Florence B. Price, first Black Amerian woman classical composerThe Mary Sue graciously provides a character list for the upcoming Death on the Nile movie.

Also from The Mary Sue, a profile of the short documentary Shades of Cosplay and an interview with the director.

The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition was inspired (at least) by the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. The newer contest focuses on science fiction. File770 shares the list of semi-finalists.

Do you want AI to narrate the audiobook you’re listening to, or do you want a known narrator? I notice when Kat reviews and audiobook here, she always mentions who narrated, and she has favorites. Still AI or not AI is a raging debate. (Frankly, I just don’t think it’s good enough yet.)

Nerds of a Feather reviews a Seanan McGuire Toby Daye novel.

Our Country Friends, Gary Shteyngart’s latest, has a speculative (magical) element, and lots of bows to Chekov, but in one of the best lines of the review, the UK Guardian’s reviewer says, “Yet here I am in the Crush Bar, staring into my G&T and wondering what I’m missing.”

I was not aware of the Internet Speculative Fiction Database until yesterday.

It seems like there’s a competition for everything. Here, Ars Technica registers a candidate for “earliest account of observed ball lightning in Europe.”

I didn’t know they were adapting Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls for television, but if it’s got Elizabeth Moss, I’d put money on it being good. It’s Apple+.

In honor of Black History Month, I’m signing off with Florence B. Price. Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887. She was the first Black American woman to have her classical music performed by a national symphony, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered her Symphony #1 in E Minor In 1933. The piece got stellar reviews and was loved by the public, but Price had not “arrived,” and spent the rest of her life battling systemic racism and Jim Crow laws, still creating powerful, beautiful music. Here is her “Concerto in One Movement.” The video is about 17 minutes long. Lulu Liu is the piano soloist.

Author

  • Marion Deeds

    Marion Deeds, with us since March, 2011, is the author of the fantasy novella ALUMINUM LEAVES. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies BEYOND THE STARS, THE WAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, STRANGE CALIFORNIA, and in Podcastle, The Noyo River Review, Daily Science Fiction and Flash Fiction Online. She’s retired from 35 years in county government, and spends some of her free time volunteering at a second-hand bookstore in her home town.

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