MacLeod Earns World Praise
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Ken MacLeod’s Hugo nomination for Learning the World.
Re-Mastered
For all you Metallica fans out there, check this out: Kerrang! just released a special re-recording of Metallica’s Master Of Puppets in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the classic album’s release. You can preview all the tracks here.
Or just go here and listen to what I’m guessing is going to be the best track: Trivium’s cover of the title track. It’s really quite awesome. They didn’t do anything new or original with it–they didn’t make it their own, as most good covers do. But it’s like a scene by scene remake of a film that somehow equals the original. Trivium are total Metallica fanboys, and they’re just totally true to that tune. Instrumentally, they sound almost exactly like Metallica, and vocally, Matt Heafy isn’t far off.
Scalzi Honored by Noms
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about John Scalzi’s Hugo and Campbell Award nominations.
Blog Comments
When I recently posted to point out that there was some interesting conversation going on in one of my comment threads, I had a couple people email me because they didn’t realize I *had* comments on my blog, or they couldn’t figure out where/how to see them. This was mainly because the the individual entry archive had comments turned off, so you could only view/make comments if you accessed the entry on the main (current) page (where posts stay for about 30 days).
Now, however, comments have been re-enabled in the individual entry archive, so now you should be able to make comments whenever, and will be able to do so if you follow a direct link to a post. The comments were initially disabled to combat spam, but my server upgraded to the most recent version of Movable Type, which makes it quite easy to battle spam.
The Slushmaster Speaketh
Douglas E. Cohen, assistant editor of Realms of Fantasy, just started a LiveJournal. Go say hello!
Troopers Back In Comics
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Markosia Comics’ Starship Troopers: Blaze of Glory, a new series based upon Robert A. Heinlein’s classic.
Mar. 2006 Acquisitions
New in March: a lady luck tale from Tananarive Due, a futuristic tall tale by David Levine, the story of one man’s quest for immortality from Robert Reed, a tale of parents dealing with the results of genetic engineering by Amy Sterling Casil, and a creepy Halloween tale by Frederic S. Durbin. In addition to all this wonderful fiction, we also acquired a new non-fiction epistolary feature: selected correspondence between James Tiptree, Jr. and Ursula K. Le Guin edited and compiled by Julie Phillips.
F&SF to Sponsor New Award
This bit of news ran today in the New York Times. I’m mentioned in the article, but not quoted, alas. But hooray for free publicity!
April 1, 2006 -Spilogale, Inc. (publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) announced today that it would sponsor a new juried award designed to recognize “excellence” in unpublishable manuscripts.
The Slushy P. Slusherton Memorial Award, or “Slushy,” is named in honor of an anonymous, struggling writer who, in the ’40s and ’50s, used the pen name “Slushy P. Slusherton” and did not include his real name or contact info, in order to preserve his anonymity. “If you wrote as badly as he did, you’d keep your name off your manuscripts too,” award administrator Gordon Van Gelder said. “This guy’s stories made ‘The Eye of Argon’ look like Shakespeare.”
Van Gelder said that the award was created to help inspire “a healthy dose of fear” in authors, who up until now have been submitting stories with impunity, no matter how wretchedly awful they were. “I’ve been severely traumatized by slush pile stories–so severely that I had to hire an assistant just to triage it for me. I’ve read some slush that, years later, still causes me to wake up screaming,” Van Gelder said, then added: “Maybe this award can help change that, can keep the next generation of editors from suffering what I’ve had to endure, and maybe, just maybe, that can somehow lead to a better tomorrow.”
The jury will be comprised of a rotating panel of experts, which will consist mainly of assistant editors and interns. This year’s panel will include slush readers John Joseph Adams (F&SF), Douglas E. Cohen (Realms of Fantasy), and Brian Bieniowski (Asimov’s).
“You’d think the award would be a deterrent,” Cohen said, “but it won’t be. It’s only a matter of time before some knucklehead will mention in his cover letter that in addition to being nominated for a Pushcart Prize, he’s also a Slushy Award-winner.”
Editors of magazines and anthologies may nominate works for through Slushy P. Slusherton Society website — www.slushylives.org — or by bringing the manuscripts to Spilogale, Inc.’s office and throwing them over the transom.
Eligible works must have been submitted between Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2005
. Works must be written in English (or in a reasonable facsimile thereof). The awards will be presented to at Slushycon 1, held July 26-29, 2006 at the Queen Maud Convention Center in Antarctica.
For general information about the Slushy P. Slusherton Society, visit their website at www.slushylives.org.
Horton Hears Best SF&F
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about the two new “year’s best” volumes Rich Horton will be editing for Prime Books.