poetry Association)
  • Bone November • Sandra Kasturi • The New Quarterly 164
  • Cassandra as Climate Scientist • Jeannine Hall Gailey • California Quarterly 48:4
  • The Closest Traitor • Richard Magahiz • Mobius: The Journal of Social Change 33:2
  • A Creation Myth • John C. Mannone • Songs of Eretz, Spring
  • Cursed • Lee Murray • The Gargoylicon: Imaginings and Images of the Gargoyle in Literature and Art, ed. Frank Coffman (Mind’s Eye Publications)
  • Dark Neighborhood • Cindy O’Quinn • Chiral Mad 5
  • Dead in Orange Red • Jamal Hodge • Monthly Musings, May 9
  • Derelict Dreams • Bruce Boston • Dreams and Nightmares 121
  • Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga • Stephanie M. Wytovich • Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, ed. Lindy Ryan (Black Spot Books)
  • Domestic Tranquility • Brian U. Garrison • Radon Journal 2
  • Doppelganger • James Arthur Anderson • The Horror Zine, Fall
  • Draft • Lavina Blossom • Riddled with Arrows 5.4
  • The Epidemic of Shrink-Ray-Gun Violence Plaguing Our Schools Must End • Pedro Iniguez • Star*Line 45.3
  • Equus Aloft • Sterling Warner • Otoliths, February
  • Exulansis • Silvatiicus Riddle • Liquid Imagination 51
  • Fall Thunder • Michael Lee Johnson • Aphelion 278
  • Field Notes from the Anthropocene • Priya Chand • Nightmare Magazine 116
  • First Contact • Lisa Timpf • Eye to the Telescope 44
  • Fracking-lution • Linda D. Addison • Hybrid: Misfits, Monsters and Other Phenomena, eds. Donald Armfield & Maxwell I. Gold (Hybrid Sequence Media)
  • The Gargoyle • Amelia Gorman • The Gargoylicon: Imaginings and Images of the Gargoyle in Literature and Art, ed. Frank Coffman (Mind’s Eye Publications)
  • Gosh, It’s Too Beautiful to Exist Briefly in a Parallel Planet • Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan • Strange Horizons, November 21
  • Harold and the Blood-Red Crayon • Jennifer Crow • Star*Line 45.1
  • Helianthus • Eva Papasoulioti • Solarpunk Magazine 5
  • Hip Gnomes • P S Cottier • AntipodeanSF 291
  • Hockey Night in Canis Major • Gretchen Tessmer • Kaleidotrope, January
  • Home from the Wizard Wars • Lyri Ahnam • Silver Blade 54
  • The Honorable Iris C. Thaumantos, Presiding • Marsheila Rockwell • Musings of the Muses, eds. Heather & S. D. Vassallo (Brigids Gate Press)
  • How to Build an Altar • Angela Acosta • Halloween SFPA Reading
  • If I Were Human • Marie Vibbert • Star*Line 45.2
  • In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White • Terese Mason Pierre • Uncanny 46
  • In water • Soonest Nathaniel • Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize 2022 Award Finalists
  • Intergalactic Baba Yaga • Sandra Lindow • Dreams and Nightmares 122
  • It’s Not Utopian If There Are No Fat People • Jordan Hirsch • Utopia Science Fiction, December
  • Jingwei Tries to Fill Up the Sea • Mary Soon Lee • Uncanny Magazine 45
  • A Lacing of Lavendar • Carina Bissett • HWA Poetry Showcase IX
  • Laws of Exponents • John Reinhart • NewMyths.com 59
  • Leda Goes To The Doctor • Pankaj Khemka • Carmina Magazine, September
  • Letting Flowers Go • Alexander Etheridge • Liquid Imagination 52
  • Lines to a Martian • Alfonsina Storni • Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December
  • The Long Night • Ryfkah • Eccentric Orbits 3, ed. Wendy Van Camp (Dimensionfold Publishing)
  • Medea leaves behind a letter • FJ Doucet • Star*Line 45.1
  • Medusa • Akua Lezli Hope • The New Verse News, November 18
  • Medusa Bringing Her Children Back Home • Salt • Patreon
  • MetaGender Machine • Linda D. Addison • Black Fire—This Time, ed. Kim McMillon (Aquarius Press)
  • Mind Compression • Madhur Anand • Parasitic Oscillations (Random House)
  • Monitors • David C. Kopaska-Merkel (with Kendall Evans) • Star*Line 45.1
  • Mother Wicked • Dyani Sabin • Strange Horizons, February 28
  • Near the end, you mother tells you she’s been seeing someone • Shannon Connor Winward • SFPA Poetry Contest
  • Necklace • Carolyn Clink • Frost Zone Zine 6
  • New Planet • Kathy Bailey • Dreams and Nightmares 122
  • Od’s Bodkin • Colleen Anderson • Space & Time Magazine 142
  • Old Soldier, New Love • Vince Gotera • Eye To The Telescope 45
  • On the Limitations of Photographic Evidence in Fairyland • Nicole J. LeBoeuf • Eternal Haunted Summer, Summer Solstice
  • The Optics of Space Travel • Angela Acosta • Eye to the Telescope 43
  • Petrichor • Eva Papasoulioti • Utopia Science Fiction, April/May
  • Pittsburgh Temporal Transfer Station • Alan Ira Gordon • Star*Line 45.2
  • Please Hold • Anna Remennik • NewMyths.com 58
  • Pluto is Not a Planet • Jamal Hodge • SavagePlanets 2:3
  • Pumpkin Ash and Cypress Knees • Katherine Quevedo • Boudin: It Came from the Swamp
  • Raft of the Medusa • Marge Simon • Silver Blade 53
  • Reasons Why You Can’t Go Out to Play Alone • Victoria Nations • HWA Poetry Showcase IX
  • Regarding the Memory of Earth • Angela Acosta • Radon Journal 1
  • Robert Walton’s Penultimate Entry • Michael Hodges • Eye to the Telescope 47
  • Sabbatical Somewhere Warm • Elizabeth McClellan • Star*Line 45.4
  • Sector 431B • Jamal Hodge • SavagePlanets 2:3
  • Shipwrecked • Gretchen Tessmer • The Deadlands 12
  • Skies over Carson Sink • Joshua Gage • The Space Cadet Science Fiction Review 1
  • A Spell for Winning Your Personal Injury Lawsuit • Marsheila Rockwell • Dreams and Nightmares 120
  • Starfall • Melissa Ridley Elmes • Spectral Realms 16
  • Status Transcript • Lee Murray • A Woman Unbecoming, eds. Rachel A. Brune & Carol Gyzander (Crone Girls Press)
  • Strange Progeny • Bruce Boston • Hybrid: Misfits, Monsters and Other Phenomena, eds. Donald Armfield & Maxwell I. Gold (Hybrid Sequence Media)
  • Suburban Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia suburbiana • Jay Sturner • Not One of Us 69
  • Tamales on Mars • Angela Acosta • The Sprawl Mag, October
  • Tasted Like Pork • Pankaj Khemka • Ghostlight, Fall
  • Terrible Truths • Linda D. Addison • Daughter of Sarpedon: A Tempered Tales Collection, eds. Heather & S. D. Vassallo (Brigids Gate Press)
  • Time Skip • Alyza Taguilaso • The Deadlands 16
  • Transformation Sequence • Stewart C Baker • JOURN-E, September
  • The Veil • Anna Cates • Otoliths, February
  • Villagers • Tim Jones • a fine line, Autumn
  • Virgin Mary Meteorology • Patricia Gomes • Muddy River Review, Fall/Winter
  • Warming • Maria Zoccola • Nightmare Magazine 117
  • The Watcher on the Wall • Rebecca Bratten-Weiss • Reckoning 6
  • We Don’t Always Have to Toss Her in the Deep End • Jordan Hirsch • The Future Fire 62
  • Werewolves in Space • Ruth Berman • Dreams and Nightmares 121
  • What Electrons Read • Mary Soon Lee • Simultaneous Times 31
  • What the Old Woman Knows • Melissa Ridley Elmes • Listen to Her UNF, March 23
  • What Wolves Read • Mary Soon Lee • Uppagus 54
  • While Traveling Through Deep Space Aboard a Generation Ship • Terrie Leigh Relf • The Drabbun Anthology, eds. Francis W. Alexander & t. santitoro (Hiraeth Publishing)

LONG POEMS (69 nominated poems)

  • Ariadne Threads the Labyrinth • Adele Gardner • Dreams and Nightmares 120
  • Barn Cats • Adele Gardner • NewMyths.com 60
  • Beautiful • L. Marie Wood • Under Her Skin, eds. Lindy Ryan & Toni Miller (Black Spot Books)
  • The Birds Singing in the Rocks • Tristan Beiter • Strange Horizons, October 31
  • The Bone Tree • Rebecca Buchanan • Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press)
  • CONELRAD 1960 / COVID 2020 • T. D. Walker • Fireside Fiction, June
  • Corvidae • Sarah Cannavo • Liquid Imagination 50
  • Crossing Over • Frank Coffman • Liquid Imagination 52
  • Crow Daughter • Gabriela Avelino • Kaleidotrope, Summer
  • Dark Matter Resume • Lorraine Schein • A Coup of Owls 8
  • The Darkness • David E. Cowen • The Hand That Wounds (Weasel Press)
  • The Dead Palestinian Father • Rasha Abdulhadi • Anathema: Spec from the Margins 15
  • Debris • Deborah L. Davitt • The Avenue, May 18
  • Drowning in This Sunken City • Deborah L. Davitt • Strange Horizons, July 3
  • Eidolon Tetratych • Frank Coffman • Spectral Realms 16
  • EMDR • Marsheila Rockwell • Unnerving Magazine 17
  • ex-lovers & other ghosts • Herb Kauderer • Cold & Crisp, eds. Rachael Crawford, Shannon Kauderer, Andy Lee, & Lizette Strait (518 Publishing)
  • field notes from an investigation into the self • Max Pasakorn • Strange Horizons, August 29
  • The First 100 Days • John Reinhart • Star*Line 45.3
  • A Fit Place to Live • David E. Cowen • The Hand That Wounds (Weasel Press)
  • For You Were Strangers in Egypt • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Nightmare Magazine 122
  • From the Ninth Brane • John Mannone • Altered Reality Magazine, February
  • From “Poem without Beginning or End” • Vivek Narayanan • Poetry, May
  • The Frosty Voyage • Adele Gardner • Eye to the Telescope 46
  • Georgia Clay Blood • Beatrice Winifred Iker • Fantasy Magazine 80
  • Ghosting Our Steps • Luke Kernan • Anthropology and Humanism 47:2
  • Halloween Hearts (for Ray Bradbury) • Adele Gardner • Halloween Hearts (Jackanapes Press)
  • Herbaceous Citadel • Avra Margariti • The Fairy Tale Magazine, January 4
  • How to Skin Your Wolf • G. E. Woods • Strange Horizons, December 19
  • I am the Dragon • Elizabeth Fletcher • Spaceports & Spidersilk, October
  • If Houses Could Talk • Lori Lopez • The Sirens Call 59
  • Igbo Landing II • Akua Lezli Hope • Black Fire—This Time, ed. Kim McMillon (Aquarius Press)
  • In the Mirror’s Gap • Jeff Young • Eccentric Orbits 3, ed. Wendy Van Camp (Dimensionfold Publishing)
  • Interdimensional Border Town • Lauren Scharhag • Unlikely Stories, August
  • Like Thunder in My Head • Gerri Leen • The Fairy Tale Magazine, April
  • Lines of Non-Extension • Janis Anne Rader • Consilience, Autumn
  • Living in Rubble • Gerri Leen • Eccentric Orbits 3, ed. Wendy Van Camp (Dimensionfold Publishing)
  • Locks • Colleen Anderson • Abyss & Apex 84
  • Machine (r)Evolution • Colleen Anderson • Radon Journal 2
  • The Machines Had Accepted Me For So Long • Angel Leal • Radon Journal 2
  • Matches • Rebecca Buchanan • Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution (Jackanapes Press)
  • A Message From Her Feline Self, Unborn, to Her Cousin, Whose Ancestors Were Once Wolves • Jessica Cho • Fireside Magazine, March
  • Mouth of Mirrors • Maxwell I. Gold • Seize the Press, June 14
  • My Avian Daughter Devours Meteors • Alicia Hilton • Ornithologiae, ed. Mark Beech (Egaeus Press)
  • My Great-Grandmother’s House • Madalena Daleziou • The Deadlands 11
  • On Meeting Kari Solmundarson of Burnt Njal on a Ghost Ship • Amelia Gorman • Nonbinary Review 27
  • One Last Perfect Night • Jill Trade & Joshua St. Claire • The Space Cadet Science Fiction Review 1
  • Persephone in January: A Chant Royal • LindaAnn LoSchiavo • Carmina Magazine, March
  • Photographing Sirens • F. J. Bergmann • SFPA Poetry Contest
  • The Possession • Anna Cates • Otoliths, June
  • Queen of Cups • Crystal Sidell • The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December
  • Questing Done Right: The Goblin Market • Elizabeth R. McClellan • Eternal Haunted Summer, Summer Solstice
  • Resilience • Francesca Gabrielle Hurtado • Reckoning 6
  • The River God Dreams of Death By Water • Ryu Ando • Abyss & Apex 84
  • A Rounded Spell • Alessandro Manzetti • Kubrick Rhapsody (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • Seasonal Meat • Jamal Hodge • Chiral Mad 5
  • The Second Funeral • Kurt Newton • Synkroniciti 4:1
  • Spring, When I Met You (Spring, When I Woke) • Gerri Leen • Dreams and Nightmares 121
  • Team Enrollment • Herb Kauderer • Scifaikuest, November
  • The Thing About Stars • Avra Magariti • The Saint of Witches (Weasel Press)
  • Thirteen Ways to Know You Are a Witch • John C. Mannone • Star*Line 45.4
  • A Tribute to the Ferryman • Ngo Binh Anh Khoa • Eternal Haunted Summer, Winter Solstice
  • tzedek: the wild hunt • Elisheva Fox • Strange Horizons, November 7
  • Uncle Louie’s Farm • Skip Leeds • Pages Literary Journal, August 18
  • Virginia Dare Brooks • Francis Wesley Alexander • The Martian Wave III:1
  • The Whippoorwill • Lori Lopez • Spectral Realms 16
  • Who Came from the Woods • Lev Mirov • Strange Horizons, January 3
  • Wings • Jordan Hirsch • The Fairy Tale Magazine, February
  • Zombie Pirate Ghost • Michael H. Payne • Silver Blade 54

