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Latest Newsletter | |
Out
of the Woodwork 182. December 2011
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 would like to express our warmest wishes to you and yours at this festive time of the year, seasonal greetings to all and we wish you a peaceful and prosperous 2012. Contents:- Hilary Mantel reveals plans for Wolf Hall
trilogy Goodreads - our ongoing feature so you can see what's being read here at Fantastic HQ, and add to it if you wish by sending us your reviews. Or join us on Facebook and get lots of up to date news direct from Fantastic HQ. New stock updates a speciality! One for the Collective consciousness. Dennis
Lien thinks he may have cracked it! External Blinks: SFWA
has an interview with Paolo Bacigalupi
You can also join our facebook blog to keep abreast of our news,
including new stock updates.
Fantastic
Literature Just days after the sequel to Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall was announced, the author has revealed plans for a third instalment. The writer told the Guardian newspaper the third book would be called The Mirror And The Light, the title she originally chose for the second novel. She has already started the first sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, which will focus on the downfall of Anne Boleyn. BBC story
Winners
for the 2011 Prix Aurora Awards have been announced.
The awards were presented on November 20, 2011 during Canvention
31. Winners received trophies and the Best Novel winner received
a $500 cash prize from SF Canada, the National Association for Speculative
Fiction Professionals. Best English Short Story Writer David Nicholls has revealed that he has written a new ending to Great Expectations for his movie "thriller" version of the Dickens classic. The film, directed by Mike Newell, is currently being shot in the UK and stars Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch. Nicholls, the author of hit novel One Day, was speaking at the launch of the BFI's Dickens on Screen season.He said the ending was "somewhere in between" the two written by Dickens. BBC story
Liam Neeson is to appear as a 3D hologram in a new version of Jeff Wayne's long-running The War of the Worlds musical. The actor takes over the narrator role from Richard Burton, whose holographic head has appeared in the show since it began touring in 2006. The Northern Irish star said he was "very flattered" to take on the part. Burton's narration had been taken from Jeff Wayne's original 1978 double album, which has sold some 15m copies. The cast on the original recording included David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott and Julie Covington. In a new element to the production, Neeson's holographic character will appear interacting with the live performers on stage. BBC story
Martha
Grimes has been chosen as this year’s Grand Master by Mystery
Writers of America (MWA). MWA's Grand Master Award
represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was
established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre,
as well as a body of work that is both significant and of consistent
high quality. Ms. Grimes will be presented with her award at The
Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel
in New York City on Thursday, April 26, 2012. When told of being
named Grand Master, Grimes said, “I was, for once, speechless.
Thank you very much for making me a Grand Master.” Martha
Grimes is the best-selling author, known for her three outstanding
mystery series: the Richard Jury, Andi Olivier, and Emma Graham
series. She is also the author of several acclaimed fiction books
outside the mystery genre including Foul Matter, Cold Flat Junction,
Hotel Paradise, The End of The Pier and The Train Now Departing.
She has in fact, published a book (sometimes two) every year for
the past 30 years!
It looks like the futrore at the British Fantasy Society has sorted itself out and the new committee has been put in place: Acting British Fantasy Society chair Graham Joyce has announced
the new committee members for the organization: A copy of the first issue of Action Comics, featuring Superman's debut, has become the world's most expensive comic, fetching $2.16m (£1.4m). It was auctioned online for a starting bid of just $1, with a reserve price of $900,000. The buyer or seller's name was not disclosed, but there is speculation it was owned by actor Nicolas Cage. About 100 copies of Action Comics No 1 are thought to be in existence, and only a handful of those are in good condition . BBC story
A dark tale of wartime intrigue has been named by The Crime Writers’ Association as the winner of this year’s prestigious Ellis Peters Historical Award, at a ceremony at the Athenaeum in London. Andrew Martin’s novel The Somme Stations, published by Faber and Faber, was selected for the £3,000 first prize. The judging panel said of The Somme Stations: “Martin’s novels featuring railway detective Jim Stringer reveal their treasures in subtle fashion with a winning synthesis of period atmosphere, intriguing plotting and a passion for steam railways.” CWA
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own. The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0". However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid. BBC story. Robert J Sawyer has a few words to say about our obsession with an Earthlike planet on the BBC
FANTASYCON 2012 ANNOUNCES FIRST GUESTS We are proud to announce our first three Guests who will be attending next year’s FantasyCon 2012, which is being held in the historic seaside town of Brighton, Sussex, over September 27-30, 2012.
