Amy H. Sturgis's Blog, page 163

Friday Film News: The Hobbit and Harry Potter Updates

Tremendous thanks to everyone who responded to my poll yesterday about the best time travel stories. I'll be replying to comments shortly.

For now, I simply have to say that two news items have utterly made my day:

First, confirmation of those lovely rumors about The Hobbit (casting spoiler alert!): Benedict Cumberbatch will be voicing (and portraying via motion capture) the dragon Smaug and also voicing the Necromancer.

Second, yesterday's new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

See here:



Happy Friday, everyone!


They debated long on what was to be done, but they could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug - which had always been a weak point in their plans, as Bilbo felt inclined to point out.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

The Best Time Travel Stories?

Hahaha! I've been quoted on Tumblr. Even though it's a snarky fandom comment, I'll own it, anyway. Proof that nothing you say online every really dies...

There's a possibility that I may, in fairly short order, need to generate a list of my top ten choices for a "The Best Time Travel Stories" (at this point, including both novels and short fiction, although I might limit myself to novels if I get too overwhelmed).

I don't want to forget anything crucial!

Ideally, I'd like them to be both excellent and important. Several immediately come to mind, of course, such as...

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein (I'd choose this over "All You Zombies," but only by a hair.)
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Company Series by Kage Baker (No, I'm not above cheating and counting a series as a single work. Shameless, I am.)

Some of my other favorites (such as Daphne du Maurier's The House on the Strand) I'll have to think over, and others of the usual suspects (such as Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court") are so very obvious, I'll have to think them over, too. And what about Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet? After all, I've reread A Swiftly Tilting Planet more than any of these works, with the exception only of The Time Machine...

What say you, my brilliant friends? What would be on your list?

View Poll: What are the best time travel stories (novels or short fiction)?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!


"But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day."
~ Benjamin Disraeli

Lovecraft, Darkness in YA Fiction, Nyx is Available, Etc.

My most recent StarShipSofa "Looking Back on Genre History" segment, which discusses H.P. Lovecraft's non-fiction essay "In Defense of Dagon," is now available in the latest episode of the podcast. You can download it or listen to it here. This is the first part of a two-part special; in the second half, I'll be discussing Lovecraft's non-fiction essays "Supernatural Horror in Literature," "Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction," and "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction." If you listen, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)


So, there's been a whopper of a controversy very interesting discussion about young adult fiction lately...
It started with Meghan Cox Gurdon's essay "Darkness Too Visible: Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?" in which Gurdon makes an aside about "the hyper-violent, best-selling 'Hunger Games' trilogy and Sherman Alexie's prize-winning novel 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'" (both of which, I should mention, I've taught in my university courses, and both of which I've reread for my own personal edification).
The YA community answered Gurdon. Loudly.
And there's more at Hogwarts Professor, specifically on Gurdon's use/misuse of The Hunger Games: "We Didn't Start the Fire: Young Adult Reading Controversy."

In other news, I failed to post a couple of days ago on the anniversary of the Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders in Locust Grove. (For my past posts on this topic, see here.) There are, however, a couple of new developments...
As of this week, the brand new book Tent Number Eight: An Investigation of the Girl Scout Murders and the Trial of Gene Leroy Hart by Gloyd McCoy is available for order. I'll report back as soon as I've read it. (I'll probably give Someone Cry for the Children: The Unsolved Girl Scout Murders of Oklahoma and the Case of Gene Leroy Hart another read for comparison's sake, as well.)
John Russell says his forthcoming fictional film about the 1977 killings of three Girl Scouts in Oklahoma will reveal the identity of the actual killer: "Man Hopes to Solve 1977 Triple Killing." I don't really know what to think about this. I'm withholding judgment until I know more.

In happier news, the Smart Pop Books anthology Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore and Religion in the P.C. and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series is now available! It includes my essay "Reimagining 'Magic City': How the Casts Mythologize Tulsa."





In parting, a couple of thoughts with reference to the Gurdon/Young Adult Fiction controversy...

"Their [children's] books like their clothes should allow for growth, and their books at any rate should encourage it." - J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories"

"I think it possible that by confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happens, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable." - C.S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"

with its usual severity

Oh dear... somehow an entire week has flown by! How did that happen? I hope all is well with all of my friends. Happy Friday!

ConCarolinas was a marvelous time, one of the best con experiences I've had. The panels were very well attended (a packed room for Sherlock!), the discussions wonderful, and the fan meetup was terrific. Incidentally, the panel I moderated on the 11th Doctor Who (another well attended and fantastic time) was filmed for YouTube by Gallifrey Pirate Radio. I'll post when it goes live.

Speaking of the con, here are three new podcasts (two are new, the third is new to me) I recommend:
Gallifrey Pirate Radio
Led by the fabulous Davey Beauchamp, this is Doctor Who love for both newcomers and classic Who fans alike.
Baker Street Babes
Everything Arthur Conan Doyle, from the canon texts to Sherlock.
Rippercast
Jonathan Menges, a roundtable of co-hosts and special guests discuss topics related to the Whitechapel Murders, Jack the Ripper, Victorian British history, and whatever else suits their fancy.

Also related to the con, here are the two forthcoming books I'm most excited to read:
Soul Thief by Jana Oliver, the sequel to The Demon Trapper's Daughter (which I very much enjoyed)
Publish date: August 30, 2011
Thieftaker by D.B. Jackson (a.k.a. David B. Coe)
Publish date: Spring 2012

A couple of other notes:
So many wonderful people were born this month! Happy early birthday wishes to magicwondershow , groovekittie , eveningblue , peadarog , thehornedgod , baylorsr , and lin4gondor . May each of you enjoy many happy returns of the day.
Check out the Young Adult Dystopia Story Generator! (Thanks to wellinghall .)


see more Historic LOL

Summer has set in with its usual severity.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

ConCarolinas or Bust!

