Monthly Archives: February 2023

Reading

Rediscovered Terry Pratchett stories to be published

Rediscovered Terry Pratchett stories to be published

A collection of newly rediscovered short stories by Terry Pratchett, originally written under a pseudonym, are to be published later this year.

Mon 27 Feb 2023 14.52 GMT

The 20 tales in A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories were written by Pratchett in the 1970s and 1980s for a regional newspaper, mostly under the pseudonym Patrick Kearns. They have never been previously attributed to Pratchett, who died in 2015 aged 66, eight years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The collection was bought by Pratchett’s longtime publisher Transworld for a six-figure sum, and will be published on 5 October.

The discovery of the stories is down to a group of Pratchett’s fans. One of the longer stories in the collection, The Quest for the Keys, had been framed on Pratchett fan Chris Lawrence’s wall for more than 40 years. When he alerted the Pratchett estate to its existence, the rest of the stories were unearthed by fans Pat and Jan Harkin, who went through decades’ worth of old newspapers to rediscover the lost treasures.

READ MORE FROM THE GUARDIAN

Fanzines

New zines at e-fanzines

With the FAAn Awards coming up, it’s a good idea to browse a few recent zines. Bill Burns keeps an archive on e-fanznes. These are the latest additions.

New today at https://efanzines.com:

Nic Farey’s This Here…#62

Guy Lillian’s The Zine Dump #57

Andy Hooper’s CAPTAIN FLASHBACK #51

Guy H. Lillian III’s Spartacus #63

John Thiel’s Meteor #4

Octothorpe #77, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line

—
Bill

Astronomy News

Possible Aurora on the 27th

Space Weather News for Feb. 25, 2023
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

“CHAIN REACTION” EXPLOSION: Yesterday, a magnetic filament on the sun erupted, setting off a chain reaction that included a solar flare, two types of radio blackout, and a potentially Earth-directed CME. Minor to moderate geomagnetic storms are possible on Feb. 27th. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

 
[] 
Above: A magnetic filaments lifts off on Feb. 24th, the first step in a chain reaction of space weather events.

Awards, Fanzines

Zine and FAAn Award news

From Nic Farey, This Here 62

TH 62

The Faniverse in general, and I believe the fanzine bit of it in
particular, does have a common spirit which is shared at
some level, as much as individual expressions of it may
differ wildly. The spirit of the FAAns smells like, what, inky
fingers? Weed? Strong Drink ((c) L Huntzinger)? Snark?
Desperation? Perhaps all of the above, yet I contend that it
behooves the disparate members to have at it and participate
in what’s still fanzine fandom’s only dedicated awards…
GET YER BALLOTS IN! DEADLINE MARCH 10 (TWO
WEEKS!!)

Events and Conventions

le shawicon: Un hommage à la culture populaire !

This weekend, February 25-26, in Shawinigan, Québec https://shawicon.ca/

Le Shawicon est un événement se voulant un hommage à la culture populaire québécoise mais également internationale. Durant 2 jours, les visiteurs auront l’opportunité de rencontrer des personnalités célèbres, de prendre des photos avec eux, d’obtenir des autographes ainsi que d’assister à des conférences.

Également sur place, plus d’une quarantaine de commerçants de divers horizons présenteront de la marchandise originale et exclusive. Le ShawiCon est l’occasion unique pour les gens de tous les âges de rencontrer les artisans de leur film, série et livre préféré.

De plus : réalité virtuelle, tournoi de jeux vidéo, retro gaming, tournoi de cartes et plus encore.

Tributes

Manga creator, Leiji Matsumoto,dies aged 85

2 Comments

Leiji Matsumoto, legendary manga creator, dies aged 85

Leiji Matsumoto
Image source, AFP
By Imogen James
BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64703518

Famed Japanese manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto, whose real name was Akira Matsumoto, has died aged 85, his studio has announced.

In a statement, Studio Leijisha said he died of acute heart failure on 13 February.

Matsumoto was known for his epic science fiction sagas, including Galaxy Express 999, Queen Emeraldas and Space Battleship Yamato.

His work often included anti-war themes and emotional storylines.

Matsumoto’s daughter, Makiko Matsumoto, who heads Studio Leijisha said in the statement that he “set out on a journey to the sea of stars. I think he lived a happy life, thinking about continuing to draw stories as a manga artist.”

Born in 1938 in the south-western city of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Matsumoto was only 15 when his debut work, Mitsubachi no Boken (Honey Bee’s Adventures), was published in a manga magazine.

After finishing high school, he moved to Tokyo to pursue his dream of becoming a professional artist.

He married Miyako Maki in 1961, a well-known manga creator and one of Japan’s earliest female artists in the genre. Together they collaborated on several projects, and he changed his name to Leiji Matsumoto.

His big break came a decade later after he published Otoko Oidon, a series about the life of a poor, young man preparing for university exams. It was hugely successful and won the Kodansha Publishing Award for Children’s Manga.

Several of his manga comics were made into anime television series, including the sci-fi epic Space Pirate Captain Harlock, which follows the adventures of an outcast turned space pirate.

MonSFFA Website

A zine about zines to share!

From Guy Lillian, The zine dump in which he reviews just about every zine in existence!

The Zine Dump is a zine about zines, by for and about amateur magazines in the science fiction field. We want to see every generally distributed publication devoted to SF and its fandom published in English. Most of the listed productions are available at eFanzines.com or through the editors. Please report all errors to me ASAP. Italicized zines are absent this time. Range: Autumn 2022 through February 2023. Next issue: this summer.)

TZD57

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

February 2023 CSFFA Newsletter

February 2023 CSFFA Newsletter

We at CSFFA hope you have lots of great speculative fiction keeping you company during these winter months. Our February newsletter provides some updates on where we’re at in the annual Aurora Awards cycle, and a nice bit of news on one of the recent Best Novel winners.

In this newsletter:

  • Aurora Awards Eligibility Lists Close Soon
  • Mexican Gothic featured in CBC’s 2023 Canada Reads contest

Aurora Awards Eligibility Lists Close Soon

This year’s eligibility lists of works that are eligible in the ten Aurora Award categories will close on February 25th at 11:59 EST (or 8:59 PST in BC). CSFFA members will only be able to nominate works that have been approved on these lists.

We are looking for CSFFA members to help us add works that were first published/done by Canadians in 2022. Works in our eligibility lists will be validated by a team of CSFFA volunteers. If there are issues with any of the approved items, please let us know right away.

Note:  We are no longer giving out an award for movies or TV shows. Works that were in the Best Fan Organizational category are now in the Best Fan Related Work category. Due to a lack of eligible works in past years it was decided to make these changes. Also, we have redefined the Best Artist category so that it is the Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration category. Rather than nominate an artist, members now nominate each work that an artist has had published in the past year.

Nominations for this year’s awards will begin on Saturday, March 4th.

Membership registration note: Please do not wait until the last few days before a deadline to either signup or renew your CSFFA membership. Once you’ve paid your account should automatically be updated.  If not, do NOT pay a second time. Email us via our contact page to check that your payment did go through.  If you send us your receipt

Mexican Gothic featured in
CBC’s 2023 Canada Reads contest

Congratulations to Silvia Moreno-Garcia and her 2021 Aurora winning novel Mexican Gothic on being named a finalist in this years CBC’s Canada Reads! What an amazing spotlight on Mexican Gothic, we couldn’t be more proud on seeing this wonderful and moving novel brought back into the hearts and hands of Canadians. It is nice to see the work of Silvia Moreno-Garcia showcased and bringing a spotlight to the amazing speculative fiction written right here.

“It’s great to see horror on the CBC Canada Reads list. It’s often considered a minor genre. I’m glad Mexican Gothic is getting renewed attention and I’m eternally grateful to my champion, TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi, who will be representing the book during the competition.”
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This year’s CBC Canada Reads, which runs March 27 – 30, 2023 with the theme of novels that will shift your perspective, will have five books represented by five Canadian personalities over four days of passionate debate and discussion with one book being named the one book all Canadians should read. But readers are the true winners with the five books on the short list or the books on the long list, which includes Speculative writer Guy Gavriel Kay, as great recommendations when choosing your next read.

We wish Mexican Gothic and Silvia the best during Canada Reads and in the future. You can join the fun by tuning into Canada Reads this March.