On this day in 1933, Hugh Gray took the first known photos alleged to be of the Loch Ness Monster, who appeared again this past week in a photo taken by a Nessie-enthusiast.
Famous hoaxed photo of Loch Ness Monster
Writing, Editing, and Publishing:
On Sunday, the World Fantasy Award winners were announced. Congrats to all the winners!
From SFSignal, Scarlett Amaris and Melissa St. Hilaire discuss the process and the pros and cons of collaboration on their dark fantasy novel Saurimonde.
Publisher’s Weekly published a great interview with Robin LeFevers, author of the YA series HIS FAIR ASSASSIN, the final book of which, Mortal Heart, is due to be released this month.
In response to a fan’s homework assignment, Patrick Rothfuss put forth a passionate defense of fantasy literature (and genre literature in general) as deserving of academic attention and study. He calls out the literary snobs, reminding them that literary fiction is also a genre, and that he will “fight to the death” anyone who denies this.
In this report, Laura J. Mixon examines the recent controversy surrounding author Benjanun Sridaengkeuw and her blogging persona, Requires Hate. On her blog, Requires Hate wrote an apology for some of her actions. And finally Paul Weimer, genre fan and blogger, writes his reaction to the controversy, which is basically that instances like this tend to suck some of the joy out of being a fan.
Kat Howard, a World Fantasy Award-nominated short-story writer, has just signed a two-book deal with Saga Press, Simon & Schuster’s SFF imprint. Howard, described here as a protégé of Neil Gaiman, also wrote a great short story I just listened to recently from Lightspeed Magazine’s podcast, called “A Meaningful Exchange.”
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Oil painting of Nessie by Heikenwaelder Hugo.
Movies and Television:
If, like me, you were bummed that Paramount never followed up its film, A Series of Unfortunate Events, with more from the series, then you may be excited to find out that Netflix is planning (with Paramount) to create a show based on the Lemony Snicket books.
Here on Suvudu, Andy Weir talks about the process of turning The Martian into a film, and tells us what his favorite Ridley Scott movie is.
At Tor.com, Leigh Butler writes convincingly about how Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is accidentally the most feminist animated Disney movie, while also effervescing about the glory that is Disney’s Maleficent. I really love both of these movies, so I’m on board.
Check out the trailer for Chappie, an upcoming 2015 movie about the first self-aware robot. It stars Dev Patel, the guy from Slumdog Millionaire.
Jonah Nolan, the director of Interstellar, is also developing an HBO series based on Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION series.
This seems weird and unnecessary, but hey! I’m not an expert on superhero movies, so maybe this is something people will be really into? Sony is developing a movie based on the young adventures of Aunt May, Spiderman’s aunt.
Internet Stuff:
If you’d like to take a virtual tour of San Fransokyo, the virtual city, a hybrid of San Francisco and Tokyo, built for Disney’s upcoming film, Big Hero Six, Gizmodo has some awesome images and clips here.
In which Swiss scientists learn to create ghosts . . .
This article by Alex Abad-Santos from Vox examines the history of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, from the rape apologia roots in her storyline, to her current status as Captain Marvel, going “higher, further, faster, more.”
Ahh! Look at this vintage G.R.R. Martin, from Suvudu’s Throwback Thursday–so cute!
I loved the article about the two robots and the “ghosts.” That was cool; at the same time I was thinking, “Wait, wasn’t that exactly the plot of one of the Greywalker books, only there *was* a ghost?” Just shows how prescient fiction writers can be.
“The adventures of Aunt May?” Who was a costumed superhero and we just never knew it? Oh, dear.
Yeah. Everytime I think Hollywood must have hit rock bottom with ideas, they go lower.
It seems impossible, doesn’t it? Somehow, still, they manage.