An SF (& bit of F) assortment

Few ideas are as well-represented in SF as space travel. More and more, as we learn how inhospitable Earth's solar-system neighbors are, space-centric storytelling turns to interstellar settings. So: an award specific to interstellar travel seems like it would be a Good Idea. Now, thanks to 100 Year Starship, there is such an award.

"The 100YSS Canopus Award for Interstellar Fiction will be given for the best work of science fiction published between 2011 to 2014 that focuses on the challenges and benefits of interstellar exploration. The award will be given in multiple categories ranging from length, short story to novel, to media, video games to television to film. As well, the inaugural award will be presented in late Spring 2015." Read more about the Canopus Award here.

Many people look to SF for previews of the future. Are you one of them? Are you of the opposite persuasion ("where the $%^#!! is my flying car?"), that prognosticators have failed dismally? Or do you find the whole concept of prediction so much hooey? Wherever you come down on the topic, you'll want to see what bunches o' SF authors (Your Humble Blogger at the top of the article) recently had to say in "MIND MELD: SF Stories That Predicted the Future — Or Didn’t."

Do you write SF? Ever considered it? Either way, you'll want to take a check out "The Strangely Competitive World of Sci-Fi Writing Workshops."

One of the most prestigious magazines in the genre is F&SF, aka The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Since its inception in 1949, the zine has had but eight editors -- and as of the upcoming March/April issue, it will officially have its ninth: C. C. (Charles Coleman) Finlay. See "Finlay Named Editor of F&SF." Congrats, Charlie!

This blog focuses on the SF rather than the F side of the genre, but that doesn't preclude my occasional excursion to the fantasy side. I certainly enjoy some of classics, like LoTR. Which made this (Wumo, January 6, 2015) a hoot:

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