Music Anthology?
Is there some kind of SF/Fantasy music anthology being put together? I’ve seen a whole lot of music-themed stories in the slush pile lately, and I’m thinking there must be a reason for this.
Category: GENERAL
Plagiarism for Dummies
This looks interesting. This site is holding a contest inspired by the Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism controversy:
Inspired by recent events, we wondered not “why does anyone plagiarize,” but “why aren’t more people better at plagiarizing?” And so we are launching a contest to see if there is a “writer” out there who can create a coherent and original piece of fiction completely made from the works of others.
(Which is about as coherent and original as modern fiction can get, right?)
The winner “will have his or her story published on The Morning News, and will also receive a TMN T-shirt and mug to remind them of this, the moment ethics in writing died.” You’ve got to enter by May 12, so get to work.
via Miss Snark
Office Cat Evaluates Manuscripts
Since everyone seemed so interested in how the office cat operates, I thought I’d capture him in action. My new digital camera also functions as a video camera, so I was able to record this for posterity. So this is how he makes his editorial decisions; it’s unusual to be sure, but you can’t argue with the results.
(Sorry about the lack of light–it didn’t look so dark as I was filming it.)
Here’s a link to a slightly larger version at YouTube.com.
An Ode to Empire Strikes Back
David Louis Edelman, author of the forthcoming novel INFOQUAKE, posted a really cool ode to Empire Strikes Back. It’s a really vivid piece of writing; check it out.
A Tribute to F&SF
Jonathan Strahan just posted a nice tribute to F&SF on his blog, in honor of Blog About F&SF Day.
If you see any other particularly noteworthy ones, feel free to point them out.
Evil Editor
Stumbled across a new blog that you, my loyal readers, might be interested in: Evil Editor. The Evil Editor critiques query letters in an effort to make the writers not sound so foolish. Of course, this is only for you novel writing folk–as we all know, short fiction doesn’t require plot synopsis in a cover letter. We all know that, right?
Evil Editor was discovered via Miss Snark, which is another writerly resource you should be reading. But try not to be a nitwit.
Blog About F&SF, Get a Free Copy
On the F&SF Message Board, Gordon sez:
I just got a box of fifty advance copies of the July 2006 F&SF sitting here.
I’m looking to give away these copies to the first fifty people who ask for one.
The catch is this: if you want one of the copies, you’ll have to blog about the issue.
Your blog can say anything, even “I’m only writing this blog entry about F&SF because I said I would to get a free copy of this sucky magazine.”
I’m particularly interested in getting younger readers to blog, so if you’re a parent of a teen, ask him/her if they want a copy.
This promotion isn’t limited to young readers, though. If you’re 112 and you blog, you’re welcome to a copy also.
Just post your mailing address here or contact us at Fandsf – at sign – aol dot com.
When the box of copies is empty, this promotion’s over.
Found Money
I just wanted to thank whoever it was that’s been clicking on my various links to Amazon.com. My associates account just earned me a $15 gift certificate. Sweet!
I bought myself a CD–Rebirth of the Temple by Silent Civilian. I’m just bummed I have to wait for it to show up now. I’ve been spoiled by iTunes’s whole instant gratification thing.
J.J. Abrams & Trek
By now, everyone has probably heard about Paramount’s plans to revive the Trek franchise with a new movie, which will be produced by J.J. Abrams (of Alias and Lost fame). I’m fine with that–I think that Trek needed some new blood, but the problem is that with the new blood, was the promise of returning to old ideas: the movie puportedly will focus on Kirk and Spock in their younger years, at Starfleet Academy.
This kind of seems like asking for trouble to me–how in holy hell are they going to get anyone to play those roles that’s going to live up to Shatner and Nimoy without resorting to doing impersonations of them? Me, I’m skeptical.
As for longtime Trek-runner Rick Berman, I’m kind of glad he’s not involved–he helmed the ship true for a while, but at the end he’d led it astray. By the end, it was as if Trek was stuck in a Menthar booby trap.
But anyway, since this Kirk/Spock plot was “leaked,” Abrams has since come out denouncing the idea as being untrue. (Can’t find a relevant link at the moment.)
Now, I’ve seen this sort of thing happen quite a lot over the years. At first, I thought that it was just rabid fanboys hearing a rumor then spreading it like wildfire over the internet, but now I’m not so sure. Could Abrams have deliberately leaked such an idea to see what fan reaction would be like? That way, if the reaction was bad (as it has been), he can step forward to deny the rumors and say that was never the plan to begin with? If so, it’s kind of sneaky, but hey, I’d rather he float his dumbass ideas out this way then have to see him kill Trek for good with such a stinker of an idea.
April 2006 Acquisitions
From David Gerrold this month comes [brain fart edit] a new story [/brain fart edit]; Bruce McAllister offers a brief tale of a pulp writer; Melanie Fazi (courtesy of translator Christopher Priest) tells the tale of two missing children; and Gene Wolfe takes the reader to the asteroid belt for a tale of futuristic documentary filmmaking. Also, just when you thought it was safe to stop sending us poetry, we bought a humorous poem from Sophie M. White.