(1) C. E. Murphy is “home from Octocon” with several good stories.
I brought about eight pounds of fudge to the con, and passed it out to the attendees of the Golden Blasters film festival on Friday night. Probably the best two bits of that were saying to people, “If you’re allergic to anything except gluten you can’t eat this, but it’s gluten-free,” and having one woman LIGHT UP when she was told it was gluten-free and safe for her to eat. (Eggs, dairy, corn, nuts: basically all those things go into my fudge unless I’m making Special Batches.) The other best bit was handing a box of vanilla-and-cranberry fudge over to my friend (and guest of honour!) Maura McHugh, who doesn’t like chocolate and who put on an expression of Noble Acceptance of Not Getting Fudge when I came through waving the batch of chocolate fudge. But I was prepared for her, and she shrieked and leapt up and hugged me. 🙂
(2) A six-part Frankenstein horror series starring Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean has been acquired by A&E for broadcast in the U.S., according to Variety.
The Frankenstein Chronicles was created by British production house ITV, and features six hour-long episodes set in 1827 London. Bean plays inspector John Marlott, on a search for a murderer who leaves behind a trail of mutilated body parts which have been assembled into complete human forms.
Set in 19th century London, the show will include plenty of gas lamps, horses, and opium — a bust of an opium den is reportedly how Bean’s character stumbles upon the trail of Dr. Frankenstein, and or his monster, in the first place.
But does Sean Bean survive the first season?
(3) The other day I ran a news item about Dean Wesley Smith, and in his latest post, “Writing workshops: caveat emptor”, Brad R. Torgersen says how much he learned at the Rusch/Smith workshop he attended.
One of the best things my wife and I ever did, was pony up some cash for my first writing workshop. Having endured years and years of rejection letters, by 2008 I was hoping to bust out of a serious slump. My wife asked the question, “What else can we do?” I’d never done workshops before. They were too expensive, and they required too much time away from work and home — especially the king of all science fiction and fantasy workshops, Clarion. But it was precisely because I’d never done a workshop before, that my wife and I determined to get me to one. She asked me which workshop looked best, for a “get your feet wet” event, and I chose the weekend-long Kris and Dean Show being put on in Lincoln City, Oregon, at the eclectic Anchor Inn — by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. This was June of 2009. It turned out to be something of a watershed event, for me as an aspiring professional. In two delightfully exhausting days, Kris and Dean ran the table: from matters of craft, to matters of publishing, as well as self-promotion, book-keeping, personal writerly habits, known pitfalls, and of course myths and conventional (false) wisdoms.
I walked away feeling like I’d learned more in one weekend than in all the many hundreds of hours I’d spent reading “How to write books” books.
Torgersen, noting that most people need to be cost-conscious, offers practical advice about how a beginning writer can decide what workshops will meet his or her needs.
(4) Where better to make revelations about Gotham than at this weekend’s New York Comic Con?
Paul Reubens, the actor best known for his iconic role as Pee-Wee Herman, will play The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot’s father in “Gotham” season two, star Robin Lord Taylor revealed during the show’s panel at New York Comic Con.
“He will be showing up very soon,” Taylor teased, before letting his fan enthusiasm out. “Pee-Wee Herman is playing my dad! What the hell? Oh my god!”
Fittingly, Reubens has already played the role of the Batman villain’s father before — he appeared as Tucker Cobblepot in 1992’s “Batman Returns.”
(5) Another George R.R. Martin work has been optioned for television – “Cinemax Orders SKIN TRADE Script”.
I am very excited to announce the Cinemax (HBO’s sister company) has optioned the television rights to “The Skin Trade,” the offbeat “werewolf noir” novella I penned back in the late 80s. The deal is closed, and Cinemax has ordered the pilot script. This being Hollywood, of course, you never know where things will end… but if they like the script, we’ll shoot a pilot, and if they like that, hey, who knows, maybe we’ll get a series on the air. Which would be very cool. I have always thought there was a TV series (or maybe a feature film) in Willie Flambeaux and Randi Wade….
“The Skin Trade” has had a storied, and complex, publishing history. It was originally written for NIGHT VISION 5, the fifth volume of the prestigious annual horror anthology from the late lamented small press Dark Harvest, where it appeared together with original contributions from Dan Simmons and Stephen King, some stellar company. The novella was very well received, and went on to win that year’s World Fantasy Award.
