Our Special Hugo Nominating Edition of Amazing News consists of this highlighted link to the Far Beyond Reality blog and their link roundup post (and a few others below)  They’ve been doing yeoman’s work in gathering things together and appear to be acting solely as a repository;  links are included to posts offering comment from across the entire spectrum.  Please note that some of the links are themselves to link round-up posts – multi-layers of confrontational goodness – anger, angst, protestation, excuse, explanation and disturbed fire ant mound organized panic.  If you really want to delve into this issue:  Set aside several undisturbed hours. Remove all sharp and easily manipulated heavy objects from your vicinity.  Secure a supply of high-energy hand foods and plenty of liquids.  Take a double dose of your favorite tranquilizer, mood-elevator or serontonin reuptake inhibitor. If music calms you, play something. If you are prone to forehead slapping, put a ballcap on.  Sit or lay while reading.  And remember to take frequent breaks to go outside, stretch and scream at the world.

Reading All the Nominees May Not Be Fair
How To Deal With H8ers
Incidents and Accidents, Hints and Allegations
The Next Logical Step
Award Season
A Loss Of Perspective

My own take on on the subject (Saturday editorial) is included in the FBR link roundup.

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (See below for full text)

Black Science Fiction Society ‘Freedom’ Trailer
Night Shade Books
Duotrope Newsletter
Clarion West Workshop
TOR Newsletter
Watch Josh Whedon’s Latest Online
DOC SAVAGE – The War Makers

SOCIAL

Many Americans Doubt Lots Of Stuff (they could easily check on google)
McDonalds To Stop Giving Away Gendered Happy Meal Toys
Facebook is Watching You.  (Test to see how much it knows about you – but realize you are probably giving all of that info to the APP developers though they say not…)
And We’re Supposed To Be the Intelligent Species?  (video – dolphins protect swimmer)

ENTERTAINMENT

NEW SF short film looking to get to London Film Festival
Sci-Fi London Fiml Festival Schedule
Tales To Terrify
Mystery Science Theatre 3000:  Definitive History
New Spy-Fi Steed & Mrs. Peel (For strong women in purple vinyl, I still go for Hit Girl.  Black cat suits – Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat Woman, but they’d all be trumped by my wife if she’d just put the damned outfit on…)
Sir Patrick Stewart On Science Fiction (Smithsonian Magazine)
Hobbit Finale Retitled
New Godzilla Trailer
Guardian Publishes Comics in Weekend Supplement
Attack On Titan Premieres (video)
Author of Mallworld Rocks Some Wagner (video – Ride of the Valkyries)
Animated Robot Short

FANDOM

Bill Patterson 1951 – 2014
The GUFF Ballot is Online
Minicon Photo-Fest

AWARDS

Michael Armstrong Receives SFWA Award
Curt Phillips Wins TAFF
Charles Gannon Wins Compton Crook Award
SFWA Makes Writer’s Digest Top Website List

INDUSTRY

Aereo’s SCOTUS Case Is An Interesting Debate On Tech
Smithsonian Conference
Genre Fiction Radiates From A Literary Center (and other proofs that the map is not the territory)
New Fantasy Magazine – Fantasy Scroll
Star Wars Universe Being Booted – ooops – RE-booted

SCIENCE

100,000 Stars (interactive)
ARTISTS(!?) Brains Have More Gray Matter Than Normal Folks?!? (They do say genius is just one step removed from madness – bwah hah hah hah!)
Life After 400 Parts Per Billion
More Dolphin Goodness
New Milky Way Map
Soon, the Sky Monster Will Eat the Sun (Eclipse, 2014)
Man, Astronauts Get To Have ALL the Fun!
We Need Skepticism Now More Than Ever
Sci Fi Lies!

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS

Jarvis Sheffield

Check out the video ‘Seeing Tomorrow “Freedom” Trailer’ Seeing Tomorrow “Freedom” Trailer First Trailer for Web Series Seeing Tomorrow. Video link: Seeing Tomorrow “Freedom” Trailer About BlackScienceFictionSociety Black Science Fiction Society highlights, celebrates and develops science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, movies and games.

