(date: 2024-12-08 07:05:11)
date: 2024-12-07, from: Locus Magazine
Augur 7.1
Grief, loss, healing, and recovery are themes running through Augur 7.1, and it’s interesting to see how different authors approach similar subject matter. “Sagal, the-Witch-in Training” by Ardo Omer follows the titular witch-in-training on her first solo case, trying to help a young woman with a broken heart. The woman happens to be the sister of one of her classmates, and they work together to convince …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/augur-short-fiction-reviews-by-a-c-wise/
date: 2024-12-07, from: Locus Magazine
Collins Dictionary in the UK has released its “Word of the Year” winner and shortlist for 2024. The list include “romantasy,” defined as “a literary genre that combines romantic fiction with fantasy.” The overall word of the year is “brat,” in the sense of someone with a “confident, independent and hedonistic attitude,” as popularized by singer/songwriter Charli XCX’s album Brat.
Other words on the list include “supermajority,” “yapping,” “delulu,” …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/2024-word-of-the-year/
date: 2024-12-06, from: Interesting, a blog on writing
aka Your 2024 Storytelling Unwrapped
https://inneresting.substack.com/p/227-its-a-gift
date: 2024-12-06, from: Final Draft blog
“I find action scenes really hard to write, I usually save them for
the end. I need to get very caffeinated and then just try and get into
the adrenaline of what they should feel like. With this [film] in
particular, those robberies and the heist… I kind of like to really
understand an environment and a landscape before I can write an action
sequence. Because if I can’t figure out when a car is overtaking another
car or where characters are in relation to it, then it’s impossible to
write dialogue. I really try and map out the choreography of things and
when to have those spikes of violence. I think you just feel it. You
feel it on the page where hopefully you’ve built the tension. There
needs to be some kind of release. And that’s maybe a gunshot or maybe
it’s a line of dialogue that pulls someone in another direction. I’m
pretty prescriptive in the way I write action and I write it in the way
I hope it will be shot and it’s not just like an overview of a scene,”
says screenwriter Zach Baylin on writing action sequences in his new
film, The Order.
The Order stars Jude Law
and Nicholas Hoult and tells the true story of an FBI agent (Law), who’s
determined to bring down a group of domestic terrorists in the Pacific
Northwest in the 1980s.
In this episode of the podcast, we
talk with Zach Baylin about writing action sequences and also his film
King Richard, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.
He also shares this advice for writing a period film that might have
parallels to today’s society:
“In terms of keeping things
entertaining and not wanting to be preachy and didactic, I think that
the approach that I took was just to try and tell the story of what
happened in 1983 and ’84 accurately and not to over relate it to today.
The parallels to today are so obvious that if we were to throw in lines
about things that felt like they were alluding to the present, it would
totally take out both the veracity and the intention, which was, I want
to tell this story correctly. And if I do, then you’ll walk out of it,
both having been entertained and informed,” says Baylin.
The Order is out now in theaters. To hear more about Baylin’s
writing process, listen to the podcast.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/write-on-zach-baylin-writer-of-the-order
date: 2024-12-06, from: Locus Magazine
Sourcebooks has announced a new children’s and YA imprint, Stonefruit Studio, and plans to publish 16 to 24 “distinctively creative children’s books across all age categories and formats” annually, including middle grade, YA, graphic novelws, and non-fiction by “authors and illustrators [who] can showcase their bold narrative voices and distinct styles that bring the joy of reading to children of all ages.”
Ben Rosenthal and Mabel Hsu will be editorial …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/new-imprint-stonefruit-studio/
date: 2024-12-06, from: Locus Magazine
The Internet Archive (IA) has elected not to further appeal its loss in the copyright infringement case upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in September.
Now that the case is settled, IA will remove infringing books from their “lending library” and pay an undisclosed monetary sum to the plaintiff publishers, which the Association of American Publishers says should “substantially” cover the attorney fees and court costs.
