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writing

(date: 2024-09-29 21:08:23)


Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

date: 2024-09-29, from: Locus Magazine

Haunt Sweet Home, Sarah Pinsker (Tordotcom 978-1-250-33026-0, $20.99, 170pp, hc) Septem­ber 2024.

I seem to have found myself reading a number of haunted house novels in the last year or so, and it’s always fascinating to watch how authors still find ways to ring new changes on a template that goes back to the earliest Gothic novels. In Haunt Sweet Home, Sarah Pinsker’s witty approach is to focus …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/haunt-sweet-home-by-sarah-pinsker-review-by-gary-k-wolfe/


OK Kids, You Get to Vote

date: 2024-09-28, from: Margaret Atwoods Substack

Right here on this website. But not for President.

https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/ok-kids-you-get-to-vote


One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon: Review by Alex Brown

date: 2024-09-28, from: Locus Magazine

One of Our Kind, Nicola Yoon (Knopf 978-0-59347-067-1, $28.00. 272pp, hc) June 2024.

Jasmyn, her husband Kingston, and their young son Kamau are excited to move to the new all-Black community of Liberty, just outside Los Angeles in Nicola Yoon’s One of Our Kind. King’s new job and higher income landed them a sprawl­ing home in a luxury community where everyone from the retail workers to the cops …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/one-of-our-kind-by-nicola-yoon-review-by-alex-brown/


On My Motorbike

date: 2024-09-27, from: Margaret Atwoods Substack

I haven’t been sitting on my hands…

https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/on-my-motorbike


What Francis Ford Coppola Can Teach Us

date: 2024-09-27, from: Final Draft blog

At the 79th Academy Awards, three directors stood on stage ready to reveal the Best Director Oscar. The three directors all came up in the 1970s, stretching the limits of what film could be and dazzling audiences. Those three directors were Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. 

https://blog.finaldraft.com/what-francis-ford-coppola-can-teach-us


date: 2024-09-27, from: John August blog

Weekend Read, our app for reading scripts on your phone, features a new curated collection of screenplays each week. This week, we look at at the many blood-draining Vampire stories to see how a sub-genre can continually reinvent itself in order to stay immortal. Our collection includes: Blade by David S. Goyer Buffy the Vampire […] The post Featured Friday: Vampires first appeared on John August.

https://johnaugust.com/2024/featured-friday-vampires


Egypt + 100 edited by Ahmed Naji : Review by Niall Harrison

date: 2024-09-27, from: Locus Magazine

Egypt + 100, Ahmed Naji ed. (Comma Press 9781912697700, 160pp, £9.99, tp) July 2024.

From the point of view of a science fiction reviewer, Egypt + 100 marks an interesting development in Comma Press’s “Futures Past” series of SWANA-focused anthologies: it is the first in the series to emerge from an ac­tive and substantial science fiction tradition. In the introduction to Iraq + 100, Hassan Blassim lamented the …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/egypt-100-edited-by-ahmed-naji-review-by-niall-harrison/


Casati Wins 2024 Glass Bell Award

date: 2024-09-27, from: Locus Magazine

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati (Penguin Michael Joseph) won the 2024 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, honoring a novel in any genre “with brilliant characterization and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realized.” The winner receives a handmade glass bell and a cash prize of £2,000.

The awards are decided by team members from Goldsboro Books. For more information, see the Goldsboro Books website and announcement at The …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/casati-wins-2024-glass-bell-award/


Douglas Barbour Award 2024

date: 2024-09-26, from: Locus Magazine

The Alberta Book Publishing Awards have announced that Guy Immega’s novel Super-Earth Mother: The AI that Engineered a Brave New World (EDGE) is the winner of the 2024 Douglas Barbour Award for Speculative Fiction.

The Alberta Book Publishing Awards were created by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta to “celebrate the essential role Alberta book publishers play in supporting authors.” The Douglas Barbour award honors the late Canadian science fiction …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/douglas-barbour-award-2024/


SFWA Special Election Candidates Announced

date: 2024-09-26, from: Locus Magazine

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has finalized the candidates for its upcoming special election for the roles of president and secretary.

A voting link will be posted and optional paper ballots will be mailed on October 9, 2024. Ballots will be counted after October 23, 2024. …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/sfwa-special-election-candidates-announced/


New Books Video Is Up for 9/24/24!

date: 2024-09-26, from: Locus Magazine

Another week of the top SF, fantasy, and horror releases on our YouTube channel! Come by and give it a watch so you can keep up to date on all these fantastic new books! We really do appreciate when you show us your support by liking and subscribing! And if you’d like to find the titles, we have them all up at our Bookshop.org page: Bookshop.org/shop/locusmag!

…Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/new-books-video-is-up-for-9-24-24/


New Adventures in Space Opera edited by Jonathan Strahan : Review by Gary K. Wolfe

date: 2024-09-26, from: Locus Magazine

New Adventures in Space Opera, Jonathan Stra­han, ed. (Tachyon 978-1-61696-420-7, $18.95, 336pp, tp) August 2024.

Dating back more than 80 years, space opera is almost certainly the longest-running term in con­tinuous use for a particular kind of SF – though we’ll probably never finish arguing over whether it’s a mode, a subgenre, a theme, or (in the eyes of some) a mistake. In 2003, Locus ran a special issue …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/new-adventures-in-space-opera-edited-by-jonathan-strahan-review-by-gary-k-wolfe/


2024 Prix Aurora-Boréal Winners

date: 2024-09-25, from: Locus Magazine

Winners of the French-language Prix Aurora-Boréal were awarded on May 22, 2024 at the Congrès Boréal in Québec City, Canada.

Best Novel

Best Short Story

…Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/2024-prix-aurora-boreal-winners/


Screenwriting Role Models: John Carpenter & Debra Hill

date: 2024-09-25, from: Final Draft blog

Many horror fans associate the name John Carpenter with the Halloween franchise and are well aware of his numerous duties on his classic films as a director, screenwriter, music composer and producer. 

https://blog.finaldraft.com/screenwriting-role-models-john-carpenter-debra-hill


Inaugural Andromeda Award

date: 2024-09-25, from: Locus Magazine

The United Talent Agency (UTA) and Conville & Walsh (C&W) have announced the inaugural Andromeda Award. The contest aims to “seek out and support the best new emerging science fiction and fantasy writers.”

The contest is open to anyone based in the UK or USA with a full length SF/F novel. The first-place author will be awarded $5,000, second place $3,000 and a spot in Curtis Brown Creative’s nine-week Writing …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/inaugural-andromeda-award/


🐣 The sky is not falling

date: 2024-09-25, from: Interesting, a blog on writing

Numbers and the stories told about the numbers.

https://inneresting.substack.com/p/the-sky-is-not-falling


A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang: Review by Archita Mittra

date: 2024-09-25, from: Locus Magazine

A Song to Drown Rivers, Ann Liang (St. Martin’s Press 978-1-25028-946-9, $32.00, 336pp, hc) October 2024.

Inspired by ancient Chinese legends, A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang is an intrigu­ing historical fantasy novel that tempers the logic of trope-driven storytelling with a mature understanding of the futility of war. As a folkloric retelling of the tragic story of Xi Shi, one of the ‘‘Four Great Beauties’’ of …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/a-song-to-drown-rivers-by-ann-liang-review-by-archita-mittra/


New & Notable

date: 2024-09-25, from: Locus Magazine

Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola (Knopf 7/24) Bacigalupi returns with his first new novel in seven years, this time an epic fantasy inspired by Renaissance Flor­ence, first in a duology about a young man from a powerful family attempting to navigate cutthroat politics and affairs of the heart. “It’s undeniably new territory for Bacigalupi, and it’s a pleasure to report that his most impressive narrative strengths have ported over intact.” [Gary K. …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/new-notable-2/


2024 Dream Foundry Award Winners

date: 2024-09-24, from: Locus Magazine

Dream Foundry, a “non-profit dedicated to bolstering the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts,” has announced the winners of its 2024 contests.

Writing Contest

Art Contest

First place winners receive $1,000.

Writing judges were Valerie Valdes and C.L. Polk, and art judges were

…Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/2024-dream-foundry-award-winners/


Screenwriter Spotlight: Writing Horror with Peter Dukes

date: 2024-09-24, from: Final Draft blog

Being a successful screenwriter means working hard, and Peter Dukes is testament to this. The writer of several horror movies including The Memory of the Heart, Portal, Escape Room and Tales of Horror shares his advice for how to break through in your career and most importantly stay in the game.

How did your career get started?

https://blog.finaldraft.com/screenwriter-spotlight-writing-horror-with-peter-dukes


Inspiring an Emotional Response Through Your Screenplay

date: 2024-09-24, from: Final Draft blog

It’s important to inspire an emotional response from people reading your screenplay for several reasons.

https://blog.finaldraft.com/inspiring-an-emotional-response-through-your-screenplay


New Books, 24 September 2024

date: 2024-09-24, from: Locus Magazine

Alkaf, Hanna: The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s (Simon & Schuster/Salaam Reads 9781534494589, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 09/24/2024)

Young-adult horror novel. A highly reputable school for girls has an outbreak of screaming, first one student in the middle of class, and by the end of the day 17 girls are affected. One girl trying to save her sister, and another afflicted by screaming herself, dig into the school’s …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/new-books-24-september-2024/


Sinophagia edited by Xueting C. Ni: Review by Eugen M. Bacon

date: 2024-09-24, from: Locus Magazine

Sinophagia, Xueting C. Ni, ed. (Solaris 978-1-83786-117-0, $16.99, 496pp, tp) September 2024.

Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror is a carefully curated anthology of contemporary Chinese horror. It’s a cultural fest that arrives with triggers warnings of corpses, childhood trauma, self-harm, torture, graphic violence, domestic violence, strangulation and, strangely, coercion/gaslighting – not commonly associated with hor­ror, but typical of psychological abuse.

Translated and edited by Xueting C. Ni, Sino­phagia: A …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/sinophagia-edited-by-xueting-c-ni-review-by-eugen-m-bacon/


Big Money Movies with Marielle Heller

date: 2024-09-24, from: John August blog

John welcomes back Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) to look at three stories of real people with too much money and ask, How Would This Be a Movie? Stories include strategies for dating Leonardo DiCaprio, the rise-fall-rise of inventor Palmer Luckey, and a council built to give […] The post Big Money Movies with Marielle Heller first appeared on John August.

https://johnaugust.com/2024/big-money-movies-with-marielle-heller


Weekly Bestsellers, 23 September 2024

date: 2024-09-23, from: Locus Magazine

TJ Klune’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Tor), second book in his Cerulean Chronicles, debuts strongly, ranking #1 on three of the print lists compiled here, and #3 on the fourth.

Title Debut / #wks on any list NYT 09.22 LAT 09.22 USAT 09.18 PW 09.23 Amz (09.23) UK: Amz UK (09.23) Canada: Amz.ca (09.23)

Items on list -x- number of lists surveyed

10×3 10×2 150 15×3 100 100 100

Hardcovers …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/weekly-bestsellers-23-september-2024/


Fredric Jameson (1934-2024)

date: 2024-09-23, from: Locus Magazine

Scholar and critic Fredric Jameson, 90, died September 22, 2024 in Durham NC. Jameson was an immensely consequential figure in the world of literary theory and cultural criticism, and a lifelong devotee of SF.

Jameson was born April 14, 1934 in Cleveland OH. He attended Haverford College as an undergrad, then did graduate work at Yale. His PhD thesis was published as Sartre: The Origins of a Style (1961). He …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/fredric-jameson-1934-2024/


Lightspeed, Worlds of Possibility and Reactor: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

date: 2024-09-23, from: Locus Magazine

Lightspeed 6/24 Worlds of Possibility 6/24 Reactor 6/5/24

Lightspeed ushers in June with Oyedotun Damilola Muees’s Warning Notes from an An­nihilator Machine”, which is framed as a series of messages from said Annihilator Machine to Tijani Damilare (known online as Teejay_009) concerning the approved destruction of Earth. Despite the dire message, ANM-722 actually wants to help Tijani, providing information that might help avoid the approaching mechanical apocalypse at …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/lightspeed-worlds-of-possibility-and-reactor-short-fiction-reviews-by-charles-payseur/


Spotlight on Micaela Alcaino

date: 2024-09-23, from: Locus Magazine

MICAELA ALCAINO is a book cover designer and illustrator who relocated from her home in Sydney, Australia to London, UK in 2013. Her career has been marked by sig­nificant achievements, including being named one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars in 2021 and winning the prestigious Designer of the Year title at the British Book Awards in 2022, with a sub­sequent nomination this year in 2024. She was also a finalist …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/spotlight-on-micaela-alcaino/


Clarkesworld: Short Fiction Reviews by A.C. Wise

date: 2024-09-22, from: Locus Magazine

Clarkesworld 6/24

“Twenty-Four Hours” by H.H. Pak starts off the June issue of Clarkesworld on a high note. The story is beautiful and heartbreaking as a mother spends a final twenty-four hours with a programmed version of her recently deceased daughter in an effort to gain closure. The story does a wonderful job of portraying grief in its various stages and capturing the feeling of wanting to spend just a …Read More

https://locusmag.com/2024/09/clarkesworld-short-fiction-reviews-by-a-c-wise/