Jared Sandman

Over the weekend the Hugo Award winners were announced at LoneStarCon 3.  Congratulations to them all!  (Read full list at Hugo Awards)

BEST NOVEL

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi (Tor)

BEST NOVELLA

The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)

BEST NOVELETTE

“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

BEST RELATED WORK

Writing Excuses Season Seven, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

Saga, Volume One, written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

The Avengers, Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

Game of Thrones, “Blackwater”, Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)

I wanted to bring this short Twilight Zone parody to your attention, titled “Pitches in Stitches.”  It mocks the agency mentality that currently rules Hollywood.

And here’s a piece from The New York Times, about the recent J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith controversy.  Galbraith’s debut novel reportedly sold about 1,500 copies as an unknown author; once news broke that Galbraith was actually a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling, the book has sold over 1.3 million copies and counting.

Vulture had a great write up this week about the 20th anniversary of The X-Files, including a comprehensive interview with creator Chris Carter.  Carter largely dropped out of public view after The X-Files ended in 2003; now he’s readying a television comeback with a couple different cable projects.  I look forward to seeing what he does next.

And here’s a fabulous video interview with Ray Bradbury.  This is one I hadn’t seen before, so I thought it best to share.

Couple of items to share this afternoon:

The first is a music video blending two things that don’t go together:  librarians and the Beastie Boys.  Looks like it was fun to shoot.

Another is an essay in the The New York Times about one of the most hated questions writers are asked — “What are you working on?”  I generally deflect the query with a shrug and say, “I’m between projects at the moment.”  Doesn’t matter if I’m furiously writing toward the climax of a novel, or whether I am actually between books.  I don’t talk about works in progress.  It’s a superstitious thing, I think.  Or a commitment issue.  I won’t even announce that I’m working on a new book until I’ve passed the halfway mark of the rough draft.  By that point I’m so committed to the project that I can’t back out, and I’m able to use the public announcement as reinforcement to finish the novel.

A new article in Smithsonian Magazine talks about how lifelong reading habits prolong a person’s brain power.  So pick up a book and flex that gray matter!

In other news, I came across this gem from The Oatmeal.  In case you’re not familiar, The Oatmeal is like a cross between The Onion and comic strips.  They sell a variety of hilarious items; this one about the difference between who and whom is particularly amusing.

One of the best.  His style, his dialogue, his wit.  With the possible exception of Mickey Spillane, no one could match Elmore Leonard’s unique brand of writing.  He passed away yesterday, after suffering a serious stroke earlier this month.  He was 87.  Read his obituary in The New York Times.

I linked this before, and it’s worth reiterating now:  Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing.

The World Fantasy Award nominations have come out; congratulations to all the nominees.  Winners will be announced at the annual World Fantasy Convention, to be held this year on November 3 in Brighton, England.  (List taken from Tor.)

Novel

• The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
• The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
• Crandolin, Anna Tambour (Chômu)
• Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus)

Novella

• “Hand of Glory,” Laird Barron (The Book of Cthulhu II)
• “Let Maps to Others,” K.J. Parker (Subterranean Summer ’12)
• The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon)
• “The Skull,” Lucius Shepard (The Dragon Griaule)
• “Sky,” Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls)

Short Story

• “The Telling,” Gregory Norman Bossert (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/29/12)
• “A Natural History of Autumn,” Jeffrey Ford (F&SF 7-8/12)
• “The Castle That Jack Built,” Emily Gilman (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/26/12)
• “Breaking the Frame,” Kat Howard (Lightspeed 8/12)
• “Swift, Brutal Retaliation” Meghan McCarron (Tor.com 1/4/12)

Anthology

• Epic: Legends of Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Tachyon)
• Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. (Small Beer)
• Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris)
• Postscripts #28/#29: Exotic Gothic 4, Danel Olson, ed. (PS Publishing)
• Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Random House)

Collection

• At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Kij Johnson (Small Beer)
• Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)
• The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)
• Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine)
• Jagannath, Karin Tidbeck (Cheeky Frawg)

Artist

• Vincent Chong
• Didier Graffet and Dave Senior
• Kathleen Jennings
• J.K. Potter
• Chris Roberts

Special Award—Professional

• Peter Crowther & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
• Lucia Graves for the translation of The Prisoner of Heaven (Weidenfeld & Nicholson; Harper) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• Adam Mills, Ann VanderMeer, & Jeff VanderMeer for the Weird Fiction Review website
• Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi for ChiZine Publications
• William K. Schafer for Subterranean Press

Special Award—Non-professional

• Scott H. Andrews for Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• L. Timmel Duchamp for Aqueduct Press
• S.T. Joshi for Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing)
• Charles A. Tan for Bibliophile Stalker blog
• Jerad Walters for Centipede Press
• Joseph Wrzos for Hannes Bok: A Life in Illustration (Centipede Press)

The Life Time Achievement Award will go to Susan Cooper and Tanith Lee

One of the best series currently on television is the reboot of Britain’s Doctor Who.  The namesake character, The Doctor, has been played by eleven actors over the show’s fifty year history.  This week the 12th Doctor was revealed with great fanfare to be Peter Capaldi.  Capaldi is a fantastic choice, as he’s one of the UK’s more celebrated actors (not to mention an Academy Award-winning director).  I look forward to the 12th Doctor’s tenure; the TARDIS is in safe hands.

In other news New York Times Magazine did a terrific spread on the King family writing dynasty.  Stephen King is the most well known, obviously, but his wife is also an accomplished novelist, as are both his sons and a daughter-in-law.  Read all about it here.

I’ve posted about Alma in the past, one of the best animated short films I’ve ever come across.  Here are a couple more — Blackwater Gospel and Death Fails — both of which gave me a kick.

A few bits of note:

Vulture published a lengthy essay about Harlan Ellison.  To mangle a Mark Twain quote:  Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated — mostly by Harlan Ellison.  Bonus points for the awesome photo of Harlan with Robert Bloch and Arthur C. Clarke.

And check out this long audio interview (80 minutes) with Joss Whedon, conducted by geek-guru Chris Hardwick as part of his Nerdist podcast.

Hardwick first came to my attention as a stand-up comic, along with his comedy partner Mike Phirman.  My favorite of the duo’s early songs is “American Dinosaurs.”  You’re welcome.