The Locus Bestsellers for May include top titles: The
Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst (Bramble), Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
(Tor), A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
(Bloomsbury US), and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
(Bloomsbury US).
The
Mercy of God by James S.A. Corey: Review by Russell Letson
date: 2024-10-20, from: Locus Magazine
The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey (Orbit
978-0-31652-557-2, $30.00, 423 pp, hc) August 2024.
The longer I review science fiction, the more I notice how it much it
depends on recycling tropes – not just repeating but extending and
varying and inverting them – and, I suspect, refitting them to reflect
current anxieties or hopes, conscious or not. This time the recognition
lights have been set flashing by
…Read
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The results of the 2024 Interactive Fiction Competition are now live on
the IFComp Website!
If you missed the livestream, it will be available over the coming
days on
Twitch and
will be permanently archived over on
YouTube shortly.
Of course, we are already planning for the ’25 Comp. Please provide your
feedback on what went well, what could have gone better, what we should
do more of, and what we should consider changing or leaving behind, by
filling the
Post-Competition
Survey:
The end of the 2023 Interactive Fiction Competition is nearly upon us!
We will announce the top 20 results via live stream at 4:00 PM Eastern
on Today! Saturday, October 19th.
The stream will be held on
Twitch. To
confirm what time the awards stream will be for you in your time zone,
visit this website.
Weekend Read, our app for reading scripts on your phone, features a
new curated collection of screenplays each week. This week, we look at
how haunted houses trap your characters inside, force them to cozy up to
some terrifying spirits, and use fear as a catalyst for change. Our
collection includes: American Horror Story – […] The post
Featured
Friday: Haunted Houses first appeared on
John August.
Write
On: ‘Hysteria!’ Creator and Showrunner Matthew Scott Kane
date: 2024-10-18, from: Final Draft blog
“We wanted
the whole series, but specifically the pilot episode, to lure you in
with the kind of comfort and coziness of the 80s nostalgia and the
trappings of John Hughes movies, and all of that, while also giving it
the 80s heavy metal flavor, and then start to build paranoia and change
the vibe a little bit throughout. But we always knew that the series was
going to hinge on this scene with Judith [Jessica Treska] where you
realize that the beautiful girl next door is actually so much trouble!”
says Matthew Scott Kane, creator and showrunner of Peacock’s
Hysteria! Starring Julie
Bowen, Anna Camp and Bruce Campbell.
The show explores the so-called Satanic Panic that actually happened
in the 1980s at a fictionalized high school in the midwest. When a
varsity football player disappears under mysterious circumstances, a
struggling teen heavy metal band realize they can capitalize on the
town’s sudden interest in the occult by creating a fake Satanic cult –
to their surprise, everyone is into it. Things quickly get out of
control when the town takes the cult more seriously than the high school
band members.
In this episode of the Write On podcast, Kane
talks about delving into the generational fear of teenagers, balancing
horror with humor, and writing characters who need “to be seen” by their
peers. He also shares details about his journey to becoming a
professional TV writer, specifically the many benefits of being an
assistant in Hollywood.
“The biggest gift of being an
assistant – which is not an easy job, it’s very difficult, it’s very
time consuming, you have to be available 24/ 7 and it takes a lot out of
you – but the best possible thing that you can get, and not all
showrunners will do this, is to make yourself available to watch every
step of the creative process. Make sure you are in the room while they
are breaking story. Make sure you are reading outlines that are coming
in. Make sure you’re in concept meetings, tone meetings, production
meetings, all of these things that might feel like they don’t have
anything to do with writing, but they have everything to do with
writing,” says Kane.
A museum dedicated to science fiction author Cixin Liu has opened in
Yangquan, China. Ceremonies were held on October 13, 2024, as part of
Yangquan’s second annual Liu Cixin Hometown Science Fiction Culture
Week.
Liu, author of The Three-Body Problem, The Wandering
Earth, and other influential works, took to the stage with
local officials. In his commemorative speech (reported here), he said,
“I hope that science fiction can bring
…Read
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The
City in Glass by Nghi Vo: Review by Jake Casella Brookins
date: 2024-10-18, from: Locus Magazine
The City in Glass, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom 978-1250348272,
$24.99, 224pp), October 2024.
