Sara Felix joins Chris Garcia and James Bacon this issue as the focus of journey planet turns to the artistic and communicative uses of ink. Available here to download: Journey Planet issue 52.
James Bacon comments:
With a strongly visual theme, there is an abundance of images created using ink. While contemplating the art, we have articles looking at some amazing envelope art and calligraphy by Marguerite Smith, pens by Rhonda Eudaly, John Dodd and John Vaughan, a look at personal importance of doodling by Helen Montgomery, poetry and Soviet pens by Ann Gry and articles and art by the editors.
The importance of keeping in touch has not been lost on the editors who have themselves enjoyed sending post out into the world, creating joy as best they can through the postal system.
As we encourage contact at this time, be it festive cards or just a note, we hope that thoughts of pens, ink, art and envelopes encourage you, dear reader, to dash off a quick letter, and fire it into the oblivion that is the waiting void of the letter box that transports your words to the recipient almost by magic – or the postal services that have worked so hard to maintain communication.
Call for Submissions:
Looking forward, the same editors have been astounded by the levels of crafts that have occurred this year, a. dreadfully hard year, but one where arts and crafts have helped fans through the trial of 2020.
We plan a “Craft during Covid”’ issue for Easter and would love to hear from fans who have found, regained, returned or developed any crafting whatsoever. We also recognise how beneficial creativity has been for the well-being, helping with mental health and welcome voices on this subject, especially if you’ve found, escape, solace, contentment or peace of mind in crafting.
Artistic, creative, useful, ingenious, beautiful, whimsical, we just would like to see and hear about what fans have made.
Justin Clement is the winner of the 2020 Gulliver Travel Grant awarded by the Speculative Literature Foundation. The Gulliver Travel Grant, worth $1,000, is intended to assist writers of speculative fiction in research, and can be used to cover airfare, lodging, and other travel expenses.
Justin Clement
Clement, 23, is a Nigerian writer, who is surprised he can now call himself a writer. His fiction explores the meanings and methods of life, and the human condition, through dark fantasy and science fiction. His works have been listed for various prizes and awards, including The 2018 African Writers Award for Best Short Story, The 2019 Punocracy Prize for Satire, The 2019 Nommo Awards for Best Short Story, The 2019 Awele Creative Trust Award, and others.
Justin is also an alumnus of Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus Trust Creative Writing Workshop, and his writing has been lauded by Adichie as being entertaining and full of heart.
Justin’s entanglement with speculative stories began at age four, when he started drawing comics for his entertainment. His foray into prose came when he had to change schools, after completing his junior secondary education. His comics had been popular among his peers, and to keep his old school mates updated on the progress of the stories, he created a Facebook group where he would post the detailed synopses of his comic issues (Justin cringes at the stories on this Facebook group now, but somehow, he smiles).
He is currently reading Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers, and he recently became a writer for the digital comics company, Comic Republic.
The Gulliver Travel Grant include Hugo Award-winning author N.K. Jemisin, Ibi Zoboi, and Daniel José Older; last year’s winner was María Isabel Álvarez.
Founded in January 2004 to promote literary quality in speculative fiction, the all-volunteer Speculative Literature Foundation is led by Mary Anne Mohanraj and 30 other committed volunteers.
(1) HUGO VOTING REQUIREMENT. You can nominate and vote in the 2021 Hugo Awards if you hold a supporting or attending membership in DisCon III by December 31st, 2020. Membership information is here.
This is a huge list of Star Wars stuff that’s just been announced this afternoon, all coming from Lucasfilm for both Disney films & Disney+:
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, the next film, set for release Christmas 2023, and directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman); this is probably set during the Rebellion (Jenkins filmed a teaser video about wanting to make the greatest “fighter pilot film” of all time)
Untitled Star Wars film reportedly due in sometime around 2025, directed by Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit director & Mandalorian VO actor)
Andor, the live action series with Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk playing Cassian Andor & K2SO from Rogue One, set before that film; this is filming now and will be the next live action property to be released, sometime in early 2022 after the next season of Mandalorian (the cast features Stellan Skarsgard, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma; showrunner is Mandalorian director Deborah Chow)
Obi Wan Kenobi, a live action miniseries with Ewan MacGregor (Kenobi) and Hayden Christensen (Vader), set ten years after Revenge of the Sith; this starts filming in the first quarter of 2021. And yes, Obi Wan faced off against Vader again between Sith & A New Hope!
Ahsoka, a live action spinoff miniseries featuring Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars & Rebels (and played by Rosario Dawson in The Mandalorian); this could potentially be the continuation of the story from the end of Rebels, though not confirmed
Rangers of the New Republic, a live action series from Jon Favreau & Dave Filoni, set during the same period as The Mandalorian
The Acolyte, a live action series set during the ‘high Republic’ era (the upcoming Star Wars tie-in era, a thousand years before the films) created by Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland
Lando, a live action miniseries created by Dear White People’s Justin Simien; was announced without a lead actor, but ABC’s Good Morning America on 12/11 stated that Donald Glover was reprising his role as Lando Calrissian
The Bad Batch, the previously announced Clone Wars animated spinoff series, currently in production, set after that show with some of the clone troopers from that show who “take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose”
Star Wars Visions, an anime-style anthology miniseries with “10 fantastic visions from several of the leading Japanese anime studios”
A Droid Story, an animated film: this “epic journey will introduce us to a new hero, guided by legendary duo R2-D2 and C-3PO”
Plus the long-teased “Willow” series and another “Indiana Jones” movie.
None of that includes the other properties they announced including all the Marvel stuff and the “Alien” spinoff TV series.
The price of Disney+ will be going up – the subscriber response so exceeded predictions they figure the traffic will bear a bit more.
Disney also announced that the service’s monthly fee in the US will be going up by $1 in March to $7.99. Strong demand for Disney+ led to the company to boost its long-term subscriber estimates.
(3) LOOK AT LOKI. While we’re on the subject, Disney + dropped a trailer for their new series Loki.
(4) VIEWING WANDA. And there’s a new trailer for Marvel Studios’ WandaVision which starts streaming January 15 on Disney +.
I learned in the news that Warner Bros. has decided to release “Dune” on HBO Max at the same time as our theatrical release, using prominent images from our movie to promote their streaming service. With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history. There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here. It is all about the survival of a telecom mammoth, one that is currently bearing an astronomical debt of more than $150 billion. Therefore, even though “Dune” is about cinema and audiences, AT&T is about its own survival on Wall Street. With HBO Max’s launch a failure thus far, AT&T decided to sacrifice Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 slate in a desperate attempt to grab the audience’s attention.
…“Dune” is by far the best movie I’ve ever made. My team and I devoted more than three years of our lives to make it a unique big screen experience. Our movie’s image and sound were meticulously designed to be seen in theaters.
I’m speaking on my own behalf, though I stand in solidarity with the sixteen other filmmakers who now face the same fate. Please know I am with you and that together we are strong. The artists are the ones who create movies and series.
I strongly believe the future of cinema will be on the big screen, no matter what any Wall Street dilettante says. Since the dawn of time, humans have deeply needed communal storytelling experiences. Cinema on the big screen is more than a business, it is an art form that brings people together, celebrating humanity, enhancing our empathy for one another — it’s one of the very last artistic, in-person collective experiences we share as human beings.
Once the pandemic is over, theaters will be filled again with film lovers.
That is my strong belief. Not because the movie industry needs it, but because we humans need cinema, as a collective experience….
(6) GHASTLY OVERSIGHT? Alexander Larman, in “A warning to the curious” on The Critic, explains why there is not going to be an adaptation of an M.R. James story and gives background on James and his work. A link reveals a crowdfunded project to publish a collection of James’s letters.
…Like many great writers of the supernatural, James wrote according to strict rules. He suggested that his technique was a relatively simple one, saying in 1924 that, “Two ingredients most valuable in the concocting of a ghost story are, to me, the atmosphere and the nicely managed crescendo”, and that the reader should be “introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage.”
The spirits were invariably vengeful and terrifying ones (“amiable and helpful apparitions are all very well in fairy tales or in local legends, but I have no use for them in a fictitious ghost story”).
…It is hoped that a crowd-funded collection of James’s letters, Casting the Runes, reaches its target soon and that it will offer greater insight into the strange and brilliant man who wrote some of the most chilling ghost stories in the English language.
Art and money: the great taboo. Art, we’ve been taught to believe, has nothing to do with money, must have nothing to do with money, is defiled by contact with money, is degraded by the very thought of money.
Those ideas, articles of faith today, are actually of relatively recent birth. In the Renaissance, when artists were still regarded as artisans, no one thought twice about exchanging art for cash. It was only in modernity that the notion arose that art and commerce were mutually exclusive.
As traditional beliefs broke down across the 18th and 19th centuries, art inherited the role of faith, becoming a kind of secular creed for the progressive classes. Like religion before it, art was now regarded as superior to worldly things, and you cannot serve both God and mammon.
As with art, so with artists, the new priests and prophets. It was modernity that gave us the bohemian, the starving artist, and the solitary genius, images respectively of blissful unconventionality, monkish devotion, and spiritual election. Artistic poverty was seen as glamorous, an outward sign of inner purity.
To these ideas, the 20th century added an overtly political and specifically anti-capitalist dimension. Art did not just stand outside the market; it was meant to oppose it: to join, if not to lead, the social revolution, which first of all would be a revolution of consciousness. To seek acceptance in the market was to be “co-opted”; to chase material rewards, to be a “sellout.”
Such ideas are as fervently held among laypeople as they are among artists—if anything, more so. We don’t want the artists we love to think about money, and we don’t want to think about them thinking about it.
…The number of the people I interviewed told me about having suffered, early on, because they had swallowed the myths about starving artists who never think about money and would rather die than compromise their vision for the suits. And because writers and other artists do create for non-material reasons, I was told by Mark Coker, the founder of the e-book distribution platform Smashwords, “these people are ripe for being exploited.”
That exploitation can take many forms: from outright theft, to self-sabotage, to the monetization of digital content without appropriate compensation, to the underpayment by arts organizations, including nonprofits, of the artists who work for them. But at its root is the perception that artists shouldn’t ask for money in the first place—that, as another of my subjects put it, “art should just be art.”
Act like a time traveler. Choose your time period and decide whether you are traveling to the past or the future. Be overly shocked when someone says, “I’d kill for a double mocha latte right now,” or “That car is the bomb.” Misuse technology. When someone offers you earbuds to listen to a new song, sniff them to see if they smell good.
Do you need inspiration for your time traveling antics? We have 9 Books to Unleash the Time Traveler in You. Some of them are mentioned above, but this list will give you some insight to the stories and help you take the deep dive into the world time traveling for the true enthusiast.
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY.
December 11, 1929 — On this date in 1929, American fandom has its beginnings in New York City with the first meeting of the Scienceers who were the first local sf club in the United States. (Science Correspondence Club in Montgomery, Alabama is claimed by others as starting earlier.) It is worth noting that the first president of that Club was Warren Fitzgerald who was Black, a rarity in the early days of fandom, and they met at his apartment in Harlem. The group formed as a result of their correspondence in Science Wonder Stories which was edited by Hugo Gernsback. Timebinders has a history of that Club here as it appeared in Joe Christoff’s Sphere fanzine. “History of the Scienceers, the First New York City Science Fiction Club, 1929 – by Allen Glasser”.
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
Born December 11, 1803 – Hector Berlioz. Graduated from medical school but never practiced; instead famed as a composer (and, during his life, conductor); also substantial author of music criticism, theory, memoirs. Prix de Rome. Legion of Honor. Here for the Symphonie fantastique, Damnation de Faust, Le Troyens. Star-rated Wikipedia entry. Website. (Died 1869) [JH]
Born December 11, 1904 – Marge. Although M.H. Buell created Little Lulu, made LL such a national figure that LL was adopted as the Kleenex mascot, and retained artistic control during M’s life, in fairness to John Stanley the fantasy elements of LL, like Witch Hazel and Sammi the Martian, are JS’ work. Here is M’s cover for King Kojo. Here is The Wizard of Way-Up. (Died 1993) [JH]
Born December 11, 1921 – Bill Terry. A dozen covers for Imagination, three hundred interiors for Imagination and Imaginative Tales. Here is the Jan 52 Imagination. Here is the Aug 54. Here is the Aug 55. Here is an interior for “The Voyage of Vanishing Men”. Here is an interior for “The War of Nerves”. (Died 1992) [JH]
Born December 11, 1922 — Maila Nurmi. A Finnish-American actress and television personality who was the campy Fifties title character on Vampira. She hosted her own series, The Vampira Show for a year on KABC-TV and later in Vampira Returns. She’d show up in Plan 9 from Outer Space, and in The Magic Sword as The Hag / Sorceress. She played Vampira once more in the Horror Kung-Fu Theatre series. (Died 2008.) (CE)
Born December 11, 1926 — Dick Tufeld. His best known role, or at least best recognized, Is as the voice of the Robot on Lost in Space, a role he reprises for the feature film. The first words heard on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea are spoken by him: “This is the Seaview, the most extraordinary submarine in all the seven seas.” He’s been the opening announcer on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spider-Woman, Thundarr the Barbarian, Fantastic Four and the Time Tunnel. (Died 2012.) (CE)
