Monthly Archives: March 2010

NYRSF Readings on 4/6/2010

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Three YA authors headline the next New York Review of SF reading.

Barry Lyga, who helped develop the “Free Comic Book Day” industry-wide promotion, launched his career as a YA author in 2006 with The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl.

Marie Rutkoski’s first YA novel was The Cabinet of Wonders. Her new book, The Celestial Globe, is due out on April 10.

Robin Wasserman has written a science fictional YA series about the difficult “post-human” life of a teen accident victim who is given an artificial body to save her life.

Carol Cooper, the curator for the evening, is a Clarion graduate and spent two decades reviewing music, books and film for The Village Voice.

The full press release appears after the jump.

[Thanks to Jim Freund for the story.]

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Watts Trial FAQ

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All the nagging questions left over from the trial are answered in Peter Watts’ latest post DVD Extras and Director Commentary. Was the video shown? What was on it? What did the jurors say in their public statements and in conversation with the author after the trial? Is there an appeal coming? A countersuit? How many have contributed to pay the legal costs? Most important, how is he standing up under the incredible strain?

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]

Renovation Rates Increase on May Day

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Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon, will increase its adult full attending membership rate from $140 to $160 on May 1.

Discounts for pre-supporters of the Reno in 2011 bid will expire on that date, too.

Remaining unchanged are the attending membership rates for children (0-16 years old) and young adults (17-21), as part of the convention’s policy to encourage families and children to come to the con.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Corflu Cobalt Videos

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Peter Sullivan has posted links to videos of Corflu Cobalt’s online webcasts of two major program items:

Earl Kemp interview at Corflu Cobalt – Bill Burns interviews Earl Kemp about his life, his work and his time in Science Fiction Fandom. (Lighting is very dark due to slide show, but audio is listenable)

Radio Play: The Adventures of Pat and the Electric Motorman – A ‘radio play’ performed live at Corflu Cobalt, 20th March 2010. Written by the InTheBar mailing list.

Corflu is happening in Winchester, England this weekend.

GQ on Caprica

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GQ covered last week’s presser at the Museum of Modern Art where reporters watched unaired episodes of Caprica in company with Ron Moore and members of the cast. The reporter’s breathless diary is pretty funny:

6:10 PM

Scribble panel questions on note pad like serious journalist. “Yes, hi. This question is for Miss Torresani. It appears you’re very pretty. Can you talk a little bit about that?” Must think smarter. …

6:21 PM

Porkpie Hat Culture Tweeter breaks the ice with a heady diatribe about technophobia as the franchise’s agenda. Ron Moore is basically like, “Yup.”

And lots more like that.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]

Lacey Wins CUFF

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Diane Lacey has won the 2010 Canadian Unity Fan Fund race. She’ll be going to Keycon 27 in May.

LeAmber Raven Kensley, last year’s CUFF delegate and the fund administrator, wrote online that she received 40 votes. She said it was a close race but hasn’t posted the voting totals.

Jury Finds Watts Guilty

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The jury returned a guilty verdict in the Peter Watts case on March 19 reports the Port Huron Times Standard:

Toronto author Peter Watts has been found guilty of assaulting, resisting and obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.

Jurors returned the verdict today in St. Clair County Circuit Judge James Adair’s courtroom. He faces up to two years in prison when sentenced April 26.

Court records show that in the meantime the judge has continued Watts’ bond and he remains free pending sentencing. His case has been referred to the probation department for a report. And the court will review the prosecution’s request for an enhanced sentence under Michigan’s habitual offender statute.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, “in Michigan anyone convicted of more than one felony can have his or her sentence lengthened if requested by the prosecutor and agreed to by the court. Prisoners serving under the habitual offender statute cannot be paroled prior to their calendar minimum.”

The news coverage from the case hasn’t made it clear whether this law is being invoked based on the multiple felony charges from the border-crossing case or a previous conviction.

Peter Watts has posted detailed comments about the trial and verdict on his blog. He analyzes the statute the jury had to work with and the factual questions they had to resolve, then concludes:

Whether that’s actual noncompliance or simply slow compliance is, I suspect, what the jury had to decide. That’s what they did, and while I think they made the wrong decision I’m obviously not the most impartial attendee at this party. I still maintain I did nothing wrong; but as far as I can tell the trial was fair, and I will abide by its outcome.

Update 3/19/2010: Added link to Peter Watts’ comments about the trial and verdict.

Bradbury’s CalTech Commencement Speech

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CalTech has posted the full text of Ray Bradbury’s commencement speech to the class of 2000.

Large sections come from the classic Bradbury talk he has given in many times and places around Los Angeles. For example, when I was in his audience at USC in 1970 he also dispensed this advice:

Now, right after graduation today, make a list of the people who don’t believe in you. And you have a few, don’t you? I had plenty of people who told me not to do what I was going to do. You make a list this afternoon, of the people who don’t believe in you, and you call them tonight, and tell them to go to hell!

The CalTech speech is full of wonderful examples of that faith in the future Bradbury has been evangelizing about all his life:

I’d like to believe that on some night, 50, 60 years from now, that when some of you are on Mars, that you’ll carry with you-please do-a copy of The Martian Chronicles, which is totally unscientific. It’s a Greek myth, it’s a Roman myth, it’s an Egyptian myth, it’s a Norse edda. And that’s why the damn thing is still around. I didn’t deal with the facts. I dealt with the dream. And some night, teach your children, on Mars, to read the books under the blankets with the flashlight. And in the meantime, they’re looking out at Mars, and the only Martians that are out there will be you. I envy you about that.

The idea of 20th Century sf being about a technological future comes from within the genre itself, so who can blame anyone for using that paradigm to contrast its past and present. Fortunately we have Bradbury’s voice to remind us that our dreams and visions shape the time to come no less powerfully than our inventions.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the link.]