The IA …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/internet-archive-case-concludes/
date: 2024-12-06, 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 movies that are deliberately set at Christmastime, but have nothing to do with the holiday itself. If you’ve ever wondered, “Wait, is that a Christmas movie?” we’re probably featuring that script! […] The post Featured Friday: Christmas in the Background first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/featured-friday-christmas-in-the-background
date: 2024-12-06, from: Author’s Union blog
This post is by Rachael Samberg, Director, Scholarly Communication & Information Policy, UC Berkeley Library and Dave Hansen, Executive Director, Authors Alliance This post is about the research and the advancement of science and knowledge made impossible when publishers use contracts to limit researchers’ ability to use AI tools with scholarly works. Within the scholarly publishing […]
date: 2024-12-06, from: Final Draft blog
As a storyteller, David Lowery has a flair for the formidable. His films
are often steely and stern, even as his characters find themselves in
fantastical situations—becoming a ghost, befriending a dragon, or
pursuing a medieval
knight.
Lowery
is the writer, director, and editor behind films like The Green Knight, Ain’t Them Bodies
Saints, and The Old Man &
the Gun, his stories taking us through fantasy, psychological
drama, true heists, and more. His roots are in indie film, though he’s
taken on bigger budgets of late, particularly to give his spin to
beloved Disney classics.
A screenwriter/director with such a
singular voice and vision is going to produce work like no one else, and
that’s certainly the case for his new original holiday short, An Almost Christmas Story, now
streaming on Disney+.
Cowritten with Alfonso Cuarón and Jack
Thorne, the short is an animated tale of a young owl lost in New York
City after being spirited away in the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
He meets Luna, an equally adrift little girl. These delicate, paper-like
characters inhabit a world of harsh cardboard cars and two-dimensional
adults, where they have to find their own way during the holiday season.
There’s a mix of whimsy and weight that feels distinctly like Lowery in
the work.
Final Draft jumped into Zoom with Lowery to discuss his
approach to his first animated project and the discoveries he’ll bring
to his next live-action film, including economy in screenwriting and the
importance of storyboards.
Final Draft: This is your first animated
project. Did your approach as a writer change as you started working on
this?
David
Lowery: Definitely. It was an entirely new experience and one
that I really loved. I loved the process of writing this film because
I’ve been writing screenplays my entire life, it feels like at this
point, and I felt like I was relearning the art form with this film. It
was nice to be knocked out of my comfort zone and forced to relearn how
to tell a story for the screen in a way that I had never done
before.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/an-almost-christmas-story-david-lowery-talks-animation-writing
date: 2024-12-06, from: Locus Magazine
Libro.fm has polled over 3,000 of their independent bookselling partners to choose the best audiobooks of 2024. Nominations and categories were pulled from trends in Bookseller Pick data to create the Bookseller Choice Awards.
The Libro.fm Bookseller Choice Award categories and winners are:
Best Audiobook for a Long Trip
Read to Make You Fall in Love with Audiobooks
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/2024-libro-fm-bookseller-choice-awards/
date: 2024-12-06, from: Locus Magazine
Winners of the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards, chosen by users of the site, have been announced. There are several winners of genre interest across various categories.
Romantasy
Fantasy
Science Fiction
Horror
Young Adult Fantasy
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/2024-goodreads-choice-award-winners/
date: 2024-12-06, from: Locus Magazine
The New York Times has published its list of Notable Books of 2024. Titles are selected by staff members of the New York Times Book Review.