Born December 11, 1940 – Fred Patten. This amazing astounding fan had an issue of his zine ¡Rábanos Radiactivos! in every distribution (weekly!) of APA-L from its beginning to APA-L 2280 – more than forty years. Developing an interest in animé he co-founded the Cartoon Fantasy Organization; he became a scholar of anthropomorphic graphic art. He edited his local club’s fanzine Shangri L’Affaires when it was a Hugo finalist; chaired Loscon XIV and Westercon 27; was Fan Guest of Honor at DeepSouthCon 9 and Loscon 33 (some use Roman numerals, some don’t). My appreciation is here. (Died 2018) [JH]
Born December 11, 1957 — William Joyce, 62. Author of the YA series Guardians of Childhood which is currently at twelve books and growing. Now I’ve no interest in reading them but Joyce and Guillermo del Toro turned them into in a rather splendid Rise of the Guardians film which I enjoyed quite a bit. The antagonist in it reminds me somewhat of a villain later on In Willingham’s Fables series called Mr. Dark. Michael Toman in an email says that “I’ve been watching for his books since reading Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo back in 1988.” (CE)
Born December 11, 1959 — M. Rickert, 61. Short story writer par excellence. She’s got three collections to date, Map of Dreams, Holiday and You Have Never Been Here. I’ve not read her novel The Memory Garden, and would like your opinions on it. She has won two World Fantasy Awards, one for her short story, “Journey Into the Kingdom”, and one for her short story collection, “Map of Dreams”. The Little Witch is the only work available from the usual digital suspects. (CE)
Born December 11, 1962 — Ben Browder, 58. Actor of course best known for his roles as John Crichton in Farscape and Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1. One of my favorite roles by him was his voicing of Bartholomew Aloysius “Bat” Lash in Justice League Unlimited called “The Once and Future Thing, Part 1”. He’d have an appearance in the Eleventh Doctor story, “A Town Called Mercy,” a Weird Western of sorts. (CE)
Born December 11, 1965 — Sherrilyn Kenyon, 55. Best for her Dark Hunter series which runs to around thirty volumes now. I confess I’ve not read any, so I’m curious as to how they are. Opinions? (Of course you do. Silly me. How could you not have them.) She’s got The League series as well which appears to be paranormal romance, and a Lords of Avalon series too under the pen name of Kinley MacGregor. (CE)
Born December 11, 1971 – Laini Taylor, age 49. Seven novels, five shorter stories. Printz Honor, Bradshaw Award. I heard she’d read Leviathan, but it proved not to be Hobbes’, it was Scott Westerfeld’s, so we don’t have that in common after all. Days of Blood and Starlight was a NY Times Best-Seller. [JH]
Born December 11, 1981 – Natasha Larry, age 39. Three novels, two shorter stories. Of herself she says “She has an M.A. in American History, making her a professional cynic…. curses too much…. DC comics fangirl, or fanatic.” [JH]
(11) COMICS SECTION.
Sally Forth has a friend who’s having no luck looking for a portal.
Hyundai is officially purchasing a controlling stake in robot maker Boston Dynamics from SoftBank in a deal that values the company at $1.1 billion, the company announced today. The deal has been in the works for a while, according to recent a report from Bloomberg, and marks a major step into consumer robotics for Hyundai. Hyundai is taking approximately an 80 percent stake in the company while its previous owner, Softbank, will retain around 20 percent through an affiliate.
… Boston Dynamics started as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company has created robots using DARPA funding, like BigDog, but is best known for the viral fame its robots have found online. Its two main stars have been Atlas, a humanoid bipedal robot that can run and do backflips, and Spot, a smaller quadrupedal “dog” that’s been tested in a variety of scenarios, from sheep herding to assisting health care workers during the pandemic.
(13) BATWOMAN CONTINUES. The CW dropped a trailer for Batwoman season 2. Premieres Sunday, January 17.
How do you get what you want for Christmas? Write a letter to Santa, of course! Combing through “Dear Santa” letters published in historical newspapers, you can glean tips and tricks on how to write a letter of your own.
A close examination of hundreds of “Dear Santa” letters suggests there are several approaches to writing Jolly Old St. Nick:
(16) EVERYBODY NEDS A HOBBY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] A video on YouTube called “Meet The Record Breakers: Rob Hull — Owner of the Largest Collection of Daleks” from the 2012 edition of the Guinness Book Of World Records, is about someone who is officially certified as owning more Daleks than anyone else – 571. There was a reference to this guy in the Financial Times and, as you say, it was news to me!
(17) BE THE MUSIC OF THE SEASON. Jingle Jangle is a holiday-themed fantasy on Netflix. You’re invited to sing along with the cast in this video.
Welcome to the Jingle Jangle Christmas Journey Global Sing Along. The cast, special guests, and fans alike to come together for this truly magical event. Get ready to hear some of your favorite songs like you have never heard them before featuring the stars of the film, some of the best singers on Broadway, choir singers from across the country, Tik Tok stars, and most importantly…YOU!
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Mike Kennedy, John Hertz, Cat Eldridge, Brian Z., Martin Morse Wooster, Daniel Dern, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Joe H.]
After DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon, shared their membership update last month it seemed reasonable to guess that the coronavirus pandemic is creating a lot of suspense and having a dampening effect on fans joining DC. Just how true is that and how severe is the effect?
The Dublin 2019 and CoNZealand chairs agreed to furnish benchmark numbers from late in the year before their cons to make the comparison.
WORLDCON
Dublin 2019 11/30/18
CoNZealand 12/28/19
DisCon III 11/20/20
ATTENDING
3751
1673
1535
SUPPORTING
669
730
635
TOTAL
4420
2403
2170
Dublin 2019 chair James Bacon commented about their November membership totals: “I’m still astounded and how we got to our final figure. This is indicative of something else though, fans especially local fans really came on board late.” Dublin finished with 6,525 attending and 8,430 total members.
Even so, Dublin 2019’s trajectory is in general what might be expected from a large Worldcon in ordinary times.
As for CoNZealand, South Pacific Worldcons (Aussiecon 2, 3, and 4, and CoNZealand) as a class are the four smallest Worldcons of the past 35 years. However, CoNZealand was by far the largest of that group, finishing with 2,685 attending and 1,939 supporting members, a total of 4,624. As much as the committee would have preferred a primarily in-person con, going virtual did not keep CoNZealand from surpassing the 2010 Aussiecon stats.
Since a U.S. Worldcon in ordinary times would be on track for high attendance, the effects of the pandemic seem evident from this comparison, and don’t come as a surprise.
The Last of Us Part II was named Game of the Year tonight at The Game Awards 2020. Produced by Canadian games journalist Geoff Keighley, the awards were presented December 10 in a ceremony livestreamed from studios in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo.
The winners are listed below in boldface, followed by the other finalists.
