Dirk Gently Revisited
Back in 1978, a young comedy sketch writer sent a script to the BBC’s flagship SF show, Doctor Who. Far from setting hearts fluttering with excitement, its demands for special effects such as time sinks, […]
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IAAA Gallery: Pat Rawlings – Wide Open for Space
“Creativity exists well within structure. I thrive by having limitations to work within.” Pat Rawlings concluded his TEDxNASA presentation with those words. It is hard to imagine a better definition of the process of creating […]
The Artful Collector: On Sensitivity to Negative Reviews
How many times have we read negative reviews by (mainly) newspaper- employed critics about books or films in the science fiction/fantasy genre that either were completely off base, once we read the book, or which […]
A Commissioning Editor Speaks: David Moore of Abaddon Books
Britain’s Abaddon Books is a seething brew of villainous steampunk, sleek spaceships, cruel sorcery, and blood-soaked horror. I tracked their commissioning editor David Moore down to his lair, where I forced him to unravel a cracked and […]
The Cautionary Tale of ZellaCon -or- How to Hoax and Still End Up Hosting a Convention
Once in a while, I enjoy a good hoaxing. I’ve done Hoax Newsletters (http://efanzines.com/DrinkTank/PorkAuthority.pdf) and various Hoax bids, notably the Hollister WorldCon Hoax (http://www.bovil.com/Conventions/hollister2008/PachecoProgress1.pdf) and AhwahneeCon (http://www.bovil.com/Conventions/ahwahneecon/HalfDome2.pdf) which were both great successes when all was […]
Popular Posts 6/1-6/8 2013
Have Literary Luddites Taken Over SFF Fandom?! Sexism and the SFWA Girl, You’re In the Army Now Crossroads: The Difficulty of Police Procedural Speculative Fiction No. 18 – C.J. Cherryh, The Faded Sun, and a […]
The Artful Collector: Collecting Ahead of the Curve
When we started framing F/SF calendar pages to hang on our walls in the 1960s (the days before commercial prints or posters were available) original Victorian “fairy paintings” by the likes of Fitzgerald, Cruikshank, Doyle […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Felicity Savage
Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS! The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with […]
The Artful Collector: Should You Worry About Forgery in SF Art?
How important is Fraud in the SF/F art market? I could write lengthy blogs on how forgers break down and then reconstitute the same clay to fashion Mid- and South American artifacts, using original (thousand-year-old) […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Bill Spangler
Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS! The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with […]
Great Science Fiction Artists – Jerome Podwil
What makes science fiction (and fantasy) so enthralling to readers is that not only can their authors tell extraordinary stories, the stories themselves can come packaged with great art. When I was in my teens […]
The Artful Collector: Is it All in the Image?
At the heart of this debate is a real difference between how some creators of commercial art (i.e, art produced for the purpose of persuasion/marketing) view the kind of art they are commissioned to create, […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions Good Places to Find Art? (Part 3)
Throughout the 1990s, while weekend antiques and craft fairs, and even Ren Faires, were drawing tens of thousands of attendees each weekend, SF cons were still deliberating the good of “one day memberships” and advertising […]
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
If you’re looking for a glossy, full-colour account of Marvel Comics, featuring classic artwork and covers from the company’s long history, this book is not for you. Rather, Sean Howe sets out to give an […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Daniel M. Kimmel
Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS! The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions Good Places to Find Art? (Part 2)
Once upon a time, science fiction and fantasy conventions were great places to find, and buy, original art – and, in time – reproductions of art created by the best professional illustrators in the field […]
The Iron Man Cometh
Welcome internet traveler. I will be stockpiling neatly organized bits into a collective known as a blog along this portion of your journey. Do not fear for your personal safety, as I will take great […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Zachary Clemente
Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS! The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions a Good Place to Buy Art? (Part 1)
Well . . . .Once upon a time, and by that, I mean Art Collecting BDE (before the digital era) local, regional and “world” SF/F conventions were not just good places to find great SF/F […]
Hide and Seek with Marvin the Martian
Ignorance is never better than knowledge. – Enrico Fermi When I was just a little tyke, driving to Logan Airport in Boston meant, as today, enduring the unavoidable traffic jam. Conversing in the family car […]
Of Books and Book Shelves: The Travails of an SF Book Collector
As mentioned here and elsewhere, I recently received a boon from my wife. She finally allowed me to devote some space to bookshelves. Our quarters are a bit cramped (more due to layout than lack […]
Vinyl Albums, KLAATU and the Warrior at the Edge of Time
Let’s travel back in time, you and I. Let’s go back to a time before music was delivered in packets of data. Let’s travel back to a time of bell bottoms, long hair and muscle […]
REVIEW: Zombieland, The Series
Once in awhile, something wonderful happens. A great movie gets new life, in the form of a sequel. Take, for example, my personal favorite, Predator. Oh, sure it’s got lots of flaws, but it’s like […]
Growing Your Own Space Garden
Explaining Starseed Pilgrim, an Independent Games Festival winner about building a garden in space, is both incredibly easy and nightmarishly complex. At its heart, you float around on flying gardens, plant seeds that produce pleasant […]
Top Ten Best Star Wars Computer Games of All Time
Pull the blinds and turn off the phone, it’s time to head to the Game Room and lock in on some hardcore meta-gaming action. In the Game Room we will explore the world of gaming […]
Atlanta Nights: A good, bad example.
Science Fiction authors have frequently felt that their genre was treated badly by publishers. When PublishAmerica wrote on its own web site that [SF and fantasy writers] have no clue about what it is to […]
The Last Bookshop by Richard Dadd & Dan Fryer
“There have always been stories. Ever since the earliest days.” Once in a while, I like to be reminded that the future is pretty from where we’re sitting, the present endlessly dull, but the past […]
The Artful Collector: Why isn’t There a More Active Market in What I Collect?
A common thread of discussion for collectors who buy art from me, and which runs through many sites dealing with collectibles, concerns the factors that make certain types of “X” (coins, stamps, comics, art, etc) […]
Eric Brown Interview
Eric Brown is the author of over forty books including Helix and Kethani. His latest novel, The Serene Invasion features an eerie conquest of earth that sweeps away the old order without a drop of […]
From the In Box 4/25/2013
Clarion West Receives $10,000 NEA Art Works Grant Seattle,WA—The National Endowment for the Arts announced today that Clarion West will receive a $10,000 Art Works grant to support its six week summer workshop and its […]
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