SF Signal: SF Tidbits for 11/15/07

SF Tidbits for 11/15/07

SciFi Chick interviews Eric Brown, author of Helix and the upcoming Kéthani. "I write - I like to think - SF for people who don't read much SF. It's character-driven, eventful, economical - certainly not hard SF, which I don't care for. I'm not bothered about explanations of science and technology in SF, nor about predictions; I like to empathise with human beings, and a good story."

Fantasy Book Critic interviews Joel Shepherd, author of Killswitch. "I think the trend of human progress has been generally to the positive, with some nasty hiccups, and I don't expect that to change. I also think some of the attraction of dystopian worlds is that a lot of writers either aren't interested in politics, or can't see a way to use it excitingly in their plots. Dystopian worlds usually preclude politics as we understand it...so it's a bit of a cop out."

SFFWorld interviews Hal Duncan (Vellum and Ink). "I'm Scottish, so socialism is in my blood."

Cinematical interviews the Producers and Directors of the Futurama movie. "Ultimately, Futurama relies on a fair amount of sci-fi conventions. From the beginning, we knew space, the ships, and the battles had to look awesome -- or suffer the fans' wrath."

Comic book publishers Dabel Brothers Publishing (The Hedge Knight) is teaming up with Del Rey to distribute graphic-novel editions of the Dabel Brothers' comics. The first three projects to be announced are full-color comic adaptations of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, and Wild Cards, edited by George R.R. Martin.

Ellen Datlow writes in to tell us that The Horror Writers Association supports the Writers Guild of America strike.

Daniel Keys Moran has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog. See also: his free fiction. [via Fred K.]

SF Diplomat looks at Mundane Vs. Hard SF. "Mudane SF is [fueled] by the aspects of science that are all about empirical adequacy. It's about only saying things that are strictly likely to be true. Hard SF, on the other hand, is [fueled] by the parts of the scientific process that are all about the beauty of a scientific concept. Hard SF is about picking up a scientific idea and playing with it purely for the pleasure of thinking about the universe in that way."

Blue Sun Corp (heh-heh) lists its Top Ten Science Fiction Novels using the criteria of good ideas, good characters and good writing.

SciFi Scanner lists some Sci-Fi Geek Pick Up Lines. "Why don't we head to my bedroom, peel back my Star Wars sheets, and discover what a true Jedi can do with his light saber?" I'm thinking the clincher to that line would be if this velvet painting of Admiral Ackbar was hanging on the wall of the bedroom in the geek's mother's basement.