(1) WOTF NEWS. Writers of the Future Contest quarterly finalist Benjamin C. Kinney has withdrawn his story and posted this statement on his blog:
Earlier this week, I received a phone call informing me that my final submission to the Writers of the Future contest (first quarter 2018) had been selected as a finalist. However, after contemplating the information1 that past winners have shared about the contest in recent weeks, I have withdrawn my finalist story from consideration.
I would not judge anyone for their past (or future) decisions to be involved in the contest, whether or not they act(ed) out of ignorance. After all, many writers – myself included – have long treated this contest as a normal fixture of our community. I hope my choice will help encourage others to reexamine that assumption.
For myself, no award is worth supporting an organization that has hurt and misused so many friends, fellow authors, illustrators, and human beings.
The blog post has links to some examples. In addition, I have heard private accounts of other (ongoing) forms of unprofessional and manipulative behavior by contest staff.
— Benjamin C. Kinney (mostly on Bluesky) (@BenCKinney) April 19, 2018
(2) THE FIRST ONE IS FREE. Episode 1 of “James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction” is free at iTunes.
(3) FANFIC AND HISTORY. The Organization for Transformative Works (the closest thing to a central hub for transformative works fandom) is currently running a membership drive, and has highlighted their Open Doors project for the preservation of fannish history: “Your Donations Preserve Fannish History!”
Have you ever gone back to look for a fic you read years ago and found out it’s disappeared from the internet? We’ve all been there. As fandom grows and years go by, countless thousands of fanworks disappear every day—entire archives go offline every month, and with them treasures are forever lost to fandom and future generations of fans.
That’s where Open Doors comes in! Open Doors is a project of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), dedicated to preserving and archiving fannish voices. It works with the Archive of Our Own (AO3) to protect your old favorites from other places around the web. Your donations give us the resources we need to continue this work. In 2017 alone, Open Doors was able to preserve almost 43,000 fanworks thanks to your support!
(4) AUCTION OF ROLLY CRUMP COLLECTION. Gwynne Watkins, in “See Rare and Wonderful Disneyland memorabilia From Small World, Haunted Mansion, and the Enchanted Tiki Room Before It Goes on Auction Block” on Yahoo! Entertainment, says there is a big auction on April 28 from the collection of Rolly Crump, who was an animator and designer of Disneyland rides in the 1950s and 1960s.
I remember the flying saucer poster from the days when it was first in use.
(5) THE MANGA EXCEPTION. James Davis Nicoll isn’t always dialed up to 11 about unfinished series: “Halfway to Nowhere: On Enjoying the Narrative Journey”.
Like so many other readers, I am frustrated by interminable series that never end. I complain. Loudly. Publicly. In print (well, HTML). I do this because it’s the right thing to do. I may have a twinkling of a hope that some authors will wake up and conclude their series. But that hope is as long-lived as a firefly. Alas.
I do make an exception for works in which the destination is never the point, in which the goal is simply to enjoy the journey.
Take, for example, Hitoshi Ashinano’s classic manga series Yokohama Kaidashi Kik?. …
(6) OMAZE. Omaze features a chance to meet Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke as the prize in its new fundraiser.
- Hang out with Emilia Clarke (the Mother of Dragons herself!) over lunch
- Get a sneak peek of what it’s like on the top-secret Game of Thrones set in Belfast
- Be flown out to Northern Ireland and put up in a 4-star hotel
Every donation supports the Royal College of Nursing Foundation.
The Royal College of Nursing Foundation provides vital support for the nurses, midwives and health care assistants who care for us and our families day in and day out. The Foundation encourages young people to join the nursing profession, funds education and training opportunities, lends a hand to those struggling to meet the rising cost of living and provides advice and support to get their lives back on track.
A funny video of Emilia Clarke trying to spill the beans:
…Watch Daenerys Targaryen’s behind-the-scenes tour of Game of Thrones! Spoiler: Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) may or may not make eyebrow-raising cameos.
(7) COMICS SECTION.
- John King Tarpinian forwarded Brevity’s Hollywood-inspired dinosaur pun.
(8) ROBOPROF. They haven’t taken over the teacher’s job….yet! “Robots are helping pupils to learn in Finland”.
Elias, the new language teacher in a school in southern Finland, has endless patience for repetition, never makes a pupil feel embarrassed for asking a question and can even do the “Gangnam Style,” dance. Elias is also a robot.
Elias is a language learning solution comprising a humanoid robot and mobile application, currently being trialed in a year-long pilot program at alongside a maths-teaching robot at a primary school in Finland’s third-largest city.
The robot can speak 23 languages and is equipped with software that allows it to understand students’ requirements.
(9) EPISODE RECAP. Daniel Dern says:
Episode 3 of Netflix’s Lost in Space comes remarkably close to where one of the characters could say (with alarm), “Our hovercraft is full of eels!”
(Close, as in, not a hovercraft. Or even a Lovecraft.)
(10) HERE’S TO YOU, MISSING ROBINSONS. Geek Interviews delivers an “Interview With The Robinsons.”
The cast of Netflix’s Lost in Space might be lost in the show, but in reality, they are pretty well-versed in pop culture and could navigate around the many questions we tossed at them. Geek Culture caught up with the stars of the Robinsons family in Tokyo, consisting of Toby Stephens, Molly Parker, Taylor Russell, Mina Sundwall, and Maxwell Jenkins.
(11) ANON. Trailer for Anon coming to Netflix.
Sal Frieland is a detective in a world with no privacy or anonymity; where everyone’s lives are transparent, traceable, and recorded by the authorities; where crime almost ceases to exist. But in trying to solve a series of murders, Frieland stumbles on a young woman known only as the Girl. She has no identity, no history and is invisible to the cops. Sal realizes this may not be the end of crime, but the beginning.
(12) THE PRO CIRCUIT. The BBC covers “The harsh realities of being a professional ‘girl gamer'”.
Trolls told Leahviathan to “get cancer and die” and made rape threats because she promoted a game they didn’t like. She is pragmatic: “They bother me, but I know by and large, they’re not real. I try to just separate them from the reality of what I do.”
It’s imperative to learn how to cope with the scale and intensity of the vitriol that can sometimes be experienced. Ignoring trolls and refusing them the attention they crave is a key strategy. Alternatively, calling their bluff and trolling them back in a positive way often helps defuse the situation. Leahviathan also has a moderation crew who help manage abusive comments.
Leahviathan doesn’t reveal her surname or where she lives, which is quite common for live streamers. It’s important to preserve a little bit of privacy.
(13) HUSH-A-BOOM. “The return of a secret British rocket site”. Maybe not that secret as they were testing engines, which would have been noisy; now, noise reduction is part of the research program.
… Originally a World War Two training base for bomber crews, RAF Westcott became the Guided Projectile Establishment in 1946, and was renamed the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) a year later.
One of RPE’s initial roles was to study seized Nazi rocket planes and rockets – like the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, the V1 Doodlebug and the V2 ballistic missile – and also learn what they could from captured German rocket scientists, some of whom stayed on as employees and worked at the site until the 1960s. “As an apprentice at Westcott I well remember seeing a V2 rocket in its trailer, a Messerschmitt Komet and a Saunders-Roe rocket plane,” says Ed Andrews, a Westcott veteran who now helps look after the historic site.
…In addition to such safety concerns, Westcott’s new rocketeers will have new environmental concerns to worry about, not least because the site is a bit of a wildlife haven – with kestrels, rabbits, deer, red kites and bats amongst its occasional inhabitants. “We have had to relocate some bats from some old buildings to make sure they are kept happy,” says Mark Thomas, chief executive of Reaction Engines.
“We’ve also done a huge amount of work on noise reduction. The five-metre-high wall around our Sabre test stand is for noise suppression and we expect a remarkably low level of noise as a result. But tests will only run for short periods in any case,” says Thomas. That’ll please the neighbours: former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s country pile is next door.
Whether British-based rocketeers can create a resurgence at Westcott remains to be seen. But at least they now have a chance. Just last week Reaction Engines secured a massive £26m ($35.9m) investment from aircraft and rocket maker Boeing and jet engine maker Rolls-Royce….
(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In “Where Did Time Travel Come From?” on YouTube, the Nerdwriter traces the origin of time travel stories to Charles Darwin and the nineteenth-century utopian romance.
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, Meredith, JJ, Mike Kennedy, Danny Sichel, Carl Slaughter, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Chip Hitchcock, and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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First in Pixels, First in Scrolls, and First in the Eyes of Filers.
@12, I know a female game designer who has taken down all of her social media, moved, and rented a P.O. box for correspondence. I’m one of a handful of people who actually knows where she lives. Gamergate has a lot to answer for, and alas they probably never will.
Well, I finally finished New York 2140. (Honestly, one could use that book as a weight for your workouts.) I will say I thought Kim Stanley Robinson is a better-than-average writer–his description of the hurricane hitting New York was mesmerizing. This book isn’t as bad as some other bricks I’ve slogged my way through, but it will get nowhere near the top of my ballot.
(1) WOTF NEWS.
Good on Kinney; this must have been a really tough decision to make. Hopefully he will find a good home for his story, one of which he can be proud.
In related news, JDA is defending the Scientologists on Twitter. Because of course he is. 🙄
These aren’t the Pixel Scrolls you’re looking for…
Emilia Clarke WAS funny and the Omaze video is worth five minutes even though Americans will think RCN is a cable-TV provider.
Lost in Space: Toby Stephens is, of course, the son of Dame Maggie Smith and a very underrated Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens).
(1) WOTF news
JJ: Well, no one ever accused JDA of having a moral spine. He’s also, I still like to think, not representative of fandom’s right wing as a whole. Only when all ends of sf’s political spectrum agree WOTF is a toxic institution will it truly be shown the door. Not easy in a post-puppy landscape- akin to getting a load of warring kingdoms together to fight white walkers- but ultimately necessary.
(1) Yes, really tough decision, I’m sure.
Not technically morning, yet.
I remember getting one of those Writers of the Future collections sometime in the middle of the 90:s. I took a look on the cover, saw Hubbard’s name and wondered how on earth someone wanted to be associated with that.
Scientology was never a big thing in Sweden, but during that time they were extremely well-known, on the level of infamous.
Someone had turned in the scientology bible, the secret one, as evidence to a court in Sweden. This meant that it became accessible to the public for everyone who wanted to read it. So scientologies created a sabotage movements where they lined up in queues to order out the book, trying to block access for reporters and researchers. That was the first time I heard of them.
So I saw the name and the cover, sighed, and never read it. Not sure if I still have it in a shelf somewhere.
Gah, I added the wrong link. 🙁
Should have been this:
https://www.culteducation.com/group/1284-scientology/25871-usa-critcism-forces-sweden-to-change-the-law.html
“Would you scroll it for a quarter?”
I’d scroll that for a pixel!
(10) HERE’S TO YOU, MISSING ROBINSONS
Has anyone been watching Lost In Space? We watched the first episode and weren’t really motivated to continue – there were some real clunky moments. Does it get better?
Relevant to our interests:
HBO is having a free weekend on cable and satellite systems at least in the US. Hugo finalist “Get Out” is on HBO Comedy this Saturday, two showings. Hugo finalist “Wonder Woman” is on several of their channels several times from Friday through Sunday. Check your local listings. Also several things of genre interest on HBO Family, plus All the Harry Potters on HBO Zone. And more stuff on the Cinemaxes. Heck, just do a search and see what’s there.
Point is, you can see 33% of Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form for free in the next few days. Vote informed!
I’m enjoying each chapter of New York 2140 as vignettes of a future world but 20% I’m still not really pulled into the book. It might be a book I’d enjoy with fewer external distractions.
Here are some computer algorythms shown as Ikea-instructions. Yes, thats a thing.
(1) I’m beginning to think that one good piece of advice for any new writer is to be very cautious about entering “writing contests.” I’ve entered four or five over the years, and only one of those turned out to be both professionally run and non-exploitative. In too many cases it seems like they’re a cheap way to take advantage of inexperienced writers who are desperate to begin publication.
Ironically, my experience with WOTF (over thirty years ago, so take it for what it’s worth) is that it was reasonably well-organized and followed through on what it promised. It’s just that you’re being exploited to support a very nasty institution.
I haven’t cracked open New York 2140…yet, anyway.
1) A very tough decision, I am sure.
(5) Though YKK isn’t actually interminable. It has ended quite some time ago.
10 (@rob_matic): in my opinion, it gets worse. Episode 5 was it for me…someone needed to have high altitude weather balloons explained to them better…
Godstalk!
1. The WoTF website has a gallery of past and current judges for both writer’s and illustrator’s contests.
Wikipedia says this about that: “The contest enjoys a favorable reputation in the science fiction community…” (emphasis mine)
I want to know if they are paid for their work, if so, how much (I know, nunya) and WHY they have continued to allow themselves to be used by Scientology – if it isn’t for the money.
also from wiki -“the contest itself has been endorsed by a wide range of well-known speculative fiction writers” (and this is probably the only reason why the contest has persisted for so long)
I also think they all ought to resign their positions as all this whole thing does is allow scientology to continue to add names to the ranks of celebrities and successfull, creative people, to their come-ons. (They are trying to build a large enclave of SF-related people, all of whom are saying “come on in, the water is fine”)
I’ve definitely lost some respect for some – and no, the paycheck (if it exists) and the claims of PR and career boosting and “giving a hand up” to the next gen are not valid excuses.
(How ANYONE could agree to work on that contest after reading the bio of Hubbard they’ve got on the site is beyond me…https://www.writersofthefuture.com/about-l-ron-hubbard/)
Progress report: Finished Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher aka Oor Wombat and loved it! I would have absolutely adored it as a child/tween who couldn’t get enough of portal fantasies. That is going to be a tough category.
Started The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archive book 1) Even in mass market it is a doorstopper. Going pretty well so far, but I’m not even up to page 100 yet.
Books 2 and 3 of The Divine Cities are waiting for me at the library. Looking forward to reading those, and may take breaks from TWoK if needed.
May be of interest to those who prefer to listen to their Hugo reading: Fandom for Robots has been released in audio by Escape Pod.
My primary opinion of the WOTF contest was formed when I participated in a writing workshop at a convention (as a professional editor/critic) and one of the writer-participant boasted that his workshop story had been given a WOTF Honorable Mention. The story was…not good. It was so bad that one of my feedback comments (prepared before I knew about the WOTF thing) was that a workshop story really needed basic proofreading so that readers could focus on the content. (The content was also…not good. But that was very marginally possibly more a matter of individual taste.)
That fixed WOTF in my mind as being in the same category as “book awards” that are basically an outlet for selling gold foil stickers saying “this book won the gold foil sticker award.” I may be being unfair at the level of finalists and winners, but all the evidence I’ve seen is that at the Honorable Mention level, it’s a participation trophy.
I once submitted a story to WotF. At least three moves and thirty years later, I still get their postal spam.
1) I never submitted to Writers of the Future because of the Scientology connection. As in Sweden, Scientology is viewed as a dangerous cult in Germany and lost their tax exempt status. Any association with Scientology, even via a writing contest, could have professional consequences, particularly if you work in education.
