Reading and cramming

The posts have been a bit thin as I've been cramming for placement tests to go back to school (algebra is NOT like riding a bike) and now am cramming for voting on the Hugos. Want to join me, just for fun? Get the list of nominated works on the Renovation site.

See if your picks make it. I'll include a Hugo awards announcement in my con report for Worldcon.

Speaking of awards, at Readercon in Massachusetts last weekend, the Shirley Jackson awards (recognizing outstanding achievement in horror, psychological suspense and dark fantasy) were handed out as follows:

Novel

• Mr. Shivers, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
  
• Dark Matter, Michelle Paver (Orion)
  
• A Dark Matter, Peter Straub (Doubleday)
  
• Feed, Mira Grant (Orbit)
  
• The Reapers Are the Angels, Alden Bell (Holt)
  
• The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)
  

Novella

• Mysterium Tremendum, Laird Barron (Occultation)
  
• The Broken Man, Michael Byers (PS)
  
• Chasing the Dragon, Nicholas Kaufmann (ChiZine)
  
• One Bloody Thing After Another, Joey Comeau (ECW)
  
• Subtle Bodies, Peter Dubé (Lethe)
  
• The Thief of Broken Toys, Tim Lebbon (ChiZine)
  

Novelette

• 
  “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains”, Neil Gaiman (Stories)
  
• “–30–”, Laird Barron (Occultation)
  
• “The Broadsword”, Laird Barron (Black Wings)
  
• “Holderhaven”, Richard Butner (Crimewave 11: Ghosts)
  
• “The Redfield Girls”, Laird Barron (Haunted Legends)
  

Short Story

• “The Things”, Peter Watts (Clarkesworld 1/10)
  
• “As Red as Red”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Haunted Legends)
  
• “Booth’s Ghost”, Karen Joy Fowlder (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories)
  
• “The Foxes”, Lily Hoang (Haunted Legends)
  
• “six six six”, Laird Barron (Occultation)
  

Single-Author Collection

• Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade)
  
• The Ones That Got Away, Stephen Graham Jones (Prime)
  
• The Third Bear, Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon)
  
• What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer)
  
• What Will Come After, Scott Edelman (PS)
  

Edited Anthology

• Stories, Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio, eds. (Morrow)
  Black Wings, S.T. Joshi, ed, (PS)
  Haunted Legends, Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas, eds. (Tor)
  My Mother, She Killed Me, My Father, He Ate Me, Kate Bernheimer, ed. (Penguin)
  Swords & Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (HarperCollins)
  

A Board of Directors special award went to Joyce Carol Oates.


You probably know by now that Borders is dead in the water, completely liquidating. It's time to support your local bookstores. ebooks are great, but they bypass that familiar tactile relationship we have with our books.


So, are you smarter than an ape? If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can get a new app that will pit you against simian intelligence. Sounds like a fun way to monkey around. Or maybe they're just bananas. See for yourself at ApesWillRise.com.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes comes to theaters on August 5th.

SFOO makes top 45 SF blog list!

Thanks fans, writers and sf geeks alike. Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys has been awarded the 2010 Top 45 Sci-Fi Book Blogs award from Awarding the Web. See the whole list.

Let the voting begin! Atom.com and Lucasfilm announced the finalists for their ninth annual “Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge”. You can view the finalist fan-made films at starwars.atom.com and vote for your favorite. Voting ends on August 2nd. Some of these are on the long side, so schedule a good time to watch and pop some popcorn and settle in, enjoy and vote.

Comic-con was in the news this year for the protests and counter-protests, and again because of a violent episode on Saturday. Someone got stabbed by a ballpoint pen during a screening.

The protest footage at Comics Alliance is hysterical. One would hope that the protestors from Westboro Baptist Church could find real evil to wage war on instead of facing off over comic book heroes. They do know it's fiction, right?

Finally, how about some great mysteries for you to chew on? I know this is a sf blog, but I'm very tempted to run another flash fiction contest around these two events. I think our incredible imaginations can conjure some great fiction using these as jumping off points. Of course, I may just decide to do a story of my own instead. I love a mystery -- especially a science-fictionalized one. ;)

First up is the Money Pit. The biggest treasure hunt of all time. Treasure hunters know where the treasure is, but do to the magnificently engineered booby traps, none have been able to reach it. They're starting again after their permit was granted on July 15th. The Money Pit, located on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, is conjectured to be a treasure hidden by pirates, the Knights Templar or Francis Bacon. It's all just guesswork at this point. A few artifacts from the higher levels of this incredibly deep pit have been recovered. Men have died trying to reach the bottom. Read all about it at www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk.

In England, a second circular grouping like Stonehenge but made of wood has been discovered near the first. This CNN story has pictures of the second site.

Great grist for the mill. Hey, why not link the two...





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The "season" has begun!

I thought it was time for another photo. One in which I'm not hiding behind dark glasses and my hat. Photo by Patrick F. Wilkes

There is a new deal in the wind for Awesome Lavratt. More news later. It just received another excellent review at Amazon. Don't know who the reviewer is, but I'm thrilled with their review. You can read it for yourself here.


Spring has sprung, and with it we have trees and flowers in bloom, lovely pollen in the air to make us sneeze, shirt-sleeve weather, festivals and, for speculative fiction writers – awards!

Winners for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards, the Philip K. Dick Award, the Bram Stoker Awards, Australian Shadows Awards and short lists for the David Gemmel Awards and the Arthur C. Clarke Awards and nominees for the Hugos, Campbell and Rhysling and Compton Crook and Promethius Awards.

2009 BSFA Award Winners are as follows:
Best Novel: The City and the City by China Mieville
Best Short Fiction: "The Beloved Time of Their Lives," by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia
Best Non-Fiction: Mutant Popcorn by Nic Lowe
Best Artwork: Cover of Desolation Road by Stephen Martiniere

Philip K Dick Award (for distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during 2009 in the US):
Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson (Ballantine Spectra)
Special citation given to Ian McDonald for Cyberabad Days (Pyr)

HWA and Bram Stoker Awards

• Lifetime Achievement Awards: Brian Lumley and William F. Nolan
  
• The World Horror Convention also awarded a lifetime achievement award. There's went to Basil Cooper.
  
• The Richard Layman President's Award: Vince Liaguno
  
• Silver Hammer Award (for volunteer work on behalf of the Horror Writers' Association: Kathy Ptacek (She's a Broad Universe member! Go Kathy!)
  
• Specialty Press Award: Tartarus Press (Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker)
  
• Bram Stoker Awards for
  
  • Best Novel: Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan (Harper)
    
  • Best First Novel: Damnable by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
    
  • Best Long Fiction: The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
    
  • Best Short Fiction: "In the Porches of My Ears," by Norman Prentiss (PS Publishing)
    
  • Best Anthology: He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
    
  • Best Collection: A Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill (Apex Book Co.)
    
  • Best Non-Fiction: Writers Workshop of Horror by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
    
  • Best Poetry: "Chimeric Machines" by Lucy A. Snyder (Creeative Guy Publishing)

Australian Shadows Awards:
Long Fiction: Slights by Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot)
Edited Publication: Grants Pass edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar (Morigan Books) Jennifer is another Broad! :)
Short Fiction: "Six Suicides," by Deborah Biancotti (A Book of Endings)

Congratulate all the award winners, better still, buy their works.

And good luck to the nominees for the other awards mentioned above. If you're eligible to vote for any of them, please do so post haste.



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Motivational surroundings and miscellany

I had a productive weekend. I finished two story rewrites, a book review (Soulless) and brainstormed with my buddy Aidan and my hubby on my new Awesome Lavratt story. I also sent out interview questions for Soulless author, Gail Carriger. I probably could have phrased that better. Gail isn't soulless.

This Friday I'm posting an interview with Abyss & Apex editor, Wendy Delmater. The following Friday is my interview with Gail to be posted in tandem with the Soulless book review at Mostly Fiction. Stay tuned.

I moved my dry erase calendar downstairs to my writing computer area and populated it with my interview schedule, conventions, story subs, etc. I don't really spend time in our home office any more. Not to write, anyway. I do that in my zero grav chair with my laptop. At the writing convention in October, Steve Hockensmith had some excellent ideas regarding keeping your writing space motivational. I'm going to go to Office Depot (aka my toy store) and get a white board to plot out my stories, track my progress on novels, post questions that need answering about characters or the tech or worldbuilding etc. and a cork board to display my acceptance letters, copies of my first checks for stories and my reviews and first royalty check for Awesome Lavratt.

Enough about me. Need a SF news fix? There's a rumor that Joss Whedon may be giving FX a whirl with a new show. Read the story at hitfix. Keep your fingers crossed Browncoats!

Oooh! And Gail won an award for Soulless!

I just discovered that Kage Baker is in the hospital following surgery for a cancerous brain tumor. Here is an open letter from her caregiver who asks for emails of support and prayers for Kage.

And for my writing readers, you might find this post by Marie Brennan helpful when writing the domesticated woman character. Home is where the hero isn’t






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Science fiction hump day haps

Since I'm currently in a winter slump, apparently, with no news of my own, I thought I'd share some news from my fellow writers:

David Brin reports that the movie option on his short story, "Detritus Affected" was just extended. You can read the story in his anthology, Otherness.

According to SF Awards Watch, Cherie Priest's steampunk novel Boneshaker (Tor), won a 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award.

And if you have your own steampunk novel you've been shopping around, send a query to Junior Agent Sandy Lu at L. Perkins Agency. She's hungry for steampunk. (nods to Cynthia Ward for the tip)

More news from the Pacific Northwest: Jay Lake received the John Dalmas award. The award is in appreciation for his many years of support for Radcon and fandom in general. I'll be there, Jay, to see you receive it. :)

Stephanie Osborn reports: The Y Factor, best-selling ebook and sequel to Dream Realm Award winner Human By Choice, is an EPPIE finalist, just released in print. Book 3 in the series, The Cresperian Alliance, will be released as an ebook around 1 Feb.

Apparently reports of Kirkus Reviews' demise were exaggerated -- or rather overridden? Read about it at Locus.

As I reported on Friday, IROSF (Internet Review of Science Fiction) is closing up shop. But they're going out with a bang. Don't miss the last two issues. Read January issue now.

And here's some science without the fiction news from Daily Mail: What on Earth was that? Mystery space object whizzes past our planet Experts disagree on what it was.

Here are the books at the top of my TBR list. Most will be reviewed at Mostly Fiction.
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett (currently reading)
Are You There? And Other Stories by Jack Skillingstead (currently reading)
Starbound by Joe Haldeman (author interview in the works, too)
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Able One by Ben Bova

Next interviews up:
Michael Hanlon, Daily Mail science editor and author of Eternity
Wendy S. Delmater, Editor in Chief of Apex and Abyss magazine
Joe Haldeman, SF author
Deborah J. Ross, Fantasy author



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Clash of the Titans, awards and honors

This looks fun!! A remake of Clash of the Titans!


Here's the latest review of Awesome Lavratt.

My friend and fellow writer, whom I just guest blogged for, mentioned me on her guest blog on One Hot Mess. Her topic is attending sf conventions as a writer.

David D. Levine won the Endeavor Award for Space Magic. Congrats to him!

And here I am mentioning Joe Haldeman again. He was one of the Endeavor Award judges and he was just named Grand Master of Science Fiction Writers of America.

I finished Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. Loved it! Review to follow on Mostly Fiction Book Reviews. I'll post the link when it goes up. Feel free to read my interview with Fforde while you wait.

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Convention and SF News

I'm getting ready for SiliCon this weekend and World Fantasy Convention next month. They're both in San Jose, CA. Great for me. No airfare and I can stay with my daughter in the East Bay and commute in.

The theme for SiliCon is Heroes and Villains. I'll be paneling on Saturday, only. I have a wedding on Sunday and work on Friday. If you're local, consider going. Here's the guest list:

Media Guest: Ken Lally, from TV's Heroes
Writer Guest: Christy Marx
Artist Guest: Sarah Clemens
Costuming Guest: Shawna Trpcic
Science Guest: Patricia McEwen
Fan Guest: Hilary Ayer
Toastmaster: Kevin Roche

WFC is still working on their programming schedule, but a skeleton outline is available now on their website. Their list of guests includes Garth Nix, Jeff and Ann Vandermeer, Michael Swanwick, Lisa Snelling, California-based Richard Lupoff, and Zoran Živković.

One of my new Facebook writing buddies has a fun website you might enjoy. You know those "this day in history" things? Well, his is Today in Alternate History.

Speaking of Facebook friends, I'm starting to hit critical mass. I only need 2 dozen more to hit 600. http://www.facebook.com/ann.wilkes will get you there. ;)

Heinlein awards went to Joe Haldeman and John Varley. Congrats!

My story, "Grey Drive" is still available over at Every Day Fiction. You can read it on a ten minute break with time to spare. Please do, and rate it. :)

So does everyone know about 42Blips? It's like technorati especially for SF fans.

OK, Heroes fans. What's Slow Burn???


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