SFPA Issues New Rhysling Award Guidelines

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has implemented new guidelines for the organization’s best-known prize, the Rhysling Award.

The most significant changes are the addition of a jury to the process, and a rule to discourage entrants from also competing for two other SFPA prizes with the same poem.

JURY. SFPA members will continue to collectively create a list of nominees. The new Rhysling jury will select the finalists from their recommendations. SFPA members will still vote on the winners.

RANGE. The Rhysling Award will still be given in short and long categories, with the dividing point at 50 lines. However, there are now lower and upper limits to prevent “double dipping” into SFPA’s other awards, the Dwarf Stars and Elgin Award. Poems 10 lines and under are eligible only for Dwarf Stars. Poems 300 lines and over are eligible only for the Elgin.

The changes followed two rounds of surveying members and have been approved by SFPA’s executives.

2022 Rhysling Award Long Poem Winners

Beth Cato, Marsheila Rockwell, Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo are the winners of 2022 Rhysling Award in the Long Poem Category. Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association members voted their work at the top of the polls. There were 78 nominees.

Long Poem Category

First Place

Second Place

  • “Reservation Fairy Tales 101—Final Exam” • Marsheila Rockwell • Augur Magazine 4:1

Third Place

  • “Alexander’s Babylon” • Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo • Victims (Weasel Press)

Honorable Mentions

The 2022 Rhysling Chairs are F. J. Bergmann and Brian U. Garrison.

The Rhysling Award is given in two categories. “Best Long Poem” is for poems of 50+ lines, or for prose poems, of 500+ words. “Best Short Poem” is limited to poems of no more than 49 lines, or prose poems of no more than 499 words. The 2022 Rhysling Award short poem winners were announced in June.

Pixel Scroll 8/25/22 Eats, Scrolls And Athelas

(1) RHYSLING REVAMP SURVEY REPORT. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) surveyed members about potential changes to their Rhysling Award. See their feedback here: “Rhysling Revamp” at the SPECPO blog. From the introduction:

The Rhysling Awards are in their 45th year of recognizing excellent speculative poetry, presented by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA). Leaders have been monitoring the Rhysling Anthology as it grew along with membership numbers. The anthology has ballooned from 42 poems in 2002 to 180 poems in 2022. Continued growth would result in an anthology that is not feasible to print or read.

Here’s an excerpt from the survey results.

CATEGORIES

A continual discussion point among members is the question of “double dipping” on awards. Most respondents support that Elgin-length poems not be considered for the Rhysling (64%). A slight majority agree at setting a maximum line length for the Rhysling (53%), which would be consistent with considering extra-long poems being only eligible for the Elgins. On the other side of the spectrum, there is generally support (49%) for Dwarf Stars to be the only award that can catch the 1-10 line poems. Only 25% of respondents disagreed about keeping Dwarf-Stars-eligible poems out of the Rhyslings.

There was very little support for adjusting the length definitions, but lots of ambivalence showing in the swell of neutral responses (44%).

(2) CHICON 8 POCKET PROGRAM. In a manner of speaking. The 392-page Pocket Program is now available on the Chicon 8 website. There are two versions, (1) a single page version best viewed on phones and tablets, and (2) a two-page version which is best for printing.

(3) ALERT: FAUX CHICON 8 MERCHANDISE. The Worldcon committee issued a heads up that some t-shirt sites are selling Chicon 8 branded merchandise and saying they are official. They are not.

“Our only official site for Chicon 8 merchandise at this time is Redbubble. If you buy from anywhere else, it does not benefit the convention. Please shop wisely!”

(4) THE OTHER WORLD. This World Fantasy Award winner’s new book isn’t genre, but when speaking about her research she says things like this — “So I went on this fantastic two-week trip into a time and place that doesn’t really exist now.” “Sofia Samatar Brings a Second Coming” at Publishers Weekly.

Sofia Samatar has a way with a sentence. No matter what she’s writing—whether it’s short stories, like her quietly devastating Nebula- and Hugo-nominated “Selkie Stories Are for Losers,” or novels, like her World Fantasy Award–winning debut, A Stranger in Olondria—her work has a way of pairing the mundane and sublime with casual aplomb.

Her latest, The White Mosque (Catapult, Oct.), is a mosaic memoir that juxtaposes history, culture, religion and regionalism, tracing the journey of a group of German-speaking Mennonites into the heart of Khiva in Central Asia—now modern-day Uzbekistan—on a quest that promised no less than the second coming of Christ.

Samatar’s own journey to the site where the group’s church once stood started in 2016, when her father-in-law gave her a book titled The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites, by Frank Belk. “This guy, who’s sort of a cult leader, predicts Christ is returning, and these people just uproot their lives to follow him,” she says, speaking via Zoom from her office at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., where she’s an associate professor of English. “Of course, nothing happens. But they stayed for 50 years, until they were deported by the Bolsheviks.”

Samatar, the child of a Black Somali Muslim and a white Mennonite, became obsessed with the story…. 

(5) CON OR BUST. Dream Foundry, which previously announced that Con or Bust is “folding into our (dragon) wing,” shared the program’s new logo designed by Dream Foundry contest winner Yue Feng.

Applications for grants are open, and they’ve already begun reviewing and issuing grants. If you want to help creatives and fans of color have access to conventions and other opportunities, donate here. To stay in the loop on Con or Bust news, sign up for the program’s quarterly newsletter.     

(6) BACK TO THE MOON. This NASA promo about the Artemis mission dropped yesterday. “Artemis I: We Are Ready”.

The journey of half a million miles – the first flight of the Artemis Generation – is about to begin. The uncrewed Artemis I mission will jump-start humanity’s return to the Moon with the thunderous liftoff of NASA’s powerful new Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. This critical flight test will send Orion farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever flown, putting new systems and processes to the test and lighting the way for the crew missions to come. Artemis I is ready for departure – and, together with our partners around the world, we are ready to return to the Moon, with our sights on Mars and beyond.

(7) WHERE’S THE LOOT? [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times behind a paywall, Tom Faber looks at the problems game designers have giving users rewards.

Most games interface short, mid- and long-term rewards that trigger at different times.  the short-term rewards often take the form of sensory feedback; the bright ‘ding’ when you get a coin in Super Mario, an enemy’s head exploding in a shower of gore in Grand Theft Auto.  These get boring after a while–behavioural psychologists learned that repeating the same rewards generates diminishing returns.  So developers offer midterm rewards:  new levels, items, skills, characters, locations or narrative beats.  The longterm rewards are often related to social competition and prestige, such as difficult high-level team challenges or rare cosmetic items which players can show off to their friends.

Loot boxes lean into several of these techniques.  They have been employed in all manner of games ranging from FIFA to Star Wars, and they’re very profitable.  Yet they have also faced a backlash:  a recent report from consumer bodies in 18 European countries called them ‘exploitative.’  Although they have been banned in Belgium since 2018, most governments have been wary of legislation–the UK recently decided not to ban loot boxes after a 22-month consultation.  Still, some developers have heard gamers are unhappy–loot boxes were removed from Star Wars Battlefront 2 after an outcry and Blizzard recently announced they won’t feature in upcoming shooter Overwatch  2.”

(8) AGAINST ALL ODDS. The New York Times drills deep into one writer’s experience in “How to Get Published: A Book’s Journey From ‘Very Messy’ Draft to Best Seller”. The author’s novel The School for Good Mothers is set in the near future.

…“I’d like people to know that it’s possible for a debut author in her 40s, a woman of color, a mom, who led a quiet life offline with no brand building whatsoever to have this experience,” said Jessamine Chan.

And yet Chan’s “The School for Good Mothers” was published in January 2022 — and soared to the best-seller list, catapulting her to literary stardom. Last month, former President Barack Obama featured it on his summer reading list.

How does a debut novel go from a “very messy” draft on a writer’s desk to a published book, on display in bookstores around the country?

Here, we take you behind the scenes to see how a book is born — the winding path it takes, the many hands that touch it, the near-misses and the lucky breaks that help determine its fate.

(9) WHEATON SIGNING SCHEDULED. “Wil Wheaton presents and signs Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, CA on August 31 at 7:00 p.m.

From starring in Stand by Me to playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation to playing himself, in his second (third?) iconic role of Evil Wil Wheaton in The Big Bang Theory, to becoming a social media supernova, Wil Wheaton has charted a career course unlike anyone else, and has emerged as one of the most popular and well respected names in science fiction, fantasy and pop culture.

Back in 2001, Wil began blogging on wilwheaton.net. Believing himself to have fallen victim to the curse of the child actor, Wil felt relegated to the convention circuit, and didn’t expect many would want to read about his random experiences and personal philosophies.

Yet, much to his surprise, people were reading. He still blogs, and now has an enormous following on social media with well over 3 million followers.

In Still Just a Geek, Wil revisits his 2004 collection of blog posts, Just a Geek, filled with insightful and often laugh-out-loud annotated comments, additional later writings, and all new material written for this publication. The result is an incredibly raw and honest memoir, in which Wil opens up about his life, about falling in love, about coming to grips with his past work, choices, and family, and finding fulfillment in the new phases of his career. From his times on the Enterprise to his struggles with depression to his starting a family and finding his passion–writing–Wil Wheaton is someone whose life is both a cautionary tale and a story of finding one’s true purpose that should resonate with fans and aspiring artists alike. (William Morrow & Company)

(10) VIKING FUNERAL FOR BATGIRL? The Guardian hears “‘Secret’ screenings of cancelled Batgirl movie being held by studio – reports”.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed with multiple sources that a select few who worked on the film, including cast, crew and studio executives, would be attending the screenings this week on the Warner Bros lot in California. One source described them as “funeral screenings”, as it is likely the footage will be stored forever and never shown to the public.

…The Hollywood Reporter reported there was a chance Warner Bros would make “the drastic move of actually destroying its Batgirl footage as a way to demonstrate to the IRS that there will never be any revenue from the project, and thus it should be entitled to the full write-down immediately.”

On Tuesday, in an interview with French outlet Skript, Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah said they no longer had any copy of the film, recalling the moment they found they could not longer access the servers that held the footage.

…El Arbi said it was unlikely they’d have the studio’s support to release it in the future or that there could be an equivalent of “the Snyder cut” – Zack Snyder’s four-hour director’s cut of the DC film Justice League, which added an extra $70m to a $300m budget film.

