Winners of several traditional DeepSouthCon awards plus the inaugural JordanCon Awards were announced in Atlanta on April 23 during JordanCon 8, host of DSC 54.
The Phoenix is given to the professional (writer, editor or artist) who has done the most for Southern fandom. This year there were two honorees, Eugie Foster (posthumously), and Jana Oliver. Both Atlanta authors have a considerable body of work and were/are noted supporters of local conventions.
The Rebel is awarded to the fan who has done the most for southern fandom. This year’s recipients were Bill Harrison, long time convention volunteer for multiple conventions in Atlanta, Tennessee and more, and Pat Henry, the retired Chair of DragonCon.
The winner of the Rubble, given to the individual who has done the most TO the Southern Fandom, was North Carolina’s governor, Pat McCrory.
The first annual JordanCon awards, called the Hero of the Horn awards, were given in three categories to the volunteers, professionals and organizations that have supported JordanCon.
This year, the Hero of the Horn was awarded to April Moore for her hard work as a volunteer, TarValon.net for its long-standing support as an organization, and Brandon Sanderson as a professional, who was cited for his dedication and support.
The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact.
STORY OF THE YEAR
ANDRE THE GIANT: CLOSER TO HEAVEN; Brandon Easton , Writer; Denis Medri , Artist
GHETTO BROTHER: WARRIOR TO PEACEMAKER; Julian Voloj, Writer; Claudia Ahlering, Artist
REVELATION: BROTHERMAN-DICTATOR OF DISCIPLINE; Guy A. Sims, Writer; Dawud Anyabwile, Artist
BEST COVER
ANDRE THE GIANT: CLOSER TO HEAVEN; Brandon Easton , Writer; Denis Medri , Artist
BLUE HAND MOJO: DUST TO DUST; John Jennings, Writer and Artist
TEPHLON FUNK!; Stephane Metayer, Writer; David Tako & Nicolas Safe, Artists
BEST WRITER
Erika Alexander and Tony Puryear; CONCRETE PARK VOL.2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Juliana “Jewels” Smith; (H)AFROCENTRIC
David F. Walker; CYBORG
BEST ARTIST
Dawud Anyabwile; REVELATION: BROTHERMAN-DICTATOR OF DISCIPLINE
Keef Cross; DAYBLACK #4 – SHOT IN THE ASS
John Jennings; BLUE HAND MOJO: DUST TO DUST
BEST MALE CHARACTER
Arron Day (Blackjack); BLACKJACK: THERE CAME A DARK HUNTER; Alex Simmons, Writer; Tim Fielder, Artist
Antonio Valor (Brotherman); REVELATION: BROTHERMAN-DICTATOR OF DISCIPLINE; Guy A. Sims, Writer; Dawud Anyabwile, Artist
BEST FEMALE CHARACTER
Moon Girl; MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR; Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder, Writers; Natacha Bustos and Amy Reeder, Artists
Lily; MALICE IN OVENLAND; Micheline Hess, Writer and Artist
Naima Pepper; (H)AFROCENTRIC; Juliana “Jewels” Smith, Writer; Ronald R. Nelson, Artist
RISING STAR AWARD
Chuck Collins, Writer and Artist; BOUNCE!
Stephane Metayer, Writer; David Tako & Nicolas Safe, Artists; TEPHLON FUNK!
D.C. Walker, Writer; Bruno Oliveira, Artist; WHEN THE RIVER RISES
BEST COMIC STRIP OR WEBCOMIC
BLACKWAX BOULEVARD; Dmitri Jackson, Writer and Artist
BOUNCE!; Chuck Collins, Writer and Artist
DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP HOP COP; Jamar Nicholas, Writer and Artist
BEST REPRINT PUBLICATION
AJALA: A SERIES OF ADVENTURES BOOK 2; XMoor Studios
CONCRETE PARK VOL.1: You Send Me; Dark Horse Comics
CONCRETE PARK VOL.2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T; Dark Horse Comics
FAN AWARD FOR BEST WORK
ANDRE THE GIANT: CLOSER TO HEAVEN; Brandon Easton , Writer; Denis Medri , Artist
BOUNCE!; Chuck Collins, Writer and Artist
CONCRETE PARK VOL.2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T; Erika Alexander and Tony Puryear, Writers; Tony Puryear, Artist
SHAFT VOLUME 1: A COMPLICATED MAN; David Walker, Writer; Sanford Greene, Artist
Pearl Mackie is an amazing young talent from Brixton, South London and has most recently performed in the National Theatre’s West End production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
We all know the Doctor likes a dance, so Pearl’s moves may come in handy… She’s skilled in Ballet, Jazz, Period Dance and Tap!
