Friday Quick Updates: Mur Lafferty wins John W. Campbell Award; a new Kickstarter anthology featuring local authors; and the latest events updates
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Friday Quick Updates: Mur Lafferty wins John W. Campbell Award; a new Kickstarter anthology featuring local authors; and the latest events updates
Posted on 2013-09-06 at 18:50 by montsamu
Friday Sep 6, 2013: I say it often but it bears repeating again: What a week! In terms of events, after a weekend of comics events we had David Drake launching new novel Monsters of the Earth on Tuesday, and “The Dark is Rising” author Susan Cooper reading on Wednesday. I’d love to see some pictures and hear some reports “from the field” from those who made it out to these events.
And we have so much more than events to talk about this week. As I reported on Facebook and Twitter on Sunday evening, Durham author Mur Lafferty has just won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author. The prestigious award, presented since 1973 at The Hugo Awards ceremony at the World Science Fiction Convention which was this year held in San Antonio as LoneStarCon3, recognizes writers in the first two years of their professional careers for their outstanding works and promising futures, with previous recipients including C.J. Cherryh, Lucius Shepard, Karen Joy Fowler, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ted Chiang, Mary Doria Russell, Nalo Hopkinson, Cory Doctorow, Jo Walton, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, Naomi Novik, Mary Robinette Kowal, David Anthony Durham, Seanan McGuire, and Lev Grossman, among others. Now, add to that list Lafferty, author of the Orbit and Hachette Audio released The Shambling Guide to New York City. I’ll join in with the NY Times and BoingBoing in offering absolutely huge congratulations to Mur!
Another exciting bit of news is that moments ago, a new Kickstarter was launched for an all-original anthology, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, which not only has a list of nationally well-known authors (Larry Correia, James Lovegrove, and Peter Clines, with a foreward by Jonathan Maberry) but also a sizable list of authors whose names should be well-known to readers of Bull Spec: Hillsborough’s James Maxey, Chapel Hill’s Natania Barron, and the frequent co-host of the NC Speculative Night event series, Jaym Gates, along with Bull Spec “alumni” Erin Hoffman.
Meanwhile at bullspec.com, The Exploding Spaceship has been busy as well, with release day reviews of Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo and The Undead Hordes of Kan-Gul by Jon F. Merz and a YA edition with reviews of The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond and When The World Was Flat And We Were In Love by Ingrid Jonach — and we’ll likely see more from Gerald and Angela soon, as they are back from Dragon*Con with stories to tell.
And the coming week is as usual full of things to see and do in terms of sf in the Triangle area — and beyond. See the listings below for events this weekend in Winston-Salem, Pittsboro, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, next week’s Escapism Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre of Durham, and more. Enjoy!
-Sam
UPCOMING EVENTS, SEPTEMBER 2013
7 (Saturday) — The annual Bookmarks Literary Festival in Winston-Salem, with a long list of participating authors including Jason Mott, Robin Hobb, Deborah Harkness, Megan Shepherd, Leigh Bardugo, and more. More info: http://bookmarksnc.org/
7 (Saturday) — McIntyre’s Books hosts Wilton Barnhardt – Lookaway, Lookaway: A Novel.
8 (Sunday) 3 pm to 5 pm — Book launch party for local author Jon Batson’s latest sf novel, MARS QUAKE. “Tasty treats, wine, cool prizes and give-aways. When astronomer Dana Wright thinks she has seen writing on Mars, she needs to look through a larger telescope. Senate aide Tom Matthews is willing to investigate it with her, but knows it is not writing but buildings, made by intelligent beings. How does he know? ADDRESS: Bosetti Art Tile - 1201 W Lenoir St, Raleigh, NC 27603.” More info: http://mars-quake-book-launch-party.eventbrite.com/
8 (Sunday) 3-4 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Sarah J Maas discusses her new young adult fantasy novel Crown of Midnight.
9 (Monday) 6:30 pm — The Barnes & Noble of Cary hosts Teen Fantasy author Sarah Maas, who has written a series Throne of Glass about a young female assassin. Her new book in the series is Crown of Midnight which she will introduce to her readers.
9-15 — The Carolina Theatre of Durham hosts the Escapist Film Festival, with Clash of the Titans, Stargate, Willow, Starship Troopers, The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, and more. Info at: http://www.carolinatheatre.org/films/escapism-film-festival-september-9-15
13 (Friday) 7 pm — B&N of Brier Creek hosts an eBook Author Event with (among others) Clay and Susan Griffith, authors of the Vampire Empire series. More info: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4552260
17 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Author John Claude Bemis, who is serving this year as the Piedmont Laureate for Children’s Literature, is leading a series of roundtable discussions with local children’s and YA authors about writing craft, creativity, and the magic of children’s literature. The series includes events at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham on Tuesday, September 17 at 7 pm, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on October 5 at 2 pm, and Quail Ridge Books on Tuesday, October 15 at 7 pm. For more information, visit John’s website at www.johnclaudebemis.com or the Piedmont Laureate website at www.piedmontlaureate.com. For the September 17 event at The Regulator, the participants are Stephen Messer (Windblowne, The Death of Yorik Mortwell), Stephanie Greene, Jackie Ogburn, and Frances O’Roark Dowell.
17 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Hugo Award-winning Pittsboro graphic novelist Ursula Vernon - New ‘Dragonbreath’ in her continuing graphic novel series for young readers.
18 (Wednesday) 7 pm — The Regulator Bookshop hosts Greensboro native Emily Croy Barker for her fantasy novel The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic. Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/158671360996987/
19 (Thursday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Jasper Fforde - ‘The Song of the Quarkbeast’.
[As always, check the latest newsletter for the full listings.]