(1) SPACE FLOWING PAST THE PORTS LIKE WINE FROM A PITCHER. Here’s a video excerpt from the class “To Space Opera and Beyond with Ann Leckie”, part of the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, in which Leckie discusses the basics of space opera and the definition of it provided by Brian Aldiss.
(2) BEARS DISCOVER MCGUIRE. Reading Omni’s “Best Emerging Fantasy Authors of 2016”, James Davis Nicoll snorted at one of the selections:
They’ve discovered Guy Gavriel Kay! Who they think is an emerging author. But it is not their fault.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia brought the problem to the attention Omni and was given the brushoff.
https://twitter.com/OmniReboot/status/816365793445380096
Moreno-Garcia persisted – since this is just pixels on the internet and not carved in granite, Omni could do something about it even now.
https://twitter.com/silviamg/status/816370224807038976
JJ adds about another of Omni’s choices, “Given her 8-year career, 25 novels and 4 collections, 9 Hugo finalists plus 2 wins, and a Tiptree finalist, I don’t think Seanan McGuire can be considered “emerging”, either.”
(3) NATIONAL SCIENCE FICTION YESTERDAY. Mayim Bialik celebrated #NationalScienceFictionDay on January 2 by showing her readers this historic tome –
Here’s me with the book that inspired GrokNation, Heinlein’s Sci Fi classic Stranger in a Strange Land! For more info on what “grok” means, check this out: http://groknation.com/faq/
(4) BIOLOGY LESSON. An educational graphic the young’uns can study.
(5) BEFORE PALPATINECARE. Motherboard’s Sarah Jeong asks “Did Inadequate Women’s Healthcare Destroy Star Wars’ Old Republic?”
Padme Never Goes to a OB/GYN
Prenatal visits never happen in Episode III, not even offscreen. Despite Anakin’s spiraling paranoia about Padme’s health, doctors or hospitals are bizarrely never mentioned. And the evidence says that Padme never got an ultrasound.
When she confronts Anakin towards the end of the movie—shortly before giving birth—she refers to “our child,” rather than “our children.” It doesn’t make sense for her to be hiding the ball here, she’s making one last emotional appeal to the father of her children, to try to bring him back to the light side. Rather, Padme simply doesn’t know that she’s about to give birth to twins.
(6) DISSENTING VOICE. “Vera Rubin Didn’t Discover Dark Matter” avers Richard Panek at Scientific American.
Vera Rubin didn’t discover dark matter.
Rubin died last weekend, at the age of 88. Headlines have repeatedly identified her as having “discovered” dark matter or having “proved” the existence of dark matter. Even the Carnegie Institution’s press release announcing her death—she had worked as a staff astronomer at Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C., for half a century before her recent retirement—said that she “confirmed the existence of dark matter.” Rubin would have said she did no such thing. I know, because she did say that, to me, on several occasions.
One could make the argument that the correct formulation of her achievement is that she discovered evidence for the existence of dark matter, and while Rubin likely would have acquiesced to that construction, she would have found it incomplete, perhaps even misleading. She would have said that while she discovered evidence for the existence of dark matter, you shouldn’t infer from that statement that dark matter actually exists.
The distinction wasn’t merely a matter of semantics. It was, to her, a matter of philosophy, of integrity—a matter of how science works.
(7) JPL ANNIVERSARY. Thanks to SciFi4me we know “Jet Propulsion Laboratory Celebrates 80 Years With Free 2017 Calendar”.
As part of their 80th anniversary, JPL has released a free 2017 calendar you can download, filled with photos from both JPL and NASA, and including anniversaries and events. They also have an interactive timeline of JPL’s biggest moments. You can access both of these, as well as more history of JPL, over on the JPL website. JPL has regular open houses, and I hope to attend one myself one day now that I’m in Los Angeles.
(8) GETTING THE WORD OUT. A Tom Gauld strip —
(9) NEW PODCAST. The Blastoff Podcast has been launched this week by Jud Meyers and Scott Tipton, creators of Blastoff Comics in North Hollywood.
In the premiere episode, Scott explains the difference between the golden and silver ages of comic books. Then, Jud muses on the child-like wonder of stepping inside a brick and mortar comic shop.
(10) TODAY IN HISTORY
- January 3, 1924 – King Tut’s sarcophagus was uncovered.
- January 3, 2004 — Spirit rover landed on Mars.
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born January 3, 1892 – J. R. R. Tolkien
(12)ESCAPING THE SHADOW. Simon Tolkien, grandson of J.R.R., tells how WWI inspired Lord of the Rings (and his own very modest career).
