Do tricks, get treats

HURRY! This first contest is today (Wednesday, October 19th) only!

Log onto Twitter for your chance to win tickets to the LA premiere of IN TIME, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried!

Tweet #intimepremiere today to see a virtual map with the location of the ticket giveaways. There will be five people secretly located around Los Angeles with pairs of premiere tickets to give to fans. As the amount of tweets increase,the closer you'll be to discovering the secret giveaway locations... until time runs out.

Each time fans reach a tweet goal, the virtual map will zoom closer to reveal the location. Be one of the first on the scene and say the passphrase "Every second counts" to claim your tickets to the LA premiere on Thursday, October 20th.

Visit www.intimemovie.com to begin the race!


IN TIME

Thriller
Release: October 28, 2011
Written and directed by: Andrew Niccol
Producers: Eric Newman, Marc Abraham
Cast: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Galecki
Synopsis: In a future where time is literally money, and aging stops at 25, the only way to stay alive is to earn, steal, or inherit more time. Will Salas lives life a minute at a time, until a windfall of time gives him access to the world of the wealthy, where he teams up with a beautiful young heiress to destroy the corrupt system.

And how about a chance to win a Worldcon membership and more?

SALUTE THE FANDOM CHICON SWEEPSTAKES

Phoenix Pick / Arc Manor will give one lucky recipient a full voting
membership to Chicon 7 (the 70th World Science Fiction Convention) PLUS a
dinner with select authors including Guest of Honor Mike Resnick. Three
runners-up will also get an invitation to the fully paid dinner.

No purchase is necessary to participate. Sign up at www.PhoenixPick.com

Winners will be notified February 15, 2012.

Chicon 7 will be held in Chicago from August 30 to September 3, 2012.

And now avid SF Readers can find all the best titles in one place. See what you think of Adam Doppelt's BestSFBooks site which rates books by awards they were nominated for or have received. It looks a little like my book shelf...

Opportunities abound - including a trip to space!

In honor of its 50th Anniversary, the Seattle Space Needle is sending some lucky space-lover into space! They have lots of other prizes. Entering the contest gains you access to the grand prize of a private (as in not NASA, not by yourself) rocket ride into the heavens - a sub-orbital jaunt, really. But how cool is that? Find out more here.



Phoenix Pick's free ebook for September is A. A. Attanasio’s Radix . This from Phoenix:

This particular edition of Radix is scheduled to be taken off the market
during January 2012 (due to contractual reasons), so this may be one of
your last chances to get this, what the author considers, his favorite
edition of the book.

Readers will also have the option of purchasing other books of the Radix
Tetrad at a substantial discount when downloading the free ebook
(instructions will be given on the download page).

A young man's odyssey of self-discovery in a world eerily alien, yet
hauntingly familiar.

Set thirteen centuries in the future, A. A. Attanasio meticulously creates
a brilliantly realized Earth, rich in detail and filled with beings
brought to life with intense energy.

In this strange and beautiful world, Sumner Kagan will change from an
adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like powers and in the process
take us on an epic and transcendent journey.

Carl Schirmer spontaneously transforms into light. Then, 130 billion years
later, when all of spacetime is collapsing into the vast nothingness of
the cosmic black hole, Schirmer is remade from the remnants of his light.
He is reborn in time’s last world, the strangest of all—the Werld.

“An instant classic.”—Washington Post

“RADIX is sheer pleasure to read: brimming with living characters,
splendid adventures...It is an exhilarating novel.”—Minneapolis Tribune

The Coupon Code for September is 9991421 and will be good from September 2
through September 30, 2011. Instructions and download link, as usual,
through our online catalogue at http://www.PPicking.com

**end PR**

And if you're anywhere near San Diego, attending Conjecture will give you a multitude of opportunities to hear from yours truly! This year's theme is Incredible Worlds and their GOH is Allen M. Steele.

Here's my so sweet schedule of panels for this small, but long-running con in beautiful San Diego.

Friday 2PM Post Apocalyptic Fever
Friday 5PM Care and Feeding of Writers' Groups
Friday 6PM Are There Any New Stories?
Friday 7PM Reading

Saturday 3PM Alien Libraries
Saturday 5PM A Feudal Future: SF as Fairy Tale
Saturday 7PM How Will We Feel When We're No Longer Made of Meat?

Sunday 11AM Comedy in SF & F

I can't wait! I'm going to make sure to hit Seaworld and the beach while I'm there, too!



And though Renovation is over, look what's in store for Worldcon 2013 after Chicon (Chicago 2012):

LoneStarCon 3 wins 2013 Worldcon bid for San Antonio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 20, 2011

RENO, Nev. – The World Science Fiction Convention will return to Texas for the first time since 1997 after voting results announced Aug. 20 at Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon, awarded the right to host the international conference to the Texas in 2013 bid. LoneStarCon 3–the 71st World Science Fiction Convention–will be held Aug. 29-Sept. 2, 2013, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Mariott Rivercenter and Mariott Riverwalk will serve as the host hotels.

The guests of honor list for LoneStarCon 3 includes Ellen Datlow, James Gunn, Norman Spinrad, Darrel K. Sweet and Willie Siros, with Paul Cornell serving as toastmaster and featuring special guests Leslie Fish and Joe R. Lansdale.

**PR truncated**

Renovation revisited and more con news

I find, several days later, refreshed and regrouped, I have more to say about Renovation, the Worldcon in Reno last weekend. I mentioned getting a chance to meet all kinds of cool authors face to face whom I had only virtually met. Well, what do you care? Let me tell you now, why you should care.

I have promises of interviews from:
Madeleine Robins
Steven Gould
Scott Edelman (editor)
David Boop
Harry Turtledove

Look for those to roll out soon.

I also scored copies of The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley and Brenda Cooper's Mayan December. You should check out the cover of Mayan December. The woman on the front looks like Zoe from Firefly. Not exactly, but the expression is what does it. I'm looking forward to reading them both.

I let slip that I review books while in the dealers room and before I knew it, was inundated with books. Yikes! I'm sure some of them will be worthy of a review at Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys. One guy, however, was so desperate for a review that he insisted his self-published historical fiction was alternate history. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

I requested Harry Turtledove's latest from the publisher as it's silly SF. I can definitely go for that.

I didn't make the Hugo Awards, but heard about this highlight and found the video. Chris Garcia - best acceptance speech ever!

Scholastic emailed me when I got back requesting reviews of their titles, so you may see some YA reviews in the near future here at SFOO.

And in other con news, FOGcon is back! I went to the first one in San Francisco last year and they just announced their plans for 2012 after Renovation. The second annual Friends of the Genre Convention will be held in Walnut Creek, CA (East Bay) March 30 - April 1. The theme for 2012 is The Body. Registration is open and memberships are $60/adult.

From their first progress report, here are their Guests of Honor:

Nalo Hopkinson, Honored Guest

NALO HOPKINSON, born in Jamaica, has lived in Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana and for the past 30 years in Canada. She is the author of four novels and a short story collection (_Brown Girl in the Ring_, _Midnight Robber_, _The Salt Roads_, _The New Moon's Arms_, _Skin Folk_). She is the editor of fiction anthologies _Whispers From the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction_, and _Mojo: Conjure Stories_. She is the co-editor of fiction anthologies _So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction_ (with Uppinder Mehan) and _Tesseracts Nine_ (with Geoff Ryman). Hopkinson's work has received Honourable Mention in Cuba's "Casa de las Americas" literary prize. She is a recipient of the Warner Aspect First Novel Award, the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for emerging writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the Locus Award for Best New Writer, the World Fantasy Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the Aurora Award, and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. She was the Guest of Honor at the 2011 WisCon.

Shelley Jackson, Honored Guest

SHELLEY JACKSON is a writer and artist known for her cross-genre experiments, including the groundbreaking hypertext _Patchwork Girl_ (1995). Her works deal with issues of the body, displacement, touch, and desire. Born in the Philippines, Shelley Jackson grew up in Berkeley, California. She is the author of several hypertext novels, including _Patchwork Girl_, a non-chronological reworking of Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_, as well as the autobiographical _My Body_ and _The Doll Games_, which she wrote with her sister Pamela. In 2001 she received the Electronic Literature Award. Shelley Jackson's short story collection, _The Melancholy of Anatomy_, appeared in 2002. A year later, she launched the "Skin Project", a novella published in the form of tattoos on the skin of volunteers. Her first novel, _Half Life_, won the 2006 Tiptree Award.

Mary Shelley, Honored Ghost

MARY SHELLEY is best known for her pioneering novel _Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus_ (1818), often considered the first science fiction novel. She wrote the book while she was 18, unwed, and pregnant with her first child. Given that her own mother had died in childbed when Mary was only 11 days old, the terrors of pregnancy and childbirth are a powerful theme in the text. Her second novel, _The Last Man_, is also science fiction: it is a portrait of the end of the world from a plague in the 21st century. Mary Shelley moved in the first intellectual circles of her day. Her father was the political theorist William Godwin; her mother, the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, author of _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_; family friends included Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Leigh Hunt. Before she turned 17 she eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was married and the father of two children. Their friends included Lord Byron. She traveled widely and wrote several books about her journeys. Although her later books are overshadowed by the fame of _Frankenstein_, she continued writing novels, essays, poetry, and criticism throughout her life, as well as editing her husband's papers. She died, aged 53, of a brain tumor.


And two more tidbits...
Gameforge, which just hit 300 million registered players, launched a new ommunity-based, free-to-play Star Trek Q&A game. More information at www.keengames.com.

Kindle users can now download the digest edition of Fantasy and Science Fiction for free. That's the good news. The bad news is that you get all the editorial goodies but only one story. You can get the full edition for $12/yr.

Broads rule at Worldcon!

My Worldcon blog report is about the Broads (Broad Universe members) who made it so special - at least for me. This was my first Worldcon so I can't compare it to others for you, nor can I tell you much about the scheduled events. I had a ball at Worldcon, but did it mostly outside of the box. I only hit a couple panels and no other scheduled events - unless you count book launches and room parties.

To me, Worldcon was about the people. Where else can I see so many marvelous sci-fi writers all in one place? I met many authors whom I had only met virtually and caught up with old friends. I arrived in Reno late Wednesday afternoon and spent the evening with my cousin who so graciously put me up and put up with me coming in late at night. She lives way out in the country with the cottontails and the quail. And the sage brush - echew!

Thursday I went to breakfast with her and her husband and experienced a first. I ordered tea. I have to say the abysmal lack of good tea or even tea water was certainly the worst thing that happened at Worldcon. The waitress brought the generic restaurant tea along with a pot of ... air. How did she not notice how light it was? The food for the Worldcon green room did not include water for tea until I made a small stink. Still, they insisted to the contracted caterers that we just wanted to drink hot water so they wouldn't have to pay the exorbitant price for the cardboard dust they call tea. The last day, someone snuck in some Twinings. Now that's more civilized. But, again, the pot was dry. Grrrr. I hate coffee. Can't pay me to drink the stuff. But get between me and my tea and there'll be trouble. I drink the hard stuff at home. PG Tips, baby. I even carry Bigelow tea bags in my purse as a Lipton defense. That was much more than you needed to know about my tea habits, but I feel better. ;)

Friday morning started early with a 7AM Broad Universe breakfast at a casino restaurant. How great to meet so many Broads face to face! Karina Fabian went around the three tables recording video interviews with all of us. I expect that is posted somewhere or will be soon. I'll drop the link in later.

Next, it was off to the very well-attended Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. I ran a tight ship and 12 ladies were able to read from their work before we had to clear the room. The response was super and many listeners headed to the dealers room to buy our books.

Next up for me was the book launch of Defending the Future IV: No Man's Land with Brenda Cooper, S.A. Bolich and Jennifer Brozek. That was less well-attended, but went very well. Of the ladies I read with Jennifer's was the only story I hadn't read yet. Now I'm anxious to read it, too.

Corie Ralston shared her Speculative Literature Foundation booth with Broad Universe in the dealers room. I have to say that I sold more books than ever at a con and I'm sure it was because of the exposure afforded by the boutique table versus trying to sell books wedged in with a zillion other titles at a bookseller's table. I got a kick out of volunteering there, too. Here is S.A. Bolich and Ann Gimpel taking their turn.



And here I am with Corie (far left), Karina Fabian and S.A. Bolich.


Friday night I attended Brenda Cooper (Mayan December) and Louise Marley's (The Brahms Deception) joint book launch. They're both Broads, as I've mentioned before. Louise sold out and Brenda was well into her second box when I stopped back by toward the end of the evening.

And here is Allen M. Steele at the Asimov/Analog room party cutting the Asimov cakes with the cover featuring his story.

Incidentally, Allen won a Hugo Saturday night for his novelette "The Emperor of Mars". Read all the Hugo results at Tor.com now. AND, my next con is Conjecture in San Diego where he is Guest of Honor.

Read more Worldcon reports by perusing my blogroll to the right.

Now I know why zombies are so popular. That's what sci-fi writers turn into after a five-day con. Write what you know...

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.

Friday miscellany

I have some tid-bits for you all this fine (rainy here) Friday.

I heard on David Brin's blog that Worldcon in Reno (Renovation) is offering a college credit course on teaching science fiction! How awesome is that?

2010 Nebula awards, presented on May 21st went to the following:

Novel
Connie Willis for Blackout/All Clear (Spectra)

Novella
Rachel Swirsky for "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" (Subterranean, Summer 2010)

Novellette
Eric James Stone for "That Leviathan, WHom Thou Has Made" (Analog Sept. 2010)

Short Story
Looks like there's two winners! Kij Johnson's "Ponies" (Tor.com 1/17/10) tied with Harlan Ellison's "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)

Ray Bradbury Award
Inception

Andre Norton Award
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Prathett (Doubleday; Harper)


How fun is this? A primer for relating to a sf/f geek can be found over at Author's Echo. Make sure to add your two cents!

Here's an eye-opening article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch for my writer-readers out there. We keep hearing how the publishing world is changing. After a while, we tune it out and figure it will right itself eventually or we'll dip a toe here and there into the new paradigm and see how it goes. Well, it's not going away and we need to get with the program I guess.

Now let's peek at movies: