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Worlds Without End Blog

New, in Canon Books and Graphic Novels for Blade Runner Franchise Posted at 3:54 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

ALCON MEDIA GROUP AND TITAN PUBLISHING GROUP FORGE BLADE RUNNER CO-PUBLISHING ALLIANCE

LOS ANGELES, CA, JULY 12, 2018 – Alcon Media Group and London-based Titan Publishing, a leading force in genre and pop culture publishing, are partnering in a new co-publishing venture initially focused on the Blade Runner universe.

In a joint statement by Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, and Titan’s co-founders, Nick Landau and Vivian Cheung, the partners stated that the companies will develop and publish a variety of both fiction and non-fiction print media. The program will feature new, in canon comics and graphic novels that dive deeper into the Blade Runner world as well as a variety of publications focused on the visual and technical sides of the production process.

Editorial duties will be handled by Titan’s David Manley-Leach, and Alcon’s director of publishing, Jeff Conner.

States Kosove and Johnson, “In partnering with the exceptional Titan Comics and Titan Books, we’re confident that the world of Blade Runner will continue to organically grow in a way that refuses to sacrifice the quality, tone and high standards of this beloved property.”

“We are extremely excited to be publishing Blade Runner comics and illustrated books,” said Titan publishers Nick Landau and Vivian Cheung. “The Blade Runner universe has barely been explored; there is so much more there. It’s an honour to be bringing this world to life in new ways for a new audience – and to reveal tales from that universe that you’ve never seen before.”

Titan has three-decade history of success in the pop culture sphere, from their celebrated Doctor Who publications (comics, magazines and books) to tie-in novels set in the Marvel and DC universes. They also release a robust line of original genre novels, from hardboiled crime to supernatural horror, cyberpunk to intergalactic adventure.


ABOUT ALCON MEDIA GROUP

Since 1997, Alcon Media Group has financed and produced over 30 films, including The Blind Side, Book of Eli, Prisoners, and Insomnia. Alcon’s most recent film was Blade Runner 2049, the critically acclaimed sequel to Blade Runner. The company’s television division produces the visionary science fiction series, The Expanse, which has just been acquired by Amazon Prime for at least two new seasons.

ABOUT TITAN PUBLISHING GROUP

Titan is the leading publisher of tie-in books for movies, games and television―producing world-class titles in fiction and non-fiction categories. Their publishing lines include illustrated art books, in-universe illustrated books and fiction prequels, novelizations and continuity original stories. They offer comics and graphic novels from the world’s greatest licensed properties, alongside creator-owned comic books from new and world-renowned talent.

Navajos on Mars: Native Sci-Fi Film Futures Posted at 4:56 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

Bunky Echohawk’s (Pawnee) “If Yoda Was an Indian, He’d be Chief”

Willi Lempert, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has written a fascinating piece on Native SF films.  That there is such a thing is news to me.  It’s interesting to see a non-western take on the future in the short films that Lempert examines.  These films offer an alternative to the typical stereotypes found in most genre movies – when there are any native people in them at all.

“This article is a brief attempt to draw on Indigenous futurisms as a way of introducing the diversity of Native sci-fi films in conversation with mainstream sci-fi.”

Lempert divides native SF into utopias, dystopias, and alien encounters and offers multiple examples of each for you to experience for yourself.  Check it out.

 

Alpha Scholarship Drive: The Future of Science Fiction is in Your Hands Posted at 10:23 AM by Dave Post

Dave Post

alpha

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 10, 2015

THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE FICTION IS IN YOUR HANDS!

Writing genre fiction can be a lonely business for teens. The Alpha SF/F/H Workshop brings together young writers, aged 14 to 19, for ten days of creation and peer review critiques. At the end of the workshop, students leave with new skills and a vibrant network of support.

Alphans have published in dozens of markets, including Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Analog and Strange Horizons. Many of them have placed and won in contests such as The Dell Magazine Award, Writers of the Future, and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

Tamora Pierce

Tamora Pierce

Ellen Kushner

Ellen Kushner

Delia Sherman

Delia Sherman

Alaya Dawn Johnson

Alaya Dawn Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamora Pierce, author of young adult series such as Protector of the Small and The Provost’s Dog, has instructed at the workshop every year since its inception. This year, instructors include Ellen Kushner, author of the beloved Riverside books recently adapted into an award winning Audible series, Delia Sherman of Freedom Maze fame, and two-time Andre Norton Award-nominated Alaya Dawn Johnson.

Alpha works hard to keep costs low–every staff member is a volunteer, and the tuition is kept at the lowest possible level–but prospective students often require financial aid. This year–as they have for the past several–alumni have contributed writing and art to an illustrated flash fiction anthology and offered it as a donor reward in the entirely alumni-organized scholarship fund drive.

The Alpha alumni fundraiser will run March 17-26. Would you consider giving us a signal boost? Donations really do change the course of our young writers’ lives.

To learn more about the Alpha SF/F/H Young Writers’ Workshop, please visit the Alpha website, and check out our latest video, featuring interviews with Bruce Coville and Tamora Pierce.

