Monthly Archives: July 2024

Emails From Lake Woe-Is-Me — Fit the Hundred & Twenty First

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A dark forest sits beneath a starry sky. Creepy black goo drips over the scenery. Whimsical white letters read: “Fit the Hundred & Twenty-First: The Gloomy Wood.”

[Introduction: Melanie Stormm continues her humorous series of posts about the misdirected emails she’s been getting. Stormm is a multiracial writer who writes fiction, poetry, and audio theatre. Her novella, Last Poet of Wyrld’s End is available through Candlemark & Gleam. She is currently the editor at the SPECk, a monthly publication on speculative poetry by the SFPA.]

THE GLOOMY WOOD

TL;DR: Writer X and the demon Tryxy take a walk through the Gloomy Wood to beat the heat and get good selfies, but Tryxy’s perfectionism gets them lost.

Hello, All! Melanie here.

It’s the third year in a row in which extremities of weather in New England have been the main feature of summer rather than the backdrop.

Two years ago, New Hampshire was as hot as it’s ever been. Local appliance shops sold out of air conditioners and neighbors donned camouflage face paint, whittled spears, and hid in rhododendron bushes with the aim to ambush and abscond with some unsuspecting fool’s new AC unit.

Last year, it was the flood. I dug up some actual footage of my basement.

Piglet Bailing GIFfrom Piglet GIFs

This year brings a bouquet of yo-yo temperatures, frequent lightning storms, and a spriggy flourish of…tornadoes.

This is all fine.

We all have our ways of coping with the weather, as does Writer X and Tryxy. 

Without further ado…

Subject: How Do You Like Them Apples?

Dear Gladys,

Did you catch the news about the Weregophers? Are they an invasive species or something?

ANyhoo, I’m sure you’re dying to know how my writing is going, especially since I’m a local celebrity. Well, I’m very well rested after my walk with Tryxy in the gloomy wood behind Local College. PLEASE TELL TRYXY I’M A LOCAL CELEBRITY. Not only did I win a flash fiction contest, I was interviewed on Mr. Morgan’s Podcast Emporium about whether I liked the new store brand chicken nuggets just last week!!!!!

THEY’RE SAWDUST, GLADYS!!!!

Only the popular kids know this, but it’s always twenty to thirty degrees cooler in the gloomy wood than it is everywhere else. Which is good. Because after our A/C broke and the HVAC guy got a restraining order against me, I wasn’t getting ANY writing done!!!!

IT IS STATISTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE A GENIUS IF YOUR FACE IS MELTING OFF!!!! How am I supposed to become the world’s next big epic fantasy writer when two liters of sweat is trickling down the backs of my thighs every five minutes???

We decided go to the glloomy wood three days ago before my boyfriend sent out that searching party. There’s nothing like walking through a cool gloomy wood to make you feel like you’re about to write the next bestselling horror novel, and Tryxy was excited because he’s doing everything for the ‘gram these days. The photos were a little tricky, and there’s a sign saying not to take them, but we got the hang of them. It’s totally fine!!!!!

Actually, I should probably tell you a little more so that you can know where to go. You know how there’s the Local College new campus with the state of the art facilities?? Don’t go there.

Go two miles south of the campus and you’ll see a weathered sign with cracked and peeling paint that reads “Help Me, Clementine,” in a shaky scrawl with ribbons of tattered crime scene tape blowing in the wind. THAT’S THE SPOT!!!!

Tryxy and I were seriously melting when we climbed out of the car. We couldn’t get into the gloomy wood fast enough!!! Mostly because we couldn’t find the trail entrance and there was a big DOT sign that said:

____________________

Gloomy Wood Forest Trails Guide:
Visitors are advised not to leave the marked trails at any time.
Use the designated entrance. It’s three miles downhill. 
Do not speak to anyone you see who is not in your party.
Do not feed anyone you meet. Ever.
Do not take food from anyone you meet. Ever.
Photos are not advised.
We can’t believe we have to say this, but move in the OPPOSITE direction of the screams.
Trust us.
We really mean it.
Moss grows on any damn side of the tree.
Thank you to those of you who got the Gloomy Wood repeated entries in the Darwin Awards.
Leave Clementine alone.

______________________

The trees around the parking lot were so thick with birches, red oaks, and aspen, we could hardly get over the treeline. Tryxy and I crashed around for about a half hour as branches and thorns tore at our faces and arms. Whatever the sign said, we were FINE BECAUSE IT WAS SIXTY FIVE DEGREES WHICH IS THE TEMPERATURE THE GODS INTENDED FOR WRITERS!!!!

As soon as we found the trail, Tryxy celebrated the occasion with a cute selfie. I look my best when I’m sweaty—my face is nice and hot pink—but Tryxy got super picky for some reason.

“This isn’t a good one,” he said.

“What do you mean, I look amazing????”

“Yes, but do you see the severed, bloody arm hanging from the branches behind our heads. It’s RUINING the photo.”

“No one cares about a bloody arm, Tryxy, it’s part of nature just like a misty lake!!!!! Look at my cheekbone definition!!!! That’s the cheekbone definition of the next big epic fantasy writer of all time!!!!”

“And that’s probably the severed arm of the last big epic fantasy writer of all time! Let’s try again. Only we’ll turn around and put the rocks behind us. It’ll be fun. Duck lips!”

So we turned around but this time a goat on roller skates photobombed us. Then we tried again but that’s when something bit Tryxy’s foot and we were pretty sure it was a weregopher but Tryxy was determined to get a good picture and that’s when things went south between us.

“You have several good pictures of me, why don’t you want to share any of them?”

Tryxy grumbled and said something about, “Let’s just keep going.”

Instagram is a cruel master, Galdsy. No matter what pic he took, there was always something Tryxy didn’t like about it. He had a double chin. He didn’t like the silhouette of a hanging man over his left shoulder. Or the disfigured tree that bled from every knothole was too bloody. Or my eyes were crossed.

“I just don’t understand why the photos you already have aren’t good enough!!! I’m hungry and starting to get cold,” I said.

“You don’t understand. A local celebrity liked one of my photos, and now I have a lot of pressure on my shoulders to perform.”

I was instantly stabbed in the heart. How could Tryxy call someone a local celebrity??? He never called ME a local celebrity!!!! We’ve been friends all these years and he never called me a local celebrity. I demanded to know who this so called local celebrity was.

“I don’t want you to get jealous.”

“WHO’S JEALOUS???? I’m a local celebrity.”

Tryxy pursed his lips but he couldn’t stop himself from shaking his head in disagreement.

“I am so!!! I won the local flash fiction contest last year!!!!! Stop shaking your head. IT’s true!!!”

“Yeah, but she does the school closures on the radio. I just feel like that’s more of a celebrity.”

I was fuming. I could see there was no reasoning with Tryxy.

Tryxy was chagrined but hellbent on getting his photo and marched us down one trail to the next and then forgot which trails we had taken so we were stuck looking for help. Lucky for us, someone was screaming!!!!!

We moved in the direction of the screams when we found a one-armed green haired woman who smelled like a swamp and had fresh beet juice running down her face and shoulders (that’s the only explanation GLADYS!!!!) and we asked her which trail would take us out of the wood.

She pointed deeper into the wood and screamed and we said thank you and Tryxy said, “Oh, if you’re looking for your other arm, I think you left it back that way.”

Meanwhile, Tryxy and I weren’t talking to each other. I was absolutely stunned at the fact that my own BFF thought I wasn’t local celebrity enough!!!! It turns out that was mostly my blood sugar because right about then we came across a big black tree full of black apples with a make shift sign that read: “Clementine’s Apples. Don’T Touch.”

Tryxy and I were both hungry so we looked over our shoulder to make sure the one armed lady wasn’t around and picked a few of the apples. I think the site of food lifted Tryxy’s spirits because he said: “You’re my best friend, and sometimes your ego is breathtaking.”

