Lynne M. Thomas's Blog, page 27

*dusts off blog* for 5 tiny things

Yup. We’ve been so busy that I have not been able to blog for 4 months. O_O

Uncanny Magazine Year Two launches with Issue 7 tomorrow.
Verity! is in full swing discussing this season of Doctor Who
Beth and I are working steadily on the next edited volume
I’m part of NIU’s Program Prioritization committee
We will be at WindyCon and Chicago TARDIS!

*thud*

Master Syllabus for my SJSU Special Collections course

At the request of the inimitable Ethan Henderson via Twitter, behold a link to the PDF of my   MasterSyllabus for my “Special Collections in a Web 2.0 World” class at SJSU, last taught in Spring 2014.

Please note! This is very much subject to change if and when they ask me back– there are a whole lot of things that would change the next time I teach the course.

ETA: This subject to change thing is especially true given that Beth Whittaker and I are currently working on the sequel to Special Collections 2.0, currently titled Special Collections, New Directions: An Anthology of Practice, due out from Libraries Unlimited/ABC-CLIO in 2016. 

Uncanny Magazine Year Two Kickstarter is LIVE!

Space Unicorns! We need your help!

Uncanny Magazine Year Two: The Return of the Space Unicorn! The Kickstarter is LIVE!

Last year, three-time Hugo Award winner Lynne M. Thomas & three-time Hugo Award finalist Michael Damian Thomas ran the Uncanny Magazine Year One Kickstarter. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction by writers from every conceivable background. Not to mention a fantastic podcast featuring exclusive content.

With the hard work of the best staff and contributors in the world, Uncanny Magazine delivered everything as promised. All this content is available for free over the web, thanks to yoursupport.

Though Uncanny has developed several additional funding streams to make the magazine sustainable, we’re not quite there yet. Which is why we’re running the Uncanny Magazine Year Two: The Return of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter.

Galen Dara’s Issue One Cover

If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or rejoin the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance!

Our Year Two goals will bring Uncanny closer to sustainability by paying for more great content and making sure the magazine’s business infrastructure is solidified.

On deck for Year Two is an outstanding group of solicited contributors, fantastic backer rewards, plus some additional surprises.

Collage of selected author photos; all authors listed below

Short Stories!

Seanan McGuire
Aliette de Bodard
Ursula Vernon
Scott Lynch
Catherynne M. Valente
Elizabeth Bear
Mary Robinette Kowal
Maria Dahvana Headley
Rachel Swirsky
Max Gladstone
Amal El-Mohtar
Alyssa Wong
Carmen Maria Machado

Nonfiction!

Chris Kluwe
Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Tansy Rayner Roberts
Jim C. Hines
Mark Oshiro
Sarah Kuhn

Poetry!

Sofia Samatar
Isabel Yap
Sonya Taaffe
M Sereno

Art!

Julie Dillon
Galen Dara
Katy Shuttleworth




Fortune’s Favor by Julie Dillon, Issue 2 cover





Chicks Dig Time Lords cover by Katy Shuttleworth

There will also be more slots for unsolicited submissions (we reopen in September). We’re deeply committed to finding and showcasing new voices in our genre from around the world.

Uncanny Magazine is published as an eBook (MOBI, PDF, EPUB) bimonthly (the every other month kind) on the first Tuesday of that month through all of the major online eBook stores. Each issue contains 3-5 new short stories, 1 reprinted story, 3 poems, 2 nonfiction essays, and 1 interview, at minimum. Our monthly podcast includes a story, a poem, and an exclusive interview in each episode.

Kickstarter Backers at the Subscriber Level or higher, and those purchasing single issues, get each issue in its entirety up front, no waiting. Those reading online for free wait a month for the second half, which appears on the second Tuesday of the month athttp://uncannymagazine.com/.

We at Uncanny think we’re doing important work, and we’d like to continue. Please consider supporting Uncanny Magazine Year Two.

How We’ll Use the Funding: 

Our current funding goal ($18,700) is for the original version of Uncanny, as we envisioned it (and budgeted for it) at the launch of Year One.

Our funding goal pays for all six issues of Uncanny Year Two, including:

17,000 words of new fiction per issue (3-5 stories, depending on length)
A reprint story
Reprint cover art
3 new poems
2 new nonfiction essays
2 new interviews

We pay our writers $.08 per word for original fiction, our poets $30 per poem, our essayists $50 per essay, and our artists $100 per reprinted artwork.

In addition to paying our content contributors (upon acceptance!), our initial Year Two budget includes:

Paying our staff (Editors-in Chief, Managing Editor, Podcast Producers and Readers, Interviewer)
Podcast production and hosting costs
Website hosting and maintenance costs
Backer rewards
Kickstarter fees and taxes

Our Year One backers were so generous we reached all our stretch goals, which added additional stories and essays to each Year One issue. Our awesome backers also sponsored several pieces of original cover art.

Each Stretch Goal we reach in this Year Two Kickstarter will allow us to provide more of the additional content that was so successful in Year One.

Stretch Goals:

$20,000 Original Covers by Katy Shuttleworth & Galen Dara
$22,000 Bring back 2 additional essays per issue
$26,000 Bring back 1 additional story per issue
$30,000 Bring back a second additional story per issue
$31,000 1 Liz Argall’s Things Without Arms And Things Without Legs reaction comic per issue, published on our website

#

We hope you’ll consider supporting us by joining the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps!

New Verity! Extra! Bringing up Babies (on Doctor Who)

This week the Verities who are parents talk about that. Join Deb, Lynne, and Tansy as they discuss what it’s like to raise children who are fans–and to be a fan as a parent. This my be the most personal Verity! yet.

Are you a parent raising a young DW fan? Let us know about it in the comments! How young did you start your kids on Who? How did you explain concepts like regeneration? We’d like to know!

^E

Bonus link:

Our Patreon page (We’ll do bonus commentaries when we hit 120 and 125 supporters!)

Download or listen now (runtime 1:04:19)  Audio Player

New Verity! Podcast! Ep 78 — Teams in the TARDIS

This week we bring you episode 78–really! Pay no attention to Deb’s introduction. Erika isn’t the only one who makes mistakes! Join Deb, Erika, Liz, and Lynne as we talk about companion teams. First, we have to define that term and differentiate it from “TARDIS team”. Then we can get into the meat of the discussion–which companions work really really well together? Who can’t you think of without their counterpart?

Let us know your favorite companion teams in the comments!

^E

Also covered:

Liz’s inner-8-year-old melts at the Companion Piece review in  Doctor Who Magazine !
Lynne can’t wait for Chicago TARDIS, now they’ve posted an early guest list!
Erika

boggles that Doctor Who will have another Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con!
enjoys the heck out of the Peter Harness-adapted  Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell !


Deb

fans over Bad Wolf Blerd!
is happy about diverse fans monetizing their fandom!
again highly recommends Toby Hadoke’s Who’s Round podcast!

Bonus links:

Erika’s grumpy/happy thing: CONsole Room

Down and Safe – Liz’s Blake’s 7 podcast

Peter Capaldi w/parachute

Download or listen now (runtime 1:29:04) Audio Player

New Verity! Episode 75: The Bottom of the Barrel

Reblogged from Verity! for your listening pleasure

They may not be the most unloved companions, but they’re the ones you, the listeners, didn’t want to hear us talk about. Join Deb, Erika, and Lynne as we discuss the companions in the bottom 1.5% of our listener poll. Why do we think these companions ended up here? Do they belong? Or do we think some of these characters should be rated higher?

Did you vote in the poll? If so, did you vote for these companions? If not, why not? If so, why? Let us know in the comments!

^E

Also covered:

Lynne giggles over clever Doctor Who poetry on Tumblr!
Erika adores Peter Capaldi even more after he spent his day off at theDoctor Who Experience!
Deb

enjoyed Philadelphia Comic Con (both the Doctor Who panel and seeing her fangirl daughter cosplay for the first time)!
looks forward to attending the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular!

Bonus links:

Inconceivable

Doctor Who: The Writers’ Room

The Doctor Who Book Club Podcast

CONtv

Companion Piece

Kamelion touches the TARDIS

Download or listen now (runtime 1:06:40) Audio Player

New Verity! Ep 73: Farewell (& Not-So-Well) Companions

We thought this provided some nice symmetry with our episode about companion arrivals. Join Deb, Erika, Lynne, and Tansy as we talk about how companions leave the TARDIS. Many are forced out, some choose to leave, a few even die. We have some definite favorites and some just-as-definite least favorites. Also, Deb objectifies hair and Lynne wants to spray King Yrcanos with a spray bottle. It’s lots of good fun!