I always found it surprising that so many SFF writers, including atheists of the noisy sort, saw no problem whatsoever with submitting to WOTF.
As for the puppies, there actually is a connection, because Brad Torgersen won WOTF and recruited some of people on the sad puppy slate from writers he had met via WOTF.
@Heather Rose Jones
Looking at their list of annual winners I don’t really spot many who are “names” now. The quarterly lists do have some very recognisable names in there, here and there, but they get 3 per quarter/12 of those a year so I’m not sure that’s a very impressive feat.
While the Campbell isn’t entirely a fair comparison because it weeds out anyone who can’t get pro published, its strike rate seems to be far far better than WotF.
The judges on the other hand…they are all pretty prestigious authors and like Steve Davidson I wonder what the paycheck is like.
Jim C Hines’ take on this from 6 years ago. I have a suspicion his opinion has grown more negative since, but he tries to lay out facts. And there are more linked in the comments.
@Cora
Recalling my own attitude toward Scientology after I’d learned about its origins, but before I found out about its horrible nastiness, I suspect outspoken atheists ignorant of the latter may have more respect for a religion that was founded purposely, with no pretense of literal truth. I’m not sure, though – I lost all respect for Hubbard when I found out he’d founded a religion.
@Lenora Rose
Thanks for the link to Hines, very interesting and from the comments I get the impression that the current discussion might be mirroring that one six years ago. Which begs the question, if WotF carried on happily despite that back then, and authors are still happy to act as judges etc, will the current coverage have any greater effect this time around?
11 – Getting strong Gnomon vibes from that trailer. Looks like if you crossed the Harkaway book (which is brilliant) with the Ubisoft video game Watchdogs.
I bounced off of New York 2140 hard. I admire KSRs vision and imagination in previous books I’ve read but something about his writing style and dialogue in particular just aren’t for me. Glad others enjoyed it, are enjoying it, will enjoy it, regardless.
1 – I mean even if a person ignores the Scientology aspect, which shouldn’t be ignored, it sounds like it’s giving a false promise to authors based on manipulated sales figures and instead of helping writers of the future gain a spotlight for their work it instead does the opposite.
Caught Neil Gaiman on The Big Bang Theory last night. He had two scenes that were probably the bright spots of a pretty blah episode*. There was also a Kurt Busiek mention.
* Most of the current season is pretty blah.
I have no need for scrolls and pixels. I write Pup Fiction.
(1) WOTF NEWS. A tough choice, no doube, but he’s better than that contest, so good for him. No disrespect to innocent folk lured to submit.
@Peer: LOL, I’m not sure I could follow those instructions as is, but it’s very amusing that soeone make IKEA-like instructions for algorythms!
@Mark (Kitteh): Thanks for the heads up about “Fandom for Robots” being on Escape Pod! I like audio for the short fiction, when avaialble.
We also have this old article about people showing up at WOTF being involved in torture and abuse for scientology.
As I remember it, the first WOTF was met with a lot of skepticism but they did a big push about it just being funded by Scientology but not really controlled by it.
And there was an undercurrent of anyone stupid or crazy enough to give money to Scientology would find some other way to throw their money in a pit and set it on fire anyway so at least this way some of it was being put to good use.
@kathodus: why ever would you think that about atheists? My two arguments against coming to such a conclusion are:
1. ALL religions are “made up” – that’s not what sets scientology apart
2. at least in my case, my atheism was arrived at following many years of study and is (I hope) based entirely on logic (with a dash of the scientific method thrown in): lack of knowledge is not an excuse for making something up, it’s an excuse to do more observing. making something up to fill the hole only serves to muddy the waters, so lets not do that, shall we?
Scientology is a “cult”. Cult – a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.
Other religions are “religions”. Religion – the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
There’s little to no daylight between the two.
ALL such systems depend upon substituting BS for reality – just like con men, soothsayers, mediums, and a whole mess of others who prey upon weakness, need and ignorance.
Matt Y says 1 – I mean even if a person ignores the Scientology aspect, which shouldn’t be ignored, it sounds like it’s giving a false promise to authors based on manipulated sales figures and instead of helping writers of the future gain a spotlight for their work it instead does the opposite.
I don’t know what there sales in hardcover, real sale this is as opposed to copies bought up for Church purposes, but even the stellar Year’s Best Fantady & Horror had under a thousand copies published according to reliable sources. Many of those were detained for venues like LOCUS who wouldn’t they were told review something if it wasn’t first in hardcover.
It made much money in the more affordable trade paper edition. Maybe these also only made money in that format.
@Steve Davidson – I think we’re pretty much in agreement.
My comment was based on my own attitudes when I was a vehemently anti-religious atheist (I’m less vehement now). My take on it then was that Scientology started as a troll and morphed into a financial scam. What set it apart from other religions to me was that I don’t think most religions start out as trolling, though there are definitely some that have started as financial scams. I could at least appreciate what I perceived as Hubbard’s nasty sense of humor in starting a religion/cult* based on ridiculous premises and exploiting US consumerism and the 70s self-help fad to make bank on it. I can’t respect or condone it, but at that point in my life, I could appreciate the joke. As the years go on and real-life trolling becomes more and more extreme and dangerous (President Troll, fer Xenu’s sake!), I’ve lost my sense of humor about such things.
Regarding your point 2), I wasn’t implying atheists arrive at their non-belief out of ignorance, but that someone who doesn’t have much regard for any religious institutions and considers them all scams may find some humor in Scientology’s origin, at least until they find out just how nasty Scientology is. Which isn’t a premise I made up, but one that follows from my memory of my own reaction to learning of it.
* I think the distinction between the two largely depends on whether you’re looking at it from inside or outside.
The fault, dear pixels, is not in our scrolls, but in our files.
Peer on April 20, 2018 at 3:09 am said:
The Quick Sort cartoon got used at Evil Mad Scientist Labs as the illo for their March linkdump. Having actually met it (and written a non-recursive one for school as an exercise), I can say that it’s accurate.
To be honest, as an atheist, I have lot more trouble with new religions. I can understand the old ones. Tradition gives comfort, it is something you grow up with, feel familiar with. There are often structures for helping others, for community. Support networks. I have an atheist friend who became a christian when a dear friend of his died. I totally support him in this.
But new religions? I view them with suspicion. Who created them? Why? The answers are usually dead giveaways. Agree that Scientology is a cult. It might also be a religion, but it is absolutely a cult.
Oh, I had some long talks with an atheist at MAC2. It was very weird, his atheism hade taken on almost religious aspects where they met together to have own ceremonies and stuff for weddings and other things.
@Hampus
A humanist perhaps? In the UK you can have a humanist wedding ceremony and so on.
Ash vs Evil Dead has been canceled by Starz though will continue to air the remaining Season 3 episodes.
Fun while it lasted.
Steve davidson: you might do well to remember you are calling fellow posters dupes and cretins when you speak so.
Mark:
I can’t actually remember, but it wasn’t only weddings. They had other meetups that felt religious to me. On the other hand, I got the impression that they felt always like they were under siege with vandalized cars and so on, so perhaps it was only banding together for comfort.
Okay, Allison Mack of Smallville was just arrested for sex trafficking. Life is…weird. And a bit sad.
jayn: Okay, Allison Mack of Smallville was just arrested for sex trafficking. Life is…weird. And a bit sad.
This is a story which has been developing for a while; they’ve obviously been working up the evidence to file charges.
It is more than a little bit scary to see how people can get sucked into this, and indeed very sad. 😐
And Now for Something Completely Different —
I finally remembered to send in my Worldcon 76 supporting membership yesterday. Does anybody know yet when the packets will be sent, or what the voting deadline is gonna be?