SF/F/H Link Post for 2013-12-12

Interviews & Profiles

• Audible.com has a Q&A with John Scalzi, who discusses his career and new book, “Lock In.”
• Buffy and Merlin Anthony Head star talks about playing a centaur in Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters
• The Civilian Reader interviews Toby Venables of Knight of Shadows
• The League of Extraordinary Writers has an interview with the authors of the young adult novel These Broken Stars, Meagan Spooner and Amie Kaufman.
• Ming-Na Wen: Why S.H.I.E.L.D. is the ‘toughest show I’ve ever had to do’
• My Bookish Ways JB Lynn, author of Nearly Departed
• Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer: an audience with geek royalty
• Nicky Peacock interviews Laura Lam, author of Shadowplay.

Events & Event News

• The Confusion science fiction convention will be held in Detroit in January. The guest list includes Tobias Buckell, Cherie Priest, and Lucy A. Snyder.
• The New York Public Library (NYPL) has organized an event called “Charles Dickens & A Christmas Carol with Neil Gaiman and Molly Oldfield.” The event will take place on Saturday, December 15th inside the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Crowd Funding

• Imaginary Drugs – An immortal celebrity assassin. Doomed love in space. An adorable but twisted ritual sacrifice. Your comics await!
• Red: A Cyberpunk Fairytale Volume 1 – A sci-fi version of Little Red Riding Hood. Red, a member of a private security firm, must fight to survive in a violent world.

Articles

• 9 Fairy Tales For Adults That Are WAY Better Than Disney
• 9 Signs You Might Be Living in a YA Novel, courtesy of Barnes and Noble.
• 95% of Americans find libraries ‘important’
• Amazing Stories editor Steve Davidson offers an explanation and apology and reaffirms his commitment to diversity and stand against bigotry.
• Are Libraries Essential? Mixed Message in Latest Pew Survey
• The Art & Science of World Building: The Tools You Need to Make a Believable World
• A.V. Club picks the best mainstream and superhero comics of 2013
• Dangerous Women tops Bookish’s list of the best sci-fi and fantasy books of 2013.
• Do the Amazing Spider-Man Movies Need Peter Parker?
• Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space: Worst Movie Ever Made or Ultimate Cult Flick?
• Elizabeth Bear: A Shining Light in the Genre
• From the Ghetto to Literary Old Town: Exploring Shakespeare’s Magic
• Galatica’s Gods: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cylon God
• Great Gift Books for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fan In Your Life, suggested by Barnes and Noble.
• The Huffington Post on The Meaning of Libraries.
• Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Star Wars?
• Kenya sci-fi series imagines European immigrants fleeing to Africa: TV show set in 2062 presents Africa as an oasis which desperate Europeans are risking their lives to reach
• Movie moguls do battle over The Hobbit’s olden hoard.
• The New York Times considers the issue of Heroines at the Box Office
• Omnivoracious suggests YA Books to Read in 2014
• Research sheds new light on why paper still has an edge over e-readers.
• The Secret of Writing Great Science Fiction from great science fiction writers.
• Spiders, Bear Men, Bowmen, and Crises of Elvish Conscience: Tor.com imagines What We Might See in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, like kids who can’t wait for Christmas.
• Understanding Tolkien’s work hinges upon the horror of the Somme. Ninety years ago, Allied commanders launched the World War I offensive lastingly remembered as the Battle of the Somme.
• When Can You Call Yourself A Writer?
• Why do writers publish? What do they make? Social science findings from Digital Book World
• ​Why people’s problems with a female Doctor Who are wrong, wrong, wrong
• Kirkus Reviews (John DeNardo) offers Gift Ideas for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans on Your Holiday Shopping List.

Science and Technology

• 6-year-old tries to save NASA: A 6-year-old who dreams of being an astronaut for NASA has taken matters into his own hands by starting an online petition to try and save NASA.
• Congressional hearings on extraterrestrial life
• Tolkien gesture – scientist maps climate of Lord of the Rings: Mount Doom is like LA and the Shire like Lincolnshire, so says a climate model based on author’s famously detailed maps
• Scientific America explains Why Life Does Not Really Exist
• Worried about robots? You should be. Artificial intelligence superior to our own is, by some estimates, only thirty years away. What could possibly go wrong? The answer: everything.

Art

• How to Make a Fantasy World Map
• In the new Itty Bitty Orphan Black Webcomic, Helena’s always scarfing down everyone’s food, Delphine’s being a goody two-shoes tattle tale, and Cosima is just straight up delinquent. And all of them are each other! What’s Principal Leekie to do?!?

More Fun Stuff

• The 13 Most Indisputable Fan Theories Of 2013
• Infographic: The Secret Wealth of Smaug the Dragon
• Watch a Teaser for Doctor Who’s Christmas Special
• Sword & Laser Podcast – #154 – A Natural History of Dragons.
• YouTuber and undeniable genius Paradise Decay has created the “trench run” from Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope in Minecraft, brick by exacting brick. None of it is random, either. Paradise Decay matched the original as close as humanly possible.