• The nominees for the 2008 Endeavour Award, honoring distinguished science fiction and fantasy written by a Pacific Northwest author, have been announced and include The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari, Bright of the Sky: Book One of the Entire and the Rose by Kay Kenyon, Not Flesh Nor Feathers by Cherie Priest, Powers by Ursula K. LeGuin, and The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper.


• Baen's Universe wants to examine additional ways to deliver short fiction to readers. [via James Nicoll]


• Solar Flare weighs in on short fiction's future.


• Blake Charlton has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Jo Walton is thinking about the Fermi Paradox.


• Tor.com begins its SF/F Book Cover Review with the Hugo nominees. First up: The Yiddish Policeman's Union.


• At The Nebula Awards website, Sheila Finch offers A personal exploration of the similarities in the poetic prose of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood.


• Interviews:
  • TruthDig interviews Ray Bradbury on Literature and Love.
  • @Impactlab: Ben Bova (Mars Life).
  • @Adventures in Scifi Publishing: a podcast interview with Neil Gaiman.
  • @Iain-Banks.net: Iain Banks FinancialRadio.co.uk audio interview.
  • @SciFi Scanner: The crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
  • @Publishers Weekly: John Scalzi. [via Enter the Octopus]
  • @Tor: Artist Shaun Tan.
  • @Fantasy and Science Fiction: Charles Coleman Finlay on "The Political Prisoner".


• Free Fiction:
  • @Tor.com: the comic The Leviathan by Wesley Allsbrook.
  • Karen Marie Moning's Darkfever debuts as an audiobook podcast. [via Suvudu]
  • @Strange Horizons: "Down the Well" by Alaya Dawn Johnson
  • @Escape Pod: "How I Mounted Goldie, Saved My Partner Lori, and Sniffed Out The People's Justice" by Jonathon Sullivan. [via SFFaudio]
  • @Space Westerns [via QuasarDragon]:
    • "The Horse Theives" by Patrick Scalisi
    • "Corazón" by Jens Rushing


• Paul DiFilippo reviews books:
  • At SCI FI Weekly, : The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl.
  • At Barnes and Noble, he reviews the dark fantasy titles Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy edited by William Schafer, Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan, The Veil of Gold by Kim Wilkins, and A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans: "Like all terms relating to the horror genre, "dark fantasy" -- a currently fashionable label for hybrid works straddling the already blurred categories of horror and fantasy fiction -- relates more to emotional effects and affect, to tone and atmosphere, rather than to any particular settings, tropes, trappings, or plots."


• The good folks at Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine are holding a series of mass autographings at WorldCon (check links for location & schedule):
  • Asimov's 30th Anniversary Anthology Signing (with Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Stephen Baxter, Robert Reed, Charles Stross, Mike Resnick, Connie Willis, and James Patrick Kelly).
  • Asimov's/Analog Signings (Stephen Baxter, Connie Willis, Sheila Williams, Ted Kosmatka, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, James Patrick Kelly, John Picacio, Michael Swanwick, Robert Reed, John Kessel, Mike Resnick, Jack Skillingstead, Nancy Kress, Connie Willis, and Mary Rosenblum).


• Lists:
  • @UGO: The Top 50 Hottest Sci-Fi Girls of All-Time.
  • @Suvudu: The Best Heavy Metal Songs Based on Fantasy Novels. (John Jospeh Adams chimes in with some additions.)
  • @The List Universe: Kirk and Uhura make the list of 10 Memorable Kisses Through History.
  • 10 Reasons It Would Rule to Date a Unicorn. [via Neatorama]
  • @io9: Star Wars: Clone Wars: Ten Reasons Why the Clone Wars TV Series is Going to Rule.


• A Flickr gallery of Lego robots. [via Super Punch]

Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday August 05, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal