Mur Lafferty sez, "This week, Storium launched its Kickstarter and reached funding ($25000) in the first day. Storium is a web-based online game that you play with friends. It works by turning writing into a multiplayer game."
2013 was a great year for my encounters with debut novels — first novels from new authors, and first-time excursions into young adult fiction from established adult fic authors, and even an editorial debut. Starting with Leonard Richardson's incredible Constellation Games, and moving onto books like Mur Lafferty's long-awaited major press debut The Shambling Guide to New York City, Richard Kadrey's YA debut Dead Set, and many others. — Read the rest
Last weekend saw the presentation of a slew of major science fiction and fantasy awards, starting with the Hugo awards, whose winners included John Scalzi's Redshirts (for best novel); Brian K Vaughan's Saga (for best graphic story); a(nother) best editor Hugo to Patrick Nielsen Hayden (my editor!); — Read the rest
Mur Lafferty is one of the worst-kept secrets in science fiction and fantasy publishing. "Secret" in that her fiction has not been widely published (until now). "Worst-kept" in that she has been such a force of nature — the podcaster's podcaster, author of a huge corpus of excellent self-published work, and a skilled editor currently running Escape Pod — that anyone who's been paying attention has known that there were great things coming from her. — Read the rest
This year's Hugo Award nominees have been announced, and it's a great slate! Congrats to all the authors, artists, fans and editors who are up for the award in San Antonio, Texas this Labor Day weekend.
Best Novel (1113 nominating ballots cast)
* 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
* Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit)
* Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
* Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi (Tor)
* Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW)Best Novella (587 nominating ballots cast)
* After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
* The Emperor's Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
* On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
* San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, Mira Grant (Orbit)
* "The Stars Do Not Lie", Jay Lake (Asimov's, Oct-Nov 2012)
Laura sez, "Podcast nominations are open until June 1, 2012 for the Seventh Annual Parsec Awards which recognize excellence in speculative fiction podcasting. The awards were founded in 2005 by New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman, podcasting guru and author Mur Lafferty, and Farpoint Media founder Michael Mennenga. — Read the rest
From John W Campbell Award-nominee Mur Lafferty, an open letter to her (delightful) daughter, decrying all the ways in which the deck is stacked against girls and women in our world. It's a pretty much perfect summation of every fear, aspiration, and upset I feel on behalf of my own daughter. — Read the rest
Last night saw the announcement of the 2012 nominees for science fiction's prestigious Hugo Award. It's a particularly fine ballot, reflecting a record number of nominating ballots (wisdom of the crowds and all that). Included on the ballot are our own moderator Avram (as part of the team that publishes The New York Review of Science Fiction) and one of my all-time favorite books, Among Others. — Read the rest
Daytripper collects the full run of award-winning Brazilian comic-creating twins Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon's acclaimed graphic novel. Daytripper is the story of Bras de Oliva Domingos, the son of one of Brazil's most treasured writers. Bras aspires to write novels, too, though the closest he manages for some time is a job writing obits for a daily newspaper. — Read the rest
At long last, I have finally launched my self-published short story collection With a Little Help.
With a Little Help is my first serious experiment in self-publishing. I've published many novels, short story collections, books of essays and so on with publishers, and it's all been very good and satisfying and educational and so on, but it seems like it's time to try something new. — Read the rest
This week on Mur Lafferty's "I Should Be Writing" podcast, a smashing interview of science fiction great Kim Stanley Robinson, conducted by science fiction great James Patrick Kelly. Jim and Stan talk in depth about writing instruction and the Clarion workshops, with which they're both involved (as am I). — Read the rest
Matt sez, "On Sunday, July 13, 2008, every hour on the hour for eight hours beginning at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific time, 'Brave Men Run' author Matthew Wayne Selznick will be reading a brand new, original short story set in the first year of his 'Sovereign Era' universe. — Read the rest
Mur sez, "JC Hutchins brought us the killer podcast trilogy 7th Son, but after the novels were done, he invited eight authors from podcasting to write in his world. The audio anthology, called 7th Son, OBSIDIAN, comes out in May and features stories that follow random Americans through the nationwide 2 week blackout that happens in the trilogy. — Read the rest
Podcasting legend Mur Lafferty has just launched "Earth," the third series in her "Heaven" podiobook. I was privileged to have Mur as a writing student at the Viable Paradise workshop last year (applications for this year's workshop are due on the 30th!), — Read the rest
The first volume of an anthology of science fiction stories in podcast form has been published. Voices is a new "podiobook" anthology released under a Creative Commons license, which collects stories that have been podcast on various sf podcast shows, and puts them together in a single package. — Read the rest
