July 27, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• The Outer Alliance interviews Elizabeth Hand. 
• Locus Roundtable interviews Anil Menon and Vandana Singh (podcast).
• The Agony Column interviews Rachel Swirsky and Robert J. Sawyer (podcast).
• [SFFWRTCHT] A Chat With Author SB Knight.
• Shalako Publishing interviews Bryan Thomas Schmidt.
• Chuck Wendig interviews Dan Goldman.
• I Should Be Writing interviews Saladin Ahmed (podcast).
• Turndog Millionaire interviews Matt Forbeck (video).

Advice/Articles

• Time (Lev Grossman) on I Hate This Book So Much: A Meditation. 
• Staffer's Book Review (Anne Lyle) on Tearing It Down to Build It Back Up.
• Steven Barnes on Why Zombies..? 
• Elizabeth Bear on The problem of balance…
• Justine Larbalestier on YA Novelists Are In It For The Money.
• Mary Robinette Kowal (Gregory Frost) talks about the short story “Vulpes”.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: The End of Reversion Clauses (Deal Breakers 2012).
• Kat Howard on When Our Monsters Save Us.
• John Scalzi on Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be.
• Nick Mamatas on Why Are Geeks Bullied, Excluded, and Taunted?
• Lit Reactor (Rajan Khanna) on Race and Races in Fantasy.
• Kirkus Reviews (Andrew Liptak) on Looking far, far into the future: Olaf Stapledon.
• Tobias Buckell on Work Habits.
• Ian Sales reviews Robopocalypse.
• Slate (Robert Weintraub) on A New Dimension of Filmmaking.
• Geeks of Doom (FamousMonster) on 5 Batman Villains Who Deserved The Christopher Nolan Treatment.
• Missions Unknown (Scott A. Cupp) on Agatha H and the Airship City.
• The King of Elfland's Second Cousin on Wrong and Wrong: Reviewers, Cliques, and Bullying.

Art

• Spaceship paintings by Dwayne Vance.
• Cover Release: Stray Souls by Kate Griffin.
• Alvaris Falcon on 36 Epic Looking Sci-fi Artworks.
• Concept robots by Angel Alonso.
• District 10 by Andree Wallin.
• Deep Impact by Andree Wallin.
• Defiler of the Moon by Kerembeyit.

News

• Angry Robot to Publish Joseph D’Lacey’s Black Feathers Duology.
• Gail Carriger The Official Option Announcement.

July 26, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• The Reading Cafe interviews Marjorie M. Liu. 
• Geek's Guide to the Galaxy interviews Ursula K. Le Guin (podcast).
• SFFWorld interviews Steven Erikson.
• Civilian Reader interviews E.J. Swift.
• Angry Robot Books interviews Martin Bland.
• The Enchanted Inkpot (Cindy Pon) interviews Kendare Blake.
• Suvudu (Matt Staggs) interviews Ari Marmell.

Advice/Articles

• Damien G. Walter on Is there any such thing as Realist Horror? 
• Staffer's Musings (Bradley P. Beaulieu) Says "Lose Yourself" Quoting Eminem?
• Brian Ruckley on Asking the Wrong Question: Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?
• Lit Reactor (Jon Korn) on Philip K. Dick: A Primer.
• Kirkus Reviews (John DeNardo) on Have We Passed the Point Where Science Fiction is Fiction?
• Book View Cafe (Laura Anne Gilman) on Practical Meerkat Returns: The Panic at the End of the Tunnel.
• Black Gate (John O'Neill) on How Galaxy Magazine Saved Robert Silverberg from a Life of Smoking.
• Jeremiah Tolbert on Did Online Writers Workshopping Slow My Growth as a Writer?
• Shimmer (Elise) on Shimmer #15: Preorder.
• Flickering Myth (Trevor Hogg) on Alien Territory: The Making of Prometheus.
• Smart Pop Books (Sophie Masson) on The Language of the Heart.
• L.B. Gale on “Adolescent” Reads and Disillusionment.  
• Omnivoracious (Jeff VanderMeer) on "In Preparation for Necessary Mutations" - Walter Mosley’s Approach to Science Fiction.
• Dana's Dragon Note (Bryan Thomas Schmidt) on The Saga of Davi Rhii - Keeping a Sequel Fresh.
• Mail Online on Japanese robot bar tempts customers with giant, scantily clad dancing robots - controlled by REAL women.
• Topless Robot (Rob Brickens) on 7 Great Morally Dubious Characters of Sci-Fi TV.
• Forbes (Suw Charman-Anderson) on Mark Coker: Significant Disruption For Traditional Publishers Still To Come.
• Audible SF/F Release Week: Vlad; Neil Gaiman Presents Ellen Kushner’s The Privilege of the Sword; Charles Yu; and Charles Stross’s The Apocalypse Codex.

Art

• A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows, Book 1) cover.
• Minimal Movie Posters The Iron Giant by Jonny Eveson.
• Poseidon by genzoman.
• Theme planet.
• Deadwood.
• Futuristic City.
• Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Crashed Spaceships.
• All Things Urban Fantasy Cover Art Coverage.
• Concept ships by Brian Sum.
• Concept robots by rd7.
• Sculptor by kir-tat.
• Fantasy by James Wolf Strehle.

