Happened upon a really cool SF blog today called Prehistoric Pulp.
I’m not sure the identity of the blogger, but the site is dedicated to “fantastic fiction about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, with reviews, cover blurbs and news about upcoming works.”
Now, I dig dinosaurs (n’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk) but I had no idea there were so many stories out there involving dinos and prehistoric animals (the megafauna for which I may even have more fascination than the terrible lizards), let alone enough to blog regularly about. I know that around the time of the first Jurassic Park movie there was a kind of dino chic in SF, with a number of dino-themed anthologies coming out, but no idea the numbers both before and after. The only other instances I was really aware of were Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” (which, along with his stories “The Dragon” and “The Fog Horn”, completely blew my 10-year-old mind) and Rob Sawyers’ Quintaglio Ascension.
When you think about it, with the whole palette of time and space to play with, why not do SF stories about dinosaurs, right?
Anyway, my hat’s off to the dedicated blogger–they clearly have a love for all things dino- and prehistoric SF, tracking down and reading what are some really obscure titles. Well done.
I have a vague possible idea for an SF novel of first contact and environmentalism that involves human exploration of a planet dominated by dinosaur-like creatures and (for lack of a better explanation right now) sentient giant white apes…so maybe you’ll see a book by me on Prehistoric Pulp some day.
– S.
On the stereo/
Listen as we go/
Nothing’s gonna stop me now/
California, here we come/
Right back where we started from
At long last, and after much bureaucratic travail, I have in my possession one Canadian passport made out for yours truly (though they never did call either of my personal references or my guarantor–some security 😉
I actually kissed the little booklet when the man behind the desk handed it to me. This seemingly didn’t strike him as odd…
I keep opening it, looking at it, making sure I can still feel it in my hand, the tactile response reassuring. It is…precious to me. I imagine this is a little like Gollum felt about the Ring.
I will now, officially, proceed to freak out (in a good way) about getting to go to California for the Writers of the Future week! It’s very unlikely I will be able to function or get anything done until then.
– S.
This time next Sunday I’ll be leaving on a jet plane…
And tomorrow right around High Noon I’ll be venturing to the passport office in the hopes (please, God) that my passport has gone off without a hitch and I can pick it up.
They seemingly haven’t called either of my references or my guarantor…but I’m told that’s not necessarily something they do for everyone. I don’t have a criminal record, my last name isn’t bin Laden, and I’m not an Israeli spy, so maybe I’m not someone to be worried about 😉
Believe it or not I’ve actually been doing my best to keep utter giddy school-boyish excitement for this trip at bay until I have that precious blue booklet in my hand. When I get hold of it, well, I’m sure there’ll be no getting anything done for the rest of the week.
I can hardly contain myself! 🙂
– S.
So I recently joined SF Canada at the recommendation of my friend and fellow SF author Karen Danylak, and I’ve really been enjoying the member’s discussions I get via e-mail.
One cool thing that came today was a notice about a new peer-reviewed journal called Science Fiction Film and Television which is set to start publishing in March 2008. For anyone so inclined I include the full submission guidelines below.
I found this notice cool for three reasons:
1) As an SF writer and fan I’m glad that, at least to some degree, SF is being taken seriously in the academy…even if it has to start with sci-fi film and television, much of which is just bad (*cough*Andromeda*cough*) and isn’t really representative of the field or what I think SF could/should be. But hey–ya gotta start somewhere.
I know people like Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, and Robert J. Sawyer have their books assigned and discussed in various university literature courses, but that’s certainly the exception. More of this needs to happen for SF to start being taken as seriously as literature as, say, the works of Margaret Atwood (that closet SF writer amongst the literary elite), and not just pulp fiction (to borrow a phrase), so here’s hoping.
(OT: Did you know that Tesseracts Ten was recently adopted for course use by Prof. Mike Johnstone of the University of Toronto Department of English? U of T is Canada’s largest university and Tesseracts Ten is being used for ENG237H1F: Science Fiction this summer, as well as in the Fall and Winter semesters. We need more profs like Prof. Johnstone. Maybe he’ll be interested in Tesseracts Eleven when it comes out…)
2) My day job is as an acquisitions editor at an academic publisher, so I find this interesting from a SECOND professional stand-point. Film studies isn’t one of the areas I acquire in (I do social sciences like sociology, anthropology, and political science) but my colleague Siobhan does a great job in the area. Which brings me to my third reason for finding this cool–
3) One of the journal editors is not only Canadian, but is a UTP author (one of Siobhan’s).
Sherryl Vint (Brock University) recently published her book Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction with UTP.
Very cool, indeed.
– S.
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Science Fiction Film and Television
Science Fiction Film and Television is a biannual, peer-reviewed journal published by Liverpool University Press. Edited by Mark Bould (UWE) and Sherryl Vint (Brock University), with an international board of advisory editors, it encourages dialogue among the scholarly and intellectual communities of film studies, sf studies and television studies.
