Ad campaigns for genre TV and movies dominated the Clio Entertainment Awards presentation on November 22 as Joker, Us, Game of Thrones and Legion all won big.

The jury for the award which recognizes entertainment marketing campaigns included Amazon Studios’ Mike Benson, WarnerMedia’s Chris Spadaccini, Twitch’s John Koller, Cirque du Soleil’s Kristina Heney, Warner Bros. Pictures’ Massey Rafani and others.

A partial list of winners follows. The full list, along with other key information, can be found here.

Games: Innovation

• GRAND WINNER: Changing the Game (Microsoft)

Games: Key Art

• GRAND WINNER Key Art – Multi-use, Borderlands 3

Games: Original Content

• BRONZE WINNER: Visit Xbox: the birth of gaming tourism (Microsoft Xbox One X Enhanced)
• BRONZE WINNER: Video Game Weapon Prank (Warframe)
• BRONZE WINNER: Lego Ultimate Unboxing (Microsoft Xbox)

Games: Public Relations

• GRAND WINNER: Changing the Game, (Microsoft)

Home Entertainment: Audio/Visual Mixed Campaign

• GRAND WINNER: Bohemian Rhapsody Home Entertainment Campaign for Bohemian Rhapsody, (Mob Scene)

Home Entertainment: Original Content

• GRAND WINNER: The Predator Holiday Special for The Predator (2018), (Stoopid Buddy Stoodios)

Home Entertainment: Packaging

• GRAND WINNER: The Big Lebowski

Home Entertainment: Social Media

• GOLD WINNER: Christmas Movie? Confirmed! Die Hard
• GOLD WINNER Bohemian Rhapsody – Unboxing Bohemian Rhapsody, (Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment)

Television/Streaming: Brand & Program Identity

• GOLD WINNER: FCC Loopholes (Viceland)
• GOLD WINNER: FXX Boots (FX Networks)
• GOLD WINNER: Opening Credits The Romanoffs
• GOLD WINNER: FXX Double Trouble (FX Networks)
• GOLD WINNER: Make a Little Trouble (HBO)

Television/Streaming: Experiential/Events

• GRAND WINNER: Maisel Day for Amazon Prime Video, (Amazon Prime Video)

Television/Streaming: Integrated Campaign

• GRAND WINNER: Game of Thrones – For the Throne Integrated (HBO)

Television/Streaming: Out of Home

• GRAND WINNER: Legion – Wild Post (Legion – Season 3)

Television/Streaming: Partnerships & Collaborations

• GRAND WINNER: Game of Thrones | Joust (HBO)

Television/Streaming: Social Media

• GOLD WINNER: When They See Us – Room to Room (Netflix)

Television/Streaming: Special Shoot Spot/Promo

• GRAND WINNER:  AHS S8 Shockwave for FX Networks, (FX Networks)

Television/Streaming: Spot/Promo

• GRAND WINNER: Equally Powerful Movies (TNT4 Channel)

Television/Streaming: Teaser

• SILVER WINNER “Shangri-La” Teaser #1 (Showtime)
• SILVER WINNER Fosse/Verdon – Again
• SILVER WINNER: “Tick Tock” (Watchmen)
• SILVER WINNER: “Teaser” (Westworld)
• SILVER WINNER: Valley of the Boom: Let There Be Internet (National Geographic)
• SILVER WINNER: When They See Us – Room to Room (Netflix)
• SILVER WINNER: Bugs (The Perfection)

Television/Streaming: Trailer

• GOLD WINNER: Trailer 1 (Chernobyl)
• GOLD WINNER: Kidding Trailer (Showtime Networks)
• GOLD WINNER: “Summer” (Stranger Things 3)
• GOLD WINNER: All That We Share – Connected (TV 2)

Television/Streaming: Video Promo Mixed Campaign

• GOLD WINNER Chernobyl – Campaign (HBO)

Theatrical: Digital/Mobile

• SILVER WINNER: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sony Entertainment)

Theatrical: Audio/Visual Mixed Campaign

• GRAND WINNER: A Star is Born for A Star is Born, Mark Woollen & Associates

Theatrical: Display

• GRAND WINNER: Godzilla Cinerama Dome Takeover for Godzilla, Warner Bros., Drissi Advertising, Inc.

Theatrical: Integrated Campaign

• GRAND WINNER: Us – (Us, Universal Pictures)

Theatrical: Original Content

• GOLD WINNER: Finomenon: The Little Mermaid 30th Anniversary
  (The Walt Disney Corp.)
• GOLD WINNER: Free Solo: “Climbing El Capitan 360 Video” (Free Solo)
• GOLD WINNER: Outside the Actors Studio | Becoming Pikachu (Detective Pikachu)
• GOLD WINNER: Spoiler Box (Netflix)

Theatrical: Teaser

• GRAND WINNER: “Maybe Tomorrow” — Joker

Theatrical: Trailers

• GOLD WINNER: The Nightingale “Breathtaking” — The Nightingale
• GOLD WINNER: “Enemy” — Us

Theatrical: Spot

• GOLD WINNER:  “Ready” — Captain Marvel
• GOLD WINNER: The Happytime Murders – “1 (800) GET- FELT” (STX Entertainment – The Happytime Murders)

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge for the story.]

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

• Maggie Toussaint, Confound It

Juvenile/Y.A.

• Julianne Lynch, Beneath the Lighthouse

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.”

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.)

• DAVID C. SMITH – Robert E. Howard: A Literary Biography (Pulp Hero Press) – LINK

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.)

• RICK LAI – “Poseidon and the Gods of the Robert E. Howard Universe” – Blood ‘n’ Thunder Presents #4: Pulpourri – LINK

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.)

• DEUCE RICHARDSON – “Stephen Fabian and Robert E. Howard (3 Parts)” – DMR Books Blog – LINK– LINK – LINK

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)

• BOB BYRNE – Contributed essays for Black Gate

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

• ON AN UNDERWOOD NO. 5 (Todd Vick) – LINK
• REH FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER (Lee Breakiron) – LINK

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 CROMCAST (audio podcast) – Josh Adkins, Luke Dodd, and Jon Larson – LINK

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.)

• JEFFREY SHANKS, ANDREW McFEATERS, THADRA STANTON, and HEATHER YOUNG – For the REH House Archaeology Project

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.)

• TOM GRINDBERG – Cover art for Conan the Pirate sourcebook for Conan RPG (Modiphius) – Depicts “Queen of the Black Coast”– LINK

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.)

• [No Award] As a 60% majority vote was not achieved for any candidate, there is no Black Circle Award winner this year.

Crom Award (Board of Directors Award)

(The Crom Award is a special recognition given very infrequently by the REH Foundation Board of Directors.)

• PROJECT PRIDE – For over three decades of interpreting and promoting the life and work of Robert E. Howard through the REH House and Museum.

The UK Games Expo Awards 2019 shortlist was released May 14.

The winners will be announced June 2.

Best Abstract Game

• Dragon Castle (Horrible Games)
• Azul (Plan B Games)
• Bad Bones (Sit Down!)

Best Childrens Game

• Zombie Kidz Evolution (Scorpion Masque)
• Who Did It? (Blue Orange Games)
• Schneck di-wupp! (HABA)

Best Family Game

• Ticket to Ride: New York (Days of Wonder)
• Honga (HABA)
• The Tea Dragon Society Card Game (Renegade Game Studios)

Best Miniature Range

• Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles – Spaceship Packs (Ares Games)
• Wildlands: The Adventuring Party (Osprey Games)
• Frostgrave: Frostgrave Wizards (North Star Military Figures & Osprey Games)

Best Miniature Rules

• Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles – Starter Set (Ares Games)
• Ragnarok: Heavy Metal Combat in the Viking Age (Osprey Games)
• Rebels and Patriots: Wargaming Rules for North America (Osprey Games)

Best New Accessory

• Giant Book of Battle Mats (Loke BattleMats)
• Dropfleet Commander Dreadnoughts (Troll Trader)
• Big Book of Sci-Fi Battle Mats (Loke BattleMats (exhibiting as GamingBooks))

Best New Boardgame (American-Style)

• Forbidden Sky (Gamewright)
• Chronicles of Crime (LUCKY DUCK GAMES)
• Arkham Horror Third Edition (Fantasy Flight games)

Best New Boardgame (Euro-Style)

• Quacks of Quedlinburg (Schmidt Spiele)
• Space Gate Odyssey (Ludonaute)
• Architects of the West Kingdom (Renegade Game Studios)

Best New Boardgame (Strategic)

• Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right (Leder Games)
• Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress (Games Workshop)
• Victorian Masterminds (CMON)

Best New Card Game (General)

• The Mind (Coiledspring Games)
• Monsters vs Heroes – Victorian Nightmares (Ares Games)
• Unlock 3! Secret Adventures (Space Cowboys)

Best New Card Game (Strategic)

• Ruthless (Alley Cat Games Ltd)
• Tetris Speed (John Adams Leisure Ltd)
• Arboretum (Renegade Game Studios)

Best New Dice Game

• Ganz Schon Clever (Schmidt Spiele)
• Roll for Adventure (Kosmos)
• Dice Hospital (Alley Cat Games Ltd)

Best Party Game

• Decrypto (Scorpion Masque)
• Maki Stack (Blue Orange Games)
• 20 Second Showdown (Big Potato Games)

Best Role-playing Adventure

• Petersen’s Abominations (Chaosium)
• The Cthulhu Hack: Valkyrie Nine (All Rolled Up)
• The Laughter of Dragons for The One Ring (Cubicle 7)

Best Role-playing Expansion

• Star Trek Adventures – The Command Division Supplemental Rulebook (Modiphius Entertainment)
• 13th Age Glorantha (Chaosium)
• Adventures in Middle-earth Bree-land Region Guide (Cubicle 7 games)

Best Role-playing Game

• RuneQuest – Roleplaying in Glorantha (Chaosium)
• The Black Hack 2nd Edition (Squarehex)
• Forbidden Lands (Free League Publishing)

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

• Frank Tuttle — Every Wind of Change

First runner-up:

• John E. Siers  — In the Service of Luna

2019 Darrell Awards results: 1/

Best Midsouth Novel – Every Wind of Change by @Frank_Tuttle

1st Runner-Up – In the Service of Luna by John Siers pic.twitter.com/5VV568aBAm

— Darrell Awards – SF/F/H Memphis area (@darrellawards) March 17, 2019

Best Midsouth Novella

• Kevin Andrew Murphy – Find the Lady (appearing in Mississippi Roll, a Wild Cards shared-world novel)

First runner-up

• William Alan Webb – The Hairy Man (set in his post-apocalypse series)

2019 Darrell Awards results: /2

Best Midsouth Novella – Find The Lady by @KevinAMurphy

1st Runner- Up – The Hairy Man by @JointheBrigade1 pic.twitter.com/92N7jGuGBE

— Darrell Awards – SF/F/H Memphis area (@darrellawards) March 17, 2019

Best Midsouth Short Story 

• Frank Tuttle — “Knob Hill Haunt” (a free-standing Mama Hogg story in the Markhat universe)

First runner-up:

• Lee Ann Story — “Family Circle” (appearing in End of the World Potluck)

Second runner-up

• Sheree Renee Thomas — “Teddy Bump” (appearing in Fiyah Lit Mag, issue 7)

2019 Darrell Awards results: /3

Best Midsouth Short Story – Knob Hill Haunt by @Frank_Tuttle

1st Runner-up – Teddy Bump (in @fiyahlitmag ) by @blackpotmojo

2nd Runner-up / other Finalist – Family Circle by LA Story pic.twitter.com/erJv6Y5K6n

— Darrell Awards – SF/F/H Memphis area (@darrellawards) March 17, 2019

Best Midsouth Other Media 

• Mark Powers — Dog Men (the first 6 issues in this comic book series set in Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files universe)

First runner-up

• Matthew Maala — Amazing Grace (Season 3, Episode 14, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow tv series)

2019 Darrell Awards results: /4

Best Other Media Work – Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files: Dog Men by Mark Powers

1st Runner-Up – Amazing Grace (Season 3, Episode 14 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow) by @newyork5a and @tyronsaidso pic.twitter.com/laOEdLer1a

— Darrell Awards – SF/F/H Memphis area (@darrellawards) March 17, 2019

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

• Troy L. Wiggins

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.]