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Out
of the Woodwork 157. October 2009
Welcome to our newsletter, it contains up to the minute news and gossip as well as awards details and items requiring help from the collective consciousness. If you wish to contribute please do so! We welcome your thoughts, your news items and any gossip! We do love a bit of gossip here at Fantastic HQ. We recently have managed to get our books on Amazon.Com in the US and would now like to list with the Japanese Amazon. To do that it looks like we will need a Japanese Bank Account and Credit Card - anyone got any ideas? They would be much appreciated here at Fantastic HQ. In this newsletter: Troy Kennedy Martin dies
- writer of the superb "Edge of Darkness" and also John
Hart - the other "Lone Ranger" OotW Blinks: Troy Kennedy Martin influential writer who penned the fantastic thriller "Edge of Darkness" died on 15th September - Indepedent Obituary John Hart: Destined to go down in history as television's "other" Lone Ranger, playing the masked man riding his trusty white horse Silver for 52 episodes - died 20th September. Independent obituary Edgar Allen Poe's funeral. After 160 years, the great American writer Edgar Allan Poe is finally to be honoured with a decent funeral service. As part of events marking the anniversary, and 200 years since his birth, Baltimore, where Poe died and is buried, will host a double celebration. BBC story 2009 Heinlein Awards:- Joe Haldeman and John Varley are the winners of the Robert A. Heinlein Award for 2009. The award is for "outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings to inspire the human exploration of space." Winners are selected by a committee of science fiction authors chaired by Robert Heinlein's friend Dr. Yoji Kondo. Members of the committee were originally selected by Mrs. Virginia Heinlein. The award prize consists of a wall plaque certificate, large sterling silver medallion, and lapel pin, each featuring the likeness of Robert Heinlein as rendered by Arlin Robbins. Virginia Heinlein authorized multiple awards in memory of her husband. The Robert A. Heinlein Award is supported by independent donations from the public Kenneth Williams honour. The late actor and comedian Kenneth Williams has been honoured with a blue plaque at the central London site of his father's barber shop. BBC story JK Rowling denied top US honour . Harry Potter author JK Rowling missed out on a top honour because some US politicians believed she "encouraged witchcraft", it has been claimed. Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W Bush, said that some members of his administration believed her books promoted sorcery. As a result, she was never presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. BBC story Dan Brown's follow-up to the Da Vinci Code has sold more copies in its first 36 hours of UK release than any other adult hardback novel, say publishers. The Lost Symbol, which went on sale on Tuesday 15th September, sold more than 300,000 copies in the UK. This compares with the previous best-selling adult hardback, Thomas Harris' Hannibal, which sold 298,000 copies when it was published in 1999. Full BBC story Tim Powers "On Stranger Tides" to be the fourth "Pirate of the Caribbean" movie. Disney has finally announced the fourth installment of "Pirates Of The Caribbean." Film number-four will be titled "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and it will be released in the summer of 2011. The company made the announcement with Johnny Depp at the D23 Expo. Johnny Depp, who plays Captain Jack Sparrow, sailed onstage in a pirate ship. He staggered around the stage before hugging Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, who told the audience of 5,000 fans about the next instalment. "On Stranger Tides" is a fantasy book that won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1988 and was also nominated for The World Fantasy award. In the book, originally published in 1988, the main character is also named Jack (Shandy) who tries to find the Fountain of Youth which was rumored title of the fourth installment. LA Times District 9 offends Nigerians. Nigeria's government is asking cinemas to stop showing a science fiction film, District Nine, that it says denigrates the country's image. Information Minister Dora Akunyili told the BBC's Network Africa programme that she had asked the makers of the film, Sony, for an apology. She says the film portrays Nigerians as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes. The Malawian actor, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, plays a gang leader with the nickname of Obasanjo, also the surname of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. It's a story, you know," he said. "It's not like Nigerians do eat aliens. Aliens don't even exist in the first place." BBC Orlando Bloom to be UN goodwill ambassador: British actor Orlando Bloom is to be a goodwill ambassador for the UN children's organisation Unicef. Unicef said the star of Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The Caribbean would work to help poor children and raise awareness of the organisation. BBC story Hilary Mantel's historical novel wins Man-Booker Prize. Author Hilary Mantel has been named 2009 Man Booker Prize winner for her historical novel Wolf Hall. Mantel, 57, beat five other shortlisted authors, including Sarah Waters and JM Coetzee, with her book based on Henry VIII's adviser Thomas Cromwell. Judges praised the "extraordinary story-telling" of Mantel. See acceptance speech - BBC The winners of the British Fantasy Awards 2009 are: BFS Best Novel (The August Derleth Fantasy Award) Memoirs of a Master Forger, by William Heaney, aka Graham Joyce (Gollancz) Best Novella The Reach of Children, by Tim Lebbon (Humdrumming)
Do You See, by Sarah Pinborough, from Myth-Understandings, ed. by Ian Whates (Newcon Press)