The list includes titles of genre interest:
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/nyt-notable-books-of-2024/
date: 2024-12-06, from: Locus Magazine
Cast of Wonders 8/24/24 Strange Horizons 8/19/24, 8/26/24 Fusion Fragment 8/24
Cast of Wonders also closed out August strongly with J.M. Bueno’s haunted house story, “Double Yellow Lines”. Unlike many that use the element, this story’s haunted house isn’t nearly as malevolent as it could be. Instead, it seems to be a way for people metaphorically haunted by the past and their own grief to try and …Read More
date: 2024-12-05, from: Locus Magazine
The 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize has announced its 33-title longlist. The award honors “mid-career authors in fiction,” and the winner receives a $50,000 prize and a residence at the University of California, Berkeley and/or Bay Area. The award is given by the New Literary Project. The 2025 longlist features several works of genre interest, including:
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/2025-joyce-carol-oates-award-longlist/
date: 2024-12-05, from: Locus Magazine
It’s the start of December and we’re back for another week of exciting new releases, this time for the week of 12/03/2024! We’ll be back every week with another video chalk full of the best SF, Fantasy, and Horror titles for you to check out! Why not swing by our YouTube channel and subscribe to support our week, we really do appreciate it! We here at Locus Magazine hope you’re …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/youtube-video-is-up-check-out-the-top-new-releases-for-12-03-2024/
date: 2024-12-05, from: Locus Magazine
The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time 4, Allan Kaster, ed. (Infinivox 978-1-88461-258-9, 276pp, $18.99, tp). Cover by Maurizio Manzieri. September 2024.
Allan Kaster’s fourth edition of The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time collects 14 stories, almost all of which originally appeared in familiar periodicals – including Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Clarkesworld – and one anthology, Life Beyond Us. Some of …Read More
date: 2024-12-05, from: Locus Magazine
City of Dancing Gargoyles, Tara Campbell (Santa Fe Writers Project 978-1-95163-139-0, $16.95, 280pp, tp) September 2024.
What struck me about Tara Campbell’s 2019 collection, Midnight at the Organporium, was the breadth of her imagination and the way she switched between surrealism, revisionist fairytales, and horror. Her story ‘‘Speculum Crede’’ about a very odd work picnic (an understatement) still makes me smile. Campbell’s second novel, City of Dancing Gargoyles …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/city-of-dancing-gargoyles-by-tara-campbell-review-by-ian-mond/
date: 2024-12-05, from: Author’s Union blog
Authors Alliance is pleased to announce a new project, supported by the Mellon Foundation, to develop an actionable plan for a public-interest book training commons for artificial intelligence. Northeastern University Library will be supporting this project and helping to coordinate its progress. Access to books will play an essential role in how artificial intelligence develops. […]
https://www.authorsalliance.org/2024/12/05/developing-a-public-interest-training-commons-of-books/
date: 2024-12-04, from: Locus Magazine
AudioFile magazine has published their picks for the best audiobooks of 2024 in categories including Science Fiction and Fantasy and Young Adult.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/audiofiles-best-of-2024/
date: 2024-12-04, from: Locus Magazine
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/magazines-received-november-2/
date: 2024-12-04, 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 you’re listening to episode 667 of Scriptnotes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Most screenwriters dream of getting their first movie produced. Today on the show, we are joined […] The post Scriptnotes, Episode 667: The One with Justin Kuritzkes, Transcript first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/scriptnotes-episode-667-the-one-with-justin-kuritzkes-transcript
date: 2024-12-04, from: Interesting, a blog on writing
It depends.
https://inneresting.substack.com/p/can-the-hero-be-in-every-scene
date: 2024-12-04, from: Locus Magazine
Music and audiobook streaming service Spotify has released a list of the most popular audiobooks on their platform for 2024.
The most popular audiobook genres by Spotify listeners in 2024 were science fiction and fantasy, with romance close behind. Many of the most popular titles this year were romantasy. The top audiobooks were:
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/spotify-most-popular-audiobooks/
date: 2024-12-04, from: Locus Magazine
The Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour has announced its judging panel for 2025: Saara El-Arifi, Mahmud El-Sayed, Rogba Payne, Amandeep Singh, and Amita Suman.
The Future Worlds Prize annually honors works of fantasy and science fiction from new writers of color based in the UK and Ireland. The winner receives £4,500, the runner-up receives £2,500, and the remaining six shortlisted writers each receive £850.
