Promo Bits: Tor at Comic-Con — the Schedule
If you haven’t received an email from them yet, then you’ll be surprised to learn about all the fun things Tor Books will be up to at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con. They include (taken from the email): This year at the Tor Booth (#2707), we’ll not only have our popular *in-booth signings and giveaways, but you’ll also have a chance to download exclusive content via QR codes and win a tablet from our friends at Tor.com! And finally, our esteemed Tor Staff will participate in our popular #Torchat series on Twitter, live from the con on Thursday the 21st from 10am – 11am PST. Read on for all the details! And (the schedule of Tor-related events): Thursday, July 21st · 10am – 11am #Torchat, live from Comic-Con! With @tdelucci (Theresa Delucci, Ad/promo Manager & Tor.com blogger), @Laura_FitzG (Laura Fitzgerald, Digital Mktg Coordinator) @opattyg (Patty Garcia, Director of Publicity) and @jgolenbo (Justin Golenbock, Senior Publicist Extraordinaire) · 12pm Tor Booth signing with Carrie Vaughn, author of New York Times bestselling Kitty Norville series, signing copies of Kitty Goes to War. Booth #2707 · 12pm – 1pm Putting the “Epic” in “Epic Fantasy: Writing to excite! Room 6A With Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings), Peter Orullian (The Unremembered), George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, Kevin J. Anderson and others. Moderated by Michael Spradlin. 1:30pm – 2:30pm Signing in the autographing area, AA8 · 2:45pm Tor Booth signing with Brandon Sanderson, signing Mistborn. Five lucky fans will win an Advanced Readers Copy of his new book Alloy of Law, coming in November. Booth #2707 · 4pm – 5pm No Damsels in Distress Here: Female voices in sci-fi/fantasy create kick-ass heroines. Room 25ABC. With Carrie Vaughn (Kitty’s Big Trouble), Seanan McGuir, Sherrilyn Kenyon and others. Moderated by Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy. 5:30pm – 6:30pm Signing in the autographing area, AA2 · 5pm Tor Booth signing with Tony Gonzales, IP Development Manager at CCP Games and author of Eve: Empyrean Age and the upcoming Eve: Templar One (December). Booth #2707 Friday, July 22nd: Videogame Day Tor has positioned themselves as the industry leader within this burgeoning subgenre of science fiction via an expanded program of stand-alone novels that flesh out virtual worlds with original stories through partnerships with industry-leading videogame developers, established writers, and prominent gaming studios. This year we take over and get our own panel! We’ll also be giving away Halo and Dragon Age messenger bags all day! · 10am – 11am Writing in Videogames: In-game, novels, comics, & other franchise-building offshoots. Room 32AB. With Greg Bear (Halo: Cryptum), Karen Traviss (Halo: Glasslands), David Gaider (Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, Dragon Age: The Calling), John Shirley (Bioshock: Rapture), Tony Gonzales (EVE: The Empyrean Age, EVE: Templar One), Frank O’Connor (Chief of 343 Industries, Halo: Evolutions) and Kevin Grace (Managing Editor of 343 Industries, Halo: Evolutions). Moderated by Matt Staggs of Suvudu.com. 11:30am – 12:30am Signing in the autographing area, AA2 · 12pm Tor Booth signing with Bram Stoker Award winner John Shirley, signing copies of Bioshock: Rapture, the prequel story to the award-winning and bestselling video game franchise. Booth #2707 · 2pm Tor Booth signing with multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Greg Bear, #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Travis, Frank O’Connor, Chief of 343 Industries, and Kevin Grace, Managing Editor of 343 Industries, signing copies of Halo: Evolutions. Booth #2707 · 5pm Tor Booth signing with David Gaider, lead writer on the award-winning role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins among others, signing copies of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. Booth #2707 Saturday, July 23rd · 12pm Tor Booth signing with the iconic Vernor Vinge! This fall will finally see the release of The Children of the Sky, the long awaited follow up to Hugo Award winning A Fire Upon the Deep. Never read it? Stop by the booth and get a copy signed by the wonderful author himself! Booth #2707 · 3pm The Long Man give-away by comic legend, Steve Englehart. Booth #2707 · 5pm Tor Booth signing with legendary George R.R. Martin! Originally created in 1987 and long before Martin became a household name, George R. R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass’ Wild Cards series earned a reputation for its smart reimagining of the superhero idea. Martin & Snodgrass will be joined by other contributors including Carrie Vaughn, Carolyn Spector and Daniel Abraham. Note: Martin will only sign copies of Inside Straight; limit one copy per person. Booth #2707 Sunday, July 24th · 10:30am Wildcards Sunday Morning, Moderated by George R.R. Martin & Melinda Snodgrass. With Paul Cornell, David Anthony Durham, Carrie Vaughn, Daniel Abraham & Caroline Spector. A Tor exclusive! 12pm – 1pm Signing in the Autographing area AA8 · 12pm Dreadnought giveaway by steampunk high priestess, Cherie Priest. Booth #2707 · 12pm – 1pm Speculative Fiction: Space odyssey, alien encounters and future worlds Room 25ABC. With Vernor Vinge (The Children of the Sky), Greg Bear (Halo: Cryptum), Timothy Zahn and others. Moderated by Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy. 1:30pm – 2:30pm Signing in the autographing area AA8 · 2pm – 3pm Tor Booth signing with comic legends Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham! We’re proud to announce the publication of Down the Mysterly River, Willingham’s first book for young readers to be published by Starscape (Tor’s younger sibling) this fall. Willingham &; Buckingham (hey that rhymes!) will sign one of four specially designed postcards featuring art from the upcoming book. A Comic-Con exclusive! *All Tor Booth signings are on a first come first serve basis and while supplies lasts. Limit one book per person. So there you have it. If you’re going to be at Comic-Con (wish I could be), you should check out some of the Tor events. I’m sure they’ll be amazing!
Promo Bits: Robocalypse Book Trailer (German Edition)
I’ll be honest: I don’t speak German and half of the words spoken in the video below are unintelligible to me. But the video is too damn awesome to ignore! Check it out (after the fold): The production value is astonishingly good for a book trailer, don’t you think? I wish all book trailers were this good. Now if only we knew what all of the words meant! (I know a friend of mine reads this blog and knows more German than I do. Maybe she can translate.)
Promo Bits: Lord of the Rings: Returning to Theaters!
The title only gives you have the picture. It’s been a long while since RotK hit the big screen. Now we can see the extended cut the way it was meant to be seen! Here’s the info: Return to Middle-earth as the most magical epic adventure in motion picture history comes to the big screen this June for a three-night theatrical event series. NCM Fathom and Warner Home Video are bringing all three The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition films to movie theaters nationwide so that you an experience them the way they were meant to be seen – on the big screen! The events will begin with a new and personal introduction for each film from The Lord of the Rings™ director Peter Jackson captured from the set of his current film, and The Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, and will be immediately followed by the Extended Edition feature presentations which altogether include nearly three hours of additional feature footage carefully selected by Peter Jackson. The Academy Award®-winning trilogy will be featured in an exclusive series of three in-theater events including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring™ on June 14, 2011; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers™ on June 21, 2011; and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King™ on June 28, 2011. Each event will begin at 7:00 p.m. local time. Participating theaters and tickets can be found at www.fathomevents.com – limited seats available! I don’t know if they are showing where you live, but nothing can beat seeing the extended cuts on the big screen!
Promo Bits: Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh
I figured this would be of interest to you guys: Soft Apocalypse is the extraordinary debut novel by Will McIntosh. It follows the journey of a tribe of formerly middle class Americans as they struggle to find a place for themselves and their children in a new, dangerous world. A world that still carries the ghostly echoes of their previous lives. What happens when resources become scarce and society starts to crumble? As the competition for resources pulls America’s previously stable society apart, the “New Normal” is a Soft Apocalypse. This is how our world ends; with a whimper instead of a bang. Soft Apocalypse is a must read and available now! For a sneak peak at the first two chapters, click here. Here’s the cover image (after the fold): Sounds interesting to me. What about to all of you?
ToC for ODD? (vol. one) Released (and It Looks Good!)
Jeff VanderMeer has released the table of contents for the first volume of the upcoming anthology called ODD? (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer). Here’s the list: Amos Tutuola – “The Dead Babies”Gustave Le Rouge – “The War of the Vampires” (new translation by Brian Evenson and David Beus)Jeffrey Ford – “Weiroot”Leopoldo Lugones – “The Bloat Toad” (new translation by Larry Nolen)Mark Samuels – “Apt 205”Michael Cisco – “Modern Cities Exist Only to Be Destroyed” (published only in a limited edition previously)Nalo Hopkinson – “Slow Cold Chick”Sumanth Prabhaker – “A Hard Truth About Waste Management” (revised since publication)Hiromi Goto – “Stinky Girl”Eric Basso – “Logues”Edward Morris – “Lotophagi”Karin Tidbeck – “The Aunts” (previously unpublished)Jeffrey Thomas – “The Fork”Rikki Ducornet – “The Volatilized Ceiling of Baron Munodi”Amanda le Bas de Plumetot – “Unmaking” (previously unpublished)Karl Hans Strobl – “The Head” (new translation by Gio Clairval)Caitlin R. Kiernan – “A Child’s Guide to the Hollow Hills”Stacey Levine – “Sausage” I’ll admit that I haven’t heard of a number of folks on this list, but the fact that Amos Tutuola, Jeffrey Ford, and Nalo Hopkinson are on it tells me a lot about the quality and the vision of the anthology. You better believe that this sucker will be on my Christmas list. What do you all think of it?
Promo Bits: Gantz (Live Action Film) Premieres on the Jan. 20th,2011!
I recently received an email about this event and decided that, since I’m planning to go, you all should know about it so you can go too. Here’s the info (after the fold): There are a lot of really sexy people in this movie, by the way… You’ve watched the series, you’ve read the manga and for one night on Thursday, January 20 you can see the GANTZ live-action World Premiere on the big screen. NCM Fathom and NEW PEOPLE invite you to your local movie theatre for the GANTZ LIVE event. Follow characters Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato on their mysterious posthumous mission to eradicate an alien species bent on destroying Earth. On January 20, find out if the players of this ultimate survival game can save the world and revive themselves. What were originally stunning illustrations translate into explosive action delivered in 5.1 surround sound. GANTZ will be English over-dubbed exclusively for this one night event. Kazunari Ninomiya and Kenichi Matsuyama, the popular Japanese actors who play Kurono and Kato, will participate in an exclusive live interview following the feature. This Q&A is exclusive to GANTZ theatre audiences nationwide. Tickets are on sale now. Check out www.fathomevents.com to learn more about GANTZ, find a list of participating theatres near you and purchase tickets. I haven’t seen all of the animated series, but I do recall the first few episodes being quite good. You can find out if a theater near you is participating here. So who’s going?