Game of the Year
The Last of Us Part II – Naughty Dog (WINNER)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo
Doom Eternal – id Software
Final Fantasy VII Remake – Square Enix
Ghost of Tsushima – Sucker Punch
Hades – Supergiant Games
Game Direction
The Last of Us Part II – Naughty Dog (WINNER)
Final Fantasy VII Remake – Square Enix
Ghost of Tsushima – Sucker Punch
Hades – Supergiant Games
Half-Life Alyx – Valve
Most Anticipated Game
Elden Ring – From Software/Bandai Namco (WINNER)
Halo Infinite – 343/Xbox Game Studios
Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla Games/SIE
God of War Sequel – SIE Santa Monica/SIE
Resident Evil Village – Capcom
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel – Nintendo
Narrative
The Last of Us Part II (WINNER)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Ghost of Tsushima
Hades
Art Direction
Ghost of Tsushima (WINNER)
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Hades
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
The Last of Us Part II
Score and Music
Final Fantasy VII Remake (WINNER)
Doom Eternal
Hades
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
The Last of Us Part II
Audio Design
The Last of Us Part II (WINNER)
Doom Eternal
Half-Life: Alyx
Ghost of Tsushima
Resident Evil 3
Performance
Laura Bailey – Abby, The Last of Us Part II (WINNER)
Ashley Johnson – Ellie, The Last of Us Part II
Daisuke Tsuji – Jin, Ghost of Tsushima
Logan Cunningham – Hades, Hades
Nadji Jeterm – Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Games for Impact
Tell Me Why (WINNER)
If Found…
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
Spiritfarer
Through Darkest of Times
Ongoing Game
No Man’s Sky (WINNER)
Apex Legends
Destiny 2
Call of Duty: Warzone
Fortnite
Indie Game
Hades (WINNER)
Carrion
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Spelunky 2
Spiritfarer
Debut Indie Game
Phasmophobia (WINNER)
Carrion
Mortal Shell
Raji: An Acient Epic
Roki
Mobile Game
Among Us (WINNER)
Call of Duty Mobile
Genshin Impact
Legends of Runeterra
Pokémon Cafe Mix
Community Support
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (WINNER)
Apex Legends
Destiny 2
Fortnite
No Man’s Sky
Valorant
VR/AR Game
Half-Life: Alyx (WINNER)
Dreams
Marvel’s Iron Man VR
Star Wars: Squadrons
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Innovation in Accessibility
The Last of Us Part II (WINNER)
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Grounded
Hyperdot
Watch Dogs Legion
Action Game
Hades (WINNER)
Doom Eternal
Half-Life: Alyx
Nioh 2
Streets of Rage 4
Action/Adventure Game
The Last of Us Part II (WINNER)
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Ghost of Tsushima
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
RPG
Final Fantasy VII Remake (WINNER)
Genshin Impact
Persona 5 Royal
Wasteland 3
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Fighting Game
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate (WINNER)
Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows
Under Night In-Birth
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
Family Game
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (WINNER)
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
Minecraft Dungeons
Paper Mario: The Origami King
Sim/Strategy Game
Microsoft Flight Simulator (WINNER)
Crusader Kings 3
Desperados 3
Gears Tactics
XCOM: Chimera Squad#
Sports/Racing Game
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (WINNER)
Dirt 5
F1 2020
FIFA 21
NBA 2K21
Multiplayer Game
Among Us (WINNER)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Call of Duty: Warzone
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Valorant
Content Creator of the Year
Valkyrae (WINNER)
Alanah Pearce
Jay Ann Lopez
Nickmercs
TimTheTatman
Esports Athlete
Heo “Showmaker” Su (WINNER)
Ian “Crimsix” Porter
Kim “Canyon” Geon-Bu
Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro
Matthieu “Zywoo” Herbaut
Esports Coach
Danny “Zonic” Sorensen (WINNER)
Dae-Hee “Crusty” Park
Fabian “Grabbz” Lohmann
Lee “Zefa” Jae-Min
Raymond “Rambo” Lussier
Esports Event
League of Legends World Championship 2020 (WINNER)
(1) TAG TEAM. YouTuber Morganeua, a fourth year PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies, uses Stephen King and Toni Morrison to beat Isaac Asimov into the ground in “Asimov’s Adverbs.” (Think of it as a homage to “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.”)
I just finished reading “Foundation and Empire” by Isaac Asimov and it was GREAT but I noticed THIS about his writing. What do you think about excessive -ly adverb use in novels?
Some people outline their novel before they start. Others don’t, but just plunge right and start. There’s plenty of advice on how to do the former, but those who practice the latter sometimes feel that they’re floundering, and no one’s providing any guidance. Working with my own process as well as that of students, clients, and mentees, I’ve come up with twelve principles for writing that you can apply, pre and post-pantsing, in order to start moving from chaos to order.
(3) LITERARY AFTERLIFE. Andrew Nette, in “The Long, Dark Legacy of William Hjortsberg’s Supernatural Neo-Noirs” on CrimeReads, uses the publication of Hjortsberg’s Angel’s Descent to discuss his novels that fused the detective and supernatural, most notably Angel’s Heart (made into a Mickey Rourke film).
…A posthumously published book can be tricky property, given the inevitable question of whether the author was able to finalize the manuscript to the degree they wanted, were they alive. Although Angel’s Inferno does not feel incomplete, it lacks the economy and flow of Falling Angel. It is also far darker, more debauched and violent. When you’ve made a pact to sell your soul to Satan, in terms of what you’re prepared to do, the sky, or in Angel’s case, the depths are the limit.
(4) KOWAL’S VISION FOR SERIES. Mary Robinette Kowal’s talk for the 2020 National Book Festival about her “Lady Astronaut” series is online.
…My first moment where I’m really, really conscious of the space program aside from just like, oh, yeah, people go into space, is when Sally Ride goes up. And looking back at the history of this and thinking about how long it took us to send someone up, it bothered me. It especially bothers me now that this is a problem that we still have ongoing. And so, I wanted to see what it would have been like if we had actually centered women. I sometimes say that this is Apollo era science fiction that’s women-centered. I wanted to read Ray Bradbury, but with 100% more women and people of color. That’s what I wanted. I wanted that sense of Golden Age adventure, but I wanted to be there. And so, I created this world.
(5) CORBEN OBIT. Artist Richard Corben (1940-2020) died December 2 following heart surgery. He was a winner of the Spectrum Grand Master Award (2009) and the Grand Prix at Angoulême (2018), and an inductee to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame (2012). Dona Corben announced his passing on Facebook.
Corben started in underground comics, then gained increasing fame over the years working in the French magazine Métal Hurlant, and at Marvel, DC and Dark Horse Comics. His name will ring a bell with Harlan Ellison fans as the artist on the three-story graphic novel Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog (1988).
(6) ING OBIT. Author Dean Ing, whose story “The Devil You Don’t Know” was a Hugo and Nebula finalist in 1979, died July 21 according toLocus, whichhas a complete profile: Dean Ing (1931-2020).
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz]
Born December 10, 1815 — Ada Lovelace. Lovelace was the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron and his wife Lady Byron. She was an English mathematician and writer, principally known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Genre usage includes Gibson and Sterling’s The Difference Engine, Stirling’s The Peshawar Lancers and Crowley’s Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land. (Died 1852.) (CE)
Born December 10, 1830 – Emily Dickinson. She set on paper 1,800 poems, less than a dozen published during her lifetime – too unconventional. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” got into a 2014 Everyman’s Library volume. She has a poem on a schoolhouse in the Hague, in English and Dutch. You could do worse than look at her Wikipedia entry. (Died 1886) [JH]
Born December 10, 1824 — George MacDonald. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors Including Tolkien and Lewis, Gaiman and L’Engle, Beagle and Twain to name but a few that I’d single out. The Princess and The Goblin and Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women as particularly fine reading. The Waterboys titled their Room to Roam album after a passage in Phantastes. Not surprisingly, he’s well represented at the usual digital suspects with one publication an offering fifteen pages of reading for a dollar including eight novels. (Died 1905.) (CE)
Born December 10, 1903 — Mary Norton. Author of The Borrowers which won the 1952 Carnegie Medal from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals recognizing the novel as the year’s outstanding children’s book by a British author. She would continue to write these novels for three decades with Hallmark turning it into a film in the early seventies. Her novels The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks would be adapted into the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks in the same period. (Died 1992.) (CE)
Born December 10, 1920 – Dan Spiegle. In a career of Blackhawk, Maverick, Spin and Marty, he also drew Space Family Robinson and The Black Hole. For this Roger Elwood book he did interiors too. Of his work on Mickey Mouse with Paul Murry, Scott Shaw said “none of the ‘real’ human characters seem to notice anything remotely unusual about [working] with a three-foot-tall talking cartoon mouse”; to quote KC and the Sunshine Band, that’s the way I like it. Inkpot Award. (Died 2017) [JH]
Born December 10, 1928 — John Colicos. You’ll first recognize him as being the first Klingon ever seen on classic Trek, Commander Kor in “Errand of Mercy” episode. (He’d reprised that role as the 140-year-old Kor in three episodes of Deep Space Nine.) He’ll next show up as Count Baltar in the original Battlestar Galactica continuity throughout the series and film. He’ll even show up as the governor of Umakran in the Starlost episode “The Goddess Calabra”. (Died 2000.) (CE)
Born December 10, 1960 — Kenneth Branagh, 60. Oh, Branagh, I feel obligated to start with your worst film, Wild Wild West, which, well, had you no shame? Fortunately there’s much better genre work from you as an actor including as Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. As a Director, I’m only seeing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Thor — Anyone know of anything else genre related? Is Hercule Poirot genre adjacent? (CE)
Born December 10, 1969 – Jon Hansen, age 51. Born in Athens – Georgia. A score of short stories, a score of poems, in Albedo One, Electric Velocipede, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, A Field Guide to Surreal Botany (his story is “Dream Melons”, where else should he have published it?) [JH]
Born December 10, 1984 – Helen Oyeyemi, F.R.S.L.,age 36. Six novels, ten shorter stories. Somerset Maugham Award. PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) Open Book Award. Fellow of the Royal Soc. Literature (she’s Nigerian, lives in Prague). Here is a NY Times review of HO’s collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (winner of that PEN award) which I don’t think is behind a paywall – I could see it, anyhow. [JH]
Born December 10, 1985 – Celeste Trinidad, M.D., age 35. A dozen short stories from this busy Filipina pathologist. Don Carlos Palanca Award. “Finding Those Who Are Lost” is in the Typhoon Yolanda Relief anthology Outpouring. [JH]
(8) YOU ASKED FOR IT. There’s no hiding from the truth. PronounceNames.com cites this authority for “How to say or pronounce Jekyll”:
Letter to the Times, Nov. 28, 1980:
Sir,
Mr Roger Lancelyn Green (25 November) asks whether it is known how Robert Louis Stevenson intended the name of Dr Jekyll should be pronounced. Fortunately a reporter from the San Francisco Examiner, who interviewed Stevenson in his hotel bedroom in San Francisco on 7 June 1888, asked him that very question:
‘There has been considerable discussion, Mr Stevenson, as to the pronunciation or Dr Jekyll’s name. Which do you consider to be correct?’
Stevenson (described as propped up in bed ‘wearing a white woollen nightdress and a tired look’) replied: ‘By all means let the name be pronounced as though it spelt “Jee-kill”, not “Jek-ill”. Jekyll is a very good family name in England, and over there it is pronounced in the manner stated.’
Yours faithfully, Ernest Mehew
(9) CSI ARIZONA. [Item by Joey Eschrich.] Two new videos from Center for Science and the Imagination events are of interest to fans.
First, the latest episode of CSI Skill Tree, our series on video games, worldbuilding, and futures thinking, features the classic science fiction strategy game Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, with special guests Arkady Martine, author of the Hugo Award–winning novel A Memory Called Empire, as well as a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a climate and energy policy expert, and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, a science fiction scholar at the University of Oslo and principal investigator of the European Research Council Project CoFUTURES.
Second, the latest in our Science Fiction TV Dinner series (which we don’t usually record), featuring Ellipse, a short science fiction film about the search for life in the cosmos, with special guests Ilana Rein, the film’s director and writer, and Sara Walker, an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist and the deputy director of Arizona State University’s Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ht9joO6n8
(10) FREE READ. Publisher’s Pick’s Free Ebook of the Month is Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow.
One of the original novels of post-nuclear-holocaust America, The Long Tomorrow is considered by many to be one of the finest science fiction novels ever written on the subject. The story has inspired generations of new writers and is still as mesmerizing today as when it was originally written.
…But procuring a vintage tray, from one of the most celebrated and historic Southern California establishments, is an experience that’s as exciting as finding the last tempting dish of red Jell-O wobbling in your favorite cafeteria’s dessert section.
That’s just what will happen for some fans of Clifton’s Cafeteria.
The destination, which first opened in 1931, is well-known for its woodsy theme, its various levels, its small chapel, and its many decades of feeding Angelenos seeking a solid and affordable meal.
It closed for renovations for about a half decade, then reopened in 2015 with a number of new bars, including, eventually, the tiki-themed Pacific Seas on its upper level.
…Author Ray Bradbury enjoyed his 89th birthday at Clifton’s Cafeteria, a place dear to his heart. The Science Fiction Club met at the Broadway restaurant for many years back in the 1930s and ’40s, and Mr. Bradbury was a devoted regular.
To show gratitude to the author for being a longtime friend to Clifton’s, the cafeteria presented a tray, cheerfully wrapped in colorful birthday paper, to the acclaimed writer, a nostalgic and meaningful gift.
If a decades-old Clifton’s tray might hold that same meaning for you, or someone in your family or life, purchase yours here, sending support to the history-famous destination during the closure….
(12) ALL ABOARD. Which will be under your Christmas tree?
…This new Hogwarts Express LionChief Set now features two passenger cars and one Dementors Coach with sounds!
What sounds those are they don’t say, but I can guess.
And the Bradford Exchange is hustling a Star Trek Express Train Collection with the one and only “Science Officer Spock – Live Long and Prosper dome car” which just amuses the heck out of me.
