SF Signal

Coming in 3 months — It’s SofaCON!

SofaCON is an Online International Science Fiction Convention run by Tony Smith of Starship Sofa.

Join the crew of the Hugo Award winning StarShipSofa, their special guests, and friends from all over the world as a new tradition begins: SofaCON, An Online International Science Fiction Convention. This live, history-making event will focus on those who are creators, scholars, and fans of the best of speculative fiction. Over the years StarShipSofa has brought together a global community of science fiction lovers; it’s time for old and new Sofanauts alike to meet in a real-time, interactive virtual venue to celebrate the genre they love.

Meet stellar authors. Watch exclusive interviews and lectures. Ask questions and offer comments. Enjoy the SF convention experience from the comfort of your home. Don’t miss this inaugural event!

I am also pleased to announce that JP and I will be guests at SofaCON. Stay tuned!

Tagged with: SofaCON

Filed under: Events

PleaseDontSuck, pleaseDontSuck, pleaseDontSuck…

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Tagged with: Monsters • Pacific Rim • robots • Trailer

Filed under: Movies

Bad days is a web series that shows that life is not always peachy keen just because you have super powers.

Take, f’rinstance, Superman. Is there trouble in paradise for The Man of Steel and Lois Lane?

Watch a Superman-centric Bad Days!

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Tagged with: Bad Days • friday youtube • Superman

Filed under: Humor

And so it continues… Part 4 of The Raven’s Head Dagger and the Custom of the Seas.

What’s special about today’s free fiction?

1. Beneath Ceaseless Skies #121 – May 16, 2013
2. Electric Velocipede has a story from Val Nolan
3. Nature has some flash from Ken Liu

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Tagged with: Amazon • audio fiction • fiction • free • free ebooks • free fantasy fiction • Free Fiction • free flash fiction • free horror fiction • free science fiction • serialized • serialized fiction

Filed under: Free Fiction

Titan has posted the cover art and synopsis of the upcoming novel Ecko Burning by Danie Ware, sequel to Ecko Rising.

Here’s the synopsis:
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Tagged with: Cover & Synopsis • Danie Ware • Ecko Burning • Ecko Rising

Filed under: Books

Interviews & Profiles

• Suvudu interviews Christa Faust.
• Rick Novy interviews Jay Lake.
• Chuck Wendig interviews Patrick Hester.
• Geekosystem interviews Dan Abnett.
• The Qwillery interviews Brian McClellan.
• Omnivoracious interviews Rick Yancy.
• The British Fantasy Society interviews Mike, Linda & Louise Carey.
• Cristina Jurado interviews Steve Redwood.

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Filed under: Tidbits

Vin Diesel is back. And if that doesn’t scare you, maybe the new trailer for Riddick will. It seems like it has more in common with Pitch Black than it does with The Chronicles of Riddick.

Prepare for the latest chapter of the groundbreaking saga that began with 2000′s hit sci-fi film Pitch Black and 2004′s The Chronicles of Riddick.

The infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered.

The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty.

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Tagged with: Riddick • Trailer

Filed under: Movies

It’s almost a given these days, especially with fantasy books–you open up the front cover and an enormous map sprawls out before you, denoting various continents, kingdoms, murky forests, coastal ports, and all the other bits and jots composing the world. Sometimes these locales have colorful names, such as Shadowlands of the Dark Lord, Bottomless Pit of Apathy, and Do-Not-Go-Here-istan. Other times, they’re a gibberish of glottal coughs and apostrophes.

However they’re named, though, so often these maps and representative lands are simply indicative of where the story happens rather than what the story is about. They’re just a reference point for those readers who dearly want to know if the heroine’s quest to save a hapless prince from a dragon took her through the pleasant town of Orcsg’utyo’u or not.

What if we tried a different perspective? Let’s strap on our Boots of Anti-Blistering, grab a wizard’s walking stick, and head off across worlds where the geography is as integral to the plot as the main characters themselves.

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Tagged with: Bradley Beaulieu • Brandon Sanderson • Felix Gilman

Filed under: Book Review • Books

Over on the Kirkus Reviews Blog today, I take a look at an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness.

From the article:

Published by Sterling, this volume adapts Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness in a classic style reminiscent of Hergé’s Tintin.  In the story, Professor Dyer leads an expedition to Antarctica in September of 1930.  With a biologist, engineer, physicist and meteorologist, and a geologist on board, their mission is to take core soil and rock samples from areas of unexplored Antarctica, run tests, and report their findings back home.  By November, they enter McMurdo Sound, and the adventure begins.

Click over and check out the rest of the review.

