Truly science fiction and other ODDysseys

I didn't wrestle with dear Horace (of Awesome Lavratt fame) this weekend as I would have liked. I may yet write a scene tonight before I retire. Work has been very busy, but the department all went out to Thai for lunch today. That was great until I aspirated a piece of rice. Who knew that laughing while eating could be so dangerous?

We had a minor emergency with dear rescue dog Alegro yesterday. He was puking large puddles everywhere. Seems he only has a nervous tummy. He's better now and we discovered that giving him a bath is possible after all. Since he managed to lay in the puddles, we had to try. We'd been taking him to the groomers because he's a 90 lb., long-haired German Shepherd. He loved it. Maybe we can save on groomer bills.

I'm sure most of you have already heard about Kage Baker. She lost her batttle with cancer on Sunday. Here's an obituary. She will definitely leave a hole in the speculative fiction community and readers everywhere will mourn her and her wonderful well-spring of science fiction and fantasy books and short stories.

The shortlist for the BFSA (British Science Fiction Association) awards was released.

Best novel: Ark by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin (Gollancz)
The City & The City by China Mieville (Macmillan)
Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

Best Short Fiction:
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 220)
The Push by Dave Hutchinson (Newcon Press)
“Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married” by Kim Lakin-Smith (Interzone 222)
“Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (in Cyberabad Days, Gollancz)
“The Beloved Time of Their Lives” [pdf link] by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia (in The Beloved of My Beloved, Newcon Press)
“The Assistant” by Ian Whates (in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction 3, ed. George Mann)

To read the shortlisted artist works and nonfiction works and more about the awards visit the BSFA site.

Has George Lucas gone soft? All we know about the new animated project he's working on, aside from whom he's working with, is that it will have fairies. Read more.

So, I've decided that the iPad is a cool toy, nothing more. You can't DO STUFF, you can mostly just look at stuff. Unless the price drops drastically, that's too much for me to pay for the wow factor and a cool new toy. Apple Makes at Least $200 Per iPad Sold: Report

I ran across this while searching for retail news at work. My husband would love to have the opportunity to test out a new hydrogen-cell car. Japan, it seems, is leading the charge here.

I think I'll end with a lovely quote from the latest Terry Pratchett I'm reading, Unseen Academicals:
"I would like permission to fetch a note from my mother, sir."
Ridcully sighed. "Rincewind, you once informed me, to my everlasting puzzlement, that you never knew your mother because she ran away before you were born."

Friday, expect an interview here with Michal Hanlon, science editor for the Daily Mail and author of Eternity, his insightful and imaginative look into mankind's future.






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"Key" words and story published

At the Writers of the Future panel at BayCon, Tim Powers mentioned the fact that some themes, settings or words become rampant in the many manuscripts that come through the contest. He mentioned the word "smirk" as being a current favorite among new authors. Also, beginning a story with waking up screaming, waking up naked, waking up in a white room, waking up naked and screaming in a white room. You get the idea.

I'm currently reading a book by a fellow Broad (Broad Universe), Pauline Baird Jones, entitled The Key. It's a great book so far (60 pages in). Love her sense of humor. While at Bay Con, as I mentioned in my previous post, I was fortunate enough to hear Kage Baker read from Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key. Yesterday, I heard of another book with "Key" in the title. Then I started seeing them everywhere. So I did a quick, less than exhaustive search.

Published in 2008, we have:

Duma Key by Stephen King
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Key to Redemption by Talia Gryphon
Key to Conspiracy by Talia Gryphon
The Gaudi Key by Andreu Carranza and Martin Esteban
The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody
The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich
Cathy's Key by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman
Bone Key by Keith R A DeCandido
The Blackstone Key by Rose Melikan
The Golden Key by Dan Lee
Or Else my Lady Keeps the Key by Kage Baker
The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle
The Skull Cage Key by Michael Marriott
The Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda
The Other Key by Dave Hartman
The Three Keys of the Three Thrones... and the Storm by Anthony Scalici
In the Key of Death by Robert S Levinson

In late 2007:

The Key by Pauline Baird Jones
The Dagger-Key: And The Lost Treasures of Kebadon by Daniel L. Ferguson
The First Key of Kalijor by Paul Lell
George's Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking and Lucy Hawking

Okay, so if you have a great novel you're working on now, just don't use the word "key" in the title. That ship has sailed. And please, no smirking. I've also noticed the word "darkening" a lot all of a sudden within the text of recent books.

Now on to my good news. I have a date for the appearance of my flash SF story, "The Heist", at Every Day Fiction. Mark your calendars for June 9th! That's next Monday as I write this.

I'm reading a Kage Baker Company novel, The Children of the Company right now, at the same time as I'm reading The Key. I finished the previous, The Life of the World to Come, before BayCon. I'm hooked. I just read the story, "Let the Word Take Me", by Juliette Wade, whom I met at BayCon and have since corresponded with. It's in the July/August issue of Analog. I highly recommend it. She delivers a thought-provoking piece on bridging the (alien) culture gap to break the language barrier. That's a gross over-simplification. Just read it. Trust me. :)