Michael Reaves is the author of over 25 novels, numerous short stories, and has also written extensively for animated and live action television. Michael was kind enough to join us to answer a few questions about his new project, a film called Blood Kiss, along with its stars, Neil Gaiman and Amber Benson!

The Kickstarter for Blood Kiss just met their first goal yesterday! Says Co-Producer Leah Cevoli:

We’ve had such an amazing amount of support from the fans of not just Michael, Amber, and Neil, but fans of Film Noir and Vampires as well! We hit our goal of $50,000, with 16 days left on the clock, and are now excitedly going for our stretch goals. $100,000 is our next goal, and our backers are just as excited about this as we are!

More info can be found at the Blood Kiss Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as the The Blood Kiss Kickstarter page.

And now…the interview with Michael, Neil and Amber!

Read the rest of this entry

Launching on Kickstarter on May 15th is a new project by Emmy Award winning writer Michael Reaves (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Next Generation). It’s a new “Vamp Noir” film, called Blood Kiss.

[UPDATE: Kickstarter page is up!]

Genre fans may be surprised to learn that the stars of this project are none other than Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural).

From the press release:

Blood Kiss revolves around detective Joe Belicek, who must solve the murder of a vampire before a deranged killermurders them all. Inspired by Film Noir, this supernatural thriller is set in 1940s Hollywood with famous haunts like the Brown Derby.

“Michael sent me the script.I told him,”it’s a terrific script.” and he said,”I want you toact in it.”I replied “There’s nobody else I would act for.” – Neil Gaiman

BLOOD KISS will bypass the Studios, going straight to the fans for funding to greenlight the film. Fans who contribute to BLOOD KISS’ Kickstarter campaign are eligible to receive exclusive rewards in exchange for individual pledges ranging from $5 to $10,000.

Because of Michael’s personal struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, Blood Kiss is proud to be associated with the American Parkinson’s Disease Association to promote awareness of the disease.

Follow us on Facebook & Twitter to see all the surprises we have for Blood Kiss’ ever-growingfan base!

• https://www.facebook.com/BloodKissMovie
• https://twitter.com/BloodKissMovie
• www.bloodkissmovie.com (On May 15th)

Some interesting comments throughout this speech…particularly about ebooks, ebook reading, and the future of books.

(Thanks, too, to Falls Into Writing, who provides a Full Transcription.)

Read the rest of this entry

From the mosaic novel Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback comes a story from Neil Gaiman — “Down Among the Dead Men” — delivered for your immediate enjoyment in this handy animated video.

Some nice artwork here by Les Edwards.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry

In 2006, filmmaker Christopher Salmon really, really wanted to create a 3D CG animated film of Neil Gaiman’s short story, “The Price”. So he created this proof-of-concept short animation to convince Neil to grant him the rights to the story.

It worked: The Price is now in production.

Salmon posted his touching proof-of-concept short online. Watch it right here…

Read the rest of this entry

Amazon has the cover art and synopsis of the upcoming novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.
Here’s the synopsis:

A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real…

BONUS: HarperCollins has some The Ocean at the End of the Lane wallpaper.

Book info as per Amazon US [Also available via Amazon UK]:

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (June 18, 2013)
• ISBN-10: 0062255657
• ISBN-13: 978-0062255655

In honor of Gerry Anderson, who recently passed away, Neil Gaiman took the stage with Amanda Palmer and band to sing the theme song for Anderson’s Fireball XL5.

It’s quite epic.

Read the rest of this entry

In this video, Neil Gaiman says, “Give people scary stories.” He then goes on to recommend a set of books, films, music and apps that you should try:
Read the rest of this entry

Worldbuilders, a non-profit organization founded by Patrick Rothfuss, is raising money for their cause by offering a 2013 Fantasy Pin-Up Calendar. All proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go to Worldbuilders in support of Heifer International.

Each month the calendar will feature a pin-up based on a different author’s works and/or characters illustrated by Lee Moyer. Participating authors include:
Read the rest of this entry

The folks at the Sarcastic Voyage comedy podcast have put together a series of brief puppet shows featuring genre faves Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.
Read the rest of this entry

Next month, William Morrow is publishing a collection of Ray Bradbury tribute stories called Shadow Show.

Here’s the description:

What do you imagine when you hear the name . . . Bradbury?

You might see rockets to Mars. Or bizarre circuses where otherworldly acts whirl in the center ring. Perhaps you travel to a dystopian future, where books are set ablaze . . . or to an out-of-the-way sideshow, where animated illustrations crawl across human skin. Or maybe, suddenly, you’re returned to a simpler time in small-town America, where summer perfumes the air and life is almost perfect . . . almost.

Ray Bradbury—peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America’s most beloved authors—is a literary giant whose remarkable career has spanned seven decades. Now twenty-six of today’s most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.