More recently, the novella was purchased by Mike the Pike Productions, who played a big part in taking the project to Cinemax. To handle the adaptation, script the pilot, and produce the show (should we get a greenlight), we’ve tapped a terrific talented young scriptwriter named KALINDA VAZQUEZ, whose previous credits include work on PRISON BREAK and ONCE UPON A TIME….
(6) Europa SF profiles Science Fiction Studies Special issue On Italian Science Fiction.
Here is the direct link — Science Fiction Studies #126 – Volume 42, Part 2 – July 2015, SPECIAL ISSUE ON ITALIAN SCIENCE FICTION, Edited by Umberto Rossi, Arielle Saiber, and Salvatore Proietti.
(7) Science fiction writer Patrick S. Tomlinson is quoted in the recent Washington Post article “Most gun owners support restrictions. Why aren’t their voices heard?”
Once again, their voices are missing from the debate.
Gun owners who favor tighter restrictions on firearms say they are in the same position after the mass shooting in Oregon as they have been following other rampages — shut out of the argument.
The pattern, they say, is frustrating and familiar: The what-should-be-done discussion pits anti-gun groups against the National Rifle Association and its allies, who are adamantly opposed to any new restrictions on weapons…..
“There’s this perception that people are neatly divided into folks who want an M1A1 Abrams battle tank to drive to work and those who want to melt every last gun and bullet into doorstops,” said Patrick Tomlinson, a science-fiction writer and gun owner in Milwaukee who favors universal background checks and longer waiting periods for gun purchases. “There seems to be no middle there, but I know there is. I’m in it.”
Tomlinson has two novels out with a third on the way, and his short fiction has appeared in anthologies.
(8) Slate blogger Marissa Visci answers the question, “What Does It Mean When a Book is Stamped With the Words ‘Author’s Preferred Text’?”
Sifting through Slate’s mailroom recently, we found a new edition of Neil Gaiman’s first novel, Neverwhere, with three words printed beneath the title on its glossy cover: “author’s preferred text.” It’s not the first time those words have graced a Gaiman cover—you’ll also find them on the 10th-anniversary edition of American Gods. So we wondered: What does this mean? What is an “author’s preferred text?” And what makes one text more preferred than other texts?
It turns out that the “author’s preferred text” is the director’s cut of the literary world, only far less ubiquitous. The definition is, in part, pretty self-explanatory: It’s the version of a particular work that the writer prefers, editorial interference be damned. The phenomenon is not limited to Gaiman, though he may be its most frequent practioner. Stephen King released a mammoth new edition of The Stand, subtitled Complete and Uncut, in 1990, in which he not only restored gargantuan passages that had been cut in the editing process, but moved the story’s time period ahead by a decade….
For Gaiman, the “author’s preferred text” is, in part, a way of restoring some of the text that was lost in translation during its Americanization. One thing that the new edition reinstates is some of the humor that Gaiman claims was eliminated from the initial U.S. version, as he wrote in his intro:
My editor at Avon Books, Jennifer Hershey, was a terrific and perceptive editor; our major disagreement was the jokes. She didn’t like them and was convinced that American readers would not be able to cope with jokes in a book that wasn’t meant solely to be funny.
(9) And Neil Gaiman will be appearing on stage, unencumbered by editors, at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center in Long Beach on November 14. Details here.
The bestselling and award-winning author—whose notable works include the comic book series The Sandman as well as novels Coraline, Stardust, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, and extends to screenplays, song lyrics, poetry, journalism and multimedia—appears for one inspiring evening!
(10) Efforts to restore an old B-29 to flightworthiness continue to pay off.
Doc is a B-29 Superfortress and one of 1,644 manufactured in Wichita during World War II. Since 1987 when Tony Mazzolini found Doc on sitting and rotting away in the Mojave Desert, plans have been in the works to restore the historic warbird to flying status to serve as a flying museum.
They now have all four engines running.
(11) Honest Trailers – Aladdin has been created to commemorate the movie’s 25th anniversary.
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, David K.M. Klaus, Roger Tener, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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Fifth!
More substantively, I’m currently reading Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor and am quite enjoying it, although the pidgin sections do slow me down a bit as I puzzle out what’s being said. And IIRC, discussion seemed to agree that it’s eligible for nomination this coming Hugos?
And on the train of thought Frankenstein -> Cumberbatch -> Hamlet…
First!
#2 – As I’ve noted elsewhere, Sean Bean seems to have broken the duck with his last couple of flicks (that I saw him in), so he may actually make it out of this one!
