Out of the Woodwork 149. Mid-March 2009
Fantastic Literature - setting the standards for out of print on-line bookselling.

Welcome to our newsletter, it contains up to the minute news and gossip as well as awards details and items requiring help from the collective consciousness. If you wish to contribute please do so! We welcome your thoughts, your news items and any gossip! We do love a bit of gossip here at Fantastic HQ.

New format of the booklists received unanimous approval:

Dear Simon,

A vast improvement! So much clearer and easier to read. I'd suggest, if it's not too much a drag in future, perhaps putting authors' names in bold, including at least the first appearance of each name (for multiple-title entries).

Bestest,
John.

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Simon,

Certainly an improvement and mainly deals with my requirements. I would probably find it even better if the author's name (maybe only surname) were capitalised and the book title not, given that I initially look for the authors I like. I like the idea of clustering books by the same author. Another option would be the author in a different colour. I know that would not help the hard copy printed list, but it would not harm it, and there is no reason the internet list should be shackled to the limitations of print.

Regards,

David

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Simon: what a wonderful change. Easy to read and easy to spot signed books. Allen

Forthcoming title: Fragment by Warren Fahy (Harper) July 2009. This a cracking Crichtonesque scientific thriller. Hender's island, first charted in 1791 and then lost for over 200 hundred years, is the last fragment of a supercontinent that has remained untouched for millions of years. When a party of TV scientists working for the show SeaLife land on the island they encounter a land seething with exotic danger, vicious predators and lifeforms that have evolved over the millenia. Superb page turner, really did read it in one day!

BBC interview with Bruce Sterling - Full story

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA®) is proud to announce the nominees for the 2008 Nebula Awards and Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

The Nebula and Norton Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of SFWA. The awards will be presented at the 2009 Nebula Awards Weekend, April 24-26,2009 in Los Angeles, California.

Novels

Little Brother - Doctorow, Cory (Tor, Apr08)
Powers - Le Guin, Ursula K. (Harcourt, Sep07)
Cauldron - McDevitt, Jack (Ace, Nov07)
Brasyl - McDonald, Ian (Pyr, May07)
Making Money - Pratchett, Terry (Harper, Sep07)
Superpowers - Schwartz, David J. (Three Rivers Press, Jun08)

Novellas

The Spacetime Pool - Asaro, Catherine (Analog, Mar08)
Dark Heaven - Benford, Gregory (Alien Crimes, Mike Resnick, Ed., SFBC, Jan07)
Dangerous Space - Eskridge, Kelley (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
The Political Prisoner - Finlay, Charles Coleman (F&SF, Aug08)
The Duke in His Castle - Nazarian, Vera (Norilana Books, Jun08)

Novelettes

If Angels Fight - Bowes, Richard (F&SF, Feb08)
Dark Rooms - Goldstein, Lisa (Asimov's, Oct/Nov 07)
Pride and Prometheus - Kessel, John (F&SF, Jan08)
Night Wind - Rosenblum, Mary (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08)
Baby Doll - Sinisalo, Johanna (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Ed., Tor, Jun07 <trans. from the Finnish by David Hackston>)
Kaleidoscope - Wentworth, K.D. (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

The Button Bin - Allen, Mike (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07)
The Dreaming Wind - Ford, Jeffrey (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking, Jul07)
Trophy Wives - Hoffman, Nina Kiriki (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Martin H. Greenburg and Kerrie Hughes, DAW Books Jan08)
26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss - Johnson, Kij (Asimov's, Jul08)
The Tomb Wife - Jones, Gwyneth (F&SF, Aug07)
Don't Stop - Kelly, James Patrick (Asimov's, Jun07)

Scripts

The Dark Knight - Nolan, Jonathan; Nolan, Christopher, Goyer, David S. (Warner Bros., Jul08)
WALL-E - Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter (Walt Disney June 2008)
The Shrine - Wright, Brad (Stargate Atlantis, Aug08)

Norton

Graceling - Cashore, Kristin (Harcourt, Oct08)
Lamplighter - Cornish, D.M. (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 2, Putnam Juvenile, May08))
Savvy - Law, Ingrid (Dial, May08)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Pearson, Mary E. (Henry Holt and Company, Apr08)
Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) - Wilce, Ysabeau S. (Harcourt, Sep08)

Superhero film Watchmen has leapt straight to the top of the UK and Ireland box office. The comic book adaptation, about a team of flawed superheroes, knocked Slumdog Millionaire off the top slot, after taking £3.2m in its opening weekend. Full BBC review

The Dark Knight has been nominated for 11 prizes at the annual Saturn Awards, set up by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. A reak favourite of ours here at Fantastic HQ, the darkly brilliant film that starred Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger is nominated for best picture, amongst others. Full BBC story

WORLD HORROR CONVENTION 2010 ANNOUNCES SECOND GUEST OF HONOUR AND ARTIST GUEST OF HONOUR.

World Horror Convention 2010 is proud to announce that our second Author Guest of Honour is veteran American writer DAVID CASE.

During the 1970s and early '80s, many of his acclaimed stories were reprinted in Herbert Van Thal's legendary PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES. These were mostly drawn from the author's acclaimed short story collections, THE CELL: THREE TALES OF HORROR, which included the classic psychological werewolf tale of the title, and FENGRIFFEN: A CHILLING TALE.

A more recent collection is BROTHERLY LOVE AND OTHER TALES OF FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE, while PS Publishing will be premiering a brand-new collection in honour of David's appearance at World Horror Convention 2010.

The author of more than three hundred books under at least seventeen pseudonyms, ranging from exploitation to Westerns, David's other books in the horror genre include the novels WOLF TRACKS and the 1981 Arkham House volume THE THIRD GRAVE. His zombie novella "Pelican Cay" (from DARK TERRORS 5) was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.

"Fengriffen" was filmed by Amicus in 1973 as -AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS!
with an all-star cast that included Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Ian Ogilvy, Stephanie Beacham and a memorable crawling hand. Another story, "The Hunter", was adapted by Richard Matheson into the 1974 TV movie SCREAM OF THE WOLF, directed by Dan Curtis and starring Peter Graves and Clint Walker.

And the World Horror Convention 2010 is pleased to announce that our first Artist Guest of Honour is acclaimed book and magazine illustrator LES EDWARDS (aka "Edward Miller").

For more than thirty-five years, Les has produced the covers for countless books in all genres on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world. He has worked for all the major UK publishing houses and for many in the US, and his work has also encompassed advertising, gaming, record and CD covers, and movie posters (including Clive Barker's NIGHTBREED, Stephen King's GRAVEYARD SHIFT and John Carpenter's THE THING).

With early work including book covers for CHRISTOPHER LEE'S CHAMBER OF HORRORS; R. Chetwynd-Hayes' THE FONTANA BOOK OF GREAT GHOST STORIES; Mary Danby's THE FONTANA BOOK OF GREAT HORROR STORIES; Michel Parry's REIGN OF TERROR and MAYFLOWER BOOK OF BLACK MAGIC STORIES series; Peter Haining's WEIRD TALES; Hugh Lamb's THE STAR BOOK OF HORROR; August Derleth's WHEN EVIL WAKES; Carl Jabobi's REVELATIONS IN BLACK; Guy N. Smith's ENTOMBED, THE FIEND and MANIA; Graham Masterson's THE DEVIL'S OF D-DAY and DJINN; John Burke's THE DEVIL'S FOOTSTEPS; Stephen King's THE DEAD ZONE; Mark Ronson's GHOUL and Robert Black's film tie-in LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF, along with many others, Les has gone on to become a stalwart of the UK illustration scene, acknowledged for both his versatility and his professionalism.

More recently, he has illustrated two graphic novels based on stories by Clive Barker, SON OF CELLULOID and RAWHEAD REX; been the regular cover artist for Karl Edward Wagner's THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES and Stephen Jones' THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR, and his black and white work has graced the best-selling Gollancz editions of THE COMPLETE CHRONICLES OF CONAN by Robert E. Howard and NECRONOMICON by H.P. Lovecraft, with another bumper Howard volume, CONAN'S BRETHREN, due later this year.

In 1995 Les was Artist Guest of Honour at the World Science Fiction Convention. He has been voted Best Artist by the British Fantasy Society on seven occasions, and has been nominated in that category every year since 1994. He has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist five times (his alter-ego, Edward Miller, won the award in 2008). He has also been nominated for five Chesley Awards.

The we aim to help as much as possible dept!

Simon: You may or may not remember that you helped me track down a few Zelazny references over the past few years. Which leads me to point out that you might be very interested to know that you are acknowledged at the back of every one of the books shown at the following link:
http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html
Whether that leads you to shamelessly plug them or purchase them for yourself, I dunno...
The remaining volumes will be out before year's end and will feature introductions by Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Joe Haldeman, David G. Hartwell, and others.
Regards,
Chris Kovacs

The book was made into a three-hour TV mini-series in 1990, with Tim Curry. Since then the film rights have bounced around Hollywood, but Warners have now signed The Invasion screenwriter Dave Kajganich to adapt King's novel. Full BBC story

Dept of Smug Self Satisfaction (cont)

Hi,

I just received my order from you through Amazon Marketplace. I was looking for a long time for this book (Hellboy: Odd Jobs). I was a little bit afraid of this service (I had some bad experiences through Ebay) but I tried and the book is in excellent condition and properly packaged. Thank you for that and I hope we can do business again in the future. You may put my email address on your mailing list (I am looking forward to see what else you have for sale).

Kind regards. Geert Van Laethem

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