Locus, March 2013 Read online

  The film adaptation of RICHELLE MEAD’s Vampire Academy novels, Blood Sisters, has gone to the Weinstein Company for US distribution, with Mark Waters to direct and Dan Waters to adapt. Shooting will begin in summer 2013.

  TV rights to JASON MOTT’s The Returned were optioned by ABC Studios, with Aaron Zelman to write and produce with production company Plan B.

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  MAIN STORIES

  2012 Nebula Awards Ballot • 2013 Crawford Award • Macmillian Settles with DoJ • Penguin and Random House Merger Approved • Stoker Preliminary Ballot

  2012 NEBULA AWARDS BALLOT

  The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have released the final ballot for the 2012 Nebula Awards.

  NOVEL

  Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz ’13)

  Ironskin, Tina Connolly (Tor)

  The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

  The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)

  Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

  2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

  NOVELLA

  On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)

  After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)

  ‘‘The Stars Do Not Lie’’, Jay Lake (Asimov’s 10-11/12)

  ‘‘All the Flavors’’, Ken Liu (GigaNotoSaurus 2/1/12)

  ‘‘Katabasis’’, Robert Reed (F&SF 11-12/12)

  ‘‘Barry’s Tale’’, Lawrence M. Schoen (Buffalito Buffet)

  NOVELETTE

  ‘‘The Pyre of New Day’’, Catherine Asaro (The Mammoth Books of SF Wars)

  ‘‘Close Encounters’’, Andy Duncan (The Pottawatomie Giant & Other Stories)

  ‘‘The Waves’’, Ken Liu (Asimov’s 12/12)

  ‘‘The Finite Canvas’’, Brit Mandelo (Tor.com 12/5/12)

  ‘‘Swift, Brutal Retaliation’’, Meghan McCarron (Tor.com 1/4/12)

  ‘‘Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia’’, Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 8/22/12)

  ‘‘Fade to White’’, Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 8/12)

  SHORT STORY

  ‘‘Robot’’, Helena Bell (Clarkesworld 9/12)

  ‘‘Immersion’’, Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 6/12)

  ‘‘Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes’’, Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 4/12)

  ‘‘Nanny’s Day’’, Leah Cypess (Asimov’s 3/12)

  ‘‘Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream’’, Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed 7/12)

  ‘‘The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species’’, Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/12)

  ‘‘Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain’’, Cat Rambo (Near + Far)

  RAY BRADBURY AWARD

  The Avengers

  Beasts of the Southern Wild

  The Cabin in the Woods

  The Hunger Games

  John Carter

  Looper

  ANDRE NORTON AWARD

  Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill (Little, Brown)

  Black Heart, Holly Black (McElderry; Gollancz)

  Above, Leah Bobet (Levine)

  The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom)

  Vessel, Sarah Beth Durst (McElderry)

  Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK)

  Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)

  Every Day, David Levithan (Knopf)

  Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books)

  Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)

  Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)

  Above World, Jenn Reese (Candlewick)

  Final ballots are due March 30, 2013 (only active SFWA members are eligible to vote). Winners will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet on May 18, 2013, during the Nebula Awards Weekend (May 16-19, 2013) at the San Jose Hilton, San Jose CA. Details at .

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  2013 CRAWFORD AWARD

  Karin Tidbeck was named winner of the 2013 William L. Crawford Fantasy Award for her 2012 collection Jagannath: Stories (Cheeky Frawg).

  Karin Tidbeck (2013)

  The award, which includes a cash prize, is presented annually at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, and is designated for an exceptionally promising writer whose first fantasy book was published the preceding year. Prior winners include Jonathan Lethem, Charles de Lint, Greer Gilman, Judith Tarr, Kij Johnson, Joe Hill, M. Rickert, Daryl Gregory, Christopher Barzak, Jedediah Berry, Karen Lord and, last year, Genevieve Valentine.

  The final decision was a difficult one for the nominating committee, with Rachel Hartman a close runner-up with her novel Seraphina (Random House). The other shortlisted nominees for this year’s award were Saladin Ahmed for Throne of the Crescent Moon (DAW), Roz Kaveney for Rituals (Plus One), and Kiini Ibura Salaam for Ancient, Ancient (Aqueduct). Those participating in the selection included Karen Burnham, Stacie Hanes, Niall Harrison, Ellen Klages, Cheryl Morgan, Graham Sleight, Jonathan Strahan, and Liza Groen Trombi.

  The 2013 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will take place March 20-24, 2013 in Orlando FL. Further details are at .

  MACMILLAN SETTLES WITH DOJ

  Macmillan has decided not to go to trial with the Department of Justice over antitrust allegations regarding e-book pricing. All the other publishers involved in the lawsuit have already settled. Only Apple is still contesting the charges.

  CEO John Sargent announced that Macmillan is settling its case because the penalties, should they lose the case, would be too high. Sargent explains:

  I had an old fashioned belief that you should not settle if you have done nothing wrong. As it turns out, that is indeed old fashioned…. Our company is not large enough to risk a worst case judgment. In this action the government accused five publishers and Apple of conspiring to raise prices. As each publisher settled, the remaining defendants became responsible not only for their own treble damages, but also possibly for the treble damages of the settling publishers (minus what they settled for). A few weeks ago I got an estimate of the maximum possible damage figure. I cannot share the breathtaking amount with you, but it was much more than the entire equity of our company.

  This means that e-books from Macmillan can now be offered at discounted prices by retailers, under certain conditions. According to a DoJ statement, ‘‘Macmillan must allow its e-book retailers to discount within three business days of agreeing to the settlement, even if it has not formalized new contracts with retailers… to provide more prompt relief to consumers.’’

  Macmillan also settled two other outstanding agency pricing cases: one brought by a group of states’s attorneys general, and a class-action suit filed by consumers. The company will pay about $20 million to e-book buyers in compensation as part of those settlements, much of that in the form of ‘‘credits’’ from retailers that customers can use to buy more print or e-books.

  PENGUIN AND RANDOM HOUSE MERGER APPROVED

  The proposed merger of publishers Penguin and Random House has been approved by the US Department of Justice. The DoJ notified Bertelsmann and Pearson ‘‘that it has closed its investigation into the proposed merger of Penguin and Random House, without conditions,’’ according to a statement. The approval comes just under four months after the deal was announced, remarkably fast for the DoJ. This makes the US the first country to approve the merger; Canada and the European Commission, along with ‘‘various other antitrust authorities around the world’’ have yet to finish their review of the proposal. Executives from both companies say they expect the deal to close in the second half of 2013.

  STOKER PRELIMINARY BALLOT

  The 2012 Stoker Preliminary Ballot has been released by the Horror Writers Association.

  Superior Achievement in a Novel: The Trouble With Hairy, Hal Bodner (Phantom Hollow); 14, Peter Clines (Permuted Press); Bottled A
byss, Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Redrum Horror); NightWhere, John Everson (Samhain); Cemetery Club, JG Faherty (JournalStone); Coronation, Lee F. Jordan (Black Rose Writing); The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc); The Haunted, Bentley Little (Signet); Inheritance, Joe McKinney (Evil Jester).

  Superior Achievement in a First Novel: Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling, Michael Boccacino (William Morrow); Wide Open, Deborah Coates (Tor); The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief, Charles Day (Noble YA); A Requiem for Dead Flies, Peter Dudar (Nightscape); Bad Glass, Richard Gropp (Del Rey); Resurrection X: Zombie Evolution, Dane Hatchell (Post Mortem); Dead Harvest, Chris Holm (Angry Robot); The Sinner, K. Trap Jones (Blood Bound); Life Rage, L.L. Soares (Nightscape); City Under the Moon, Hugh Sterbakov (Ben & Derek Ink).

  Superior Achievement in a YA Novel: The Hallowed Ones, Laura Bickle (Graphia); The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown); FreeK Show, Steve Burt (Burt Creations); Hooked: A True Faerie Tale, Michaelbrent Collings (self-published); I Hunt Killers, Barry Lyga (Little, Brown); Flesh & Bone, Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster); I Kissed A Ghoul, Michael McCarty (Noble Romance); The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic); A Bad Day for Voodoo, Jeff Strand (Sourcebooks); Break My Heart 1,000 Times, Daniel Waters (Hyperion); The Color of Evil, Connie Corcoran Wilson (Quad Cities).

  Superior Achievement in Long Fiction: Thirty Miles South of Dry County, Kealan Patrick Burke (Delirium); The Cold Spot, JG Faherty (Delirium); Sunfall Manor, Peter Giglio (Nightscape); I’m Not Sam, Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee (Sinister Grin); The Mourning House, Ronald Malfi (Delirium Books); Lost Girl of the Lake, Joe McKinney & Michael McCarty (Bad Moon); Delphine Dodd, S.P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media); The Blue Heron, Gene O’Neill (Dark Regions); The Fleshless Man, Norman Prentiss (Delirium); When We Join Jesus in Hell, Lee Thompson (Darkfuse).

  Superior Achievement in Short Fiction: ‘‘Bootstrap’’, Michael Bailey (Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad); ‘‘Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest’’, Bruce Boston (Daily Science Fiction 8/16/12); ‘‘The Journal of USS Indianapolis Survivor: Stefanos ‘Stevie’ Georgiou’’, Kevin James Breaux (Zombie Jesus & Other True Stories); ‘‘A Catechism for Aspiring Amnesiacs’’, Nicole Cushing (Lovecraft eZine 3/12); ‘‘The Cancer Catechism’’, Jay Lake (Dark Faith: Invocations); ‘‘Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens’’, Joe McKinney (Best of Dark Moon Digest); ‘‘Righteous’’, Weston Ochse (Psychos); ‘‘Available Light’’, John Palisano (Lovecraft eZine 3/12); ‘‘Magdala Amygdala’’, Lucy Snyder (Dark Faith: Invocations).

  Superior Achievement in an Anthology: Fear the Abyss, Eric Beebe (Post Mortem); Shadow Show, Mort Castle & Sam Weller (HarperCollins); Tales from the Yellow Rose Diner and Fill Station, Anonymous, ed. (Gallows); Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, Eric J. Guignard (Dark Moon); Hell Comes to Hollywood, Eric Miller (Big Time); World’s Collider, Richard Salter (Nightscape); The Ghost IS the Machine, Patrick Scalisi (Post Mortem); Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology, Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender & Robert S. Wilson (Cutting Block); Slices of Flesh, Stan Swanson (Dark Moon).

  Superior Achievement in a Collection: These Old Tales: The Complete Collection, Kenneth W. Cain (Distressed Press); The Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories, Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean); New Moon on the Water, Mort Castle (Dark Regions); Valentines for the Dead, Corrine De Winter (Shadowfall); Errantry: Strange Stories, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer); The Janus Tree, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean); Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing); Ad Nauseam, C.W. LaSart (Dark Moon); Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco); Christmas Ghost Stories, Mark Onspaugh (self-published); Beautiful Sorrows, Mercedes M. Yardley (Shock Totem).

  Superior Achievement in NonFiction: Carrie: Studies in the Horror Film, Joe Aisenberg (Centipede); The Conversations with Kreskin, The Amazing Kreskin & Michael McCarty (Team Kreskin Productions); Writing Darkness, Michael Collings (self-published); The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1, Les Klinger (Vertigo); Write of the Living Dead, Araminta Star Matthews, Rachel Lee & Stan Swanson (Dark Moon); Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, Lisa Morton (Reaktion); The Undead and Theology, Kim Paffenroth & John W. Morehead (Pickwick); Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture, Dennis R. Perry & Carl H. Sederholm (Palgrave MacMillan); Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film, Kendall R. Phillips (Southern Illinois University Press).

  Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection: Dark Duet, Linda Addison & Stephen M. Wilson (NECON eBooks); Notes from the Shadow City, Bruce Boston & Gary William Crawford (Dark Regions); A Verse to Horrors, Michael Collings (self-published); The Monstrance, Bryan D. Dietrich (Needfire Poetry); Grim Series, Kristine Ong Muslim (Popcorn); Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls, Marge Simon (Elektrik Milk Bath); Lovers & Killers, Mary A. Turzillo (Dark Regions).

  The following will not appear on the Preliminary Ballot. As there are only five works, they will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Graphic Novel: The Sixth Gun Volume 3: Bound, Cullen Bunn (Oni Press); Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death, Terry Moore (Abstract Studio); The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone, Ravi Thornton (Jonathan Cape); Behind These Eyes, Peter J. Wacks & Guy Anthony De Marco (Villainous Press); Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, Rocky Wood & Lisa Morton (McFarland).

  Horror Writers Association members will vote to choose final nominees from this list, and then vote again to determine winners. The Final Ballot (Bram Stoker Award nominees for the 2012 calendar year) will be announced on February 23, 2013.

  Return to In This Issue listing.

