SF/F/H Link Post for 2013-09-30

Interviews & Profiles

• 50 years of Doctor Who: six of the actors who have played The Doctor’s companions – Louise Jameson, Freema Agyeman, Katy Manning, Carole Ann Ford, Billie Piper and Karen Gillan discuss their experiences on the show in video interviews.
• The Civilian Reader interviews Tony Ballantyne, author of the Penrose novels.
• Geek Planet lures Mary Robinette Kowal into their secret lair for cake and tea.
• Geoffrey Girard how his secret superpower relates to his new novel, Cain’s Blood.
• Godborn author Paul S. Kemp discusses antiheroes and whiskey with io9.
• Jonathan Lethem on the subversive power of comics and science fiction. The ‘Dissident Gardens’ author talks about Captain America, Philip K. Dick, and writing about his grandmother’s sex life.
• My Bookish Ways interviews Eric Lundgren, author of The Facades
• Philip Reeve interviews Natasha Ngan of The Elites
• The Qwillery interviews Eric Lundgren, of The Facades, as part of the 2013 Debut Author Challenge.
• SFFWorld interviews Susan Dennard, author of the Something Strange and Deadly series.

News

• Author Bill Bryson has called on publishers to give away e-books when people buy the printed versions in order to boost sales of physical books.
• Charlie Jane Anders’ Six Months, Three Days Coming to NBC
• France wants a Higher Tax On eBooks That Are Not Interoperable in order to discourage DRM.
• Goodreads’ New Censorship Policy Causing a Stir Among the Frequently Reading
• Penguin Expands E-books in Libraries

Events

• Tonight and Tomorrow! Dradin, In Love at the Galway Theatre Festival in Ireland, based on a twisted tale from Jeff VanderMeer.

Crowd Funding

• ConQuest – a party-based tactical RPG where players battle through the halls of a comic con gone wrong, defeating enemies and collecting swag along the way. The game is an irreverent and light-hearted take on the awesomeness of comic cons.
• Gerry Anderson’s Gemini Force One – a campaign devoted to continuing the work of television legend Gerry Anderson, of Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds to Space 1999 and Captain Scarlet. Gemini Force One began as a series of science fiction stories penned by Anderson, and the late creator’s son Jamie aims to get them published as a series of books, with a view to getting them turned into a TV series or even a movie in the future.

Articles

• Review: Jim Steranko on Agents of SHIELD: ‘No Menace, No Tension’
• 4 Rules to Make Star Wars Great Again
• 5 Focal Points for Writers Reading Books
• 5 Tips for Creating an Urban Fantasy World
• The 7 Most Common Misconceptions About Science Fiction Publishing
• The 10 Best Science Fiction Stories Where Humans Are The Monsters
• 11 iconic sci-fi artifacts (that are pointless when you really think about them)
• 11 TV characters who were gonna die until fan love saved them
• 18 Of The Most Whedon-y Moments From “S.H.I.E.L.D.”
• Are we too Concerned that Characters be Likable?
• At ‘Hunger Games’ camp, children want to fight to the ‘death’
• The Big Idea: Brandon Sanderson
• The eBook Invasion—Taking over the World One Text File at a Time
• Fifty years of Doctor Who: how I fell in love with a timelord
• Fiction is Spinach
• Five Reasons to Love Novellas
• The history and technique of the siege by fantasy author K.J. Parker.
• HTML5 is the Future of Book Authorship
• A man walks into a bar: how a novella like “Equoid” gets written.
• One Person’s Utopia Is Another’s Dystopia
• PC publishers ban dragon from breathing fire in children’s book… because it’s too dangerous
• Putting the science into fiction
• Seven Kingdoms and Beyond: World-Building in Game of Thrones
• Something Wicked This Way Comes: 10 Horror Novels for Fall
• Space oddity: a glossary of science fiction. What’s in a name? Quite a lot, judging by the inability of science fiction fans to agree on what to call their favourite literary genre
• Steven Moffat confirms Doctor Who can only regenerate 12 times
• Top 10 Must Reads of October 2013 (SF/F/Horror)
• Wattpad – Reaching the Next Generation of Readers?
• This week, Notes from Coode Street contemplates the toxicity of literary canon.
• What It Takes to Be a Great Writer

Science and Technology

• How many Earths? Looking up at the night sky, it’s hard not to wonder how many other planets might be circling those pinpricks of light – and how many are home to beings gazing back at us.
• NASA’s Curiosity discovered there is roughly 2% water in soil samples, it also discovered a pyramid-shaped volcanic rock known as “mugerite,” which only forms in the presence of water.
• Number of Confirmed Alien Planets Nears 1,000
• Scientists Created a New Form of Matter. Have scientists accidentally created a lightsaber?
• This Real-Life Laser Rifle Cuts Through Metal Like Nothing
• World’s First Fully Bionic, Mind-Controlled Leg Goes for a Walk

Art

• Doctor Who 10th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver Blueprint Poster
• “Eye of Raven” by Artgerm

More Fun Stuff

• Breaking Bad Collides With Game of Thrones in this Epic Mash-Up
• Infographic: From tablet to tablet – a short history of reading [
• Make The Empire State Building TARDIS Blue for The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary
• Read the first fifty pages of The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
• This steampunk-inspired coffee shop features large saw-blade tabletops, exposed pipes, and vintage antiques that make it look like the set for some live-action anime series.
• Watch a book trailer for Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl by David Barnett
• Watch the Doctor Who Series 7 Minisode “Rain Gods” online
• Watch the UK Trailer for Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart