Loose-leaf Links is a feature where I gather together the interesting bits and pieces on sci-fi, fantasy and romance I’ve come across and share them with you over tea. Today’s tea is Cherry Lane from Adore Tea. The tea brews lighter than I expected, but the cherry flavour is strong.
Announcements
My podcasting adventures with Skiffy and Fanty continue. This time I had the great delight of chatting with Brandon O’Brian and Trish Mason about the Nebula short story shortlist.
Awards News
The African Speculative Fiction Society has released the shortlists for the 2018 Nommo Awards.
Community and Conventions
Peggy Bright Books have announced a split with author Simon Petrie. This comes right as PBB was expected to have released Petrie’s sci-fi collection Wide Brown Land and the author has been left searching for an explanation.
Jason Stanford investigates some questionable numbers around the sale of Writers of the Future anthologies. The Writers of the Future contest is run by the Church of Scientology.
Jon Del Arroz has filed a civil suit against WorldCon. File 770 takes a look at the official documents. His lawyer also sounds like an interesting fellow.
The Organisation for Transformative Works (the group behind Archive of Our Own) is having a membership drive to help with their work in preserving fannish history.
On Equity
Emma Newman discusses living with anxiety as her most recent book Before Mars is launched.
KJ Charles takes aim at casual bigotry in historical fiction.
Over at Fantasy Cafe, R. F. Kuang writes about portrayals of ambition in Chinese girls and Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Seanan McGuire discusses how fanfic is devalued because of the way it usually decentres the default: white, straight, cisgender male.
For Writers
Hugo-nominated fanzine Nerds of a Feather are looking for new contributors.
Queen of Swords Press is taking submissions for their book Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space): A Pirate Anthology. Word count max 7.5K, deadline 15 May.
Fireside Magazine are open for submissions on 23-27 April. Word count max 4K.
Don’t forget to check out April’s Writers Report from the Science Fiction Writers of America for more markets.
Melissa Caruso expands on her popular thread of tweets on fighting in ballgowns as part of Fantasy Cafe’s Women of SFF Month.
Marie Brennan discusses collaboration, with particular reference to her consultation work for the gaming franchise Legend of the Five Rings.
Luna Press Publishing has announced they’ll be publishing Gareth Powell’s About Writing: A field guide for aspiring authors in 2019.
For Readers
Exciting news! Orbit Books have announced a forthcoming fantasy novel from Ann Leckie. Titled The Raven Tower, it’s due out next February.
Fans of Jacqueline Carey’s book Kushiel’s Dart may be delighted to know she has a companion book in the works. Cassiel’s Servant tells the story from the perspective of Phedre’s bodyguard, Joscelin.
Laura Sackton muses on what all her five-star reads have in common.
Many glorious links, as always! I’m very interested in the Ann Leckie book — I’ve been a little intimidated by her SF series, but I feel more at home with fantasy.
I’ll be interested to see if she changes her writing style at all, since the one she uses for her SF doesn’t feel like it would be a good fit for fantasy.