Welcome dear readers to another World Wide Wednesday. I have a diverse selection of stuff for you today, ranging from the funny to the scientific. Hope you all enjoy, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or two. In the coming weeks if you find something interesting you think everyone should read, drop me a line via the contact form and let me know, or just post it below. Let’s get started:
1) Dorchester Publishing Spanked by the SFWA: I wanted to link this as an example of how important groups like the SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) can be. Dorchester dropped the ball contractually with some SFWA members. The SFWA stepped in and gave them a gentle nudge. On the other hand, if you are struggling writer who happens to be an SFWA member, this takes a publisher off your list of possible candidates. In this case I think the benefit of telling Dorchester to get their act together far outweighed the negative.
2) HBO’s Game of Thrones isn’t George R.R. Martin’s First Time on TV: Anyone remember Beauty and the Beast from the 80’s? My mom used to love that show. Who knew that the man behind the story would go on to write a series like A Song of Ice and Fire?
3) Superheroes photographed through the ages: Ok, this is just silly. Captain American driving an old-timey milk truck? Priceless.
4) Hunger Games Lands a Director: Gary Ross of Pleasantville fame is to direct the movie adaption of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. I am probably the last person on earth to read these books. I’d better read them before the movie comes out!
5) Kim Harrison Sale on Amazon: Book 2 of The Hollows series is now $1.99 on kindle. I wish it was book one, but this is still a really good deal. If you are a fan of the series there is also bonus material in this edition.
6) A New Elric Comic Book Series: What can I say? One of the most recognizable characters in fantasy literature is getting a comic series. Michael Moorcock’s Elric has come a long way from fist appearing in Conan. Elric fans should be rejoicing, and comic fans should at least be interested.
7) The Birth of Culturomics: This is really cool, but maybe a little difficult to understand the scope of at first glance. Google and Harvard have joined forces to chart cultural changes through printed works. Using the thousands of books and texts that Google has stored over a long range of time, they are graphing terms and phrases as they have been used over the years. It might not sound like much, but this is really the first time we’ve had the ability to query this data in this way and it’s producing some amazing data. They will continue to get better at it and, as Google adds more text, it will improve exponentially.
Author Chum
In this section I’ll post bits and pieces of news from various fantasy authors: I’m posting just one link today for the Chum. The most comprehensive list I’ve seen yet of SFF authors who have blogs. Enjoy the hours of browsing and loss of work productivity.
That wraps it up for this week. Thank you for joining me. Merry Chrisolsticehannadon to everyone! Feel free to post your own links in the comments below, or submit them to me for next week via the contact form.
Don’t feel bad, I haven’t read the Hunger Games books either. Though I did see book one on my Mom’s book shelf yesterday and thought about starting it. And then I picked up Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I’m pretty sure that will last me the rest of my vacation time.
Thanks for the info on the Hollows book being cheap. I noticed that the first in the series is free on the Kindle. If I had only waited.