It’s Wednesday! Hump Day, as it’s known to some people! And this Wednesday is slightly different, being my last Wednesday in my 20s — surely no better way to celebrate that than with a quick look at the movers and shakers on the Internet this week?
1) 12 2010 Novels that stand out so far
Fantasy Book Critic have read a LOT of books so far this year and identify the 12 novels from 2010 that have stood out so far. Do you agree with their list? Are there any that you prefer to those they have listed? Get over there and add your own comments!
2) The Nature of Awards
Recently I have brought you plentiful notice of the various awards that are going on, including the Arthur C Clarke and the Gemmell. Now James from Speculative Horizons has written an article that made it to the blog of a UK national newspaper, no less. He has generated lots of discussion with his comments on why the Gemmell award is bad for the fantasy genre. The Guardian blog takes James’ point in asking what fantasy means to the reader. In a less scathing manner, Floor to Ceiling Books examines what ‘best’ means when judging the Arthur C Clarke award — some very good comments on this article too.
3) Orbit Digital Short Fiction Program
In the original press release, it is stated that Orbit (US) has offered to publish digital editions of all original short fiction written by its authors. Amongst others, John Scalzi raised a lot of questions about the short fiction program, for some of which he received replies from Tom Holman of Orbit — well worth a read, both for interest value and to find out more of the nature of royalties etc. with regards to book selling.
4) 2010 Locus Award finalists
Well, it is awards season! As well as all those other short-lists that have been announced recently, the Locus award finalists for 2010 have been released and SF Signal brought us the best coverage, including some handy links to the free fiction from the short-list.
5) The Relationship Between Agent and Writer
On Babbling About Books, there is a discussion about respect, professionalism and maturity — in the relationship between agents and writers. But is does occur to me that the same qualities should be shown in any formal relationship, including that of author and blogger.
6) Plagiarism
Our first topic this week is rather a serious one, and I need all you readers to take in the gravity of the situation. Persnickety Snark has been a victim of the silent crime of plagiarism, and blogs movingly about it. Liz at My Favourite Books has come out in support of the fight against plagiarism — you can find additional links at the foot of her post to take you to other blogs who have made comments. The community is fighting back against plagiarism.
7) How Libraries Choose Books To Purchase
On Writer Beware Blogs! there is a wonderful guest post by Abigail Goben (a public librarian) detailing how she chooses the books to purchase for the library — looks as though some people do still judge books very much by the cover!
8) Meg Cabot Twitter Party
Any Meg Cabot fans around here? The Book Smugglers on 22nd April when they are hosting a Meg Cabot Twitter Party with fabulous prizes to be won!
9) Artwork by Martin Bland
Walker of Worlds has become rather a fixture on these weekly round-ups thanks to his rather excellent sci-fi appreciation month during April — and here he presents some rather stunning artwork in the field of science fiction by Martin Bland.
10) Minority SFF
Our other fixture on WWW — Mr Newton — has written an article on minority SFF, himself prompted by an article on Tor.com — both extremely interesting and worth a few minutes of your time.
We’re updating our theme, so things may be a little messy or slow until we’re finished. Thank you for being patient with us!
FBC’s list looks awesome. I just saw Bitter Seeds in the bookstore the other day and was trying to decide whether to give it a shot. I think I will.
I’m a little torn about the Gemmell Award dustup. On the one hand, I like the idea of giving exposure to less well known books. Sometimes they’re really great and deserving of awards, and the awards give them much needed publicity.
On the other hand, I can see the reasoning behind having an specific award for epic fantasy. I wouldn’t complain if someone wanted to do an urban fantasy award, either, or any other subgenre.