# News From the Next World



## AE35Unit (Apr 1, 2009)

Just in from Ansible,thought I'd share it here 
*
MARK CHADBOURN was first to leak the unexpected news that 'The Solaris
SF/F imprint has been put up for sale by its owner, Games Workshop.' This
year's Solaris titles should all appear as scheduled, though, 'as will
every book announced up to early 2010.' (2 March) 'Ah, schadenwossname
.... so hard to spell,' added the sacked founding editor Marc Gascoigne.
Simon & Schuster UK, who distribute GW's Solaris and Black Library
imprints, have reportedly considered acquiring Solaris.


HARLAN ELLISON ('Doctor, I have this terrible sense of deja vu.') is
suing CBS-Paramount over non-payment for exploitation of his *Star Trek
episode 'City on the Edge of Forever'*. Also named in the suit, for
persistent failure to act on his behalf, is the *Writers Guild of America*
with a token claim of one dollar. (Deadline Hollywood Daily, 16 March)


WARREN LAPINE's Tir Na Nog Press has bought Realms of Fantasy magazine
(cancelled by Sovereign Media): monthly publication should continue
seamlessly with the May issue. Editors: 'Shawna McCarthy and Doug Cohen
have agreed to stay on in their current capacities.'

DAVE MCKEAN's UK 'fantasy' postage stamps come out on 16 June.

STEPHENIE MEYER has a sincere flatterer: 'Lady Sybilla' blithely
announced a sequel to Meyer's megaselling Twilight, using Meyer's
characters and titled Russet Noon. The publisher, AV Paranormal
(seemingly a front for the author), has an interesting view of IP law:
'Copyright laws protect writers from unauthorized reproductions of their
work, but such reproductions only include verbatim copying. Characters
are only copyrightable if their creator draws them or hires an artist to
draw them.' [DKMK] A vast Monty Python foot is poised to crash down.

TERRY PRATCHETT was named Campaigner of the Year in The Oldie
magazine's regular 'Oldie of the Year' awards on 24 February.

CHRISTOPHER PRIEST was announced as winner of the European SF Society
Grand Master award at Eurocon in Italy. [MAH] Ansible: 'May we start
calling you Emeritus?' Chris: 'A mere "Grand" will do.'


MICHAEL SWANWICK gazed at contemporary art: 'I recently went to the Tate
Modern where there's a major installation by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
titled TH.2058, based on SF disaster novels and movies. The enormous
Turbine Hall has been re-imagined as a shelter from an endless rain and
filled with bunk beds and oversized copies of famous sculptures. (The
rain has made them grow, see, so they've been taken indoors before they
get so large as to be a problem.) Trade paperbacks of a rather good
selection of classic and contemporary science fiction novels are
scattered about on the bunks as something for the refugees to read. One
of them, I noticed was *.M.P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud* with an intro by
John Clute. So at the BSFA meeting a day later I was able to inform Clute
that his work was on display in the Tate.'*

More at 
Ansible 261, April 2009


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## Boneman (Apr 2, 2009)

And all posted on April Fool's day.........!


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## AE35Unit (Apr 2, 2009)

Boneman said:


> And all posted on April Fool's day.........!



To be honest I never even noticed that and actually thought it was still the 31st of March when i posted that! I don't really bother with april fool's day


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## AE35Unit (May 1, 2009)

May's Ansible news
*### A SWARM IN MAY ###

ERIK ARTHUR of London's Fantasy Centre bookshop broke the bad news: 'Be
the first to know that Ted [Ball] and Erik have decided that once our
lease expires in June, we shall not renew it and Fantasy Centre will
close down after nearly forty years of trading.' (2 April)

MARGARET ATWOOD returns to a strangely familiar position while chatting
to the _New York Times_: 'Her nightmarish, futuristic scenarios have
caused some of her books to be tagged as science fiction, though she
thinks that genre doesn't quite fit -- "since there aren't aliens and
spaceships and the other usual things," she said.' [MF] Tut, Ms Atwood,
you forgot to mention the talking squid in outer space.

J.G. BALLARD coverage (see R.I.P. below, alas) has been rightly
extensive. On 25 April _The Guardian_ published his last short story 'The
Dying Fall' as though it were hot news straight from the deathbed,
without bothering to cite its appearance in the April 1996 _Interzone_.
A _Guardian_ correction, with _Interzone_ credit, appeared on 1 May. [DP]

TERRY BISSON notes how the world sees sf. 'News opinionator Keith
Olberman on the US torture memos: "Today, Mr. President, in acknowledging
these science-fiction-like documents, you said that ..." etc.'

TESSA B. DICK, Philip K. Dick's widow, is suing the estate's production
company Electric Shepherd and various others (including the literary
agency and Dick's daughter Laura Leslie), alleging she has been evilly
deprived of proceeds from _Ubik_ and _A Scanner Darkly_. [cj]

L. RON HUBBARD fans who recall bitter disputes and lawsuits over the
carefully documented biographical revelations in Russell Miller's _Bare-
Faced Messiah_ will be surprised to learn that 'the basic outline of L.
Ron Hubbard's life is not contested.' All negativity -- including many
a judicial condemnation -- has seemingly been excluded from _Scientology_
ed. James R. Lewis, published by the Oxford! University! Press!

TERRY PRATCHETT unveiled street signs on a new housing estate in
Wincanton, Somerset, which by popular local vote had been named for
streets in his Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork: Treacle Mine Road and
Peach Pie Street. 'Personally I'd pay good money to live somewhere called
Treacle Mine Road.' (_Telegraph_ and _Metro_, 5 and 6 April) [JB]

BRIAN STABLEFORD, despite a crippling attack of the third person, feels
quietly smug: 'Thanks to sudden clearance of the revived Borgo Press's
backlog, Brian Stableford published eight books in the month of March
(plus one in January, one in February and one in April), which is
probably not a record but must be a trifle unusual. The eleven titles
published so far this year include three novels, three short story
collections, one non-fiction book, three essay collections and an
anthology of translations from the French. He has only delivered one
volume so far this year but will deliver another five before the end of
April, in the hope of maintaining the flow while he is still able to
work.'

BRYAN TALBOT outed himself as an artistic cross-dresser -- confessing
that the 'new' 'French' artist Veronique Tanaka, creator of last year's
stylistically weird comic _Metronome_, is in fact Bryan Talbot. [JG]


### CONFERT ###

Until 4 May [] SCI-FI LONDON (film), Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, 19 Regent
St, London, SW1Y 4LY. Box office 020 7451 9944.

18-21 May [] SF & FANTASY WRITING (writers' course), Kingston University
London, Penrhyn Road Campus, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 2EE. 6pm-
9pm. With Paul McAuley. Pounds180; students Pounds120. Contact 020 8417
7790 or fassshortcourse-info at kingston ac uk.

23-25 May [] PLOKTA.CON 4.0, Sunningdale Park, Berks. Pounds30 reg (also
at the door), under-17s Pounds15, under-12s free. Rooms Pounds80/night
twin/double, Pounds60 single. Cheques to _Plokta_ c/o 13 Collette Court,
Eleanor Close, London, SE16 6PW; PayPal to mike at plokta dot com.

27 May [] BSFA OPEN MEETING, The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W
8EZ. 5/6pm onward. With Jaine Fenn.

31 Jul - 2 Aug [] CONSTITUTION (sf/f/RPG and Unicon) hosting HARMUNI 4
(filk), Murray Edwards College (formerly known as New Hall), Cambridge.
_Now Pounds25 reg_, rising to Pounds30 on 1 July. Contact 207 Campkin Rd,
Cambridge, CB4 2LE.

11-13 Sep [] THE ASYLUM (steampunk), Lincoln. _Now Pounds35 reg_. Online
booking (Pounds1 surcharge): steampunk.synthasite.com.
*
More at Ansible 262, May 2009


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## AE35Unit (May 4, 2009)

I think I might have posted this in the wrong place. There's some news that may be of interest to many people on here but it looks like noone visits the SFF News part of the Chrons!


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