(date: 2024-04-05 08:54:36)
date: 2024-04-05, from: Locus Magazine
Finalists have been announced for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, including categories and works of genre interest.
Fiction:
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/la-times-book-prize-finalists-3/
date: 2024-04-05, from: Locus Magazine
Augur 6.2
Several stories in Augur issue 6.2 draw on various traditions and fairy tales for inspiration. In “Moon-Eaters & Monsoons” by Rachel Evangeline Chiong, twin brothers Amihan and Hagbat set out to determine what is ailing one of their realm’s gods. They haven’t spoken in years, and the journey is fraught, their failure to listen to and understand each other putting both of them in danger. “ …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/a-c-wise-reviews-short-fiction-augur/
date: 2024-04-05, from: Final Draft blog
While both short stories and novels share the goal of engaging the reader in dynamic, thought-provoking storytelling, there are several significant differences between the two forms.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/7-differences-between-short-stories-and-novels
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-05, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
Adrian Schiller played Uncle in The Doctor’s Wife. Yesterday I was thinking about how very good he was and wondering whether I had a part for him in something coming up. Today I learned he had died, leaving a partner and son, and I contributed to his GoFundMe.
gofund.me/1e719c17 https://gofund.me/1e719c17
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kpf43fgcwk2q
date: 2024-04-04, from: Locus Magazine
Baffling 1/24 Cast of Wonders 12/17/23, 12/29/23, 12/30/23 Escape Pod 12/14/23, 12/23/23, 1/4/23 Strange Horizons 12/18/23, 1/1/24, 1/8/24
I’ll kick things off with the January Baffling, which (as always) features flash fiction with queer themes and characters. The issue starts strong with D.K. Lawhorn’s bittersweet ‘‘Steinway & His Sons’’, which centers a dead man watching his husband mourn for him. It’s a premise that’s already heavy with …Read More
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-04, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
So cool!
[contains quote post or other embedded content]
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kpcpfwq6pa2x
date: 2024-04-04, from: Locus Magazine
The winners for the 2023 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards have been announced. The categories have been revised and expanded from previous years.
Best Novel
Best Shorter Fiction (for
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/2023-bsfa-awards-winners/
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-03, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
Jill Thompson is selling one of the most beautiful (and saddest) of all Sandman pages, from Brief Lives, one she pencilled and inked.
@thejillthompson.bsky.social
https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/story-page/jill-thompson-sandman-49-story-page-20-original-art-dc-1993-/a/7369-92168.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515&fbclid=IwAR1s7wRAleMrH3AIY1tQ5E3_vhyZwsRv091wJlOxO_kPte9EKtG09_2CbUY_aem_Aa15o3I4DYmXO0gXhUe514XbEvJfBBRjv_W58utTkBAEBU3VNwslEih0OqTRpx-QVhtZ1ZOkdPHnbRDy4XAaNq9R
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kpb4rkhtzw2m
date: 2024-04-03, from: Locus Magazine
Wiswell, John: Someone You Can Build a Nest In (Astra House/DAW 9780756418854, $28, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 04/02/2024)
Fantasy novel, a “creepy, charming monster-slaying sapphic fantasy romance from the monster’s POV.” Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals. …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/new-books-2-april-2024/
date: 2024-04-03, from: Locus Magazine
Author Sharon Green, 79, died February 17, 2022 in Old Bridge NJ.
Green’s first publications were the Jalav/Amazon Warrior series, starting with Crystals of Mida (1982) and continuing with An Oath to Mida (1983), Chosen of Mida (1984), The Will of the Gods (1985), and To Battle the Gods (1986). The Terrilian Sequence began with The Warrior Within (1982) and includes The Warrior Enchained (1983), The Warrior Rearmed (1984), The …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/death-noted-sharon-green-1942-2022/
date: 2024-04-03, from: Locus Magazine
The Bezzle, Cory Doctorow (Tor 978-1250865878, $27.99, hc, 240pp) February 2024.
Cory Doctorow is certainly experiencing a “hot hand” run. That sports phenomenon, where one success impels and invites a subsequent triumph, sometimes in a long streak, can be seen in Doctorow’s two most recent books, which have appeared practically back to back. In November of 2023 came The Lost Cause (reviewed by me for this very publication), which showed …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow/
date: 2024-04-03, from: Interesting, a blog on writing
These are the jokes, folks.
https://inneresting.substack.com/p/is-this-thing-on
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-03, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
For the people who want to read about the Dead Boy Detectives but don’t know where to start, ask your local book or comic book shop to order this for you: 775 pages of story…
amzn.to/3U0qMKY https://amzn.to/3U0qMKY
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kpajcof6vl2j
date: 2024-04-03, from: Locus Magazine
Calamity, Constance Fay (Bramble 978-1-250-33041-3, $18.99, tpb, 320pp) November 2023.
Constance Fay’s debut, Calamity, is an SF adventure set on a distant planet amidst several groups and individuals all operating with their own conflicting purposes and totally willing to kill each other to achieve their goals. The heroes are the small crew of the somewhat dilapidated space vessel Quest, who scout out various planets for whatever their clients, …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/colleen-mondor-reviews-calamity-by-constance-fay/
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-03, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
Am I saying this will be your new favourite show? That it will make you smile and shiver and puzzle and delight? That it’s something really special? That it will ease the pain of waiting for other shows to happen?
Yes. I am saying that.
It’s SO good. And it starts in three weeks… https://youtu.be/hwJmZ2Ekfbc?si=Yo8BZ7hob9V6Iw2Y
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kpadtz56d725
date: 2024-04-03, from: Literature & a Latte blog
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://player.fireside.fm/v2/FGsx06Yz+0puyVVA9?theme=light" width="740"></iframe></p>Show notes:
<a href="https://debbieurbanski.com" target="_blank">Debbie Urbanski</a>
<a href="https://debbieurbanski.com/after-world/" target="_blank">After World</a>
<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250834003/theworldwithoutus" target="_blank">Alan Weisman, The World Without Us</a>
<a href="https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/the-girl-with-all-the-gifts" target="_blank">M.R. Caray, The Girl With All the Gifts</a>
<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/448511/the-wall-by-haushofer-marlen/9781784878030" target="_blank">Marlen Haushofer, The Wall</a>
<a href="https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/how-daydreaming-can-enhance-creativity-for-fiction-writers" target="_blank">How Daydreaming Can Enhance Creativity for Fiction Writers</a>
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkmedePgF2h" target="_blank">"The first Scrivener file containing 4 years of work on my novel"</a>
<a href="https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/use-dialog-focus-and-linguistic-focus-to-revise-and-edit-your-writing-in-scrivener" target="_blank">Use Dialogue Focus and Linguistic Focus to Revise and Edit Your Writing in Scrivener</a>
<a href="https://www.dawn-king.com/#the-trials" target="_blank">Dawn King, The Trials</a>Learn more about Scrivener, and check out the ebook Take Control of Scrivener.
If you like the podcast, please follow it in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave a rating or review, and tell your friends. And check out past episodes of Write Now with Scrivener.
After many years writing short stories and essays, Debbie Urbanski has published her first novel, After World, about AI at the end of humanity's physical presence on Earth.
The description of After World sounds chilling: "Faced with uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem." But it is more than just a post-apocalyptic novel; it is "the story of an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel—only for it to fall in love with the novel’s subject, Sen, the last human on Earth."
While this is clearly a post-apocalyptic novel, mostly about AI, parts of it feel like nature writing. Debbie explained, "I spent a lot of time on the nature descriptions, I am surrounded by guidebooks about birds and trees and plants. I was really interested in the idea that if humans go away, that the world would be okay. There'd be a lot of other losses, but especially from an AI perspective, it might be that the easiest way to save the planet is having our physical bodies removed."
Often when people talk about "saving the planet," they really mean saving humanity. But, said Debbie, "the end of the world often means the end of us. So some people say my novel's about the end of the world, but it's really not. It's about the end of humanity's physical presence on Earth."
This sort of subject for a novel can be bleak, but Debbie pointed out that "I always point that I do find it hopeful that the world is still around. I don't think humans are necessarily exceptional, or more important than other species. So there is the idea in the book that we're one species, and we could save millions of species. I don't think we should disappear, but I do think it's an interesting thought experiment to get out of our heads and value other parts of the world."
AI is the main theme of the book, and Debbie didn't just jump on the AI bandwagon when the world heard about GPT and other tools. Back in 2019, when she had written a first draft, "My first agent thought my book was too fragmented, and thought there needed to be a cohesive narrator. We were brainstorming, all humans are gone; who could tell our story? AI was floating around, I don't think anyone who wasn't involved in tech thought it would be happening so quickly."
Since Debbie's novel focuses on AI, I used GPT-4 to come up with some questions for our interview. These questions were quite pertinent. for example, I asked, "The concept of documenting the end of humanity is a poignant one. What do you believe is the importance of storytelling and record keeping in the face of extinction?"
