SF news: the good, the cautionary, and the sad

First up, the Museum of Science Fiction posted their 4Q15 report. One highlight: MoSF's interim/mobile museum will open in Fall 2016 in Rosslyn, VA. (For the non-Washingtonians among you, that's just across the Potomac River from DC.)

Like your SF on the big screen? Then check out "8 Original Sci-Fi Films to Look Forward to in 2016." ("Original" may be code for "obscure," but that's okay. Among last year's indie films, I quite enjoyed Ex Machina and Predestination.)

Looking for a good book? Check out "50 Essential Science Fiction Books." One can pick nits with any such list, but Richard Davies is to be commended for this conscientious and well-informed overview of the breadth and history of SF. (FWIW, I've read a majority of the recommended novels; in only a very few instances do I question a particular item making the list.) Davies limited himself to one title per author, and so he also is recommending to you fifty great genre authors.

If written short fiction is your thing, don't miss the "Tangent Online 2015 Recommended Reading List." With 416 recommendations (my novelette "A Case of Identity" among them), selected from many different zines and anthos, you'll surely find many stories to like.

Popular genre website SF Signal asks: "Did You Know SF Signal Has Dozens of People and Hundreds of Posts Eligible for the Hugo Award?" (One of those posts is mine, as well, not that I'm expecting a Hugo for it.)

Tor's "Stubby the Rocket" mascot

For the writers among you ... you won't want to miss Writer Beware's "Best of Writer Beware: 2015 in Review."

For the writers among with stories ready for submission, as of a couple weeks ago "Tor.com Will Be Closed to Unsolicited Short Fiction Submissions."

One still flying wouuld be better ...

The image at left is too cool not to include, so here's the (final) mating of a space shuttle with its mother ship. For details, see Mission Accomplished! 747-Space Shuttle Exhibit Launches in Houston."

The most colorful guy at every con

No roundup of genre news at this time would be complete without taking note of the passing, too young, of longtime SF editor David G. Hartwell. For the past three decades or so, he was at Tor Books, and that publisher posted this remembrance: Tor Books Senior Editor David G. Hartwell, 1941-2016.

And over at SF Site, mega-fan Steve Silver posts the latest version of his annual column: "In Memoriam: 2015."