News: October 2007 Archives
November is NaNoWriMo, that's National Novel Writing Month. Not sure which nation. However, some people don't want to write a novel, for various reasons, and that includes me. Therefore I am unilaterally declaring November to also be International Flash Fiction Writing Month. Yes, that's IntFlaFiWriMo. And as part of IntFlaFiWriMo I'll be publishing a piece of flash fiction every day in November.
The stories will be published on my newly minted writing sub-blog, imaginatively titled James Bloomer.
And never fear, that will be the last of it you'll hear from on this blog (apart from maybe a celebration at the end), and so I will return to normal service of random links and some reviews.
The stories will be published on my newly minted writing sub-blog, imaginatively titled James Bloomer.
And never fear, that will be the last of it you'll hear from on this blog (apart from maybe a celebration at the end), and so I will return to normal service of random links and some reviews.
"Singer Alanis Morissette has joined the cast of Radio Free Albemuth, based on a book by sci-fi writer Philip K Dick."
The BBC says she is going to play "Sylvia, a woman with cancer who appears in the visions of a record label executive."
Oh.
I haven't read the story (one day I'll have read everything PKD wrote, but that day is a long way away), so can't comment if she's a good fit for the part, but more movies based on PKD stories has got to be a good thing, some of the previous adaptations have been great.
The BBC says she is going to play "Sylvia, a woman with cancer who appears in the visions of a record label executive."
Oh.
I haven't read the story (one day I'll have read everything PKD wrote, but that day is a long way away), so can't comment if she's a good fit for the part, but more movies based on PKD stories has got to be a good thing, some of the previous adaptations have been great.
Apparently Fox are creating an Americanised versio of Spaced.
Spaced is genius.
The Fox version will be rubbish.
Just buy the DVDs and rejoice.
Spaced is genius.
The Fox version will be rubbish.
Just buy the DVDs and rejoice.
Every Day Fiction have published their table of contents for November, and my super short story Alone is scheduled to appear on Saturday 3rd November.
There's a feed too, so stories get delivered to your feedreader every day.
There's a feed too, so stories get delivered to your feedreader every day.
The post apocalyptic graphic novel Y: The Last Man, which has been recommended to me a few times, has it's first issue available online for free. Read it, liked it, want more.
[Via Jed Hartman]
[Via Jed Hartman]
Long Way Down started showing on BBC2 last night, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's trip from John O'Groats to Cape Town. I thought it was highly entertaining, enjoyed it a lot. For the Star Wars geeks you also get Ewan doing Luke Skywalker impressions, telling stories about Tunisia and signing some kids Star Wars DVD's.
In an interview about an upcoming episode I heard Ewan say how when they visited the Star Wars set in Tunisia (well, okay, it's a place that the Star Wars films used, Lucasfilm doesn't own it. Yet.). Ewan was a bit worried that he might be mobbed by the Star Wars fan tourists, but wasn't recognised at all. At which point he started wondering why. he tells it better than I do.
In an interview about an upcoming episode I heard Ewan say how when they visited the Star Wars set in Tunisia (well, okay, it's a place that the Star Wars films used, Lucasfilm doesn't own it. Yet.). Ewan was a bit worried that he might be mobbed by the Star Wars fan tourists, but wasn't recognised at all. At which point he started wondering why. he tells it better than I do.
What often seems to be forgotten about Star Wars is that the sound effects are truly amazing. Someone's done a top 10, watch them and try not to smile.
Neil Gaiman is cool. Look he can talk on TV in front of lots of people and still stay cool.
[Via Neil Gaiman]
[Via Neil Gaiman]
Yahoo! have a new site, The World Of Star Wars
Starwars.yahoo.com is a Web experience unlike any other: a media-rich, totally personalized, ever-expanding window into the world of Star Wars. Whether online or off, on Yahoo! or on the Internet at large, straight from the source or from the world’s most passionate fans, if it’s related to Star Wars, you’ll find it here.It's like a Yahoo! social networking site based around Star Wars. You can upload videos, start a blog and do other stuff. It's all a bit frantic and messy for me and I'm not really sure how you use it. But I'm sure some people will.
Cory Doctorow explains how he would save SF magazines. Worth quoting, again here:
I've been thinking a lot about SF magazines, and about their comparison to the music industry. There's been much discussion about how giving away free songs works in the music industry. The Artic Monkeys made a name without a record deal etc. The problematic difference that I see is that the music industry has radio stations to do marketing for them. Get your song played on Radio 1 a few times, and even with no record deal you've just had a few million people listen to your music. What's the equivalent for online fiction? There are no radio stations. Maybe it's blogs? Although I can't help feeling that blogs are too distributed, together they add up, but not many have vast audiences. So Cory's idea of aggregating bloggers reactions is, I think, a good idea.
I have a vague image in my mind of an uber-blog aggregating digg style fiction review site. Could that work?
