Fantasy Minute for Decembrer 27, 2005: Episode 119

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope the holidays are treating everyone well and the children (and those with the hearts of children) had an especially happy Christmas.

JK Rowling has announced that there is a few very interesting updates to her website: the Rumour section, kaboshes some theories on Petunia and Lupin , a few tidbits in the About Me section, while over in her Rubbish section, it addresses that absurd claim that she is group of writers all working under the pen name of JKR, as well as her hating Harry and a New FAQ Poll to vote on (Book Six spoilers)

For any fans of the insanely addictive game Sudoku…here is a Narnia Sudoku game for you.

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Fantasy Minute for December 24, 2005: Episode 118

According to Box Office Mojo, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has passed the 200 Million US$ worldwide mark today with a total of more than 212 million dollars. It is important to note that the movie has only been released in 13 nations. Many countries will get it later this month and some even in January. The tentative release date for the DVD of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has been set for Easter 2006.

Jeff VanderMeer has posted a short story from THE BOOK OF WINTER: entitled THE CROC AND YOU. You can find the story at his blog.

Science Fiction and Fantasy World has posted its rules for their reader’s top 5 books of the year. So if you’ve read some books you really liked this past year, get over there and place your vote.

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Fantasy Minute for December 23, 2005: Episode 117

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have written Aziraphale and Crowley's New Year's resolutions. They're expected to be up somewhere at http://www.harpercollins.com/ just after Christmas in time for your own resolutions.

Robert Sheckley, a short-story and novel writer who was among the first to fuse satire with science fiction, creating a sub-genre called "galactic humor," has died. He was 77.

Sheckley, who had been fighting emphysema, died from complications of a brain aneurysm Dec. 9 at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said Ziva Kwitney, his former wife.

Considered a master of satire and irony, Sheckley also was one of the first science-fiction writers to give mechanical devices the ability to think for humans, according to a 2003 feature in Locus, a magazine that covers science fiction news.

"Ringers: Lord of the Fans" is here. First shown earlier this year on the big screen at Slamdance Film Festival and at the Newport Beach Film Festival, this documentary was quietly released on DVD at the end of November. It claims to be "by, about and for the fans" of professor J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginary world. Ringers is available on DVD at most major outlets and on amazon.com.

Fantasy Minute for December 22, 2005: Episode 116

The Jim Henson Company has selected JK Rowling as one of the honorees of the newly established Jim Henson Honors, an annual program that acknowledges organizations, individuals or products that reflect the core values and philosophy of Jim Henson and the company he founded in 1955.  

Time magazine has listed there top books of the year. Included in the fiction category are Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners and EL Doctorow’s The March.

You can help chose what will be included in the Eldest Special Edition due out in the fall 2006. Alagaesia.com is running a poll.

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Fantasy Minute for December 21, 2005: Episode 115

If you miss a favorite author when they appear at Denver's Tattered Cover Book Store, you’re no longer completely out of luck. Thanks to a new partnership between BurstMarketing, podcasts called Authors On Tour — Live!, will generate free weekly downloads featuring recently published authors reading from and discussing their works while at the Tattered Cover. The first of these 30-45 minute shows is available now.

In coming weeks, the program will be expanded to include podcasts with Susanna Clarke, Robert Hicks, Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, Clive Barker, Andrew Weil, Monty Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, Dan Savage, Zadie Smith, Michael Connelly, and others.

Emerald City, a genre website offering reviews, news, and analysis, has posted surprise announcement: Well, this blog might be drawing readers to the site, but over the past month or so the main effect it seems to have had is to get me into more and more trouble. Therefore, apart from any important announcements regarding Emerald City that might arise, I’m going to stop posting to it for a while. Hope Cheryl gets everyone off her back and she begins posting again.

F. Brett Cox (The Serpent and the Hatchet Gang) KGB Bar, New York City NY, 7 p.m.

Jack Womack (Lying to Children) KGB Bar New York City NY, 7 p.m.

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Fantasy Minute for December 20, 2005: Episode 114

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been named by the magazine "TIME for Kids" as their Person of the Year. Readers of this children's magazine selected our favorite author for this award over others such as Lance Armstrong, disaster relief volunteers, and even the Chicago White Sox baseball team.

Salon.com has posted it’s Top 10 books of the year including titles by Kelly Link, Kazuo Ishiguro, Haruki Murakami.

Sharp’s Books has a signed copy of K.G. Childs' "The Fortress City" to give away. Answer the following question and you will be entered into a drawing for it.

Q. What is the name of the Dragon in J.R. Tolkein’s ‘The Hobbit’?

Send your answers to us at admin@sharpsbooks.co.uk

The winner will be informed January 31, 2005.

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Fantasy Minute for December 17, 2005: Episode 113

It’s now time for SF Site’s annual readers’ choice survey: best read of 2005. The guidelines are quite simple: it must be defined as a book, must in some way be related to speculative fiction, and it must have been released in 2005. Official rules are available at SFSite.

Cemetery Dance Publications, artist Glenn Chadbourne, and author Stephen King announce The Secretary of Dreams, Stephen King’s first unabridged graphic short story collection! Information can be found at http://www.cemeterydance.com/.

Wotmania is running their contest for the best of as well. Their’s is a little different than others, but seems to have some interesting categories. http://www.wotmania.com/fantasymessageboardshowmessage.asp?MessageID=144599

Scot R. Stone (The Ice Shadows of Arna) Border’s, Northglenn, CO, 11 AM

Fantasy Minute for December 16, 2005: Episode 112

The Aurealis Awards announce their 2005 finalists and honourable mentions in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult and Children's novel and short story divisions. Aurealis Award is an Australian Award and will presented in February 2006. Finalists are:

Fantasy Novel Finalists

Sara Douglass, Darkwitch Rising: The Troy Game Book 3

Anthony Eaton, Nightpeople

Sonya Hartnett, Surrender

Juliet Marillier, Blade of Fortriu: Book II The Bridei Chronicles

Karen Miller, The Innocent Mage: Kingmaker Kingbreaker Book I

Fantasy Short Story Finalists

Adam Browne, “Heart of Saturday Night”

Terry Dartnall, “Ones and Zeros”

Dirk Flinthart, “The Red Priest's Homecoming”

Richard Harland, “The Greater Death of Saito Saku”

Rosaleen Love, “Once Giants Roamed the Earth”

Ottakar's, the British book chain, has revealed that it is unable to compete with discount chains and supermarkets for a share in the book market. These rivals aggressively discount books and Ottakar’s says it can’t compete. This relights the takeover discussions that have been going on the last 6 months.

Fantasy Minute for December 15, 2005: Episode 111

Philip Pullman, author of The Scarecrow and His Servant, has been edged out in the race for the Nestle prize. Instead, an author with severe dyslexia, who did not learn to read until she was 14, has beaten Philip Pullman to this year's Nestle children's book prize. Sally Gardner's fantasy adventure, I, Coriander, was chosen by a panel of schoolchildren as the best book in the nine-to-11 years category. Pullman received the silver medal.

Japan's Studio Ghibli, announced that it will adapt Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea fantasy novel series in an animated movie called Gedo Senki (Tales From Earthsea) and will be released in July 2006.

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Fantasy Minute for December 14, 2005: Episode 110

Prince Caspian, the second story in the Chronicles of Narnia, has been greenlit for a December 2007 theatrical release. Disney was hoping for a $60 million opening weekend for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and since the film’s opening exceeded their expectation they are moving forward.

Graham Joyce has completed Do The Creepy Thing to his publisher and it should be out summer 2006. He has also begun an as yet untitled novel.

Michael Chabon, Tim Pratt A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, San Francisco CA, 7 p.m.

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Fantasy Minute for December 13, 2005: Episode 109

Dragonmount is running a special feature entitled “The 13 Days of Christmas.” This year, Dabel Brother productions, the company responsible for producing the New Spring graphic novel, is releasing color images of all 13 of the original Forsaken. The images are sized to fit common desktop sizes. One will be released each day until Christmas.

Retail group Whitbread is to stop sponsoring its annual book awards because it no longer considers the association to be commercially viable. The Whitbread Award offers a prize of 25000 pounds to the winner of each of 5 categories. They are actively seeking a different sponsor for the award.

David Marusek (Counting Heads) Waldenbooks, Fairbanks AK, 1-3 p.m.

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Fantasy Minute for December 10, 2005: Episode 107

Greg Benford and Darrel Schweitzer have written interesting pieces on the state of science fiction and why they believe fantasy has risen in popularity. The essays talk about what science fiction is doing wrong and offers possible solutions.

There is a transcript as well as the link to an MP3 of author J.K. Rowling’s BBC interview with Stephen Fry. This interview aired yesterday on the BBC 4.

Noted fantasy writer and longtime Portland, OR resident Robert Sheckley died Friday, Dec. 9, 2005, in a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., hospital, 28 days after he was stricken with a brain aneurysm. In recent days, he went into a coma from which he never awakened. He was 77. Among his works were such collections as "Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?" "Citizen in Space" and "Is That What People Do?" He wrote dozens of novels, including "The Game of X," "Dimension of Miracles" and "Mindswap," which he said he thought was one of his best works. His book "Immortality Inc." was adapted for a film called "Freejack”. He will be missed.

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Fantasy Minute for December 9, 2005: Episode 106

After a long delay, Greg Keyes has finally finished The Blood Knight, Book Three of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. Excerpts will be forthcoming on his website and the book should be out in April 2006.

Martha Wells has added a sample chapter for Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary on her website which will be released in February 2006.

Today is the official release date for the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. This weekend, the Fantasy Times Podcast will have a review of the movie along with the Narnia Special Podcast. Keep your eyes and ears on your aggregator for this podcast.

Link to today’s show

Fantasy Minute for December 8, 2005: Episode 105

The Official Podcast for The Chronicles of Narnia is now available on iTunes. To download the 11-minute podcast which is available only to iTunes users, read the show notes. The podcast includes interviews with the actors and audio clips from the film. Beware of spoilers! Click here There are several news updates about Narnia on NarniaWeb.com.

Maybe it's just the impossibly cozy nature of the 'hood, but for 80 years there has been no change in the resident line-up of the Hundred Acre Wood. As part of a barrel-full of Winnie the Pooh anniversary events, Disney is working on a new animated series that will replace Christopher Robin with a 6-year-old girl.

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Fantasy Minute for December 7, 2005: Episode 104

A portion of the transcript from this weekend’s BBC interview with J.K. Rowling has been posted. Ms. Rowling speaks about book six and how closely it relates with book seven and about her writing after the Harry Potter series is concluded.

The finalists for the 2005 Story Prize have been announced. They are:

The Summer He Didn’t Die by Jim Harrison (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Mothers & Other Monsters by Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)
The Hill Road by Patrick O'Keeffe (Viking)

The Story Prize is an annual book award honoring the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up will receive $5,000.

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Fantasy Minute for December 6, 2005: Episode 103

Preview artwork has been posted of the May 2006 adaptation of best selling fantasy author Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Saga. The comic book series starts with the adaptation of the first novel in the series, Magician: Apprentice, by writers Michael Avon Oeming and Bryan J. L. Glass, and artists Brett Booth and Jess Ruffner-Booth.

Actor Jim Dale, the voice of Harry Potter on US audio books, suggests Harry Potter will die at the end of the series. Mr. Dale met with author J.K. Rowling to discuss characterization of the parts, emerging from the meeting stating "She's lived with Harry Potter so long she really wants to kill him off."

Terry McGarry (Triad) and Kris Saknussemm (Zanesville) South Street Seaport Museum, New York City NY, 7 p.m.

Link to today’s show

Fantasy Minute for December 6, 2005: Episode 103

Preview artwork has been posted of the May 2006 adaptation of best selling fantasy author Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Saga. The comic book series starts with the adaptation of the first novel in the series, Magician: Apprentice, by writers Michael Avon Oeming and Bryan J. L. Glass, and artists Brett Booth and Jess Ruffner-Booth.

Actor Jim Dale, the voice of Harry Potter on US audio books, suggests Harry Potter will die at the end of the series. Mr. Dale met with author J.K. Rowling to discuss characterization of the parts, emerging from the meeting stating "She's lived with Harry Potter so long she really wants to kill him off."

Terry McGarry (Triad) and Kris Saknussemm (Zanesville) South Street Seaport Museum, New York City NY, 7 p.m.

