eldritchhobbit

Cool Things are Extremely Cool:

- Netflix Revives Western Longmire. Woohoo! I am one happy fangirl.

- The University of Iowa is digitizing 10,000 vintage sci-fi zines dating back to the 1930s. Fantastic!

- Three Calls for Papers of potential interest: 1) on Robert A. Heinlein, 2) on the Gothic and Racism, and 3) on "It's Happening Again": Twenty-Five Years of Twin Peaks.

- FX Is Making a Television Show Out of Alan Moore's From Hell.



- The latest episode of StarShipSofa is out - it's a jam-packed episode - and it includes my most recent "Looking Back on Genre History" segment, which celebrates the recent good news received by fans of The Pretender, Millennium, and Twin Peaks. You can download the episode via iTunes or stream/download it here.


Uncool Thing is Way Not Cool:

( Cut for TMI )

The takeaway here is that most of my Spring 2015 trips and appearances - my Asheville weekend seminars, SofaCON and ConCarolinas, and likely another university campus talk in the works - won't be affected by this turn of events, but I'm very disappointed to say that it looks like Mythmoot III in January is off the table. I'm quite bummed about this.

For now I'm on the road again. Have a great one, my friends!

Remember the good old days of 2013? Back then, no matter where you were in the world, you could join with fellow science fiction fans for a day of talks, interviews, readings, trivia, and fellowship. Back in 2013, StarShipSofa sponsored its first-ever international, interactive SofaCON. That was a great day, wasn't it?

Wait a minute. We're science fiction fans. We look AHEAD, not BEHIND.

And that's appropriate, because the good old days are getting even better.

Coming in 2015, StarShipSofa will bring you not one day but two: two days of fantastic talks, interviews, readings, trivia, and fellowship with some of the most stellar names in the SF scene. That's right, SofaCON is back: twice as long and twice as brilliant, with twice the SF attitude. From the comfort of your own home anywhere on Earth (and possibly other planets as well), you can be a part of the most innovative and exciting convention there is with an unbeatable guest list and schedule. Guests include David Brin, Charlie Stross, Cheryl Morgan, Joe Haldeman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Diane Severson, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Bethke, Pat Cadigan, Marc Laidlaw, Rajan Khanna, Aliette de Bodard, Dave Robinson, Adam Roberts, Peter F. Hamilton, and others - including Yours Truly.



We hope you'll mark your calendars for March 14 & 15 and plan to join us online for SofaCON 2!

On this day ten years ago, thanks to encouragement from dear thrihyrne, I started this blog. Ten years! How time flies... Thanks to all of you who have shared this space with me and touched my life in such wonderful ways. {{{GROUP HUG!!!}}}



I am off to the Shire for A Long-Expected Party 3: Ever On and On. I'll catch you on the flip side. Have fun, my friends!

( Here's my speaking schedule for A Long-Expected Party. )

I had a marvelous time at this year's Worldcon (which, the last I heard, was in the running to be the largest Worldcon in the event's 72-year-history with well over 10,500 attendees).

Some of the highlights of the con for me were the following.

- Meeting in person several of the StarShipSofa crew with whom I've worked for the last six plus years, including Tony C. Smith, Diane Severson Mori, Steve Bickle, and others, as well as many of our long-term listeners.

- Attending the 1939 Retro Hugo Awards Ceremony, which was presented like a 1939 radio broadcast, complete with a live band, ads, and breaks for newsflashes about approaching Martians. (Fortunately for us, the "con crud" killed the invaders before they penetrated the ExCel Centre where the ceremony was being held.) It was a loving extended tribute to Orson Welles' adaptation of The War of the Worlds, beautifully realized. My friend Diane Severson Mori, who was representing Amazing Stories editor Raymond Palmer (who was nominated for Best Editor), kindly invited me to be her "plus one," so I also got to see the other representatives at the pre-awards reception and enjoy the ceremony from choice seating. It was moving for me to see classic works I've loved and taught honored in this way.

- Officiating at the Prometheus Awards ceremony, where it was my privilege to present "Best Novel" awards to Cory Doctorow (for Homeland) and Ramez Naam (for Nexus), both of whom gave stirring speeches, and a "Special Award" to the representative of Leslie Fish (for her novella “Tower of Horses” and her related filk song, "The Horsetamer’s Daughter"), as well as to accept on behalf of Lois McMaster Bujold the "Hall of Fame" honor for her novel Falling Free.

