25 It Takes A File Of Pixels To Make A Scroll A Home

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Mike Glyer

(1) SALAM AWARD OPENS FOR ENTRIES. The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction, which recognizes emerging speculative fiction writers of Pakistani origin or residence, is taking submissions through July 31. Full guidelines at the link.

Eligible for consideration are original, previously unpublished English-language stories of 10,000 words or less by persons residing in Pakistan, or of Pakistani birth/descent. The full guidelines are at the link.

The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction is named for Dr. Albus Salam, one of the pioneers of science in Pakistan.

(2) TIME FOR NOMMO AWARDS NOMINATIONS. The African Science Fiction Society has announced the 2025 Nommo Awards nominations are now open for works published in 2024.

Only works of speculative fiction by an African published between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024 anywhere in the world are eligible.

ASFS members have until May 5 to make nominations. Please read the Nommo Awards eligibility and rules on this link here.

(3) NOTE ABOUT WORLD FANTASY AWARDS SUBMISSIONS. With the June 1 deadline not far off, Peter Dennis Pautz of the World Fantasy Awards Administration has issued a reminder:

I’ve heard from all the World Fantasy Awards judges and their receipt of submissions has been extremely inconsistent, i.e. not all judges have received the same submissions.

As the deadline draws near, we are especially concerned about the lack of submissions from the larger publishers, both in the US and UK.

If you have already sent in your submission, please check your records to ensure that a copy of every work was sent to each judge, in their preferred formats, as detailed in the attachment.

If you haven’t sent your submission as yet, please do so as soon as possible to allow full consideration to your works.

Finally, the judges have also asked that you not send drop box, zip files, or wetransfer links. The links often expire before the judges get to them, and it requires a lot of time to open the links and side load the files to ereaders. Sending three or four titles at a time by email is preferable/

As always, thank you all for your support, your thoughtfulness, and your help.

See the list of judges and their contact information here: “2025 World Fantasy Awards Judges Announced”.

(4) JUDGE’S RULING PAUSES IOWA CENSORSHIP. [Item by Andrew Porter.] “Iowa law banning books including 1984 and Ulysses blocked by US federal judge” reports the Guardian. Books unconstitutionally caught up in the law include Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and 1984 by George Orwell.

A lawsuit brought by publishers and authors including John Green and Jodi Picoult has led to a portion of a law banning Iowa school libraries and classrooms from carrying books depicting sex acts being halted.

On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the measure, writing that it had been applied unconstitutionally in many schools and that books of “undeniable political, artistic, literary, and/or scientific value” had been caught up in it, including Ulysses by James Joyce, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

This is the second time that US district judge Stephen Locher, a Joe Biden appointee, has blocked the ban. The law, Senate File 496, was first approved by Iowa’s Republican-led legislature and governor Kim Reynolds in 2023, however, Locher placed an injunction on it in December 2023 after authors and publishers sued the state.

The preliminary injunction was reversed by the US Eighth Circuit appeals court last August, leading publishers and authors to file a second complaint, arguing that the ban violates free speech and “goes far beyond prohibiting books that are obscene as to minors because it prohibits books with even a brief description of a sex act for students of all ages without any evaluation of the book as a whole”.

In his decision, Locher wrote that the ban has resulted in “forced removal of books from school libraries that are not pornographic or obscene”, and that unconstitutional applications of the law “far exceed” constitutional applications….

(5) DIVERSITY TAKES STEP BACK IN UK PUBLISHING. The Guardian learns “UK publishing less accessible to Black authors now than before 2020, industry names say”.

UK publishing is less accessible to Black authors now than it was five years ago, according to some of the biggest names in the industry.

The Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 led to many publishing houses making commitments to address the longstanding racial inequality in the industry. But, ahead of the Black British book festival (BBBF) this weekend, a number of Black literary figures say there has been a noticeable downward shift in the number of Black writers being published.

Selina Brown, who founded BBBF in 2021, said the number of Black authors being pitched to her has dropped dramatically in the last 18 months. She also believes the number of books being published by Black writers has “plummeted”….

…Sharmaine Lovegrove, cultural strategist at Hachette UK, one of the country’s leading publishing houses, co-founded The Black Writers’ Guild and established Hachette’s Dialogue imprint, which focuses on books by, about and for marginalised communities. She said things are harder for new Black authors now than they were pre-2020….

Lovegrove said the industry hasn’t been able to build new, diverse audiences and struggled to talk and cater to Black authors who were often labelled “difficult” for advocating for themselves.

Lovegrove said: “The biggest mistake was seeing it as a trend as opposed to an opportunity to cultivate something meaningful that was missing.”

“It’s as if the industry is saying: ‘It’s all very difficult and these books haven’t done very well so we’re literally not going to try again with someone from the same background’,” she added. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

A report by PA found that “ethnic minority” representation across the industry fell from 17% to 15% in 2024, with a decline in the numbers of Asian and British Asian staff. The number of Black staff remained at about 3% during the same period.

There have been success stories. After selling more than a million copies of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge launched her Monument Books imprint at HarperCollins last year, with the specific goal of finding writers “who can help us understand our past, navigate our present and map new futures”.

But Brown says the impetus of 2020 has faded and new Black authors have often seen their books marketed the same way as other authors despite publishers speaking of wanting to “reach new audiences”….

(6) TOLKIEN’S CARTOGRAPHY. “It’s Tolkien Reading Day” – a Facebook post from yesterday by the Bodleian Libraries. (Click for larger image.)

It’s Tolkien Reading Day, so we wanted to share with you a rather magical treasure from our Tolkien archives and invite you to share your favourite moments as a Tolkien reader.

Pictured is an annotated version of a fold-out map which was included in early editions of the Lord of The Rings. The map shows readers Tolkien’s fantasy world ‘Middle-earth’.

The annotations are by Tolkien himself, and were for the benefit of Pauline Baynes, an artist who was creating an illustrated poster map of Middle-earth.

Baynes ripped the map out of her own 1954 copy of Lord of the Rings and took it to Tolkien, who covered it with notes, including many extra place names that do not appear in the book. Since most were in his own invented Elvish language he helpfully translated some: ‘Eryn Vorn [= Black Forest] a forest region of dark [pine?] trees.’

The annotations give an insight into how vividly Tolkien pictured Middle-earth in his mind, and how thorough his research was. They include a series of geographical pointers about the latitude of key locations: ‘Hobbiton is assumed to be approx. at latitude of Oxford,’. ‘Minas Tirith is about latitude of Ravenna (but is 900 miles east of Hobbiton more near Belgrade). Bottom of the map (1,400 miles) is about latitude of Jerusalem.’

Pictured: MS. Tolkien Drawings 132. copyright Tolkien Estate / Williams College Oxford Programme 2018

(7) MAPPING GENRE LOVE. “The Most Popular Book Genre In Each State” – BookRiot says a research firm came up with a rationale for assigning them. Map at the link.

Are there different preferences for book genres depending on what state you’re in? According to new research from Cloudwards, there are trends in book preferences based on location.

Utilizing Google Trends data over the last 12 months, Cloudwards explored the most searched genre in each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. All searches were limited to Google Trends “Books and Literature” category, and the researchers used a variety of common genre terms to determine the frequency of interest in them by state. Some of the genre categories were a little unconventional for the average reader–how do you determine the difference between “fiction” and “family” as terms–but the major genres were included, including romance, fantasy, mystery, and so forth….

… Romance dominated in terms of genre popularity across the US, with 22 states seeing it as their top searched genre. In terms of geographic region, romance was especially popular in the south, with states like Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia ranking it as their top genre.

Fiction and poetry tied for next most popular genres, each either nine states reporting it as the most searched genre. The researchers note that these findings aren’t surprising, given that fiction is broad and encompassing. As for poetry, it is likely not surprising to see people looking for more information about poetry; the research here isn’t about poetry being the most read genre, but rather, one of the most researched genres….

(8) REASON TO BE SCARED BY THE PHONE BILL. Atlas Obscura remembers “The Heyday of Horror Hotlines and Why We Still Love to Fear the Phone”.

IT’S NO ACCIDENT FREDDY KRUEGER is the most famous monster of the last 50 years….

…So of course Freddy would capitalize on one of his decade’s definitive devices: the telephone. In the late 1980s you could communicate with Krueger on your home phone (after you “get your parents’ permission,” of course) through the awesome telecommunicative power of the hotline. Dialing 1-900-909-FRED connected brave teens to a running tape of short ghost stories, each introduced by Freddy Krueger like a malevolent MTV VJ throwing to Paula Abdul videos…

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER ONE OF FREDDY’S FAVORITE BEDTIME STORIES. AND THIS ONE’S A DREAM—MY KIND OF DREAM: THE KIND YOU DON’T WAKE UP FROM…

You can listen to 40 consecutive minutes of this stuff on YouTube, thanks to some intrepid young Gen-Xer who owned a tape deck and I guess was willing to catch hell from their parents when the phone bill arrived….

(9) L.J. SMITH (1958-2025.) L. J. Smith, author of The Vampire Diaries, died March 8 at the age of 66.

Her first book, The Night of the Solstice, written during high school and college, was published by MacMillan in 1987.

The New York Times obituary explains that the Vampire Diaries publisher eventually moved on from Smith to a ghostwriter, and how Smith recovered her characters by writing fanfiction.

