25 Piles Of Pithecanthropic Purple Pixels

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Mike Glyer

(1) JMS MOVES TO ENGLAND. J. Michael Straczysnki told Facebook followers he is pursuing his goal to write for British TV by becoming a Resident of the UK, which he is as of today.

…So it should come as no surprise that every year, when my agent and I have our “what goals should we set for the coming year” discussion, I’ve asked one question every time: “Is there any way I can produce a series in the UK and live there for a while?”

The answer, alas, has always been no, for the obvious reason that I’m not a British citizen or resident with a visa that would allow me to work in the UK. The closest I came was when we shot a big chunk of Sense8 in London. Rather than satisfy my desire to live and work in the UK, the experience only reinforced it.

Well, I finally decided to do something about it. Because that’s what dreams are for….

…Even though the outcome was far from certain, I made the decision to sell the house that has been my home for 25 years as a way of saying I’m committing to the path. Gave away or donated a ton of clothes and other stuff. If the visa went through, I wanted a fresh start, so I used much of what was left after selling the house to pay off debt accumulated during one pandemic, two strikes, and four years of paralysis in the film/TV business.

…As of today, I am officially a Resident of the United Kingdom. I can stay on indefinitely, can apply for full citizenship in three years, and finally, at long last, I am free to work for any studio, producer or network in the UK, from ITV to Channel 4, Britbox, Acorn…BBC….

…All of that being said, I’m not just leaving the US behind. My plan is to divide my time between both countries. In addition to looking after the Ellison Estate, there’s my ongoing comics work, several US-based projects that require my attention, and the possibility of more in the future, I want to launch some US/UK film and television co-productions, create series that can be shot in both places, and perhaps join arms with UK studios and networks already working to bring homegrown characters from comics and past TV series to an international audience.

But there’s that old joke: Q: How do you make God laugh? A: Tell Him your plans….

(2) RHYSLING AWARD NEWS. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the “2025 Rhysling Award Finalists”, 50 short poems and 25 long poems.

A short poem finalist is Pat Masson’s “The Last Valkyrie” from Forgotten Ground Regained 2. Paul Deane tells the story behind that poem’s publication and Rhysling eligibility in this Bluesky thread.

(3) PULITZER PRIZES 2025. The New York Times has the “Pulitzer Prizes: 2025 Winners List”. Complete list at the link, which bypasses the paywall. There are no winners of genre interest, however, File 770 has taken an interest in James because it has in common with Julia, based on 1984, the concept of retelling a classic from another character’s point of view.

FICTION

“James,” by Percival Everett

Mr. Everett’s book won for “an accomplished reconsideration of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ that gives agency to Jim to illustrate the absurdity of racial supremacy and provide a new take on the search for family and freedom,” the committee said.

Finalists “Headshot: A Novel,” by Rita Bullwinkel; “The Unicorn Woman,” by Gayl Jones; “Mice 1961,” by Stacey Levine

(4) KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Daryl Gregory and Carol Gyzander on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Location: KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003. (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)

Daryl Gregory

Daryl Gregory is a Seattle writer whose latest novel is When We Were Real, which Kirkus in a starred review called “a marvel.” His books and short stories have been translated into a dozen languages and have won multiple awards, including the World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, and Crawford awards, and have been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar, and other awards. His ten other books include the novels Revelator and Spoonbenders, the novellas The Album of Dr. Moreau and We Are All Completely Fine, and the collection Unpossible and Other Stories. He also teaches writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop

Carol Gyzander

Carol Gyzander is a two-time Bram Stoker Award® nominee who writes and edits horror, weird fiction, and science fiction—with strong women in twisted tales that touch your heart. She has stories in Weird Tales 367, Weird House Magazine, Under Twin Suns, and numerous other publications. Carol edited and contributed to the Stoker-nominated Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point (Flame Tree Publishing), including her poem “Bobblehead,” which is nominated for a Rhysling Award. She’s Co-Chair of HWA NY Chapter and co-host of their Galactic Terrors online reading series. Follow her on Instagram @carolgyzander.

(5) SOMEBODY STILL WANTS TO RUN A WORLDCON? The Brisbane in 28 Worldcon bid woke from its ordinary social media slumber to leave this announcement on Facebook today:

Our apologies for being so quiet, we’ve been busy trying to organise ourselves for Seattle, and then a Federal Election happened. We plan on being more visible again from this point on.

Our bid is currently for Thursday the 28th of July to Monday the 31st of July, 2028. This is on the weekend following the total eclipse that will be passing through Australia on Saturday the 22nd of July, 2028.

We do plan on having a presence in Seattle for this year’s Worldcon, but the current situation is making that challenging. However, even if we are not there in person, we have people willing to handle things on our behalf, so we will have a presence there.

(6) ON THE TUBE. Camestros Felapton continues his 2025 Hugo review series with a Dramatic Presentation: Long Form finalist: “Hugo 2025: I Saw the TV Glow”.

… I Saw the TV Glow is billed as horror and while it contains a bunch of disturbing ideas and images it is not what I would regard as a frightening film. That’s not a criticism of the film just an indication that it sits in its own place rather than comfortably within one genre category. Of course, depending on your own life experiences (and particularly teenage experiences) this film may hit very differently….

(7) NEA PULLS PLUG ON GRANTS. “NEA Begins Terminating and Withdrawing Grants” reports Publishers Lunch (behind a paywall). (And the agency itself is getting the ax says Publishers Weekly.)

The National Endowment for the Arts began terminating and withdrawing grant offers on Friday night, after President Trump proposed cutting NEA funding from the government budget. Many small publishers, magazines, and publishing-related organizations lost funding.

The Community of Magazines and Literary Presses (CLMP) tells PL that they reached out to all fiscal year ’25 Grants for the Arts round one grantees in the literary/arts publishing category. “Of the 51,” said executive director Mary Gannon, “I’ve heard from 40 so far and all 40 have had their grants ‘terminated’ or ‘withdrawn.’ Some have already received payments, but not all.”

Among the institutions impacted were Open Letter Books, which publishes literature in translation; literary magazine N+1, which lost a $12,500 grant; Hub City Press, which lost $25,000; and Deep Vellum, which lost $20,000; Milkweed Editions, which lost $50,000; Electric Literature, which lost $12,000; Nightboat Books, which lost $30,000; McSweeney’s Literary Arts, which lost $25,000, and many more. (Find a growing list here.)…

(8) NASA PROPOSED BUDGET. “White House Announces Plans to Rip Up NASA’s Moon Program” – Futurism has the stats.

The Trump administration has released its proposed budget for next year, revealing massive budget cuts that could deal NASA’s space exploration and science efforts a devastating blow.

The agency’s budget would be slashed by 24 percent year over year, a difference of $6 billion, which is the biggest single-year cut in US history, according to the Planetary Society.

While space and Earth science funding would face massive lacerations, human space exploration could see its budget increase by roughly $1 billion in “new investments for Mars-focused programs,” according to the proposal, highlighting Trump’s desire to plant a flag on the Red Planet.

Notably, the Trump administration proposes canceling NASA’s “grossly expensive and delayed” Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after Artemis 3, the first attempt to return astronauts to the Moon’s surface in over half a century, which is tentatively scheduled for 2027….

(9) BEWARE: THIS IS A THUNDERBOLTS* SPOILER. According to The Independent: “Thunderbolts: Marvel fans react to ‘spoiler’ New Avengers title change”.

…At the end of Thunderbolts*, CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) announced the group’s rebrand as The New Avengers. A graphic on screen after the film’s post-credits scene then informs cinemagoers that “The New Avengers will return”.

Now, posters for Thunderbolts* appearing in cinemas and on billboards around the world have been updated to reveal its new title: The New Avengers.

This development also reveals the meaning of the asterisk featured at the end of the original title, which was part of a carefully orchestrated publicity stunt….

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

May 5, 1979 — Catherynne Valente, 46.

By Paul Weimer: Reading Catherynne Valente for me started with Palimpsest. The idea of a map on people’s skin, pieces transmitted by sex, was a little out of my comfort zone. But the dream/faerie reality of the titular city, accessible after nights of passion, entranced me. Valente’s work was lush, gorgeous, vivid, fey, The writing was poetic in language and form, a puzzle like the map on the visitors’ skin.

I was enchanted by her work, even if it wasn’t my usual. I skipped into and Valente’s work here and there rather than making her a solid must-buy. Sometimes for my own personal reading, a little Valente was enough. It’s as if her work was too potent for me to consume continually. But I enjoyed Six Gun Snow White, and Deathless, particularly.

And then there’s Space Opera.

Space Opera is glorious, and was glorious to me, who is not immersed into the world of Eurovision, which it borrows shamelessly from. Space Opera is part of the branch of Space Operas in the same realm that Cat Rambo and Valerie Valdes and Lavanya Lakshminarayan play in: Frothy, fun, and light, and yet with hidden depths. Character focused and oriented science fiction space opera, and yet interesting and intriguing worldbuilding. Space Opera is the leading edge of this slice of space opera, and even someone with Amusia can and does enjoy it.

Sadly, for me, the follow-up, Space Oddity, charitably didn’t live up to the first. But I expect that I will get the urge to taste the potency of Valente’s work again in the future. Like that map in Palimpsest, I will be irresistibly drawn to the faerieland of her work once more.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

Eyebeam has a Bat app for that.
Half Full details a cartoonist’s life.
The Barn visits other shows.
Zen Pencils favors being different.
Batch Rejection shares a writing tip.
Three Panel Soul shows a variant of a familiar game.

(12) LOTR EAGLES RETURNING TO THE ROOST. “New Zealand airport to remove Hobbit-themed eagle sculptures” – BBC has the story.

For more than a decade, a pair of Hobbit-inspired eagle sculptures have cast a watchful eye over visitors at New Zealand’s Wellington Airport.

But the giant birds will be unfastened from the ceiling on Friday to make way for a new mystery exhibit, airport authorities said.

The eagles appear as messengers in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which were adapted to film by New Zealand’s Sir Peter Jackson.

The spectacular New Zealand landscapes featured in Mr Jackson’s films are a consistent draw for tourists, who are greeted at the airport by the eagle sculptures.

“It’s not unusual to see airborne departures from Wellington Airport, but in this case, it will be emotional for us,” Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke said in a statement.

The giant eagles will be placed in storage and there have not been long-term plans for them.

Each eagle weighs 1.2 tonnes (1,200kg) with a wingspan of 15m (49ft). Riding on the back of one of the birds is a sculpture of the wizard, Gandalf.

Made of polystyrene and with an internal steel skeleton, each eagle has hundreds of feathers, the longest one measuring 2.4m (8ft).

While the iconic eagles will soon be gone, not all is lost for fans of the franchise: Smaug the Magnificent, the dragon in The Hobbit, will continue to be displayed at the check-in area….

(13) TODAY’S THING TO WORRY ABOUT. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] End of the world coming… well, it is, about a billion years from now. “Neither climate change nor meteorites – NASA confirms that the end of life on Earth will be due to loss of oxygen, according to Toho University study – here’s when it will happen” at El Adelanto de Segovia.

If you’re worried about the end of the world, you can scratch asteroids and climate change off the list of final threats —at least in the very long term. According to new research from Toho University in Japan, supported by NASA modeling, the slow fade of life on Earth won’t come with a bang. Instead, it’ll happen with a lack of breathable air.

That’s right: the distant future of Earth won’t end in fire or ice, but in something far more subtle: oxygen loss. And while that sounds ominous, you can relax. This isn’t something that will affect you, your children, or even your great-great-great-great-grandchildren. In fact, the end is about a billion years away, give or take a few hundred million….

(14) REVIVAL TRAILER. “SYFY Debuts First Trailer for Highly Anticipated Image Comics Adaptation” at ComicBook.com.

The first trailer for SYFY’s upcoming adaptation of the fan-favorite Image Comics title Revival has been officially released online. The trailer provides people with a basic overview of the general premise; a rural Wisconsin town has to adjust to a startling new reality when the dead mysteriously come back to life. What sets Revival apart from similar zombie-themed titles is that the “revived” appear and act as they did before they passed away. At the center of the story is Officer Dana Cypress (played by Melanie Scrofano), who has to make sense of it all as the town’s residents struggling coming to terms with the situation….

(15) CITY IN FLIGHT. “Starbase: Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site becomes an official Texas city” reports AP News.

The South Texas home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company is now an official city with a galactic name: Starbase.

A vote Saturday to formally organize Starbase as a city was approved by a lopsided margin among the small group of voters who live there and are mostly Musk’s employees at SpaceX. With all the votes in, the tally was 212 in favor to 6 against, according to results published online by the Cameron County Elections Department.

Musk celebrated in a post on his social platform, X, saying it is “now a real city!”

Starbase is the facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program that is under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA that hopes to send astronauts back to the moon and someday to Mars.

Musk first floated the idea of Starbase in 2021 and approval of the new city was all but certain. Of the 283 eligible voters in the area, most are believed to be Starbase workers….

(16) SHOCKING NEW TASTE. “Scientists unveil RoboCake with edible robots and batteries” claims New Atlas.

Researchers from Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) have formed an unlikely collaboration team with pastry chefs and food scientists to create the RoboCake, currently on show at Osaka’s Expo 2025.

But this is a cake with a bit of a twist. Sitting atop the elaborate piece are edible robotic bears, which are reported to taste like pomegranate gummies, which have an internal pneumatic system that provides movement for their limbs and head. And, yes, these little dancing robots are completely edible….

… Not to be outdone, IIT researchers have made the world’s first edible rechargeable battery, using a recipe of vitamin B2, quercetin, activated carbon and chocolate.

“These batteries, safe for consumption, can be used to light the LED candles on the cake,” said Valerio Galli, a PhD student at IIT. “The first flavor you get when you eat them is dark chocolate, followed by a surprising tangy kick, due to the edible electrolyte inside, which lasts a few seconds.”…

(17) SQUID GAME 3. Courtesy of Gizmodo: “The End Is Here in the First Trailer for Squid Game 3”.

…What was up with that baby cry at the end there? And what game could possibly be coming with everyone getting their team out of a giant gumball machine?

We don’t know and that’s just the tip of the iceberg for all these questions. We love to see how 456 (Lee Jung-jae) is brought back into the game and that the story from the boat, and of the Front Man, will continue. In fact, everything has to wrap up here because the show’s creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, has said this is the end….

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Michael J. Walsh, Jim Janney, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]

Pixel Scroll 4/3/25 Pixels First, Or Multiverse First? Cosmologists Want To Know

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Mike Glyer

(1) ‘WONDERLAND’ SF DOCUMENTARY. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] The UK free-to-air channel Sky Arts is showing the first of a four-part documentary series Wonderland: Science Fiction in the Atomic Age tonight at 8pm UK time. And it will air again on Saturday April 5 at 3:40 p.m.

Unusually, it looks to be focused on literary SF; the episode descriptions only mention film/TV/etc for the final episode. The trailer shows talking heads clips from a number of well-known UK-based critics, academics and authors, including John Clute, Farah Mendlesohn, Adam Roberts and Tade Thompson.

A description of the four episodes as taken from the Fine Books & Collections website:

Episode I – Mary Shelley to Isaac Asimov (April 3)

The creation and detonation of two atomic bombs developed by science fiction reading scientists is followed by an exploration of early science fiction writers including Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. It also features Kurt Vonnegut’s experience of being firebombed in 1944 in a prison in Dresden (Slaughterhouse Five) and J.G. Ballard’s war experiences in the Far East (Empire of the Sun). The fear of nuclear apocalypse is portrayed in a range of work including Nevil Shute’s On the Beach. The episode concludes with the work of Isaac Asimov.

Episode II – Arthur C. Clarke to Ray Bradbury (April 10)

The work of Isaac Asimov leads to the sense of wonder that surrounded 1960s’ space exploration, embodied in the work of Arthur C. Clarke such as Childhood’s End and The Nine Billion Names of God. Also included are J.G. Ballard’s concern with “inner space” and apocalyptic events (Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition, The Drowned World), the work of Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), and Stanislaw Lem (Solaris). The episode concludes with discussions of the menacing alternative worlds of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Episode III – Margaret Atwood to Ted Chiang (April 17)

Writers like Ursula le Guin and Octavia Butler challenged conventional notions of gender. Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale created a more political, dystopian model to illustrate relations between genders becoming oppressive. Samuel Delaney (Babel-17, Dhalgren) questioned in the late 1960s and 1970s what it meant to be a person as the complexion of science fiction is seen to have changed, becoming less white and straight and American and British than it used to be in the Golden Age or the age of the pulps or even in the New Wave.

Episode IV – Quatermass to Christopher Nolan (April 24)

Discussion of the success of John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids is followed by the long running and immensely successful Dr Who. Science fiction’s prescient concern with cyberspace and artificial intelligence is illustrated through the work of writers like William Gibson, William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick.

A trailer can be seen at the above link, or on the Sci-Fi-London website. Starburst has a brief Q&A with the creator of the series, and there’s a positive review by someone who’s seen all four episodes.

The first episode is preceded by an apparently-unrelated documentary Douglas Adams: The Man Who Imagined Our Future; the UK comedy site Beyond the Joke has an overview, and there’s an an interview by the Radio Times with Adams’ collaborator John Lloyd.

(2) YEAR’S BEST CANADIAN KICKSTARTER. Stephen Kotowych has launched a Kickstarter to fund “Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume 3”.

