News and Celebrations

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to llembas! May you have a terrific day and a wonderful year to come.

And congratulations to StarShipSofa's Aural Delights, which celebrates its 100th podcast episode today. This includes my narration of Elizabeth Bear's story "Two Dreams on Trains." You can listen to or download the show here.

Also, in celebration of this milestone, StarShipSofa has released an anthology of some of the great stories it's featured over the past episodes. Read more about StarShipSofa Stories, Volume 1 here.


In other news...

* From The Telegraph: "J.R.R. Tolkien Trained as British Spy."

* Lavie Tidhar maintains The World SF News Blog with posts about the genre as a global phenomenon.

* Per my post yesterday on The Wild, Wild West, this from Gayle Martin's Journal: "Artemus Gordon - The Ideal Man."


"So what is World SF? And more importantly, what shape is it going to take in, say, the next two decades? That's the real interesting question. And that's something that has to be answered by both "sides" of it, the English writers and readers and the non-English writers and readers. But the future simply isn't American any more. The Asian space race is a reality, China and India are massive economic powers - the balance of power is shifting. It's going to be an interesting century to live in... "
- Lavie Tidhar, interviewed by SF Signal

Comments

[llembas.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the LJ birthday gift! I'm having a wonderful day. It is rainy and cloudy and I haven't seen the sun all day. It makes me feel like October.

It is my hobbit birthday this year. I turned 33! I'm a grown up and no longer a young hobbit in my tweens. I gave away cupcakes as presents in the hobbit tradition of giving away gifts on their birthdays. :)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that sounds like a perfect day. And you're most welcome. ;)

Many congratulations on reaching hobbit adulthood! May the hair on your toes never fall out. :)

[thehornedgod.livejournal.com]

Oh, they wanted him at Bletchley Park, that makes sense. I was imagining him being a secret agent! Lord of the Rings could have ended up more like John le Carre (Alec Guinness as Gandalf, playing elaborate espionage games with Patrick Stewart's Saruman?) or Len Deighton (Harry Palmer as... Aragorn?). The mind boggles.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

*cackles* Now that would be something to see...

[vyrdolak.livejournal.com]

I recall reading that Tolkien did some sort of war-related work anyway.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Interesting stuff! Now, I guess, we have a bit more of the story.

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! And, that's a cool book cover.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I love the retro-pulp look of the book cover. Apparently Larry Santoro, the horror writer, is now writing a story based on the cover! :)

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Yes, the future might not be American. A growing number of writers are taking that idea in cool directions. I'm looking forward to more worldbuilding diversity in future...

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Me, too!

I'm looking forward to the forthcoming Apex Book of World SF that Lavie Tidhar is editing. It sounds fascinating.

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

It does! When I was growing up, I had a book with SF stories from all around the world -- only one entry allowed per country. It was really, really cool.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

That sounds so fantastic. What a great introduction to the different voices of the genre!

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

It was great. I wish I still had it -- I can remember some of the stories in it to this day.

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

My favorite Artemus Gordon moment comes from the first season episode Night of the Torture Chamber. That was the one with the gallery owner who had the governor of California kidnapped and replaced with a look-alike who would embezzle state funds to fund the gallery owner's big price tag acquisitions. The really brilliant point was returning the governor so that he would take the heat for the embezzlement, since no one would believe the truth. Anyway, at one point, Artie arrives disguised as a representative of the French goverment (as the gallery owner's ultimate purchase was to be the Mona Lisa), and then proceeded to claim that half the acquisitions were fakes. By the time Artie was done, he had the guy convinced that he had been duped in his purchases.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember that one! Brilliant, wasn't it? As I recall, Artie became increasingly nonchalant about the whole thing as the man became increasingly distressed. Smooth man, that Artie. ;)