…The first three books in The Vampire Diaries series were published by HarperCollins in 1991, and a fourth was released in 1992. But Ms. Smith — whose first agent was her typist, who had never represented a client — told The Wall Street Journal that she had written the trilogy for an advance of only a few thousand dollars without realizing that it was work for hire, meaning she did not own the copyright or the characters….

…In 2009, “The Vampire Diaries” were adapted into a dramatic television series that lasted for eight seasons on the CW Network….

…By 2014, the “Vampire Diaries” book series had sold more than five million copies, but Ms. Smith was no longer writing the authorized version: Alloy Entertainment fired her in 2011 over what its president and founder, Leslie Morgenstein, told The Wall Street Journal were creative differences.

A ghostwriter and then an author using the pen name Aubrey Clark were brought in to complete the final six books in the series. Ms. Smith said in interviews that she had believed that Alloy and HarperCollins wanted shorter books more closely associated with the TV series. They continued to put Ms. Smith’s name prominently on the cover of the books as the series’ creator….

…Eventually, Ms. Smith found an outlet to reclaim her characters — fan fiction, which book lovers have long written and posted, spooling out their own amateur versions of stories and characters even though they did not own the intellectual property and it was often not strictly legal.

In 2013, Amazon created Kindle Worlds, an online service that gave writers of fan fiction permission to write about certain licensed properties, including Alloy’s “Vampire Diaries” series, and to earn money for their ventures.

In 2014, Ms. Smith became the rare celebrated author to produce fan fiction as a way to recoup characters and story arcs she had lost, publishing a novel and novella in an informal continuation of the “Vampire Diaries.” (Kindle Worlds was discontinued in 2018)….

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Item by Paul Weimer.]

March 26, 1931 — Leonard Nimoy. (Died 2015.)

By Paul Weimer: It is fitting that Leonard Nimoy’s birthday should only be a couple of days after William Shatner’s. Sure, like Shatner himself, Nimoy is much more than his Star Trek character. But then again, he is the one who felt it necessary to write a book called I am Not Spock. Shatner never had to do the same for Kirk.

Why that is is because Nimoy brings a human alienness to Spock that no iteration of him since has quite managed. There are several Spocks running around now in movie and series history, but Nimoy’s is the one that sticks, the one that is the definitive article. The brainiac logic-fueled half human…who nevertheless shows real passion and anger in “Amok Time”, and especially at the utter joy that Kirk has in fact survived after all. Or learning the limits of logical action in “The Gaileo Seven”. Nimoy’s Spock was always learning, always growing, always becoming better (a lesson Spiner would apply to Data). The whole journey of Spock’s death, resurrection, and return to normal through the Star Trek movies shows a whole gamut of emotions and character growth. Nimoy sells all of that.

But Nimoy was more than that. He was the narrator of In Search Of, and I remember watching that for the first time and wondering why the voice was familiar on the episode, and only learning a couple of months later it was, in fact, “Spock”. I also enjoyed his secondary role in the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He also directed a number of movies as well, and became a producer, later, in the bargain. When I finally got to watching the original Mission Impossible (which I had only seen scattershot growing up), I was delighted to find he was there, too, as a master of disguise and immersion, Paris.

Later in life, he had a role in a number of episodes of Fringe.

On top of all that, you probably know about his music, if for nothing else than “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”. But did you know he was also a rather good photographer? In a world next door, he pursued that to the fullest rather than acting. As it is, the work he has done has been exhibited in major museums.

Such a diverse and strong and polymathic artistic talent. I wish I could have met him, but he died in 2015. Requiescat in pace.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

Dinosaur Comics poses a past/future riddle.
Jerry King has an employer with a risky idea.
Tom Gauld finds a place that didn’t believe in “safety first”.

(12) INTRODUCING BETWEEN A ROCKET AND A HARD SPACE. The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory is launching Between a Rocket and a Hard Space, the official ISS National Lab podcast. This podcast series dives deep into the discoveries, innovations, and people shaping the future of space, with the first episode now available.

The podcast’s name is a nod to the challenges and complexities of exploring the space environment, with recognition of the far-reaching benefits space-based R&D may bring. Going beyond the launch pad, Between a Rocket and a Hard Space offers exclusive insights from scientists, engineers, and visionaries leveraging the unique environment of low Earth orbit to push the boundaries of research and technology development. But that’s just the beginning. We’ll also hear from policymakers driving the industry forward, financial experts fueling the space economy, and communicators working to inspire the next generation of explorers.

In the first episode, host Patrick O’Neill sits down with ISS National Lab Chief Scientific Officer Michael Roberts to explore the groundbreaking science happening on the orbiting outpost and its real-world impact on medicine, technology, and industry. Roberts will provide an insider perspective into how microgravity is unlocking advancements in drug development, regenerative medicine, advanced materials, and in-space manufacturing.

Episodes of Between a Rocket and a Hard Space will be available through many major listening platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Alexa, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Castro, and Castbox.

(13) KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE HOLE. “’So Much Good Science’: The Black Hole Visuals In Christopher Nolan’s $759M Oscar-Nominated Sci-Fi Movie Called ‘One Of The Most Accurate Depictions Of The Environment’ By Expert, Who Gives It A Near-Perfect Score” at ScreenRant.

… An expert speaks about the black holes in Intersellar. The 2014 sci-fi movie tells the story of a former NASA pilot named Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who re-enters space exploration in order to help locate a new planet for humans when Earth becomes uninhabitable. The film features a leading cast including McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, Jessica Chastain, and a young Timothée Chalamet. Interstellar made over $758 million at the box office, and ultimately ended up as one of Nolan’s lower-rated films in terms of Rotten Tomatoes score, getting a 73%…

… Speaking with Insider, astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter discusses Interstellar‘s black hole visuals, giving them a high accuracy rating. Sutter said there is “so much good science in the black hole image,” noting how well Nolan’s film maps the behavior of light in relation to a black hole. The expert also explains how Newton’s third law impacts how Cooper is acting in the key black hole scene. Ultimately, he gave Interstellar‘s black hole accuracy a 9 out of 10. Check out the full quote from Sutter below:

So much good science in the black hole image. Light follows the curves, the hills and valleys of spacetime. And these curves are set by massive objects. This is one of the earliest tests of Einstein’s theory of relativity. And black holes bend space a lot, and so what we are seeing is there’s a thing disk called an an accretion disk surrounding the black hole. But if you’re standing on one side of the black hole, light from the back end — which normally you wouldn’t see because you know, black hole in the way — there’s light that’s going up this way but then gets bent and curves right to you.

Newton’s third law is for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And this is in the fundamental basis for space travel. We push against the air to get our airplanes to go. But in space there’s no ground, there’s no air. So we can only push against ourselves. If we throw something away from us, that propels us in the equal and opposite direction. So what I think he’s going for, old Cooper, is to get him away from that orbit, if he pushes something towards the black hole, that will nudge the spacecraft away from that orbit, and give it a safe escape.

The event horizon is the one way barrier. This is the edge of the black hole. This is the point of no return. That if you cross the event horizon, that gravity is so strong, that nothing, not even light can escape.

When Cooper first falls through the black hole, then he goes ‘oh, everything’s black.’ No, like you’re not the only thing falling into a black hole. There’s light from the entire rest of the universe that’s falling in with you. For a supermassive black hole like this, like Gargantua in the movie, you’ve got a handful of seconds from the moment you cross the event horizon to the time you hit the singularity.

That was an incredibly accurate depiction. In fact, it is one of the most accurate depictions of the environment around a black hole ever made. I would give it a 9. Okay a point off because it is not actually dark in there. But honestly, we don’t know what actually happens inside of a black hole, so that’s fair game….

(14) IS THIS A SPOILER? It is if the fan is right. “43 years later, John Carpenter has hinted at who turns into The Thing in the horror movie and one eagle-eyed fan has worked it out” at GamesRadar+

It’s been 43 years since legendary director John Carpenter’s The Thing hit screens, but the mystery behind which character turns into the fearsome monster has remained shrouded in secrecy, until now. And one fan has worked it out.

At a special 4K screening of The Thing at David Geffen Theater on March 22, Carpenter revealed that a scene in the middle of the movie reveals whether Kurt Russell’s R.J. MacReady or Keith David’s Childs is The Thing. “I think I found that hint,” said Joe Russo (a film fan not the Marvel director) on Twitter.As pointed out by Russo, MacReady is informed that The Thing can replicate at the cellular level, so to be safe they should only drink and eat what they have prepared themselves. Despite the warning, toward the end of the movie, MacReady shares a bottle of liquor with Childs, which could mean that he is either rather forgetful or he is, in fact, The Thing. “As soon as Childs drinks from the bottle, The Thing has won. It’s beaten its most skeptical, final threat,” says Russo…

2025 World Fantasy Awards Judges Announced

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Mike Glyer

WFC 2025 logo

The World Fantasy Awards Administration today released the list of judges for the 2025 World Fantasy Awards, for work published in 2024.

The judges read and consider eligible materials received by June 1, 2025, the earlier the better.

Awards administration member Peter Dennis Pautz explains: “If, for instance, something is received on May 31 the judges may well have only one day to read it before their deliberations conclude. Anything received after June 1 will receive little or no consideration.”

