Page 7 of posts filed: Uncategorized

Friday quick updates: Jan 18-19 readings from Hal Johnson, and The Screwtape Letters

Posted on 2013-01-18 at 14:27 by montsamu

Whew! Last weekend's illogiCon was really fantastic; I've leave the con reports to others for now (Natania Barron rounds up a couple, including JL Hilton's, here) but I do have some photos, and I'm working on transcribing the Tim Powers interview as well. It was absolutely fantastic to meet Mr. Powers, whose books really are wonderful reads. I'd been reading (and in some cases re-reading) some of his books ahead of the convention, and even though the convention's past I've kept going on that front because

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged hal johnson

Day one of illogiCon is here! Also: Gail Z. Martin starts a new fantasy series with Ice Forged

Posted on 2013-01-11 at 15:24 by montsamu

With registration opening at noon, and opening ceremonies and programming (and the dealer's room) getting started at 3, illogiCon ii: Schrodington's Revenge is finally here:

There are readings, panels (I'm moderating one on "The Local Scene" at 5 pm) and then later this evening, a dance, more panels (Liars' Panel, SF as Covert Commentary on the Real World, etc.) and filk gets going as well. There are day passes available, as well as (of course!) weekend-long registrations, so come on by the Embassy

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gail z. martin, illogicon

2012 Award Eligibility Post

Posted on 2013-01-07 at 19:32 by montsamu

On SFWA President (and NY Times bestselling sf author) John Scalzi's blog, he once again is running an open thread series on awards eligibility, starting with authors/creators/editors/publishers/etc. Since I scraped a comment together, I figured I may as well post it here as well. Here's what Bull Spec was up to last year, partitioned a bit for particular eligibility categories, for your consideration:

Hi, I’m Sam, and publish/edit the semiprozine Bull Spec, which is supposedly quarterly, but managed just

Posted in Uncategorized

Last call for advertisements for Bull Spec #8

Posted on 2013-01-05 at 12:59 by montsamu

Well, well. It's that time again, time to really really really print an issue and of course one of the last things I get to in this not-enough-time-to-get-to-things process is chasing down advertisements. I don't think I've officially sold anything, though we do have a couple of last-minute confirmations. Anyway, here's what's for sale:

FULL COLOR in both PRINT and PDF editions:

• Back Cover: $250
• Inside front cover (opposite table of contents): $150
• Inside back cover (opposite editorial): $125 -- NOTE

Posted in Uncategorized

2013 local and regional author preview

Posted on 2013-01-03 at 2:24 by montsamu

As we turn the page on 2012, and all of its local and regional books, it's time to take a look at 2013 in terms of local and regional authors. While there are always surprises -- particularly later in the year -- here's what I know about so far. Meanwhile, I'm going back on Carolina Book Beat on Monday, January 7th at 10 AM to talk about this list and whatever else comes up. So! On to 2013:

Witchbreaker (Dragon Apocalypse #3) by James Maxey (Solaris, Dec 25) -- "Five hundred years ago, the famed

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2013, carniepunk, mur lafferty, witchbreaker

Raise money for the SFWA medical fund, send John Kessel to watch "The Hobbit"

Posted on 2012-12-12 at 17:44 by montsamu

Nebula Award winning author and NCSU professor John Kessel, who grew up enjoying picking up L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books as they were published at the beginning of the last century and was of an, er, "advanced" age by the time Tolkien finally got to work, off-handedly quipped that "I know the world does not care, but nobody could pay me enough money to go see 'The Hobbit.' Well, maybe someone could, but nobody is going to." Well... Brent Winter suggested an eBay auction and Kij Johnson a Kickstarter

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged john kessel, KesselHobbit, peter jackson, sfwa, the hobbit

Friday Quick Updates: Events and New Books

Posted on 2012-11-16 at 15:56 by montsamu

It's a very packed weekend in terms of events, so let's get to those first:

• 16 (Friday) 6:30 pm: (Non-genre event) McIntyre’s Books hosts bestselling Norwegian thriller novelist Jo Nesbo. More info: http://www.fearrington.com/village/event.asp?id=2317
• 16 (Friday) 7 pm: Celebrate the third anniversary of local independent bookstore Flyleaf Books at their open house, with Jill McCorkle reading from "My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places". More info: http://www.flyleafbooks.com/event/flyleaf

Posted in Uncategorized

Friday Quick Updates: Nov 9th

Posted on 2012-11-09 at 21:40 by montsamu

First, this is something I've been meaning to talk more at length about all week: Raleigh journalist Zack Smith's first published comic "The Stars Below" just hit digital shelves, with art by Portland artist Rich Ellis:

Zack first showed this to me over a year ago, and right away I was blown away by this powerful and actually moving story, told without words from a pigeon's perspective in New York. I'm very glad it is out for a wider audience. It's just a buck from Comixology, and of the list of

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alex granados, jay posey, zack smith

"The Transformation of Democracy"

Posted on 2012-11-06 at 19:57 by montsamu

I had a good time on WUNC's "The State of Things" as part of a show on "The Transformation of Democracy" with the podcast link already up. After a classics professor and a philosophy professor traced the origins of democracy, and an anthropologist took a look at what's going on today, I had a chance to talk about democracy and dystopia. Somehow! we didn't talk about either "Idiocracy" or "WALL-E" along the way, not to mention Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" or "Flashback" by Dan Simmons, or, hey, the

Posted in Uncategorized

Video: Flyleaf Books hosts Clay and Susan Griffith for The Kingmakers

Posted on 2012-10-31 at 13:21 by montsamu

From Monday's reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gZZ2R-O-Os

The Kingmakers is book 3 of their Vampire Empire trilogy. The reading here (sorry for sound quality, just iPhone built in mic) is from The Rift Walker, book 2. Book 1, The Greyfriar, along with the rest of the series are out in print and ebook from Pyr. The series is also being released in audio by Buzzy Multimedia, read by James Marsters, with The Greyfriar already out and The Rift Walker in post-production.

Posted in Uncategorized