SPECIAL NOTE: See our FREE OFFER for a copy of Andrew P. Weston’s The IXth audiobook elsewhere on Amazing Stories today!

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (see full text below)

UK Blog Awards – Final Chance; Tony C. Smith/StarShipSofa; Krypton Radio; RPGNet #76; Tor.com

SOCIAL

Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Lets make America Smart Again”

Democracy in Action

Meet the Alt-Lite

Fearful of the Future? You’re not the only one

Morning After To Do List

Images of Election’s Aftermath

Chris Rock Announces Presidential Bid

ENTERTAINMENT

New Releases: LASFS to Publish Forry Award Anthology

WOW! Valerian Clip

David Langford Just Can’t Do It (throw this away, that is)

Verne’s Tomb Featured on Atlas Obscura (previously featured on Amazing Stories Masthead & Cover)

Dr. Cyclops & Captain Future

Five Types of Alien Invasion Movies

INDUSTRY

Marc Zicree Shares Thoughts on Science Fiction and Politics (Space Command sets find a new home) (Zicree is Mr. SciFi on Youtube)

Kij Johnson & Sonya Taaffe Coming to NYRSF Readings

Young Anakin Actor In Psychiatric Facility

SCIENCE

Cthluhu Awakes?

PRESS RELEASES & NEWS LETTERS

Final Chance to Nominate Your Blog Hero and Heroine

“Your industry hero’s are those who develop content for the love of writing, the love of change and the love of sharing their knowledge and experiences.”

Your sparklers are out and you’ve tasted enough pumpkin to last you another 12 months, but the fireworks continue as the UK Blog Awards 2017 nominations process reaches its final days.

With only 9 days remaining until entries and nominations close, the chance to gain recognition for your digital content and to nominate your digital heroes is approaching at rapid digital speed – be sure not to forget the 15th November deadline!

Last week, Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions co-hosted a super busy #BlogHour where we discussed all things travel and culture. Don’t miss this Tuesday evening where we take your questions.

In this newsletter, we share details of the power of a nomination and why taking 2 minutes out of your day to nominate your favourite continue means more than you think.

On the Blog, we also share tips and insight on how to establish yourself as a snapfluencer. As well as catching up with previous travel and arts and culture winners, Backpacker Banter and wiwibloggs and finally, we personally introduce some more of your panel judges.

Enter Your Content

Nominate Your Content Hero

Insight + Leadership

Power of the Nomination

Many individuals and companies go day to day developing content, with readers passing by without making comment or interacting through social. We are all guilty of the busy bug. Your industry heroes, are those who develop content for the love of writing, the love of change and the love of sharing their knowledge and experiences. The feeling of appreciation or a single comment that your content has made a difference can leave you feeling overwhelmingly warm inside.

Read the Post

Insight: Backpacker Banter UKBA16 Travel Winner | Where are you now?

Chris has the wanderlust life that many of us can only dream of and with nearly 7 years of Travel under his seat-belt, it is no wonder that his content won one of the UK Blog Awards 2016 gongs back in April.
During this interview, you can find out where Chris has travelled since his big win, his opinion on why and not to join the world of online content, as well as his task to dive deeper into the world of SEO!

Read the Interview

How to become a Snapfluencer and make it work.

Snapfluencers often have hoards of followers watching their videos or ‘stories’ day after day. They have in turn, built community and their own Snap Brand and are now leading the way across social media as the millennial vloggers. With more brands choosing to embrace this current advertising trend, it looks like Snapfluencers are here to stay. Afterall, EVERYTHING will be video led in five years time. We all know this stat by now, so now is the time to embrace.

Read the Post

Insight: wiwibloggs UKBA15 Arts & Culture Winner | Where are you now?

Let’s not lie to ourselves. We all love the guilty pleasure that is, Eurovision. William Lee Adams is the brainchild of, wiwibloggs and has worked hard over the years to not only cover the music genre based event, but has acheived a strong community following. Since wiwibloggs win, the Blog has been featured in worldwide press as well as acheiving 25 million page views on across the site. During this interview, read how wiwibloggs has been motivated to be bigger and how to always focus on the positives and rising above the trolls!