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21st of April 2014 BREAKING NEWS: NEAL ASHER’S JUPITER WAR (OWNER TRILOGY 3) NOW AVAILBLE ON ALL MAJOR E-TAILERS, INCLUDING AMAZONAND BARNES & NOBLE! Alan Saul is now part-human and part-machine, and our solar system isn’t big enough to hold him. He craves the stars, but can’t leave yet. His sister Var is trapped on Mars, on the wrong side of a rebellion, and Saul’s human side won’t let her die. He must leave Argus Station to stage a dangerous rescue — but mutiny is brewing onboard, as Saul’s robots make his crew feel increasingly redundant. Serene Galahad will do anything to prevent Saul’s escape… read more       AUTHOR Q & A: NEAL ASHER Q. With Jupiter War set to release in the US in just a few days, what can we as readers expect? A. If you are a reader of Jupiter War then I guess you would already have read The Departure and Zero Point. What you can expect is a ramping up of the action and the danger that were steadily growing in those two books. You can also expect further questions of what it means to be human when the human brain is being linked up with computers, and where humans fit in the kind of highly technological society where this is possible – questions we are already facing in some respects now. And you can expect a resolution with this being the last book of this trilogy. Q. What did your writing process look like, writing Jupiter War? A. My writing process with Jupiter War was much the same as it is for all my books. I’m not one of these writers who has to plan out a book beforehand and plaster his office with post-it notes. All my plotting happens at the keyboard. You could say I write by the seat of my pants if that wasn’t a physical impossibility, or that I make it all up as I go along, which is what writers do. I sit down at my computer at maybe 8:00AM and edit through whatever I wrote on the previous day. I then simply continue and aim for 2,000 words by the end of my writing day, 10,000 words by the end of a five day week. I of course have to keep checking the previous books for details but don’t let that get too much in the way during the first draft. Once that is finished I then do a lot of editing, checking, deleting and rewriting. I even read the book back from the end a paragraph at a time so as to pick up errors (this method prevents too much involvement with the story). I finally send it off to the publisher when I’m so bored with editing I find myself making alterations just for a bit of excitement. Read more

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Clarion West has just released a new issue of its biannual newsletter, The Seventh Week. You can download the PDF at https://www.clarionwest.org/community/seventhweek/. In this issue:

• Interview with Eileen Gunn: Stubborn and Tightly Stacked by Nisi Shawl (CW ’92)
• Letter from Our Chair and Our Executive Director by Karen G. Anderson and Caroline Bobanick
• Eventful Horizon: Our First Workshop Report by Neile Graham (CW ’96) and Huw Evans (CW ’12)
• Rolling with the Punches by Mark Bukovec (CW ’06)
• All That Glitters by Dan Trefethen
• Clarion West Invites You to Send Updates for Our New Alumni News
• Newsletter Schedule Change

Clarion West invites you to send updates for our new Alumni News

Alumni News is moving from The Seventh Week to its own section of the Clarion West website! We’ll be able to bring you the latest updates from Clarion West alumni and instructors quickly, so you can read them while they’re fresh. The Alumni News page is located at https://www.clarionwest.org/community/alumni-news/.

Have something to share? Email alumni@clarionwest.org or fill out the form on the site. We’re interested in:

• Book releases
• Sales and publications
• Awards and nominations
• Appearances
• Teaching engagements
• Births, deaths, marriages, and all sorts of other life passages

Don’t be shy—this is your chance to let everyone know what’s happening!

The 11th annual Write-a-thon begins in June—what are your goals?

Spring is here, and it’s time to start thinking about the Clarion West Write-a-thon, our annual fundraiser. Whatever your writing goals are this summer, the Write-a-thon can help. Watch your email in the coming months for more information and to sign up.