We invite submissions on all areas of sf film and television, and which situate texts, practices and institutions within broader national, historical, cultural, theoretical and critical contexts. In addition to popular and contemporary works, we are interested in papers which consider neglected texts, propose innovative ways of looking at canonical texts, or explore the tensions and synergies that emerge from the interaction of genre and medium. We encourage work that considers the specificities of the genre and what its increasing centrality to film and television globally might suggest for critical approaches to film, sf and television.
We publish articles (6000-8000 words), book and DVD reviews (1000-2000 words) and review essays (up to 5000 words). Suggestions for papers include but are not limited to the following areas:
* silent sf
* European sf (e.g., French New Wave, Turkish pop cinema)
* East Asian sf (e.g., kaiju eiga, anime)
* Hollywood sf blockbusters
* animation and greenscreen
* adaptations
* low-budget and independent sf
* children’s sf
* costume, design and music
* spectacle and special effects
* the `soap opera-isation’ of television sf
* sf and avant-garde practice
* the relationships between globalisation, transnationalisation, media convergence and sf
* the science-fictionality of media technologies and forms themselves
* cross-media and transnational franchises
* audience, fans and consumption
Articles should be 6000-8000 words (MLA format) and include a 100-word abstract. Electronic submission in MS Word is preferred. The deadline for submissions for the inaugural issue (March 2008) is September 1, 2007. Send submissions to both editors at mark.bould@gmail.com and sherryl.vint@gmail.com. If you are interested in reviewing a book or DVD, or have materials you would like reviewed, please contact Sherryl Vint.
Advisory Editorial Board:
Jonathan Bignell (University of Reading),
Catherine Constable (University of Warwick),
Susan A. George (University of California, Berkeley),
Elyce Rae Helford (Middle Tennessee State University),
Matt Hills (Cardiff University),
Brooks Landon (University of Iowa),
Rob Latham (University of Iowa),
Sharalyn Orbaugh (UBC),
David Seed (Univ. of Liverpool),
Steve Shaviro (Wayne State University),
Vivian Sobchack (University of California, Los Angeles)
and JP Telotte (Georgia Institute of Technology)
I got the proofs for “Citius, Altius, Fortius” e-mailed to me yesterday by the typesetter for TESSERACTS 11. I had a chance to go through them this afternoon (my schedule on vacation being so booked up with all that laying about and doing a whole lotta nothing). The only error I noted was one that was in my original manuscript (oops–my bad).
Instead of saying “fastest man on earth,” I had originally typed “fasted man on earth.” This slipped by my writer’s group, several other friends who read the tale, two editors and a typesetter, and me until right now. Not surprising I suppose, as the two words look very similar and I think your brain is anticipating what the phrase is meant to be.
But the other thing that surprised me was with the contract, which I received last week. It’s a very standard contract (quite generous with its terms, I thought) but it’s made between myself and Hades Publishing, the parent company of EDGE SF & F Publishing who will be putting out TESSERACTS 11 later this year.
Let’s just say with a names like Hades I read and re-read the contract a couple of times to make sure there was nothing about first-born children, immortal souls, and/or the requirement to sign in blood 😉
(I’m just kidding–Brian Hades, the eponymous president of Hades Publishing, surely has a lot of fun with such a colourful last name, and has doubtless already heard my lame joke a millions times before or the one about sounding like a James Bond villain. In fact, he bid at a charity auction to be a villain in a Rob Sawyer book, so he’s obviously got a good sense of humour).
Hi all –
This press release was sent out by Galaxy Press this morning to Toronto media. Should anyone happen upon a press reference to me or this announcement, I’d appreciate it if you could send me and e-mail and let me know.
Best,
– S.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Goodwin
President
Galaxy Press
Phone: (323) 321-2144
E-Mail: jgoodwin@galaxypress.com
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
TONY PI AND STEPHEN KOTOWYCH OF TORONTO TO BE HONORED AS WINNERS OF WORLDWIDE WRITING CONTEST
Celebrities, Best-Selling Authors, Famous Illustrators To Fete Newcomers At the Prestigious Athenaeum Club on the Grounds of Caltech
Pasadena, CA– Twelve winning writers and twelve illustrators from around the globe–including Tony Pi and Stephen Kotowych of Toronto–will be honored during the 23rd Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards at the Athenaeum Club on the grounds of California Institute of Technology on Friday, August 24th, 2007 beginning at 8 pm.
The highlight of the ceremony will be the announcement of the year’s two Grand Prize winners who will each receive $5,000. Quarterly winners also receive cash prizes from $1,000 to $500. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future, volume 23 (Galaxy Press, 2007).
Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers and Sean Williams who will serve as presenters along with celebrities Marisol Nichols (Fox TV’s “24”), two-time Emmy award nominated actress Lee Purcell, and Latin vocalist Carina Rico.