“It cannot be released in its current state,” said El Arbi. “There’s no VFX … we still had some scenes to shoot. So if one day they want us to release the Batgirl movie, they’d have to give us the means to do it. To finish it properly with our vision.”

(11) TRANSFORMATIVE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. Seekingferret posted a “Panel Report” from Fanworks where the topic was “Ethical Norms in Fanworks Fandom”.

… I presented three models for fandom’s approach to copyright- the It’s All Transformative model, the It’s Illegal but I Do It Anyway model, and the It’s Not Illegal Because the Copyright Holders’ Inaction is an Implicit License model, and then the audience argued with me for a while about whether the second two models are essentially the same, which was a good, clarifying argument to have….

Also of interest is the panel’s accompanying slideshow.

(12) WARNING. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Since, fan-wise, many cons use Discord… “Roblox and Discord Become Virus Vectors for New PyPI Malware” at The New Stack.

If you can communicate on it, you can abuse it. This was proven again recently when a hacker using the name “scarycoder” uploaded a dozen malicious Python packages to PyPI, the popular Python code repository. These bits of code pretended to provide useful functions for Roblox gaming community developers, but all they really did was steal users’ information. So far, so typical. Where it got interesting is it used the Discord messaging app to download malicious executable files.

(13) BOOK PORN. [Item by Bill.] Whenever I see a photograph on the web that has a bookshelf in the background, I spend way too much time trying to figure out what the books are.  For example: 

Blogger Lawrence Person has posted photos of his SF book shelves, and there are a lot of titles I’d love to have in my own collection.  A few years old, but perhaps worth a look ….  “Overview of Lawrence Person’s Library: 2017 Edition”. He provides regular updates to the collection (see the “books” tag).  

(14) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.  

1989 [By Cat Eldridge.] Thirty-three years ago, the first installment of the Bill & Ted franchise, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure premiered.

Starring William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan, portrayed by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as, and not giving a frell about spoilers here, time travelling slacker high schoolers assembling the ultimate history report. And let’s not forget Rufus as portrayed by George Carlin. I met him some forty years ago — a really neat gentleman. 

Stephen Herek directed here. He had previously written and directed the horror/SF Critters film. Nasty film it was. Chris Matheson who wrote all three of the franchise films co-wrote this with Ed Solomon who co-wrote the third with him and, more importantly, was the Men in Black writer.

By late Eighties standards, it was cheap to produce costing only ten million and making forty in return. Critics for the most part were hostile —- the Washington Post said “if Stephen Herek has any talent for comedy, it’s not visible here.” And the Los Angeles Times added, “it’s unabashed glorification of dumbness for dumbness’ sake.” 

It spawned not one but two television series named – oh, guess what they were named. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, an animated series that started out on CBS and ended on Fox, lasted twenty-one episodes over two seasons, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the live version, lasted but seven episodes on Fox. Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy played Bill and Ted.

DC did the comic for the first film, Marvel for the second. It did well enough that it led to the Marvel series Bill & Ted’s Excellent Comic Book which lasted for just twelve issues. And there was a sort of adaptation of the animated series that lasted for a year by Britain’s now gone Look-In Magazine.

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes give it a most bodacious seventy-five percent rating.

(15) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born August 25, 1909 Michael Rennie. Definitely best remembered as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still. He would show up a few years later on one of The Lost World films as Lord John Roxton, and he’s got an extensive genre series resume which counts Lost in Space as The Keeper in two episodes, The Batman as The Sandman, The Time TunnelThe Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Invaders. (Died 1972.)
  • Born August 25, 1913 Walt Kelly. If you can get them, Fantagraphics has released the complete Pogo in twelve stunning hardcover editions covering up to 1973. Did you know Kelly began his career as animator at Walt Disney Studios, working on DumboPinocchio and Fantasia? Well he did. (Died 1973.)
  • Born August 25, 1930 Sean Connery. Worst film? Zardoz. Best film? From Russia with Love very, very definitely. Best SF film? Outland. Or Time Bandits you want to go for silly. Now remember these are my personal choices. I almost guarantee that you will have different ones. (Died 2020.)
  • Born August 25, 1940 Marilyn Niven, 82. She was a Boston-area fan who now lives in LA and is married to writer Larry Niven. She has worked on a variety of conventions, both regionals and Worldcons.  In college, she was a member of the MITSFS and was one of the founding members of NESFA. She’s also a member of Almack’s Society for Heyer Criticism.
  • Born August 25, 1947 Michael Kaluta, 75. He’s best known for his 1970s take on The Shadow with writer Dennis O’Neil for DC in 1973–1974. He’d reprise his work on The Shadow for Dark Horse a generation later. And Kaluta and O’Neil reunited on The Shadow: 1941 – Hitler’s Astrologer graphic novel published in 1988. If you can find them, the M. W. Kaluta: Sketchbook Series are well worth having.
  • Born August 25, 1955 Simon R. Green, 67. I’ll confess that I’ve read pretty much everything he’s written except that damn Robin Hood novel that made a NYT Best Seller. Favorite series? The NightsideHawk & Fisher and Secret History were my favorite ones until the Ismael Jones series came along and I must say it’s a hell of a lot of fun as well.  Drinking Midnight Wine and Shadows Fall are the novels I’ve re-read the most. 
  • Born August 25, 1958 Tim Burton, 64. Beetlejuice is by far my favorite film by him. His Batman was, errr, interesting. Read that comment as you will. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is definitely more Dahlish than the first take was which I think is a far better look at the source material, and Sleepy Hollow is just too damn weird for my pedestrian tastes. (Snarf.)
  • Born August 25, 1970 Chris Roberson, 52. Brilliant writer. I strongly recommend his Recondito series, Firewalk and Firewalkers. The Spencer Finch series is also worth reading. He won two Sidewise Awards, first for his “O One” story and later for The Dragon’s Nine Sons novel. He’s had five Sidewise nominations. 

(16) COMICS SECTION.

(17) HORROR WRITERS HAVE OPINIONS. Midnight Pals did a sendup of John Scalzi and his purchase of a church building. And his burritos. Can’t overlook those. Thread starts here.

(18) SPACE OPERA. “Friday’s Rag Tag Crew: Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky”, a review by Camestros Felapton.