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/future-worlds-prize-judges/
date: 2024-12-04, from: Locus Magazine
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/salam-award-workshop-participants/
date: 2024-12-04, from: Locus Magazine
The Dark 8/24, 9/24 The Sunday Morning Transport 7/21/24 – 9/15/24 Reactor 7/24/24 – 9/4/24
Both originals in The Dark #111 are centered on homes. The haunting “Once There Was Water” by Katie McIvor is really two tales. One is about the past of the fenlands where children are transformed into darkly furred creatures with webbed, clawed hands; the other about a time closer to our present when …Read More
date: 2024-12-04, from: Literature & a Latte blog
date: 2024-12-03, from: Locus Magazine
NPR has published a list of “Books We Love” in 2024, compiled by NPR journalists and associated critics. The full list of 350 books includes an extensive Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction category, with numerous other works of interest on the list as a whole.
Sci Fi, Fantasy and Speculative Fictionhttps://locusmag.com/2024/12/nprs-best-books-of-2024/
date: 2024-12-03, from: Final Draft blog
Many beginner screenwriters wonder how to get an
agent
or manager to represent them.
Agents are a little trickier
to get at the early stages, so it’s advisable for a beginner
screenwriter to shoot for a manager first: most managers are open to
reading spec
scripts and developing talent. Managers are generally viewed as “a
filtering system” in
the
screenplay marketplace, so a screenplaywriter with a manager —
especially one with a good track record — will be taken more seriously
and agents are more likely to take on a writer client with a manager
than one without (although there are
some
exceptions).
If you think you have
a
marketable script or a decent writing sample and you’re ready to
take that next step, here are 5 ways a
screenwriter can find a manager:
https://blog.finaldraft.com/5-ways-to-find-a-screenwriting-manager
date: 2024-12-03, from: John August blog
John welcomes playwright, novelist and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes to discuss having his first two movies — Challengers and Queer — produced a single year. After charting his journey from playwright to screenwriter, we compare two drafts of Challengers to look at how the story changed during a hasty development, including crafting that iconic three-way. We […] The post The One with Justin Kuritzkes first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/the-one-with-justin-kuritzkes
date: 2024-12-03, from: Locus Magazine
Adamson, Glenn: A Century of Tomorrows: How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present (Bloomsbury USA 9781639730230, $32.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
Non-fiction, a look at the cultural history of futurology, and how trying to foresee the future influences the culture of its time. From scientists and futurologists such as Buckminster Fuller to authors including Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Shulamith Firestone and Sun Ra.
Amplitude: The Art …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/new-books-3-december-2024/
date: 2024-12-03, from: Locus Magazine
The Tapestry of Time, Kate Heartfield (Harper Voyager 978-0-00-856781-1, £16.99, 384pp, hc) October 2024.
Sometimes a trope seems so familiar that it begins to feel like a tire that’s lost its tread, even though it’s still fun to drive on. The Nazi preoccupation with occult powers has itself been a preoccupation for writers from all over the spectrum – horror (F. Paul Wilson, Robert McCammon), fantasy (Katherine Kurtz, Ian …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/the-tapestry-of-time-by-kate-heartfield-review-by-gary-k-wolfe/
date: 2024-12-03, from: Author’s Union blog
As we end the year, I’m writing to ask for your financial support by giving toward our end-of-year campaign (click here to donate online). In May, Authors Alliance marked its 10th anniversary. We’ve experienced tremendous support and enthusiasm for our work over the last decade, and your collaboration has been an important part of our success. […]
https://www.authorsalliance.org/2024/12/03/support-authors-alliance/
date: 2024-12-02, from: Locus Magazine
España Sheriff is the winner of the 2024 Rotsler Award for “long-time wonder-working with graphic art in amateur publications of the science fiction community.” The award was announced during Loscon 50, held November 29 – December 1, 2024 at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel in Los Angeles CA.
