(1) MIND MELD. SF Signal’s latest Mind Meld asks —
Q: What Speculative Fiction titles are you most looking forward to consuming in 2016?
The answers this time come from Rachel Cotterill, Fran Wilde, Lisa Taylor, Paul Weimer, Foz Meadows, Rachel Cordasco, Lynn Williams, Amanda Rutter, Robert Davis, Sally Ember, Ed.D., Nick Mamatas, Delilah S. Dawson, and Sunil Patel.
(2) ARE THE GUNS BIG ENOUGH? Camestros Felapton has added Sad Larry to his line of Hugo figure trading cards. Looks like he’s holding a pair of .32 Lego Specials. Hmm. May need to rethink that. Larry was shooting a .44 Magnum when he was eight years old, and later in life was a licensed machine gun dealer.
Camestros will post additional figure cards posted over the next few days. He says they are all male, and that he is worried about the gender balance of the collection.
So 9 figures only one of which *looks* female (by the crude standards of lego), only one of which is referred to as female and some which could be female. That’s a pretty bad showing. I really want to add some more but avoid anything that looks like I’m mocking somebody’s appearance.
Funny that someone who’s messing with Sad Larry thinks that is what he should be worrying about…
(3) GOING TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. George R.R. Martin’s update on the progress of The Winds of Winter indicated if the manuscript had been turned in by year-end it could have been out by March. Chris Lough at Tor.com explains how a book could be produced at warp speed in “How Could The Winds of Winter Be Published In Only Three Months?”
…The production process is broken into six steps below, with an overall explanation of how the process typically works, coupled with speculation on how that process could be condensed into a span of three months. It should be noted that some of the terminology used may be publisher-specific, even though the terminology describes a universal process within the industry….
(4) LITIGATION. The Last Unicorn Film Tour investors have filed a lawsuit against Connor Cochran. Support Peter Beagle’s summary is:
They’re suing Cochran for $450,000, based on the original investment, not to mention punitive damages for fraud and all legal costs incurred by them. You can read the sordid details here in Sandbox-Complaint-for-Damages.
(5) MARGULIES OBIT. Character actor David Margulies died January 11 of cancer at the age of 78. He was best known for playing the mayor in Ghostbusters and Tony Soprano’s sleazy lawyer. The New York Times recalled:
In “Ghostbusters” (1984) and “Ghostbusters II” (1989), he played the mayor, Lenny Clotch, who evoked the incumbent New York mayor at the time, Edward I. Koch. In the sequel, Mr. Margulies invokes a former mayor (“I spent an hour last night in my bedroom talking to Fiorello La Guardia, and he’s been dead for 40 years”) and expresses skepticism that the citizenry’s obnoxious behavior is to blame for the river of pink slime that is inundating the city.
“What am I supposed to do?” he asks the Ghostbusters team (including Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd). “Go on television and tell 10 million people they have to be nice to each other? Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right.”
(6) TODAY IN HISTORY
- January 13, 1128 — Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.
- January 13, 1930 – Mickey Mouse comic strip debuted in newspapers.
- January 13, 1957 – The Wham-O Company developed the first Frisbee.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
- Born January 13, 1893 — Clark Ashton Smith
- Born January 13, 1933 — Ron Goulart
(8) CAMPBELL AWARD PARAPHERNALIA. Okay, we’ll definitely be watching for this to show up.
Not sure if I can pull this off but I have 8 months to commission a Campbell Scepter for the #hugoawards
— Wesley Chu (@wes_chu) January 13, 2016
(9) NO SANITY CLAUS. Steve Davidson at Amazing Stories proves he’s as tired as anyone of writers who don’t finish in “F**K YOU, Dead Writers”.
The other day I was reading some commentary on George R.R. Martin’s FAILURE to meet his latest installment’s deadline and about how concerned he was regarding fan reaction.
Then, this morning, I was reading the comments to David Gerrold’s latest analysis of the CBS vs Axanar lawsuit and was reminded of David’s FAILURE to get the latest War with the Chtorr novel out – for 23 years,
And THAT reminded me of Harlan Ellison’s FAILURE to finish up a certain anthology I don’t dare mention by name for fear of invoking the wrath of Elcin, the wind god.
And THEN I was reminded of the fact that these living icons of science fictional disappointment are pikers compared to some.
You can not imagine how absolutely apoplectic I am about Robert A Heinlein. Or Arthur C. Clarke. Not to mention Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Eric Frank Russell, Fred Pohl, A. Bertram Chandler, Leigh Brackett, Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler, Henry Kuttner, Judith Merrill, C.L Moore, Doc Smith, Hamilton, Campbell, Bester, Chalker, Zelazny, Henderson, McCaffrey, Farmer, ….
You’re all dead and now you’ll NEVER finish ANYTHING! …
(10) CRITICAL MORASS. Lou Antonelli’s “On constructive criticism” manages to thread Lois Tilton, criticism, last year’s Hugos, and Catholic theology together on one string.
Most of the reviews of my short story “On a Spiritual Plain” boiled down to “The premise sucks, and it’s a weak story, and it’s badly written, and Lou Antonelli is a miserable human being, anyhow.”
Occasionally I was surprised by some genuinely thoughtful reviews. Any author worth his salt will recognize VALID criticisms. For example, saying a story of mine relies too much on dialogue and first person narration is valid; I lean on that a lot, and it indicates a weakness in my writing skills.
But IMHO, overall most so-called constructive criticism I hear simply reminds me (having been raised a Catholic) of original sin. Deep down, we’re all sinners, and it’s something we all have to fight constantly – to do good and help people, and improve the world.
Constructive criticism is usually just a justification for hatefulness.
(11) KNOW NOTHINGS. ScreenRant learned nothing about the next Star Trek series from an interview with the head of CBS Entertainment – because he doesn’t know anything either.
Despite being the launchpad for the new Star Trek series, CBS Entertainment’s new president Glen Geller revealed to Slashfilm that the show has been developed exclusively by and for the All Access streaming division.
“I’m not sure about the plans creatively for new characters. I don’t have anything to do with it. It really is for All Access. While the network will be broadcasting the pilot, I actually can’t answer any creative questions about it. I’m looking forward to seeing the new Star Trek. I think it’s going to be an exciting project.”
…While Geller says the new TV show will have no connection to the upcoming film, it may be inspired tonally by that franchise. Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote and produced the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), will executive produce the 2017 series. He’ll be joined by Heather Kadin, with whom he also produces CBS series Limitless and Scorpion.
The first episode of the sixth Star Trek series will have to be impressive enough to convince viewers to sign up for a subscription service to see the rest. Netflix has set a precedent for getting new fans to sign up in order to watch episodes of series like Orange is the New Black and Daredevil, and CBS will be hoping longtime Trek fans will be extra motivated. For $5.99 a month, viewers can watch the new Star Trek series, plus every episode of its five predecessors. The service also includes on-demand viewing and live streaming of many of CBS’s other shows.
Star Trek Beyond opens in U.S. theaters on July 22, 2016. The new Star Trek TV show will debut on CBS in January 2017.
(12) TOUGH TO BE TOLKIEN. Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison’s “Doing Tolkien Wrong” is a reprint of a 2005 article.
I was given The Hobbit for my sixth birthday, The Lord of the Rings for my ninth. I’ve read The Silmarillion. I own the extended edition DVDs of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King–even though I don’t own a DVD player. In other words, I love Tolkien as much as the next really geeky person.
So when I say that Tolkien is an affliction and a curse, you understand that I’m saying it for a reason.
Specifically, Tolkien is an affliction and a curse to fantasy writers. This is a horribly ungrateful thing to say, when it’s largely thanks to Tolkien that fantasy writers can exist as a sub-species today at all. Certainly it’s thanks to Tolkien that so many fantasy novels, especially series of novels, can get published. But, nevertheless, the genre has reached a point where Tolkien causes more problems than he solves.
