(date: 2024-12-31 07:05:42)
date: 2024-12-30, from: Locus Magazine
The 2024 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF), which “will send a European fan to the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle,” has selected its nominees and will begin voting on January 1, 2025.
The candidates for this year are Zi Graves, Mikołaj Kowalewski, and Jan Vaněk jr. Voting is open to any individual with their donation of £3 or $4 to TAFF. The ballot is available here.
TAFF “was created in 1953 for …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/taff-nominees-and-voting/
date: 2024-12-30, from: Locus Magazine
Already ranking on Amazon bestseller lists for 40 weeks now, and with publication due on January 21st, Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm creeps upwards on the three Amazon lists this week, ranking #1 on Amazon.com this morning.
Title Debut / #wks on any list NYT 01.05 LAT 12.29 USAT 12.22 PW 12.23 Amz (12.30) UK: Amz UK (12.30) Canada: Amz.ca (12.30)
Items on list -x- number of lists surveyed
10×3 10×2 …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/weekly-bestsellers-30-december-2024/
date: 2024-12-30, from: Final Draft blog
“In most genre fiction where heroes and villains clash, the hero is
intrinsically reactive. The villain starts making trouble and that’s the
beginning of the story. If the villain had never showed up, the hero
would have lived a pleasant and unremarkable life and had a lovely time.
And nothing novel-worthy would have popped up. But the villain comes
along and does something terrible and that makes heroic action
necessary. So if that’s the function of the hero in the story, to be
called to heroic action, then the first conflict that’s readily
available to you is reluctance or a sense of being unworthy… and then
after that, the hero will be called to take on a new shape and often
that will be in response to the shape of the danger, in response to the
shape of the wickedness a foot,” says Oscar-nominated screenwriter, Jon
Spaihts, about the classic hero-villain relationship in Dune: Part
One and Dune: Part Two, based on the books by Frank
Herbert.
In this episode, Jon Spaihts talks about the
importance of hand-to-hand combat in mythic storytelling, his favorite
scene in Dune: Part Two, and we do a deep dive into his most
adored character, Lady Jessica, played by Rebecca Ferguson. We explore
the nature of her mystical powers and why she’s so feared by the men in
the story.
Spaihts also shares his advice about what it really
means to get personal with your writing.
“When people say to
make your story personal, they don’t really mean look at yourself. You
are the least qualified person to say something meaningful about
yourself. What people are really talking about is that you should focus
on the things that obsess you. You can look at the things that are most
plangent to your feelings, that are most itchy and sticky for your
intellect, the things you can’t stop thinking about. You can focus on
the experiences that have impacted you most profoundly. Those things –
the things that push on you and pull on you – that is personal
storytelling. You look not at yourself, you look at the things that have
moved you, that have affected you, that have changed you, redirected
your life and the things that preoccupy you. Those are your seeds of
personal storytelling,” says Spaihts.
To hear more about
writing Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two, listen to
the podcast.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/write-on-dune-part-one-part-two-screenwriter-jon-spaihts
date: 2024-12-30, from: Final Draft blog
Congratulations writers! You have reached the end of another writing year. Regardless of what stage you are at in your writing career, it’s important to take the time to recognize all you have accomplished in 2024.
https://blog.finaldraft.com/new-years-writing-resolutions
date: 2024-12-30, from: Locus Magazine
A Conventional Boy, Charles Stross (Tordotcom 978-1-250357-847, $28.99, 224 pp, hc) January 2025.
Charles Stross expands his series about the highly secret and secretive counteroccult-threat agency nicknamed the Laundry with a volume made up of a new short novel, accompanied by a pair of previously published pieces. The novel, A Conventional Boy, is the origin story of a particular Laundry employee, as well as an homage to tabletop fantasy …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/a-conventional-boy-by-charles-stross-review-by-russell-letson/
date: 2024-12-30, from: Final Draft blog
Despite a screenplay being the blueprint for a movie, screenplay writers
don’t always get the recognition and attention that directors and actors
do. Yes, there are some noteworthy screenwriters like Aaron Sorkin and
Diablo Cody, who have created a great
brand
for themselves and are known to the general public. However, most
screenwriters aren’t household names and their resumes are usually only
known by industry professionals or cinephiles.
Below are 5 Screenwriters You Might Not Have Heard
Of, but they’ve made important contributions to the art of
screenwriting and to some seminal movies:
https://blog.finaldraft.com/5-screenwriters-you-might-not-have-heard-of
date: 2024-12-30, from: Author’s Union blog
Happy Public Domain Day! Every January 1st the United States adds a new crop of works to its public domain. Though the term of copyright is very long, the Constitution provides that it must—eventually—end. This transition is arguably the most important moment in the life of a creative work, excepting only its initial creation. The […]
https://www.authorsalliance.org/2024/12/29/public-domain-day-a-diversion-to-sound-recordings/
date: 2024-12-29, from: Locus Magazine
Wooing the Witch Queen, Stephanie Burgis (Bramble 978-1250359599, $19.99, 304pp, tp) February 2025.
Given my hit-and-miss track record with fantasy romances – a record far more miss than hit – I didn’t expect to enjoy Stephanie Burgis’s Wooing the Witch Queen nearly as much as it turns out I did. But this playful, tongue-in-cheek, not-exactly enemies-to-lovers romp won me over with astonishing rapidity.
Felix von Estarion is an Archduke …Read More
https://locusmag.com/2024/12/wooing-the-witch-queen-by-stephanie-burgis-review-by-liz-bourke/