Uhm…Third Fifth?
Five/Thirds?
::tickbox::
80%!
Wow, that Aladdin thing was even worse than I thought it would be.
one two three four go!
Has anyone read “Saturn Run” by John Sanford and Ctein? I read the sample and really liked it. The storyline sounds interesting – a near future space race between the US and China to reach an alien spacecraft that’s discovered heading toward Saturn. Sanford’s won Pulitzers but never done SF before. Ctein isn’t a writer, but was technical science consultant.
Not sure when I’ll start it ::eyes TBR-Hugo:: Before Thanksgiving?
Since I finished Ancillary Mercy and ‘cleared my palette’, any suggestions for which novel to start next (I’ve sort of decided to go SF, fantasy, SF…for reasons)? Choices are:
The Watchmaker of Filligree Street
Touch
Updraft
The House of Shattered Wings
(3) I guess that workshop was so exhausting that Brad was asleep when Kris and Dean were talking about self-promotions, pitfalls, and “writerly habits”. They’re both plenty opinionated, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen either of them advise:
— whining that people are meanies to “only” nominate you for a major award
— you should game the nominations because of said butt-hurt, and then
— insult the voters, plus throw in with a chauvinist pig/white supremacist and
— waste your valuable fiction-writing time doing all this.
Hope this doesn’t get them a flood of Puppy students. Nobody needs that.
(4) So he’s the dude you hire for this part, I guess? He is a good choice.
(5) For a story that’s been reprinted and redone so often, I’ve never heard of it before today.
(8) And they generally aren’t as good as the originals — just longer.
@junego: I really, really liked “Watchmaker” and put it on my list. It’ll be a palate cleanser.
lurkertype: I didn’t see Torgersen raise any of these Sad Puppy talking points. What I read looked like useful professional advice.
I bought it today and started it. I will report back.
Useful professional advice Brad’s forgotten in the years since he went to that workshop, apparently. Maybe he should take it again?
I guess you can lead a horse (or Puppy) to water, but etc. All’s I’m saying is, if someone as clearly unprofessional* as Brad has become credited my workshop with turning the tide, I’d be asking him politely never to mention my name again. Bad for business. Luckily Kris and Dean will probably be remembered long after Brad and the boys are forgotten.
*(both morally and in getting saleable words down on paper. One could debate the former, but the latter’s a fact; all this Puppy blathering doesn’t generate pay like spending the same amount of time and energy that writing fiction would. And making money by selling words is the definition of “professional writer”.)
A few people sent me honest trailers in the past but I rarely found them funny. They do seem to be marmite humour
(And someday I’ll remember to tick the box)
I only read The Watchmaker but I really really liked it.
What is the period of eligibility for the Hugo?
junego: Since I finished Ancillary Mercy and ‘cleared my palette’, any suggestions for which novel to start next?
I just finished Touch and loved it. It’s dark in a lot of places, but the protagonist’s tendency to turn the lives of all their hosts around into something positive was a nice counterpunch to the really dark stuff that’s been published this year.
Mike Glyer: I didn’t see Torgersen raise any of these Sad Puppy talking points. What I read looked like useful professional advice.
The problem is that what Torgersen says and what Torgersen actually does are usually two very different things.
Anna Feruglio Dal Dan: What is the period of eligibility for the Hugo?
It’s anything which was released for the first time in the previous calendar year.
However, things which were previously released in other country(ies) but only just released in the U.S. this past year have usually been deemed to have had a “limited release” prior to this and are still eligible.
The basic rule is “first publication in previous calendar year”. I.e. stuff first published in 2015 are eligible for Hugo in 2016.
Then there’s some special rules about “first publication”. Quoting from http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-categories/:
In addition there seems to be a traditions of sorts to pass resolutions at the Business Meeting to extend the eligibility of individual works, if they have had a very limited release – this is mostly relevant for movies that are shown at some obscure film festival one year and get a big cinema release the next. But that has to be done in advance, and as a formal resolution. A movie shown at festivals in 2014 is not eligible in 2016 if there wasn’t a resolution about it at the Sasquan BM.
RE: Tomlinson. I’ve met Patrick. He’s a good guy, and his politics and beliefs are more nuanced and complicated than the false binary set up. I’ve only heard an excerpt from his first novel, but liked what I heard. Haven’t read it yet.
