Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Got Any "Choose Your Own Adventure" Books to Spare?

One of the goodies in our (so far) online museum is a "Game Room", which right now has a handful of things that Curator Ed is working on.

The most interesting of the ongoing projects right now is the adventure book concept. You may remember the self-directed adventure books from the 1970s and 1980s, when they were most popular. Being published under family names such as Choose Your Own Adventure or Race Against Time, these light tomes provided adventure that you could fit in your back pocket.

Each of them had some fantastic adventure scenario and were essentially a book full of scenes. At the end of each, you were given a list of possible choices and directed to flip to a page to see the results of your decision. Even though they were pitched for the kids' market, they're kind of hard to put down, even if you were an adult.

Curator Ed has adapted a couple of them for your online distractionary pleasure, and is working on more. But we need more!

If you have any of these collecting dust in your attic/trunk/whatever, and you'd like to spread the fun, consider donating them to us. If we recieve any duplicates, we will make them available to others who will want them.

Landmail contact information can be found at our Contact/Donation page.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Speculaltive Fiction Grant for Writers Over 50; Deadline 31 March

Sorry for being late to the party on this one, but we've just found out (via BoingBoing) that the Speculative Literature Foundation's application period for the SLF Older Writers Grant will be closing soon, on 31 March.

This is a one-time grant of $750 and, being a grant, you can spend that any way you wish. You have to be 50 years old or older, and you have to be trying to break into the business.

Time is short to apply, but the list of applications materials seems short and sweet, and anyone trying to work professionally doubtlessly either has these to hand or can work them up quickly.

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Friday, March 20, 2009

2009 Hugo Nominees Announced

Heading off the roster are the Best Novels:

Best Novel
(639 Ballots)

  • Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
  • Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
  • Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
  • Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)
For the rest of the list, go to the Hugo Awards site here.

The Anticipation web site has links to some of the nominees' individual pages.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Syfy: The New Look of The Sci Fi Channel

Stuart Elliott, The New York Times:

Plans call for Sci Fi and its companion Web site (scifi.com) to morph into the oddly spelled Syfy — pronounced the same as “Sci Fi” — on July 7. The new name will be accompanied by the slogan “Imagine Greater,” which replaces a logo featuring a stylized version of Saturn.

Read All about It here.

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Ellison Sues WGA, Paramount Over Star Trek TOS Script

Via Newsarama.com:


Harlan Ellison filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday
against CBS Paramount and the Writers Guild of America over his script
for “The City on the Edge of Forever,” an episode of the original Star Trek series that first aired in April of 1967.


According to the suit, Ellison claims that he has no payment or
accounting from Paramount for the exploitation of his original
teleplay; and also claims that the WGA has failed to act on his behalf
on the issue, and has breached its duty of fair representation.


Read all about it.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Got $116K? Then You Have A First Edtion Library!

Tor.com:

If any of you have a spare $116,ooo sitting around, you can purchase an impressive collection of books. The Fine Books Company recently listed a collection of all the Hugo and Nebula Award winners for Best Novel on ABE Books. Here are some details from the site:

The listing includes 126 books covering 82 titles (many titles won both awards), and 95% of the titles are signed or inscribed, and in fine or better condition. When a paperback is the true first edition, then the first hardcover is also included. In some cases, US and UK hardcovers have been included where the paperback is the true first.

Read all about it at the Tor website.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Latest Star Trek Trailer: 1.8 Mil Views in 24 Hours from Apple.com

Airlock Alpha:

The most recent trailer for the film, which featured some of the
overall story fueling the not-so-reboot reboot was downloaded more than
1.8 million times over the first 24 hours it was released on Apple.com,
breaking the single-day record for any trailer on the Web site. To not
be bested by that, "Star Trek" was downloaded more than 5 million times
since Friday, breaking the weekly record for a trailer.


Read all about it.

See it yourself here.