Happy birthday to chorale , and happy early birthday to nakeisha , poenari , ebonange , frodosweetstuff , and primroseburrows . May all of you enjoy a wonderful day and a brilliant year to come!

I'll soon be off to ConCarolinas. (My schedule is here.) Have a great weekend!

A few news items:

* This casting news regarding The Hunger Games and this casting news regarding The Hobbit (and you can tell from the details that Sir Ian provides it can only mean one particular role) make me very happy indeed.

* Librivox.org now has an unabridged reading of the 1920 science fiction/fantasy classic A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay available.

* A new album by The Cars? Child of the '80s that I am, I love The Cars. I want to listen to and enjoy this. But my favorite voice in the band was Benjamin Orr, and he's no longer with us. I find myself in a quandary. What to do? (The obvious answer, of course, is to leave it for now and just revel in the glory of the new Kate Bush album instead.)

I'll leave you with a music video retrospective of the Harry Potter films, for those of you who are feeling a bit nostalgic:



Do what we can, summer will have its flies.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

ConCarolinas Schedule

Happy early birthdays to gondoriangirl , vivien529 , and senket . May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!


Next weekend is ConCarolinas! I hope to see some of you there.

I've got my panel schedule. Apparently I give off moderator-ish vibes these days. Respect my authority! (Ha.)

ConCarolinas Schedule

Friday, June 3
6pm The Hobbit Movie (I'm moderator)

Saturday, June 4
9am Star Trek Memories (I'm moderator)

12pm Sherlock (I'm moderator)

8pm Harry Potter: Books vs. Movies

Sunday, June 5
10am The 11th Doctor Who in Review (I'm moderator)


It looks like a really fun lineup. In addition, there's a meetup in the works for fans of Sherlock on Saturday afternoon.


I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
- Jack Handey, "Deep Thoughts"

Happy Towel Day!

Happy Towel Day to all of you hoopy froods!

Here's a festive video for the day:



And here's a quote for the day...

"Yes," said the old man, pausing to gaze hopelessly round the room. "Ten million years of planning and work gone just like that. Ten million years, Earthman... can you conceive of that kind of time span? A galactic civilization could grow from a single worm five times over in that time. Gone." He paused.

"Well that's bureaucracy for you," he added.

"You know," said Arthur thoughtfully, "all this explains a lot of things. All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was."

"No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that."

"Everyone?" said Arthur. "Well, if everyone has that perhaps it means something! Perhaps somewhere outside the Universe we know..."

"Maybe. Who cares?" said Slartibartfast before Arthur got too excited. "Perhaps I'm old and tired," he continued, "but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway."

He rummaged around in a pile of debris and pulled out a large perspex block with his name on it and a model of Norway moulded into it.

"Where's the sense in that?" he said. "None that I've been able to make out. I've been doing fjords in all my life. For a fleeting moment they become fashionable and I get a major award."

He turned it over in his hands with a shrug and tossed it aside carelessly, but not so carelessly that it didn't land on something soft.

"In this replacement Earth we're building they've given me Africa to do and of course I'm doing it with all fjords again because I happen to like them, and I'm old fashioned enough to think that they give a lovely baroque feel to a continent. And they tell me it's not equatorial enough. Equatorial!" He gave a hollow laugh. "What does it matter? Science has achieved some wonderful things of course, but I'd far rather be happy than right any day."

"And are you?"

"No. That's where it all falls down of course."

- from Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Podcasting and Hunger Games News

Happy Monday!

New publication/podcast news! Onirismes is a bilingual webzine (English - French), dedicated to publishing short fiction and poetry that belong in the fields of speculative and fantastic literature (fantasy, science fiction, and all kinds of interstitial experiments). The first issue is now available as both a print work and a podcast here. I'm very happy to say I narrated Claude Mamier's haunting story "She in Ashes" for this debut podcast. I hope you'll listen and enjoy, as well as check out all the terrific material Onirismes has for genre fans.


Also, I wanted to follow up on my previous post about local filming of the film adaptation of The Hunger Games . As it turns out, we were right! The Henry River Mill Village will be used for District 12. The old homes will be the homes of District 12 residents, and the abandoned general store (see below) will be the bakery owned by Peeta Mellark's father.



You can read more (and see additional pictures from the current site as it's being prepared) from yesterday's local paper here.


"Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games"
- Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

News from My 'Verse

Just a few quick notes today...

* My most recent StarShipSofa "Looking Back on Genre History" segment, which discusses the nearly-forgotten speculative fiction writings of author Ella Scrymsour (including short stories with the first great fictional female "paranormal detective," Shiela Crerar, Psychic Investigator), is now available in the latest episode of the podcast. You can download it or listen to it here. If you listen, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)

* Today's TeeFury shirt design is from Fringe!

* The Mythopoeic Society has announced the finalists for the 2011 Mythopoeic Awards. A number of terrific titles made the final ballot. I'm pleased to see that Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien is a nominee for "Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies." (This collection includes my essay "'Tolkien is the Wind and the Way': The Educational Value of Tolkien-Inspired World Music.") Congratulations to editor Bradford Lee Eden, and to all of the nominees!




I've got no use for dragons,
I've got no use for swords.
I'll never make a wordy toast
To a table full of lords.

Of pearls and opals give me none,
Of rubies red as fire;
The beer at The Prancing Pony
Is all that I desire.
- "The King's Beer," Glass Hammer

One of the Great Watsons

Alas, the world today has lost one of its great Dr. John Watsons...

R.I.P., Edward Hardwicke (1932-2011). Here's the announcement in The Stage.