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BLOG ORIGINAL FICTION EXCERPTS

Shiny Awards On All Sides: Hugos and Gemmells and BSFAs! So you may have heard that the Hugo nominationswere announced over the weekend, and there’s certainly a lot to talk about! First off, we’re happy to announce that the entire Wheel of Time will be made available in the Hugo Voters’ Packet! Then, in her ‘Sleeps with Monsters’ column, Hugo-nominated blogger Liz Bourke discusses the rest of the nominees, paying particular attention to the novel category. Elsewhere, The David Gemmell Legend Award shortlist was also announced, and The British Science Fiction Association revealed this year’s BSFA Award winners! Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! SHARE THIS:          A Light in the GrimDarkness, the End of a Beloved Series, and Writing Gender Beyond the Binary…We here at Tor.com love gritty SFF, but sometimes we want something a little lighter. Leah Schnelbach suggests some optimistic fantasy for when the grimdarkness gets a little too grim and dark-come add your own suggestions in the comments! Liz Bourke talks about Elizabeth Bear’s recently completed Eternal Sky Trilogy , why it made her cry and sent her looking for music. And in her Post-Binary Gender in SF column, Alex Dally MacFarlane explores the narrative device ofwriting without revealing gender or using gendered pronouns… SHARE THIS:          Star Wars: Expanded Universes Keep Expanding into the Future… Screenwriter Simon Kinberg just made an announcement about Star Wars canon that sent fans into a panic, but not to worry! Emily Asher-Perrin is here to reassure you that the Expanded Universe is here to stay. Meanwhile, Ryan Britt tackles the only Star Wars EU novel written in the first person: Michael A. Stackpole’s I, Jedi. Just in case you didn’t already love Clone Troopers, we found some delightful photography that will turn your heart into goo.And once your heart re-solidifies, we have the firstEpisode VII on-set photos and all kinds of rumors to set it all aflutter!  SHARE THIS:          Movie and TV News: A Reconsideration of Robots, The Triumphant Return ofMST3K, and a Booster Shot for Godzilla Fever!Chris Lough finally meets a certain Portland-based cellist in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest episode,“The Only Light in the Darkness.” And in the most exciting news ever, Mystery Science Theater 3000 might be coming back! Leah Schnelbach asks why Joel, Mike, and the bots still mean so much to us after 25 years. Meanwhile, Thom Dunn reviews Joss Whedon’s newest project, In Your Eyes. Presumably he will blast the review from a boombox as he stands beneath your bedroom window. Ryan Britt doesn’t need BBC America’s The Real History of Science Fiction to tell him what to think about robots, thank you very much! Ryan also has some definite opinions about Internet God Johnny Depp in his review of Transcendence.And in case you hadn’t heard, Godzilla fever will soon be sweeping the nation! Let’s revisit the King of the Monsters’s classic debut film, now fully restored and celebrating its 60th anniversary, as we cap things off with a brand-new trailer for the rebooted Godzilla! SHARE THIS:          Nothing Good Comes After A Purple Wedding (Except, Possibly, Some Dragons…)Game of Thrones sure did throw us a curveball this week… Theresa DeLucci explores some of the thornier points of “Breaker of Chains.” In a far less troubling turn of events, George R.R. Martin has released a new sample from The World of Ice and Fire that delves into the life of Aegon Targaryen, and more importantly, gives us more dragons! SHARE THIS:          Potter-dom: Quidditch Coverage from Current Magical Argentina vs. Future Neo-Hogwarts!Intrepid sports reporter Ginny Weasley covers the Quidditch World Cup! J.K. Rowling wrote a new section of the website to give us a taste of Ms. Weasley-Potter’s coverage for the Daily Prophet. Plus, if you ever wanted to see how they play Quidditch in acyberpunked Neo-Hogwarts, we have an amazing mashup right here! And finally, join our Harry Potter reread as Emily Asher-Perrin confronts a troll with Hermione and chases a Snitch in Harry’s first Quidditch match! SHARE THIS:          On Building a Shardblade, and Getting Up Close and Personal With Brandon Sanderson…How do you build a Shardblade for your favorite author? Superfan Val C. Alston designed Oathbringer to honor Brandon Sanderson, and he tells us all about the experience of crafting the huge, magical sword! We also got a special sneak peek at the cover forFirefight, the second book in The Reckoners trilogy! This sequel to Steelheart is due out in January, 2015. And in addition to having a New York Times best seller,Sanderson himself was just profiled in the Times!Learn about Sanderson’s career path, and his journey from graveyard shift hotel clerk to best-selling sensation. SHARE THIS:          Book Banning, Freaky Rabbits, and the Sacred Crystalline Tears of Tom HiddlestonIn this week’s YA Roundup, we take a look at trailers for If I Stay and Petals on the Wind, and discuss the most challenged books of 2013. In other crucially important news, we have learned the secret tounlocking Tom Hiddleston’s tears! (Spoilers: it involves a beautiful poem. Aw.) And why bother hunting Easter eggs when you can read our updated and expanded list of SF/F bunnies and other rabbit-like creatures?! Some of them are cute, some of them are creepy, and some of them might be downright dangerous… SHARE THIS:        NEW ORIGINAL FICTION   Original FictionTor.com is proud and delighted to have our fiction and contributing editors honored with Hugo nominations, and we’ve rounded up all of our nominated works for your reading pleasure. Thanks to everyone who voted! And in this week’s offering, Dale Bailey contemplates a society on the brink of collapse, and artists at the end of their ropes… “The End of the End of Everything” by Dave Bailey A long-married couple accepts their old friend’s invitation to an exclusive artists’ colony. Once they arrive, they learn that the inhabitants of the colony have found a new way to cope with a world teetering on the brink of extinction. Is the suicide party an idea whose time has come? Should they join the artists, and let go of the future?  SHARE THIS:        ROCKET TALK PODCAST   Rocket TalkWe actually have two action-packed episodes of Rocket Talk for you this week! First, in A Very Special Episode of Rocket Talk,Tor.com’s Associate Publisher Irene Gallo, Editorial Assistant Carl Engle-Laird, and Hugo-nominated blogger and Tor.com columnist Liz Bourke talk with host Justin Landon about this weekend’s announcement of the Hugo Awards finalists, and try to predict some winners! And in our regularly scheduled episode this week, Justin is joined by Joe Monti, Executive Editor for Simon & Schuster’s new SFF imprint, Saga Press, for a conversation about the publishing world and Saga in particular!  SHARE THIS:

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Watch Joss Whedon’s new film right now

Joss Whedon is the mind behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers, and lots of other amazing stuff you’ve probably seen. And his new film, In Your Eyes, is available RIGHT NOW, powered by Vimeo On Demand. You can stream it into your eyeballs for the paltry sum of $5.Subtitles for In Your Eyes are available in five languages: Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese, and German. To turn subtitles on or off, click the “CC” button in the video player. Enjoy the film!

Watch now

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  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DOC SAVAGE: THE WAR MAKERS  

Altus Press is proud to announce its latest Wild Adventure of Doc Savage release.

Working from a complete outline written back in 1935, Will Murray has produced
another thrilling exploit of the Man of Bronze. Up until now, Murray has been working from working from unpublished manuscript material found among the papers of Doc Savage originator Lester Dent, but this time he has a new collaborator.

“I knew one of the most wonderful pulp writers ever, Ryerson “Johnny” Johnson,” explains Murray. “We became friends back in the 1970s, when he was in his 70s and I was in college. Johnny ghosted a pair of Doc Savage novels for Lester Dent, and before he died he sold me the rights to an outline Dent never exploited. I saw in this absorbing alternate storyline a rare chance to sequel one of the original Doc adventures. Thus was born The War Makers, which is actually a sequel is no less than three classic Docs!”
All over the Midwest, cars and trucks were crashing–-stopped in their
tracks by an inexplicable force! Had some unseen power targeted America’s automotive industry––or was something more sinister at stake?
Summoned to solve the mystery, Doc Savage and his intrepid men follow a trail of terror that winds through the continental United States like a constricting serpent of
senseless destruction.

From the nation’s car capital to the Arctic Circle, the Man of Bronze races to stave off a strangely familiar menace only to confront a completely unexpected foe––the enigmatic Baron in Black!
Doc Savage: The War Makers is available in trade paperback, hardcover and ebook editions.

Doc Savage: The War Makers is the eighth entry in Altus Press’ popular Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series. With a stunning cover by Joe DeVito depicting Doc Savage at his Fortress of Solitude in the North Pole.

The softcover edition is now available, with the hardcover and ebook version due in May. Order from www.adventuresinbronze.com

Also just rereleased, White Eyes, long out of print in a new stunning edition!
For further information, contact Willmurray@Radioarchives.com

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NOTE: COV