I gasped. No one had ever told me something so SWEET!!!!! “You think I”m breathtaking???”

Tryxy gave me a sweet smile and put the apples down long enough to hug me. “Yeah. You’re the best. ”

“You’re my best friend, too” I said.

“Let’s take a pic under the tree,” he said.

And we both passed out because the apples were delicious but slightly poisonous. I don’t remember anything beyond the first bite.

Fortunately, Tryxy uploaded the photo to instagram with geolocation on and my boyfriend was able to send a rescue party after us. We both woke up with search lights angled in our faces, feeling cool and well rested just this morning and then we heard the news on the radio about a weregopher sighting and somehow that made me remember that you really love apples.

Have you tried the black apples in the gloomy wood??? SO GOOD!!!!! Bring a pillow and a blanket!!!

But no, really, PLEASE TELL TRYXY I’M A CELEBRITY BUT MAKE IT LOOK LIKE IT WAS YOUR IDEA

Pages next week, Gladys!!!!

xox,

X

CLEMENTINE

SENDS

HER

LOVE.

AND

HER

RIGHT

ARM.

SHE’S A

LOCAL

CELEBRITY, TOO.

Pixel Scroll 7/29/24 No One Scrolls Here These Days, It’s Too Pixeled

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(1) TOLKIEN’S ANSWERS. “’Human stories are always about one thing – death’: Why the shadow of death and WW1 hang over The Lord of the Rings” – at BBC. Includes video of the referenced interview.

In a 1968 interview, the BBC spoke to author JRR Tolkien about his experiences during World War One, how they had a profound effect and influenced his epic fantasy novel, Lord of the Rings.

“Stories – frankly, human stories are always about one thing – death. The inevitability of death,” The Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien told a BBC documentary in 1968, as he tried to explain what his fantasy magnum opus was really about. 

The novel, the first volume of which was published 70 years ago this week, has enthralled readers ever since it hit the shelves in 1954. The Lord of the Rings, with its intricate world-building and detailed histories of lands populated with elves, hobbits and wizards, threatened by the malevolent Sauron, had, by the time of the interview, already become a bestseller and a cornerstone of the fantasy genre. 

To better explain what he meant by the story being about death, Tolkien reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his wallet, which contained a newspaper clipping. He then read aloud from that article, which quoted from Simone de Beauvoir’s A Very Easy Death, her moving 1964 account of her mother’s desire to cling to life during her dying days….

(2) TOR/SCALZI PARTNERSHIP EXTENDED. With six books still owed on his previous 13-book deal, Tor has signed John Scalzi up for yet another ten books: “Tor Publishing Group and Tor UK Announce Major Multi-Book Deal for Bestselling and Award-Winning Author John Scalzi” at Reactor.

…This new deal marks another long-term commitment by Tor Publishing Group and Tor UK to the works of John Scalzi, with the first book of this new contract tentatively scheduled for 2029.

John Scalzi said of the deal, “It’s rare in publishing to get anything close to continuity—authors go from one publishing house to the next. So I’m especially proud that this contract not only extends my two-decade association with Tor Books, but gives us both an opportunity to build on what’s come before, and make what comes next even better. We have so much planned in the years ahead. I can’t wait for you all to read it.”

Patrick Nielsen Hayden commented, “It’s fantastic to know that we’ll be in the John Scalzi business for even more years to come. He’s a remarkable writer and I can’t wait to see what he does next.”… 

(3) TAFF WINNER’S ITINERARY. Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund administrator Sandra Bond today issued Taffluorescence 5, containing news of 2024 delegate Sarah Gulde’s movements and other hot news from TAFF. Gulde’s visit to the UK will take her to:

22-26 July: London… 26-29 July: Blackpool (Star Trek con)… 29 July-8 August: Inverurie… 8- 13 August: Glasgow… 13-16 August: Elgin… 16-20 August: Inverness… 20-23 August: Newcastle… 27-30 August: Stoke… 30 August-3 September: Liverpool… 3-10 September: Wrexham… 10-13 September: Neath… 13-16 September: Broadway (Give my regards… oh, that Broadway…) 16 September-11 October: London, Bath, Cornwall, Stratford.

Do not hesitate to give generously when the TAFF hat is passed.

(4) SHADOWY ENDING. The LA Times takes readers “Inside SDCC 2024 with ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ cast”. (Behind a paywall.)

…FX is going all out for “Shadows” at Comic-Con this year for their “farewell tour.” The acclaimed mockumentary comedy series — which earned eight Emmy nominations earlier this month — has announced that its upcoming sixth season will be its last. The Bayfront’s exterior is draped in a gigantic “Shadows” promotional poster, and just below the hotel is an activation area that features one designed to look like the show’s vampire mansion.

Before their panel presentation, the cast and creatives head to an area where they are greeted by fans in full cosplay despite the sweltering heat. The “Shadows” team is then shuttled to the convention center, where it listens in backstage as a packed Hall H receives a sneak peek at the Season 6 premiere. (Berry and Newacheck share a thumbs up when they hear the audience erupt in laughter after a Laszlo moment.) And after their Hall H presentation, they and the rest of their group will be chatting up fans — some in cosplay, some with “Shadows”-themed paraphernalia, all with enthusiasm — as they sign autographs and pose for selfies. As for Season 6, Simms says, “It’s exactly what we wanted to do.”

“We wanted to make a last season that was not sentimental or trying to tie up every loose end,” he says. “Just make [a season] that is super funny and at the end has a good ending, which we’re not going to tell you.”

(5) R-R-R-R MATEY! Deadpool & Wolverine made a lot of money this weekend, its $205 million domestic box office ranking as the eighth biggest opening of all time among any film and by far the biggest launch for an R-rated film, not adjusted for inflation. The first Deadpool was the previous record-holder at $133.7 million.  “Box Office: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Record With $205 Million Debut” at Variety.

…Disney’s superhero sequel has collected $205 million in its opening weekend, ranking as the eighth-best debut of all time ahead of 2018’s “Black Panther” ($202 million) and behind 2015’s “Jurassic World” ($208 million) and 2012’s “The Avengers” ($207 million). Only nine films in Hollywood history have crossed the $200 million milestone in their opening weekends. Ticket sales also easily surpassed 2016’s “Deadpool” ($132 million) to set the record for the biggest R-rated opening weekend ever. The 2018 sequel, “Deadpool 2,” now stands as the third-biggest R-rated debut with $125 million. Among the newest installment’s many benchmarks, “Deadpool & Wolverine” landed by far the biggest start of the year, overtaking Disney’s Pixar sequel “Inside Out 2” ($155 million debut).

Internationally, “Deadpool & Wolverine” captured $233.3 million for a staggering global tally of $438 million. After three days of release, the film, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, is already the sixth-highest grossing of 2024. Disney spent about $200 million to produce and roughly another $100 million to promote the movie.

(6) DUNE DESIGN. Fonts In Use investigates “The Mystery of the Dune Font” in this 2023 article.

In the six decades since the publication of the original Dune novel in 1965, the science fiction franchise has gone through many different typographic identities. Notable examples include the use of Giorgio for the British paperbacks by NEL (c. 1968) and Albertus for David Lynch’s movie adaptation (1984). But another typeface has even stronger ties to Dune and its author. It appeared on the covers of dozens of books, including the classic Dune trilogy and its sequels, and also on other titles by – or about – Frank Herbert, from various imprints. Strangely enough, the name of this typeface is barely known even among die-hard fans….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

July 29, 1941 – David Warner. (Died 2022.) Let’s consider David Warner. Where shall we start? I say with his role in Time Bandits where Warner plays Evil Genius, a malevolent being capable of twisting and warping reality. He needs the map to be able to escape the Fortress of Darkness, where he’s been imprisoned. Evil is also different because He understands technology, and in his clawed hands “The world will be different. Because I have understanding.” What’s that he has an understanding of? Digital watches. “And soon I shall have an understanding of cassette recorders and car telephones.”  A truly excellent role for him.

David Warner as Evil Genius

Next up in my estimation would be his performance as John Leslie Stevenson and Jack the Ripper in Nicholas Mayer’s exemplary Time after Time which has Malcolm McDowell as H. G. Wells.  

As Warner as Jack offhandedly says to Wells, “Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Here, I’m an amateur.”  Warner does a bang on the ear of making Jack revel in the violent nature of the present such as the ease in which one can purchase firearms and how killing has become much more efficient because of them. 

Jack says, “We don’t belong here? On the contrary, Herbert. I belong here completely and utterly. I’m home.” 

Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells.

So what next? That’d have to be Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the chancellor of the Klingon High Council who hopes to forge a peace between his people and the Federation. 

Memory Alpha notes “Jack Palance was Nick Meyer’s original choice for the role. (Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 141) However, Palance proved to be extremely costly to hire as well as slightly hesitant to accept the part.” They need a performer who fitted the script’s description of Gorkon as “savagely tall” and Warner was six feet, two inches tall.

David Warner recognized that the role was not a particularly large one, saying, “I just sat there for one scene and then got killed!  Which is fine – I don’t have a problem with that. It’s exposition, setting it all up.” (From Star Trek Magazine issue 153, p. 47) . He did a lot with what little time had do you agree?

David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon.

Those are the three performances that I think he’s most memorable in. Did he have other roles which I should note? 

He voiced in the Batman: The Animated Series a character named Ra’s al Ghul, a very long live criminal mastermind. He voices him to utter perfection as one who both respects and disdains Batman.  

That he’s a man of many roles is beyond dispute as he’s played Doctor Von Frankenstein and The Creature, Reinhard Heydrich who I can only describe as the souless monster that was responsible for the Holocaust; Bob Cratchit, a Professor Summerlee, Lord Mountbatten, The Doctor, Houdini and Professor Abraham Van Helsing. 

I’m sure that I missed some interesting performances he did, so feel free to tell me that I overlooked them as you always do. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) REYNOLDS RAP. The Hollywood Reporter gives reasons for ranking these as the “13 Best Ryan Reynolds Movies”. For example, you probably already forgot this one:

11. Detective Pikachu (2019)

The first thing you think of when you consider that famous yellow cutie that the Pokémon brand was built from probably isn’t Ryan Reynolds. His initial casting as Pikachu, for which he lent his voice and face via motion capture, was initially met with understandable confusion and a share of derision. But somehow, against all odds, it works. A gumshoe Pikachu with missing memories, teaming up with a failed Pokémon trainer, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), and a cub reporter, Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton), to uncover a city-wide conspiracy is the kind of clever, special effects heavy take on the neo-noir that makes the film appealing for more than just Pokémon fans.

I couldn’t count the names of Pokémon characters I know on one hand, and I didn’t go into this movie as a fan. Yet, I found Rob Letterman’s film to be an engaging fantasy-mystery, and Reynolds’ performance to be a breezy and grounding element in a film entirely set in a lore-heavy fictional reality. As far as video game adaptations go, Detective Pikachu is one of the best, and it doesn’t get overly caught up in minutiae, instead allowing the cast and audience to simply focus on delivering a good time within the framework of a silly, but no less endearing, concept. And as for a bit of film trivia, before Reynolds accepted the role, Hugh Jackman was on WB’s shortlist to voice Pikachu — but he wasn’t quite ready to don the yellow just yet.

(10) KEEP ON DREAMING. Popverse is on hand when “Doctor Who and Star Trek showrunners announce that the two franchises are crossing over… for a mobile game”.

… During San Diego Comic-Con 2024 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Alex Kurtzman and Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies came together for a joint event titled Intergalactic Friendship Panel: Star Trek X Doctor Who. This raised some eyebrows, and the anticipation only grew after Saturday’s Star Trek panel. During the panel, Kurtzman was asked about a Doctor Who crossover, and his answer pointed to the crossover panel. “I think you should come to the panel later today and ask the same question,” Kurtzman teased.

Now, we know what that tease was referring to – a crossover between the Doctor Who: Lost in Time and Star Trek Lower Decks: The Badges Directive mobile games. It’s perhaps not the crossover fans were hoping for – we were kind of crossing out fingers for a live-action meetup, but at least one of the panelists has hope that that may happen someday. …

(11) BACK TO THE SILO. Shelf Awareness picked up this Silo news at Comic-Con.

During San Diego Comic-Con, Apple TV+ announced that the second season of the hit series Silo, which is based on Hugh Howey’s sci-fi stories–including the novellas Wool, Shift, and Dust–will premiere November 15 with the first episode, followed by one new episode every Friday through January 17, 2025.

Steve Zahn (The White Lotus, Treme) is joining the season 2 cast..

(12) THE CTHULHU IN THE HAT? H.P. Lovecraft’s Dagon for Beginning Readers by R.J. Ivankovic is a droll, Seuss-inspired parody. (No, I don’t know if the Seuss corporate lawyers have heard of it yet.)

So a warning to all,
for what it is worth:
when the monsters arise
they will conquer the earth.

The famous H.P. Lovecraft story Dagon is gracefully retold in anapestic tetrameter and illustrated in a darkly whimsical style by genius poet-artist R.J. Ivankovic.

A sailor escapes in a lifeboat after his ship is attacked by a German raider during World War I. He soon finds himself in more bizarre peril, stranded in a dark, stinking mire on the edge of a mammoth pit. Venturing into the pit, he discovers a monolith covered in weird hieroglyphics and something stranger still that crawls from the slime a creature that may be the vanguard of a vast and monstrous invading army from the depths of the sea.

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. It’s ultimately an ad, however, it is cute: “Sand Whiskers and Starlight: The Feline Chronicles of Dune”.

Join us on a pawsome journey as we unveil our beloved feline friends who aren’t just curled up in a cozy corner; they’re out there, backpacking across continents, camping under the stars, floating in cosmic space, time-traveling to study with art masters, seeking enlightenment on pilgrimages, commanding the seven seas and skies, and even hustling in the Big Apple!

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Sandra Bond, Bill, Jim Janney, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

Third Woman Accuses Neil Gaiman of Sexual Assault

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A third woman has accused Neil Gaiman of behaving inappropriately towards and sexually assaulting her in an interview recorded for the Am I Broken: Survivor Stories podcast episode “Claire ‘I Ignored It and I Believed Him Because He’s the Storyteller [Neil Gaiman]’”.

(Note: the editor of File 770 has severe hearing loss and is unable to listen to podcasts, therefore this report will depend on the synopses of the Survivor Stories podcast posted by Stephanie Kay and Skyla Dawn Cameron on Bluesky.)

“Claire” says she met Gaiman at a book signing in 2012 and says Gaiman immediately kissed her. He invited her places, with VIP access; he appeared naked in Skype calls; there was unwanted phone sex and groping; culminating in a traumatic experience on his tour bus. Additional details in this Bluesky thread.

In 2019, when “Claire” was seeking help and tried to reach out to reporters, she was told there’s no story here. In 2022 she reached out to the podcast about her story but after talking to Gaiman she felt it was a one-off and decided not to go forward. But now there are other victims’ stories, she realizes her assessment was wrong, that this wasn’t a one-time situation, and someone else was hurt.

The first two women’s allegations were reported in a podcast on July 3, Master: the Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, a Tortoise Media investigation led by Rachel Johnson. One woman, called Scarlett in the podcast, worked for Neil Gaiman as a nanny, and the other called K., met him at a book signing.

In The Bookseller’s account of the accusations, “[Scarlett] alleges she was sexually assaulted by Gaiman in 2022 when she was working as a nanny to his child. She was 23 and he was in his 60s. This is also reported to be the subject of a police complaint in New Zealand. [K.], who describes herself as a ‘fan’, alleges Gaiman was ‘abusive’ and had non-consensual sex with her on one occasion, when she was 20 and Gaiman was in his 40s.” The article says Gaiman “reportedly ‘strongly denies’ the allegations, saying that he believed consent had been established. The two women making allegations were reportedly in otherwise consensual relationships with the author.”

The Bookseller also says crisis management firm Edendale Strategies – which has worked for Ezra Miller (The Flash) — is handling Gaiman’s media requests. Neil Gaiman has not posted on his X.com account since July 2.

The public’s common reluctance to believe survivors which greeted the Tortoise Media reports was compounded by skepticism about how the stories were presented by the creators of the podcast episodes. Also, there were indications that Gaiman’s statements quoted in them may have come from his PR firm and not from him. And one of the reporters, Rachel Johnson, is Boris Johnson’s sister, causing some to question the potential for bias due to Gaiman’s criticism of the Tories. Now that a third account has been shared by the Survivor Stories, what the first two women had to say is back in the foreground where it belongs.

As Markus Mäurer said on July 9 in his German-language column at Tor-Online, these revelations come as a shock, because Gaiman has long been considered an ally of marginalized groups, a prominent advocate for trans rights, feminism, and progressive causes. But these latest revelations have led Mäurer to demand, “We as fans should stop giving people a status that many consider almost sacred, so that when such misconduct occurs, it is not initially ignored, downplayed or even defended.”

Pixel Scroll 7/28/24 If You Come To A Scroll In The Road, Click On It

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(1) CONFICTION FINAL FAREWELL PARTY. The 1990 Worldcon will host a bash at Glasgow 2024.

(2) TIANWEN RESURFACES. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] From the Red Star News on July 26: 面向全球发出邀请：首届“天问”华语科幻文学大赛在蓉举办新闻发布会. Google Translate: “Invitation to the world: The first ‘Tianwen’ Chinese Science Fiction Literature Competition held a press conference in Chengdu”. [Via SF Lightyear.]

Relevant bit via Google Translate, my emphasis:

The first “Tianwen” Chinese Science Fiction Literature Competition is chaired by Wang Meng, a famous contemporary Chinese writer, scholar, former Minister of Culture, and winner of the national honorary title of “People’s Artist”. At the same time, the competition has established a review committee with Alai, vice chairman of the China Writers Association, as chairman, Su Tong, member of the presidium of the China Writers Association, Liu Cixin, director of the Science Fiction Literature Committee of the China Writers Association, and relevant members of the World Science Fiction Association Brand Protection Committee as vice chairmen, who are fully responsible for the selection of entries.

I don’t know whether “relevant members” (plural) could just as easily be “relevant member” (singular), given Chinese (and Japanese) don’t generally make distinction.

(3) CAN’T PHONE HOME. “A Smartphone Can’t Help You Now: How Horror Movies Solve Their Cell Problem” in the New York Times. (Paywalled, unfortuntately.)

A cellphone lies in a rustic Airbnb, smashed by an intruder. Then, when another is procured, a faulty connection interrupts a call to 911.

A navigation map on a smartphone glitches as a driver plunges deep into the woods.

Criminals on a kidnapping job are ordered to surrender their phones “to be completely certain that you can’t be tracked.”

An exasperated partyer in rural Ontario wonders aloud to a member in his group, “How long is it going to take for you to realize there’s no reception out here?”

These are some of the ways that recent horror movies have gotten around what is at this point an age-old problem: the cellphone. In working order, they can render predicaments more solvable and certain situations easier to escape — potentially. Before the late ’90s, there was little need to make such a show of connectivity failure. Lines would go down or get cut, sure, but isolation in the age before mass cellphone usage was easier to come by and therefore easier to believe onscreen. Back then, the tropes didn’t have to trope so hard.

Then came the cell, and movies like “House on Haunted Hill” (1999) and “Jeepers Creepers” (2001) featured characters realizing they were holding useless plastic flip-bricks as their situations grew hairy. (In the former, the possessed house kills the signal before any of its inhabitants; in the latter, young adult siblings bicker over a low battery notification after witnessing what turns out to be a winged demon.) With smartphones, there was even more to neutralize, like GPS maps and internet searches. Movies taking pains to explain away cellphones were so prevalent that by 2009, I could collect more than 40 clips for a supercut exploring this development in the previous decade or so….

At least you can watch the supercut free on YouTube:

(4) STOLEN VALOR – AND MONEY. Nature says, “Hijacked journals are still a threat — here’s what publishers can do about them”.

Late last year, Liverpool University Press (LUP), a UK-based publisher, received a concerning e-mail. A prospective author had contacted the editors asking how much it would cost to publish an article in one of its journals, the International Development Planning Review (IDPR).

This raised suspicions among the editors, because the IDPR doesn’t charge any publication fees. The message also contained a link to the IDPR’s website — but the URL was incorrect. When the editors clicked it, they discovered a counterfeit website with the journal’s branding and an e-mail address that they’d never seen before. The journal had been hijacked.

Hijacked journals are a form of cybercrime in which a malicious third party creates a cloned website to impersonate a legitimate publication. The forgery replicates the original journal’s important details, from its title to its archive and international standard serial number, a code that identifies the publication. The purpose of a hijacking is to generate money quickly by charging illegitimate article-processing fees to unsuspecting researchers. Although the hijackers often publish papers that have been submitted to the fraudulent site, these works are not peer-reviewed nor considered legitimate.

A blogpost in April presented the challenges that LUP faced as a result of the hijacking, including the burden placed on its small editorial team. The intention, according to Clare Hooper, director of journals publishing at LUP, is to alert researchers to the “growing problem of copycat journal websites”….

(5) WRITER BEWARE. Victoria Strauss offers advice about “Evaluating Publishing Contracts: Six Ways You May Be Sabotaging Yourself” at Writer Beware. The intro and first of six bullet points are excerpted below:

These issues are as relevant now as they were years ago, if not more so. I hear all the time from writers who’ve been offered seriously problematic contracts and are using various rationalizations to convince themselves (sometimes at the publisher’s urging) that bad language or bad terms are not actually so bad, or are unlikely ever to apply. For example, I recently evaluated a contract with multiple questionable terms, including net profit royalties and a life-of-copyright grant without adequate provision for termination and rights reversion; the writer shared my concerns with the publisher, which responded with a long explanation for why none of it was actually a problem. The writer chose to sign the contract.

Here are my suggestions for changing some potentially damaging ways of thinking.

Don’t assume that every single word of your contract won’t apply to you at some point. You may think “Oh, that will never happen” (for instance, the publisher’s right to refuse to publish your manuscript if it thinks that changes in the market may reduce your sales, or its right to terminate the contract if it believes you’ve violated a non-disparagement clause). Or the publisher may tell you “We never actually do that” or, more cagily, “We’ve never actually done that” (for example, edit at will without consulting you, or impose the termination fee that’s the price of getting out of the contract early). But if your contract says it can happen, it may well happen…and if it does happen, can you live with it? That’s the question you need to ask yourself when evaluating a contract….

(6) FREE READ. To encourage subscriptions, Sunday Morning Transport has posted “Artists and Fools”.

For July’s fourth, free, story, Paolo Bacigalupi brings us a tale from the world of his new fantasy novel, Navola. We hope you enjoy meeting Pico the artist as much as we have! 

(7) ROBERT BLOCH OFFICIAL WEBSITE UPDATE. Two essay contributions from Bloch historian/bibliographer, Randall D. Larson, have been added to the Robert Bloch Official Website’s “By Others” page.

(8) GENRE LODGINGS. This 2022 article from Travel & Leisure lets you visit “9 Magical ‘Harry Potter’-themed Airbnbs Around the World” – photos at the link. One of them is:

The Common Room: British Columbia, Canada

Are you a full-fledged Gryffindor? Come stay in The Common Room, modeled after the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts. The home comes with all the amenities one would need for an ideal getaway, including a kitchen, lofted bed, and Wi-Fi, but it also has the added perk of looking just like the movie set, with framed photos of Snape, a magic broom, and of course, plenty of Harry Potter DVDs for a night in. Book it now starting at $148/night.

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

1944 – The Canterville Ghost.

Eighty years ago, The Canterville Ghost premiered. It was somewhat loosely on the 1887 short story by Oscar Wilde of the same name as published in two parts in The Court and Society Review, a British literary magazine only published between 1885 and 1888. That wasn’t unusual as a lot of those literary and not so literary magazines failed after a few months, and not an insignificant number lasted just a single issue. 

I should note before we go any further that I stopped counting when I found at least nine films had been made of this tale, and at least two series. I’ll only mention one of these, a film in the Nineties with a certain naturally-bald Starship Captain, yes Patrick Stewart, given long flowing hair and a beard as the ghost. So how could I resist showing you him in that role?

The first version is a film very much of its time. The plot had Charles Laughton as a ghost doomed to haunt an English castle, and Robert Young as his distant American relative called upon to perform an act of bravery to redeem him. No one would get hurt in the story, no surprise at all. 

Yes, there is redhead here as well in the winsome form of the six-year-old Margaret O’Brien who was born Angela Maxine O’Brien. O’Brien is of half-Irish and half-Spanish ancestry. She was one of the most popular child stars in cinema history and would be honored with a Juvenile Academy Award as an outstanding child actress the year this film came out. 

I was looking for a particularly cute photo of her with Simon and I think that I indeed found in it in this one of her sitting on the stairs with him off to the right also sitting. What do you think? Am I right? 

Here she plays the Lady Jessica de Canterville, Robert Young is Cuffy Williams and Charles Laughton is the ghostly Sir Simon de Canterville. 

The motion picture was shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios with outdoor shots filming done at Busch Gardens in Pasadena, California. Busch Gardens was the almost forty acres of gardens owned by Adolphus Busch. The Hollywood film industry would use the gardens in many films shot in the Thirties onward such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein and Gone With the Wind.

It was directed by Jules Dassin with additional directing by Norman Z. McLeod who went uncredited, The only film I know I’ve seen by Dassin is Night and the City, a stellar British noir work.  Now the screenplay was by Edwin Blum who went on to script Stalag 17, an entirely grimmer affair. It was produced by Arthur Fields, just one of three films that he did. 

No idea how it did as I can find no box office or production costs for it. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) DEADPOOL DIES? No sooner does his movie make a mint than Marvel Comics announces Deadpool’s daughter, Ellie, will take over as Deadpool following Wade’s death this October in Deadpool #7!

 Deadpool is dead—long live Deadpool! It was previously revealed that Wade Wilson will meet his end at the hands of new super villain Death Grip this October in DEADPOOL #6. Following this shocking turn of events, his daughter, Ellie Camacho, will step up as the all-new Deadpool starting in November’s DEADPOOL #7! Just revealed at the Diamond Retailer Lunch at San Diego Comic-Con, Ellie’s new role is the latest twist in what’s been writer Cody Ziglar’s roller coaster of a run. To welcome the new Merc with a Mouth, Ziglar will be joined by guest artist Andrea Di Vito and co-writer Alexis Quasarano in her Marvel Comics debut.

Wade has fallen, and his daughter Ellie has taken up the mantle! Taskmaster continues her mercenary training, but what she really wants is vengeance. And to get that, she’ll need Princess’ help. For more information, visit Marvel.com.

DEADPOOL #7

Written by CODY ZIGLAR & ALEXIS QUASARANO. Art by ANDREA DI VITO.

Cover by TAURIN CLARKE

Variant Cover by MARK BAGLEY

(12) SPOILER, MAYBE? About a Deadpool & Wolverine cameo. “Blake Lively Recalls Meeting Ryan Reynolds on Set of ‘Green Lantern’”. No excerpt. Because spoiler, maybe.

(13) IT IS HIS DOOM. The Hollywood Reporter picks up more news at San Diego Comic-Com: “Robert Downey Jr. Back as Doctor Doom for Two ‘Avengers’ Movies”.

Robert Downey Jr. is set to return to the film franchise as classic Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom for the newly titled Avengers: Doomsday, due out in May 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars, bowing in May 2027. Kevin Feige also officially confirmed the Russo bros. will direct these next two Avengers films.

Downey became one of the biggest movie stars in the world after launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008’s Iron Man. His work helped propel the MCU to become the highest grossing film franchise of all time — and he was handsomely rewarded, earning $50 million paydays in the process. Downey retired from the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, in which his character died saving the universe. It’s been a challenge for Marvel to find a protagonist to replace the large hole left by Downey, giving Saturday’s announcement all the more meaning.

“New mask, same task,” Downey told the audience from the stage.

Downey was revealed in an almost religious ceremony as about two dozen olive-robed men with metal, Doctor Doom-like masks walked on stage, joining Feige and the Russo Bros. “If we’re going to bring Victor Von Doom to the screen — he is one of the more complex characters in all of comics … this is potentially one of the more entertaining characters in all of fiction,” said Joe Russo. “If we’re going to do this … then we are going to need the greatest actor in the world.”…

(14) PEACEMAKER RELOADED. “’Wynonna Earp Vengeance’ Reunion Movie Trailer, Streaming Soon on Tubi” – TVLine supplies the introduction:

A frightful phone call and a deadly threat lures Peacemaker’s wielder back to Purgatory in the full trailer for Wynonna Earp: Vengeance, the 90-minute reunion special coming “soon” to Tubi.

(15) HMS SURPRISE. While in town for Comic-Con, Naomi Novik visited the Maritime Museum of San Diego.

(16) CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS, MINIONUS. “Minions get into the Olympic spirit during Opening Ceremony” from NBC Sports. The video can only be viewed on YouTube – bastards!

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Ersatz Culture, SF Lightyear, Rich Lynch, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

The Future of Marvel Comics Announced at The Next Big Thing Panel at SDCC

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Each year at San Diego Comic-Con, fans gather at the Next Big Thing Panel to discover the biggest shakeups coming to Marvel Comics! This year was no different—in addition to revealing a teaser for One World Under Doom, a new status quo coming to the Marvel Universe following Blood Hunt, Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski and a host of Marvel creators announced exciting new series, teased upcoming storylines, and debuted trailers for Venom War and Wolverine: Revenge!

Among the series announced was West Coast Avengers where writer Gerry Duggan and artist Danny Kim fire up this iconic team with a superstar lineup of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including a seemingly redeemed Ultron, on sale in November! Fans also learned about December’s Ultimate Universe: One Year In, a special one-shot finale to the first year of Marvel’s hit new Ultimate line; and Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness’ 8 Deaths Of Spider-Man, a bold saga coming to the pages of Amazing Spider-Man starting in November, which will also debut a new Doom-inspired Spider-Suit!

Plus, DOGPOOL, who makes his live-action debut in Deadpool & Wolverine, now stars in his very own Infinity Comic that became available on Marvel Unlimited live during the panel! Also coming to Marvel Unlimited in October is Beastly Buddies, a spooky series starring Elsa Bloodstone, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and more horror favorites.

See the cover art following the jump.

Continue reading →

Toy review: M.I.B. Neuralyzer

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By Iain Delaney: Men in Black (1997) is an action-comedy-sci-fi movie based on the Malibu Comics series of the same name. It starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as agents ’K’ and ’J’ as Men in Black working for an extra-governmental secret agency tasked with tracking and sometimes dispatching alien life forms on Earth. They also had to keep the aliens a secret from the civilian populace. As Agent K put it:

“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”

When someone sees something strange or suspicious, the MiB agents would wipe their memory using a small device called a neuralyzer. The neuralyzer is a small pen-shaped device that can erase the memory of the subject for a specific amount of time. 

The agents would first put on their neuralyzer-proof sunglasses, then take out the neuralyzer, press the pocket clip to extend it, adjust the time using three dials, and press the firing button to discharge a bright flash of light that somehow wipes the target’s memory.

Factory Entertainment’s Neuralyzer is a faithful recreation of the movie prop, based on access to, and scans of, the original. It comes in a big, mostly black, cardboard box that is much larger than it should be given the size of the prop. Inside the box is a large amount of styrofoam holding a plexiglass display box. Inside the plexiglass is even more styrofoam and inside that is the actual replica. When unpacked, the neuralyzer sits on the base of the display case while the plexiglass box sits on top. It makes a very nice display piece.

The neuralyzer is also a functional prop replica. You press the pocket clip and the working component pops out. You have to twist the top part and pull it out to access the battery compartment. For some strange reason, the replica uses one ’N’ battery. I guess the body wasn’t long enough for a normal ’AA’ or ’AAA’ battery, but it seems a strange choice.

With the battery inserted and the neuralyzer closed again, you are ready to neutralize! Press the clip and the top springs open, with flashing lights and sounds captured from the movie. Press the “MAF” button and the front fires a bright white LED blast accompanied by more sound effects. It’s very impressive and accurate to the films.

This version of the neuralyzer is no longer available. However, Factory Entertainment has two new versions: a version from the first film and a version from Men in Black II. Confusingly, the first movie version has an added LED display, while the Men in Black II version looks more like the old version in this review.

For serious Men in Black fans, and serious MiB cosplayers, the neuralyzer prop replica is highly recommended, if you can stomach the price of $839 US.

Iain Delaney was born in the UK but moved to Canada at an early age. The UK heritage explains his fascination with British TV SciFi, including Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, and, of course, Dr. Who. After fumbling through high school, he fumbled through university, emerging with a degree in physics. With no desire to pursue graduate studies he discovered that a bachelor’s degree had little to no job prospects, so he took up a career in computer programming. In his off time he reads, watches TV and movies, collects toys, and makes attempts at writing. To that end he has a small number of articles published in role-playing game magazines and won two honorable mentions in the Writers of the Future contest. He is working on an urban fantasy YA trilogy and entertains delusions of selling it to movies or TV.

Detecting Warp Drives

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By SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie: This piece comes a couple of months ahead of appearing in next season’s SF2 Concatenation.

The pre-print of a rather dry, but fun – with a sprinkling of Star Trek references – “What no one has seen before: gravitational waveforms from warp drive collapse” — looks as to whether a warp drive would be detectable. The way to do it would be to use a gravity wave detector, and here a lot has happened the past decade or so.

Back in 2012 we inferred gravity waves by seeing the orbital decay a couple of tightly orbiting dwarf stars (JO651), some 3,000 light years away. Under Newtonian physics, this should not happen but under General Relativity such an orbiting system would generate gravity waves and so lose energy and the stars’ orbits about each other would decay. And this was what was observed.

Then in 2015 a laser inferometer (LIGO) first detected gravity waves. However, these types of detector can only detect gravity waves in a window limited mostly to frequencies in the range of around 100–1,000 hertz with a wave period of milliseconds. Now, there are other ways to detect gravity waves and in 2016 a new way was theorised using the change in frequency of pulsars (a gravity wave travelling through a pulsar would change the rate of its pulsing). It took just a decade to develop a detector but its first release of data in 2022 did not reveal any gravity waves. Fortunately, not long later (2023), a detection was made this way with wave lengths of many light years long and a frequency of hundredths of a microhertz. Such gravity waves are caused by orbiting supermassive black holes of the type commonly found in the centre of large galaxies.

That then is the background. So, what of the gravity waves generated by a theoretical warp drive? A small collaboration of European-based physicists (two in Great Britain and one in Germany) have just theorized what to look for. They hypothesized a one-kilometer diameter warp bubble (big enough for most self-respecting Federation starships) using an Alcubierre warp drive that was accelerating or decelerating (say due to warp containment failure) from a velocity of one-tenth the speed of light. Such a starship in our galaxy, or even as far away as Andromeda, would generate gravity waves with a frequency of around 300 kilohertz and a strain (equivalent to a movement) of 10-21. Now, the latter (the strain) would be (hypothetically) detectable by LIGO but, alas, the former (the frequency) would not.

So, that’s their theoretical calculation. So, could we in reality detect such waves any other way? The bad news is, sadly, not yet, as such waves are outside current methods of detecting gravity waves of this frequency. The good news is that there are theoretical/hypothetical ways of detecting such gravity waves using Bose-Einstein condensates (matter in either a very cold or highly compressed state).

Of course, the other problem is for a variety of reasons – not least the necessity of some exotic physics – in realising (with our current understanding) an Alcubierre warp drive as that entails physics that may perhaps confine such drives purely to the realm of science fiction. This exotic physics includes negative energy and mass, something of which we bioscientists are a tad wary, but which some physicists think they may have detected in 2017. So maybe there is hope? If only the energy needed was not so prohibitive: the energy of the gravity waves generated by such a starship would have 1/100 times the mass-energy of the Sun… No wonder Scotty was always a tad on edge when the engines went critical: though I always had a nagging suspicion that William Shatner never really understood this! Having said that, it would be interesting to see if there were such gravity waves, especially if there were loads of them as there would be with an interstellar, Star Trek type Federation at war with the Klingons or Borg as there would bound to be loads of collapsing warp bubbles, or if it were possible to safely rapidly switch off an Alcubierre warp at a journey’s end. If there were loads of such detections we would need some alternative explanations for them otherwise we might have to turn to the science fiction…

Fortunately, while the pre-print paper is rather dry, its abstract is understandable and its end a little fun…

Despite originating in science fiction, warp drives have a concrete description in general relativity, with Alcubierre first proposing a space-time metric that supported faster-than-light travel. Whilst there are numerous practical barriers to their implementation in real life, including a requirement for negative energy, computationally, one can simulate their evolution in time given an equation of state describing the matter. In this work, we study the signatures arising from a warp drive ‘containment failure’, assuming a stiff equation of state for the fluid. We compute the emitted gravitational-wave signal and track the energy fluxes of the fluid. Apart from its rather speculative application to the search for extraterrestrial life in gravitational wave detector data, this work is interesting as a study of the dynamical evolution and stability of space-times that violate the null energy condition. Our work highlights the importance of exploring strange new space-times, to (boldly) simulate what no one has seen before.

See Clough, K., Dietrich, T. & Khan, S. (2024) “What no one has seen before: gravitational waveforms from warp drive collapse”. Preprint at arXiv.

Zerbe Wins 2024 Phantastikpreis der Stadt Wetzlar

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The winner of the 2024 Phantastikpreis der Stadt Wetzlar (Fantasy Prize of the City of Wetzlar) has been announced.

Zara Zerbe. Photo (c) Nane Diehl
  • Phytopia Plus by Zara Zerbe (Verbrecher Verlag)

The public awards ceremony will take place on September 13 as part of the 40th “Wetzlar Days of Fantasy”. The prize has been awarded since 1984 and is worth € 4,000.

The eleven-member expert jury (consisting of representatives from the book trade, publishing industry, libraries, schools, universities and the media) selected Zara Zerbe’s novel from 158 submitted titles.

