Tonight, a ridiculously short Scroll while I’m away helping with my mother’s care. Please add your brilliance in the comments!
(1) ZION’S FICTION MAKES BOOK. Sheldon Teitelbaum announced, “It’s been a tough slog but we finally sold Zion’s Fiction, to Mandel-Vilar Press. The book will be published on Sept. 25, 2018.” It’s been a long road – Sheldon originally tried to fund it with a Kickstarter in 2014.
Pre-order copies from Amazon.
Showcases the best of Israeli Science Fiction and Fantasy published or otherwise available in English translation since 1970. It features an introductory survey essay, author bios, story intros and an afterword. Award-winning SF/F illustrator Avi Katz provides the front and back covers as well as illustrations for each story. There is a foreword by Robert Silverberg, America’s most revered living SF/F writer and an introduction by Dr. Aharon Hauptman, the founding editor of Fantasia 2000, the first Israeli SF/F magazine (1978-1983). The stories come Hebrew, Russian and English language magazines, like the Israeli Fantasia 2000 and Halomot B’Aspamia, or The New Yorker and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Other sources include dedicated websites in Israel, or single-author collections. Several stories have not yet appeared anywhere
(2) CAT EXPOSE. Shocking but true….
reminds me of this https://t.co/EarSkBVYXI – though I think a lot of them are staged.
— tonieee ???? (@tonieeeplouf) March 4, 2018
(3) FREELANCE CATNAP. Can you believe it, some cats aren’t waiting for File 770 to come calling.
https://twitter.com/Den_Patrick/status/970275140704620545
[Thanks to JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W. The title is almost longer than the Scroll.]
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https://aspiringhalfling.com/2018/03/01/honey-let-the-real-gamers-play-a-follow-up/
Follow-up to something shared a few scrolls back; looks like this instance of harassment was handled *extremely* poorly by the con in question. Like, deleting people who’d received death threats from the convention Facebook group while leaving in the people who’d made them, and banning someone who questioned their lack of response from attending the convention. Of course, since this is tabletop gaming and not a media convention, there’s not going to be quite as much outcry about it as there was with, say, Wiscon; gaming seems to have less of the memo than the not-specifically-gaming cons about harassment being something we don’t do anymore.
I had both the cats in here sleeping on my bed, and only after they got up did it occur to me I should have slipped a book under them for a picture.
Last night I finished Curtis C. Chen’s Kangaroo Too (sequel to Waypoint Kangaroo), and I loved it. It’s definitely in my list of Top 10-ish novels from 2017.
I’ve mentioned before that I have a somewhat low tolerance level for what I cal “tryhard humor” — humor in SFF which is trying so hard to be funny that it just falls flat for me, and gets annoying really fast. I’m pretty sure that I would read Chen’s grocery list if he published it, because he manages to hit my sweet spot with just the right amount of snark and sly humor without going over-the-top of my tolerance. YMMV.
As promotion for Kangaroo Too, Chen created a small website and embedded clues in the book cover for fans to find a “secret” URL where they can play a text adventure prequel to the novel. You can find a brief explanation and all the clues you need here. I just got done with the game and found it enjoyable (but I’m not a gamer apart from spending way too much of my freshman year at university playing Zork instead of going to class).
Dammit, that link got zapped. Here’s the correct one.
I remember the original “Zion’s Fiction” Kickstarter!
Very neat to see the project getting off the ground. There’s some fantastic original fiction here in Israel, and I’m looking forward to seeing a showcase in English. I’m very curious to see what authors and stories they’ve chosen…
Anthologies usually don’t get much press, I know. But I hope it’ll grab some eyeballs and start some interesting conversations 🙂
Not strictly genre, but with the Oscars last night here’s a montage of great movie lines
https://youtu.be/594Oxq4c0XA
Jason Sanford brings up some potential issues with a new press
Rich Horton shares his 2017 recs.
ETA: unexpected fifth!
Wow! I’m featured in file 770! I got a big surprise when reading this on the train on my way to work this morning.
I wasn’t intending to be critical – I was just sending the link to a friend and didn’t want to give her the wrong expectations.
@tonieee
We should probably start a photo series of “grumpy cats jumping off the books we’ve just wedged under them”!
It must be confusing for some cats who were constantly being shoved off of books now to find books being shoved under them.
Take care of yourself, and your Mom, Mr. Glyer.
It’s a Monday, a sloppy winter storm is bearing down on the Twin Cities.
So yeah…
Posting just to get my log-in settings entered into my new phone, move along, nothing to see here…
Shape Of Water Creature Actor Doug Jones Understands The Monsters
Examining China’s hypersonic transport plans. tl;dr: great ambition, interesting hull design, lots of problems to solve. Not discussed: whether there’s a market or this is just country prestige and jobs.
@Mark: that does sound like a shady outfit. I’d love to know why they’re incorporated in North Carolina but taking mail in Florida; could they not get incorporated in Delaware (the usual haven), or has NC under idiot governance gotten slacker about corporate law than DE?
Best wishes for your mom, Mike.
Why does tonieee vilely accuse us of staging these pictures?
Can it be that she’s a regular here, and knows us?!
/catsleepingonGodstalk
Take care, Mike, and thanks.
I would gladly file you Tuesday for a Pixel Scroll today.
Where are the pictures taken by cats of their owners reading — or sleeping on — f&sf? (Preferably including at least a tail or paw, so we know it’s a felicitious photo.)
Here’s something that was missed by the Pixel Scroll the first time around (I think):
In 2016, Bandcamp did an article on The Enduring Influence of H.P. Lovecraft on Extreme Music:
While the majority of musicians fueled by the imagery and tales of Lovecraft play, or have played, various styles of metal (starting in 1970 with Black Sabbath’s “Beyond the Wall of Sleep”), the scribes’ fantastic stories have also piqued the interest of prog, electronic, experimental, and soundtrack composers. To celebrate what would have been Lovecraft’s 126th birthday, 13 Lovecraft obsessives weighed in on why the writer’s legacy has been so enduring and how it inspired their extreme music.
Staged? You can’t stage pictures like this where a cat is just doing what comes naturally: https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/timothy-and-heinlein/
If I had staged it then Timothy would have been sleeping ON Heinlein (as the post theme demands) not near him.
Everyone! Loose Lips Sink Ship(per)s! All classified materials must be secured from those insidious felines!
Major Security Breech
@Lis
I am one of the lurkers, shyly hiding in the shadows.
I have occasionally commented but not for a few years.
@Mike
Best wishes for your mother and thank you for a fantastic site – it has kept me informed and entertained for a long time.
The Batman-Boardgame/miniature game is making a killing on kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/806316071/batmantm-gotham-city-chronicles
Its pricey, but it has miniaures and is an exclusive, so thats not really a surprise.
Pixels in your area are looking for some some scrollin’ Call 555-770
@tonieee–
Ah, yes! I see you over there, in the shadows in the corner!
On the subject of cats and their choice of books:
https://twitter.com/jacquesgt/status/970368984926232576
(While the book is not SF in itself, there’s a Scalzi short story that this could be an illustration for…)
The dim and fuliginous shadows of the Miskatonic University Library Reading Room mercifully concealed from view the desiccated and cadaverous features of the figure in the corner, but there was no mistaking the voice which hissed, hoarse and sibilant, the acerbic question, “What do they mean, would have been?“
BTW, I think someone misplaced the shoggoth again. I think it ate the satellite dish!
Don’t Scroll that shoggoth, hand me the Pixel.
Fantasy character cage match?!?
https://twitter.com/emilyhughes/status/970686422582792192?s=19
Wow, that’s quite a chunk of cash. Base game has two boxes though. I wonder how much play time you will end up committing to it.
One of the guys from my boardgaming group just got Gloomhaven. There is an impressive amount of stuff in the box but it seems like I will be spending a lot of time playing the same game with the same people!
@rob_matic: Id say the replay value of Gloomhaven is much bigger. Before Batman there was Conan and there werent many new scenarios or anything. Personally, I doubt that a skirmish game is a good representation of Batman either. So pass for me…
(I havent even comitted to Gloomhaven because of the price point and different gaming habits, i.e. prefer to trying out new games instead of playing a really long campaign. But the itch is there…)
O mighty Scroll,
Readercon has issued an apology; it’s on their Facebook page.
Readercon’s apology
Ready Player One The Movie has created a series of movie posters based on other classic movies. I thought they were kind of cool. The posters are apparently up and running in LA, although the site where I saw them wasn’t able to find super great images. But still images. You can see them here: http://www.slashfilm.com/fantastic-ready-player-one-posters/