Link to today’s show

Fantasy Minute for December 5, 2005: Episode 102

Nalo Hopkinson is in need of a new computer. Therefore, she is having a book sale. Head on over to her website and order something. Finally, anyone who spends more than $200 Cdn exclusive of shipping costs can be Tuckerized; she will name a character or thing after you.

This Friday, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe opens in theaters everywhere. This week, the Fantasy Times Podcast will have a Narnia special with some biographies, history, stories about the author, movie stuff, and an in depth look at the debate over the possible Christian allegory that some see/or don’t see/ in the novels.

Link to today’s show

Fantasy Minute for December 4, 2005: Episode 101

Scott Nicholson discusses the inevitable bubble burst of the collectable book market and the demise of investment buying. This only serves as good news for those of us who collect the books for the words and not the value.

There has been a debate raging for the last week or so about the distinction between Science Fiction and Fantasy. Some of the discussion has been typically pointed and opinions very greatly. A couple of places to keep up with the debate are Jay Tomio’s The Bodhisattva and Elizabeth Bear’s They Must Need Bears.

Marc Goodrich, Gris Grimly, Dave Pressler, Robb Ruppel, William Stout, Joe Vauz, Oleg Zatler Dark Delicacies, Burbank CA, US, 2 p.m

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Fantasy Minute for December 3, 2005: Episode 100

J.K. Rowling reveals that she is going to write further children's books under a pseudonym. During the upcoming interview with BBC Radio, she stated she is still looking for a suitable pseudonym and the books will be aimed at a younger audience than the Harry Potter series.

Stephen King and Marvel have decided to push back the launch of the Dark Tower comic books to 2007. The 1st issue of the yet-to-be-named first arc of the Dark Tower comic series will be shipping in February 2007. The last issue of this six-issue series will be shipping in July 2007. The first hardcover collection will be shipping in October 2007.

Vince Churchill & Eric Shapiro (The Undead) Dark Delicacies, Burbank CA, 2 p.m.
John Frankow (The Splintered Damned) Dark Delicacies, Burbank CA, 2 p.m.
Ray Morton (King Kong: The History of a Movie from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson) Dark Delicacies, Burbank CA, 2 p.m.
Michael Slade (Swastika) Dark Delicacies, Burbank CA, 2 p.m.
Brandon Sanderson (Elantris) signs at Media Play, Midvale UT, 3-5 p.m.
Diana Gabaldon (A Breath of Snow and Ashes) Mesquite Library, Phoenix, AZ, 3 pm

Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys) Dreamhaven Books, Minneapolis, MN, 3 PM

Fantasy Minute for December 2, 2005: Episode 99

Mark Kelly has expounded on his thread regarding the Hugo “Fantasy” Awards. Lots of great links over there, but this is of interest:

In 2005, there were two fantasy and three SF nominees; fantasy won. [For purposes of this survey I'm counting China Miéville's books as fantasy.]

In 2004, there was one fantasy and four SF nominees; fantasy won.

In 2003, there was one fantasy (China) and four SF nominees; SF won.

In 2002, there were three fantasy and three SF nominees; fantasy won.

In 2001, there were two fantasy and three SF nominees; fantasy won.

Lone Star Stories #12 is now online with new fiction and poetry.

With the demise of SciFiction at the SciFi channel, this interesting story outlines SciFi Channel’s 10 million dollar ad campaign for “The Triangle”. I wonder what Ellen Datlow’s salary was?

David Marusek (Counting Heads) Third Place Books, Lake Forest WA, 6:30 p.m.

Link to today’s show

Fantasy Minute for December 1, 2005: Episode 98

The BBC told SCI FI Wire that it will release the complete first season of the new British SF TV series Doctor Who on DVD in the United States on Feb. 14, 2006, offering Americans their first official look at the hit U.K. show.

In a story that ran in January, SCI FI Wire quoted SF author Karen Traviss, whose book City of Pearl was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, as saying that she's amazed she can't get published in her native England. Traviss never said that she was amazed that she couldn't get published in England. SCI FI Wire regrets the error. The author of the piece had admitted that they made up some of the article to create more controversy. Yes that was in January and it’s now November.

On Sara Douglass’ site, you can see the working map for DarkGlass Mountain - showing the lands of Tencendor, Escator, Ashdod, Viland and Coroleas all shown in relation to the world on which they exist.

Link to today’s show