WWWednesday: November 7, 2018

Happy Diwali, or Festival of Lamps, to those who observe the holiday.

Awards:

File 770 has the World Fantasy Winners. Congratulations to Victor LaValle and Fonda Lee; to Charles de Lint and Elizabeth Woldheim, and to startup Sf literary magazine Fiyah, which showcases the work of writers of the African diaspora.

Conventions:

Martin Morse Wooster tells us about this year’s World Fantasy Convention over at File 70.

Books and Writing:

Michael Chabon is writing for Star Trek.

Scientists are using classical texts to identify historic fauna.

Jill Zeller ruminates on dystopian fiction and the way it’s been “discovered” by general fiction publishers.

Back in June, CNN ran a profile on Octavia Butler.

Camestros Felaptron reviews Charles Stross’s latest, The Labyrinth Index.

Mary Robinette Kowal held an “art contest” on her blog for art related to her LADY ASTRONAUT series. Here, she announces the winners. This is art with no boundaries. This stuff is amazing!

Atlas Obscura suggests Book Town, a book extolling the virtue of towns that are paradises of the printed word.

New Releases:

It looks like Mira Grant, Brandon Sanderson and Sebastien de Castell all have books coming out later this month or in December. Check out our New Releases page for still more information.

TV and Movies:

File 770 shared this short film by Norwegian filmmaker Andreas J. Riiser. It’s about fifteen minutes long; a “mockumentary”about Mr. Death. I took it as a beautifully produced, gallows-humor bit of film-making until the scene in the woods. Then I didn’t know what to think. I do know one or two things; Mr. Death has some health issues that need to be addressed, and actor Trond Espen Seim is the master of the weary sigh.

Entertainment Weekly shares what’s upcoming on Season Four of Outlander.

Black Girl Nerds review the new Nutcracker movie, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which looks absolutely gorgeous.

Superherohype ponders the effect of Disney’s new streaming service on various Marvel properties. There is nothing definite in this short article but it’s thought-provoking.

Can AI’s predict the success of various movie trailers? As usual the answer seems to be, “Well, yes and no.”

Internet:

WhatCulture has opinions about TV shows that killed off the wrong characters.

Earth:

Scientists once thought the flightless rail bird of Inaccessible Island walked there on nonexistent land bridges. Modern science and genetics provide a more likely theory; the birds flew there and lost flight ability after many generations because it wasn’t needed. This article explains how to get to Inaccessible Island, which, it turns out, is aptly named.

Space:

This article on monitoring Martian crafts from the JPL is great.

Art:

Reared in Steel specializes in large installations and vehicles. They have shared their works at Burning Man and other events. They have a studio in Petaluma, California. Please do check out their Facebook page and their Instagram.