(1) WRITERS WHO SPEAK AT THE CIA. From Brian Keene I heard about this article: Johannes Lichtman tells about attending “Invisible Ink: At the CIA’s Creative Writing Group” in The Paris Review. After he gives his presentation, they take him … Continue reading
The Visual Effects Society released the nominations for the 2024 VES Awards on January 16. Disney’s The Creator and Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse lead the field with seven nominations each; HBO’s The Last of Us tops TV series with six. The VES Awards recognize VFX artistry in … Continue reading
(1) WHAT, ME WORRY? Should we share Jeffrey Davies’ concern about “Is Reimagining History Through Biofiction Ethical?”. His Book Riot post focuses on work that is not marketed as genre, although it arguably is alternate history. …On the other side … Continue reading
(1) DUNE WHAT COMES NATURALLY. Pinch Spice Market offers “The Real Spice Melange” – an “organic Southwest/Tex Mex Dune Seasoning”. “He who controls the spice, controls the Universe” -Frank Herbert, Dune. Now you can control the Universe. Well, at least … Continue reading
The 2023 Saturn Award nominees were announced on December 6. James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water received 12 nominations, surpassing the record he set back in 2010 when the original Avatar film garnered 10 nominations. Other films leading the way are Christopher Nolan’s biopic, Oppenheimer, with … Continue reading
(1) CURATOR TAKES SIDES, GETS CANCELLED. An Afrofuturism-themed exhibit “chapter” is the casualty when “German Museum Shutters Curator’s Contribution Over Pro-Palestine Instagram Activity, Igniting Censorship Outcry” reports ArtNews. … On Monday, writer, professor, and curator Anaïs Duplan, who goes by … Continue reading
(1) CHENGDU WORLDCON ROUNDUP. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] Part two of Huawen’s con report The first part of this con report was covered in yesterday’s Scroll; here are some extracts from the second part, as usual via Google Translate with manual cleanup edits. … Continue reading
By SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie: While many in the world’s science fiction community had eyes on from afar this year’s somewhat controversial Worldcon in Chengdu – as many were not there – a far smaller event was taking place in … Continue reading
(1) LUKYANENKO NOT AT WORLDCON. There’s no sign of the Chengdu Worldcon’s Russian GoH Sergey Lukyanenko in social media coverage of the con. And the latest posts to his blog on his official website (devoted to anti-Israel remarks, and a … Continue reading
(1) GOOD NEWS. My mother is back to her usual self and physically has regained enough ground for the doctor to send her home to the skilled nursing facility where she lives. She’ll go back tonight. And it’s hard to … Continue reading