My grandfather, JRR Tolkien, died when I was 14. He remains vivid to me but through child-like impressions – velvet waistcoats and pipe smoke; word games played on rainy afternoons in the lounge of a seaside hotel or standing on the windy beach down below, skipping flat black pebbles out across the grey waves; a box of matches that he had thrown up in the air to amuse me, rising and falling as if in slow motion through the branches of a horse chestnut tree.
These memories did nothing to illuminate who my grandfather was or how he thought beyond a sense of wise benevolence arching over me like that tree. Nothing except for his religion: I remember the emotion in his voice when he recited prayers with me in the evening – not just the Hail Mary and the Our Father but others too – and the embarrassment I felt at church on Sundays when he insisted on kneeling while everyone else stood, and loudly uttering responses in Latin when everyone else spoke in English.
(13) GOOD FAKES. Timothy Anderson’s online gallery includes a set of clever faux vintage Star Wars paperback covers. They start with The Purloined Plans, second row down, toward the right.
(14) SHUTTERED. Crawford Doyle Booksellers on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is closing. Andrew Porter remembers —
The store, at 1082 Madison Ave, New York (between 81st and 82nd), was a bookstore long before 21 years ago. I used to live above it, at 24 East 82nd Street, and when I was a teenager in the early 1960s, and delivered Womrath Library books to subscribers in the neighborhood.
Downstairs, reached by a staircase from the store, there was an antique toy store. At one time, they sold military miniatures, including soldier figures from Donald A. Wollheim’s collection. An occasional visitor, I was told, was a collector by the name of George R.R. Martin. Another small part of my history disappearing into oblivion…
(15) CLIPPING SERVICE. Some of you might like this assortment of topical clips more than Mad Genius Club’s Amanda S. Green did.
Next up, we have yet another call to have a year of publishing nothing but women. Yep, you read that right. Kamila Shamshie has called for 2018 to be the year of publishing only women. Now, I know what you’re going to say. Look at the source of the article. It’s the Guardian. I know. I know. Another bastion of, well, drivel. However, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen such calls, or something similar. Have you forgotten the calls for readers to give up on reading books by men — or non-people of color or other so-called marginalized groups — for a year?
One of the best responses I’ve seen to the Shamshie article comes from Dacry Conroy. These three paragraphs completely dismantle Shamshie’s argument:
Yes! I thought. We do need to take example from the suffragettes, we do need to stop being so polite and seize our own power, raise our voices and… That’s when she lost me. Because what Shamsie suggested we raise our voices to say to the publishing industry was, essentially, “Please let us in. You’re being unfair. Just for one year without any boys in the way and see if the readers like us. It doesn’t have to be right away, 2018 is fine, but give us a go? Please?”
I don’t see the spirit of the independent presses of the 70s and 80s in that. What I see is a spirit of dependence on an industry that infantilizes writers, making them grateful for any morsel of approval and attention, convincing them that a publishing house is the only way to ‘real’ publication. This seems to be particularly so of literary writers (a group to which I do not pretend to belong) who appear to have been convinced that even though they are the keepers of the “artistic flame,” they would not have an audience at all without the festivals, the reviewers and the awards the publishing houses so carefully close to all but their own.
Surely the lesson from the independent presses of the 70s isn’t to plead for someone else to start a press and offer better opportunities, it’s to stand up, use the technology available and become our own publishers. Many of us are already doing that.
(16) THE YEAR IN RPG. Shannon Appelcline, respected RPG industry watcher, delivers a big gaming roundup in “Advanced Designers & Dragons #10: 2016: The Year in Review”.
The Continued Rise of Indies. For several years now, I’ve been talking about the rise of indie games, as several once-indie companies have become major players in the industry. In 2016 a few of them started collecting together other games, turning themselves into publishing houses that go beyond just the particular ideas of their owners.
Evil Hat* was the most notable, with their expansion occurring thanks to the success of the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (2017?)*. They’ve hired a few people on as full-time employees, which is a luxury in today’s roleplaying industry, let alone the indie industry. Meanwhile, they’re printing and distributing a few successful Kickstarters: Blades in the Dark (2017?)* and Karthun: Lands of Conflict (2017?).
Burning Wheel strikes me as a smaller, more casual organization, but they similarly picked up the publishing and distribution of a few indie games: Dungeon World (2012) and Jared Sorsensen’s Parsely games (2009-2010). This also seems like a more casual partnership, mainly amounting to Burning Wheel HQ, Sage Kobold, and Memento Mori combining forces, like in the Gen Con Forge booth of days gone by, but between Burning Wheel (2002), Torchbearer (2013), and Dungeon World (2012), you have three of the most notable indie fantasy RPGs, all under one roof!