Zara Zerbe’s debut novel convinced the jury by using fantasy to address the problem of social differences in the context of mortality. In addition to the very present theme of survival against the backdrop of climate change, the novel contains reflections on social stratification in the world of tomorrow, on discrimination against the poor, on unscrupulous corporate managers, powerless unions, dementia, migration and AI. The focus, however, is on the lovingly drawn characters and their strategies for coping with everyday life. Stylistically excellent, the sensitive descriptions of Aylin’s everyday life alternate between precarious employment, caring for her ageing grandfather and looking after her own plants.

“In contrast to the human efforts to survive, the voices of the plants, which function like a choir, are another fantastic element that simultaneously suggests the futility of human action and hope beyond human standards. All this makes the novel a text that can introduce complex themes and invite discussion about the design of a just future. Overall, Phytopia Plus offers an original and exciting read that inspires further thought through its open ending,” explains the jury.

As to why Wetzlar, a town of 52,000 people in Hessen, has its own fantasy award — Wetzlar is home to the Phantastische Bibliothek-Wetzlar (Fantasy Library Wetzlar), which has the largest publicly accessible SFF collection in the world. The aim of the library is to collect everything in print which belongs to the categories of science fiction, fantasy, literature, classical fantasy, horror, utopian novels, fantastic journey and adventure novels, fairy tales, saga, myths, etc. At the moment the library is in possession of 150,000 titles. 

Pixel Scroll 7/27/24 The Roads Must Scroll

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(1) MONTELEONE’S NEW SUBSTACK REPEATS OLD MESSAGE. Author Thomas F. Monteleone, who early in 2023 was ousted from the Horror Writers Association for violating its Code of Conduct, today launched a Substack newsletter with “Allow Me To Introduce Myself”, which rehearses many of the views that he was expressing on Facebook and in video interviews when HWA removed him from membership.

Sheena Forsberg also has screencaps of the newsletter in a thread on X.com: “Oh.. JFC. Tom Monteleone’s back.. I suspect this wasn’t what your friends and colleagues meant when they urged you to go the substack route.”.

(2) CASHING IN ON FANHISTORY. [Item by Chris Barkley.] A copy of the pamphlet that triggered the Exclusion Act at the first Worldcon in 1939, which yesterday’s Scroll reported was up for auction, went for $750 reports Stellar Books & Ephemera.

(3) 1929: THE GENRE GETS A NAME. Jim Emerson’s year-by-year history Futures Past will reach 1929 in the latest volume due in August.

FUTURES PAST is dedicated to all those amazing people who helped to shape our modern world by giving us a sense of wonder, by showing us possible futures and addressing social issues long before they touched the mainstream, and by simply daring to ask, “what if…” Our goal is to keep alive the people, works and memories of a great genre and introduce them to a whole new generation of readers, thinkers and dreamers.

You can download an excerpt: “The Stirrings of a New Genre”

…One of the feature articles for 1929 is an extensive look at the evolution of the term “science fiction” which was not called that until this year.  In fact, the word “science” was not coined until the early 1800s, and that is where this article begins….

(4) STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES Q&A. In the New York Times: “Stephen Graham Jones, Author of ‘I Was a Teenage Slasher’, on His Reading Life”. (Gift link bypasses Times paywall.)

How do you sign books for your fans?

I cross my name out then write it for real. I can’t use markers on grabby paper. That raspy sound makes me crawl out of my skin like Mr. Krabs, molting….

What do your English department colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder make of your horror writing?

Lot of them read it, and talk to me about it. It’s nice to work with faculty without that inbuilt prejudice against genre. Or, I’m a little bit tall, so it’s tricky to look down your nose at me. Unless you lean just way back….

(5) SHARING EXPERTISE. “Show up, love the process, don’t follow trends: insider tips on how to write a book” – the Guardian publicizes a creative writing podcast.

The novelist and podcaster Elizabeth Day, host of the How to Fail series, has created a “podclass” to answer those questions and more, hosted by three publishing pros: novelist Sara Collins, agent Nelle Andrew and publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove. Here, the four share their key advice for getting a book out into the world.

One of Sara Collins’ tips is:

3. Pay attention

Writing is a way of filtering the world. The best writers are the ones who make an art of paying attention, who find joy in being curious. Curate a notebook (to be honest, in my case it’s mostly in the notes app on my phone). Make a note of anything that strikes you. One of the best feelings about being in the midst of a project is how you can become a tuning fork, alive to the material that wants to find its way in. Everything is copy, as Nora Ephron said.

Episode 1 of How To… Write A Book is available at Apple Podcasts and many other places.

Sara Collins is the bestselling novelist and screenwriter currently serving as a judge for the 2024 Booker Prize. Her debut novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, won the Costa book awards in 2019 and she later wrote the TV screenplay. Nelle Andrew is a literary agent and former Agent of the Year at the

British Book Awards, and Sharmaine Lovegrove is the co-founder and managing director of Dialogue Books, an inclusive imprint at a major publishing house. Each of them is an expert in one stage of the publishing journey…. and all are literary nerds (in the best possible way).

(6) SMOKED PENGUIN WILL NOT BE ON THE MENU. “’The Penguin’ Comic-Con Activation Evacuated After Fire Breaks Out” reports Variety.

A fire broke out in the building hosting the San Diego Comic-Con activation for the HBO series ”The Penguin,” causing the venue to be evacuated on Friday evening. The alarm was sounded in the midst of the press preview for the activation. Members of the media, including reporters from Variety, were escorted outside by officials at roughly 7:30 PM. Update: The activation is now back up and running. There were no injuries.

A representative for the San Diego Police Department confirms that a three-alarm fire was reported at the venue on 5th Avenue and E Street in the city’s downtown area. The fire began in a Brazilian steakhouse that was also in the building….

… The multi-level installation for “The Penguin” involved an elaborate, immersive experience that put attendees inside the seedy and cavernous criminal hang-out dive known as the Iceberg Lounge, first seen in the 2022 film “The Batman.” The HBO crime series is a spin-off of the Matt Reeves-directed blockbuster, with Colin Farrell reprising his role as the villainous gangster Oswald Cobblepot. The Comic-Con activation represents the most lavish promotional push yet for the DC Comics series….

(7) STAR WARS AUCTION ITEMS GO FOR UP TO SEVEN FIGURES. Variety listens to the cash register chime as “’Star Wars’ Y-Wing Miniature, Princess Leia Bikini Sold at Auction”.

A filming miniature of a Y-Wing Starfighter helmed by Gold Leader, who aided Luke Skywalker in destroying the Death Star in 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope,” sold for a whopping $1.55 million Friday at Heritage’s July Entertainment Auction.

Another highlight of the collection was a Princess Leia gold bikini costume from Jabba the Hutt’s scenes in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” which sold for $175,000. The ensemble includes seven pieces from Industrial Light & Magic chief sculptor Richard Miller’s collection–a bikini brassiere, bikini plates, hip rings, an armlet and bracelet….

… Other items featured at the Heritage auction included final movie poster artwork for “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” by Bob Peak, which sold for $106,250. Paramount’s 1986 sci-fi film was directed by Leonard Nimoy, who also played Spock. Additionally, a piece of John Alvin’s concept art for his 1982 “Blade Runner” movie poster fetched $100,000….

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

July 27, 1968 — Farah Mendlesohn, 56.

By Paul Weimer: I would not say that Farah Mendlesohn is twice the science fiction reviewer and critic that I am. I would say that she is perhaps three or four times the science fiction reviewer and critic that I am. Mendlesohn has a strength and depth to her analysis and writing that I can’t even approach even on the best of days. She remains and will probably always remain the lightspeed barrier of criticism that I will never ever reach, but I will still try.

