PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (See below for full text)
CELEBRATION OF LUCIUS SHEPHERD
Tor.com June
Regular Starship Service From Darkover Resumes
Radio Archives News
SOCIAL
Female Scientists Lego Figures Coming
Gender In Genre
We Have Always Fought – Craft, Fiction & Fandom
On Race & Genetics
Vampirella Relaunch: “‘scantily clad’ sexy female comic book character trope” or “Vampirella’s slingsuit is as much a part of the character as her fangs….Own it.”
Tianamen Square Largely Forgotten
Natalie Luhrs: Raddish Reviews Link Post (Just about EVERYTHING in there) El-Mohtar, Black Gate, Tobler, Acks
Tangent Online Review of Women Destroy SF
Levar Burton Endorses Octavia Butler
Post Binary Gender In SF
Invisible Women
Heinlein Couldn’t Win A Hugo These Days?
Black Communities Of the 30th Century
Wonder Woman: Feminist Icon, Failure, Both?
On the Fake Geek Girls Trope
ENTERTAINMENT
Rocket Raccoon Has Over 300,000 Pre-Orders
SF Authors Share Their 1st Reads
Are You A Book Nerd? (via Michael Walsh)
First Images From CYBER
New HBO Series Features Talking Squids In Spaaaaaace Atwood Trilogy
Monty Python & Doctor Who In the Theatre
Tyson Runs Down All That is Wrong With Gravity…and Black Hole Worst SF Film Offender…and Names His Top 10 SF Films
Dr. Strange Has A Director!
Apex #61 Now Available
Kindle Titles Under $5
Thunderbirds Reboot
Orci To Direct Star Trek R3?
SF Writers Sampler 2014
Tales To Terrify
Jay Lake’s Legacy
Drink Tank Handicaps the Hugos
New Eurocon Bid
The Future Of Fandoms (PBS Video)
Crocodile Named For Tolkein Character
Bradbury Review Tribute
Larry Niven Primer
GRRM Talks Future Plans
Behind the Scenes At Star Trek Axanar
AWARDS
Online Voting Begins For 2014 Hugo Awards
Manly Wade Wellman Award
2014 Lambda Award Winners
Audie Awards
Rosny-Aine Award Nominees
Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire Winners
Premio Italiano Winners
British Fantasy Award Nominees
Sidewise Award Nominations
INDUSTRY
ALWAYS Be Branding: Scalzi, Johnson & Barnes At BEA
Get More Followers
Pixar Rendering Software Available For Free
New E-I-C At HellNotes
Media Network Conference
Simon & Schuster Introduces Social Network For Its Authors
CROWD FUNDING
SCIENCE
Asteroid Mining May Reveal ET
New Uses For Old Space Probes
NASA Ready To Test New Vehicle
Hubble One-Ups Itself: 10,000 Galaxies
‘Godzilla’ of ExoPlanets
We Can Forget It For You Wholesale
Dark Energy Quest
NASA Not ready For Mars
5 Planets In Night Sky This Month
View Binary Stars
NASA’s Flying Saucer
Lasers From Space
Heinlein’s ‘eggs in one basket’ now SpaceX’s Risk Management
Best Sky Photos of the Week
Funding For 12 Space Projects
Milky Way Over NH (Amazing Stories HQ!)
Orion Unmanned Test Flight All Systems Go
PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS
A Celebration of the Work of
Lucius Shepard
hosted by
Ellen Datlow and Robert Killheffer
Earlier this year we lost a supremely talented writer, an artist of rare genius and luminous prose, whose work knocked the socks off a generation of readers and fellow writers but remains regrettably (though not entirely) underappreciated outside the bounds of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror community that claimed him as its own. Join us for a night of fond remembrance and readings from the wondrous work he left us with, and raise a glass or two to the memory of Lucius Shepard.
At KGB Bar
Readings from Lucius’s work by
Katherine Dunn
Laird Barron
Alice K. Turner
Mark Jacobson
Jack Womack
John Langan
Jack Haringa
and others
Sunday, June 15, 2014 at 7 PM
KGB Bar
85 East 4th Street
New York, NY
(just off 2nd Ave, upstairs)
~~~
|
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stars of Darkover, Deborah J. Ross and Elisabeth Waters, editors
270 pages, trade paperback ($16.95), Kindle and Nook ($7.99)
ISBN1-938185-25-0 | ISBN-13: 978-1-938185-25-0
Media Contacts:
Dave Trowbridge, media facilitator (review copies, author interviews, etc.),
davetrow@gmail.com, Google Voice: (831) 222-0714
Ann Sharp, Trustee mzbworks@gmail.com
Regular starship service from Darkover resumes with
Stars of Darkover short story anthology
Famed Marion Zimmer Bradley anthology series relaunches with 15 new tales of action, courage, and humor from luminaries of science fiction and fantasy
June 3, 2014 (San Francisco, CA) The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust has re-launched the popular annual Marion Zimmer Bradley anthology series with Stars of Darkover, featuring 15 new tales of action, courage, and humor from both old Darkover hands and newcomers to the World of the Bloody Sun, many of them nominees or winners of major science fiction and fantasy awards. Published after a twenty-year hiatus on the 84th anniversary of Marion’s birth, Stars of Darkover resumes the tradition of offering the best upcoming and established writers in science fiction and fantasy an opportunity to put their stamp on the World of the Bloody Sun. Stars of Darkover is available in trade paperback, Kindle, and Nook editions.
“Generations of fans have fallen in love with Darkover,” says Ann Sharp, trustee of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust, “and many of them have gone on to notable literary careers of their own, often with Marion as mentor and friend. This new anthology re-launches the annual tradition of offering these and other writers the opportunity to play in the World of the Bloody Sun, and we look forward to welcoming more authors in years to come, starting with Gifts of Darkover in 2015.”
Over forty years ago, Marion Zimmer Bradley introduced readers to a compelling new world, Darkover, the World of the Bloody Sun. This distant planet circling a red sun was home to telepaths and rebels, lovers and rivals, nonhuman races both friendly and deadly, ancient traditions and even more ancient feuds, and psychic gifts of unimaginable power, channeled through starstone gems and capable of changing not only individual lives, but the entire world. Now editors Deborah J. Ross and Elisabeth Waters have gathered together luminaries of fantasy in this star-studded anthology of original stories that span Darkover’s rich history and culture. From the Ages of Chaos to recontact with the Terrans, from the Dry Towns to the back streets of Thendara to the horse pastures of Armida, these tales offer action, courage, and humor, set in the wondrous world that is Darkover.
The anthology offers the unique perspectives of 18 writers, many of whom have been awarded or nominated for major awards such as the Nebula and World Fantasy Award. These authors include old Darkover hands like Diana L. Paxson, Janni Lee Simner, and Robin Wayne Bailey, and Darkover newcomers such as Kari Sperring, Judith Tarr, and Rachel Manija Brown. Each story include a brief comment by the author about their connection to Marion and Darkover.
Stars of Darkover, Deborah J. Ross and Elisabeth Waters, editors
270 pages, trade paperback ($16.95), Kindle and Nook ($7.99)
ISBN1-938185-25-0 | ISBN-13: 978-1-938185-25-0
Stars of Darkover Table of Contents
| Introduction | Deborah J. Ross |
| All the Branching Paths | Janni Lee Simner |
| The Cold Blue Light | Judith Tarr |
| Kira Ann | Steven Harper |
| Threads | Elisabeth Waters and Ann Sharp |
| Wedding Embroidery | Shariann Lewitt |
| The Ridenow Nightmare | Robin Wayne Bailey |
| Catalyst | Gabrielle Harbowy |
| The Fountain’s Choice | Rachel Manija Brown |
| House of Fifteen Widows | Kari Sperring |
| Zandru’s Gift | Vera Nazarian |
| Late Rising Fire | Leslie Fish |
| Evanda’s Mirror | Diana L. Paxson |
| At The Crossroads | Barb Caffrey |
| Second Contact | Rosemary Edghill and Rebecca Fox |
| A Few Words For My Successor | Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald |
~~~
70th Anniversary
In the post World War II era, Popular Publications was slow to launch new magazines built around a single character. But when they did, they went completely out of the box. Captain Zero was one of those.
In 1950, with the pulp era dwindling, Popular put out The Pecos Kid Western. He was, in the words of editor Mike Tilden, “hardly a regulation Western character.”
What did Tilden mean by that? Simply that here was a hero who was neither a steely-eyed pulp stalwart, nor a rodeo-shirted Hollywood trick-shooter — both infallible crusaders for justice, but about as realistic as the Lone Ranger.
The Pecos Kid was really William Calhoun Warren, late of Texas and the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, he set out to make an honest living, assisted by his saddle mates, Big Jim Swing and Hernandez Pedro Gonzales y Fuente Jesus Maria Flanagan. The series was created to reflect the shift toward more mature Western films, which had been growing on Hollywood over much of the 1940s. It would reach its zenith with such cinematic classics as Howard Hawks’ 1948 epic Red River, along withHigh Noon, Shane, and The Searchers, all just around the corner from 1950.
According to author Dan Cushman, The Pecos Kid was actually inspired by The Cisco Kid. “The editors at Popular asked me to write a series on a character they devised called the Pecos Kid, a sort of a spinoff on Leo Carillo, and I wrote several lead novels, but it came during the twilight of the pulps.”
Cushman actually meant Duncan Renaldo, who played The Cisco Kid in the wildly popular 1940s film series, which debuted on TV in September, 1949. Leo Carillo played the Kid’s older sidekick, Pancho.
In his debut novel, Riders of the Gunsmoke Rim, Bill Warren and his comrades have just finished driving a heard of cattle up from Cheyenne to the untamed town of Miles in Montana Country when they muscle into a hornet’s nest of hate and…but you can hear all the ruckus and ruction for yourself as Milton Bagby narrates Dan Cushman’s bullet-torn tale ripped from the pages ofPecos Kid Western, July, 1950.
Also included is a novelette by one of the the Pulp West’s major stars, Harry F. Olmsted’s “Hoss Greer––The Devil’s Line-Rider.”
Backing their play are five frontier fictions by Lloyd Eric Reeve, James Shaffer, Tom Roan, E. E. Halleran, and Giff Cheshire––all storied names back in the heyday of the Pulp West. 8 hours $31.98 Audio CDs / $15.99 Download
Radio Archives has just released its 50th Will Murray Pulp Classics audiobook! It’s The Spider and the Eyeless Legion, one of the most exciting and compelling adventures starring millionaire criminologist Richard Wentworth. We thought it only fitting to celebrate this landmark with the hero who kicked off the successful Will Murray Pulp Classics––The Spider!
To help celebrate this milestone, I’m offering a free download of the story that started the recent sequence of Spider exploits, Rule of the Monster Men. Set in the New York World’s Fair, Rule of the Monster Men pits The Spider against one of the most most malevolent criminal masterminds he ever encountered.
Check out our Facebook Audiobook page!
The Audiobooks of Radio Archives have a Facebook Page. Join Will Murray, Robert Weinberg, Radio Archives, the Authors and Voice Actors discussing all the new books. Take a look.
In 1934 a new type of magazine was born. Known by various names — the shudder pulps, mystery-terror magazines, horror-terror magazines — weird menace is the sub-genre term that has survived today. Dime Mystery Magazine was one of the most popular. It came from Popular Publications, whose publisher Harry Steeger was inspired by the Grand Guignol theater of Paris. This breed of pulp story survived less than ten years, but in that time, they became infamous, even to this day. This ebook contains a collection of stories from the pages of Dime Mystery Magazine, all written by Dane Gregory and Wayne Robbins, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $2.99.
They had no way of telling what lay before them; there was no sign of murder in the day or in the night as these Battle Aces sat talking in their Hangar. And then it came! — strange and ghastly, as though from another earth, and G-8 had no weapon other than his courage with which to fight! G-8 and his Battle Aces rode the nostalgia boom ten years after World War I ended. These high-flying exploits were tall tales of a World War that might have been, featuring monster bats, German zombies, wolf-men, harpies, Martians, and even tentacled floating monsters. Most of these monstrosities were the work of Germany’s seemingly endless supply of mad scientists, chief of whom was G-8’s recurring Nemesis, Herr Doktor Krueger. G-8 battled Germany’s Halloween shock troops for over a decade, not ceasing until the magazine folded in the middle of World War II. G-8 and his Battle Aces return in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $2.99.
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.
What is the Blind Death? New York’s newshawks work overtime in a flurry of flashbulb explosions as they clamor for the scoop on the insidious wave of corpses turning up around the city, all struck dead, eyes turned an unseeing ivory by the masked mastermind known as… White Eyes.
As police riot guns and gangland Tommy-guns turn New York City’s winter snows scarlet, Doc Savage, man of mystery, giant of bronze, discovers that the mysterious plague is part of an audacious scheme to unite all of New York’s criminal elements against him. White Eyes’ ultimate goal—to seize the fabled Mayan wealth of the Man of Bronze!
The Knight of Darkness battles murderous supervillains in two thrilling pulp novels by Walter B. Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow wages a final battle against his greatest enemy, Shiwan Khan, in “Masters of Death.” Then, savage drums promise eerie menace when Professor MacAbre attempts to bring “Voodoo Death” to The Shadow and Margo Lane! BONUS: A murderous Shadow uses the power of invisibility for evil and sets a deadly trap for Lamont Cranston in “The Shadow Challenged.” Which Shadow will have the last laugh? This deluxe pulp reprint showcases the original color pulp covers by Graves Gladney and Modest Stein and the classic interior illustrations by Edd Cartier and Paul Orban with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. Double Novel Reprint $14.95
The pulp era’s greatest superhero returns in two startling novels by W. Ryerson Johnson, Lester Dent and William Bogart writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, The Man of Bronze and Patricia Savage are confronted by “The Motion Menace,” an invisible threat that renders modern weaponry obsolete! Then, in “Fire and Ice,” a Canadian distress signal leads Doc Savage to a beautiful woman, a mysterious strongbox and a hidden secret society. BONUS: a Golden Age classic from the pages of Doc Savage Comics. This instant collector’s item leads off with the classic 1937 color pulp cover by Emery Clarke and also includes all the original interior illustrations by Paul Orban plus historical commentary by Will Murray, author of thirteen Doc Savage novels. Double Novel Reprint $14.95
Doc Savage, Volume 28 James Bama cover
The pulp era’s legendary superman returns in two super-powered pulp novels by “Kenneth Robeson” that inspired classic supervillains from the Marvel Age of Comics. First, the Man of Bronze battles “The Metal Master,” a criminal genius with the power to manipulate the molecular structure of metals. Then, Doc Savage is sent to prison when he’s framed by the murderous teleporter called “The Vanisher.” PLUS: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby recall their teenaged fascination with pulps, and Dave Cockrum’s 1979 artwork from his proposed Doc Savage newspaper strip. This instant collector’s item showcases James Bama’s spectacular cover painting, the original color pulp covers by Robert G. Harris and Walter Baumhofer and all the original interior illustrations by Paul Orban, with historical commentary by Paty Cockrum and Will Murray.. Double Novel Reprint $14.95
