SF Tidbits for 10/8/09
- Interviews and Profiles:
- @Tor.com: J.C. Hutchins (Personal Effects: Dark Art).
- @Master of Light and Shadow: Janny Wurts.
- @BSCreview: Sharon Shinn
- @Temple Library Reviews: Kaaron Warren.
- @Stomping on Yeti: Jason Stoddard.
- @The Dragon Page: David Anthony Durham
- @I Should Be Writing: Mur Lafferty interviews Lou Anders and Pablo Defendini. Thanks for the shout-out, Lou! 🙂
- Michael Chabon, Cory Doctorow, and Annalee Newitz renew their privacy concerns as judge sets November 9th deadline for revised $125m Google book settlement
- Issue 21 of Death Ray magazine will be the last.
- There’s some good discussion going on at Lou Anders blog about science fiction going mainstream (or not).
- At Tor.com, GD Falksen offers up a beginner’s primer with Steampunk 101.
- Ann Aguirre on MST3King B-movies: “Anything with a lesser Baldwin is generally a good candidate”.
- For writers:
- Brenda Clough talks about Ways to Trash Your Writing Career.
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch continues her writing advice series with Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Success (Part One).
- Charles Tan on The Taboos of Editing.
- Here’s a sneak peek at Pyr’s Spring/Summer 2010 Season.
- Like retro gaming? Then you may like this Alfa Romeo commercial: Car vs. Space Invaders.
- Retrospace offers up a gallery of Monsters Carrying Chicks.
- Fun Flash Game: Frankenstein – The Creature Must Die!
- Lists:
- @BestScienceFictionStories: Science Fiction Stories About Kids With Powerful Objects.
- @Fandomania: 10 Notable Science Fiction Pulp Magazines.
- Alongside all the books about sex, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight makes the list of The top ten most pirated eBooks of 2009. [via LIT LISTS]
“10 Notable Science Fiction Pulp Magazines.”
Actually, it’s four pulps, five digests, and one glossy magazine that wasn’t even primarily a science fiction magazine.
There’s no possible way to define Omni as a “pulp.”
Nor could you sell any pulp collectors the five digest non-pulp magazines.
The writer of the piece seems to have some serious confusions. “…another publication that emerged in the pulp boom of the 1950s….” There was no “pulp boom of the 1950s”; the 1950s were the last gasp of the pulps and when they died. “Omni’s target audience was a little older than the high school crowd — someone who considered themselves a science enthusiast, although probably not a science professional.”
Omni’s publishers never quite figured out what it was supposed to be, but it was more about woo-woo paranormal than about science.
Saying “Planet Stories had a unique brand of swashbuckling adventure science fiction that appealed to a younger generation of up-and-coming sci fi fans” is beyond anachronistic. Nobody, but nobody, in the 1930s was a “sci fi fan ,” no matter what direction they were going in.
Etc.