Day two of Dark Matter’s blog is about to begin. The website was announced sometime between 6 and 7 pm yesterday, so this website is nearly 24 hours old! Woo hoo! As it’s been a Monday with no big scandals in the SFF community that I’ve noticed, no Priestgate or anything happening, I don’t have much to say – what with my day revolving around exciting webby stuff, feedback and writing up an interview.
Thank you so much to the people who’ve made comments, giving me practice in moderating the comments, making sure that’s working. One person had difficulty opening a published zine: it is necessary to use a recent PDF reader to read Dark Matter the zine. Adobe Reader is free, and the link is available on the download page of every issue.
Keep in touch. Please use the comments section here, facebook and twitter to let me know about items or people of interest, issues of concern etcetera, etcetera (in a Yul Brynner voice). I hope you enjoy today’s snippets 🙂
Dark Matter competition: Alloy of Law autographed by Brandon Sanderson I realised somewhat belatedly that yesterday’s blog didn’t mention that Alloy of Law is my review copy that was autographed by Brandon Sanderson when I interviewed him, so I thought I should probably repost the competition today. I will have a page for current competitions soon. I am giving away my review copy of Alloy of Law, autographed by Brandon Sanderson. DMF9 will have full details and Terms & Conditions, but here is a quick’n’dirty guide. To enter, email darkmatterfanzine@gmail.com with ‘Alloy of Law’ in the subject heading. The competition closes on 31 May 2012. In addition to the Privacy Notice and Disclaimer on this website, which both apply to the competition, the other Terms and Conditions are as follows: Winner will be selected via a random number generator. Winner will need to provide a snail mail address for delivery of the books within 7 days of being informed of winning. Email address and snail mail address will only be used for the purpose of this competition. Entrants must reside in Australia with an Australian delivery address. The name of the winner will be published without addresses and emails; the address and email will be held confidential. DMF is running this competition in good faith; no responsibility is taken for mishap or misadventure, but due care is taken. DMF would appreciate a photo of the winner with loot for publication but this is not compulsory. People who wish to subscribe to DMF need to send in a separate email to subscribe www.facebook.com/events/393139090707989/
Shaun Tan is an ambassador for the National Year of Reading 2012. This link has some of his artwork, a bit about Shaun, his thoughts on the National Year of Reading and a short interview.
Dark Matter will feature a feminist ballot, intended to raise awareness of excellent contributions made to the SFF genre by women. Within the next few weeks pages will be added to this website including feminist ballots for the Hugo Awards in 2013 (world-wide SF people’s choice awards; associated with the Lone Star Convention in Austin, Texas in 2013), the Ditmar Awards (Australia’s people’s choice SF awards, associated with the National Convention) and the Chronos Awards (Victoria’s [a state of Australia] SF people’s choice awards, associated with Continuum, which is held in Melbourne).
And if you like the octopus cake, see more cakes by the same talented artist here http://www.flickr.com/photos/9438541@N04/6006263076/in/set-72157600664133756/ and read Karen Portaleo’s blog here http://www.specialsugar.blogspot.com.au/
io9 lists SF tourist destinations in the US http://io9.com/5906060/take-a-science-fiction-road-trip-for-a-weird-and-wonderful-summer?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Playboy interviews Grant Morrision, comic book writer, about the super psyche I read Playboy for the interviews – seriously.http://www.playboy.com/playground/entertainment/culture/the-super-psyche
My Music: a music industry/pop culture spoof with guest star Felicia Day
watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xav-UUWF15c
Steampunk twitter chat, hosted by Jenny Schwartz
Theme: Off to the Antipodes, the following is copied and pasted from Jenny’s Facebook event for your information.
The gorgeous people at the Steampunk Writers and Artists Guild have invited me to host their next #steampunkchat on Twitter. These are weekly one hour chats held on Friday at 9pm (New York time). Everyone includes the hashtag #steampunkchat on their tweets and that keeps the discussion (semi) organised. As host this week, I’ll be the one herding clockwork cats :)[For Australian and New Zealand readers, and you are who I’m trying to lassoo, the time conversion means the chat is on 5 May (Saturday) at 11am Sydney time and 9am Perth time.] I would love (which is code for “I am begging, pleading and grovelling”) for a great turnout of Australian and New Zealand steampunk enthusiasts. I’ll prompt discussion with questions like: What is steampunk in the Antipodes? themes? motifs? issues? What do you think of when you hear “Antipodes”? kangaroos? What got you interested in steampunk? What would you like to see in Antipodean steampunk? As Antipodean steampunkers, where do you find your inspiration? Are the Antipodes more than a dumping ground for troublesome fellows? I know communicating in 140 characters isn’t easy, but you’re steampunkers. You can do it! At the end of the hour, there’ll be five minutes for a self-promo tweet from everyone (please hold off on self-promo till then or as a newbie host, I’ll become fumble fingered with stress). These #steampunkchats are a lot of fun. You can read transcripts of them (go to steampunkchat.com). If you have any questions beforehand, please leave a comment on this post — or tweet me @Jenny_Schwartz. And while I’m thinking about Twitter … I’ve started a public list of Australian and New Zealand steampunkers on Twitter. If you’d like to be on it, just tweet #Ozsteampunk and I’ll add you. A fervent thank you for reading this far — and I hope to see you Saturday! [For everyone who is not an Aussie or Kiwi … do not think that let’s you out! The Antipodes are for everyone and the chat won’t be any fun without you … I’m thinking if things get slow we could have a discussion on Antipodean and steampunk slang ]
Kim Falconer discusses her writerly habits over on Nicole Murphy’s blog. Kim has agreed to be interviewed by Dark Matter: this interview will be coming later this year. Kim doesn’t know it yet but she’s challenged me on my point of view and some comments I think I made in my review of her first book. I won’t say anymore for now because I don’t want someone else to jump in and do my interview first, but I’m really looking forward to talking to Kim and exploring her books with her in greater depth. http://nicolermurphy.com/blog/2012/04/a-writers-habits-kim-falconer/ Follow Kim Falconer on facebook at www.facebook.com/kimfalconerfans
this goes to my bookmark list. fantastic collection of texts. keep up the work.