31 January 2006

Oscar Nominations Announced
The Motion Picture Academy has announced the nominees for the Academy Awards. the presentations will be made on March 5 at a ceremony hosted by Jon Stewart. Categories with nominees of genre interest are listed below.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Howl's Moving Castle
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Achievement in Art Direction
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
Pride & Prejudice

Achievement in Cinematography
Batman Begins
Brokeback Mountain
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Memoirs of a Geisha
The New World

Achievement in Costume Design
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Memoirs of a Geisha
Mrs. Henderson Presents
Pride & Prejudice
Walk the Line

Achievement in Makeup
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Cinderella Man
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Best Animated Short Film
Badgered
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
9
One Man Band

Achievement in Sound Editing
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
War of the Worlds

Achievement in Sound Mixing
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
Walk the Line
War of the Worlds

Achievement in Visual Effects
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
King Kong
War of the Worlds

30 January 2006

Nolan Named Emeritus
Author William F. Nolan has been named the Author Emeritus by SFWA, to be honored at this year's Nebula Awards Banquet in Tempe, Arizona. Nolan is best known for his novel Logan's Run.

World Fantasy Jury Empanelled
The Jury for this year's World Fantasy Award has been announced. The five judges are Steve Lockley, Barbara Roden, Victoria Strauss, Jeff VanderMeer, and Andrew Wheeler.

Razzie Nominations
The Razzie Award nominations have been announced. The Razzies are given annually to recognize the worst aspects of Hollywood film in a given year.

Worst Screenplay
Bewitched, written by Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron & Adam McKay
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, written by Rob Schneider, David Garrett & Jason Ward
Dirty Love, written by Jenny McCarthy
The Dukes of Hazzard, written by John O'Brien
Son of the Mask, written by Lance Khazei

Worst Director
John Asher, Dirty Love
Ewe Boll, Alone in the Dark
Jay Chandrasekhar, The Dukes of Hazzard
Nora Ephron, Bewitched
Lawrence Gutterman, Son of the Mask

Worst Remake or Sequel
Bewitched
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Dukes of Hazzard
House of Wax
Son of the Mask

Worst Screen Couple
Will Ferrell & Nicole Kidman, Bewitched
Jamie Kennedy & ANYBODY Stuck Sharing the Screen with Him, Son of the Mask
Jenny McCarthy & ANYONE, Dumb Enough to Befriend or Date Her Dirty Love
Rob Schneider & His Diapers, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Jessica Simpson & Her "Daisy Dukes," The Dukes of Hazzard

Worst Supporting Actress
Carmen Electra, Dirty Love
Paris Hilton, House of Wax
Katie Holmes, Batman Begins
Ashlee Simpson, Undiscovered
Jessica Simpson, The Dukes of Hazzard

Worst Supporting Actor
Hayden Christensen, Star Wars III: No Sith, He's Supposed to Be Darth Vader?!?!
Alan Cumming, Son of the Mask
Bob Hoskins, Son of the Mask
Eugene Levy, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Man
Burt Reynolds, The Dukes of Hazzard and The Longest Yard

Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets
Tom Cruise & His Anti-Psychiatry Rant
Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey's Couch, The Eiffel Tower & "Tom's Baby"
Paris Hilton and…Who-EVER!
Mr. & Mrs. Britney, Their Baby & Their Camcorder
The Simpsons: Ashlee, Jessica & Nick

Worst Actress
Jessica Alba, Fantastic Four and Into the Blue
Hilary Duff, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Perfect Man
Jennifer Lopez, Monster in Law J
enny McCarthy, Dirty Love
Tara Reid, Alone in the Dark

Worst Actor
Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds
Will Ferrell, Bewitched and Kicking & Screaming
Jamie Kennedy, Son of the Mask
The Rock, Doom
Rob Schneider, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Worst Picture
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Dirty Love
Dukes of Hazzard
House of Wax
Son of the Mask

SAG Awards
The Screen Actors Guild presented its annual awards on January 29 and genre works were practically shut out. The only award which went to actors in a genre piece was for Best Outstanding Cast in the Television Drama, which was awarded to the cast of "Lost."

Fictionwise Awards
Fictionwise, the on-line e-book purveyor, has announced its Author of the Year and e-book of the year. Both awards are apparently based on sales figures and customer rankings of the works purchased.
Fictionwise e-book: "Winterfair Gifts," by Lois McMaster Bujold
Fictionwise Author: Douglas Lain

Obituary
Bryan Bessor (b.1955) died of cancer on January 27. Bessor was one of the founders of Pennsic War, a SCA event which in 2005 drew more than 10,000 people from around the world. In addition to being active in the SCA, Bessor appeared in local theatre. His family plans to scatter his ashes at Pennsic War in 2006.

28 January 2006

Arthur C. Clarke Nominees
The nominees for the Arthur C. Clarke Award have been announced.
Accelerando, by Charles Stross
Air, by Geoff Ryman
Banner of Souls, by Liz Williams
Learning the World, by Ken MacLeod
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds

Nebula Revision
SFWA President Robin W. Bailey has announced that the film "The Old Negro Space Program" has been dropped from the preliminary ballot as it has been determined that it fell outside the award's requirements in both release date and level of professionalism. After the SFWA Award Rules Committee made its decision, it was appealed by Michael Burstein and the Board of Directors reviewed the evidence and chose to uphold the ruling.

27 January 2006

Crocodiles in the Basement
A scientist at New York's American Museum of Natural History discovered the fossil remains of an ancestor to the crocodile in the museum's basement where the fossil sat, uncatalogued for nearly sixty years. The creature resembles an unrelated dinosaur which flourished 80 million years later. The toothless crocodilian walked upright and was not a dinosaur. It has been named Effigia okeeffeae.

SF Poster Exhibition
The National Cinema Museum/Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, Italy will be sponsoring an exhibition entitled "Things From Another World: Journey Into Science-Fiction Cinema." In addition, a catalogue, including 120 color reproductions, will be available in September. The exhibit will run from May 24 through November 27.

Call for Papers
Wiscon has issued a call for papers for this year's convention. 100 word proposals are due on February 28 to academic30@wiscon.info. Papers discussing the works of this year's guests of honor, Kate Wilhelm and Jane Yolen, are particularly welcome, but papers on all topics will be considered.

Smallest Fish Found
Scientists have discovered the world's smallest fish, a member of the carp family, on Sumatra. The fish, which grows to 7.9 mm in length, has a see-through body, no skull, and lives in acidic peat swamps. In addition, the fish has strong muscles in its pelvic fins which can be used for grasping. Originally discovered in 1996, the fish was initially misidentified as being part of a different, already known, species.

26 January 2006

Smallest Planet Found
Scientist using a relatively new technique for discovering extrasolar planets have discovered the smallest extrasolar planet yet found. Sporting the designation OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, the planet orbits a red dwarf once every ten years at a distance of about 3AU and is believed to be approximately five times Earth's size.. The planet, which is 20,000 light years from Earth, was discovered using gravitational microlensing.

25 January 2006

Disney Buys Pixar
Disney has announced it will acquire Pixar Animation for approximately $7.4 billion. The two companies have long had a collaborative agreement which has resulted in the films "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," and "Monsters, Inc.," among others, but had hit a rocky patch with Pixar planning to purse alternative distribution after they current deal expired. Pixar executives will now run Disney's animation division.

Obituary
Comic dealer Bill Marcinko died in a house fire in late 2005. Marcinko founded AFTA, a fanzine to reverse the commercialization of fandom and creativity. In order to fund the 'zine, he sold off part of his collection, claiming that Bill Marcinko had died and he was a fictitious brother, Dale Marcinko.

24 January 2006

PGA Awards
The Producers Guild of America presented its annual awards on January 23. Three works of genre interest received the award.
Best Animated Picture: "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit"
Best TV Drama: "Lost"
Best Long-Form TV Show: "The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers"

23 January 2006

BSFA Nominations
The British Science Fiction Association has announced the short list for the 2005 BSFA Awards, to be presented on April 15 at the 2006 Eastercon, Concussion. All members of BSFA and attendees of Eastercon are eligible to vote. Ties in the short fiction and artwork categories resulted in more than five nominees.