… I found myself in the mood for a big space opera the other day and with the novel also being a Dragon Award finalist, it seemed like a natural choice. I wasn’t wrong in my initial assessment. It is in many ways a more conventional space opera than the books I’d read. Humanity is a spacefaring species with its own factions, in a galactic society with a range of aliens. There’s hyperspace (or rather “unspace”), a cosmic threat, mysteriously vanished advanced civilisations, space spies, space gangsters, badass warriors and epic space battles. This is all good but if you are hoping for the millennia-long deep dive into the evolution of a sapient spider civilisation this book doesn’t have anything like that. Which is fine because that gives Tchaikovsky more space and time to attend to a cast of characters….

(19) A CITY ON A HILL. Paul Weimer reviews Stephen Fry’s Troy at Nerds of a Feather: “Microreview [book]: Troy, by Stephen Fry”. There may be surprises in store for some readers – at least there were for Paul.

…In any event, Fry is here to help you. He starts at the beginning, as to how Troy was founded, and why, and brings its history up to date as it were. The delight in the depth of research and scholarship he brings is tha there is a fair chunk here I didn’t know about. Fun fact, the Trojan War is not the first time that Troy gets attacked in its mythological history, and you will never guess who did it before the Greeks got it into their heads to take back Helen, nor why…. 

(20) GOING PUBLIC. “Tom Lehrer: The Public Domain Tango”, a Plagiarism Today post from 2020.

…However, it seems likely that Lehrer may be set for yet another major revival as news spread yesterday that Lehrer, now 92, had released his lyrics and much of his music into the public domain. This has already sparked a great deal of interest in possible covers and recreations of his most famous songs.

Note: It’s worth stating that the declaration deals with his compositions and his lyrics, not the recordings. Those are most likely not owned by Lehrer.

However, the statement isn’t wholly true. Tom Lehrer didn’t actually release his songs into the public domain. While it may be pedantry given that there is no practical difference, the lengths Lehrer had to go to release what he did in the way that he did only further highlights Lehrer’s genius and is well worth exploring.

If this is truly to be Lehrer’s final musical act, it makes sense to see it for both the effort it took and the intellect required to conceive of it….

(21) AI GIVES ASSIST TO MUSIC VIDEO. [Item by Dann.] Someone recently made a video using the lyrics to “Renegade” by Styx.  The lyrics were fed, line by line, into AI art software to create the images used in the video.

While the lyrics aren’t explicitly genre centered, the AI created several images that evoked sci-fi/fantasy themes.  The rhetorical progeny of Edgar Allen Poe shows up a few times as well. “Renegade – Styx – But the lyrics are Ai generated images”.

(22) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I Pitch Meeting,” Ryan George says the producer in the seventh Harry Potter film mourns when several beloved minor characters die.  He is bored by the very long camping scenes (where the characters camp and camp and camp some more” but gets excited when Harry Potter gets to duke it out with Voldemort only to discover that this is the end of Part I and we have to wait for Part II.

[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Dann, Jennifer Hawthorne, Daniel Dern, Bill, Chris Barkley, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

2022 Rhysling Award Winners

Mary Soon Lee, Geoffrey A. Landis, and Linda D. Addison are the winners of the 2022 Rhysling Awards presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA).

The winners were chosen by SFPA members, with 114 votes cast.

SHORT POEM CATEGORY

First Place

  • “Confessions of a Spaceport AI” • Mary Soon Lee • Uncanny 43

Second Place

  • “Gravity (some things that fly)” • Geoffrey A. Landis • Space & Time Magazine 140

Third Place

  • “The Butterfly Affect” • Linda D. Addison • Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology, eds. S. D. Vasallo & Steven M. Long (Brigids Gate Press)

Honorable Mentions

  • “our translucent bodies” • Devin Miller • Mermaids Monthly 6
  • “dry land” • Maria Zoccola • Strange Horizons, 7 June
  • “Exquisite” • Lee Murray• Tortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken, collab. antho. (Yuriko Publishing)

The 2022 Rhysling Chairs are F. J. Bergmann and Brian U. Garrison.

The Rhysling Award is given in two categories. “Best Long Poem” is for poems of 50+ lines, or for prose poems, of 500+ words. “Best Short Poem” is limited to poems of no more than 49 lines, or prose poems of no more than 499 words. Voting continues on the Long Poem category until November 1.

SFPA will hold an official award ceremony and reading at LosCon in November 2022.

The 2022 Rhysling Anthology edited by F.J. Bergmann and Brian U. Garrison, with cover Image by Michal Kvác, can be purchased at the SFPA site.

Pixel Scroll 5/18/22 Fili, Scrolli, Pixeli – I Liked, Scrolled And Pixeled — Fiulius Pixar

(1) ANIME CENTRAL RELAXES MASK POLICY. Anime Central is a convention taking place in Chicago from May 20-22. At the end of April the con committee was adamant that for ACen 2022 they’d be requiring all attendees to wear a mask and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test result, and that this policy would not change.

However, their Covid policy has changed after all, reports Anime News Network: “Anime Central 2022 Reverses Mask Policy, No Longer Requires COVID-19 Vaccination or Negative Test”. ANN says, “An e-mail sent by and to Anime Central staff suggests that this was a decision made by the Midwest Animation Promotion Society (MAPS) following ‘lack of support from the venue’ and ‘last-minute communication.’”

Anime Central has changed its Covid policy to read:

…Our policies are based on current CDC Guidelines and align with the requirements of the Donald E. Stephens Conventions Center and state and local health authorities regarding large indoor events. Currently, verification of vaccination or proof of negative test are not required for admission to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center or Anime Central. We will continue to monitor the requirements and guidance from state and local health departments….

Face Coverings Required in Select Areas

In our recent vaccine and mask policy change announcement, we stated that face coverings may be required in some areas of Anime Central or at the request of our guests of honor at their events. We’ve received a lot of feedback for clarification on which areas and events will require a face covering and which do not. Face coverings will be required to enter:

  • All guest and panelist events
  • The Dances
  • The Exhibit Hall
  • The Artist Alley
  • The Gaming and Entertainment Hall

We strongly recommend wearing masks in all lobbies, hallways, public spaces, and restrooms. Our team will continue to do the best we can to help enforce this in our spaces, we ask that you also join in in masking even where it’s not required.

