Writer David B. Coe blogs about clueless writing advice. There’s not any actual writing advice but it’s an entertaining column, and I’m pretty sure we’ve all had some version of this experience.

You can be famous a number of ways. YA SFF writer Kass Morgan, (aka Mallory Kass) author of The 100, competed on Jeopardy last week.

From last week, fantasy writer Patricia A. McKillip Read More

The podcast Tales From the Trunk hosted me last week on a Book Tour segment. I had a lot of fun; Hilary, the host of Tales from the Trunk, is a witty and welcoming host.

File 770 rounds up Hugo nominees and other anime in this article.

SWFA’s silent auction, fundraising in partnership with Worldbuilders, continues through next week.

John Palisano discusses Jewish heritage in horror.

Nerds of a Feather takes a look at the Read More

Marshal Zeringue has several blogs, and one of them is the “Page 69 Test.” The premise is this; would a reader, opening a book at random and reading page 69, have an understanding of what the book’s about? Interesting test! Here’s a recent column.

File 770 offers an excerpt from Tear Down the Throne by Jennifer Estep.

J.D. Evans’s Reign and Ruin is the winner of the Seventh Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off , in what I’d describe as a photo finish (just one-tenth of a point ahead of the runner-up).

ChiCon 8 has updated Read More

Nisi Shawl

The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) awards were announced last weekend. Best YA novel went to The Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhou; Best novel, Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, best shorter fiction Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard. Congratulations to all the winners. 

File 770 has an article about Ukrainian art of resistance. (This column will have a couple of Ukrainian topics included.)... Read More

I don’t think I posted the Hugo Award finalists for this year. Here they are. This list shows me how behind I got in my reading last year.

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association announced the finalists for the Aurora Awards.

Spock’s first name has been revealed! Oh, wait, no it hasn’t. (Thanks to File 770.)

To no one’s surprise, there’s been a spike in book-banning. There’s been a spike in voter s... Read More

Silver Shamrock, an indie publisher specializing in “hard-hitting horror,” courted some controversy on the internet with its “edgy” marketing copy for an upcoming novel. When social media reacted predictably, Silver Shamrock shut down its website, released the rights to all upcoming works to its authors, and shuttered. And all that took three days. It’s item 4.

This 21-minute-long video post-mortem of Shamrock’s demise is entertaining.

Joe Abercrombie sold a new trilogy, Read More

It's a single-topic column today. In honor of Women's History Month, I'm sharing my interview with a writer, friend and mentor I've known and admired for years.

As a writer, editor, teacher and activist, Marta Randall has a long and influential career in the SFF world. A leading voice in the New Wave movement, Randall saw her 1976 novel Islands nominated for a Nebula. She went on to write several novels, including THE KENNERIN SAGA and, most recently,  Mapping Winter and Read More

Claudia Lee Black is an Australian actress who came to science fiction fame playing Aeryn Sun in the series Farscape. Black started her acting career in an Australian soap opera City Life, and was introduced to audiences in the USA with the role of Shazza in Pitch Black. After Farscape she worked in two Stargate series. Black has done voice work for animation and video games. Most recently she appeared as Stripe in the HBO series The Nevers.

Thanks to Paul Connelly for this update from last week! George R.R. Martin announced a new “Game of Thrones” book (not the next book in the series though).

Two new Captain America stories are coming out! Read More

Giveaways: This is an announcement. The “Notify Me of Follow Up Comments” button began causing some problem on the site. At this time it is disabled. I generally announce Giveaway winners on Sundays, so please check back each Sunday to see if you’ve won.

Because I categorized this as a Giveaway, one commenter will get a hardcover Copy of Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist.

UPDATE:  It seems the feature has been reactivated. If you use it, I recommend checking back on Sundays anyway, at least for a week or two.

Catherine Lucille Moore, often using the pseudonym C.L. Moore, published science fiction since the 1930s. Much but not all of her work was a collaboration with her husband Henry Kuttner. She also wrote for television in the early 1960s.

File770 has a very lo... Read More

Elizabeth Freeman, an enslaved Black woman in Massachusetts, won her freedom in court, 80 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. She effectively ended slavery in the state. She’s finally getting a statue.

Just want to get away? You can buy this picturesque Canadian town, which is completely abandoned. It’s on top of a mountain, hard to get supplies or emergency vehicles to, but so picturesque. What could possibly go wrong?

Brandon Sanderson has made Kickstarter history. As of this writing, I think the amount pledged has exceeded $20 milli... Read More

A VERY short column this week.

In 1925, a group of women explorers founded the Society of Women Geographers, after two of them were denied admission to the Explorers Club because they were women.

File 770 shared a link to the 10 best Science Fiction board games.

The 1632 universe is celebrating the 100th issue of The Grantville Gazette.

Nerds of a Feather reviews Spelunking Through Hell, Se... Read More

Josephine Baker was born in the United States but was hounded out of the country by racism and Jim Crow laws during the Jazz Era. She went to France, where she had equality, and became, according to some, “the most famous woman in France,” known for her singing and dancing. As a celebrity, she seems like a bad choice for a spy, but she was part of the French Resistance during WWII, and a top-notch spy, probably because no one would suspect such a high-profile performer. (“When they ask me for papers, they generally mean autographs,” she is quoted as saying.) Part of her passion to help her adopted country came from her hatred of fascism and discrimination.

I don’t know who the Thunderbolts were because I never read this comic,... Read More

Jewel Plumber Cobb was a leading researcher in the field of skin cells and cancer, and she crusaded for more women in science. During her academic career she was dean of science at both Connecticut College and Douglass Residential College at Rutgers University, and was the president of University of California at Fullerton. President Carter appointed her to the Fulbright Scholarship board in 1978.

John Scalzi is embarking on a book tour for The Kaiju Preservation Society. He provides his itinerary on his blog.

Uncanny Magazine unveils the results of its Readers’ Favorites survey... Read More

The Mary Sue graciously provides a character list for the upcoming Death on the Nile movie.

Also from The Mary Sue, a profile of the short documentary Shades of Cosplay and an interview with the director.

The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition was inspired (at least) by the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. The newer contest focuses on science fiction. File770 shares the list of semi-finalists.

Do you wan... Read More

Ida B. Wells was an influential journalist and educator. Born enslaved, as an adult Wells brought to light incidents of white mob violence, including lynching, and fought for equality and women’s suffrage.

Tim Waggoner tackles the “secret cabal of [genre of your choice]” in his blog post.

Baen’s 9th annual Fantasy Adventure Contest is open. The word length is 8,000 and they want fantasy adventure. Baen  may not be my favorite publisher, but they love adventure, and this contest is fun. (Thanks to File 770.)

A school board in McMinn County Tennessee, Read More

I asked on Twitter if The King’s Daughter was based on The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre, but no one answered. Reason.com came to my rescue, via File 770. Yes, it is. The film was made eight years ago, this article says, and the review is… not kind. Maybe I’ll just reread the Nebula-winning book.

I’d hate to think I didn’t fill you guys in the “squeecore” thing! Is it a controversy? A dust-up? A revelation of a movement? A kerfuffle, a tempest in a teapot? You be the judge.

Basically, “squeecore” is a word a couple of podcasters invented for speculative fiction they don’t like very much. Here is the original podcast. Is Read More

Filippo Bernardini was arrested last week on charges of wire fraud. The Simon and Schuster employee may have impersonated agents, members of award juries and even famous authors to get his hands on pre-published manuscripts. I want to know what he planned to do with those manuscripts.

The Con Committee chair of ConFusion provides a long, blunt article about why ConFusion 2022 is going forward in-person. She provides two paragraphs on the precautions they are taking. This is a worthwhile read, letting us see how groups are grappling with the physical and fiscal realities of the pandemic. (Thanks to File 770.)

Glen S. ... Read More

Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year’s Eve celebration. Here are a few of the enduring traditions.

Tomorrow, January 6, is Epiphany, Three Kings Day or Twelfth Night, and has its own set of traditions. To wrap things up, I tracked down Mary Berry’s King’s Cake recipe on Pinterest. (It’s a super-deluxe fruit cake, but so much more British than ours.)

File770 highlighted the problems some authors are having with Amazon Kindle direct Publishing (KDP). Lexi Ostrow gives a blow-by-blow of Read More

In 2012’s The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson was murdered by Loki. This didn’t stop him from coming back and having a seven-season run on his own TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, even if he did die at least one more time during that show’s run.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired on ABC from 2013 to 2020. I recently started rewatching it. It brought back memories, good and bad, of my original watch of the series. I’m going to discuss my thoughts and reactions to the first three seasons which cover generally (these are my names), Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Hydra Emerges, The Rise of the Inhumans, and the Arrival of Hive.

Back in 2013, I got impatient with the show because of its close ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Looking back, I’ve changed my opinion. The task of telling original stories that must dovetail in time and pacing with a series of films, and keeping things coherent, is a massive logistic achievement wh... Read More

Network Effect

Anne Rice, who helped the vampire genre rise again with Interview With the Vampire, died on December 12 at age 80. Here is her obituary in the New York Times. The New Orleans website NOLA.com also has a tribute.

“It was a mess, but a fun mess.” Camestros Felapton shares their reaction to Doctor Who: Flux. I didn’t think it was a mess, personally, even if I didn’t understand pieces of it.

Nichelle Nichols made an ... Read More

Conventions go on, or try to, at least. File770 posts some information about bids for future WorldCons. And then, speaking of conventions, here’s what happens when a new variant emerges. It looks like people were quick to get tested and notify each other.

Itzak Perlman is featured in this instrumental version of Abraham Goldfaden’s lullaby �... Read More

A single topic column today, and a book review at that. I’m not using our review format, but this was a four-star book for me.

Home Before Dark (2020) is a haunted house story written by Riley Sager, a pseudonym of a Princeton, New Jersey writer. If you like atmospheric, unsettling haunted-house stories and strong female protagonists, you’ll probably enjoy this. I did.

Maggie has grown up with the ugly effects of fame—or infamy—her whole life. Her father’s book House of Horrors, a supposedly true story of twenty days spent with her parents in a haunted house, Baneberry Hall, culminating in them fleeing with only the clothes on their backs, continues to be a best-seller twenty-five years later. Little Maggie, five years old, was the star of the book in many ways, even though adult Maggie remembers none of it.

With her father’s death, she discovers to her shock that he never sold Baneberry Hall, a... Read More

This Guardian UK story follows the process of restoring an ancient book of psalms.

Articles about the Dragon Awards always draw me in, because the Dragon Award is fairly new and it’s a chance to watch an award evolve in the wild. That said, the title of this one baffled me for several paragraphs, but rest assured, Goodreads does make an appearance!

The Huntington Museum is offering an exhibition of graphics demonstrating how authors have “mapped” their fictional works.  (Thanks to File 770.)

Read More