Our first author Guest of Honour is legendary Texas “Mojo Story Writer” JOE R. LANSDALE. With more than thirty books in various genres to his credit, Joe is the Champion Mojo Storyteller. He’s been called “an immense talent” by Booklist; “a born storyteller” by Robert Bloch, and The New York Times Book Review declares he has “a folklorist’s eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur’s sense of pace”. He’s won umpty-ump awards, including eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Grand Master Award from the World Horror Convention, a British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, the Horror Critics Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, the “Shot in the Dark” International Crime Writer’s Award, the Golden Lion Award, the Booklist Editor’s Award, the Critic’s Choice Award, and a New York Times Notable Book Award. Joe has also written numerous comic books, graphic novels and animated TV series; his novella Bubba Ho-Tep was made into a cult favourite movie by director Don Coscarelli in 2002, and his story ‘Incident On and Off a Mountain Road’ was filmed for Showtime Network’s Masters of Horror series. You can read more about Joe at: www.fantasycon2012.org/joelansdale.htm.
We are delighted to welcome legendary anthology editor MARY DANBY as our Special Editor Guest. Mary was the fiction editor at Fontana Books from 1969-72, where she edited thirteen volumes of The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories and twelve volumes of the Armada Ghost Book for children. Her other titles include Nightmares, Frighteners, Realms of Darkness, 65 Great Spine Chillers, 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural and Great Murder Mysteries. Mary has also been a fiction writer and her debut collection, Party Pieces: The Horror Fiction of Mary Danby, will be launched at FantasyCon 2012. For more information about Mary, go to: www.fantasycon2012.org/marydanby.htm
When we were faced with following this year’s Master of Ceremonies, Sarah Pinborough, with someone with equally powerful lungs, it made sense to look towards the Welsh Valleys. The only obvious choice was the very shouty TIM LEBBON. Tim is a New York Times best-selling horror and fantasy writer. He has had more than twenty novels published to date, as well as dozens of novellas and hundreds of short stories, including numerous appearances in “Year’s Best” anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic. He has won four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award and a Scribe Award, and he has been a frequent finalist for International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy Awards. He has also written several original screenplays that are at varying stages of development. You can find out more about Tim at: www.fantasycon2012.org/timlebbon.htm Startling new images from the depths of the Pacific Ocean reveal one of Earth's most violent processes: the destruction of massive underwater mountains. The pictures were created by sonar in waters up to 6km (4mi) deep. They expose how tectonic action is dragging giant volcanoes into a chasm in the seabed. The volcanoes are strung across several thousand kilometres of ocean floor and are moving westward on the Pacific tectonic plate at up to 6cm per year. The extraordinary scene was captured along the Tonga Trench during a research expedition last summer. The trench is a highly active fault line running north from New Zealand towards Tonga and Samoa. BBC story and video The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a poster for horror sequel Final Destination 5 for being too violent. The poster, used on buses and in the London Underground over the summer, showed a skull being shattered by steel rods driven through its mouth and eye sockets.
Engineers have said they were "stunned" to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a mummified cat, during a construction project in Lancashire. The cottage was discovered near Lower Black Moss reservoir in the village of Barley, in the shadow of Pendle Hill. Archaeologists brought in by United Utilities to survey the area found the building under a grass mound. Historians are now speculating that the well-preserved cottage could have belonged to one of the Pendle witches The building contained a sealed room, with a mummified cat bricked into the wall. It is believed the cat was buried alive to protect the cottage's inhabitants from evil spirits.BBC story A massive tooth from a Tyrannosaurus rex has sold for a world record £36,000. The perfectly preserved 5in dinosaur tooth was discovered poking out of a field by a farmer in Montana earlier this year. It is in such good condition that the tiny serrated edges, which helped the ferocious dinosaur grind down its prey, are still visible on the surface. Daily Mail
Doctor Who fans are getting a fresh opportunity to travel back in time with the discovery of two missing episodes from the long-running BBC series. The 1965 and 1967 episodes star William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, the first two actors to play The Doctor. They are among more than 100 instalments which were not retained by the BBC. The announcement was made on Sunday December 11th at Missing Believed Wiped, an event held at the British Film Institute (BFI). BBC story which includes a clip! One for the collective consciousness:- some excellent respones Here's the old one:- Looking for a book ?70's I am looking for a science fiction book I read years ago, and would love to read again. But I have forgotten its author and title. It is a story about a space journey using gates that are tarot like symbols that only the 'navigator' can decipher in order to pass through them. I think they find a lost book which has symbols that will lead back to an ancient 'lost'/mythological planet...Earth? Do you know the name and author of the book, or whom I could contact to help me. Thankyou. Jerry Haworth. - email us if you can help Dennis Lien - helped
us out with this one:- Philip Cohen also
added his fourpenny worth - I suspect I've read this but the only
title that floats out of memory is Melissa Scott's *Five-Twelfths
of Heaven*, which is most likely wrong. as did Richard Christou, who also went that little bit extra for OotW: I have been having a look at the Tarot question for the collective
consciousness. SFWA Grand Master Anne McCaffrey,
85, died November 21, 2011 of a massive stroke at home in Ireland.
Animator Mark Hall, co-founder of Cosgrove Hall, responsible for Chorlton and the Wheelies, Danger Mouse and The Wind in the Willows, has died of cancer at the age of 74. He died in the early hours of Friday at his home in Manchester surrounded by his family, his company Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment said. Operations director Adrian Wilkins hailed "a lifetime of achievement" in the world of animation. BBC Ken Russell was a
larger than life character who was one of the most controversial
directors in British cinema. He specialised in the interpretation
of the great classical composers, extravaganzas which matched powerful
images with a dramatic score. They were not for the faint-hearted.
Audiences would be regaled with the sight of women cavorting naked
in railway carriages, nude actors wresting in front of roaring fires
and nuns indulging in orgies.
BBC Artist Darrell K. Sweet, 77, died December 5, 2011. Sweet’s first illustrations were for Ballantine Books in 1975, and when the Del Rey imprint was formed in 1977, he produced many of their covers. Since then he has created illustrations for most of the major SF publishers, including Berkeley, Ace, and Tor. He is perhaps now best known for his illustrations of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but he also produced memorable covers for Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, and novels by Jack L. Chalker, Terry Brooks, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and many others.
Comic book artist Jerry Robinson, who created characters including Batman's sidekick Robin, has died aged 89. Mike Marts, editor of the Batman series at DC Comics, called the artist "a pioneer in storytelling". Robinson, who was first hired to draw comic books in 1939, aged 17, is credited by many as crafting the Caped Crusader's arch-enemy The Joker. "I think the name came first - The Joker. Then I thought of the playing card," he said, last year. BBC story
Department of Smug Self Satisfaction. 1. Hi Simon, I loved the new look for the latest booklist. Having the image of the book covers is a great addition; adds to the overall enjoyment of going through the list. Many of us will remember some of those older covers too! Further, what a terrific service to offer pre-orders on specialty books, and, sending direct e-mail on some of the very special books is a great idea. I also love the videos that are now included in the newsletter and would be remiss if I did not mention how much I enjoyed the "puppet" version of Shaun of the Dead! Everything is outstanding at Fantastic Literature. Cheers to all at Fantastic Literature from Canada. Susan= 2. I am very pleased by the services of this seller. My item was dispatched half an hour after I placed my order, and the packaging was made really nice and tight, so that the book inside could not be harmed by any hazard along it's trip to me. Job well done! (Amazon UK) 3. Shipped to US from England - arrived way ahead of estimate. Well-wrapped, in excellent new condition as description at most competitive price.. I highly recommend this seller. (Amazon US) 4. The book was packaged very well, with the intent on keeping
it safe. (E Bay)
From Germany loves greetings and a quiet Christmas time Jörg Silly stuff: Well not silly at all this is the trailer for the Doctor Who christmas special!l
A few little snippets: I've just had my 2012 Calendar delivered. On the 'December' page, there's a nice picture of an Asteroid and a 21 day month.......
Just had an order from a customer in Japan whose
name - when I ran it through Google live translator is "Plain
and Fat" - shame!
New arrivals for your delectation:-
http://www.fantasticliterature.com 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, OotW157, OotW 158, OotW159, OotW 160, OotW161, OotW162, OotW 163, OotW164, OotW 165, OotW 166, OotW167, OotW168 OotW 169, OotW170, OotW171, OotW172, OotW173, OotW 174, OotW 175, OotW176, OotW 177, OotW178, OotW 179, OotW180, OotW181
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