2025 WORLD FANTASY AWARDS JUDGES

James Brogden, Apartment 66, New Hampton Lofts; 90 Great Hampton St; Birmingham B18 6EU; United Kingdom; jwbwfa25@outlook.com

Prefers HC, PDF, EPUB (no dropboxes or gdrives)

Jessica Day George, PO Box 95308; South Jordan, UT 84095; USA; books@jessicadaygeorge.com

Prefers HC, then MOBI, then PDF

Lee Murray, 14 Orakei Place; Welcome Bay; Tauranga 3112; NEW ZEALAND; leemurraywfa@gmail.com

Prefers EPUB, then HC

Jonathan Oliver, 1A Frilsham Street; Sutton Courtenay; OX14 4AZ; United Kingdom jowfa25@gmail.com

Prefers HC, MOBI, PDF

Molly Tanzer, P.O. Box #503; Longmont, CO 80502; USA; molly.tanzer.wfa@gmail.com

Prefers (GREATLY) EPUB, MOBI, then HC

(Judges’ order of preference as listed above: HC=Hard Copy; MOBI=Mobipocket ebook format; EPUB=Electronic Publication; PDF=Portable Document Format; MSWord= Microsoft Word Document)

So that a comprehensive submission list may be kept, a copy should also go to:

Peter Dennis Pautz
World Fantasy Awards Association
3519 Glen Avenue
Palmer PA 18045-5812; USA
SFExecSec@gmail.com

Send materials you wish to be considered by the panel directly to the addresses above, and very importantly, please mark all packages as PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS – NOT FOR SALE OR RESALE – NO COMMERCIAL VALUE — WORLD FANTASY AWARDS MATERIALS.

Qualifications: All books must have been originally published in English in 2024; magazines must have a 2024 cover date; short length stories must have been originally published in English in 2024; only living persons are eligible.

Fantasy Types: All forms of fantasy are eligible, e.g. high, epic, dark, contemporary, YA, literary, horror, etc.

Categories: Life Achievement; Best Novel; Best Novella (10,001 to 40,000 words); Best Short Story; Best Anthology; Best Collection; Best Artist; Special Award—Professional; Special Award—Non‑Professional.

When submitting works shorter than novel length, please provide a word count for the judges’ benefit.

Any work made with any generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) will not be deemed human-created and is thus not eligible for consideration.

Please note that the nominees in the Life Achievement category will not be released, though the winners will be announced well before the awards banquet.

Questions concerning eligibility, the judges, and the awards administration may be sent to Pautz’ attention. All questions pertaining to the convention should be directed to the Convention Chair.

The awards will be presented at the convention, to be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel (Kings Rd; Brighton, BN1 2FU; UK) from 30 October through 2 November, 2025.

Until January 31, attending membership costs £175 which does not include the Awards Banquet, tickets for which must be purchased separately. Online memberships are £75. Supporting memberships are £50. Discounts are available for BFS members, full-time students, Children under 16, and the like; see the website. Banquet tickets are available from the shop section of the website, but the menu will be confirmed closer to the date of the convention. Information and online registration can be found on the convention website.

[Based on a press release.]

Pixel Scroll 10/20/24 Pixel Rain

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) SEATTLE WORLDCON 2025 ROOM BLOCK WILL OPEN 10/24. The 2025 Worldcon has announced their room block will open for reservations at 12:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, October 24.

Our room block will open at 12pm PDT on Thursday, Oct. 24!

For more information about the hotels we're using, check the hotels and accommodations page on our website: https://t.co/o1am2Yfgfb
— Seattle2025 (@seattle2025) October 19, 2024

(2) WORLD FANTASY AWARDS. The 2024 World Fantasy Awards were presented today in Niagara Falls, NY.

(3) ENDEAVOUR AWARD. The winner was announced this weekend at OryCon: “Margaret Owen Wins 2023 Endeavour Award” — for Painted Devils (Henry Holt).

(4) BACK IN PRINT. “Books So Bad They’re Good: The Return of John M. Ford (fall rewind)” at Daily Kos.

…John M. Ford was part of a gifted group of SF/fantasy writers that came along in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s and included luminaries like Diane Duane, Charles de Lint, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Guy Gavriel Kay. An immensely talented poet and even better novelist/short story writer, Ford began writing for Asimov’s before he was out of college, and by 1980 he’d published several beautifully crafted short stories, a slew of game reviews, and proto-cyberpunk novel Web of Angels. Soon came his best-known work, The Dragon Waiting, and the next two decades saw a steady stream of finely written poems, novels, gaming supplements, and contributions to the Liavek shared-world series.

Not all was writing — like so many authors, Ford had to take day jobs as an editor, computer consultant, and even hospital orderly to pay the bills — but by the time Ford died unexpectedly in the mid-000’s he’d won several major awards, become a fannish celebrity thanks to his long-running “Ask Dr. Mike” routine, and acquired a reputation as “writer’s writer” who had never achieved great success despite immense talent. His place in science fiction and fantasy seemed assured, and most fans thought it was only a matter of time until a small press began reissuing his works.

Except that this didn’t happen.

Just why is still in dispute. The late Tor editor David Hartwell claimed that Ford, who died intestate, had been estranged from his SF-hating family who thought science fiction and fantasy were immoral and refused to let the books be reprinted on religious grounds. Ford’s life partner claimed that he’d planned to revise his will to cut his family out and appoint her as his executrix, but since the version he left was never witnessed it wasn’t legally binding, plus they had never actually married beyond a self-penned Klingon ceremony. No one knew how to contact his heirs, and if Hartwell was to be believed, Ford’s family hadn’t approved of his work, his personal relationships, or pretty much anything he’d done as an adult, so why even bother?

It wasn’t until 2018, when Slate’s Isaac Butler began digging into the story, that the truth came out. Ford’s family, far from disapproving of his work, had repeatedly written to his agent inquiring about republication. They had not known that his life partner was more than a friend, nor that the agent, overwhelmed by personal problems and grief-stricken by Ford’s death, had basically withdrawn from the industry completely. They were not happy with the rumors that had circulated about them deliberately withholding Ford’s works from publication, and it took nearly a year of negotiations by Tor Books’ editor Beth Meacham for them to change their mind….

(5) BREVITY. Bill Ryan considers Ramsey Campbell and the power of the short story in horror writing in “Horror in Brief” at The Bulwark.

ONCE, YEARS AGO, I POSTED something on the internet about my disappointment in a novel by the revered, almost superhumanly prolific, Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. The details of what I said then are not relevant here; what is relevant is that someone responded to what I wrote by recommending that I read a particular short story by Campbell called “The Companion.” As it happened, I owned a collection of Campbell’s short fiction that contained the story, so, with some skepticism, I read it. “The Companion” instantly became one of the best horror stories I had ever read, and it remains so to this day.

I shouldn’t have been all that surprised at the sharp contrast between what I felt about the novel by Campbell and my intense admiration for that short story. I’ve long maintained that horror fiction thrives in the short form, and that horror novels can often stretch an idea beyond its breaking point.

(6) JEFF VANDERMEER Q&A. “Jeff VanderMeer Talks About His New ‘Southern Reach’ Novel” — link bypasses New York Times paywall:

A lot of readers wanted to learn what happens after the end of the trilogy, when the situation is pretty dire: Area X is spreading uncontrollably and looks like it will colonize the planet. Why did you decide to go back into the past instead?

To describe what happens after “Acceptance,” when Area X takes over, would be almost impossible. It would be so alien or removed that it felt like a perspective I couldn’t really write. But this book is kind of like a prequel, contiguous with the prior few books, and it’s also sneakily a sequel. So it kind of allowed me to do what I didn’t feel like I could do directly, and that was exciting.

Why do you think you and so many of your readers are still thinking about Area X?

I think because it did come so deeply out of my subconscious. The fact that I was sick when I wrote it, recovering from dental surgery, and the fact that I was still unpacking its meaning in my mind after it was written, and then it took on so many different meanings from other people. There have been so many different interpretations, because of the ambiguity in the books. So people can see a lot of different things in the books, and then when they reflect it back at me, it makes me think about the books differently as well…

(7) IN THE DAYS OF THE DEROS. No science fiction fan’s education is complete without having learned about The Shaver Mystery. Bobby Derie brings readers up to speed with “H. P. Lovecraft & The Shaver Mystery” at Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein.

What follows is an extended deep-dive into the history of one of the most contentious affairs in pulp science fiction in the 1940s, the Shaver Mystery, and its interactions with H. P. Lovecraft’s Mythos, which was also beginning to coalesce in the same period. The ramifications of their interactions would spill over into science fiction fandom, conspiracy circles, and occult literature, with long-lasting effects on popular culture….

(8) BLOCH ON THE AIR. The Robert Bloch Official Website has added new radio episodes scripted by the author. Listen in at “Radio”.

Bloch spent little time working within the medium of radio. Aside from penning radio scripts resulting from participation in Milwaukee political candidate Carl Zeidler’s 1940 bid for mayor and for a few local shows in the Milwaukee area, Bloch’s only commercial foray into radio broadcasting came in 1945, with the debut of Stay Tuned for Terror. A program devoted to horror and the supernatural in the same vein as Lights Out, Terror’s initial, and only season, featured 39, 15-minute radio plays. The scripts, all written by Bloch, consisted of eight originals, with the remainder adapted from his own stories, primarily from Weird Tales, who promoted the radio show within their pages. Sadly, this radio program is for the most part “lost,” apart from, to date, four episodes that have only recently been discovered…

(9) I’M JUST A POE BOY. “The Ghost Of Edgar Allen Poe And Other Strange True Facts About The Master Of The Macabre” – the Idolator begins its collection of oddities with this —

His Obituary Was Full Of Lies

Just two days after Edgar Allan Poe’s death, the New York Daily Tribune posted an obituary about him written by a man who called himself “Ludwig.” This wasn’t the kind of loving obituary most people might see in the newspaper. Ludwig made comments such as, “He walked the streets, in madness or melancholy, with lips moving in indistinct curses,” among other claims.