- Giving my two talks, "Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction" and "Millennials and Worlds Gone Wrong: These Aren't Your Grandparents' YA Dystopias." I'm grateful to A.J. Hall for her wonderful (and hilarious) introduction to my Holmes talk, and to everyone who attended - even those several dozen who were turned away after the doors were closed due to overcrowding. (What a turnout! I was amazed.) I'm also grateful to the many who came to my YA dystopias talk and stayed with me, contributing great comments and questions, even though the tech specialists were unable to get my PowerPoint up and running. (So it goes...)

- Participating in stimulating and thought-provoking panels. It was great fun to sit side-by-side and converse with some truly gifted authors, scholars, and journalists. I particularly enjoyed the "Young Adult SF on the Big Screen" panel, where we had just the right balance of agreement and disagreement to make for a vigorous and fruitful discussion. I also attended several excellent panels as an audience member. Two of the standout examples were "My Beautiful Dystopia" (with a stellar panel of authors including the always-awesome Peadar O'Guilin) and "Reluctant, or Just Not Interested?," a panel about reluctant readers, the education system, and publishing, which featured more terrific guests (including Gray Rinehart, whose appearances are always "must sees").


Here's my obligatory selfie with my Loncon 3 badge, taken just before the Retro-Hugo Awards ceremony, and a photo of the ExCeL Centre at the Docklands, where the con was held.



Click here for my photos from Loncon 3/Worldcon, including close-up pictures from the "50 Photos for 50 Years of Doctor Who," "A Brief History of Worldcon," and "The Destruction of London" special exhibits.

My next con appearance is in September at A Long-Expected Party. At this point I'm not sure about next year's Worldcon, but I know I will be attending MidAmeriCon II/Worldcon in 2016.

It's official! I've happily accepted the position of Department Chair of Literature and Language at Signum University. Speaking of which, registration is open for my online "Science Fiction, Part I" course for Fall 2014 at Mythgard Institute at Signum University.

I'm getting ready to head out for a quick trip south to offer guest lectures on intellectual history and The Hunger Games, Serenity, and YA dystopian fiction. (It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.) Here is a quick look at my upcoming speaking schedule.



Where I Will Be Speaking When

***JULY***
"Life Is Improv" Seminar at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia

***AUGUST***
Loncon 3/the 72nd Worldcon in London, UK
( Here is my updated schedule. )

***SEPTEMBER***
A Long-Expected Party 3 in Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

I had a wonderful time at ConCarolinas. I caught up with some old friends, made some new ones, traded book recommendations, and talked Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Suzanne Collins to my heart's content. At Jonah Knight's fantastic concert, I also got to hear a new track ("The First") from his next steampunk album, and it was brilliant. I'm a huge fan of his first steampunk album, The Age of Steam: Strange Machines, and now I'm most excited for the sequel.

And now, links to share:

* On the latest from StarShipSofa -- which marks my sixth-year anniversary working with the podcast -- I begin a three-part "History of the Genre" special about reading Harry Potter in a Native American context. It's here in Episode #340. If you listen, I hope you enjoy!

* Speaking of Harry Potter, Professor Sara Martin Alegre taught the first university course on Harry Potter in Spain, and as a result she and her English Studies students have put together a new English-language book they are sharing for free: Addictive and Wonderful: The Experience of Reading the Harry Potter Series.

* Last year I attended the "Joss in June" academic conference on Joss Whedon studies and thoroughly enjoyed the presentations. I'm happy to say that now the "Joss in June" special double issue of Slayage: The Journal of the Joss Whedon Studies Association is online for general access. Check out these great essays! In particular, don't miss this treat: "Exploring Cabins in the Whedonverse Woods" by my former graduate student, Curtis A. Weyant.

* Read Kurt Vonnegut's 1973 letter to the man burning his books.