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Cat Eldridge, James Davis Nicoll, Andrew Porter, Mike Kennedy, John Hertz, Michael Toman, Joey Eschrich, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
Michelle Sagara lives in Toronto with her long-suffering husband and her two children, and to her regret has no dogs. Reading is one of her life-long passions, and she is sometimes paid for her opinions about what she’s read by the venerable Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. No matter how many bookshelves she buys, there is Never Enough Shelf space. Ever.
By Michella Sagara: I’d like to talk a little bit about an aspect of The Emperor’s Wolves.
So, as is often the case, I’ll start with what might appear to be a digression. When writing a fantasy novel—or an SF novel that is not set in the near present—the question of worldbuilding always arises. Reading—for me—requires a willing suspension of disbelief. The world that is built to support the story has to feel real enough that the suspension of disbelief is not taxed to the breaking point. This doesn’t mean that the world will necessarily stand greater scrutiny and infinite nit-picking; it doesn’t mean that the writer has to be able to answer every single question that a reader might think to ask.
Every writer works differently; everyone processes information and assigns importance to it in their own way. There is overlap, but sometimes it’s the outer edges that define the approach. And I’m going to talk a bit about mine.
When I wrote Hunter’s Oath, the worldbuilding was detail oriented, in that it revolved and evolved around the hunters. But in the creation of the society, one of my driving forces was: I want to have a nobility that is actually respected; I want people to view them in a specific way. What would that require? How would such respect remain constant? The Sacred Hunt came out of that desire.
When I moved to the Empire, in the same world, what I wanted was a more modern sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Since the fantasy world has Kings, how can the rulership be constant? Power centralized in the hands of a very few is too easy to abuse, and a good king can give rise almost immediately to a bad one. People’s character is heavily rooted in their sense cultural sense of ‘normal’. How do I create a society in which a modern sense of right and wrong – and when I say modern I mean almost twenty-five years ago – is the norm in a totally different world?
When I approached the Cast series, it was less heavily world-built. What I wanted was a narrower focus that would be more accessible—something I was not perhaps great at when I first started writing. I wanted to focus on the viewpoint of a single character, who is over-focused on her job and not terribly aware of the struts of the politics that underlay it. Kaylin is therefore the equivalent of a police officer.
The glimpses of the intelligence behind the laws that govern the Empire is definitely not hers. But it definitely does exist.
In The Emperor’s Wolves, the main character is not Kaylin Neya. It’s Severn Handred. He, too, started his working life in the Halls of Law. He didn’t start it in the same department that Kaylin did.
In the Halls of Law, it’s the Wolves that most directly obey the Emperor’s orders. The Emperor, a Dragon, is therefore more involved with the Wolves than with any other branch of the Halls of Law.
Although the Hawks, Swords and Wolves occupy the same Halls of Law, much less is known about the Wolves. Sometimes called the Emperor’s assassins, their orders are handed down from the Emperor. But the man who has been, since their inception, in charge of recruiting and training doesn’t understand either the need for their existence or their purpose. He’s Barrani, and just as immortal as the Emperor—but not as powerful.
The Barrani understand power and its exercise; assassination is almost a game in the long, slow attempt to gain that power. Power is the only safety. Without it, you are forever at the mercy of others who are more powerful. This is the way the world works; it’s the way the world has always worked.
It is not the way the Emperor wants the world to work.
The thought exercise for the background of these novels is this: you have several different races, some of whom are immortal, most of whom are not. They are densest in the capital city, Elantra, because much of the power has been concentrated in the geographical area in which the greatest threat lies: the heart of the city is also a wilderness of wild, ancient, magic, and the city itself a method of containing that magic so that it can’t destroy the rest of the world.
You want to rule this Empire. You want to do so without turning the various people who will become your citizens into piles of blended ash. You want to create a country that’s a container for citizens who would otherwise be that ash, possibly worse. You know that none of them pose an immediate threat, and while life is unpredictable, you are fairly confident that that won’t change any time in the foreseeable future. You know very, very few of these citizens in person; mortals age and die so quickly.
It is your Empire. It is the most important thing in your life. It is the cause to which you have devoted your eternity. You aren’t foolish enough to believe that you will never die—but you wish what remains of the Empire to continue in some fashion long after you have.
How do you build toward that future? What laws beyond Do Not Piss Off the Emperor should exist? What laws will allow the citizens of your Empire to mostly live in peace? Those laws are of little consequence to you personally. How can you enforce those laws across tens of thousands of people you will never meet or personally interact with?
What steps can you take to inhibit the enforcers of the law from becoming a law and a power unto themselves? Accepting that human nature—or any other nature—is what it is, how do you prevent the darker elements of that nature from becoming the only elements that count?
Elantra, imperfect, is the Emperor’s answer.
ABOUT THE EMPEROR’S WOLVES (THE WOLVES OF ELANTRA BOOK 1)
Multiple races carefully navigate the City of Elantra under the Dragon Emperor’s wing. His Imperial Wolves are executioners, the smallest group to serve in the Halls of Law. The populace calls them assassins.
Every wolf candidate must consent to a full examination by the Tha’alani, one of the most feared and distrusted races in Elantra for their ability to read minds. Most candidates don’t finish their job interviews.
Severn Handred, the newest potential recruit, is determined to face and pass this final test—even if by doing so he’s exposing secrets he has never shared.
When an interrogation uncovers the connections to a two-decade-old series of murders of the Tha’alani, the Wolves are commanded to hunt. Severn’s first job will be joining the chase. From the High Halls to the Tha’alani quarter, from the Oracles to the Emperor, secrets are uncovered, tensions are raised and justice just might be done…if Severn can survive.
The editors at Audible.com have selected The Best Audiobooks of 2020. The complete list of winners in all categories is here.
One genre work made the overall Top 10, the top pick in the Fantasy category —
FANTASY
WINNER: The Sandmanby Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs Performed by Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Neil Gaiman, James McAvoy, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis, Michael Sheen
NOTE: The latest WordPress “improvement” has eliminated the default quote format I have been using for years. I have to decide on a workaround, but for today quotes will be LARGE.
(1) F&SF COVER REVEALED. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction’s Jan/Feb 2021 cover art is by Kent Bash.
(2) NO SFWANS NEED APPLY. Longshot Press owner Daniel Scott White tweeted about his current business model on December 3.
Two of his magazines were the subject of complaints last February, covered by File 770’s roundup: “Is This Practice Unreal or Unfit? It’s Both”. The first paragraph explains the issue:
Unreal and Unfit magazines use Thinkerbeat Reader to “chart… the authors that we thought did really well with a story submission.” But these are not stories they bought – six days ago they tweeted out a link to the list of stories they rejected. The page had names, titles, and a rating between one and five stars. One problem: none of the authors had given them permission to do so.
Nine months later, Longshot Press is now trying to discredit SFWA in its post “A Clear Bias at the SFWA”.
Why does the SFWA post fake news? Why do they exhibit so much bias? There are a number of cases, but let’s begin with a solid example.
The SFWA issued a warning (via Writer Beware) stating that Thinkerbeat was the publisher of both the Unfit and Unreal magazines. This has never been the case. They have always been published by us, Longshot Press. Why didn’t the SFWA check the facts? Why did they mislead the public? Why, most importantly, haven’t they removed the false statement? Here is the statement they made:
The Board of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is issuing a warning regarding short fiction publisher Thinkerbeat (wrong!), which publishes the semi-pro magazines “Unfit” and “Unreal.” (wrong!) The publisher (wrong!) publicly posts lists of rejected stories along with the author’s name and a numeric score.
This publisher’s (wrong!) behavior is far outside of industry standards and is contrary to the interests of writers. Humiliating writers, betraying their trust, and violating their privacy is not acceptable.
Jim C. Hines breaks down Longshot Press’ case in a Twitter thread that starts here.
Their statement holds true: "This publisher’s behavior is far outside of industry standards and is contrary to the interests of writers. Humiliating writers, betraying their trust, and violating their privacy is not acceptable."
(3) THE LAST SALVO. Sarah Gailey winds up their Personal Canons series with a comment and a table of links to all the posts: “Personal Canons: On Endings”.
…I was absolutely staggered by the response to my open call for submissions. Many people published essays of their own. (One of my favorites belongs to Meg Elison, who wrote powerfully about The Neverending Story. DongWon Song also wrote beautifully about the notion of canon as “outdated, colonialist, racist, sexist, and anti-queer.”). Multiple anonymous donors sent generous funds to help me purchase a higher volume of essays than I would have been able to on my own. Several of my brilliant colleagues got in touch with contributions to the series, waiving payment so I could bring in more voices from among submissions.
And oh, wow, the submissions. They were an absolute embarrassment of riches. I had the honor of reading an incredible range of pieces from writers around the world. There were reflections on gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, race, ethnicity, upbringing, religion, and more. Some of the pieces were sharp and funny; some of them were meditative and nuanced; some of them grappled hard with tarnished legacies and shifting identities.
All of them were powerful love letters to the stories that made us who we are today….
… “The Hollow Lands is a beautiful piece of work, building on An Alien Heat with musical subtlety and intelligence,” says Moorcock. “I am delighted by the interpretation and can’t wait to hear the resolution to this amazing project! They are a wonderful complement to what is one of my own favourite sequences and I could not hope for a better interpretation.”
The Hollow Lands is a continuation of a trilogy of Moorcock’s stories, dubbed The Dancers At The Ends Of Time series, that began with An Alien Heat, released in 2018. For this second instalment, Falcone has assembled a stellar cast of progressive rock luminaries including Blue Öyster Cult members Albert Bouchard, Eric Bloom, Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and Joe Bouchard, Hawkwind associates Harvey Bainbridge, Steve Bemand, Bridget Wishart, Adrian Shaw and Dead Fred as well as Nektar’s Ron Howden, Strawbs‘ Chas Cronk, and many more!
It seems reasonable to distinguish between worlds that were lost by accident and those that were misplaced on purpose. Similarly, one can distinguish between worlds that have since been recontacted and ones that are still on their own. Thus, four basic flavours….
The director is returning to TV after 50 years, with a drama about two androids raising humans on a far planet. He talks about working through lockdown, doing big adverts for China – and living on £75 a week.
(7) MEDIA ANNIVERSARY.
Forty years ago, Manly Wade Wellman would win the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. He’s known for his fantasy and horror stories set in the Appalachian Mountains, which draw on the native folklore of that region. His best known creations are John the Balladeer, Judge Pursuivant and John Thunstone. He would be inducted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame several years later.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
Born December 9, 1848 – Joel Chandler Harris. JCH’s Tales of Uncle Remus are brilliant fantasy. They’re also wretchedly racist. They weren’t originally; he collected them from Southern blacks, who were telling their own folklore; his retelling ran them through his own mind; he made them popular, and he slanted them. Should he be applauded? Here is a report on the Wren’s Nest, JCH’s house made into a museum by his great-great-great-grandson, whose name is – Shakespeare. Here is its Website. I could say JCH’s Shakespeare is a monkey’s uncle, or maybe godfather, but this is complicated enough. (Died 1908) [JH]
Born December 9, 1900 – Margaret Brundage. High-school classmate of Walt Disney (“I finished. He didn’t”). Working in pastels on illustration board she became the lead cover artist for Weird Tales. Her lead subject was nude and semi-nude women. Those issues sold; some found them offensive. Here is The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage (from the Jan 38 WT; another cover used this from the Oct 33 WT). She was the first to illustrate Conan the Barbarian, and Jirel of Joiry; she seems to have been the first woman graphic artist in SF. We just voted her a Retrospective Hugo as Best Pro Artist of 1944. (Died 1976) [JH]
Born December 9, 1926 — Kirk Douglas. He’s best remembered as Spartacus, but he’s was on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (in the lead roles), Saturn 3, Seven Days in May and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea plus he showed up on Tales from the Crypt and Touched by an Angel. He was also the very last recipient of the Ray Bradbury Creativity Award which was presented to him by Bo Derek. Did you know that Kirk and Ray did a Japanese coffee commercial together? See here.(Died 2020.) (CE)
Born December 9, 1934 — Judi Dench, 86. M in a lot of Bond films. Aereon in The Chronicles of Riddick, Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love which is at genre adjacent, Society Lady in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Miss Avocet in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Her very first genre film in the late Sixties, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was poorly received by critics and I recall her role being a mostly nude and sexy faerie. No, I’m not mentioning Cats. Really I’m not. (CE)
Born December 9, 1947 — Sarah Smith, 73. She has authored King of Space, a work of genre fiction published as a hypertext novel by Eastgate System, one of the first such works. She’s written two conventional genre novels, The Knowledge of Water and The Other Side of Dark, plus a double handful of short fiction and essays. (CE)
Born December 9, 1948 – Curt Stubbs. Central to Phoenix fandom, a founder of the Central Arizona SF Society and of LepreCon. Guest of Honor at MileHiCon 11 and TusCon 8. See this appreciation, with a tribute from Jeanne Grace Jackson and a short heartfelt note from Teresa Nielsen Hayden who rarely speaks here. (Died 2019) [JH]
Born December 9, 1952 – Nicki Lynch, age 68. She and husband Richard Lynch have done much together; his birthday was December 4th, so you can see their joint honors there; I can’t omit that their fanzine Mimosa won six Hugos; you can see it electronically here; and I point you again to a good write-up of them, with a good photo too, here. They contribute separately to SFPA (in this case not the SF Poetry Ass’n but the Southern Fandom Press Alliance, an apa), a fine fannish custom. [JH]
Born December 9, 1952 — Michael Dorn, 68. Best known for his role as the Klingon Worf in Trek franchise. Dorn has appeared on-screen in more Star Trek episodes and movies as the same character than anyone else. He also played at least one other character in the Trek universe. Rumoured to be appearing in the second season of Picard. (CE)
Born December 9, 1970 — Kevin Hearne, 50. I have really enjoyed the Iron Druid Chronicles. Though I’ll confess that I’ve not yet read the spin-off series, Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries. Yeah, it really, really does exist. Sausages figure prominently. (CE)
Born December 9, 1976 – Michelle Muenzler, age 44. Fifty short stories, two dozen poems, in Apex, Daily SF, The Colored Lens, Electric Velocipede, Space and Time, Star*Line. Also a Broken Cities novella. Also bakes Turkish-coffee shortbread. [JH]
Designed by Laura Jean Shannon (Titans, Black Lightning) and built by her LA-based supersuit team in conjunction with Creative Character Engineering, Hoechlin’s new costume feels very much in line with recent big-screen interpretations on the character. Shannon streamlined the look by ditching the thick cape straps, gave him a sleek new belt, and brightened the Man of Steel’s signature shield (Never forget, the S stands for “hope”).
Furthermore, there’s a very practical reason for why Hoechlin is receiving a new suit. “Originally, [Hoechlin] came on for the crossovers and that suit wasn’t built to sustain a series,” Superman & Lois showrunner Todd Helbing revealed at DC FanDome in September.
The newest addition to the CW’s superhero universe, Superman & Lois follows Clark Kent (Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Tulloch) as they juggle working (and saving the world) and raising their two teenage sons, Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alexander Garfin) after moving back to Smallville.
(10) FOR PEANUTS FANS. The Library of America hosts a virtual event, “Peanuts at 70: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and The Meaning of Life,” a conversation with Sarah Boxer, Jonathan Lethem, Clifford Thompson, and Chris Ware; Andrew Blauner, moderator, on Wednesday, December 16 from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Registration required at Eventbrite.
In 1950 Charles M. Schulz debuted a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. The Peanuts characters continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself.
Join editor Andrew Blauner and four distinguished contributors to the LOA collection The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life, for a seventieth anniversary conversation reflecting on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple strip and its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture.
… Unlike that huge needle that went right through the amber and into the mosquito in that iconic scene from Jurassic Park, extracting DNA from fossilized insects in amber often involves soaking the sample in chloroform to free the inset. The researchers found out this only fast-forwards the degradation process. DNA starts breaking apart almost immediately after death. Amber that has survived a hundred million years has already gone through enough.
A 15-kilometer “Sistine Chapel” of Ice Age rock art has been found along the Colombian Amazon. It includes depictions of now-extinct animals like mastodons, giant sloths, and paleollamas.
…First, creating and implementing national space policy needs to be a whole-of-government process that integrates perspectives, capabilities, and interests from across all relevant federal agencies. In 2016, the Trump administration revived the National Space Council to formalize a separate space policy process and raise its visibility within the federal bureaucracy and the public. The Biden administration should continue to use the National Space Council as the main body for developing and coordinating national space policy. They can build on the Council’s success by staffing it with experts who understand both the interagency process and the importance of space, and by reforming the Council’s existing User Advisory Group to increase the representation of a diverse range of users of space services and applications.
SPACE SUSTAINABILITY
Of immediate concern to nearly everyone in the space industry is the growing risk from orbital debris, which consists of dead satellites, spent rocket stages, and other pieces that have accumulated in orbit around Earth over the last 60 years. The on-going deployment of large constellations of thousands of commercial satellites only heightens discussions concerning the risks of space debris and collision with other spacecraft, as well as challenges to space traffic management and risk of radiofrequency interference amongst all current and future spacecraft….
(14) PLANETARY DEFENSE DRILL. Jeff Foust makes “The case for Apophis” at The Space Review.
On April 13, 2029—a Friday the 13th—the asteroid Apophis will pass remarkably close to the Earth, coming within 31,000 kilometers of the Earth’s surface, or closer than satellites in geostationary orbit. In late 2004, shortly after its discovery, astronomers projected at one point a 1-in-37 chance of a collision in 2029, but additional observations soon ruled out any impact. A small risk of an impact in April 2036 lingered for a few years, particularly if the asteroid passed through a narrow “keyhole” of space near Earth during its 2029 flyby (see “Sounding an alarm, cautiously”, The Space Review, May 31, 2005), but that, too, has since been ruled out.
With the near-term risk of an impact eliminated, Apophis has shifted from a threat to an opportunity. That 2029 close flyby makes the asteroid, several hundred meters across, an ideal target for studies by ground-based telescopes and radars. It also puts it in reach of spacecraft missions, including relatively small, low-cost ones.
(15) LOG ON. The Doctor Who Festive Holiday Yule Log is part of Christmas on the TARDIS courtesy of BBC America.
Give your holiday season some cozy Doctor Who cheer with a crackling fire, some biscuits, and a few Thirteenth Doctor surprises! Can you spot all the hidden festive secrets?
(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In Avarya on Vimeo.
Embarked on a spaceship in the hope of finding a new habitable planet, the human trapped in his own ship after the robot overseer finds every single candidate planet unsuitable. Eventually the human finds a way out, but that will only reveal a dark secret
[Thanks to Rob Thornton, John King Tarpinian, Anne Marble, Michael Toman, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Cat Eldridge, John Hertz, Gordon Van Gelder, Kathy Sullivan, Cath Jackel, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
The award was created by the VanderMeers because they “consider it vital, as part of the literary community, to support writers in that community. During these uncertain times it is even more important to recognize talent and reward it for creativity and risk-taking.”
Every year, the VanderMeer Creative Spotlight Award, consisting of $1,000 and a medallion, will provide an extra boost to writers they feel are doing great work and deserve wider reader recognition. It’s not a genre-specific award, however, one of the initial winners, Kai Ashante Wilson, writes sff.
Martha Grover is an author, poet, and folk artist living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of two memoirs: One More for the People (Perfect Day Publishing) and The End of My Career (Perfect Day Publishing). The End of My Career was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in 2017. Grover’s work has also appeared in The Collagist, Vol.1 Brooklyn, and The Portland Mercury. She has been publishing her zine, Somnambulist, since 2003 and is currently at work on a fantasy novel called The Marvels of Hataron. Her third book of poetry and lyric essays, How I Survived, will be published in 2021.
Kai Ashante Wilson is a fiction writer living in New York City. The 2010 Octavia Butler scholar at the Clarion writing workshop, Wilson won the Crawford award for best first novel of 2016, and his works have been shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. Most of his stories can be read, gratis, at Tor.com. His novellas The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps and A Taste of Honey have received wide critical acclaim.
VanderMeer Creative represents the creative endeavors of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and engages in charitable giving to arts organizations, environmental groups, and political efforts on a local, national, and international level.