Throughout the Contests’ 24-year history, over 500 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 to 70% of winners go on to successful careers,” says New York Times’ best-selling author Anderson (Dune prequels, Seven Suns series). “You could call it ‘The American Idol’ for writers-long before there ever was such a show.”
The Writers of the Future Contest was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers to get a much-needed break-its winners have gone on to publish over 550 novels and 1,400 short stories, selling an impressive 31 million copies of their works combined-enough books to fill the payloads of 6 space shuttles.
Because of the success of the Writers’ Contest, the format was expanded to include a companion Illustrators of the Future Contest in 1988. Many of the illustration winners have gone on to highly successful illustration and design careers.
“The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests have proven to be the most effective means for contestants to make their break in the publishing industry, an industry renowned for being closed to the newcomer,” said John Goodwin, Galaxy Press president. “Well over six million fiction and non-fiction manuscripts make the rounds annually to find a publishing home, yet only 2,500 new science fiction and fantasy titles are published each year, and many of these are from already established authors.
“That’s why these Contests were created – because it’s so hard to get published and there are so many talented people who give up on their dreams to see their works in print.”
…and why every once and a while I toy with the idea of supporting legislation requiring people to pass a test and get a license before they’re allowed to have children.
There’s a couple in New Zealand who want to name their son Superman because the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages won’t let them name him (wait for it…) 4Real.
Can’t they just name the kid Apple like normal parents would?
I weep for the future.
– S.
It’s been a while since my last submission update, so here goes. I’ll try to remember where everything is–I’m up at my parents’ place for a week and while submission tracking sheet is in Excel for some reason their computer doesn’t have Excel.
“Shipbreaker” was with Interzone. Jetse de Vries held it for a second reading (as I mentioned) and ended up giving another of his very kind, personalized rejections. He actually had some nice things to say about the story and, while I obviously would have liked to sell to IZ, I appreciate his thinking it deserved a second read and taking the time to let me know some of his reasoning for declining.
This is the third story of mine that Jetse’s turned away from IZ, but he’s always done so in a very classy manner. Given that the other two went on to sell quickly after Jetse declined–“Saturn in G Minor” won the WOTF contest, and “Citius, Altius, Fortius” sold to Tesseracts 11–maybe this one will follow the pattern?
Jetse was kind enough to suggest a couple of markets he thought it might fit with, and I sent it right out to one–Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
“Gagiid” was with the Missouri Review after their earlier rewrite request, but has come back with a final ‘no’, unfortunately. I discovered subsequent to resubmitting that the person who sent the rewrite request was an editorial intern…and that she’d moved on by the time I resubmitted, so my champion was gone. Ah well. It might be a literary pipe dream to have it published in a lit journal or a mainstream magazine, but I’ll continue to dream it for now–I’ve sent it off to the Atlantic Monthly. We’ll see.
“The Festival of Toxcatl” is currently with Paradox. It’s one of the submissions I made before the US postal rates changed, so it’s six cents light on postage. The Missouri Review added some stamps–hopefully Paradox will do the same.
And I’m still waiting on word from Holy Horrors. My story, “The Hushed Voice”, has been with them since February. According to the editor’s blog, decisions should be made “in the near future.” They’ve already accepted at least a few stories and rejected a bunch of others, so fingers crossed that no news is good news.
I think that’s it for first-round submissions, however I am sending out my published stories for consideration in various “Year’s Best” anthologies. Again, this is likely somewhere between wishful thinking and delusions of grandeur, but what the hell, right?
So “Borrowed Time” is out for consideration in Best New Paranormal Romance 3 (yes, it includes a love story element), and it, along with “Saturn in G Minor” and “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, are going for consideration to The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 2.
– S.
…and I’ll be on a plane headed for LA and the Writers of the Future workshop week and awards ceremony.
I’m trying to keep my excitement in check at least until next Monday, when my passport (after much delay) is scheduled to arrive.
Please God–let it be there.
But that also means I have two weeks to finish my project: to have read at least one book by every judge of the Writers of the Future contest before I meet them.
Now, even before I’d entered the contest I’d read at least one book by most of the judges. But some I hadn’t read (or hadn’t read in a long time), hence the project. The books that remain to be read with two weeks to go are:
Greg Benford – Timescape (I’ve read some of his more recent works, but this is the one he won the Nebula for).
Nina Kiriki Hoffman – A Fistful of Sky
Dave Wolverton – On My Way to Paradise (a novel expanded by the author from his Gold Award-winning story in the 1987 Writers of the Future contest)
Between the Stars – Eric Kotani (WOTF judge) and J.M. Roberts
Expiration Date – Tim Powers (I’ve read other books of his but as he’s one of the judges teaching the course I wanted to read everything I could of his. Ironically, it’s also allowed me to find something that Wikipedia DOESN’T have a full article on yet. Once I’m done, I think I’ll write one and contribute to the Codex of All Human Knowledge, err, Wikipedia).
I must confess I’m not that fast a reader, so wish me luck!
– S.