Read the Interview

Introducing: The Judges

UKBA17 Vlogger & Podcast Judge

Introducing: Vlogger & Podcast Judge, Simone Partner who has developed her own Blog brand and is a multi award winning and social media personality, Eltoria.
Simone has worked with many brands and is dedicated to not only her YouTube channel but also her own Blog content. Check out Simone’s content and her judging bio. It’s a video, of course.

View Profile

UKBA17 Education Panel Judge

Introducing: Education Judge, Melanie Osbourne from Ordnance Survey. Melanie is the marketing communication voice from the Ordnance Survey and recently launched the #GetOutside programme to harness the power of social media to encourage people to get active outside. Have you nominated your fave individual and company Education content? Take a look at Melanie’s profile.

View Profile

UKBA17 Lifestyle Panel Judge

Introducing: Lifestyle Jugde, Charlie Lindlar is the Blog Editor at The Huffington Post UK, managing the site’s community of over 15,000 bloggers.
If you are looking for daily inspiration across a multitude of industries, take a look at Charlie’s profile.

View Profile

UKBA17 Travel Panel Judge

Introducing: Travel Judge, Fiona McAuslan who has 15 years’ experience writing for the nationals, including the Telegraph Group and press including Time Out, and is one of Rough Guide’s top-selling authors. She is the co-author of the Rough Guide to Cuba and has worked on various other travel titles. Take a look at Fiona’s profile.

View Profile

UK Blog Awards Ltd

FORWARD

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Hooked on the USA election!

I’m sorry to say I’ve become hooked on the USA election.

This is truly a strange time in US election history. I say ‘truly’ in NICE BIG CAPITALS – TRULY! How has it got to this stage… then again… we had our own little implosion with Brexit – so anything is possible.

I’m sitting on the outside watching in. Man, is it fascinating… this subject is dominating our news feeds. I live in a little remote village on the North East coast of England. For all the US news coverage I’m getting I could well as be smack bang in the heart of Washington DC!

Anyway… my point…. if it all implodes…. the USA, that is…. before it does…. take out a subscription to the District of Wonders Patreon page. So, at least you’ll still be able to wollow in amazing audio fiction when the walls begin to crumble (or get built I should say).

Support StarShipSofa, Tales To Terrify and Far Fetched Fables.
As ever,

Tony

and good luck to all my USA friends.

Oh, I forgot to tell you who I’d vote for if I could. It would be….vergfn$&R$%%F :0)

Copyright © 2016 StarShipSofa, All rights reserved.
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The Krypton Radio newsletter ROCKS FROM SPACE is back, direct to your inbox! Here’s the latest:

We’ve had a pretty rough month this month. We lost both Michael Brown, our Four Color Bullet comics columnist, and Vagabond “Tony” Carter, (Robert Hess when not on the air) both to heart attacks within about a week’s time. Michael was 46, and Robert was only 40, and they both died of heart attacks. Two finer men we have never known, and Krypton Radio wouldn’t have grown to be what it is without them. We are saddened, and surprised by the suddenness of it, and confused as to how we’re supposed to go on without these men by our side. It’s just not something you get over. Time shouldn’t heal all wounds. Sometimes you want the people in your life to be a part of you forever, and Robert and Michael always will be.

Also, a minor correction, station owners Susan Fox and Gene Turnbow have been invited to Arisia in Boston in January of 2017 – that’s January, not February – as Radio Guests of Honor.

Remember, you can get some great new shirts at some great new prices on Krypton Radio’s Secret Lab, right on our web site. We have sizes up to 6XL, so there are shirts that fit everyone.

If you’re a patron of Krypton Radio via our Patreon campaign, we’re done being cagey about it. Just go pick out which shirt you want, and if you’re donating $10 a month or more, we’ll send you any one design you want for free. Just email us at kryptonradio@kryptonradio.com with your selection (but you have to be a Patreon supporter to qualify). See the link at the bottom of this newsletter for the Patreon campaign itself.

