In episode 184 of the Sword and Laser, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt talk of high fantasy, Neil Gaiman and saving humanity.

In episode 183 of the Sword and Laser, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt ponder on Matt Damon's role in The Martian, why we love to hate villains, and the role of philosophy and ideology in Octavia Butler's Dawn. Brought to you by Squarespace. Use offer code SWORD for a free trial and 10% off!

In the latest episode of the Sword and Laser, Veronica and Tom break down their June book pick, Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan.

Jon sez, "When conjuring up the future, why do writers and filmmakers so often imagine Northern California as an edenic utopia, while Southern California gets turned into a dystopian hellscape? While Hollywood, counterculture, and Mike Davis have each helped to shape and propagate this idea, Kristin Miller traces its roots back to the 1949 George R. — Read the rest

The Clarion Writers' Workshop at UC San Diego has announced its lineup of instructors for the 2014 session, and it's pretty spectacular: this year's writer-instructors are Gregory Frost, Geoff Ryman, Catherynne Valente, N.K. Jemisin, Ann VanderMeer, and Jeff VanderMeer.

Clarion is a six-week, intensive boot-camp for science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction writers. — Read the rest

The paperback edition of Delia Sherman's The Freedom Maze is out today. It's a subtle, nuanced, uncomfortable and brave young adult novel about racism and time-travel. I reviewed the hardcover in 2011 (I've reproduced the review below), and since then, the book's gone on to win a slew of awards and recognition: the Norton award, the Prometheus award, the Mythopeoic award, the Tiptree honors list, the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults list, and the Kirkus best of 2011 list. — Read the rest

Here's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. As always, please add the causes and charities you give to in the comments below!

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Could there be a year that's more relevant to the EFF? — Read the rest

Here's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. As always, please add the causes and charities you give to in the comments below!

Electronic Frontier Foundation
There's never been a time when EFF's mission was more important: everything we do today involves the Internet; everything we do tomorrow will require it. — Read the rest

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Nebula Awards, especially to Jo Walton, who won for her magnificent novel, Among Others (see my review, here). Also congrats to Delia Sherman for her best YA book prize for The Freedom Maze (my review). — Read the rest

This is the first post from the fine folks of the American Library Association, which recently launched a member interest group called Library Boing Boing. They will be posting now and again as LibraryLab.

On April 23, 2012, tens of thousands of people in the U.S., — Read the rest

It's time again for Boing Boing's guide the charities we support in our annual giving. As always, please add the causes and charities you give to in the comments below!

Electronic Frontier Foundation
The EFF's mission has never been more important: as laws like SOPA are rammed through Congress, as bloggers around the world are arrested and tortured with the collusion of American network-surveillance companies, and as the FBI's unconstitutional, warrantless use of surveillance technology like GPS bugs comes to light, EFF is poised to be center-stage in the fight for a free and open world with a free and open Internet. — Read the rest

Delia Sherman's alternate history The Freedom Maze is really nothing like the contemporary and mythology-infused fantasy she is best known for, except that, as with Sherman's other books, the story here is subtle, nuanced, uncomfortable and brave.

It's 1960: Sophie Fairchild is 13, and her parents have just divorced. — Read the rest

Boing Boing's charitable giving guide has become a seasonal tradition of ours, listing the charities we personally support and want to give more attention to. As in previous years, we invite you to add your own favorite charities in the comments section. — Read the rest

The Clarion 2011 workshop at UCSD La Jolla has just opened up for submissions from writers. Clarion is the original boot-camp-style writing program for science fiction, fantasy and horror writers, with alumni as diverse as Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson, Jeff VanderMeer, Octavia Butler, Kathe Koja, James Patrick Kelly — and me! — Read the rest

Deviant Art's FernandoLucas has knocked together a set of anti-Twilight t-shirts calling for a return to vampire fundamentals: biting, rending, tearing, and terrorizing, not snogging and crying.

nosferatu

stop sentimental vampires

stop sentimental vamps

rather bite

(via Super Punch)

Once again, I'm delighted to return to a Boing Boing seasonal tradition: a charitable giving guide, a list of charities we personally support and want to give more attention to. And as in previous years, we invite you to add your own favorite charities to the list in the comments section. — Read the rest

Dead-Air sez, "At the Science Fiction Message Board the results are in for our 2009 'Author August' post-a-thon extravaganza! The regular members, along with some visitors lured by news of the upcoming event, have nominated a wildly diverse range of authors. — Read the rest

John Oakes sez, "Article in New York Business describing OR Books, a new sort of publishing house being started up by two longtime indy publishers. We plan to take existing tech and apply it to old-fashioned publishing values–and to commit to massive marketing for our authors, and to do so within a progressive framework, releasing fiction and nonfiction." — Read the rest

There's a scant few weeks left to get your applications in to the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop at UCSD, a six-week intensive boot-camp for would-be writers. Clarion students write and critique every day, and receive one-on-one and group instruction from six instructors. — Read the rest

It's time for another Boing Boing seasonal tradition: our charitable giving guide, a list of charities we personally support and want to give more attention to. And as in previous years, we invite you to add your own favorite charities to the list in the comments section. — Read the rest