Bradbury East and West
More than one place lays claim to being Ray Bradbury’s home town, somewhat like the poet Homer. Over 100 proposals for a statue of Ray Bradbury have been submitted to a Waukegan Public Library-led committee gathering ideas for a memorial … Continue reading →
Judges Picked for PK Dick
The 2016 Philip K. Dick Award judges will be Eric James Fullilove, James C. Glass, David M. Higgins, Lisa Mason, and Jack Skillingstead. The award is given for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. Presented … Continue reading →
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015)
Terry Pratchett passed away March 12 at home surrounded by his family reports his publisher. He was the author of 70 books, among them 40 in the Discworld series of comic fantasies that began with The Colour of Magic in … Continue reading →
NASA Astronaut Named Sasquan Special Guest
Sasquan has announced NASA Astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren will participate as a Special Guest of the 2015 Worldcon while aboard the International Space Station serving as a Flight Engineer for ISS Expedition 44 and 45. “My path to space has been paved … Continue reading →
Monstrously Good Stuff From Hollywood
At Sweet! in the Hollywood and Highland center they carry more than 300 types of chocolate bars, including a whole series with Famous Monsters of Filmland wrappers, and three kinds of Hellboy bars. Or visitors to the store’s Chocolate Lab … Continue reading →
Windycon Offers Prize for Pratchett Memories
The Windycon blog is offering one of Chicon 2000’s Terry Pratchett trading cards to a person who shares their Terry Pratchett or Discworld memories, the winner to be picked at random. What did Terry Pratchett mean to you? Share your … Continue reading →
Apply For 2015 Taos Toolbox
A few openings remain for writers who want to attend 2015 Taos Toolbox, a two-week master class in sf and fantasy to be taught by Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress, with special lecturer Carrie Vaughn. They caution this is not a workshop … Continue reading →
Sally A.Syrjala (1948-2010)
I learned today via Arthur D. Hlavaty that fanzine fan Sally A. Syrjala passed away in 2010 at the age of 61 after a lengthy illness. Some fans were aware (one signed her memorial page) but this may not be generally known. Sally … Continue reading →
And Bring Him Safe to Shore
By John Hertz (reprinted from Vanamonde 1134): From Aeschylus twenty-five centuries ago, from Shakespeare four, we have only the scripts. We are told of and may infer about but cannot see their actors. We can with an actor who has … Continue reading →
Iron Man, Bionic Child
Robert Downey Jr. and Albert Manero, a Collective Project student who founded Limbitless, surprised a child with a new bionic 3D printed arm at no cost to the family. More about The Collective Project here: Continue reading →
Benjanun Sriduangkaew Counterattacks
Benjanun Sriduangkaew, who wrote as Requires Hate and now returns to the internet as “Bees,” has started a new, unlocked, Twitter account to defend herself: https://twitter.com/talkinghive The first tweet might be this one: .@ModelViewMedia’s articles on abuse, harassment, and peer … Continue reading →
Novel Apparel from Litographs
Litographs t-shirts are hand-pressed with designs created entirely from the text of classic books. You can select among the whole range of genre fiction, plus literature and nonfiction. SF and fantasy are represented not only by Verne, Wells, Lewis Carroll, and … Continue reading →
Pratchett Remembered By Jo Walton
Many people are writing interesting reminiscences about the late Terry Pratchett. I highly recommend Jo Walton’s comments about what she learned from him at their first meeting (published at Tor.com): It was one of my first great fannish conversations, and one … Continue reading →
2015 Prix Pierre Bottero
The inaugural winner of Prix Pierre Bottero for Young Adult Fantastic Fiction is “É-Den. Tome 1: Les survivants” by Elodie Tirel. The presentation was made March 6 at Les Oniriques Frestival in Lyon-Meyzieu, France. Eligible for the award are works … Continue reading →
Nerdiest State in America
Congratulations to Utah, graded the Nerdiest State in America by Estately. How did they decide? Estately analyzed Facebook data to score every state and the District for their per capita interest in 12 criteria — Star Trek: The Next Generation, … Continue reading →
Close Encounters at Arthur C. Clarke Center 4/1
The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego will present Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a science fiction adventure film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. There will be a discussion prior to screening … Continue reading →
A Reminder
By James H. Burns: For reasons I’ll never quite be sure of, Rose’s running for the Tardis, one of my favorite, and most moving, moments in filmed science fiction… Continue reading →
Classics of S-F at Westercon 68
