On this day in 1918, The USS Cyclops departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle.
Peter Pan illustration, by Alice Bolingbroke Woodward (1907)
Writing, Editing, and Publishing:
In other bookstore news, Borderlands in San Francisco gained its requisite 300 supporters and is going to remain open for another year.
SFWA named Larry Niven as the recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, citing his “invaluable contributions to the field of science fiction and fantasy. In addition to his contributions to the genre, Niven has influenced the fields of space exploration and technology.”
The nominees for the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards have been announced, including such luminaries as Chuck Palahniuk, Ellen Datlow, Emily Carroll, Joe Hill, and Joe R. Lansdale.
And the nominees for the Spectrum Award for Fantastic Art have been announced. Feast your eyes on these gorgeous entries.
I’ve been brainstorming a weird Southern town lately, gearing up to write a series of linked short stories set in this place. So I’ve been interested in SF cities: how authors create spaces, how they communicate the history of a place with a few well-chosen details, and mostly, how they make it weird. Carrie Patel from Tor.com talks about five different weird fictional cities here.
In this post on “nerds of a feather…,” authors Ian Sales, Aliette de Bodard, and Paul Kincaid attempt to define “science fiction.”
While Ursula K. LeGuin speaks up in defense of “fantasy” in her review of Kazuo Ishiguro‘s new novel, The Buried Giant.
Finally, SF Signal posted a great Mind Meld article with thoughts from a lot of great authors, talking about SFF books they wish there were sequels to. I was happy to see Katherine Addison‘s Goblin Emporer on the list.
Film and Television:
Leonard Nimoy, accomplished actor, writer, director, and singer, passed away this past week. John Scalzi gave a great tribute to him on his blog, accompanied by a couple of videos of Nimoy’s distinctive singing voice. NASA astronauts, William Shatner, and President Obama also paid tribute, calling Nimoy “generous,” “a great man,” and “extraordinary.”
There’s gonna be an Independence Day sequel, starring Jeff Goldblum and Liam Hemsworth! I am excited about this, although they already blew up a lot of the world’s best stuff in the first one, so I want to know what they’ve saved to blow up in this one. That’s all I care about: destroying the world’s landmarks.
Internet Stuff:
I feel like this product, Wine for Cats, on this website (aptly titled “Meowingtons”), belongs in a Terry Pratchett novel. At the very least, I’d like to read a story about drunk cats.
Clickhole takes on fairy tales, satirizing awful fairy tale endings.
And DesignTaxi shows us how much it would cost to build a Millenium Falcon.
In honor of Leonard Nimoy, you can buy this if you want to.
That artwork! I need to go back and look at it for several more hours. There is some stunning stuff there.
Terry and I will be at FogCon next weekend, and one of the panels I’m attending is “SF Suburbia.” I think it addresses the issues of have to create an other-world suburb (instead of a full city). I’ll let you know what I glean from it, Kate.
I’m jealous that you Californians get to hang out with each other. If I still lived in Florida, I would go bother Kat from time to time. ;)
I was just in Tallahassee a few months ago, Kate, and I go every couple of years for the Fl/FL St game. Last time we found a great little farm-to-table restaurant near the university. I wish you were still there!
Marion, I hope you and Terry will be reporting on that con!
I think you can talk Terry and me into writing up something. At the very least I can cover Terry’s panel “The Setting is a Character.” With Terry’s of the New Weird she is a perfect person for that topic!
That would be great!
And who in the world names their boat “the Cyclops?” Did they not read the myth? Pick a winning monster/god name, for heaven’s sake.
Ha! Hilarious. You’re so right.