As it turns out, Ludwig was a fake name used by Poe’s rival Rufus Wilmot Griswold, an enemy Poe had made during his time as a critic. Griswold would later write a biographical article on Poe titled “Memoir of the Author” which made further false statements or spread half-truths to taint Poe’s image.

(10) NYCC COSPLAY. “SEE IT! New York Comic Con brings out amazing cosplayers and pop culture icons” in amNewYork. Twenty-three photos at the link.

The 2024 Comic Con wrapped up Sunday after four days that saw thousands of pop culture lovers travel to the Big Apple from all across the country.

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born October 20, 1882 — Bela Lugosi. (Died 1956.)

By Paul Weimer: I’ve mentioned in this space before watching movies on WPIX in New York as a formative experience. I got to see lots of old movies that way and be exposed to a wide range of films. It is no wonder that the work of Bela Lugosi came to mind. I (except for his first appearance ifor me) seemed to always be seeing him in movies with Boris Karloff, just like I saw endless movies with Christopher Lee paired with Peter Cushing. Lugosi was Dracula, of course, his most iconic role, but I didn’t see him there first.

The first time I saw him (and heck, the first time I saw Dracula period) was, don’t laugh, Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.

Yes, by the vicissitudes of chance, I got to see Lugosi play Dracula in a comedic variation and derivation of his original role, as well as seeing a number of the Universal monsters at the same time. WPIX would later give me the aforementioned Lugosi/Karloff movies and I began to understand what the comedy was making fun of. Lugosi’s Dracula is chilling, sui generis and the template that every other Dracula performer has to measure up against, since.

(12) COMICS SECTION.

B.C. has an unexpected crash.
Frazz discusses the length of a day.
Jumpstart introduces a new superhero.
The Argyle Sweater lists things that are seldom seen.
Carpe Diem cleans up.
Tom Gauld shows why there’s little time left for doing science:

My latest cartoon for @newscientist pic.twitter.com/lcMSiMY7Pg
— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld) October 20, 2024

(13) WHO TELLS YOUR STORY. “Mass shooting survivors turn to an unlikely place for justice – copyright law” — the Guardian’s tagline: “The approach aims to ‘avoid rewarding’ assailants and prevent trauma reliving. Could it be a viable solution?”

In a Nashville courtroom in early July, survivors of the 2023 Covenant school shooting celebrated an unusual legal victory. Citing copyright law, Judge l’Ashea Myles ruled that the assailant’s writings and other creative property could not be released to the public.

After months of hearings, the decision came down against conservative lawmakers, journalists and advocates who had sued for access to the writings, claiming officials had no right to keep them from the public. But since parents of the assailant – who killed six people at the private Christian elementary school, including three nine-year-old children – signed legal ownership of the shooter’s journals over to the families of surviving students last year, Myles said releasing the materials would violate the federal Copyright Act….

… But the approach is also a response to the frustration that survivors and victims’ families feel. The ways shooters have historically been portrayed in the media, they say, has been damaging; oversight over the distribution of harmful materials online – including video footage of deadly shootings – has been virtually nonexistent; and free rein over shooters’ names and intellectual property has enabled outside actors to profit from their reproduction.

Together, these elements speak to the need for greater care over how the stories of mass shootings are retold, survivors and advocates say, so that victims – rather than their killers – are remembered….

(14) PROBLEM OR SOLUTION? “’It’s quite galling’: children’s authors frustrated by rise in celebrity-penned titles” reports the Guardian.

A modern classic by Keira Knightley” reads the provisional cover of the actor’s debut children’s book, I Love You Just the Same. Set to be published next October, the 80-page volume, written and illustrated by Knightley, is about a girl navigating the changing dynamics that come with the arrival of a sibling.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is the latest in a long list of celebrities to have turned to writing children’s books. McFly’s Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter have been hovering at the top of the bestseller chart since the publication last month of their latest book The Dinosaur that Pooped Halloween!. Earlier in the year, David Walliams dominated with his newest book Astrochimp. The entertainer has sold 25m copies of his children’s titles in the UK alone, according to Nielsen BookData.

… “These celebrities do not need any more money or exposure, but plenty of genuine writers do,” says the author, poet and performer Joshua Seigal.

When news broke of Knightley’s book deal, authors expressed frustrations online; in one viral tweet, the writer Charlotte Levin joked about deciding to become a film star….

… Some argue that celebrity-backed titles help keep the industry healthy. “Attention paid to any children’s book creates a rising tide that lifts the entire publishing industry,” says the author Howard Pearlstein.

Books written by celebrities can also help increase representation in children’s fiction. “Celebrity fiction has been one of the key ways to get Black and brown characters on shelves in recent years,” says Jasmine Richards, a former ghostwriter of celebrity fiction and founder of StoryMix, which develops fiction with inclusive casts of characters to sell to publishers….

(15) A SERIOUS CASE OF LUPINE. “Wolf Man Official Trailer: Watch Now” advises SYFY Wire.

Watch out, Brundlefly! You might just meet your match in writer-director Leigh Whannell’s take on lupine monsters in the upcoming Wolf Man.

The film’s official trailer, which dropped during the Blumhouse panel at New York Comic Con Friday, gives off some serious Cronenberg vibes, teasing a werewolf infection akin to a deteriorative disease that eats away at the body and turns the mind into primal mush….

(16) ATTRACTIVE NUISANCE? [Item by Steven French.] Don’t go near this if you’ve got any metal in your body! “China builds record-breaking magnet — but it comes with a cost” according to Nature.

China is now home to the world’s most powerful resistive magnet, which produced a magnetic field that was more than 800,000 times stronger than Earth’s.

On 22 September, the magnet, at the Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF) at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, sustained a steady magnetic field of 42.02 tesla. This milestone narrowly surpasses the 41.4-tesla record set in 2017 by a resistive magnet at the US National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) in Tallahassee, Florida. Resistive magnets are made of coiled metal wires and are widely used in magnet facilities across the world.

China’s record-breaker lays the groundwork for building reliable magnets that can sustain ever-stronger magnetic fields, which would help researchers to discover surprising new physics, says Joachim Wosnitza, a physicist at the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Germany.

The resistive magnet — which is open to international users — is the country’s second major contribution to the global quest to produce ever-higher magnetic fields. In 2022, the SHMFF’s hybrid magnet, which combines a resistive magnet with a superconducting one, produced a field of 45.22 tesla, making it the most powerful working steady-state magnet in the world….

(17) THE ORIGINAL SPACE JUNK. [Item by Steven French.] “Most meteorites traced to three space crackups” says Science.

The bombardment never stops. Each day, up to 50 meteors survive the fiery descent through Earth’s atmosphere and reach the surface as meteorites. Researchers and collectors have recovered more than 50,000 of these rocks, which are prized in part for the mystery of where they came from.

Now, researchers have eliminated some of the mystery. They have traced most meteorites to just three Solar System bodies that shattered to form families of asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, plus countless smaller fragments that sometimes reach Earth.

Until now, a source was known for only 6% of meteorites; now, more than 70% have a known origin, says Miroslav Brož, an astrophysicist at Charles University who led one of three related studies published recently in Nature and Astronomy & Astrophysics. “It feels like a lifetime discovery.”…

(18) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Ryan George chops it up with a “Guy Who Is Definitely Not Cursed”. ((HINT: Yes he is.))

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

2024 World Fantasy Awards

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Mike Glyer

The World Fantasy Awards were presented on October 20 at the World Fantasy Convention in Niagara Falls, NY.

NOVEL

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (Saga Press/Titan UK)

NOVELLA

“Half the House Is Haunted” by Josh Malerman (Spin a Black Yarn)

SHORT FICTION

“Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood” by Nghi Vo (New Suns 2)

ANTHOLOGY

The Book of Witches edited by Jonathan Strahan (Harper Voyager US/Harper Voyager UK)

COLLECTION

No One Will Come Back for Us and Other Stories by Premee Mohamed (Undertow Publications)

ARTIST

Audrey Benjaminsen

SPECIAL AWARD—PROFESSIONAL

Liza Groen Trombi, for Locus magazine

SPECIAL AWARD—NON-PROFESSIONAL:

Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Jo Fletcher
Ginjer Buchanan

2024 World Fantasy Awards Ballot and Life Achievement Awards

Posted on August 11, 2024 by Mike Glyer

The World Fantasy Awards administrator announced the final ballot for this year’s awards, and the Lifetime Achievement award winners, on August 11.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Ginjer Buchanan
Jo Fletcher

Ginjer Buchanan in 2011. Photo by Jennie Ivins

NOVEL

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (Saga Press/Titan UK)
The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love (Random House)
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (Tor Publishing Group/Tor UK)
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi (DAW Books/Gollancz)
Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward (Tor Nightfire/Viper)
Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom/Tor UK)

NOVELLA

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom)
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor Publishing Group/Titan Books)
“Prince Hat Underground” by Kelly Link (White Cat, Black Dog)
“Half the House Is Haunted” by Josh Malerman (Spin a Black Yarn)
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather (Tordotcom)
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

SHORT FICTION

“How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny Magazine #50)
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” by P. A. Cornell (Fantasy Magazine, Oct. 2023)
“John Hollowback and the Witch” by Amal El-Mohtar (The Book of Witches)
“Waystation City” by A. T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine #50)
“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare Magazine, Oct. 2023)
“Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood” by Nghi Vo (New Suns 2)

ANTHOLOGY

Christmas and Other Horrors edited by Ellen Datlow (Titan UK)
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume One edited by Stephen Kotowych (Ansible Press)
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 edited by R. F. Kuang & John Joseph Adams ((Mariner Books)
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams (Random House/Picador)
The Book of Witches edited by Jonathan Strahan (Harper Voyager US/Harper Voyager UK)

COLLECTION

The Essential Peter S. Beagle Volumes 1 & 2 by Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon Publications)
The Fortunate Isles by Lisa L. Hannett (Egaeus Press)
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link (Random House/Ad Astra)
No One Will Come Back for Us and Other Stories by Premee Mohamed (Undertow Publications)
Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic by Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow Publications)
Jewel Box: Stories by E. Lily Yu (Erewhon Books)

ARTIST

Audrey Benjaminsen
Rovina Cai
Stefan Koidl
Charles Vess
Alyssa Winans

SPECIAL AWARD—PROFESSIONAL

Bill Campbell for Rosarium Books
E. M. Carroll, for A Guest in the House (First Second)
M. John Harrison, for Wish I Was Here: An Anti-Memoir (Saga Press/Serpent’s Tail)
Stephen Jones, The Weird Tales Boys (PS Publishing)
Liza Groen Trombi, for Locus magazine

SPECIAL AWARD—NON-PROFESSIONAL:

Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Trevor Kennedy, for Phantasmagoria
Brian J. Showers, for Swan River Press
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine
Julian Yap and Fran Wilde, for The Sunday Morning Transport

Judges: Douglas A. Anderson, Stephanie Feldman, Pat Murphy, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, and Angela Slatter.

Pixel Scroll 5/22/24 Ice Cream Covered With Pixels Served In A Scroll, The Dessert Of Young Filers Everywhere

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) 2024 WORLD FANTASY AWARDS NOMINATIONS DEADLINE ALMOST HERE. Members of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 World Fantasy Cons have until Friday, May 31 to nominate material for the 2024 World Fantasy Awards^SM. Five nominees will be selected in each category. Three of those are selected by a panel of judges, and two will be chosen by popular vote of World Fantasy Convention members from 2022, 2023, and 2024. Eligible works will have a 2023 publication date. See full instructions at the link.

The World Fantasy Awards^SM recognize the best in fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year, and also honor those individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the fantasy and horror genres during that same time period. The awards are given each year at the annual World Fantasy Convention. They were first given in 1975, at the organization’s initial gathering. This year marks the 50^th World Fantasy Convention, which will be held October 17-20 in Niagara Falls, New York. The World Fantasy Awards^SM will be presented at a banquet on Sunday, October 20th at the conclusion of the convention.

For information or to register for this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Niagara Falls, visit the convention website.

(2) SFF AUTHOR ON JEOPARDY! Writer Ellen Klages appeared as a contestant on tonight’s aired episode of Jeopardy! Screencap courtesy of Steven H Silver. As Lenore Jean Jones described her attire, “She’s wearing a cool overshirt covered with space designs.” How did she do? We’ll report that tomorrow, since this Scroll will post before the show airs on the West Coast.

(3) TUNES FOR GAIMAN BOOK. The Guardian foreshadows that “Neil Gaiman’s Coraline to become ‘dark, spangly’ stage musical”.

Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novella Coraline is to be turned into a musical that will tour the UK in 2025. The children’s fable, which found a new audience 15 years ago as a stop-motion animation by Henry Selick, has been adapted by playwright Zinnie Harris and composer Louis Barabbas….

[Director Brining] said this is what prompted them to collaborate with Barabbas: “His music has got a gothic quality. It’s got creepiness and wit, he can write lyrics that hold rich imagery and themes that respond to the novel. The gothic is a key characteristic of Gaiman’s work and the music will help define that atmosphere on stage.”…

(4) NOT WHERE YOU’D EXPECT. The Ozarks at Large program on NPR affiliate KUAF in Fayetteville, Arkansas recently devoted a segment to “Books from this year’s Hugo Awards”. The guest was Pastor Clint Schnekloth, whose DisCon III report we linked to in a 2021 Pixel Scroll. And he is remarkably well-informed.

Pastor Clint Schnekloth of Good Shepherd of the Ozarks joins Ozarks at Large’s Kyle Kellams to discuss another round of books. This week, they talk about the 2024 Hugo Awards and the controversy that plagued last year’s contest.

(5) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

May 22, 1981 — Anniversary of the release of Outland.

I decided to do something different today which is look at a film which was released to today that got a Hugo nomination, that being Outland and the nomination being at Chicon IV. Unfortunately that was the year that Raiders of the Lost Ark was on the ballot…

Outland premiered forty-three years ago this date in the States in select cities, but everywhere that following weekend.

Now let’s go back to the creation of this film. This original title of the film was Io as it’s set on Jupiter’s moon Io, but audience testing showed that wasn’t an understandable at all so test audiences thought it was the number ten, or, at least to me quite puzzlingly, low. So in homage to the Western genre, it became Outland.

Which was appropriate as the writer Peter Hyams wanted to do one: “I wanted to do a Western. Everybody said, ‘You can’t do a Western; Westerns are dead; nobody will do a Western’. I remember thinking it was weird that this genre that had endured for so long was just gone. But then I woke up and came to the conclusion – obviously after other people – that it was actually alive and well, but in outer space.”

So they had a script that they really liked, now they need their actor. They wanted and got Sean Connery to be in their version in High Noon. Connery’s career had been in a nose dive as of late then, so this was a golden chance for him, so he took the role.

Law enforcement officers are faced with the nature of right and wrong, and duty versus keeping themselves safe, but while Will Kane in High Noon is played as an archetypal hero who discovers the world isn’t black and white as he was led to believe, Will O’Niel already exists firmly in the gray where things are always messy when we meet him.

Connery was magnificent in this role. In addition to Sean Connery, the movie includes performances by Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen, and James Sikking, who deliver memorable portrayals of complex characters.

So they’ve got the lead and the rest of an excellent core cast, now they had to film a movie. They had a very tight budget, just seventeen million dollars. The quite amazing sets were enhanced by the use of a new filming process called Introvision which allowed the director to mix a combination of sets, mattes and a generous use of miniatures in-camera, avoiding the then-lengthy process of extensive use with green screen.

Critics were mixed on it. Gary Arnold at the Washington Post thought it was “trite and dinky” whereas Desmond Ryan at the Philadelphia Inquirer called it: “A brilliant sci-fi Western.”

I said it cost seventeen million to make, and it made, errr, just about seventeen million dollars. That likely means that it actually lost money for the studio. Not that the studio would admit that.

Now I liked the film. I saw it on some theater screen not long after it came out and thought it worked rather well, but then I think it is police drama rather than a SF film.

(6) COMICS SECTION.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal breaks down what is and isn’t a myth.
Close to Home witnesses a waiter’s gaffe.

(7) DO YOU ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE? GiantFreakinRobot asks “Can You Name Every Film In The Ultimate Sci-Fi Movie Supercut?” P.S. The video was released in 2012, so it’s missing references to a bunch of films you might expect to see included.

When it comes to sci-fi fandom, everyone wants to think they are the consummate expert on the subject, all-knowing and all-powerful in this movie universe. And many of you probably are. You are reading this article after all, one that posed something of a challenge at the jump.

Well, there is one movie fan out there that wants to challenge your fandom and expertise in the best possible way. That’s by putting a ton of movies together in one awesome sci-fi supercut to see if you can name them all. It’s six-plus minutes of greatness, with some of the most iconic scenes from some of the biggest franchises.

(8) LOSING FAITH. In “Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fans Still Think About This ‘What-If’”, CBR.com wiles away the hours with a thought experiment.

In a series with as many moving parts as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, changing the outcome of any major event has massive repercussions on everything that comes afterward. Of all the Buffy “What ifs?” few are as tantalizing as the notion of “What if Faith never turned evil?” Faith Lehane, the fan-favorite hero turned villain turned anti-hero, is among the most powerful and dynamic characters in the series, and her continued presence in the main cast beyond Season 3 would change the way the story played out.

Nothing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be the same if Faith had remained with the Scoobies instead of joining forces with Mayor Richard Wilkins III. With two united Slayers growing stronger together, and able to support each other, the forces of good would be stronger than ever, and the chaotic presence of Faith would shift the group dynamic among the heroes. With additional information gained about the characters post-series, it’s even possible that Buffy’s romantic life would take a sharp turn….

(9) SCROLL SING-ALONG. Meanwhile, another great piece of literature tickled someone’s muse today. Applause to Randall M. for his File 770-inspired filk, posted in comments.

Everybody’s talkin’ bout free speech
Out in the public square,
But when the Pixel Scroll gets here
Everybody’s gonna comment there.

Come all who file,
Come all who lol
You’ll not see nothing like the Pixel Scroll…

(10) WHAT TRICK-OR-TREATERS CAN EXPECT. Get a Halloween head start at Food and Wine. “Mars Wrigley Reveals Its Halloween 2024 Candy Lineup”.

…That lineup includes the brand-new M&M’s Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Pie, which is set to hit store shelves soon to give people a taste of the “sweater weather” to come. The company is also bringing back fan favorites like Twix Ghoulish Green, M&M’s Ghouls in Milk Chocolate, and Snickers Pumpkins, which are also coming with a brand-new look. And it also announced it’s expanding its variety bag offerings this year, going “even bigger with its blends of fruity and chocolate candies to meet shifting consumer preferences.”…

(11) FIRST AMERICAN BOARD GAME. Smithsonian Magazine studies “What America’s First Board Game Tells Us About the Aspirations of a Young Nation”.

…As I sat in that archive… I beheld another first in American printing: a board game called the Travelers’ Tour Through the United States.

This forgotten game, printed in 1822, the year after Missouri became a state, has a lot to say about America’s nascent board game industry, as well as how the young country saw itself….

…Since the Travelers’ Tour was the first board game to employ a map of the U.S., it might have been an especially interesting gift for American consumers.

It’s difficult, however, to gauge just how popular the Travelers’ Tour was in its time. No sales records are known to exist, and since so few copies remain, it likely wasn’t a big seller.

A global database of library holdings shows only a few copies of the Travelers’ Tour in institutions around the U.S. And while a handful of additional copies are housed in museums and private archives, the game is certainly a rarity.

Teetotums and travelers

Announcing itself as a “pleasing and instructive pastime,” the Travelers’ Tour consists of a hand-colored map of the then-24 states and a numbered list of 139 towns and cities, ranging from New York City to New Madrid, Missouri. Beside each number is the name and description of the corresponding town.

Using a variant spelling for the device, the instructions stipulate that the game should be “performed with a Tetotum.” Small top-like devices with numbers around their sides, teetotums functioned as alternatives to dice, which were associated with immoral games of chance.

Once spun, the teetotum landed with a random side up, revealing a number. The player looked ahead that number of spaces on the map. If they could recite from memory the name of the town or city, they moved their token, or traveler, to that space. Whoever got to New Orleans first won….

(12) BAD TIME TO BE A THRIP. “Sticky trick: new glue spray kills plant pests without chemicals” – the Guardian tells how it works.

Tiny sticky droplets sprayed on crops to trap pests could be a green alternative to chemical pesticides, research has shown.

The insect glue, produced from edible oils, was inspired by plants such as sundews that use the strategy to capture their prey. A key advantage of physical pesticides over toxic pesticides is that pests are highly unlikely to evolve resistance, as this would require them to develop much larger and stronger bodies, while bigger beneficial insects, like bees, are not trapped by the drops.

Pests destroy large amounts of food and chemical pesticide use has risen by 50% in the past three decades, as the growing global population demands more food. But increasing evidence of great harm to nature and wildlife, and sometimes humans, has led to a rising number of pesticides being banned.

Some farmers already use alternatives to chemical pesticides, such as introducing other insects that kill the pests, but the new sticky drops are thought to be the first such biodegradable pesticide to be demonstrated.

The drops were tested on the western flower thrip, which are known to attack more than 500 species of vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops. More than 60% of the thrips were captured within the two days of the test, and the drops remained sticky for weeks.

Work on the sticky pesticide is continuing, but Dr Thomas Kodger at Wageningen University & Research, in the Netherlands, who is part of the self defence project doing the work, said: “We hope it will have not nearly as disastrous side-effects on the local environment or on accidental poisonings of humans. And the alternatives are much worse, which are potential starvation due to crop loss or the overuse of chemical pesticides, which are a known hazard.”

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, took an edible plant oil and oxidised it to make it as sticky as duct tape, a process similar to deep frying. The oil was then blitzed in a “glorified blender” along with water and a little soap to stop the droplets sticking together.

This solution was then sprayed on to the leaves of chrysanthemum plants, the thrips’ favourite food and a huge commercial crop in the Netherlands. It was also tested on strawberries. The sprayers used are the same design as those already used by farmers and field trials this summer will test the process at scale.

Fly paper already exists but obviously cannot be sprayed and Kodger said: “Fly traps are extremely effective against pests but they’re also extremely effective against pollinators.” He said bees were too big and strong to get stuck in the millimetre-size drops.

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Physicist Matt O’Dowd over at PBS Space Time takes a look at interstellar travel without Faster Than Light (FTL).

FTL is a common SF trope as it gets around plot difficulties of having protagonists travel vast distances over many lifetimes. However, there is an SF trope that is fairly commonly used that does not require FTL for interstellar travel and that is that of the generation ship…

Matt takes a deep dive…

“In the far future we may have advanced propulsion technologies like matter-antimatter engines and compact fusion drives that allow humans to travel to other stars on timescales shorter than their own lives. But what if those technologies never materialize? Are we imprisoned by the vastness of space—doomed to remain in the solar system of our origin? Perhaps not. A possible path to a contemporary cosmic dream may just be to build a ship which can support human life for several generations; a so-called generation ship.”

[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Steven H Silver, Lenore Jean Jones, Lise Andreasen, 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 Cat Eldridge.]

Pixel Scroll 1/16/24 What Can You Say About Chocolate Covered Pixels?

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) WHAT, ME WORRY? Should we share Jeffrey Davies’ concern about “Is Reimagining History Through Biofiction Ethical?”. His Book Riot post focuses on work that is not marketed as genre, although it arguably is alternate history.

…On the other side of the argument, the popularity of biofiction in the digital age, where information about the past lives of our favorite celebrities and public figures is available instantly at our fingertips, speaks to an appetite for the comfort and familiarity a fictionalized account of our favorite famous people offers. Take Daisy Jones & The Six, for example. While not considered biofiction because Daisy Jones and her friends are entirely fictional, no one can deny that they bear a remarkable resemblance to Fleetwood Mac.

Sure, Daisy Jones is a rip-off, but don’t we like it that way? Doesn’t some part of us crave a new adventure surrounding characters we pretty much already know? It’s like rewatching a movie you haven’t seen in a really long time, but you remember enough of it that it’s not asking your brain to continue engaging with new material at the end of a long day. The same can be said for Lucy Holliday’s A Night in With Audrey Hepburn, also not quite biographical fiction, but the same effect.

Then there’s Elizabeth Letts’ Finding Dorothy, a biofiction novel following L. Frank Baum’s wife in the present (1938), witnessing the production of the MGM film adaptation of her husband’s most famous novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It then flashes back to the late 1800s, imagining the historical events that led to the inspiration for Oz. Because the author treats its history with respect, it’s a joy to read and fun for any fan of Dorothy Gale, big or small, even if some aspects of the narrative can be fictionalized….

(2) SPACE UNICORNS SOUND OFF. You have until February 12 to make your voice heard:

We’ve set up a poll for Uncanny readers to vote for their top three favorite original short stories from 2023. (You can find links to all of the stories here.)

The poll will be open from January 15 to February 12, after which we’ll announce the results. We’re excited for you to share which Uncanny stories made you feel!

A snazzy certificate will be given to the creator whose work comes out on top of the poll!

(3) WORLD FANTASY AWARDS 2024 SUBMISSIONS UPDATE. Peter Dennis Pautz today sent this change in the instructions for sending items to judge Thomas Olde Heuvelt:

Due to new customs practices in Europe and the UK, some packages that are still marked “GIFT” or “NO VALUE” or “NO COMMERCIAL VALUE” or “PROMOTIONAL” or “WORLD FANTASY AWARDS JURY MATERIAL” are requiring a duty or “landing fee” at the recipient’s end.

While some packages are getting through with those fees, there are no funds available from the WFC, WFA, or the jury member(s) to pay for or reimburse those costs.

Thus, please be aware that those submissions requiring a fee will be refused by WFA Judge Thomas Olde Heuvelt, with our agreement.

M. Olde Heuvelt still prefers hard copies of any submissions. However, I suggest backing up those submissions with PDF or EPUB to ensure your submissions receive their due attention.

(4) COLLECTIBLE CRAZE. “Pokémon pandemonium: did the Van Gogh Museum play its cards right?” asks the Guardian.

In early November, I was standing in a long line at the Van Gogh gift shop in Amsterdam waiting to purchase a Pokémon ballpoint pen. It was one of the few remaining items left in the store – this was the second month of the establishment’s Pokémon collaboration, but the clamour for the limited edition merchandise was ceaseless. Everything from T-shirts to notebooks to shoulder bags with an image of Pikachu on the front had been picked bare, leaving only prints and postcards behind the till. It was barely past midday but the number of people crammed into the shop meant the area was soon cordoned off with others now rejected entry until it calmed down.

This had become an all too familiar sight for attendees and staff. From the very start of the collaboration, which began in September for the museum’s 50th anniversary and was intended to introduce new audiences to the work of the Dutch artist, the Pokémon merch caused mayhem as eager fans – and scalpers – clamoured for the best stuff. But the main cause was a single item: a limited edition “Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat” trading card. As soon as the card was made available, it sold out online, while desperate gallery visitors had to enter scrums to try and pick one up. Footage of the Poké riots soon hit Twitter (now known as X), and later, eBay listings had the card on sale for up to $900. In mid-October, the card was discontinued….

Pikachu inspired by Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat, Naoyo Kimura (1960) at Pokémon x Van Gogh Museum exhibition, Amsterdam. Right: Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, Vincent van Gogh, 1887. Photograph: The Pokémon Company International/Vincent van Gogh Foundation

(5) NEW HORROR UNIVERSITY WORKSHOPS. The Horror Writers Association has announced that from January 22 to April 8, 2024, Horror University will offer these live workshops to horror writers everywhere interested in refining their writing, learning new skills and techniques, exploring new writing formats, or better understanding the genre. Full descriptions and registration information is available at Teachable.com: “Horror University Online”. Registration now open.