(2) A WARNING. “’Have we not loved you? Have we not cared for you?’: The Plight of AI in the Universe of Douglas Adams” examined by Rachel Taylor at the Tor/Forge Blog.

…When we think of the dangers of AI, we normally think of Skynet, HAL or AM. And sure, there is a non-zero chance that any Super AI might spend five minutes on the internet and think “ah, I see the problem. Where are those nuclear codes?” But honestly, if I had to place money on the science fiction writer who will prove most prophetic in depicting our future relationship with AI? Not Philip K. Dick. Not Harlan Ellison. Not Asimov.

Douglas Adams, all the way.

In the universe of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels across all media the relationship between humanity and the various computers and robots they’ve created is less apocalyptic warfare and more like a miserably unhappy marriage….

(3) ROSWELL VOICES. Here are the celebrity readers for this weekend’s 2022 Roswell Award event. Register for the free Zoom presentation.

The Roswell Award and Feminist Futures Award: Celebrity Readings & Honors recognizes outstanding new works of science fiction by emerging writers from across the United States and worldwide, including the winner of this year’s feminist themed sci-fi story. This thrilling show will feature dramatic readings by celebrity guests from some of today’s hottest sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies. Following the readings, the authors will be honored for their writing! 

(4) AURORA VOTERS PACKAGE. Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association members can now download the 2022 Aurora Awards Voters Package. Login (or join) at www.prixaurorawards.ca. Downloads remain available until voting closes on July 23.  Voting for the 2022 awards will begin on June 11.

Have you started reading works by this year’s finalists? We are pleased to announce that this year’s voters’ package contains either e-versions or links for every single one of our 2022 nominated works and is open to all CSFFA members to download.

The electronic versions of these works are being made available to you through the generosity of the nominees and their publishers. We are grateful for their participation and willingness to share with CSFFA members. Please remember, all downloads are for CSFFA members only and are not to be shared.

The purpose of the voters’ package is simple–before you vote for the awards, we want you to be able to experience as many of the nominated works as possible so you can make informed decisions.

(5) HEAR RHYSLING NOMINEES READ ALOUD. The second of three readings of the short poems nominated for the Rhysling Awards will be held on May 20, 2022 from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. Eastern, live on Facebook via Zoom. tinyurl.com/Rhysling2

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association presents the annual Rhysling Awards, named for the blind poet Rhysling in Robert A. Heinlein’s short story “The Green Hills of Earth.” Apollo 15 astronauts named a crater near their landing site “Rhysling,” which has since become its official name.

Nominees for each year’s Rhysling Awards are selected by the membership of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. For 2022, 103 short poems and 78 long poems were nominated.

The last reading of the nominated short poems in the Rhysling anthology will be held on June 6, 2022 from 7 to 8 p.m. EDT. The readings, hosted by Akua Lezli Hope, are free and open to the public. 

(6) THE FIRST TRAILER FOR SHE-HULK. “You’ll like her when she’s angry.” She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, an Original series from Marvel Studios, starts streaming August 17 on Disney+.

(7) HIGHER LEARNING. In the Washington Post, Mary Quattlebaum interviews Dhonielle Clayton about The Marvellers, her YA magic-school novel. “’The Marvellers’ by Dhonielle Clayton features a diverse school of magic”.

… “So many people said it couldn’t be done,” said Dhonielle (pronounced don-yell) Clayton about a novel set in a school of magic. “How can anyone compete with Harry Potter?”

Well, Clayton proved them wrong. “The Marvellers,” the first book in her new middle-grade series, was launched this month.

The boarding school — called the Arcanum Training Institute for Marvelous and Uncanny Endeavors — is quite different from the Hogwarts of J.K. Rowling’s global publishing phenomenon. It’s located in the sky rather than a mystical land that resembles the Scottish Highlands. Young magic folks from around the world are invited to attend.

Clayton’s inspiration came from a real school, one in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood, where she was a librarian.

“The kids there were from different countries, different cultures,” said Clayton, who lives in the city. “They didn’t see themselves in the fantasy books they wanted to read.”

So for the past five years, Clayton devoted herself to researching and writing a book that might reflect and connect with those students — and so many like them, around the world….

(8) THOUGHTS AND PREYERS. Giant Freakin Robot assures us, “The Predator Actually Looks Good Again In The Trailer For New Movie Set 300 Years Ago”.

…Prey will stream on Hulu starting Friday, August 5. While it will technically be a prequel to the rest of the Predator films, it will reportedly not directly reference any of their events. Besides, you know. Having someone from the same freaky alien species hunting people down and murdering them….

The YouTube intro says:

Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago, “Prey” is the story of a young woman, Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries.

(9) MEMORY LANE.

2013 [By Cat Eldridge.] Ok I cannot do this essay without SPOILERS, so you are warned. Go away now if you haven’t read Ancillary Justice

Just nine years ago, Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie’s debut novel came out. And oh what a novel it is! It’s the first in her Imperial Radch space opera trilogy, followed by Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy. Breq is both the sole survivor of a starship destroyed by treachery by her own people and the carrier of that ship’s consciousness. What an amazing job Leckie does differentiating between those two characters.

Doing space opera that feels original is damn hard but she pulls it off here amazingly well. The very personal and the grand political are present here, balanced in a way and tangled together as well that is rarely done so intelligently. Genevieve Valentine of NPR in her review agrees with me saying that it is “A space opera that skillfully handles both choruses and arias, Ancillary Justice is an absorbing thousand-year history, a poignant personal journey, and a welcome addition to the genre.” 

Everyone in our community liked it as not only did it win a most deserved Hugo at Loncon 4, but it effectively swept the awards season garnering an Arthur C. Clarke Award, a BSFA Award, a Kitschies Golden Tentacle for Best Debut Novel, Locus Award for Best First Novel, a Nebula Award for Best Novel and a Seiun Award for Best Translated Novel. And it got nominated for a Compton Crook Award, Otherwise Award and Philip K. Dick Award.

The next two novels in this trilogy are just as stellar. Ancillary Sword got nominated for a Hugo at Sasquan, and Ancillary Mercy would get a nomination at MidAmericaCon.

The audioworks are narrated by Adjoa Andoh who appeared on Doctor Who as Francine Jones during the Time of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. They are quite superb. 

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born May 18, 1930 Fred Saberhagen. I’m reasonably sure I’ve read the entirety of his Berserker series though not in the order they were intended to be read. Some are outstanding, some less so. I’d recommend Berserker ManShiva in Steel and the original Berserker collection.  Of his Dracula sequence, the only one I think that I’veread is The Holmes-Dracula File which is superb. And I know I’ve read most of the Swords tales as they came out in various magazines.  His only Hugo nomination was at NYCon 3 for his “Mr. Jester” short story published in If, January 1966. (Died 2007.)
  • Born May 18, 1934 Elizabeth Rodgers. Yes, Nyota Uhura was the primary individual at the communications post but several others did staff it over the series. She appeared doing that as Lt. Palmer in two episodes, “The Doomsday Machine” and “The Way to Eden”.  She was The Voice of The Companion in a third episode, “Metamorphosis”. She would also appear in The Time Tunnel, Land of The Giants and Bewitched. (Died 2004.)
  • Born May 18, 1946 Andreas Katsulas. I knew him as the amazing Ambassador G’Kar on Babylon 5 but had forgottenhe played played the Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m reasonably sure that his first genre role on television was playing Snout in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and he had a recurring role in Max Headroom as Mr. Bartlett. He also had appearances on Alien NationThe Death of the Incredible HulkMillenniumStar Trek: Enterprise anda voice role on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. Screw the damn frelling Reaper for taking him far too soon.  (Died 2006.)
  • Born May 18, 1948 R-Laurraine Tutihasi, 74. She’s a member of LASFS and the N3F. She publishes Feline Mewsings for FAPA. She won the N3F’s Kaymar Award in 2009. Not surprisingly, she’s had a number of SJW creds in her life and her website here gives a look at her beloved cats and a lot of information on her fanzines. 
  • Born May 18, 1952 Diane Duane, 70. She’s known for the Young Wizards YA series though I’d like to single her out for her lesser-known Feline Wizards series where SJW creds maintain the gates that wizards use for travel throughout the multiverse. A most wonderful thing for felines to do! Her Tale of the Five series was inducted into the Gaylactic Spectrum Award Hall of Fame in 2003. She also has won The Faust Award for Lifetime Achievement given by The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. 
  • Born May 18, 1958 Jonathan Maberry, 64. The only thing I’ve read by him is the first five or six novels in the Joe Ledger Series which has an extremely high body count and an even higher improbability index. Popcorn reading with a Sriracha sauce.  I see that he’s done scripts for Dark Horse, IDW and Marvel early on. And that he’s responsible for Captain America: Hail Hydra which I remember as quite excellent. Not surprisingly, he’s won Stoker Awards and nominated for at least a dozen more. 
  • Born May 18, 1969 Ty Franck, 53. Half of the writing team along with Daniel Abraham that s James Corey, author of the now-completed Expanse series. I’ll admit that I’ve fallen behind by a volume or two as there’s just too many good series out there too keep up with all of them, damn it, but now that it’s ended I intend to finish it. The Expanse won the Best Series Hugo at CoNZealand. The “Nemesis Games” episode of The Expanse is nominated at Chicon 8 for a Hugo as have two episodes previously. 

(11) FREE READ. “Grant Morrison Releases a Sci-Fi Comic He Made Back in the ’80s” and Gizmodo invites you to read it in a slideshow presented at the link.

Grant Morrison, multiple award-winning writer of acclaimed comic books like All-Star Superman, The Invisibles, Doom Patrol, New X-Men, Batman, and many many more, had a special gift released this past Free Comic Book Day. In wasn’t a new title; in fact, it was quite the opposite—a 40-year-old short story he’d written and drawn in the very early stages of his career. While Morrison originally posted it on their SubStack, we’re absolutely honored to be able to republish it on io9.

(12) A KALEIDOSCOPIC AUDIENCE. Charles Payseur, who now is reviewing short fiction for Locus and stepped away from his epic Quick Sip Reviews blog, speaks openly about how public expectations whipsaw critics. Thread starts here.

(13) ABANDONED LAUNDRY. The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan says, “Steven Moffat’s adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 bestseller is witty and well done, but it can’t overcome the novel’s depressingly old-fashioned and iffy implications.” – “The Time Traveler’s Wife review – far too much ick factor to be truly great”.

…He [The Time Traveler] learns to find his feet (and some clothes) a little faster each time. In the course of his many unchronological journeys, he meets his soulmate, Clare. They are wrenched repeatedly from each other’s arms to reunite weeks, months or years later in more or less romantic scenarios, depending on their ages at the time.

It is, in short, guff of a high order. But the new six‑part adaptation (Sky Atlantic) by Steven Moffat (a longtime fan of the book, which he used as inspiration for the Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace) does it proud. He takes the melodrama down a notch and salts the schmaltz with wit where he can.

Nonetheless, an emetic framing device remains….

(14) TELL NASA WHAT YOU THINK. “NASA Seeks Input on Moon to Mars Objectives, Comments Due May 31”.

As NASA moves forward with plans to send astronauts to the Moon under Artemis missions to prepare for human exploration of Mars, the agency is calling on U.S. industry, academia, international communities, and other stakeholders to provide input on its deep space exploration objectives. 

NASA released a draft set of high-level objectives Tuesday, May 17, identifying 50 points falling under four overarching categories of exploration, including transportation and habitation; Moon and Mars infrastructure; operations; and science. Comments are due to the agency by close of business on Tuesday, May 31. 

“The feedback we receive on the objectives we have identified will inform our exploration plans at the Moon and Mars for the next 20 years,” said Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “We’re looking within NASA and to external stakeholders to help us fine-tune these objectives and be as transparent as possible throughout our process. With this approach, we will find potential gaps in our architecture as well as areas where our goals align with those from industry and international partners for future collaboration.”   

(15) WEIRDO CEREAL NEWS. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] Not even kids stoked on sugar wanted to see creepy creatures staring at them from the cereal bowl, so I bought a box on the half-price shelf today. “Minecraft” at Kellogg’s.

(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] The Blue Peter gang drive a full-scale Thunderbirds Fab-1 complete with a rotating license plate, machine gun, and a closed-circuit TV set in this 1968 BBC clip that dropped yesterday.

Blue Peter presenters Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves bring a fully-functioning life-size replica of Lady Penelope’s iconic Rolls-Royce, FAB 1 into the studio.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Olav Rokne, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Ingvar.]