In Shadow Show, 26 acclaimed writers have come together to pay tribute to the work of the one and only Ray Bradbury with never before published stories inspired by the master. The incomparable literary artist who has given us such timeless classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Dandelion Wine, is being honored by some of the most notable names in the writing world—including Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Audrey Niffenegger, Margaret Atwood, Alice Hoffman, Robert McCammon, and more—with new short fiction that thrills, frightens, moves, and dazzles in the great Bradbury tradition. Edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle, with an introduction by the man, Ray Bradbury himself, Shadow Show pays well-deserved homage to one of America’s greatest, most celebrated authors.

Neil Gaiman, a contributor to the anthology, has posted an audio recording of him reading his story “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury, which appears in Shadow Show. It was originally released via the Kickstarter/fan-funded live album An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer

You can listen to Neil reading this beautiful story right here after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012. Inspiring…funny…simply a great speech.

Read the rest of this entry

This past weekend, several speculative fiction luminaries gathered for An Evening in Honor of Gene Wolfe, a night to honor the man himself. I wish I could have been there, but since I couldn’t be, this video of the festivities, taken by William Shunn, will have to suffice.

It’s a fun game of Count the Authors!

[via Michael Swanwick, another Merry-go-roundabout! Read his writeup of the event here.]

Neil Gaiman reads from his children’s book Instructions over images of Charles Vess’s wonderful art.

• Interviews and Profiles:
  • @PopCultureShock: Mike Mignola Talks About 15 Years of Hellboy, B.P.R.D. & More |
  • @Tor.com: Artist Keith Thompson.
  • @Agony Column Podcast: Margaret Atwood.
• Frederik Pohl on fandom (part 5).
• Ellen Datlow reports on the The Funeral (that should have been) for Edgar Allan Poe.
• @Tor.com: Erika Nelson reviews Octavia Butler’s Adulthood Rites.
• Neil Gaiman and BBC will let you Twitter a story for them.
• BenBella Books has posted Chris Roberson’s essay “An Angel on His Shoulder, A Devil on Hers“, one of the essay in Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica edited by Richard Hatch.
• Three Words: Zombie Marvel Superheroes
• John Anealio has written a cool song for Jeff VanderMeer’s Last Drink Bird Head. [via Ecstatic Days]
• EVENT: Forbidden Planet hosts a signing by horror legend Clive Barker Thursday 15th October 6:30 – 7:30pm. Clive will be signing his new DVD The Midnight Meat Train at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR.
• Lists:
  • Bibliophile Stalker is maintaining a List of Speculative Fiction Anthologies for 2010 to which you can contribute.
  • @Tor.com: Top Steampunk Media.
  • @io9: Top 10 Greatest Space Zombies Of All Time.
  • @AbeBooks: The Top 10 Most Depressing Reads. A couple of genre titles make the list. [via Lit Lists]
  • @Mental FLoss: B-Movie Monsters
  • Kevin Maher lists 5 Music Videos About Werewolves.
  • @SciFi Scanner: The Best and Worst Comic Book Movie Lairs.

[SF Signal welcomes the return of guest reviewer Jason Sanford!]

REVIEW SUMMARY: A short but good story which the book’s target audience will love.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The lame son of a Viking woodcrafter quests for an end to an endless winter. To his surprise, he discovers a trio of talking animals, who claim to be Odin, Thor, and Loki of the Norse legends. The only problem, they’ve been thrown out of Asgard, and if they don’t return the world dies in cold and snow.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: A fun, quick read. Kids will love the story, while adult readers of Gaiman’s earlier works will enjoy the return of some familiar mythological characters.

CONS: The story is only novelette length, but the hardback book costs an outrageous $14.99. Way too much money for what is a good but not great story.

BOTTOM LINE: Anyone who likes Gaiman’s stories will like this story. But consider waiting for the paperback edition, or buy the cheaper Kindle edition.

Read the rest of this entry

• With all the hoopla over The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF edited by Mike Ashley, did you ever wonder if it was good? Strange Horizons has Graham Sleight’s take.
• Interviews and Profiles:
  • @Bibliophile Stalker: Lauren Beukes (Moxyland).
  • @Innsmouth Free Press: Keith R.A. DeCandido. [via Bibliophile Stalker]
  • @The Nebula Awards website: Ysabeau S. Wilce.
  • @SciFi Scanner: 9 Director Shane Acker.
• Damien G. Walter launches the The ‘Zine Link-up Meme.
• Futurismic asks: Is patronage the answer for Profitable post-web publishing? [via Big Dumb Object]
• Author James Bradley has a wonderfully in-depth review of The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham: “Yet this disinterest is of a piece with the novel’s desire to unsettle not by transporting the reader to a world unknown to them, but by taking the world they know and exposing the assumptions at its core. Indeed despite the common criticism of Wyndham’s novels, that they are too polite, too bourgeois, too English (Brian Aldiss famously described them as ‘cosy catastrophes’) his visions of a ruined world do not suffer because of their muted ordinariness; rather they are unsettling precisely because of that ordinariness.” [via SciFi Scanner]
• Joseph Mallozzi reviews Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover.
• Joe Abercrombie likes District 9.
• Mark Charan Newton shows off the Benjamin Carre cover of his next book City of Ruin.
• EVENT: Forbidden Planet hosts a signing by Iain Banks (Transition) at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 3rd October 1 – 2pm.
• Jim C. Hines lists 20 Neil Gaiman Facts.
• Today’s Moment of Geeky Zen: Jonathan Coulton serenades Wil Wheaton at PAX 2009.