News

• Endeavour Award nominees.
• 2012 World SF Travel Fund Recipients.
• JK Rowling to build huge tree houses in Edinburgh garden.
• Eaton Awards.
• 2012 Booker Prize.

Events

• Shark Movie Mayhem at the Brooklyn Observatory.

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 7 edited by Kate Osias and Alex Osias

July 25, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• Buzzy Magazine interviews Delia Sherman (video).
• Sword and Laser interviews Michael Stackpole (podcast).
• Lightspeed (Erin Stocks) interviews Maria Dahvana Headley.
• Lightspeed (Andrew Liptak) interviews David Brin.
• The Functional Nerds interviews Scott Roche (podcast).
• Marshall Payne interviews Mike Allen.

Advice/Articles

• Locus Roundtable (Vandana Singh) on J. C. Bose and other Indian SF.
• Weird Fiction Review (Adam Mills) on The Moment of Change from Aqueduct Press.
• David Brin on The First Synethetic Organism: Our Victor Frankenstein Moment?  
• A. Lee Martinez on Scar Issue.
• SFX on Iain M Banks’ Heroes And Inspirations.
• Smart Pop Books (Nick Mamatas) on Working Class Heroes.
• Alabama (Ann Marie Martin) on Ray Bradbury's sci-fi tales focused on human element.
• Book View Cafe (Sue Lange) on Weird Science: Is Special Relativity Wrong?
• Chuck Wendig on 25 Things You Should Know About Antagonists.
• James W. Harris on The Reincarnation Theory of Science Fiction?
• Salon (Greg Olear, The Weeklings) on Lame of Thrones.
• The Atlantic (Daniel D. Snyder) on What's Next for Superhero Movies?
• Michael May on Superheroes are not Comics. 
• Comic Book Resources (Greg Hatcher) on The Bad Old Days.
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt on Character Profile of Miri Rhii.

Art

• Sci-Fi by Ruidan Lv.
• Welcome by djahal.
• Marine by neisbeis.
• Ship Ship by ChangYuan.
• Mech concepts by Nick Constantine.
• Nick Constantine concept spaceship art.

News

• Strange Chemistry Signs Ingrid Jonach.
• Forbidden Planet NYC is moving!
• World Song Kickstarter.

Sorry Please Thank You Stories by Charles Yu

July 24, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• Rowena Cory Daniells interviews Helen Lowe. 
• The Shirley Jackson Awards interviews Maureen F. McHugh.
• Shirley Jackson Awards at Readercon 23 (video).
• The Agony Column interviews Carlos Ruiz Zafón (podcast).
• The Qwillery interviews Ben H. Winters.
• Tor Books Blog interviews Fantasy Faction.
• Geekwire (Frank Catalano) interviews David Brin.

Advice/Articles

• SFX (Alasdair Stuart) on An Introduction To Angry Robot’s New Young Adult Imprint.
• Locus Roundtable (Anil Menon) on The Virgin Fish of Babhughat.
• Staffer's Book Review (Teresa Frohock) Throws Down the Gauntlet to Herself.
• Smart Pop Books (Steven Harper) on Supermyth!
• Tor.com (Steven Padnick) on Extraordinary Abilities, Ordinary Disabilities.
• The Functional Nerds (Paul Weimer) on Chrysanthe by Yves Meynard.
• L.B. Gale on A Continuum of Parenting in Science Fiction & Fantasy.
• A Dribble of Ink (Josh Vogt) on This is an Emergency Test of Your Magic System.
• The Night Bazaar (Paul Tobin) on Sleeping on the job IS my job.
• Bare Bones e-Zine on Batman in the 1970s Part 28: 1973 Wrap-Up.
• Omnivoracious (Susan J. Morris) on Make Your Fight Scenes 20% Cooler.
• Omnivoracious (Jeff VanderMeer) on Ellen Datlow’s “The Best Horror of the Year”—A Sample from Every Story. 
• Juliette Wade on Must we always have monarchies? Seriously? 
• Inkpunks (Sandra Wickham) on Why Write Short Stories?
• Justine Larbalestier on No, I’m Not Dying For My Books to Become Hollywood Movies.
• Suvudu (Matt Staggs) Take Five with Ben H. Winters.
• A Brain Scientist's Take On Writing (Bryan Thomas Schmidt) on How To Market Your Book At Cons.
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt on Public Vs. Private-Finding The Fine Line Dichotomy Of Your Passions.

Art

• Alien World 2by ortheza.
• Fantasy by Kekai Kotaki.
• Robotic model by Furio Tedeschi.
• Spaceship concept art by George Munteanu.

News

• Call for Papers: Puppetry International #32: Puppetry in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
• Canadian Karin Lowachee Named Shared Worlds’ Amazon.com Writer-in-Residence.
• Margaret Mahy, 1936-2012.
• The Apocalypse Ocean map is now live & other Apocalypse Ocean details.

Above By Leah Bobet

July 23, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• Fantasy Faction interviews Christopher Paolini.
• Sword and Laser interviews Daniel Suarez (video).
• io9 Show on The Scariest Food Items Science Has Ever Created (video).
• The Writer and the Critic with guest Jonathan Strahan (podcast).
• Eric Rosenfield ReaderCon Wold Newton Reading Video.
• The Guardian (Richard Lea) interviews M. John Harrison.
• Suvudu (Fictional Frontiers) interviews Daniel H. Wilson (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Locus Roundtable (Stefan Dziemianowicz) reviews The Weird.
• Damien G. Walter on Science Fiction is the most valuable art ever. Discuss.
• Helen Lowe on The Magic of Winter Worlds.
• Matthew Cheney on Readercon 23.
• The Qwillery (Joanne Reay) on Spiked Coffee.
• Justine Larbalestier on Becoming a Brand Versus Writing What You Want to Write.
• Book View Cafe (Sherwood Smith) on Fun stuff, and dramatic tension.
• John Scalzi on Tor/Forge Totally DRM Free, Plus Anecdotal Notes Regarding Redshirts.
• Ambling Along the Aqueduct (Timmi Duchamp) on Panel deportment and demeanor.
• Book Life Now (Monica Valentinelli) on Anthology Publicity.
• Inkpunks (Robert Jackson Bennett) on Trying to make the jump.
• Suvudu (Charles Tan) on Why Philippine Speculative Fiction.
• Cracked.com (Luke McKinney) on 7 Ways Batman is Objectively Better Than Superman.
• Mike Brotherton on Missing a Slew of Semi-Recent Science Fiction Movies — Which are Best?
• Grasping for the Wind on [INFOGRAPHIC] The Best Selling Sci-fi Books of All Time.

Art

• Terrifying Illustrations of Martin de Diego Sádaba.
• “La Vie Électrique” by Albert Robida, 1890.
• The LOTR trilogy posters by mondo.
• Wolverine by Brett Parson.
• Theme Planetby ~OmeN2501.
• Origin of Civilizationby ~Aeon-Lux.
• The magic lightby ~Natsuki-3.
• Front Mission: Against the Sunby `ukitakumuki.

News

• Winners Of the 2012 SF&F Translation Awards published.
• Garner and Martin to Receive World Fantasy Lifetime Awards. 
• Robocq.
• Women in Comics, Europe.

Events

• SFWA Northwest Reading Series.
• aMAZEme.
• Alpha Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Workshop.

Goblin Fruit Summer 2012

Journey Planet #13

July 20, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• The Readers Summer Book Club interviews Karen Lord (podcast).
• The Shirley Jackson Awards interviews Genevieve Valentine. 
• io9 (Charlie Jane Anders) interviews Joss Whedon.
• SF Squeecast with Karen Lord (podcast).
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast Episode 64.
• [SFFWRTCHT] A Chat With Author Faith Hunter.
• Flickering Myth (Trevor Hogg) interviews Snow White and the Huntsman supervisors.
• Chuck Wendig interviews Phil Hornshaw and Nick Hurwitch.
• Comics Bulletin interviews Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Advice/Articles

• Eurogamer.net (Robert Purchese) on "It's been a poor, poor five years for fiction in the video game industry".
• Justne Larbalestier on Writing Dialogue.
• Strange Chemistry on Introducing the Iron Fey series.
• Staffer's Book Review (Courtney Schafer) on Holding onto Joy.
• Gollancz (Joe Abercrombie) On Editing. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Deal Breakers 2012. 
• Nick Mamtas on Don't Spend It All In One Place.
• Lit Reactor (Sarah Pitre) on YA Superstar: Meg Cabot.
• Modicrum of Talent on The Problem with Fantasy... .
• The Guardian (David Barnnett) on Crime fiction: Evidence points to a clash of genres.
• Flogging Babel on A Paragraph from Lucius Shepard's Skull and the Lessons I Want You to Learn From It.
• Andrew Wheeler reviews In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood.
• Mary Robinette Kowal (J. A. Pitts) talks about Forged in Fire.
• Jim Van Pelt on Why I Like Speculative Fiction.
• Huffington Post (Mike Shatzkin) on Why eBook Subscriptions Would Never Work.
• Missions Uknown (Scott A. Cupp) on Firespell by by Chloe Neill, 2010.
• Kirkus Reviews (Patrick Hester) on Top 5 Batman Graphic Novels.

Art

• Ship concepts by Brad Wright, Evan Lee.
• High resolution robot images by Galan Pang.
• David and Goliath by by kheleksul.
• Machinery of Light, Wind Up Girl by Raphael Lacoste.
• Minimal Movie Posters on UP by Joel Amat Güell.
• Monster Brains on Fantastic Monsters Of The Films, 1962 - 63.

News

• Jeffrey Ford & Tenea D. Johnson to read at KGB August 15th.
• Photos from July 18th KGB reading with Wilce & Bobet.
• Authors Sue Harlequin Enterprises for eBook Royalties.
• A Dribble of Ink on Cover Art and Synopsis for Bloodfire Quest by Terry Brooks.
• Chapter One of The Tainted City by Courtney Schafer (Giveaway).
• Homeland (Excerpt).

We proudly published for the day job:


The Viewless Dark by Eliza Victoria

July 19, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• The Enchanted Inkpot (Lena Coakley) interviews Joanne Levy.
• Alethea Kontis interviews Joyce Lamb.
• Experiments in Truth interviews Matt Staggs (podcast).
• Wired (Geeta Dayal) interviews Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer (video).
• SFFWRTCHT Interview – Author Timothy Zahn.
• Civilian Reader interviews Paul Tobin.
• The Colored Lens interviews Larry Correia.
• A Fantastical Librarian interviews Graeme Flory.
• SFX interviews Paul Cornell and Peter F. Hamilton (video).
• The Shirley Jackson Awards interviews Nadia Bulkin.
• The Agony Column recording of SF in SF with Terry Bisson with Robert J. Sawyer and Rachel Swirsky (podcast).
• Suvudu (Matt Staggs) interviews Todd McCaffrey (video).

Advice/Articles

• Steampunk Chronicle (Karina Cooper) on Greasing the Gears: Scandalizing Society behaviors.
• Rachelle Gardner on What’s Happening With My Publisher Contract?
• The King of Elfland's Second Cousin on The Uses and Value of Realism in Speculative Fiction.
• John Scalzi on Bad Reviews: I Can Handle Them, and So Should You.
• Gollancz (Joe Abercrombie) On Revising. 
• Kirkus Reviews (John DeNardo) on Demystifying Sci-Fi Terms, with 10 Recommended Books (Part 3).
• Staffer's Book Review Elspeth Cooper Tries to Write One Book at a Time (and fails).
• Jeff VanderMeer On the Road: Stonecoast, Maine, ReaderCon.
• Jason Sanford on The anti-SF hatred oozing from Charles J. Shields' Kurt Vonnegut biography.
• Apex (Jessica Nelson) on The In/Human Element: The Slender Man.
• Antick Musings reviews Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez.
• Black gate (John ONeill) on Vintage Treasures: Henry Kuttner’s “The Graveyard Rats”.
• Janice Hardy (Jamie Todd Rubin) on Get Out of Your Head.
• Grasping for the Wind (Shane R. Collins and Danielle Rose) on How to Create a Sci-Fi Magazine.
• The Guardian (Justin McCurry) on Japan finally embraces e-reader revolution.
• The Guardian (Damien Walter) on Chasing rainbows: why myths matter.
• Mulholland Books (Joe R. Lansdale) on Walmart, I Can’t Quit You.
• Flavorwire (Emily Temple) on 10 of the Greatest YA Series of All Time.
• Life Defined (Bryan Thomas Schmidt) On The Careful Use Of Ordinary Moments To Build Character In Science Fiction.
• Life on Behind the Scenes on the ‘Batman’ TV Show. 
• Salon (David Germain) on Jackson confesses: He's no superhero comic fan.
• Justine Larbelestier On People Reading in Public.
• Book Life Now (Amy Sundberg) on So You Want to Start a Blog.
• Inkpunks (Sandra Wickham) on It's not a Race.
• Mary Robinette Kowal on Debut Author Lesson: The Launch Party.
• Khaalidah (Aliette de Bodard) On Worldbuilding, Patchwork and Filing off Serial Numbers.

News

• 'Dark Knight Rises' Film Critic Receives Death Threats Over Negative Review.
• Oldest Spiral Galaxy in Universe Discovered.
• BVC Announces The Ex Files by Kelly McClymer.
• Gollancz Acquires The Red Knight.
• "One" by George Alec Effinger (Part 1 of 3).
• George R.R. Martin reveals which Thrones storyline he's 'dreading'.
• Hysterical Minds Presents “Symphony”.
• Rapture of the Nerds (Excerpt).
• Excerpt from Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper (Giveaway).

Events

• Mike Shevdon Signing, Waterstones Bedford, UK, July 20th.
• Trent Jamieson Night’s Engines Launch Party, Avid Reader, Queensland, July 19th.

Art

• Fantasy: Fall of a hero.
• Artificial Dream by Julie Dillon.
• Crash of the Mothership by Raphael Lacoste.
• City view matte painting by Raphael Lacoste.
• Dark Knight.
• Concept Art by Septagon Studios.

