The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, Locus Winner for Best SF Novel
Locus awards:
Here’s the list. Charlie Jane Anders’s The City in the Middle of the Night won the Locus Award for best science fiction novel. Best fantasy novel is Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire, best horror novel is Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (horror, though?). and Tamsyn Muir won the Best First Novel category with Gideon the Ninth.
Books and Writing:
Publishers Weekly is putting out a call for fiction addressing race and equity, just societies, life post-pandemic, dystopias and “witchy” dark fantasy.. The deadline is July 15, for publication beginning September 7 and running into February of 2021.
File770 has a guest post by V.S. Holmes about the power of subtle SFF.
Tobias Carroll writes about Quotients, by Tracy O’Neill, at Tor.com.
George R.R. Martin gives an optimistic update on The Winds of Winter. Thanks to Tor.com for this link.
Mary Robinette Kowal hosts Nick Martell on her blog, and he writes about his favorite bit in his new fantasy novel The Kingdom of Liars.
From nearly two months ago, Brandon Sanderson posts a poster reveal for The Way of Kings.
The Tor Forge blog hosted a roundtable of the ways writers procrastinate
YA writer Alexandra Duncan has withdrawn her novel Ember Days from publication. Duncan created a female MC who is the descendant of a Gullah conjure woman. Another writer questioned whether Duncan was qualified to write about this underrepresented and erased community. Duncan herself chose to withdraw the book.
There are a handful of scandals involving sexual harassment, mostly at conventions, bubbling in the SFF field right now. File 770 has a good compilation, if you’re interested.
Mystery Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers Association is also grappling with these issues.
Space:
You, yes you, can help teach Mars Rover Curiosity how to drive.
TV and Movies:
SYFY has cancelled Vagrant Queen after its first season.
Wynonna Earp will be back though, in late July!
Margot Robbie will lead a cast of female characters in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.
AV Club is not too impressed with My Spy, now streaming on Amazon.
Science:
Scientists might—or might not—have finally discovered an axion.
The Internet:
Toronto saved a strange and distinctive theater.
Do you doomscroll? Constantly, obsessively search the internet for more news (most of it bad?)? It may not be good for you, but then, you’ve probably already read that online.
This is of slightly more interest to Californians, but anyone who likes puns will enjoy the headline and the subhead. An elected official in southern CA has waged ongoing lawsuits against two parody Twitter accounts. This week a court ruled that the official cannot include Twitter in the lawsuit. One of the parody accounts represents itself as a cow, hence the jokes.
Earth:
I’m not a fan of starlings, which are an introduced invasive species where I live. I can still admire their beauty, especially in their native environment. This video is 4.17 minutes long.
I’m sorry to hear Vagrant Queen has been cancelled, but not surprised. It’s hard to find an audience when the program itself is hard for the audience to find: I know I hunted for it several times and missed episodes. It had its moments. It is too bad it won’t get a chance to develop more of its potential.
We live near major migration flightways in Southern Ontario. We have had starling murmurations over our fields. The numbers are amazing. Quite the sight.
As you pointed out, Syfy dragged Vagrant Queen all over the schedule and at one point had it starting at 11:00pm, so they weren’t doing the show any favors.
I have seen a murmuration of starlings only once, here in my home county, and it was spectacular.
Oh! We lived in downtown Toronto when the restoration project on the Winter Garden was beginning. I have not been in to see it, but the theatre and lobby on the main floor were impressive even in unrestored condition. We saw a few movies there in the late ’70’s – they did still run films besides porn.
It looks beautiful!