SF/F/H Link Post for 2014-03-19

Interviews & Profiles

• Amazing Stories interviews Gary Chalk, Fantasy Artist, Author and Games Designer
• Bleeding Cool chats with Kristen Bell about Veronica Mars – The Character, The Movie, The Novels.
• Director of Jurassic World Colin Trevorrow talks plot, character, aspect ratio and casting.
• Divergent author Veronica Roth On The Upcoming Film Adaptation.
• The Functional Nerds interview Sarah Silbert, editor for Engadget.
• George R.R. Martin Talks HBO and Winds of Winter Contingency Plans in Vanity Fair
• Ginger Nuts of Horror interviews David Oppegaard, author of And the Hills Opened Up.
• Graeme’s SFF interviews Brandon Sanderson, author of Words of Radiance.
• io9 interviews Brandon Sanderson: “We haven’t hit what epic fantasy is capable of yet.”
• Neil Burger, Director of Divergent, on His Warmer, Gentler Dystopia
• Nicky Peacock interviews Samantha E Harris, author of Fighting Malevolent Spirits.
• Paul McGann explains why he thinks Capaldi will be the best Doctor ever.
• The Qwillery interviews Sarah Harian, author of The Wicked We Have Done.
• SF Mag interviews Kim Stanley Robinson, author of 2312.
• Schlock Magazine interviews Karin Tidbeck, author of story collection Jagannath.

News

• SFWA and SFF Net Sever Ties
• The six titles on the 2014 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist have been announced.
• Star Wars: Episode VII will take place 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

Events & Event News

• The 49th Annual Nebula Awards will be held May 15 to May 18, 2014 in San Jose.
• Kevin Tong & Martin Ansin’s Sci-Fi /Fantasy Show at Mondo is on view until April 12.
• The SFWA has announced that an SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series event in the Seattle area will be held on Tuesday, April 29 and will feature Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstad, and Leah Cutter.
• The SFWA has announced that an SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series event in Portland on Wednesday, April 30 and will feature Mike Moscoe, Leah Cutter, and Ray Vukcevich.
• Warp Speed: The Sci Fi Parody To Go Off-Broadway

Crowd Funding

• Faire Play – an Open Source 3D printed suit of plate mail that’s compatible with the Barbie Fashionistas line of dolls. Read more about the campaign at GeekoSystem.
• Night Terrace by Ben McKenzie – An original full-cast, eight-part science fiction audio-comedy series about two people lost in time and space, starring Jackie Woodburne (Neighbours).

Articles

• Review: Count on The 100 to deliver better teen sci-fi
• 30 Surprising Facts About Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan You Didn’t Know
• Apocalypse Later: Why Dystopian Novels Speak To Us
• Author James Lovegrove discusses the inspirations behind his Pantheon series on Civilian Reader.
• Escapist storytelling has been with us even before Homer and his audience sat around the fire spinning tales. The human soul needs both serious works and books that are purely intended to entertain. But escapism is allowed only to certain groups. So Who Gets to Escape?
• Fantasy Faction reveals The Truth About -Punk.
• Flank Hawk and the Writing Process by Terry W. Ervin II
• Girls Kicking Ass With Their Brains: books with intelligent female protagonists.
• If you’ve not been convinced already, The Frisky shares 9 Reasons You Should Binge On Orphan Black Before Season 2 Starts (In Gifs!).
• In a follow-up to his discussion on how science fiction isn’t about predicting the future, Jason Sanford asks Who will write the next ground-breaking science fiction novel??
• In Smuggler’s Ponderings: History, Fandom and Masters of Science Fiction, Book Smuggler Ana blogged passionately about the problematic way SF fandom records its own history
• In The Guardian, Adrian McKinty considers the evidence and comes up with a tantalizing theory: maybe Game of Thrones is set not in an alternate-reality version of the past, but in the Earth’s distant post-apocalyptic future. [Via]
• The Initial Steps of Worldbuilding: Architect, Gardener, Tourist
• io9 takes a look at The Most Astonishing Space-Age Buildings in Africa.
• Miles Cameron, the author of The Fell Sword, discusses Martial Arts and Fantasy Warriors
• The Montgomery Media considers issues of Science, fiction and fact.
• People Who Use E-Readers Dive Far Deeper Into Books
• Philip K Dick’s Ubik: a masterpiece of malleability: Incoherence and unease are the lifeblood of a novel that seems to squirm away the moment you think you’ve got a grip on it
• Picking The Winner Of The Arthur C Clarke Award Isn’t Easy
• Reaching the Nearest Star, and Lighting Hogwarts Castle: a physicist presents an informal survey of science and technology according to contemporary science fiction and fantasy.
• Sci-Fi Bloggers asks Why Were 1980s Genre Films So Gory?
• Screen Robot counts down the Top ten movie anti-heroines.
• Smart Girls Love SciFi & Paranormal Romance asks How do you define success For SciFi Romance?
• Stephen King’s criminally underrated book picks
• Tales of Futures Past: Soviet Science Fiction of the Cold War
• Transcendence: Johnny Depp Sci-Fi Thriller Is A Technological Cautionary Tale
• The Varied Emotional Stages Of Writing A Book
• What’s To Be Done With The Fantastic Four?
• Why we shouldn’t be too quick to lose our heads over remakes
• Women discuss Destroying Science Fiction on the Dark Matter Zine podcast.
• The Zero Theorem: Preachy or poignant? Screen Robot considers both sides of the issue.

Art

• 14 Comic Book Covers Coming to Life
• Create an Apocalypse in Your Hometown, Using Google Maps
• Digital painting of an “Angel” by inamp
• NASA Tips Their Hat To Cosmos With A Gorgeous Space Gallery
• One of Groo’s Minions as Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
• The only thing more awesome than mini Lego Cair Paravel is mini Lego Minas Tirith
• Splendid Illustrations by Brad Rigney
• The Star Trek: The Next Generation Build-a-Bridge Deluxe Bobble Heads are now available.

More Fun Stuff

• 7 Amazing Sci Fi Movies You Can Watch On Your Lunch Break
• 9-year-old kid debates asteroid destruction with Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Cover reveal: The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare
• Evidence of the Universe From Before the Big Bang? How an observational signature from Cosmic Inflation could herald the scientific revolution of the century
• Killer Robots: Natural Evolution, or Abomination?
• Read an excerpt of The Forever Watch by David Ramirez at Tor.com.
• Read an excerpt of Mystic Rider by Patricia Rice at Book View Cafe.
• Space.com discusses the Universe’s Incredible Big Bang Expansion
• Star Trek Actually Got Tractor Beams Right
• Superman With A GoPro: a drone is used to create a video from Superman’s perspective.
• Watch the first teaser trailer for The Signal over at FirstShowing.
• Watch the first trailer for The Maze Runner
• Watch the international trailer for Godzilla, now with even more Destruction
• We already live in the age of robots—we just don’t call them that
• When Robots Dance: How Guy Hoffman Is Building a Better ‘Bot