  THE DATA FILE

  Dragon*Con Responds to Call for Boycott • ALA Awards • SF Collection Donated to SDSU • Bookish Launch • Superman Fans Threaten Boycott • Amazon News • Amazing Stories Launch • Barnes & Noble News • World Conventions News • Awards News • Publishing News • Book News • Financial News • International Rights • Other Rights • Audiobooks Received • Publications Received • Catalogs Received

  DRAGON*CON RESPONDS TO CALL FOR BOYCOTT

  Dragon*Con has issued a statement regarding the convention’s relationship with co-founder and alleged child molester Ed Kramer, in response to an online call to boycott the convention. In January 2013, Nancy Collins posted a call for professional writers and editors to boycott Dragon*Con due to the convention’s ongoing financial relationship with Kramer, who remains untried for the child-molestation charges made in 2000 and receives a reportedly significant income from Dragon*Con as a shareholder. On February 6, Phil & Kaja Foglio announced on their Facebook page that they would not attend Dragon*Con this year because of the convention’s financial support of Kramer. Other artists and fans have expressed reservations online about attending the event.

  In their February 15 statement responding to these concerns, Dragon*Con said that they have no legal means to remove Kramer from his current association with the convention. They have made attempts to ‘‘sever all ties between Edward Kramer and Dragon*Con including several efforts to buy Edward Kramer’s stock shares,’’ but say that these attempts have been met with litigation from Kramer against Dragon*Con. They state that Kramer resigned from the convention in 2000, and ‘‘has had no role in the direction or management of the convention,’’ since that time. They hope ‘‘that the end is in sight and that the upcoming trial(s) in Gwinnett County will provide a resolution of Edward Kramer’s guilt or innocence, and therefore a cause of legally divorcing ourselves from him once and for all.’’

  Kramer helped found the Atlanta-based convention in 1987. He was charged with multiple counts of child molestation in 2000, and was under house arrest until 2008. Kramer never stood trial, successfully arguing that he was too ill for court proceedings. In 2011 he was arrested in Connecticut on a felony charge of risk of injury to a child after being found alone in a motel room with a 14-year old boy. He was held in a Connecticut prison until being extradited to Georgia in January 2013, where he is now awaiting trial.

  ALA AWARDS
r />   The American Library Association announced several award winners at their annual Midwinter Meeting, held January 25-29, 2013 in Seattle WA. Winners and honorees of genre interest included: Tamora Pierce who received the Margaret A. Edwards lifetime Achievement Award ‘‘honoring her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.’’ Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina (Random House) won the William C. Morris Award for best debut fiction. In Darkness by Nick Lake (Bloomsbury USA) won the 2013 Michael L. Printz Award, given to a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. Dodger by Terry Pratchett (Harper) was one of four Printz Honor Books. The audiobook of Cornelia Funke’s Ghost Knight, narrated by Elliot Hill (Listening Library); Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer, narrated by Nathaniel Parker (Listening Library); and Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama, narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Macmillan Audio), were all named Odyssey Honor audiobooks, recognizing excellence in children’s and YA audiobooks.

  SF COLLECTION DONATED TO SDSU

  Edward E. Marsh, who spent 30 years amassing a vast SF and fantasy collection, donated much of that collection to San Diego State University’s Love Library. Valued at over $2.25 million, the collection includes ephemera such as press clippings, notes, busts of authors, movie props, original book cover art, literary contracts, authors’ yearbooks and autographs, and features works by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague de Camp, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and others. Most of the books are signed first editions. (The collection also includes non-genre material by William S. Burroughs, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, and more.)

  The donation will be housed in the ‘‘Edward Marsh Golden Age of Science Fiction Room,’’ which will be created specifically for this collection.

  BOOKISH LAUNCH

  Book recommendation, sales, and social media site Bookish.com is live, under the guidance of its third CEO in 18 months, Ardy Khazaei (who blames the delays on problems related to the antitrust settlement with the DoJ). The site, founded by Hachette Book Group, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster, launched with the involvement of 16 other publishers, including Random House, and HarperCollins. The site sells e-books and print books directly via distributor Baker & Taylor and has links to other online retailers. Bookish also offers original (and sometimes exclusive) content, including book reviews, excerpts, and assorted features, as well as their custom ‘‘recommendation engine,’’ which suggests books readers might like based on their interests or favorite titles. The engine works on ‘‘an algorithm that factors in editorial themes, professional and consumer reviews, publishing house editor insights, awards and more,’’ and there are currently over a quarter of a million books in the database, with more to come.