Pixel Scroll 5/14/16 Lucy In The Scroll With Pixels

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Happy astronomy day

(1) HAPPY ASTRONOMY DAY. Tech Times recommends celebrating the day by perusing the photos on its favorite Instagram accounts.

Thanks to astronomy, we are now aware of the beauty, wonders and mysteries of space. International Astronomy Day, on May 14, marks the discoveries and achievements we’ve made in the field. You can get even closer to astronomy by visiting your local planetarium, checking out any special Astronomy Day events in your area or even by enjoying a quiet night in the peace of your own backyard gazing up at the stars. You can also find a lot of resources online about astronomy, as well as sites that feature some of the most beautiful and intimate photos taken of space. Instagram in particular hosts a variety of photos, some by astronauts who are in space right now and who wish to share the beauty of the stars with others. Here are the best Instagram accounts to check out this International Astronomy Day.

NASA

Probably the most obvious account to follow on Instagram is NASA, which posts photos on a regular basis of many of its discoveries and images related to new discoveries. There’s always something beautiful to see here, and you might just learn a little more about astronomy in the process.

(2) SFWA EXPANDS MEMBER ELIGIBILITY

(3) RACHEL SWIRSKY. Swirsky did a ”Silly Interview with Na’amen Tilahun, Aspiring Prince Impersonator” on Thursday.

Na’amen Tilahun has been around the science fiction scene for a long time — as a fan, a convention attendee, and a bookstore clerk. And now as a novelist! His debut novel, The Root, is coming out in June. I blurbed it:

“Na‘amen Tilahun‘s novel will make readers searching for variety in their SFF diets squeal with delight. The detailed world-building is strange and wondrous.”

And on Friday, she made a reading “Recommendation: Saving Slave Leia by Sandra MacDonald”.

Sandra McDonald is one of my favorite working short story writers. Her humor is often both warm *and* sly, her satires sharp but empathetic. She has some amazing funny and irreverant stories about drag queen astronauts and sexy robot cowboys, but one of her other favorite topics to lampoon is Hollywood.

“Searching for Slave Leia”–as you might expect–is one of the latter. Sandra McDonald hits a perfect point where humor and metafiction let her really dig into human emotion. Also, Star Wars.

“Searching for Save Leia” by Sandra McDonald…

(4) BACK IN FASHION. John King Tarpinian splurged for some Turkish delight. As you Wikipedia readers know, Bob:

Turkish delight features as the addictive confection to which Edmund Pevensie succumbs in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) by C. S. Lewis. Sales of Turkish delight rose following the theatrical release of the 2005 film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

(5) DARWYN COOKE. Almost Darwyn Cooke’s Blog announced that he passed away overnight.

We regret to inform you that Darwyn lost his battle with cancer early this morning at 1:30 AM ET. We read all of your messages of support to him throughout the day yesterday. He was filled with your love and surrounded by friends and family at his home in Florida.

Donations can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society and Hero Initiative.

Please continue to respect our privacy as we go through this very difficult time.

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY

(7) BEAUTIFUL FREE BOOKS. Here’s someone who scored big at last night’s SFWA signing….

(8) STINKERS. Suvudu is so right about its “Eleven Cringeworthy Sci-Fi Series From the Eighties” I even cringed to read the synopses. You’ve been warned.

…Automan: Police department IT geek Walter Nebicher (”Nebbish“, get it?) bonds with a powerful artificial intelligence that can create whatever he needs in his fight against crime. “Whatever” meaning cars, mostly. The AI manifests as a digital avatar known as “cursor”. It was a different time. This was created by the producers of TRON, by the way

(9) PIRATICAL PUPPY PLAY. The Orlando Fringe will host The Space Pirate Puppy Musical from May 18-30. The Tasty Monster Productions site does not answer whether it has anything to do with the Hugos.

The+Space+Pirate+Puppy+Musical!Earth has gone to the dogs, literally. After “the incident” humans have gone underground and into space leaving dogs to run the planet. But the Space Pirates have decided that they need to pave over Earth to put up a parking lot for their new nightclub on the moon. The Puppies have to join forces with their arch enemies the Ninja Kittens and along with the assistance of the Great Oracle, must seek the power of the greatest weapon they’ve never heard of. Epic adventures and battles ensue and along the way, we learn a deep, dark secret…or three. Will the Puppies turn tail and run? Will the Ninja Kittens, ooh string. Can the Earth be saved from certain construction?  Will it all end in discord or harmony?

Written by Heather Bagnall and directed by Luke Tudball, with original music and lyrics by multi award-winning New York composer Steve Schalchlin. Original artwork by Seamus Corbett.

Somebody *coff*Camestros**coff** ought to ask Timothy the Talking Cat.

(10) FUNERAL FOR OLD PUBLISHING. Brian Keene has a lot to say about “How the Mid-List Died” at Cemetary Dance Online.

The mid-list is gone. Borders is gone. But that doesn’t matter, because over the last twenty years, we’ve had a new thing come along—something called the Internet. With it came Amazon, and suddenly, mid-list writers didn’t have to play a rigged game anymore. Our books had a shelf life beyond that one to three month span. Readers could find us, discover us, and find our backlist. If your local chain bookstore didn’t have our latest, you could buy it online.

Which brings us back to the start of this column. The number one question I am most often asked is, “Why can’t I buy all of your books at Barnes and Noble?”

To understand why, you need to consider the changes that have taken place in publishing over the last twenty years, particularly those that took place after the demise of the mid-list and the closure of Borders. After those things occurred many mid-list, cult, or genre authors decided to take advantage of the advances in digital and print-on-demand publishing and do it for themselves. They cut out the publisher, cut out the chain stores, and marketed directly to the readers. For example, Bryan Smith, who was inarguably one of Dorchester’s most popular horror writers, began self-publishing via Kindle and CreateSpace and has since made more money from that than he ever did through traditional publishers. Other authors, such as myself, decided to diversify their publication routes. Since Dorchester’s fall, I’ve routinely divided my releases between self-publishing (via Amazon’s CreateSpace and Kindle), the small press (via publishers such as Deadite Press and Apex Book Company), and mainstream publishing (via big publishing conglomerates such as Macmillan). I do this because I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket. Your mileage may vary.

(11) WE ALL LIVE IN A GENRE SUBMARINE. Steve Davidson at Amazing Stories holds forth on “The Birth of a New (sub-?) Genre”.

I was on the hook for an editorial subject for today (it’s been a little tough concentrating these days given our personal circumstance), so I hopped on over to File 770 to peruse the daily Pixel Scroll. I can usually find something over there upsetting or bothersome enough to get the juices flowing.

No such luck, I thought, even AFTER reading the comments. (What’s up Mike? I can almost always pull an editorial subject out of the File, either from the entries, the commentary, visiting the linked posts/pages/sites or, at last resort, the comments on the linked to items for some Fourth Level Upset).

Even though File 770 fell down on the job, Steve got an editorial out of Timothy the Talking Cat’s new There Will Be Walrus collection, which has more than enough provocative material to get anyone steamed up.

(12) A BETTING FAN. The Traveler at Galactic Journey thinks he has my number as well, and it isn’t five. See “[May 14, 1961] Friendly Disputes (June 1961 Analog)”.

Now for the disputable ones.  Analog is the most conservative of the mags.  It’s generally Terran-centric, with Earthlings portrayed as the most cunning, successful beings in the galaxy (which is why, of course, most aliens look just like us).  While the serialized novels in Analog are often excellent, the accompanying short stories tend to be uninspiring.  The science fact columns are awful.  Editor John Campbell’s championing of psionics and reactionless engines (in real-life, not just fiction), crosses into the embarrassing.  All these factors make Analog the weakest of the Big Three magazines, consistently lagging in quality behind Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Of course, Mike disagrees.  He’s even wagered that Analog will take the Hugo award for Best Science Fiction Magazine this year.  I think he’s dreaming.  F&SF has won three years in a row, and barring some unexpected decline in quality, it will do so again.

