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The Nebula Awards…
...have been handed out. These are the awards nominated for and voted on by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which would include me (finally!) this year, although I'm ashamed to say I didn't vote (I simply hadn't read enough of the nominees)...Novel: Seeker, by Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov. '05)Novella: "Burn," by James Patrick Kelly (podcast version) (Tachyon Publications, Dec. 05)Novelette: "Two Hearts," by Peter S. Beagle (F&SF, Oct./Nov. '05)Short Story: "Echo," by Elizabeth Hand (F&SF, Oct./Nov. '05)Script: Howl's Moving Castle, by Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt (Studio ...I’m a thinking blogger!
At least, according to Sherry D. Ramsay, who has kindly awarded me that title.Here's how it works:1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.So, here are five blogs that make me think:About Last Night -Notes primarily on the performing arts by my favorite critic, Terry Teachout, and "Our Girl in Chicago";BuzzMachine - Jeff Jarvis's often provocative thoughts on the news media, ...Hugo Award nominees announced
The Hugo Awards, for those who don't know, are roughly equivalent to science fiction's People's Choice Awards. Nominees are nominated and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention, and the Hugo Awards Ceremony is always a centrepiece of said convention, which this year is being held in Yokohama, Japan.Here are this year's Hugo Award nominees, which I just grabbed from John Scalzi's Whatever (the blog which has earned Scalzi, last year's John W. Campbell Award winner and Hugo Best Novel nominee, another Hugo nomination, this time as best fan writer!):NovelMichael F. Flynn, Eifelheim (Tor)Naomi Novik, His Majesty’s Dragon (Del Rey)Charles Stross, Glasshouse (Ace)Vernor Vinge, Rainbows ...And the nominees for oddest book title of the year are:
How Green Were the Nazis? Proceedings of the 18th International Seaweed Symposium The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field IdentificationTattooed Mountain Woman and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan Di Mascio's Delicious Ice Cream: Di Mascio of Coventry, an Ice Cream Company of Repute, with an Interesting and Varied Fleet of Ice Cream Vans Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence Those six titles will contend for the 29th annual Bookseller-Diagram Prize, sponsored by The Bookseller, the U.K.-based publishing industry trade magazine.Four other titles which would have been nominees except they were published before 2006 were:The Essential Underwater Guide to North Wales, Vol. 1 Let's Discover F Words Celebrating Boxes A General Analysis ...Final ballot for Nebula Awards announced
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have announced the final ballot for this year's Nebula Awards, made up of the top vote-getters from the preliminary ballot, which is a list of all the stories that received at least 10 recommendations from active members of SFWA by the end of 2006.The final ballot will be sent to all active members (including me for the first time--yay. The winners will be announced at the Nebula Awards weekend in New York City May 11-13.And the final nominees are:Novels:* From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes (Golden Gryphon)* The Girl in the Glass by Jeffrey Ford (Dark Alley)...Robert J. Sawyer honored by Toronto Public Library
Robert J. Sawyer, a friend and someone whose Writing With Style sessions on writing science fiction I've twice attended at the Banff Centre, has received the Toronto Public Library Celebrates Reading Award.Established in 2001, this is one of Canada's top book-related honours. The award, which includes a cash prize of $2,500 and a crystal sculpture, was presented in front of a sold-out audience of 640 at the second annual Book Lover's Ball, a gala, $350-a-plate black-tie event held at Toronto's Liberty Grand on Thursday.Toronto Mayor David Miller was on hand, as were authors Allan Fotheringham and Peter C. Newman, and the emcee was Seamus O'Regan, co-host of Canada AM.Margaret Atwood ...Index to science fiction awards
If you want to know who won what when in the field of science fiction literature, then the Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards, newly updated, is the place to go.And if you're interested in SF and don't visit Locus Online regularly, you're missing out.In fact, if you're really interested in SF, especially if you're really interested in writing it, you need to subscribe to the print version of Locus Magazine.Then, when you've sold a couple of stories, if you're a Canadian writer, you can join SF Canada, and get your news listed on the SF Canada newsblog, which I maintain.And after you've sold enough stories or ...Nebula Awards preliminary ballot announced
The Preliminary Ballot for the Nebula Awards® for 2006 have been announced. If the Hugo Awards, voted on my members of the World Science Fiction Convention each year, are science fiction's equivalent of the People's Choice Awards (which are on TV tonight, I just learned. Who knew? Oh, I suppose people who watch any TV other than the preschool channel Treehouse, plus Corner Gas and Doctor Who on CBC, may have known...but how many of those could there be...now where was I...oh, right) then the Nebula Awards are the equivalent of the Academy Awards. Active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America can nominate up to five works in each category, and only active members (of ...All the Nebula Award winners…in haiku!
What the title says. Find it here. (Via Science Fiction Book Club.)A taste:1966 - Flowers for AlgernonThis book is good ifYou can avoid thinking ofPinky and the Brain.P.S. Not sure what the Nebula Awards are? They're kind of like the Academy Awards of science fiction (by that analogy, the Hugos would be the People's Choice Awards). They're chosen by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.The Ig Nobel Prizes of 2003
May I have the envelope please...it's time to once again inform my faithful readers of the results of the Ig Nobel Prizes, given annually by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research to those who have done something that first makes people laugh, then makes them think. This year's winners received a solid gold bar--which, alas, was only one nanometer (one billionth of a meter) long--encased in a clear plastic cube. The Engineering Ig Nobel provided long-overdue recognition to the late Edward A. Murphy, Jr., the late John Paul Stapp, and George Nichols, all involved in the creation and popularization, in 1949, of Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” Murphy's Law ...
Edward Willett is a Subscribe to my weekly science column for free!
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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