If I were running the mags, I'd pick a bunch of sfnal bloggers and offer them advance looks at the mag, get them to vote on a favorite story to blog and put it online the week before the issue hits the stands. I'd podcast a second story, and run excerpts from the remaining stories in podcast. I'd get Evo Terra to interview the author of a third story for The Dragon Page. I'd make every issue of every magazine into an event that thousands of people talked about, sending them to the bookstores to demand copies -- and I'd offer commissions, bonuses, and recognition to bloggers who sold super-cheap-ass subscriptions to the print editions.[Via SF Signal]
I've been thinking a lot about SF magazines, and about their comparison to the music industry. There's been much discussion about how giving away free songs works in the music industry. The Artic Monkeys made a name without a record deal etc. The problematic difference that I see is that the music industry has radio stations to do marketing for them. Get your song played on Radio 1 a few times, and even with no record deal you've just had a few million people listen to your music. What's the equivalent for online fiction? There are no radio stations. Maybe it's blogs? Although I can't help feeling that blogs are too distributed, together they add up, but not many have vast audiences. So Cory's idea of aggregating bloggers reactions is, I think, a good idea.
I have a vague image in my mind of an uber-blog aggregating digg style fiction review site. Could that work?
The July / August/ Autumn issues of the BSFA magazines, Vector, Matrix and Focus arrived in the mail this morning. Always a good read, I shall sit down later with a cup of tea and read them cover to cover. If you've never read them (in other words, not a BSFA member), you should try and peruse a copy or two at the next con.
Two trailers for The Mist are online, it's based on a Stephen King story and directed by Frank Darabont, which is the winning combination that brought us The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The trailer looks good, mist, monsters and lots of people stuck in a supermarket. Everything you need. I can't find any mention of a UK release date yet.
My favourite depiction of a mist in film is the heat haze in The Day The Earth Caught Fire, a symptom mist rather than a cause, but done wonderfully.
My favourite depiction of a mist in film is the heat haze in The Day The Earth Caught Fire, a symptom mist rather than a cause, but done wonderfully.
SciFi Channel UK are going to start showing the new Flash Gordon in January. They're holding a Q&A session with some of the cast and crew and have asked for questions. So if you have a question you'd like to ask, leave a comment below and I'll pass it on (before 5pm on Monday).
Mine is:
"Can you do a Brian Blessed "Gordon's Alive!" impression?
Here's the list of cast and crew you can ask a question:
Mine is:
"Can you do a Brian Blessed "Gordon's Alive!" impression?
Here's the list of cast and crew you can ask a question:
Cast
Eric Johnson (Flash Gordon)
Gina Holden (Dale Arden)
Jody Racicot (Dr Zarkov)
John Ralston (Ming)
Karen Cliche (Baylin)
Anna Van Hooft (Aura)
Johnathon Lloyd Walker (Rankol)
Crew
Tom Rowe (Executive Producer)
Pascal Verschooris (Producer)
Heidi Samuda (Costume Designer)
Peter Andringa (Production Designer)
Bobbi Allyn-Uhrich (Set Decorator)
David Perun (Prop Master)
Elisabeth Sladen will be signing copies of the new audio-books The Glittering
Storm and The Thirteenth Stone at Borders Oxford Street store on Saturday 27th October, from 2-4pm. That's a week before their national release on
5th November. (But you have to buy the audio books to meet Elisabeth). The books will also be available for download at the usual places.
The audio books are 70 minutes long, presumably they have chapters so you can listen to ten minutes before bed? Or do you have to use old fashioned pause buttons? I've only heard the Doctor Who audio stuff on radio (BBC 7) where the shows were around 45 minutes long, which might be too much for a youngster to concentrate on in one go. (Although on a car journey it is probably okay.)
I was, btw, pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Doctor Who radio stories, very enjoyable.
[Via a BBC press release that I've just rescued from my spam folder. Surely all spam software must flag email from the BBC as pure and true?]
The audio books are 70 minutes long, presumably they have chapters so you can listen to ten minutes before bed? Or do you have to use old fashioned pause buttons? I've only heard the Doctor Who audio stuff on radio (BBC 7) where the shows were around 45 minutes long, which might be too much for a youngster to concentrate on in one go. (Although on a car journey it is probably okay.)
I was, btw, pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Doctor Who radio stories, very enjoyable.
[Via a BBC press release that I've just rescued from my spam folder. Surely all spam software must flag email from the BBC as pure and true?]
Blogowych has a photographic comparison of the original Star Trek cast against the cast from upcoming Star Trek film. Interesting. I can see some similarities in their looks.
The BBC is going to, unfortunately, suffer some severe cut-backs. (In my opinion because the commercial stations and the Government are trying to undermine its power.) In an interview on Five Live, Director General Mark Thompson has just mentioned a list of quality programmes and included Doctor Who and Life On Mars. So Nu Who is not under threat. However would cut-backs affect such series as Science Fiction Brittania and Comics Brittania? I have a bad feeling it probably does.
And if they hack back the world beating website(s) I'll be really annoyed.
And if they hack back the world beating website(s) I'll be really annoyed.
Ain't It Cool News has some information on the live action Star Wars TV show. If you can be bothered to wade through the annoying mushiness of the article there's some interesting bits:
"...we'll revisit Pod Races, and the characters and shenanigans/politics the events bring with them."Thanks to Dave for the tip-off (he reads Ain't It Cool so I don't have to).
"...the overall tone of the show is rather close to the adventurous nature of EPISODEs IV, V, and VI…just a little edgier"
I blame Jim Van Pelt for my inability to wrte anything this weekend. I sat down to start a story, as I usually do, and instead of just writing, I started thinking about JVP's plotting exercise, the seven sentence story. Consequently I spent all my writing time trying to think of a plot and got nowhere. Other people had no such problem, see the Seven Sentence Story Contest.
The Fix, a short fiction review magazine from TTA Press is online and looking very groovy.
Loads to read.
"Committed to the comprehensive coverage of short fiction, we’ll review the full spectrum of magazines, webzines, anthologies, and single-author collections. The Fix will also publish feature articles, exclusive interviews, and regular columns on writing, speculative poetry, audiobooks, podcasts, and short film."And it has a feed, so no excuse to miss anything.
Loads to read.
Sci Fi Wire is reporting, that Variety is reporting, that Simon Pegg will play Scotty in J.J.Abram's new Star Trek film. The Peggster in Star Trek! Not sure how that will work for me, he's done so much funny stuff in the past that I tend to laugh when I see him, regardless of what he is doing.
Seeing as Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize For Literature, I think I should read some books of hers. (Is she the first Nobel Laureate who has written SF?)
Does anyone have any recommendations for which of her Science Fiction books I should read?
Does anyone have any recommendations for which of her Science Fiction books I should read?
In (the mammoth) episode 60 of Starship Sofa, the UK SF podcast, Tony and Ciaran talk about Interzone (amongst other tangental ramblings of course). Tony also interviews Andy Hedgecock who is on the editorial board of Interzone. His response to the question of which stories are chosen is very interesting, he emphasises innovation and story telling. Interesting listening if you want to know what goes on behind the slush pile at Interzone.
As ever Tony and Ciaran are entertaining, and talking from the perspective of real grass roots SF fans. Tony ventured the opinion that people were more likely to buy Interzone on a spur of the moment decision if they saw it on the shelf in WH Smiths than fork out the money for a 6 month subscription. The problem is of course that not all WH Smiths stock Interzone, so the suggestion was made to go to your local store and ask them to stock it. Which seems like an excellent idea.
As ever Tony and Ciaran are entertaining, and talking from the perspective of real grass roots SF fans. Tony ventured the opinion that people were more likely to buy Interzone on a spur of the moment decision if they saw it on the shelf in WH Smiths than fork out the money for a 6 month subscription. The problem is of course that not all WH Smiths stock Interzone, so the suggestion was made to go to your local store and ask them to stock it. Which seems like an excellent idea.
The BBC says that the next Terminator film is set to be released in 2009, so it must be true.
What does not sound encouraging is this:
What does not sound encouraging is this:
"Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will be the first in a proposed trilogy of films reinventing the cyborg saga."And it needs reinventing why? Because the original films were bad? Are dated? Erm no. So I think it means, we can't match the originals so we'll take the franchise and make something a bit rubbish but cash in because it's a reimagining.
JJA gives some grades to the latest batch of US SF TV shows, which I have tomention because his review of The Bionic Woman made me laugh a lot:
"If I kept watching this show, I'd need some bionic eyes to replace my own, which will have been gouged out."
Last night I, completely by accident, saw the first episode of Jericho. It was hidden away on ITV4, a channel which seems to show old programmes (Space 1999, UFO) or sport that no one else wants. ITV2 seems to be the place where ITV have placed most of their US imports, so it doesn't show much confidence in the show (plus I can't even find a mention on their website).
Anyway, what did I think?
Well, I'm a sucker for apocalyptic stories, so even one mushroom cloud has enough pull to keep me watching. It's an interesting idea, the story of one town cut off in a (presumably) nuclear attack on the USA. However its execution was a bit too sickly sweet small town America for me. The inspirational speech at the end just made me laugh. But I'll still watch the next episode.
Quite a contrast to the British version, Threads, which is going to be reshown on BBC 4 on Wednesday 29 October 2003 10.40pm-12.35am.
Anyway, what did I think?
Well, I'm a sucker for apocalyptic stories, so even one mushroom cloud has enough pull to keep me watching. It's an interesting idea, the story of one town cut off in a (presumably) nuclear attack on the USA. However its execution was a bit too sickly sweet small town America for me. The inspirational speech at the end just made me laugh. But I'll still watch the next episode.
Quite a contrast to the British version, Threads, which is going to be reshown on BBC 4 on Wednesday 29 October 2003 10.40pm-12.35am.
Charles Stross is posting some chapters from his latest novel Halting State online. Here's the prologue. Here's my review of the book.
The TTA Press website has news that their publication The Fix will relaunch soon online, with:
Sounds good.
"in-depth reviews of short form speculative fiction from the full spectrum of magazines, webzines, anthologies, and single-author collections in the industry, plus interviews, a range of features and columns, and insightful articles and observations."Eugie Foster, formerly of Tangent Online, will be the managing editor.
Sounds good.
Doctor Who fans beam into town from thisissouthwales.co.uk. Talking about the third Regenerations Doctor Who Convention.
