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SFWA to Attend U.S. Copyright Office
Roundtables on Orphan Works
On March 10-11, 2014, the U.S. Copyright Office will host another round of discussions in Washington, D.C., concerning legislative solutions for orphan works and mass digitization under U.S. copyright law.
Ellen Klages: Toastmaster for Nebula Awards
Author Ellen Klages will be the Toastmaster for the 49th Annual Nebula Awards ceremony, May 15-18th, 2014 San Jose, CA at the San Jose Marriott.
Museum of Science Fiction Indiegogo Campaign
The Nonprofit Museum of Science Fiction has issued the following press release:
The Museum of Science Fiction will be closing our Indiegogo campaign in a few days and I wanted to thank you again for your strong and generous support.
2014 Philip K. Dick Award Judges Announced
This year’s Philip K. Dick Award judges have been selected. They are: Jon Armstrong, Ritch Calvin, Ellen Klages, Laura J. Mixon (M. J. Locke) and Michaela Roessner-Herman.
The Norton Award: A Call for Jurists
Want to be a member of the Norton jury? Interested volunteers (see qualification requirements) should contact the office of the vice president by March 15th.
SFWA Bulletin Returns
Issue 203 of the SFWA Bulletin went to the printer this week. It contains articles from members experienced and new, information on SFWA’s opportunities, projects, and activism, and messages from the Board. This issue, guest-edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts, with…
Eileen Gunn on SF, SFWA, and Community
Rachel Swirsky: Do you have any great stories about meeting someone at a SFWA event, or online? (And if you do, please tell them. )
Eileen Gunn: Most of my stories about SFWA events are far too scurrilous to put into…
SFWA Joins the IAF
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has joined the International Authors Forum, an organization of authors’ groups created to “promote and defend authors’ interests and authors’ rights” by providing these groups with an “international platform to exchange information, develop…
Tools for Writers: Namechk
by Cat Rambo
One of the tools I mention to students in my online class Building An Online Presence for Writers is a website called Namechk. You can input the user name you want to use and see whether…
Guest Post: Craft and Art
by Theodora Goss
When I teach writing, I teach craft. Art goes beyond craft, and has to do with what a writer, as an individual, brings to writing. Art is in the way Virginia Woolf explores consciousness. In the way George…
Guest Post: Why You Don’t Want to Apply to Clarion West/Clarion UCSD.
by Helena Bell
The application season for Clarion West and other Clarion (UCSD) has begun. I’ve already seen posts on twitter from past alums encouraging people to apply and telling the world what wonderful, glorious experiences they had.
I’m not going…
Guest Post: Alpha Workshop: Anthologies and Opportunities
Dragons in your pickle jar. Devils at the diner. Sentient space ships named for epic poetry. All these and more inhabit the pages of the annual Alphanthology, an illustrated collection of flash fiction by alumni of the Alpha SF/F/H Workshop…
Tools for Writers: Stellarium
Ever wonder what the sky looked like in 1006 CE, when a supernova could be seen during the day? What dates did full moons illuminate the fog of Whitechapel as Jack the Ripper prowled the streets? When a character swims…
Tools for Writers: Shelfari
Shelfari is, like GoodReads and LibraryThing, another social book cataloging website. Online book retailer AbeBooks owns a large percentage of the company. Users catalog the books they own or have read and can rate, review, and tag those books as…
Story Surgeon: An App For Copyright Infringement
Here at Writer Beware, we love the weird stuff–the nutty, fring-y, even, dare I say, totally freaking insane things that are always cropping up at the boundaries of the publishing world, often spawned by people who haven’t really taken the…
Opening a Vein: Agent Artery
Last week a literary agent contacted me on Twitter. “Ever heard of these folks?” she asked. “They’ve been spamming us all day.”
The link she gave me led to a service called Agent Artery.
In Memoriam: Neal Barrett, Jr.
Neal Barrett, Jr. (b.1929) died on January 12. Barrett was named SFWA Author Emeritus at the 2010 Nebula Award Weekend in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Geoffrey A. Landis to Receive 2014 Robert A. Heinlein Award
Geoffrey A. Landis, science fiction author and scientist working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is the 2014 winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award. The award is bestowed for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical…
2013 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced
The judges of the 2013 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce seven nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:
Scribd’s New Ebook Subscription Service: Partnering with Publishers, Profiting from Piracy
I was contemplating what to write for my first Writer Beware blog post, when a subject popped up out of the blue, packed with all kinds of fascinating questions.
Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers accepting applications
Anyone who grew up yearning to become a writer knows it’s hard to do it alone. The Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers provides an environment for young writers ages 14-19 to build a community of likeminded wordsmiths. Each year,…
Year in Review: Writer Beware’s Top Blog Posts of 2013
Every January, I look back over this blog and pick out what I think were the most useful, interesting, and/or important posts of the previous year. Here goes.
2014 Prometheus Hall Of Fame Award Finalists
For more than three decades, the Prometheus Awards have recognized outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that stress the importance of liberty as the foundation for civilization, peace, prosperity, progress, and justice.
Who Reads Science Fiction?
Surveys have become my friend, and provided me with an answer to a very important question: who reads science fiction?