Locus February 2014 Read online

  –Terry Pratchett

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  PEOPLE AND PUBLISHING

  MILESTONES

  KATE DiCAMILLO has been named the National Ambassador to Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress, and will spend the next two years traveling to promote children’s an YA books.

  Author and editor PETER NICHOLLS, 74, had a Deep Brain Stimulation operation, with fine wires implanted into the sub-thalamic nucleus of his brain and connected to a battery, in order to treat his advancing Parkinson’s Syndrome. ‘‘So now I am a cyborg…. The result is immediate and spectacular. I now speak much more clearly, walk normally, no longer fear falls, look younger (and according to some women, handsomer).’’

  CHRIS GOSSAGE, the lawyer who leaked J.K. ROWLING’s authorship of The Cuckoo’s Calling by ROBERT GALBRAITH, was fined £1,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breaching confidentiality.

  AWARDS

  NEIL GAIMAN’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the Specsavers Book of the Year for 2013, given to the best book published in the UK as chosen by popular vote. Gaiman’s book won by a ‘‘considerable margin.’’

  Geoffrey A. Landis (2012)

  GEOFFREY A. LANDIS won the Robert A. Heinlein Award for 2014, given for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space. Winners are chosen by a committee of SF authors chaired by Michael F. Flynn, and receive a plaque, a sterling silver medallion, and two lapel pins, all featuring the likeness of Robert A. Heinlein. The award will be presented May 23, 2015 during the opening ceremonies of Balticon 48 in Baltimore MD.

  GEORGE SAUNDERS’s Tenth of December is one of three finalists for the tenth annual Story Prize, honoring ‘‘books of short fiction.’’ Saunders was previously nominated for the prize in 2006 and is the first author to be nominated more than once. The winner will be announced in a ceremony on March 5, 2014 in New York.

  KATE ATKINSON’s Life After Life is the winner of the Costa Book Award in the best novel category. She will compete against other category winners for the main Costa, to be announced January 28, 2013.

  BOOKS SOLD

  JO WALTON sold her next three novels, plus a collection of her Tor.com posts about the history of the Hugo Award from 1952-2000, to Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.

  Kate Atkinson (2010)

  ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY sold world rights to SF novel Portia’s Children to Bella Pagan at Tor UK via Simon Kavanagh of the Mic Cheetham Agency.

  BRENDA COOPER sold The Glittering Edge: Book One: Edge of Dark and Book Two: Spear of Light, in the world of previous novels The Creative Fire and The Diamond Deep, to Lou Anders at Pyr via Eleanor Wood of Spectrum Literary Agency.

  JACK CADY’s The Jonah Watch, four new collections, and four other books sold or resold to Mark Teppo at Resurrection House.

  ALIS RASMUSSEN, writing as KATE ELLIOTT, sold The Very Best of Kate Elliott to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon via Ann Behar of Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.

  BEN AARONOVITCH sold the seventh and eighth novels in the Peter Grant series to Simon Spanton at Gollancz via John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency. A comics spinoff series written by Aaronovitch & ANDREW CARTMEL went to Chris Teather at Titan Comics.

  CHLOE NEILL sold three more Chicagoland Vampires novels for NAL for six figures via Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency.

  LOU ANTONELLI’s collection The Clock Struck None sold to Ian Randal Strock at Fantastic Books.

  C.A. HIGGINS sold Equation of State and two more SF titles to Tricia Narwani at Del Rey in a pre-empt via Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.

  LEANNA RENEE HIEBER’s Miss Violet and the Great War, fourth in the Strangely Beautiful historical fantasy series, sold to Melissa Singer at Tor, along with three other titles, via Nicholas Roman Lewis of The Roman Group.

  ERICA HAYES sold superhero novel Scorched and a second book to Harper UK via Marlene Stringer of the Stringer Literary Agency.

  MARK SMYLIE sold two books to Lou Anders at Pyr.

  ANDREW KLAVAN sold Werewolf Cop – ‘‘based on true German legends’’ – to Claiborne Hancock at Pegasus via Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group.

  Brenda Cooper (2010s)

  JEFF ROVIN & actress GILLIAN ANDERSON, best known for her role in The X-Files, sold three books in the EarthEnd saga, beginning with A Vision of Fire, to Brit Hvide of Simon & Schuster for publication under the new Simon451 imprint, via Doug Grad of the Doug Grad Literary Agency.

  JAMES FREY & NILS JOHNSON-SHELTON sold Endgame: The Calling, first in a trilogy about teen warriors from twelve different ‘‘bloodlines’’ battling to the death, to Tara Weikum at Harper Children’s and Rachel Denwood at Harper Children’s UK in association with Frey’s packaging company Full Fathom Five and Google’s Niantic Labs, in a seven-figure deal via Eric Simonoff and Simon Trewin of William Morris Endeavor and David Krintzman of Morris Yorn. The deal includes 15 e-book novellas, YouTube videos, and an alternate reality game where clues in the books will send readers to solve puzzles in search of prizes. Film rights were optioned by Fox and producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill for ‘‘around $2 million’’ via William Morris Endeavor.

  SCOTT JAMES MAGNER sold military SF novel Homefront to Mark Teppo at Resurrection House.

  JENNIFER HAMPTON’s Beautiful Sins and five more titles went to Lisa Loucks Christenson of Stormy Lake Books.

  JOHN BURKE’s new collections The Envied and Dreams, Demons and Death sold to large-print publisher F.A. Thorpe via Phil Harbottle on behalf of the Burke Estate.

  EDMUND GLASBY’s Mythos novel Weird Shadow Over Morecambe went to F.A. Thorpe via Phil Harbottle.

  CAROLA DIBBELL’s post-pandemic novel The Only Ones went to Eric Obenauf at Two Dollar Radio via Julie Barer of Barer Literary.

  ANA WIKSWO’s ‘‘fabulist short story collection’’ The Hope of Floating Has Carried Us This Far went to Anitra Budd at Coffee House Press.

  ANNE RILEY sold Pull to Anna Masrud at Spencer Hill Press via Emma Patterson of Brandt & Hochman.

  JENNY ANCKORN sold alien invasion novel Untaken to Vicki Keire at Curiosity Quills Press via Rebecca Podos of Rees Literary Agency.

  CAROLINE PATTI sold Into the Dark to Georgia McBride of Month9Books.

  N.N. LIGHT sold paranormal romance Princess of the Light to Kara Leigh Miller of Anaiah Romance.

  AMY McNULTY’s The Veiled Man’s Goddess trilogy went to Georgia McBride of Month9Books via Jason Yarn of Paradigm.

  EMMIE MEARS sold superhero novel Shrike, described as ‘‘Bridget Jones meets Spider-man,’’ and a second book to Mary-Theresa Hussey at e-book imprint Harlequin E via Jessica Negron of Talcott Notch Literary Services.

  Neal Asher (2007)

  FONDA LEE sold Zeroboxer, about zero-gravity boxing, to Brian Farrey-Latz at Flux via Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich.

  DAN WELLS sold Bluescreen and two more in the YA cyberpunk trilogy to Jordan Brown at Balzer & Bray via Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger.

  KELLEY LYNN’s One Wish Away, ‘‘giving wishing upon a star a science fiction twist,’’ sold to Meredith Rich at Bloomsbury Spark via Jamie Bodnar Drowley at Inklings Literary Agency.

  CHRISTINE NORRIS sold YA A Curse of Ash and Iron to Amanda Rutter at Strange Chemistry via Jordy Albert of Booker Albert Agency.

  CHRISTINA FARLEY sold Silvern, sequel to Gilded, to Miriam Juskowicz of Skyscape via Jeff Ourvan of Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency.

  VICKI LEIGH sold Catch Me When I Fall to Alison Nee Heller of Curiosity Quills Press via Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

  J.K. BOVI’s YA Dead Man’s Finger: A Savannah Ghost Story sold to Vinspire.

  SABAA TAHIR sold first novel An Ember in the Ashes to Ben Schrank at Razorbill in a pre-empt with Gillian Levinson to edit. Film rights were optioned by Paramount Pictures with producer Mark Johnson attached in a seven-figure pre-empt via Sa
lly Wilcox at CAA.

  NICK HOLDSTOCK sold a first novel set in the final weeks before an apocalypse to Nicole Sohl at Thomas Dunne Books.

  ADAM SILVERA’s debut More Happy Than Not, a ‘‘YA Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’’ sold to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Soho Teen via Brooks Sherman of FinePrint Literary Management.

  New writer SHALLEE McARTHUR’s The Unhappening of Genesis Lee sold to Kristin Kulsavage at Sky Pony Press via Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.

  First novelist TONYA KUPER sold YA SF Anomaly and two more titles to Nicole Resciniti at The Seymour Agency.

  Tappan King (2013)

  DARYL GREGORY sold novella We Are All Completely Fine to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon. He resold novel Afterparty to Miranda Jewess at Titan Books via John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency, and to Tokyo Shogensha in Japan via Misa Morikawa at Tuttle Mori Agency, both on behalf of Martha Millard Literary Agency.

  NANCY KRESS’s novella Yesterday’s Kin went to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon.

  BOOKS RESOLD

  NEAL ASHER sold US digital rights to Gabble and Other Stories, Hilldiggers, Line of Polity, Line War, Orbus, Polity Agent, Technician, and Voyage of the Sable Keech to Jarred Weisfeld at Start Publishing.

  CHARLES PLATT sold The Stairway Press Collected Edition of Dream Makers: Volumes One and Two, reprinting the collections of interviews Platt conducted with SF authors, to Ken Coffman at Stairway Press.

  MELINDA SNODGRASS sold UK/Commonwealth rights to the Edge Trilogy to Miranda Jewess at Titan Books via John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency on behalf of Kay McCauley of Aurous, Inc.

  CHARLIE HUMAN sold US rights to Apocalypse Now Now and Kill Baxter to Natalie Laverick at Titan Books via John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency.

  NORMAN FIRTH’s Terror Strikes was resold to F.A. Thorpe via Phil Harbottle on behalf of the Firth Estate.

  Daryl Gregory (2013)

  JEFF VANDERMEER turned in the third novel in the Southern Reach trilogy, Acceptance, to Sean McDonald at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

  JOHN SCALZI delivered standalone SF novel Lock In to Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.

  MIKE RESNICK turned in Cat on a Cold Tin Roof, the third Eli Paxton mystery, to Seventh Street Books.

  TIM PRATT delivered Heirs of Grace to David Pomerico at 47North, and Pathfinder Tales novel Reign of Stars to James Sutter at Paizo.

  TAPPAN KING handed in The Mask of Medusa to Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.

  PUBLISHING

  GRAHAM SLEIGHT stepped down as editor of Foundation after the Summer 2012/13 issue, #115, and will be replaced by PAUL MARCH-RUSSELL.

  MICHAEL P. HUSEBY has been named chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble Inc., overseeing Barnes & Noble’s retail, college, and Nook Media divisions. He was hired as CFO in March 2012 and promoted to president in July 2013.

  MEDIA

  Film rights to V.E. SCHWAB’s Vicious were optioned by Story Mining & Supply Co. and Scott Free via CAA on behalf of Holly Root of Waxman Leavell Literary.

  JOSEPH FINK & JEFFREY CRANOR sold a novel based on their popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast to Maya Ziv at Harper Perennial at auction via Jodi Reamer of Writers House.

  Film rights to DANIEL SUAREZ’s Influx were optioned by 20th Century Fox.

  DAVE GROSS sold Lord of Runes, a new Radovan and Jeggare novel in the Pathfinder Tales world, to James Sutter at Paizo.

  JOSH VOGT sold Pathfinder Tales novel Forge of Ashes to James Sutter at Paizo.

  GARY KLOSTER sold an Africa-fantasy-inspired Pathfinder Tales novel to James Sutter at Paizo.

  E.J. SWIFT sold screenplay rights to Osiris to Alexa Brown via John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency.

  BARZAK AT SUNDANCE

  Christopher Barzak attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City UT in January for the premiere of Jamie Marks Is Dead, the new film directed by Carter Smith based on Barzak’s 2007 debut novel One for Sorrow. The author posed on the red carpet with many of the film’s stars.

  Cameron Monaghan, Morgan Saylor, Christopher Barzak, Madisen Beaty, Noah Silver

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  MAIN STORIES

  2013 Philip K. Dick Award Finalists • 2014 Prometheus Awards Hall of Fame Finalists • Simon451 • Penguin Random House UK Children’s • Hugo Nomination Period Open • Clarkesworld Ineligible for Semiprozine Hugo • Jay Lake’s Open Source Genome

  2013 PHILIP K. DICK AWARD FINALISTS

  The 2013 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced:

  A Calculated Life, Anne Charnock (47North)

  The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, Cassandra Rose Clarke (Angry Robot)

  Self-Reference Engine, Toh EnJoe, translated by Terry Gallagher (Haikasoru)

  Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit)

  Life on the Preservation, Jack Skillingstead (Solaris)

  Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, Ian Whates, ed. (Solaris)

  Countdown City, Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)

  The awards are presented annually to a distinguished work of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The winner and any special citations will be announced April 18, 2014 at Norwescon 37 in SeaTac WA. This year’s judges are Elizabeth Bear (chair), Siobhan Carroll, Michael Kandel, Jamil Nasir, and Timothy Sullivan. For more: .

  2014 PROMETHEUS AWARD HALL OF FAME FINALISTS

  The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the Prometheus Award finalists in the Hall of Fame category:

  ‘‘Sam Hall’’, Poul Anderson (1953),

  Falling Free, Lois McMaster Bujold (1988),

  ‘‘‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman’’, Harlan Ellison (1965),

  Courtship Rite, Donald M. Kingsbury (1982),

  ‘‘As Easy as A.B.C.’’, Rudyard Kipling (1912)

  This category honors novels, novellas, stories, graphic novels, anthologies, films, TV shows/series, plays, poems, music recordings, and other works of fiction first published or broadcast more than five years ago.

  All members of the Libertarian Futurist Society are eligible to vote.

  SIMON 451

  Simon & Schuster has announced the launch of a new adult SF/F imprint, Simon451. The imprint will publish in both print and e-book, but will focus on e-book originals and digital-first publishing, and will also experiment with publishing short stories and serials, as well as reissuing backlist titles as e-books. Senior editor Sarah Knight will run the imprint, which launches in October 2014 with A Vision of Fire, first in the EarthEnd trilogy by actress Gillian Anderson and her co-writer Jeff Rovin, and dystopian The Undying by Ethan Reid.

  This imprint is separate from the still-unnamed ‘‘YA and above’’ SF/F Simon & Schuster imprint edited by Joe Monti, which we reported on in the December 2013 issue, and which is expected to launch in early 2015.

  PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE UK CHILDREN’S

  The newly merged Penguin Random House UK announced the creation of a single children’s division ‘‘to bring together some of the very best talent in children’s publishing.’’ Penguin Children’s managing director Francesca Dow is taking over as managing director of the new division, reporting to CEO Tom Weldon. Phillippa Dickinson, managing director of Random House Children’s Publishers, will become consultant children’s publisher, with ‘‘specific editorial responsibility for key projects and authors,’’ until her planned retirement in 2015.

  HUGO NOMINATION PERIOD OPEN

  Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, to be held August 14-18, 2014 at ExCel, London Docklands, opened the 2014 Hugo Award nomination period on January 8, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. GMT.

  Nominating ballots will be accepted until March 31, 2014, 11:59 p.m. PDT for the Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Members of Loncon 3 who have attending, young adult attending, or supporting memberships by January 31, 2014, and all equivalent members of LoneStarCon 3 (the 2013 Worldcon) and Sasquan (the
2015 Worldcon) by that date, are also invited to submit nominating ballots.

  More information about the Hugo Awards, including details about how to submit a nominating ballot, are available at . For additional information, contact .

  Loncon 3’s guests of honor are Iain M. Banks (in memoriam), John Clute, Malcolm Edwards, Chris Foss, Jeanne Gomoll, Robin Hobb, and Bryan Talbot. For more details about the convention or to purchase memberships, visit .

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  CLARKESWORLD INELIGIBLE FOR SEMIPROZINE HUGO

  Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld has declared that the magazine is no longer eligible for the Hugo Award in the Semiprozine category. Clark stated, ‘‘Last year, Clarkesworld Magazine received its third Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. It appears as though we’ll be going out on top. The combined income from Clarkesworld (and its parent, Wyrm Publishing) has just barely crossed the threshold for semiprozine eligibility. We are NOT eligible for nomination this year. This is a very good sign for the future of Clarkesworld and gives me continued hope that someday I’ll be able to make this my full-time career.’’

  Under the revised rules, which took effect in 2013, a magazine is not considered a semiprozine if

  (1) it provided at least a quarter the income of any one person or,

  (2) was owned or published by any entity which provided at least a quarter the income of any of its staff and/or owner.