Bull Running for Girls, by Allyson Bird (Screaming Dreams) Best Anthology The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19, ed. Stephen Jones (Constable & Robinson The PS Publishing Best Small Press Award Elastic Press, run by Andrew Hook Basil Copper: A Life in Books, by Basil Copper, ed. Stephen Jones (PS Publishing) Best Magazine/Periodical Postscripts, ed. Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers (PS Publishing) Best Artist Vincent Chong Best Comic/Graphic Novel Locke and Key, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW Publishing) Best Televison Doctor Who, head writer Russell T. Davies (BBC Wales) Best Film The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Brothers) The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer Joseph D'Lacey, for Meat (Bloody Books) The Karl Edward Wagner Award (the Special Award) Hayao Miyazaki Banning Books: Authors, artists and musicians are due to gather at a library in San Francisco to protest against the banning of books in schools and libraries in the US. The event, part of the 27th annual Banned Books Week, has been organised by the American Library Association. Since 2001 bans on 3,736 books and other materials have been requested. Full BBC Story The ones that are most likely to be asked to be banned: And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell SFWA report ridiculous plagairism: If you are going to indulge then Stephen King, surely, is not the best writer to start with? SFWA A few days ago Shock Totem received a story called “Baboulas” by an author calling himself Richard Ridyard. John Boden, Assistant Editor of Shock Totem, read the story and immediately cried foul. “This is plagiarism,” he said. “This is Stephen King’s ‘The Boogeyman’ from his Night Shift collection. Even the title is the same!” ‘Baboulas’ is the Greek word for ‘Boogeyman.’ FIFTH
ANNUAL DOCTOR WHO DAY
Sunburst Awards: The 2009 Sunburst Award winners have been announced: Adult: The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson (Random House
Canada) Young Adult: Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor) One for the collective consciousness:- There was a story in an anthology, years ago, about 2 blokes landin on a planet that was all needle-like mountains but they found one with a sort of giant warehouse around the top full of stuff like a filler that started filling up the whole place and a universal drink that turned out to be a univ. drinker etc etc!! ring any bells? SF drama series Primeval has been resurrected for two new series by ITV just three months after it was announced it had been axed. Original stars including Andrew Lee Potts, Jason Fleming and Hannah Spearritt will return to the show. BBC Story Amazon's
Kindle panned by students. A group of 50 students
were given Amazon's large-screen DX ebook reader, containing their
course notes for the term, as part of an effort to conserve paper,
promote environmental stability, and see how well the technology
worked within an educational environment. But just two weeks in
to the project, many students have criticised the device, with one
calling it "a poor excuse of an academic tool". While
they acknowledged some of the benefits of the new technology, many
said it was difficult to use.
Daily Telegraph story Dinosaur eggs found in India. Geologists in southern India say they have found hundreds of dinosaur egg clusters which could be about 65 million years old. It was a chance find discovered when a team of scientists were locating a place to excavate an ancient riverbed in the state of Tamil Nadu. As they dug deeper they saw layers of what looked like fossilised eggs.The photos and samples were then sent to various universities who confirmed that they were dinosaur eggs.Each egg is the size of a football - about 13 to 23cm in diameter, lying buried in sandy nests. BBC Story RICHARD
CORBEN: GRAND MASTER "He is everything we're talking about when describing what makes a Grand Master," says Mark Chiarello, art director for DC Comics and Spectrum Advisory Board member. "Brilliant, an individual, astoundingly influential, a master of fantasy, horror, science fiction and comedic art, whose career has lasted longer and is more fruitful than anyone else I've ever seen. Richard is one of the five or six true geniuses in comics history." Doctor Who to get remake of Tardis consol - thanks to Blue Peter: CBBC show Blue Peter has launched a competition to design a new Tardis console that will appear in the next series of Doctor Who. Children aged between six and 12 are invited to create the new control panel which operates the time machine. For the purposes of the plot, designs for the hexagonal console must incorporate household objects. BBC Amazon launches Kindle in the UK: Amazon will release an international version of its popular Kindle e-book reader, pitting the company against a growing number of competitors for the Christmas season. However, British customers will have to order the international Kindle from Amazon.com, the American online store, and pay import duty of about £26 on the $279 (£175) device. Times Department of Smug Self Satisfaction:- a) my book arrived Sat, 9/18. it is an absolutely beautiful book. 5***** !!!!!! thank you, Rusty Martin b) Thank you for an excellent fast service. Book was very well packaged and arrived in perfect condition. Very pleased indeed. Christina c) very good ebayer super fast delivery cheers nick d) Quickly dispatched, very carefully packed. The paperback is the 1st printing as promised, and the description ("near fine") is accurate. I'm very pleased with this purchase. Herr Frank Munique e) A jewel! Thank you! JUAN L. FUSTE MARTINEZ http://www.fantasticliterature.com We welcome your input, your views on genre books, films etc. Recommend anything to our 8,000 readers or ask a question. We are sure to be in touch with someone who can help. We also buy books and travel around the country to purchase, we will pay a finders fee to anyone who puts us in touch with a collection we later purchase. Instant ordering on our web site in small press, magazines and special offers. http://www.fantasticliterature.com Good reading and watching - Simon & Laraine. Fantastic Literature Limited 35 The Ramparts Rayleigh Essex, SS6 8PY United Kingdom Previous OotW - archives OotW121. OotW122. OotW 123, OotW 124, OotW 125, OotW 126, OotW 127, OotW 128, OotW 129, OotW 130, OotW 131, OotW 132, OotW 133, OotW134, OotW135, OotW136, OotW 137, OotW138, OotW 139, OotW 140, OotW141, OotW 142, OotW 143, OotW144, OotW145, OotW146. OotW147, OotW148, OotW149, OotW 150, OotW151, OotW 152, OotW 153, OotW 154, OotW155, OotW156
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