Author: Marion Deeds

With the IndieInk Awards, independent presses are trying to start formal recognition of indie works.

Mark Shepherd, best known as “Crowley” on Supernatural, reports he survived a “widowmaker” event that involved six heart attacks. The actor, who also appeared on Doctor Who and in a recurring role on Warehouse 13, is 56 years old.

Caution; Wide Load. A section of the Antarctic ice shelf, roughly the size of the island of Oahu, broke off and is now headed for the open ocean,

Another single topic column. This one Marion’s Own Idiosyncratic, Book-themed Gift Guide for the 2023 year-end holidays. These aren’t new releases or 2023 books—these contain some new books, some old favorites, and a few in between.

For the historian, feminist reader on your gift list:

Library of America: The Joanna Russ Compilation. This collection of three of Russ’s novels, including her best known, The Female Man, as well as the Alyx stories and three other award-winning and finalist stories, restores this intellectual, feminist writer to her place in history,

Moms for Liberty did not prevail in most of their plans to take over school boards. Most of their 130 candidates across the nation were soundly rejected by local voters, but 50 did win. The group, founded originally to protest Covid-19 responses in schools, has now broadened their platform to an anti-history and pro-discrimination stance.

A pod of orcas sank a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar earlier this week. (I didn’t know that over the last three years they have sunk two others, making this their third. I’m also not sure if this is one pod or several.)

I try to cover awards here,

SFWA joined several other organizations in correspondence to the U.S. Copyright Office, sending this letter expressing the concerns they have with the potential uses of AI.

The British Library was the victim of a cyberattack. (This article may be behind a paywall.)

For Jim Butcher fans Tor.com offers an excerpt of his latest, The Olympian Affair.

In the Old and Lost Things department, it’s possible a long-missing model of the Enterprise from Star Trak has been located.