• Cool Site of the Day: Springfield Punx, which Simpsonizes superheroes and celebrities.


• Interviews & Profiles:
  • SciFi Scanner interviews:
    • Astronaut Buzz Aldrin about how SciFi can get real.
    • Hugo winner John Scalzi. (In true Scalzi form, he also interviews himself at his own blog.)
  • NPR talks with Michael Chabon about the Hugo Awards. [via Locus Online]
  • @SciFi Wire: Patricia Briggs, author of Cry Wolf.
  • @Blogging the Muse: Catherine Asaro


• Free Fiction:
  • @Strange Horizons: "The Emerald King" by J. Kenneth Sargeant.
  • @Feedbooks:
    • "Peace In Our Time" by Carrie Vaughn.
    • "Art's Appreciation" by Tom Doyle.
    • "Consensus Building" by Tom Doyle.
    • "Is You Is/Is You Ain't?" by Michael Canfield.


• Free Fiction Sample: Brandon Sanderson has posted sample chapters from Mistborn 3 at his website.


• RIF (Reading is Fundamental) teams up with Macy's to promote childhood literacy with their "Book A Brighter Future" program, aimed towards children in the U.S. who lack adequate access to books.


• Ken MacLeod gives the elevator pitch for his book, The Night Sessions. (Also: Read Chapter 1 and extract.) [via Futurismic]


• J.M. McDermott on polemic fiction: "My first task at attempting to write good polemic fiction was to find some way to make the stink less stinky."


• Niall Harrison rounds up some Hugos award analyses, which includes the generation gap discussion.


• Kathryn Cramer on the semiprozine rules change & NYRSF.


• The group blog Something Wicked (comprised of Ann Aguirre, Shirley Damsgaard, Angie Fox, Tate Hallaway, and Karen MacInerney) has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• The Sybaritic Side of Iain Banks' Culture: "One might best describe [the ethos of the Culture] as a super liberal who is actually right 99.999 percent of the time."


• Aiden Moher of A Dribble of Ink looks at Books he should like, but doesn't. [via WISB]


• A few thoughts on post-cyberpunk science-fiction, in which Neal Stephenson sets the trend for which William Gibson is given credit.


• Lev Grossman talks about Time Bandits, too.


• Was 1970-1989 the best time for science fiction movies?


• Cone Wars Stuff:
  • Why Star Wars: The Clone Wars Won't Sound Familiar. Sez Lucas: "To be very honest with you, I don't really think I need to hire a big movie star to publicize my movie."
  • Besides the Clone Wars, the Star Wars Comics Introduced Us to Talking Bunnies and the Dark Lady of the Sith.
  • Mental Floss lists 7 Reasons Clone Wars Will Be Worth Seeing. Personally, I'm still "meh."


• My eighties senses are tingling when I see Spiderman on a skateboard. I hate to say that I subscribed to Pizzazz when I was but an impressionable lad, so this cover gallery - which includes the like of C3P0 & R2D2, Superman, the cast of the original BSG, and the Hulk - brings back memories and a respectable case of nausea. [via Look At This]


• Lists:
  • @Marc and Angel Hack Life: 30 Books Everyone Should Read Before Their 30th Birthday, which includes 1984 by George Orwell, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
  • @Discover Magazine: Best Classic Science Fiction TV Show Themes. [via The Website at the End of the Universe]


• The Boba Fett Pez dispenser [via Fanboy]

Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday August 12, 2008 at 12:32 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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