Lovers, Killers, Red Riding Hood and Cinderella
Hello folks! And welcome to my little spot on the interwebs. Thanks for joining me! April is National Poetry Month (in the USA). I wish it weren’t always in April. This is a very busy […]
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FRITZ LEIBER: SWORD & SORCERY GROWS UP
In 1939 Farnsworth Wright began a move away from Sword & Sorcery. With Robert E. Howard dead, he no longer championed the dark fantasy tale, publishing Henry Kuttner’s Elak as the last. This meant that […]
From the In Box 4/12/2013
The International Board on Books for Young People is proud to announce the 2014 Jury and the candidates for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. The Hans Christian Andersen Award is the highest international distinction given […]
The Cover with no Cover Art
Books need a cover. At the very least one needs to know the title of the book and usually who wrote it. Those are basics. But the cover of a book is the first point […]
From the In Box
Mexican Author Verónica Murguía Wins Spanish Great Angular SM Literary Award Tax Evaders Video Game The Mexican writer Verónica Murguía has won the Great Angular SM award with her YA fantasy novel, LOBA (Wolf). She is […]
On Fandom Activism and the Logical High Ground
I understand that change is always difficult, regardless of scale. I understand that societal change in particular is a monumental task. I understand that these things happen slowly, and that part of the whole affair […]
Cosmopolis – film review
WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Cosmopolis is a dark mainstream drama with thriller elements which is just beyond the edge of the sort of film Amazing Stories would normally review. Except that it is […]
Writers Writing About Writers Writing About …
There’s something unseemly about writers who write about writers. Many of my beliefs about writing have changed since I was a pink-cheeked little colleen getting up early to write before school, but this is one […]
CROSSROADS: Right Place, Time, and Tech – The Hitchhiker’s Guide
Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (itself spread across five books with a six written by Eoin Colfer), with its friendly, green warning against panic, casts a huge shadow over the field of […]
Visions of Barsoom
Long before last year’s movie, John Carter and friends were appearing in the comics….
A Little Game of Catch
This week I’m fighting my way past drunken skateboarders and striking cab drivers to get a peek at the latest security and surveillance gadgets the world has to offer. I’ve already spoken with some developers […]
Diggin’ The Crates
There is a term in rap/hip-hop culture called Crate Digging. It means endlessly trawling through classic funk, soul & every other kind of record imaginable, looking for the rarest, choicest samples. The task of any […]
What super-movie are you most excited about?
The sun actually decided to finally show its face in London this week, and that along with me spotting that the 2012/13 season of TV shows is soon coming to an end has made me […]
Sequential Wednesdays #8 – Rotten & Dirty [UPDATED]
UPDATE: ComiXology’s David Steinberger has announced that it was *NOT* Apple’s decision to not release Saga #12. Please see my comment below. It’s genuinely shocking that I haven’t written a full post about my absolute favorite […]
From the In Box – Cassandra Rose Clarke, Elizabeth Bear, Andy Duncan, Black Science Fiction Society
Angry Robot Signs James A. Moore Strange Chemistry Signs Cassandra Rose Clarke Elizabeth Bear and Andy Duncan accept appointment to the jury for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Black Science Fiction Society Announes Project Stargazer […]
Will the Real Tony Stark Please Stand Up
Over the past few decades the uber rich have had an increasing influence on our technological future: Peter Diamandis funds various space-oriented X-Prizes, one of which saw the development and successful flight of SpaceShip One. […]
Blake’s 7 returns!
Exciting news today from The Telegraph newspaper. The classic British SF series Blake’s 7 is to be remade by FremantleMedia and the SyFy network. Blake’s 7 was the brainchild of Terry Nation, inventor of the Daleks […]
Review: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by HP Lovecraft
A supernatural murder mystery is probably the best way to describe “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward“, the short novel by H.P. Lovecraft. Published after Lovecraft’s death in 1941, this tale combines tropes from horror, […]
So How Do You Write a Novel in 30 Days?
National Novel Writing Month (more traditionally held in November and known as NaNoWriMo) starts early this year. The idea is simple: you write a 50k novel in thirty days. It sounds so easy doesn’t it? […]
Zombies, Nazis, and the Spear of Destiny
The Spear of Destiny Jason E. Thummel paperback $12.95 ebook $2.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords Jason E. Thummel is the author of a number of well received heroic fantasy short stories (many collected in the book […]
William Gibson’s formulae for success: No rayguns.
Not long ago I started rereading the Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. It’s an interesting book, but the thing that really struck me when I read it was the startling amount of […]
The Future of Manga Looks Dire
I tend to avoid bookstores these days – not because I’m opposed to them in any way; quite to the contrary, I have a ravenous book-owning addiction, and I prefer to remove temptation when possible. […]
Interview with Stephanie Osborn
I chose to interview Stephanie Osborn about her writing and publishing work because I really admire her Displaced Detective Series, and I had the pleasure of meeting her in person at LibertyCon 25 last year. […]
Buddy, can you spare some time?
Writing a book takes up a good chunk of your time, something that’s always in short supply. With the busy lives we lead it’s a wonder any books get written at all, but someone is […]
Demystifying Contracts #3: Novels – Discounted Royalties
This will be my fourth installment about contracts. For reference you can also refer to: Demystifying Contracts #1: Novels – Ownership vs Rights Transfer Demystifying Contracts #2: Novels – Territories Pulling Back the Publishing Veil: […]
Anime roundup 4/7/2013: Stop the World, I Want To Get Off
First, a little awards news: Nominees for the Seiun for Best Media (roughly equivalent to Hugo nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation) include two anime series, Bodacious Space Pirates and Eureka Seven AO. E7AO is a […]
No. 12 Alfred Elgin van Vogt, Weapons Masters, and The Big Three.
$1995.00. For 15 pages. That’s how much a copy of A. E. van Vogt’s speech, Tomorrow on the March, goes for today. He delivered this speech as the guest of honor at PACIFICON, July 4, 1946. […]
The Artful Collector: Why Collecting Art is Such a Hard Job
Someone in a chat room I used to contribute to, once made an unforgettable statement: “it’s easy to collect art if you have money!” Hah! How I wish money were the answer! And that a […]
Sense of Wonder #2 – From the Movies
Earlier I wrote about what Damon Knight characterized as “a sense of wonder” that emerges at times in a science fiction story, or as in the case of this blog entry, in a movie. I […]
April is National Women’s History Month
Which is kind of short-shrift for women – one month only – considering that homo sap history is women’s history and, like, there’s this whole birth thing which kind of suggests that without women there’d […]
About Author
Steve Davidson is the publisher of Amazing Stories.
Steve has been a passionate fan of science fiction since the mid-60s, before he even knew what it was called.
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