Congratulations to Sean Williams–Finalist for the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award

A big congratulations to Sean Williams on being a finalist for the 2008 Phillip K. Dick Award. Sean is nominated for his book Saturn Returns.

Sean is one of the judges for the Writers of the Future contest and was one of the judges for the quarter I won in. We hit it off at the WOTF week…perhaps because we both have a thing for Saturn? Hmm…

He’s such a nice guy and a really fabulous writer; I hope he wins (even though he’s up against a fellow Canadian, Minister Faust, who is nominated for his book From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain–you know Sean must be good if he can make me betray my countryman!)

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society.

You can find the full list here.

Let the Dick jokes begin! 🙂

– S.

Weekend at Bernie’s 3: Bernie Takes Manhattan

I know a non-trivial number of people who insist that New York is the greatest city on Earth. Never having been to Ye Biggie Apple I can’t really say one way or the other (I kinda think it would be a bit too big for me–I find Toronto overcrowded…)

But after reading this article from BBC News, well, they may just be right.

It’s terribly ghoulish of me, I know, but I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I read: “Mr Dalaia and Mr O’Hare are said to have expressed surprise when paramedics told them Mr Cintron was dead.”

– S.

More Foreign Language Reprints for “Borrowed Time”

Hi all –

I’m pleased to report that the Finnish magazine Spin and the Argentinian magazine Axxón will be publishing my story “Borrowed Time” in translation (in Finnish and Spanish, I should think) later this year.

So that makes upcoming Russian, Greek, Finnish, and Spanish translations for this story. Which reminds me I should send them my author bio soon…

Axxón is also an online magazine, so I’ll be sure to point you in the direction of la traducción when it becomes available.

Ciao,

– S.

Starting My Christmas List for Next Year Now

Although Christmas 2007 isn’t even over yet, I already have an item on my wish list for next Yule’s Tide.

I’ve spoken elsewhere about futuristic sports that you see in SF movies and think “No one will ever play that.” Well, to that list I add toys of the future that you see in SF movies and think “No one will ever play with something like that.”

Presenting a toy from the future: the Fentix Cube–the world’s first cubic touchscreen computer games platform.

There’s a good article about its possibilities from the BBC here, and you can check out the website of the designer, Andrew Fentem, here.

In fact, this guy’s website demonstrates a whole slate of future toys, sure to ensure many a high-tech Christmas to come.

Oh man, I want one.

– S.

Here Kitty Kitty

I hate cats.

And they hate me–we have an understanding. Mutual loathing is the dynamic we’ve agreed upon.

I’m a fish guy by nature.

But if there’s anything worse than a cat, anything worse than those creepy glowing eyes from the darkness, it’s when the whole cat glows.

Apparently some Korean researchers had nothing more pressing to do (like cure cancer or something) and decided to genetically engineer and then clone (mostly because they could) cats who glow under ultraviolet light.

Clearly an example of science run amok.

Creepy little buggers.

– S.

Film Version of THE HOBBIT to be Made by Peter Jackson…Sort Of.

So word today that Peter Jackson and New Line have settled their tiff over a quarter billions dollars, or so, and that the way is open now for a film version of The Hobbit to proceed.

Okay. Great. I loved (with the exception of my fanboy objection to the elves showing up at Helm’s Deep) the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

And yet I have mixed emotions at this announcement because Peter Jackson will only be executive producing The Hobbit. Apparently he’ll be too busy directing…the Tintin movie trilogy?? At least the French will be happy…

Okay. I can get past this so long as they get Ian McKellan to play Gandalf again and Ian Holm to play Bilbo (I guess they’ll have to tape his face back for the whole movie they way they did for the flashback scene in FotR of Bilbo’s discovery of the Ring–the man is in his late 70s…)

But then…

But then there’s news that the movie will actually be TWO movies.

The first would deal with the events in the novel, while the second, imagined entirely by Jackson and Walsh, would link the conclusion of The Hobbit to the start of The Fellowship of the Ring.

In a way that makes sense–The Hobbit is, after all, about a bunch of greedy adventures intent on stealing as much of a dragon’s gold as they can, no matter the destruction it might cause.

But why, oh why does everyone have to keep going back to the well? Is there no shred of artistic integrity to be found in anyone in Hollywood?

Perhaps not, considering that Sam Raimi is being considered to direct.

Now, I’m a fan of Raimi’s early work–small, low-budget cult films where he couldn’t hurt anybody.

But what this film needs, if it can’t have Peter Jackson directing, is someone who is an uberfan (like Peter Jackson) of Tolkien’s works.

Sam Raimi is a self-confessed Spiderman uberfan…and look how he ran into the ground what he claims to have loved most. Now, while not a huge fan of the first two Spidey movies, I’ll admit they were pretty good. But Spiderman 3? It was so bad it actually went back in time and tainted the previously pretty good Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 2.

Do we want this to happen to LOTR? I think not.

Let the guy who directed Pan’s Labyrinth direct The Hobbit–he at least can put a movie together the right way.

– S.

My Metro Morning Interview Now Online

Hi everybody –

Well, despite the 5am wake-up I think I did pretty well in my first radio interview this morning.

I’m rarely aware of what I’ve said when I do things like this (I still don’t have any idea what I said on the TV interview at the Kitchener Rogers affiliate–have to wait for the DVD of that one…) but having heard the CBC interview streamed from the web when I got home I’m quite pleased with how things went.

I didn’t sound like a doofus, anyway, which is always my primary concern when I do media 🙂

Andy Barrie, the regular host of Metro Morning was snowed in at his farm (not hard to believe given the 30cm of snow we got yesterday) so guest host Jane Hawtin did a nice little six minute interview with me about gene doping in sport and about my story, “Citius, Altius, Fortius” from Tesseracts Eleven.

For those of you who missed it, check out the Real Player stream of my Metro Morning segment from their website: http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/

They move it to a five day archive tomorrow, so I’ll try and update the link then.

– S.

I’m Going to be On CBC’s Metro Morning!

Well, shortly after the e-mail I sent to Metro Morning today one of the producers tracked me down at the day job (via my blog–I knew this thing was worthwhile!) and asked me to be a guest on Monday’s show.

I’m going to talk about gene doping in sport and about my story, “Citius, Altius, Fortius” from Tesseracts Eleven.

This–like much that has happened to me this year–is all a bit surreal. And more than a little intimidating. Metro Morning is CBC Radio Toronto’s flagship show and is the #1 rated wake-up/drive-time radio show in the GTA, pulling somewhere around a quarter million listeners each morning.

*Gulp*

Ah well, I’m sure it will be fun.

I’m scheduled to be live on air around 6:40am Monday morning on 99.1 FM in Toronto. And for those of you outside the GTA (or who can’t get up that early) they often post sound clips on their website later in the day. Don’t know if they’ll post one of my interview, but check here Monday afternoon and find out.

– S.