Tagged with: At the Mountains of Madness • h.p. lovecraft • Kirkus

Filed under: Books • Web Sites

In 2001, When Jack Skillingstead entered Stephen King’s “On Writing” competition, King selected Jack’s entry as one of five winners. In 2003 Asimov’s published Jack’s first professional sale. “Dead Worlds” was a finalist for the Sturgeon Award and was reprinted in two Year’s Best anthologies. Since then Jack has sold more than thirty stories to professional markets. Golden Gryphon Press issued a archival quality hardcover collection of his stories in 2009. Also in 2009 Fairwood Press published Harbinger, a science fiction novel. Both books were nominated for Locus Awards.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack recently…

Kristin Centorcelli: Jack, your brand new novel, Life on the Preservation, will be out at the end of May! Will you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Jack Skillingstead: Yes, May 28 is the pub date. Life on the Preservation is my third book (I’ve been publishing in professional markets since 2003), though it’s the first that will receive wide distribution. Of course, I’ve wanted to write since an early age. I remember thinking about it in a very conscious way when I was about twelve years old. It seemed like the only option, and it still seems that way. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to be a writer — you know, the guy with his byline in a magazine or on the cover of a book. I wanted to be able to do it. Find the good stuff, if there was any, and present my unique vision. I thought it would take a long time, and it did. I was raised in a working class environment, and that sort of defined my prospects in the mundane world. While my siblings were taking out loans and working jobs to pay for college degrees I was exclusively focused on writing and reading. What made it harder was that, despite all my efforts, I was a terrible writer in those days. But there was a spark. I came very close to selling my early efforts. In retrospect, thank God I didn’t. It would have ruined me. I wasn’t ready.
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Tagged with: Jack Skillingstead • Life On the Preservation

Filed under: Interviews

Middle school…the final frontier!

I’m going to take a moment to examine why I find this so nerdishly charming in so many ways…

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Tagged with: Middle School Musical • Star Trek

Filed under: Music • Star Trek

Something’s very rotten on a sailboat in the middle of the North Pacific. I’ve got Part 3 of my contemporary fantasy novelette, The Raven’s Head Dagger and the Custom of the Seas. For those of you who like coming late to things, there’s a Part 1 and a Part 2 as well.

What’s special about today’s free fiction?

1. Tor has a story from George RR Martin’s Wild Cards shared world: “The Button Man and the Murder Tree” by Cherie Priest
2. Books One and Two from Christopher Buecheler‘s The II AM Trilogy
3. Books One and Two from Jay Swanson‘s The Vitalis Chronicles
4. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has posted the first chapter of her upcoming contemporary fantasy novel, Young Blood. Read it and then give her all your money (it’s crowdfunding, so that’s what you’re supposed to do)

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Tagged with: Amazon • audio fiction • fiction • free • free ebooks • free fantasy fiction • Free Fiction • free flash fiction • free horror fiction • free science fiction • serialized • serialized fiction

Filed under: Free Fiction

Interviews & Profiles

• Postscriptd interviews Anne Rice.
• Ginger Nuts of Horror interviews Rena Mason.
• Nightmare Magazine interviews Tanith Lee.
• Nightmare Magazine interviews Benjamin König.
• GeekExchange interviews John Scalzi.
• This Is Horror interviews Peter Tennant.
• Stainless Steel Droppings interviews Scott Quick.
• A Fantastical Librarian interviews James MacManus.
• Suvudu readers interview Terry Brooks.
• Civilian Reader interviews Richard Ford.
• John Birmingham interviews George R.R. Martin.

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Filed under: Tidbits

Mighty Mur Lafferty has a new book coming out called The Shambling Guide to New York City. It’s a fun and funny look at being human in the increasingly supernatural city of New York.

Here’s the official description:

A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city – for the undead!

Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can’t take off her resume — human.

Not to be put off by anything — especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker — Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble — with Zoe right in the middle.

And here’s the trailer (and more goodies!)…
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Tagged with: Book Trailer • Mur Lafferty • The Shambling Guide To New York City

Filed under: Books

Note: this review originally appeared on the blog of Starship Reckless, as part of a series in which Athena Andreadis discusses works of the contributors to The Other Half of the Sky.

by Athena Andreadis

Cat Rambo’s recent collection, Near + Far (Hydra House, $16.95 print, $6.99 digital), is a tête-bêche book containing 2×12 stories of wildly different lengths that previously appeared in such venues as Abyss & Apex, Clarkesworld, Clockwork Phoenix, Crossed Genres, Daily SF and Lightspeed.

Before I discuss the stories themselves, I’ll mention two secondary but important aspects of the book. One is the attention paid to the presentation; as one example, the text ornaments are almost distracting in their beauty. The other is that each story has an afterword in which Rambo gives its backstory and worldpath. Personally, I greatly enjoy such fore/afterwords (I still fondly recall Harlan Ellison’s needle-sharp, needling introductions) and find that they invariably deepen my understanding and appreciation of the tale – provided that the writer knows their craft. Which brings us to the content of the collection.
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Tagged with: Athena Andreadis • Cat Rambo • guest post

Filed under: Book Review • Books

Did you ever notice that some novels are extensions of (or based off of) shorter works of fiction? This week at the Kirkust Reviews Blog, I take at look at that very thing. I used this as an opportunity to interview Ted Kosmatka, Catherine Lundoff, Will McInrosh, Linda Nagata and Robert J. Sawyer — all of whom have novels that began life as short fiction.

See some of the challenges they faced over at the Kirkus Reviews Blog in When Short Fiction Grows Into a Novel.

Tagged with: Catherine Lundoff • Kirkus • Linda nagata • Robert J. Sawyer • science fiction • Ted Kosmatka • Will McInrosh

Filed under: Books • Web Sites

[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

We asked this week’s panelists…

Here’s what they said…

When it comes to some of the best action I’ve read, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point you to Ilona Andrews—notably, her Kate Daniels series. This urban fantasy leans heavily on action, outlining the motion—and painting the intensity—in gorgeous detail that skimps on flowery prose. No superhero with impossible pain tolerance, you’re transported with Kate with every cut, every wound, every agony. When I think about authors and books that feature action, I can’t help but arrow right on this series.

Two other authors that come to mind are Chuck Wendig and Stephen Blackmoore. Both write a kind of urban fantasy genre, but both are extremely different. Wendig’s Miriam Black series—beginning with Blackbirds—shows action with an almost fascinating intensity. He describes combat sequences that aren’t so much “fights” as a grotesquely detached explanation of events that could go wither way. Blackmoore, in both City of the Lost and Dead Things, colors his often vicious action sequences with a noir grit you can feel to your bones. They are terse, which only allows my brain to color in the details with such ease that I’m both repelled and entranced. Exactly where I want to be when I pick up a Blackmoore or Wendig book.

Action can be so hard to get right, and extremely easy to get lost in. Too much detail slows down a scene, and a lot of beginning authors tend to want to block and write every gorgeous detail—like an epic martial arts movie scene. It takes a certain understanding of physical capability, some blocking, and the ability to curtail one’s prose to keep the scene going sharp, fast, tight, like an actual fight is. It’s a hard skill to learn, but one worth every moment spent revising to learn it. A reader caught up in the intensity and speed of a fight is one who is there for every breathless moment.

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Tagged with: Dave Gross • Django Wexler • J.L. Murray • Jeff Salyards • Karina Cooper • Kelly McCullough • Peter Clines

Filed under: Interviews • Mind Meld

SF Signal has 1 signed copy of 3 of M.L. Brennan’s Generation V to give away to 1 lucky SF Signal reader.

Here’s the book description:

Reality Bites

Fortitude Scott’s life is a mess. A degree in film theory has left him with zero marketable skills, his job revolves around pouring coffee, his roommate hasn’t paid rent in four months, and he’s also a vampire. Well, sort of. He’s still mostly human.

But when a new vampire comes into his family’s territory and young girls start going missing, Fort can’t ignore his heritage anymore. His mother and his older, stronger siblings think he’s crazy for wanting to get involved. So it’s up to Fort to take action, with the assistance of Suzume Hollis, a dangerous and sexy shape-shifter. Fort is determined to find a way to outsmart the deadly vamp, even if he isn’t quite sure how.

But without having matured into full vampirehood and with Suzume ready to split if things get too risky, Fort’s rescue mission might just kill him.…

And here’s how you can enter for a chance to win:
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Filed under: Contest

If IMDB is to be believed, Gravity is Alfonso Cuaron’s first film on the big screen since 2006′s excellent Children of Men. The teaser for Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, came out a few days ago and I’ve watched it a couple of times since then. I’m not sure what to think. Here’s the synopsis:

Academy award winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star in “Gravity,” a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar nominee Alfonso Cuarón. Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.

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Tagged with: Gravity • Trailer

Filed under: Movies

You should all be grateful that I have a serialized story. That way I don’t keep mentioning my novel. Uh… oops.

What’s special about today’s free fiction?

1. Crossed Genres #5 – May 2013 – Escape
2. Tor has a story from Alex Bledsoe
3. Weird Fiction Review has a story from Kit Reed

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Tagged with: Amazon • audio fiction • fiction • free • free ebooks • free fantasy fiction • Free Fiction • free flash fiction • free horror fiction • free science fiction • serialized • serialized fiction

Filed under: Free Fiction