What’s your favorite/least-favorite way to see a companion take their leave of the Doctor? Which stories do you love, and which don’t hold water? Let us know in the comments!

^E

Also covered:

Lynne rightly adores the LEGO-recreation of the 11th Doctor’s regeneration!
Tansy is doing a rewatch of all new-Who starting with the 9th Doctor’s era!
Erika

thanks listeners for the great reaction to our April Fool’s Day episode!
participated in !
contributed an essay to You and Who: Contact Has Been Made Volume Two!
listened to (and LOVED–in your face Deb!)  Zagreus !


Deb

shouts out to the L.I. Geek Convention for your east-coast con-withdrawl needs!
anticipates Big Finish’s upcoming Third Doctor Adventures!
objectifies Peter Capaldi’s hair!

Bonus links:

Chicks Unravel Time (in which you can find Tansy’s essay about Peri)

Peri and the Piscon Paradox

Download or listen now (runtime 1:27:03) Audio Player

5 Things make a post–April catch up edition

So, I’ve had some website issues lately (sorry!), but my intrepid webmasters have got me up and running now. Thanks to them!

Some stuff has happened.

1. Beth Whittaker and I have now returned our contract for The Book Formerly Known As The 21st Century Special Collections Reader. It will have a slightly different name, still under discussion, but we’re deeply pleased to have this project underway. We will be working with ABC-CLIO again, as we did for Special Collections 2.0, and are happy to be renewing that relationship.

2. Michael and I were featured in a runup to C2E2 Chicago Tribune article about “nerd caves” based on our Doctor Who room. It’s behind a paywall, alas, but it is there with some quite lovely photos. We’re very proud!

3. There’s a new Verity! Extra! with a Sophie Aldred interview out! I’m quite pleased, for the world’s most obvious reasons. Ace!

4. The cover and table of contents for the May issue of Uncanny Magazine are live. And they are epic.

Seriously, LOOK AT THIS ART:

5. Speaking of Uncanny, this weekend is the Uncanny Writers’ Poconos retreat, which I will be attending, while Michael does panels at C2E2. So, yes. We’re staying busy.

On that note, back to it!

New! Verity! Extra! — PRIME Lords

It’s April Fools’ Day, so we thought we’d bring you something a bit lighter than usual. Join Deb, Erika, Lynne, and Tansy as we discuss the totally-canonical (according to some) PR1ME computer ads Tom Baker and Lalla Ward did in the early 80s. Wait. I should be clearer–Tom and Lalla did these Australian commercials AS the Doctor and Romana. And they are a glorious thing to behold. If you haven’t already seen them, do yourself a favor!

So what do you think of these commercials? Totally canon? Or just totally fun?

^E

Links!

PR1ME Computer ads (YouTube)

PR1ME Computer ads (transcript)

12th Doctor in five TARDIS console rooms!

Paul Cornell is writing the summer crossover Doctor Who story for Titan Comics!

Peter Capaldi sings “Happy Birthday” at the Doctor Who Experience!

New 10th anniversary YouTube video from John Smith!

Download or listen now (runtime 37:47)  Audio Player

New Verity! Extra! A Titan of Comics

For this week’s Extra, we haven’t watched anything. Instead, we’ve been reading! Join Deb, Erika, Katrina, and Tansy as we talk about the new(ish) line of Doctor Whocomics from Titan Comics. We’ve all read the first five issues of the 10th and 11th Doctors’ series, and some of us have read even farther. We discuss what it’s like to see the Doctor in 2D form and, even more excitingly, we cover the new companions he meets in the pages of these delightful books!

Have you read the Titan comics yet? If so, let us know what you think in the comments! And whether you’ve read them or not, you’re welcome to enter our giveaway–just leave a comment on our giveaway post!

^E

Interesting Links!

9th Doctor Comic:

Writer Cavan Scott’s Website with updates

Youtube Preview

10th Doctor Comic:

Interview with 10th Doctor Comic Writer Nick Abadzis

Issues 1-5 TPB to be released March 25

11th Doctor Comic:

Interview with writer Rob Williams on plotting the timey-wimey issue 6

Issues 1-5 TPB to be released March 25

12th Doctor Comic:

Titan Comic Announcement

Upcoming Crossover Event:

Hollywood Reporter Announcement

Two-Minute Time Lord interview with writer Paul Cornell

Artist announcement and release dates

Bonus link:

Bookshelf Doctors!

Download or listen now (runtime 1:09:46)  Audio Player