Science Fiction News

[Tom]

Campbell Conference Offers Teachers a Lesson on Science Fiction
[SIZE=-1]Kansas City infoZine, MO - 1 hour ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Why science fiction should be taught, how to teach it, how to get a course approved and what resources are available to teachers and librarians.
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Teachers and librarians may register for the conference online at the KU Continuing Education Web site. The registration fee of $40 includes lunch, handouts, DVDs and a tour of Spencer Research Library's science fiction collections. They also have a choice of registering for the Science Fiction Research Association meeting.

Ray Bradbury will talk about 'Chronicling Mars' at UCR science ...
[SIZE=-1]Press-Enterprise, CA - May 5, 2008[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By PAT O'BRIEN Ray Bradbury will share his vision of the future at "Chronicling Mars," the 2008 Eaton Science Fiction Conference at UC Riverside May 16-18 ...
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Bradbury will receive the first Eaton Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction. In 2007, he was given a special award by the Pulitzer Prize. He also was the recipient of a 2004 National Medal of Arts and the National Book Foundation's 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

His latest book, "We'll Always Have Paris," a collection of fantasy, science fiction and real-life stories, will be published later this year.
Bradbury's talk is a free event and seating is limited. It will be first-come, even if you've paid for the conference. National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia will introduce him.

Science Fiction Podcast StarShipSofa Changes Name; Requests ...
[SIZE=-1]PR-USA.net (press release), Bulgaria - May 5, 2008[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]North East, UK (PRWEB) May 5, 2008 -- StarshipSofa Podcast has changed its name to StarShipSofa: Science Fiction Audio Magazine.
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StarShipSofa: Science Fiction Audio Magazine is a bi-weekly podcast that asks listeners to voyage into the deepest realms of the classic Sci-fi and science fiction world. The "Aural Delights" programme has recently featured stories by Kage Baker, Spider Robinson, Gywneth Jones, and Joe Halderman. You can subscribe from the Itunes Music Store or at http://www.starshipsofa.com/rss/. Upcoming projects include a video on Michael Moorcock. http://www.StarShipSofa.com

NBC Universal to relaunch UK Sci-Fi portal
[SIZE=-1]New Media Age, UK - 2 hours ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]NBC Universal has revealed plans to relaunch Scifi.co.uk, its UK-based science fiction portal. The new site - which will go live on Wednesday - is the first ...
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NBC Universal has revealed plans to relaunch Scifi.co.uk, its UK-based science fiction portal.
The new site - which will go live on Wednesday - is the first of NBC Universal's science fiction portals around the world to be launched on a new content management system.
The relaunch sits under the company's newly formed Global Networks & Digital Initiatives group and will be followed by a host of revamped sites around the world.

NBC also announced that the new site would allow for pre-role advertising for the first time.
Kevin Obi, SVP new digital media business, NBC Universal, said, "Our vision is to establish the Sci-Fi site as the number one destination in the UK for sci-fi, fantasy and gaming.
"We will then expand in to priority countries across the world, enabling us to own the genre and tap into this deeply passionate and valuable international community.

 

[Tim]

I didn't realise the site was down! (scifi.co.uk) First thing I see when I get there is the London scifi exhibition just ended, lol!

 

[Tom]

Out of this world robot exhibit at Science Fiction Museum
[SIZE=-1]HeraldNet - 12 hours ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]"Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels," opened a week ago at the Science Fiction Museum of Experience Music Project in Seattle.
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Toys from the 1950s onward -- and some famous characters from 'Terminator,' 'I, Robot' and 'Star Wars' -- are on display at the Seattle museum.

A new exhibit revels in our fascination with the fictional machines. "Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels," opened a week ago at the Science Fiction Museum of Experience Music Project in Seattle. It will be on display through Oct. 26.

The exhibit can be divided into two sections. The first is housed in about an 500-square-foot room with blown-up details of toy robots on the walls. A case in the center of the room holds 135 tiny toys, set on four shelves. They represent almost the entire collection of robots owned by prominent New York City graphic designer Tom Geismar.

From lit to light sabers
[SIZE=-1]Baltimore Sun - May 22, 2008[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]In its 42nd year, Balticon, taking place this weekend in Hunt Valley, will feature award-winning science-fiction author Connie Willis.

[/SIZE]Eaton Contest Winners Announced
[SIZE=-1]UC Riverside - May 22, 2008[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Graduate students from UCR and UCI win the first short-story contest sponsored by the Eaton Science Fiction Conference. RIVERSIDE, Calif.