This year’s cover image is “Repair Station 73” by Pascal Blanché.

After highly successful campaigns for Volume One in 2023 and Volume Two in 2024, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume Three will help us cement the status of this series as the calling card anthology showing readers the powerful fantastical fiction being written by the Canadian F&SF community today.

If this project successfully funds, we’ll publish a reprint anthology made up of 50,000 words of today’s very best Canadian fantasy and science fiction. And, with YOUR help, we can make this a much longer anthology–see the Stretch Goals section below for details on how this could grow to be a 150,000 word anthology.

Stories written by Canadians appear in magazines both at home and abroad, on websites, in anthologies, and in zines. Some markets are well-known; others are smaller and might be missed. Some are free to read; some require subscriptions. And once the next issue of a magazine comes out, or an anthology goes out of print, or a publisher shuts down, these stories become hard to find and risk disappearing.

…And in the spirit of shopping Canadian, for Volume Three, I will be using a local book printer who did a very nice short run of Volume Two for me. Their books look great and their turnaround time is quick, so I’m looking forward to them printing the full run for me this year.

(3) KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Andrea Hairston and Ursula Whitcher on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 beginning at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Where: KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs).

Andrea Hairston

Novelist, Andrea Hairston ran away from the physics lab to the theatre as a young thing and has been a scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer ever since. Novels: Archangels of Funk; Will Do Magic For Small Change, a NYT, (the latter an Editor’s pick & finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, & Otherwise Awards); Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Otherwise & Carl Brandon Award; Master of Poisons was on the Kirkus Review’s Best SF&F of 2020; and Mindscape, coming from Tordotcom, August, 2025.

Ursula Whitcher

Ursula Whitcher is a writer, poet, and mathematician whose collection of interwoven short stories, North Continent Ribbon, is published by Neon Hemlock Press. Ursula lives in Michigan with a spouse who works on high-voltage outer space experiments and two cats who work on lounging by heating vents. Look for more of Ursula’s writing in magazines such as Asimov’s and Analog or in the American Mathematics Society‘s Feature Column

(4) ALFIES: WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT. In his report on “A Scottish Worldcon” at Not A Blog, George R.R. Martin recalls why he held the original Alfies ceremony in 2015, the first year the Sad and Rabid Puppies monopolized the Hugo ballot:

…A number of writers and fans who would surely have been nominated for a Hugo Award were squeezed out when the Puppies (Sad and Rabid) stuffed the ballot with their own favorites. There was no way to rectify that (though various people tried, with everything from wooden asterisks to rules reform to voting No Award). My own approach was the Alfies; consolation trophies made of old hood ornaments, like many of the early Hugo Awards, given to writers and fans who missed out on nominations they likely would have gotten in a normal year….

He gave more Alfies in 2016. He skipped 2016 after that the purpose of them changed to just being nice tokens for people he thought should be honored. One Alfie was given in 2018 to John Picacio for the Mexicanx Initiative. At Dublin 2019 he presented Jane Johnson and Malcolm Edwards with Alfie Awards for Editing. But in 2024 they resumed their original purpose of calling attention to people unjustly denied their place on the Hugo Ballot.

Martin details why one of the victims of the Chengdu Worldcon Hugo shenanigans, R.F. Kuang, got an Alfie.

…The final Alfie of the night went to R.F. KUANG for her novel BABEL, OR THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE,, which received 810 nominations, the third highest total. Nonethelss, there was no place on the ballot her. That was especially egregious, I thought, since BABEL would have had an excellent chance of coming out on top if the book had been nominated. The novel had already won the Nebula Award and the Locus Award, among other honors; a Hugo would have given it a rare sweep of SF’s most prestigious awards. Alas, BABEL never got the chance to contend.

But it did get an Alfie. And Rebecca herself was there to collect it.

Will there be more Alfies in the years to come? Only time will tell….

(5) RECOMMENDED READING. The New York Times supplies a whole chart to help you find “The Best Fantasy Novels to Read Right Now” – link bypasses the paywall.

The editors of The New York Times Book Review bring you cross-genre fantasy books, our favorite recent romantasy reads, books that will transport you to other worlds, our latest reviews, thrilling historical fantasies, the essential Tanith Lee, new series fantasy novels and more!

(6) WAYWARD WORMHOLE 2026. Cat Rambo’s Wayward Wormhole workshop will meet in Barbados from February 7-21, 2026. The focus will be on “The Art of the Novella”. Applications close May 15, 2025. Full details at the link.

Novellas are growing in popularity, and we want to help yours stand out.

Structurally, they can get tricky—they’re not mini-novels anymore than children are mini-adults—while still demanding full, fleshy, character arcs and immersive descriptions.

WHERE: Oistins area, Christ Church, Barbados. FEE: $2,500.00 US (travel, accommodations, and food NOT included)

(7) THROUGH A MIRROR DARKLY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The first 15 minutes of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row earlier this week had an interview with Charlie Brooker, the writer behind Black Mirror. You can download it here.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 3, 1999 — The Lost World series

Twenty-six years ago, something that had been made into a film at least seven times was made into a series. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, often shortened to just The Lost World, premiered this day in syndication in the States. (The first adaptation was made in 1925, and author Doyle appears in a preface to that film, though not all existing prints have him as some were cut, often radically.)

It was based very loosely as you well know on Doyle’s The Lost World novel and includes John Landis among its bevy of executive producers. The actual producer was Darrly Sheen who was the line producer on Time Trax and who did the same on several episodes of the Australian version of Mission: Impossible. The latter is a series that I like a lot which is not streaming anywhere. Did you did every episode used a script that not chosen for an expose during the run of the original series? Well it did. It marked the last appearance of Graves as Phelps as in the films the character goes bad and he wouldn’t do that.

Guess where this series was produced? It was done at Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, Queensland, Australia. Other productions of note done there include Thor: Ragnarok, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge and Aquaman.

The initial cast was Peter McCauley as Professor George Edward Challeger, Rachel Blakely, as Marguerite Krux, Jennifer O’Dell as Veronica Layton, William deVry as Ned Malone and William Snow as Lord John Richard Roxton and Michael Sinelnikoff as Professor Arthur Summerlee. It would have way, way too many guest performers as it had at least or more generally every episode to list here. Suffice it say that if you watched any series that was made in Australia or. New Zealand then, it’s likely one or more of them could well grace this series.

They lived in a giant tree house, really they did, one with many conveniences that rival what you and I have in a sort of Victorian peusdo-scientific fashion, and had many a fantastical adventure, none of which I’d say had anything to do with The Lost World novel unless there’s reptile people in there that I missed when I read it. It lasted three seasons consisting of sixty-six episodes. It was cancelled when funding for another season fell through. It’s on Amazon Prime right now.

Personal opinion? It was fun and I certainly don’t regret the time that I took to watch it. It was quite pulpy (Doc Savage would have fit right in here) and as long as you don’t expect it to have anything to do with the novel, you will enjoy a Thirties-style concept updated to contemporary standards.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

Loose Parts escalates to the next step.
Speed Bump has a captcha problem.
Brevity invents a catchy name.
Off the Mark tells a sweet story.
The Flying McCoys meets fans who have confused the origin stories.
xkcd is about Orogeny – a word you readers of The Fifth Season should recognize.

(10) PROJECT HAIL MARY. “Ryan Gosling Plays a Nerdy Scientist on a Suicidal Space Mission in ‘Project Hail Mary’ CinemaCon Trailer: ‘I Put the Not in Astronaut’” at Variety.

Ryan Gosling, looking very nerdy and quite un-Ken-like, plays a science teacher turned grudging astronaut in “Project Hail Mary,” a sci-fi adventure that Amazon MGM Studios teased during its presentation to theater owners at CinemaCon on Wednesday.

“I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” Gosling tells the government handler (Sandra Hüller) who has tapped him to undertake a suicidal space mission. “I can’t even moonwalk.”

The film, an adaptation of Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, follows an ordinary man who is told he has what it takes to go into the outer reaches of the universe. “You have the right stuff,” Gosling tells Hüller. “I have the wrong stuff.”…

(11) NINTENDO’S NEW CONSOLE. [Item by Steven French.] This week’s gaming newsletter from the Guardian:“Everything we learned from Nintendo’s ‘deep dive’ into the Switch 2”.

Sixty minutes – that’s how long Nintendo took on Wednesday afternoon to remind us that no other video game manufacturer creates joy like this one. It was the Nintendo livestream we’ve been waiting for: a deep dive into the new console after so much speculation. Sure, the Switch 2 is the company’s first real hardware sequel – an updated and spruced-up version of its predecessor rather than a radical new piece of kit. But the updates are the intriguing part.

Naturally, we’re getting a larger (7.9-inch, to be precise) screen that displays in full HD at 1080p; but we’re also getting re-thought Joy-Con controllers that now click to the console via strong magnets rather than those fiddly sliders we all put on the wrong way. The buttons are larger, too, so adults will be able to play Mario Kart with some semblance of skill. But the main new feature for the controllers is a new rollerball that enables each one to operate as a mouse. This will allow for new point-and-click features and some interesting control options. I like that they showed this off with a wheelchair basketball game, where you slide the controllers a long a surface to mimic pushing the wheels….

(12) JUSTWATCH QUARTERLIES. JustWatch has released their first quarter 2025 US streaming video on demand market share report — and as always, it’s based on data from over 15 million monthly JustWatch users in the US. The report tracks streaming interest by analyzing user behavior like filtering platforms, engaging with titles, and clicking through to offers.

Highlights from Q1 2025:

Prime Video takes the lead at 21%, just ahead of Netflix at 20%.
Max (13%) and Disney+ (12%) are neck-and-neck in the second tier.
Hulu holds 10%, while Apple TV+ (8%) and Paramount+ (7%) follow.
Peacock and Starz both captured 2% of market share.

SVOD Market Shares in Q1 2025. In a highly competitive landscape, Prime Video edged out Netflix to claim the leading position in Q1 2025 with a 21% market share. Netflix followed closely with 20%, making it a tight race at the top. Max secured third place at 13%, narrowly ahead of Disney+ at 12%, while Hulu held 10% of the market, closing the gap between them and the top three.

The remaining platforms—including Apple TV+, Paramount+, and services like Peacock and Starz—collectively accounted for the remaining share of the market. These figures reflect shifting user preferences as viewers navigate an increasingly fragmented streaming landscape.

Market Share Development in Q1 2025. Short-term growth trends between December 2024 and March 2025 showed modest but notable shifts. Disney+ and Starz each gained +1%, signaling increased user interest. In contrast, Paramount+ experienced the most significant drop, falling -2% over the same period. Most major platforms—including Prime Video, Netflix, and Hulu—remained stable throughout the quarter, suggesting consistent user engagement at the top.

Year-over-Year Comparison. Comparing Q1 2025 to Q1 2024, Peacock Premium and Starz demonstrated the strongest growth, each up +1% on average. Disney+ also showed positive momentum, while Paramount+ saw the largest decline at -2% year-over-year. Max and Netflix each slipped slightly with -1%, despite remaining major players in the U.S. streaming ecosystem.

(13) UNIVERSAL UP? [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Sure looks like this is what this study implies, that there’s a universal up/north. “The distribution of galaxy rotation in JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey” in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society at Oxford Academic.

JWST provides a view of the Universe never seen before, and specifically fine details of galaxies in deep space. JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) is a deep field survey, providing unprecedentedly detailed view of galaxies in the early Universe. The field is also in relatively close proximity to the Galactic pole. Analysis of spiral galaxies by their direction of rotation in JADES shows that the number of galaxies in that field that rotate in the opposite direction relative to the Milky Way galaxy is ∼50 per cent higher than the number of galaxies that rotate in the same direction relative to the Milky Way. The analysis is done using a computer-aided quantitative method, but the difference is so extreme that it can be noticed and inspected even by the unaided human eye.

(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “’Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld’ Drops Trailer ahead of May 4 Premiere” – Animation Magazine sets the frame.

Today, Disney+ released the trailer, key art and stills for Lucasfilm Animation’s Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, an all-new anthology series of animated shorts from creator Dave Filoni, premiering exclusively on Disney+ just in time for the “Star Wars holiday,” May the 4th. Synopsis: The series of animated Star Wars anthologies, which began in 2022 with Tales of the Jedi and continued in 2024 with Tales of the Empire, this time focuses on the criminal underbelly of the galaxy through the experiences of two iconic villains.

Former assassin and bounty hunter Asajj Ventress is given a new chance at life and must go on the run with an unexpected new ally, while outlaw Cad Bane faces his past when he confronts an old friend, now a Marshal on the opposite side of the law.

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Roger Silverstein, Dann, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]

Pixel Scroll 3/5/25 When You’re In Love With A Scrollable Pixel It’s Hard

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Mike Glyer

(1) DREAMHAVEN BOOKS IN THE NEWS. “Bad author behavior forces decisions on Minnesota booksellers” the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has learned.

…Many years ago, DreamHaven Books owner Greg Ketter was disturbed by misogynistic statements from John Norman, who wrote a book series about a different kind of monster, the “Gor” fantasy books. Ketter took them off the Minneapolis store’s shelves for a time but ended up restocking them when customers requested them.

About a dozen Gaiman titles remain at DreamHaven, although his presence isn’t as big as it once was. That’s largely because Gaiman has been more involved in filmmaking than novel writing in recent years (after the allegations became public, a planned Disney movie of “The Graveyard Book” was put on hold, although several completed film and TV shows are expected to be released eventually. He’s also been dropped by a U.K. publisher and a “Coraline” musical has been scrapped).

“We had a huge section for Neil Gaiman for years but it had been slowing down, so we were just moving things around when everything came out in the news,” said Ketter, who published some of Gaiman’s early work. “We are still selling some of his books and things. We just leave it up to people. If they keep buying books, we keep them on the shelves.”

The attitude is different at Avant Garden, “an unapologetically feminist and LGBTQIA-inclusive” business, according to owner Jenni Hill. Because it was created as a welcoming space for all kinds of people, Hill said, “We strive to carry books in-store that reflect our values.”

That means Avant Garden, which opened about four years ago, has never stocked Rowling titles, which Hill worries might trigger trans customers and their allies: “I don’t want anyone to feel I would advocate for a writer who has been hurtful to our community.”

That’s also why Avant Garden stopped carrying Gaiman titles as soon as the allegations came out.

“I texted Emily, our employee, ‘Let’s remove his books.’ That was literally the whole discussion,” said Hill. “It just doesn’t feel right to profit from those books. And I’d already bought the books, so I will lose money on those. But I won’t restock them for sure.”…

(2) DID YOU NOTICE SOMETHING’S MISSING? Zach Weinersmith tells Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal readers he’s cut ties with Hiveworks and that’s why for the moment there are no ads on his site. He also explains some things about the business dynamics of advertising in social media.

(3) LIBBY AWARDS. People magazine’s list of the 2025 Libby Awards winners includes many works of genre interest.

…Hosted by library lending apps OverDrive and Libby, the prize, now in its second year, honors the best books published in 2024, as chosen by librarians and library staff.

Debut Author of the Year
The Ministry of Time by Kailane Bradley – Winner

Best Fantasy
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst – Winner
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – Runner-Up

Best Horror
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle – Winner
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones – Runner-Up

Best Romantasy
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas – Winner
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi – Runner-Up

Best Science Fiction
The Ministry of Time by Kailane Bradley – Winner
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei – Runner-Up

(4) DOES DOCTOR WHO EVER REALLY ARRIVE AT THE WRONG TIME? [Item by Kathy Sullivan.] This German trailer of the next season of Doctor Who briefly appeared and then was taken down supposedly because it was meant to be released at the end of March. It includes much of the content from the Season 2 trailer released a few days ago, but has additional bits: “German Doctor Who Trailer Staffel 2 Disney+”.

(5) AI RIGHTS. “’Sign our own death warrant’: Australian writers angry after Melbourne publisher asks them to sign AI agreements” reports the Guardian.

Australian writers, literary agents, and the industry’s peak body have expressed concern after Black Inc Books asked its authors to consent to their work being used to train artificial intelligence.

The Melbourne publisher, which produces the Quarterly Essay as well as fiction and nonfiction by prominent Australian writers, gave them until Wednesday to enter into third-party agreements with an unnamed AI company.

The writers were asked to grant Black Inc “the right to reproduce or use, adapt and exploit the work in connection with the development of any software program, including, without limitation, training, testing, validation and the deployment of a machine learning or generative artificial intelligence system”.

Under the deal the publisher will split the net receipts with the author 50/50.

The Guardian has confirmed that a number of writers published by Black Inc received the request to alter their contracts last week.

The documents sent by the company’s publishing coordinator promise that, by authorising their works to be used by an unspecified AI company, authors would unlock “new revenue streams” with their works receiving “increased visibility and credibility”.

“I feel like we’re being asked to sign our own death warrant,” said Laura Jean McKay, author of Holiday in Cambodia, published with Black Inc a decade ago and shortlisted for three literary awards.

McKay says she had received the addendum to her contract on Friday, and was worried that three business days was not long enough to decipher what Black Inc was asking her to sign….

(6) BROTHER GUY AT SF CONS. The Vatican Observatory blog has a post by Robert Trembley about Brother Guy Consolmagno attending Boskone, just the latest of many he’s been at. The article includes a link to Daniel Dern’s Boskone post here, plus one of his photos of Brother Guy.

Br. Guy attended a science fiction convention over the weekend of Feb. 14-16 in Boston, where he met with friends, and autographed copies of his books….

…Br. Guy was introduced to me by mutual friends at a WindyCon (an SF Con in Chicago) in the mid-90’s – he was curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory at the time, and he spoke about the science of meteoritics, and how he was studying meteorites from the VO’s impressive collection. He completely blew me away! I walked away with a entirely different view of the “cool rocks from space” I’d been collecting for a couple years. Br. Guy continues to WOW people with meteorites, as he did at the recent L.A. Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, California.

(7) WHY NOT SAY WHAT HAPPENED? Scott Edelman twenty-first episode of his Why Not Say What Happened? podcast remembers “My Long Weekend Annoying MAD Magazine Publisher Bill Gaines”. You can also download episodes at the site of your choice.

My latest look back at what I was doing in comics during the ’70s has me remembering the weekend I couldn’t stop myself from teasing Bill Gaines about the National Lampoon‘s satirical slam of MAD magazine, why famed con-runner Phil Seuling castigated us fans one afternoon for mistreating our mothers, the words Gerry Conway wrote for Daredevil’s girlfriend Karen Page in the basement of a Times Square Nathan’s, how my 1980 DC Comics vampire story ended up as a 1987 episode of Tales from the Darkside, the continuing mystery of the martial arts series I’d forgotten I’d tried to write for Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (and what Tony Stark had to do with it), and much more.

(8) KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present: Jedediah Berry & Victoria Dalpe on Wednesday, March 12. Location: KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003, (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs). Starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Jedediah Berry

Jedediah Berry’s latest novel, The Naming Song, was described in a starred Library Journal review as “a wonderfully odd ode to language, story, and family.” His first book, The Manual of Detection, won the Crawford Award and the Hammett Prize, and was adapted for broadcast by BBC Radio 4. He is the author of numerous games and interactive works, including a story in cards, The Family Arcana, and the Ennie Award-winning RPG setting The Valley of Flowers (co-written with Andrew McAlpine). He lives in Western Massachusetts with his partner Emily Houk, with whom he runs Ninepin Press, an independent publisher of fiction in unusual formats.

Victoria Dalpe

Victoria Dalpe is a Providence-based horror writer and painter. She has published over forty-five short stories in various collections, the gothic horror novel Parasite Life and the short story collection Les Femme Grotesques. “Dalpe’s horror stories are equal parts intriguing, compelling, and appropriately macabre,”—Rue Morgue. Book one of her dark horror fantasy series Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire was released September of 2024 by Clash Books. Book two in the trilogy, Loving the Dead will be out this fall. Dalpe was also a producer on the drag queen slasher film Death Drop Gorgeous. For upcoming events follow her on Instagram at victorialdalpe

(9) TURING AWARD. “Turing Award Goes to 2 Pioneers of Artificial Intelligence”, Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton. The New York Times has the story (behind a paywall.)

In 1977, Andrew Barto, as a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, began exploring a new theory that neurons behaved like hedonists. The basic idea was that the human brain was driven by billions of nerve cells that were each trying to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

A year later, he was joined by another young researcher, Richard Sutton. Together, they worked to explain human intelligence using this simple concept and applied it to artificial intelligence. The result was “reinforcement learning,” a way for A.I. systems to learn from the digital equivalent of pleasure and pain.

On Wednesday, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest society of computing professionals, announced that Dr. Barto and Dr. Sutton had won this year’s Turing Award for their work on reinforcement learning. The Turing Award, which was introduced in 1966, is often called the Nobel Prize of computing. The two scientists will share the $1 million prize that comes with the award.

Over the past decade, reinforcement learning has played a vital role in the rise of artificial intelligence, including breakthrough technologies such as Google’s AlphaGo and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The techniques that powered these systems were rooted in the work of Dr. Barto and Dr. Sutton.

“They are the undisputed pioneers of reinforcement learning,” said Oren Etzioni, a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Washington and founding chief executive of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “They generated the key ideas — and they wrote the book on the subject.”

Their book, “Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction,” which was published in 1998, remains the definitive exploration of an idea that many experts say is only beginning to realize its potential.

(10) GEORGE LOWE (1957-2025). TVLine reports “George Lowe Dead, Voice of Space Ghost Age 67”.

George Lowe, a veteran voice actor whose credits include the title role in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, died on March 2 at age 67, a spokesperson confirms for TVLine…

…An alumnus of the Radio Engineering Institute of Sarasota, Lowe began his career in the 1980s with occasional voiceover work, before landing the title role in Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast. A send-up of talk shows that featured live-action celebrity guests, the animated series would run for 10 years and more than 100 episodes, including a move to Adult Swim and a brief revival via Turner Broadcasting’s GameTap online video game service…

… Lowe also voiced Space Ghost in the 1995 spinoff Cartoon Planet, the 2007 movie Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters and in the 2011 video game Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion.

His voice acting credits also include The Brak Show, Robot Chicken, Squidbillies and American Dad…

(11) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Stranger in a Strange Land (1962)

Sixty-three years ago at Chicon III where Earl Kemp was the Chair, Wilson Tucker was Toastmaster and Theodore Sturgeon was the Guest of Honor, Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land won the Hugo for Best Novel. It had been published the previous year by G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Other nominated works that year were Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye, Sense of Obligation (also called Planet of the Damned) by Harry Harrison, The Fisherman (also known as Time Is the Simplest Thing) by Clifford D. Simak and Second Ending by James White. I know all those authors and have read deeply of them save Daniel F. Galouye. Tell me about him please.

It was his third Hugo in six years after Double Star at NyCon II and Starship Troopers at Pittcon. He’d win his fourth and final Hugo for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress at NyCon 3 in another five years.

The working title for the book was A Martian Named Smith which was also the name of the screenplay started by a character at the end of the novel.

I must note Jubal Harshaw for me is the most interesting and enjoyable character in the book, an older experienced man who questioned everything, but with compassion, honor and a truly open heart. Harshaw also appears in three later Heinlein novels, The Number of the Beast in the coda, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and To Sail Beyond the Sunset which I’ll confess I never finished.

Needless to say the novel is available from the usual suspects. There’s also an audiobook, one of myriad audiobooks done of his novels.

As always the artwork below is for the first edition.

(12) COMICS SECTION.

xkcd explains a homeowner’s risk of water damage.
Brewster Rockit relays a broadcast of the Cat News Network.
Bizarro is in on the bust.
Free Range discovers why returning to Kansas wasn’t easy.
Herman is on the track. Or vice versa.
WaynoVision has a variation on a monster.

(13) ‘KIRBYVISION’ DOCUMENTARY PLANNED. Acclaimed documentary film director Ricki Stern (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, UFOs: Investigating the Unknown) will be helming Kirbyvision – a feature length documentary telling the story of the legendary Jack Kirby.

Kirby is widely regarded as one of the comic book medium’s most innovative, prolific, and influential creators. At the height of his nearly six decade career, Kirby created or co-created many of Marvel’s major characters including Captain America (with Joe Simon), the Avengers, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Thor, the X-Men, and countless others (with comics impresario Stan Lee).

He worked similar magic for DC Comics, where he created the sprawling, psychedelic “Fourth World,” a series of political and psychedelic sci-fi epics often considered his most ambitious work. His creations as writer, artist, and editor include Darkseid, Mister Miracle, OMAC, The Demon, and many others who are mainstays of DC’s publishing and screen projects to this day.

Ricki Stern says: “Jack was not only one of the great comic book artists of all time, but a true visionary genius. In this new feature length documentary, we actively campaign for the recognition he finally deserves as a leading artist and storyteller of the 20th Century.”

Kirby drew his way out of an impoverished, Depression-era upbringing when he co-created Captain America, who brazenly punched out Adolf Hitler on the cover of his very first comic, months before the US had entered World War II. He was soon sent into real combat on the frontlines of the war in Europe, a harrowing experience which had a significant impact on his later work. Kirby’s astounding career touched virtually every genre, including war, romance, westerns, science fiction, horror, and, of course, superheroes. His impact is felt beyond comics to this day everywhere from animation to music to blockbuster films.

(14) FUTURIAN WAR DIGEST. Polygon recalls “How a WWII fanzine helped sci-fi survive the Blitz and beyond”. A 2019 article, but timeless.

…The cost of a mimeograph machine may have been high, but the cost of not talking to each other was higher — even in some of the most dire moments of the 20th century. The oldest zine included in As If is also the longest running fanzine to remain in distribution in Britain throughout the course of the second World War: Futurian War Digest, or FIDO, which printed from October 1940 until March 1945.

FIDO reviewed science fiction works and reflected on the fragile state of the fan community in the United Kingdom during wartime. The first issue of the zine, which was published and distributed less than a month after the start of the London bombing raids known as The Blitz, made a point of announcing the conscription of fan William F. Temple and the death on active duty of sci-fi enthusiast Edward Wade. These sombre announcements ran alongside musings about John Carter of Mars.

In a time of great uncertainty, publisher J. Michael Rosenblum said in the pages of FIDO that his self-avowed goal was to “a) to give news of and to fandom, b) to keep burning those bright mental constellations possessed by all fans.” The publication was created just as much to be an archive and time capsule as a source of entertainment, news, and distraction. By publishing the fanzine, Rosenblum recorded the history of a subculture of science fiction enthusiasts, and helped to keep a community that was being actively ripped apart together.

(15) SUPERMAN’S SPIRIT. Distilled, that is. Onward Giants is hustling the “Limited Edition Super Bottle”.

The Limited Edition Superman Whiskey Bottle is a meticulously crafted collectible designed for fans of both Superman and fine whiskey. Each bottle embodies the timeless power and spirit of Superman, making it not just a bottle of whiskey, but a unique piece of art and a symbol of heroism. This limited edition release is a must-have for collectors and superhero enthusiasts alike.

A Tribute to Superman’s Spirit
Superman represents courage, justice, and hope, and this whiskey bottle captures his essence. The iconic “S” emblem and the heroic silhouette of Superman are artistically integrated into the design, making every bottle a tribute to the hero who has inspired generations.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]

Pixel Scroll 12/27/24 Introducing The Miskatonic Comma, For Lists Whose Items May Not Be Written

Posted on December 27, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) SENDING A MESSAGE: OF COURSE IT’S WORTH COLLECTING. The New York Times looks into “The Hottest Trend in Publishing: Books You Can Judge by Their Cover” (link bypasses Times paywall).

Last year, a romance publisher took an expensive gamble on the latest novel by the best-selling author Rebecca Yarros.

To help the novel, “Fourth Wing,” stand out in the crowded fantasy-romance genre, the publisher, Entangled, invested in a limited deluxe edition with a bold metallic cover and black sprayed edges featuring dragons.

It worked: All 115,000 copies of the deluxe edition sold out almost everywhere within a week.

“My only regret is that I printed too few,” said Liz Pelletier, Entangled’s publisher.

When the next novel in the series, “Iron Flame,” came out, Entangled was prepared, and printed a million copies of the deluxe edition. Once again, they quickly sold out.

For the third book in the series, “Onyx Storm,” which comes out in January, Entangled is printing two million copies of the deluxe edition, which has stenciled artwork and black and silver edges adorned with flying gold and black dragons, along with a smaller print run of 500,000 standard copies. More than a million “Onyx Storm” deluxe editions have already sold….

(2) KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Jacob Weisman and Ben Berman Ghan on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. Starts 7:00 p.m. Eastern. KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs).

Jacob Weisman

Jacob Weisman is the publisher at Tachyon Publications, which he founded in 1995. He is a World Fantasy Award winner for the anthology The New Voices of Fantasy, which he co-edited with Peter S. Beagle. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Realms of Fantasy, The Louisville Courier-Journal, The Seattle Weekly, and The Cooper Point Journal. Weisman’s first novel, Egyptian Motherlode co-authored with David Sandner, was recently published by Fairwood Press. He lives in San Francisco, CA.

Ben Berman Ghan

Ben Berman Ghan is a PhD Candidate in English and creative writing at the University of Calgary. His debut collection of fiction, What We See in the Smoke, was published in 2019, his novella Visitation Seeds was published in 2020, and his novel The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits was published with Buckrider Books in 2024. His prose, poetry, and essays have been published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, Filling Station Magazine, The Blasted Tree Publishing Co., Pinhole Poetry, and The Ancillary Review of Books.

(3) MEDICAL UPDATE. Barry Longyear told Facebook readers today what he’s trying to accomplish despite debilitating cancer.

A little update is in order. It is cancer, It is gobbling up my energy before I can log it in, pain too. I haven’t done any writing since September 10th when this nightmare began, they are dangling chemo and radiation in my future, apparently I am too frail to withstand the preferred operation. So, as always, The future is a mystery. I wish I had enough energy to tell you about all of the fine and quite inspiring men and women I’ve met along the way, but suffice it to say that they are there. The ticket to their company is to reach out. My most recent hospital stay was in a rehab/nursing home packed with patients with the most heartbreaking handicaps one can imagine. And they laugh and joke and point out I am still on this side of the grass. We’ll see what I can get done on the three books I want to get done, The Moman Omniquel, Rope Tricks (the concluding Joe Torio Mystery), and I am going to try my hand at an autobiography: The Superfluous Earth Man or I was an Extra Terrestrial. If I can get all that done before Uncle Reaper comes to collect. Perhaps I can wade through your comments, friend requests, and such. In any event, Disney is moving forward with The Enemy Papers, I have talked with the fellow in charge, and I have high hopes “Enemy Mine” will come out better than the previous version. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, friends, and remember. If the planet Earth didn’t suck we’d all fall off.

(4) DECK THE HALLS OF THE TARDIS. Camestros Felapton assays the Doctor Who Christmas special: “Doctor Who: Joy to the World”.

It is Doctor Who Christmas Special time and if this time of year is about indulging to excess in sugar and sentimentality Russell T. Davies and Stephen Moffat are up for that.

Fluffy, silly, and a remix of some familiar Moffat themes (The Doctor forced to live a more mundane existance for a period, time paradoxes and uploaded minds as an after life) the plot also hits you with some emotional gut punches….

(5) ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWERS. Tom Nichols remembers “Star Trek’s Cold War” in The Atlantic (behind a paywall)

…But to appreciate the Cold War setting of Star Trek, you need only to understand that the Earth-led United Federation of Planets (a free and democratic association committed to equality among all beings) was NATO. Captain James T. Kirk—born and raised in Iowa, according to the show—commanded its finest flagship, the USS Enterprise. The bad guys, standing in for the Soviet Union, were the Klingons, whose empire was a brutal and aggressive dictatorship.

Two Cold War themes run through Star Trek: the risks of great-power confrontation, and the danger of ultimate annihilation. In “The Omega Glory,” a mediocre episode that Roddenberry pushed to have produced, the Enterprise finds an underdeveloped planet where Asian-looking “Kohms” oppress the white “Yangs.” Turns out it’s a planet that developed just like Earth in every way—there is some sci-fi hocus-pocus to explain how planets sometimes do this—including an America and a Red China (Kohms and Yangs, Communists and Yankees, get it?), and then wiped itself out with biological warfare.

Other episodes were a bit more sophisticated. In “The Return of the Archons,” Kirk encounters a society that is run like a beehive by a single leader named Landru, who demands that all citizens be “of the body.” (Spoiler: He’s a computer. Out-of-control computers were another common theme.) As Cushman notes, the crushing of the individual for the good of the collective was an intentional statement about life under communism.

Likewise, just as the U.S. and the Soviet Union competed against each other in the developing world of the 20th century, the Klingons and the Federation were often at odds with each other over developing planets in the future….

(6) QUITE MAGICAL. Séamas O’Reilly at Medium helps a writer with a pair of new books: “It’s Always A Rabbit Out Of A Hat: On magick, fantasy and creativity, with Alan Moore”. Take your pick of something Moore researched, or something he made up.

You have two books about magic out in one month, is this mere scheduling kismet or part of some great working you’ve had in plan for decades?

I never have great workings planned even days in advance. So, no this is purely just the way things have worked out. I started working on the Moon & Serpent Bumper Book of Magic fifteen years ago, around 2010 or so, back then we were expecting it to be out in a couple of years. Then the project expanded and Steve passed away, and we realised that although we’d got all the writing done for it we hadn’t got any of the art commissioned. So that’s what the last few years have been about, getting it all drawn.

As for The Great When, it wasn’t deliberate so much as a coincidence of scheduling but, yes, it’s two books about magic that even have some crossover. Well, the bumper book is about magic, whereas The Great When has got some magicians in it, but it isn’t really anything that is traditional magic — I was prepared to just make most of it up. The Bumper Book is an encyclopaedic history of magic and all sorts of other things as well, but we’ve got characters like Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune in both.

So, there’s a tiny bit of overlap, but the intents of both books are different. One is to explain magic as it is and as it has been, and the other is an attempt to try and create something new in fantasy, without relying upon all the magical tropes you get reiterated so often in fantasy novels.

(7) DONALD BITZER (1934-2024). The New York Times reports (in a tribute behind its paywall): “Donald Bitzer, an electrical engineer whose groundbreaking computer system PLATO, developed in the 1960s and ’70s at the University of Illinois, was a telegram from the digital future that combined instant messaging, email, chat rooms and gaming on flat-screen plasma displays, died on Dec. 10…”

…Dr. Bitzer, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, began developing PLATO in 1960 as a tool for educators to create interactive, individualized coursework. It swiftly evolved into “a culture, both physical and online,” Mr. Dear wrote, “with its own jargon, customs and idioms.”

PLATO, an acronym for Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations, initially ran on television-like screens connected to the university’s ILLIAC I computer, a five-ton machine powered by 2,800 vacuum tubes.

To increase interactivity, in 1964 Dr. Bitzer, along with a fellow professor, H. Gene Slottow, and a graduate student, Robert Willson, invented a plasma display illuminated by gas-infused pixels — the same technology that would later power flat-screen televisions.

Thousands of PLATO terminals, radiant with bright orange text and graphics, were installed around the University of Illinois campus and eventually at other universities and high schools throughout the country.

Connected via phone lines, the touch-screen terminals were a kind of first draft of social networking that presaged the way digital devices now dominate daily life. Students learned math, Spanish and other subjects on them during the day, and at night they played games against one another, communicated in chat rooms and became pen pals.

“It was kind of crazy,” Ray Ozzie, a former student of Dr. Bitzer’s who later became Microsoft’s chief technical officer, said in an interview. “It was a little peek into what the internet would later become, and it was all fostered by Don’s vision, by him creating an environment for innovation.”

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

December 27, 2000 – Gosford Park

Twenty-four years ago this weekend, Gosford Park premiered. It was directed by Robert Altman from the script by Julian Fellowes, who went on to be the driving force behind the Downton Abbey series. It came together when Director Balaban suggested an Agatha Christie-style whodunit to Altman and introduced him to Julian Fellowes, with whom Balaban had been working on a different project.

It is a country manor house mystery in the style of Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, which I just reviewed, and in keeping with that kind of mystery had a very large ensemble cast: Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emily Watson.

I’ll just single out Stephen Fry as Inspector Thompson as the cast is far too large to detail here. He seems to really believe he has something in common with the McCordles and their guests. However, Sylvia, one of the family, doesn’t even bother to learn his name, and makes it very clear through not so subtle airs that he’s working class and beneath all of them.

It was filmed mostly on location using three different manor houses, though sound stages were built to film the scenes of the manor’s downstairs area. Apparently it was also filmed in three different countries — the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy with production costs of nearly twenty million in total. It did very well at the box office with it bringing in nearly ninety million. It was Altman’s second most successful film after M*A*S*H.

Critics truly loved it with Roger Ebert wringing for the Chicago Sun-Times said it was “such a joyous and audacious achievement it deserves comparison with his very best movies.” And Nell Murray at the Verge summed it up perfectly noting that “For a film about homicide and class conflict, Gosford Park is surprisingly congenial.”

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it an excellent rating of seventy-eight percent.

I’ve watched it more than a few times and consider it to be quite excellent. That reminds me that I should write up Knives Out.

(9) NEXT DOOR AT MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Rod Serling Statue (Update)

And perhaps across his mind there will flit a little errant wish, that a man might not have to become old, never outgrow the parks and the merry-go-rounds of his youth. — ending words of “Walking Distance”

“Not all statues, no matter how much they deserve to exist, actually exist. At least yet. Such it is with this for the creator of the Twilight Zone series, Rod Serling.” That’s what I knew when I wrote several years ago. Now has transited from the Twilight Zone to this reality.

In doing this extended look at the statues of fantastic creatures, mythic beings and sometimes their creators, I continually come across quite fascinating stories. Such it is with this story. And this one was no exception.

In the “Walking Distance” episode of The Twilight Zone, a middle-aged advertising executive travels back in time to his childhood, arriving just a few miles away from his native town. That episode was based on Binghamton, New York, the hometown of Serling as he graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1943.

I had come upon news stories that the town in conjunction with the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation and The State of New York had decided Serling should be honored by his hometown.

The Serling Memorial Foundation said it will use the grant and additional fundraising to place the Serling statue in Recreation Park next year. Note that this is the second fundraising effort as the first, a Kickstarter for $90,000, failed.

I couldn’t find any update on the actual production of this statue, so I wouldn’t swear than it was going to happen in the time frame stated. The website for the Serling Memorial Foundation was at that point, to put delicately, a bloody mess and said nothing about that project at all. Now they have a page showing the dedication of the statue with video and quite a bit of detail about the project.

So go here for all the details on this extraordinary project.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Half Full asks the after holidays question.
Pearls Before Swine lists the steps in a professional writing career.
Reality Check shows no one is immune to the effects of holiday feasting.
Wizard of Id is not sincere about customer support.

(11) SECOND IN A SERIES. Paul Weimer is back at Nerds of a Feather with “Book Review: The Unkillable Princess by Taran Hunt”.

…This book is significantly shorter than its predecessor, and feels less of a “pressure cooker” than the first novel, showing that even by keeping the chassis of the first book, Hunt wants to and does experiment with some new things. Sean proves to be well connected, and those connections and his social skills give him some new options and ideas that were not in the first book. Now, given that Sean is dealing with his thought-to-be-dead sister, and some of the fallout from the first book, this gives the book a much more social feel to the conflicts in the narrative than the first. Sure, there are plenty of action sequences like the first novel, although our field of play is generally set in locations within a city, and there are no monsters this time other than the human ones (and yes, some of those are bad enough). So Sean really shines in this book in a way he didn’t in the first book….

(12) DIRECTOR’S BITE. [Item by Steven French.] Robert Eggers on his version of Nosferatu: “’I had to make the vampire as scary as possible’: Nosferatu’s Robert Eggers on how folklore fuelled his film”.

…By the time I was nine I already loved vampires. I had seen the Lugosi film often and had been Dracula for Halloween the year before; there’s a photo of me with a painted widow’s peak and plastic fangs too big for my mouth. I was also nine when I first saw Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). This was a truly frightening vampire makeup design. The nails, the hunch, the shape of the pointed skull. As a child, it felt as if Max Schreck commanded the screen like a real vampire. The degraded quality of the 16mm VHS transfer made the film seem as if it was disinterred from its grave, unearthed from the past, adding to its authenticity. And this adaptation stripped Stoker’s story of its over-stuffed Victoriana and distilled it to its essence: that simple enigmatic fairytale.

About 10 years ago I embarked on writing the screenplay for my own adaptation of Nosferatu. In taking on the most influential horror film, based on the most influential horror novel, I felt a responsibility to make the vampire as scary as possible. This could not be a sparkling vampire….

(13) UNSUSPECTED REMAKE. Arturo Serrano expounds “On the gentle fantasy of Linoleum” at Nerds of a Feather.

…Enter the 2022 movie Linoleum. It was never advertised as a remake, but it so cleverly deconstructs the plot of American Beauty that it might as well have openly acknowledged the extent of its debt. Similarly set in the late 1990s, it proposes a more empathetic alternative to the earlier movie’s cynicism. And from this point on I’m going to need to spoil the secrets of Linoleum….

(14) A LACK OF CREDENTIALS. “Japan’s ‘cat island’ falls victim to demographic crisis” – the Guardian explains the problem.

The reason for Aoshima’s nickname was clear before we had set foot on the island. As our tiny vessel slowed to a halt and its handful of passengers prepared to disembark, the quayside was alive with orangey-white blurs – a whiskered welcome party that forms as soon as its members hear the hum of an approaching motor.

The only human here to greet us is Naoko Kamimoto, appropriately dressed in a pinafore with feline designs, who secures the boat with a rope as half a dozen cats swirl around her feet.

A 35-minute ferry ride off the coast of Ehime prefecture in Shikoku – the smallest of Japan’s four main islands – Aoshima is the best-known of the country’s 11 “cat islands”. Despite the absence of a single shop, restaurant or guesthouse, this speck in the Seto Inland Sea has become a must-see for visitors intrigued by a remote community where cats easily outnumber humans.

But Aoshima’s days as a feline-fixated tourist destination are numbered. A decade ago there were about 200 feral cats here – the descendants of animals enlisted by fishers to destroy rodents who were gnawing through the nets they used to catch huge quantities of sardines.

Kamimoto, who moved to the island after she married Hidenori, a local man, believes the number is now closer to 80. They are all aged over seven, and a third are battling illnesses, including blindness and respiratory diseases, caused by decades of inbreeding….

… The decline in the cat population is about more than the passage of time, however. Aoshima is the victim of a demographic crisis that is afflicting thousands of rural and island communities across Japan. Almost 900 people lived here just after the second world war, but the number had dropped to 80 around a decade ago, as ageing fishers and their spouses moved to the mainland, leaving their cats behind. By 2017, there were just 13 residents. Today, four are left: Naoko and Hidenori, and another couple who prefer to keep out of the spotlight….

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Joel Zakem, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 12/11/24 If You Stare At A Scroll Too Long, It Dissolves Into Pixels

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) CITY TECH SF SYMPOSIUM. For Andrew Porter it was a short walk to yesterday’s City Tech SF Symposium in Brooklyn. He brought his camera with him and shot these photos during the “Asimov/Analog Writers Panel”.

L to R: Matthew Kressel, Mercurio D. Rivera, Sakinah Hoefler, Sarah Pinsker, moderator Emily Hockaday, senior managing editor of Analog and Asimov’s SF magazines. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

Emily Hockaday. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

Sakina Hoefler. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

(2) SKYWALKER SHELTERS IN PLACE. The Franklin Fire has forced several well-known celebrities to evacuate, but some haven’t left.

The Franklin fire is raging through California’s Malibu coast, causing evacuations and ravaging homes while some celebrities like Mark Hamill shelter in place.

Hamill took to Instagram on Tuesday to share with fans that he would not evacuate his California home, with the “Star Wars” star telling his 6.2 million followers on the platform to “stay safe.”

“We’re in lockdown because of the Malibu fires. Please stay safe everyone! I’m not allowed to leave the house, which fits in perfectly with my elderly-recluse lifestyle,” Hamill wrote.

Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke is also one of the celebrities in the affected area, saying on Facebook that he evacuated the area with his wife Arlene.

The Franklin Fire continued to explode in size overnight and covers 3,983 acres as of Wednesday morning with 7% containment, according to CalFire. Late Tuesday night, officials said 2,667 had burned. It was fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity, a dangerous combination prompting red flag warnings in the region through Wednesday evening….

Others who have evacuated include Cher, Eagles rocker Don Henley, and Cindy Crawford.

(3) PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a nominee in documentary category for the 36th annual PGA Awards. The complete list of nominated documentaries is at the link. That is the first and only PGA category announced so far.

(4) THESE GHOSTS WANT TO BE SEEN. [Item by Steven French.] The UK’s “Society of Authors calls for celebrity memoir ghostwriters to be credited” – the Guardian tells why.

The SoA’s call comes following writers expressing frustration in recent months about celebrities writing books at a time when author incomes are in decline. Last year, Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown was criticised over her novel, Nineteen Steps, which was ghostwritten by Kathleen McGurl. While Brown publicly acknowledged McGurl’s work in an Instagram post, critics said that McGurl’s name “should be on the cover”.

(5) GHOSTLY GIFTS. [Item by Steven French.] If anyone happens to be in the Chicago area: “Ghoulish Mortals – St. Charles, Illinois” in Atlas Obscura.

JUST WEST OF CHICAGO, THERE is a little spot of spooky in the charming downtown of St. Charles, Illinois. Ghoulish Mortals is made up of equal parts immersive haunted house-style vignettes, macabre art gallery, and pop culture collector gift shop.

Haunting organ music leads you down the quaint downtown sidewalks and into the dark mysterious doors. As you make your way exploring through the shop, you will travel through a haunted mansion, a fortune teller’s tent, an 80s living room inspired by Stranger Things, a killer clown circus, abandoned hospital operating room, cannibal swamp cabin, and even come face to face with Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

If you love horror movies, true crime, the occult, oddities, or fantasy, leaving this shop empty-handed is nearly impossible!

(6) SIMULTANEOUS TIMES PODCAST. Space Cowboy Books of Joshua Tree, CA presents episode 81 of “Simultaneous Times – Eric Fomley & Adele Gardner”. Stories featured in this episode:

“Weapons Test” by Eric Fomley; music by TSG; read by Jean-Paul L. Garnier
“Tree Love” by Adele Gardner; music by Phog Masheeen – h Phog Masheeen; read by Jenna Hanchey
Theme music by Dain Luscombe

(7) RHYSLING AWARD CHAIR NAMED. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the 2025 Rhysling Award Chair will be Pixie Bruner.

Pixie Bruner (HWA/SFPA) is a writer, editor, mutant, and cancer survivor. She lives in Atlanta, GA, with her doppelgänger and their alien cats. Her collection The Body As Haunted was published in 2024 (Authortunities Press). She co-curated and edited Nature Triumphs : A Charity Anthology of Dark Speculative Literature (Dark Moon Rising Publications). Her words are in/forthcoming from Space & Time Magazine, Hotel Macabre (Crystal Lake Publishing), Star*Line, Weird Fiction Quarterly, Dreams & Nightmares, Angry Gable Press, Punk Noir, and many more. She wrote for White Wolf Gaming Studio. Werespiders ruining LARPs are all her fault.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Thirty-two years ago, The Muppet Christmas Carol premiered, directed by Brian Henson (in his feature film directorial debut) from the screenplay by Jerry Juhl.

Based amazingly faithfully off that beloved story, it starred Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge with a multitude of Muppet performers, to wit Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Ed Sanders, Jerry Nelson, Theo Sanders, Kristopher Milnes, Russell Martin, Ray Coulthard and Frank Oz, to name just some of them.

I must single out Jessica Fox as the voice of Ghost of Christmas Past, a stellar performance indeed.

Following Jim Henson’s death in May 1990, the talent agent Bill Haber had approached Henson’s son Brian with the idea of filming an adaptation. It was pitched to ABC as a television film, but Disney ended up purchasing it instead. That’s why it’s only available on Disney+ these days.

Critics in general liked it with Roger Ebert being among them though he added that it “could have done with a few more songs than it has, and the merrymaking at the end might have been carried on a little longer, just to offset the gloom of most of Scrooge’s tour through his lifetime spent spreading misery.”

Ebert added of Caine playing Scrooge that, “He is the latest of many human actors (including the great Orson Welles) to fight for screen space with the Muppets, and he sensibly avoids any attempt to go for a laugh. He plays the role straight and treats the Muppets as if they are real. It is not an easy assignment.”

They did give him his own song which showed us the cast.

Those songs were by Paul Williams, another one of his collaborations with the Jim Henson Company after working on The Muppet Movie.

Box office wise it did just ok, as it made twenty-seven million against production costs of twelve million, not counting whatever was spent on marketing. And that Christmas goose.

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a rather ungloomy rating of eighty-eight percent.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

Reality Check should not be surprised by these test results.
Working Daze illustrates a universal problem.
Dinosaur Comics is careful not to copy.
Loose Parts should be retitled “lose part” today.
Rudy Park knows why you’ve heard this before.
Speed Bump has proof of concept.

(10) ‘INNER LIGHT’ WRITER HAS SHOW IN DEVELOPMENT. Inverse reports: “32 Years Later, One of Star Trek’s Most Celebrated Writers is Launching a Gritty Sci-Fi Show”.

The writer responsible for the most celebrated episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is launching a new gritty sci-fi series. As reported by Deadline, Morgan Gendel — writer of TNG’s “The Inner Light” — has just secured a deal with Welsh broadcaster S4C, Hiraeth Productions, Canada’s Fun Republic Pictures and Karma Film, to develop a new “eco-thriller” science fiction show currently titled Isolation. The in-development series will focus on an ensemble of characters attempting to combat climate change in the near future, who also encounter an extraterrestrial force capable of direct contact with human minds.

“There’s a whole ‘Inner Light,’ kind of linkage here, to the extent that both deal with alien technology and the human brain,” Gendel tells Inverse. “And you’ve got a team thrown together isolated from humanity to one extent or another. Those are not intentional [parallels]. My writing often puts people in a pressure cooker to see what emotions or truths boil out of them.”…

(11) SURREALISM OF GENRE INTEREST. John Coulthart assembles a gallery of “The art of Jean Ransy, 1910–1991” at { feuilleton }.

… All the same, Jean Ransy may fit the Surrealist bill even if he doesn’t seem to have had any lasting connections with those groups who regarded themselves as the official guardians of the Surrealist flame. Ransy was Belgian artist which makes him Surrealist by default if you subscribe to Jonathan Meades’ proposition that Belgium is a Surrealist nation at heart. (Magritte wasn’t a Surrealist, says Meades, he was a social realist.)

Ransy’s paintings appear at first glance like a Belgian equivalent of Rex Whistler in their pictorial realism and refusal to jump on the Modernist bandwagon. Whistler and Ransy were contemporaries (Whistler was born in 1905) but Whistler’s paintings were much more restrained even when outright fantasy entered his baroque pastiches. The “metaphysical” vistas of Giorgio de Chirico are mentioned as an influence on Ransy’s work so he was at least looking at living artists, something you never sense with Whistler. There’s a de Chirico quality in the tilted perspectives and accumulations of disparate objects, also a hint of Max Ernst in one or two paintings….

Le chemin de ronde au visage soleil (1985).

(12) JUSTWATCH SHARES 2024 TOP 10 LISTS. What were the most-watched movies and TV shows on streaming services in 2024? JustWatch compiled these year-end Streaming Charts based on user activity, including: clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as ‘seen’. This data is collected from >45 million movie & TV show fans per month. It is updated daily for 140 countries and 4,500 streaming services.

