Book Review: People of the Moon
Other Hugo Award news
In other Hugo Award news… Perhaps you’ve heard about the motion by
to split the Best Editor Hugo into two categories: Best Magazine Editor and Best Book Editor.
(After proposing this revision, Barkley recruited
Patrick Nielsen Hayden to
co-sponsor it; so, though it has often been referred to as "PNH’s" proposal, it
was not, in fact, put forth by him.)
At the Worldcon business meeting, the motion passed, though with some revised language, resulting in two Best Editor Hugos: Best Editor (Short Fiction) and Best Editor (Long Fiction). I think it’s a good move; as Lou Anders pointed out, it’s kind of a shame that Hugo voters demanded a change in the Dramatic Presentation category before demanding this change, but at least it’s come to pass–or at least, it will come to pass assuming it’s ratified at the 2006 Worldcon, in which case next year we will get to nominate and vote in those two editorial categories.
Of course, this doesn’t solve the problem of a certain lack of symmetry between the magazine categories–there are awards for Best Fanzine and Best Semiprozine, but no award for Best Professional Magazine. Also, one could point out that well, the Best Professional Editor category usually goes to a magazine editor; well, that’s true, but it is a bit different, and it allows other factors to come into play. For instance, whenever Gardner Dozois or Ellen Datlow
win, it’s likely voters took into account all the anthologies both of them edit
in addition to their magazine work (of course with Gardner stepping down from
Asimov’s, it won’t be an issue with him anymore). Both of them edit Year’s Best
volumes, and Ellen usually has a few new original anthologies every year (as she
did this year). Which is not to say neither of them deserve to win strictly for
their magazine work–they certainly do, but the fact remains that their
extracurricular activities result in them having more in their favor.
Still no word on my proposal to add a Best Professional Assistant Editor
category.
The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (IAMTW)
Max Allan Collins and Lee Goldberg have announced the formation of a new writer’s association, The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (IAMTW).
But, as if that weren’t great enough on it’s own, they will also be giving out *awards* for best tie-in writing. “The Scribe Awards” will be given out for the best work in speculative fiction, suspense fiction, and young adult fiction. And there’s even going to be an award for media tie-in *grandmaster.* Gah, what a dubious honor that would be.
The Scope of Copyediting
Previously I’ve pointed out humorous bits from the Chicago Manual of Style’s monthly Q&A, but this month I found a rather appalling question.
Q. I’m currently editing a manuscript for a children’s fiction book that has been written in present tense. A few months back, when Americanizing another manuscript, I changed it from present tense to past tense. Although I have no citable rule to back up my decision, I feel as if these books should be written in past tense. Present tense just sounds odd for children’s fiction. Is this a paradigm that I should be willing to ignore, or is there an arguable reason that I have this tendency? I would appreciate any rationale you have to offer.
A. The choice of tense is so personal, and so critical to a fiction writer’s purpose, that it would seem rash to restrict an entire genre like children’s books to a single tense. Many excellent children’s books have been written in the present tense. If you feel that the past tense would improve the book, however, rewrite a paragraph or two and send it to the author for discussion.
Doesn’t changing the tense of an ENTIRE NOVEL seem a bit above and beyond the scope of what a copyeditor should be doing? In any case, it certainly seems like something you should discuss with the author first, as the CMoS suggested. Can you imagine opening up the package with your copyedited manuscript, only to see that the copyeditor had rewritten the entire book? Boy, imagine all the stetting you’d be doing.
If World War II had been an online Real Time Strategy game…
From The StrategyPage’s Military Jokes and Military Humor:
If World War II had been an online Real Time Strategy game, the chat room
traffic would have gone something like this.
Excerpt:
*Roosevelt has left the game.*
Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
Eisenhower: sh1t now we need some1 to join
*tru_m4n has joined the game.*
tru_m4n: hi all
T0J0: hey
Stalin: sup
Churchill: hi
tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES
Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
T0J0: wtf is nukes?
T0J0: holy ****holy****hoyl****!
*T0J0 has been eliminated.*
Thanks to Dave Kirtley
for
pointing it out, who informs me that he’ll have a slew of his short fiction
available on Fictionwise very soon.
LitHaven Interview
Simon Owens at LitHaven just posted a short interview with me, which focuses on audiobooks and reviewing.
Science News
Caltech astronomer finds solar system’s 10th planet:
A California astronomer has discovered what he believes is the 10th planet in our solar system, a group of NASA-funded researchers said on Friday.
The new planet, known as 2003UB313, has been identified as the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun, California Institute of Technology astronomer Michael Brown said.
Hmm…2003UB313. That’s catchy.
But I like having nine planets in our solar system. I think I’ll use my Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator to blow that sucker up. (My Death Star is in the shop.)
Water ice in crater at Martian north pole
…images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole.
So now all we have to do is build one of those huge melty reactors, and once we activate it, Mars will have atmosphere!
Young Writers
I’m putting together a list of published SF/F/H writers who are in their
twenties, and I was hoping some of my knowledgeable
readers could add to my list.
Know of any young SF/F/H writers not mentioned here?
Also, if you know someone on the list is 30 or older, please let me know so I
can cross him/her off the list. This is for a project I’m working on that
I’m not at liberty to discuss at the moment,
but I’d appreciate any help you fine folks could offer.
Some of these authors have resumes more impressive than others, but the only
real criteria I have is that the author in question have at least one
professional sale.
Here’s a list I’ve compiled thus far:
Not sure about these:
So, again, if you know any of these are 30 or older, please let me know, and
if you know of others, of course, I’d like to hear about them, or even
possibilities (i.e. you know the writer is young, but not sure how young).
It’s kind of surprising how difficult it can be to track down the age of
someone. The ISFDB is good for some, but unfortunately, it doesn’t have the
birthdates of most young writers.
Writer’s Market
Some of you may have gotten your start with writing markets, as I did, with a copy of the Writer’s Market. If you did, then you were probably a clueless newbie when you picked it up, and remained a clueless newbie for a while afterward…until you got around to picking up a copy of each of those mysterious magazines and started reading them, and got to really know what you were doing.
Well, in an effort to make the newbies pawing through WM a little less clueless after reading it, the editors have lately been including a bunch of informative articles along with the market listings.
The reason I mention all this is that I may be doing some writing for them, for the 2007 edition of the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market. Now, I don’t bring that up here to brag; instead, I mention it to see if anyone has any ideas for the sort of articles you might like to see in such a book, or the sort of articles that you wish you had seen when you first were starting out.
There are many writers already associated with the book, so many of the general writing type of articles are already spoken for. But I’m being brought in specifically as an expert in SF, so SF-specific articles are more of what I’m interested in. I have my own ideas, of course, but I’d be interested in hearing what you, my dear readers, think. After all, you guys are more the audience for this book than I am, so you’re the people to ask.