John Joseph Adams, who recently became the publisher of Lightspeed and Fantasy in addition to their editor has announced the two magazines will merge. The combined magazine will double the fiction content, including four science fiction and four fantasy in each issue, although the amount of non-fiction content will be decreased. The price of the magazine will be increasing by about $1 per issue.
Editor, author, and artist Terri Windling, who runs Green Man Studios and has edited numerous anthologies, many in collaboration with Ellen Datlow, is undergoing a major financial crisis brought on by health and legal issues. To help Windling out, several of her friends, including Datlow, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Brian Froud, and more, are auctioning off goods and services.
Agent John Hawkins (b.1939) died on November 13. Hawkins founded John Hawkins & Associates, one of the country’s oldest literary agencies. His clients included Tananarive Due, Joyce Carol Oates, Alex Haley. In 1976, he is believed to have negotiated the first million dollar advance for James Clavell.
John Joseph Adams, the editor of Lightspeed and Fantasy magazines, has purchased both titles from Sean Wallace at Prime Books. Fantasy debuted in 2005 and Adams became editor in 2011. He was the founding editor of Lightspeed in 2010. Adams will officially become publisher of both magazines in January, 2012.
Terry Martin has announced that British series anthology Murky Depths would cease publication with the publication of issue 18. The first issue of Murky Depths appeared in 2007. Murky Depths had provided a mix of prose and comics in a glossy format.
Steve Davidson, who was recently awarded the lapses Amazing Stories trademark, has announced the formation of an advisory board which consists of four former editors of the magazine: Barry Malzberg, Patrick L. Price, Ted White, and Joseph Wrzos. Davidson has also commissioned a cover for the first electronic issue, from artist Frank Wu.
Greg Ketter has announced that he will be closing DreamHaven Books on 38th Street in Minneapolis. DreamHaven has been in business for thirty-five years and, at one time, had multiple stores as well as a catalog and convention presence. According to Ketter, the catalog will continue and he will continue to attend and sell books at conventions.
Editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell has announced plans to take early retirement from Del Rey books in December of this year. Mitchell joined Del Rey in 2002 after a long career which included editorial jobs at Baen, Bantam Spectra, and one of the founders of Warner Aspect. Prior to becoming an editor, Mitchell worked on the staff at Analog. Tricia Pasternak will be promoted to editorial director, Keith Clayton will be promoted to associate publisher, Anne Groell will be promoted to executive director, and Frank Parisi will be named in-house coordinator of Star Wars titles and editorial head of other licensed tie-ins.
Two awards were presented by DeepSouthCon at FenCon VIII/DeepSouthCon 49 on September 25. The Rebel Award is presented to a fan who has done things for Southern fandom and the Phoenix Award is for an SF professional who has done things for Southern fandom. This year’s awards were presented by Steven H Silver and Toni Weisskopf.
In addition, the Rubble Award was presented to a fan for doing things to Southern fandom. This year’s Rubble Award was presented to Bill Parker for bringing Worldcon to San Antonio in 2013.
Independent bookseller Harbour Books of Dartmouth, Devon will be closing its doors at the end of the month after sixty years. The store was founded in 1951 by Christopher Robin Milne, who was the model for his father’s character Christopher Robin, who ran it until he retired in 1983. The current owners, Rowland and Caroline Abram, have explained their decision to close based on increased rents and more on-line competition.