2024 was packed with standout streaming hits. Movies like “Civil War”, “Oppenheimer”, and “The Fall Guy” drew huge audiences with their mix of action and drama. On the TV side, shows like “Shogun”, “Fallout”, and our streaming charts champion “The Bear” kept viewers hooked all year long. Whether it was blockbuster films or binge-worthy series, there was something for everyone. These titles set the tone for another exciting year in entertainment.

(13) WE STAND CORRECTED. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian says people have jumped to the wrong conclusion about an image in the trailer we ran yesterday: “Emaciated zombie in 28 Years Later is not Cillian Murphy, sources confirm”.

When the trailer for Danny Boyle’s belated zombie sequel 28 Years Later released on Tuesday, the less-than-rosy-cheeked appearance of the first film’s star, Cillian Murphy, did not escape comment.

A scene in which a strikingly skinny member of the undead suddenly rears up, naked, behind new star Jodie Comer was taken as confirmation of rumours that Murphy had returned for an appearance in the new film….

…Yet the Guardian can reveal that the actor playing “Emaciated Infected” in the film, due for release in June 2025, is not Murphy but rather newcomer Angus Neill.

Neill, an art dealer specialising in old masters, was talent-spotted by Boyle, who was much struck by his distinctive looks. Neill also works as a model, with his professional profile suggesting he has a 28-inch waist….

(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Ryan George takes us inside the “Elf Pitch Meeting” – one of the retro reviews stockpiled in anticipation of his baby arriving.

Will Ferrell is one of the most successful comedy actors of our time – but back in 2003, it was kind of a surprise to see him leading a Christmas movie as a giant non-elf. Elf ended up becoming a holiday classic, but it still raises some questions. Like what happened to that poor nun? Why didn’t the news reporter follow up on anything? Is Buddy the elf actually kind of creepy? So check out the pitch meeting that led to Elf to find out how it all came together!

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]

Pixel Scroll 12/3/24 I See Files Of Blue, Red Pixels Too, I See Them Purr For Me And You

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(0) FILE 770 TURNS ON ‘LIKE’ FUNCTION. Starting today you can now tag posts and comments with a “like”.

(1) SUPER SPOILER ALERT! Superman and Lois ends with a climactic fight, and a highly sentimental flashforward to the beginning of Superman’s supernatural life. I found both clips pretty impressive, so just imagine their impact on those who watched the series faithfully.

Superman & Lois: The Final Fight between Superman and Lex Luthor – Series Finale

Superman & Lois 4×10 Epilogue “Life Goes By So Fast” Scene (HD) Series Finale

(2) FROM BC TO AD TO DC. “The CW’s DC Era Ends With ‘Superman & Lois’ Finale: Numbers Behind the Enduring Franchise” from The Hollywood Reporter.

The series finale of Superman & Lois aired Monday night on The CW. It marked not just the end of the show’s four-season run, but also an entire programming philosophy at the network.

Superman & Lois was the last series based on DC Comics characters to air at the network. It was also the last connection to The CW’s Arrowverse (even if it wasn’t technically part of the main continuity of that franchise), which defined the 2010s for the network and became one of the more successful multi-show franchises in TV history.

The ending of Superman & Lois, which — spoiler alert — flashes forward several decades to show the end of its title characters’ (Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch) lives, precludes any continuation of the show elsewhere — as do new regimes at both The CW and DC parent Warner Bros. Discovery, which both have very different approaches than they did during the Arrowverse’s heyday in the mid- and late 2010s….

… 10: The number of series based on DC characters that aired on The CW, beginning with Arrow in October 2012. All of them came from Warner Bros. TV and what was then called DC Entertainment, and nine — Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, Stargirl, Superman & Lois and Gotham Knights — were executive produced by Berlanti via his Berlanti Productions. The 10th is 2022’s Naomi, co-created by Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship and produced by DuVernay’s ARRAY Filmworks along with DC and WB….

… 817, 797: The combined episode total from all 10 shows, and those that ran on The CW; Supergirl‘s first season, which spanned 20 episodes, aired on CBS. The 817 episodes are more than all but three multi-show franchise since 1990 — only Law & Order (1,363 episodes as of publication time), JAG/NCIS (1,249) and CSI (838) have more. NBC’s Chicago franchise will need to air 131 more episodes — about six 22-episode seasons’ worth of shows — to pass the DC total….

(3) DIVERSE READING AID. Rocket Stack Rank reminds us of “Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2023”. See the list at the link.

62 outstanding SF/F short stories by People of Color from 2023 that were finalists for major SF/F awards, included in “year’s best” SF/F anthologies, or recommended by prolific reviewers. (40 free online, 18 with podcasts)….

… Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings)….

(4) MORPHIN’ INTO CASH. By the time Heritage Auction’s November 18-19 Power Rangers Hasbro Hollywood & Entertainment Signature^® Auction wrapped it had realized $3.3 million dollars in sales.

Every costume, monster, prop, weapon and warrior offered in the landmark event — nearly 700 lots! — found a new home.

As a result, the auction realized $3,310,929, with countless surprises and smash hits throughout the largest and most comprehensive collection of Power Rangers memorabilia ever assembled, spanning the classic Power Rangers Mighty Morphin to the most recent season, Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, which premiered last year.

From the latter series came the auction’s top lot: the original hero Cosmic Fury Cannon, the team’s signature weapon that combines all five of the Cosmic Fury Rangers’ individual dino-themed powers into an 80-inch-long laser blaster. After a prolonged bidding war during the auction’s second day, the Cosmic Fury Cannon shot up to its final price of $87,500.

Another smash hit was one of this auction’s numerous centerpieces: the Transformable Astro Megaship/Astro Megazord hero filming miniature from 1998’s Power Rangers in Space, one of the only complete Zords in this auction used on screen as the Rangers’ spacecraft and battle Zord. It’s fully articulated, an armed warrior and battle carrier that still moves like a well-oiled machine — and is so complete it still has the fishing line used to open its chest. It opened live bidding at $19,000 and finally realized $47,500 after a lengthy bidding war.

Weapons wielded significant power during this event, with the Green Ranger Hero Dragon Dagger from last year’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always realizing $23,750. And six Cosmic Morpher Hero Props from Power Rangers Cosmic Fury blasted their way to a $17,500 finish.

Numerous costumes worn throughout the series’ 31-year run realized five figures, among them the Green Ranger hero costume worn by Jason David Frank, as Tommy Oliver, during the initial run of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the mid-1990s. It realized $30,000, while his complete White Ranger hero costume from 1995’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie sold for $16,250. The auction’s second day began with a moment of silence in tribute to Frank….

A couple more favorites:

Fierce Fashions: Trini Kwan’s Yellow Ranger costume, Saber-Toothed Tiger Power Morpher included, roared to $23,750. Kimberly Hart’s Pink Ranger suit wasn’t far behind, landing $22,500.

Villains Rule: Even baddies got their moment in the spotlight, with Goldar Maximus strutting off for $21,250 and Master Zedd securing $18,750.

(5) TERMINALS OF ENDEARMENT. “Lovable Movie Robots Are Coming to Charm Your Children” writes Diego Hadis in the New York Times (great article, but behind a paywall).

One near certainty about raising a young child these days is that you and your offspring will be exposed to a lot of stories about robots. Another is that the robots working their charms most effectively on you will belong to a new kind of archetype: the sympathetic robot. Sitting in darkened theaters with my 5-year-old son, I have watched any number of these characters. They are openhearted and often dazzled by the wonders of everyday life — innocently astounded by, say, the freedom of playing in the surf, the bliss of dancing with a loved one or the thrill of just holding hands. They might be more winningly human than some of the humans you know….

… Take Roz, the main character of the animated film “The Wild Robot,” which came out in September. Like the Peter Brown book series on which it is based, the movie focuses on a robot protagonist that gains emotional complexity after she washes ashore on an island unpopulated by humans, learns to communicate with the animals she meets there and becomes the surrogate mother of an orphaned gosling. Roz changes and adapts; she goes from seeing her care for the gosling as a rote task to welcoming it as a real connection. She embraces the wildness of the animals around her and ceases to be the unfeeling machine that her programming intended. Instead, she becomes an unnatural champion for the natural world — one whose touching incomprehension of how to care for a newborn makes her charming….

…We’re now inarguably living in the future that science fiction once imagined. Artificial intelligences weaned on vast libraries of human endeavor are coming online, their boosters hyping their potential to either fulfill our greatest wishes or realize our deepest fears. It feels notable that we are raising our children on pointedly comforting stories about robots that, instead of relieving us of our jobs or edging us to the brink of Armageddon, offer to show us how to be more human. Granted, computers are an inescapable facet of our world now. As they grow up, our children will consume stories about humanlike robots as naturally as our ancestors delighted in tales about anthropomorphic animals. Still, these stories seem to be doing an inordinate amount of work to help children feel warm toward the technologies that increasingly dominate our lives….

…This is all in spite of the remarkably bleak near future portrayed in many of these children’s films. They tend to show us a world of ecological ruin devastated by climate change. “The Wild Robot” offers haunting images like the Golden Gate Bridge submerged in San Francisco Bay as a flock of geese passes overhead. The Earth in “Wall-E” has been reduced to a lifeless, postindustrial horrorscape reminiscent of the works of the photographer Edward Burtynsky; humans have fled it entirely. “Robot Dreams” evades this by being set in and around its 1980s New York, but even that film concerns itself greatly with the natural world. We see the robot experiencing the changing seasons on a wintry beach; the dog takes pity on a fish that he has caught and releases it. There is even a scene — echoing the surrogate parenting in “The Wild Robot” — in which the robot helps encourage a young bird to learn how to fly.

There is an echo here of the classic robot stories: Humanity’s hubris has once again led us to get in over our heads. But now we’re encouraged to take pleasure in watching a robot try to navigate what’s left, slowly figuring out that human values — love, connection, caretaking — are eternally important. The sympathetic robots are devised as much to comfort us parents as they are to make technology appealing to our kids. Despite the destabilized world that we’re leaving to our offspring, they reassure us, artificial intelligences could one day serve as our surrogates — and care for our children or, who knows, even love them for us when we’re gone.

(6) WRITERS NEED HELP. [Item by Steven French.] Worrying news: “Royal Literary Fund’s hardship grants for writers see applications increase by 400%” in the Guardian.

Applications for the Royal Literary Fund’s (RLF’s) hardship grants for professional writers increased by 400% between last year and this year, the charity has said.

There was a nearly fivefold increase in applications in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2023, RLF CEO Edward Kemp told the Guardian.

The RLF’s grant applications are open to writers who need short- or long-term financial support because they are, for example, facing an unexpected bill, reduced income, or are unable to write due to a “change in circumstances, sickness, disability, or age”, according to the RLF.

The grants are given as a donation towards the “removal of distress for the applicant”, rather than to help complete literary works. Writers must have published (via a traditional publisher, not self-published) at least two books in the UK or Ireland to be eligible for a grant.

The rise in applications comes after research published by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society in 2022 showed authors’ median earnings were just £7,000 a year, down from £12,330 in 2006.

(7) FUTURE WORLDS PRIZE JUDGES NAMED. TheFuture Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour has announced the judging panel for its 2025 prize. The prize aims to find new talent based in the UK writing in the SFF space and is funded by author Ben Aaronovitch and actor Adjoa Andoh. The judges are:

2023 winner Mahmud El Sayed
Shadow and Bone actor Amita Suman
Bestselling author Saara El Arifi
Literary agent Amandeep Singh
Author Rogba Payne.

The winner of Future Worlds Prize receives £4,500, and the runner-up receives £2,500. The remaining six shortlisted writers each receive £850. All eight writers also get mentoring from one of the prize’s publishing partners: Bloomsbury, Daphne Press, Gollancz, HarperVoyager, Hodderscape, Orbit, Penguin Michael Joseph, Simon & Schuster, Titan and Tor.

Future Worlds Prize closes for entries at 23:59 GMT on Sunday 26th January 2025.

(8) KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Sarah Pinsker and Yume Kitasei on Wednesday, December 11 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

SARAH PINSKER

A starred Booklist review called Sarah Pinsker’s latest, Haunt Sweet Home, “Fun, eerie, [and] unexpectedly beautiful…” She is the Hugo and Nebula winning author of the novels A Song For A New Day and We Are Satellites, plus the collections Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea and Lost Places, both published by Small Beer Press, and over sixty pieces of short fiction. She’s currently the Kratz Writer in Residence at Goucher College, and lives in Baltimore with her wife and two weird dogs.

YUME KITASEI

Yume Kitasei is the author of The Deep Sky, The Stardust Grail, and Saltcrop (forthcoming in 2025). She is half Japanese and half American and grew up in a space between two cultures—the same space where her stories reside. She lives in Brooklyn with two cats, Boondoggle and Filibuster. Her stories have appeared in publications including New England Review, Catapult, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Baltimore Review. You can find more information about her at www.yumekitasei.com. She chirps occasionally @Yumewrites at Instagram, TikTok, and Blue Sky.

Meets at the KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs).

(9) WALT BOYES AND JOY WARD JOIN MISTI MEDIA, LLC. Walt Boyes and Joy Ward, longtime chief editors for Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire Press, and Top of the World Publishing, are joining Misti Media as Editors-at-Large. They will be responsible for the startup of Misti Media’s new Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror imprint: Nazca Press. They will also be working with Misti Media’s other main imprints and alongside Sandra Murphy who oversees content for specialty imprint Sandra Murphy Presents. For the Misti Media story, see Misti Media, LLC.

“Nazca Press doesn’t have a website yet, as Misti Media is only a year old and growing its Internet presence,” says Walt Boyes, “but what we do have is close to 100 years of editing and publishing experience in both fiction, genre fiction, and non-fiction. And when you add this to the incredible 30 years of industry experience brought to Misti Media by CEO and Publisher Jay Hartman, we are the real deal.”

“We moved first to create world-class distribution for both ebooks and trade paperbacks,” Jay Hartman explains. “We have worldwide distribution in nearly every country, including bookstores and libraries, and we have begun publishing some fantastic authors. Now, with Walt and Joy’s experience and knowledge, we can start looking for more great authors to join our family.”

You can reach Walt at wboyes@mistimedia.com; Joy at jward@mistimedia.com; and Jay Hartman at jhartman@mistimedia.com.

(10) LARPING IN SOCAL. The Washington Post takes you “Inside Twin Mask, an elaborate fantasy world just miles from L.A.” (This gift article bypasses the paywall, but you still need a free WaPo account to read it.)

…The entire weekend — Friday night until Sunday morning — would be spent inside this elaborate fantasy realm with its many rules and intricate replicas.

Held at the site of the Koroneburg Renaissance Festival about an hour outside Los Angeles, the live-action role-playing (LARP) game Twin Mask stands out for its sheer size and lifespan. It’s far more elaborate than other games of its ilk, with anywhere from 400 to 600 players converging in character at events held every month and a half or so.

“You eat food in character, you walk to the bathroom in character,” says its creator, John Basset, who started Twin Mask 14 years ago. “It really feels like you’re in another world.”

Given its proximity to Hollywood, it attracts a fair number of players whose day jobs are in the film industry. And they revel in making a next-level spectacle.

… In the dark world of Adelrune, characters share a unifying aspect — they each have been resurrected from death. Whether they’re a knight, a healer or a merchant, allthe players, known collectively as “The Returned,” have detailed backstories….

… Twin Mask is run by a detailed system of unpaid volunteers and staff who take on everything from writing the story, to ensuring people (and mythical creatures) are hydrated and safe, to performing as non-player characters who help guide the storyline. Still, every player can influence the plot, which continues long after the weekend is over….

… A little over an hour into the game, no one is in charge and a criminal underworld is beginning to take hold. Much of the site is eerily quiet.

Not so at the tavern in the center of town where the single dusty road splits. The boisterous bar is filled with the chatter of players who never break character. Some are making deals while others are socializing. The crowd is soon silenced by the sound of a ringing bell. Players returning from death quietly shuffle in.…

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

December 3, 1958 — Terri Windling, 66.

I first encountered Terri Windling’s writing through reading The Wood Wife, a truly extraordinary fantasy that deserved the Mythopoeic Award it won. (The Hole in the Wall bar in it would be borrowed by Charles de Lint with her permission for a scene in his Medicine Road novel, an excellent novel.) I like the American edition with Susan Sedona Boulet’s art much better than I do the British edition with the Brian Froud art as I feel it catches the tone of the novel.

I would be very remiss not mention about her stellar work as the founding editor along with Ellen Datlow of what would be called The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror after the first volume which was simply The Year’s Best Fantasy, that being noted for those of you who would doubt correct me for not noting that. The series won three World Fantasy Awards and a Stoker as well.

They also edited the most splendid Snow White, Blood Red anthologies which were stories based on traditional folk tales. Lots of very good stuff there. Like the Mythic Fiction series is well worth reading and available at usual suspects and in digital form as well.

Oh, and I want to single out The Armless Maiden and Other Tales for Childhood which took on the difficult subject of child abuse. It garnered a much warranted Otherwise nomination.

Now let’s have a beer at the Dancing Ferret as I note her creation and editing (for the most part) of the Bordertown series. I haven’t read all of it, though I did read her first three anthologies several times and love the punks as you can see here on Life on the Border, but I’ve quite a bit of it and all of the three novels written in it, Emma Bull’s Finder: A Novel: of The Borderlands, is one of my comfort works, so she gets credit for that.