• The Examiner lists Top 10 SciFi/Fantasy movies coming this Fall. Included is the premise for the new Rambo film, which involves technologically-enhanced soldiers. They’d have to be: Stallone is 63 years old.
• Newsarama points us to Neil Gaiman talking about Vampires.
• The latest Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast features Matthew Rotundo, Jordan Lapp, Lou Anders
• Karen Wester Newton asks: Has reading changed? “For centuries if you wanted to read a book, you needed a physical copy of it, and either you had to read it, or another human had to read it to you. Now, in addition to print copies, a book can be recorded by the author or an actor, podcast, sold on CD or as a download, or sold as an ebook, and read on (or by) an eReader.”
• Meanwhile, Louise Marley asks: What Do Readers Want? “As writers, all we can do is tell the story that’s ours to tell, in the very best way we know how to tell it.”
• EVENT: The Singularity Summit is coming to NYC October 3 – 4. The list of speakers is impressive, including Anders Sandberg, Gregory Benford, and Ray Kurzweil. [via Gravity Lens]
• One of our recent followers on Twitter is The Clockwork Quartet, a steampunk band. Cool idea!

REVIEW SUMMARY: Disappointing effort at a fairy tale by one of my favorite authors. This story is filled with good prose, but the plot and character issues sink the book.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Tristan Thorn adventures into the land of Faerie to recover a fallen star for his sweetheart. However, he gets far more than he bargains for when he finds he isn’t the only one who wants to find the star.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Gaiman can write and his use of language is excellent

CONS: Plot is wildly disjoint, and strangely most characters are uninteresting and unimportant.

BOTTOM LINE: I’d give this story a pass.

Read the rest of this entry

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • Suvudu has a video interviews with Aaron Allston, Christie Golden, and Troy Denning, authors of the Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi series.
  • The Nebula Awards website interviews Charles Coleman Finlay.
  • SciFiNow has an interview with Director Alex Proyas.
• The World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winners for 2009 are Jane Yolen and Ellen Asher.
• Win Scott Eckert posts covers for Phantom Chronicles 2.
• Cory Doctorow explains Why free ebooks should be part of the plot for writers: “…the right time to do a free ebook release is when the printed book is available…”
• David Brin has some issues with LOST, that “infuriating television show”.
• The Outer Alliance is a new group dedicated to intelligent discussion of LGBT issues in speculative literature. [via Cheryl's Mewsings via Hal Duncan]
• Amy Sterling Casil looks at more Star Trek book covers.
• James Wallace Harris asks: Has the Universe Gotten Too Big for Science Fiction?
• EVENT: As part of the Fantastic Fiction free reading series, Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Andrew Fox (The Good Humor Man and Calorie 3501) & Chris Genoa (Foop! and the upcoming Lick Your Neighbor) Wednesday September 16th, 7pm at KGB Bar in NYC.
• Quiz: Can you name the books of George Orwell?
• The chicago-sf.org has some tidbist of interest:
  • Peter Watts (posting as ‘megasquid’) answers questions about his book Starfish.
  • The reading group’s September selection is Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. [via Allan Rosewarne]
• Apex is running a promotion in support of Harlan County Horrors.
• @Wired: Marvel Moves Into Motion Comics With Spider-Woman.
• The Steampunk Workshop points us to the cool steampunk artwork of Ivan Mavrovic.
• Publishers Weekly‘s Genreville blog gets a reboot and a new (redirect) domain name.
• Horror Squad looks at science fiction horror films. [via ScifiSquad]
• Retro-Geek-cool: USS Enterprise record player.
• Lists:
  • Neil Gaiman and Wil Wheaton make the list of Top 10 Twitter Feeds to Follow by HowStuffWorks.
  • @Geeks are Sexy: Top 5 Places to get Free Science Fiction Online.
  • @GeekDad: 5 Science Fiction/Fantasy Books We Wish Had Never Been Written.
  • @Comicbook.com: 10 Fall Movies For Comic Book Geeks.
  • @Bookstove: 5 Sci-Fi Books That Should be Made into Movies.
  • @io9: The Best of SciFi’s Oppressed Alien Species.
  • @SFX: SciFi’s 26 Greatest Tearjerkers.
  • @Fancast: 50 Sci Fi Things You Must Watch Now.
  • @SCI FI Wire: The 10 most badass sci-fi battlesuits ever.
  • A response to Quentin Tarantino’s picks for Top 20 Movies of the last 17 years: Joseph Mallozzi’s Top 20 Movies of the Past 17 Years.
  • Just…Wow. Concept Art World has 25 Inspiring Examples of Spaceships and Aircraft.