Friday Quick Update: Manly Wade Wellman Award nominations close TONIGHT, Monica Byrne reading tomorrow, and! ConTemporal is coming

Posted on 2014-06-13 at 15:01 by montsamu

Friday, June 13, 2014: Today is the last day for nominations for the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award, which close tonight at midnight! If you are or were a member of illogiCon, ConCarolinas, ConTemporal, or ConGregate, you are eligible to vote; if you haven’t, please fill out the registration form and I will get your e-ballot to you right away.

Tomorrow, Durham author Monica Byrne is reading at McIntyre’s Books at 11 am. She was on WUNC’s “The State of Things” with Frank Stasio yesterday, discussing her novel The Girl in the Road, which she’ll be reading from at the event.

Via Warren Rochelle, a fantastic article about Fred Chappell by Eric Ginsburg for the Triad City Beat. “There is an octagonal wooden table on the side of a small deck in Fred Chappell’s backyard, one of three places in his house where he sits to write.”

A Kickstarter campaign by Silence in the Library Publishing, HEROES! A Diverse Superhero Anthology which has reached its initial funding goal, and which is very close to reaching a stretch goal of including a story from Charlotte author Gail Z. Martin.

-Sam

UPCOMING EVENTS, JUNE 2014

6-22 — Raleigh Little Theatre presents Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” at Cantey V. Sutton Theatre. “ A novelist invites an eccentric medium and clairvoyant to his house to conduct a séance for research for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his temperamental first wife.” More info: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/shows/13-14/blithe.html

13 (Friday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts Quail Ridge Books’ Teen Writers Collective Performs.

14 (Saturday) 11 am — McIntyre’s Books hosts Monica Byrne – The Girl in the Road.

19 (Thursday) 6 pm — “Noir at the Bar” in Durham as “Seven gritty crime writers descend upon Downtown Durham to talk books, writing, and drinking at 106 Main. Join Grant Jerkins, Phillip Thompson, Steve Weddle, Eryk Pruitt, Charles Dodd White, Peter Farris and Chad Rohrbacher for a night so dangerous, you’re going to need a drink.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1529679923926165/

20-22 (Friday to Sunday) — Heroes Convention in Charlotte, presented by Charlotte comics shop Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, at the Charlotte Convention Center. More info:http://www.heroesonline.com/

26-29 (Thursday to Sunday) — ConTemporal in Raleigh at the Hilton North Raleigh Midtown. “Join us for the Third Annual Extravaganza!” More info: http://contemporal.org/

27-28 (Friday and Saturday) — The High Country Festival of the Book in Downtown Boone, NC. More info: http://www.highcountryfestivalofthebook.com/

27-29 (Friday to Sunday) – LibertyCon, Chattanooga, TN. Guests include Pittsboro author David Drake and master of ceremonies Jim Minz. More info: http://www.libertycon.org/

[As always for the latest listings see the most recent newsletter.]

Posted in Friday Quick Updates

A Teenage Girl Goes on a Science Fiction Adventure - The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Recent YA Science Fiction: Glaze, Salvage, These Broken Stars and Earth Star

Posted on 2014-06-07 at 19:54 by angelablackwell

Female SF authors write teenage girls having science fiction adventures - a type of read I wanted as a teen but wasn't available!

The last few months have seen several great new teen science fiction adventures come into our review pile, all featuring a female lead character (although one really has a male as co-lead) and all written by female authors. Given the rarity of female focused science fiction adventure and female science fiction writers work being reviewed, I thought it was proper to give them a column all their own. A special thanks goes to Flyleaf Books for their panel in April called Girl Power! where we got to meet the authors of two of these books.