So now let’s move to an art credit for her. So have you seen the cover art for Another Way to Travel by Cats Laughing? I’ve the original pen and ink art that she did here.

Which brings me to the Old Oak Wood series which is penned by her and illustrated by Wendy Froud. Now Wikipedia and most of the reading world thinks that it consists of three lovely works — A Midsummer Night’s Faery Tale, The Winter Child and The Faeries of Spring Cottage.

But there’s a story that Terri wrote that never got published anywhere but on Green Man. It’s an Excerpt from The Old Oak Chronicles: Interviews with Famous Personages by Professor Arnel Rootmuster. It’s a charming story, so go ahead and read it.

Photo posted by Terri on Bluesky. Photographer unstated.

(12) COMICS SECTION.

Heathcliff faces top competition.
Rubes visits Acme world.
Wizard of Id doesn’t have sunshine coming out of there.
Bizarro takes things literally.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal finds a destiny that isn’t dull.

(13) PREPARE TO BLEEP AND BLUR. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] The House of Mouse said nay to one line of dialogue in Deadpool & Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds came up with a replacement that was just as raunchy, but didn’t reference Steamboat Willie’s willy. People says, “We Now Know the Super-Raunchy Mickey Mouse Joke Disney Asked Ryan Reynolds to Cut from Deadpool & Wolverine”.

…Director Shawn Levy previously said there was “only one line in the entire movie that we were asked to change,” telling Entertainment Weekly in August that he and star Ryan Reynolds made a “pact” to “go to our grave with that line.”

However, Marvel Studios has shared the film’s official screenplay online as part of a For Your Consideration campaign this awards season, and in the script, that original deleted line is revealed.

In the scene where Deadpool (Reynolds) asks if Magneto is also in the film, he’s told the character is dead. He then says, “F—! What, we can’t even afford one more X-Man? Disney is so cheap. I can barely breathe with all this Mickey Mouse c–k in my throat.”

The actual line in the final cut of the movie is: “F—, now Disney gets cheap? It’s like Pinocchio jammed his face in my ass and started lying like crazy.”

The scene features the surprise cameos made by Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Wesley Snipes as Blade and Channing Tatum as Gambit. The screenplay showcases the Stranger Things–inspired code names the writers used to keep the characters’ identities a secret. Gambit is “Gatsby,” Elektra is “Eleven” and Blade is “Billy,” plus, earlier, Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm is listed as “Jonathan Byers.”…

(14) SFF ON LEARNEDLEAGUE: PAOLO BACIGALUPI. [Item by David Goldfarb.] Season 103 of LearnedLeague feature this as the third question of the twelfth match day:

Emiko, the central character in Paolo Bacigalupi’s 2009 dystopian science fiction novel, is a genetically engineered humanoid designed for servitude known as what type of girl, as referenced in the book’s title?

Although this refers to a Hugo-winning novel, it’s sufficiently obscure that not all Filers might know it: the answer is “windup”; the novel is The Windup Girl.

11% of LearnedLeague players got this right (your reporter being one of them). The most common wrong answer actually had a higher rate than the right answer: 16% guessed “geisha” — not totally unreasonable if you have to guess something.

One interesting note is that the question originally gave the author’s name as “Paulo” and the answer as “wind up”, two words. I contacted the League commissioner and got it corrected. (I don’t know how many other people might also have done so.)

LearnedLeague competition allows you to control the points available on each question, within limits, and makes extensive history available to the players. My opponent did not avail himself of this resource! He gave me the maximum points for this one, when even a quick search would suggest that I’d know it.

Brick Barrientos sent along his own comment about the difficulty of this LL question:

“Emiko, the central character in Paulo Bacigalupi’s 2009 dystopian science fiction novel, is a genetically engineered humanoid designed for servitude known as what type of girl, as referenced in the book’s title?”

The answer, of course, is Windup. Only 11% got it right. I thought it was a very hard question for a general knowledge, non-specialist trivia quiz. In my mind, I tried to think of three more recent Hugo novel winners that maybe 30% of trivia enthusiasts could get. In other words, if you gave the author, said it was a Hugo novel winner, some elements of the plot, and a hint at the title, would a mainstream audience get it? I came up with The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Redshirts by John Scalzi, and maybe Network Effect by Martha Wells.

Extend it to novellas, and you could add This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. If this becomes a Pixel Scroll item, what genre novels have had major mainstream exposure in the last 15 years?

(15) COULROPHOBIA CENTRAL. Those of you who made it to the Westercon in Tonopah have already driven past this landmark: “Creepy vibes drives booming business at Tonopah’s Clown Motel” in the LA Times (behind a paywall).

Business is so good at the Clown Motel, you might expect more of its painted faces to be smiling.

But as Vijay Mehar has learned in his years as owner of the creepiest motel in Tonopah, Nev., happy clowns are not what most of his customers want.

What they seem to want is fear, loathing, painted faces, circus vibes and hints of paranormal activity. Basically, Mehar said recently, “they want to be scared.”

So aiming to lure more people off Main Street (a.k.a. U.S. 95) to visit this 31-room motel in the dusty, stark middle of Nevada, Mehar is boosting his creepiness quotient.

By the end of 2025, he’s hoping to have completed a 900-square-foot addition, doubling the size of the motel’s busy, disquieting lobby-museum-gift shop area. Meanwhile, behind the motel, Mehar is planning a year-round haunted house, to be made of 11 shipping containers….

…“America’s Scariest Motel,” read the brochures by the register. “Let fear run down your spine.”

There are paintings, dolls and ceramic figures, each with its own expression — smiling, laughing, smirking, weeping or silently shrieking. And then there are the neighbors. The motel stands next to the Old Tonopah Cemetery, most of whose residents perished between 1900 and 1911, often in mining accidents…

…“If we had paid 60, or 70, or even 80 bucks, this place might have been worth it,” wrote one unamused motel customer on Trip Advisor recently.

“We had good fun, and even better we weren’t murdered,” wrote another….

(16) TRADING PLACES. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Over here in Brit Cit we have a shop chain called Games Workshop that sells tabletop games and models. It has been steadily growing and now may become one of the nation’s top 100 companies on the UK stock market…. “Alliance Witan and Games Workshop expected to join FTSE 100 this month” reports Shares Magazine.

(17) HEARING FROM PAUL DI FILIPPO. Mark Barsotti recently interviewed prolific sff author Paul Di Filippo and through the creative use of photos and book covers turned the recordings into a three-part video series.

PAUL Di FILIPPO INTERVIEW ~ SCIENCE FICTION’S MOST UNDERRATED WRITER? ~ Part 1

Part one of my interview with writer Paul Di Filippo, who in a better world would make the bestseller lists. Interview: November 11, 2024.

PAUL Di FILIPPO INTERVIEW ~ SCIENCE FICTION SUPER SCRIBE! ~ Part 2

Part two of my interview with writer Paul Di Filippo, who in a juster world would make a lot more money. Paul talks about his multiverse novel VANGIE’S GHOST. Interview 11, 2024.

PAUL Di FILIPPO ~ A PINT-SIZED VOLTAIRE?

Part 3 on my interview with science fiction writer Paul Di Filippo, who discusses his latest novel, Vangie’s Ghosts, “technopunk jazz scatting” and not being a miserabilist. Interview: 11-11-24.

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Barsotti, Walt Boyes, Cathy Green, Brick Barrientos, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jeff “What A Wonderful World” Smith.]

Something to Be Thankful For: Fantastic Fiction at the KGB Bar with James Patrick Kelly and Teel James Glenn

Posted on November 14, 2024 by Mike Glyer

Teel James Glenn and James Patrick Kelly. Photo by Ellen Datlow.

By Mark L. Blackman: On the suddenly chilly autumn evening of Wednesday, November 13, the monthly Fantastic Fiction at KGB Readings Series presented two authors with James in their three-barreled names, James Patrick Kelly and Teel James Glenn, who read from newly published works.

Now in its second quarter-century, the Series, co-hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, is held on the second Wednesday of each month at its longtime venue, the Soviet era-themed (so doubly aptly-named) Red Room of the second-floor KGB Bar in Manhattan’s East Village. Readings are free, but the hosts noodgeh the crowd to buy drinks, alcoholic or non-. To paraphrase, support the Bar and support the Series.

After the music was turned off by the bartender’s Apple watch, Datlow invited those not already on it to join the mailing list. The website lists past readers and upcoming readings:

December 11 – Sarah Pinsker and Yume Kitasei
January 8 – Ben Berman Ghan and Jacob Weisman
February 12 – Rebecca Fraimow and Clay McLeod Chapman

(A fuller list may be found at the series’ website.)

She then introduced the first reader of the evening.

James Patrick Kelly, the author of five-and-a-half novels (the half is a collaboration with John Kessel), including Planet of Whispers and Look into the Sun, has worked primarily in shorter forms, and has won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards for his short fiction. His column “On The Net” is a regular feature in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and his new novella, Moon and Mars, from whose opening he read, will be appearing in the publication’s January/February issue. This was his eighth visit to Fantastic Fiction since 2000 (and, incidentally, my first in person since before the Pandemic).

Mariska, a woman living on the Moon, and her involuntary clone Niha are slated to be in the crew of a colony ship leaving the Solar System (both are Hibernators), but, in view of a recent disaster, there are rumors that, in whole or part, the crew will be replaced. Meanwhile Niha gets a haircut (because “on a starship hair matters”) and Mariska (older than her apparent age) lusts after a Marsboy.

After an intermission, co-host Kressel reiterated information about upcoming readers, added mention of their podcast (at present recordings of past events), and introduced the second reader of the evening.

Teel James Glenn – or “T.J.” – has, in forty-plus years of careers, worked as an actor, stuntman, fight choreographer, swordmaster, and haunted house barker, during which time, as he describes it, he has “killed hundreds and been killed more times on stage and screen,” before turning to committing murders instead in dozens of novels and short stories published in over two hundred magazines including Weird Tales, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. His novel A Cowboy in Carpathia: A Bob Howard Adventure (yes, that Robert E. Howard) won best novel 2021 in the Pulp Factory Award. His website is TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com.

Without preamble, Glenn “leaped right into it,” reading Chapters 1 and 3 of Not Born of Woman. In 1939 New York, a Romani woman comes to private eye Adam Paradise, a 7’2” scarred not quite human, seeking to recover a family heirloom from a mobster, collateral for her luckless son’s gambling debt. As hints in the story unfold, it becomes clear that Paradise is nearly 200 years old and (it’s not a spoiler if it’s right there on the back cover) the being created by Dr. Frankenstein. He confronts the gangster and, we’re told, eventually the Nazi Bund. Glenn had copies of the book for sale, while Kelly called attention again to the next issue of Asimov’s.

Prior to the readings, Datlow, as usual, wove among the tables, taking pictures of the audience and the two readers. Her photos of the event may be seen on her Flickr page.

Pixel Scroll 10/2/24 …And The Pixel May Learn To Scroll

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) DONATE TO HELP DISASTER-AFFECTED BOOK/COMIC SELLERS. The Binc Foundation and MacMillan invite you to “Be a hero to a book or comic seller today!”

Macmillan will match the first $10,000 in total contributions dollar for dollar. There is no better time than right now to Stand with Book & Comic Stores. Your action today gives those who work in book and comic stores a place to call for help when the unexpected happens. Your contribution will give the gift of peace of mind and hope when they are facing the devestating impact from a hurricane, cancer diagnosis, or the threat of losing one’s home.

“Binc and Macmillan Publishers Announce $10,000 Matching Gift to Help Book and Comic People Affected by Hurricane Helene and Other Disasters”.

Thanks to Macmillan Publishers, gifts made to the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation will have double the impact. Macmillan will match all gifts, regardless of size, up to $10,000 to meet the needs of the more than 200 bookstores and comic shops and thousands of store employees potentially impacted by Hurricane Helene. Binc has already received 15 calls for help from book and comic people in the path of destruction–more than 500 miles across six states.

“We are already hearing from book and comic people who are traumatized, unable to find friends and family, and without water and electricity,” said Binc Executive Director Pam French, “and we know there will be more stores in need of disaster relief as the waters recede, the cleanup begins, and cell phone signals return. We are grateful for our friends at Macmillan for their willingness to partner with us in support of bookstores and comic shops.”

The foundation receives requests every day from book and comic store employees and owners experiencing unforeseen emergency financial, medical and mental health hardships, and has helped stores around the country recover after natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Double the impact of a gift to Binc by donating today.

(2) PS MAGAZINE, RIP. This was the renamed Army Motors. History here, including a mention of young contributor Will Eisner: “A Brief History of ‘PS Magazine’ and Its Significance” at Global Electronic Services. In January 2024, it was announced PS Magazine would cease operations on September 30, 2024, after 73 years of publication. Here’s the cover of the final issue.

“PS Magazine: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly” traces its roots back to World War II. Originally called “Army Motors,” the magazine began gaining notoriety and popularity around 1944, when established comic writer and illustrator Will Eisner was assigned to the magazine, bringing the character of Joe Dope along with him.

Eisner’s comics, featuring Joe Dope — a hapless soldier who ignored preventive maintenance practices — and his cast of characters, dealt with topics to which military personnel could relate. In 1951, at the outbreak of the Korean War, Eisner created a replacement magazine for “Army Motors” called “PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly.” It had a new goal: to improve maintenance practices.

In its new format, the magazine became a full-fledged comic book, illustrating educational concepts and timely issues. Soldiers loved it from the start….

These are some covers of old issues created by Will Eisner.

(3) KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Sarah Langan and David Leo Rice on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. At the KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs)

SARAH LANGAN

Sarah Langan’s most recent novels are A Better World, which the Los Angeles Times calls: “A high-water mark in the career of a novelist who’s already won three Bram Stoker Awards,” and Good Neighbors (a Newsweek, Irish Times, and Lit Reactor best book of the year). Her previous novels are The Keeper, The Missing, and Audrey’s Door. She has an MFA from Columbia University, an MS in Environmental Health Science/Toxicology from NYU, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the writer/director JT Petty, their two daughters, and two maniac rabbits.

DAVID LEO RICE

David Leo Rice was born and raised in Northampton, MA, and now resides in Brooklyn. His novels include Angel House, The New House, the Dodge City Trilogy, and The Berlin Wall, named the “#7 Best Indie Book of the 21st Century so far” in Genrepunk Magazine. His first collection, Drifter, was named one of the “10 Must-Read Books of 2021” in the Southwest Review, and his second, The Squimbop Condition, will be out next year. He’s also the co-editor of Children of the New Flesh, an anthology of essays, interviews, and stories responding to the work of David Cronenberg.

(4) BRADBURY SCHOLARSHIP. The latest issue of The New Ray Bradbury Review is now available. NRBR is the online, open access journal of the Ray Bradbury Center at Indiana University. No. 8 (2024) The New Ray Bradbury Review.

In this issue of the Bradbury Review, Roger Terry provides more context for Ray Bradbury’s fictional spaces by recounting some of those non-fictional and biographical connections between Bradbury and the real-life space program.

Following this, John Gillespie takes one of Ray Bradbury’s simplest short stories, “The Rocket Man”, and shows how its unnamed title character is archetypal. The story is shown to be a (possibly unconscious) retelling of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”, as well as being intertwined with popular culture of the twentieth-century and beyond.

Devika Yadav further explores Bradbury’s use of outer space as well as other spaces in The Illustrated Man (1951). Despite that collection’s framing story set in rural Wisconsin, and its mixed contents ranging from science fiction to outright fantasy, it famously includes a number of Bradbury’s most memorable and influential space stories, such as the aforementioned “Rocket Man”, “The Rocket” and “Kaleidoscope”.

Paul Donatich, who has written previously for NRBR, makes a welcome return to investigate ways in which Bradbury’s body of work incorporates African American characters. As well as considering the main stories that deal with race (“Way in the Middle of the Air” from The Martian Chronicles and “The Big Black and White Game” from Golden Apples of the Sun being the two which loom large), his essay also weaves in the character of Blind Henry from Death is a Lonely Business, a number of Bradbury fragments originally published in this very journal, and the by now near-mythic “Mister Electrico”. Inevitably, this essay includes some outdated racial words and phrases, but Donatich is careful to contextualise these.

Another regular of NRBR is Jeffrey Kahan, who extends the discussion of race in “Way in the Middle of the Air” to bring in its counterpart “The Other Foot” and—more surprisingly—“The Garbage Collector”, a story he shows to have strong racial connotations. Kahan contrasts the young Bradbury’s actively anti-racist fictions with some of the elder Bradbury’s more contentious non-fiction statements on racial matters.

Christian Wilken then takes us to Bradbury’s “ravine”, that strip of wilderness which divides the fictional Green Town, Illinois, in Dandelion Wine,The Halloween Tree and other works. Using perspectives from Object-Oriented Ontology and New Materialism, Wilken shows Bradbury’s Illinois stories to have commonality with other literature involving children, but also reveals a unique aspect in their existential explorations.

(5) DO CATS HAVE FIREPROOF GIZZARDS? With Camestros Felapton as his amanuensis, “Timothy reads A Wizard of Earthsea”.

