March 06, 2017

March News

* Overheard in the Store:
"I think I've been looking at too many catalogs. I just read 'The Four Tendencies' as 'The Four Tentacles'."

"[Actor] Jim Carrey is a skin suit filled to the brim with sentient weasels."

"I have the VERY best conversations about alcohol here!"

"There are lots worse curses to have, but she writes them SO SLOWLY, and I read them SO FAST!"

"It was not a consensual sing-along."

* If you love cats and "Star Trek", then this is the book for you . . . or it will kill your soul.  Either way it's worth a look!  http://nerdist.com/star-treks-original-crew-recast-as-cats-in-new-illustrated-book/

* Cory Doctorow's novel LITTLE BROTHER was pulled from a Florida high school reading list "following . . . concerns from the school's principal over its questioning of authority and its 'lauding' of hacker culture."  Cory and his publisher, Tor, responded in the best way possible: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/10/cory-doctorow-novel-pulled-school-reading-questioning-authority

* Ursula K. LeGuin and Junot Diaz were among the authors recently voted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Letters. http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Ursula-K-Le-Guin-Ann-Patchett-voted-into-arts-10962614.php

* Philip Pullman announces new trilogy with ties to the His Dark Materials trilogy.  Lyra will return in the first and second volumes of this new trilogy, entitled The Book of Dust.  First Lyra will appear as a baby in the first book and then in the second one, ten years after the conclusion of His Dark Materials.  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/15/philip-pullman-unveils-epic-fantasy-trilogy-the-book-of-dust

* To celebrate the print release of BOOKBURNERS, a serial novel by Margaret Dunlap, Max Gladstone, Mur Lafferty and Brian Francis Slattery, the great folks at SerialBox.com have created a special discount code for Borderlands buyers!  Anyone with the code "BorderlandsBookburners" will get 50% off a purchase of Bookburners Season 2 on SerialBox.com.  All you have to do is navigate to https://www.serialbox.com/redeems, input the code, and follow on from there.

* R.I.P. Susan Casper, a dedicated and talented writer and editor. https://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/02/susan-casper-1947-2017/

* Remembering the brilliant writer Andre Norton on the 105th anniversary of her birth. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2017/02/recalling-andre-norton-grand-dame-science-fiction-fantasy.html

* An interview with Hugo winner N.K. Jemisin on coming up with her ideas, and a number of other topics. https://www.wbez.org/shows/nerdette/the-past-present-and-future-of-sci-fi-with-nk-jemisin/3aed7a8c-4de4-4f97-8bb9-8dcd5044c450

* A great article on Afrofuturism: the history, the participants, the present and the future of it.  Of course it's only a little bit of what Afrofuturism actually is in scope, but it's a fantastic place to start. http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/03/02/science-fiction-afrofuturism-african-americans-creating-deep-space/

* Cambridge University opens the UK's first ever SF/F center for university-based research! http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2017-02-16/uks-first-sci-fi-and-fantasy-centre-opens-in-cambridge/

* A review of the new Latin@ Science Fiction & Fantasy Anthology - Latin@ Rising. http://www.themonitor.com/entertainment/article_f3275164-0028-11e7-adde-83efa1a298a8.html

* Why does science fiction almost always get shafted by The Oscars?  A historical perspective - https://www.inverse.com/article/27692-oscars-scifi-science-fiction-arrival-star-wars-2001-kubrik

* Keanu Reeves has done a lot of science fiction, some good, some bad, and some so horrific we hear it turns your brain to mush like seeing the face of an Elder God.  In any case here's a ranking from the latter to the former.  http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-19-scifi-and-fantasy-movies-of-keanu-reeves-ranked-1792200545

* The Riverside Art Museum is holding an exhibition of Michael Whelan's iconic art.  If you don't recognize the name, you'll absolutely recognize the art he's produced. http://boingboing.net/2017/02/08/beyond-science-fiction-the-al.html

* A fantastic interview with A.M. Dellamonica on the world of Stormwrack just as the third book in the trilogy, THE NATURE OF A PIRATE, is released.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-teitelbaum/fantasy-of-the-high-seas-_b_14641446.html

* Finally a CW DC show that has us excited!  They announced they will be doing a "Black Lightning" TV pilot, which we were sort of excited about, but then Deadline Hollywood announced that China Anne McClain and Nafessa Williams have been cast as Black Lightning's daughters, Anissa a.k.a. Thunder and Jennifer a.k.a. Lightning.  Now the show has gone from "sort of excited" to "OMG-give-it-to-us-now".  There’s only a pilot order currently, but we have hope.  https://blavity.com/china-anne-mcclain-nafessa-williams-cast-as-superheroines-thunder-lighting-in-dcs-black-lightning

* Joyce Corrington wrote the original script for "The Omega Man" in 1971 with her husband Bill.  She was also an executive producer for MTV's "Real World" for over a decade.  Hear her story: http://wwno.org/post/science-fiction-writers-valence-street

* A discussion on the state of science fiction in Australia featuring Australian SF authors Amie Kaufman, David Henley and Cat Sparks.  http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/the-state-of-science-fiction-in-australia/8313662

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Award News
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It’s finalist seasons for awards, it seems!

* The final ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards has been released! http://horror.org/2016-bram-stoker-awards-final-ballot/

* The Horror Writers Association has just announced the winner of its Specialty Press Award. http://horror.org/2016-specialty-press-award-winner-omnium-gatherum/

* The Reader Awards finalists for Asmiov’s magazine have been released. http://www.asimovs.com/about-asimovs/readers-awards-finalists/

* The British science Fiction Awards have announced their finalists as well. http://www.bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-2016-awards-voting-form/

* The Aurealis Awards which celebrate Australian speculative fiction have announced their finalists too! https://aurealisawards.org/

* Nebula finalists! Norton finalists! Bradbury finalists! http://nebulas.sfwa.org/sfwa-announces-2016-nebula-norton-bradbury-award-nominees/

* A new award for science fiction and related genres in Pakistan.  Check out more details here: http://thesalamaward.com/

* Jo Walton has won the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction, also known as the Skylark Award: https://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/02/walton-wins-skylark/ For a full list of all the previous years' winners, see http://www.nesfa.org/awards/skylark.html

* The winner of the 2017 Crawford award has been announced and it is Borderlands’ good friend Charlie Jane Anders.  Congratulations Charlie Jane!  Check out the other shortlisted authors at the link.  https://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/02/2017-crawford-award/

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