The award was established in 1998 by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, Inc. The winner receives a $300 honorarium. …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/sheriff-wins-2024-rotsler-award/
date: 2024-12-02, from: Locus Magazine
The Clarion Workshop in San Diego CA has announced the instructors for its 2025 session: Elizabeth Bear, Premee Mohamed, Cadwell Turnbull, Annalee Newitz, Jedediah Berry, and GennaRose Nethercott. Jac Jemc is faculty director.
The workshop will be held June 29, 2025 – August 9, 2025 at UC San Diego. Applications for the workshop opened on December 1, 2024 and close February 15, 2025.
While you are here, please take a
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/clarion-2025-instructors/
date: 2024-12-02, from: Locus Magazine
Nominations are now open for the 2025 Dragon Awards, presented by Dragon Con. “There is no qualification for submitting nominations or voting – no convention fees or other memberships are needed.” Voting closes July 19, 2025.
For last year’s winners, see our prior post. For more information about nominations and to vote, see the official Dragon Awards page.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/2025-dragon-awards-nominations-open/
date: 2024-12-02, from: Locus Magazine
Again this week two fantasy novels debut on three lists each: Carissa Broadbent’s The Songbird & the Heart of Stone (Bramble), ranking as high as #3 on two lists; and Melissa Landers’s The Half King (Entangled: Red Tower Books), ranking as high as #12 on two lists.
Title Debut / #wks on any list NYT 12.08 LAT 12.01 USAT 11.24 PW 12.02 Amz (12.02) UK: Amz UK (12.02) Canada: Amz.ca …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/weekly-bestsellers-2-december-2024/
date: 2024-12-02, from: Final Draft blog
This is a question that’s commonly asked by many aspiring screenwriters:
do you have to live in LA to be a screenwriter?
Speaking from my
own personal experience, I know you don’t need to live in LA to land
your first
screenwriting
job or sell your first
spec
script.
Because I didn’t when I did both these things.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/do-you-have-to-live-in-la-to-be-a-screenwriter
date: 2024-12-02, from: Locus Magazine
PAOLO TADINI BACIGALUPI was born August 6, 1972 in Colorado Springs CO, moving with his parents to rural western Colorado soon after. When his parents divorced, he split his time between them, finishing high school at the private Colorado Rocky Mountain School. He attended Oberlin College in OH, where he met his wife-to-be Anjula (they married in 1998) and majored in East Asian Studies, spending time in China for foreign-language …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/paolo-bacigalupi-gift-of-story/
date: 2024-12-02, from: Locus Magazine
Zooscape 8/24 Flash Fiction Online 8/24 Escape Pod 8/22/24
The latest from Zooscape features a fresh twist on the Little Red Riding Hood story in Erin Brown’s intense “The Cloak”. Flipping the script in terms of heroes and villains, the wolf narrates the action as he is stalked by a young hunter who has successfully turned the rest of his family into the warm clothes she wears …Read More
date: 2024-12-01, from: Locus Magazine
A Letter to the Luminous Deep, Sylvie Cathrall (Orbit 978-0-316-56553-0, $18.99, 352pp, tp) April 2024. Cover by Raxenne Maniquiz.
Sylvie Cathrall starts off her Sunken Archives series with the charming epistolary novel A Letter to the Luminous Deep. Set on a watery planet long after a catastrophic event that dramatically impacted the landscape, Luminous Deep is a romance and mystery spiced with some eye-rolling family moments that gently …Read More
date: 2024-12-01, from: Locus Magazine
The December 2024 issue of Locus magazine has interviews with Paolo Bacigalupi and Vajra Chandrasekera, a spotlight on artist Christine Mitzuk, and a spotlight on book subscription box service Illumicrate and their quarterly science fiction subscription, Starbright. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through September 2025. News includes Samantha Harvey’s Booker win, SFWA’s special election results, the 2024 Ignyte Awards, the final Kitschies Awards shortlist, and more. …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/issue-767-table-of-contents-december-2024/