(1) ROBOTS FLASH. At the Barnes & Noble blog they’re “Introducing the 12 Days of Robot Christmas” — 12 Days of Flash Fiction from Angry Robot Authors (plus eBook discounts). Posted so far —
- Dec. 3: Patrick Tomlinson (The Ark): “Black Friday”
- Dec. 4: Matt Hill (Graft—pre-order): “The New Tradition”
- Dec. 7: James A. Moore (The Blasted Lands): “Following the Shimmer”
- Dec. 8: Megan E O’Keefe (Steal the Sky—pre-order): “The Fight Before Christmas”
Still to come — Adam Rakunas (12/9), Marianne de Pierres (12/10), Peter McLean (12/11) , Carrie Patel (12/14), Ferrett Steinmetz (12/15), Peter Tieryas (12/16), Rod Duncan (12/17), and Matthew De Abaitua (12/18)
Matt Hill’s installment “The New Tradition” begins with a strong hook –
Every Christmas Eve since the biological attack, they let me visit Nan to see what was left of her.
(2) LANSDALE. Joe R. Lansdale will be honored with the 2015 Raymond Chandler Award at Courmayeur during the Noir in Festival to be held December 8-13.
With over forty novels and hundreds of stories to his credit, Lansdale is perhaps the most prolific and brilliant writer working in the noir genre today. With models such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mark Twain and Jack London, but also the science fiction of Ray Bradbury and Fredric Brown, as well as comic strips, B movies and “pulp” fiction, Lansdale´s novels are a blend of his jaded sense of humor, unbridled imagination and an unsparing description of reality in its most ruthless, violent and absurd incarnations. His books include The Drive-In and The Drive-In 2, Mucho Mojo, Two-Bear Mambo, Bad Chili, Rumble Tumble, Edge of Dark Water, Devil Red, The Bottoms (winner of an Edgar Award in 2001), Bubba Ho-Tep, and Hap & Leonard.
At Courmayeur, Lansdale will be presenting his latest novel, Honky Tonk Samurai (published in Italian by Einaudi): a new investigative romp featuring the popular characters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine.
The Raymond Chandler Award is a lifetime achievement award. Past winners include sf/f/h writer J.G. Ballard (1995), and Michael Connelly, Scott Turow and John le Carré,
(3) COMPANION ISSUES. James Whitbrook tells how he deals with post-traumatic television series stress in his confessional “The Exact Moment When Doctor Who Taught Me to Never Trust Television Again” at io9.
And being an idiot teen, it was shocking enough to basically make myself vow to never be hurt by television again. Oh, teen James. TV drama basically exists to hurt us on an emotional level, you silly fool. But it kickstarted a habit I still have to this day—if I’m invested in a television series, be it Doctor Who or anything else, I keep up with all the behind the scenes info I can. I go as far as to hunt out spoilers, just to see what’s happening or if people are leaving a show, so I can prepare myself. If I’m binge-watching a show and find myself liking a certain character, I absent-mindedly Google them on my phone to find out if they inevitably die or leave the series before it ends. It infuriates my friends and family, but it’s a force of habit for myself now.
(4) Alamo Drafthouse will host a movie-watching endurance contest in Austin — Star Wars : The Marathon Awakens.
Starting promptly at 4 AM, December 17th, the seven pre-selected fans will take their seats at Alamo’s South Lamar venue to view the first six STAR WARS films in sequential order. Following the close of the initial marathon they will then participate in an endless, round-the-clock screening of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS until one final fan is left to claim their mantle of inter-galactic super fan supremacy….
For a chance to be chosen as one of the seven lucky participants in STAR WARS: THE MARATHON AWAKENS, fans need to show the Alamo Drafthouse their Jedi devotion on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook using the #AlamoJedi hashtag. Tattoos, toy collections, cosplay, Hoth haiku — whatever he or she feels shows their ultimate dedication to STAR WARS should be posted to sway the votes of the Alamo’s Jedi Council.
Rules are a requirement for every budding Jedi and STAR WARS: THE MARATHON AWAKENS is no exception. Participants will be given breaks between movies to stretch their legs and channel their inner Force. Sleeping, illegal drugs and talking & texting during the movies (of course) will result in disqualification and a swift trip to the Sarlacc Pit. However, for those strong enough to persevere, intergalactic immortality awaits.
(5) EDELMAN REVISITS 1974. Scott Edelman’s first Worldcon was Discon II in 1974. He has posted scans of the event schedule.
So which of these programming items did I choose to attend?
Well, there was no way I was going to miss Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison hurling insults at each other across a crowded ballroom, or the screening of a rough cut of A Boy and His Dog, or Roger Zelazny’s Guest of Honor speech, or the Hugo banquet and ceremony. Or endless wandering through the dealers room, where I picked up several items I still own to this day.
Sadly, of many panels I remember little. A women in science fiction panel featuring Susan Wood, Katherine Kurtz, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? A panel on the problems facing today’s (well, 1974’s) science fiction magazines, with Jim Baen, Ben Bova, Ed Ferman, and Ted White? How I wish there was audio or video of those for us to relive those presentations today!
(6) TRAILER FORECAST. ScreenRant has learned the Star Trek Beyond trailer will premiere with Star Wars 7.
THR is reporting that Star Trek Beyond‘s first trailer will be attached to The Force Awakens in theaters – though, of course, it’s far from the only 2016 tentpole that is expected to hitch a ride aboard the Star Wars train. Indeed, both the recently-unveiled Captain America: Civil War teaser trailer and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s third theatrical preview are both likely candidates to be shown before The Force Awakens. Furthermore, it’s been reported in the past that the first X-Men: Apocalypse trailer will make its debut on the big screen with co-writer/director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars feature, as might also be true for another 20th Century Fox project – Roland Emmerich’s alien invasion sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence.
(7) SCULL ANALYZES TOLKIEN BIOS. Christina Scull assays the field in “Tolkien Biographies Continued, Part One” on Too Many Books and Never Enough.
Christina writes: In the Reader’s Guide volume of our J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Wayne and I devoted nearly seven pages to a review of biographies of Tolkien which had appeared to date (2006). Carpenter’s of course was, and remains, the standard life, and the source upon which most subsequent biographers of Tolkien have relied to a great extent. The major exceptions, in terms of new research, are John Garth in Tolkien and the Great War and ourselves in the Companion and Guide, but a few others have made notable contributions to the literature. Diana Pavlac Glyer in The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (2007) has a worthwhile discussion of the importance of the Inklings to Tolkien. Andrew H. Morton has produced two studies (the first in association with John Hayes) centred on Tolkien’s Aunt Jane Neave: Tolkien’s Gedling 1914: The Birth of a Legend (2008) and Tolkien’s Bag End: Threshold to Adventure (2009). Phil Mathison has filled in some details about Tolkien’s life during the First World War in Tolkien in East Yorkshire 1917–1918 (2012). And Arne Zettersten in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Double Worlds and Creative Process: Language and Life by Arne Zettersten (2011, previously published in Swedish in 2008) recalls his meetings and conversations with Tolkien in the latter’s final years (although Zettersten refers to correspondence, no quotations are given) and usefully discusses Tolkien’s academic work on the ‘AB language’.
(8) A ROAD NOT TAKEN. The actor’s daughter told the Guardian that “Toshiro Mifune turned down Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader Roles” when George Lucas was casting the original Star Wars movie.
The star of Rashomon and Seven Samurai was approached by George Lucas to appear in his 1977 sci-fi adventure, but the two couldn’t strike a deal, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“I heard from my father that he was offered the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he was concerned about how the film would look and that it would cheapen the image of samurai, on which George Lucas had based a lot of the character and fighting style,” said Mika.
The plot of Star Wars was loosely based on The Hidden Fortress, a 1958 film that Mifune starred in for director and frequent collaborator Akira Kurosawa.
“At the time, sci-fi movies still looked quite cheap as the effects were not advanced and he had a lot of samurai pride,” Mika said. “So then, there was talk about him taking the Darth Vader role as his face would be covered, but in the end he turned that down too.”
Other actors who turned down roles in the film include Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Burt Reynolds, Robert De Niro and James Caan.
(9) BRACKETT SMACK. Christopher M. Chupik volunteers his previously unsuspected ability to identify deserving feminist icons in “To Tower Against The Sky”.
Despite being an inspiration to such writers as Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock and E. C. Tubb, Brackett seems to have fallen into a curious limbo. Feminists like to invoke her name in lists of female SF authors, but there seems to be a curious reluctance to speak of the woman or her work. A female writer who held her own in a male-dominated field long before the women’s liberation movement would seem to be the kind of role model modern feminists would want to celebrate, right?
Wrong. Nowadays, she’s mostly known for having written the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back, very little of which made it to the screen. And this is often portrayed as the crowning achievement of her career….
And here, I suspect, we come to the real reason the feminists have marginalized Brackett: she was a conservative.
I had to dig a bit to confirm this. I had a suspicion based on her work that her opinions were not quite in tune with modern leftist orthodoxy. Brackett, along with her husband Edmond Hamilton, were signatories to the pro-Vietnam War petition that appeared in the June 1968 issue of Galaxy. Combine that with her disinterest in feminism, and it becomes very clear why Brackett has been allowed to drift towards obscurity
(10) THEY TOLD DISNEY NO THANKS. The Hollywood Reporter says “Plans for Unfinished Disney Park in St. Louis Up for Auction” — by Profiles in History, on Thursday.