Farah Mendelsohn. Photo by Scott Edelman

Her best work, her deepest and perhaps her most essential work is her book on the work of Robert Heinlein, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein. Although many on the far right hate it for not being hagiographic enough about Heinlein and his work, I have found her views instructive, interesting, and more than one occasion has caused me to reassess what I had just read myself. I got into a pattern over on the SFF Audio podcast where we were doing Heinleins regularly. Each time, I dipped into the Pleasant Profession to see what Farah had to say, and each time, I came away with a new perspective and new point of view, even with books such as Farnham’s Freehold. The Pleasant Profession is a mandatory read if you want to dig deeper into any Heinlein title that you are thinking of reading or re-reading. It amazes me that it had to be crowdfunded to come into existence, Mendlesohn has done plenty of other publications, of course, including the Cambridge Guide to Science Fiction, works on Diana Wynne Jones, A short history of fantasy and plenty more. I think of her work as my gateway (and perhaps yours, reader) into the academic side of science fiction, a country I will never enter, but perhaps can wave at from not far from the border.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) BRINGING UP BABY. A snippet of fascinating comics history in “The Strafford – 777 West End Avenue” at Daytonian in Manhattan.

…Iancu Urn Liber was born in Eastern Romania where he suffered intense antisemitism.  Upon immigrating to America, he changed his name to Jack Lieber.  In the spring of 1920, Jack married Celia Solomon and they moved into The Strafford.  Two years later, on December 28, 1922, they welcomed their first son, Stanley Martin Lieber.  Like his father had done, Stanley would change his name, becoming Stan Lee–the creative leader of Marvel comic books….

The same article includes an unrelated bit of interesting Titanic history.

(11) STAR TREK NEWS. Variety was at Comic-Con when they unveiled “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Section 31, Lower Decks First Looks”.

The “Star Trek” Universe uncloaked a litany of first looks during its epic panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, including panels for the third season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the fifth and final season of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” and the first television feature film in the franchise, “Star Trek: Section 31.”

(12) CREATURE COMMANDOS. “Creature Commandos Teaser Unveiled, New DC Studios Logo” – Deadline sets the frame.

James Gunn beamed in from the Superman set Friday at Comic-Con to show off the new teaser for Max’s animated series Creature Commandos, which he wrote all seven episodes on. Premiere date is December.

In the footage… Viola Davis reprises her role as Amanda Waller. She walks Captain Flag down to inner prison areas where we’re introduced to a bunch that’s crazier than the Suicide Squad: Weasel, The Bride, G.I. Robot, Dr. Phosphorus, Frankenstein and Nina Mazursky.

“These assholes aren’t human,” Waller tells Rick Flag. G.I. Robot later pops up, “It’s been oh., so long since G.I. Robot sent Nazis back to hell!”…

(13) SDCC’S SIMPSONS PANEL FEATURES VIDEO OF KAMALA HARRIS QUOTING LINE FROM SHOW.  It’s not a new video, as you can learn from reading beyond the clickbait headline. “Kamala Harris Surprises ‘Simpsons’ Fans With Message at Comic-Con” in The Hollywood Reporter.

The Simpsons panel at San Diego Comic-Con saved a final surprise for last, as the event ended with a resurfaced video message from Vice President Kamala Harris.

After introducing the final clip as coming from a “super fan,” Matt Groening — who created the animated Fox series that is soon to launch its 36th season — set up footage of a laughing Harris delivering a well-known line from a previous “Treehouse of Horror” episode. The clip was recorded years ago by a group of University of Chicago students who were tasked with getting an elected official to recite the Simpsons quote.

“We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom,” Harris said in the clip. It led to big cheers from the crowd, who appeared to assume that the moment was filmed for the panel, given that no context was given about the clip.

The quote is from season eight’s “Treehouse of Horror VII” that aired Oct. 27, 1996, just ahead of that year’s presidential election between then-President Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. The episode’s segment features aliens Kang and Kodos impersonating the two candidates, with the Clinton imposter delivering the muddled message during a public event….

(14) KEPLER’S LEGACY. Phys.org explains how “Kepler’s 1607 pioneering sunspot sketches solve solar mysteries 400 years later”.

“Kepler’s legacy extends beyond his observational prowess; it informs ongoing debates about the transition from regular solar cycles to the Maunder Minimum, a period of extremely reduced solar activity and anomalous hemispheric asymmetry between 1645 and 1715,” Hayakawa explained.

“By situating Kepler’s findings within broader solar activity reconstructions, scientists gain crucial context for interpreting changes in solar behavior in this pivotal period marking a transition from regular solar cycles to the grand solar minimum.”

“Kepler contributed many historical benchmarks in astronomy and physics in the 17th century, leaving his legacy even in the space age,” said Hayakawa.

“Here, we add to that by showing that Kepler’s sunspot records predate the existing telescopic sunspot records from 1610 by several years. His sunspot sketches serve as a testament to his scientific acumen and perseverance in the face of technological constraints.”

Sabrina Bechet, a researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, added, “As one of my colleagues told me, it is fascinating to see historical figures’ legacy records convey crucial scientific implications to modern scientists even centuries later.

“I doubt if they could have imagined their records would benefit the scientific community much later, well after their deaths. We still have a lot to learn from these historical figures, apart from the history of science itself. In the case of Kepler, we are standing on the shoulders of a scientific giant.”

(15) THAT EYE GUY. “’Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Trailer: More Sauron” is Deadline’s simple verdict.

Amazon Prime, once again, spared no expense in banging the drums –literally– for its hit series, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power at Comic-Con. Today’s Hall H panel fired up with composer Bear McCreary leading a big drum percussion and choir with themes from Season 2 of the hit series.

That’s not all — an orc stormed on stage screaming his support of Adar. Also, you know it’s a special moment in Hall H when they open up the massive wrap-around 180-degree-plus screens.

Last night, Amazon celebrated the Aug. 29 launch of Season 2 with a cast and showrunner reception decked out ala Lord of the Rings with a golden flowers and dark forests theme at Venue 808 last night before stirring up a 6,500-strong filled Hall H with the new trailer….

As for the trailer – the YouTube blurb says:

About The Rings of Power Season 2: Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season 1’s epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Paul Weimer, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

2024 Scribe Awards

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The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers announced the winners of the Scribe Awards at San Diego Comic-Con on July 26.

The IAMTW’s Scribe Awards honor excellence in the field of writing tie-in fiction for media franchises. These works include novels, short stories, audio dramas, and graphic novels tied to licenses of movies and TV shows, as well as video games, comics, songs, and even book series.

ADAPTED NOVEL – GENERAL OR SPECULATIVE

  • Ultraman by Pat Cadigan

AUDIO DRAMA

  • Doctor Who Sins of the Flesh by Alfie Shaw

GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • The Mighty Nine Origins: Critical Role by Jody Houser

ORIGINAL NOVEL – GENERAL

  • Legend of the Five Rings: Three Oaths by Josh Reynolds

ORIGINAL NOVEL – SPECULATIVE

  • Star Trek: Picard – Firewall by David Mack

SHORT STORY

  • Star Trek Deep Space Nine “Lost and Founder” by David Mack

YOUNG ADULT / MIDDLE GRADE

  • Shadowrun: Auditions: A Mosaic Run Collection by Jennifer Brozek

IAMTW’S 2024 GRANDMASTER AND FAUST AWARD WINNER

  • James Reasoner

A veteran writer with over four decades in the publishing industry, James Reasoner has written more than 350 novels and more than 100 short stories. Although perhaps best known for westerns, he has written across many genres from mystery to fantasy to science fiction. In addition, he’s penned essays, articles and reviews. He has contributed tie-in novels to the following series: Abilene, Longarm, Lone Star, Trailsman, Cody’s Law, Wagons West, Wind River, Stagecoach Station, and Tales from Deadwood. His non western tie-ins include The Dead Man series, Kolchak, and Walker Texas Ranger.

[Based on a press release.]