Planetside Full Archives
Planetside: The Online Magazine of SFWA
No post found!
The SFWA Blog
Quick Updates for 2009-08-21
Congratulations to Edward Willet for winning the Aurora Award for the best long-form work of science fiction or fantasy by a Canadian writer in English in 2008. Mike Resnick is the newest Writers of the Future judge Celebrate Mary Shelley’s…
Victoria Strauss — Publishers’ Kill Fees, and Why They’re Bad For Everyone
Traditionally, in the magazine and newspaper industry, a kill fee is “a negotiated payment on a magazine or newspaper article that is given to the freelancer if their assigned article is ‘killed’ or cancelled.” (Read the full definition here.)…
Quick Updates for 2009-08-20
Research Tool: An online archive of vintage tools
Market Update: If you’ve submitted to Strange Horizons from a gmail address, they’ve been having problems with responses vanishing. Jed Hartman has an update.
Market Update: Asimov’s, Analog, Hitchcock’s, & Ellery Queen have…
WSFA Small Press Award Committee Announces Finalists for 2009 Award
The Washington Science Fiction Association is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2009 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction. Our congratulations to all the nominees, but we are particularly proud to see SFWA members K.D Wentworth, John Joseph…
SF meets real life: US Government issues patents on human genes
This could be Science Fiction, but it isn’t. For the last twenty years, the US patent office has been issuing patents on human gene sequences.
Volunteer: Call members to update info
We need twenty SFWA members to help us make calls to ensure that every member has current contact information.
Resource: The Convention Finder
The Convention Finder searches a database of cons based on location, making it easy to find the convention nearest you.
Interview with Charles Coleman Finlay
Our sister site, Nebulaawards.com, has an interview with Charles Coleman Finlay who was nominated for his novella “The Political Prisoner.”
Site Errors and Slowdown
As you may have noticed, the site is intermittently slow or returning server errors such as 500 server errors, configuration errors, etc. We have contacted the hosting company and it appears that another site on the same server is experiencing…
RIP: Gene Van Troyer 1950-2009
Gene Van Troyer
(1950-2009)
Gene Van Troyer, a science fiction writer and poet who worked as an English teacher in Japan, died July 17, 2009 of cancer. He was 58.
Interview: Johanna Sinisalo
Our sister site, NebulaAwards.com, interviews Johanna Sinisalo about her Nebula Nominated Novelette, “Baby Doll.”
Victoria Strauss — Bad Impressions for Good Impressions Audio Books
To fee-charging services looking for more customers, what could be more lucrative than a referral from a literary agency or publisher? To a literary agency or publisher, what could be more tempting than to make money not just from its…
Reading Aloud
There are few things that can destroy a good story faster than a bad reading. At the same time, a really good reading can make an audience excited and drive sales. Short of a background in theater, how…
Philip Pullman speaks against UK’s vetting laws
A measure in the UK that would require anyone working at a school, even if for only a day, to be vetted by the government has caused some outcry, particularly among children’s authors. Philip Pullman has gone on record as…
Resource: Historical Food Timeline
When writing historical fiction or fantasy, the question of food either seems daunting or is completely overlooked. With the Historical Food Timeline, you can get an approximate idea of when a given food was introduced.
National Writers Union Opposes Google Settlement
The National Writers Union today announced its opposition to the proposed $125 million settlement of a class-action copyright infringement lawsuit brought by writers and publishers against Google because its massive book-scanning project violated their copyrights.
Is Africa Ready for Science Fiction?
At our sister site, NebulaAwards.com, Nnedi Okorafor, talks about science-fiction in Africa. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking read.
Writer Beware wins big as frivolous lawsuit rejected by court
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has awarded costs and attorneys’ fees to Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss, the principal operators of the Writer Beware website, soundly rejecting a frivolous lawsuit filed by a purported literary agent.
SFWA statement on proposed Google book settlement
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), in conjunction with outside counsel, has reviewed the terms of the proposed settlement between Google, Inc. and the Authors Guild, Inc., and other class action plaintiffs.
Mystery Writers of America will co-sponsor SFWA’s Writer Beware
Mystery Writers of America (MWA) will co-sponsor the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Writer Beware program, which exposes publishing scams, educates writers on how to protect themselves from fraud, and maintains a massive database on their website…
Hugo Winners Announced
Anticipation is pleased to announce the Hugo winners for 2009.
Interview: Mary E. Pearson
Our sister-site, NebulaAwards.com, interviews Mary E. Pearson about her Andre Norton Awards finalist novel The Adoration of Jenna Fox.
Andre Norton Award jury seeking candidate submissions
The jury for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy is actively reading works published in 2009.
World Fantasy Nominee list
SFWA extends our congratulations to the nominees for this Year’s World Fantasy Awards. The World Fantasy Convention is an annual gathering of professionals, collectors and others interested in the field of light and dark fantasy art and literature. The…