In the 1960s, Disney drew up plans for an indoor theme park in downtown St. Louis before giving up in a dispute over money and turning attention to Florida.
Imagine packing up the kids and heading for that dream vacation to a Disney theme park … in St. Louis.
It almost happened a half-century ago when Disney drew up plans for an indoor theme park in downtown St. Louis before giving up in a dispute over money and turning its attention to Florida. St. Louis’ loss was the Orlando area’s gain: Walt Disney World became one of the world’s top tourist attractions.
St. Louis can only lament what might have been….
On Thursday, one of the few remnants of the park goes on the auction block — 13 pages of 1963 blueprints spelling out plans for “Walt Disney’s Riverfront Square” in St. Louis. The Calabasas, Calif.-based company Profiles in History is offering up the blueprints as part of its “Animation and Disneyana” auction
(11) CANDIDATES FOR MST3K. Now that Mystery Science Theater 3000 has successfully crowdfunded a string of new episodes, the crew will have to pick some bad flicks to abuse. CNET’s Danny Gallagher helpfully names “7 movie turkeys the new MST3K needs to tackle”.
Any movie buff knows there are still plenty of bad movies out there that deserve to get the MST3K treatment. Here are seven of those stinkers.
- “Yor, the Hunter from the Future”
…The people who made this dud don’t seem sure what genre they want it to be. “Yor” starts as a prehistoric adventure movie, but it morphs into science fiction when UFOs and technological warfare are shoved into the plot. They should have called this one, “Yor, the Warrior from…Squirrel!”
(12) A POLITICAL COMMENT. Apparently having a nose isn’t enough to recommend him — J.K. Rowling tweeted Tuesday that Donald Trump is worse than Lord Voldemort.
How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad. https://t.co/hFO0XmOpPH
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 8, 2015
Rowling’s tweet came after Trump called for preventing all Muslims from entering the United States.
(13) FOUNDING A CON. Lou J. Berger and Quincy J. Allen’s We Are ALL Science Fiction theme will be embodied by a convention bearing the same name, to be held November 4-6, 2016 in Ocean Shores, WA.
Put on by an all-fan, all-volunteer, non-profit group made up of fans with decades of experience in con running and attending (from all over the globe), our first annual convention will feature award-winning authors Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Jody Lynn Nye, and many others, including Hugo nominee Jennifer Brozek, Anna Korra’ti, Raven Oak, with other guests such as Scott Hungerford (Games), Marvel comic artist (and fine artist) Jeffrey Veregge, Musical guest Dara Korra’ti of Crime & the Forces of Evil, Tor editor Beth Meacham, and actor Drew Hobson (Voice of Marcus, State of Decay). We hope to be an international fan destination as we add more speakers and guests in the coming months!
An Indiegogo appeal to pay the expenses has raised $25 of its $9,000 goal in the first 23 hours.
(14) THE FOUNDERS’ CODE. The We Are ALL Science Fiction Code of Conduct announced by Lou J. Berger and Quincy J. Allen is:
#WeAreALLSF is open to all comers, no exceptions, no exclusions, and in this place we treat everyone with respect, even if we disagree with them.
There is one rule: If you don’t have something nice to say, then say it someplace else. Lou and I will be rather draconian in removing those who can’t follow such a simple rule.
That is our one code of conduct.
(15) THE PAST THROUGH PHOTOSHOP. artworkofarmies’ collection “Images may not be historically accurate” improves WWII-era photos by adding science fictional references.
(16) RETRO MOVES FORWARD. Von Dimpleheimer, our correspondent from 1940, has made progress with his due diligence for Volume 5 of Retro-Hugo eligible stories.
I went back and double and triple checked all the previous stories and the ones that would be in Volume Five and I found another mistake. In 1950, Nelson Bond made a fix-up novel of the Lancelot Biggs stories and did renew the copyright of that book in 1977. I removed “Lancelot Biggs Cooks a Pirate” from Volume One and uploaded the new version. I actually knew about the book and remember checking for a renewal, but just missed it somehow.
I cut the Lancelot Biggs stories from Volume Five and I am sure the remaining stories are public domain, but I’ll quintuple check them before I send you the links later this week.
On the plus side, all this checking led me to the fact that “Russell Storm” was actually Robert Moore Williams and I now have two more of his stories for future volumes.
(16) FAVORITE 2015 FANTASY. Stephanie Bugis’ list of “Favorite Fantasy Novels from 2015” leads off with a book by Aliette de Bodard.
- The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard. Rich, immersive, gorgeous dark fantasy with fallen angels and Vietnamese Immortals, set in a magically post-apocalyptic version of twentieth-century Paris. I read the whole thing on my overnight plane ride back from America to the UK this summer and was so absorbed, I didn’t even mind the lost sleep! You can read my full Goodreads review here.
(17) STOCK THE SHELVES. Melissa Gilbert’s post “Read Like a Writer” at Magical Words takes inspiration from several Stephen King quotes.
I am going to start with the first quotation: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
I cannot express how much truth there is to these statements. Writing is hard work, contrary to the romanticized ideal of a guy with a beret sitting in a Parisian coffee shop daydreaming about the next bestseller. Being a writer is sitting at the keyboard and pushing keys in rapid succession trying to convey into words the sometimes jumbled picture that is floating around in your brain. It’s living off Snickers bars for a while because you have a deadline and no time to cook actual food. It’s reading in the bathroom instead of Facebooking because you need to finish that next chapter. It’s lugging a book or forty with you in your suitcase when you go on vacation so that you don’t run out of things to read. It’s typing with your thumbs on your smartphone while waiting for the elevator or while commuting on the train so you can get your thousand words in that day. It’s talking to people when you get stuck. It’s staring at the blank page in abject fear that no ideas will come. Writing isn’t easy. Okay, maybe it is. Let me rephrase. GOOD writing isn’t easy. But some things (like reading) can help to make it pleasurable.
(18) ONE’S THE LIMIT. Madeleine E. Robins advocates limiting a character’s advantages over others in “A Rule of One” at Book View Café.
I have this theory. Or maybe it’s just an idea. It’s about the advantages you give your characters. And how many advantages you can give them without distracting from the story or making them unbearable.
Advantages? Beauty is one, and very common; but there’s also intelligence, skill, charm, grace, wit, fortune, discernment, athletic ability, good birth, kind parents, a person who encourages them to follow their dreams, etc. All of these things are wonderful. But most people don’t get to have them all. And if you write a character who does get them all, it’s sort of cheating.
This is particularly important in writing historical fiction, or fantasy set in an historically inspired context (it works for SF too, but to keep things simple I’m limiting my scope). It is easy, and tempting, to create a character who is ahead of her/his time: “You fools, feudalism is doomed! Let us storm the castle and demand the birth of democracy!” A reader may want to sympathize with a character who partakes of our sensibilities more than he does of those of his time, but some writers leave out any clue as to where that vision came from.
(19) RED MARS. According to io9, a live-action adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars is coming to Spike TV.
J. Michael Straczinski and Game of Throne’s Vince Gerardis are executive producing, and believe it or not, Spike TV has ordered it “straight-to-series” without a pilot.
(20) SELDES OBIT. Editor and literary agent Timothy Seldes died December 5 reports Newsday. He was 88.
Raised in New York City and a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Seldes grew up around words, ideas and the performing arts. He was the brother of Tony-winning actress Marian Seldes, son of the drama critic and author Gilbert Seldes and nephew of the pioneering press critic George Seldes. He spent much of his editing career at the Doubleday house, where he rose to managing editor and authors included [Richard] Wright and Isaac Asimov.
(21) TWITTER. Your tweetage may vary. Ann Leckie’s certainly does, as she explains in “Me and Twitter”.
Now, I do look at my mentions, and not infrequently reply to those in some way. I do enjoy doing that. But every now and then, someone will turn up in my mentions in some way that’s very clearly designed to get my attention in a particular way–the tweeter wants me to notice their book, or asks explicitly that I follow them back (and they’re not someone I already know). I’m going to be honest, this irritates me. No offense, right? They’re obviously using Twitter as a promotional tool, where I’m using it to hang with people. This is mostly fine with me, in the abstract, I’ve got no problem with publicity or promotion. In the concrete and specific, I’d suggest that approaching promotion on Twitter as largely a question of amassing a lot of followers who you can then tweet to about your book is, perhaps, not as effective as you imagine it might be. I’ll also suggest that, if you want to engage the interest of someone with a lot of twitter followers, whose retweets or conversations with you might bring you the visibility you’re after, you might want to do your research about who that person is and why they have those followers, and not try to engage them with generic questions, let alone passive-aggressive tweets meant to guilt or provoke that person into replying or following back. But, you know, it’s your call, your life, your Twitter feed. And I’m totally okay with using the block and mute buttons whenever it seems convenient. (That would be the way the “react badly” mentioned in the tweets above usually manifests itself.)
(22) DRAWING TO A PAIR OF VONNEGUTS. Ginger Strand’s biography The Brothers Vonnegut is receiving mixed reviews, though all the critics say it’s interesting.
Katy Waldman on Slate finds some of connections discovered by the author “immensely satisfying.”
The Brothers Vonnegut, with its perfect-storm-of-concepts subtitle “Science and Fiction in the House of Magic,” focuses on Bernard and Kurt Vonnegut during the late ’40s and ’50s, when both were involved in the glittering ascent of General Electric during the postwar prosperity boom. Bernard, an MIT graduate and model elder son, researches at the company’s prestigious science lab. Kurt, having survived the Western Front (where he saw the firebombing of Dresden firsthand), takes a job as a PR flack, issuing zingy press releases about GE’s latest innovations.
Ben Jackson at the Guardian concludes:
[Kurt] didn’t hold out much hope for us: in Fates Worse than Death he wrote: “My guess is that … we really will blow up everything by and by”. No doubt Strand is right to locate the origin of many of his concerns in his time at GE, and there is certainly a lot to be said for her interesting book, but Kurt Vonnegut had more on his mind than the weather.
Jeff Milo at Paste Magazine is the most enthusiastic:
The benefits of The Brothers Vonnegut are threefold, starting with Strand’s insights into the professional and domestic lives of these two brothers, both equally strong-willed in their works despite their fields being worlds apart. Strand also draws attention to the vital support these brothers received from their wives, Lois Bowler with Bernard and Jane Marie Cox (Kurt’s first wife). More than that, though, these women are able to substantially enter into the narrative’s insightful spotlight, rather than being merely supportive backdrops for the brothers.
(23) RAMPAGE ON RECORD. Jim Mowatt’s run to Save the Rhino made the Cambridge News.
(24) PLUTO ON CAMERA. NASA has released a video composed of the sharpest views of Pluto obtained by its New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July.
[Thanks to Von Dimpleheimer, Alan Baumler, David K.M. Klaus, JJ, Andrew Porter, Hampus Eckerman, Cat Eldridge, Rob Thornton, 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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Her parents are very uncommunicative, so it’s hard to know if she liked something, hated something, or even GOT something.
But since when I was eight I had an aunt that persisted in giving me fancy dolls… and I *hated* dolls… well, I don’t want to be That Aunt.
If you know what I mean. <wry>
Her grandmother visited her (on the occasion of the birth of her baby brother a month ago) and mentioned that she spent a lot of time doing “craft stuff”. Unspecified, alas. I got the impression it involved decorating objects with glitter and glue, but I could be completely wrong here. So I’m leaning toward trying to find a really cool craft book….
I got the craft book for my niece (the Egyptian one) at Barnes and Noble, I’m pretty sure. I just checked Amazon to see if they had anything like that, and I don’t see anything that looks like that exactly, but it’s been, oh, 15 years, since she was the right age for me to buy that and I’m sure things have changed. But there is a Dover series of “Fun Kits” that seem to involve mostly coloring books, plus a whole bunch of things from Nomad Press, with “Build It Yourself” and “Explore Your World” books that look like something I would like right this very minute! And I am decidedly over 8… Explore Ancient Egypt! and Explore Ancient Rome! are K to 4 (grades), while Great Medieval Projects, Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions, Seven Wonders of the World and World Myths and Legends are grades 3 to 7. I would’ve been all over Seven Wonder of the Ancient World and Myths and Legends at that age. There are lots more topics — Ben Franklin, Ancient China, etc. — but those were the ones I saw first.
I’m over here still boggling that anybody thought Kipling is/was being suppressed. They’re remaking the Jungle Book AGAIN.
If you can post on blogs and keep your virtue,
Or talk on forums, Facebooks, tweets and such,
If neither trolls nor old colleagues can hurt you,
If commenters count with you but none too much…
If Bertolt Brecht can steal one of Kipling’s poems and make it into a song in The Threepenny Opera , I think you can say the libruls aren’t throwing him out with the bathwater.
I have been taking refuge in distractions from the news. Just finished Bryony and Roses, by somebody called T. Kingfisher, and just started The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Review of the Kingfisher will likely be up by tomorrow morning.
I think I should practice ignoring that BZ guy.
Twice. Jungle Book and Jungle Book:Origins. Still boggling over Benedict Cumberbatch and Idris Elba both doing Shere Khan.
Wait, who said Kipling was being suppressed?
Some nitwit. It was a while back, and I don’t recall exactly which (and this is not the sort of thing I bother bookmarking.)
I think the context might have been one of Kipling’s works being rotated out of the GCE or A-level set texts lists, or something like that. (Thereby not making it mandatory for Eng.Lit. students to read Kipling, and we all know that everything which isn’t mandatory is forbidden, right?)
It just stuck in my mind because this spot of right-wing harrumphing coincided so closely with the reprint of Kipling’s short stories.
(ETA: that should be GCSE not GCE of course. But they were GCE’s when I did ’em. Uphill, both ways, in the snow.)
RedWombat
It’s completely idiotic. My family rotated between addressing me as the Elephant’s Child and Mr Spock; if we could easily manage to synthesise those characters when I was a small child then it’s ludicrous to suggest that it’s difficult, and even more ludicrous to suggest that people are sneakily trying to suppress Kipling’s works. Every year at Wimbledon there is the ritual obeisance to the poem
There has to be, because it’s recorded there, and all Champions have to be photographed affirming it. Wimbledon is one of the most highly recorded sporting events in the world; it’s probably the single most quoted poem in history.
Of course, there have been many adaptations ever since he wrote it; a more recent version, popular with career military is:
I’m rather fond of that one, though in prose I do not think that
will ever be surpassed in that bracket. It does seem to me to be both a stirring adventure, which I still enjoy reading, and a means of helping children to be less frightened. Given the panic rolling over the U.S. at the moment that seems to be a very worthwhile goal, though obviously I’m preaching to the choir in addressing you on this subject…
Delurking to give Cassy B the important message that you want to look up Klutz Books. All the Klutz Books. I know my niece enthused about Window Art (draw and paint your own window clings) and The Shrinky Dink Book, but you can get lost in all the possibilities.
Maybe also Q&A for Kids: A Three-Year Journal (I’ve been using the grown-up one for 3 years, but I’ve heard the kids’ one has better questions anyway) or Wreck This Journal.
@Stevie:
With regards to If, I’ll admit to a bit of a soft spot for Roger Whittaker’s ‘A Song for Erik’. Then again, I also learned how to whistle the Skye Boat Song from one of his albums…
The mention of the Where’s Wallace kids book made me wonder if it was about William Wallace of Scotland, but apparently not.
But hey, any excuse for tasteless juvenile humor!:
ROBERT THE BRUCE: Where’s Wallace?
EDWARD LONGSHANKS: He was hanging around for a while, but then he started looking pretty drawn. He’s in his quarters now.
@Stevie —
[Rikki Tikki Tavi ]It does seem to me to be both a stirring adventure, which I still enjoy reading, and a means of helping children to be less frightened.
There’s always The Conversion of St. Wilfrid out of Rewards and Fairies; I don’t imagine either Puck of Pook’s Hill or Rewards and Fairies are especially widespread as children’s books these days, but a kid could do worse.
A good appreciation of Leigh Brackett by Keith Taylor of Two-Gun Raconteur, a Robert E. Howard-oriented blog (and journal) that ranges from Howard out and around.
Jenora
And having tracked it down I then found his I Don’t Believe in If Anymore; File 770 weaving it’s magic…
Bruce
I live near Smithfield; it has a plaque just to remind you, in case you’ve forgotten, that Wallace died there. Of course, a lot of other people died there but they are plaque less.
The really strange thing about Smithfield is that it must be knee deep in tormented souls, given the number of people who died dreadfully there; you would think that if a ghost was going to hang around it would have been one of those.
Instead the only place generally agreed to be haunted is a lift (elevator) in a modernish bit of Barts; I knew nothing at all about it when I got in the lift, but after it completely freaked me out refusing to deliver me to where I’d pushed the button for, complete with non-functioning emergency/alarm button and scenic tours up and down never letting me out, I did suggest to the nurse when it finally freed me that we should call the lift people.
‘Twas then she explained that the lift is haunted by a trainee nurse who was escorting a patient from an acute mental health centre on another floor to the XRay machines in the basement; she didn’t survive. I would never have believed that if I hadn’t been totally freaked out by what had happened to me. Naturally, as a woman who lives her life by Enlightenment values, I subsequently made sure that I never got in that lift again…
@bruce I misread that as Two-Gun Ranseur, and wondered if it was some sort of strange polearm-firearm combination. I’m only a Piker when it comes to knowledge of such things, though.
So. Slow reading update. Just finished The Fifth Season. While certainly dark, it’s not grimdark, and I remained invested in the characters stories, despite a couple of horrific bits (one of which is in the first chapter). Will definitely give the sequel a shot
::(waves a fond farewell at rule to only read completed series)::
Need something lighter as a palate cleanser break before I dive into The Dark Forest. Have heard favourable sounding noises about Bryony and Roses Is that a good candidate, and are there any others from this year?
@Paul Weimar: That’s from the A Mighty Fortress supplement. (This is a fairly obscure D&D joke.)
Snowcrash: I quite liked Bryony and Roses. I am on record at Making Light for thinking it was a bit too light and slight a book while partway through, but by the end I was very satisfied. I do think it would make a good palate cleanser, though by the end it is not as light as it first seemed. (the bit about the things shown outside the windows was outright disturbing.)
Snowcrash
It’s late over here but I would certainly recommend Briony and Roses; I could dig out others but they are more serious, and probably linked to my desire for people to read British SF.
So, go for Briony and Roses as a palate cleanser and enjoy; just bear in mind that RedWombat sees the world rather differently…
Need something lighter as a palate cleanser break before I dive into The Dark Forest.
Don’t read The Mirror Empire or Empire Ascendant if you are looking for something light. If you are in the mood for a biography (or memoir), I’d recommend Felicia Day’s You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). I reviewed it here.
Just using myself as a yardstick here: I’m 61 years old–an old guy. Back when I was a 13-year-old kid, Leigh Brackett signed some petition I never heard of, supporting the Vietnam War. All ancient history now, and not really an issue that has much to do with feminism. I remember those days–sort of–but most people alive now don’t. Are we supposed to believe that 21st century feminists are mad at her over that? Is feminism run by some secret organization that keeps track of these things, and sends out newsletters briefing everyone on the party line?
Bryony and Roses is an excellent choice. My review is up now. I’m on my phone, so I can’t post the direct link, buthe it’s currently top of the page at /a>
Okay, let’s try that again, from my laptop: My review of Bryony and Roses
“… just bear in mind that RedWombat sees the world rather differently…”
Just looked up T Kingfisher on the Goodreads bio page. Huh. I think I’m safe so long as there’s no extended bits on soil composition and proper maintenance of plants. With my anti-green thumb, I’d just feel horribly embarassed.
Crap. Not available through Google Play. Will figure out Smashwords (trustworthy? – Never used it) when I get back then.
@Aaron – Oh, I’ve tried Mirror Empire. It ran into the Eight Deadly Words very, very, early on.
rea: They call that argumentum ad ignorantiam.
@Lace, A young friend of mine had “Wreck this Journal” and loved it. I’d forgotten it completely until you mentioned it. And, yes, the Klutz books look terrific. I think I’ll try giving her these more… well, interactive…. books this Christmas.
Thanks again, all! I was completely stumped until I asked you guys. You’re all terrific. (And I’m re-reading the Prydain books, just because they were mentioned upthread…. <grin>)
🙂
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Straw-Feminists are coming to town
They’re making a list
And checking it twice
Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice
Straw-Feminists are coming to town
Regarding #9–Brackett and that crowd
Never cared for most of her work–too swordy/sorcery for my taste although “The Long Tomorrow” is sitting right where I can see it.
But after reading the ‘article’ and the ‘comments’ I’ve realized that my subscription to the feminist-leaning newsletter must have expired. How else could I have missed the plot to make Baroness Orczy the sole creator of superheroes (who are all those ‘lots of leftists’ they go on about?) or the drive to make scientists feel guilty for sending a rover to Mars. I like to feel I try to keep up but I must have missed that meeting.
Sometimes reading all that makes me long for pre-internet days. When I would have had to really make an effort to find some slovenly, slightly creepy guy who was sitting in a cafe with some badly mimeo-graphed newsletters who knew what the REAL story was.
My favorite line?–“Feminists like to invoke her name in lists of female SF authors, but there seems to be a curious reluctance to speak of the woman or her work.” So which is it? Obscurity or named?
I get the feeling that maybe some folks in that crowd would really like Brackett to be obscure, because then they don’t have to do any research into any really obscure female SF writers who really have been ignored, and weren’t say, involved (and credited!) in one of the biggest SF franchises in the world.
Also didn’t we Evil Leftist Filers begin our foray into brackets with the Brackett Brackets, ran by our very own Kyra?
Honestly, co-writing the screenplay for The Big Sleep with William Faulkner is a much bigger deal than writing the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back. Really, her full screenwriting credits as detailed above constitute a hell of a career on their own, and dwarf her legacy as an SF writer. Rio Bravo?!
Plus, an episode of The Rockford Files!
I didn’t read the comments (the article was enough). What’s this about Baroness Orczy? Is the Scarlet Pimpernel being held up as the ur-superhero? Sink me!
I’ve reviewed Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons by Michael Witwer. It is eligible for the Hugos in the related Work category, but I’m not sure whether I will nominate or not.
Camestros
I have enough problems without the introduction of ear worm.
On the other hand I have to give high technical merit scores on your choice of ear worm. ‘I Hate listening to this’ is the highest mark available and you got it perfectly. I think I’m going to go with self preservation; good night all, whenever night arrives in your time zone, and I hope you will sleep well! Also, if night messes around before it arrives in your time zone then be firm!
Point out the need for sleep!
snowcrash: lots of gardening, but appropriate amounts of detail, enough to be accessible to a layperson or a black thumb without getting tedious.
@Lexica you would need to brave the comments for the precise details. I skimmed through quickly, but a theory was posited that only women writers that are ‘approved’ are recognized by the feminist collective and the baroness was raised as a strawperson example that the feminists would approve that she was the first superhero writer – which is obviously wrong and proof of the leftist PC collective not knowing the true history of literature and writers. It seemed kinda silly.
Comments also covered a genuine love of cats and pogniant notes of loss of beloved companions.
Overall compared to most threads, I’ve read over there it was pretty constructive with relatively little snark. Though a few folks are riding well worn hobby horses.
For those who have not read Women of Wonder: my reviews.
@rea: I am 60. When I was in sixth grade I co-write an editorial in Mrs. Gatson’s class newspaper supporting the VietNam war. Luckily the Secret Feminist Cabal has not learned about it.
Oops.
Our main argument was that Communists would invade Idaho by way of Canada.
(13) A con in the middle of nowhere, with huge expenses and a crappy policy? Yeah, good luck with that. They should take a hint from only getting 0.27%
For Cassy B’s niece, I too would recommend an ancient Egyptian craft book. Very shiny and sparkly stuff to recreate. And most kids like mummies and pyramids. And her non-reading family might even enjoy Klutz books.
Everyone should read “Bryony and Roses”.
@Robin Reid I’m reporting you to the secret feminist cabal… Just as soon as I find out their address. Seems I’m not on the mailing list.
I keep thinking its women who decide whose a feminist and who isn’t*. Silly me. Of course it’s men in charge of telling me when I’m doing my feminism right. Because when we come down to it it’s all about the menz.
*we should be equal (no agreement on the definition)
@JJ: Welcome to Planetfall fandom. Here’s your complimentary 3D-printed badge; it’s a little broken, but I’m sure you can fix it. 😉
@Kyra: LOL, well done. I’ve only heard of one or two of those, and probably only here at File 770. I hang my head in shame.
@snowcrash: Yes, Smashwords is trustworthy IMHO. I’ve bought from them several times over the past X years.
ObReadingUpdate: I took a break the other night to read the sample for Cold Iron by Stina Leicht, and wow, that pulled me in! Very interesting and I’m looking forward to it. I got it while still on sale (not sure if it still is); it may even be my next read, after the still-wonderful City of Stairs (which keeps keeping me up late; I spend too much time on the computer each night [Hello, File 770]).
Kendall: Welcome to Planetfall fandom. Here’s your complimentary 3D-printed badge; it’s a little broken, but I’m sure you can fix it.
Thanks! I put it on the pile with the other things I’m going fix when I have a spare moment. 😀
Re Brackett:
Tansy Rayner Roberts has an appreciation of her work up:
http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/12-leigh-brackett-the-sword-of-rhiannon/
I was surprised to learn we all take marching orders from some obscure Marxist philosopher I’ve never heard of who wrote some manifesto or something fifty years ago.
I can’t even remember the bloke’s name, but it crops up sometimes when Puppies list our Evil Overlords whose secret rulebooks we all adhere to.
Saul Alinsky.
(and with that I’ve outed myself as a reactionary bigot and/or a Marxist agitator)
I was probably even more surprised when I first heard that, given that I voted Tory in the last UK election.
Basically anyone to the left of Genghis Khan is a revolutionary Marxist from the perspective of some people.
Apparently, this Kingfisher is elusive, but has a persistent stalker.
Oh, excellent!
Is it wrong to cheer this particular stalker?
I was impressed by the stalker’s efforts, that’s for sure! (Thank god for digital film, eh?)
Re Leigh Brackett:
Christopherl Chupik is both wrong and tendentious. The SF community doesn’t give a damn about Leigh Brackett’s supposed “conservatism”, and never has. This is literally the first time I’ve even heard that possibility mentioned, and I’ve been around since the late 70s.
If he wants to argue that Brackett’s career was damaged because she was listed on the pro-Vietnam War side in the famous twin ads that ran in Galaxy in 1968, Chupik will have to account for the dozens of writers who also appeared in that ad without suffering any detectable damage.
He won’t do it, of course. I doubt he honestly gives a damn about Leigh Brackett or her literary standing. He’s just using her as an occasion for the kind of free-floating self-pity that SF’s pseudo-conservatives can never get enough of.
===
Simon Bisson makes a good point about the difficulty of publishing older authors. Leigh Brackett’s generation of writers, and the proto-SF-writing generation that preceded theirs, have been hit hard by “life of the author plus 75 years” copyright extensions. Not all literary estates, even ones that have obvious commercial potential, are lucky enough to have clearly identified non-feuding heirs, and trustworthy, knowledgeable, energetic agents and/or executors.
And in spite of all that, SF/F has actually been pretty good about keeping older works in print.