Last year also offered one more example of the indie movement growing and maturing: the blockbuster Apocalypse World (2010) got a second edition (2016).
The Inevitable Kickstarter Report. As in recent years, I’m going to end this review with a look at Kickstarter. And, I think the only description of Kickstarter this year is: wow. I mean, it’s been good for the industry for years, but in 2016 it notched up a higher level of success than ever before.
To start with, we suddenly had 26 pure RPG Kickstarters that raised more than $100,000 in 2016, after years of hovering below 20. Most notably, 7th Sea raised $1.3 million! That’s almost double the previous high, which was Deluxe Exalted 3e, which raised $684,755 in 2013. 7th Sea’s 11,483 backers also beat out the 10,103 backers for Evil Hat’s Fate Core from 2012-2013, a number that I thought might be unassailable.
(17) BEST NEW WRITERS. Rocket Stack Rank has put together a list of stories from Campbell-eligible authors. Greg Hullender explains:
As usual, the entry for each story has a spoiler-free blurb plus a link to a more detailed review. People who have already done their reading for the year and just need to be reminded of which story was which will probably find both of those useful. For people still looking for things to read, we’ve indicated which stories were recommended by us or any of the reviewers we track, and there are links to places to read stories for free (where possible) and otherwise there’s info on how to buy or borrow them.
The graph shows that Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies were the most friendly venues for new authors. Original anthologies are the least.
(18) GROOVY, MAN. @70sscifiart on Twitter shares retro sf covers and art.
11200:
Conquest Of The Amazon
John Russell Fearn https://t.co/3RxJtl0Z7s pic.twitter.com/RHhvMNqvrw
— 70s Sci-Fi Art (@70sscifiart) January 3, 2017
70sscifiart:
Black light Star Trek poster https://t.co/Yl2OVM8B2c pic.twitter.com/HdVGsNFb8g
— 70s Sci-Fi Art (@70sscifiart) January 1, 2017
(19) SUPERFINE. Melville House has a story about a very overdue library book.
Gillett came across the 1,000-page tome when, after her husband’s death, she was sorting through a collection of 6,000 books. Finding the HCS library stamp on the inside cover, she realized the extraordinary truth, and decided to return the book to the school along with a note reading: “I am sorry to inform you that one of your former pupils, Prof AE Boycott FRS, appears to have stolen the enclosed. I can’t imagine how the school has managed without it!”
Perhaps this book helped inspire the Professor’s future career. The little boy once obsessed with snails now has his own portrait hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Based on the rate at Hereford library, the fine could have been charged at 17 pence a day, over 120 years, totalling around £7,446.
(20) ROTSLER AWARD EXHIBIT AT LOSCON. Courtesy of Elizabeth Klein-Lebbink we have a photo of the Rotsler Award Exhibit from Loscon 2016 featuring the art of Ditmar.
(21) SCAVENGERS. This is an animated short film about astronauts who were stranded on a planet a long time ago, long enough that they’ve learned a great deal about the planet’s biological organisms and the interactions between the native flora and fauna.
[Thanks to JJ, Cat Rambo, Cat Eldridge, Mark-kitteh, Bruce Baugh, Chip Hitchcock, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mark-kitteh.]
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Update: It occurred to us that authors who wrote works last year but didn’t write anything this year are also eligible, so we added a third section to Rocket Stack Rank’s 2017 Campbell Award Eligible Writers listing short fiction published in 2015 by writers who were then in their first year of eligibility.
Again, I suggest a quick skim of the list looking for stories you remember reading and liking, although picking a few highly-recommended stories to read from that stack of unread magazines piled in the corner that you feel guilty about is perfectly fine too. 🙂
It was, thank you!
And so very much of it resonates so very strongly about now.
Re: (2) — I’m reminded of some actor or other (no cite, sorry; heard this many many years ago) joking that his “overnight success” only took about twenty years….
@Doctor Science: “when Mr Dr started moaning “Boooook! I need a book!” ”
I can’t remember the last time I did that. I’ve had a thriving Mount Tsundoku for at least a decade, probably more like two or three. With close to 2500 books on the pile at present, I could probably stop buying books right now and still be set for the next dozen years or more.
Granted, sometimes I find myself temporarily deficient, but that’s only if I’m away from home, didn’t bring my Kobo with me, and either my iPad is dying or I don’t have anything squirreled away on it. Those are still rare cases; I don’t even go grocery shopping without bringing the iPad along.
Through rain and wind and weather
Bound in fine leather
Wishin’ my books was by my side.
All the Gods I’m stalkin’
Good stories, tea, and talkin’
Are waiting at the end of my ride.
2) If they’re just going off of reader suggestions, I’m tempted to suggest to them some more up and coming writers. Like Lois McMaster Bujold maybe, or Harlan Ellison.
Rose, Ive heard this Asimov is starting to make a name for himself.
@jack lint: applause
A pixel is a pixel is a pixel
Or
Ceci nest past un pixel?
Rose, Peer:
I recently downloaded The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, who I’ve heard good things about. Maybe Omni would be interested in her 🙂
Kendall:
Yes, the cry of “Booooks!” was intentionally zombie-like. There may have been shambling, too …
@Greg, I just skimmed the RSR list — awesome work, as always 🙂 — and noticed that Charlotte Ashley isn’t on it.
Dooooon’t forgeeeet Charlotte Ashley! 😀
Heather Rose Jones: If Campbell eligibility were triggered only by novels, I might agree with you, but since one can lose Campbell eligibility on the basis of a single short story in an obscure anthology, I’d like to allow the possibility of a longer period of emergence.
For example, Genevieve Cogman, who is sadly not eligible for her Invisible Library novels because of a single short story published in Strange Horizons in 2004. 😐
@kathodus (re to me): one of the common threads of McKillip’s work is not expecting much of the hereditarily powerful. She doesn’t portray them all as idiots, but they don’t get much respect.
@Chip (and anyone else with an opinion, please) – I’ve been poking around today a bit, looking for the next McKillip to read. I’ve pretty much decided to just go for a balance of “ease of purchase” and “order of publication,” because that’s how my brain works, but if you have any other books or series of hers you would recommend above others, please let me know.
@JJ
I doubt it will make you feel any better, but The Invisible Library came out in UK edition in December 2014 so the Strange Horizons story hasn’t made any difference this year. (She’d have easily made my list this year. Also, off to find that Strange Horizons story!)
@Standback
We don’t think she qualifies. Her story, Aisthesis, was published in 2014 in the anthology Fierce Family (Crossed Genre Publications). Crossed Genres is SFWA qualifying and therefore Campbell qualifying. (The reverse isn’t always true though.)
@heather @JJ (and others)
Fair point, the Campbell eligiblity WRT short fiction vs novelists does screw up my thoughts on “emerging writers”.
As far as novel-only Campbell-eligibles, I’m enthusiastically nominating K.B. Wagers for Behind The Throne and After The Crown and Scott Hawkins for The Library at Mount Char.
C.A. Higgins’ Lightless and Supernova are very well done, as is Malka Older’s Infomocracy, but they did not excite me in the same way as Wagers’ and Hawkins’ books.
And I hated the fact that the abusive main character in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is apparently not intended to be considered abusive, but I think that Natasha Pulley wrote an excellent novel otherwise.
@Greg et al re Charlotte Ashley
Per the call for submissions, payment for that anthology was a mere $20 and therefore doesn’t meet the $50 “nominal fee” criteria or the SWFA $60 criteria.
K.B. Wagers is definitely on my Campbell longlist, along with occasional Filer Elizabeth Bonesteel, Roshani Chokshi and quite possibly Laurie Penny and Ada Palmer.
1.Pixel
2.Scroll
3.????
4.Profit!!!
Cassy B on January 4, 2017 at 11:15 am said:
Re: (2) — I’m reminded of some actor or other (no cite, sorry; heard this many many years ago) joking that his “overnight success” only took about twenty years….
And that reminds me of Alfred Bester’s long comment on how Fondly Fahrenheit came about to be written; depending upon how one counts it ranges from decades to a week.
And hey, that Bester fellow has some neato stories, he could be one of those up and coming writers too! <g.
@Cora
I’ve read a couple of Roshani Chokshi’s short stories but hadn’t thought of her for the Campbell. Do you recommend her novel?
@Mark
Well done! Taking it for granted that it didn’t hit the 10,000-copy limit, we’re going to add her after all. Thanks!
@techgrrl1972: Glad I could help. That’s the kind of trivia I’m good at – if you find the one article on this site tagged with my name, you’ll see some more evidence of that.
Michael J. Walsh on January 4, 2017 at 5:01 pm said:
there’s that Wells guy, too, and Stapledon. Big Idea writers. *g*
For up and coming I’m liking that Heinlein guy. Seems like the sort of hard charger that could kick off a golden age of SFF once he finds his voice. Still, best not to judge these things too quickly…
😛
@kathodus: I liked the “Riddle-Master of Hed” books, but McKillip splicing commas every third sentence irritated the heck outta me. A comma is not a semicolon and it’s not a conjunction. Aside from that being very distracting and annoying, I liked her writing a lot. I’ve only read one or two other books of hers, though – a situation I should probably fix. Let’s see, Od Magic was good. I have The Changeling Sea and Alphabet of Thorn in the TBR mountain. I may have read something else of hers that I’m forgetting because I don’t own it.
