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.

The Adversary - epic multiverse saga begins

The Adversary
by James R. Bowman
Melrose Books (2009)


Reviewed by Lyda Morehouse


In Bowman’s multiverse, Lucifer’s right-hand man, AKA the Adversary, is tired of playing second fiddle. Heck, he’s done with the whole status quo thing and decides the time has come just to wipe out all the remaining mortal heroes and destroy life as we know it. In other words: apocalypse time.

Tomas Walker, ex-British government assassin, is one of the last of these heroes, known as “guardians.” His life takes a strange turn when the Adversary’s minions show up to try to kill him. He’s on the run and is drawn back to the mysterious Glastonbury Hill, where he encounters none other than the Archangel Michael. Michael tells him it's time for him to accept his true destiny and save the multiverse from the evil fate the Adversary has planned.

Meanwhile, another guardian awakes in Santa Fe, New Mexico -- Tomas’ sister Gwen, a Goddess-worshipping New Age shop owner. She has her own quest: to find the tree of life (not Etz Chaim, as you might expect given all the other Judeo-Christian references so far, but Yggdrasill, of Norse myth.) Turns out, her BFFs are actually a group of exiled Valkyrie and they set her on her path after a giant Kachina (Hopi spirit doll) goes Godzilla on the town.

Oh yeah, and the powers that be are actually the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, and Michael and the Valkyries answer to them as the “Absolutes.”

Confused yet? The Adversary is a very long, dense, and intense novel. Unfortunately, it also bears the subtitle: “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Saga, Book One” and when the stalwart reader reaches the end of 1,028 pages, the story simply stops, with nothing resolved. Likewise, Melrose Press’s website does not yet have a listing or any information about a second book in the series, even though the official publication date of this book says 2009. That makes me worried that a reader may have to wait several years for a conclusion.

This book was short-listed for the Brit Writer’s Published Writer of the Year Award (2010), but for my money its complicated and rather epic plot isn’t helped by the constantly shifting point of view. Early sections of the narrative seem to glorify gore, like an amateur horror story or one of those “Saw” movies, but I’m personally very fond of religious mash-ups and was willing wade through that to get to the archangels and adversaries. If you’re similarly interested in eschatological fiction and okay with leaving the story hanging until the next installment appears, you may wish to seek this novel out. There’s certainly a lot to chew on in this massive book.

Women taking their place in speculative fiction

My story, "Trapped Star", appears in the brand new anthology by Dark Quest Books Beauty Has Her Way, edited by Jennifer Brozek. Read it to see if Debra manages to steal and use the crystal that turns your run-of-the-mill transport booths into mega transport booths that span the whole galaxy. There's so many worlds that have never heard of her. They'll never know what hit them.

The British Science Fiction Association has published its shortlist of nominees. Paulo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl made the best novel list.

The Philip K. Dick Award shortlist is as follows:

Yarn, Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books)

Chill, Elizabeth Bear (Ballantine Books/Spectra)

The Reapers Are the Angels, Alden Bell (Henry Holt & Co.)

Song of Scarabaeus, Sara Creasy (Eos)

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Mark Hodder (Pyr)

Harmony, Project Itoh, translated by Alexander O. Smith (Haikasoru)

State of Decay, James Knapp (Roc)

Winners of both will be announced April 23rd at Norwescon in Seattle, WA and Eastercon in Birmingham, UK respectively.

Norwescon features mostly women guests of honor this year with Writer GOH Patricia McKillip, Artist GOH Kinuko Craft and PSIence GOH Marie D. Jones. Nevermind "ladie's night", it's our year! Seattle is also home to a new convention for women in the genre. Say hello to GeekGirlCon.

GeekGirlCon Releases Date and Location of Their Long-Anticipated Event

Seattle, WA -- GeekGirlCon, a female-focused, geek centric convention that celebrates the feminine involvement and contribution in Geek Culture will be making its debut Saturday and Sunday, October 8th and 9th, 2011 at the Seattle Center’s Northwest Rooms.

Erica McGillivray, GeekGirlCon’s President and Marketing Director says, “GeekGirlCon is a one-of-a-kind convention celebrating geeky women and the wide variety of geeky things they are interested and involved in.” The first of its kind, GeekGirlCon strives to be an event that celebrates women in the fields of math, the sciences, fiction, games, comics and more.

“Planning this convention has shown me that I am not alone,” Michelle Pearson, GeekGirlCon’s Treasurer and Account manager says. “Meeting other geeky women and realizing that there are men in the community who appreciate and support us has been the best part of this journey so far. I’m excited to be a part of this and can’t wait to see our plans and ideas become reality.”

And the staff members aren’t the only ones excited about this event. GeekGirlCon already boasts a very talented special guest list; authors Bonnie Burton, Trina Robbins, Greg Rucka and Jen Van Meter have already signed on to appear at the convention and support its cause.

Passes to GeekGirlCon can be purchased through convention’s website: both two-day passes for the entire weekend ($35) and single day passes ($20).

GeekGirlCon is a non-profit organization of 30 staff members and roughly 80 other volunteers equally passionate about promoting women’s contributions to geek culture. The group will be continuing to hold fundraising events leading up to the convention date. To find out more about GeekGirlCon visit http://www.geekgirlcon.com.

###

Contact: Kiri Callaghan

GeekGirlCon Public Relations Manager

Email: pr@geekgirlcon.com

*End press release*

All my literary friends are probably sick of me extolling the virtues of reading and writing flash fiction (that's fiction generally under 500, 750 or 1,000 words depending on the venue). Well, just hold your ears. I'm back on the flash wagon. Debi Orton, founder of Flashquake, passed the flash baton (in the form of Flashquake ownership) to Cindy Bell. Read more below.

Flashquake under new ownership

Cindy Bell of Eagle River, Alaska, took over leadership of Flashquake as

editor and publisher in January 2011, making changes to the design and

bringing new talent to the literary publication.

Flashquake, an independent, quarterly, web-based and print-on-demand

magazine, focuses on works of flash fiction, flash nonfiction (memoirs,

essays, creative nonfiction, humor), short poetry and artwork. Flashquake

aspires to no less than the publication of literary works of flash and

fine art.

To celebrate its new inauguration, there is a call for submissions of any

topic, and a special contest with four talented winners. The contest theme

is “new beginnings,” and the entry fee is a low $5. The winning work comes

with a grand prize of 35 percent of the pot (the pot being the total from

all entry fees). There will also be 3 runners up with first runner-up

winning 20 percent of the pot, second winning 15 percent, and third

winning 10 percent. Grand prize and runners up will also be awarded

publication in Flashquake’s electronic and print publications.

Flashquake was founded by Debi Orton in 2001, and to Bell’s knowledge, the

term “flash” was coined by Debi's team at that time. For more information

or to submit a piece of work, visit www.flashquake.org.

*End press release*

Now that I've started this whole "women in spec fic rock" theme, I can't leave you without sharing the new Broad Universe website. Very snazzy.

On a personal note, I have started out the new year by getting all of my reprints back in circulation. I put a couple stories that haven't found the right homes yet back into play last week, too. Mike Resnick has inspired me in this endeavor with his 19 foreign and reprint sales in one week!

I'm looking forward to meeting some of my SFOO staff at conventions later this year. My next science fiction convention is FogCon in San Francisco, where I'll hopefully be on some panels and hosting a Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. Then there's BayCon in May, Westercon 64 in July and Renovation (WorldCon 69) in August. The best part? I don't have to buy a single plane ticket. I even have a cousin who'll put me up for Renovation.

Mid-week sf miscellaneous

This is kind of old news, but it escaped my notice at the time. The British Fantasy Society's 2010 British Fantasy Awards Winners.

And looking to the North (at least from where I'm sitting), we have the 2010 Sunburst Awards Winners.

Literary agent and champion for science fiction and fantasy Ralph M. Vicinanza died suddenly of an cerebral aneurysm on Saturday. Read more at Locus.

I'm still getting lists sent my way. Here's one for Futurama fans: 10 Futurama Inventions That Should Be Real.

Here's a list of "10 Essential Works of Transhumanist Fiction". What I want to know is why Peter F. Hamilton's Void trilogy isn't listed. My review of The Evolutionary Void, the last in the trilogy will appear soon at Mostly Fiction. For now, let me say, Wow! Encore! Give me more!

As the premiere of JIM approaches (Oct. 8 in NY and Oct. 15 in LA), here's another clip and a facebook application.



JIM LORIGEN GENE MASHER APPLICATION

About Lorigen Gene Masher
The Lorigen Gene Masher offers a fun way to see what you would look like composited with your friends. The Lorigen Gene Masher is presented by "Jim", a new film by Jeremy Morris-Burke.

To watch the trailer and find out more about JIM visit http://www.jimthefilm.com

The "season" part II

Just after posting the list for all those award winners and nominees, I read on Robert Sawyer's Facebook page that FlashForward was up for a Constellation Award. Doh! Those most certainly should have been included in my list.

The Constellation Awards honors Science Fiction works on the silver screen and the plasma (or HD or whatever kind of tele you have) screen. Nominees in the various categories are voted on by the Canadian public using either a paper or online ballot.

The TCON Promotional Society, the not-for-profit corporation who organizes the annual Polaris science fiction event (formerly known as Toronto Trek) organizes the awards program and have been doing so now for four years. Winners will be honored at a ceremony at Polaris 24 in July. For more information, and especially if you're Canadian and haven't voted, visit the Constellation Awards website.

And let's not forget the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebulas coming up next month. You can see the nominees in all categories on the SFWA site. And last month SFWA announced the winners of the 2010 Solstice Award: Tom Doherty, Terri Windling and the late Donald A. Wollheim. Solstice Awards recipients will be honored during the Nebula Award Weekend in Cocoa Beach, Fla. (May 14-16).

You can read the full press release here.

I have interviews lined up with Greg Bear, Steve Hockensmith and Laurel Ann Hill and many more. Stay tuned.

Oh, and I almost forgot. You SOOOOO have to see this show! I stumbled upon this show on IFC while channel surfing. Have you seen The IT Crowd? It's not SF, but it's a quirky British sitcom.



And of course three episodes later, it poofed. There are three seasons on DVD. It's so on my Amazon wishlist.

I'm also expecting a press package from ABC on the new horror series, Happy Town. I'll tell you all about it as soon as I get it.

vote it up!

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.






vote it up!