Debbie replied, "That's really what my book is about. The AI Narrator uses that as a way to fall in love or care deeply for Sen, the last human on Earth. So it's a way for the AI narrator to understand humanity by learning to tell a story."
Debbie used Scrivener to write After World, after having worked on short stories for a long time. "I really love Scrivener. And I recommend it to writers whenever I can. I don't think it influences how I write but it kind of captures how I write; it's a perfect fit for how I write. I love it."
Going from a short story collection to a novel was easy. "When I was working on the short story collection, I found it so useful to be able to move stuff around. So that seemed a really natural fit."
Debbie's experience getting from manuscript to publication was complex. She went through multiple agents and multiple editors. "With the novel, because it had been through so many revisions, I kept them all in a project, but I had different folders for each one. So it was really easy for me to compare revisions. And I use the split screen a lot. My novel has braided narratives, so there's different threads going through the novel. And there is a cool feature, I discovered towards the end, called Focus Mode, where you could look at just a line, a sentence, or a paragraph all at once. And that was mind-blowing, I did it sentence by sentence, but it really let me stop and think do I like the words of the sentence?"
Debbie shared a screen capture of her Scrivener project on Instagram, showing how complex it was, and appreciates how "I feel like I keep discovering things about Scrivener."
<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>
date: 2024-04-02, from: Locus Magazine
Author Kirk Dougal, 57, died March 18, 2024 in a Fort Wayne IN hospital of cancer.
His Fallen Angel series includes Dreams of Ivory and Gold (2014) and Valleys of the Earth (2017). His epic fantasy Legacy of Bones (2020) launched series A Tale of Bone & Steel, which also includes Black Shadow Rising (2020), Wings of the Storm (2020), Joiner of Bones (2020), Dragonkiller (2021), Path of Shadows (2021), …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/kirk-dougal-1966-2024/
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-02, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
Fascinating the amount of intelligence out there on TV shows. https://redanianintelligence.com/2024/04/02/the-sandman-season-2-six-episode-titles-revealed/
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kp6eftm3422l
date: 2024-04-02, from: Locus Magazine
The Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction has announced the third annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held October 17-18, 2024 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence KS.
The Symposium is celebrating Samuel R. Delany, who “has redefined the boundaries of SFF as well as literary criticism through his explorations of language, society, sexuality, and narrative form. This year’s symposium acknowledges his lasting impact on science fiction, speculative …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/2024-sturgeon-symposium/
date: 2024-04-02, from: Final Draft blog
Your protagonist is the main character of your feature screenplay or television pilot.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/4-tips-to-never-forget-your-protagonist
date: 2024-04-02, from: John August blog
John and Craig look at four unbelievable stories in the news and ask, How Would This Be a Movie? Stories include a finance journalist who was scammed out of her savings, men who offer dating bounties, a franken-sheep made of cloned animal parts, and how standardized tests changed one woman’s life. We also reveal which […] The post Love and Money first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/love-and-money
date: 2024-04-02, from: Locus Magazine
The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings, Angela Slatter (Brain Jar Press 978-1-92247-961-7, $14.99, 186pp, tp) October 2023
Sometimes awards don’t mean much, but Angela Slatter’s accomplishments – a Shirley Jackson Award, a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, three Australian Shadows Awards, and eight Aurealis Awards – point to one thing very clearly: She’s a superb writer. She’s also a writer who is constantly pushing the envelope of …Read More
date: 2024-04-02, from: Locus Magazine
Finalists for the 2024 Imadjinn Awards have been announced.
Best Science Fiction Novel
Best Fantasy Novel
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/2024-imadjinn-awards-finalists/
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-02, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
The stars are out tonight.
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kp4io5jcnd2j
date: 2024-04-01, from: Locus Magazine
The 2023 Chesley Awards winners were announced by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists (ASFA):
Best Hardback Illustration
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/2023-chesley-awards-winners/
date: 2024-04-01, from: Locus Magazine
The third book in Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series, Onyx Storm (Entangled: Red Tower Books), is now available on the Amazon sites for pre-publication sales — it will be published Jan. 21, 2025. This morning it ranks #1 on Amazon.com and Amazon Canada, #10 on Amazon UK.
Title Debut / #wks on any list NYT 04.07 LAT 03.31 USAT 03.24 PW 04.01 Amz (04.01) UK: Amz UK (04.01) Canada: Amz.ca (04.01) …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/weekly-bestsellers-1-april-2024/
date: 2024-04-01, from: John August blog
The original post for this episode can be found here. John August: Hello and welcome. My name is John August, and this is Episode 632 of Scriptnotes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Today’s episode is about mystery and suspense. It’s also a best of episode. To explain why we’re […] The post Scriptnotes, Episode 632: Mystery and Suspense, Transcript first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/scriptnotes-episode-632-mystery-and-suspense-transcript
date: 2024-04-01, from: John August blog
The transcript for this episode can be found here. John August: Hey, this is John. Today’s episode has a few F-bombs, just in the One Cool Thing section. So if you’re listening with your kids in the car, you can skip just that section. Hello and welcome. My name is John August, and you’re listening […] The post Scriptnotes, Episode 631: Adapting for Television, Transcript first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/scriptnotes-episode-631-adapting-for-television-transcript
date: 2024-04-01, from: Locus Magazine
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (Orbit) is the winner of the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award.
The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman (Tin House) received a special citation.
The other nominees were:
The award is presented annually to a …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/jacobs-wins-2024-philip-k-dick-award/
date: 2024-04-01, from: Locus Magazine
Nightmare 10/23, 11/23, 12/23 Heartlines Spec #3 The Deadlands 10/23, 11/23
In Nightmare #133, I found “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones to be notable. One of the most terrifying of modern horrors is the slaughter of school children by lone gunmen. Jones conjures a magical escape route for the innocents, but it is far from a safe haven. It’s a difficult theme to attempt, …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/paula-guran-reviews-nightmare-heartlines-spec-and-the-deadlands/
date: 2024-04-01, from: Locus Magazine
NALO HOPKINSON was born December 20, 1960 in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up there and in Trinidad and Guyana, though she also spent some time in the US as a child. Her father was noted Guyanese poet Muhammad Abdur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson. She moved with her family to Toronto, Canada in 1977, where she lived until relocating to Riverside CA in 2011. She earned a Master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/nalo-hopkinson-what-the-magic-is/
date: 2024-04-01, from: Final Draft blog
Screenwriting competitions can take your screenwriting career to the next level, just ask Big Break grand prize winner Alix Reeves for her screenplay, QUEENPINS.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/big-break-take-your-screenwriting-career-to-the-next-level
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-04-01, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
So far this morning i have been visited by “Oppodeath”, an incarnation of Death here to rescue me from a poisonous Ice Cream Sandwich, and “George Fibbleson the third” who promised I had won trillions of dollars in a Write a Book contest. This is going to be a long April Fool’s Day.
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3kp34lem2u72i
date: 2024-04-01, from: Locus Magazine
The April 2023 issue of Locus magazine has interviews with Nalo Hopkinson and Ken MacLeod and a spotlight on artist Sara Felix. News includes the 2023 Nebula Awards ballot, the Stoker Awards final ballot, Chandrasekera’s Crawford win, Doherty’s Heinlein Award win, Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s shift to editor-at-large, the BSFA Awards finalists, and much more. Obituaries remember Brian Stableford, Jaime Lee Moyer, Dick Jenssen, and Sue Arroyo, with additional appreciations for …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/issue-759-table-of-contents-april-2024/
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-03-31, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
Okay. I’m excited about this one.
https://comic-watch.com/news/to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question-the-remastered-edition-of-sandman-19-from-dc-comics-black-label
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3koyxlyuesc2l
date: 2024-03-31, from: Locus Magazine
Those Beyond the Wall, Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey 978-0593497500, hardcover, 384pp, $28.99) March 2024
It seems safe to say that the evergreen SF trope of a high-tech city or culture besieged by low-tech outsiders or “barbarians” goes back at least to H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) with its depiction of the Eloi and the Morlocks. Of course, Wells had myriad historical examples to inspire his conception, …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/03/paul-di-filippo-reviews-those-beyond-the-wall-by-micaiah-johnson/
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-03-31, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
Savage Sword of Conan 5. Happy Easter. May you drink the blood of your vultures.
[contains quote post or other embedded content]
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3koymy7ukjc2r
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-03-31, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
I’m confused. Also John Collier was one of the best short story writers of the 20th century.
[contains quote post or other embedded content]
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3koxk5fgijt2r
@Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky (date: 2024-03-31, from: Neil Gaiman @ BlueSky)
I picked a civilian name for Poison Ivy and gave her a new origin. That doesn’t mean I’m her co-creator (that’s Bob Kanigher and Carmine Infantino). Um.
[contains quote post or other embedded content]
https://bsky.app/profile/neilhimself.neilgaiman.com/post/3koxcmtcwdc2u