Keep it tuned to Krypton Radio. It’s the best geek radio there is.

N7 Day: Mass Effect Andromeda Trailer

In honor of N7 Day, Bioware and Electronic Arts have released a cinematic trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Hot Topic Launches ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Fashion Line

Geek culture begins to define mainstream fashion.

Review: Star Wars Rebels ‘Imperial Supercommandos’

Continuing the Mandalorian story arc, it’s an all-new episode. Ryan Miorelli reviews.

Video of the Day: ‘Super Mario: Underworld’

What happens when Mario dies? In this short, he misses that critical jump, and finds out – the hard way.

1st Look: ‘Wonder Woman’ Official Trailer

Gal Gadot shows us that this Wonder Woman can own the power and strength that is her birthright.

Krypton Radio is listener supported radio.

If you like what you’re hearing (and reading) please become a patron of Krypton Radio. Just five green things a month. That’s all we ask.

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RPGnet Newsletter #76
November 8, 2016

New Columns

Christopher Cecil brought a new Fuzzy Thinking: “Bards Rock!”

And, Brent Dedeaux told some more Tales from the Rocket House, this time playing out a card-based character creation system in “The Character Is in the Cards.”

New Reviews

Matthew McFarland kicked things off with a review of “Trials of the Magi,” a storytelling game about a cabal of wizards preparing for their final exams with some unrealized potential.

Antonios S kept the dice-product reviews rolling with looks at three dice towers: the “e-Raptor Small Black Dragon Dice Tower,” “e-Raptor Large Red Dragon Dice Tower,” and “e-Raptor Black Castle Dice Tower.”

Antonios S also looked at to expansions for The Great War board game: the “Tank Expansion,” an almost necessary add-on to the base game, and the “Whippet Tanks” which probably could have been part of the Tank Expansion in the first place.

He also looked at two expansions for the Vudu/Voodoo dice game: “Double Trouble,” which is easy, light, entertaining, and delivers the team experience, and “Ninjas vs Pygmies,” an inexpensive refresher to the base game.

Endzeitgeist rounded out the week with two RPG reviews. First, he looked at “The Outer Presence,” a very rules-light investigative horror game. Next was “Don’t Walk in Winter Wood,” a cooperative, narrative, rules-light horror game set in a vaguely colonial setting in the United States.

Threads You Might Have Missed

There’ve been many great RPGnet threads about the Cthulhu mythos, and last week saw the inevitable, terrible rise of another: “How alien are the Great Old Ones / is the Cthulhu Mythos? [Spoilers for Dulce Et Decorum Est].”

The “ambitious gaming project” award of the week goes to Leonaru, who is planning on “Hex mapping the 15th century Holy Roman Empire.”

And, from the “Oh my word this is great news!” department, “Cam Banks Licenses Cortex and Cortex Plus!”

Sign Off

Have a good week, everyone.

Iustum
Newsletter Editor

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BLOG

ORIGINAL FICTION

EXCERPTS

We Can Probably Blame the Tarantula That Bit J.R.R. Tolkien For Most Giant Spiders in Fantasy

Did you ever notice how many gigantic spiders there are to be found in fantasy fiction? Do you ever wonder why they all need to be there? Or where they might have come from? When in doubt, it’s usually fair to blame J.R.R. Tolkien. Or perhaps… to blame the arachnid that bit him when he was a toddler. Emily Asher-Perrin gets to the bottom of fantasy’s spider obsession…

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Wonder, Pragmatism, Politics, and Big Ideas: Rewatching Contact

Alasdair Stuart revisits Contact, director Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 adaptation of the Carl Sagan novel-it’s a sci-fi blockbuster, much like the upcoming Arrival , that attempts to ask big questions in a big way. The movie’s combination of ambiguity and clear-eyed pragmatism makes for a fascinating, complex exploration of the concept of first contact, and Jodie Foster’s portrayal of driven lead scientist Ellie Arroway makes the film well worth revisiting and reconsidering.

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I Love Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. What Should I Read Next?

The same question lurks at the end of every great book: What should I read next? Algorithms and book recommendation lists can help us answer this question, but they still can’t top getting personal advice from other smart, like-minded readers. Tor.com staff writer Emily Asher-Perrin wants to know: “I love funny fantasy, and to me Good Omens [by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett] is the epitome of that. What should I read next?” What do you think, readers?

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5 Books With Twisty Court Intrigue

Author S.J. Kincaid has been a fan of twisty royal court dramas since reading Legacy by Susan Kay in seventh grade. She’s devoured many such books over the years, and now that she’s written her own (set in a sci-fi universe), it’s a great time to focus on some of the awesome court drama offerings of science fiction and fantasy!

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Are We Heading Towards an Infomocracy?

Writer and humanitarian worker Malka Older has responded to emergencies and natural disasters in Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali, and studies the way organizations govern during disasters. Her first novel, Infomocracy, looks into the future and posits that global micro-democracies will replace the nation states we now know, and that election campaigns will be run as constant barrages of information about a myriad of candidates. In this thoughtful post, Older ponders the current government of the United States, and asks whether an infomocracy lies in our future.

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10 Human Rights That Robots Deserve

Robots-and androids, and cyborgs, and artificial intelligence-have become such nuanced characters in science fiction that the notion of questioning whether they deserve rights is ridiculous: of course they do! But what exactly are those rights? We’ve looked at 10 properties across books, movies, and television and pinpointed which rights and liberties ought to be extended to all robots , from Artoo and Threepio to the Iron Giant to Breq, the AI at the center of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch Trilogy, and more.

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NEW ORIGINAL FICTION

Reverse Documentary, by Marisela Navarro

In “Reverse Documentary,” Dino is a documentary filmmaker, haunted by the ghost of his ex-girlfriend who was killed in a car crash while with another man. As Dino shoots his latest documentary on the vandalism occurring in the woods of his hometown, he tries to move on from her unexpected death. But when his life starts to look up, the ghost encroaches on his property. The focus of the film begins to blur as the lens of the camera shifts onto Dino, the director succumbing to his ghostly obsession.

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Tweets From Tor.com
Follow us on Twitter!

Tor.com
@tordotcom

Watch the First Teaser Trailer for #Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: https://t.co/nHzCG4maz5 https://t.co/mkxMM Exs1e

Tor.com
@tordotcom

14m

James Abbott, AKA @MarkCN, joins @niallalot to discuss his new pseudonym and his fantasy novel THE NEVER KING: https://t.co/XFma2 vuO3Z

Tor.com
@tordotcom

Rick @WilberSFWriter on A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ, the novel that nudged him towards a career in science fiction: https://t.co/9oGeK zWHPz

Tor.com
@tordotcom

Literary apocalypses and how sci-fi helps us respond to our ever-changing world–this morning in publishing:… https://t.co/iVf1R Ho5tY

FOLLOW US:

Please take a moment to support Amazing Stories with a one-time or recurring donation via Patreon. We rely on donations to keep the site going, and we need your financial support to continue quality coverage of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres as well as supply free stories weekly for your reading pleasure. https://www.patreon.com/amazingstoriesmag

AMAZING NEWS: 11/13/2016

Final Chance to Nominate Your Blog Hero and Heroine

Insight + Leadership

Power of the Nomination

Insight: Backpacker Banter UKBA16 Travel Winner | Where are you now?

How to become a Snapfluencer and make it work.

Insight: wiwibloggs UKBA15 Arts & Culture Winner | Where are you now?

Introducing: The Judges

UKBA17 Vlogger & Podcast Judge

UKBA17 Education Panel Judge

UKBA17 Lifestyle Panel Judge

UKBA17 Travel Panel Judge

Hooked on the USA election!

N7 Day: Mass Effect Andromeda Trailer

Hot Topic Launches ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Fashion Line

Review: Star Wars Rebels ‘Imperial Supercommandos’

Video of the Day: ‘Super Mario: Underworld’

1st Look: ‘Wonder Woman’ Official Trailer

Krypton Radio is listener supported radio.