28 September 2006

Sunburst Award
The Canadian Sunburst Award, given out for excellence in speculative fiction novel or book-length collection, has been awarded to Holly Phillips for her collection In the Palace of Repose. The award consists of a cash award of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates a "Sunburst" logo, designed by Marcel Gagné.

Oldest Supernova Found
Astronomers have reappraised the age of RCW 86, which they now believe is a supernova recorded by the Chinese in AD 185. Previously, the scientists believed we were seeing a nebula 10,000 years after its explosion. The reappraisal of the age of the supernova is due to the discovery that the remnants have an irregular expansion shape due to stellar wind from the nebula's star. RCW 86 is located in the constellation Circinus and is located 8200 light years away.

Obituary
Actor Edward Albert (b.1951) died of lung cancer on September 26. Albert was the son of actor Eddie Albert, who died last year. The younger Albert appeared as Mr. Collins in the Power Rangers series. He also did a lot of voice work, including stints on The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. He appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space 9 as Zayra as well as other television series and movies.

25 September 2006

SFSFC SMOFCon Scholarship
San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. has announced the winners of its two $500 scholarships to allow bay area con runners to attend SMOFCon in Kansas City this December. Jason "Squall" Justice and Bryan "Smash" Manternach will both receive the scholarships. This year's SMOFCon will be held in Kansas City from December 1-3.

SWOC SMOFCon Scholarships
The Seattle Westercon Organizing Committee has announced a $500 scholarship to help a conrunner from the Pacific Northwest to attend SMOFCon in Kansas City. Applications must include a fannish biography and a paragraph explaining how attendance will benefit Pacific Northwest fandom.

New E-Zine
New Ceres is a twice-yearly webzine that launched on September 1 at newceres.com. It si a shared world webzine with articles, artwork, and fiction inspired by the fictional planet New Ceres. The zine is edited by Alisa Krasnostein.

British Fantasy Awards
The British Fantasy Awards were announced on September 24 at Fantasycon 30 in Nottingham.
British Fantasy Award for Best Novel: The August Derleth Award: Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
British Fantasy Award for Best Novella: "The Mask Behind the Face," by Stuart Young
British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology: The Elastic Book of Numbers, edited by Allan Ashley
British Fantasy Award for Best Collection: 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill
British Fantasy Award Best Short Fiction: "Best New Horror," by Joe Hill
British Fantasy Award for Best Artist : Les Edwards
British Fantasy Award for Best Small Press: Peter Crowther for PS Publishing
Karl Edward Wagner Award to Stephen Jones
BFS Committee Founders Award: Keith Walker, Rosemary Pardoe, Phil Spencer, and David Sutton

Obituary
Author John M. Ford (b.1957) was found dead on the morning on September 25. Ford won the World Fantasy Award for his novel The Dragon Waiting and was the co-winner of the Philip K. Dick Award for Growing Up Weightless. In addition to his novel length work and short stories, Ford wrote several role-playing supplements for GURPs and the Star Trek RPG.

19 September 2006

MacArthur Genius Grants
David Macaulay, the artist of The Way Things Work series, Castle, and Hotel of Mysteries, was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant. Author George Saunders, who wrote the The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip and various other short stories has also received a grant. The grants, which come with no strings attached, provide the recipients with $500,000 over five years. Previous recipients have included Jonathan Lethem and Octavia Butler.

17 September 2006

Obituary
Author Charles Grant (b.1942) died on September 15 following a long illness. He began publishing in 1968 with the story "The House of Evil." Grant won the World Fantasy Award for his collection Nightmare Seasons and a Nebula Award for the novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye." From 1978 through 1991, he edited the eleven volume Shadows anthology series.

14 September 2006

Get Harry Fund Announced
Joining other one-off fan funds this year is the Get Harry Fund to bring Harry Bell from England to Austin, TX for Corflu Quire in February. The website explaining the fund is located at http://www.cosmicminds.net/.

Hail Eris
Dwarf Planet 2003UB313, previously nicknamed Xena, has been given a new, official name. The dwarf planet, which is believed to be larger than Pluto, will be named Eris, after the Greek personification of Discord. Eris' moon, previously known by the nickname Gabrielle, is now known officially as Dysnomia, who was Eris' daughter and which translates as Lawlessness.

Clarion Auction
An auction will be held on E-Bay from September 10-October 8 to raise fund for Clarion at University of California at San Diego. More than fifty items are being auctioned, including Tuckerizations, manuscripts, artwork and more. Each week, different items will be up for auction at http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfrppZ50QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQrdZ0QQsassZtheclarionfoundation.

11 September 2006

Anglicon Cancelled
Anglicon 18, which was to be held October 13-15 in Seatac, WA, has been cancelled. There have closed down their convention related activities, cancelled their hotel, and will be issuing refunds to all pre-registered members.

Clarion Moves South West
The Clarion Writers Workshop held in Lansing, MI will be moving to San Diego. Founded at Clarion College before moving to Michigan State University, it will now be held at University of California, San Diego. In recent years, Clarion had suffered from funding problems at MSU, although these were resolved.

5 September 2006

HANA Fund Formed
The Hertz Across to Nippon Alliance was formed to send Los Angeles Fan John Hertz to the Nippon 2007 Worldcon. HANA is similar to the fan funds that send fans from Europe to North America and vice versa (or other places), but rather than initiating a race, this is targeting an individual, much as the first fan fund targeted Irish fan Walt Willis. To send John to Nippon, send a check payable to Janice Murray to PO Box 75684 Seattle WA 98175-0684, United States.

4 September 2006

Europe Smashes Moon
The first European lunar probe, SMART-1, ended a three-year mission with a planned crash landing in the Sea of Excellence. The probe also conducted a geological survey of the moon and radioed the information back to Earth. Scientists hope to be able to study the information provided by the probe and its crash to determine more about the moon's formation.

Australians Seeking Cash
Two Australian SF sites, Ticonderoga Online and ASif! have teamed up to hold a fund raising drive. In return for a small donation (or a large one), the sites are offering a limited edition chapbook pdf to all donors as well as a chance to win one of several prizes. The sites hope to raise A$2,000 during September, which will cover both sites' operating expenses for the next year.

Ticonderoga Online Open to Internationals
Ticonderoga Online has announced that from January 1 through 31, 2007, they will be reading international submissions. All non-Australian submissions must be received during that time frame. In addition, they are increasing their rate of pay to A$49 per story.

Obituary
Fan John Miesel (1941) died on August 30 from a brain tumor. Miesel, who was married to author Sandra Miesel, was a one-time member of the Indianapolis Science Fiction Association.

1 September 2006

Celestial Explosion
Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite have spotting a gamma-ray burst (GRB) which is believed to be the precursor of a supernova emanating from a point 440 million light years away in the constellation Aries. The blast is the second closest GRB ever observed and it is hoped that it will give scientists additional insight into the process by which a star goes supernova.

Obituaries
Actor Glenn Ford (b.1916) died on August 30. Ford, best known for appearing in Westerns, also appeared as Jonathan Kent in the 1977 film "Superman." Three years later, he appeared in the Japanese horror film "Fukkatsu no hi."

Screenwriter Joseph Stefano (b.1922) died on August 25. Stefano wrote the screenplay for the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Psycho." He went on to co-create and write several episodes of the 1960s anthology series "The Outer Limits" as well as write an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

NASA Awards Lunar Contract
NASA has announced that it has awarded a contract for the next generation of spacecraft, the Orion, to Lockhead-Martin. The Orion is intended to take men back to the moon and is not expected to be ready for flight tests until 2014. It is supposed to be modeled after the Apollo capsules in design rather than the space shuttle, although it will be larger than an Apollo capsule, capable of holding six.

Atlantis Date Set
NASA will launch the space shuttle Atlantis on September 6, following a delay caused by the threat of tropical storm Ernesto. As the storm approached Florida, NASA first started to move the shuttle from the launch pad and then, as the threat passed, reversed course. Atlantis's launch will only be the second launch since the Columbia explosion on February 1, 2003.