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Out
of the Woodwork 163. April 2010
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. Contents:- James Tiptree, Jr. Award, to works of SF and
Fantasy that explore and expand gender roles - so who won? Crossword fun, and general silliness - contributions
welcomed External Blinks: Guardian
SF and Fantasy reviews by Eric Brown Tiptree Award Winners. Greer Gilman's Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales (Small Beer) and Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Volumes 1 & 2 (VIZ Media) are co-winners of the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, given annually to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles. Ooku is the first manga to be chosen as a Tiptree winner. The awards ceremony will be held at WisCon 34 in Madison WI, May 27-31, 2010. James Tiptree Award 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist have been announced:
The winner will receive a £2010 prize and a commemorative engraved bookend. The winning title will be announced at the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival, April 28, 2010, in London, UK. ACC Award Neal Barrett, Jr., author of The Hereafter Gang, named by the Washington Post as “one of the great American novels,” and Interstate Dreams, recognized as an award-winner by the Texas Institute of Letters, will be honored as Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America for the 2010 Nebula Awards® Weekend in Coco Beach, Florida. SFWA The 2010 Philip K. Dick Award winner was announced on Friday, April 2, 2010 at Norwescon 33, in SeaTac WA. The winner for the distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during 2009 in the US is: Bitter Angels, C.L. Anderson (Ballantine Spectra) Special citation was given to: Cyberabad Days, Ian McDonald (Pyr) The
Baltimore Science Fiction Society has announced
the nominees for the 2010 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award: The Compton Crook Award is presented for the best SF/fantasy/horror first novel published each year. BSFS Sir Andrew Motion to write Treasure Island sequel. A sequel to the adventure story Treasure Island is being written by the former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion. Robert Louis Stevenson originally wrote his tale of pirates, including Long John Silver, for his stepson in 1883. Return to Treasure Island, which is due to be published in 2012, will return to the story a generation later BBC story What's the betting it starts: "Jim Hawkins was on the burning deck, his pocket full of crackers....." The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2009 Bram Stoker Awards at its annual Stoker Banquet held as part of the World Horror Convention in Brighton, UK. Eight new bronze haunted-house statuettes were handed over to the writers responsible for creating superior works of horror last year. This year’s winners are: Superior Achievement in a NOVEL Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION Superior Achievement in NONFICTION Superior Achievement in POETRY Back in 1954, two policemen were called to a disturbance at a Glasgow cemetery. Hundreds of children aged from four to 14, some of them armed with knives and sharpened sticks, were patrolling inside the historic graveyard. They were, they told the bemused constable, hunting a 7ft tall vampire with iron teeth who had already kidnapped and eaten two local boys. American comics were blamed for the panic but, according to a documentary on BBC Radio 4, there were other sources for the Gorbals vampire. BBC story Scientists have created the first device to render an object invisible in three dimensions. The "cloak", described in the journal Science, hid an object from detection using light of wavelengths close to those that are visible to humans. Previous devices have been able to hide objects from light travelling in only one direction; viewed from any other angle, the object would remain visible.This is a very early but significant step towards true invisibility cloaks. Full BBC story Shooting of the long-awaited film version of JRR Tolkein's The Hobbit is set to begin in New Zealand in July. Actor Sir Ian McKellen, who reprises his Lord of the Rings role as Gandalf the Grey, revealed casting is taking place in LA, London and New York. Mexican-born film-maker Guillermo del Toro will direct the film and its proposed sequel. BBC story Temperate planet found. It is 1,500 light-years from Earth but CoRoT-9b is the first temperate planet found known to be similar to those within our own Solar System. The presence of CoRoT-9b was detected by a space mission designed to find planets we cannot see from the ground. "It is the size of Jupiter and has an orbit similar to Mercury," said lead researcher Dr Hans Deeg. BBC story Winners of the 2009 British Science Fiction Association Awards have been announced: Best Novel The City & The City, China Miéville
(Macmillan) Best Short Fiction "The Beloved Time of Their Lives"
, Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia (The Beloved of My Beloved) Best Artwork Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald,
Stephan Martiniere Best Non-Fiction Mutant Popcorn film column, Nick Lowe
(Interzone)
The 2009 David Gemmell Legend Awards shortlist has been announced: Legend Awards Best Fantasy Novel Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz, Orbit) The Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, Jesse Bullington (Orbit) The Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art Didier Graffet & Dave Senior (Illustration) and Laura Brett
(Art Direction)for the cover of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
(Gollancz) Larry Rostant (Illustration) and Loulou Clarke (Art Direction)
for the cover of Fire by Kristin Cashore (Gollancz) The
Libertarian Futurist Society has announced finalists for the 2010
Prometheus Best Novel Award. The Virgin Spacecraft has taken its first test flight. Virgin Galactic, a U.S.-based space tourism company, has announced its commercial six-passenger space vehicle has completed its inaugural captive carry flight. The initial flight took place over the California's Mojave Desert. The report notes that the current estimate is that each seat will set you back $200,000. Writer Nicholas Deleon muses: "It might actually be cheaper to earn a PhD in engineering, join NASA, then become an astronaut." The test flight lasted for two hours and 54 minutes. The mother ship will fly to an altitude of 50,000 feet, then the space craft will detach itself and propel its passengers 65 miles above the earth surface - they will then feel weightlessness for 5 minutes. That's $40,000 dollars a minute to you and me! Virgin Galactic A rare signed first edition of George Orwell's first full-length work has sold for £86,000 at auction. The immaculate copy of Down And Out In Paris And London - complete with dust jacket - had a pre-sale guide price of £2,500-£3,500. Full BBC story A
campaign is under way to have a statue of the creator of Count Dracula
– one of Gothic horror's most fascinating characters
– erected in his native city of Dublin. Many do not realise
that Bram Stoker, author of the book Dracula, was an Irishman who
spent much of his life in Dublin. In fact several of the numerous
Draculesque theories maintain that his creation is grounded not
just in Transylvania but in Irish folklore. Independent
story Butch Cassidy to ride again – but this time the Kid gets left behind. An elderly version of the celebrated Hollywood cowboy will ride again next month when shooting commences on a new film charting his tea-time years. The burning question remains though - just how did Butch manage to escape the final shootout in the original? Answers on a postcard..... British
director Ridley Scott's new film Robin Hood, starring
Russell Crowe, has been selected to open the annual Cannes Film
Festival in May. The film, about the birth of the Robin Hood legend,
also stars Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, and William Hurt. BBC
story Doctor Who's regenerations were modelled on bad LSD trips, internal BBC memos have revealed. The Doctor's transformations were meant to convey the "hell and dank horror" of the hallucinogenic drug, according to papers published on the BBC Archive. Regenerations were introduced in 1966 to allow writers to replace the lead actor. BBC story Independent crossword - 1st April 2010. There's nothing sinister about this crime writer (6) _ _ X _ _ _ Saturday 3rd April: Several bilk ill-treated prospective murder victim (11) Dumb Britain: 1) Richard Madeley (Richard and Judy): On which street did Sherlock Holmes live? Contestant: Er... Richard: He makes bread. Contestant: Er... Richard: He makes cakes. Contestant: Kipling Street? 2) Steve Wright (Radio 2): Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungles-winging character clad in a loin cloth did he play? Contestant: Jesus. Patricia Wrightson, 88, died March 15, 2010, in a hospital in New South Wales, Australia. Born June 21, 1921 in Lismore, New South Wales, Wrightson wrote 27 children's and YA books, many with fantasy elements. Children's author William Mayne, 82, died March 23, 2010 in Thornton Rust, North Yorkshire Artist John Schoenherr, 74, died April 8, 2010 in New Jersey, he did some stupendous cover for Astounding/Analog and others. Department of Smug Self Satisfaction. a) I have never been happier with an order. I was a bit worried about ordering across the ocean, but my book arrived all the way from Rayleigh, Essex, England to Austin, TX, USA painlessly. It was wrapped in three protective layers, and sent via something called Royal Mail (which made this order seem very exotic). As a final nice touch, a bookmark was included. Thank you, Fantastic Lit! b) Item could not have arrived sooner. Very well packaged item. Book is in FANTASTIC condition. Some books I've bought before (from other sellers) have turned out to be tattered when described as 'very good' - In this case, the opposite is true! Will DEFINITELY be buying from this seller again. Very pleased! http://www.fantasticliterature.com We also buy books and travel around the country to purchase, we will pay a finders fee to anyone who puts us in touch with a collection we later purchase. Instant ordering on our web site in small press, magazines and special offers. http://www.fantasticliterature.com Good reading and watching - Simon & Laraine. Fantastic Literature Limited 35 The Ramparts Rayleigh Essex, SS6 8PY United Kingdom Previous OotW - archives OotW121. OotW122. OotW 123, OotW 124, OotW 125, OotW 126, OotW 127, OotW 128, OotW 129, OotW 130, OotW 131, OotW 132, OotW 133, OotW134, OotW135, OotW136, OotW 137, OotW138, OotW 139, OotW 140, OotW141, OotW 142, OotW 143, OotW144, OotW145, OotW146. OotW147, OotW148, OotW149, OotW 150, OotW151, OotW 152, OotW 153, OotW 154, OotW155, OotW156, OotW157, OotW 158, OotW159, OotW 160, OotW161, OotW162
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