The Skiffy and Fanty Podcast: Coming Soon!
Thanks to everyone who helped by casting a vote in the last few days. We’ve officially decided the title for our podcast. It was a close race, actually. I ran the poll on Young Writes Online as well and Undersea Ninja Factory came as a close second. The official tally was as follows: Skiffy and Fanty — 7 Undersea Ninja Factory — 5 Subgeneric — 3 Stinkbeatles — 1 Spellbots — 1 There weren’t that many votes primarily because I didn’t give that much lead time before we wanted to have the title selected. Since I don’t run polls here very often (I intend to change that), three days really isn’t enough time to get people to vote. So, the official title of the podcast is The Skiffy and Fanty Podcast! It will feature, as I mentioned before, myself and Weirdside as hosts. The plan was to have the first episode up this weekend, but unfortunately Mr. Weirdside’s mic hasn’t arrived yet, so it will have to be postponed until next week. Stay tuned for more information. P.S.: I intend to keep Undersea Ninja Factory for another podcast I want to do in the future. So, the fact that a good portion of voters liked that title is a good indicator of its amusing nature. I have no idea what that podcast will be about; for now, I have one show to worry about.
NextRead’s Short Story Month
Gav over at NextRead is dedicating May to short stories in his Short Story Month project. He’ll be reviewing short story collections, new and old, and he’ll be opening the discussion to your favorite short stories, among other issues related to the narrative form.If you’re interested in this sort of thing (as I am), you should check out the intro post here. Additionally, you should let Gav know here who your favorite short story writers are, along with your favorite short stories. Hopefully this project will grab some attention. Short stories need the love!
Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series to Become Movie Trilogy
The news is spreading fast, but it seems like Ron Howard is working on creating a trilogy of movies based on Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The series is to be produced through Imagine Entertainment by Brian Grazer, with Akiva Goldsman as the script writer. This trio might make a little more sense if you throw out the titles A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. For Stephen King fans, this is good news indeed. Ron Howard is an accomplished director with a lot of amazing credits to his name. The fact that he is slated to direct this project might mean that King’s work will get fine treatment. Only time will tell. I, however, have never read the books, but have been told numerous times that they are quite good. This might give me the push I need to set some time aside and read them. If you’ve read the books before, let me know what your thoughts in the comments!You find out more about this news here and here.
Asimov’s Science Fiction: Now Taking Electronic Submissions!
For those of you who write science fiction and have grown as tired as I have of spending money on postage to send stories to the big three, this will come as great news. Asimov’s Science Fiction has officially adopted the electronic submission system used by Clarkesworld and several other magazines! That means you can now send them electronic subs! Greatest thing ever? Yes. Is this the sign of pending doom in 2012? Absolutely. Reactions elsewhere: Clarkesworld and Scalzi at Whatever.
Shared Worlds Teams Up With Science Fiction and Fantasy Greats!
Matt Staggs recently sent me this via email: Sci Fi and Fantasy’s Best Writers Join Forces with Shared Worlds Writing Camp for Bestiary of Strange Beasts! Here there be monsters! And beasts! And fantastical creatures. The faculty of Shared Worlds creative writing camp has called on some of speculative fiction’s most compelling storytellers to chase down and gather up all manner of wondrous beasts, and you can examine them all here. Featuring contributions from: Elizabeth Bear, Michael Bishop, Tobias Buckell, Jesse Bullington, Gail Carringer, Cory Doctorow, Steven R. Erikson & Ian C. Esslemont, Ed Greenwood, Daryl Gregory, Lev Grossman, Elizabeth Hand, Will Hindmarch, Kathe Koja, Nancy Kress, Jay Lake, Jeff LaSala, James Morrow, Nnedi Okorafor, James O’Neal, Robert V. S. Redick, Ekaterina Sedia, Paul G. Tremblay, Marly Youmans and Zoran Zivkovic. Shared Worlds is a summer think tank at Wofford College for teenagers who have an interest in fantasy and science fiction literature. For two weeks, students create imaginary worlds and write fiction under the guidance of writers and professors. As part of the program, this year’s students will illustrate the fantastic beasts in our bestiary, so be sure to return at the end of the summer to see what they’ve done! Instructors for 2010 will include Spiderwick Chronicles creator Holly Black, critically acclaimed YA and adult authors Kathe Koja and Marly Youmans, Nebula Award winner Michael Bishop, writer and gaming expert Will Hindmarch, and World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer. Artist Scott Eagle will also conduct a workshop during the camp. Register online today! Jeff VanderMeer talks a little more about it here. Talk about an impressive list of people! The teens who get to go to this thing are lucky bastards indeed. Where’s Shared Worlds For Old People when you need it? This will definitely be one of the biggest events of the year.
Question: Loading Time For This Blog
Someone recently brought up the unusual load times for this blog, which prompted me to make some changes to the content in the sidebars. With that in mind, I was wondering if those of you who are my readers could load up the blog and let me know if you notice any lags in load time (particularly lags in parts: do the sidebars load at about the same time, or are they noticeably distanced?). Thanks for your time!