For more information please contact:
Publicity Coordinator Lara Elena Donnelly
(502) 812-9158
lara.3lena@gmail.com


There you have it folks.  Your donation will help these youngsters become the kind of writers you want to read.  A worthwhile cause that you can support and even benefit from down the line.

As a further incentive all donors receive the Alphanthology, a PDF anthology of flash fiction written, illustrated, and edited by Alpha alumni.  Surely that’s worth a sawbuck?  Check out the Alpha site for more details and to make your donation today!

J.R.R. Tolkien Lost Audio Recording & Poem Discovered Posted at 8:40 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

J. R. R. TolkienIt seems a Tolkien fan in Rotterdam found an unknown to exist reel-to-reel recording of Professor Tolkien talking to fans at a huge dinner party thrown in his honor in 1958. The fan kept it hidden in his private collection for 20 years before being talked into releasing it. Now it’s being re-mastered by Middle-earth Network and Legendarium Media and will be made available to us next fall. Details are sketchy at the moment but they have provided a production blog and registration so you can get up to date info as they release it.

The Huffington Post has the story of the origin and discovery of the missing audio file that will whet your appetite more than the wicked-short snippet above so be sure to check that out.

Thanks to WWEnder Stephen Poltz for letting us know about this interesting development in the Tolkien Universe.  I am eagerly awaiting more information and we’ll post any major news on this project as we can.

Bloc Voting The Hugo Awards – Death of a Thousand Cuts from Amazing Stories Posted at 11:42 AM by Dave Post

Dave Post

Amazing-Stories-Logo-R-375Bloc Voting The Hugo Awards – Death of a Thousand Cuts by Steve Davidson is a new article over on Amazing Stories.  Go now and read it.  One of the best articles I’ve read on the recent Hugo kerfuffle and the ongoing sectarian wars within fandom.

Please leave your direct comments over there but I’d like to know if you like the article as much as I do.  And if you like the article perhaps you’ll consider passing it along to others.

Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers Annual Scholarship Fundraiser Posted at 5:33 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

The 2014 Alpha alumni fundraiser is happening now! Donate any amount to receive this year’s Alphanthology, a gorgeous PDF anthology of flash fiction written, edited, illustrated, designed, and produced entirely by Alpha alumni.  This is a great cause and the donor premium is pretty sweet so if you’ve got a few extra bucks to send their way you really can’t lose.  Here’s the press release with the details:


alphaFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2014

WORKSHOP ALUMNI OFFER STORIES FOR DONORS, OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEENS

Graduates of the Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers are offering an illustrated anthology of flash fiction as a donor reward during their annual scholarship fundraiser. This is the fourth edition of the annual Alphanthology, edited, written and illustrated by alumni.

Founded by Diane Turnshek, Alpha is a ten day workshop for speculative fiction writers ages 14 to 19, where each student writes an original short story and participates in peer review critiques. Tamora Pierce, author of young adult series such as Protector of the Small and The Provost’s Dog, has instructed at the workshop every year since its inception. This year, additional instructors include Tobias Buckell, Bruce Coville, and SFWA Vice President Rachel Swirsky. Past instructors have included award winning authors and editors such as Ellen Kushner, Sheila Williams, Scott Westerfeld, Holly Black and John Joseph Adams.

Alpha works hard to keep costs low–every staff member is a volunteer, and the tuition is kept at the lowest possible level–but prospective students often require financial aid. The scholarship fund exists to make attendance possible for talented young writers from all walks of life.

Alphans have published in dozens of markets, including Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Analog and Strange Horizons. Many of them have placed and won in contests such as The Dell Magazine Award, Writers of the Future, and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

The Alpha scholarship fundraiser will run February 2-8. Organizers are planning a blog tour and letter writing campaign in addition to social media announcements. To learn more about the Alpha SF/F/H Young Writers’ Workshop, please visit the Alpha website or follow @AlphaWorkshop on Twitter.

For more information please contact:

Fundraiser Coordinator Sarah Brand
sarah.b.brand@gmail.com

Publicity Coordinator Lara Elena Donnelly
lara.3lena@gmail.com

Off to LoneStarCon 3 / WorldCon! Posted at 8:16 AM by Dave Post

Dave Post

235px-Worldcon_71_LoneStarCon_3_logoWell, it’s that time again.  Time for WWEnd’s 3rd annual trip to WorldCon!  This time it’s being hosted by LoneStarCon 3 down in San Antonio, Texas – our neck of the woods.  We’re making the drive from Dallas this morning and hope to be in Lockhart, Texas, Barbecue Capital Texas, in time for lunch at Black’s.  (We’ll hit Kreuz Market on the return leg.)  From there it’s just another hour to San Antone.

As we did for the last 2 WorldCons we’ve got a fan table to show off the site, make new friends and give out some Hugo Award bookmarks.  If you’re going to the con make sure you stop by and say hello and pick up some bookmarks.  They’re great for getting autographs – especially if you’re an ebook reader.  We love to meet WWEnders in person!  Oh, there will be candy too, or “nerd bait” as they say at the conventions.  How can you resist?

We’ll be posting about our trip here on the blog, on Twitter and on Facebook so keep an eye out for those reports.  And, of course, we’ll be live-tweeting the Hugo Awards from the ballroom so don’t miss that.

One of the great things about this year’s event is that our whole crew is going.  Rico, Chris and even Jonathan for his first convention.  In addition we’ve got WWEnder Charles Dee coming down with us.  We met Dee through the site a few years ago and lucky for us he was a local.  He’s been a huge WWEnd supporter and a great friend and we’re looking forward to hanging out with him this week.  He’s no stranger to conventions, he was in the book industry for years, but this is his first science fiction convention.  We’re going to push him and Jonathan into a Filk session and close the door so they get the entire experience.

Since we’re all going to be out of pocket there won’t be a lot of non-con posting on the blog until we get back.  So no Jo Fletcher Friday this week or new books added or site updates etc.  We’ll catch up next week on all that stuff.  Cheers!

 2013_Hugo_Bookmarks_front_580

West Virginia Republicans Pushing for Compulsory Reading… Posted at 2:18 PM by Jonathan McDonald

jynnantonnyx

…of science fiction (You thought I was going to say creationist textbooks, didn’t you? Admit it…):

A bill calling for science fiction to be made compulsory reading in schools has been proposed by a politician in West Virginia in order to “stimulate interest in the fields of math and science”.

Ray Canterbury, a Republican delegate, is appealing to the West Virginia board of education to include science fiction novels on the middle school and high school curriculums. “The Legislature finds that promoting interest in and appreciation for the study of math and science among students is critical to preparing students to compete in the workforce and to assure the economic well being of the state and the nation,” he writes in the pending bill.

On a personal note, I can’t say that my own interest in the sciences had anything to do with science fiction. I much preferred reading popular science books to science fiction.

“To stimulate interest in math and science among students in the public schools of this state, the State Board of Education shall prescribe minimum standards by which samples of grade-appropriate science fiction literature are integrated into the curriculum of existing reading, literature or other required courses for middle school and high school students.”

How much science fiction even deals directly with math and the various sciences, except for using a popular (and often wrong) understanding of scientific discoveries as a structure for a plot? But maybe I should avoid starting a debate about hard-vs-soft scifi. Instead, I’ll incite one about scifi-vs-fantasy:

“I’m not interested in fantasy novels about dragons,” Canterbury told Blastr in a recent interview. “I’m primarily interested in things where advanced technology is a key component of the storyline, both in terms of the problems that it presents and the solutions that it offers.”

Nobody tell this guy about Dragonflight.

This seems like a very neat idea, but there are certainly some valid concerns about potential indoctrination, here. Science fiction authors almost always have a political or philosophical axe to grind, and public schools aren’t known for teaching students how to read a book–especially a compulsory book–with a critical eye. Who decides which scifi books children should be compelled to read? The news article quotes David Brin expressing his approval of the plan, but his disapproval of reading “either gloomy dystopias or else fantasy tales wallowing in dreamy yearnings for a beastly way of life called feudalism.”

What do you think? Is this a great way to force children to expand their mental horizons, or just another opportunity for indoctrination by lobbyists?

Proof That Voldemort Lives Posted at 6:49 AM by Rico Simpkins

icowrich

The Miami Herald is reporting that the mom-porn novel 50 Shades of Grey is now outselling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by more than two to one.  That is all.

Readercon Harassment Reax (UPDATE: Readercon Board resigns) Posted at 10:05 PM by Rico Simpkins

icowrich

Readercon

UPDATE:  The entire Readercon board has resigned.

For those of you haven’t yet heard, the otherwise excellent Readercon is at the center of a whirlwind of controversy because of a alleged harassment and the inconsistent application of a zero-tolerance policy.  The victim’s (Genevieve Valentine’s) description was first posted on her blog:

At the con, someone introduced himself to me and started a conversation, accompanied by elbow-and-shoulder touches that I moved away from. At one point he said I had to stop saying things that “made [him] want to say “wrong” things”; I shut him down politely, turned my back on him, and talked to someone else until he eventually left.

That night at a room party, I paused in the hall bottleneck and said to a passing friend, “Oh man, it’s crowded.” From behind me, the man wrapped an arm around my shoulders and said, “Well, you and I will have a good time!” at which point I spun and said loudly and clearly “You do NOT touch me,” and moved inside. He stayed in the bottleneck for more than thirty minutes trying to catch my eye before he left; I recruited someone to walk me to the elevator.

Ms. Valentine goes to describe a panicked harasser continuing to harass her about accepting his apology for harassing her.  Most people expected René Walling (the alleged harasser) to be permanently banned from Readercon, per their written policy:

Readercon has always had a zero-tolerance harassment policy.

Harassment of any kind — including physical assault, battery, deliberate intimidation, stalking, or unwelcome physical attentions — will not be tolerated at Readercon and will result in permanent suspension of membership.

As always, Readercon reserves the right to strip membership at its discretion.

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