2020 Endeavour Award Winners

What The Wind Brings by Matthew Hughes (Pulp Literature Press), from Victoria, BC, and The Witch’s Kind by Louisa Morgan (Redhook), from Port Townsend, WA, have won the 22nd annual Endeavour Award. The award comes with an honorarium of $1,000.00 that will be divided between the winners.  

The other finalists were:

  • Merlin Redux by Dave Duncan, who was from Victoria, BC, Night Shade Books
  • Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, who is from Kenmore, WA, Tor Books, and
  • Shadow Stitcher by Misha Handman, who is from Victoria, BC, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest.  All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers.  The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2020 Award were Michael Capobianco, John G. Hemry, and Rosemary Claire Smith.

Award Eligibility For 2021 Award: To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy.  The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.) 

The deadline to enter books published during 2020 is January 31, 2021.

Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site. Click on Entry Form in the left hand column for a fill-in PDF of the form.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]

2020 Endeavour Award Finalists

Five novels by writers from the Pacific Northwest are finalists for the 22nd annual Endeavour Award.  The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000 and will be announced in November at OryCon.  Because of Covid 19, Orycon will be held on-line.

The finalists are:

  • Merlin Redux by Dave Duncan, who was from Victoria, BC, Night Shade Books
  • Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, who is from Kenmore, WA, Tor Books
  • Shadow Stitcher by Misha Handman, who is from Victoria, BC, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
  • What The Wind Brings by Matthew Hughes, who is from Victoria, BC, Pulp Literature Press
  • The Witch’s Kind by Louisa Morgan, who is from Port Townsend, WA, Redhook

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest.  All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers.  The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2020 Award are Michael Capobianco, John G. Hemry, and Rosemary Claire Smith.

Michael Capobianco is co-author, with William Barton, of the hard sf books Iris, Alpha Centauri, Fellow Traveler, and White Light. He has published one solo science fiction novel, Burster (Bantam). Purlieu, which Analog called “a delightful adventure story set in a marvelous world filled with mysteries and wonders,” is his first venture into young adult territory. Capobianco served as President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) from 1996-1998 and again in 2007-2008, and was drafted to fill the office of SFWA Vice President in 2010. He currently serves as SFWA’s Authors Coalition Liaison and is a member of SFWA’s Contracts and Legal Affairs Committees. Capobianco lives in Southern Maryland with two cats, Ariel and Mocha.

John G. Hemry (writing as Jack Campbell) is the author of the New York Times best-selling Lost Fleet series , Genesis Fleet series, and Lost Stars series, as well as the Steampunk-meets-high-fantasy Pillars of Reality, Dragon’s Legacy, and Empress of the Endless Sea series. He’s currently writing another Lost Fleet trilogy, carrying on the story from where it left off in Leviathan.  His shorter fiction includes time travel, alternate history, space opera, military SF, fantasy, and humor, and is collected in three anthologies (Ad Astra, Swords And Saddles, and Borrowed Time).  John is a retired US Navy officer, who served in a wide variety of jobs including surface warfare (the ship drivers of the Navy), amphibious warfare, anti-terrorism, intelligence, and some other things that he’s not supposed to talk about. Being a sailor, he’s been known to tell stories about events which he says really happened (but cannot be verified by any independent sources). This experience has served him well in writing fiction. He lives in Maryland with his indomitable wife “S” and three great kids (two of them on the autism spectrum). Web Site: www.jack-campbell.com

Rosemary Claire Smith’s story, “Diamond Jim And The Dinosaurs,” was a finalist in Analog Science Fiction and Fact’s AnLab Readers’ Poll. Rosemary draws on her background as a field archaeologist and a lawyer to write fantasy, science fiction and horror stories that have appeared, or will soon appear, in Analog, Amazing Stories, Fantastic Stories, Hybrid Fiction, Digital SF, Stupefying Stories, and other periodicals and anthologies. Analog has published a number of her guest editorials. Both her fiction and nonfiction showcase her interests in folklore, mythology, prehistoric societies, aliens, alternate history, the exploration of distant lands, and most especially time travel to the heyday of the dinosaurs. Rosemary is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop as well as Taos Toolbox workshop.  Her interactive fiction adventure game, T-Rex Time Machine, is available from Choice of Games.  Rosemary is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop as well as Taos Toolbox workshop. She’s been blogging at rosemaryclairesmith.wordpress.com/blogging-the-mesozoic for the past 156 million years.

AWARD ELIGIBILITY FOR 2021 AWARD. To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy.  The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.) 

The deadline to enter books published during 2020 is January 31, 2021.

Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site: www.osfci.org/endeavour.  Click on Entry Form in the left hand column for a fill-in PDF of the form.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation

[Based on a press release.]

2019 Endeavour Award Winner

Blood Orbit, a novel by Kingston, WA, writer K.R. Richardson (Pyr Books) won the 2019 Endeavour Award on November 8 at Orycon in Portland, OR.  The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000.00 and a glass plaque by artist Ashley Harper.

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest.  All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers.  The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The other finalists were:

  • The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire, Daw Books;
  • Irontown Blues by John Varley, Ace Books;
  • Moonshine by Jasmine Gower, Angry Robot; and
  • Trial by Treason by Dave Duncan, Night Shade Books.

The judges for the 2019 Award were Kij Johnson, Linda Nagata, and Bud Sparhawk.

Award Eligibility for 2020: To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy.  The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.)

The deadline to enter books published during 2019 is January 31, 2020: THIS DEADLINE IS TWO WEEKS EARLIER THAN IT HAS BEEN IN THE PAST.

Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site: www.osfci.org/endeavour.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]

2019 Endeavour Award Finalists and Judges

Five novels written by writers from the Pacific Northwest are finalists for the 2019 Endeavour Award. The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000 and will be announced November 8 at OryCon in Portland, Oregon.

The finalists are:

  • Blood Orbit by K.R. Richardson, Pyr Books
  • The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire, Daw Books
  • Irontown Blues by John Varley, Ace Books
  • Moonshine by Jasmine Gower, Angry Robot
  • Trial by Treason by Dave Duncan, Night Shade Books

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest.  All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers.  The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2019 Award are Kij Johnson, Linda Nagata, and Bud Sparhawk.

Kij Johnson is the author of five books and forty shorter works, and has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. She teaches creative writing at the University of Kansas, where she is also Associate Director for the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

Linda Nagata’s work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial awards. She has won the Nebula and is a two-time winner of the Locus award.  Linda is best known for her high-tech science fiction, including the near-future thriller, The Last Good Man, and the Red trilogy. The first book in the trilogy, The Red: First Light, was named as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015. Her newest novel is Edges, book one in the series Inverted Frontier.

Bud Sparhawk has been a three-time novella finalist for the Nebula Award and has appeared in two Year’s Best anthologies.  He has sold over 100 short stories and three novels; Shattered Dreams, Distant Seas, and Vixen.  This year he has had three short stories appear in Analog, one in Amazing, and another in the anthology In Harm’s

[Via Locus Online.]

Gilman Wins 20th Annual Endeavour Award

The Cold Eye by Kenmore, WA, writer Laura Anne Gilman has won the 20th annual Endeavour Award. The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000 and was announced November 9, 2018, at OryCon in Portland, Oregon.

The other finalists were:

  • Cross Town by Loren W. Cooper (the book was written and accepted for
    publication while Mr. Cooper lived in the Pacific Northwest), Xeno Books;
  • Ironfoot by Victoria, BC, writer Dave Duncan, Night Shade Books;
  • Portal of 1000 Worlds also by Victoria, BC, writer Dave Duncan, Open
    Road Integrated Media; and
  • A Secret History of Witches by Port Townsend, WA, Louisa Morgan, Orbit US.

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest. All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers. The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

Judges: The judges for the 2018 Award were Elizabeth Bear, James Patrick Kelly, and Christopher Rowe.

Award Eligibility for 2019: To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy. The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.)

Deadline: The deadline to enter books published during 2018 is January 31, 2019, which is two weeks earlier than it has been in the past.

Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour website.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]

Dave Duncan (1933-2018)

Canadian sff author Dave Duncan passed away October 29 after sustaining a brain hemorrhage in a fall.

Originally from Scotland, Duncan lived all his adult life in Western Canada. He worked as a geological consultant until at age 53 he made the transition to full-time professional writer.

Duncan was a prolific novelist who wrote both fantasy and science fiction, although he said, “I always regret that my SF books are less popular than my Fantasy. SF actually takes more work to write!”

His best-known fantasy series included “The Seventh Sword,” “A Man of His Word,” and “The King’s Blades.”

He sold his sixtieth book this year – the science fiction novel Pillar of Darkness.

He won two Aurora Awards, for his novels West of January (1990) and Children of Chaos (2007).

He was an eight-time nominee for the Endeavour Award, given for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest.

Duncan was both a founding and an honorary lifetime member of SF Canada, the country’s association for speculative fiction professionals. He was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2015.

He is survived by his wife, Janet, whom he married in 1959, and by their son, two daughters, and four grandchildren

[Thanks to Susan Forest for the story.]

2009 Endeavour Award finalists Kay Kenyon and Dave Duncan with award committee member Page Fuller.

2018 Endeavour Award Finalists and Judges

Five novels written by writers from the Pacific Northwest are finalists for the 20th annual Endeavour Award. The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000 and will be announced November 9 at OryCon in Portland, Oregon.

The finalists are:

  • Cross Town by Cedar Rapid, IA, writer Loren W. Cooper (the book was written and accepted for publication while Mr. Cooper lived in the Pacific Northwest), Xeno Books;
  • The Cold Eye by Kenmore, WA, writer Laura Anne Gilman, Saga Press;
  • Ironfoot by Victoria, BC, writer Dave Duncan, Night Shade Books;
  • Portal of 1000 Worlds also by Victoria, BC, writer by Dave Duncan, Open Road Integrated Media; and
  • A Secret History of Witches by Port Townsend, WA, Louisa Morgan, Orbit US.

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest. All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers. The five highest scoring books then go to three final
judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2018 Award are Elizabeth Bear, James Patrick Kelly, and Christopher Rowe.

  • Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Campbell Award winning author of 30 novels and over a hundred short stories, and her hobbies of rock climbing, archery, kayaking, and horseback riding have led more than one person to accuse her of prepping for a portal fantasy adventure.
  • James Patrick Kelly has won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. His most recent books are the 2018 collection, The Promise of Space, and the 2017 novel, Mother Go. He writes a column for Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and teaches creative writing at the Stonecoast Master of Fine Arts Program at the University of Southern Maine. He lives in Nottingham, NH.
  • Christopher Rowe has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. He is the author of a recent collection of short fiction, Telling the Map, and with his wife, Gwenda Bond, writes the Supernormal Sleuthing Service series of middle grade novels. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

AWARD ELIGIBILITY FOR 2019

To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy. The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.)

The deadline to enter books published during 2018 is January 31, 2019: This deadline is two weeks earlier than it has been in the past.

Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour website. Click on Entry Form in the left-hand column for a fill-in PDF of the form.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]

Pixel Scroll 12/1/17 HiphoPixeltamus Vs. RhymenoScrollos

(1) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Famed comics writer Marv Wolfman joins Scott Edelman for gelato in Episode 54 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Marv Wolfman

As I prepared to lunch with this episode’s guest, I was startled to realize I’d last interviewed him in 1974—43 years ago! Back then, I was an assistant editor in the Marvel Bullpen, while Marv Wolfman was (among many other things) scripting Tomb of Dracula and editing Crazy magazine, not yet having ascended to the role of Editor-in-Chief. And it was my job to report on his doings for the readers of F.O.O.M., Marvel’s official fan magazine.

Over the course of his career, Marv did a whole lot more than what I talked with him about back then. He went on to script the adventures of many legacy characters for both Marvel and DC, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Superman, and Green Lantern, and during that time he also co-created the characters of Blade, Bullseye, Destiny, Nova, and many others. He wrote the Teen Titans comic for 16 years. There’s even more to Marv than that, of course, as you’ll find out when you give this episode a listen….

We discussed his horrifying early job as a DC Comics intern destroying (and in some cases rescuing) original art, why he loves the science fiction writer Alfred Bester, how his writing back when he started out was a blend of John Broome and Stan Lee, what he learned from binge-reading 181 issues of Spider-Man before starting to script it himself, what it was like returning to DC after his years at Marvel, why he felt he could write Tomb of Dracula even though when he was handed the assignment he’d never read the Bram Stoker novel or seen any of the movies, his secret to making the Teen Titans seem like actual teens, why he owes his career to Gene Colan, and much, more.

(2) JOSHI DEFENDS HIMSELF. S.T. Joshi tees off on Brian Keene once more in his November 15 blog post.

Let us consider his assertion that I have gone out of my way to attack certain individuals who have criticised Lovecraft only because they are women (Ellen Datlow), persons of colour (Daniel José Older), persons in the LGBTQ community (S. J. Bagley [although his membership in this community is news to me]), and self-styled “‘white trash’ Appalachians” such as himself. If anything could reveal Mr. Keene’s nincompoopery—not to mention identity politics run amok—this must be it. Mr. Keene ignores the fact that I have also addressed other individuals—unimpeachably Caucasian and undeniably male—such as China Miéville (see my blog of August 23, 2014), Charles Baxter (blog of December 3, 2014), Robert Dunbar (blog of February 27, 2015), and others. Then there’s Niels Hobbs, about as chalk-white a Nordic as one could ask for. But more significantly, Mr. Keene is blithely unaware of how his assertion can be flipped around and made to bite him in the posterior. By his own reasoning (if it can be called that), anyone who criticises me for any reason must be an anti-Asian racist. For it cannot be news to Mr. Keene that I was born in India and am an immigrant to this country (but a U.S. citizen of long standing). Is Mr. Keene therefore prepared to admit that he is a racist? How about it, Mr. Nicolay? What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Lockhart?

But of course this is absurd. I have never accused any of my antagonists of prejudice (only of stupidity, hypocrisy, and suchlike faults that are widely shared by all races and genders), and I trust I may be granted the same courtesy, especially in the absence of evidence (and of course there is none) that I myself have ever exhibited racial or gender prejudice. I confess to an irremediable prejudice against illiterate morons like Mr. Keene (in part because this “revolt of the stupid” inflicted upon us our current “president”), but beyond that, my record is clean.

Mr. Keene also asserts, preposterously, that I do not want Lovecraft’s racism discussed. I myself have discussed this issue—in my biography and elsewhere—more comprehensively and with a greater understanding of the historical, philosophical, social, and cultural issues involved than any other commentator. Where Mr. Keene got the idea that I threatened to boycott the 2017 NecronomiCon if there was a panel on this subject, I cannot begin to imagine. In fact, Niels Hobbs and I, long before our falling out, had already agreed that there need not be any such panel at the 2017 event, since we had had panels on the subject at the two previous conventions—and I was a member of the panel in 2013. My boycott threat was tied specifically to the presence of known and unrepentant Lovecraft-haters on the program—and I was under the impression that Mr. Hobbs had acceded to my request to keep them off the program…

Joshi’s love for abusing people in lush terms inspires me to ask who would win if he and John C, Wright were paired in a literary cage match?

(3) LEFTOVER STUFFING. Jon Del Arroz has posted the “Happy Frogs OFFICIAL 2017 Nebula Awards Slate Recommendations”. Whether such a slate can be effective remains to be seen, since only SFWA members can nominate. If the real goal is to court controversy and gain publicity, well, it’s working already.

The Happy Frogs are back!  It’s already getting close to award season, as nominations are opening for the 2017 Nebula Awards. Our Board of Trustees  has scoured  the best of the best of Science Fiction and Fantasy to come up with recommendations for YOUR SFWA Nebula Award ballots. These stories are tremendous. Believe me. You’ll want to jump to fill in your Nebula ballots with these choices immediately.

Many categories had very difficult choices with so much great fiction available, and we did our best to bring about the five best of the year in each category.  The TOP BALLOT was given a little extra love, so we can ensure SFWA members give proper focus if they only wanted to choose one Happy Frogs nominee.

Jon’s work, some Superversive and Castalia House authors, and other Scrappy-Doos comprise most of the list, but a Tor book is recommended for Best Novel – go figure.

Top Ballot: The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis (Tor Books) – Hands down the most epic fun book of 2017. It has fantasy, it has steampunk, it has incredibly well detailed battles that rival David Weber. It’s got one of the coolest main characters in Josette, and is so well written, we at the Happy Frogs could read it over and over again. Incredible work.

(4) CALL FOR PAPERS,. “Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations” has put out a call for papers on the theme of “Escaping Escapism in Fantasy and the Fantastic.” The event takes place April 26-27, 2018.

What is the role of fantasy and the fantastic? Why—and perhaps more crucially, how—does the genre matter? Fantasy theorists frequently define the genre in opposition to what is possible and real: Kathryn Hume, for instance, sums it up in Fantasy and Mimesis as “departures from consensus reality”. Critics often scrutinize this departure as a negative, and disparage representations of the fantastic either due to their failure to depict real world issues or their presumed attempts at “escapism.” This perceived link between fantasy and escapism is so strong that dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary define escapism as “engaging in fantasy”.

… This two-day conference seeks to examine and honour the relationship between escapism and the fantastic. We welcome proposals for papers on this theme from researchers and practitioners working in the field of fantasy and the fantastic across all media, whether within the academy or beyond it. We are particularly interested in submissions from postgraduate and early career researchers.

(5) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • December 1, 1932 — The big screen adaptation of H.G. Wells’ Island Of Lost Souls premieres in the U.S.

(6) HONOR IN GOTHAM. Welcome2TheBronx says a street will be given the name of Batman’s co-creator: “Recognition At Last! Bronx Street to be Renamed After Batman Co-Creator Bill Finger”.

On December 8th, late Bronxite and DeWitt Clinton alumni Bill Finger and co-creator of Batman will have justice with a Bronx street renamed after him.

For years, many only knew Bob Kane as the creator of Batman but it was actually Bill Finger who gave Bob Kane not only the idea of how Batman should look but also created his origin story and wrote many of the stories during the beginning of the rise of the Dark Knight.

Born Milton Finger in Denver, Colorado on February 8, 1914, eventually he and his family moved to The Bronx where he was raised and went to DeWitt Clinton High School (where Bob Kane went as well).

Kane was trying to come up with a character to compete with the craze created by Superman but was stuck in a rut when he asked Bill Finger for some advice. The two would meet up at Poe Park on the Grand Concourse to come up with ideas and it was Finger who told him to change his costume into what became the Batman we know today.

(7) THE SEASON. The Book Smugglers decreed: “Smugglivus is HERE – A Primer”.

Smugglivus is our month-long (technically about five weeks long) end of the year celebration. Back in our first year of The Book Smugglers in 2008, we wanted to do something special at the end of the year leading up to our blog anniversary in early January. So, we came up with the idea to host a holiday bonanza to celebrate our favorite books, authors, and bloggers of the year. Thus, inspired by Seinfeld’s infamous Festivus, Smugglivus was born.

Each year, Smugglivus begins on December 1 and features guest posts from our favorite people across the interwebs (with a healthy serving of our regular reviews and giveaways, of course). The event ends with a bang on January 7, our very own blogiversary. And this year? We will be celebrating our biggest milestone to date: our tenth anniversary!

…This year, our all-star author lineup includes, among many others, Aliette de Bodard, Martha Wells, Kate Elliott, N.K. Jemisin and more. Of course, we’ll also have plenty of awesome bloggers/reviewers/vloggers over to play too!

(8) EYE ON THE PRIZE. Camestros Felapton is a great fan of book cover art (something we know because he’s already done 22 covers for McEdifice Returns and may not be done). In that line, he has gathered some of the year’s most admired artwork in his post “The Book Cover Thing 2017: The Longlist”.

Thanks for all the suggestions I didn’t include them all (looks specifically at Doris for a moment). I also went hunting for some extra names and interesting covers of books I haven’t heard of. Obvious note: appearance on the list is not any kind of endorsement of the content of the books or their authors and in some cases I know nothing about the books at all – but at least one was intentionally deplorable.

(9) ENDEAVOUR AWARD. Although the winners of the 2017 Endeavour Award, Patricia McKillip and Matt Ruff, weren’t at OryCon to pick up their awards, two other finalists were on hand to receive commemorative certificates, Curtis Chen and David D. Levine. Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the photos:

The two head shots were taken when the authors were reading from their books, Arabella of Mars for David D. Levine and Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis Chen.

Curtis Chen

David D. Levine

(10) VIRAL CAT. Social media has another feline star: “Meet Max, the cat who lost the library but won the Internet”.

This story, printed and taped onto a university library door in St. Paul, Minn., might have ended there. But as seen above, it got tweeted. It also got Tumblr-ed. And Reddit-ed. And because the Internet loves cat characters — and has a special fondness for those known as library cats — the story of 3-year-old Max exploded Wednesday. (In some online corners, anyway; it was a heavy news day.)

Having been shooed away from the Macalester College library, Max sprinted straight toward Internet fame.

The people wanted a children’s book. Someone dashed off text in rhyme:

Get into the thread here —

(11) ELASTIC CURRENCY. Nerd & Tie reports “Checks Are Bouncing For Guests Who Appeared at Waxacon”.

About six hundred people turned up for the first ever Waxacon in Waxahachie, TX on November 18th and 19th. Attendees got to meet guests like Corin Nemec, Olivia Hack, Kevin Duhaney, Jeff Parazzo, Christina Masterson, Philip Andrew, Jack Guzman, Philip Jeanmarie and Chuck Huber. With so few attendees present, it must have been a fun, intimate experience for fans. But here’s the thing, as far as we can tell none of those guests have been paid yet.

We’ve spoken to representation for multiple guests who appeared at Waxacon, and those who were supposed to see payment arrive via Paypal haven’t received what’s due to them. What’s worse is that we’ve confirmed that guests who were handed checks by the convention organizer Alex Betsill have seen them bounce….

(12) ANOTHER STRANGER. Netflix has greenlighted a third season of Stranger Things. [H/T Nerd & Tie.]

(13) REJECTED. This video from the Bradbury Center tells how the scripts and films of Something Wicked This Way Comes were rewritten, reshot, and re-edited before the popular Disney movie was released.

(14) BEER REVIEW Nickpheas writes, “We had the underwhelming Dark Vader a couple of weeks ago.” He found its lack of taste…disturbing. But if you’re in the neighborhood —

The pub just next to my place of work (and any filer visiting the area can always hit on me for a pint) has turned up two more genre themed ales.

 

(15) SPECULATING ABOUT PLANET NINE. Maybe the Lectroids’ home? “Planet Nine: Theories About the Hypothetical Planet”.

A massive ice giant may be traveling through the outer solar system. Dubbed “Planet Nine,” the hypothetical world was proposed to exist after scientists noticed that a handful of objects beyond Pluto had been shaken up in unusual orbits. Search parties have formed to find the unseen planet, with optimistic hopes of spotting it within a year.

“It’s not crazy; this is the kind of stuff people are finding all the time,” co-discoverer Mike Brown, at the California Institute of Technology, told Space.com earlier this year. Brown and lead author Konstantin Batygin, also at CalTech, published a paper in January 2016 suggesting that a massive planet could be stirring up the icy bodies of the Kuiper Belt, a ring of material at the edge of the solar system.

(16) POWER UP. Tesla makes goal: “World’s Largest Battery Is Turned On In Australia As Tesla Ties Into Power Grid” — 37 days ahead of schedule.

The power grid in South Australia now includes a huge Tesla battery tied to a wind farm, allowing the system to supply electricity around the clock. The battery was installed well before Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s 100-day guarantee lapsed — and just in time for the start of summer.

“This is history in the making,” South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said of the battery system, which sits next to wind turbines at the Horndale Power Reserve.

(17) DEL TORO FILM REVIEWED. Close but no cigar: NPR’s Justin Chang finds that “Gorgeous And Lyrical ‘Shape of Water’ Doesn’t Quite Hit Its Mark”.

“The Shape Of Water” is such a lyrical and imaginative piece of storytelling that I’m genuinely disappointed that I didn’t love it more. There’s no doubting the visionary credentials of the director, Guillermo del Toro, though his richly atmospheric fantasies are often more inspired in concept than they are in the moment-to-moment unfolding. The great exception is his Oscar-winning 2006 film “Pan’s Labyrinth,” a masterpiece of historical fantasy in which he held a brutal Spanish war story and a transporting fairy tale in exquisite balance.

(18) PTEROSAUR EDEN. NPR reports “Hundreds Of Eggs From Ancient Flying Reptile Are Found In China”.

A cache of hundreds of eggs discovered in China sheds new light on the development and nesting behavior of prehistoric, winged reptiles called pterosaurs.

Pterosaurs were fearsome-looking creatures that flew during the Lower Cretaceous period alongside dinosaurs. This particular species was believed to have a massive wingspan of up to 13 feet, and likely ate fish with their large teeth-filled jaws.

Researchers working in the Turpan-Hami Basin in northwestern China collected the eggs over a 10-year span from 2006 to 2016.

A single sandstone block held at least 215 well-preserved eggs that have mostly kept their shape. Sixteen of those eggs have embryonic remains of the pterosaur species Hamipterus tianshanensis, the researchers said in findings released today in Science.

(19) A DISCOURAGING WORD. The BBC tells how they do it — “From disguises to bad manners: How celebs avoid being pestered in public”.

[Mark] Hamill recently tweeted how he hopped into a wheelchair at an airport to “avoid autograph $alesmen/Dealer$ who constantly badger me (and my family) to increase value of their items”.

Hunger Games star Lawrence, who refuses selfies with fans, said: “I just, generally, once I enter a public place, I become incredibly rude – that’s kind of like my only way of defending myself.”

Mark Hamill tries “the old wheelchair trick”, Daniel Radcliffe wore a Spider-Man suit (plus rucksack and American accent) to Comic-Con, …

(20) THE BADDEST PART OF THE FILE. For some strange reason a Jim Croce filk festival broke out in comments. Here is microtherion’s contribution:

If I could save time in a shoggoth
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to sleep in R’lyeh
‘Til eternity passes away
Just to spend strange aeons with you

(21) HOW IT TOOK SHAPE. Marc Scott Zicree, who worked on a book with Guillermo Del Toro, tells the vision behind The Shape of Water.

Mr. Sci-Fi Marc Zicree shares insider info on his friend and co-writer Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful new film The Shape of Water.

 

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Jim Fiscus, JJ, Nickpheas, Martin Morse Wooster, Chip Hitchcock, Carl Slaughter, Cat Eldridge, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs ti File 770 contributing editoe of the day Soon Lee.]

2017 Endeavour Award

Two writers from the Pacific Northwest are winners of the 19th annual Endeavour Award, given for books published in 2016.

  • Dreams of Distant Shores (Tachyon) by North Bend, OR, writer Patricia McKillip
  • Lovecraft Country (Harper) by Seattle, WA, writer Matt Ruff

They will split the $1,000.00 grant that accompanies the Award. The Award was announced Friday, November 17 at OryCon in Portland.

The other finalists were:

  • Arabella of Mars by Portland, OR, writer David D. Levine, Tor Books;
  • Eocene Station by Victoria, BC, writer Dave Duncan, Five Rivers Publishing;
  • Waypoint Kangaroo by Portland, OR, writer Curtis Chen, Thomas Dunne
    Books/St Martin’s Press

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest. All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers. The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2017 Award were Ginjer Buchanan, retired Editor-in-Chief, Ace/Roc Books; editor and writer John R. Douglas; and Nebula and World Fantasy award winning author Andy Duncan.

AWARD ELIGIBILITY FOR 2018: To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy. The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.)

The deadline to enter books published during 2017 is February 15, 2018. Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site: www.osfci.org/endeavour. Click on Entry Form in the left hand column for a fill-in PDF of the form.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]

2017 Endeavour Award Finalists

Five books written by writers from the Pacific Northwest are finalists for the 19th annual Endeavour Award. The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000. The winner will be announced November 17 at OryCon in Portland, Oregon.

  • Arabella of Mars by Portland, OR, writer David D. Levine, Tor Books;
  • Dreams of Distant Shores by North Bend, OR, writer Patricia McKillip, Tachyon;
  • Eocene Station by Victoria, BC, writer Dave Duncan, Five Rivers Publishing;
  • Lovecraft Country by Seattle, WA, writer Matt Ruff, Harper; and
  • Waypoint Kangaroo by Portland, OR, writer Curtis Chen, Thomas Dunne Books/St Martin’s Press

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest. All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers. The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2017 Award are.

  • Ginjer Buchanan

In the early 1970s, Ginjer Buchanan moved from Pittsburgh, PA. to New York City where she made her living as a social worker, while doing freelance editorial work. In 1984, she took a job as an editor at Ace Books. She was promoted several times over the years and in 2007, became Editor-in-Chief, Ace/Roc Books. In April of 2014, she retired. She is now enjoying sleeping late, reading a lot, watching an inordinate amount of television, and polishing the Hugo she won at Loncon, for Best Editor–Long Form.

  • John R. Douglas

John R. Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States and married fellow fan, Ginjer Buchanan in 1975. In 1978, he stumbled into a job in publishing and spent over twenty years working as an editor for four different major mass market publishers. Although he handled Science Fiction and Fantasy for all of them, he also edited mysteries, thrillers and other genre fiction and many kinds of non-fiction. He has been an editorial freelancer since late 1999 continuing to work with words in many different ways.

  • Andy Duncan

Andy Duncan’s stories have been honored with a Nebula Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and three World Fantasy Awards. His third collection, An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories, is upcoming from Small Beer Press. A native of Batesburg, S.C., and an alumnus of Clarion West 1994, he teaches writing at Frostburg State University in Maryland.

Award Eligibility for 2018: To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy. The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.)

The deadline to enter books published during 2017 is February 15, 2018. Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site. Click on Entry Form in the left-hand column for a fill-in PDF of the form.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]