Filth! Er, Invisibles! Er…
I’m a fair way through The House of Shattered Wings. I’m enjoying it but it hasn’t quite grabbed me with delight the way her recent novella The Citadel of Weeping Pearls did. I suspect my overall opinion will depend on whether the ending wraps things up in a satisfying way or not.
The other three are on the list. I thought Updraft looked really fun.
I watched the first episode of The Last Kingdom and it was pretty entertaining. Obviously it had no SF content as such, but I can see why the GoT comparison is being made – plenty of fighting (but no gratuitous nudity), and visually similar to the GoT north scenes in many ways, just lacking in zombies and giant ice walls. It’s actually better compared to Vikings though, as it contains actual vikings. You can also play “spot the well-known actor and wonder if they’re in the Sean Bean role.”
The Sean Bean roll is my most favorite sushi.
Apropos of nothing, I’d like to make everyone aware of Sub-Saharan Magazine, a month-old Nigerian SFF venue. It’s new, but there are some good stories on there already, and they accept submissions from outside Nigeria so long as the story involves an African culture.
I finished Castle Hangnail yesterday, and it is completely adorable!
Also, Rocket City Lit Fest was this weekend, and I appear to own 11 new books as a result of attending. This was the first year for RCLF. Overall they did a good job, but I wonder if any of the organizers have attended convention programming before.
* The program just had panel names without descriptions or participants, leading to me attending what I thought was a discussion of where to start reading graphic novels, but was actually a “how to get into the industry” panel, and a friend going to what she thought was a fantasy panel that was actually about movie fight scenes?
* At signing tables, the only times displayed were on small signs on the individual tables.
* They had VIP passes that guaranteed front row seats at main stage events, but didn’t mark the row in any way, so regular attendees weren’t aware the seating was restricted.
* More than once, a panel was cancelled, and the staff person in the room wasn’t informed – though at least the last one was marked at the door.
* More than once, panel locations were swapped, but the change wasn’t listed at the door or announced.
* They had readings, but nowhere did it mention that reading slots were 30 minutes, so people would turn up at 1, take up all the (extremely limited) seating, hear the author they wanted wasn’t there til 1:30 and clear out. The area for readings was also a set of low chairs and tables in a hallway that wasn’t marked in any way.
The latter two issues meant participants having to watch people get up and walk out of their programming without explanation, in addition to frustration for attendees. Fortunately, most of those have easy and obvious fixes.
Also new and from Africa is Omenana. I only came across it a few days ago and haven’t had a chance to read any of it yet, but it looks promising and Jonathan Edelstein’s post (thanks, Jonathan!) looks like a good excuse to mention it now.
@Jonathan Edelstein
Looks interesting, I’ll check out a story or two.
It’s not clear from the website who’s actually running the magazine – any ideas?
@ Mark: No, I don’t know who runs the magazine, and the web site doesn’t make it clear. I’ve asked around among the Nigerians I know, but I guess that if s/he wants to go public at some future time, s/he will do so.
@ Peter J: Thanks for that link – I didn’t know of Omenana, and it looks like some good stuff there.
I already linked it a couple of days ago, but since people are talking about African sfnal venues and in case people missed it: Nigerian Superhero Comics Start-Up. 🙂
@DMS:
Well, drat. I’m sorry to hear that’s how it went down. I couldn’t go, since I was in Seattle doing hands-on science at Geek Girl Con, but I was hoping RCLF would go well. With luck they’ll come back next year with structural improvements.
I don’t think it’s been pointed to in this thread yet; the latest comics bracket is here! Some great match ups, so don’t miss out on voting for your favourite. 😉
Thank you, Meredith!
Stephen Granade, I’ll go next year if they do it again. It was a lot of fun in spite of those issues. For example, once you figured out the Readings space, it was actually really cool. Everyone sitting around in comfy chairs with drinks was wonderfully less formal than a room set up for a panel, and the Q&A’s some did after readings were great. It just needed a nice big sign!
@DMS, re: Castle Hangnail, I had to send an emergency birthday present to my niece today (thank ghod for same-day shipping!) and I send her Castle Hangnail, and Harriet the Invincible/em>…
@Jonathan thanks for the link. I actually enjoyed Charaid Dreams by Rati Mehrotra in the magazine. Will probably make a submission soon. And @Mark, I believe I saw who runs the magazine while going through their About and Contact page. Nelson and Dinjos.
Today’s book arrivals: The Just City, The Buried Life, and Dead Heat. Many more on their way.
I am just going to start reading and may be some time.
Ancilliary Mercy arrived on Friday, managed to finish “Ash” this morning so just Justice and Sword to reread before I can start it.
Yay! Hope emergency niece enjoys them!
Kudos to editor Brian Z on today’s title. I was trying to think of something witty to say involving Chapterhouse Fives but then I fell down a Dune wormhole and wasn’t left with much except the kudos. This was my favorite of your latest.
Sadly, having looked at the blurb and the reviews, I doubt I will be reading The Just City; one of the problems with using known individuals in works of fiction is that you need to get them right. Admittedly most readers won’t realise just how ludicrous locating Plato’s ideal society in a thassalocracy is, but I do which knocks it off my TBR pile…
Re: (7): I think I see a third, fourth, and fifth rail in that item.
@RedWombat, I’m sure she will. I’ll be sure to give you her feedback when/if I hear from her.
It was one of those mornings when you look at the calendar and say “Holy sh!t!!! It’s (niece’s) birthday today! I thought it was next week!” I don’t normally like the Big South American River, but I have to admit they saved my bacon today; they have same-day delivery.
Hmm. The Fifth Gollum. Working title.
Well, the Big Wall O’Dinosaurs of the Carnegie Quarry was possibly more impressive than I expected – filling the building, while still dwarfed by the surrounding mountains. Allosaurus, Diplodocus, oh my!
And yay, Baby Stegosaurus!
Today involves driving across Nevada.
Johan P on October 12, 2015 at 2:12 am said:
It’s not a “tradition.” It’s a requirement of Section 3.4.3 of the WSFS Constitution:
Note that the definition of “extremely limited distribution” is effectively “whatever 2/3 of the people voting at the Business Meeting think is ‘extremely limited distribution.'” It’s not objectively defined. It’s guidance to the members of the Business Meeting when they vote whether or not to extend eligibility for an individual work.
Any work that isn’t automatically extended for one of the reasons noted above (first publication in English and first US publication) can be extended by vote of the Business Meeting. Otherwise, the general rule (Section 3.2.1) is “first published in the previous calendar year.”
The full list of technical extensions is listed in Section 3.4.
I miss driving long distances cross country. It just doesn’t work in Hawaii…
3- Brad Torgersen’s article is something I appreciate as a person who has been cautious about value when it comes to these workshops. When writing and learning more about the business and craft people have all sorts of stuff to sell you, especially towards self publishing, which often come across people more concerned with separating money from wallet rather than helpful.
If MGC did more articles like that I’d end up visiting being a reader rather than someone who mostly is exposed to them through splash quotes. I mean it’s probably not as much fun as writing dramatic speeches about the Marxists in our midst, but it’s far more interesting.
4- That sounds great and Penguin was one of the better characters out of Gotham season 1 but that whole show is such a mess and a letdown that I haven’t bothered to tune into season 2. And when I miss a couple episodes I just wait for a season to come out on DVD rather than play catch up.
7- I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot more gun owners who favored stronger restrictions. I think guns as weapons are fascinating and grew up target shooting. However as part of learning about guns it was drilled in my head to respect the dangers of it as a firearm. Never assume it’s unloaded, never point it at anyone for any reason unless you’re planning on shooting them, always be aware of the people around you when holding one, etc. Responsible gun owners would understand the need for more precautions.
It gets me with so many stories recently where if there were more gun carriers that it wouldn’t be a problem, instead of potentially increasing the body count due to crossfire situations. Not to mention if you’re the cops and you arrive on seen and two college students are shooting at each other you’re not going to take the time to figure out which one of them is the nutcase and which one trying to neutralize them. When people bring that garbage up I really wonder how much experience they have with firearms.
DPI, Robot
We flew in to Hilo back in 2000, and went to pick up the rental car (we were staying in Volcano). I mentioned that we were planning on driving over to Kailua-Kona the next day and was told “That’s a very long drive. Are you sure you want to drive that far?” I assured them that I was very capable of driving that far. (It’s all of a 90 minute drive from Volcano–I’ve had commutes home from work that have taken me nearly that long.)
Stevie –
I thought the book did a good job looking at the idea from many angles, along with addressing concerns like that along with many others. Considering it uses time travel, robots, and Greek Gods, the level of ludicrous is high yet I found it an enjoyable read with some great ideas and conversations to be had about it. Of course some things trip people more than others (hospital TV shows make me roll my eyes so often I risk serious injury) so it might not be for you anyway, but you might be dismissing something for a reason it addresses contextually.