Phil Klass (1920-2010) 7 February 2010

As we start a new year, it's time resolve to write more.

Triangualtions editor Bill Moran is calling for submission for this year's theme; "End of the Rainbow". Follow this link to read the submission guidelines. The deadline is March 31st, 2010.

PARSEC's annual writing contest is also underway with the theme; "The Color of Silence". Follow this link for submission guidelines. The deadline is April 15th, 2010.

If you've ever wondered who's winning what awards, you can check out the Science Fiction Awards Watch blog at http://www.sfawardswatch.com/.

The Monroeville Public Library has invited local author, Ellen Spain, to discuss her new novel Secrets in the Fog: the Invisibility Project on October 6th at 7:00 PM in the Gallery Room.

"Secrets in the Fog: the Invisibility Project" , now at Amazon.com, is a paranormal mystery in which teenage prodigy Morgan Walker discovers her destiny. Born with clairvoyant ability but instructed by her parents never to use it, she realizes her fate while attending an island ecology summer program at a prestigious college near Bar Harbor, Maine. She develops a close friendship with sixteen year-old Peter Dugua, a Passamaquoddy Native American intent on preserving his heritage. As they secretly investigate why nearby Acadia Laboratory is producing a black toxic fog, they discover that the Defense Intelligence Agency is secretly testing a highly classified invisibility cloaking device on nearby Gull Island, a wildlife sanctuary. The students get caught up in a life and death situation when they discover corrupt federal security contractors for the project helping terrorists steal the invisibility cloaking system.

• Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Best Novella: "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
• Best Novelette: "Shoggoths in Bloom", Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
• Best Short Story: "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)
• Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
• Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
• Best Editor Long Form: David G. Hartwell
• Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
• Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
• Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
• Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
• Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu
• John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (presented by Dell Magazines): David Anthony Durham

Other details available at http://www.thehugoawards.org/

From http://www.thehugoawards.org/

Del Ray presents the Suvudu Free Book Library where you can download a selection of first books of SF series as PDF files for free. They are kicking off the library with five full-length novels, adding new titles on a regular basis.

The first batch of free books are "Blood Engines" by T. A. Pratt, "His Majesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novik, "Settling Accounts: Return Engagements" by Harry Turtledove, "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson" and "Assassin's Apprentice" by Robin Hobb.

http://www.suvudu.com/freelibrary/

Here are this year's nominees for the Nebula Awards

Novels

Little Brother - Doctorow, Cory (Tor, Apr08)
Powers- Le Guin, Ursula K. (Harcourt, Sep07)
Cauldron - McDevitt, Jack (Ace, Nov07)
Brasyl - McDonald, Ian (Pyr, May07)
Making Money - Pratchett, Terry (Harper, Sep07)
Superpowers - Schwartz, David J. (Three Rivers Press, Jun08)

Novellas

"The Spacetime Pool" - Asaro, Catherine (Analog, Mar08)
"Dark Heaven" - Benford, Gregory (Alien Crimes, ed. Mike Resnick, SFBC, Jan07)
"Dangerous Space" - Eskridge, Kelley (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
"The Political Prisoner" - Finlay, Charles Coleman (F&SF, Aug08)
"The Duke in His Castle" - Nazarian, Vera (Norilana Books, Jun08)

Novelettes

"If Angels Fight" - Bowes, Richard (F&SF, Feb08)
"Dark Rooms" - Goldstein, Lisa (Asimov's, Oct/Nov 07)
"Pride and Prometheus" - Kessel, John (F&SF, Jan08)
"Night Wind" - Rosenblum, Mary (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08)
"Baby Doll" - Sinisalo, Johanna (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, ed. James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Tor, Jun07 )
"Kaleidoscope" - Wentworth, K.D. (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

"The Button Bin" - Allen, Mike (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07)
"The Dreaming Wind" - Ford, Jeffrey (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Viking, Jul07)
"Trophy Wives" - Hoffman, Nina Kiriki (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Greenberg and Hughes, DAW Books, Jan08)
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss"- Johnson, Kij (Asimov's, Jul08)
"The Tomb Wife"- Jones, Gwyneth (F&SF, Aug07)
"Don’t Stop" - Kelly, James Patrick (Asimov's, Jun07)

Scripts

The Dark Knight - Nolan, Jonathan; Nolan, Christopher, Goyer, David S. (Warner Bros., Jul08)
WALL-E - Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter (Walt Disney June 2008)
The Shrine - Wright, Brad (Stargate Atlantis, Aug08)

Norton

Graceling - Cashore, Kristin (Harcourt, Oct08)
Lamplighter - Cornish, D.M. (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 2, Putnam Juvenile, May08))
Savvy - Law, Ingrid (Dial, May08)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Pearson, Mary E. (Henry Holt and Company, Apr08)
Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) - Wilce, Ysabeau S. (Harcourt, Sep08)

Winners to be anounced at Nebula Weekend, April 24-26,2009 in Los Angeles, California.

The Triangulation speculative fiction anthology for 2009 has opened its doors to submissions. If you haven't heard yet, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine said we were "equal to any issue of your favorite prozine" and we're hoping to get similar praise with this year's anthology as well, which is our third year with open call.

We're a hard-copy short fiction anthology of around 125-150 pages that comes out yearly, and we pay semi-pro rates for short fiction--2 cents a word. We're looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative fiction, ranging in size from flash fiction up to 5000 words and set to the theme "Dark Glass".

We'll leave it to you to tell us exactly what that theme translates to.

The full guidelines can be found at:

http://parsecink.org/staticpages/index.php/triangulation_09_guidelines

Submitted by Joseph Benedetto, Assistant Fiction Editor, Triangulation 2009

The election winners are as follows:

President: Eric Davin
Vice-President: Kira Heston
Treasurer: Alexandra (Sasha) Riley
Secretary: Bill Hall

Congratulations to the winners!

Brought to you by the folks at the Galaxy Zoo (otherwise known as the Sloane Digital Sky Survey), they now have Galaxy Zoo 2, or "Galaxy Wars". In this beta version, you are asked to make much more detailed observations, answer more questions, but the up-side is that you aren't looking at so many pixelated blobs either. These photos are generally clearer, and the galaxies are easier to sort; you also seem to get more variety in this lot. And after you have sorted a few, that's where the "wars" part comes in; they show you a photo of a galaxy, and another one along side it (which you may or may not have seen before), and they ask you which one has more prominent spiral arms, or a more prominent bar, etc. It's fun, and they do give a tutorial before setting you loose to sort galaxies. They also have forums where you can talk to other participants, and even show and discuss favorite galaxy photos, etc. (I have a file on my computer of my favorites, and some of them are really beautiful, or just plain odd). They're just working out the bugs right now, but go there and have fun. It's serious brain exercise, and you'll be helping real scientists do their research.

http://beta.galaxyzoo.org/index.aspx

Submitted by Chris Hutson

I recently finished recording a new album of my a capella performances, and I picked up the CDs at the duplicators Friday on my way out to OVFF in Columbus. The album is titled "More Vocals in the Monitors"; its 20 tracks include 15 solo songs, 3 duets with Kira Heston, and 2 poems. Henry Tjernlund did the CD art, photography, and layout. (Huge thanks to both Kira and Henry!!) I'll try to bring some to the November PARSEC meeting; if you'd rather get one by mail, please PayPal the $10 CD price plus $2 postage to .

Submitted by Randy Hoffman