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[SIZE=-2]io9[/SIZE]What Chicks Don't Like About Science Fiction · Science Fiction
[SIZE=-1]io9 - May 19, 2008[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]I love when clueless humans tell me to my face that women don't like science fiction. Usually they tell me this at a science fiction convention, after we have talked about scifi for an hour and I have said that I edit a science fiction blog.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Sci-Fi Channel isn't just about sci-fi, says Sci-Fi Channel [SIZE=-1]TV Squad[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]all 2 news articles »

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[SIZE=-2]MinnPost.com[/SIZE]'Star Wars' exhibit comes to Science Museum, but is it science?
[SIZE=-1]MinnPost.com - 5 hours ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]"Star Wars" portrays a lot of the trappings of science, but it's more of a fantasy story than science fiction, let alone real science, said James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota and author of the book "The Physics of ...

[/SIZE]Independent Author Offers Free Science Fiction Audio Books
[SIZE=-1]PR Web (press release) - May 19, 2008[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Mike Luoma offers his Science Fiction novels as free downloadable MP3s. "Vatican Ambassador" just completed at Podiobooks.[/SIZE]

 

[Tom]

Independent Author Offers Free Science Fiction Audio Books

Mike Luoma offers his Science Fiction novels as free downloadable MP3s. "Vatican Ambassador" just completed at Podiobooks.com! More at Glowinthedarkradio.com
Burlington, VT (PRWEB) May 19, 2008 -- Science Fiction author Mike Luoma is offering the audio book editions of his books "Vatican Assassin" and "Vatican Ambassador" as free MP3 downloads through ITunes and the Audio Book site Podiobooks.com. Luoma is a Vermont radio personality and a science fiction and comic book writer. "It seemed natural for me to record the audio book version of my writing," Luoma says. He put his radio skills to work recording himself reading the chapters of his books aloud. Luoma has just completed the second book, "Vatican Ambassador". The final episode is now available.
Why offer free audio books? It's a way for an independent writer to promote his work. "I'm a self-publisher," Luoma explains. "So everything for me is DIY. I released 'Vatican Assassin' at the end of 2005, and the sequel 'Vatican Ambassador' last year. I started a podcast where I was putting out chapters of 'Vatican Assassin' and some other things, the Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast. Then I heard about Podiobooks. I approached them about hosting my books, and they picked them up. I began putting out the chapters of 'Vatican Assassin' last September, and I've just finished recording the final chapter of 'Vatican Ambassador'," Luoma says with some pride. "It's a way for me as a writer to get closer to my readers, along with my website glowinthedarkradio.com, twitter, myspace.com and stuff like that."
"Vatican Assassin" and "Vatican Ambassador" tells the story of an antihero, Bernard Campion, aka "BC", who kills people for the Pope in the year 2109. A war between the Muslim world and the West has spilled beyond borders, beyond even planetary boundaries. The United Trade Zone and The New catholic Church (small "c" intentional) control Earth. The Universal Islamic Nation holds Mars, and those who don't fit either side's plans have ended up on the Moon. BC's story begins as he works to assassinate the head of Lunar Prime, the Moon's independent free state. "BC is a character who can't help but be conflicted," Luoma says. "He's killing people for a church that says you shouldn't kill! Even the ecumenical 'New catholic Church' of the future is pretty clear on that. The interesting thing is what happens to BC as he tries to live past his contradictions and become a better human being."
Listening to Luoma narrate the audio book gives the reader and listener a more intimate experience. "Reading the chapters out loud lets me give the reader, the listener, really, some idea of what I was hearing in my head as I wrote the story," Luoma says. "I like coming up with a different 'voice' for each character. It's the spoken equivalent of what you try to do as a writer when you're creating the story."
Luoma is putting the finishing touches on the third and final book in the trilogy, "Vatican Abdicator". "If all goes according to plan, 'Vatican Abdicator' will be out in June, and the audio book podcast will begin at the same time," Luoma says. Luoma's books are available through Amazon.com, Lulu.com and other online bookstores, and locally in Vermont.
Luoma's free audio books are available through ITunes and from Podiobooks.com, which offers Free serialized audio books. From the Podiobooks.com site: "The term podiobooks was coined by Evo Terra to describe serialized audio books which are made available in podcast format. Listeners to Podiobooks.com can choose to receive the episodes of their books via an RSS feed or by listening to episodes by directly downloading episodes from the site. Some listeners keep the audio files on their computers, some transfer the book to CD, but most transfer the file on to their mp3 player so they can listen no matter where they are."

 

[Tom]

MANGA DAIMOKUROKU INTRODUCES 18 THOUSAND MANGA TITLES AT eBOOK JAPAN
[SIZE=-1]Active Anime (press release) - 4 hours ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]eBookJapan launches an enormous manga catalog online called Manga Daimokuroku, that comes with distinct search features, and hundreds of montly titles updates.

[/SIZE]Microsoft's Live Search burns book digitization project
[SIZE=-1]CNET News.com - 1 hour ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Microsoft's Live Search Team is ending its book search efforts, according to a blog post Friday. Its Live Search Books and Live Search Academic sites will be discontinued next week, and books and academic publishings will show up in regular search ...[/SIZE]

 

[Tim]

Have you seen the SFCrowsnest widget for their SF news on FB? Check my profile and you'll find it down near the bottom right I think.