On this day in 1992, Super Mario Kart was released in Japan, launching the entire Mario Kart series.
Fairy Ring by Arthur Rackham
Writing, Editing, and Publishing:
The nominees for the 2014 Endeavor Awards, for a distinguished SF/F novel published by an author from the Pacific Northwest, have been announced; the winner will be announced at the next OryCon, held in Portland, OR.
The European Science Fiction Society presented awards this past weekend at the 36th Eurocon, Shamrokon in Dublin.
Finally, the Sidewise Awards (for best alternate history) and the Chesley Awards (for best science fiction or fantasy art) were awarded last week at LonCon. I’m sorry I overlooked these in last week’s Hugo-excitement, but all of the nominees and winners I mention above deserve congratulations. Awards are so fun to research, because they’re a way to discover a previously untapped pool of writers and artists to follow.
Lois Lane is getting some press soon, in her own YA novel, Lois Lane: Fallout, described here as “Veronica Mars-esque.” Sweet!
This essay by William Ledbetter and featured on SFWA talks about his experience approaching scientists and experts with his questions as he develops SF projects. It is pretty optimistic about the potential for collaboration between hard science and science fiction, which I love.
The MIT Tech Review’s annual SF edition is out this month, and features new work by William Gibson.
Giants and Freia by Arthur Rackham
Movies and Television:
The Emmy’s this past weekend mostly overlooked SF/F material, although a big fan favorite, Sherlock, got a few nods. But Game of Thrones still came out on top in this Weird Al tribute, with Andy Samberg playing Prince Joffrey.
Donald Glover expressed interest in playing Spiderman and his Community fans tried to make that happen. Well, now he gets his chance, in a cartoon.
Director and actor Richard Attenborough passed away this week at the age of 90. I hope that, somewhere up there, the Big Guy is welcoming him in, saying “We spared no expense.” (And that there are dinosaurs in heaven, obvi.)
Internet Stuff:
Jack Heckel writes about the 5 most recognizable fairy-tale characters for Tor.com.
This Strange Horizons essay, written by Stephe Harrop, about the Wall in a SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is really great.
Sangreal by Arthur Rackham
Artist Feature:
Today’s featured artist is Arthur Rackham. He was an English book illustrator famed for his fanciful illustrations of fairy tales and mythology. He illustrated works by Shakespeare, Christina Rossetti (check out that version of her poem, “The Goblin Market”!), Charles Dickens, Jonathan Swift, and Lewis Carroll. Also, look at a lot of his other images on Wikipedia.
I thought the artist’s work looked familiar. Lovely.
I read a bit about the Lois Lane book and it does sound fun. And Weird Al was great (I was channel surfing just as he came on and stayed to watch it). They gave George RR Martin a typewriter, to the chorus of, “Write, George, write! We need more scripts!
I loved the article by William Ledbetter. I left a comment on it. Maybe he’ll call me for some neuroscience expertise. I hope he’s not writing a zombie novel, though…. “So, Dr. Hooper, what exactly do brains taste like?”
I loved it, too, Kat. Makes me feel much more confident about approaching geneticists about my idea.