Thanks to Readercon for their unintended hospitality: I played “lobby fandom” on Saturday at the con, there to meet with several people who were in town with the convention. I’ve done this a few times in the past with no troubles (at other cons I hasten to add). Not as a “ghost” mind you – no sneaking into panels or the dealers room (though truth to tell, security in my view was pretty lax and had I wanted to, I could have done just that.) In the past I’d hang in the lobby at a con I wasn’t a member of just to say hi to fannish friends, go out for a meal, pick up some flyers from the flyer table . I was doing just that when members of the concom informed me that there was an imaginary line located somewhere in the lobby of the hotel and that I had crossed it. As I said, I wasn’t ghosting, so I explained myself and headed off for what I hoped was the safe side of the imaginary line and who do I run into? David A. Kyle, who was up from NY with his daughter and grandson. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect! So thanks, Readercon; if you’d not been so vigilant in the enforcement of your “lines”, I’d have missed getting to say hello to David.
I’d also like to thank Tom Easton for the dinner invite and to wish him a Happy Birthday!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Amazing Stories subscribers are encouraged to contact us to obtain their complimentary copy of our 88th Anniversary Edition of the magazine (please specify Epub, Mobi or PDF)
ANOTHER SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
FuturesPast Editions Reveals the cover of Amazing Stories 35th Anniversary Special Edition anthology
PRESS RELEASES AND NEWSLETTERS (See below for full text)
Prometheus Award Winners
SOCIAL
To Be Takei (video)
Indian Spec Fic
JC Penny To Sacrifice Virgins To Cthulhu (SCOTUS Approves)
D&D & Gender Identity
Gender in Genre Fiction
RC Birth Control
An Open Letter to Joanna Russ
IN HOUSE
Mark Iles, AS Reviewer, The Cull Of Lions (See Press Releases for Detail)
ENTERTAINMENT
SF Author Living Through War His Novels Predict
Manual Typer Keyboard (via Arkham Horror Book Club)
Cosplay Photos from Anime Expo 2014
Robotech Kickstarter
Making of Star Wars Docu (video)
Robocop vs Terminator comic (tag team anyone? Robocop & Predator vs Terminator & Alien?)
Take A Galactic Tour!
Weekly Comics Round Up
Sonia Lovecraft’s Passport Photo (via Arkham Horror Book Club)
Apex Book of World SF 3
Free Star Wars Book Sampler
Official New Pulp Podcast
Finnish Weird
Hugo Gernsback and the Creation of Wireless Cryptography
More Ape Trailers
FANDOM
Tour the Enterprise
More Shannara!
How to be a Fan
Happy Birthday RAH
Detcon1 on Daily KOS
Time Traveler’s Wife Author to Lecture at Loncon3
New She-Ra
Book Discussion Citizen of the Galaxy
SF&F Kissing Kousins?
Drink Tank’s Jay Lake Memorial Edition
More Heinlein Ruminations
AWARDS
World Fantasy Award Finalists
WFC Lifetime Achievement Awards: Ellen Datlow & Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Mythopoeic Awards (vis SF Signal)
INDUSTRY
Beware: American Writing Association
Indies Petition Hatchette to give Amazon the Win
Do Writers Need A Union? (Howey’s support of the petition)
Amazon Makes “Offer” to Hachette’s AUTHORS
When is a Publisher Not a Publisher? When it’s a Publisher! (“Especially the part where they (Exciting Press) say you don’t need a publisher these days. That honest admission says so much.” From Exciting Press’ FAQ: What’s Exciting Press? Exciting Press is an independent digital publisher.
Tough Love For Big 5 Publishers
Pro Se Productions Single Shots
Fannish Research Grant
Isn’t Ed Kramer Supposed to be at Home?
BVC Announces Release of Risk of Love and Magic
Book Buzz At ALA
Fantasy Scroll Magazine
Italian Science Fiction
SCIENCE
How Magic Mushrooms Work (Like, dude, who cares?)
Black Hole Fireworks
Games map the Galaxy
Super Moon! (three!)
PRESS RELEASES AND NEWSLETTERS
The Cull of Lions
By
Mark Iles
Selena Dillon and her team return to Loreen after their attack on Mantis, only to find the myriad worlds of Mankind once again plunged into war. As the Penal Regiments are betrayed by the Federation of Man, and fighting spills throughout the galaxy, the dreaded Manta raise their heads once again.
Selena soon finds herself trying to track down her friends’ daughter, Hope, from the rabbit holes of Loreen, and then fights to free her home planet from alien invaders.
While a general amnesty means previous sins are forgiven, the Queen has not forgotten Selena’s attempt on her life. Selena soon finds herself torn between obeying orders to protect the monarch, and her ravening thirst for revenge. But strange forces are stirring amidst the stars and Mankind finds itself with surprising new allies, while a terrifying enemy that’s manipulated events from behind the scenes finally reveals itself for the very first time.
###
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 12, 2014
PROMETHEUS AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED: Doctorow, Naam, Bujold and Fish
Vernor Vinge to receive Lifetime Achievement Award
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced its Prometheus Award winners for 2014 – including a tie for Best Novel, our annual Hall of Fame entry for Best Classic Fiction and a rare Special Award, the first by the LFS’ to a filksinger-storyteller.
Awards for Best Novel, Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) plus a Special Award will be presented at 8 p.m. Aug. 16 during the Special Awards ceremony at Loncon 3, the 72nd annual World Science Fiction Convention, which will be held August 14-18, 2014 in London.
In a separate awards ceremony, four-time-Prometheus-winning author Vernor Vinge will receive a Special Prometheus Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented during Conjecture/ConChord Oct. 10-12, 2014 in San Diego, California.
Doctorow, Naam tie for Best Novel
There was a tie for Best Novel: The winners are Homeland (TOR Books) by Cory Doctorow and Nexus (Angry Robot Books) by Ramez Naam.
Homeland, the sequel to Doctorow’s Prometheus winner Little Brother, follows the continuing adventures of a government-brutalized young leader of a movement of tech-savvy hackers who must decide whether to release an incendiary Wikileaks-style exposé of massive government abuse and corruption as part of a struggle against the invasive national-security state.
Nexus offers a gripping exploration of politics and new extremes of both freedom and tyranny in a near future where emerging technology opens up unprecedented possibilities for mind control or personal liberation and interpersonal connection.
The other Prometheus finalists for best pro-freedom novel of 2013 were Sarah Hoyt’s A Few Good Men (Baen Books); Naam’s Crux, the sequel to Nexus (Angry Robot Books); and Marcus Sakey’s Brilliance (Thomas & Mercer).
Lois McMaster Bujold wins Hall of Fame for Falling Free
The Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) winner is Falling Free, Lois McMaster Bujold ‘s 1988 novel that explores free will and self-ownership by considering the legal and ethical implications of human genetic engineering.
The other 2014 Hall of Fame finalists: “As Easy as A.B.C.,” a 1912 short story by Rudyard Kipling; “Sam Hall,” a 1953 short story by Poul Anderson; “ ‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” a 1965 short story by Harlan Ellison; andCourtship Rite, a 1982 novel by Donald M. Kingsbury.
The Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction honors novels, novellas, stories, graphic novels, anthologies, films, TV shows/series, plays, poems, music recordings and other works of fiction first published or broadcast more than five years ago.
Leslie Fish wins Special Award
Author-filksinger Leslie Fish, perhaps the most popular filk song writer of the past three decades and one who often includes pro-freedom themes in her songs, will receive a Special Prometheus Award in 2014 for the combination of her 2013 novella, “Tower of Horses” and her filk song, The Horsetamer’s Daughter.
Fish’s novella (published in the anthology Music of Darkover edited by Elisabeth Waters) faithfully tells the same story as her Pegasus-winning filk song. The story’s characters (especially the 12-year-old title character of the song) resist control of a wizard-backed government that wants to regulate, tax, and conscript them.
This Darkover story thus sheds new light and fresh libertarian perspective on the world of Darkover by focusing on the peaceful voluntary cooperative lives of farmers and small-town traders struggling to preserve their freedom and independence – rather than the usual Darkover focus on the planet’s leaders or ruling elite, some well-intentioned but some abusing power.
About the awards
The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), was established in 1979, making it one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently in sf. Presented annually since 1982 at the World Science Fiction Convention, the Prometheus Awards include a gold coin and plaque for the winners.
For more than three decades, the Prometheus Awards have recognized outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that stress the importance of liberty as the foundation for civilization, peace, prosperity, progress and justice.
For a full list of past Prometheus Award winners in all categories, visit www.lfs.org. Membership in the Libertarian Futurist Society is open to any science fiction fan interested in how fiction can promote an appreciation of the value of liberty.
For more information, contact LFS Publicity Chair Chris Hibbert (publicity@lfs.org). To submit 2014 novels for consideration and possible nomination by LFS members, contact Best Novel awards coordinator Michael Grossberg (BestNovel@lfs.org or 614-236-5040). To propose works published more than five years ago for the Hall of Fame, contact William H. Stoddard, Hall of Fame finalist judging committee chair (HallOfFame@lfs.org).
More information is available at https://lfs.org.
###