I Am a Magical Teenage Princess by Luke Geddes

July 18, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• Marshall Payne interviews Ruth Nestvold.
• Gollancz interviews Charlaine Harris (video).
• Lightspeed Magazine (Caleb Jordan Schulz) interviews A.M. Dellamonica.
• Lightspeed Magazine (Robyn Lupo) interviews Peter Beagle.
• The Skiffy and Fanty Show interviews Paul S. Kemp (podcast).
• The Functional Nerds interviews J.M. McDermott (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Tor.com (Brit Mandelo) on The International Conversation: Philippine Speculative Fiction IV, edited by Dean Francis Alfar & Nikki Alfar.
• Weird Fiction Review (Nancy Hightower) on Tim Noble and Sue Webster Give a Few Extra Turns of the Screw.
• Book View Cafe (Deborah J. Ross) on Is This Story Too Big…Or Is The Book Too Small?
• The Atlantic (Alan Jacobs) on The Hivemind Singularity. 
• Steam Vents on Who’s afraid of the big bad beast? Not I. A new writers experience with Evelyn.
• SciFiNow (Matthew Handrahan) on An introduction to George RR Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire.
• Jessica Strider reviews Enclave.
• Mary Robinette Kowal (A. M. Dellamonica) talks about Blue Magic.
• Fantasy Faction on Why Fantasy?
• Fantasy & Scifi Lovin' News & Reviews on What Books Lured You Into the Genre?
• Smart Pop Books (Susan Vaught) on The Brutal Cost of Redemption in Westeros  Or, What Moral Ambiguity?
• A Fantastical Librarian on Author Query - e-reading statistics.
• Genevieve Valentine on Readercon: The Good! and Readercon: The Bad and the Ugly.
• Andrew Liptak on ReaderCon 23.
• The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review (Robert Jackson Bennett) on What Does It Mean to Be Compelling?
• Staffer's Book Review (Kameron Hurley) Says Don't Lose Your Edge.
• Locus Roundtable (Cheryl Morgan) on Kontakt, An Anthology of Croatian SF.
• Chuck Wendig on Amongst The New Pulpeteers (Or, “What The Good Goddamn Is ‘New Pulp,’ Anyway?”).
• Inkpunks (Erika Holt) on What’s in a great first line?
• Wolfrom Writes on Self-Publishing Standalone Short Stories: Time to beat a hasty retreat?
• Madison Woods (Bryan Thomas Schmidt) on Core Assumptions & The Writer.
• Barnes and Noble Review (Paul Di Filippo) reviews Existence.
• Slate (Seth Stevenson) on Meeting Our Cultural Overlords at Comic-Con.
• Missions Unknown (Scott A. Cupp) on Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars.
• Omnivoracious (Lydia Netzer) on Books To Read in Trees.
• Black Gate (Ryan Harvey) on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars, Part 7: A Fighting Man of Mars.
• Tor.com (Shoshana Kessock) on Gotham’s Finest: What to Read to Prepare For The Dark Knight Rises.
• io9 (Cyriaque Lamar) on The Most Astounding Comic Book News of Comic-Con 2012.

Art

• Cleaning the Pressure Cooker by Raphael Lacoste.
• Ancient Enemies by Tycarey.
• The Dark Knight Rises Goes Noir.
• SciFantasy by Zeronis.
• Nimbus.
• Red Planet.
• Assassin's Creed Kingdom.

News

• Ellen Datlow's ReaderCon photos.
• Adam Christopher signing Seven Wonders.
• Preorder Dark Faith: Invocations with Dark Faith for $25.
• New Deal Announcement: The Trouble with Fate.
• Doctor Who To Start Airing In August.
• Doctor Who Series 7: First 3 episodes revealed.
• SF author Edward Willett's Circle the Crops to celebrate city centennial.
• Play Like A Girl in Stars.
• Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore Adapting Outlander.
• The First Chapter from Rapture by Kameron Hurley (Giveaway).
• An Excerpt from King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (Giveaway).
• 2012 Rhysling Awards Winners.

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

July 17, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• Terry Brooks chat with Patrick Rothfuss (Part III).
• Fantasy in Motion interviews Elizabeth Moon.
• Civilian Reader interviews MD Lachlan.
• Tor Books Blog interviews David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt.

Advice/Articles

• Weird Fiction Review (Edward Gauvin) on The Chimerical Brigade.
• Juliette Wade (Tim Wade) on How Sports Impacts the Wider Culture.
• Justine Larbalestier on Finished the First Draft; Time for the Real Work to Begin.
• Rachelle Gardner on Back to the Drawing Board.
• Marie Brennan on Failure Is Good for You.
• Janice Hardy on When Less is More: Taking Away Elements to Fix a Problem Scene.
• Clarion Blog (Michael Matheson) on Grounding Fictional Cultures.
• Book Life Now (Mercedes M. Yardley) on Success is Like Lightning.
• Gollancz (Joe Abercrombie) On Planning.
• Omnivoracious (Susan J. Morris) on Long Live Adverbs: An Ode to Rebellious Writers.
• Locus Roundtable (Fabio Fernandes) on Doris Lessing’s Shikasta.
• SciFiNow (James Hoare) on 5 reasons you should watch 1995′s Judge Dredd.
• Staffer's Book Review (Mark Lawrence) on Scary Shit.
• SF Site (Rick Klaw) on Nexus Graphica.
• Night Bazaar (Paul Tobin) on I Got It Covered.
• Bare Bones e-zine on Batman in the 1970s Part 27: November and December 1973.

Art

• Stellar: The Women of Science Fiction.
• Invasion.
• Concept Robots by Jaime Jones.
• Concept Ships by Jaime Jones.
• Guardians Of The Galaxy concept art.
• Cover Art and Synopsis for River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay.
• New cover art for Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.  
• The Last Engineer – Odile van der Stap.
• Charr Engineer.
• Fantasy: The Duel.
• Concept: Flooded Chinatown.
• Giant.
• Anthology Cover Art: Unfettered.

News

• American Science Fiction Classic Novels of the 1950s.
• Tor.com Ironskin (Excerpt).
• Wildflower 2012 Science Fiction Issue.
• Zombie Head Popcorn Bucket.
• Indiegogo Something Wicked Science Fiction & Horror Anthology Volume One.
• Need a little inspiration?: A Writing Workshop with Amelia Beamer.
• 2012 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.
• 2012 Prometheus Award Winners.

Point of Knives by Melissa Scott

July 16, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• The Coode StreetPodcast with Gary K. Wolfe, Caitlin R. Kiernan & Peter Straub.
• GalleyCat interviews Kristin Cashore.
• Shirley Jackson Awards interviews S.P. Miskowski and Nathan Ballingrud.
• Suvudu (Matt Staggs) interviews Peter F. Hamilton; Daniel H. Wilson and Lissa Price; Shawntelle Madison; Scott Sigler; Christopher Paolini, Brandon Sanderson and Robin Hobb; Rachel Hartman; Harry Turtledove; Rob Reid; Christopher Paolini (video).
• Adventures in SciFi Publishing interviews Bryan Thomas Schmidt (podcast).
• Speculate! interviews Ian Tregillis (podcast).
• Fantasy.fr interviews Glen Cook.
• Lisa Hannett (Lisa Hannett and Angela Slatter) interviews Robert Shearman.
• Locus interviews Tamora Pierce.

Advice/Articles

• Brain Pickings on Carl Sagan’s Reading List.
• Sherwood Smith on Beta reading and collaborations.
• Stroppy Author on No Words.
• Inkpunks (Wendy Wagner) on Wendy’s Novel Outlining Omnibus.
• Odyssey Workshop (James Maxey) on When is it Time to Move On?

News

• 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners.

Suited by Jo Anderton

July 13, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• [SFFWRTCHT] A Chat With Author/Game Designer Erin Hoffman. 
• Reality Skimming interviews Hiromi Goto.
• Suvudu (Fictional Frontiers) interviews Tara Bennett (podcast).
• Chuck Wendig interviews Lisa Cron.
• The New Author on A Conversation with Bryan Thomas Schmidt Part II.

Advice/Articles

• Things Mean A Lot on Spotlight on Small Beer Press.
• Omnivoracious (Eoin Colfer) on Unleashed Guest Blogger.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Writers and Business.
• Charlie Stross on Writing a novel in Scrivener: lessons learned.
• Justine Larbalestier on Writing about Racism in the Past.
• Requires Only That You Hate on the disease of geek pride – world-building and cultural appropriation.
• Mike Brotherton on What Personnel Are Needed on a Spaceship Exploring Strange New Worlds?
• Apex (Gary A. Braunbeck) on The Great Value of That Dirty Little Secret All Writers Have, Part One.
• SFWA (Guy Stewart) on When Did “Science Fiction” and “Apocalypse” Become Interchangeable?
• Kirkus Reviews (Patrick Hester) on Top 5 Spider-Man Graphic Novels.
• Film School Rejects on 34 Things We Learned From the ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ Commentary.
• SciFi Songs on 5 Favorite Musical Artists of Author Myke Cole.
• Worlds in a Grain of Sand reviews Throne of the Crescent Moon.
• Time on Christopher Nolan's Catwoman: A Modern Burglar for a Modern World.
• Missions Unknown (Scott A. Cupp) on Ghost Seas by Steven Utley, 1997.
• Bryan Thomas Shcmidt on Top 10 Writer Lessons Learned From Cons & Appearances.

Art

• Warhammer: Nurgle.
• Skycities by Tuomas Korpi.
• John Carter Concept Art by Jonay Bacallado, Senior Illustrator for Mayes Rubeo, Costume Designer.
• Fantasy: Crisis.
• Robot concept by Justin Spice.
• Clan Frigate by David Llewelyn.

News

• Chris Roberson & Dynamite Entertainment announce “Masks” a crossover of Pulp Heroes.
• Margaret Atwood Counts $54,000+ in Pledges for New Project.
• The Hubble Telescope Finds A Fifth Moon Around Pluto.
• Babylon 5 Creator J. Michael Straczynski Launching Media Company And New Series For Starz.
• Centennial play set by Crocus 80.
• The New York Review of Science Fiction is Accepting Submissions ~Pleasantville~.
• Unnaturalists Launch Part(ies).

Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan

July 12, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• The First Million Words interviews Aliette de Bodard (podcast).
• The Shirley Jackson Awards interviews Michael Cisco and Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling.
• The Future and You interviews Chris Phoenix (podcast).
• The Qwillery interviews Michael R. Underwood.
• Geek's Guide to the Galaxy interviews John Scalzi and E.C. Myers (podcast).
• Strange & Random Happenstance interviews Gail Carriger.
• The Enchanted Inkpot (Deva Fagan) interviews Rachel Hartman.

Advice/Articles

• World Literature Today (Michael A. Morrison) on Fun with Your New Head: Getting into SF.
• Tor.com (Irene Gallo) on New Art Inspired By Great Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books: The Book Show.
• Tor.com (Jo Walton) on More Than Alien: Larry Niven’s Protector.
• Justine Larbalestier on The Purpose of Bad Books.
• Juliette Wade on Does worldbuilding have value? Or is it a subcultural "disease"?
• Matthew Cheney on Nonfiction and Science Fiction.
• Strange Chemistry (Gwenda Bond) on All About the Books.
• The King of Elfland's Second Cousin on Information Density and Selecting Planks for Story Scaffolding.
• Everything is Nice on Everything That Is Wrong With Commercial Fantasy In A Single Quote.
• Listverse (Edward Benjamin) on Top 10 Greatest Movies Never Made.
• Kirkus Reviews (John DeNardo) on Parallel Worlds: The Grass Isn't Always Greener, But it is More Fun.
• Cool Vibe on Concept Art: 2012.6.1 wang xiaoyu.
• National Geographic (Rachel Kaufman) on "Frankenstein" Bog Mummies Discovered in Scotland.
• Fanboy on The Original Star Trek Exploration Set Recreated in Lego.
• Patrick Rothfuss on Why I Love My Editor...
• The Guardian (Chris Chambers and Petroc Summer) on Science journalism through the looking glass.
• All Things Urban Fantasy on Cover Art Coverage: 20 New Covers!
• BBC on Is plastic the new digital paper? (video)
• To Be Read (Bryan Thomas Schmidt) on Opening The Door To Imagination: My Discovery of Science Fiction & Fantasy.
• Sci-Fi Fan Letter Book Review: God's War by Kameron Hurley.
• Nicola Morgan on What does a proof-reader do? 
• Inkpunks (Ian McCaig) on wants, needs, and burning bridges. 

News

• Game Of Thrones new art posters.
• UK Cover Unveiled for Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.
• Terry Goodkind publicly names and shames ebook pirate.
• Crack the crypto in Agrippa, win every William Gibson book ever published.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic now free until level 15.
• Tom Baker to Return to Doctor Who.
• Download Free Wallpaper from the Winter’s Heart Ebook.
• Neil Gaiman Books Announced.

Shadow Show  All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle

July 11, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• David Steffen (Carl Slaughter) interviews Leah Cypress.  
• The Shirley Jackson Awards interviews Sheri Holman, Deborah Biancotti, M. Rickert.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: D.B. Jackson.
• Weird Fiction Review (Adam Mills) interviews Miroslaw Lipinski on Stefan Grabinski.
• The Guardian interviews Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (video).
• The Functional Nerds interviews Andre LaFosse (podcast).
• Omnivoracious (Alex Carr) interviews Geoff Johns.
• Making a Clockwork Orange (video).
• Sword and Laser Podcast Episode #105.
• The New Author interviews Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

Advice/Articles

• Locus Roundtable (Aliette de Bodard) on Elisabeth Vonarburg and Tran-Nhut.
• io9 (Michael Ann Dobbs) on An Exclusive First Look at the Gorgeous New Covers to All of Octavia Butler’s Books.
• io9 (Charlie Jane Anders) on 10 Science Fiction Novels You Pretend to Have Read (And Why You Should Actually Read Them).
• Mary Robinette Kowal (Dan Wells) talks about The Hollow City.
• Justine Larbalestier on Writers and Editors and Bad Book Exorcisms.
• Smart Pop Books (Myke Cole) on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in A Song of Ice and Fire.
• Barnes & Noble Review (Paul Di Filippo) reviews The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009.
• Damien G. Walter on What is the New Pulp and why do we want one?
• Lawrence Person on Is Webster’s Digital Services The New Hephaestus Books?
• Alien Romances on Worldbuilding with Fire And Ice Part 5: The Great Raid.
• Missions Unknown (Scott A. Cupp) on Evolution (2001).
• Strange Chemistry on YA Releases for July 2012.
• Retronaut on Behind the scenes of The Wizard of Oz, 1939.
• GeekDad (Nathan Barry) on Six Star Wars Fans and the Ultimate DIY Project.
• GalleyCat on Should Writers Engage with eBook Pirates?
• Publishing Crawl (Erin Bowman) on Writing Series: The Cliffhanger Dilemma.
• Fantasy Author's Handbook on Help Me,J.T. McIntosh, Wherever You Are.
• Eat Sleep Live Film (Paul Risker) on John Carpenter Retrospective Part 1: The Six Year Stretch (1976-1982).
• Cinespect (Hans Staats) on Who Goes There?
• Rolling Stone India (Sharin Bhatti) on Metal Special: Albatross.
• Clarion Blog (Elizabeth Black) on Writer’s Craft #80 What Makes A Story Erotic?
• Chuck Wendig on 25 Bad Writer Behaviors.
• Book Life Now (Steve Scearce) on You Can Earn a Living as a Writer.
• Inkpunks (John Remy) On Gatekeepers and Making Our Own Rules.

News

• Clockwork Phoenix 4: new stories of beauty & strangeness Kickstarter.
• Ian Livingstone brings Fighting Fantasy Back to Forbidden Planet.
• Edge-Lit Schedule.
• 2nd Annual Robot Film Festival in New York City.
• Mashable on Listen to the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Soundtrack in Its Entirety.
• The Hobbit massive new banner poster.
• New Short Story Available: Allanon’s Quest by Terry Brooks.
• Smofcon 30 Membership.
• Bruce Boston Joins World Horror Guests of Honor.

The Harlequin and the Train by Paul Tremblay

July 10, 2012 Links and Plugs

Interviews and Profiles

• Alethea Kontis interviews Tina Connolly and Cat Rambo.
• The First Million Words interviews Bryan Thomas Schmidt (podcast).
• Heidi Ruby Miller interviews Bryan Thomas Schmidt.
• LA Times interviews Neal Stephenson.
• The Agony Column interviews Glen Duncan.

Advice/Articles

• Weird Fiction Review (Edward Gauvin) on A Gallery of Grotesques.
• Omnivoracious (Susan J. Morris) on Bringing a Book to Life: The Tragic Reality of Pockets Full of Bat Guano.
• Locus Roundtable (Nick Mamatas) on The End of the World, and a Beginning.
• Rose Lemberg On Bardugo’s Tsarpunk, Worldbuilding, and Historical Linguistics.
• David Brin on Do Sci Fi attitudes reflect our times? 
• Tor.com (Stubby the Rocket) on The Avengers Painted as Epic Fantasy Heroes and Ripley as the Virgin Mary & More Sci-Fi Women as Byzantine Icons.
• Orbit (Lauren Panepinto) on Look inside the art for the Gail Carriger iPhone App!
• WhatCulture! (Felix Vasquez Jr.) on 50 Reasons Why Superman is The Greatest Superhero Ever.
• The Avengers Infographic.
• Black Gate (Howard Andrew Jones) on Under the Hood with Robert E. Howard.
• Matt Cheney (Michael DiTommaso) reviews Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan.
• The Night Bazaar (Paul Tobin) on Bad to the bone… of the story.
• SFX (Jordan Farley) on Top Five Urban Legends In Sci-fi.
• Mike Resnick on Worldcon — A Beginner’s Guide.

News

• Cosmos  Sci-Fi Story Contest.
• An Owomoyela joins Strange Horizons as fiction editor; Jed Hartman stands down as Senior Fiction Editor.
• July BSFA Meeting: Roz Kaveney interviewed by Pat Cadigan.
• Anne Rice Republishes Erotica Trilogy.
• 2012 Seiun Award Winners.

My book will be available from the Lethe Press booth for ReaderCon attendees. Hope you support it. (Otherwise, available in August.)

 Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Charles A. Tan

Guest Blog: Kingdom and the Human Soul by Anderson O’Donnell

 

First, I want to thank Mr. Charles Tan for offering to host a stop on the Kingdom blog tour. As an indie author, I am the mercy of readers and bloggers, so every opportunity I have to talk about my work is precious. Again, thanks Charles!

And since Bibliophile Stalker focuses on speculative fiction, I’m going to talk about the most, well, speculative aspect of Kingdom: the idea that there is a gene for the human soul.

Biological Transmitter

Rather than presenting the human soul some sort of eternal manifestation of the self—a supernatural spirit that survives our physical demise—Kingdom explores the idea that the soul is a biological radio transmitter. And, as a transmitter, this gene is always working to receive a signal—a divine transmission. Now, the exact nature of this transmission is a little difficult to define: it’s not a message, but an apprehension that there is something else there. Its rather areligious: Kingdom’s vision of the soul does not correspond to any specific theology or even a specific God. Instead, it looks back to the beginning—the very beginning—when man and his Creator were still one.

Every culture has a myth about “The Fall,” or the event when man discovered he was a being separate from his Creator. Kingdom imagines the soul is the last remnant of the original connection—something like a postcard from Eden. The effects of a fully functioning soul gene are tangible, though far from obvious. It allows us to taste those sweet moments when the world feels as though it’s aligned and everything else around us fades away and we are aware that there is something more, something we cannot express, something even the most talented wordsmiths and poets have trouble describing. But it’s undeniably there…it’s something divine, something that’s larger than anyone or anything.

And this taste, this reminder, does marvelous things to the human brain, things science is only just beginning to understand. That’s why, when the signal starts to fade a bit, you can feel that something is wrong, that something is missing—that there’s a void you can’t quite put your finger on even if, superficially anyway, you’ve got all your fucking ducks in a row. So people look for substitutes: materialism, drugs, working 20 hours a day, etc. Most of the time, these substitutes, while inflicting long-term damage to the soul, to the ability of this genetic radio receptor to apprehend the divine signal, work well in the short term. On the other hand, there are people who have zeroed in on this signal; men and women who have managed to submerge the ego and get back to that Edenic unified state, to the time before the Fall when man and the divine were one.

Replicating the Soul

As this critical gene’s function is impossible to replicate (due to its preternatural origin), KINGDOM considers what would happen if mankind bioengineered human beings with a non-functioning soul gene; in essence, if we created a human being completely severed from this divine transmission. The results, as readers of Kingdom will see, aren’t pretty.

Anderson O’Donnell’s debut novel, Kingdom, is available now at Amazon (paperback and Kindle).