UPDATED: See below for more SF/F/H News!
Welome back to another Fannish Friday!
Our Top Ten Posts for the week of Jan 25-31 were:
Art + Fandom ≠ Fan Art: Definitions – Astrid Nielsch
Dissecting Our Present: How SF Can Highlight Our Historical Bias -Matt Mitrovich
More Sci-fi Shows to Hit Screens in 2013 – Samantha Henry
The Clubhouse: Five Words – Leah Zeldes
The Importance of Actually – You Know – Doing Stuff – Michael A. Burstein
Ready When You Are JJ – John M. Whalen
A New Generation of Star Wars – Ken Neth
Am I A Science Fiction Writer? – David M. Kimmel
Publishing Options Many Choices Now Available – Michael J. Sullivan
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction Part 4 – Douglas Smith
Fran Wu’s Awesome cover for the inaugural issue of Amazing Stories also got quite a few looks
The Star Wars sale seems to have generated a lot of commentary, including here at Amazing Stories!
Speaking of the property that George Lucas no longer owns – according to the Den of Geek, now that Georgie no longer gets to play the evil Emperor producer/writer/director, the truth about working with him is starting to leak out. (Shoulda never left that vent hole on the Death Star open, man.)
In news that is a bit more down to Earth (but not by much), Boeing can say goodbye to their Dreamliner worries, cause here comes the Dream Chaser, the Sierra Nevada Groups low-orbit passenger shuttle. According to Huffpost Science, the Dream Chaser will soon take an all important drop test, guiding itself back to a landing autonomously. The Dream Chaser is designed to service the International Space Station and could be ferrying up to seven passengers to the ISS by 2017.
AAAnd if that ain’t enough cool space tech news for ya, how about this: Sunjammer! The first real test of a solar sail system – and yes, named for Arthur C. Clarke’s short story all about solar yacht racing – is set for a test launch in 2014. According to Space.com, NASA’s Space Technology Program is overseeing the test of the 13,000 square foot sail.
One last space bit, this one just a tad scary: in just two weeks time, asteroid 2012 DA14 is going to do a fly-by of our humble blue marble, streaking by just 17,000 miles away. NASA has a pretty nifty video about it here. DA14 is estimated to be about 50 meters wide and is believed to be a stony asteroid; prior encounters with impactors of about the same size are believed to be responsible for Meteor crater in Arizona and the blast above Tunguska in 1908.
The February 2013 Issue is Now on Sale!
Welcome to issue thirty-three of Lightspeed!
This month, we have original science fiction by C.C. Finlay (“The Infill Trait”) and Carrie Vaughn (“Harry and Marlowe Escape the Mechanical Siege of Paris”), and SF reprints by Robert Reed (“Eight Episodes”) and Maureen F. McHugh (“Interview: On Any Given Day”).
Plus, we have original fantasy by Genevieve Valentine (“Abyssus Abyssum Invocat”) and M. Bennardo (“The Herons of Mer de l’Ouest”), along with fantasy reprints by Marly Youmans (“Prologomenon to the Adventures of Chílde Phoenix”) and John Crowley (“Exogamy”).
We also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, and feature interviews with bestselling authors Lois McMaster Bujold and Steven Erikson. And for our ebook readers, our ebook-exclusive content this month is: the novella “The Happiest Dead Boy in the World” by Tad Williams; an excerpt of the new novel The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord; and a special feature article by Jamie Todd Rubin, “Hat Tip to the Masters: Homage in Science Fiction.”
Can’t wait to get your hands on a copy? You can purchase the issue from the following ebookstores: Lightspeed (direct), Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, and Weightless Books. Visit our Ebooks page for links and more information.
Lightspeed…Direct!
Sometime in early February, we hope to have our custom-built ebook store launched and ready to take orders on lightspeedmagazine.com. This will replace our current ecommerce software, which has been giving us some trouble the last several months. But the big news is that like our sister-magazine, Nightmare, Lightspeed will now offer direct subscriptions as well. So in addition to being able to subscribe via Amazon and Weightless Books, you’ll now also be able to subscribe directly from us. As always, you can go to lightspeedmagazine.com/subscribe to see all of our subscription options.
Just spotted I got #3 😀
I'm not sure how 50 people yelling at me to use appropriate fannish language qualifies me for spot #1, but there you go! Call it poetic justice. 😛
Nice I got #2!