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Featured Author
Frederic S. Durbin. Author of Dragonfly (Arkham House/Ace). Short fiction in Cricket, CICADA, and Fantasy & Science Fiction. fredericsdurbin.com.
Featured Book
Little Brother had survived as an orphan on the colony planet Mother’s World by following two rules. First you grabbed anything edible before the valuables. Second, you never talked to the garbage. But then the garbage–a Pube girl named Sally–talked to him. Before he knew it, he was running to escape the attention of The Church of the Flesh and had begun a quest to learn why he alone had been born without the GeneCode tatoo that set one’s status, job and destiny.
Nebula Awards Weekend
The Forty-Seventh Nebula Awards Weekend will be held Thursday through Sunday, May 17 to May 20, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, near Reagan National Airport.
We honor Connie Willis as our Grand Master!
To register, click on “Registration” in the menu to the immediate left. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Register” button.
Tours, workshops and panels are available for registered attendees (the number of people who can be accommodated on the tours and workshops is limited.) Active and Associate SFWA members may nominate works, until February 15th, for the awards to be presented at the May 19th Nebula Awards Weekend Banquet. Hour long interviews and readings will be recorded by Jim Freund for his Hour of the Wolf radio show broadcast on WBAI (99.5FM) in New York City.
Jon Williams is our Toastmaster (he will also conduct a half-day Writers Workshop on Friday morning.) Mike Fincke is our Keynote Speaker.
The Mass Autographing Session on Friday, May 18th will be followed by a reception to honor the nominees and other honorees.
You don’t have to be a nominee, a member of SFWA, or even a writer to participate in the weekend. Registration for the 2012 Nebula Awards Weekend is open now. The cost for the Nebula Awards Banquet is $75.00 per person. The cost to register is $50.00 for a SFWA Member and $60.00 for a non-SFWA Member until February 29, 2012. Rates for registration will be higher as the date of the event draws closer.
Results from the 2010 Nebula Awards (presented 2011).
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Archive for May, 2010
RIP: Jeanne Robinson 1948 – 2010
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Spider Robinson has sent us the very sad news that his beloved wife, Jeanne, has passed away.
Jeanne Robinson left this life at about 4:45 Sunday afternoon, a gentle smile on her face. Her departure was quite peaceful and she was in no pain at all.
Because her Palliative Care doctor, Paul Sugar, was able to forecast her passing almost to the hour, her daughter Terri, son-in-law Heron and granddaughter Marisa flew back from NYC just in time, and were with me at her side when Jeanne died; and her mother Dorothy and sister Laurie arrived from Massachusetts only a couple of hours later, after Terri had had time to expertly make Jeanne look better than she had for days. Zen priests Michael and Kate Newton were also present per Jeanne’s wishes, as were our oldest friends in this part of the world, Greg McKinnon, Anya Coveney-Hughes and Stevie McDowell. Over the next few hours more sangha buddies arrived, and chanting of the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra was done. Her body was then bathed and dressed in her hand-sewn rakasu as per Zen tradition.
In accordance with her wishes she will be cremated. Half her ashes will be scattered off this coast, and half will be taken back to her childhood home, Cape Cod, so that her East Coast family will have a place to go and visit her.
She has been such a strong and wonderful presence in the SF community and will be missed by all. Our hearts go out to Spider and the rest of Jeanne’s family.
Tags: Jeanne Robinson, Spider Robinson
Posted in In Memoriam, News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2010-05-30
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
- Fantastic time lapse of prep for a Shuttle Launch condensing 6 weeks to 3 minutes 52 seconds http://is.gd/cuMfr #
Tags: twitter
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Edward M. Lerner: From Armageddon to Paradise
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Remember Ace Doubles, two short science-fiction titles bound back to back? Edward M. Lerner sure does. In the spirit of Ace Doubles, Wildside Press and Lerner are doubling up — which brings us to the latest collection of his shorter fiction.
On one side, the short novel Countdown to Armageddon (originally serialized in Jim Baen’s Universe):
Hezbollah has obtained an atomic bomb and a would-be martyr eager to deliver it — and that’s the good news. The bad news, unknown even to Hezbollah, is that their physicist has also found a way to take his new bomb back to a turning point in European history.
Harry Bowen, an American physicist, and Terrence Ambling, a British agent turned historian, are determined to stopAbdul Faisel and prevent the nullification of all Western civilization. Their mission can be accomplished, if at all, only in the darkest of the Dark Ages –
And there, too, time is running out.
The flip side offers a fiction collection headlined by “A Stranger in Paradise.” The five novelettes and short stories, running the thematic gamut from nanotech to space opera to the conjuring of demons, first appeared in Analog, Amazon Shorts, and Jim Baen’s Universe.
COUNTDOWN TO ARMAGEDDON / A STRANGER IN PARADISE
Edward M. Lerner
Wildside Press
ISBN 1434406741
Coming soon in ebook format
Edward M. Lerner is a member of SFWA.
Edward M. Lerner’s website: http://www.sfwa.org/members/lerner/
Edward M. Lerner’s blog: SF and Nonsense
Posted in Press Book | Comments Off
Award-winning 1986 Novel Predicted Oil Spill
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Pandora’s Gene’s by SFWA Member Kathryn Lance Eerily Foreshadowed Aftermath of Gulf Disaster
The transformation of 1986’s science fiction to 2010’s ugly reality has fiction lovers reaching once again for award-winning author Kathryn Lance’s near-prophetic Pandora’s titles. The new relevance of her book Pandora’s Genes and its sequel Pandora’s Children has prompted e-reads, the leading reprinter of out-of-print genre fiction, to feature the books nearly 25 years after their original publication.
When Lance first envisioned how attempts to clean up a massive oil spill could go wrong, she never dreamed that she would one day see some of her cataclysmic imaginings come to life. Unfortunately, with the Gulf oil spill disaster, she has. Like everyone else, Lance wishes the Gulf oil spill had never happened. “The book was something of a cautionary tale,” she says. “But no one listened.”
On its original release, Pandora’s Genes received the Best New Sci-Fi Novel award from Romantic Times and was named to that year’s Locus Recommended List. Lance, who has written 50 other books of nonfiction and fiction, calls the post-holocaust Pandora’s novels, set in the late 21st century, her favorites of her own books. In Lance’s imagined world, attempts to minimize the environmental damage and clean up a catastrophic spill are similar to those occupying today’s best minds in science and technology. But Lance’s story thereafter took a – hopefully – different, and more ominous path.
In the novels, attempts to clean up the oil spill through genetically altered bacteria lead to the apocalyptic destruction of all modern technology, and to the escape of experimental viruses from germ-warfare laboratories. These deadly microbes spread rapidly through the biota, ultimately endangering the very future of humankind.
Two opposing societal groups vie for control of this devastated future. One is led by The Principal, a visionary but deeply flawed man who strives to rebuild civilization. His foes, the Traders, vow to complete the destruction, eliminating all remnants of evil ‘science,’ from basic hygiene to education and political organization.
Clearly, Pandora’s Genes was an imagined world way ahead of its time. The book’s first chapter can be read on the author’s website. For an inside look at how Lance came to foresee 2010 news go to this interview at e-reads. Both Pandora novels are available in paperback or downloadable e-book format, at amazon and e-reads.
Author Kathryn Lance is available for phone, radio, or email interviews to discuss the meeting of science fiction and reality and how and why she created the world of Pandora. For further information, contact her at: klance@klance.com.
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Quick Updates for 2010-05-29
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
- Armageddon or Paradise? SFWA member Edward M. Lerner announces his new flip book, with a touch of both. http://tiny.cc/yzzu1 #
Tags: twitter
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Quick Updates for 2010-05-28
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Resources
- World Literature Today’s May/June issue celebrates science fiction, with exclusive content on the companion website.
- Check out the ebook version of Nebula-winner The Moon and the Sun, by Vonda N. McIntyre.
Member News
- SFWA member N.K. Jemisin on the African American Interest section and its effect on readers & careers.
- Join Neal Barrett Jr. in Austin Sunday to celebrate his SFWA Author Emeritus award.
- SFWA member Robert J. Howe‘s novella, "The Natural History of Calamity" is out at Black Gate.
Tags: n. k. jemisin, Neal Barrett Jr., Robert J. Howe, twitter, Vonda N. McIntyre
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off
Countdown to Armageddon / A Stranger in Paradise
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Hezbollah has obtained an atomic bomb and a would-be martyr eager to deliver it — and that’s the good news.
Tags: edward m. lerner, Lerner
Posted in Featured Book | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2010-05-27
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
- Good post from SFWA member @nkjemisin about the African American Interest section and its effect on readers & careers. http://is.gd/cq4K9 #
- World Literature Today’s May/June issue celebrates science fiction, with exclusive content on the companion website: http://is.gd/cqfrU #
- Join SA native Neal Barrett Jr. in Austin Sunday to celebrate his SFWA Author Emeritus award. http://j.mp/abtbHp (via @ReneGuz ) #
- SFWA member @paolobacigalupi is reading, Q&A and book signing tomorrow, 7pm, Thursday, 5/27 at Borderlands in SF. #
- @byharryconnolly Thanks, Harry. I've got you added. in reply to byharryconnolly #
- Nebula-winner The Moon and the Sun, by Vonda N. McIntyre: (@vondanmcintyre) ebook at http://www.bookviewcafe.com/Vonda-N.-McIntyre/ #
Tags: twitter
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FAQ: How do I add my information to the Quick Updates
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
SFWA has a number of different programs to try to help get news out about our authors and events that might be of interest to the science fiction and fantasy community. One of those are our Quick Updates posts.
Each item in the Quick Updates starts on our Twitter feed, @sfwa, and then is crossposted to the SFWA site. If you are a SFWA member there are two ways to add your information to Quick Updates.
- If you don’t have a twitter account, then use the form below to send us the information.
- If you have a twitter account, Direct Message @sfwa with your 140 character update. (Can’t DM us? Tweet “I’m a SFWA member” and we’ll know to start following you.)
In both cases, please include the words “SFWA member” in the body of the quick update. Like this, “SFWA Member Excited Author is pleased to announce that his novel GREAT NOVEL has hit the NYT best seller list.”
It’s fine to include a URL for more information, but remember that the link counts as part of your 140 characters. You can shorten the url through several services. The tiniest of them is 3.ly
(more…)
Tags: News, Quick Updates
Posted in FAQ, SFWA Blog | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2010-05-26
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
- @marksiegal With one or two obvious exceptions, all the people we are following are our members. in reply to marksiegal #
- Attn: SFWA members in the Glendale, AZ area. School there in need of speakers for teen writing conference. Contact @rdaviswriter for info. #
Tags: twitter
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