* It's that time again. Here are my work-in-progress lists of English-language young adult dystopian novels and secondary sources about them. If you have any recommendations or suggestions for me of works I should include, I'd be most grateful if you'd let me know! Thanks so much.
List 1: English-Language Young Adult Dystopian Novels, 1960-1999 (with links)
List 2: English-Language Young Adult Dystopian Novels, 2000-Present (with links)
List 3: A Select Bibliography of Secondary Sources on YA Dystopian Fiction (with links)

It's official! I'm delighted to say that I'll be giving two hour-long talks at Loncon 3: The 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in London this summer. One will be with the Young Adult Track, "Millennials and Worlds Gone Wrong: Or, Why These Aren't Your Grandparents' YA Dystopias," and one will be with the Academic Track, "Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction." It looks like I'll be on some terrific panels, as well. I'll post my schedule when I know it. (Special thanks to peadarog!)

I'd also like to offer my congratulations to my undergraduate and graduate students who were chosen to present their original research from this semester formally during Lenoir-Rhyne University's campus-wide SOURCE: Symposium on University Research and Creative Expression. Three cheers for Elena Margo Gould ("Black Elk's Syncretic Spirituality"), Angelia Bedford ("Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System"), Liz Goebelbecker ("Spirit for Sale"), and Leah Phillips ("A Study of How Euro-American Disease and Medicine Affected the Nebraska Winnebago Native"). Well done!

Some Kickstarters of interest:
- Edgar Allan Poe illustrated "Ravings of Love & Death" (Thanks to Diane!) This one ends today!
- The Miskatonic School for Girls: Holiday Break Expansion (Thanks to sittingduck1313!)
- Geek Theater: Anthology of Science Fiction & Fantasy Plays
- Star Wars Lightsabers from Science Fiction to Science Fact

The new semester begins today! Apologies for my recent silence, but I've been busy getting prepared for the new term. I'm teaching both undergraduate and graduate versions of "Native American Experience in the U.S. Context" for Lenoir-Rhyne University and the graduate course "The Gothic Tradition" for Mythgard Institute.

In other news...

* In the next couple of months I'll have the privilege of interviewing two distinguished and celebrated authors whose works I regularly teach. I'll be interviewing David Brin virtually for StarShipSofa's Sofanauts, and I'll be interviewing Sherman Alexie in person as part of Lenoir-Rhyne's Visiting Writers Series. My students this semester will be reading Alexie's brilliant, U.S. National Book Award winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, so I'm delighted that they'll have a chance to see Alexie on campus.

* Here's a Call for Papers that may be of interest: The Inklings and King Arthur.

* Fans of the late (and great) Lewis Collins will want to see this moving message from his family.

* Interesting! "Four Changes to English So Subtle We Hardly Notice They're Happening." (Thanks to James!)

* I've updated the list of my personal appearances this year.

* Sherlock! As much as I enjoyed "The Empty Hearse" and "The Sign of Three" -- and I really did! -- "His Last Vow" blew them both away. Well played, Moftiss. Well played indeed.



I'll leave this on a January-esque note...

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing dear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

- Emily Brontë, "Spellbound"

You don't even have to leave your home to take part in our SF convention! I hope to see you there...

Join the crew of the Hugo Award winning StarShipSofa, their special guests, and friends from all over the world as a new tradition begins: SofaCON, An Online International Science Fiction Convention. This live, history-making event will focus on those who are creators, scholars, and fans of the best of speculative fiction. Over the years StarShipSofa has brought together a global community of science fiction lovers; it’s time for old and new Sofanauts alike to meet in a real-time, interactive virtual venue to celebrate the genre they love.



Meet stellar authors. Watch exclusive interviews and lectures. Ask questions and offer comments. Enjoy the SF convention experience from the comfort of your home. Don’t miss this inaugural event!

Tickets and the schedule of events are available now at sofacon.org.

I have a few quick and happy notes to share...

* My brilliant and talented sister now has an Etsy shop: check out StormySkyDesigns!

* Tomorrow and Tuesday are Harry PotterFest 2012. My main lecture is tomorrow morning, but I'll be there for all the festivities. MuggleNet has the schedule posted here.

* Looking forward to Spring 2013 at the Mythgard Institute...



Registration is now open for my Spring 2013 "Science Fiction, Part II: From the New Wave to Tomorrow" online course for graduate students and auditors worldwide via the Mythgard Institute. You can check out all of the information here, including the lecture themes and readings!

Here is the promo video: