The winners of the 2019 Silver Falchion awards were announced at the Killer Nashville Writers Conference in Franklin, Tennessee on August 24. The Silver Falchion award categories cover the spectrum of popular literature.
Here are the Silver Falchion winners of genre interest. The complete list is here.
Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror
Juvenile/Y.A.
By Martin Morse Wooster: I am watching a show which in the US is called The Heart Guy but in Australia where it originated is called Doctor Doctor. It’s about a heart surgeon who screwed up and has to spend a year as a general practitioner in the little country town of Whyhope. I wouldn’t call it “the Australian version of Doc Martin” but the shows are very similar, except The Heart Guy is less about medicine than Doc Martin. The show I saw tonight is from the show’s second series and was broadcast in Australia in September 2017.
One character is a sf writer who has some success with her first novel because we see her give a reading and members of the audience recite favorite lines from her book. We see her office on the porch of a large house surrounded by beautiful Australian countryside. She is stuck on her second novel because trolls constantly tweet her while she’s working and tell her that her first novel is full of mush.
She finds someone camping on her lawn and calls the cops. The camper is in fact a superfan who comes from some far away town to meet her favorite writer. She works in a bakery and has made an alien from the author’s novel out of frosting.
The author decides to invite the fan onto her porch for some tea, but the fan sneaks into the author’s office and reads a few pages from her novel in progress. She instantly solves every plot problem which has been plaguing the author, and the author gratefully writes down the fan’s suggestions on her laptop until she is interrupted by a tweet from another troll. She turns off her laptop and decides to write her novel on a manual typewriter.
Sf bonus: There’s an Asian character on the show who is only credited as “Ken” but whose name, I think, is Ken Liu.
Once the commemorative Moon Landing Oreos hit the markets, John King Tarpinian not only took a photo of a package in his local Target store (published here last week), he bought it and gifted it to me when we met for lunch a few days later.
They tasted lovely. The lavender-colored marshmallow filling not only differs in color from standard Oreos (which is white), the texture is slightly more of a gel than normal. (I can imagine orbiting astronauts squeezing it from a tube.) Despite the color, the flavor wasn’t floral or exotic — if not quite the same as usual, the filling didn’t taste very different. The result was a much more pleasing Oreo cookie than the peanut-candy-flavored experiment they temporarily marketed not long ago, which I also tried.
Those of a certain age, like I am, grew up watching TV commercials that demonstrated the infinite techniques for eating Oreos, of which the most important is unscrewing the cookie and eating the filling first.
But fans overthrew this indoctrination at the 1987 Worldcon in England when the Chicago in ’91 Worldcon bidders ran a party with a milk-and-cookies theme. As reported in File 770 #70:
[At the Chicago in ’91 party] those who stayed were fascinated by the Oreos; they kept asking about “the black cookies” and how to eat them. Straight-faced Chicagoans told them you must carefully unscrew the Oreo, eat the white filling, and throw the black cookies away. So they did. Others were coached to methodically time the dunking of their Oreos in milk. Two of the most enthusiastic Oreo-eaters were “the happy Slav brothers,” one fan term for the Yugoslavian Worldcon bidders, whom [Ross Pavlac] claimed decided not to run against Chicago in ’91 because they liked the Oreo party.
Like Chicago radio personality Paul Harvey used to say: “And now you know…the rest of the story.”
Dr. Robyn Floyd is the winner of the Australian Fairy Tale Society’s Annual Award for Inspiration and Contribution to Australian Fairy Tale Culture.
The prize acknowledges contributions to the fairy-tale field in Australia. Robyn is an expert on Australian fairy tales, exploring the history and impact of their publication, with her PhD thesis and blog, Early Australian Fairy Tales: “Early Australian fairy tales”
She’s served on the organization’s Committee, frequently contributed to its Ezine, and presented seminars.
Below is the Award’s frog sculpture created by Spike Deane, a fairy tale artist at Canberra Glassworks.
Tim Powers has agreed to step in as Mythcon 50’s GOH Emeritus. John Crowley, scheduled to be the Author Guest of Honor, had to cancel his appearance for personal reasons.
Tim Powers, a science-fiction and fantasy writer who arguably is heir to the legacy of Charles Williams, has been Author GOH at Mythcon twice; in Berkeley at Mythcon 26 and at Mythcon 41 in Dallas, Texas. Powers has won three World Fantasy Awards, for his novels Last Call (1992) and Declare (2000), and his story collection The Bible Repairman and Other Stories (2012). He is a five-time nominee for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, winning in 1990 for The Stress of Her Regard.
For more information, click on 50th Mythopoeic Conference in San Diego, California, August 2-5, 2019.
The winners of the REH Foundation Awards, honoring the top contributions in Howard scholarship and in the promotion of Howard’s life and works from the past year, were announced at Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains on June 8.
The Atlantean — Outstanding Achievement, Book (non-anthology/collection)
(Books may be print or digital, must be a minimum of 50,000 words, and must be substantively devoted to the life and/or work of REH. Reprinted works without significant revisions are not eligible.)
The Hyrkanian—Outstanding Achievement, Essay (Print)
(Essays must have made their first public published appearance in the previous calendar year and be substantive scholarly essays on the life and/or work of REH. Short pieces, interviews, reviews, trip reports, and other minor works do not count.)
The Cimmerian—Outstanding Achievement, Essay (Online)
(Essays must have made their first public published appearance in the previous calendar year and be substantive scholarly essays on the life and/or work of REH. Short blog posts, speeches, reviews, trip reports, and other minor works do not count.)
The Venarium — Emerging Scholar
(The following candidates have recently begun making significant contributions to Howard scholarship through publications and/or presentations over the past few years. Previous winners are not eligible)
The Stygian—Outstanding Achievement, Website or Periodical
(Eligible candidates are limited to print or digital magazines, journals, blogs, or internet sites with substantive material that is primarily devoted to scholarship on the life and works of Robert E. Howard. Websites must have been updated with new content at least once in the previous calendar year. Print periodicals must have had an issue published in the previous calendar year. Non-static social media like Facebook and Twitter would not be eligible.)
TIE
The Black Lotus – Outstanding Achievement, Multimedia
(Eligible candidates have produced a multimedia or audio/visual work or series of works, such as videos, documentaries, podcasts, animation, etc. related to the life and work of REH)
The Black River—Special Achievement
(The following eligible candidates have produced or contributed something special that doesn’t fit into any other category: scholarly presentations, biographical discoveries, etc.)
The Rankin — Artistic achievement in the depiction of REH’s life and/or work
(Art must have made its first public published appearance in the previous calendar year.)
Black Circle Award – Lifetime Achievement
(Individuals who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to REH scholarship, publishing, or the promotion of Howard’s life and works. Eligible candidates must have been publicly involved in Howard-related activities for a minimum of two decades.)
Crom Award (Board of Directors Award)
(The Crom Award is a special recognition given very infrequently by the REH Foundation Board of Directors.)
The UK Games Expo Awards 2019 shortlist was released May 14.
The winners will be announced June 2.
Best Abstract Game
Best Childrens Game
Best Family Game
Best Miniature Range
Best Miniature Rules
Best New Accessory
Best New Boardgame (American-Style)
Best New Boardgame (Euro-Style)
Best New Boardgame (Strategic)
Best New Card Game (General)
Best New Card Game (Strategic)
Best New Dice Game
Best Party Game
Best Role-playing Adventure
Best Role-playing Expansion
Best Role-playing Game
The winners of the Darrell Awards for 2019 were announced at Midsouthcon in Memphis on March 16.
The annual Darrell Awards support Midsouth Literacy by recognizing the best published Science Fiction, Fantasy and/or Horror in Short Story, Novella, Novel, Young Adult & Other Media formats. This year’s winners are:
Best Midsouth Novel
First runner-up:
Best Midsouth Novella
First runner-up
Best Midsouth Short Story
First runner-up:
Second runner-up
Best Midsouth Other Media
First runner-up
The Darrell Awards are named in honor of the memory of Dr. Darrell C. Richardson, who was instrumental in getting the Memphis SF Association off the ground.
The related Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award is given to an author who has made exceptional contributions to Midsouth Literacy by having published a substantial body of work that is or would have been eligible for the Darrell Award. The winner was announced in January.
Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award
chosen for his outstanding contributions to Midsouth literacy, both as a writer of SF/F/H short stories and for his role in founding Fiyah Lit Mag, a relatively-new SF/F/H magazine (now in its third year).
[Via Locus Online.]
The 2018 Cybils winners (Children’s and Young Adults Bloggers’ Literary Awards) were announced on February 14.
The Cybils Awards aims to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal. If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussels sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
Here are the results from the speculative fiction categories.
Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels
The Witch Boy
by Molly Knox Ostertag
GRAPHIX
Aster, a thirteen-year-old boy living in a secluded community with strict magical rules, longs to learn practices that are forbidden to boys. Rich, believable characters support this appealing tale of breaking free from traditional gender roles. Ostertag has created a fully-realized magical world that will leave middle-grade and teen readers clamoring for more.
Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction
Nevermoor:
The Trials of Morrigan Crow
by Jessica Townsend
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Nominated by: Beth Mitchell
Morrigan has grown up believing she is cursed. Then, on her eleventh birthday, her luck changes when she’s whisked off to the magical city of Nevermoor, and invited to compete to be a member of the Wundrous society. Readers will assume she makes it through the trials, but Morrigan’s low self-esteem means she herself is doubtful, and so it’s not just her external triumph that makes readers cheer for her. Thought the good vs. evil plot might seem familiar, there are plent of unique twists. The zany world of Nevermoor is wildly original, and the characters are vivid and three-dimensional. Fantasy-loving kids will be hooked by this memorable, magical story, and want the next book right away!
Young Adult Speculative Fiction
Tess
of the Road
by Rachel Hartman
Random House Books for Young Readers
Nominated by: Caitlin
In Tess of the Road, author Rachel Hartman masterfully employs the classic fantasy quest format as a metaphor for Tess’s emotional journey towards healing and self-acceptance. The ‘road novel’ is a familiar trope, but Tess’s journey is full of unexpected bends in the road: difficult family relationships, guilt over past mistakes, trouble accepting help from others.
As an epic fantasy, it’s easy to expect stakes that are larger than life: good vs. evil, the fate of the universe. Where Tess is different is that she wrestles with struggles we all face daily–including how to push through other people’s ideas about you to get to the heart of who you really are. She’s a relatable main character, and readers will find themselves rooting for her to overcome her flaws.
This novel is action-packed, yet also richly layered. It has humor and suspense as well as depth and subtlety, as Tess sorts through complex issues that will resonate with readers and engage them in her quest for self-understanding and self-acceptance.
[Via Locus Online.]
By Steve Vertlieb: Stan And Ollie is truly one of the loveliest films that it has been my privilege to see in years. This sweet, gentle portrait of the screen’s indisputably greatest comedy team is often hilarious, yet heartbreaking in its unflinching portrait of two incandescent souls who lit up motion picture theaters with their impeccable artistry. John C. Reilly is astonishing as Oliver Hardy, known affectionately as “Babe” to those closest to him. His transformation and performance are deeply touching, focusing on the portly actor’s frailty, gambling addiction, and quiet dignity as the years begin to evaporate his strength and vitality. This is clearly the performance of his career. Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel, the creative force behind the team’s hilarity and success, is gently brilliant in his depiction of a comedic genius struggling to keep the team alive as their gradual descent from fame and from youth has begun taking its inevitable toll.
Their respective wives are their seeming opposites. Ida Kitaeva Laurel (Nina Arianda) is a shrill, domineering woman whose physical stature and brash personality loudly overshadow her outwardly meek husband. Lucille Hardy (Shirley Henderson) is closer to Stan in demeanor, yet married to the gregarious “Babe” Hardy. Dedicated to preserving her beloved husband’s failing health and happiness, Lucille is the anchor who must rescue Ollie from his own excesses. Ida and Lucille are as different as Stan and Ollie, providing a striking, if bizarre, reflection and mirror image of their respective spouse’s personalities. Danny Huston in another of his menacing performances as Hal Roach, and Rufus Jones as the ruthless promoter who imports the boys to England in the latter years of their careers are, perhaps, symbolic of the crass tastes of a fickle public who have, in so cavalier a fashion, discarded the once beloved comedy team to the ash heap of fame and fortune.
Jeff Pope’s deeply melancholy screenplay, based upon Laurel and Hardy: The British Tours by A.J. Marriot, begins with the duo’s career high as they battle for release from their contract with Hal Roach, then effortlessly segues into their declining years as entertainers when the world and their once loyal fans have all but forgotten them. Laurel, who wrote all of the team’s classic comedy dialogue and routines, brings his ailing partner to England to revive their popularity with a proposed new film based upon the legend of Robin Hood. Sadly, the film never materialized, but a dream sequence in which Stan and Ollie re-create the first meeting of Robin and Friar Tuck is genuinely hilarious.
Rolfe Kent’s musical score brings sweet clarity to the failed dreams and quiet frustration, endured proudly by the embattled, fallen comic warriors, while Laurie Rose’s muted colors and cinematography lend historical accuracy to a bleak, heart aching descent from fame, popularity, and grace.
Directed with affection, and dignity by Jon S. Baird, this Sony Classics release is a tender, sweetly compassionate look at the greatest comedy team in motion picture history … after the adulation and parade had passed them by. Their growing sadness as the reality of age, health, and sad obscurity conspires to consume their devotion to one another ultimately masks a consummate love story that these gentle souls shared. Stan And Ollie is, at its considerable heart, a love story … a fragile take on the rigors and aftermath of fame, and the ultimate redemption of two beautiful human souls whose lasting dignity, respect, and affection for one another comprised the artistry, charm and enduring magic that was … and is … Stan And Ollie.