…As the seasons turn and the English countryside is consumed by fog and falling leaves and squirrels posting lies about me on Facebook, my thoughts turn to a simple truth. Dragons are cats. Every story about dragons is actually a story about what if cats were giant flying lizards. Like cats, dragons sleep a lot. Like cats, dragons like to be cosy. Like cats, dragons are picky about their food. Like cats, dragons can breathe fire but choose not to. This is why I spend early October, stealing copies of The Hobbit and stacking them in the south paddock in preparation for Smaug Memorial Bonfire. When the setting sun and the last moon of autumn are in the sky, I heft my Cybertruck branded flame-thrower and set light to the pile of books, or at least I would if the axis-of-feeble (the county librarians and the county constabulary) don’t stop me….

(6) JOHN WILLIAMS DOCUMENTARY. “‘Music by John Williams’ Trailer: Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard Produce Documentary on Iconic ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ Composer” at IndieWire. Premieres November 1 on Disney+. View the trailer online: “Music by John Williams | Official Trailer”.

The iconic scores of John Williams will be celebrated with documentary “Music by John Williams.”

The Disney+ film reunites legendary composer Williams with his frequent collaborators Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Kathleen Kennedy, who all produce the documentary. Williams has scored films such as “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” and “Jurassic Park,” and in 2023 made history as the oldest Oscar nominee in any category for “The Fabelmans.” The composer has a total of 54 Oscar nominations and five wins.

“Music by John Williams” will “offer a fascinating and insightful look at the prolific life and career of the legendary composer,” according to the official logline. “From his early days as a jazz pianist to his Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy wins, the documentary takes an in-depth look at Williams’ countless contributions to film, including many iconic franchises, as well as his music for the concert stage and his impact on popular culture.”…

(7) BOB BLOCH INTERVIEW. The Robert Bloch Official Website has added “a mid-1980s interview of Bob by Dennis Fischer where Bob discusses his work and thoughts surrounding the horror anthology film. This interview first appeared in Randall Larson’s CineFan #3.” “Robert Bloch Horror Anthology”.

CineFan: The first anthology film you wrote was Amicus’ TORTURE GARDEN, which led to many other successful multi-story films. Were you satisfied with the finished film?

Bloch: I had my reservations about TORTURE GARDEN. First of all, it wasn’t my title; there are no tortures in it, there is no garden, it’s Octave Mirbeau’s title from his novel of about 1900; it had nothing to do with that. I didn’t particularly care for the way the framing story was handled. They saved a lot of money by handling it the way they did, but I didn’t think it was well done. I have heard that during the Edgar Allan Poe sequence the director decided to improve the ending, and I don’t particularly think he did; it got a little murky. There was also a rather lengthy sequence that was cut out of one of the other episodes in the interests of keeping the film to a certain length for theatrical release. I think that that was supposedly incorporated into some of the television releases, though I haven’t seen it, but it changed the tempo and pace of that sequence considerably….

(8) BOB FOSTER (1943-2024). [Item by Steve Green.] Bob Foster: US comics writer and animation artist, passed away September 30, aged 80. Wrote Marvel’s Toy Story graphic novel and Disney’s Hercules graphic novel; wrote and drew ‘The Evolution and History of Moosekind’ for Crazy, from 1973-1975; wrote the Donald Duck newspaper strip, 1980-89. Screen credits include Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971, assistant animator); layouts on Godzilla (20 eps, 1978-79), The Incredible Hulk (13 eps, 1982-83), Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (24 eps, 1981-83); storyboards on Tutenstein (9 eps, 2004-5).

A former film student, he was drafted into the US Army in 1966, spending two years making educational movies at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, working alongside Steve Stiles (1943-2020).

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born October 2, 1944 — Vernor Vinge. (Died 2024.)

By Paul Weimer: I heard about Vernor Vinge’s work long before I actually got to read it. True Names, Vinge’s 1982 early look at cyberspace, was famous in SF circles, and also out of print, when I first heard about in the late 1980’s. I had heard his work was visionary but it took a reissue of True Names some years later for me to get what the fuss is all about.

Then of course, in short order came the Deep series, possibly one of the most mindblowing trilogies of books in science fiction (even as I recognize the scale shrunk considerably from book to book). Vinge’s work has always been in conversation with the digital landscape of its time, and of the near future, A Fire Upon the Deep’s FTL communication is Usenet in Space, for example. Rainbow’s End, with its digitization of books, was a herald of the questions we have with the digitization of works and what might be lost in the process (c.f. The Internet Archive). Although the form of the Internet is nothing like True Names, the idea of online versus personal identities is all right there, and before Neuromancer and its kin.

My favorite of his books is Marooned in Realtime. While The Peace War is a fascinating setting and an interesting puzzle book introducing the stasis bubbles, I think Marooned in Realtime, with its small cast of the end of humanity, and an innovative murder in such an environment is the real gem of the pair. I’d like to think you can read Marooned alone without the Peace War, but I think that as fabulous as Marooned is, it does not quite stand alone.

Vernor Vinge’s oeuvre is readily completely consumable, he hasn’t written much, but the shadow of what he writes, even if not intended at the time, casts long over SF, even when he didn’t intend to. I am thinking here of the last, in Rainbow’s End again, and how in that world we got many more novels than in our world did from the amazing Terry Pratchett. If only I could step over to that world and pick up the Discworld novels he never got to write in ours.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Bliss requires kaiju knowledge.
Pearls Before Swine ignites a reading controversy.
The Flying McCoys shows these astronauts have the wrong stuff.
Wumo shows why an author changed genres.

(11) BIRD IS THE WORD. “Robin Animated Movie Focusing On Batman’s Dick Grayson & Jason Todd In The Works At DC Studios” reports ScreenRant.

…On X/Twitter, Gunn has now shared that Dynamic Duo, an animated movie about Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, has been greenlit by DC Studios/Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, and will be released in theaters. Check out Gunn’s post below:

Over the moon excited to announce the newest DC Studios/Warner Bros Pictures Animation greenlit film for theaters, DYNAMIC DUO, the story of Robin… or should I say, Robins, as in Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. The first feature film from the visionary Swaybox, a mix of animation,… pic.twitter.com/IBBMgP1riP
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 1, 2024

He also revealed that the feature-length movie will be made by Swaybox Studios using a cutting-edge blend of animation, puppetry, and CGI. Dynamic Duo‘s script is being written by Matt Aldrich, whose previous work includes Pixar’s Coco and Lightyear. The DC movie is being produced by 6th and Idaho, the production company of The Batman director Matt Reeves…

(12) SECONDS, PLEASE. [Item by Chris Barkley.] Sugar has a decidedly sf “twist” so hell yeah to the renewal! “’Sugar’ Renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV+” – The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

Apple TV+ wants another helping of Sugar.

The tech behemoth’s streaming service has picked up a second season of the drama, which stars Colin Farrell as the title character, Detective John Sugar. The first season followed John’s search for a missing woman — and revealed a big twist late in the season that helps set the stage for season two….

(13) THE FUTURE DRAGONSTEEL PLAZA. “Author Brandon Sanderson Unveils Plan to ‘Build a Bookstore'” reports Shelf Awareness.

Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Entertainment has purchased land next to the former Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with plans to eventually open a bookstore there. The Salt Lake City Tribune reported that Sanderson announced his plan Saturday during a FanX appearance at the Salt Palace Convention Center.

“We’re going to theoretically build a bookstore,” he said on Saturday.

The area will be called Dragonsteel Plaza. Sanderson also revealed that Dragonsteel’s headquarters is now located in a warehouse in Pleasant Grove, which fans cannot visit, but he did show a few photos of the property at the panel.

Dragonsteel had a pop-up store on the vendor floor all three days of the convention.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Steve Green, Paul Weimer, Rich Lynch, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Paul Weimer.]

Pixel Scroll 8/29/24 Swamp Thing! You Make My Haploid Graveyard Heart Sing!

Posted on August 29, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) BRIAN KEENE INSTALLS A NEW BASKET AT HIS BOOKSTORE. Patrick Tomlinson somehow thought he was entitled to call out Brian’s purity. Anybody could have told him what happens when you yank Brian’s chain.

(2) FLORIDA SUED. “John Green and Jodi Picoult Join Publishers, Authors and Advocates in a Lawsuit Against Florida Book Bans” – People has the story.

A group of book publishers and renowned authors — along with students, their parents and The Authors Guild — are suing the state of Florida for its decision to implement the state’s book-banning law.

On Thursday, Aug. 29, Penguin Random House announced in a press release that it — along with Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks — would be filing a suit against the state to challenge House Bill 1069.

Also joining the suit are two students, two parents, the Authors Guild and the individual authors Julia Alvarez (The Cemetery of Untold Stories) Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak), John Green (The Fault in Our Stars), Jodi Picoult (By Any Other Name), and Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give).

Back in 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1069 into effect, giving parents a say in what books schools can and can’t have in their libraries. The Associated Press reported at the time that the law would require Florida schools to provide a searchable list of all books in their libraries, and school boards have to give notice to the public if adding in new reading materials….

…One of the attorneys representing the group of plaintiffs, Dan Novack said in the press release that the law’s “complex and overbroad provisions have created chaos and turmoil across the state, resulting in thousands of historic and modern classics — works we are proud to publish — being unlawfully labeled obscene and removed from shelves.”…

(3) MAKING A LIVING AS A WRITER (FOR SOME VALUES OF LIVING). Jeff Reynolds applies inflation to sf magazine pay rates of years gone by to argue “The Past Is Not as Rosy as You’ve Been Led to Believe” at the SFWA Blog.

… You could make an excellent living selling shorts during the pulp era. But there’s a truckload of ifs tied to that could. If editors liked you; if you wrote decently; if you churned out work fast enough that your fingers bled; if you didn’t mind being hungry. Being a pulp writer during the Depression years was downright murderous.

I limited my research to pulp’s heyday, the mid-1920s through mid-1930s, and left out the type of magazines referred to as slicks in order to maintain a close comparison with modern genre writers who publish short stories. By 1934, there were as many as 250 monthly pulps operating, publishing stories on topics ranging from war, science fiction, romance, westerns, mysteries, and so on.

The majority of pulps paid one cent per word or less. A few paid two or three cents, and some paid even more for writer exclusivity. But to get to that level, you had to be talented and charming. You also had to write enormous quantities of stories….

(4) GOLDMAN FUND. Dream Foundry’s “Con or Bust” program is taking applications for funding to bring Palestinians and members of the Palestinian diaspora to the 2025 Worldcon. Apply at the link.

Our preferred application window for funding is now open until October 21, 2024 for Palestinians or members of the Palestinian diaspora planning to go to Worldcon 2025 in Seattle. Applicants who apply within this window will be considered together, and hear about their funding amounts in early November. Applications received outside this window will be considered on a first-come-first served basis for as long as funding remains.

We’d love to reach as many Palestinian fans and creators as possible.

(5) THE WATERMELON GRANT. The Watermelon Grant offers $2000 USD in unrestricted funds to an emerging Palestinian creator in the field of speculative arts. The 2025 grant considers works of speculative fiction and poetry. Full guidelines at the link.

The roots of Palestinian and Black American solidarity are deep and storied, stretching back decades and centered in the works, writings, and movements of James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and Toni Morrison. In keeping with FIYAH’s pledged solidarity with the Palestinian people, The Watermelon Grant aims to assist emerging Palestinian creators working in speculative artforms throughout the world.

This grant is funded by L. D. Lewis and administered by Dream Foundry’s Incubator Program. To support an expansion of the project, through a donation to the Match Me campaign, tap here.

The Watermelon Grant offers $2000 USD in unrestricted funds to an emerging Palestinian creator in the field of speculative arts. A panel of three judges with expertise in a given year’s accepted format review in full all applications entered through an electronic submissions portal. Applications are judged on a criteria which considers artistic merit and potential impact. One grant is awarded annually (two if our Match Me campaign funds)….

WHAT ARE “SPECULATIVE ARTS?”

Speculative Arts are here defined as works of imagination based in concurrent, alternate, invented, or emerging realities. Works of memoir or nonfiction would be considered ineligible. Rather than just being based in speculative literature, the grant cycles through eligible media every year allowing artists beyond those who work in prose or poetry to enter portfolios of visual media (illustration, photography, etc) or those pertaining to performance arts.

(6) OCTOTHORPE. In episode 117 of the Hugo-winning Octothorpe podcast, John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty discuss the recent Worldcon, Glasgow 2024. Listen here: “You Made That Joke Last Time, John”.

We talk mostly about registration, attendance, and programme. Spoiler: we quite liked it, listeners.

There’s an uncorrected transcript at this link.

Three photographs dominate the centre of the image. The left-hand photograph is of a prototype Hugo made of rough wood and cardboard; the centre photograph is of a rough-ish wood base and tin foil rocket but with the actual acrylic and etching, and the right-hand photograph is of the finished Hugo Award. Text below the photos reads “protoprototype”, “prototype”, and “2024 Hugo”. Above, the words “Octothorpe 117” appear.

(7) OCTOTHORPE RECUSES FROM 2025. After winning the Best Fancast Hugo at Glasgow, the Octothorpe crew say they are recusing “for at least the 2025 Hugos”.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

August 29, 1954 — Michael P. Kube-McDowell, 70.

By Paul Weimer: I first encountered Kube-McDowell ‘s work in a quasi tie-in novel, Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Odyssey. This was part of a series of novels that Asimov commissioned in the titular city, set somewhere in his Robot-Empire timeline. It started off in the classic amnesia case, with a man on the run and not remembering why, and easing readers into the setting Asimov had created for Kube-McDowell to explore in this and subsequent books. It was entertaining enough that I started to look for other works of his. I came across some stories here and there (especially a couple that wound up as Tales from the Darkside)

And then I struck gold when I found Alternities.

Alternities stands as one of the classic parallel world novels. Walter Endicott, clearly not from our world, stumbles from our world, suddenly, into a world not his own. The singular universe has now fractured into a kaleidoscope (the novel uses the word maze) of alternate realities. The novel, like many alternate history multiverse novels of the period (before and since) heavily thinks about the branch points, the jonbar points, the decisions that lead to each of the major color-coded worlds that we see in the book. There is a lot of speculation as to why the worlds split as they did, and a surprising answer and conclusion, as well. The novel shows his erudition not only in science but in general communication of popular knowledge. Kube-McDowell’s columns and articles on everything from the space program to the idiocy of “scientific creationism” are a testament to his knowledge, curiosity, and ability to explain and bring ideas to his reading audience both in fiction and nonfiction alike.

And he’s a filker on top of all that. Quite the Renaissance man indeed.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

Speed Bump shows if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Thatababy exposes the inner workings.
The Argyle Sweater is present at the creation of a famous saying.
Rubes complains about a superhero theme song.

(10) KBG. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Alaya Dawn Johnson and Sarah Beth Durst on Wednesday, September 11 starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Location: KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 (Just off 2nd Ave, upstairs).

Alaya Dawn Johnson

Alaya Dawn Johnson is the author of Trouble the Saints, winner of the World Fantasy Award; Reconstruction, her debut short story collection; and The Library of Broken Worlds, recent winner of the BSFA award for Fiction for Young People. Alaya has lived in Mexico for the last decade, where she’s sung in a blues band, gotten her master’s degree, produced a documentary, written novels, fooled around and fell in love. She and her filmmaker partner can normally be found in rural Oaxaca on a haunted mountaintop, where they have half a house, seven dogs and a mare.

Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty-five books for adults, teens, and kids, including cozy fantasy The Spellshop. She’s been awarded an American Library Association Alex Award, as well as a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Several of her books have been optioned for film/television, and her novel Drink Slay Love was made into a TV movie and was a question on Jeopardy! She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com.

(11) EBERT’S TEN WORST SF MOVIES. Roger Ebert died in 2013 and missed seeing some stinkers that might belong on this list; however, he probably thought the field of candidates was already pretty crowded: “10 Worst Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, According to Roger Ebert” at Collider.

The science fiction genre asks audiences to suspend belief in the name of scientific and sometimes extraterrestrial wonders. This demands intricate premises that rely on logic and enough of a fictional leap to seem plausible in a world that exists apart from reality.The worst movies of the genre are unable to do any of these things, many of them falling victim to the merciless reviews of the esteemed Roger Ebert. In his reviews of what he deemed the worst sci-fi movies of all time, Ebert cuts through the convoluted and scolds the special effects.

First and worst is Battlefield Earth. Trailing in second place is —

2. ‘Jason X’ (2001)

Directed by James Isaac

With Ebert’s incredible distaste for the Friday the 13th movies, it’s only fitting that he gave the slasher franchise another scathing review for its sci-fi chapter. The tenth installment in the series, Jason X takes place in the year 2455 where a cryogenically frozen Jason Vorhees is transported from the now-research facility at Camp Crystal Lake to space. Aboard the ship, he thaws out and begins terrorizing the crew. The formulaic horror movie swaps the nooks and crannies of the summer camp for a spaceship where the promiscuous crew sneaks away only to be met by the masked slasher.

In one moment of the movie, Jason’s iconic hockey mask and garments are replaced with metallic armor. Jason X calls upon the rules of its former films but also strays so far with its dive into sci-fi. Ebert’s one-star reviewcalled the movie a “low-rent retread” of the Alien franchise but was dismally optimistic there would be a follow-up movie. Laughably terrible and so far out of its element, Jason X is easily considered one of the worst sci-fi movies of all time.

(12) TREKKIN’ TO GONDWANALAND. “Matching dinosaur prints were found an ocean apart in Africa and South America” – NPR follows a prehistoric trot.

Tens of millions of years ago, South America and Africa were part of the same land mass, an ancient supercontinent called Gondwana.

At some point, the two continents we now know started to pull away from each other until there was just a thin strip of land at the top holding them together.

A group of scientists say in new research that matching dinosaur tracks found in modern-day Brazil and Cameroon were made 120 million years ago along that narrow passage before the continents separated.

“There was just a neck of land connecting the two, and that neck of land is the corridor that we’re talking about,” said Louis Jacobs, a professor emeritus of earth sciences at Southern Methodist University.

(13) DRESS REHEARSAL FOR LUCIFER’S HAMMER. Scitechdaily covers the biennial exercise: “NASA Confronts 72% Asteroid Impact Probability: A Planetary Defense Test (scitechdaily.com)

…Asteroid Impact Preparedness

A large asteroid impacting Earth is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future. But because the damage from such an event could be great, NASA leads hypothetical asteroid impact “tabletop” exercises every two years with experts and decision-makers from federal and international agencies to address the many uncertainties of an impact scenario. The most recent exercise took place this past April, with a preliminary report being issued on June 20.

Designing Realistic Impact Scenarios

Making such a scenario realistic and useful for all involved is no small task. Scientists from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which specializes in the tracking and orbital determination of asteroids and comets and finding out if any are hazards to Earth, have played a major role in designing these exercises since the first 11 years ago.

“These hypothetical scenarios are complex and take significant effort to design, so our purpose is to make them useful and challenging for exercise participants and decision-makers to hone their processes and procedures to quickly come to a plan of action while addressing gaps in the planetary defense community’s knowledge,” said JPL’s Paul Chodas, the director of CNEOS.

…The Impact Scenario

This year’s scenario: A hypothetical asteroid, possibly several hundred yards across, has been discovered, with an estimated 72% chance of impacting Earth in 14 years. Potential impact locations include heavily populated areas in North America, Southern Europe, and North Africa, but there is still a 28% chance the asteroid will miss Earth. After several months of being tracked, the asteroid moves too close to the Sun, making further observations impossible for another seven months. Decision-makers must figure out what to do.

Leading the exercise were NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), the Federal Emergency Management Agency Response Directorate, and the Department of State Office of Space Affairs. Over the course of two days in April, participants gathered at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which hosted the event, to consider the potential national and global responses to the scenario.

(14) THE MAN WHO SOLD THE SUN. [Item by Daniel Dern.] HotHardware.com has learned “California Startup Wants To Sell Sunlight After Dark Using A Giant Space Mirror” Dern ponders, (a) what’s the potential (bad) impact on global warming, and (b) could we use this to sell dark during the day? And c) If earth gets invaded by giant cats, this might be useful.

…Nowack remarked at the International Conference on Energy from Space, “The problem is that solar energy is not available when we actually want it. It would be really great if we could get some solar energy before the sun rises and after sunset, because then you could actually charge higher prices and make a lot more money.” He added, “And we think that reflector-based technologies can solve this problem.”

Reflect Orbital, a California-based startup, wants to send 57 small satellites into low-Earth orbit with 33-square-foot ultra reflective mylar mirrors that would, in theory, bounce sunlight back down to solar farms on Earth. The company made a video (see above) that uses a hot-air balloon to simulate how the technique is supposed to work. If successful, the satellites could provide an additional 30 minutes of sunlight to the solar farms during peak demand times.

There are some possible pitfalls to the idea, however. Thick clouds and stormy weather could potentially block the sunlight from reaching its destination. Seasonal changes that alter the amount of sunlight in certain areas of the world could also present challenges, and the possible environmental impacts of this light reflection have also not been discussed thus far.

The company’s orbital mirror project is scheduled to launch sometime in 2025, and interested parties can “apply for sunlight” over the next few months ahead of the launch….

(15) SCIENTIST BEWARE. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] You’ve heard of ‘writer beware’, well now scientists beware as there are some who are out to build up a fake profile. It seems there is a citation black market. Reported in this week’s Nature.

Research-integrity watchers are concerned about the growing ways in which scientists can fake or manipulate the citation counts of their studies. In recent months, increasingly bold practices have surfaced. One approach was revealed through a sting operation in which a group of researchers bought 50 citations to pad the Google Scholar profile of a fake scientist they had created.

The scientists bought the citations for US$300 from a firm that seems to sell bogus citations in bulk. This confirms the existence of a black market for faked references that research-integrity sleuths have long speculated about, says the team.

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel “I Make Everything Groovy” Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 8/13/24 The Fifth-Million Pixel Fan

Posted on August 13, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) INDUSTRY TAKE ON WORLDCON. Publishers Weekly gave it thumbs up: “In Glasgow, Worldcon Worked to Put Controversy Behind It”.

In a spirited five-day celebration, held August 8–12 at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, Scotland, crowds converged from all over the globe for the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention, known as Worldcon. Show organizers said that more than 8,000 membership badges were purchased in total, with over 7,200 issued at the venue and upwards of 600 in attendance online.

On the convention floor and across a wealth of a wealth of panels, book signings, and creative showcases, the mood was buoyant, with old hands and first-timers alike connecting in bars, at events, and simply in passing. And the organization’s promise to “[consider] access, inclusion, and diversity as integral to Glasgow 2024,” found the perfect venue in the Scottish city, which was welcoming, accessible, and spacious.

…From an industry perspective, there was a scarcity of American publishers at this year’s Worldcon. Still, everyone in attendance seemed more focused on celebrating the current boom in the genre around the world.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be a SFF publisher,” said Bethan Morgan, editorial director of Gollancz. Eleanor Teasdale, publisher at Angry Robot Books and Datura Books, remarked, “It’s been a joyous festival of genre, with so many international attendees too.”

This excitement was shared by Amanda Rutter, commissioning editor at Solaris Books. “I haven’t been to [a Worldcon] that felt so productive and positive since before the pandemic,” she said, adding, “The Glasgow team made it the most inclusive convention I have been to by far, given their commitment to accessibility needs and striving to ensure that every single participant felt as though they were represented.”

“The con felt very well organized,” said George Sandison, managing editor at Titan Books. “Like all effective project management, it looked like it was very simple to do and probably required Herculean efforts by numerous highly competent people!” Francesca T. Barbini, founder of Luna Press Publishing, agreed, praising the organizers for “being lots of help when we arrived. Overall, it’s been an amazing experience.”

The main takeaway from the event seemed to be about the importance of in-person connection to both the publishing industry and the greater SFF community. Cath Trechman, editor at large at Titan Books, noted, “I can say I found this year’s Worldcon to be a great place to meet authors and agents and chat about the current trends and the idiosyncrasies of publishing, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of genre fans and book lovers.”…

(2) GLASGOW 2024 BUSINESS MEETING VIDEOS. At the link is the YouTube playlist for the 2024 WSFS Business Meeting videos recorded by Lisa Hayes. Kevin Standlee finally found a workaround to overcome the bandwidth problem at his Glasgow hotel.

(3) REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY. [Item by Olav Rokne.] Intended as a happy, silly coda to this year’s Hugo season, Amanda and I present “How to Lose a Hugo,” which after four go-arounds we’re starting to have some experience at. (Though we can think of some folks who have lost far more often than we have.) “How To Lose A Hugo” at the Hugo Book Club Blog.

… When it comes to the Hugo Awards, it’s worth remembering that they are a community award that masquerades as a literary institution. These awards are nominated and voted on by a self-selected group that loosely organizes itself around a series of conventions. That means that how well someone is known and how they are seen within the community will inevitably affect whether or not their work is recognized by the community.

Social media is awash with accounts run by authors who rarely post anything other than promotional content aimed at selling their own books. It’s also worth letting people know who you are, what books you enjoy, and what your general vibe is.

Engaging with the community isn’t just about telling people how good you think your book or art is, it’s about listening and talking about the things that are important to them. Talk about politics, talk about art, talk about architecture, talk about music, and be authentic….

(4) BRISBANE 2028 WORLDCON BID MAY CHANGE DATE. To July?

We are currently considering shifting the dates of our bid, to better align with the total solar eclipse that will be passing through Australia on July 22nd, 2028. We'll update you once we have made our decision.
— Australia 2028: Brisbane bid for Worldcon (@BrisbaneIn28) August 13, 2024

(5) ROWLING, MUSK, LISTED IN CYBERBULLYING COMPLAINT. “J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk Named in Imane Khelif’s Cyberbullying Lawsuit” – Variety has details.

J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have both been named in a criminal complaint filed to French authorities over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” against Algerian boxer and newly crowned Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Nabil Boudi, the Paris-based attorney of Khelif, confirmed to Variety that both figures were mentioned in the body of the complaint, posted to the anti-online hatred center of the Paris public prosecutor’s office on Friday.

The lawsuit was filed against X, which under French law means that it was filed against unknown persons. That “ensure[s] that the ‘prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people,” including those who may have written hateful messages under pseudonyms, said Boudi. The complaint nevertheless mentions famously controversial figures….

(6) TWO GREATS AGREE.

my theory about horror films (& fiction) is that the plot is just the clothesline upon which a succession of images is hung. you need to think that there is a (coherent) explanation for the nightmare but essentially, in life, there is not. endings of many novels, not just genre… https://t.co/tlr0bychnS
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) August 12, 2024

(7) DISCREET HORROR. [Item by Steven French.] Signs of the times: Nightmare on Elm Street gets downgraded from ‘18’ to ‘15’ while Paint Your Wagon is reclassified a ‘12’ from a PG for the ‘sex references’. “A Nightmare on Elm Street rating change defended by BBFC” reports the Guardian.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has defended its decision to change the certificate of horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street from an 18 to a 15, saying that its audience research showed “strong support for older content to be reclassified in line with modern standards”.

The classic 1980s horror, featuring the malevolent, razor-gloved Freddy Krueger who stalks and murders teenagers in their dreams, was given an 18 certificate on its first UK release in 1985, a designation confirmed on a subsequent cinema release in 2013 and a series of home entertainment releases. However, after a new application from its studio Warner Bros, the certificate was changed to a 15 on 1 August, ahead of a home entertainment reissue in September….

…The spokesperson added: “In the case of A Nightmare on Elm Street, although the film features various bloody moments, it is relatively discreet in terms of gore and stronger injury detail. The kills often leave more to the imagination than visceral detail, and largely occur within a fantasy context. Compared to more recent precedents for violence and horror [classified] at 18 – such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Imaculate or Saw X – the film is now containable at 15 and we reclassified it accordingly.”…

(8) ABOUT THAT BLACK HOLE. This looks irresistible. Omni Loop – Official Trailer. In theaters September 20.

OMNI LOOP follows Zoya Lowe (Parker), a quantum physicist who finds herself in a time loop, with a black hole growing in her chest and only a week to live. But what the doctors and her family don’t know is that she has already lived this week before; so many times, in fact, that she doesn’t even know how long it’s been. Until one day Zoya meets a gifted student named Paula (Edebiri). Together they team up to save her life – and to unlock the mysteries of time travel.

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born August 13, 1953 — The War of The Worlds film (1953)

It’s 1953, it’s New York City, it’s August, a hot summer night, a perfect evening for an alien invasion to begin, and so we have The War of The Worlds premiere there. Based off, of course the H.G. Wells novel of the same name, it was produced for the screen by George Pal.

The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon. This is part of his legal name, Alfred Edgar Barre Lyndon, and it is obviously taken from the title character of Thackeray’s novel. This and Conquest of Space were his only SF screenplays.

It was directed by Brian Haskin, just one of many films where he teamed with George Pal, another one being Conquest of Space which our screenwriter here also was on.

It starred Gene Barry who six years later would be Bat Masterson, and Anne Richards, who would be in the Dragnet film that led to the series as Officer Grace Downey. (She does not reprise the character in the series.) Bless her, she’s still with us at age ninety-five. Barry passed on five years ago.

Paramount rather pointedly said there’d be a romantic subplot in which our scientist have a love interest, hence the casting of Richards here.

The story itself is moved to Southern California in to my surprise, it was set in, emphasis was, an actual real place. Linda Rose was formerly in San Diego County, but is now in Riverside County. It’s a ghost town as it was a failed development scheme from the 1880s, one of many from that time. Fascinating as Spock would say.

The special effects were, shall I say, inordinately expensive. Paramount budgeted two million and wouldn’t budge, not a dollar over that amount would be further given, so stock footage of World War Two battles had to do for the global Mars invasion. Even so the film just broke even — two million in production costs, two million in box office receipts in an era when studios generally own the cinemas.

What did critics think of it? The best summation I think come from Variety at the time: “War of the Worlds is a socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation of the H.G. Wells novel.” It was at the time, after all, only fourteen years since the latter broadcast.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Bizarro brings us a special interest magazine.
Carpe Diem suspects the directions have been disobeyed.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal insists existence is real.
Beetle Moses makes you glad(?) the chef’s work didn’t go to waste.
Bliss finds something that makes Hulk mad. What else is new?
Brewster Rockit questions whether these aliens are ready to invade.

(11) LATEST AND GREATEST. Lisa Tuttle, in “The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup” for the Guardian, covers Extremophile by Ian Green; Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan; Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey; and Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts.

(12) TAKE A WHIFF. [Item by Steven French.] I love the smell of Minecraft in the morning! “Want to smell like the Ender Dragon? We test the Lush Minecraft range” in the Guardian.

Last spring, one of my favourite brand tie-ins of 2023 saw high-street cosmetics chain Lush team up with Nintendo to create a range of products based around Super Mario. It was a riot of brightly coloured shower gels and super-sweet fragrances, including a divine Princess Peach body spray that I’m still using because screw gender-based perfume norms.

Now, Lush has released a new video game range celebrating 15 years of Minecraft. There are 12 items in the collection, including easily the most literal bath bomb Lush has ever made – a TNT block – as well as Grass and Lava blocks, a Creeper head shower bomb and a Diamond Pickaxe bubble bar, which is genuinely quite hefty despite its diminutive size.

The collection is apparently the result of a year-long collaboration with the game’s developer Mojang, and it’s been a popular project for the company’s employees. Lush concepts creative director Melody Morton is a regular player – and she’s not the only one. “We have many Minecraft players within the business, so there was lots of reference and resource to pull on when it came to products, creative and messaging,” says Kalem Brinkworth, the creative lead on the Lush collaborations team….

(13) BONESTELL ON THE BLOCK. Christie’s will run its “Over the Horizon: Art of the Future from the Paul G. Allen Collection” online auction from August 23-September 12.

Over the Horizon: Art of the Future from the Paul G. Allen Collection is devoted to how the future, especially interplanetary travel, was imagined by artists and other thinkers during the 20th century. These include Chesley Bonestell, Robert McCall, R.C. Swanson, George Gibbs, and Fred Freeman, among many others. The artworks in this auction, along with their publication in popular magazines, inspired a generation of explorers, scientists, and aerospace engineers.

Paul Allen was among the most significant collectors of works by Chesley Bonestell, widely acknowledged as the “father of space art.” Bonestell’s Saturn as Seen from Titan, first published in 1949, has been called by the Smithsonian “the painting that launched a thousand careers.” A version of that painting, circa 1952, is available in the sale, along with several works published as illustrations for the famous “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” series of articles, published in Collier’s Magazine in the early 1950s.

(14) MET AT READERCON. The Nerd Count Podcast, hosted by Mercurio D. Rivera and Matthew Kressel, brings episode 4 “Live From Readercon”.

In our fourth episode, we come you you LIVE from Readercon, the “conference on imaginative literature,” held this past July in Quincy, Massachusetts. We had the pleasure of interviewing the following guests: Jeffrey Ford, A.T. Greenblatt, A.C. Wise, Scott H. Andrews, Mike Allen, A.T. Sayre, Julie C. Day, C.S.E. Cooney, William Alexander, John Wiswell, Rob Cameron, and Sophia Babai. We talk about Readercons past, what makes Readercon a truly special convention — particularly its welcoming and friendly vibe — and we talk with each guest about their recent and upcoming creative works. This was a blast to record, and we had so much fun talking to all these diverse and talented folks!

(15) SPLISH, SPLASH. “Mars water: Liquid water reservoirs found under Martian crust” reports BBC.

Scientists have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on Mars – deep in the rocky outer crust of the planet.

The findings come from a new analysis of data from Nasa’s Mars Insight Lander, which touched down on the planet back in 2018.

The lander carried a seismometer, which recorded four years’ of vibrations – Mars quakes – from deep inside the Red Planet.

Analysing those quakes – and exactly how the planet moves – revealed “seismic signals” of liquid water.

While there is water frozen at the Martian poles and evidence of vapour in the atmosphere, this is the first time liquid water has been found on the planet.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Insight’s scientific mission ended in December 2022, after the lander sat quietly listening to “the pulse of Mars” for four years.

In that time, the probe recorded more than 1,319 quakes….

(16) LEGOS BY THE THOUSANDS. Bell of Lost Souls is thrilled that “Huge LEGO Star Trek ‘Deep Space Nine’ Model Has Over 75,000 Pieces”.

…Adrian Drake built the famous space station from the frame up using more than 75,000 pieces. It’s 6 feet tall and eight feet in diameter and is heavy enough that it needs some extra supports. The whole build took over two years.

It’s a truly impressive and gigantic build. Drake displayed it at Brickworld Chicago, where he gave a tour to Beyond the Brick. Check out how he built the LEGO Deep Space Nine and all of the cool details….

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Olav Rokne, N., Kevin Standlee, Anne Marble, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

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