(date: 2023-12-17 10:02:31)
date: 2023-12-15, from: Locus Magazine
The December 2023/January 2024 issue of Locus magazine is a special double issue and has interviews with Robert J. Sawyer, Andrea Stewart, and Ai Jiang, and a spotlight on artist Winona Nelson. Chengdu Worldcon and the World Fantasy Convention are both covered with extensive reports and photos. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through September 2024. News includes the Ignyte and Sidewise Awards winners, Mueller’s Endeavour win, …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/issue-755-6-table-of-contents-dec-2023-jan-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-15, from: Final Draft blog
“It really comes down to scene work. Do these characters pop? Is this fun to read? Is it fun to imagine what’s going to happen next? When you get to the end of that pilot do you want to find out what’s going to happen in the next episode? It’s all of that,” says Graham Yost, showrunner for Silo on AppleTV+.
You may not know the name Graham Yost, but you certainly know his TV shows: Justified, The Americans, Slow Horses, Sneaky Pete, From the Earth to the Moon, and Band of Brothers just to name a few – he also wrote the blockbuster film Speed in 1994.
On today’s episode, I chat with Graham about his show Silo on AppleTV+ which is a startling apocalyptic thriller that’s been renewed for a second season. It stars Rebecca Ferguson, David Oyelowo, Common and Tim Robbins. We talk about the lessons he learned making Speed, which show impacted his writing the most and if a new season of Justified – that includes Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), will be coming back to television.
Graham also shares his advice for emerging writers. “The big thing I say to writers who are starting out is, ‘What are you working on next?’ If they only have that one project, well, you need more. You need to find out what you’re good at. That’s the job. We’re paid to write,” he says.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/write-on-silo-showrunner-graham-yost Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-15, from: Locus Magazine
Author David Drake, 78, died December 10, 2023 in Silk Hope NC. Drake was the author of more than 80 works of SF and fantasy, best known for the Hammer’s Slammer’s series and other works of military SF.
David Allen Drake was born September 24, 1945 in Dubuque IA. He attended law school at Duke, but his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the US Army, serving in …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/david-drake-1945-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-15, from: Locus Magazine
MILESTONES
JESMYN WARD’s Let Us Descend (Scribner) has been chosen by Oprah Winfrey as the next title for her Book Club. Winfrey said, “I have read all of Jesmyn Ward’s books and have been a fan of her writing for years. Let Us Descend is a vital work for our culture and I’m so excited to have her newest offering as part of our Book Club.”
NNEDI …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/people-publishing-roundup-december-and-january-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-15, from: Locus Magazine
OKPsyche, Anya Johanna DeNiro (Small Beer 978-1-61873-208-8, $15.00. 160pp, tp) September 2023. Cover by Karl Joseph Aloys Agricola.
I was completely unprepared for how powerful Anya Johanna DeNiro’s OKPsyche is. Told in second person by a carefully unnamed narrator, the novel blends fantasy, science fiction, and absurdism; it’s also a very grounded and personal work. The narrator, a trans woman trying to reconnect with her young son, trying to …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/jake-casella-brookins-reviews-okpsyche-by-anya-johanna-deniro/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-14, from: Locus Magazine
I have always loved short stories. I don’t remember a time when I ‘‘discovered’’ them. For me, there was nothing to find. They were always there; in school textbooks, homework assignments, in the anthologies I would randomly pick off the shelf at the library. There was never any question either of what I would start writing when I decided to learn story craft. In those early days, reaching the end …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/writing-short-stories-in-the-margins-by-a-t-greenblatt/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-14, from: Locus Magazine
Whalefall, Daniel Kraus (MTV Books 978-1-66591-816-9, $27.99, 336pp, hc) August 2023. Cover by Will Staehle.
Daniel Kraus’s Whalefall straddles the line between science and science fiction and pulls readers into a world that is at once familiar and completely alien. As full of action and gore as it is packed with science and emotional turmoil, Whalefall is a superb reimagining of Jonah’s tale as well as a narrative that cements …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/gabino-iglesias-reviews-whalefall-by-daniel-kraus/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-13, from: Final Draft blog
As Godzilla turns 70 years old, the classic monster of mayhem is getting a series of films and TV shows dedicated to its destructive force. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premiered on Apple TV in November, Godzilla Minus One, a Japanese language film, became a surprise hit at the domestic box office, and Godzilla x Kong is expected to hit theaters in the spring.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/how-godzilla-minus-one-creates-a-fresh-take-on-a-familiar-story Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-13, from: Locus Magazine
Author Diana L. Paxson, 80, and her son Ian Grey were attacked at home in Berkeley CA on December 8, 2023, sustaining minor injuries. Diana and her son were hospitalized following the assault, but were released on Sunday and are now recovering.
The assailant was arrested on December 12 by the Oakland Police Department and is being held without bail.
On Facebook, Paxson said the attacker was a member of …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/paxson-and-son-assaulted/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-13, from: Locus Magazine
The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga Press 978-1-98218-834-4, $29.99. 576pp, hc) October 2023.
The great Tananarive Due is back with her first solo, full-length novel since 2011 with The Reformatory. Set in the fictional city of Gracetown FL, where many of her stories take place, this one focuses on two Black children caught in the grinding gears of Jim Crow. Robert and his older sister, Gloria, were left behind …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/alex-brown-reviews-the-reformatory-by-tananarive-due/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-13, from: Literature & a Latte blog
<p>In a previous article, we looked at <a href="https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/how-to-find-beta-readers" target="_blank">how you can find and work with beta readers</a>; people who read your manuscript and give you comments on the plot, characterization, dialog, and more. Writing is a lonely task, and it’s important to find people you can trust to share their opinions on your work. For the most part, these beta readers can give you general feedback about a novel. But they can’t help you with more specific elements that require specialist knowledge.</p>When you’re writing about a specific profession or time period, you get everything right. If you make mistakes, it’s likely that many if not most readers won’t notice it, but you’ll certainly hear from those who are familiar with a certain subject or profession who will gleefully correct you.
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<p>Many writers of crime fiction befriend police officers and use them as sounding boards to ensure that the descriptions of police activities in their books are correct. If you write science fiction, you may want to find beta readers who can critique the use and description of science in your novel, real or imagined. And if you write a historical novel, it can be helpful to get a real historian, who is familiar with your setting, to give your manuscript a once over.</p>There are many books written for writers describing police procedures, forensics, and legal processes, and there are books about certain historical periods for writers. But let’s say you’re writing a novel where air traffic controllers are important to the story. It may not be easy to find the kind of documentation that you need that explains how they work. Or what if you’re writing a romance novel set on a cruise ship? You may have taken cruises, and you may know enough about how it feels to be a guest on one of those ships, but it can be useful to know what goes on behind the scenes, because this could help you create interesting plot points, or introduce characters from the crew.
You should check everything that you can on your own, using reference books and online tools, on your novel during the final editing stage. Start by going through your manuscript or draft and highlighting the elements that need to be checked. You may need to check things like place names or the descriptions of specific places, and these can all be found using tools like Google Maps. To ensure that you’ve described real places correctly, you can use Google Street View, which lets you see exactly what many locations look like, allowing you to provide detailed descriptions without taking trips to do research.
For other types of fact-checking, there are many resources available online. You can look up specific topics in academic journals and authoritative websites related to specific subjects, and Wikipedia is quite good as well. (But don’t blindly trust what you read there; follow the sources cited, and make sure they are reliable.)
Depending on the subject you’re dealing with, it may be enough to do some online research, as long as you don’t go into too much detail. When you have more than you can find, you can try reaching out to experts in the fields you discuss. You can find people like this through professional networks, social media platforms, or online forums, and you may even find some in writing communities such as Goodreads; there are lots of writers who have expertise from their careers and who would be willing to share. In some cases, you may only have a few questions, and these can be answered quickly.
Where things can get more complicated are not so much the facts but the way people work, or the way specific objects work. For example, there is a very popular writer of thrillers who spends pages and pages talking about the guns used, yet who has been criticized for not understanding how specific guns work. This doesn’t bother most readers, but people who know about guns end up distrusting this author. A bit of research, and the help of an expert, might have avoided disdain from people familiar with guns.
Fact-checking can take a certain amount of time, even for experts. When you contact someone, explain the premise of your novel and the specific information you need to verify. Provide a brief summary of your story and explain what you would like them to review. In many cases, you may just want a few facts to be checked, but some novels may require more attention, and this may be difficult for busy professionals. But some experts might be avid readers, and relish the idea of helping out an author.
When you’ve found someone willing to help you, send them excerpts or sections from your novel that you want vetted. Highlight specific statements, events, or details that you want them to review, so they can focus on the areas that need attention. In some cases, it won’t take long for an expert to look over a few dozen sentences and confirm whether you got things right or not. But sometimes, checking the behavior of people as they do a specific type of work, throughout a novel, requires a more thorough read.
It’s important to provide a reasonable timeframe to review your queries. Remember that these professionals are often busy and may not be able to read a manuscript as quickly as you need, so it’s important to agree to a schedule. One suggestion is to find experts in the field you need fact-checked who are retired, and who may have more time.
There’s lots to do when finishing up a novel, and fact-checking may not be high on your task list. But it’s an important element of the final editing process, and getting facts wrong can annoy the readers who spot mistakes.
<p>Kirk McElhearn is a <a href="https://kirkville.com" target="_blank">writer</a>, <a href="https://kirkville.com/podcasts/" target="_blank">podcaster</a>, and <a href="https://kirkville.com/kirks-photos-2/" target="_blank">photographer</a>. He is the author of <a href="https://www.literatureandlatte.com/store" target="_blank">Take Control of Scrivener</a>, and host of the podcast <a href="https://podcast.scrivenerapp.com" target="_blank">Write Now with Scrivener</a>.</p>
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/how-to-find-experts-to-help-you-fact-check-your-novel Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-12, from: Final Draft blog
“We can’t make Lawrence of Arabia anymore – not that that’s not a good movie, but it’s kind of a thing of the past,” says screenwriter David Scarpa about writing the script for Napoleon.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/write-on-napoleon-writer-david-scarpa Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-12, from: Locus Magazine
Cadigan, Pat: Ultraman (Titan Books UK 9781803362458, $16.95, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/12/2023)
Tie-in novel based on a movie based on the series. Pursuing a fugitive space monster, a Being of Light enters Earth’s atmosphere. Accidentally colliding with a patrolling jet, piloted by Science Patrol Agent Shin Hayata, the Being merges with the pilot to save his life and vows to defend the Earth. Now whenever the planet is …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/new-books-12-december-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-12, from: Locus Magazine
Tell us about your magazine, khōréō. When was it founded, and who’s on the publishing team? What is your mission?
In 2020, khōréō was founded with a specific-yet-broad mission: publishing speculative fiction by immigrant and diaspora writers. Our team currently relies on volunteers, with the idea that many hands make light work; on the editorial side, we have Aleksandra Hill as the founder, outgoing editor-in-chief, and publisher; Zhui Ning Chang …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/spotlight-on-khoreo/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-12, from: Locus Magazine
Zooscape 8/23 Cast of Wonders 8/29/23, 9/3/23 Worlds of Possibility 8/23
I’ll kick things off with the August issue of Zooscape, which focuses on furry speculative fiction. So it makes sense that the issue lingers on the deep wounds that exist within and between animals, including humans. From extinctions and apocalypses to quieter hurts and the kindnesses that heal them, Zooscape once more shows the versatility of furry speculative fiction, …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/charles-payseur-reviews-short-fiction-zooscape-cast-of-wonders-and-worlds-of-possibility/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-12, from: Locus Magazine
This story was updated 12/13/23.
Author Cait Corrain’s 2024 debut novel Crown of Starlight was removed from Del Rey’s schedule today after Corrain was accused of creating numerous fake Goodreads accounts for the purpose of leaving negative reviews for other authors on the popular site. Corrain’s agent, Rebecca Podos of Rees Literary Agency, has also cut ties with the writer.
The “review bombing” was publicized last week by author Xiran …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/cait-corrain-controversy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-11, from: Locus Magazine
Rebecca Yarros’ two novels continue to dominate print lists: Fourth Wing is #1 again at NY Times this week, while Iron Flame remains #1 on the USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists.
Title Debut / #wks on any list NYT 12.17 LAT 12.10 USAT 12.03 PW 12.11 Amz (12.11) UK: Amz UK (12.11) Canada: Amz.ca (12.11)
Items on list -x- number of lists surveyed
10×3 10×2 150 15×3 100 100 …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/weekly-bestsellers-11-december-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-11, from: Locus Magazine
The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has announced the finalists for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Fiction.
Six other works were also considered: Zelig, Woody Allen; Floating Worlds, Cecilia Holland (Knopf); “Primary Education of the Camiroi”, R.A. Lafferty (Galaxy 12/66); That …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/2024-prometheus-hall-of-fame-award-finalists/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-11, from: Locus Magazine
The Fractured Dark, Megan E. O’Keefe (Orbit US 978-0-316-29113-2, $18.99, 544pp, tp.) September 2023.
The Fractured Dark is the second novel in Megan E. O’Keefe’s Devoured Worlds trilogy. The first book, The Blighted Stars, is a fast-paced and viciously readable planetary opera adventure with intelligent fungus, AI descending into dysfunction, ecological critique, explosions, banter, and a touch of inadvisable romance to make the whole cocktail go down more …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/liz-bourke-reviews-the-fractured-dark-by-megan-e-okeefe/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-10, from: Locus Magazine
Check out what’s coming out this week in SFF!
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/new-books-for-12-5-23-video/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-10, from: Locus Magazine
A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, Maureen Kincaid Speller (Luna Press 978-1-91555-620-2, £16.99, 308pp, tp) September 2023.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Maureen Kincaid Speller in person, but we corresponded on email and social media. Talking virtually with Maureen was always a delight, moreso when she approached me to review Rod Duncan’s Unseemly Science for Strange Horizons. The deep sadness I felt …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/ian-mond-reviews-a-traveller-in-time-the-critical-practice-of-maureen-kincaid-speller-by-maureen-kincaid-speller/ Save to Pocket