Author: Marion Deeds

The 2024 World Fantasy Convention, held in Niagara Falls, NY, was a lot of fun. The World Fantasy Con on Sunday, October 20. They included The Reformatory by Tananarive Due for Best Novel, Half The House is Haunted by Josh Malerman for Best Novella, and “Silk and Cotton Awards were announced and Linen and Blood” by Nghi Vo for Best Short Fiction.

I am posting a picture of a black squirrel I saw at Niagara Falls park, because I had never seen that color variation before, and a picture of the waterfalls veiled in mist,

Yesterday, the second Tuesday of October, was officially Ada Lovelace Day, in honor of the mathematician who wrote formulae with Babbage, intended for use with his Analytical Engine.

World Fantasy Con starts next week, in Niagara Falls, NY. I’ll be there.

Freya Marske has Book One of a new series coming out, and Reactor has an excerpt.

Nerds of a Feather provides a review of The Principle of Moments. Clara Cohen’s review is harsh, but probably accurate.

File 770 offers a link to this radio interview with Susannah Clarke,

In Reactor, Molly Templeton stops to praise things that aren’t brilliant, awesome, amazing, or setting the genre on fire—they’re just good.

I loved The Fall when I first saw it, and then it disappeared. Nerds of a Feather rediscovered it and reviews it here.

Baen’s short story contest is open for submission until February 1, 2025. As I read the  summarized guidelines, it looks like they want science fiction.

Here is a list of local agencies providing relief in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene,

Per Locus, it’s official that F&SF has gone quarterly. I don’t know what this means for the magazine, but I don’t think it’s good.

Locus also reviewed Abigail Nussbaum’s new collection of reviews.

One of the smartest and most thoughtful writers in the SF field is Ted Chiang, and in the New Yorker he writes with intelligence and thought about AI as a maker of art.

Continuing with the intelligent and thoughtful writer theme, here’s Richard Powers being interviewed by the U.K.

Reactor reviews Suzan Palumbo’s newest, a space-opera retelling of The County of Monte Cristo. Sign me up.

And enjoy their review of an upcoming Netflix “Sci-fi movie with jokes,” It’s What’s Inside.

In honor of the anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Show (in Canada, where it aired first) Chris Barkley shares his 15 favorite episodes. How do they match up with yours?

Next year’s WorldCon, in Seattle, Washington, USA, will feature a film festival. Thanks to File 770 for this item.

File 770 shares the latest AI kerfuffle, as NaNoWriMo’s steering organization made an unpopular statement about use of AI in its Annual November write-a-thon. Their awkwardly worded statement implies seems to imply that disabled people couldn’t complete a book without  AI help. You can imagine how well this went over. It’s Item 1.

SFWA had a series of resignations and vacancies that came to a head last month. Jason Sanford covered it here on his Patreon. File 770 provides some updates. It looks like the organization is fundamentally sound and taking the right steps to correct the problems.

Some fans of Lost consider Season Three its best season. It is a pivotal season, with the growing hints about Jacob and the smoke monster/Man in Black. Two things make the season a fan favorite; the introduction of a character many people loved, Dr. Juliet Burke, and the plotline involving Charlie, which, unlike most plotlines in the show, actually resolves, and with meaning.

Season Three aired from October, 2006 through May, 2007. As always I’m indebted to Lostpedia for the facts and details. This column will include spoilers for this and future seasons.

In this season we see our first true “death as sacrifice.” We meet a super-powered Other,