The Winter 2024 Session includes:

January 22: An Evening with Ellen Datlow: A wide-ranging discussing with multiple-award-winner, Ellen Datlow, editor of the annual The Best Horror of the Year.
January 29: Writing for Haunts with Kevin Wetmore: Learn tips and techniques for writing scripts for engaging and frightening live haunted house attractions.
February 5: Shifting Shapes: Writing the Transformation Scene with Michael Arnzen: Learn the scenecraft for depicting how a “normal” body mutates, a mind spirals into madness, or a human morphs into a monster.
February 11: Horror Archives at University of Pittsburgh with Benjamin T. Rubi, Linda Addison, Clay McLeod Chapman, Lisa Morton, Tim Waggoner, and L. Marie Wood: Join curator Ben Rubin and several horror authors for a discussion of the Horror Studies Collection at the University of Pittsburgh! THIS SESSION IS FREE!
February 12: Anti-Ableism in Horror with Callie Stoker: How to write accurately and avoid pitfalls when representing all abilities in the human spectrum.
February 26: Building Your Author Roadmap with JB Kish: An interactive workshop to help identify your goals and the steps to achieve them using techniques of project management.
March 4: Expanding Your Writing Horizons with Lisa Morton: Learn how to move beyond fiction into non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting, paid blogging, and more!
March 11: Writing the Witch with Stephanie Wytovich: Immerse yourself in the rich literary history of witchcraft and create fictional work inspired by our interpretation of witches over time.
March 18: Bringing Cosmic Horror Down to Earth with James Chambers: Explore techniques for developing grounded settings, well-developed characters, and troubling themes for effective cosmic horror stories.
March 25: The Horror Hero’s Journey with Tim Waggoner: Learn how to adapt the “hero’s journey” template to write epic horror fiction!
April 8: Marketing 101: Selling and Extending The Life of Your Work with Robert P. Ottone: Learn ways to market your work–and yourself–to better extend the life of your publications and more.

(6) HUMAN PREDICTABILITY. Dan Rockmore’s article in The New Yorker, “How Much of the World Is It Possible to Model?”, naturally includes an Asimov reference:

… But as scientific as all this sounds, it remains hopelessly messy: it’s a model not of a natural system but of a sentimental one. In his “Foundation” novels, the writer Isaac Asimov imagined “psychohistory,” a discipline that would bring the rigor of cause and effect to social dynamics through equations akin to Newton’s laws of motion…

(7) VINTAGE VIDEO. Michael J. Walsh mourns the passing of Howard Waldrop, adding: “I look back to the 2013 Capclave and am so glad we were able to pull this off.” Click through to watch “The Howard, George and Gardner Show”.

(8) WALDROP REMEMBRANCE. James Hollaman tells about the time he made Howard Waldrop the guest of honor at Room Con – his con inside a con at ConQuesT.

I was staying with a person and had woke up early like I normally do. I went to the library of books they had and picked up a book and read a story called “Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!” by Howard Waldrop. I really liked the style, there was something about it. This was my introduction to Howard’s work. I then found a few other things that Howard had wrote. I really enjoyed them all. They all had a flavor, a style that I loved. (I think the one word that comes close is vaudeville, but that doesnt do it justice. I would pick up anything that he worked on.

Cut a few years when Howard was a guest at a con in Oklahoma. Before the con Howard, Bradley Denton, the Murray/Bahm’s and I went to eat at a BBQ place. When it came to pay the check I paid for Howards meal (which was a barbecue bologna sandwich). I told him that I owed him for the joy his work brought me. I found out later this was the way to handle it. He normally didn’t like when people did this. getting to hear him read at the con was a joy. So great. He had wrote the story on his way up to the con, it was all hand written.

I started a party called Room Con. We was up to Room Con 6(66) and I wanted to really do something evil, but cool at the same time. It dawned on me that I liked the guest list that ConQuesT had, but i could do better. So I got a hold of Brad and got the info for Howard as I was going to ask him to be my guest of honor. I got his info and called him. A few rings of the phone and he picked up. There I was, talking to a legend. You don’t know how much that meant to me. He agreed to do so. I got his info, bought him a ticket, got him a room, paid him a per diem. He was all set up, all he had to do was show up.

Paula took and drove me to the airport to pick Howard up. We got there just as he was getting off the plane. There he was, just a small carry on in his hand. He was ready for the weekend. Got him to the hotel and in his room. He had a few panels (his pay for the membership to the con), one being the George and Howard show, 2 hours getting to hear Howard and George R.R. Martin talk. That was amazing. Over the weekend I got to eat with Howard several times, him and i would talk. I enjoyed every bit of the time I got to spend with him.

It was time to get Room Con started. Howard got to the party before we started and staid for the whole thing. He liked hearing Bland Lemon Denton and David Lee Anderson play music. Oh and he talked to everyone, just as nice as a human could be. During the party a person took and pulled me off to the side and told me that he had heard I had brought Howard in on my own, to which i said “yes, i did”. He was shocked. He had thought that ConQuesT had brought him in. This made my day. I found out that some others had thought the same, all was shocked I had brought him in.

I didn’t help get him to the airport, mainly because I was a little sad to see the weekend was done. I saw him at a few other cons after that, enjoyed any time I got to spend with him. We wrote each other mainly. I did call him a few times, but they was short calls. We talked about how he was doing and what was going on. While i did not have as close of a relationship with him as others did, I still had a closer relationship than others, and i am all the better for it.

Howard, you will be missed. Thank you for the friendship, thank you for all you have done. Thank you for your kindness.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born January 16, 1970 — Garth Ennis, 54. Garth Ennis is without no doubt one of my favorite comic writers. Born in Northern Ireland, though a rare individual who grew up with no religious background (and you are fully aware why I’m mentioning that), he’s now resident in the States.

So as a six-year-old, his teacher told the class that God was a being who could see inside their hearts, was always around them, and would ultimately reward or punish them. It scared, as he says in an interview, the shite out of him, and that was the genesis of Preacher. I love that series, have read it multiple times and no, I have not seen the series.

Next up on the list of series he wrote that he created and I seriously adore is Hellblazer with the supernatural detective John Constantine. I can’t say that I’ve read every issue of that series as I lost interest in it a decade or so ago but his work on it, mostly from issues forty to eighty three, was among the best undertaken in the series.

He had a run on The Authority for the Wildstorm imprint, that run being possibly the most annoying run in the history of the series as it focused on a character called Kev; and the first arc of the Authority spin-off series Midnighter, a character he admits was conceived as an ainti-Superman by him and artist Brian Hitch.

Before you ask, where’s the Marvel Comics, I looked at his work there and since I hadn’t read any of it, save random issues of his Punisher writing, I can’t say what is good and what isn’t. So do feel free to tell me what is good over there.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Frazz admits another fandom interest.
Non Sequitur shows a side of public domain we never expected.
Hi and Lois illustrates why the difference between a Marvel superhero and Star Wars villain is just a little bit of sunshine.

(11) IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! IT’S A ONE LINER! [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Just as we always suspected. That kid from Smallville wants to be a comedian. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to make you laugh until your ribs hurt! Truth, Justice, and Impeccable Comedic Timing! “New Superman ‘Will Have a Sense of Humor,’ Says Lois Lane Actor Rachel Brosnahan: ‘Every Single Person Involved’ in the Film ‘Is a Perfect Nerd’” in Variety.

No surprise here. James Gunn is bringing comedy back to the Man of Steel, at least according to the director’s Lois Lane actor Rachel Brosnahan. The star recently told Entertainment Tonight that the new Superman (played by David Corenswet) will “have a sense of humor” and that her iteration of Lois Lane will be “feisty, marvelous and fiercely intelligent.”…

…Given that Gunn almost always infuses his work with comedy (see his “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy for Marvel), it’s not too surprising to hear his upcoming “Superman: Legacy” will be bringing out a more humorous side to the Man of Steel. It’s still a notable change given Superman’s last run on the big screen was defined largely by Zack Snyder’s ultra-serious and gritty tone. Henry Cavill played that iteration of the more super-serious Superman….

(12) EYE V. DRAGON. CBR.com wants to know “What If Smaug Had Survived The Hobbit?” Their thought experiment covers both the possibility that Sauron and Smaug would have allied, and that they would have become rivals.

Could Smaug Have Defeated Sauron?

…If Smaug and Sauron had gone to war with one another, the dragon would not have fared well. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf noted that dragon fire was capable of melting most Rings of Power, but not the One Ring. Smaug might have been able to destroy the Nazgûl’s rings, thus robbing Sauron of his most loyal servants, but without destroying the One Ring, Sauron would have persisted. Even if Smaug had annihilated Sauron’s army, the Dark Lord was an immortal Maia, so he could have retreated and rebuilt from the shadows as he did after his defeat in the Second Age. Additionally, Smaug’s weakness was far more exploitable than Sauron’s. Tolkien gave little information about the creation of the black arrow, but Sauron and Saruman were both master craftsmen with plentiful resources, so they surely could have reproduced it. From there, it would only have been a matter of time before an Orc archer got a lucky shot against Smaug….

(13) BACK IN THE ZONE. Interzone has published the January issue in EPUB form — Interzone #297. Costs 5 euros. Here’s the cover.

(14) WOULDN’T YOU RATHER VOTE FOR THEM? Atlas Obscura takes us inside the “Hall of Fake Presidents – Washington, D.C.” (Photos at the link.)

…Regally displayed in the cinema lobby, Alamo Drafthouse’s Hall of Presidents includes a dozen fictional U.S. Presidents from popular films. This is a bipartisan gallery that includes beloved leaders like Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact and Harrison Ford in Air Force One, to more polarizing Commanders-in-Chief like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove and President Camacho himself: Terry Crews in Idiocracy. The hall’s centerpiece is a life-sized statue of President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) from Independence Day, framed by an engraving of his patriotic speech from that film….

(15) SMALL, CUTE ROBOTS. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Gizmodo declares “These Were the Best, Cutest, Most Obscene Bots of CES 2024”. The cubist-face bot, the are-you-sure-this-isn’t-potentially-lethal industrial arm massage bot and the mini-Killdozer are particularly notable.

…Despite all the modern innovations, some of our favorite bots weren’t even meant to showcase the advancements of modern autonomous tech, one of our favorite displays was a simple, miniaturized Robot Wars demo layed out for tech press struggling after long days hoofing it through the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Sometimes, the best way to unwind after listening to an obscene amount of robot promotion is to literally dismantle an opponent’s bot with large, serrated teeth.

(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Resident Alien’s third season gets under way on February 14 says SYFY Wire: “Resident Alien Season 3 Gets Premiere Date & New Trailer”.

Greetings, Earthlings, and welcome back to Patience, Colorado, for Resident Alien Season 3. When we last left our out-of-this-world hero Harry Vanderspeigle (Alan Tudyk), he was carving out his place in our world, struggling with his newfound humanity, and … learning that his alien race isn’t the only one determined to kill us all.

“The Grey Aliens, they are here to destroy the planet,” Harry explains in the first trailer for Resident Alien Season 3 (above). Now that he’s firmly set down roots on Earth, he seems ready and willing to fight for humanity — but not everyone trusts his motives….

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Andrew (not Werdna) Michael J. Walsh, Daniel Dern, Kathy Sullivan, 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 Patrick Morris Miller.]

2024 World Fantasy Awards Judges Announced

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Mike Glyer

Peter Dennis Pautz, President of the World Fantasy Awards Association, today released the list of judges for the 2024 World Fantasy Awards, for work published in 2023.

The judges read and consider eligible materials received by June 1, 2024, the earlier the better. Pautz explains, “If, for instance, something is received on May 31 the judges may well have only one day to read it before their deliberations conclude. Anything received after June 1 will receive little or no consideration.”

2024 WORLD FANTASY AWARDS JUDGES

Douglas A. Anderson, 11080 Mount Zion Road, Marcellus, MI 49067-8772; USA

andersonwfa2024@gmail.com

Prefers HC (strongly), then PDF, then EPUB

Stephanie Feldman, PO Box 3257; 200 W. Butler Avenue; Ambler, PA 19002-9998; USA

sfwfa24@gmail.com

Prefers HC, then PDF

Thomas Olde Heuvelt, 1351 Route de Grasse; 06140 Tourrettes-sur-Loup; France

david@oldeheuvelt.com

Prefers HC (strongly); then PDF, then EPUB (N.B. This judge’s last name is two words: Olde Heuvelt)

Pat Murphy, 1400 Colorado St. Ste C; Boulder City, NV 89005; USA

wfamurphy@gmail.com

Prefers EPUB, then HC, then PDF

Dr Angela Slatter, C/ Pulp Fiction Booksellers; GPO Box 297; Brisbane, Q 4001; Australia

me@angelaslatter.com

Prefers HC, then MOBI, then EPUB

(Judges’ order of preference as listed above: HC=Hard Copy; MOBI=Mobipocket ebook format; EPUB=Electronic Publication; PDF=Portable Document Format; MSWord= Microsoft Word Document)

So that a comprehensive submission list may be kept, a copy should also go to:

Peter Dennis Pautz, President
World Fantasy Awards Association
3519 Glen Avenue
Palmer PA 18045-5812; USA
SFExecSec@gmail.com

Qualifications: All books must have been originally published in English in 2023; magazines must have a 2023 cover date; short length stories must have been originally published in English in 2023; only living persons are eligible.

Fantasy Types: All forms of fantasy are eligible, e.g. high, epic, dark, contemporary, literary, horror, etc.

When submitting works shorter than novel length, please provide a word count for the judges’ benefit.

Please note that the nominees in the Life Achievement category will not be released, though the winners will be announced well before the awards banquet.

All questions pertaining to the convention should be directed to the Convention Chairs:

Debi Chowdhury and Mary Catelynn Cunningham, chairs@wfc2024.org; info@wfc2024.org

The awards will be presented at the convention, to be held Thursday through Sunday, October 17-20, 2024, at the Sheraton Niagara Falls, 300 3rd Street, Niagara Falls, NY 14303, USA.

Until January 17th, an attending membership costs $160.00 US, which does not include the Awards Banquet, tickets for which must be purchased separately. Virtual memberships are $80.00 US. Supporting memberships are $50.00 US.From January 18th through May 31, Attending tickets will be $210, Virtual $100, and Supporting $50. From June 1st through October 11th, Attending will be $260, Virtual $130, and Supporting $50. Banquet tickets will be available in late Summer, 2023. Information and forms can be found on the convention website.

[Based on a press release.]

Update 01/16/2024: Peter Dennis Pautz today sent this update to the instructions for sending items to judge Thomas Olde Heuvelt:

Due to new customs practices in Europe and the UK, some packages that are still marked “GIFT” or “NO VALUE” or “NO COMMERCIAL VALUE” or “PROMOTIONAL” or “WORLD FANTASY AWARDS JURY MATERIAL” are requiring a duty or “landing fee” at the recipient’s end.

While some packages are getting through with those fees, there are no funds available from the WFC, WFA, or the jury member(s) to pay for or reimburse those costs.

Thus, please be aware that those submissions requiring a fee will be refused by WFA Judge Thomas Olde Heuvelt, with our agreement.

M. Olde Heuvelt still prefers hard copies of any submissions. However, I suggest backing up those submissions with PDF or EPUB to ensure your submissions receive their due attention.

2023 World Fantasy Awards

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Mike Glyer

The World Fantasy Awards Association announced this year’s awards at WFC in Kansas City on October 29.

2023 WORLD FANTASY AWARDS

NOVEL

Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney (Solaris)

NOVELLA

Pomegranates by Priya Sharma (Absinthe Books)

SHORT FICTION

“Incident at Bear Creek Lodge” by Tananarive Due (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)

ANTHOLOGY

Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, eds. Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight (Tordotcom Publishing)

COLLECTION

All Nightmare Long by Tim Lebbon (PS Publishing)

ARTIST

Kinuko Y. Craft

SPECIAL AWARD – PROFESSIONAL

Matt Ottley, for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness (Dirt Lane Press)

SPECIAL AWARD – NON-PROFESSIONAL

Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Peter Crowther
John Douglas

2023 World Fantasy Awards Final Ballot

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Mike Glyer

The World Fantasy Awards administrator announced the final ballot for this year’s awards, and the Lifetime Achievement award winners, on July 25.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Peter Crowther
John Douglas

2023 WORLD FANTASY AWARD FINALISTS

NOVEL

Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney (Solaris)
Spear by Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom Publishing)
The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings (Redhook/Orbit UK)
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom Publishing)

NOVELLA

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia (Tachyon Publications)
The House of Drought by Dennis Mombauer (Stelliform Press)
Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk (Tordotcom Publishing)
Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum (Undertow Publications)
Pomegranates by Priya Sharma (Absinthe Books)

SHORT FICTION

“The Devil Don’t Come with Horns” by Eugen Bacon (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
“Incident at Bear Creek Lodge” by Tananarive Due (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
“The Morning House” by Kate Heartfield (PodCastle, July 5 2022)

“Telling the Bees” by Kat Howard (The Sunday Morning Transport, Jan. 30 2022)
“Douen” by Suzan Palumbo (The Dark magazine, March 2022)

ANTHOLOGY

Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, ed. Ellen Datlow (Tor Nightfire)
Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, eds. Vince Liguano and Rena Mason (William Morrow)
Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror, ed. John F. D. Taff (Tor Nightfire)
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, eds. Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight (Tordotcom Publishing)
Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, eds. Sheree Renée Thomas, Pan Morigan, and Troy Wiggins (Third Man Books)

COLLECTION

Dark Breakers by C. S. E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium Books)
Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw (Undertow Publications)
All Nightmare Long by Tim Lebbon (PS Publishing)
Boys, Beasts & Men by Sam J. Miller (Tachyon Publications)
A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino (Valancourt Books)

ARTIST

Kinuko Y. Craft
Galen Dara
Matt Ottley
Lauren Raye Snow
Charles Vess

SPECIAL AWARD – PROFESSIONAL

Irene Gallo, for Tor.com
Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link, for Small Beer Press
Tim Lebbon and Daniele Serra, for Without Walls (PS Publishing)
Fiona Moore, for Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organization Theory and Strategy in Westeros (Edward Elgar Publishing)
Matt Ottley, for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness (Dirt Lane Press)

SPECIAL AWARD – NON-PROFESSIONAL

Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications
Cristina Macía, for The Celsius Festival
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine
Dave Ring, for Neon Hemlock Press
E. Catherine Tobler, for editing The Deadlands

Judges: Dale Bailey, Kelly Robson, Ginny Smith, A. C. Wise, and Ian Whates.

Update 08/09/2023: At the request of this year’s World Fantasy Convention co-chair the year of the award has been changed to 2023. (We had reported 2022 based on the WFC’s press release and past experience with the award.)

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Tag Archives: World Fantasy Award

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