If you’ve read any of Nghi Vo’s earlier work, you already know that
she’s a writer to watch – a masterful stylist with a flair for bringing
together magical premises, subtle anthropological worldbuilding, and
deep wells of mythic imagery and themes. If you haven’t, Vo’s newest,
The City in Glass, is not at all a bad
…Read
More
Annie
LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet by Molly Morris: Review by Colleen Mondor
date: 2024-10-18, from: Locus Magazine
Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet, Molly Morris (Wednesday
978-1-250-29006-9, $20.00, 336pp, hc) June 2024.
The town of Lennon, California has a secret that only the residents (and
a few chosen former residents) can know. The Welcome Back contest allows
the townspeople to nominate someone to come back from the dead for 30
days. This year, Wilson Moss has won, and that means her friend Annie is
returning, but
…Read
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Killer
Lines: How Dialogue Can Take Horror Scripts from Good to Great
date: 2024-10-17, from: Final Draft blog
Happy Halloween! ‘Tis the season for falling leaves and pumpkin-flavored
lattes. It’s also the season for screenwriters to ponder such issues as
‘are machetes passé?’ and the relative merits of fast versus slow zombie
pacing.
We’re back with another week of the top new SF, Fantasy, and Horror
releases of 10/15/2024, come check it out on the Locus YouTube channel!
If you want to stay up-to-date, and show your support for what we do,
why not subscribe? And if you’d like to find the titles, we have them
all up at our Bookshop.org page: Bookshop.org/shop/locusmag!
SATURDAY
NIGHT and how to write a historical drama
date: 2024-10-17, from: Final Draft blog
It’s likely that when Saturday Night Live premiered on October
11, 1975, even the show’s creator didn’t see it lasting 50 years. The
chaotic start of the ‘not ready for prime time’ players was filled with
uncertainty, confusion, hostility and a revolutionary spirit. In the new
film Saturday Night written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, the
audience gets a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the 90 minutes leading up
to the show’s premiere.
Model Home
by Rivers Solomon: Review by Gary K. Wolfe
date: 2024-10-17, from: Locus Magazine
Model Home, Rivers Solomon (MCD 978-0-374-60713-5,
$28.00, 304pp, hc) October 2024.
“Everyone believes in haunted houses,” says Ezri, the narrator of Rivers
Solomon’s Model Home, and who’s to argue? Based on the
resurgence of the theme in the past couple of years alone, it’s proved
to be not only a durable framework for supernatural shenanigans, but a
kind of magical mirror for all sorts of issues ranging from
…Read
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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) sent a
message to members on October 15, 2024, announcing that Russell Davis is
being brought in for “a transitional leadership position.” Interim
President Anthony W. Eichenlaub said
Recent resignations prove to us how much we’ve come to depend on our
staff while also highlighting flaws in the structure of our
organization. SFWA must change as it rebuilds… [Davis] knows SFWA well,
…Read
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The Horror/Thriller
genre
always thrives in the
screenplay
marketplace. This is largely because people enjoy being scared. It’s
not unlike people enjoying a roller-coaster or haunted hayride. There’s
a primal instinct — both exciting and cathartic in nature — that’s
triggered when we’re scared, and that’s one of the reasons why people
love thrillers and horror movies.
Asunder, Kerstin Hall (Tordotcom 978-1-250-62543-4,
$29.99, 432pp, hc) August 2024. Cover art by Greg Ruth.
Kerstin Hall writes sharp, fierce stories with precise and visceral
prose, and with worldbuilding that possesses a keen sense for the weird,
the haunting, the marvellous, and the twistedly strange. Asunder
is only her fourth long-form work, her second novel (after
2021’s Star Eater and the novella duo The
Border Keeper and Second Spear…Read
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Sara Silverman is the author of The Bedwetter, a comedy memoir.
Richard Kadrey wrote Sandman Slim, a fantasy novel series. Christopher
Golden, a supernatural thriller titled Ararat. These authors might not
seem to have much in common with an academic author who writes in
history, physics, or chemistry. Or a journalist. Or a poet. Or, […]
Seattle Worldcon 2025 has announced a short story writing contest with
separate categories for adult and young adult writers.
The winners in each category will be recognized at the convention,
receive free memberships to the convention, and have their stories
published in an upcoming anthology by Grim Oak Press. Stories must draw
inspiration from our Worldcon theme: Building Yesterday’s Future – For
Everyone.
5
Trends in the Screenwriting Marketplace Every Screenwriter Should
Know
date: 2024-10-15, from: Final Draft blog
For over two decades, Lee Jessup has been coaching the careers of both
emerging and professional screenwriters with the goal of helping them
take their career to the next level. You may also know that Jessup has
been mentoring winners of the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting
Competition for over a decade, so she knows a thing or two about
emerging writers. Given all her savvy and experience in the industry, we
thought we’d check in with her to pinpoint the latest trends in the
ever-evolving business of screenwriting.
Why is screenwriting so difficult, even for the smartest people? John
and Craig look at the relationship between intelligence and wisdom, the
kinds of problems writers attempt to solve, and the unmeasurable skills
that screenwriters need to succeed. Then it’s another round of the Three
Page Challenge, where they give their honest feedback on three […] The
post
Screenwriting
is a Poorly Defined Problem first appeared on
John August.
SF novel. Rab’s mother, in order to save him from a life in the hellish
mines of Mercury, cut off his hand when he was a baby. Decades later,
Rab works on the Mask, the structure that hides the Solar System from
aliens, when a spaceship from a long-forgotten colony approaches,
threatening that security.
VIDA CRUZ-BORJA is now represented by Stevie Finegan of
Zeno Agency Ltd.
BOOKS SOLD
SCOTT WESTERFELD & JUSTINE LARBALESTIER
sold adult novel The Mortons – “The
Secret History meets The Sopranos meets
Saltburn,” – and a second book to Jeramie Orton at
Pamela Dorman Books at auction via Jill Grinberg of Jill Grinberg
Literary Management. UK rights sold to Rosa Schierenberg at Viking UK in
a
…Read
More
The
Jaguar Mask by Michael J. DeLuca: Review by Niall Harrison
date: 2024-10-15, from: Locus Magazine
The Jaguar Mask, Michael J. DeLuca (Stelliform
978-1-77809-260-2, 348pp, $19.00, tp) August 2024. Cover by Julia Louise
Pereira.
The story of The Jaguar Mask does not start on the
first page, in which the artist Cristina Ramos relives the murder of her
mother in a garish vision – four tattooed mareros with machine pistols,
haloed by angels of death, gunning down two government employees, a
foreign lobbyist, and Eufemia
…Read
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The winners of the 2024 Prix Utopiales and the 2024 Prix Utopiales
Jeunesse have been announced. The prizes recognize work in the fantastic
genres published or translated into French.
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association has announced the
winners of its annual prize for poetry. Poems were judged in three
categories, listed below.
Dwarf Category (10 or fewer lines):
WINNER: “Whirlpool” by Colleen Anderson
Second Place: “She Reveals Herself” by Tabor Skreslet
Third Place: “Perpetual Care” by Christopher Ripley Newell
Honorable Mentions: “Desert Skies Motor Hotel” by Mark C Childs, “Haiku
6” by Tom Rogers, “dragon child” by
Strange Horizons has announced the launch of a year-long podcast series,
SH@25, in celebration of their 25th anniversary.
SH@25 will feature “interviews with authors, artists, poets, and former
staff of Strange Horizons, charting the magazine’s 25 year trajectory
from being founded in September 2000 to winning a Hugo in August 2024,
as well as looking ahead at its future.” The project will be led by
podcast editor Kat Kourbeti and
…Read
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Sarah A. Parker’s When the Moon Hatched, published as a trade
paperback earlier this year, is now in a hardcover edition from
HarperCollins/Avon, and ranks on three lists, at #2 on the New York
Times and Publishers Weekly lists. Two other older titles in new
editions also rank this week: Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games:
Illustrated Edition and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone (Stenciled Edges).
ANANDA FERNANDES LIMA was born in Brasília, Brazil, and
grew up there. She attended high school in Australia for a year through
an exchange program and returned there for her undergraduate degree.
While in college, she did a year abroad in Los Angeles and later moved
back to attend grad school at UCLA, where she earned her MA in
linguistics. She met her husband there, and they later lived in
…Read
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