@Soon Lee:
LOL!
I really hope that Jim? Jeff? Jordy? Martin guy emerges soon. 😛
2) I see that Omni is still living up to its reputation as “the magazine for the pseudo-intellectual”.
4) Where does the one from The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies fit in that chart?
13) While you’re looking, check out the gorgeous realization of The Martian Chronicles (top row, right end) and the Argonath National Park poster (3rd row, 3rd from left). And the spaghetti-western-style Star Wars posters (4th row, 2-4 from left) would look right at home in one of our local restaurants, the decor of which includes several actual Italian Star Wars movie posters of the period.
@Mark
Roshani Chokshi’s novel is marketed as YA fantasy, so it’s not on the radar of quite a few genre readers, but I enjoyed it. No idea if it’s down your alley, but she’s definitely one of the new authors of 2015/16 who’ve caught my eye.
One scroll, two scroll
Red scroll, blue scroll
/emerging-stalk!
This time I’m taking advantage of this ebook sale a.k.a. Meredith Moment before it vanishes!
Camber of Culdi (The Legends of Camber of Culdi #1) by Katherine Kurtz is on sale for $1.99 from Open Road Media (uses DRM). A classic and one of my old favorites. I feel a re-read coming on (there’s probably a tincture or tisane to help with this).
Mine took eleven.
Or, technically, from May 1982, when I made my first sale to November 1993, when my big breakthrough project debuted.
@Kendall:
No, Steve Martin is an actor, not a writer!
@Peer: I can’t keep these liberal arts professions straight, sorry! 😉
I thought McKillip’s Alphabet of Thorn was really good, but my favorite non-Riddle Master book is probably A Song for the Basilisk. Generally, I love her standalone books (Od Magic, Ombria in Shadow, and Book of Atrix Wolfe, as well as the other books mentioned).
@kathodus: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is an old favorite, but I can’t look at it objectively enough to be sure it stands up against later work — when it came out there was nothing to compare it to. (I can certainly say that the suck fairy has gone nowhere near it.) A couple of negatives: IMO her one SF attempt (Fool’s Run) was unsuccessful, and the two Cygnet books were weak.
5) They’re was a vigorous discussion of this on Metafilter. My takeaways were:
1) fans who will spend hours coming up with detailed explanations for Anakin’s background, will wave away away the lack of prenatal care for Padme. Until a woman comments on it.
2) In Star Wars fandom there are few things as annoying as fans who will loudly proclaim “It’s actually a fairy tale so it doesn’t need to make sense! “
I wonder why some of my fellow male fans are so critcial about the article. I like it a lot: Insioghtful and funny written and I have to admit, that I didnt spot these particular incosistencies. To my excuse: The prequels were generally not very well written (to use an understatement) and I didnt care at that point.
Medical care in general in the SW universe is poorly thought out. Any culture with the technology for growing clones has the technology for replacing missing limbs and burned tissue with cloned copies of the patient’s own tissues and organs. No need for anyone to have cybernetic anything unless it is an actual improvement on the original. So not only is “dead Padme” stupid writing, but “more machine than man” Darth Vader is stupid writing.
@ Darren: Perhaps Darth Vader didnt have Health Care? Or the Force forbids cloned limbs? Skywalkers Hand was also Cybernetic IIRC…
(And yes, Its stupid writing. Although Im more forgiving with these things in a movie than in a book)
Could be that the religion of the reactionary party of the Empire doesn’t allow for replacement body parts? Not covered under government health care?
Maybe health care lobbyists played a key role in pressuring the Senate into installing Palpatine and founding the Galactic Empire.
Suddenly the whole “trade routes” plot makes more sense!
@Peer. Have you never read Cruel Shoes?
Thanks Chip and Rob – books acquired, or ereaderiq watchlist updated, depending on price and availability.
Or seen Roxanne or L.A. Story, or the proverbial many more?
Roxanne has been getting a lot of play on one of the antenna movie channels. I try to catch the 20 nose insults whenever possible.
@Jack: you mean the “20” nose insults? (I usually come up with 23 on the DVD, but I’ve heard of +/- 1. Word is that Martin was on a roll and they just kept filming.)
Martin would probably be the first to mention that he didn’t come up with all of them himself: