SF Tidbits for 1/29/09

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • @Subterranean Online: Nick Gevers interviews Kage Baker (The Empress of Mars). [via Locus Online]
  • NPR interviews Neil Gaiman about his Newbery win for The Graveyard Book. [via Locus Online]
  • Locus Online has interview excerpts with Frederik Pohl (Platinum Pohl) and Daryl Gregory (Pandemonium).
  • The Penguin Podcast features podcast from Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)
  • @Adventures in SciFi Publishing: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, authors of the new Dragonships of Vindras series.
  • @Wyrdsmiths: David J. Williams (Mirrored Heavens)
  • @Blogging the Muse: Scott Sigler (Contagious).
  • @io9: Artist Daniel LuVisi, who has some concept art for the upcoming adaptation of World War Z by Max Brooks.
• Free Fiction [courtesy of QuasarDragon]
  • @Everyday Weirdness: “The Difficulties of Writing a Novel (in a Zeppelin Fortress)” by Jens Rushing.
  • Audio Fiction:
    • @LibriVox: Short Ghost and Horror Story Collection 001 by Various.
    • @Maria Lectrix: The Ultimate Weapon by John W. Campbell, Jr. (Chapter 9).
    • @StarShipSofa: Fiction from Lewis Shiner and Ken MacLeod.
• Award News: The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and F. Paul Wilson. [via Juno Books]
• Adam Whitehead gives an exhaustive history of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series in his essay A Defence of Dragons, Part 1.
• At The Guardian Books Blog, the article Science fiction: the genre that dare not speak its name talks about the mainstreaming of science fiction: “Mainstream authors and publishers seem happy to appropriate the tropes of science fiction but not the label itself.”
• James Enge rants about the Guardian’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels Everyone Must Read list.
• Erika Nelson looks at the parenting angle of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: “The novel’s statement on education is equally nebulous and contradictory. Some theorists have seen a straight-ahead moral of the important role parents play in educating and nurturing children, but there is a more conservative message, as well.”
• Mindy Klasky talks about when to toss a book. I use The 33% Rule.
• New places to get fiction:
  • M-BRANE SF is a new genre magazine available in PDF.
  • NewFiction.com offers free, episodic “iSoap” audio books.
• SciFi Songmeister John Anealio has another song up for your aural pleasure: “Leodora“, inspired by the Shadowbridge/Lord Tophet duology by Gregory Frost.
• Not a Planet Anymore lists Top 5 most bad-ass Doctor Who moments. I dunno, those weeping angels in “Blink” that aren’t on the list scared the begeezus out of me…
• Movie Sequels and Adaptations:
  • A sequel to Blade Runner? Really? Sigh.
  • I would have guessed that the final Watchmen poster would have the omnipresent smiley face. Oh well.
  • John Scalzi lists SF Books that Would Make Great Adaptations.
  • The guy writing the upcoming Gears of War movie wants it to be a “darker Lord of the Rings“. Personally, I think the world is ready for a slapstick comedy version of Lord of the Rings. [via SciFi Scanner]
  • Variety has an update on Universal’s remake of The Thing: Dawn of the Dead director Matthijs Van Heijningen will directing the script by BSG‘s Ron Moore. According to Variety, this adaptation will lean heavily from the John W. Campbell Jr’s original short story “Who Goes There“, which was the basis of both the 1982 John Carpenter film and the 1951 Howard Hawks “The Thing From Another World.” We recently showcased Carpenter’s The Thing in a “Sunday Cinema” posting a few months ago, which only proved that old Confuscious saying: “You can never get enough Wilford Brimley.”

Related posts:

1. SF Tidbits, Part 70 – Now with 100% Less Roman Numeral!
2. SF Tidbits for 12/10/07
3. SF Tidbits for 4/20/06
4. SF Tidbits for 4/26/06
5. SF Tidbits for 10/2/07

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