I’ll take that bet, Mike Glyer!  Two beers to your one.

I’ll have to start investigating what the good beers are in 1961. Pabst Blue Ribbon was the sponsor of those Friday night fights I watched on TV with my father. Of course, in 1961 I am only 8 — perhaps I should be wagering a nonalcoholic beverage….

(13) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY

(14) KAIJU REDO. According to CinemaBlend “Pacific Rim 2 Just Took A Major Step Forward, Get The Details”.

We’ve just learned that Pacific Rim 2 has taken a Kaiju-sized step forward by enlisting a new screenwriter to polish the script

According to a recent report from THR, it seems that Pacific Rim 2 has brought screenwriter Derek Connolly on board. It appears that he will work alongside current director Steven S. DeKnight – who helped shepherd the first season of Netflix’s hit series Daredevil – with regards to fine-tuning the story and bringing the sequel to life. The report also confirms that Guillermo del Toro remains firmly committed to the project, albeit in a producing role, rather than as the film’s director.

(15) FIREFLY HOMAGE. JJ recommends The Verse, a fan film from a couple years ago, but as we say here, it’s always news to somebody.

Written for fans and by fans who are inspired by the cult sci-fi series “Firefly”. An exciting new look at this beloved world featuring a new crew, a new ship and a heaping dose of misbehavin’!

 

(16) SUPER TROOPERS. JJ also made sure we didn’t miss “Boogie Storm make Simon’s dream come true!” — Britain’s Got Talent 2016.

(17) BONUS NEBULA COVERAGE. Beautiful photos from tonight’s banquet and awards ceremony.

Henry Lien leads the Eunuchs of the Forbidden City in “Radio SFWA.”

https://twitter.com/divyastweets/status/731678766653640704

[Thanks to Will R., David K.M. Klaus, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Christian Brunschen.]

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116 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/14/16 Lucy In The Scroll With Pixels”

  7. The Brian Keene piece is very interesting and well worth reading.

    Pictures from the Nebulas. There’s something you don’t see every day, Chauncey! I hate to admit this, but, in many ways, our “now” is more fascinating than a lot of the “predicted’ futures I read about 40+ years ago!

  10. 8) Trivia: The movie Starman was filmed in Nashville (I don’t know about the series). Nashville fans used to use it for a drinking game — take a drink every time you spot a locational impossibility (e.g. successive shots of a chase scene in locations several miles apart).

    Nebulas: I am pleased to see Fury Road take the DP.

  11. I don’t quite understand the appeal of Turkish delight (lokum) which is nothing but numbingly sweet goo, but millions of Turks and others can’t be wrong. It seems obvious to me, though, that its eastern origins and name were the reason that Lewis gave it the symbolic role he did.

  12. (11) WE ALL LIVE IN A GENRE SUBMARINE

    Thanks for including and carefully preserving the link to File770, Mike. I’ve always wanted to go check that place out and see what all the controversy is about!

    (Ok, ok, I admit, I have actually been able to find File770 on my own. I’m still not sure what the controversy is about. Is it that people like science fiction? That people who like science fiction have a wide variety of tastes? That science fiction is a broad topic these days? I’m just not sure…) 😀

  13. Xtifr: I know the editor at File 770 and am just trying to throw a little traffic his way…

  15. @lee You should try being a crapaud and watching Bergerac. The island’s only 9 by 5 for Ghu’s sake, how can you get the geography so wrong?

  16. Here’s a timelapse from my flight to the US, from just north of Salt Lake City to on the ground at LAS. An hour and a half or so of flying condensed down to two and a half minutes…

    https://youtu.be/FxmGjjAiCxU

    Mountains and deserts, oh my.

  17. Is 6 the Light side Lucas and 13 the Dark side Lucas, or is it the other way around? 🙂

  19. Simon Bisson –
    Very cool, thanks for sharing!

    #8 – I must shamefully admit, I thought Manimal was pretty darn cool. In my defense, I was 10 or 11, and obsessed with animals and the idea of transformations at the time.

  20. (3) I’m probably the only person who put that on the Hugo ballot that year.

    (8) I watched most of those. “Wizards and Warriors” was actually kinda good.

    Turkish Delight is terrible. Definitely not anywhere near worth selling out your siblings and the forces of good.

    Simon, Utah and Nevada are only two states, unless you went the long way around Lake Mead and overflew a bit of Arizona.

  21. (7) BEAUTIFUL FREE BOOKS. That reminds me of World Fantasy in Crystal City (Arlington), VA; the free book bag was packed, and then there was a nice table where one could swap books. I got a lot of YA, which isn’t usually my thing, but I got some other stuff, too. Boooooooksssss……..

    (8) STINKERS. Oh yeah, I vaguely remember “Wizards and Warriors”! I’m pretty sure I liked it at the time, though I barely remember it now.

    ETA: I’m behind on replying to replies to my comments on a couple of scrolls this week, but wow, I’m actually up on the latest scroll! 😀 It’s a miracle. It won’t last.

  23. lurkertype: Turkish Delight is terrible. Definitely not anywhere near worth selling out your siblings and the forces of good.

    It’s a crime against chocolate. I was so excited at getting to taste it for the first time, and my reaction was WTF IS THIS??? Gah. It’s horrible.

  24. lurkertype on May 14, 2016 at 11:42 pm said:

    Turkish Delight is terrible. Definitely not anywhere near worth selling out your siblings and the forces of good.

    I stayed in a hotel in Istanbul that had little free samples at the reception desk. I would definitely have sold out Aslan for extra helpings.

  25. (8) STINKERS.

    OMG, what a young Trevor Eve, long before Waking the Dead.

    And I have to wonder whether the character “D.C. Montana” from The Highwayman was an homage to one of our own.

  26. JJ on May 15, 2016 at 12:27 am said:

    lurkertype: Turkish Delight is terrible. Definitely not anywhere near worth selling out your siblings and the forces of good.

    It’s a crime against chocolate. I was so excited at getting to taste it for the first time, and my reaction was WTF IS THIS??? Gah. It’s horrible.

    Ah, you are referring to https://www.cadbury.com.au/products/chocolate-bars/frys-turkish-delight-bar.aspx
    But without chocolate, well! um its pretty much the same but there isn’t any chocolate.

  27. Camestros Felapton: But without chocolate, well! um its pretty much the same but there isn’t any chocolate.

    So even more horrible, then. 😉

  28. There were some sensible points in Voxman’s platform. I don’t think that was ever in question, at least not from me. It doesn’t mean he was a good pick for president, but sure, I have no problem saying that. I suspect I did at the time. i can’t remember for sure if I said it in “public” (i.e. the SFWA forums)–it’s been a long time. I think I did, though. There are a non-zero number of opinions I share in common with most people. Because people. (Even Lou Antonelli, whose platform seemed more slapdash than Voxman’s, was right about sfwa needing a mentor program.)

  29. Turkish delight is cloying after a couple of pieces, but the kind with nuts – hazelnuts especially – is very good. That having been said, Edmund’s kind most likely wouldn’t have been either the authentic sort or the chocolate-coated bar, but something like the kind I remember as a Christmas thing in the 1970s – large lumps, softer than the authentic kind, in (nominally) rose and lemon flavours.

    I think Vasha’s right that Lewis chose it for the eastern origins and name, and also for the cloying quality since it’s a stand-in for earthy pleasures in general. I think the association with Christmas may be in there too, but I wouldn’t insist on it.