Pearl honed her craft at Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School, the same school Samantha Bond trained at, aka Mrs Wormwood in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Her debut with the Doctor is shown in this two-minute clip.
(1) WILL R., MICRO-CELEBRITY. When the new Independence Day: Resurgence trailer went online, Will R. immediately got busy looking for his own face.
I got to be an extra in a couple of scenes, and I’ve been wondering if I’d get any screen time. Technically, it appears yes, as I am in the crowd just about where the arrow’s pointing here. (If it’s CGI, they sure made that, um, pixel look just like me.)
Will is from New Mexico. He and the family spend summers there. And Albuquerque, the largest city in the state, is where some of the location shooting was done.
It was quite an experience. Of course we’re sworn to reveal no details, but it’s no secret that the scale of these productions is staggering.
Learning that Will is in the movie was almost as surprising as discovering Brent Spiner is in it, too —
The last shot of [Spiner’s character] Okun (not included in the video above) shows the motionless character being picked up by Major Mitchell (Adam Baldwin), who then checks Okun’s pulse. It’s not definitive, but after the beating and strangling and alien-exorcism and whatnot, audiences could be forgiven for assuming the doctor was dead as a doornail.
“It is the resurgence of Dr. Okun, that is why they call this movie Resurgence, that is the whole idea,” Spiner joked to Yahoo Movies last week at CinemaCon, where he was joined by his co-star (and jazzmaster) Goldblum shortly after Fox’s presentation of the film in front of movie theater exhibitors.
But seriously, how is Okun still alive? It’s simple, Spiner argued, he never died. “People jumped to that. They always jump to ‘You must be dead’ if you’re laying on the ground. But they’re wrong.” Goldblum agreed, then pointed to their surroundings in Caesar’s Palace: “Yeah how many people do you see laying on the ground just passing through the casino? And so few of them are dead,” he cracked.
“I’m back, I’m alive, I couldn’t be happier,” Spiner said. “I hope everyone else is, but no one more than me.”
From the way he describes it, it’s obvious that nothing suits him more than Bleak House – what he calls the house that accommodates his collection. “This morning I woke up in the Dickens room, which is a room that is dedicated to Dickens, and all the furniture is Dickensian and Victorian, and it’s surrounded by books from the Victorian era…,” he told the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. “And I exited through the Nosferatu corridor by pushing the secret painting on the wall into my kitchen.”
Come July, part of his treasures will be featured at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). GdT describes it as “an exhibit of my movie stuff!” Only 500 of his pieces will make the cut, but according to the New York Times, Bleak House has at least 700 pieces of original art.
Game of Thrones has become more popular and expensive every year. Each new episode has reportedly cost more than $10m, from $6m in 2012. It is worth it for HBO: the show picked up a record 12 Emmy Awards in 2015, including best drama. It also holds the dubious honour of being the world’s most pirated show and is one of the most sexually explicit shows on television.
HBO has imposed tight secrecy on its prize asset in an attempt to prevent leaks. With one exception. Barack Obama is a fan and, as Game of Thrones’ showrunner David Benioff revealed at the series launch, “When the commander-in-chief says, ‘I want to see the advanced episodes’, what are you going to do?”
What I do about Bad Stress Realization time! Every rotten moment I have had as a writer originates from bad stress, and the vast majority of those moments come from what I couldn’t control. Why am I not beating myself up over it? 1) That’s in the past. 2) I can only manage what I can control, but the number one thing I need to do is write. Period. And 3) Encountering bad stressors is normal, because it happens to everybody. What matters, then, is what I do next. How do I use those moments to inspire me to keep at it? To this end, I use the K.I.S.S. system which I am quite fond of….
To Bill [Campbell of Rosarium Publishing], the word “diversity” is not just about having a wide array of characters from various ethnic backgrounds, it’s about supporting multiculturism by seeking and working with diverse authors. This, however, doesn’t just “happen”, for the other side to hiring writers and artists, is to ensure that the business is running smoothly and folks are aware of the many books and comics he has to offer. To that end, he recently launched an IndieGoGo campaign to take Rosarium to the next level to help support his bottom line.
Advances in printing technology appears to have given Bill a lift, initially, as he used print-on-demand technology to publish books such as Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond and Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany. Now, with his recently announced titles like The SEA is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia, he hopes to ensure his profitability is stronger on a per copy basis.Though the technology is in place to facilitate digital publishing, many readers prefer print to digital or, in some cases, both. From a financial perspective, it makes total sense to me why Bill would launch a crowdfunding campaign to that effect, as the margins on print-on-demand books remain small. But, why should the rest of us care what happens to Rosarium? And, how does that impact diversity in publishing?
In my mind, the success of small press publishers, like Rosarium Publishing, is crucial to ensure that diversity in fiction has a life beyond heated conversations, strategy sessions, and break room chats. Diversity in fiction, in other words, isn’t about a specific aspect of the genre, like lovesick vampires or white walkers, it’s an opportunity for new and exciting voices to debut and share culturally-rich stories that we can all enjoy. Of course, Rosarium’s emphasis doesn’t mean larger publishers don’t publish or support diversity in fiction as well, but size works to both their advantage and disadvantage. Once you explore Rosarium’s catalog, you’ll see for yourself the emphasis on speculative multiculturism, and might expect to see stories by a broad range of authors in the future.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
Born April 22, 1894 — Soldier, journalist, and actor Rondo Hatton.
Here is how it works: the company gives free e-books to a group of readers, often before publication. Rather than asking readers to write a review, it tells them to click on a link embedded in the e-book that will upload all the information that the device has recorded. The information shows Jellybooks when people read and for how long, how far they get in a book and how quickly they read, among other details. It resembles how Amazon and Apple, by looking at data stored in e-reading devices and apps, can see how often books are opened and how far into a book readers get.
Jellybooks has run tests on nearly 200 books for seven publishers, one major American publisher, three British publishers and three German houses. Most of the publishers did not want to be identified, to avoid alarming their authors. The company typically gathers reading data from groups of 200 to 600 readers.
Mr. Rhomberg recently gave a workshop at Digital Book World, a publishing conference in New York, and some of his findings confirmed the worst fears of publishers and authors.
On average, fewer than half of the books tested were finished by a majority of readers. Most readers typically give up on a book in the early chapters. Women tend to quit after 50 to 100 pages, men after 30 to 50. Only 5 percent of the books Jellybooks tested were completed by more than 75 percent of readers. Sixty percent of books fell into a range where 25 percent to 50 percent of test readers finished them. Business books have surprisingly low completion rates.
…But trust me when I say getting an inside peep at this “industry only” show is well worth the long day and the dry cleaning bill to get the smell of rotting flesh (courtesy of Sinister Scents) out of our Black Gate polo’s.
TransWorld’s Halloween & Attraction show is the only industry trade show that has this many exhibitors (over 300) and industry related products. For two decades haunt industry professionals have gathered to network, get new ideas and purchase products. There are booths with vendors representing every aspect of the horror business including special effects, makeup, costumes, animatronics and every piece down to the smallest necessary to create realistic, terror-inducing scenes.
… Gernsback reached the U.S. just in time to exploit the radio revolution started by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. Indeed, Marconi’sbiographer Gavin Weightman credits Gernsback, not Marconi, with the insight that the average person might want to tinker with radio technology. In 1905, says Weightman, Gernsback opened the first store for such buffs in the world, in New York. He then branched into publishing and started his own magazine, Modern Electrics, in 1908. According to science fiction historian David Kyle, he teamed up with prominent inventor Lee de Forest to form the Wireless Association of America in 1910.
Next came science fiction. In 1911, Gernsback enlivened Modern Electrics by serializing a novel he had written, the awkwardly titled Ralph 124C 41 +. One of the most unusual of all science fiction works, it depicts the year 2660, when humanity has achieved a technological pinnacle through anti-gravity, climate control, geothermal energy, and so on. But this is not a utopia. Amid relentless rhapsodies about machines, Gernsback unaccountably added disconcerting bits that undermined the optimism of the story. Communications systems break down, labour unrest still occurs, crime persists (with some death-row prisoners being used for scientific experiments) and inter-racial marriage — between humans and Martians — is outlawed. Much of the novel deals with a woman imperilled by crazed stalkers. Largely offered without comment, these details are enigmatic.
(12) 88 KEYS. The Digital Antiquarian recalls the horrible, litigious end of Infocom in “The Bruce Youth”.
But if more games didn’t help, what would? Drowning as they were, they cast about desperately, giving serious consideration to ideas at which the older, prouder Infocom would have scoffed. Some seriously mooted suggestions were described even by those who did the suggesting as “schlock,” such as partnerships with Judith Krantz, Sidney Sheldon, or the rather vague category of “Hollywood stars.” (The sad reality, of course, was that Infocom’s own star had now burned so low that they wouldn’t have had much chance of tempting even the lowest-wattage such fodder into working with them.) The most shocking and patently desperate suggestion of all was for a “serious XXX porn game,” although they wouldn’t put their own name on it. After all, one must have some dignity.
In this atmosphere of magic-bullet hunting, it was natural to turn back to the glory days, to the names that had once made Infocom one of the glories of their industry. Thus the Zork name, left unused since Zork III in 1982, was resurrected at last for Brian Moriarty’s Beyond Zork, begun in late 1986 and released a year later.
Yet there was another of their old games that Infocom looked back upon with if anything even more wistfulness than the original Zork trilogy. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was the very personification of Infocom’s glory days, selling well over 300,000 copies, attracting considerable mainstream-press coverage, and marking the high-water point of their commercial fortunes. The game itself hadn’t so much ended as stopped midstream, its final paragraphs explicitly promising a sequel. If only they could finally get that sequel made…
The problem with doing the Hitchhiker‘s sequel was it must entail trying to work yet again with the charmingly insufferable Douglas Adams, a black hole of procrastination who seemed to suck up the productivity of every Imp he came into contact with. Bureaucracy, first proposed by Adams as a sort of light palate cleanser between Hitchhiker’s and its sequel, had turned into the most tortured project in Infocom’s history, involving at one time or another most of the development staff and consuming fully two years in all (the average Infocom game required about six to nine months). Released at last in March of 1987 only thanks to a last-minute rescue mission mounted by Adams’s good friend and semi-regular ghostwriter Michael Bywater, the end result had left no one entirely happy….
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, Martin Morse Wooster, Will R., and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mister Dalliard.]
Con or Bust, which “helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions,” is now being run by its own newly-created not-for-profit corporation in New York. (Search the NY database). And they are seeking items for their annual online auction, with bidding to take place from May 25 through June 5.
Con or Bust’s fundraising activities formerly were part of the Carl Brandon Society (CBS). However, it came to public attention last year that the Society had lost its federal tax-exempt status, meaning Con or Bust donations would not be deductible until certain steps were taken by CBS to regain that status, which have yet to be completed.
Kate Nepveu announced that Con or Bust, Inc. filed a certificate of incorporation with the state on April 6, 2016. Its inaugural Board of Directors is:
Con or Bust followed by submitting an application for federal tax-exempt status under 501(c)(3) on April 17. Once approved, the tax-exempt status will be retroactive to the date that Con or Bust, Inc., was created. (The IRS says they should expect to hear within 90 days.) As a small charity, Con or Bust, Inc., is exempt from registration with New York State, but Nepveu says they will also be submitting an application to confirm that exemption. All of their corporate documents can be read online at the updated About page.
Meanwhile, the Carl Brandon Society is filing the tax returns necessary for its re-application for tax exempt status. Nepveu says CBS looks forward to having that in place later this year.
Auction: Con or Bust is principally funded through its annual online auction, and they are looking for donations.
Anyone can offer something for auction, by filling out a form on the website – all you need is an email address. Pictures of the item(s) can be uploaded at the same time
I often recount my first adventure at a Japanese bakery, I think in New York. On display were hundreds of little cakes in many shapes and colors. I bought one, and took a bite. It was filled with bean paste. How interesting, I thought, never having tasted it before. I picked out a different one, and took a bite. This one was filled with bean paste. How interesting. I tried another and another and yet another, each of wholly distinct appearance. Each and every one proved to be filled with — yes. Remarkable. I remember describing this adventure to a girl I knew. She thought I was putting her on. Maybe a year later, she happened into a Japanese neighborhood, and found a bakery. Look, hundreds of little cakes! She bought one. Well, well.
Your mundane neighbors think Earth Day means growing things and sustainability and greenery, but to fans it can only mean — defending our world from alien invasion! Or so Fox is reasoning:
To help us all defend our planet, this weekend the original INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) movie will be available for only $0.99 on Google Play, with all of Fox’s net proceeds being donated to Earth Day Network! Get your $0.99 download of ID4 here: http://bitly.com/1qWSDvc. Fans can also participate in a global #IndependenceDayLive Earth Day Watch Party, starting at 4pm PT tonight, by following #IndependenceDayLive and @IndependenceDay.
We always knew they were coming back. After INDEPENDENCE DAY redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.
[A] new companion has now been cast, the big reveal of exactly who that companion is, will be made this Saturday, April 23rd, on BBC1.
The announcement will be made during half-time of the soccer match between Everton and Manchester United, at approximately 6pm GMT. The news will be posted on all Doctor Who social media sites as it’s announced, enabling viewers across the world to all find out who has been cast at the same time.
Of all the things that shouldn’t be possible but are, talking to the International Space Station ranks right up there with Steph Curry’s basketball skills and the existence of Donald Trump.
Think about it. How weird is it that NASA can put a $150bn space station into orbit, which can then be contacted by anybody on Earth? Even you? It’s one of those things that gives you pause?—?the kind of thing you’re vaguely certain is against the law, somewhere.
It’s not something you’re going to be doing tonight?—?not unless you have the relevant equipment already to hand. It takes a little bit of work. But it’s entirely possible, even for those of us who aren’t geeks….
This is a phenomenal experience, it exceeded my expectations and I was blown away by the calibre of the artwork on display. The Cartoon Museum has amassed the finest examples of comic art, an incredible mix of exemplary work, providing a beautiful tapestry of the history and breadth of the greatest works from Britain for public consideration….
Soon I was looking at lovely pieces, starting with Hogarths ‘A Harlots Progress’ from 1732, ‘The Bottle’ from 1847 by George Cruikshank, ‘Ally Sopers; A Moral Lesson’ from 1873, Ronald Searle’s Capsulyssese from 1955, written by Richard Osborne. All giving one a real sense of history, showing that illustrated stories are nothing new in Britain.
Then as I rounded a corner I saw a grouping of Commando Comics placed next to a full colour cover of Charley’s War, and four pages of this seminal work of the First World War. Undoubtedly Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s masterpiece is indeed a crucial addition here, but I had a feeling of true appreciation of the comic form when I saw this colour cover and four original pages lined up. Juxtaposed with this was My Life in Pieces, The Falklands War by Will Kevans from 2014. Original art, cover and concept sketch made for a great grouping….
Last December, word came out that Hasbro was going to try their hand a making a cinematic universe based on their various toy properties, namely G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K. and ROM. I was a little flip about it.
