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Tag Archives: Boba Fett
Pixel Scroll 3/14/22 This Scroll Is Non-Fileable Token
(1) SUPPORT THE CLARION "GHOST CLASS". The pandemic forced the Clarion Writers' Workshop to be postponed to 2022 – with the result that the "ghost class" accepted for 2020 has had to wait two years to attend. Clarion has been working on getting them additional scholarship support, including a generous grant from the SFWA Givers Fund. However, the Ghost Class is also launching a team fundraiser to support members of their class who have additional needs. The Indiegogo to "Help 18 sci-fi & fantasy writers go to Clarion" has raised $1,360 of its $19,000 goal with 28 days remaining.
A message from the Ghost Class:
Getting accepted to Clarion in 2020 was a dream come true for each of us. Then…2020 happened. Over the past two years, we've lost jobs, changed careers, had babies, cared for and lost loved ones, and moved between states, countries — even continents. We've also gotten to know each other online, supporting each other through all the rejections and acceptances and "unprecedented times."
Now Clarion is finally back on, and we're determined to make sure all of us can afford to go. Instead of running our own individual fundraisers, we decided to combine forces and try to raise an extra $1000 each toward tuition for all 18 of us. Those of us who don't need as much will donate back to a pool for those who need a little more. And if we raise more than we need, we might even be able to help fund future Clarion attendees.
1. Donate to our fundraiser. Every small amount helps!
2. Share our fundraiser page to all your social media accounts today. (Now is the perfect time to help us build momentum!)
3. Order one of our perks. We're offering editing services, story feedback, workshops, artwork, and more on the fundraiser page, check them out!
Those of us who've run successful fundraisers like this before know how important it is to get early momentum from contributors like you, so thank you, truly, from the bottom of our ghostly hearts!
– The 2020 2021 2022 Clarion UCSD Ghost Class
(2) RENDEZVOUS ALONG THE WAY. Janelle Monáe will be joined by several of her collaborators at the stops on her upcoming book tour for The Memory Librarian from HarperCollins. They include Sheree Renée Thomas and Alaya Dawn Johnson.
In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, futurist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe and an esteemed cohort of collaborating writers bring to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of her critically acclaimed album, exploring how different threads of liberation — queerness, race, gender plurality and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape … and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.
(3) RUSSIA RETALIATES AGAINST SANCTIONS. The Kidscreen headline says "Russia strikes at Peppa Pig in copyright battle" but as Craig Miller explains on Facebook, "[The article] spells out a Russian counter to all of the international economic sanctions being put in place because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The Russian government has declared that trademarks, copyrights, and patents from countries they have deemed 'unfriendly' can be ignored and Russian companies and people can steal and bootleg all they want."
Peppa Pig has gotten caught up in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the development could have implications for other entertainment IPs.
eOne's billion-dollar franchise has found itself at the heart of a Russian retaliatory strategy against economic sanctions. A Russian court has dismissed a case that eOne brought last year against a local entrepreneur who allegedly used the Peppa Pig trademark without permission. And the government has now doubled down on the ruling with its own decree allowing patented inventions and designs to be used without permission or compensation.
The decree opens the door to copyright infringement of brands from many territories that Russia has deemed to be unfriendly in recent weeks, including Australia, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, the US, Japan and Switzerland. However, it's likely that Russian companies will use the new rule change to stock up on devices, technologies and (in the case of the entertainment industry) kids content, which could be in short supply amid all the sanctions, according to a statement from Chicago-based law firm Baker McKenzie.…
(4) RELATED WORK. Cora Buhlert's next Non-Fiction Spotlight is on "Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction 1950 to 1985, edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre". (Cora also says those looking for more recommendations for SFF-related non-fiction should "check out this Facebook group set up by the always excellent Farah Mendlesohn, who is a champion (and author) of SFF-related non-fiction.")
What prompted you to write/edit this book?
The second book in our series, Sticking it to the Man, originally included material on radical science fiction but the length of the book completely blew out and our publisher insisted we shorten it. It was at this point that my co-editor, Iain McIntyre, and I realised we had the makings of a third book – on radical science and speculative fiction. We pitched the idea to our publisher, and they were very receptive. With the high/low culture, hardback/paperback, literary/pulp distinctions particularly blurred with sci-fi, and a huge range of authors and works to choose from, we certainly had no trouble finding enough material for book-length treatment of the subject. Indeed, Dangerous Visions and New Worlds could have been twice as long, and we still would not have been able to cover everything.
(5) PASHA LEE OBIT. A Ukrainian actor known for The Hobbit vocals died in action reports the BBC: "Ukrainian actor Pasha Lee killed in Russian bombardment".
Lee, 33, had signed up for Ukraine's territorial defence force in the first days of the war.
A resident of Irpin, he appeared in several films and his voice featured in the Ukrainian versions of The Lion King and The Hobbit….
Pavlo Li, as the actor was formally known, was born in Crimea in 1988 and had recently begun presenting a show on Dom TV, a Ukrainian channel originally aimed at audiences in the eastern areas seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.
(6) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
1994 — [Item by Cat Eldridge] Thirty-eight years ago the Robocop series was first broadcast on this date in the United Kingdom. (It would be four days more before it was broadcast in the States.) Stripped largely of the violence and cynicism of the film that it was based on, it was intended to appeal to children and young adults.
Here Richard Eden is Murphy / RoboCop. And given its target audience, playing a prominent role is Sarah Campbell as Gadget, an eight year-old girl. Certain characters in the film are rejiggered into new characters, i.e. Anne Lewis becomes Lisa Madigan.
It lasted but twenty-two episodes over one season. Cancellation was actually announced part way into the season.
So how was reception for it? The Variety review at the time said of it at that time that the, "Series has a good chance of succeeding because, on the basis of the opener, it's brave enough to amuse instead of intimidate. There's a lesson there." And the Houston Chronicle like it quite a bit saying it "works well as a mass-market show. … It offers action, as opposed to violence. And its ironic humor, though not as hard-edged as the movies', has a sly, subversive bent." Finally word goes to the Boston Globe: "This is a far campier and cartoonier RoboCop than the original. Even when the wit is blunt, the writing is snappy; and the acting is just broad enough to poke a little fun at itself."
(7) TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born March 14, 1918 — Mildred Clingerman. Most of her stories were published in the Fifties in F&SF when Boucher was Editor. Boucher included "The Wild Wood" by her in the seventh volume of The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction and dedicated the book to her, calling her the "most serendipitous of discoveries." A Cupful of Space and The Clingerman Files, neither available as a digital publication, contain all of her stories. (Died 1997.)
Born March 14, 1941 — Wolfgang Petersen, 81. Usually Birthdays are reserved for individuals with longer genre records but he's responsible as director for two of my favorite films, Enemy Mine and The NeverEnding Story. He also produced The Bicentennial Man. If you look carefully, you'll see him in The NeverEnding Story as the man who drops milk in one scene.
Born March 14, 1946 — Diana G. Gallagher. She won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist along with Brad W. Foster at Noreascon 3 after being a nominee at Nolacon II the previous year. She won it under the name Diana Gallagher Wu while married to William F. Wu whose Birthday we did yesterday. She was also an author filker and author who wrote books for children and young adults based on Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and various Trek series. Her best-known filksong was "A Reconsideration of Anatomical Docking Maneuvers in a Zero Gravity Environment." (Died 2021.)
Born March 14, 1961 — Penny Johnson Jerald, 62. She played Kasidy Yates, the love of Ben Sisko, on Deep Space Nine. She's now playing Dr. Claire Finn on Orville, just one of many Trek cast member that you'll find there. And she provided the voice of President Amanda Waller on the most excellent Justice League: Gods & Monsters.
Born March 14, 1964 — Julia Ecklar, 58. She's the Astounding Award–winning author for The Kobayashi Maru which is available in English and German ebook editions. She's also a filk musician who recorded numerous albums in the Off Centaur label in the early 1980s, including Horse-Tamer's Daughter, Minus Ten and Counting, and Genesis. She was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 1996.
Born March 14, 1957 — Tad Williams, 65. Author of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, Otherland series, and Shadowmarch series as well as the most excellent Tailchaser's Song and The War of the Flowers.
Born March 14, 1971 — Rebecca Roanhorse, 51. Her "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" which was first published in the August 2017 of Apex Magazine won a Hugo as best short story at Worldcon 76. (It won a Nebula as well.) She also won the Astounding Award for the same work for Best New Writer. She has five novels to date, including Trail of Lightning which was nominated for a Hugo at Dublin 2019, and Black Sun, being nominated for a Hugo at DisCon III.
Born March 14, 1974 — Grace Park, 48. Boomer on the reboot of Battlestar Galactica. She's been on a fair amount of genre over the years with her first acting role being the Virtual Avatar in the "Bits of Love" episode of Outer Limits. After that, she shows up on Secret Agent Man, This Immortal, The Outer Limits again, Star Gate SG-1, Andromeda, and oddly enough Battlestar Galactica in a number roles other than her main one. I'm sure one of you can explain the latter. I confess that I've not watched it.
(8) COMICS SECTION.
Off the Mark features a bit of Pi Day humor.
The Far Side is monstrously funny.
(9) COFFEE BREAK'S OVER. [Item by Olav Rokne.] To be honest, the headline of this spoof article is better than the content, but it's worth sharing if only for this line: "After a very long week in theatres, there's only one question on people's minds, who is going to play Batman next?" "Batman has been out for a week, isn't it time for a reboot?" at The Beaverton.
(10) DON'T LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE. In The New Yorker, Ward Sutton teases these "Untapped "Star Wars" Spinoff Ideas" with cartoons.
The "Boba Fett" series is rad, but what about the other bounty hunters we saw momentarily in "The Empire Strikes Back"? Like this guy, who looks like the costume budget ran out and so they just wrapped a towel around his head. Doesn't he deserve his own streaming series or something?…
Fans deserve to hear the untold stories of the many, many side characters in the "Star Wars" franchise.https://t.co/CsJHDPQfiu
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 13, 2022
(11) COMICS RAISE FUNDS FOR UKRAINE RED CROSS. [Item by James Bacon.] This is very thoughtful, although obviously in dreadful circumstances, to see Declan Shalvey and Rory McVonville supporting the Ukraine Red Cross and artist Vlad Legostaev like this is great. (And it's a cracking good series too – I highly recommend it.) "Time Before Time Issues #13 & #14 To Feature Connecting Covers By Vlad Legostaev To Support Ukraine Relief Efforts".
Ukrainian artist Vlad Legostaev is teaming up with Declan Shalvey and Rory McConville for two connecting Time Before Time covers—the proceeds for which will go toward supporting Ukrainian Red Cross relief efforts.
"With Time Before Time we always ask great exciting artists to provide B covers for the series. We recently asked the hugely talented Vlad Legostaev to provide a wonderful connecting cover for an exciting 2-part story by Rory McConville and Ron Salas," said Shalvey. "Unfortunately since then, Vlad's home country has suffered true horrors, so, with Vlad's permission, we decided to use his art to try to raise money for those suffering in Ukraine. So now, the proceeds from Vlad's B cover for Time Before Time #13 and 14 will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross. We hope Vlad's art can help his homeland, in some small way."
In the Time Before Time series, to escape a world with no future, many turn to the Syndicate—a criminal organization that, for the right price, will smuggle you back in time to the promise of a better yesterday.
Time Before Time #13 and Time Before Time #14 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, June 8 and Wednesday, July 6, respectively:
Time Before Time #13 Cover B by Legostaev – Diamond Code APR220254
Time Before Time #14 Cover B by Legostaev – Diamond Code JAN229189
(12) SADDLE UP. Are you a fan of Western fiction and nonfiction? The Western Writers of America have announced the 2022 Spur Award winners. The complete list is at the link.
David Heska Wanbli Weiden is getting his fourth Spur Award in three years, and bestselling novelists Michael Punke and C.J. Box are also 2022 winners. Presentations to winners and finalists are scheduled for June 22-25 during WWA's convention in Great Falls, Mont….
(13) THIS IS BORING. Daniel Dern says, "The only question is, does this become a science fiction, fantasy, or horror scenario. (Or a combo!)" "World's deepest hole could be the key to limitless energy" at Unexplained Mysteries.
… While the crust of our planet is relatively cool, the interior is very warm indeed. Tapping this heat to produce electricity has the potential to provide a practically limitless amount of clean energy to the masses, that is, at least, if we can actually reach it.
Now though, energy company Quaise is hoping to achieve such a feat by combining a megawatt-power gyrotron (which forces atoms to melt together) with the latest state-of-the-art drilling tools to dig deep down into the Earth's surface and tap this underused source of energy.
The firm hopes to reach depths of over 12 miles and is aiming to produce power within four years….
(14) MARIO IS COMING. "The first Super Nintendo World in the US set to open in 2023 with more parks on the way" reports The Points Guy.
When Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios Japan in March 2021, plans were already well underway to build similar parks in the U.S. at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort. Unfortunately for stateside fans of Mario, Luigi and the gang, there was no concrete timeline for when those parks would open — until now.
Universal Studios Hollywood announced its Nintendo-themed land, which is already under construction, will open sometime in 2023. When it does, guests will have the chance to become part of a larger-than-life Nintendo universe.
…Though Universal did not release specific details on which attractions will be in the park, the company did share that the land will feature a "groundbreaking ride and interactive areas," as well as themed dining and shopping that will make you feel like you're an actual video game character.
Theme park news site WDWNT has been closely following the construction progress. So far, the only thematic elements visible in construction photos are the iconic green hills Nintendo fans will easily recognize. It's hard to determine exactly which rides are being built, but the attractions are expected to be similar to those at Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Japan.
This includes Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, a real-life Mario Kart race that uses augmented reality (in the form of Mario-themed glasses), projection mapping and screen projections to make favorite Mario Kart courses come to life; and Yoshi's Adventure, a slow-moving ride where guests can fulfill their childhood fantasy of hopping on Yoshi's back and going for a spin around the Mushroom Kingdom….
[Thanks to John King "Pie Day" Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Olav Rokne, James Bacon, Alan Baumler, Daniel Dern, Craig Miller, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Alaya Dawn Johnson, Batman, Boba Fett, Clarion Writers' Workshop, Cora Buhlert, Janelle Monáe, Nintendo, Robocop, Sheree Renée Thomas, Spur Award, Star Wars | 33 Replies
Pixel Scroll 2/16/22 This Page Intentionally Left Indescribable
Posted on February 16, 2022 by Mike Glyer
(1) WHEN 'THINGS TO COME' WAS NEW. The videos featuring the musical score of Things to Come linked in the Pixel Scroll for February 13 prompted John L. Coker III to pass along this transcript of a conversation that he had with David A. Kyle about the movie over 20 years ago.
[David A. Kyle:] H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come was one of the first serious science fiction movies; it considered big problems and big situations, and had a great cast. This is a picture that was full of idealism, with the viewpoint of the future as one world. Fans of science fiction had hoped that mankind would all band together and we would all be Earth people. When we went out to the planets, we would be representing the Earth as a whole, rather than as individual countries.
The picture was socialistic, as H. G. Wells was, and it was rare when a real science fiction picture came out. It dealt with real things, and forecast what was going to happen in Europe. It is set in 1936, when an unidentified enemy bombs England and war starts. The sky is black with airplanes coming over, all quite visionary.
I remember when it first came out. It played in a country theater near my home in Monticello, New York, for three days. Because I was a young newspaper reporter, I could go into a theater anytime I wanted, and I wouldn't have to pay. The movie was so prophetic, and there was also the great music written by Arthur Bliss. I had recordings of that music at one time, and it was really drummed into my head. It still haunts me.
When I went to New York with some of the science fiction fans in the late 1930s, we went to the Ivory Tower. This was a breeding ground for writers such as Dick Wilson, Donald A. Wollheim and Fred Pohl. As I came out of the subway, and approached the building, I would run through my head the march from Things to Come. Time passed, and in 1939 war broke out in Europe, and we began to see the prophecies coming true.
In 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the next year I enlisted. I became an officer and was sent to Northern Ireland. It was midnight and I was by myself in my hut, and had my radio on. Then came the unforgettable music from Things to Come. I remembered scenes such as the bombing of London and suddenly this creepy crawly feeling went up my back. There I was, in uniform, a part of the conflict that was going on around me, and I realized I had become part of the picture. It had come to life.
Six months or so later, I was in London, looking in the publication What's On. It listed all of the cinemas, and I noticed that Things to Come was playing. How could I resist going to see it, being in London with a war going on?
A few days later I was in the Savoy Hotel with a Canadian officer, and I saw Edmond Chapman, who played the role of Pippin Passworthy, opposite Raymond Massey's main character. So there he was, in his R. A. F. uniform, and I went over to him to say hello. I told him that I had been intrigued by the film that I saw years ago, and that I had gone again to see it the other night. He had several kind things to say. It was a thrill for me to be there with a character from the film in uniform, in London, during the war. It was as if he had somehow come alive from the movie. It was surreal but so realistic. I was nearly overwhelmed by the experience. I'll never forget it.
Years later, when I was living in England and attending a Rotary meeting, a man across the table from me who had been an entertainer told me that when he was young, he had visited the studios where they were making Things to Come. He had been an extra on the picture, and appeared in the scene where all of the troops were jumping off of the back of the big ship. He remembered when H. G. Wells would come around and talk with members of the cast about the picture.
Science fiction and the cinema and fannish friends all sort of came together. And, in my time, I was so close to the imaginative world that our writers created that sometimes I felt that I had become part of that world for a short period of time.
1st Lt. David A. Kyle (England, 1943)
(2) IDA KEOGH Q&A. Bob the Alien occasionally takes over author Paul L. Arvidson's blog and interviews other British SF Association authors. [Via Emily Inkpen.] "Bob the Alien Interviews… Ida Keogh".
Bob: Well what an interesting specimen we've beamed up here. Who are you and why have you got a tail? Other humans don't seem to.
Ida Keogh : Hi Bob! I'm Ida, creator of words, wrangler of precious metal and occasional mermaid. Thank you for having me. Tails are great, aren't they? Other humans are missing out.
Bob: Is this mind probe thingy working? It tells me you're another one of these writer types. What makes you want to do that?
I.K: I have words inside me that need to get out. I love to shape phrases, sculpt paragraphs, stack pages. Sharing my words with other humans makes me glow….
(3) A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT. [Item by Jennifer Hawthorne.] I was wandering around Reddit (being careful not to step into the pools of muck scattered around there) when I found a very cool post from a guy doing a read-through of ALL Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award winners. He's posting them on his blog as he gets through them, and I am very impressed (and somewhat appalled) at all the work he's doing. "The Project" at Don't Forget to Read a Book. The format of the reviews is explained here.
"Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner" is The Project's latest post – here's an excerpt.
…What is there to say about a book that is just what it is? I was unfamiliar with the ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, but apparently it is, well, a thing. A brief synopsis of the original: Thomas meets the Queen of Elfland, goes with her for seven years, sees many delights, and returns to the mortal world. He is given the gift of prophecy.
This novel version expands upon the story, offering an introduction to Thomas before he goes to Fairy, exploring his time there, and then chronicling his later life after returning. All of this added content is rather tepid. Song of Achilles is a great demonstration of the power of reimagining a well known tale and offering a new perspective. There is none of that here. No pushing of boundaries, no real expansion of the mythos. Kushner fills in the blanks in the same way that most others likely would as well….
