SF Tidbits for 12/16/08

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • AMC’s SciFi Scanner interviews William Shatner. Regarding the new Trek film: “Leonard [Nimoy] will not speak. And I’ve had him strapped to a chair, I’ve waterboarded him, and he almost told me… but at the last moment the door broke down and the FBI came in. ‘Waterboarding is not allowed,’ they told me. I think I’ve said enough.”
  • @Agony Column Podcast: SF in SF Steampunk Panel.
  • OutNorthwest magazine has an interview with Doctor Who Executive producer Russell T. Davies. [via The Doctor Who News Page]
  • Fantastic Artist of the fantastic, Todd Lockwwod, shares a step-by-step walkthrough of his cover painting for R.A. Salvatore’s The Orc King. [via Suvudu]
  • Speaking of cool art, Irene Gallo profiles the artists known as Razer.
• Free Fiction [courtesy of QuasarDragon]
  • @Fantasy Magazine: “The Queen of Hearts” by Daniel Homan.
  • @Mindflights: “The Void Test” by Therese L. Arkenberg.
  • @Strange Horizons: “How to Hold Your Breath” by Meredith Schwartz.
  • Audio Fiction @Transmissions From Beyond: “Heartstrung” by Rachel Swirsky, read by Heather Welliver.
• John Scalzi reacts to io9′s Power List: “…it’s the sort of list you put out when it’s the end of the year, and you need a list to bring a lot of attention to your site, i.e., a list tuned more for an argument than for reason…But it doesn’t particularly mean the list is accurate…” Scalzi’s version of the list includes “Dave Howe and Bonnie Hammer (Sci Fi Cable Network), Gabe Newell (Valve Software), Tom Doherty and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor Books), Avi Arad and Kevin Feige (Marvel Comics/Marvel Studio), George Lucas (George Lucas), and the various studio heads about and around Hollywood.”
• Colleen Lindsay tells us that book sales may be down, but genre book sales are up.
• EVENT: As part of the Fantastic Fiction reading series, Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Harvey Jacobs (American Goliath) & Catherynne M. Valente (The Orphan’s Tales) Wednesday January 21st, 7pm at KGB Bar in NYC.
• AUCTION: Rain Taxi is holding a benefit auction to raise necessary funds. It ends Saturday.
• “Filmmakers recycle fan favorites instead of exploring new frontiers” So says, Geoff Boucher in the Los Angeles Times.
• @SCI FI Weekly, Michael Cassutt says “The age of the sci-tec, the science detective, is upon us…“
• Lists:
  • @Unreality: 10 of the Baddest Fictional Movie Weapons. (Not to be confused with this one from a few months ago.)
  • io9 lists Book Covers from Pre-Golden Age SF, not all of which are the advertised (and overused) “amazing”.
  • io9 also lists The 10 Worst Science Fiction Remakes (and gets the decade wrong for the original Planet of the Apes — it’s a 1968 classic, not a 1970′s classic. Not that I’m in any way justified to call anyone on proofreading!)

Related posts:

1. SF Tidbits for 3/18/07
2. SF Tidbits for 6/27/08
3. Still More Tidbits
4. SF Tidbits for 11/16/07
5. SF Tidbits for 11/24/07

Filed under: Tidbits

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