The reason for this is that, while Tolkien was a genius and a godsend to readers prepared to love secondary-world fantasy, he is a terrible model for writers. And that for a number of reasons, ranging from, on the macro level, his use of the quest plot to, on the micro level, the nature of his prose style. Imitating Tolkien – in and of itself, not a bad idea – has become mired down in slavish adherence to his product, rather than careful attention to his process.
(13) DICK AWARD. Joel Cunningham’s post “This Year’s Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Take SF in Strange New Directions” at B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog gives the Hugos a little bump en route to praising his favorite sf award.
Sorry Hugos, but for my money, there’s no more interesting award in sci-fi than the ones named for Philip K. Dick. In the tradition of everyone’s favorite gonzo pulpist, the “PKD Award” honors innovative genre works that debuted in paperback, offering a nice reminder that you don’t need the prestige of a hardcover release to write a mind-blowing book (just ask William Gibson, whose seminal cyberpunk classic Neuromancer claimed the title in 1984), and in fact, if past winners are any evidence, the format might be seem as a license to take greater risks.
[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, and Will R., for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]
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First
Shockingly, Lou Antonelli is not completely wrong. Some “constructive criticism” is a disguised power-play or mind game. Ann Lamott has a passage about this in Bird by Bird. But the concept of “constructive criticism” is irrelevant to published works. You’re not in my writing group. I’m just telling the world what I think and why. Some people will do that kindly, some meanly, and some will be on point and others far off the mark. But it’s just criticism at that point.
Meanwhile, Antonelli should probably be less sure that the only flaws he has are the ones he knows he has.
Tasha Turner: Thank goodness!
I will be Samwise, supporting the Hero in their goal to reach Fifth.
Fifth! At last!
Edit: Sorry, I saw there were 4 posts and I couldn’t resist. Shan’t do it again.
So Crazy Uncle Lou is lecturing the rest of the world on hatefulness? I blow sarcastic raspberries in his general direction.
Edit: Second Fifth! I’m on a roll this morning.
Edit2: Oh, I said I wouldn’t do that. Oh, well.
Third fifth.
I never promised not to do it.
(10) “This is OK but with some effort you can make this better.” can be a truly evil thing to say to somebody compared to “This is unsalvageable.” So motive behind criticism matters to some extent.
(2) I think Larry got the most flattering image – he actually gets a second one in several days time when the series reaches it’s conclusion. There is a little story running through them.
I’m offline for a few days amid nature, so have fun everyone!
I have updated the Brackets From The File 770 Honeycomb page to include Hampus Eckerman’s superlative Science Fiction Movie Brackets.
The File 770 blog’s eighth birthday is on January 15. (The other day when I ran links to the birthdays announced by two other blogs I got curious, and lo and behold!, File 770’s was just around the corner.)
I’m rounding up a few special features for the occasion.
If there’s anything you want to do, you have a little bit of time.
Maybe some more numbers for The Martian musical?
[ticky]
[again]
@Mike Glyer
You posted early today. Thanks. First 2 days in a row. Tomorrow I’ll let someone else have the honor. 🙂
2) ARE THE GUNS BIG ENOUGH?
I like the trading cards. Read some of the back posts. The one on creating them was fascinating. I haven’t looked at Legos in a long time to see how they make female ones (can’t just be pink & purple). I’m sure props can be used for the SP4 leaders and MRK and TNH.
3) GOING TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE
Interesting from the publishing side. I’d guess a number of the steps are already done or partly done:
Cover
Marketing/PR is planned
Printer is prepared to be “pulled”
Store orders
4) LITIGATION
I suspect this is going to get uglier and play out more in social media over time. I feel for Peter Beagle.
8) CAMPBELL AWARD PARAPHERNALIA
Go Wesley Chu – I love how he embraced the tiara. Adding a scepter is a cool fannish thing. I’ve added his latest book to my reading list for this year. With each book I feel his writing improves.
10) CRITICAL MORASS
Lou reviews are for readers not authors. They aren’t there to help you write better although you can choose to use them that way if you want to improve your writing. Reading reviews of your books should only be done if you can handle what people have to say about your work.
When, how, why, and whom is giving the criticism matters. Recognizing the differences between constructive criticism, useless criticism, book reviews, and your own biases is important.
13) DICK AWARD
A couple more books to check out.
I shouldn’t be surprised when someone who uses words for a living doesn’t understand a common word, and yet I often am.
@Shao Ping: I’m only surprised when it’s not Puppies, because we’ve learned that words in Puppy-speak mean what THEY want them to mean, not what everyone else thinks. You know, like we write “popular individual votes, carefully tallied” and they see “SJW cabal to steal MY awards”. Same thing.
(8) First a tiara, next a scepter — can an orb be far behind?
Wesley Chu is adorable.
I can envision, twenty years from now, the Campbell winner ascending to the stage to be bedecked in full Campbell regalia: tiara, robe, jewels, scepter, sword, etc., and then rising majestically, a-sparkle in the spotlights.
@wildcat
To keep it SFF can they rise on a sparkly hoverboard?
Of course!
1) Oh, wow, there are a lot of upcoming books on this list I of which I was not yet aware. This will be helpful.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason that not all of the contributors’ blogs are linked?
Foz Meadows
Delilah S. Dawson
Sally Ember
(Amanda Rutter’s blog entries appear to have ceased a year ago)
Clearly the Campbell winners need a light-up-in-the-dark cape. The link goes to an entire page of the same, from a designer that specializes in illuminated clothing. (The “Musclemania Cape” listing includes another link to “lighted posing trunks”, which are… interesting, in a moderately NSFW way.)
(And this page gives more information about the designer, Janet Cooke Hansen,who seems pretty darned interesting.)
(2) ARE THE GUNS BIG ENOUGH?
That Camestros, so considerate!
(3) GOING TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE.
I read & enjoyed the Chris Lough article about the book publication process. I’m reminded of the series of articles Charles Stross wrote about Common Misconceptions About Publishing which are also informative.
(8) CAMPBELL AWARD PARAPHERNALIA.
Wondering just what sort of Scepter Wesley has in mind:
Scepter of Ideas?
Scepter of Improved Wordcount?
Scepter of Typo Banishment?
Scepter of Slushpile Augury?
(10) CRITICAL MORASS. “Constructive criticism is usually just a justification for hatefulness.”
I’m sorry Antonelli thinks this way, because good constructive criticism is about improvement, not hate.
Also: Title Credit woohoo!
And: Four Fifths Plus One!
Forgot to ::ticky::
Mike Glyer: Maybe some more numbers for The Martian musical?
No? Okay, I’ll go finish my book.
(10) CRITICAL MORASS: I think most of the feedback waa right about On a Spiritual Plain, it suffered from weak storytelling. I thought the premise was intresting though. And yeah, remind me not to join Lou’s writers group.
(8) CAMPBELL AWARD PARAPHERNALIA: After the scepter, definitely a cape. A nice long one with a train. I suggest midnight blue encrusted with sparkly stardust.
Mike, this deserves a toast! I wasn’t going to bother with teh booze this weekend, but in such a good cause consider my arm twisted.
It’s lonesome in space when Earth look like a ball,
And transmission delays slow debriefs to a crawl.
But there’s nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear,
Than to have grown crops of ‘tatoes but can’t ferment them for beer.
I know the Martian soundtrack was all disco, but I am sure Watney would have broken out the harmonica for some Australian Country if he had one.
(13) DICK AWARD.
The only one of those I’ve read (must get round to finishing Ramez Naam’ trilogy) is “Archangel” by Marguerite Reed which is a meaty, accomplished debut. Disclaimer: We’ve been online friends, so I’ve looked forward to reading it and was not disappointed; it’s on my Hugo longlist. The setting is an offworld colony which refreshingly is not culturally Judeo-Christian-based and the protagonists are older, which I appreciated. It’s at the Hard end of the SF spectrum.
She’s got a couple of older short stories, Bearing Witness and Angels of a Desert Heaven, both very good.
Inspired by songs:
Purple Pixel Eater
Mellon Scrollie and the Infinite Sadness
Hotel Scrollifornia
You’ve Lost That Scrollin’ Feelin’
Whether this converge of criticism occurred because of a grand SJW conspiracy, or because readers independently came to similar conclusions is left as an exercise for the reader.
Finally finished Watchmaker yesterday. I get most of my reading time while commuting and between the Christmas holidays and commuter chaos caused by the Forth Road Bridge’s game attempt to take December off I ended up at home for almost all of December.
Up until then (I was about half way through) I had been quite enjoying the ambiance of the novel (yes I liked Katsu too) but the last third of the book left me feeling a bit disappointed, and I’m not sure exactly why. Not sorry I read it but happy to be moving on. And in a great change of pace I’ve just started Leviathan Wakes though that’s a dead tree edition (I’m trying to read in the house more again) so I may have to find something else to read on the commuting Kindle.
“The wrath of Elcin, the wind god.”
whose excoriating blasts make a desert scirocco feel like a a cool air conditioned breeze. whose gales of derision make dragon fire feel like a kiss of a kitten. whose withering squalls can desiccate Leviathan unto dust.
Verily, i too have been run through by the zephyr of the lost aztec temple of mars, but i got better…
“On a Spiritual Plain” lacked drama. The chaplain didn’t consider the philosophical implications of the existence of ghosts, there was no spiritual conflict. The dead guy on his way to be dissolved never questioned whether dissolution was the right thing for him – and there was nothing riding on his agreement anyway. The trip was uneventful.
Most stories can be summarised in a couple of sentences. In this case, you gain nothing from reading the story instead of the summary.
Just finished Europe in Autumn which I liked immensely at the start and felt the constantly shifting viewpoints were getting in the way by the end. I will likely pick up the sequel, but won’t be rushing straight to it.
@8 Campbell adornment
I sew. I have more fabric than any one person could use in a lifetime; we call it our stash and this is the normal state of play for costumers. Way back in the mists of time there was an official Lord of the Rings celebration in London, with champagne, for people in costume, and I knocked up three cloaks in a weekend to allow people to attend.
I would happily provide a Campbell cloak in velvet, with a few stars here and there, but I draw the line at sparkles.
ETA
I too felt Watchmaker started out well, and then fell off a cliff. I had to really struggle to finish it.
The premise was good, but the story was weak. It wasn’t badly written, but it lacked of drama, action, conflict, everything like that. Nothing keeping me interested. And lets ignore “The Golden Mean” for now.
An ok filler story.
Constructive criticism is usually just a justification for hatefulness.
Well, sure, this goes to the problems of ad hominem in discussing anything critically. Its something that any reviewer can fall victim to, or be accused of. ]
It is a reason that, while I read a fair amount of the Hugo nominees from the Puppies last year, I decided not to write reviews for such. I didn’t want to deal with even more dogpiles and accusations that I was personally attacking their lot, rather than the quality of their fiction. And I don’t revel in writing hit pieces. That’s not my style at all.
But sometimes, a piece of crap story is a piece of crap no matter what the author is like.
As I walk through the valley with the sand so red
I take a look at my suit and realize that I’m not dead
’Cause I’ve been science-ing this shit for so long that
Even Houston thinks that my ass is gone…
Today’s read — Depths Of Blue, by Lise MacTague
Far future science fiction; a soldier and a smuggler find themselves on the run together from the military of a nation of religious zealots, and romantic feelings spark. This one was somewhat disappointing. It got off to a bad start with some bad science (Nebulae do not work that way!) and, more to the point for me, rather clunky exposition. I will say that after a couple of chapters, though, things picked up considerably. As long as the two main characters were on the run together, struggling to survive in hostile country while growing slowly closer, the narrative and characters were interesting, the action was great, and the writing was sharp. Things took a downward turn again towards the end, though. At a point in the narrative where it would have benefited the story for the dangers to turn more subtle and insidious, they were still faced with still more life-threatening events after life-threatening events, until it just started to seem contrived to me. A return of bad science at the end (Nebulae do not work that way either!) did not help.
It looks like this is the author’s first novel, and it’s very possible that some of these are first-book flaws. The middle portion of the book, which is most of it, convinced me that this is someone who can write. But I can’t say that I’m eager to rush out and buy the sequel to this one.
I’m still debating with myself, but I think the flaws drop this one below a 3 on my scale, which would mean I don’t put it on my lesbian romance sff list. It’s a tough call on this one, though, because I wasn’t bored and don’t feel like it was a waste of my time. I just don’t think the author is nearly as good as she could be yet.
JJ:In (1) I picked up whatever blogs were linked in the Mind Meld author bios.
(With apologies to David Bowie)
Hello, I feel I have to remind
You that you kind of left me behind
Is there life on Mars?
Four years alone could be a slog
I guess I ought to keep a log
Is there life on Mars?
On Mars a man dies by his wits
He even has to science his shit
Is there life on Mars?
The greatest scientist on the planet
I can plant it and grow it and can it
Is there life on Mars?
Disco hell is kind of groovy
Matt Damon plays me in the movie
Is there life on Mars?
Four years is a long time to be alone
There might be a new Game of Thrones when I’m done
Is there life on Mars?
You know, I was joking the first time around, but that US date format in the recent comments list is annoying as hell
“All these comment dates start with 1, they’re all on the same thread… no, hang on, that’s wrong… okay, all these comment dates end with 16, so they must all – AAARGH… “
(2) ARE THE GUNS BIG ENOUGH?
This appears to be a problem with LEGO representations of characters and gender markers, not with Camestros Felapton’s skills or viewpoint.
(2) ARE THE GUNS BIG ENOUGH? – Oooh nice. Is it sad enough though – it looks more 😐 than 🙁
(8) CAMPBELL AWARD PARAPHERNALIA. – Is there already a sash? If not, I suggest a Worf-style chainmail one, decorated with the appropriate nomination pins
(9) NO SANITY CLAUS. – Slack arses the lot of them. Robert Jordan didn’t let a thing like death stop him from completing his series after all.
According to the Guardian, Alan Rickman, aka Severus Snape, has left us.
Same age as Bowie. God damn it.
(4) LITIGATION
The Peter S. Beagle – Last Unicorn – Connor Cochran story sounds very sad.
Oh, damn damn damn damn damn!
(9) But Elcin wasn’t the wind god, that was Musk-Watz. Elcin was god of thunder and lightning.
I quote Gerrold and Niven:
Just saw the news about Rickman, too. Damn, this week is fired. And so is Cancer.
Ah crap. Forget about Snape or Gruber, first thing that comes to mind is always “By Grabthar’s hammer, by the suns of Worvan, you shall be avenged!”
Some real wisdom from Alan Rickman, when it was pointed out that although he had won all sorts of awards, he didn’t have an Oscar:
“Parts win prizes, not actors.”
Prizes are never about the *artist*, they are about the *art work*. Rickman showed class and understanding, and I shall always remember his work as Snape and Colonel Brandon and Sir Alexander Dane.
@Paul, @Peace
I’m taken aback by the intensity of the sense of loss and grief I’m feeling now.
Lemmy – worked hard, played hard, lived hard; 70 seemed a good age, all things considered
Bowie – huh? I thought he’d be here until the stars went out. He’s still out there, somewhere, surely…
Rickman – oh, god no, so soon, so close, so much work still to do, god damn it.
And meanwhile Voldemor… sorry, Rupert Murdoch, is gurning at us from engagement pics at the age of 84. God damn it.
(11) KNOW NOTHINGS
I wish CBS and the new Star Trek show the very best of luck in finding its new audience.