(4) LEVAR BURTON ON TREVOR NOAH. "LeVar Burton Encourages Kids To Read Banned Books: 'That's Where the Good Stuff Is'" – Comicbook.com introduces a clip from The Daily Show, "America's Book Bans: The Latest Culture War Front". (Burton appears after the 8:30 mark.)
Literacy advocate, Star Trek star, and game show host LeVar Burton wants people, particularly children, to read banned books. The former Reading Rainbow host appeared during a segment about banned books on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. In the piece, Burton attempts to read some seemingly innocuous books only to get cut off because of a book banning for one contrived reason or another. Eventually, Burton runs away after hearing sirens nearby, but not before encouraging folks to read banned books "because that's where the good stuff is." You can watch the entire The Daily Show segment below….
(5) DANGEROUS VISIONS AND NEW WORLDS: RADICAL SCIENCE FICTION. On Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27, City Lights in conjunction with PM Press will present a two-day symposium exploring the radical currents of Science Fiction and celebrating the launch of Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985, edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre.
Featuring an all-star cast of presenters including Samuel Delany, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Michael Moorcock, Cory Doctorow, Marge Piercy, Maitland McDonagh, Annalee Newitz, Jonathan Lethem, Shelley Streeby, Mike Stax, Karen Joy Fowler, Nick Mamatas, Ann VanderMeer, Matt Bell, adrienne maree brown, Daniel Shank Cruz, Lucy Sussex, Mimi Mondal, Vandana Singh, Rebecca Baumann, Meg Elison, Terry Bisson, Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre
Free (Registration Required) There are four sessions to register for on Day One, and another four on Day Two.
(6) MCKENNA'S NEW BOOK. The Fantasy Hive conducts an "Interview with Juliet E. McKenna" about The Cleaving, "a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legends follows the tangled stories of four women: Nimue, Ygraine, Morgana, and Guinevere, as they fight to control their own destinies amid the wars and rivalries that will determine the destiny of Britain." The book will be published by Angry Robots in May 2023.
Can you tell us a bit more about your leading characters, Nimue, Ygraine, Morgana, and Guinevere? They're such iconic characters, how did you approach recreating them?
[Juliet McKenna] Are they so iconic? Everyone knows Morgana and Guinevere's names, but I can think of half a dozen very different portrayals of them both. This isn't a problem though. That variety gives me tremendous freedom to come up with my own take. Nimue? The sources can't even agree on how to spell her name, or exactly what she does, so I've got even more leeway. Ygraine's barely mentioned in so many versions that I pretty much had a blank page there.
My approach to writing all these women has been to make them fully rounded, believable people. Far too often they're two-dimensional figures who come and go to serve the plot by doing something or having something done to them. I took a longer view. I thought about the ways their experiences would shape their personalities, and how the people they become will influence the choices they make.
I also looked at the influence they would have on each other. In so many Arthurian retellings women are defined by their relationships to the men at the centre of the story. Their actions only matter when what they do matters to a man. In reality, women have crucial relationships with each other, as mothers, daughters and most of all as friends and allies. There's no way these women caught up in these events wouldn't look to each other for support. That opens up these myths in a whole new way….
(7) CELEBRATE FAN ART. 2019 Rotsler Award winner Alison Scott has now got a website to show off her fan art 00 "Alison Scott" at Myportfolio.com. Faneds who would like to use any of this material, or perhaps something made just for them (eventually) should get in touch with Alison. This example was done for DisCon III but fits it perfectly here, don't you think?
(8) MEAD OBIT. Prolific sff author Melissa Mead, who was born with cerebral palsy, died February 15. Her friend Eliza Ames paid tribute on Facebook.
I've struggled all day with how to write something about my friend Melissa Mead. Usually, writing my feelings is not hard, but Missy was a writer too, and a damn good one. Missy was born with Cerebral Palsy. Even that one illness is enough to destroy lives, and it wasn't the only thing she had to fight her way through. Missy was a fierce fighter, and yet the single kindest person I've ever met….
Missy may have been limited by her body, but her imagination knew no bounds. She wrote sci fi and fantasy stories, and they were amazing. Every character felt real and every situation, no matter how fantastic, contained such imagery and forethought that it felt always as if that COULD exist….
Deirdre Saoirse Moen pointed out Melissa Mead's recent article about disability representation in fiction, "I Don't Hate Tiny Tim. Really!", at Stupefying Stories Magazine. It's brilliant.
Poor Tiny Tim.
I'm not saying that because he has a disability. I'm saying that because everyone, from his readers to his creator, pities him because he has a disability. He doesn't pity himself, though! He joins in his siblings' games whenever possible, and they cheerfully take him along with them. And while his father calls him "good as gold," he's not a perfect saint. When his father insists that the family drink a toast to his hard-hearted boss, Ebeneezer Scrooge, "Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn't care twopence for it."…
(9) MEL KEEFER (1926-2022). Comic book and animation artist Mel Keefer has died at the age of 95. Mark Evanier wrote a tribute at News From ME.
…No one is quite sure how many newspaper strips he worked on but I know of these: Perry Mason, Dragnet, Gene Autry, Mac Divot, Thorne McBride, Willis Barton M.D. and Rick O'Shay. His longest run was with Mac Divot, which ran from 1955 to 1977. A lot of comic strip fans didn't follow it because it was about golf and newspapers often ran it in the sports section. He ghosted on at least a half-dozen others but the most notable was Bash Brannigan, the strip drawn by "Stanley Ford" (Jack Lemmon) in the movie, How to Murder Your Wife. Mel did all the comic art in the film and when you thought you were seeing a close-up of Lemmon's hand drawing his character, that was Mel's hand you were seeing….
(10) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
1967 — [Item by Cat Eldridge] Fifty-five years ago, Star Trek's "Space Seed" first aired on NBC. It was the twenty-second episode of the first season and it was directed by Marc Daniel from a teleplay from Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber. The former was both a major writer and a show-runner on the series; the latter did writing for Captain Video and His Video Rangers, Lost In Space and The Time Tunnel. The story was by Weber.
Yes, this is the episode that introduced Ricardo Montalbán as Khan Noonien Singh. He would of course return in The Wrath of Khan which would be nominated for a Hugo at ConStellation the year that Blade Runner won. From my viewpoint, and I know some of you may beg to differ, the only other guest performer worth noting is Madlyn Rhue as Lt. Marla McGivers.
Director Nicholas Meyer stated in interviews that he wrote McGivers out of his drafts of The Wrath of Khan in order to give Khan more motivation for being pissed off. Anyone remember if Khan made reference to her in the film? I've seen it at three times but not in at least twenty years now, so I don't remember.
James Blish who was working from the yet script drafts at the time used the name Sibahl Khan Noonien in his novella long adaptation for the 1968 Bantam Books' Star Trek 2 anthology which shows that the name change was a late decision.
Passing references to the events here appear in here will later make it to Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.
Reception at the time of its broadcast was quite positive though the reviewers for Tor.com much later on really didn't like the relationship between Khan and McGivers saying in their of the episode that it was "really uncomfortable to watch her immediate attraction to him and her easy acceptance of his abusive and controlling behavior".
I'm am not, repeat, not going to talk about Benedict Cumberbatch portraying Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. Really, really not going to talk about him doing so.
Greg Cox wrote a very much not canon novel titled To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh which in great detail gave us the romance of Khan and Givers. I can't say I've got much interest in reading it.
(11) TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS.
Born February 16, 1933 — Jim Harmon. During the Fifties and Sixties, he wrote more than fifty short stories and novelettes for Amazing Stories, Future Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, If, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and other magazines. Most of his fiction was collected in Harmon's Galaxy. EoSF says he has one genre novel, The Contested Earth, whereas ISFDB lists two more, Sex Burns Like Fire and The Man Who Made Maniacs. He's a member of First Fandom Hall of Fame. (Died 2010.)
Born February 16, 1940 — Angela Carter. She's best remembered for The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories where she took fairy tales and made them very, very adult in tone. Personally I'd recommend The Curious Room instead,as it contains her original screenplays for the BSFA winning The Company of Wolves which starred Angela Lansbury and The Magic Toyshop films, both of which were based on her own original stories. Though not even genre adjacent, her Wise Children is a brilliant and quite unsettling look at the theatre world. (Died 1992.)
Born February 16, 1951 — William Katt, 71. Ralph Hinkley, the lead of The Greatest American Hero. A series I know I watched and loved at the time. In December 1975, he auditioned for the part of Luke Skywalker. But didn't get the role obviously.
Born February 16, 1953 — Mike Glyer, 69. Happy Birthday! OGH has won the Hugo Award 11 times in two categories: File 770 won the Best Fanzine Hugo in 1984, 1985, 1989, 2000, 2001 2008, and 2016. He himself has won the Best Fan Writer Hugo in 1984, 1986, 1988, and 2016. The 1982 Worldcon presented him a special award in 1982 for Keeping the Fan in Fanzine Publishing. He even wrote several pieces of genre fiction, "The Six Who Are Boring" and "The Men Who Corflued Mohammed."
Born February 16, 1954 — Iain M. Banks. I'm certain I've read the entire Culture series even though I certainly didn't read them in the order they were written. My favorites? Certainly The Hydrogen Sonata was bittersweet for being the last ever, Use of Weapons and the very first, Consider Phlebas are also my faves. And though not genre, I'm still going to make a plug for Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram. It's about single malt whisky, good food and his love of sports cars. And yes, Green Man has reviewed it. How could we not, it being by Banks? (Died 2013.)
"It's a library, only the stupid or the evil are afraid of those."
Thoughts from the late great #IainBanks who was born #onthisday in 1954. We miss you, Iain. pic.twitter.com/GxNHIrMrS9
— National Library of Scotland (@natlibscot) February 16, 2018
Born February 16, 1957 — Ardwight Chamberlain, 65. The voice of Kosh on Babylon 5. And that quite tickles me as I don't think they credited it during the series, did they? Most of his other voice work is English-dubbing versions of Japanese anime including Digimon: Digital Monsters and The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island.
Born February 16, 1957 — LeVar Burton, 65. Well y'all know what series he was on and what character he played that he's best known for so I can dispense with that. And yes, that series did win Hugos, "The Inner Light" did at ConFrancisco and "All Good Things" did at Intersection. Other genre appearances include The Supernaturals, a zombie film, as Pvt. Michael Osgood, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies voicing Black Lightning and in another zombie film Rise of the Zombies as Dr. Dan Halpern. Plus his acclaimed reading series.
Born February 16, 1964 — Christopher Eccleston, 58. The Ninth Doctor, who's my third favorite among the new ones behind David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker. Other genre work includes 28 Days Later, The Seeker, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (a truly awful film), Thor: The Dark World, The Leftovers, The Second Coming and The Borrowers. He also played Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Barbican Theatre.
(12) COMICS SECTION.
Bizarro has a genre IKEA gag.
(13) THE ACME OF FILMMAKING. Screen Crush reports "Wile E. Coyote's Getting a Live-Action Movie Starring John Cena".
Well, John Cena's having a good day.
Not only did his HBO Max series Peacemaker get renewed for a second season, he's also gotten tapped to star in the upcoming live-action Looney Tunes movie Coyote vs. Acme. The concept is vaguely Space Jam-ish, in that it takes place in a world where humans animated cartoons co-exist. (There's no basketball this time, though.)
The movie will be directed by Dave Green, whose previous efforts include Earth to Echo and the live-action (with CGI) Teenage Mutant Ninja sequel, Out of the Shadows. The premise is actually based on a 1990 New Yorker article titled "Coyote v. Acme" by Ian Frazier. (You can read it here.) Here are the specifics of the plot, via Deadline:
The film follows Wile E. Coyote, who after ACME products fail him one too many times in his dogged pursuit of the Roadrunner, decides to hires a billboard lawyer to sue the ACME Corporation. The case pits Wile E. and his lawyer against the latter's intimidating former boss (Cena), but a growing friendship between man and cartoon stokes their determination to win….
(14) PERSPECTIVE ON TODAY. "George Takei: 'I maintain that without optimism, we've already failed'" – so he tells an interviewer from the Washington Post. The profile includes a long reminiscence of his experience being taken to a WWII Japanese internment camp.
Let me ask you about maybe your defining role, your "Star Trek" role. Having experienced discrimination against Japanese Americans during and after World War II, what did it mean to you to as an actor to be able to take a role that didn't play to the stereotypes of what Hollywood was portraying at the moment?
I immediately recognized that this was a breakthrough opportunity for me. For one thing, it was steady work if it sold. I was just doing guest shots here and there. And secondly, it was a part of the leadership team. A breakthrough opportunity, not only for me, but for the image of Asians and Asian Americans on television. The creator of the show, Gene Roddenberry, was extraordinary. He said the Starship Enterprise was a metaphor for Starship Earth and that it was the diversity of this Earth that the strength of this starship comes from.
(15) GOOD OMENS. "In Pictures: Star-spotting in Bo'ness as Good Omens 2 films with David Tennant and Michael Sheen" — the Edinburgh News has numerous photos of the actors on location in the city the other day.
Fans snapped pictures of stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen as they prepared to film scenes around the Hippodrome Cinema
They were joined by Dame Siân Phillips, while extras wearing feather-adorned caps and 1920s flapper-style dresses walked around the set….
(16) THE (KAURI) HELMET OF BOBA FETT. [Item by Soon Lee.] New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, who plays the title character on The Book of Boba Fett, was presented with a carved wooden Boba Fett helmet. "Temuera Morrison honoured in Rotorua with Boba Fett kauri carving" at Newshub.
The carver, Graham Hoete a.k.a. MrG carved it out of native kauri and has shared the video of the gifting.
Exclusive footage (part 1): Presenting the Boba fett Helmet to Temuera Morrison. pic.twitter.com/hBcFpXoZKm
— Graham Hoete aka MrG (@WorldofMrG) February 15, 2022
Exclusive footage (Part 2): Presenting the Boba fett Helmet to Temuera Morrison. pic.twitter.com/MNcSSNt6Yk
And also some of the carving process.
HERE IT IS!????The Final Video just released by @starwars of the FINISHED BOBA FETT helmet i carved for Temuera Morrison. Mauri ora! pic.twitter.com/KNVnpLmbc2
(17) CHRIS AND ZACH; BACK TOGETHER AGAIN. CNET reports "Star Trek 4 Will Bring Back Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto".
It's been six years since the last Star Trek movie, but the wait for the next one is coming to an end. J.J. Abrams, director of 2009's Star Trek and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, announced plans on Tuesday to bring back original cast members for a fourth film.
"We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new 'Star Trek' film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take 'Star Trek' into areas that you've just never seen before," Abrams said during the Paramount Investors Day Presentation…
(18) RESCUE RANGERS RETURNING. Disney+ will air new episodes of "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" beginning May 20. The lead voice actors will be John Mulaney as Chip, and Andy Samberg as Dale, which is very intriguing casting.
Rescuing the world takes a pair. A comeback 30 years in the making, the hybrid live-action/CG animated action-comedy catches up with the former Disney Afternoon television stars in modern-day Los Angeles. "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" premieres May 20, 2022, exclusively on Disney+.
(19) CAT BURGLAR. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] Because this Netflix cartoon is interactive, you can watch this cartoon animal bash-a-thon over and over!
Classic cartoon craziness meets an interactive quiz in CAT BURGLAR. In this Tex Avery inspired toon from the creators of BLACK MIRROR, the viewer helps Rowdy Cat vex Peanut the Security Pup and break into a museum with the goal of making off with a priceless prize. With an average runtime of ten minutes, and over an hour and a half of animation to choose from, the viewer could play CAT BURGLAR a hundred times and never view the same cartoon twice!
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Rob Thornton, Jennifer Hawthorne, Olav Rokne, Soon Lee, Chris Barkley, Michael J. Walsh, John L. Coker III, Steven French, Alison Scott, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day JeffWarner.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Alison Scott, Boba Fett, Dave Kyle, Disney, Ellen Kushner, George Takei, Good Omens, Ida Keogh, John L. Coker III, Juliet McKenna, LeVar Burton, Mark Evanier, Mel Keefer, Melissa Mead, Paul L. Arvidson, Star Trek, Wile E. Coyote | 39 Replies
Pixel Scroll 2/7/22 Head Like A Scroll, Pixeled Like Your Soul
Posted on February 7, 2022 by Mike Glyer
(1) SFWA VOTING ON NEW MEMBERSHIP QUALIFICATIONS. At The World Remains Mysterious, Cat Rambo encourages SFWAns to support these "Possible Upcoming Changes to SFWA Membership". SFWA members have until February 15 to cast their votes.
…An interesting development for SFWA that seems to have been flying under most people's radar is that the organization's members will be voting on whether or not to change the membership requirements in a way that the organization has not previously done. This may be one of the biggest changes made to the membership yet in the organization's 50+ years of history.
The new qualifications: a writer can join as an Associate member once they have earned $100 over the course of their career, and as a Full member at the $1000 level.
That's a huge and very significant change from the current, somewhat arcane membership requirements of $1000 over the course of a year on a single work to become a Full member. Particularly when you think that one of the most contentious propositions on the discussion boards in the past has been the idea of re-qualification, of making people prove they qualify on a yearly basis. Moving away from a system so complicated SFWA had to create a webform to walk people through whether or not they qualified to something like this is a big win in so many ways.
Cat follows up with six reasons SFWAns should vote for the change.
Meanwhile, she notes that the SFWA Board has already implemented another tool which did not require a membership vote:
One other change from the board meeting answers the question of how this affects the idea of "SFWA qualifying markets," which has in the past been used as a way to make sure fiction markets increased their rates every once in a while. We're going to see a fiction matrix that looks at a number of factors, including pay, but also response time, quality of contract, etc. It's very nice to see this long overdue project finally manifest, and I bear as much guilt as anyone in the long overdue part, since I was around when it was first proposed and should have kicked it along significantly harder than I did. I'm very happy to see this and ten thousand kudos to the people who made it happen.
An email sent to SFWA members in January (which I did not receive from Cat) explains the new matrix:
Short Fiction Matrix: The Short Fiction Committee has developed a plan to replace the current Market Qualifying list with a Short Fiction Matrix that will better evaluate the professionalism of short fiction markets and model best practices. This is not contingent on the bylaws vote; the Board has already approved this plan to respond to changes needed to the membership criteria to admit newly voted-in categories of SFWA members. As a result, the current Market Qualifying list is less useful to prospective members, many of whom are deterred from applying by mistakenly assuming that only works sold to markets on the Market Qualifying list make them eligible to apply.
The move to a matrix will better fulfill SFWA's mission to promote and educate on writer-friendly practices in our industry. It will also aim to correct misperceptions that SFWA's minimum professional rate is the only benchmark that a publisher must meet to be considered professional. SFWA will continue to fight for fair and equitable conditions across SF/F and related-genre markets via a minimum professional per-word rate, but additional metrics will give us more tools to use to achieve that goal. We are not abandoning the minimum professional rate at all, but reinforcing it with this matrix. SFWA recognizes the importance that this rate has served in the industry and plans to preserve that outside of the membership qualification criteria.
The rate is meant to encourage better pay for creators, not limit their chances to participate in their professional organizations.
Ten categories have been proposed to comprise the matrix, including wordcount payment rate, payment procedures, good contract practices, audio and translation rights, and promotional efforts, among others. Precisely how each category is evaluated and the points assigned are still in discussion….
