SF/F/H Link Post for 2013-12-09

Interviews & Profiles

• Bruce Hesselbach is the author of the new steampunk novel Perpetual Motion set in the late 1800s. He talks with SFFWorld about Steampunk as Science fiction set in the Victorian age.
• Evangeline Lilly on Hobbit elves and courting controversy…
• James Dashner plugs his new young adult novel, The Eye of Minds at Suvudu.
• “Just think of how many more books I could have sold if Harry had been a little more creative with his wand.” At the 20:10 mark of this interview, J.K. Rowling gets a little (more than a little) cheeky.
• Kasey Lansdale discusses her horror anthology, Impossible Monsters, with Van Gogh’s Ear.
• My Bookish Ways interviews J. Lincoln Fenn, author of the young adult horror novel Poe, which won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Award.
• Omnivoracious has posted the second half of its interview with Mike Mignola of The Midnight Circus.
• The Paris Review interviews Ursula K. Le Guin. “I don’t think science fiction is a very good name for it, but it’s the name that we’ve got.”
• Speculate! interviews Patrick Rothfuss, author of the newly released The Adventures of The Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Dark of Deep Below.
• Suvudu talks to Cherie Priest about Fiddlehead, the conclusion to her Clockwork Century trilogy.
• Zack Whedon revealed details of his in-canon Serenity: Leaves on the Wind miniseries. The Dark Horse Comics Firefly follow-up is set nine months after the events of the Serenity film.

News

• A leading authority on Australian science fiction, librarian and bibliographer Graham Stone died on November 16 after being incapacitated by a serious illness in January. “In 1951, Stone established the Australian Science Fiction Society, which … contributed to a resurgence of interest in local SF circles, and the next year, the first Australian science fiction convention was held in Sydney.”
• Stephen King is on Twitter… suddenly, I find the whole concept of being followed terrifying.
• UAE author to transform sci-fi novel Ajwan into TV series

Events & Event News

• Discuss your favorite SF literature to help with a grad project.
• There’s still time left to register for some of Odyssey’s online winter classes, including “Bringing Emotional Resonance to Your Storytelling” and “The Secrets of a Satisfying Short Story.”

Articles

• Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – What Are The Critics Saying?
• Review: The structural experimentation Trillium creates a unique sci-fi romance
• 14 Holiday Gifts For Any Middle-earth Lover’s Library
• Caution – Reading Can Be Hazardous: confessions of a National Book Award judge
• The Crazy World Of Terminator Time Travel
• The Doctor: Dark Hero No More?
• Five Comic Book Apocalypse Storylines Fit for Film
• How a love of tabletop D&D helps video game designers tell their stories
• How to Kill a School Library: 10 Easy Steps
• “I Am President Snow” Hank Green discusses The Hunger Games and inequality in our society.
• The Sci-Fi World Has A Real-Life Women Problem: ‘The Hunger Games’ was written by a woman? Do you care? Examples of sexism continue to plague the male-dominated world of sci-fi.
• Science Fiction: Nostalgic Past v. Dystopian Future
• Six Reasons Why IRON MAN 3 Is A Great Movie.
• Spiritual Lessons from Science Fiction: Oh Captain, My Captain….
• Text me, Ishmael: An all-emoji translation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick actually exists.
• These Stereotypes About Book Lovers Are Absolutely True, And That’s A Good Thing
• The Washington Times names its choices for the Top 10 ‘Doctor Who’ episodes
• We hunger for dystopian sci-fi
• Wesley Chu on SF&F Debut Authors to Watch
• What does X-Men’s Dark Phoenix saga have in common with Christmas?
• What Makes You So Special? The Magic to Selling Books “there are a lot of writers out there paying for fancy marketing and ad campaigns thinking it’s the Golden Ticket. …this is no longer enough.
• Why Big Publishing hates Amazon. And Wants You to hate Amazon, too. (Read part 2 here)
• Why Smaug Still Matters

Science and Technology

• 300-pound robot is new breed of crime-fighting machine. Think I saw this in a Tom Selleck movie.
• Future Robots Will Be Soft And Shaped Like Squids
• Google’s Building an Army of Robots
• Is our fear of robots dissipating?
• Robot And Chimpanzee: It’s Evolution At Work
• Terminator Obsession: Why So Many Robots Look Like Humans
• The soldiers who fall in love with their robots: Automatons are increasingly part of military plans – and some say humans are ill prepared to deal with it.
• Today In Dystopian War Robots That Will Harvest Us For Our Organs

Art

• Hogwart’s at Christmas is an epic Gingerbread house
• Star Wars Christmas Cards 2013 by PJ McQuade [via Alexandre Maki]

More Fun Stuff

• Infographic: 9 Layouts Of Famous Houses From Classic Literature
• Check out this trailer for Sleepwalkers, a micro-budget scifi/fantasy indie film set in a world where when you go to sleep you wake up again as someone else. There’s also a Kickstarter campaign.
• Comic of the day: Apple e-book amicus brief as graphic novel
• The High School Literature Zodiac: What does your favorite book tell you about your life?
• Melissa C. Beckman has shared a Facebook album of photos from the Ellen Kushner’s & Delia Sherman’s event, “The World of Riverside Audiobooks.”
• Android’s Sonata – a Sci-Fi Short Film.
• On the Vampire Trail: Slains Castle in Cruden Bay, Scotland