Cover of Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Obituaries:
File770 has an obituary for actor Sean Connery. While he wasn’t big in our genre (except for Zardoz!) he certainly had an impact on movies. Sir Sean was 90 years old.
Roxanne Conrad, who wrote the MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES series under the name Rachel Caine, passed away.
Books and Writing:
The Mary Sue gives us 8 new-to-me horror novels. Some good ones!
A few days late, but still funny, Crime Reads mentions several writers of note who may have come back as ghosts.
Canadian speculative fiction magazine Augur announces some staff changes.
Locus shared some bits from last week’s interview with Marshall Ryan Maresca, fantasy novelist.
Random House launches a new children’s book imprint.
I may have linked to this before. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is shuttering JJA Books. John Joseph Adams is a great editor, so I doubt he’ll lack for work. It’s a shame to see an anthology market disappearing, though.
Still from Locus: Here’s a list of their October bestsellers.
Kim Stanley Robinson wrote this essay about our world and global warming for the UK Guardian. (Is he one of the most thoughtful writers, and people, in the field?)
This three year old article about a book restorer in Seattle is still interesting.
On Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog, Rebecca Roanhorse talks about the soundtrack she used to inspire herself while writing Black Sun.
TV, Movies, Streaming:
I was hoping The Matrix IV was a rumor, but, sadly, it isn’t. Yahya Abdul-Mateen, who wowed in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The Watchmen, among others, talks about it in this video interview.
And here’s Willy’s Wonderland, a horror story about… charming animatronic animals?
The Mary Sue takes a crack at defining “feminist horror.”
The Internet:
Bad news could be your bounty as New York’s KGB Museum, forced to close because of revenue losses during the pandemic, auctions off many classic bits of spy gear.
Travelers coming into New York must have a negative Covid test, quarantine for three days and then have a second Covid test on the fourth day. If the second test is negative, the traveler can bypass the rest of the (usually 14 day) quarantine. New York’s case count is dropping as those of other states are rising.
2,000 years ago, in the city of Tikal, the Maya built a reservoir with a water filtration system that would work for a city today.
Have three minutes with a baby sea otter. This is from their livecam.
RIP to Sean Connery, indeed; one of my favorite modern-day actors. I happen to love the weirdness that is “Zardoz,” but let’s not forget about his performances in “Meteor,” “Time Bandits,” “Outland,” “Highlander,” “First Knight” and “Dragonheart.” Do forget about “The Avengers” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” though, as they both truly suck. Still, lots of other Connery films for fans of sci-fi and fantasy to discover….
Oh, he did do more SFF than I remembered.
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN was extremely fun even while it was being terrible.