WWWednesday: October 28, 2015

This week’s word for Wednesday is galumph, a verb. It means to move in a ponderous, clumsy or noisy manner. Lewis Carroll is credited with inventing the word in 1871 (it was first used in Through the Looking Glass), and scholars think it was a blending of “gallop” and “triumph.” It’s also a good example of onomatopoeia.

Kay Neilsen East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Awards

The British Fantasy Awards were announced; Lightspeed’s special edition Women Destroy Science Fiction won for best anthology. Frances Hardinge won Best Fantasy Novel for Cuckoo Song. The link takes you to a list of all the winners.

Conventions

IO9 has nearly 3 minutes of video of cosplayers from this month’s New York Comic Con. Some of these people really get into their characters!

Books and Writing

We always hoped this existed, didn’t we? The UK Guardian reports that a map of Middle Earth annotated by J.R.R. Tolkien was found inside a book.  It goes on sale with a minimum bid of 60,000 pounds (about $91,800 US).

Mental Floss shares 8 mistakes that make some comic book heroes even more comic.  (From File 770)

Brent Weeks dropped in at Reddit for an Ask Me Anything session. He discusses the NIGHT ANGEL series and LIGHTBRINGER. (H/t to Ryan.)

Kay Neilsen, The Wolf Waiting

Susan Cheever muses on why she loves bookstores. Many of us can relate.

And the Atlantic shares the “scariest passage” in Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road. I don’ t know if these are the scariest sentences, but this is the scene everyone remembers from that book. Author Benjamin Percy talks about how he has tried to use this technique himself. (Thanks, Ryan!)

Movies

Emily Asher-Perin at Tor.com has a take on why there is no Black Widow movie upcoming, and it’s an original slant. What do you think? Compared to Thor and Ant-Man, is Natasha Romanov too complex for a two-hour movie?

Neil Gaiman’s children’s book Fortunately the Milk is being adapted for the screen – by Johnny Depp.

The Stanley Hotel, aka The Overlook Inn

Stubby the Rocket’s post linked to this Rolling Stone article about the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. The hotel, Stephen King’s inspiration for The Shining, will become the first horror museum, the owners and founders of the Stanley Film Festival say. The grounds will become a combination film school and museum.

IO9 has a list of 50 science fiction movies you should see at least once. I agree with a lot of them – and, I’ve seen a lot of them, to my surprise. But… The Fifth Element on a must-see list? Really?

Space

NASA released pictures of one of Pluto’s small moons, Kerboros. Apparently it’s full of surprises too!

Kay Neilsen, The 7-Headed Dragon of the Two Brothers

Earth

A new study throws another candidate for the first place dogs were domesticated into the ring. To my surprise, this is a hotly debated topic. I thought the researcher’s idea to use, not specialized breeds, but village dogs, was brilliant.

Giveaways

The following Giveaways are still active: Our interview with Charles Gannon,  Rename This Horrible Cover, and our interview with Lindsay Francis Brambles.  Our City of Blades giveaway is still going!

Art

These anatomical cross-sections are made of books. This fascinating and beautiful version of book art is courtesy of Terry.

The featured work was done by Kay Rasmus Nielsen, who was born in Denmark in 1886. Neilsen made a living providing elegant illustrations for high-quality gift books. He became better known in the US when he came here to work with Disney Studios in 1939. You have seen his work in several sections of Fantasia. Nielsen provided artwork for a movie version of The Little Mermaid, but the film was not completed during his lifetime. He died in 1957. His art was used in the later version of The Little Mermaid. I love his confident use of color and the long, elegant lines. These pictures are from the website Art Passions.