Skip to main content

5 Fantastic Finds: Spanish Sci Fi Authors, Le Guin, L’Engle and More

It’s been a very busy week for me with both my writing and day job. I also attended UC Davis’s annual Pic Nic Day on this beautiful sunny, Saturday afternoon. It went by really well until we couldn’t get out of the Arboretum forest of no return without being harped on.

A cousin and I were watching the Battle of the Bands there on the way out when two attendants gave us this bull that we were standing in one of the band’s area as if we were committing sacrilege or something, stepping on holy ground! They did not have clear demarcation of where that area was. But the really irritating thing was that right before they told us to get off the “designated” area, we had moved away from the path to let the band march through.

Well, I’m not the one to take things lying down so I went to one of the info booths to write in a complaint. Sometimes just writing about what angers you helps alleviate the mood you’re in even if you don’t get much of an answer back from the person you’re writing to. But still, it delayed me and so I haven’t even resumed work on one of my short stories that I’m already behind on. Let alone I haven’t had time to write a full article for this week’s post. So I thought I would share some discoveries from the ‘net with you that I found to be . . .


A ground satellite pointing up into the sky at an angle.
Credit: OpenClipart.org


Far Out Fantastic Finds


“10 Ways To Create A Near-Future World That Won’t Look Too Dated”, io9.com

“Writing about the world to come is a scary proposition, because nothing becomes obsolete faster than futuristic visions. . . .So here are 10 tips to keep your near-future setting from looking too dated.”

“Spanish Science Fiction: A Round Table Discussion with Spain’s Top Contemporary Voices”, Clarkesworld 

“When I recently heard that Mariano Villareal, editor of the Terra Nova anthology series, was going to be working on Castles in Spain / Castillos en el Aire, a new Spanish-English bilingual anthology of Spanish science fiction, fantasy, and horror, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to speak with him and ask if he could help set up a roundtable with some of the anthology’s contributors.”


“There’s A Brand New Section of A Wrinkle In Time That You Can Read”, io9.com

“A newly-unearthed section of A Wrinkle In Time has been released by Madeline L’Engle’s granddaughter — and it has some strong words about the dangers faced by democracies . . . .”


“Ursula Le Guin at 85”, BBC Radio 4

“Naomi Alderman talks to leading novelist Ursula Le Guin about her life and work and hears from literary fans including . . . Neil Gaiman.”


“Ursula Le Guin talks Sci-fi Snobbery, Adaptations, and Troublemaking”, Den of Geek!

“We spoke to seminal US fantasy and sci-fi author Ursula Le Guin about her career, radicalism, literary influence and more…”


That’s it for now. In light of the above link, “10 Ways to Create a Near-Future World . . .”, I’m planning to have an article here next week about outdated sci fi as alternative timelines.

Until next week . . .


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book-To-Movie: Stephen King’s 'The Raft'

Credit: Pixabay.com It's the third Saturday of the month and so that means it's time for another Book-To-Movie ! In a Book-To-Movie we review a book and its movie adaptation. One of the reasons I as a horror fan don’t read a lot of Stephen King’s work is because most of it consists of novels that go more than 400 pages. I have a short attention span when it comes to reading, ironically since I consider myself an avid reader, and so I normally won’t read a work that is much more than the equivalent to a 350-page mass market paperback. The other reason why I don’t read a lot of King’s work is that, as literary scholars will tell you, a lot of his writing is poor. However, he does have some good writing in his works, especially his earlier stuff, including his short horror tales. So if I read anything by Stephen King it’s usually his short stories or novellas. One of his collections I’ve read is Skeleton Crew which includes some of his good, or at least

Book-To-Movie: ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’

Credit: Wikimedia Commons I apologise for posting outside our regular post-day which is late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. However, I got behind on several things last week and so had to postpone the post to today.  I’ve been a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books ever since I was 11. What I’ve always liked so much about the series is that, like a good horror story, the stories often take place in dark settings and involve bizarre cases. Conan Doyle’s novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, definitely contains these elements. It’s a detective story that crosses over into the gothic horror genre. Several movie adaptations of the novel have been made that go as far back as a 1915 German silent film. In 1959 Hammer Studios released a version starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. As much as I’m a fan of the Hammer horror films, I have not seen that one yet. The only one that I’ve seen so far is the 1939 adaptation starring that other big name in classic Bri

Book-To-Movie: Guest Blogger Alex Cavanaugh Reviews 'Relic'

Credit: Tor Books The fourth weekend of the month, when we normally have our Book-To-Movie review has passed us again. However, the review is still on! This month I have a guest blogger for our Book-To-Movie review. The two of us agreed to trade our book-to-movie reviews and present them to you today, this last Monday of the month. In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation.  And my guest blogger and reviewer is Alex Cavanaugh. Alex is the author of the Cassa series  of novels and founder of the Insecure Writers' Support Group ! Here at the Fantastic Site, he’s reviewing a best-selling novel of detective horror, "Relic", and its movie adaptation. In turn, at his site, I have the pleasure of reviewing "The Black Phone" short story by Joe Hill and its movie adaptation. So, after you're finished reading Alex’s awesome review, please leave a comment for him in the box below and then head on over to his website to check out my