But now Hasbro, lead by Akiva Goldsman, has assembled its writers room and it’s no laughing matter. The big stars of the list are The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’s Michael Chabon (who also worked on Spider-Man 2), Brian K. Vaughan, who you should know from comics like Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Saga, Runaways and a bunch of other impressive titles, and Nicole Perlman, co-writer of Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel.
In 1996, Fox Studios produced the TV series: Space: Above And Beyond (aka S:AAB). The show had Drama, action, mystery and followed the lives of a diverse group of U.S. Marine Space Aviators while fighting against a powerful alien force on the ground, in the air and in outer space. It was part Top Gun, part James Cameron’s Aliens, and all exciting!
This short lived show (1995 to 1996), which fell victim to scheduling conflicts like Joss Whedon’s Firefly, is considered one of the best of Military Science Fiction series to air and is deserving of a convention of its own….
VIP tickets and Premium tickets are both on sale NOW at early-bird prices, and general admission tickets will go on sale starting May 1st.
The series, set two generations before the destruction of Superman’s titular home planet, would tell the story of the man of steel’s grandfather as he fights to restore the family honor of the House of El after it has been shamed.
The pilot will be produced by Warner Horizon Television. Goyer — who penned the screenplays for “Batman Begins,” “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — will write the pilot with Ian Goldberg. He will executive produce through his company Phantom Four with Damian Kindler, who will serve as showrunner. Colm McCarthy is set to direct the pilot.
(7) KIT WEST OBIT. British special effects artist Kit West (1936 – 17 April 2016), known for his work in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi, died April 17.
Guy Hamilton, who directed four James Bond films, has died aged 93.
Former 007 actor Sir Roger Moore tweeted that he was “incredibly, incredibly saddened to hear the wonderful director Guy Hamilton has gone to the great cutting room in the sky. 2016 is horrid”.
Hamilton directed Sir Roger in Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun.
He also directed Sir Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever.
…Speaking about his style of directing he said he wanted value for money.
“In the making of Bond films we are some of the meanest toughest film makers. If we spend a million dollars it had better be up there on the screen.”
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY.
April 21, 1997 — Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, journeyed into space.
Once nominations close at the end of March, we go through the data and process it. There are a few steps to this, the biggest one being canonicalization. We review the data to make sure that votes for, for example, “The Three-Body Problem” and “The 3-Body Problem” and “Three Body Problem” and “ The There Body Problem ” —which would all appear separately in our database—are all set up to be recognized as nominations for the same book. And if you think that’s bad, imagine what it’s like when episodes of television get nominated in Best Dramatic Presentation, where there are series title, episode title, and season and episode number, and a thousand different ways to put those together…
Once that’s done, we have our preliminary finalists. That’s when we start reaching out to nominees, letting them know they’ve been nominated, and a bit about the awards. That can be surprisingly difficult if we don’t know people’s email addresses. Sometimes, they’re public…but fairly often they’re not. There’s a certain amount of Googling, guessing, or asking people with impressive Rolodexes just to figure out a valid email address sometimes.
(11) SELECTIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY. Kate Paulk says Sad Puppies have a future, in “Miscellany” at Mad Genius Club.
In other news, this of the Puppy-related kind, I’ve heard rumors from several sources (but nothing official, alas) that more than 4000 Hugo nomination ballots were cast. I’ve also heard there are some saying that Sad Puppies 4 is a nonentity, that it’s run out of steam, it’s dead, pining for the fjords, gone to a better place… (erm, sorry?). Well, no.
Sad Puppies 4 is waiting to hear who the nominees (*ahem*. The Hugo Site says they aren’t being called nominees any more. They’re ‘finalists’ from a shortlist. Whatever) are before congratulating them for their recognition, whoever they are, and starting the next round of campaigning to boost involvement in the Hugos process.
A certain “website” which I shall not name because I shall not provide it with anymore publicity because I am sure nobody but a tiny number of far left Bernie Sanders supporters in a gated community ever read, as they sip champagne frappucinos in their la-di-da literati bookclub but whose name rhymes with smileearnestbevinbeventy, has SELECTIVELY QUOTED ME in a truly monstrous way to suggest that I am nothing but a poo-poo head! The calumny! The outrage!
(13) A MULTIPLE-CHUS PANEL. This program idea was dropped in the MidAmeriCon II suggestion box….
So, @MidAmeriCon2, I'd like to propose the Chu panel for Worldcon this year, featuring @john_chu, @arthur_affect, and @kyliu99
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express probe spent eight years collecting information on Venus before plunging down to the surface and out of range back in November 2014. But now we finally have the last batch of data it transmitted back to Earth before going offline, and there are some big surprises in all those recordings.
Turns out, the polar atmosphere of Venus is a whole lot colder and a lot less dense than we previously thought, and these regions are dominated by strong atmospheric waves that have never been measured on Venus before.
Maddie Stone from Gizmodo reports that the Venus Express probe found polar areas of Venus to have an average temperature of -157 degrees Celsius, which is colder than any spot on Earth, and about 70 degrees lower than was previously thought.
Not only is Venus much closer to the Sun than we are, it also has a thick, dense cloud layer that traps heat. However, Venus Express also found that the planet’s atmosphere was 22 to 40 percent less dense than expected at the polar regions.
The online and print publicity pieces for J. K. Rowling’s chair reached over 90 countries, plus all 50 states and all news aggregator sites. It saw total media coverage nationwide, with special interest in New York, Silicon Valley, and major cities in the Midwest, as well as the nation’s capital. The chair also garnered attention with 4,428 mainstream media hits, a number that is still rapidly growing. Print media circulated to 291.7+ million, while 15.6+ billion unique viewers visited websites carrying the article.
4) Wait, how do I know you aren’t sneakily telling the truth?
The answer to question 3 is a lie.
5) All right, I’ll let it go. Just know that I’m aware that at any point you could be LYING. So. You studied philosophy and logic. Do you use that in your fiction?
Absolutely! There’s a long tradition of slipping philosophy into speculative fiction, especially since they’re both about exploring ideas and taking them to their logical conclusions. Some of my favorites are Italo Calvino’s “All at One Point” and Asimov’s “The Last Question” for metaphysical cosmology, Ken Liu’s “Mono No Aware” for ethics, and Roald Dahl’s “William and Mary” for epistemology, and the movies Labyrinth and Monty Python’s Holy Grail for classic logic. Also the entire Discworld series for all the philosophy ever.
I don’t tend to take a lot of pictures, unless I’m explicitly doing research on something and think I need pics for future reference, but I did take one or two of the view out my hotel window in Numazu:… And one of some lovely fish-shaped cakes a reader gave me as a gift:…
Okay, those aren’t really cakes. The two in the middle are pancakes with bean paste inside, and the top and bottom ones are a kind of wafer-cookie sandwich, also filled with bean paste. Still. Close enough….
And I learned from her post that when cooked a coelacanth, like every other exotic creature, reportedly “tastes like chicken.”
The SFWA Contracts Committee believes there are serious problems for writers with the non-compete and option clauses in many science fiction and fantasy publishers’ contracts. The non-compete language in these contracts often overreaches and limits authors’ career options in unacceptable ways. Writers may choose to bring out a range of books from different publishers — science fiction from one publisher and fantasy from another publisher, for example — and may have to do so in order to earn anything like a living wage. The problem becomes even worse for hybrid authors who self-publish works in parallel with their traditional publications. Several contracts that we have seen include overlapping restrictions that could keep the author from publishing another book for more than a year….
Our recommendations:
Any limitation on the author’s ability to write new works at any time is unacceptable and should be deleted.
“Competing work” should be defined in the contract as clearly and narrowly as possible, and preferably limited to a work in the same series (whether one is planned or not). The burden should be on the publisher to prove that another work published elsewhere by the author would reduce their sales.
Still, HBO wavered over whether to make a fantasy show that would be so drastically different from their trademark series, which tended toward the grittily realistic. And even after HBO tentatively signed on, Benioff and Weiss’s original pilot episode had to be completely reshot before the show finally debuted in 2011 – another six years after the producers had first acquired the rights from Martin. But there was hope from another perspective: the rise of prestige television had paralleled the rise of cult fandoms. The passionate online exchanges among fans of books like Martin’s made them desirable targets for marketing. Suddenly, HBO had proof that a Game of Thrones series would have an intensely engaged audience from the start, and the network’s marketers knew exactly how to reach those fans – right on those websites and message boards where they gathered to discuss the minutiae of the books. If the network got particularly lucky, those fans would become ambassadors to a wider audience.
Chip Hitchcock sent the link together with these comments, “They do mention the proper title at one point, although it seems a lost cause generally. OTOH, the night before my cruise got to Dubrovnik two weeks ago, the tour manager specifically called out A Song of Ice and Fire — so some people actually know the original collective.”
On Wednesday’s episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, host James Corden and some high-wattage Game of Thrones cast members spoofed House of Black and White’s Hall of Faces (a prominent part of the show’s season 6 marketing campaign), with a segment imagining what an obnoxious disembodied head might do to the larger group.
The sketch featured recent guests Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Alfie Allen, and Iwan Rheon…
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Rachel Swirsky, Will R., Chip Hitchcock, Andrew Porter, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day, the Top Level Poster. On his head be it!]
Rosarium Publishing, founded by Bill Campbell in 2013, has been selling print-on-demand books and digital editions. Now that Rosarium books are being distributed to stores by IPG, demand dictates a switch to offset printing to get more of the work into people’s hands sooner. To fund that change, an Indiegogo appeal has been launched — Rosarium Publishing: The Next Level for Diversity in Fiction.
Rosarium has been able to accomplish all this through hard work, fan support and print-on-demand. With the success of the Rosarium Publishing Indiegogo “The Next Level” campaign, they will be able to print thousands of books and continue their mission to further their quest for diversity in publishing with the high quality of work they are known for. You can also find Rosarium Publishing titles at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Comixology and PeepGame Comix.
Here is what they will do, depending on how much money they raise:
$40,000 – This will help us print limited runs of the books and comics that have been slated for 2016: The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, The Little Black Fish, American Candide, Malice in Ovenland, Vol. 1, Blue Hand Mojo, Vol. 1, The Adventures of Wally Fresh, Vol. 1, Chadhiyana, Vol. 1, The Voices of Martyrs, Manticore, and DayBlack, Vol. 2.
$60,000 – We have several books (like Mothership, The SEA Is Ours, and Stories for Chip) that are constant sellers that need to be taken off of print-on-demand and be moved to offset printing. This will help us do exactly that.
$80,000 – This will help us hire a publicist to bring Rosarium further into the public eye.
The appeal has received pledges for $10,169 towards its $40,000 goal with 13 days remaining.
SF author Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon died April 20. The cause of death has yet to be posted. His last few blog entries dealt with his health problems, and being treated by an orthopedic surgeon, although nothing he described as life-threatening.
Kaldon was born in upstate New York. After graduating high school in North Carolina in 1976, he took a B.A. at Northwestern, and advanced degrees in physics at Michigan Technological University. He taught physics at Western Michigan University for many years, and was known as “Dr. Phil” til the one on TV came along.
He attended the Clarion Workshop at East Lansing in 2004. “The Gravediggers,” his first published story, appeared that same year in Anthony D. Ravenscroft’s CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology, Vol. III.
He also was a devoted competitor in the Writers of the Future contest. By the time his “A Man in the Moon” was published in L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Vol. 24 (2008) he had chalked up a total of three Finalists, two Semi-Finalists, ten Quarter-Finalists, and four Honorable Mentions.
Having his short story “The Brother on the Shelf” published in Analog (2009) was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. (Equally pleasing, the story was optioned by a producer.)
“Machine” and “In The Blink Of An Eye” both appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine in 2009. “Hail to the Victors” can be read at Abyss & Apex (2011). “End Run” (2012) was published by GigaNotoSaurus (edited by Ann Leckie).
Two other stories are mentioned on his website: a contest entry published online, and a short story selected for a forthcoming anthology.