(2) THEY ASKED. Marlon James did an Ask Me Anything session for Reddit's r/Books community today: "I'm Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and the forthcoming MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING!"
LElias2784: Hi Marlon! So excited that you're doing this! Can you tell us how you developed the maps that are printed in the books?
MJ: The great thing about writing say, New York is that the city is there. Make up a place and you need a world for the characters to move around. I have to bear in my two things, which might seem at odds. 1. The world is new to the reader, so a lot of world building needs to happen, but 2. it's not new to the characters and they can't move through it like a tourist, which means I can't move around like a tourist. So I sketch a rudimentary map before I even write a word. And it helps to define the place. But as the book gets deeper, the maps gets more detailed, until I reach the point where the book is following the map, not the other way around. This creates challenges, for example, by adding up the distance travelled by a character you might realize that they weren't gone a week, but a year. Or instead of reaching a new destination, they merely circled back to the old. Which means constant modifications. OR you get to the point where the map IS the standard and the prose is what has to change. I appreciate that part actually, because I can say nope, can't write that because that's not in the map….
(3) NEW INTERVIEW SERIES LAUNCHES. [Item by Cora Buhlert.] I have decided to interview authors/editors of SFF-related non-fiction books in a probably futile attempt to restore Best Related Work from "Best response to whatever annoyed us at last year's Worldcon." Here's the introductory post: "Introducing Non-Fiction Spotlights".
… So I want to shine a spotlight on works of long form non-fiction that came out in 2021. The main focus of this series will be on non-fiction books, whether academic or popular, though I will also feature the occasional documentary or blog series. And indeed the first installment of this series will feature a non-fiction book which started out as a series of blogposts. I am not looking for essays, articles, poems, Twitter threads, virtual cons, podcasts, archives, databases, recommendation lists and similar projects at the moment, no matter how worthy….
And here is the first interview: "Non-Fiction Spotlight: The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War by Camestros Felapton". Cam was kind enough to act as my guinea pig, so I can hopefully persuade more authors/editors of SFF-related non-fiction to take part.
What prompted you to write your book?
I'd been thinking of a project like this for some time but the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol was a specific impetus. I wanted to talk about how a section of the US population had become entranced by ideas that seemed so sharply at odds with reality. The overlap between the thinking of some of the key figures in the Sad/Rabid Puppy campaigns and issues such as Covid-denial and election-fraud conspiracy theories was substantial. One key personality from that time had become a major promoter of Qanon, another had been an early proponent of anti-covid-lockdown protests and yet another had been an active proponent of election-fraud conspiracy theories. I really wanted to trace the journey that people went through and how the earlier (fairly minor) conflict foreshadowed later events.
(4) LEDE GENERATOR. Rodolfo Ocampo extended an invitation to the internet: "As part of my PhD, I'm researching human-AI creative interaction. I created a little tool where you can write two themes and see the beginning of a story come alive." You can try it here: Narrative Device.
I was asked to enter two themes. I gave the AI "hamburger" and "moon." Here's what I got back:
The moon was full and shining brightly in the sky. The stars were out, and it was a beautiful night. A family of four was out eating a hamburger at a local burger joint. They were all enjoying their meal, when the father said, "I love hamburgers. They're such a classic." His children agreed, and the mother said, "I love moon pies. They're so yummy."
(5) SUPER BOWL RINGS. Usually a few Super Bowl commercials have genre elements. This year one will be about a major genre production: "Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' TV Show Trailer to Air During Super Bowl" on February 13.
… The official first look video of the most expensive TV series ever made (the first season costs at least $465 million) will debut during Super Bowl LVI.
The announcement comes on the heels of Amazon releasing tease-y character posters showing merely the torsos and hands of its cast.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power follows the forging of the original rings of power that allowed the Dark Lord Sauron to spread darkness across Middle-earth….
(6) DEEP DIVE INTO HOBAN. Evelyn C. Leeper invites Russell Hoban fans to enjoy her webpage of "Russell Hoban Reviews". "Hoban's style is (to me) quintessential magic realism, and incredibly poetic, and I wish his adult books were not so hard to find."
(7) IAN KENNEDY (1932-2022). Comics artist Ian Kennedy died this month – 2000 AD has a profile: "Ian Kennedy 1932-2022".
…It is no hyperbole to describe Kennedy as a legend of British comics. With a career spanning more than seven decades, his meticulously detailed but dynamic work graced dozens of titles, from Hotspur to Bunty, from Commando to 2000 AD.
… As tastes changed, so did the audience for his work. His style adapted perfectly to the new generation of science-fiction comics like 2000 AD, for which he worked for on strips such as 'Invasion', 'Judge Dredd' and 'M.A.C.H.1', as well as on 'Ro-Busters' for stablemate Star Lord. One of his most covers featured the perfect intersection of his changing career – Messerschmitt 109s from World War Two transported to the skies over Judge Dredd's Mega-City One, with one pilot screaming "Himmel! This isn't Stalingrad!".
His richly coloured art, with his particular skill for sleek, dynamic and functional machines and spacecraft, was perfect for the relaunch of 'Dan Dare' in Eagle in the 1980s as well as Blake's 7, M.A.S.K., the short-lived IPC title Wildcat….
(8) ANGÉLICA GORODISCHER (1928-2022). [Item by Cora Buhlert.] Argentinian author of SFF and many other things Angélica Gorodischer has died at the age of 93. For some reason, there have been almost no obituaries in the English language world, not even from places like The Guardian, where you might expect to find them. Locus had a brief item and here is a longer tribute from an obscure news site: "Angélica Gorodischer, the woman who imagined universes" at Then 24.
…She knew from a very young age that she would dedicate herself to writing. Perhaps she did not imagine that she, as a declared feminist writer since the 1980s, would leave a singular mark on literature written in the Spanish language. The true homeland of Angélica Gorodischer, who died at her home in Rosario at the age of 93, was books: the books she read and those she wrote, among which Trafalgar (1979) and the stories of Kalpa Imperial (1983) stand out. The latter was translated into English by none other than Ursula K. Le Guin, the greatest figure in Anglo-Saxon science fiction.
Gorodischer's best novel, Prodigies, is not sff but was translated into English by Sue Burke, another noted sff author.
(9) MEMORY LANE.
2002 — [Item by Cat Eldridge] Twenty years ago at ConJosé where Tom Whitmore and Kevin Standlee were the Chairs and Vernor Vinge was the author guest, David Cherry the artist guest, Bjo & John Trimble fan guests and Ferdinand Feghoot was the imaginary guest (ok, would someone explain that choice please), Neil Gaiman wins the Best Novel Hugo for the best excellent American Gods.
Five novels made the final nomination list: Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion, Connie Willis' Passage, China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, Robert Charles Wilson's The Chronoliths and Ken MacLeod's Cosmonaut Keep.
It would also win the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and be nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, a BFA for the August Derleth Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy for Best Novel.
Born February 7, 1908 — Larry "Buster" Crabbe. He played the lead roles in the Tarzan the Fearless, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers series in the Thirties, the only person to do all three, though other actors played some of those roles. He would show up in the Seventies series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as a retired fighter pilot named Brigadier Gordon. (Died 1983.)
Born February 7, 1941 — Kevin Crossley-Holland, 81. Best known for his Arthur trilogy consisting of The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places, and King of the Middle March. I really liked their perspective of showing a medieval boy's development from a page to a squire and finally to a knight. Highly recommended.
Born February 7, 1949 — Alan Grant, 73. He's best known for writing Judge Dredd in 2000 AD as well as various Batman titles from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. If you can find it, there's a great Batman / Judge Dredd crossover "Judgement on Gotham" that he worked on. His recent work has largely been for small independents including his own company.
Born February 7, 1950 — Karen Joy Fowler, 72. Michael Toman in a letter to our OGH asked we note her Birthday as she has a "A Good Word for one of his favorite writers" and so do I. Her first work was "Recalling Cinderella" in L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol I. Her later genre works are Sarah Canary, the Black Glass collection, a World Fantasy Award winner, and The Jane Austen Book Club novel, is not SF though SF plays a intrinsic role in it, and two short works of hers, "Always" and "The Pelican Bar" won significant Awards. Her latest genre novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, is being adored far and wide. She won a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Born February 7, 1952 — Gareth Hunt. Mike Gambit in The New Avengers, the two season revival of The Avengers that also starred Joanna Lumley as Purdey and Patrick Macnee as John Steed. Quite excellent series. He was also Arak in the Third Doctor story, "Planet of The Spiders". (Died 2007.)
Born February 7, 1955 — Miguel Ferrer. You likely best remember him as OCP VP Bob Morton in RoboCop who came to a most grisly death. Other notable genre roles include playing FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield on Twin Peaks and USS Excelsior helm officer in The Search for Spock. In a very scary role, he was Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning in Brave New World. Lastly I'd like to note that he did voice work in the DC Universe at the end of his life, voicing Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz) in Justice League: The New Frontier and Deathstroke (Slade Joseph Wilson) in Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. (Died 2017.)
Born February 7, 1960 — James Spader, 62. Most recently he did the voice and motion-capture for Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Before that, he played Stewart Swinton in Wolf, a Jack Nicholson endeavor. Then of course he was Daniel Jackson in Stargate, a film I still enjoy though I think the series did get it better. He also plays Nick Vanzant in Supernova and Julian Rome in Alien Hunter.
From Bestie:
Sophisticated Wendy – as seen in @PrivateEyeNews January 2020, now available as a fine art print from the Bestie Store. https://t.co/E2nknE0NoY#privateeye #peterpan #wendy #sophisticated #cartoon #originalartwork #fineartprint #bestie pic.twitter.com/BquOTxw0bU
— Bestie (@bestie_art) January 13, 2020
(12) FCBD 2022. Titan Comics unveiled artist Piotr Kowalski's cover for their Bloodborne Free Comic Book Day edition, which will be given out at participating comic shops on May 7.
Enter the city of Yharnam through the eyes of its citizens, when new hunters take to the streets to fight against the cruel and unusual epidemic that has gripped the city. In the black of night, families and faith will be tested… Based on the critically-acclaimed Bloodbourne video game!
(13) GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Open Culture reviews some century-old predictions: "In 1922, a Novelist Predicts What the World Will Look Like in 2022: Wireless Telephones, 8-Hour Flights to Europe & More".
…In the Paris-born-and-raised George's ancestral homeland, George Orwell described him as an author of what G.K. Chesterton called "good bad books," singling out for praise his 1920 novel Caliban amid the "shoddy rubbish" of his wider oeuvre.
Still even authors of rubbish — and perhaps especially authors of rubbish — can sense the shape of things to come. For its edition of May 7, 1922, the New York Herald commissioned George to share that sense with their readers. In response he described a world in which "commercial flying will have become entirely commonplace," reducing the separation of America and Europe to eight hours, and whose passenger steamers and railroads will have consequently fallen into obsolescence. "Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephones will have crushed the cable system," resulting in generations who'll never have seen "a wire outlined against the sky."
That goes for the transmission of electricity as well, since George credits (a bit hastily, it seems) the possibility of wireless power systems of the kind researched by Nikola Tesla. In 2022, coal will take a distant backseat to the tides, the sun, and radium, and "it may also be that atomic energy will be harnessed." As for the cinema, "the figures on the screen will not only move, but they will have their natural colors and speak with ordinary voices. Thus, the stage as we know it to-day may entirely disappear, which does not mean the doom of art, since the movie actress of 2022 will not only need to know how to smile but also how to talk."…
(14) SOMETHING WAGNERIAN. The Rogues in the House podcast (which will be featured as a fancast spotlight soon) discusses Karl Edward Wagner's Kane: "Some like it Rough – Karl Edward Wagner and Kane".
The Rogues are joined by Whetstone Magazine editor Chuck Clark as they journey into the depths of esoteric time on a quest for a deeper understanding of the Sword & Sorcery mainstay, Kane the Mystic Swordsman and his creator, Karl Edward Wagner. Is this mysterious, flame-haired immortal a friend? Perhaps a foe? And what's this about World Domination? Hang on to your fur-diapers and winged helms, it's gon' get rough!
(15) THEY DIDN'T START THE FIRE. Oliver Brackenbury interviews Jason Ray Carney, editor of Whetstone Magazine, Witch House Magazine and The Dark Man Journal at So I'm Writing a Novel… — "Interview with Jason Ray Carney of Whetstone Magazine".
Oliver and Jason get to some INTERESTING places in their far-reaching discussion, including subjects like: writing workshops, working class literature, modernist literature, R.A. Salvatore as a literary gateway drug, starting a literary magazine & the origin of Whetstone, why he feels you shouldn't send your best work to Whetstone, "mid-list exposure", submitting for ultra low acceptance rate magazines, elevated language, Clark Ashton Smith, grading English papers by engineers, Jason's role as academic coordinator for the Robert E. Howard foundation, Walter Benjamin, how a genre rooted in our past like sword & sorcery can give people an inspiring vision of something new…
(16) BOBA BATHOS. [Item by Cora Buhlert.] The Guardian interviews Jennifer Beals of Flashdance fame who's currently in The Book of Boba Fett as well as a long time Star Wars fan: "'I've had letters from klansmen': Jennifer Beals on Flashdance, The L Word and fighting to get diverse stories told".
… Now, she has entered a franchise with a fractionally longer Hollywood pedigree than her own, as Garsa Fwip in The Book of Boba Fett, a spin-off of The Mandalorian – itself, of course, a spin-off of Star Wars. It takes a while to get your ear in to her natural register, which is playful, very literary and full of bathos. "It's so exciting to be part of the lineage," she says of Boba Fett. "It feels like a calling, like there's some reason that the universe has decided that you're going to enter into these stories."…
(17) GENRE ON STAGE. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times, behind a paywall, Sarah Hemming reviews A Number, a 2002 play by Caryl Churchill that is playing at the Old Vic (oldvictheatre.com) through March 19 and is about a father and son.
The son has just discovered that he is one of 'a number'–a set of identical humans cloned from an original. Every shred of their relationship is being reconfigured in his mind. More shocking still, he's not even number one: Somewhere out there is another, older him–a son five years his senior who grew up in care. Before long, Bernard 1 is in the kitchen too, with his own set of questions…
…Its genius as drama is that it (the play) relies on the skill of the actors to scope out the minute shifts in body language that bring these questions (about the purpose of life)) alive. In (Lyndsey) Tuirner's deftly calibrated staging, (Paapa) Essiedu is mesmerising as multiple iterations of one person. As Bernard 2, he pads about the living room, apparently at ease. But his hands, either buried in the cuffs of his overlong sweater sleeves or nervously flexing and grasping the air, tell a story of deep-set insecurity. As Bernard 1, the original, abandoned son, he is tighter, sharper, angrier. But as he listens to his father explain why he gave him up, he becomes entirely still–we see a man sunk in deep, bewildered pain. It's a superbly detailed performance."
Sarah Hemming also reviews Alistair McDowall's play The Glow, which is playing at the Royal Court Theatre (royalcourttheatre.com) through March 5. The play is about a Victorian spiritualist named Mrs Lyall.
Here Mrs Lyall's instinct to cheat death and reach into eternity proves key as the play slips its moorings and roves across time, rolling form glimpses of pre-history and Arthurian legend to the 1970s and 1990s and even the heat death of the universe.
Our woman (Mrs Lyall) is a constant throughout: a time-travelling stranger or spirit, permanently in search of a home. She becomes symbolic of humanity's nagging sense of profound loneliness: the root of legend, myth and religion, McDowall has said of this play, 'I want it to feel like there's a vast, undulating network of stories that you only get a sliver of,' and he works to give the audience the same bird's eye view as the woman, stepping outside linear time, allowing patterns to emerge and overlap.
(18) SPACE FOR A MEMORY. An asteroid has been named after trans electronic/pop music icon SOPHIE reports Nylon: "SOPHIE Is Forever Memorialized As An Asteroid".
A little over a year since the sudden passing of avant-garde pop star and producer SOPHIE, she's officially part of the solar system as an asteroid memorialized in her honor.
Back in February 2021, SOPHIE fan Christian Arroyo began a petition to dedicate the planet TOI-1338 b in honor of the late pop star, noting that the pale lavender, cloudy atmosphere of the planet (discovered in the summer of 2019 by Wolf Cukier) looked similar to the ethereal album cover art of SOPHIE's debut record Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides. "I am requesting that TOI-1338 b be named in honor of SOPHIE, in honor of a great LGBT+ influence," wrote Arroyo. "I want her name to be remembered and her influence to continue to flourish for many years to come."…
(19) YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. Be careful out there.
A reminder to please travel responsibly, and neither Haven nor the Institute is liable for any injuries or death sustained while time-traveling.
Happy Travels! pic.twitter.com/WCw0ZZTjs7
— Anomallite (@anomallite) February 7, 2022
(20) ARRAKIS STREET. A.V. Club is there when "Elmo, young Muppet, overcomes Dune's Gom Jabbar test".
Fresh off the heels of his career-invigorating feud with a rock that wants to take his oatmeal raisin cookie, Elmo has returned to the spotlight yet again to prove that he's a thinking, feeling organism who deserves to be treated with greater respect than both inanimate objects and the world's animals.
Since there is no better way for him to prove such a thing than to look to an ordeal devised by Frank Herbert in the novel Dune, Elmo has now been made to prove himself through an edit of the 2021 film adaptation's take on the Gom Jabbar test….
[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Chris Barkley, Daniel Dern, Peer, N., Cora Buhlert, Cat Rambo, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Charon Dunn.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Angélica Gorodischer, artificial intelligence, Boba Fett, Camestros Felapton, Cat Rambo, Cora Buhlert, Dune, Evelyn Leeper, Ian Kennedy, Lord of the Rings, Marlon James, Oliver Brackenbury, Russell Hoban, Sesame Street, SFWA, Sue Burke, The Rogues in the House | 40 Replies
Pixel Scroll 2/4/22 Mrs. File You've Got A Lovely Pixel
(1) "POINTLESS" QUIZ SHOW. [Item by Christian Brunschen.] I was just watching a repeat of the quiz show "Pointless" on BBC – where questions have been previously asked of 100 people who are given 1 minute to give answers; and the contestants have to try to find answers that are not only correct, but which as few as possible of the 100 polled people knew!
In this episode the final category was "Award-winning authors in specific genres" – and the three options were "Hugo Award for Best Novel", "Wodehouse Award for Comic Literature" and "Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction".
The contestants are allowed to give three possible answers, from any of the three options, and in order to win they need to give at least one answer which nobody else among the 100 knew – one "pointless" answer.
They chose to go for three answers from the Hugo Awards category:
Brian Aldiss
Each one of those was then counted down to see how many of the group-of-100 had given that answer.
The counter for Frank Herbert went down to 1 – only a single one of the 100 had given Frank Herbert as an answer – so just 1 away from being pointless.
Neither Robert Silverberg nor Brian Aldiss were correct – so the contestants did not win.
It was mentioned that Robert Silverberg had the most nominations without winning.
Pointless answers in the Hugo award category included Mary Robinette Kowal, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Susanna Clarke, William Gibson, Robert A. Heinlein; big scorers (known by many of the 100) were Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick.
This was apparently season 25 episode 17 broadcast in April 2021, which can be seen by viewers in the UK (only) on BBC iPlayer right here.
(2) MAKING WORLDS AND PUZZLES. Host Kate Elliot discusses a worldbuilding topic with Karen Lord in Narrative Worlds Season 2: Ep. 3 now available on SFWA's YouTube channel.
Welcome to Episode 3 of Season Two in the Narrative Worlds Webinar Series, hosted by author Kate Elliott! Featuring guest author Karen Lord, this month's topic is "The Puzzles Inside Worldbuilding: Constructing Narratives at Various Lengths." This monthly series digs into the theory and practice of building the worlds in which stories are set. Rather than focusing on a survey of basics like "What elements do you need to create a setting?" Elliott discusses a specific single topic in more depth each month with a guest.
(3) WAITING AT THE LIGHT. J. Michael Straczynski, in a public Patreon post, today announced that while the Babylon 5 reboot wasn't greenlighted for fall 2022, it has been retained in active development at the CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2023. "B5 CW News".
Anyone who knows the history of Babylon 5 knows that the path of this show has never been easy, and rarely proceeds in a straight line. Apparently, that has not changed.
About a month or so ago it was announced that the CW Network, B5's home for the last year while the pilot script was in active development, was up for sale. When news of this broke, the immediate question was: will this have any effect on B5? Situations like this have a way of upending development because new owners usually want to put their imprimatur on what programs go forward. Like everyone else, I'd hoped there would be no immediate impact, and that progress on the project would continue onward unabated.
A few days ago, I heard from inside Warner Bros. that there were a number of High Level Conversations taking place with the CW to determine how many pilots, and what sort, could be picked up during this transition, especially given pre-existing deals and commitments. This made sense given the preceding paragraph, but I remained optimistic.
Today, about an hour ago, Deadline Hollywood announced the slate of pilot scripts being picked up for production by The CW. Babylon 5 was not on that list.
When a pilot script is not picked up to production, 99.999% of the time, that's the end of the road for the project, the script is dead.
However: shortly before that piece was published, I received a call from Mark Pedowitz, President of The CW. (I should mention that Mark is a great guy and a long-time fan of B5. He worked for Warners when the show was first airing, and always made sure we got him copies of the episodes before they aired because he didn't want to wait to see what happened next.)
Calling the pilot "a damned fine script," he said he was taking the highly unusual step of rolling the project and the pilot script into next year, keeping B5 in active development while the dust settles on the sale of the CW….
(4) CANDIDATES FOR CHAIR OF GLASGOW IN 2024. Alice Lawson, on behalf of the board of the Glasgow in 2024 bid, has called for anyone who intends to put themselves forward to chair the convention to let the board know by February 7. Bid chair Esther MacCallum-Stewart is already a candidate. Her letter was shared with Glasgow in 2024 supporters.
Dear Alice, the Board of Glasgow 2024, all staff members, and pre-supporters.
I would like to put myself forward as Chair of the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon.
I have been working towards a third Worldcon in Glasgow since 2016, announcing an intention to bid at Novacon alongside Emma England and Vanessa May. Since then I have led the bid team, first as a Co-Chair, and then as Chair. We are currently approaching just under 1000 pre-supporters, and the Bid has had tremendous support from the SFF fan community and beyond.
I have been a volunteer for Worldcon since 2011, when I joined the Loncon 3 team as an AH for games. Since then I have worked as Programme manager and admin (Loncon, MAC II), DH for Facilitation (Dublin 2019), and co-DH for Facilities (ConZealand). I have also volunteered for Eastercons (the UK national convention) and Octocon (the Irish National Convention). Elsewhere I have been Vice-Chair of DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association) and am currently Chair of the UK chapter, which runs events on a yearly basis. In 2021 I was made a Professor of Game Studies at the University of Staffordshire.
I am hugely proud of the Bid Team and their passion for Glasgow 2024. Every day I see something original, funny or hard working from them, and this continues to grow. I have seen friendship, bravery and more than my fair share of armadillos in the last few years, as more people join and add their own sense of wonder and creativity to the bid. We would not be so strong if it were not for all these working parts, in which every single one counts towards something brilliant. I am constantly amazed at the goodwill and passion to create an event that is inclusive, caring and extraordinary. I would be honoured to lead such a group forwards as Chair, towards a Worldcon in Glasgow, a city I love, in 2024, a year which has special importance to me.
/s/ Professor Esther MacCallum-Stewart
(5) SPACE GHOSTS. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times behind a paywall, Isabel Hilton reviews The Subplot: What China Is Reading And Why It Matters by Megan Walsh, a book about fiction popular in China and what Chinese tastes in fiction have to say about the Chinese. Among the topics Walsh discusses is sf in China.
For many authors who must navigate the uncertainties of shifting official red lines, science fiction offers a safe haven. It is a genre in which to address the disruption and dislocations between past and present, and between official narratives and reality, and to explore otherwise dangerous themes such as social injustice.
Liu Cixin, a computer engineer and bestselling sci-fi author, locates real world problems such as pollution and human greed on distant planets, while in the story "Underground Bricks," Han Song describes recycling the rubble of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which contains victims' remains, into 'intelligent bricks' for space colonization, thus populating distant planets with unhappy ghosts.
(6) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to nibble noodles with Daryl Gregory in Episode 164 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.
Daryl Gregory
It's time for you to join Daryl Gregory and me as we have lunch at Dolan Uyghur restaurant.
Daryl Gregory's first novel, Pandemonium (2008), won the Crawford Award and was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. His novella We Are All Completely Fine (2014) won the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award. His short story collection Unpossible and Other Stories was named one of the best books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly. His novel Spoonbenders (2017) was a Top 20 Amazon Editor's Choice, an Audible.com's editors choice for the year, and an NPR best book of the year. His most recent novel is Revelator, which was published last August. His comics work includes Planet of the Apes, The Green Hornet, Dracula, and the graphic novel The Secret Battles of Genghis Khan.
If you'd like a tiny taste of Daryl before taking a seat at the table for our full meal, check out what he had to say while eating a raspberry coffee cake donut during the 2018 Nebula Awards weekend.
We discussed how he celebrated the two books he published during the pandemic, what caused him to say about his latest novel, "I like to split the difference to keep everyone as unsatisfied as possible," the narrative technique which finally unlocked the writing of that book (and why it made Revelator more difficult to complete), how our mothers responded to our writing, the way marketing affects the reading protocols of our stories, how listening to Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm argue about one of his stories freed him as a writer, the promise a murder mystery makes to a reader, his "Mom Rule" for Easter eggs, the way he tortured a comic book artist with an outrageous panel description, how to play fair when writing a science fiction mystery where anything can happen, what Samuel R. Delany told him which helped him make his first sale to F&SF, how he doesn't understand why everybody doesn't want to be writers, the way his writing gets better during the times he isn't writing, Gardner Dozois' "ladder of sadness," and much more.
(7) SHIPPING SCHEDULE. The Orville: New Horizons will now arrive on June 2.
1998 — [Item by Cat Eldridge] Twenty-four years ago, Morn apparently had died on "Who Mourns for Morn?", an episode of Deep Space Nine. Yes, that character in Quark's Bar, the one what never spoke on the series despite ninety-one appearances as Morn plus several more as Morn on Next Generation and Voyager.
The actor had another eleven appearances as other characters on the DS9 series. Indeed Shepherd makes an appearance (still uncredited as all of his Morn appearances were) as a Bajoran mourner at Morn's memorial service who sits in Morn's chair, thus showing the actor's actual appearance.
Can I spoil a twenty-year-old episode really? I think not. Morn had faked his death to escape some legal troubles and this dealt with aftermath of him doing so. It was a quite funny episode as written by Mark Gehred-O'Connell for season six after previously writing "Second Sight" and "Meredian" for the series.
Critical reviews of it are almost non-existent with the only one being the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Rewatch by Keith R. A. DeCandido for Tor.com who said that "Still, this is, ultimately, a gag episode about a gag character, and the gag loses steam at the end when we get the full story, but Quark has to say all of it in order to keep the gag going. It doesn't work at that point, and the ending falls flat because we can see the strings." I never thought of Morn as being a gag. He's somehow sweet despite never saying a word.
Born February 4, 1922 — William Phipps. He started off his genre career by being in both The War of The Worlds and Invaders from Mars. He'd later be in Cat-Women of the Moon, The Snow Creature,The Evil of Frankenstein, and the Dune series. He'd have one-offs in Batman, Green Hornet, The Munsters, Wild Wild West and a lead role in the Time Express series which would last four episodes according to IMDB. (Died 2018.)
Born February 4, 1925 — Russell Hoban. Author of a number of genre novel of which the best by far is Riddley Walker. Indeed, ISFDB some fifteen such novels by him, so I'm curious how he is as a genre writer beyond Riddley Walker. (Died 2011.)
Born February 4, 1936 — Gary Conway, 86. Best remembered I'd say for starring in Irwin Allen's Land of the Giants. You can see the opening episode here. He was also in How to Make a Monster, a late Fifties horror film which I'm delighted to say that you can watch here. He's the Young Frankenstein in it.
Born February 4, 1940 — John Schuck, 82. My favorite SF role by him is as the second Draal, Keeper of the Great Machine, on the Babylon 5 series. I know it was only two episodes but it was a fun role. He's also played the role of Klingon ambassador Kamarag in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He guest-starred in Deep Space Nine as Legate Parn in "The Maquis: Part II", on Voyager as Chorus #3 in the "Muse" episode, and on Enterprise as Antaak in the "Divergence" and "Affliction" episodes. Oh. and he was Herman Munster in The Munsters Today. Now that was a silly role! Did you know his makeup was the Universal International Frankenstein-monster makeup format whose copyright NBCUniversal still owns?
Born February 4, 1940 — George Romero. Dubbed by many as Father of the Zombie Film. Certainly his Night of the Living Dead from just over fifty years ago is the root of the Zombie movie craze. He also created and executive-produced Tales from the Darkside. No, I'm not listing all of his films here as I'm assuming you tell me what your favorite film by him is as you always do. (Died 2017.)
Born February 4, 1951 — Patrick Bergin, 71. If he had done nothing else, he'd make the Birthday list today for playing Robin Hood in the 1990 Robin Hood which for my money is the finest such film made. Go ahead and argue, I've all night. Now as it turns out he has a very long career in this community starting after playing Robin Hood by being in Frankenstein as Victor Frankenstein, then Benjamin Trace In Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (a film universally despised), George Challenger in The Lost World, Treasure Island as Billy Bones, Merlin: The Return as King Arthur, Dracula as, well, Dracula Himself, Ghostwood as Friar Paul and Gallowwalkers as Marshall Gaza.
Born February 4, 1959 — Pamelyn Ferdin, 63. She was in the "And the Children Shall Lead" episode of Trek. She'll show up in The Flying Nun (as two different characters), voicing a role in The Cat in the Hat short, Night Gallery, Sealab 2020 (another voice acting gig), Shazam! and Project UFO.She'd have a main role in Space Academy, the Jonathan Harris failed series as well.
Born February 4, 1961 — Neal Asher, 61. I'm been reading and enjoying his Polity series since he started it nearly twenty years ago. Listing all of his works here would drive OGH to a nervous tick as I think there's now close to thirty works in total. I recently finished off Jack Four, his latest novel in that series, and it's typically filled with his usual mix of outrageous SF concepts.
Bizarro eavesdrops on the confessions of a garden gnome.
When social distancing should be enough….
A cartoon by @PKuperArt. #NewYorkerCartoons pic.twitter.com/uB1P6UwJKy
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) February 4, 2022
(11) IF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE WERE DINOSAURS, MY LOVE. "DC Comics Turns Justice League Into Dinosaurs For Jurassic League" and Bleeding Cool has sample art.
… In the world of Jurassic League, Superman was still sent to Earth on a rocket ship from a dying planet. And he was still raised by humans. It's just that he's also a man-shaped brachiosaurus. Batman (rather, Batsaur, Gedeon clarifies for Polygon) is an allosaurus. Wonder Woman is a triceratops. The Joker is a dilophosaurus….
(12) QUESTRISON Q&A. Space Cowboy Books will host a reading and interview with J. Dianne Dotson, author of The Questrison Saga on Tuesday, February 15 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. Free registration at Eventbrite.
The Questrison Saga is an epic four-book space opera beginning at the edge of our solar system and expanding out into the galaxy. Within its pages: Love and war. Spaceships and exotic worlds. Aliens, androids, ecosystems. Mages and presidents. Long cons. Family feuds that led to galactic destruction. Family ties that could save the galaxy.
(13) ASK HARRIS. And Space Cowboy Books will also host an interview with Brent A. Harris, author of the science fiction novel Alyx: An AI's Guide to Love and Murder, on Tuesday, February 22 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. Free registration here.
What if your home wanted you dead?
Tech-loving teen Christine makes fast friends with her home's AI, Alyx. But when a real-world romance threatens their bond, Alyx turns from friend to foe.
Alyx is a positive LGBTQ+ coming-of-age techno-thriller trapped inside a monster-in-the house horror where the home itself is the monster.
(14) THE EYES HAVE IT. Clarion West is offering a "Draw Your Way Out with Julie E. Czerneda" online workshop on March 3 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. Cost: $75. Register at the link.
Use visual means to organize and connect information about characters, setting, and movement, expand plot options using a flowchart, then combine all into a single large diagram outline.
Every writer has their approach to resolving plot problems and generating new ideas. One that Julie Czerneda has used successfully for years is to "draw her way out." In this workshop, you'll use this technique to work through different story challenges, from character development to plotting. There is no advance preparation required.
Materials Required:
Attendees will be emailed worksheets to be used during the workshop and must have their own large sheet of paper (minimum 40X40cm).
(15) TAKING OFF THE DARK HELMET. Vox is ready to tell you "How fandom sent Boba Fett from minor character to leading man".
…About 1.7 million households tuned into The Book of Boba Fett's premiere last December, and a second season seems inevitable. Han Solo might be sabotaging the Death Star, Luke Skywalker might be forging the fate of the Force, but currently, Star Wars fans are far more fascinated with this obscure C+ player in a green visor. Back when I was a preteen Star Wars fan, my friends and I shared an innate understanding that Boba Fett was uncommonly cool, even if we didn't know much about him. Twenty years later, I'm still trying to figure out why.
James Clarke, 36, is well equipped to answer that question. He's a longtime editor of the Boba Fett Fan Club, which sports over 14,000 members and is the single most comprehensive repository of Fettian facts, tributes, and theories on the internet. Like me, Clarke fell in love with the bounty hunter as a child, and pursued his fascination to the point of writing reams of Boba-themed fanfiction in middle school. "I probably have 25-year-old stories still on the site somewhere," says Clarke. (Minutes after our interview, he sent me a photo of himself in full Boba Fett cosplay, a confirmation of his bona fides.)…
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Olav Rokne, Daniel Dern, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, and Michael Toman for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kendall.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Babylon 5, Boba Fett, Brent A. Harris, Daryl Gregory, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Glasgow in 2024, J. Dianne Dotson, J. Michael Straczynski, Julie Czerneda, Karen Lord, Kate Elliott, Scott Edelman, Space Cowboy Books, The Orville
Pixel Scroll 1/13/22 If Pluto Is Not A Planet, Then Mickey Mouse Is Not A Star
Posted on January 13, 2022 by Mike Glyer
(1) DAVE FARLAND MEDICAL UPDATE. Dave Farland's son, Spencer, has corrected reports of his father's death, but Farland remains on life support after a fall.
This Dave's Son Spencer.
Thank you for all the messages and people reaching out. We wanted to provide an update on how Dave is doing.
Dave suffered a fall down the stairs this morning, and hit his head. He has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke with bleeding around his brain steam. He is comatosed and on life support. To put it simply he is not doing well at the moment. We are waiting for immediate family to be able to come and see him before making decisions on how to proceed.
We appreciate all the notes and messages, and love for Dave. I will post an update as things change.
(2) CHANGING STAR TREK'S STRIPES. Michael Okuda shared a bit of set decorating lore with Facebook readers:
I used to have a lot of fun at Paramount, adding last-minute tech-ish detailing on Star Trek sets and props using Chartpak pinstripe graphic tape and an X-acto knife. Judicious use of thin stripes implied access panels, circuits, controls, safety markings, and more.
When I first described the idea to Star Trek: TNG producer Bob Justman early in the show's first season, he was skeptical and he told me not to do it. The problem was that I had only described the process to him, so he didn't have a chance to see what it would look like.
Several weeks later, during prep for the second episode, I decided to try it anyhow. I figured even if Bob hated the finished product, it would be easy to remove…
(3) BIPOC SFF QUIZ. Strange at Ecbatan's Rich Horton has posted "Another Quiz: BIPOC SF and Fantasy". I got 15/18 – which surprised me!
I've written another quiz for the trivia league I'm a member of. The subject this time is SF (and Fantasy and Horror) by Black people, indigenous people, and people of color. The quiz ran on Tuesday, so the results are in at the site. I figured, as with my previous quizzes, I'd post it here on my blog for anyone who is interested to try. I'll post the answers in a couple of days.
Here's one of the questions:
12. A key text highlighting the tremendous contributions of African-descended writers to speculative fiction throughout the 20th Century is Dark Matter: A Century of Science Fiction from the African Diaspora,which won the World Fantasy Award in 2001. The editor won another World Fantasy Award for Dark Matter: Reading the Bones in 2005, and was nominated for the James Tiptree Jr. Award (now the Otherwise Award) for a collection of her own fiction in 2016. She is now the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Who is she?
(4) IT'S NOT A PARADOX AFTER ALL. James Davis Nicoll tells Tor.com readers "Five More Reasons Aliens Are Avoiding Planet Earth".
I once pointed out to Fred Pohl that if FTL is possible and if it does (as the math says it would) facilitate time travel, then the paucity of alien visitors suggests that not only is Earth not interesting to aliens of the current era, but it is also not interesting to aliens of any era.
Pohl said that was the most depressing thing he'd ever heard. I am happy to have enriched his life….
(5) NOT THE WORST CASE, BUT BAD ENOUGH. Charles Stross gives his predictions for 2031 – some of you will probably survive til then, but no guarantees: "Oh, 2022!"
…In space … well, SpaceX seem likely to fly a prototype Starship stack to orbit in early 2022. Whether or not they go bust the next day, by so doing they will have proven that a designed-for-full-reuse two-stage-to-orbit design with a payload greater than a Saturn V is possible. I don't expect them to go bust: I expect them to make bank. The next decade is going to be absolutely wild in terms of human spaceflight. I'm not predicting a first human landing on Mars in that decade, but I'd be astonished if we don't see a crewed moonbase by 2031—if not an American one, then China is targeting crewed Lunar missions in the 2030s, and could easily bring that forward.
Climate: we're boned. Quite possibly the Antarctic ice shelves will be destablized decades ahead of schedule, leading to gradual but inexorable sea levels rising around the world. This may paradoxically trigger an economic boom in construction—both of coastal defenses and of new inland waterways and ports. But the dismal prospect is that we may begin experiencing so many heat emergencies that we destabilize agriculture. The C3 photosynthesis pathway doesn't work at temperatures over 40 degrees celsius. The C4 pathway is a bit more robust, but not as many crops make use of it. Genetic engineering of hardy, thermotolerant cultivars may buy us some time, but it's not going to help if events like the recent Colorado wildfires become common….
(6) PICARD SIDE ADVENTURE. Simon & Schuster is taking pre-orders for the fully dramatized "Star Trek: Picard: No Man's Land Audiobook" by series co-creator Kirsten Beyer.
Discover what happens to Raffi and Seven of Nine following the stunning conclusion to season one of Star Trek: Picard with this audio exclusive, fully dramatized Star Trek adventure featuring the beloved stars of the hit TV series Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan.
Star Trek: No Man's Land picks up right after the action-packed season one conclusion of Star Trek: Picard. While Raffi and Seven of Nine are enjoying some much-needed R&R in Raffi's remote hideaway, their downtime is interrupted by an urgent cry for help: a distant, beleaguered planet has enlisted the Fenris Rangers to save an embattled evacuation effort. As Raffi and Seven team up to rescue a mysteriously ageless professor whose infinity-shaped talisman has placed him in the deadly sights of a vicious Romulan warlord, they take tentative steps to explore the attraction depicted in the final moments of Picard season one.
(7) SHUTTLE BOP. Meanwhile, back in 1967, Galactic Journey's Janice L. Newman is still adjusting the rabbit ears on her television set tuned into The Original Series: "[January 12, 1967] Most illogical (Star Trek: 'The Galileo Seven')".
…On the planet Spock takes command, only to find his orders questioned and challenged at every turn. McCoy's needling is typical, though it feels inappropriate in the midst of the crisis. In fact, he starts the whole thing off by prodding Spock and saying that "you've always thought that logic was the best basis on which to build command". This assertion is already suspect, given that Spock has reacted to Kirk's more inspired gambles (see: "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Menagerie") with respect and acknowledgement that they were clever, even if they were unorthodox or unexpected….
(8) LOVE AT FIRST BITE. Keith Roysdon commemorates the 50th anniversary of The Night Stalker at CrimeReads: "Vampire noir came into its own 50 years ago with The Night Stalker".
We know this story: A hard-bitten, oft-fired reporter, looking for a fast track back to a big-city newspaper job, hopes to milk a sensational story for everything it's worth. In the process, he shakes things up in a tough desert town.
Yep, that's the plot of Ace in the Hole, the 1951 classic directed by Billy Wilder and starring Kirk Douglas as the unethical reporter.
But of course, as you know from the headline, we're here to talk about The Night Stalker, which has everything Ace in the Hole has, plus police corruption and vampires.
The basic premise—a hard-luck loser, whether he's a reporter or cowboy or private eye or drifter, runs up against the powers that be in a one-horse town—is a familiar one and really lends itself to noir films….
…From the time it aired on Jan. 11, 1972—about a half a century ago—The Night Stalker made history. The movie might not have been intended to be a genre fusion film of noir and horror, but it was and it's still the best of the rare sub-genre.
(9) SUNDAY MORNING TRANSPORT. "There's a new Substack for speculative fiction and it looks great" says Thom Dunn at Boing Boing.
Email newsletters are obviously the cool new thing, and there are a lot of great (and not-so-great) journalists and opinion writers making serious money through Substack. But I've wondering for a while now how a successful fiction outlet might work1.
Fortunately, I don't have to wonder any more, because the Sunday Morning Transport now exists, with the goal of delivering one commute-sized short story to your inbox every Sunday2. Award-winning fantasy writer Fran Wilde (Riverland) serves as managing editor, with Serial Box / Realm.fm founder Julian Yap as the editor-in-chief — two people who absolutely know the ins-and-outs on every side of the sci-fi/fantasy fiction publishing community.
… All stories on the Sunday Morning Transport will be free for the month of January; after that, free subscribers only get one story a month, while paid subscribers get a new one every week.
(10) NEW AND IMPROVED. Nerdist says fans are having fun with mashups in The Batman trailer. "The Batman Fan Edit Adds Jim Carrey's Campy Riddler to Trailer".
The trailer and some released images for The Batman have got some fans bewildered. Specifically, because it seems Paul Dano's version of the Riddler has more in common with the real-life Zodiac killer than the guy in the green suit from the comics. And it has some fans really longing for the days of the goofy version of Edward Nygma, played by Jim Carrey in Batman Forever.
So naturally, someone out there used their editing skills to make a few changes to The Batman trailer. They replaced Dano's version with some 1995 vintage Jim Carrey Riddler. Bright green jumpsuit and all. The video comes from comedian and filmmaker Matt Highton (via Geeks Are Sexy). And you can watch the whole thing right here. We think Joel Schumacher would be proud.
2008 — [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Fourteen years ago this evening on Fox, the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles premiered. It was directed by Josh Friedman whose sole genre work previously was H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The top cast was Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker and Summer Glau. In addition, the narrator was Headey.
Though it would last but two seasons and only thirty-one episodes, as the first season was abbreviated, it was the highest-rated new scripted series of the '07 to '08 television season. And yes, it started in the '07 television season even though its first episode was in January.
Reception among critics was generally quite fine. Gina Bellafante of the New York Times said that it was "one of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while." And Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune exclaimed of the second season that the "season's opener is much clearer and more sheer fun than anything that aired last spring."
It has a stellar eighty-five percent rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite numerous ongoing fan efforts to revive the series, Josh Friedman has dismissed the possibility of crowdfunding a third series unlike say the recent Veronica Mars series due to issues involving holder rights. I suspect the Terminator rights are hellishly complex.
Born January 13, 1893 — Clark Ashton Smith. One SFF critic deemed him part of "the big three of Weird Tales, with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft." This is while some readers found him to excessively morbid, as L. Sprague de Camp said of him in noting "nobody since Poe has so loved a well-rotted corpse." If you've not read his work, Nightshade has collected it in The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, five volumes in total. They're all available in Kindle editions. (Died 1961.)
Born January 13, 1919 — Sam Merwin, Jr. An editor and writer of both mysteries and science fiction. In the Fifties, he edited, Fantastic Story Quarterly, Fantastic Universe, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Wonder Stories Annual. As writer, he's best remembered for The House of Many Worlds and its sequel, Three Faces of Time. At L.A. Con III, he was nominated for a Retro Hugo for Best Professional Editor for Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories. (Died 1996.)
Born January 13, 1933 — Ron Goulart, 89. First I must acknowledge that he is very prolific, and uses many pseudonyms, to wit: Kenneth Robeson, Con Steffanson, Chad Calhoun, R.T. Edwards, Ian R. Jamieson, Josephine Kains, Jillian Kearny, Howard Lee, Zeke Masters, Frank S. Shawn, and Joseph Silva. (Wow!) You did the see Doc Savage one in there, didn't you? I'm reasonably sure that the I've read a lot of his fiction including the Flash Gordon series, his Avenger series, maybe a bit of the Vampirella novels, the Incredible Hulk definitely, not the Groucho Marx series though it sounds fun, and, well, damn he's prolific. So what have you have read by him that you like?
Born January 13, 1938 — Charlie Brill, 84. His best-remembered role, well at least among us, is as the Klingon spy Arne Darvin in "The Trouble with Tribbles". And yes he'll show in the DS9 episode, "Trials and Tribble-ations", that repurposed this episode to great effect. (It was nominated for a Hugo at LoneStarCon 2.) He was the voice of Grimmy in the animated Mother Goose and Grimm series, as well having one-offs in They Came from Outer Space, The Munsters Today, Sliders, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman and Super Train. Not even genre adjacent but he was a recurring performer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
Born January 13, 1945 — Joy Chant, 77. Chant is an odd case as she only wrote for a short period between 1970 and 1983 but she produced the brilliant House of Kendreth trilogy, consisting of Red Moon and Black Mountain, The Grey Mane of Morning and When Voiha Wakes. Her other main work, and it is without doubt absolutely amazing as well, is The High Kings, illustrated lavishly by George Sharp and designed by David Larkin with editing by Ian and Betty Ballantine. It is intended as a reference work on the Arthurian legends and the Matter of Britain with her stellar retellings of the legends. I've got one reference to her writing Fantasy and Allegory in Literature for Young Readers but no cites for it elsewhere. Has anyone read it?
Born January 13, 1968 — Ken Scholes, 59. His major series, and it's quite worth reading, is The Psalms of Isaak. His short stories, collected so far in three volumes, are also worth your precious reading time. He wrote the superb "The Wings We Dare Aspire" for METAtropolis: Green Space.
Born January 13, 1980 — Beth Cato, 42. Her first series, the Clockwork Dagger sequence beginning with The Clockwork Dagger novel, is most excellent popcorn literature. She's done a considerable amount of excellent short fiction which has been mostly collected in Deep Roots and Red Dust and Dancing Horses and Other Stories. Her website features a number of quite tasty cake recipes including Browned Butter Coffee Bundt Cake. Really, I kid you not.
(13) THE DOUGHNUT MAN. First Fandom Experience answers the question "How Did E.E. Smith Become 'Doc'?"
Recently FFE received an inquiry from John Grayshaw. John runs the Online Science Fiction Book Club on Facebook, which is associated with the Middletown Public Library in Middletown, PA. The group has worldwide membership and has hosted interviews with a number of science fiction and fan luminaries.
John's group has an interest in E.E. Smith, and asked if we'd be willing to respond to a number of questions posed by his folks. Since we've just completed a deep-dive on Smith's early history as a fan, we were happy to take up the challenge. The list of questions the group compiled is wide-ranging, and we'll be working through them over the next several weeks.
The first query on the list was immediately intriguing:
"How did Smith get his famous nickname "Doc"?
In one sense, the answer is obvious: Smith held a Ph.D. in Chemistry from George Washington University and spent his primary career as a research chemist in the food industry. But in his earliest appearance in pulps, this wasn't apparent….
(14) TODAY'S STAR WARS NATURE LESSON. (Beware spoiler.) The Star Wars Underworld shares an insight with The Book of Boba Fett viewers.
The Wookiee bounty in Chapter 2 of #TheBookOfBobaFett is named Black Krrsantan. He was originally introduced in Marvel comics, first appearing in 'Darth Vader #1' by Kieron Gillen, released on February 11, 2015. pic.twitter.com/VmNydYQxIT
— The Star Wars Underworld (@TheSWU) January 8, 2022
Writer Kieron Gillen can confirm:
I swear this isn't a joke. I just went back to my first draft for Darth Vader 1. My working name for Black Krrsantan was Newbacca.
— Kieron Gillen (@kierongillen) January 12, 2022
(15) SAM I AM. "Quantum Leap Reboot Pilot Greenlit by NBC" says The Hollywood Reporter, and there are hints Scott Bakula may be involved.
The possible return of Quantum Leap is taking a big step forward at NBC. The network has greenlit the sequel pilot to the 1989 time travel adventure which ran for five seasons….
In September, Bakula teased "significant conversations" about a revival were happening. "There's very significant conversations about it right now going on," said Bakula, who played a physicist who involuntarily time travels and fixes mistakes of the past by leaping into the body of others. "I don't know what it would be. I don't know who would have it. The rights were a mess for years. I don't know if they're even sorted out now. That's always been the biggest complication."
(16) PUSHME PULLYU. "Star Trek has tractor beams. So do we" contends Experience Magazine.
The "tractor beam" has been a reliable narrative device in science fiction for nearly 100 years, deployed whenever the plot requires seizing a runaway spaceship or manipulating objects at a distance. Author E.E. "Doc" Smith is credited with coining the term in 1931 with his novel Spacehounds of IPC, serialized in the pulp sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories. The language is old-school delicious: "Brandon swung mighty tractor beams upon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel…."
…We already have tractor beams here on Earth, more or less. Well, emphasis on less. Scientists have been generating small-scale tractor beams for several years now, using tightly focused light and sound waves. These devices can't move spaceships but they can move tiny things, from microscopic particles to lightweight materials around a half-inch in diameter. It doesn't seem like much, but these tiny tractor beams could have profound practical applications. More on that in a bit.
The first thing to know about real-life tractor beams is that they work more like another sci-fi concept: force fields….
(17) CLI-FI. Claire Holroyde promotes her first novel, about a comet threatening the Earth, by praising novels by Gish Jen and Rebecca Roanhorse in "The New Killers in Climate Disaster Thrillers" at CrimeReads.
The usual killers are easy to spot. They can be uninhabitable, dystopian futurescapes of planet Earth: deserts with salt flats, unbreathable air, or submerged ruins of cities. These settings could become a reality in our lifetimes, but tomorrow's threats are not always today's concern. Killers of the present can take the shape of extreme weather: superstorms, tornadoes, and tsunamis. They act like deadly assassins sent by vengeful mother nature—but was she miscast in this role? What if the killers in a climate change/disaster thriller were also the architects of their unsustainable circumstance—us?…
(18) THE DEVIL MADE THEM DO IT. "'After-School Satan Club' planned at Illinois elementary school. District explains why" – Yahoo! took notes.
…"This actually isn't a club that's meant to proselytize Satanism or even engage in discussions about religious opinion," Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves told WQAD. "This is an educational program meant to focus on critical thinking and just basic education skills."
Because of a 2001 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Good News Club v. Milford Central School, schools are not allowed to discriminate against religious speech if a religious organization offers a club on their premises.
After School Satan Clubs have already been offered in other schools. Point Defiance Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington, began offering the controversial club in 2016, but it was put on hold a year later due to a lack of resources, the News-Tribune reported…
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Chris Barkley, Robert J. Sawyer, Rich Horton, David Doering, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, and Michael Toman, for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon DeCles.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Batman, Boba Fett, Charles Stross, Dave Farland, E. E. "Doc" Smith, First Fandom Experience, Galactic Journey, James Davis Nicoll, Janice L. Newman, Kieron Gillen, Kolchak, Michael Okuda, Quantum Leap, Rich Horton, Star Trek, Star Trek: Picard, Sunday Morning Transport
Pixel Scroll 1/4/22 If You Like My File And You Think I'm Pixely, Come On Baby Let Me Scroll
Posted on January 4, 2022 by Mike Glyer
(1) ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES RAISED ANEW. Mari Ness, who recently called out Discon III's accessibility issues, today tweeted about another setback involving the Viable Paradise writers workshop. Thread starts here.
For the record, this is NOT the first time I have called out Viable Paradise about this publicly and spoken to the VP folks.
They have told me that the problem is trying to find an accessible place that is also affordable.
— Mari Ness is still wearing a mask (@mari_ness) January 4, 2022
But what I, a wheelchair user, hear when that's said is:
"We'd rather stay in Martha's Vineyard in a place, rather than welcome you to the community."
Now, look, sure. I'm at the point in my career where VP would probably not be all that useful to me, personally.
But not that long ago, it WOULD have been. I wanted to go. I considered the costs carefully.
And then I looked at the accessibility info.
The "Accessibility at Viable Paradise" webpage discusses the provisions made by the workshop.
(2) SAVE THE CITY COMPOSER Q&A. "'Rogers: The Musical' composer reveals a deleted 'Hawkeye' scene" — an Inverse interview with Marc Shaiman.
HAWKEYE'S POST-CREDITS SCENE was unlike anything we've seen before. While Marvel normally teases the future, their latest series ended with a victory lap in a full encore performance of in-universe Broadway sensation Rogers: The Musical's "Save the City."
Many fans weren't pleased with this prime spot looking backwards instead of forward, but the scene paradoxically did something new. After 20-odd teasers and reveals, the most surprising choice was not revealing anything at all. It also allowed the fabulous music and lyrics of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman to take center stage.
Shaiman and his co-lyricist Scott Wittman are Broadway legends, with Hairspray and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory among their many collaborations. But Hawkeye posed unique challenges: how do you create a show tune that fans would enjoy but Clint Barton would walk out of? How do you immortalize a classic Marvel moment in a silly but loving way? The answers involve a lot of lore, some speculation, and tons of encouragement from the brains behind Hawkeye….
There's an official soundtrack (only) of the number here on YouTube. I also discovered a fan-made video performance version by "Stray and the Soundtrack" here which is a lot of fun.
(3) TOLKIEN SAINTHOOD. Francisco García, President of STP, the Peruvian Tolkien Society, reports they offered a Mass for the 130th birthday of JRR Tolkien and for the advancement of his Cause of Canonization on January 3. A video of the service is available on Facebook.
(4) COSTA BOOK AWARDS. The 2021 Costa Book Awards, a UK literary prize sponsored by a coffee company, have been announced. None of the shortlisted genre works are winners.
The prize has five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book. The winner of each receives £5,000. The Costa Book of the Year will be chosen from among them and get a £30,000 prize. The overall winner will be announced on February 1.
2021 First Novel Award – Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking)
2021 Novel Award – Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller(Fig Tree)
2021 Biography Award – Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston (Viking)
2021 Poetry Award – The Kids by Hannah Lowe(Bloodaxe Books)
2021 Children's Book Award – The Crossing by Manjeet Mann(Penguin)
(5) A KAIJU FORETASTE. Tor invites readers to "Download a Digital Preview of The Kaiju Preservation Society", the first five chapters of John Scalzi's forthcoming novel.
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.
It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who's found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
(6) BUTLER'S GEOGRAPHY. The Huntington has arranged some companion events and interactive online resources to enrich their "Mapping Fiction" exhibit. These three relate to Octavia Butler.
Lecture – Revisiting Octavia E. Butler's Pasadena
Saturday, March 19, and Saturday, April 23, 2022
Pasadena Public Library, La Pinturesca Branch
Free with reservation; limited capacity [ticket info available soon]
On two Saturdays this spring, Ayana Jamieson, local educator and founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, will lead a moderated conversation about our desire to locate Butler's Pasadena.
Walking/Driving Tour – Octavia E. Butler's Pasadena: A Literary Tour
Visitors can take a self-guided walking or driving tour of the locations around Pasadena where Butler lived, visited, and often found inspiration. Tour maps are available online and in the exhibition gallery. You can also access the tour in Google Maps. After you take the tour, share your pic by tagging it #WalkWithOctavia.
The Literary Life of Octavia E. Butler: How Local Libraries Shaped a Sci-Fi Legend
An interactive map by the Los Angeles Times of Octavia Butler's life in books.
(7) BOGDANOFF TWINS DIE. Twin brothers Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff (b. August 29, 1949) both died on COVID (on December 28 and January 3, respectively). In 1976, they published Clefs pour la science-fiction, and from 1979-86 co-hosted the science fiction show Temps X, which introduced several British and American science-fiction series to the French public, including The Prisoner, Star Trek, and Doctor Who. They also were involved a controversy in which it was alleged the brothers wrote nonsensical advanced physics papers that were nonetheless published in reputable scientific journals.
(8) JAY WOLPERT (1942-2022). Screenwriter Jay Wolpert has died at age 79. Before he started writing movies, he also created The Price Is Right TV game show. The Hollywood Reporter mentions his credit for Disney's film The Count of Monte Cristo, and for helping to start another Disney franchise —
…Wolpert then found himself as the first writer hired by Disney to tackle a movie adapting its classic theme park ride, The Pirates of the Caribbean. Once again, he channeled his Classics Illustrated love plus his affinity for pirates — he had once made a pilot for a swashbuckling game show titled Duel in the Daytime — to write the script for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
Three other scribes joined the film, but when the movie that starred Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley was released, Wolpert received a story by credit, and he would also receive a credit for creating characters in the four subsequent feature sequels. He spent the next decade or so working on several Disney movie projects, including a reimagining of The Sword and the Stone.
2001 — [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Twenty one years ago, the first of four episodes of the RoboCop: Prime Directives series first aired on Space in Canada. The series, created by Fireworks Entertainment, consists of four feature-length episodes: Dark Justice, Meltdown, Resurrection, and Crash and Burn. It follows up directly on the first Robocop film.
It was directed by Julian Grant as written by Brad Abraham and Joseph O'Brien who I guarantee hadn't done anything that you'd heard of. Robocop here was Paige Fletcher who played the narrator in the HBO genre anthology series The Hitchhiker. Other primary cast were Maurice Dean Wint, María del Mar Geraint Wyn Davies, Leslie Hope and Anthony Lemke.
Reception for the series was generally good. Allan Johnson writing for the Chicago Tribune said that it was "worthy of Verhoeven's movie, never letting up on the satirical nature of the original, not shying away from the mayhem, and making good use of special effects." It didn't do well on the Scifi Channel because, as usual, that channel didn't bother to publicize it at all.
Born January 4, 1890 — Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. Creator of the modern comic book by publishing original material in the early Thirties instead of reprints of newspaper comic strips. Some years later, he founded Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications which would eventually become DC Comics. (Died 1965.)
Born January 4, 1946 — Ramsey Campbell, 75. My favorite novel by him is without doubt The Darkest Part of the Woods which has a quietly building horror to it. I know he's better known for his Cthulhu mythology writings but I never got into those preferring his other novels such as his Solomon Kane movie novelization which is quite superb.
Born January 4, 1958 — Matt Frewer, 64. His greatest role has to be as Max Headroom and Edison Carter on the short-lived series of the same name. Amazingly, I think it still stands thirty-five years later as SF well-crafted. Just a taste of his later series SF appearances include playing Jim Taggart, scientist and dog catcher on Eureka, Pestilence in Supernatural, Dr. Kirschner in 12 Monkeys and Carnage in Altered Carbon. His film genre appearance list is just as impressive but I'll single out Supergirl, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Stand, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (oh do guess where he is in it) and lastly Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, a series of films that I really like.
Born January 4, 1960 — Michael Stipe, 62. Lead singer of R.E.M. which has done a few songs that I could say are genre adjacent. But no, I've honored him here for being involved in a delightful project called Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. Lots of great songs given interesting new recordings. His contribution was "Little April Shower" from Bambi which he covered along with Natalie Merchant, Michael Stipe, Mark Bingham and The Roches. Fun stuff indeed!
Born January 4, 1982 — Kerry Condon, 40. She provides the voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. in the Marvel Universe films. More impressively, she was the youngest actress ever to play Ophelia in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet. She also played Clara on three episodes of The Walking Dead, and I see she was Dr. Zoe Boyle In Believe, one of those many series that disappeared before anyone knew they existed.
Born January 4, 1985 — Lenora Crichlow, 37. She played Cheen on "Gridlock", a Tenth Doctor story. She played also Annie Sawyer on the BBC version of Being Human from 2009 to 2012. And she appeared as Victoria Skillane in the "White Bear" of Black Mirror.
Born January 4, 2000 — Addy Miller, 22. She is on the Birthday List for being Sarah in Plan 9. Really? They re-made that movie? Why? And yes she played A Walker in that other show. My fave role by her is because of the title, it was a short called Ghost Trek: Goomba Body Snatchers Mortuary Lockdown, in which she was Scary Carrie Carmichael. And yes you can watch it here.
Marc de Wolf relays news from Mars.
A new #comic about the #cat's oldest nemesis. I hope @NASA is careful.#CuriosityRover pic.twitter.com/qORQUHBK9K
— Marc de Wolf (@eenWolf) April 7, 2021
(12) GOING FOURTH. Arturo Serrano is on fire! Check out his review of Matrix Resurrections — "In 'Resurrections,' the toxic legacy of 'The Matrix' is the new villain to defeat" — at Nerds of a Feather. Beware Spoilers.
Lana Wachowski is very much aware of how dangerous it was to ask for another Matrix movie.
In the first scene of The Matrix Resurrections, a self-professed fan of Neo watches a deliberately inaccurate remake of The Matrix, one where the female lead loses. Then this fan intrudes into the narrative, rescues one of her heroes, and exits a movie theater, running for her life.
The title of the movie she's desperately fleeing? The Root of All Evil.
What, pray tell, is the root of all evil? The love of money.
That's the horror Resurrections is trying to avoid, and despite its corporately mandated existence, it manages to not lose itself.
(13) SOLE SURVIVOR GAMES. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times behind a paywall, Tom Faber reviews "battle royale" games where, like The Hunger Games or Squid Game, all the characters fight each other until only one survives.
In the world of gaming, the first titles to imitate Battle Royale, such as the visual novels Dangonrompa and Zero Escape, explored similar themes, but the big successes today are shooters with no such intellectual pretensions. Here a group of players are dropped from a plane across a large map and must scavenge weapons and fight until only one survives. These have become the dominant form in online gaming…
…The genre has also proved versatile. A number of non-violent games have offered eccentric takes on the battle royale, ranging from the candy-coloured obstavle course Fall Guys to Tetris 99, where 99 players stack blocks in a last-man-standing competition. Today there is truly a battle royale for every player, and last week I finally found one for me–new release Babble Royale, a spin on Scrabble in which players parachute letter tiles on to a board and compete to be the last speller standing.
(14) THE BOTTOM LINE. For the fourteenth year, Jim C. Hines has shared his professional earnings results in "2021 Writing Income".
… So while I produced almost two books, 2021 was a year with no original Jim C. Hines publications, which is a bit frustrating and discouraging. It also makes the income numbers more interesting, at least to me.
2021 Income: The biggest check came from the Delivery/Acceptance payment for Terminal Peace. While I delivered that manuscript in September 2020, the payment didn't make its way through the system and get to me until 2021. I'm kind of glad, because otherwise this year's numbers would be a lot more depressing…
(15) GET YOUR BETS DOWN. [Item by SF Concatenation's Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just tweeted; its first advance post ahead of its seasonal edition (slated for mid-month). This advance post relates to its team's informal bit of fun as to the best books and film or the past year. The SF² Concatenation have been doing this for quite a few years now and have something of a track record of some of their choices going on to be short-listed for awards (a few even winning). See here and scroll down.
(16) TRAILER PARK. From Disney+, The Book of Boba Fett Episode 2 trailer.
(17) A LITTLE OOPS. There were a lot of eyeballs on the big reunion – too many to miss a mistake like this: "Harry Potter reunion special mixes up Emma Watson and Emma Roberts: 'How did this happen?'"
…The makers of HBO Max's hit reunion special, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, accidentally swapped in a childhood photo of Emma Roberts for franchise star Emma Watson….
GUYS HELP ME THATS LITERALLY EMMA ROBERTS NOT EMMA WATSON ?????????????????? #ReturnToHogwarts #HarryPotter20thAnniversary pic.twitter.com/bLbXcCUpnh
— ????? (@vee_delmonico99) January 1, 2022
(18) A CENTURY AHEAD. Isaac Arthur lays out his "Challenges & Predictions for the Next 100 Years" – that will sober you up!
Every year has new challenges, every generation faces its own unique crises, and as we move into the New Year, we will look at the challenges facing us in the next century and set out Top 10 Predictions for life in the year 2121.
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Meredith, Steven H Silver, SF Concatenation's Jonathan Cowie, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged accessibility, Arturo Serrano, Boba Fett, Costa Book Awards, Hawkeye, Huntington Library, Isaac Arthur, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jim C. Hines, Marc Shaiman, Mari Ness, Octavia Butler, Robocop, SF Concatenation, Tom Faber, Viable Paradise, video games
Pixel Scroll 1/3/22 Barsoomian Rhapsody
(1) AUTHORS CALL OUT DRASTIC PROBLEMS WITH KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING. Several indie romance authors recently found themselves banned by Kindle Direct Publishing with no real explanation, including paranormal and SF authors such as Ruby Dixon, author of Ice Planet Barbarians. She's a successful writer who has been reviewed in mainstream media, so this was very odd. Even when Amazon reinstated the authors and their books, some say they had to fight to get their royalties restored as well.
Lexi Ostrow, another author who experienced this, blogged about it extensively. "The Story of Amazon & The Destruction of a career – USA Today Bestselling Author Lexi Ostrow" is the first of three posts.
… The last 30ish hours have been very hard for me. Somehow, I offended Amazon's KDP system and my entire career has been taken down. This blog is my attempt to share only the facts, while leaving out any opinions and emotions. At present, 43 books have been unpublished, over $300 in advertising dollars on a new release from 12.20.21 are wasted, and over 700 reviews & ratings are now gone. All of this occurred just 24 hours after my latest release, which was the first release I've had since last Christmas, due to fighting a mystery illness and COVID parenting a toddler – writing took a backseat.
Please consider sharing this blog on your social media. I want to effect change within Amazon more than I want my career back. If enough of us make noise, it's possible this can all be changed….
As I am human, my next course of action included breaking down. I have been a published author – indie house, small presses, and self – for just over 6 years. I have been included in or solo'd in 54 novels + the two preorders.
Per the email, my books were gone. My reviews were gone. My royalties would not be paid – yes, you read that correctly, Amazon was going to keep money I made on all my BACKLIST titles because the preorder raised a flag. I also cannot create another KDP account to begin again (which is fair if I'd done what I was accused of doing or anything else).
I took to social media for help, because my account was blocked so I couldn't "contact us" beyond a form fill and I wasn't content with that. To see the Facebook post, click here.
Susan Lyn says she suffered the same fate: "Writing and Life".
In unrelated yet just as devastating news, I seem to have angered the gods of Amazon and all books have been purged from the behemoth. They seem to be doing a massive author purge, some pretty big names have also been affected.
Never fear, I'm in the process of sending all of my previously published titles wide (to be available everywhere but Amazon) and will update links to where they are available.
Ruby Dixon's books have since been reinstated.
Lexi Ostrow's Amazon author page also shows her Kindle books are back, but it was a struggle every step of the way as she explains in two follow-up posts. "Amazon & The Destruction of a Career Part 2" on December 26 contains screenshots of more emails exchanged with the Amazon Content Review Team. "Amazon & The Death of a Career – the Finale" on December 29 says that when Amazon restored her books, they initially did not restore the royalties in her account. Later, Ostrow got a call from someone from KDP's Executive Customer Relations that her royalties also had been restored. Ostrow's final post includes these lessons learned:
What did I learn from the call?
The KDP content team has no phone access because "they aren't client facing so it isn't an issue". I assure you, I let him know how very much it was/is an issue
Executives have no idea why the content team does what they do – AKA NO NOTES!!
He found me via Twitter, not via any of my emails or attempted calls.
The KDP content team is overseas and doesn't interact with clients. I was very verbal that this is a problem.
I was told there would be an investigation into why I was ignored so many times and not given proper responses.
That while nice, I will never put all my eggs in one basket. While I will remain on Amazon for the exposure, I am 100% wide.
Our fight to fix this process is not yet done, but I'm still trying to understand what will help as a petition merely expresses a desire for something, but we all know Amazon KNOWS their policy is shit.
(2) WEBB TELESCOPE IN THE SHADE. Yahoo! reports:"NASA's new space telescope 'hunky-dory' after problems fixed".
NASA's new space telescope is on the verge of completing the riskiest part of its mission — unfolding and tightening a huge sunshade — after ground controllers fixed a pair of problems, officials said Monday.
The tennis court-size sunshield on the James Webb Space Telescope is now fully open and in the process of being stretched tight. The operation should be complete by Wednesday.
… The sunshield is vital for keeping Webb's infrared-sensing instruments at subzero temperatures, as they scan the universe for the first stars and galaxies, and examine the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.
Getting the sunshield extended last Friday "was really a huge achievement for us," said project manager Bill Ochs. All 107 release pins opened properly.
But there have been a few obstacles.
Flight controllers in Maryland had to reset Webb's solar panel to draw more power. The observatory — considered the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope — was never in any danger, with a constant power flow, said Amy Lo, a lead engineer for the telescope's prime contractor, Northrop Grumman….
They also repointed the telescope to limit sunlight on six overheating motors. The motors cooled enough to begin securing the sunshield, a three-day process that can be halted if the problem crops up again, officials said.
"Everything is hunky-dory and doing well now," Lo said.
"Onions have layers. Ogres have layers." And so does our sunshield!
Layer 1 of our 5-layer sunshield is now pulled taut, getting us even closer on our journey to #UnfoldTheUniverse. We have begun tensioning Layer 2: https://t.co/9YBPSe36OC pic.twitter.com/0LKHIZpKDS
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) January 3, 2022
(3) HARD TO SWALLOW. Cora Buhlert reviews the opening episode of the new series: "The Book of Boba Fett finds itself a 'Stranger in a Strange Land'". Beware spoilers.
…"Stranger in a Strange Land", the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett continues where both The Mandalorian and Return of the Jedi left off. Because the scenes of Boba Fett establishing himself as the premiere crime lord on Tatooine are interspersed with flashbacks of Boba Fett's past, including his escape from the Sarlaac's digestive tract….
(4) ROUTES. In San Marino, the Huntington's "Mapping Fiction" exhibit will open January 15: "Exhibition to Explore the Construction of Fictional Worlds through Maps and Novels".
On the occasion of the centennial of James Joyce's Ulysses, "Mapping Fiction" includes works by Octavia E. Butler, William Faulkner, Jack and Charmian London, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Mark Twain, among others…
…Other featured objects in this section include an Arion Press artist book edition of Edwin A. Abbott's satirical novella Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions; J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy; George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones; maps from the Octavia E. Butler archive related to her Earthseed novels; and a map for The Mortmere Stories of Christopher Isherwood and Edward Upward.
(5) CINEMATIC CLI-FI. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Washington Post, Sonia Rao interviews directors of films that deal with climate change. Most of the films discussed, including Wall-E, The Day After Tomorrow, and Mad Max: Fury Road–are sf. Kim Stanley Robinson is briefly interviewed in the section on Mad Max: Fury Road. "Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity. Here's how filmmakers have tried to make sense of it all."
… Things fall apart rapidly in "The Day After Tomorrow." Soon after climate scientist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) says at a United Nations conference that climate change could lead to an ice age, a storm system develops and threatens to destroy the Northern Hemisphere. Jack's son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his friends seek shelter at the New York Public Library, where they burn books for warmth as snow mounts against the building's outer walls.
Like its peers in the disaster genre, "The Day After Tomorrow" is consumed by the special effects involved in depicting calamity. Emmerich says his critics often forget that "when you make a movie, it has to be dramatic in a certain way." People bought tickets to be stunned. This was the guy who made "Independence Day," after all….
(6) TODD SULLIVAN. Space Cowboy Books presents an online reading and interview with Todd Sullivan author of the fantasy trilogy The Windshine Chronicles on January 25 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. Free registration here.
(7) NIGHTMARES ALLEZ. Hear from the legendary director in the Maltins' podcast: Maltin on Movies: Guillermo del Toro.
Guillermo del Toro is a sorcerer who places no limits on his imagination. His new film, Nightmare Alley, now playing in theaters, is an exquisitely rendered film noir that stands alongside his earlier work (The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water) with the promise of more to come—like his "take" on Pinocchio. Leonard and Jessie are longtime devotees and are thrilled to share this uniquely eloquent and passionate creator with all of you.
1993 — [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Twenty-nine years ago, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered in syndication. The fourth spin-off of the original series (counting the animated run) was the first developed after the death of Roddenberry as created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. It starred Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor and Michael Dorn. It would run for seven seasons and one hundred seventy-six episodes. It would be nominated for two Hugo Awards but wouldn't win either of them.
Born January 3, 1892 – J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, It's the Birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien. I thought I'd do something different, so I asked Filers and other folk I knew what their favorite works by him were.
Peter Beagle says:
'You mean my favorite writing by Tolkien? Probably the story of Beren and Luthien, which I've always loved – or maybe the one now published as The Children of Hurin. One or the other.'
Cora Buhlert is one of three Filers who gave an answer:
'The first Tolkien I actually read was The Hobbit, in an East German edition with the illustrations from the Soviet edition. I got it as a present from my Great-Aunt Metel from East Germany, who often sent me books for Christmas and my birthday. It's still somewhere in a box on my parents' attic.
'I liked The Hobbit a lot, but I didn't know there were more stories set in Middle Earth, until several years later, when I spotted The Lord of the Rings at a classmate's place and borrowed it from him. As a teenager, I had a thing for mythology and read my way through the Nibelungenlied, the Odyssey and the Iliad, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, etc… Lord of the Rings fit right into that context and I enjoyed it even more than I had enjoyed The Hobbit.
'I didn't read the essay "On Fairy Stories" until university, when I cited it in a paper I wrote for a class. Now I had been educated in an environment which considered the traditional Grimm's fairy tales too brutal and unsuitable for children (luckily, my parents ignored that and told/read them to me anyway) and which viewed fantasy and science fiction or any kind of genre fiction as escapist trash and potentially harmful. I got regurgitated version of this from my teachers at school and in university I was exposed to the 1970s leftwing pop culture criticism where those ideas had originated. However, I didn't believe that fairy tales were bad and that SFF was escapist trash, so I was thrilled to read "On Fairy Stories" and find that Tolkien, who surely was considered beyond reproach, agreeing with me.'
Lis Carey was our next Filer:
'I think I have to say that The Hobbit is my favorite Tolkien. I really do identify with Bilbo's desire to stay home, and enjoy his cozy hobbit hole and its comforts, in his comfortable, familiar neighborhood. Yet, against his better judgment, he is lured into going on an adventure (always a bad idea, adventures) with the dwarves, and finds out just how resilient he is, his unexpected bravery, his ingenuity when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges ("…he was chased by wolves, lost in the forest, escaped in a barrel from the elf-king's hall…") (yes, I love The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, too.) He finds resources in himself that he never suspected–and at the end, he still goes home, to deal with his annoying relatives and enjoy his home. None of this "and now I will abandon everything I ever cared about, to be a completely different person in a different life."'
It's been a long time for Ellen Datlow: since she read his nibs. so she says:
'I haven't read him in so long I don't remember–I loved all three of the LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit but don't remember exactly why.'
Pamela Dean says she "unreservedly loves The Lord of the Rings, the translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,' and 'On Fairy-Stories'."
Once again, The Hobbit proves popular as Jasper Fforde says it's:
'The Hobbit, because it's the only one I've read – I liked it a great deal but was never really into spells, wizards and trolls, so never took it any further.'
Elizabeth Hand gave a lengthy reply:
'I'd probably have to say The Lord of the Rings, which I've read it countless times over the last forty years. It imprinted on me at such an early age — I had the good luck to read it as a kid in the 1960s, when it was still a cult novel, and you had a real sense that you were in some secret, marvelous group of insiders who had visited a place not everyone knew about. Maybe kids discovering it today still have that feeling, in spite of the success of the movies (which I love). I hope so. But I also find that, as I've gotten older, I'm far more drawn to reread other works, especially in The Complete History of Middle Earth and The Silmarillion (we have very long Tolkien shelves here).
'I love the Beren & Luthien material, and also the various accounts of Turin, which recently were republished as The Children of Hurin. The dark tone of all of it, the tragic cast and also the recurring motifs involving elves and mortal lovers — great stuff. It doesn't serve the function of comfort reading that LOTR does, and because I'm not so familiar with the stories I can still read them with something like my original sense of discovery.
'The breadth and depth of Tolkien's achievement really becomes apparent when one reads The Complete History — 13 volumes, including an Index. Every time I go back to them I think, I could be learning Greek, or Ancient Egyptian, something that has to do with the real world. But then, I'm continually so amazed by what this one man came up with, the intensity and single mindedness of his obsession. And I get sucked into it all over again.'
Gwyneth Jones says her favorite work is The Lord Of The Rings:
'Why — Because I read it when I was a child, in bed with bronchitis. My mother brought me the three big volumes, successively, from the library, I'd never met anything like it, and it was just wonderful entertainment for a sick child. I grew out of LOTR, but will never forget that thrill. More why: I've never felt the slightest temptation to open the massive prequels and spin-offs of Middle Earth fantasy, I just don't have that gene, and I feel the Tolkien industry doesn't need my money. And the other works are either too scholarly, or everything about them is represented in LOTR anyway. I admired 'Tree and Leaf' when I read it, long ago, but I'm not sure if I still would.'
OR Melling says:
'As a child, I loved reading fantasy – CS Lewis, E Nesbit, JM Barrie and so on – but when the librarian offered me The Hobbit and said "it's about little men with hairy feet" I recall giving her one of those withering looks only children can give. Why on earth would I want to read a book about men with hairy feet? I did finally read The Hobbit when I was 12, after I had read The Lord of the Rings, and discovered that my initial suspicion was correct. I did not like the book at all, particularly its depiction of the elves. This was a great surprise, of course, considering that I had absolutely fallen in love with The Lord of the Rings. It is still one of my favourite books to this day. Aside from The Silmarillion – which I endured like all faithful fans – I have not read any other of Tolkien's works.'
Catherynne M. Valente picked The Silmarillion:
'I love The Lord of the Rings. I was once a hardcore Sindarin-speaking LoTR geek, in the days of my misbegotten youth. It is a vast and important book. But I have to say that I feel the book is incomplete without The Silmarillion, which provides a depth and mythology, an understanding of the forces at work, a breadth and beauty that LoTR does not have on its own. I am one of the few who loves The Silmarillion for itself, devoured it in one sitting, had no trouble with the archaic language. It should get more love than it does.'
Our final Filer is Paul Weimer who states:
'I am going to go with a sidewise choice. While LOTR and the Hobbit are some of my earliest and most beloved of all SFF that I have ever read, the piece by Tolkien that comes back to my mind again and again is the story of Beren and Luthien. We get the story in a number of ways and forms :the small fragments we see in Lord of the Rings (or the tiny bit in the movie), the longer tale told in the Silmarillion, and the alternate and evolving versions seen in the extended histories of Middle Earth and his letters, In the end this love story between man and elf, mortal and immortal, is in many ways THE story of Tolkien, more than the story of a Hobbit, or of the One Ring. It is very telling that Tolkien and his wife's gravestone name check themselves as Beren and Luthien. It moved me the first time I read the full story, and it moves me still.'
For Jane Yolen, it's The Hobbit:
'While it's true that The Lord of the Rings is his masterwork and The Hobbit his first attempt at writing (and that, some say witheringly, for children) I have to admit I adore The Hobbit. It has adventure, wonderful characters, fine pacing and spacing, some really scary bits (my daughter ran screaming from the room when the trolls grabbed the ponies, and she refused to hear the rest of it.) And if I could ever write a chapter as good as the Riddles in the Dark chapter I would never have to write again.'
(10) COMIC SECTION.
Bizarro stretches the truth in a comic way.
(11) FLIPPED SCRIPTS. "Premee Mohamed on turning science fiction tropes on their head" is one of the segments on the January 2 edition of CBC's The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay. Listen to the profile at the link.
(12) THE TIME OF HIS LIFE. People always want to know how a successful writer does things. John Scalzi obliges with an account of how he budgets his time: "In Theory, My Work Day" at Whatever.
Now that the holidays have been packed away and we are back into the swing of things, I know that some of you have had an interest in how I manage my work days. The answer to this varies, largely depending on whether I'm working on a novel or not. However, as it happens, I am working on a novel again, and also, I've decided to put a bit more structure into my day. So in theory, here's how my work days should go in 2022….
(13) THE AMAZON PRIME DIRECTIVE. Jeff Foust reviews an Amazon Prime documentary about Shat's space trip for The Space Review: "Shatner in Space".
… There is not a lot of drama in the show itself. When winds force a one-day delay in the flight, Shatner briefly ponders if the universe is trying to tell him that he shouldn't go, but the moment passes. There's a brief hold in the countdown because of a software issue that threatens a scrub ("You've got to be [bleeping] kidding," Shatner says in the capsule) but that, too, quickly passes. There's some footage inside the capsule during the flight itself, although not much more than what was shown during and immediately after the flight….
(14) MALLEUS MALEFICARUM. "How do you spot a witch? This notorious 15th-century book gave instructions – and helped execute thousands of women" – The Conversation has the story.
Books have always had the power to cast a spell over their readers – figuratively.
But one book that was quite popular from the 15th to 17th centuries, and infamously so, is literally about spells: what witches do, how do identify them, how to get them to confess, and how to bring them to swift punishment.
As fear of witches reached a fever pitch in Europe, witch hunters turned to the "Malleus Maleficarum," or "Hammer of Witches," for guidance. The book's instructions helped convict some of the tens of thousands of people – almost all women – who were executed during the period. Its bloody legacy stretched to North America, with 25 supposed "witches" killed in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 1600s.
(15) FUSION EXPERIMENT SETS RECORD. "China switches on 'artificial sun' that is five times hotter than the real thing" reports MSN.com.
A nuclear fusion reactor in China has set a new record for sustained high temperatures after running five times hotter than the sun for more than 17 minutes, according to state media.
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), known as an "artificial sun", reached temperatures of 70,000,000C during the experiments, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The ultimate aim of developing the artificial sun device is to deliver near-limitless clean energy by mimicking the natural reactions occurring within stars.
"The recent operation lays a solid scientific and experimental foundation towards the running of a fusion reactor," said Gong Xianzu, a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the latest experiment.
The EAST project, which has already cost China more than £700bn, will run the experiment until June….
(16) TRUTH. Via RedWombat.
Anyone else already giving up on their New Year's resolutions? In case you aren't sure what you're looking at, Juanita the armadillo is napping in her exercise wheel. pic.twitter.com/hCYPmwBjtB
— Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) January 3, 2022
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Chris Barkley, Anne Marble, Olav Rokne, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Boba Fett, Cora Buhlert, Guillermo del Toro, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Webb Space Telescope, Jeff Foust, John Scalzi, Kindle Direct Publishing, Leonard Maltin, Lexi Ostrow, Octavia Butler, Premee Mohamed, Space Cowboy Books, Todd Sullivan, Ursula Vernon, William Shatner
Pixel Scroll 11/27/21 And In The Barkness Dine Them
Posted on November 27, 2021 by Mike Glyer
(1) SEVERANCE PAY. On The Last Leg, Jodie Whittaker tells the host about her emotional final day on Doctor Who, and the souvenir she stole from the set.
(2) NANOWRIMO DEADLINE APPROACHES. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) – and guess which month is almost over? Mad Genius Club's Amanda S. Green hit the goal, but knows from experience what can happen when "NaNoWriMo meets real life".
… But the real problem for me and for a number of other writers is NaNo is a complete deviation from our normal way of writing. To push through and finish "the book", most of us have to turn off the internal editor. We have to give ourselves permission not to write in all the details we usually put in during the first draft. We have to remember that what comes out is not the final product but is, at best, an expanded outline which will need another month or two to get ready for publication….
(3) GATOR GENESIS. It's interesting that a Gothamist writer claims to have authenticated this story, because during my early days in fandom I'd heard it was perpetrated by Galaxy editor H.L. Gold. "The Alligator In The Sewer: Evidence Behind NYC's Urban Legend". The Wikipedia also devotes an article to "Sewer alligator" legends.
On a chilly day in 2010 I stood on the steps of City Hall to hold a press conference. Equipped with a proclamation from the Manhattan Borough President and an enlarged clipping from the NY Times, I was there to announce the First Annual Alligator in the Sewer Day, a pseudo-holiday I have been celebrating every year since.
Exactly 75 years earlier, on February 9th 1935, New York City's greatest urban legend was born, and the NYT story, which ran the following day, proved that legend was true.
"Alligator Found in Uptown Sewer," read the headline. The piece recounted how some East Harlem teens were shoveling snow down a storm sewer when one of them noticed movement below. He peered into the darkness and was stunned by what he saw. "Honest, it's an alligator!" he proclaimed to his buddies….
(4) NO AHHHS ARC. Camestros Felapton provides the "Interim, spoiler-free, review of Doctor Who: Flux" you may not have known you needed.
… Overall, I think so far it has been pretty good. Like previous Chibnall seasons, there's no stand-out 100% future-classic episode but he is leaning into his strengths. Those strengths include a good sense of the aesthetics of "good" Doctor Who episodes (but not the substance of it) and longer story arcs. Rehashing classic villains isn't a great way of moving the series forward but Chibnall's attempts at new ideas previously have largely fallen flat, so…I think I prefer him playing it safe….
(5) A WAY OUT. New Scientist's Sally Adee reviews Charlie Jane Anders' new collection in "Even Greater Mistakes review: Short sci-fi stories without the sexism". The post ends:
… But as Anders shows us, we have choices in how to deal with these rigged systems. We can always throw the whole lot in the bin.
(6) VINDICATION. Vincent Czyz, reviewing a new edition, says "The jury's in. The critics who agreed with an early assessment that 1975's Dhalgren is a 'literary landmark' get to touch champagne flutes and congratulate one another," in "Book Review: Samuel R. Delany's 'Dhalgren' – A Critical War of Words" at The Arts Fuse.
"Very few suspect the existence of this city. It is as if not only the media but the laws of perspective themselves have redesigned knowledge and perception to pass it by. Rumor says there is practically no power here. Neither television cameras nor on-the-spot broadcasts function: that such a catastrophe as this should be opaque, and therefore dull, to the electric nation! It is a city of inner discordances and retinal distortions." – Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren
"Dhalgren is a tragic failure," howled science fiction heavyweight Harlan Ellison in his February 1975 review for the Los Angeles Times. "An unrelenting bore of a literary exercise afflicted with elephantiasis, anemia of ideas, and malnutrition of plot."
"I have just read the very best ever to come out of the science fiction field," countered Theodore Sturgeon, another SF heavyweight who, in my opinion, was a tad heavier. "Having experienced it, you will stand taller, understand more, and press your horizons back a little further away than you ever knew they could go." Galaxy Magazine published his take on Dhalgren after Ellison weighed in.
Critic Darrell Schweitzer, writing for the fanzine Outworld (October 1975), threw in with Ellison, calling Dhalgren "shockingly bad." "It is a dreary, dead book," he went on to say, "about as devoid of content as any piece of writing can be and still have the words arranged in any coherent order."
That seems a pretty definitive judgment, and yet forty-five years later Schweitzer repented: "I have to admit that Dhalgren seems well on its way to fulfilling the definition of 'great literature' I give here, i.e., that it means something different to readers and different points in their lives, and they keep coming back to it."…
(7) MARCHING ON TURKEY DAY. Gothamist has a large gallery of photos from the "2021 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade In NYC". Here are two of them:
(8) LOVES A CHALLENGE. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Washington Post, Michael Cavna interviews Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote seven songs for the new Disney animated film Encanto and who will write new songs with Alan Menken for the live-action The Little Mermaid remake scheduled to be released in 2023. "'Encanto''s Lin-Manuel Miranda has become a go-to songwriter for Disney".
…But it was while working together on Disney's 2016 animated hit "Moana" — which yielded Miranda's Oscar-nominated "How Far I'll Go" — that the composer vocalized an "I Want" wish to screenwriter Bush, who recalls: "He told me he wanted to write the definitive Latin American Disney musical."
Soon the two were talking with Bush's "Zootopia" collaborator and fellow brass musician Byron Howard,who would also become a writer-director on "Encanto" (as would Charise Castro Smith). They shared the experience of coming from large extended families. Out of that grew an "Encanto" story that spotlights a dozen main characters — "unheard of in Disney animation," says Bush….
(9) PEDESTRIAN FACTS. MeTV wants you to know: "Here's what's on the ground in 'The Jetsons'".
…One of the most common misconceptions about The Jetsons is that the cartoon never shows the ground beneath Orbit City. The Jetson family lives in the Skypad Apartments. George works at Spacely Space Sprockets. Both cylindrical buildings project into the sky like birdhouses on long poles. It is a world of flying cars.
This optimistic vision of the 21st century often left viewers wondering — what is on the ground? Well, the answer is… hobos, walking birds, concrete and parks.
One of the best views of the surface level comes in the seventh episode, "The Flying Suit." Remember, The Jetsons originally aired for a single season in 1962–63, as reruns kept it on Saturday mornings for years. Anyway, this particular episode revolves around W.C. Cogswell and Mr. Spacely both developing a red jumpsuit that allows people to fly. Meanwhile, Elroy had concocted pills that allow people to fly. A mix-up at the dry cleaners swaps the suits, and in the end, both companies think their flying suit is a dud. Besides, who wants to slip on a special unitard when you can just pop a pill? The episode closes with Cogswell tossing his X-1500 flying suit out the window, believing it to be worthless….
(10) SONDHEIM OBIT. Stephen Sondheim, whose works includes Company, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Follies, Into the Woods, Assassins and lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy, died November 26 at the age of 91. The New York Times obituary is here cites one of his lesser-known genre creations:
…Mr. Sondheim's first professional show business job was not in the theater at all; through the agency representing Hammerstein, he was hired to write for a 1950s television comedy, "Topper," about a fussbudget banker haunted by a pair of urbane ghosts. (Much later, Mr. Sondheim wrote a whodunit film script, "The Last of Sheila," with the actor Anthony Perkins; it was produced in 1973 and directed by Herbert Ross.)
Sondheim coauthored this episode of the fantasy sitcom Topper in 1954 when he was 24.
(11) MEMORY LANE.
[By Cat Eldridge.]
1995 — Twenty-six years ago this evening, the writers of Deep Space Nine decided to riff off of James Bond with the "Our Man Bashir" episode. It was directed by Winrich Kolbe from a story that originated with a pitch from Assistant Script Coordinator Robert Gillan which was turned into a script by Producer Ronald D. Moore.
Although the episode takes its title from Our Man Flint, a major inspiration for the story was the James Bond films. This obvious influence resulted in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer complaining to Paramount about it as they had GoldenEye coming out. Though why they thought it would affect the success of the film is a mystery as it was the best Pierce Brosnan Bond film and the most successful of his films.
It was well-received at the time and has not been visited by the Suck Fairy which I hold is true of the entire series. Charlie Jane Anders at io9 considers it one of goofiest Deep Space Nine episodes, and Keith DeCandido at Tor.com says "holy crap is it fun". The trailer is here.
Born November 27, 1907 — L. Sprague de Camp. The Tales from Gavagan's Bar he wrote with Fletcher Pratt are my favorite works by him. Best novel by him? I'd say that's Lest Darkness Fall. His only Hugo was awarded at LoneStarCon2 for Time & Chance: An Autobiography. He got voted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award, and he got World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. His very first Award was an IFA for Lands Beyond that he wrote with Willie Ley. (Died 2000.)
Born November 27, 1935 — Verity Lambert. Founding Producer of Doctor Who. (When she was appointed to Who in 1963, she was BBC Television's only female drama producer, as well as the youngest.) After leaving BBC, she'd oversee the Quatermass series at Thames. She'd return to BBC to Executive Produce three seasons of So Haunt Me, a supernatural series. Wiki has her producing an episode of Doctor Who called "A Happy Ending" in 2006 which it tuns out is one of this fannish productions notable for the presence of Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford, the daughter of the First Doctor. (Died 2007.)
Born November 27, 1940 — Bruce Lee. His only genre role was as Kato in The Green Hornet which to my utter surprise only lasted for twenty-six episodes between 1966 and 1967. He also appeared on Batman in three episodes, "The Spell of Tut", "Batman's Satisfaction", and "A Piece of The Action". Despite the various weird rumors, including Triad induced curses about his death, it was quite mundane. Donald Teare, an experienced forensic scientist who had been recommended by Scotland Yard was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was "death by misadventure" caused by cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination Equagesic medication. (Died 1973.)
Born November 27, 1951 — Melinda Snodgrass, 70. She wrote several episodes of Next Gen while being the series' story editor during its second and third seasons. She has also contributed produced scripts for the series Odyssey 5, Outer Limits, Beyond Reality, and SeaQuest DSV. She's contributed a lot of stories of the Wild Cards series of which she is co-editor, and I'm very fond of her Imperials Saga which is what that promo blurb referring to Bridgerton was about.
Born November 27, 1957 — Michael A. Stackpole, 64. Best known for his myriad Star Wars and BattleTech books, but I'm going to single him out for the excellent Once a Hero which was nominated for a Nebula, his Conan the Barbarian novel, and the two Crown Colonies novels.
Born November 27, 1961 — Samantha Bond, 60. Best known for playing Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the series' Pierce Brosnan years. She was also Mrs Wormwood in three episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, the spin-off of Doctor Who, and played Helga in Erik the Viking which written and directed by Terry Jones.
Born November 27, 1963 — Fisher Stevens, 58. He's best remembered as Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit (and renamed Ben Jahveri in the sequel), Chuck Fishman on Early Edition, and Eugene "The Plague" Belford in Hackers. He's also had roles on The Hunger, Lost, The Mentalist, Medium and Elementary.
Born November 27, 1974 — Jennifer O'Dell, 47. Her only meaningful role to date, genre or otherwise, has been that of Veronica on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World but what a pulp heroine she made there . She's had some minor roles such on Charmed and Bones, and appearances on films such as Alien Battlefield and Dr. Laurie Williams on Vampire flick Slayer but nothing major to date.
Bizarro tells the story of Dorian Moneybags.
(14) MIYAZAKI RETURNING. "Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki Comes Out Of Retirement For New Film" – Deadline has the story.
Famed anime director Hayao Miyazaki revealed he is coming out of retirement once again to make a feature length animated film.
In an interview with the New York Times, Miyazaki didn't give much detail about the film, but mentioned its based on Genzaburo Yoshino's 1937 book How Do You Live? The story follows a teenage boy in Tokyo who moves in with his uncle after his father dies. The novel is reportedly one of the director's favorites.
Miyazaki didn't confirm if the film would have the same name as the book, but when asked why he was returning to direct the film, he simply answered "Because I wanted to." Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer Toshio Suzuki described the new film as "fantasy on a grand scale."…
(15) PURPLE PEOPLE. In the Washington Post, David Betancourt interviews Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Hawkeye's sidekick Kate Bishop in Hawkeye but could play an increasingly important role in the MCU in the future. "Hailee Steinfeld of 'Hawkeye' could become the next big star of the Marvel universe".
Hailee Steinfeld had no idea how much one color was about to take over her new superhero life.
Purple has become her second skin during the production and promotion of her highly anticipated series "Hawkeye." Steinfeld kept seeing the color splashed across the "thousands" of pages she read of the Hawkeye comics, which she enjoyed so much she keeps them on display at her home. Both her character, Kate Bishop, and Clint Barton, played by Jeremy Renner, have purple suits — and it was obvious her chats with the wardrobe department on "Hawkeye" would have a singular focus.
"It's so funny because, I of course obviously knew about the purple walking into this … but I guess maybe I didn't. Because it has become my world," Steinfeld told The Washington Post. "But I'm not mad about it. I do love the color purple."…
(16) TO PROMOTE PRINT SALES. "Solana Beach Art Gallery to Host Dr. Seuss Art Collection" says Times of San Diego.
Exclusive Collections in Solana Beach announced this week it will host a private collection of artwork by beloved author Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss.
Virtually unknown to the general public, the art collection features paintings and sculptures created by the famous children's author.
Organizers described the work as "a mind-expanding collection based on decades of artwork, which Dr. Seuss created at night for his own personal pleasure."
(17) CAVE LIBRUM. In the Washington Post, Alexandra Petri says we probably ought to ban all books, because books are dangerous! "School boards should ban all books. They're just too dangerous."
… Books follow you home and pry open your head and rearrange the things inside. They make you feel things, sometimes, hope and grief and shame and confusion; they tell you that you're not alone, or that you are, that you shouldn't feel ashamed, or that you should; replace your answers with questions or questions with answers. This feels dangerous to do, a strange operation to perform on yourself, especially late at night when everyone else in the house is sleeping….
(18) ANTIQ-TOCK-QUITY. "Surveillance, Companionship, and Entertainment: The Ancient History of Intelligent Machines" at The MIT Press Reader.
Robots have histories that extend far back into the past. Artificial servants, autonomous killing machines, surveillance systems, and sex robots all find expression from the human imagination in works and contexts beyond Ovid (43 BCE to 17 CE) and the story of Pygmalion in cultures across Eurasia and North Africa. This long history of our human-machine relationships also reminds us that our aspirations, fears, and fantasies about emergent technologies are not new, even as the circumstances in which they appear differ widely. Situating these objects, and the desires that create them, within deeper and broader contexts of time and space reveals continuities and divergences that, in turn, provide opportunities to critique and question contemporary ideas and desires about robots and artificial intelligence (AI)….
(19) STAR WARS NEWS. Disney dropped the trailer for their Boba Fett series today: "The Book of Boba Fett".
"The Book of Boba Fett," a thrilling Star Wars adventure teased in a surprise end-credit sequence following the Season 2 finale of "The Mandalorian," finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the galaxy's underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Alan Baumler, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Alexandra Petri, Amanda S. Green, Boba Fett, Camestros Felapton, Charlie Jane Anders, Darrell Schweitzer, Disney, Doctor Who, Dr. Seuss, Hayao Miyazaki, Jetsons, Jodie Whittaker, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Marvel Cinematic Universe, NaNoWriMo, robots, Samuel Delany
Pixel Scroll 11/1/21 Have Stillsuit, Will Travel
Posted on November 1, 2021 by Mike Glyer
(1) IMAGINARY PAPERS. Now available to read online is the latest issue of Imaginary Papers, the ASU Center for Science and the Imagination's quarterly newsletter on science fiction worldbuilding, futures thinking, and imagination.
The issue features an essay by science fiction author Lena Nguyen (We Have Always Been Here) on the video game Detroit: Become Human —
…From her separate menu, Chloe serves as a witness and judge of the player's actions in the main campaign, visibly reacting to their choices. Detroit tells the branching stories of three androids who are beginning to achieve sentience; they all experience "deviancy," a divergence in their programming that allows them to experience emotion and join a burgeoning synthetic rebellion. The player's choices are the guiding force determining whether these characters live, love, die, revert to their programming, or achieve true sentience….
Also featured are SF scholar Dagmar Van Engen on the unfinished 1910s Black science fiction serial "Punta, Revolutionist," and a writeup about Imagine 2200, a climate fiction contest and series of stories from the environmental magazine Grist.
(2) AFRICAN SPECULATIVE FICTION. Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine Issue 19 is out. The tri-monthly magazine publishes speculative fiction writers from across Africa and the African Diaspora.
(3) DISABILITY STUDIES. Jose L. Garcia analyzes sff's cyborg subgenre with its tendency to presume "something of the original human is lost through the process of prosthesis implementation, even if is portrayed as 'enhancement.'" "At My Most Beautiful: the Politics of Body Prostheses, Disability, and Replacement in Arryn Diaz's Dresden Codak" at Vector.
…While a number of stories complicate the idea of the cyborg, there has been (comparatively) little critical exploration of cyborg bodies in disability studies until relatively recently. Yet, such analyses are of critical importance for understanding how the visual language of prosthesis has evolved. At this juncture of the cyborg and disability sits Kimiko Ross, the protagonist of Arryn Diaz's webcomic, Dresden Codak. Ross prominently features prosthetic body parts, and the ways in which Diaz sets up scenes with Ross grab from the spectrum of cyborg subjecthood. These range from frank dealings with images of disability, images of power and "augmentation," and even sexuality (the latter not overt, but noticeable enough to be said to sit within that tradition of sexualized cyborg subjecthood, similar to the opening sequence to the 1995 Ghost in the Shell film, which lingers on images of the naked cyborg body at several points). The specific frames that centre on Ross' body create a network of significations that both reifies and frustrates three aspects of a representation: the cyborg, the traumatised body, and the disabled body.
Consciously or not, Diaz's comic trades in the existing visual language of cyborg bodies and its adjacent fields: disability, femininity, and political alienation….
(4) A BIG STATE HAS A LITTLE LIST. [Item by Jennifer Hawthorne.] A Texas legislator has put together a list of 850 books and is demanding that schools in the state tell him if they have these books in their libraries and how much they have spent on them. Exactly what he plans to do with this list is unclear. "Texas lawmaker wants to know what books on race, sexuality are in schools" in the Texas Tribune.
A Republican state lawmaker has launched an investigation into Texas school districts over the type of books they have, particularly if they pertain to race or sexuality or "make students feel discomfort."
State Rep. Matt Krause, in his role as chair of the House Committee on General Investigating, notified the Texas Education Agency that he is "initiating an inquiry into Texas school district content," according to an Oct. 25 letter obtained by The Texas Tribune.
Krause's letter provides a 16-page list of about 850 book titles and asks the districts if they have these books, how many copies they have and how much money they spent on the books.
A PDF of the entire list is here, Unfortunately, the list is not put together in any kind of easy-to-read order, but a quick glance immediately revealed four SFF works: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (graphic novel version), V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, The Last Man by Brian Vaughn, and When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey. And it includes non-genre works by figures whose names will be familiar to sff readers – Carmen Maria Machado, Mark Oshiro, Mikki Kendall, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. I'm sure there must be more on there and thought maybe the Filers would find it interesting to see how many more they could find….
(5) FANHISTORY ZOOM. Fanac.org has added their latest Fan History Zoom Session to YouTube:
Keith Freeman and British fan historian Rob Hansen provide a first-hand look at some of the landmark moments of British fandom. Keith found fandom in the 1950s, while still enlisted in the RAF, and became part of the Cheltenham Circle. Over the next decades, he was heavily involved in science fiction fandom. There are wonderful stories here of the origins of St. Fantony (and the associated jousting), the role of the Liverpool group in fannish marriages, the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA), and well known fans such as Eric Jones and Dave Kyle. In addition to fannish tales, Keith relates a chilling first person account of an H-bomb explosion on Christmas Island… Rob Hansen, author of "Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK: 1930-1980" is both interviewer and participant, eliciting an absorbing hour of fannish history.
(6) DANGER FAN. Camestros Felpaton prefaces "Review: Foundation Episode 7" with irresistible hooks and a spoiler warning. Will you be reeled in anyway?
Spoilers below! Also Jurrasic Park and Karl Marx guest-star in this review.
In many ways, this is a key episode for the series as the show is now only very lightly tethered to the books. As Cora points out in her review of the episode, the departure from the plot has led one of Foundation's most notable fans, economist Paul Krugman, to stop watching. I think he's missing out on a fun show but without knowing the plot connections from the previous episodes, the only obvious connections with the books in this episode are the character names.
All four plots of the show get an airing and each of the characters central to those plots are each heading towards a crisis…
(7) SHOOTING ARROWS IN THE BIG APPLE. Daniel Dern says Marvel Studios' Hawkeye trailer "Looks like strongly based on Matt Fraction's great run on the Hawkeye comic." Here's a HooplaDigital search, though there may be other relevant issues/collections — Hoopladigital.com.
(8) WHERE TO HAVE A DRINK WITH A BLADERUNNER. "A Gorgeous New Cocktail Bar Opens Inside Historic LA Bradbury Building" – Eater LA has the story.
…Perhaps most interestingly, the new Wyman Bar (named for the architect of the famed building, which was built in 1893) will pay homage to its starring role as a backdrop to the film Blade Runner by showing set images from the movie taken by late photographer Stephen Vaughan. Other activations of the space will follow in the coming months. As for the space itself, expect a long marble bar, plush stools, and lots of rich, dark woods inside the warm, brick-touched space designed by DesignAgency….
(9) WILLIAMS OBIT. Charlotte Williams – known in Tennessee fandom as "the third Charlie Williams" — died October 26 at the age of 68 reports the Daily Times of Blount County, Tennessee. The family obituary recalls that "She enjoyed reading science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries, and attending and organizing science fiction conventions," and Fancyclopedia 3 records that Williams was the first woman to chair Chattacon – which she did in both 1994 and 1995.
2000 – Twenty-one years ago, the Starhunter series (renamed Starhunter 2300 in its final second season) premiered on The Movie Network in Canada. (This is not the same as The Movie Channel in the States in case you were wondering.) It was created by G. Philip Jackson, Daniel D'or and Nelu Ghiran. The principal cast for season one was Michael Paré of Streets of Fire fame along with Tanya Allen and Claudette Roche. It was executive produced by Elaine Steinbeck who was the wife of John Steinbeck. It had better than decent ratings for its two seasons of forty-four episodes but died over some of worst relations between investors and the producers of a series that you can imagine. (They even got Paré fired after one season.) If you're interested in watching it, it is available in two separate DVD sets in the States. Starhunter ReduX Is the producer's edition with censored scenes, better SFX and such that came four years ago. That is available on Amazon Prime.
Born November 1, 1882 — Edward Van Sloan. He's best remembered for his roles in three Thirties Universal Studios films of Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy. He was Abraham Van Helsing in The Dracula, a role he'd done in touring production of Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. He would be in a number of other horror films though none remembered as well as these. (Died 1964.)
Born November 1, 1917 — Zenna Henderson. Her first story was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1951. The People series appeared in magazines and anthologies, as well as the stitched together Pilgrimage: The Book of the People and The People: No Different Flesh. Other volumes include The People Collection and Ingathering: The Complete People Stories. She was nominated for a Hugo Award at Detention for her novelette "Captivity." Her story "Pottage" was made into the 1972 ABC-TV Movie, The People. "Hush" became an episode of George A. Romero's Tales from the Darkside which first aired in 1988. (Died 1983.)
Born November 1, 1923 — Gordon R. Dickson. Truly one of the best writers in the genre. I'm not going to fully detail his stellar career as that would require a skald to do so. His first published genre fiction was the short story "Trespass!" written with Poul Anderson, in the Spring 1950 issue of Fantastic Stories. Childe Cycle involving the Dorsai is his best known series and the Hoka are certainly his silliest creation. I'm very, very fond of his Dragon Knight series which I think really reflects his interest in that history. He's got three Hugos, first at Loncon II for the "Soldier, Ask Not" story, next at Denvention Two for the "Lost Dorsai" novella and "The Cloak and The Staff" novelette. (Died 2001.)
Born November 1, 1941 — Robert Foxworth, 80, He's been on quite a number of genre shows including The Questor Tapes,seaQuest DSV, Deep Space Nine, Outer Limits, Enterprise, Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5. His first genre role was as Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein where Bo Swenson played the monster.
Born November 1, 1942 — Michael Fleisher. Comics writer best known for his DC Comics work of in the Seventies and Eighties on Spectre and Jonah Hex. He also has had long runs on Ghost Rider and Spider-Woman early on. I've read them in the Marvel Unlimited app and it shows that he is a rather good writer. (Died 2018.)
Born November 1, 1959 — Susanna Clarke, 62. Author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell which I think wins my award for the most footnoted work in genre literature. It won the World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Awards, and a Hugo at Interaction. It was adapted into a BBC series and optioned for a film. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories collects her short works and is splendid indeed. Her latest novel, Piranesi, is getting good reviews here. It's been nominated for a Hugo this year.
Born November 1, 1973 — Aishwarya Rai, 48. Indian actress who's done two SF films in India, the Tamil language Enthiran (translates as Robot) in which she's Sana, the protagonist's medical student girlfriend, and Mala in Action Replayy, a Hindi-language SF romantic comedy. She was also Sonia in The Pink Panther 2.
Frank and Ernest make a case for squares.
(13) TODAY'S QUESTION. Sent to us by young John King Tarpinian:
Why wasn't "Iron Man" called "Fe Male?"
(14) THEY SET THE TONE. In the Washington Post, Stacey Henley uses the 25th anniversary of the first Lara Croft video game to interview voice actors who have voiced the character over the years. "Meet the women who brought 'Tomb Raider's' Lara Croft to life".
When Shelley Blond first stepped into a recording studio in 1996, she had no idea her performance would become a foundational element in the legacy of one of gaming's most iconic female characters. Lara Croft is one of the most glamorous video game leads of all time. But Blond, the first voice actor to play Croft, remembers the role as anything but."I remember going into a London studio for five hours and recording all the lines and sound effects like grunts, dying and fighting noises," Blond told The Post via email. "These days, it's all a much lengthier process with mo-cap [motion-capture] and all the physicalities that go with that. For me it was just go in, read the lines as directed and leave. I didn't think about it again until I saw the game advertised and her image on the front of the Face magazine."…
(15) THAT'S A WRAP. When it comes to burrito references in literature, John Scalzi modestly declines credit except where it is given:
(Oh, and I believe @johnhartness has put a Scalzi burrito truck in his books specifically to have it explode, which, you know, fair.)
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) November 1, 2021
(16) BOBA TIME. This trailer for the Boba Fett project dropped today.
(17) FAMILY HEIRLOOM. Parade interviews Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman and his father, Ivan Reitman: "Ghostbusters: Afterlife Director Jason Reitman Says He Was 'Scared of This Project' and Carrying on His Father's Legacy".
Jason, what are your memories of seeing the original get made?
Jason: I remember when they dumped marshmallow on [actor] William Atherton [EPA inspector Walter Peck]. I remember some of the special effects tests, and I was there for the recording of the original score. It was one of the first moments where I fell in love with the movies.
Ivan: Weren't you also there for the test on the cards?
Jason: Yes, the index cards in the library. The ones that fly out of the drawer! What was that called again?
(18) STILL LOOKING FOR THE SMILEY. The article "FCC Commissioner Says He's Afraid of Robodogs and We Can't Tell If He's Joking" is behind a paywall at Futurism, however, the tweet that inspired it is below.
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr went on a Twitter rant this week about robodogs, citing apocalyptic science fiction movies and television before ultimately implying — though we're honestly still not sure — that maybe he had just been joking about the whole thing….
I've seen "Terminator," I've seen "I, Robot." I know how this ends.
That's why I'm hereby proposing a new rule:
If your robot dog is too large to kick over in case of an emergency, it's banned. pic.twitter.com/mV6OtkE1lS
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) October 28, 2021
(19) A SLIPPERY SLOPE. The first episode of BBC Radio 4's Slime: A Natural History by Susanne Wedlich is "The Cosmic Horror of Slime". All five episodes are available to listen to here.
Slime is an ambiguous thing. It exists somewhere between a solid and a liquid. It inspires revulsion even while it compels our fascination in fiction and on the screen. It is both a vehicle for pathogens and the strongest weapon in our immune system. Many of us know little about it, yet it is the substance on which our world turns.
Sirine Saba reads from Susanne Wedlich's ground-breaking new book which leads us on a journey through the 3-billion-year history of slime, from the part it played in the evolution of life on Earth to its potential role in climate change and life beyond our planet.
There is probably no single living creature that does not depend on slime in some way. Most organisms use slime for a number of functions: as a structural material, as jellyfish do; for propagation, as plants do; to catch prey, as frogs do; for defence, like the hagfish; or for movement, like snails.
In this first episode, the story of how slime continues to fascinate and terrify us on the page and on the screen. From Dr Who to Ghostbusters, from the disturbing stories of HP Lovecraft to the horror of Stephen King, there is a slime for every time, guaranteed to ooze into our deepest fears.
(20) FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL. "When dinosaurs ruled the earth." Yeah, that's about how long ago I used to waste sacks of quarters playing pinball – but back then they hadn't yet dug up this machine! "Jurassic Park Pinball Machine Takes You on a Prehistoric Adventure" – Yahoo! has the story.
Archaeologists have yet to find any evidence dinosaurs had their own arcades. Probably because the T.Rexes got upset that they couldn't play with their little arms. But Stern Pinball is now bringing Steven Spielberg's big screen classic to mankind's own gaming rooms. The company calls its newest game "a pinball adventure 65 million years in the making." Welcome to the new Jurassic Park Pin….
(21) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Green Life presents a questionable explanation of how animated films are made.
[Thanks to Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Joey Eschrich, Rich Lynch, Jennifer Hawthorne, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Boba Fett, Camestros Felapton, Charlotte Williams, Chattacon, cyborg, Fanac.org, Foundation, Ghostbusters, Hawkeye, Imaginary Papers, Jason Reitman, John Scalzi, Keith Freeman, Lara Croft, Omenana, Rob Hansen, robots, video games
The Hunt For Han Solo
Begins May 2021
StarWars.com has revealed a series of teasers spotlighting the major players of the anticipated Marvel Comics crossover, Star Wars: War Of The Bounty Hunters! Drawn by artist Giuseppe Camuncoli, these headshot images will also serve as variant covers for upcoming tie-in issues of the event that will see Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Doctor Aphra, Boba Fett, the galaxy's deadliest bounty hunters, and more on a collision course for the greatest prize of all: Han Solo.
Jabba the Hutt, the infamous Tatooine crime lord, will also be joining the hunt in a special one-shot.
Jabba the Hutt is one of the most powerful and ruthless gangsters in the galaxy—and Boba Fett, his most trusted bounty hunter, has failed him. How will Jabba deal with betrayal and what does this have to do with a bounty hunter with ties to the High Republic? Star Wars: War Of The Bounty Hunters — Jabba The Hutt #1 by writer Justina Ireland and artist Luca Pizzari will be the first of four action-packed "War of the Bounty Hunters" one-shot tie-ins about the criminal underworld's most notorious hunters and scoundrels, all told by the best Star Wars writers and illustrators in the galaxy.
"Getting to work on a comic at Marvel, especially a Star Wars comic about one of the most perpetually under-appreciated criminal masterminds in the whole galaxy, has been a trip," Ireland told StarWars.com. "It's exciting, a little scary, and really makes me wish I could time travel to tell my twelve-year-old self reading comics in the grocery store self 'All of this will pay off one day.'"
Six teasers and the main cover for Star Wars: War Of The Bounty Hunters — Jabba The Hutt #1 by Mahmud Asrar follow the jump.
[Based on a press release.]
Posted in Graphic Examples | Tagged Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Jabba the Hutt, Marvel, Princess Leia, Star Wars
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