Review of Glaze by Kim Curran (Jurassic-London, May 22, 2014)

This is the story of Petri, a 15-year-old girl from London whose mother thought the name was a good way to tell everyone that her daughter’s father was a petri dish. Petri does have a father figure in her life, Max, her mother’s boss at the company which controls all the hardware and software of the biggest social media company on the planet. You can’t have the hardware installed until you are sixteen, so Petri can’t join her classmates in using the network, called Glaze.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

June newsletter: MakerFaire, Noir at the Bar, ConTemporal, and the last week for Manly Wade Wellman Award nominations

Posted on 2014-06-07 at 14:02 by montsamu

Vol 4. No 6. June 6, 2014: First, it was pretty amazing to see so many fantastic NC authors and fans at ConCarolinas last weekend. (And, OK, sure, those coming in from out of state as well!) June is a bit quieter in terms of readings, though (of course) there's still plenty going on, from Maker Faire this weekend to ConTemporal to close out the month, and the first "Noir at the Bar" event on June 19 with a half-dozen (and counting) crime novelists holding court.

Looking further ahead, while there's rumor and word of a D.B. Jackson signing at Quail Ridge Books in July, I don't have the final details to pass along just yet. But! The "NEW" event listings include the annual "Can't Stop the Serenity" charity screening of the Firefly movie in July and not one but two readings with John Scalzi in late August.

Meanwhile, new bullspec.com content (other than a few "Friday Quick Update" posts) since the last newsletter includes:

• The Exploding Spaceship Spring Event Reviews for Authors and The Exploding Spaceship Reviews The Moon King, Reign of Ash and Broken Homes
• The Hardest Part: Jen McConnel and The Hardest Part: Monica Byrne on The Girl in the Road
• Paul Kincaid’s From the Other Side, May 2014: Comics Unmasked exhibition, and new books from Nick Harkaway, Paul Cornell, Trudi Canavan, and Jeff VanderMeer

Lastly, I need to draw your attention to nominations for the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award, which have been extended through Friday, June 13. If you are or were a member of illogiCon, ConCarolinas, ConTemporal, or ConGregate, you are eligible to vote! If you haven't, please fill out the registration form and I will get your e-ballot to you as soon as I can.

-Sam

UPCOMING EVENTS, JUNE 2014

[handout-2014-05-31.pdf]

Posted in newsletter

Paul Kincaid’s From the Other Side, May 2014: Comics Unmasked exhibition, and new books from Nick Harkaway, Paul Cornell, Trudi Canavan, and Jeff VanderMeer

Posted on 2014-06-06 at 14:16 by montsamu

From the Other Side, May 2014

By Paul Kincaid

So, with the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the annual awards circus comes to an end (at least until the Hugos in August) in the splendid surroundings of the Royal Society. Under the gaze of Thomas Hobbes and Earnest Rutherford and other worthies we were treated to an award ceremony that seems to be getting longer every year. This time, for instance, there was a nicely unsettling short film from Sci-Fi London’s competition to make a film in just 48 hours, followed by a reading from each of the shortlisted novels by one of the professional readers for Audible. Eventually, however, the envelope was opened by last year’s winner, Chris Beckett. And the winner was, perhaps inevitably, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, the novel that seems to be gathering just about every award going this year.

Just a week after the Clarke Award ceremony, I went along to the British Library to see their Comics Unmasked exhibition. I think Dave McKean, who designed the show, went overboard on the Anonymous figures with their Guy Fawkes masks who stood in crowds, watching at every turn in the exhibition. Yes, the exhibition does emphasise the political dimension of comics, but this was rather heavy handed. Nevertheless, what’s on display really is fascinating, from a medieval parable told just like a strip cartoon, to examples of erotic comic art, by way of super heroes, the Illustrated Police News, Andy Capp and a Gorillaz video. I recognised lots of comics from my own childhood, and there are plenty of more recent work by Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Posy Simmons and others. The exhibition is on until 19th August, and it really is worth paying a visit.

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged jeff vandermeer, nick harkaway, paul cornell, paul kincaid, trudi canavan

Friday Quick Updates: ConCarolinas, The Manly Wade Wellman Award, Carolina Book Beat, MakerFaire, and more

Posted on 2014-05-30 at 17:24 by montsamu

Friday, May 30, 2014: Whew! A sold-out ConCarolinas is upon us, and quite a few folks are heading to Charlotte to see George R.R. Martin, Tommy Lee Edwards, Faith Hunter, David B. Coe, A.J. Hartley, Misty Massey, and too many others to list. I’ll see people bright and early on Saturday at the 9 AM Breakfast and Books panel — do bring some “show and tell” for the new books you’d like to recommend!

Meanwhile, nominating ballots have finally started going out (and coming back in) for the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award. Due to delays getting this first year set up, the nomination period has been extended through Friday, June 13, so there’s still time to register and make your voice heard.

In other news, I’ve finally made it easier (i.e. not “in person”) to sign-up to the monthly Bull Spec Newsletter. There’s still some bits to take care of (putting the form on the site, Facebook, etc.) but hopefully this lets people discover and sign-up (and unsubscribe etc.) more painlessly going forward.

Lastly, if I survive ConCarolinas (please, nobody invite George R.R. Martin to officiate any weddings of any kind) this weekend, on Monday morning at 10 AM I’ll be hosting  Carolina Book Beat with guest Monica Byrne for an on-air/Internet radio interview on WCOM-FM. Later on in June? Plenty, from Maker Faire NC next weekend through ConTemporal to close out the month. See you out and about!

-Sam

PS: Here’s the latest event flyer and the next week of upcoming events:

[handout-2014-05-31.pdf]

JUNE 2014

2 (Monday) 6:30 pm — James Maxey and Nathan Kotecki’s “First Monday Classics” series at the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough continues with Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, with guest panelist Edmund Schubert. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1441047636143009/

4 (Wednesday) 7 pm — Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore hosts Durham author Monica Byrne for her debut post-apocalyptic novel The Girl in the Road. More info: http://www.malaprops.com/event/monica-byrne-presents-girls-road

4 (Wednesday) 7:30 pm — At Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall, the North Carolina Symphony presents “Video Games Live: Bonus Round”, a new show building off the success of last year’s “Video Games Live”. This one features MegaMan, Silent Hill 2, Metroid, Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, God of War, Mass Effect, StarCraft II, Dota 2, Beyond Good & Evil, Destiny, Final Fantasy, and Warcraft. “Call 919.733.2750 and mention the promo code PLAYNOW to buy your tickets for $48 (regularly $65).” More info: http://ncsymphony.org/

6-22 — Raleigh Little Theatre presents Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” at Cantey V. Sutton Theatre. “ A novelist invites an eccentric medium and clairvoyant to his house to conduct a séance for research for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his temperamental first wife.” More info: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/shows/13-14/blithe.html

7 (Saturday) — Maker Faire North Carolina at the NC Fairgrounds Exhibition Center. More info: http://www.makerfairenc.com/

Posted in Friday Quick Updates, Uncategorized

The Hardest Part: Monica Byrne on The Girl in the Road

Posted on 2014-05-28 at 18:27 by montsamu

Durham author Monica Byrne's debut novel The Girl in the Road hit bookstores (and audiobook stores) last week, and both prior to and after publication the glowing reviews have piled up (from big names like Neil Gaiman, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Scalzi, and Helene Wecker, to blogs and ezines like Everyday eBook, to NPR and The Wall Street Journal). But it's been a long, er, ahem, road for this writer, from dreaming of becoming an astronaut to "falling back in love" with her artistic impulses: writing, theater, improv. Her career as a playwright has already seen many accolades, particularly for What Every Girl Should Know, her 1914-set play in which "four young women in a New York reformatory adopt birth control activist Margaret Sanger as their secret patron saint" and which debuted in Durham ahead of a run in New York. Her latest play, the sex-and-diplomacy mingling Olympic Village-set Tarantino's Yellow Speedo, is also garnering rave reviews (and selling out its performances). Sex and genderqueer themes are no strangers to Byrne's fiction, either, and both play central roles in The Girl in the Road. A "twenty-first-century myth" of a near future of rising oceans and shifting economic and political power, told in two alternating timelines: Meena, fleeing India along "The Trail", an energy-capturing pontoon bridge which crosses the Arabian Sea, and Mariama, fleeing slavery in Mauritania on an Ethiopia-bound caravan. Their stories parallel and entwine and collide in an intricate, beautifully-written (and line-after-line quotable) story. Here, Byrne writes not about the struggles with finding the right words or what to spare or grant her characters, but instead about having written the book and having a vision for it, and having the guts to wait for the right opportunity, not just the first one.

For me, the hardest part is knowing when to say no.

But it gets easier with practice. And it’s essential.

I first sent the manuscript of The Girl in the Road out to agents in January 2012. After a month, I got my first offer from Agent #1, a friend who’d just started working at a good agency. I was absolutely thrilled. Someone had read my manuscript and said “This is a Thing.” We talked on the phone. He was warm and enthusiastic and loved the book.

Though I knew he would be a great advocate for the book, he thought a small indie publishing house would be the best fit, while I felt the book had enough mass market appeal for a larger house. I knew I wouldn’t feel we had strived to reach the book’s highest potential without at least submitting to the larger houses, and the misgivings manifested as a sour feeling in my stomach. I felt like I was crazy—I had gotten an offer, which was the holy grail in and of itself, right?

I said no to him.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged monica byrne, the girl in the road

Friday Quick Updates: DeepSouthCon in Bristol this weekend, new event listings (Maker Faire, Serenity, John Scalzi) and more

Posted on 2014-05-17 at 00:56 by montsamu

Friday, May 16, 2014: DeepSouthCon opened today and continues all weekend at new convention ConTrails in Bristol, Virginia ("the bit that sticks out over Tennessee") with guest of honor Gordon Van Gelder, the legendary editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and artist guest of honor Charles Vess. Meanwhile, as always, I missed quite a few things in the May newsletter, which I've updated with "NEW-NEW" event listings including Maker Faire NC (June 7), the annual "Can't Stop the Serenity" screening (July 27), and not one but TWO events with John Scalzi in late August.

• June 2 (Monday) 6:30 pm — James Maxey and Nathan Kotecki’s “First Monday Classics” series at the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough continues with Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, with guest panelist Edmund Schubert. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1441047636143009/
• June 4 (Wednesday) 7 pm — Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore hosts Durham author Monica Byrne for her debut post-apocalyptic novel The Girl in the Road. More info: http://www.malaprops.com/event/monica-byrne-presents-girls-road
• June 7 (Saturday) — Maker Faire North Carolina at the NC Fairgrounds Exhibition Center. More info: http://www.makerfairenc.com/
• June 19 (Thursday) 6 pm — “Noir at the Bar” in Durham as “Seven gritty crime writers descend upon Downtown Durham to talk books, writing, and drinking at 106 Main. Join Grant Jerkins, Phillip Thompson, Steve Weddle, Eryk Pruitt, Charles Dodd White, Peter Farris and Chad Rohrbacher for a night so dangerous, you’re going to need a drink.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1529679923926165/
• July 27 (Sunday) 6 pm — The annual Raleigh NC Browncoats “Can’t Stop the Serenity” charity screening of Serenity, the Firefly movie, at the Raleighwood Cinema Grill. Doors open at 6 pm ahead of a costume contest and raffle prior to the screening at 8 pm. This event usually sells out in advance. More info: http://www.ncbrowncoats.com/
• August 28 (Thursday) 7:30 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts John Scalzi for his forthcoming sf novel Lock In.
• August 29 (Friday) 7 pm -- Flyleaf Books hosts John Scalzi for his forthcoming sf novel Lock In.

[handout-2014-05-13.pdf]

One last thing: Monica Byrne's latest play, Tarantino's Yellow Speedo, kicks off at Manbites Dog Theater on May 22, with Thursday to Sunday showings through June 7 and one Sunday matinee on June 1. Directed by Jay O'Berski and presented by Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, it's "A hyper-sensually deep comedy about borders between bodies and nations. Set in the Olympic Village, a cell of international athletes train to become an elite task force of sexual operatives determined to bring down the divisions between countries."

-Sam

UPCOMING EVENTS, MAY 2014

Posted in Friday Quick Updates

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews The Moon King, Reign of Ash and Broken Homes

Posted on 2014-05-16 at 03:14 by angelablackwell

Review of The Moon King by Neil Williamson (hardcover and trade, NewCon Press April 22, 2014)

This is Neil Williamson’s first novel, and after starting and not finishing several other first fantasy novels this year, Neil must be congratulated that I not only finished his novel but read it in two days. I didn’t find any of the usual first novel writing craft issues which can jar me out of the story.

As a reviewer I get presented with many fantasy novels to review, but I never get past the first chapter in some of them either due to content (I read six similar ones last year), craft (the writing and editing can make you want to cry) or it is so heavy on setting that I lose track of the characters or can’t find a plot. However, I found this novel to not only have more balance between character, plot, and setting, but I also thought all those parts were interesting.

Glassholm and its captured moon are a very unique fantasy setting, with a feel reminiscent of a child’s fairy tale land mixed with a bit of steampunk. The poor confused characters that have lost their memories are quite endearing, particularly when you figure out how they got that way. The poor confused ones have a plot centered on getting their memories back, of course, but it soon becomes clear that this plot coincides with that of other characters in the narrative.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged ben aaronovitch, broken homes, gail z. martin, neil williamson, reign of ash, the moon king

The Exploding Spaceship Spring Event Reviews for Authors

Posted on 2014-05-16 at 02:24 by angelablackwell

Review of the Doris Betts Spring Writers Festival at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, NC

Your Humble Reviewers were surprised to learn there was an annual writers’ event in our town, since we had not heard of it prior to about one week before the event. When we looked it up, we discovered that not only were three local writers attending, but that fantasy author N.K. Jemisin was also coming in from New York for the event. A chance to be in a writing workshop with her was too good to miss, especially since it was close enough for us to walk there if it wasn’t a rainy day.

She was doing a reading at the festival, and it was here that we discovered that Nora and the female half of the Exploding Spaceship were both alums of Tulane. Nora originally comes from Mobile, Alabama and her southern heritage has not been buried by her time in New York. She is a very engaging reader and even the non-genre reading members of the audience appreciated her tale entitled “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters” about a drug-dealer who meets a dragon amidst the flooded streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The writing workshops were kept small: no more than about 12 people were allowed in each. Nora was well prepared and started off by giving several good references including books by Sam Delaney, Orson Scott Card, and Stephen King. There was then a brief discussion on where to find writing exercises: one involved a story starting paragraph with a first line quote and then choosing dialogue or narrative, who is acting, whom they are acting toward or with, the tone, and what action is the person completing. The second involved a mythological creature, a location in Statesville and an object. This one led to some quite funny situations, so the workshop ended on a light note. One interesting thing about the workshop: Nora answers the normal "how-do-you-come-up-with-stories" question by saying that she can’t really describe how her creativity works, and that she is not a visual person, so she doesn’t see it as a movie in her head.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged doris betts spring writers festival, eastercon, nora jemisin, outlantacon, ravencon

The Hardest Part: Jen McConnel

Posted on 2014-05-14 at 14:19 by montsamu

Durham author Jen McConnel is the author of the new adult novel The Secret of Isobel Key (out from Bloomsbury Spark and Audible for Bloomsbury) and most recently of Daughter of Chaos, a contemporary Durham-set young adult novel of witches and choices just released from Raleigh-based Month9Books [IndieBound | Kobo| Kindle]. She's also published in non-fiction, as we briefly touched on in a Carolina Book Beat interview last month, and has a few more novels already well on the way. For "The Hardest Part", the prolific McConnel tackles the juggling act of pursuing shiny new projects versus the hard work of revision.

By Jen McConnel: The Hardest Part: Writing After Publication

For me, writing is always my center. Whether I’m drafting, revising, or simply courting a shiny new idea, I often refer to my writing work as “play”. Perhaps because of this lighthearted approach, I wasn’t prepared for the hardest part of my writing journey: writing after publication.

Some writers have talked about the sophomore slump, the fears and joys and insanity that come with writing your second book after you make a sale, but luckily, that hasn’t been something I’ve experienced. The biggest reason I’ve avoided the sophomore slump? I took that old advice to heart, and kept writing and writing and writing, no matter what. I wrote so many “next things” that by the time I had sold my first book to a publisher, I had a substantial backlist of finished, polished, manuscripts just waiting for homes.

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged jen mcconnel