    The other thing to remember – credit for this point goes to the old alt.books.cs-lewis faq – is that sweets were still rationed in the UK when “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” came out, so being able to have as much sweet stuff as you liked was very much a greedy child’s dream.

  30. Next movie: The Good, The Bad, The Weird. A South-Korean homage to Sergio Leones westerns. Magnificient direction, a glorious soundtrack, wonderful actors. Sometimes a bit too brutal with real violence, otherwise more of a comedy. Absolutely recommended.

  31. 2) I look forward to seeing games writers add their knowledge to the SFWA. I’m not exactly sure that it’ll impact me much, but glad to see the sSFWA changing with the times.

    3) Ooh a new short story to read. And by an author I like. I LOVED the Outback Stars. I thought it was amazing. Had the bureucracy porn I liked, along witha great story. I thought the sequel was also pretty good. The third I didn’t like as much, but was still worth reading.

    7) The one San Diego Comic Con I went to I cam home in well over 100 bucks worth of free books. The New York Comic Con I went to, I came home with 5 or 6 including a few hardcovers, and only that few because I only had a backpack to get me back down to Virginia. I have a feeling, there will be lots of books available at WorldCon as well.

    Cons pay for themselves in my opinion.

    16) Simon Cowell is the Dark Lord?

    That was FUN.

    @Malcolm, we’ve already established that running in front of parades doesn’t make you a parademaster.

  34. I had a piece of (what I was told was) Turkish Delight once. I think it was the rose flavor. It tasted like cheap perfume and disappointment.

  35. Today’s read — A Tangle of Gold, by Jaclyn Moriarty

    (This is a 2016 novel and I will be putting it on the 2016 recommendations page; it is the third and final book in the “Colours of Madeleine” trilogy.)

    OK, so I’ll start by saying … why. Why are you not already reading this series? Oh, it’s always the same excuses. “Because I’ve never heard of it.” “Is that a book?” “Jaclyn who?”

    How good is this series? When this arrived in the mail, my spouse with the 900-hour-a-week job grabbed it and read it before I could. That does not happen.

    That being said, I wish my first review of the series on this site were for the first book or the second book, because the third book, while still good, has flaws which make it the weakest of the three. Bear in mind, though, I’m saying this about a book I stayed up until 6 AM reading.

    General background on the series: It kicks off when a teenager named Madeleine starts finding notes in a parking meter that claim to be written by someone from the Kingdom of Cello, where wild colors sometimes attack people. Come for the inventiveness of the concepts, stay for the deft and subtle characterization, which sneaks up on you so stealthily that it can be 100 pages before you suddenly realize that incredibly important emotional moments have been happening all along while you were trying to figure out how the weather works.

    On to this book. My spouse’s comment on handing it to me was, “So much happens!” But that isn’t necessarily always a good thing here, unfortunately. Parts of it felt rushed, there were concepts that were first mentioned immediately before they became important, and at least one major plot point, crucial for explaining why a major character was acting out of character, felt forced. I honestly think this should have been longer, or possibly even two books instead of one, to give everything in it time to develop and play out.

    That being said, it was still a stay-up-to-read-it book. The beginning had me cracking up with laughter, and there was a perfect twist or two I did *not* see coming. The best and most memorable sequence occurs when the book shifts focus to to a previously supporting character for a long time, in a subplot which could be summed up as “big city girl ends up moving to a small farming town”, but that fails to get across how beautifully it is written.

    This book gets a thumbs up, but a very qualified thumbs up. The series as a whole, however, gets a big thumbs up. It would take a lot more than flawed but still enjoyable third book to bring down the amazing heights of books one and two.

  37. I make my own Turkish Delight, using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. (Not the current version, but the one from the 70s.) Made with lemon juice it’s good; made with concentrated black cherry juice it’s amazing.

  38. Another movie: The Dish. Australian low key comedy about the a team in charge of the satellite dish receiving the televised pictures of the moon landing. A sweet little story, with naive and goodhearted people a bit out of their element. Feelgood for a rainy day.

  39. Nancy Sauer: Made with lemon juice it’s good; made with concentrated black cherry juice it’s amazing.

    I’d be willing to try those, or pistachio. Though I’m not much for things which are excessively sweet.

    I’ve never thought rose perfume smelled like actual roses, and I can’t abide anything flavored with it; it tastes absolutely horrible to me.

  40. @Hampus Eckerman: The Good, the Bad and the Weird is wonderful.

    For those watching at home, it’s kind of the plot of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly set in Occupied Manchuria in the 1930s.

  41. Now that you mention it, the evil Turkish Delight might also be suggesting that it has some of the qualities of opium, “Turkish Delight” for adults.

  42. A few Nebulas Notes…

    Yes, Radio SFWA is now on Youtube :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdgOXMJWQ20

    In regards to the free books, the swap tables have consistently grown throughout the weekend since lots of people don’t want to lug them on the airplane or spend money to ship them back.

    The post awards alternate universe Nebulas were quite good with nominees reading their acceptance speeches for the timeline where they did win (some were their actual speeches, some were sillier).

    Overall, it was a good Nebulas Weekend with lots of interesting panels curated by Mary Robinette Kowal.

  43. One other Nebulas note, John Scalzi was taking lots of pictures during the pre-banquet reception, so keep an eye on the Whatever for them.

  44. Lee Whiteside: Yes, Radio SFWA is now on Youtube :

    The sound is unfortunately not very good, but if you open the above and the below in separate windows, mute the above then start it, and then at 10sec start the below, then go back to watch the other window, it works pretty well.

  45. @lukertype Yes, the route cuts across that weird little bit of Arizona between St George and Mesquite (one that’s apparently very profitable for Arizona, thanks to a precipitous drop in the I15 speed limit through the Virgin Canyon. That 55 limit, they mean it.)

  46. Mike:

    And on Friday, she made a reading “Recommendation: Saving Slave Leia by Sandra MacDonald”.

    Sandra McDonald is one of my favorite working short story writers. Her humor is often both warm *and* sly, her satires sharp but empathetic. She has some amazing funny and irreverant stories about drag queen astronauts and sexy robot cowboys, but one of her other favorite topics to lampoon is Hollywood.

    “Searching for Slave Leia”–as you might expect–is one of the latter. Sandra McDonald hits a perfect point where humor and metafiction let her really dig into human emotion. Also, Star Wars.

    “Searching for Save Leia” by Sandra McDonald…

    So is it Saving, Searching For, Save, or Slave?

  47. There’s a Greek restaurant I like that does a nice mint Turkish delight that it serves with coffee. Refreshing, and served in small enough portions that it doesn’t get too cloying.

  48. So good to see CJ getting her long overdue tribute; for me that was the important bit of the Nebulas…

  49. Keene’s take on the death of the mid-list embraces hypotheses that may be unique to him, starting with:

    Once upon a time, Dorchester Publishing was America’s oldest mass-market paperback publisher. They published horror, romance, western, adventure, mystery, and other genres. When they imploded a few years ago, most of the mid-list collapsed with them.

    I don’t have an issue with the middle sentence but I suspect there was supposed to be at least one more qualifier in the first sentence like “that was run by golf-playing Scottish cyborg” to prevent people from pointing out Pocket Books predates Dorchester. The last sentence probably was supposed to have another clause like “most of the mid-list *that was composed of Dorchester books*” because the mid-list took some rather significant hits long before the last 20 years that Keene focuses on. Specifically, the distributor consolidation of the 1990s (and computerized sales tracking) put a pistol to the old mid-lists head and pulled the trigger: if you’re selling to thousands of stores, it makes more sense to focus on best-sellers to the detriment of guys like Frezza, and Gilliland.

  50. Have had some lovely Turkish delight, and some not so good stuff, but I always figured that the witch’s Turkish delight had a spell on it as well that would affect whoever chose to eat it!

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