WWWednesday: February 7, 2018

Conventions:

Those of you who might be attending WorldCon 76, consider taking a tour of the Winchester House. New concessionaires have bought the place and they are taking a new tack. I hope it includes more about the real Sarah “Sallie” Winchester; successful businesswoman and inventor and less of the completely fictionalized “Ghosts! A Curse!” narrative. (H/T to Terry for this link.)

Awards:

The Hugo nominating period is open. More details are here.

File 770 reported the finalists for this year’s Bran Stoker Awards.

Books and Writing:

BBC interviewed Hao Jinfang about her award-winning story “Folding Beijing.” (H/t to File 770.)

Locus published its 2017 Locus Recommended Reading List. (H/t to File 770.)

The Onion gets it right as usual. (Warning; this link contains a political message.)

Adam-Trop Castro writes about movies that get writing and writers right. I just said that in my head, and wow, that’s awkward.

I thought I already posted this, but in case I didn’t, the annual Baen fantasy adventure story contest is open for 2018. The deadline is April 30. Get your under-8,000-word fantasy adventure stories in, you guys!

Lightspeed is open for submissions through February 19, 2018.

John Scalzi announces his tour dates for Head On, coming out in early spring.

The New Mutants, Volume 1 Issue 19

Karen Lord will be the Sally Klages memorial resident instructor at Clarion West this year. The fellowship is provided by Ellen Klages in honor of her sister Sally. From what I saw of Lord at WorldCon75, if you have a chance to get her as an instructor at Clarion you should take it. (H/t to Locus.)

And speaking of awesome, amazing instructors, the Locus Weekend in Seattle, Washington (June 22-24) features Connie Willis and Yoon Ha Lee as the instructors for the writers workshop.

The New Mutants, not a comic I had heard much about, is going to be turned into a movie. On Syfy Fangrrls, Sara Century gives us the rundown.

On Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss gives us a list of shady “book service” companies, many of whom seem connected to Author Solutions. Beware indeed.

TV and Movies:

SyFy Fangrrls offer Taraji P. Henson a number of superhero roles after her turn as hit-woman Proud Mary.

Netflix is a couple of weeks into Altered Carbon. Here are some reviews. Here’s the Guardian’s; they liked it. Damien Walter begs to differ, reverse-engineering his review of the show to talk about the books (which he didn’t like) and, somehow, The Expanse, which I guess he doesn’t like very much either. Talk about being Mr. Grumpy. Most viewers liked Altered Carbon, for what that’s worth.

Hi, We’re Altered Carbon. Nothing at all like the Bladerunner movies (Image courtesy of Netflix.)

Metacritic shared reviews and comments about the new SF/spy thriller on Starz, Counterpart.

Internet:

Inspired by social media pictures of young people eating detergent pods, many trendy bars are mixing “Tide pod shots.” Every one of them feels the need to state that these drinks do not contain detergent. These drinks are colorful. And the USA is one weird country.

Pando, in Utah, is a single living organism.

Earth:

This is really neat although I am already tired of all the Indiana Jones comparisons. A

Mayan complex unearthed via a high-altitude plane and LIDAR –now that’s cool.

Pando, the second-largest living organism on the planet, is in danger from deer and elk. Pando is the large quaking aspen grove in Utah. The “grove” is not a forest of singular trees but rather trees grown from runners who share one root base in common, and are genetically identical. Deer and other grazers have been eating the new shoots, which puts Pando at some risk.