By John Hertz: We’ll discuss three Classics of Science Fiction at Westercon LXVIII, one discussion each. Come to as many as you like. You’ll be welcome to join in. We’ll start with “A classic is a work that survives its … Continue reading →
2015 Jack Williamson Lecture Schedule
Highlights of events planned for the 2015 Jack Williamson Lectureship at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales (April 7-10) have been summarized in an e-mail from Williamson publisher Stephen Haffner. Readings from the Words of Jack Williamson Tuesday, April 7th, … Continue reading →
My Failed Attempt To Influence The Hugos
By 1981, File 770 had accumulated two nominations for Best Fanzine and I’d been shortlisted twice for Best Fanwriter. I felt I should use that power for good. Having enjoyed the book tremendously, I tried to get everyone cranked up about nominating … Continue reading →
2015 Prix Bob Morane
The winners of the Prix Bob Morane for 2015 have been announced. The selections were made by a jury of French professionals — writers, journalists, critics, collection curators. The current members of the award jury are Stéphanie Alcésilas, Marc Bailly, … Continue reading →
Carol Severance (1944-2015)
Carol Severance, whose Reefsong won the 1992 Compton Crook Award for best first novel, passed away February 19 at the age of 71. Her friend and colleague Linda Nagata, another Hawaiian writer, has written a fine tribute for the SFWA … Continue reading →
Ketter and Bentley Revive DreamHaven Books
Legendary Minneapolis sf store DreamHaven Books, which has been operating on a limited schedule since 2012, will be open five days a week starting in April. The change has been made possible by a new partnership between owner Greg Ketter and Alice … Continue reading →
WisCon Previews Updated Anti-Abuse Strategy
In a few weeks WisCon will have a draft of its new member safety policies available for public review reports Jacquelyn Gill, chair of the convention’s Anti-Abuse Team. One of the changes will be making WisCon’s Anti-Abuse Team a year-round department … Continue reading →
Edie Stern On List of All-Time Smartest People
Edie Stern is #26 on Libb Thims’ list of the 40 smartest people of all time reports Business Insider. Stern is a well-known club, con and zine fan — past chair of SFSFS, head of the 1992 Worldcon program division, … Continue reading →
Sasquan Schedules Hugo Shortlist Announcement
The 2015 Hugo nominees will be announced April 4 in four locations around the world — Norwescon in Seattle, Minicon in Minneapolis, the British Eastercon in London and at NatCon 2015 in Rotorua, New Zealand. The announcement also will be broadcast … Continue reading →
Second Tomorrowland Trailer Released
A nixie tube readout begins the second trailer for Disney’s Tomorrowland movie — but what do the numbers mean? Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to … Continue reading →
Today In History 3/9
March 9, 1967: “The Devil in the Dark” episode of Star Trek premiered on NBC. MeTV is airing the original Star Trek at 4:00 p.m. in what appears to be in the original broadcast order. Monday is “The Man Trap,” which … Continue reading →
George R. R. Martin Makes A Suggestion
George R. R. Martin used to include quite a few fan Hugo endorsements in his annual post at Not A Blog. His 2015 article “For Your Consideration: Stuff Not By Me” names only one — BEST FAN WRITER. There have … Continue reading →
2014 This Is Horror Awards
The winners of the This Is Horror Awards 2014 have voted by readers of This Is Horror, a UK website. Novel of the Year Winner: Bird Box by Josh Malerman Runner-up: Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes Film of the Year … Continue reading →
2014 Game Developers Choice Awards
The 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards honoring the best games of 2014 were presented March 4 in San Francisco. Game of the Year Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) Innovation Award Monument Valley (Ustwo) Best Audio … Continue reading →
Your Emergency Holographic 2015 Hugo Short Fiction Reading List
A little over 48 hours remain before the Hugo voting deadline. The little silver rocket is about to launch and there are still blank spots on your ballot. Aiyee! Forget about the novel category. That’s barely enough time to read one … Continue reading →
Today In History 3/8
March 8, 1976: Composer Jerry Goldsmith began recording his score for Logan’s Run. (Coincidentally, it’s also the day in 1961 he started recording the music for the pilot episode of TV’s Doctor Kildare, but that ain’t sf…) Continue reading →
Road Block
By James H. Burns: Somehow, if I was “Andromeda Strained,” I never expected it to be happening almost entirely out of view, or, with nary a word…. Last night, around 6:30 p.m., I saw the siren lights bouncing off the … Continue reading →
Added Wolf von Witting’s CounterClock #21
Added Opuntia #301 & archive issue 43.5 and 70.5A, edited by Dale Speirs
No current updates.