Novel
9Tail Fox, by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Accelerando, by Charles Stross
Air, by Geoff Ryman
Learning the World, by Ken MacLeod
Living Next Door to the God of Love, by Justina Robson

Short fiction
"Bears Discover Smut," by Michael Bishop
"Bird Songs at Eventide," by Nina Allan
"Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch," by Rudy Rucker
"I, Robot," by Cory Doctorow
"Imagine," by Edward Morries
"Magic for Beginners," by Kelly Link
"Soft Apocalypse," by Will McIntosh
"Two Dreams on Trains," by Elizabeth Bear

Artwork
Cover of Neal Asher's novel Brass Man, by Steve Rawlings
Cover of Brandon Sanderson"s novel Elantris, by Stephan Martinière
Cover of Interzone #200, by Pawel Lewandowski
"Megara," by Max Bertolini
We3 chapter 2 pages 2-3: "Run!," by Frank Quitely
"Weapon Shop," by Kenn Brown

21 January 2006

Obituaries
Actor Anthony Franciosa (b.1928) died on January 20. Franciosa appeared in the film "Dracula in the Castle of Blood" (Nella stretta morsa del ragno) and "Ghost in the Noon Day Sun." Despite more than fifty films and television shows to his credit, including the title role of "Matt Helm," Franciosa may be best known as the ex husband of actress Shelley Winters, who died on January 14

Animator Norm McCabe (b.1911) died on January 20. McCabe was part of the Warner Brothers stable of animators, beginning in 1936 with "Porky in the North Woods" and working until the late 80s. In addition to numerous shorts, he worked on "The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" and "The Adventures of Batman." He also worked as an animator on the classic "Fritz the Cat."

Egyptologist Henry George Fischer (b.1923) died on December 11, 2005. Fischer was one of the forces which fought to save the artifacts of Abu Simbel when Egypt built the Aswan Dam. Fischer's work led to the Egyptian government donating the Temple of Dendur to the US, and its installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

18 January 2006

Obituary
Children's author Jan Mark (b.1943) died on January 15. Mark published three science fiction novels, the Ennead, Divide and Rule, and Aquarius between 1978 and 1982. Most of her novels and short stories were not genre work. In 1993, she was the editor of The Oxford Book of Children's Stories.

17 January 2006

New Horizons
After multiple delays caused by high-level winds on January 17, the New Horizons unmanned mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt was scrubbed due to a red-line fault just over 2½ minutes before the final opportunity for a launch. Another attempt will be made on January 18. January 17 marked the ninth anniversary of the death of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.

Shuttle Danger
According to a memoir about to be published by astronaut Mike Mullane, who flew on three shuttle missions, the space shuttle is the most dangerous spacecraft ever flown by humans. Despite saying that both bureaucrats and astronauts conspired, either knowingly or unknowingly, to decrease the safety of the ship, Mullane notes that he would be willing to ride into space on the shuttle again.

Fantasy at Golden Globes
The only genre work to win a Golden Globe Award, given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, was the ABC television series "Lost," which won for the Best Television Series, Drama category.

16 January 2006

Comet Dust Returns to Earth
The Stardust Probe returned to Earth on January 15 carried particles from Comet Wild 2. Stardust rendezvoused with the comet in 2004. The particles captures from the comet are quite possibly older than the sun and will be examined over the next couple of years to see what clues they reveal about the early solar system. The public can help with the analysis through the Stardust at Home project at http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu.

14 January 2006

Obituary
Filker and author Cynthia McQuillin (b.1953) died on January 14, 2006. A long time filker, McQuillan received the Pegasus Award in 1999 for Best Writer/Composer. In addition, after meeting Marion Zimmer Bradley, she began to write and published more than 15 short stories. She got her start filing for Off Centaur Publications and eventually formed Midlife Crisis with Dr. Jane Robinson.

13 January 2006

Nebula Rule Committee Change
Jack Williamson, who has been on the Nebula Rules Committee since 1990, has announced he will step down. Jeffrey A. Carver will step up to take Williamson's place as the chair of the committee and James Patrick Kelly will join Carver and Connie Willis on the committee.

Budd Plant Comic Art Drawing
To celebrate the release of Thomas Kidd's book Kiddography, Budd Plant Comic Art will be given away three pieces of original Thomas Kidd art to be determined by a random drawing from people who order the book or enter on-line. Entries for the drawing begin on February 1 and will run through the end of April.

11 January 2006

People's Choice Awards
Science fiction and fantasy were shut out in the television, music, and advertising categories of the People's Choice Awards, but won in three categories for films. The People's Choice Awards were presented on January 10.
Favorite Movie Drama: Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Favorite Family Movie: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Favorite Movie: Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

10 January 2006

Critics Award
The 2005 Broadcast Film Critics Awards were presented on January 9. Categories in which genre films won an award are listed below.
Best Animated Feature: "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
Best Young Actor: Freddie Highmore, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
Best Young Actress: Dakota Fanning, "War of the Worlds"
Best Family Film (live action): "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
Distinguished Achievement in Performing Arts: Andy Serkis

Project Yano Gives Books to Iraq & Afghanistan
Joey Donovan, the co-host and co-producer of Sci-fi Overdrive has started Project Yano. This is an attempt to send science fiction paperbacks to US serviceman in Iraq and Afghanistan with instructions to turn the books over to locals after the servicemen have read them. The idea is based on Japanese author Tetsu Yano's discovery of science fiction after an American soldier gave him an old novel. Paperbacks and digests can be sent to:
Project Yano
c/o PayMaster Payroll Services
200 Knuth Road, Suite #206
Boynton Beach, FL 33436

9 January 2006

Philip K. Dick Nominees
The nominees for the Philip K. Dick Award for best paperback original have been announced. The award will be presented on April 14 at Norwescon 29 at the Doubletree Seattle Airport Hotel in Seatac, Washington. This year's judges include Charles Coleman Finlay, Kay Kenyon, Robert Metzger, Lyda Morehouse, and Graham Murphy
Cowl, by Neal Asher
War Surf, by M. M. Buckner
Cagebird, by Karin Lowachee
Natural History by Justina Robson
Silver Screen by Justina Robson
To Crush the Moon by Wil McCarthy

UPC Award Winner Announced
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won the 2005 Universitat Politècnica Catalunya Science Fiction Award for her unpublished novel Diving into the Wreck. The award, considered one of the most prestigious in Europe, comes with a prize of 6,000 euros. An honorable mention, and an award of 1,500 euros, went to Semiótica para Lobos by Vladimir Hernández.

Polaris is a Triple
Newly released images from the Hubble telescope reveal that the star Polaris is a trinary. All three stars in the system are about the same temperature, but the two newly discovered stars are dwarf stars. The nearer star, named Polaris Ab is in an orbit 2 billion miles from Polaris A. The further star, Polaris B, is about 240 billion miles from Polaris.

5 January 2006

Carl Brandon Awards Open for Submission
The first annual Carl Brandon Awards are open to submissions for speculative fiction at long or short length by or about people of color. The awards, which will be presented at Wiscon and carry a $1,000 prize, is juried and named after the fictitious fan created by Terry Carr and Peter Graham. Two awards will be presented, the The Carl Brandon Parallax Award, for works written by a person of color and The Carl Brandon Kindred Award for works dealing with issues of race and ethnicity. Any author is eligible for the Kindred Award.

Screen Actor Nominations
The Screen Actor's Guild has announced the nomination for this year's award. Only categories with nominees of genre interest are listed below. The awards will be presented at 8:00 ET on TNT and TBS.

Best Drama Ensemble
"The Closer"
"Grey's Anatomy"
"Lost"
"Six Feet Under"
"The West Wing"

Best Actress in a TV Drama
Patricia Arquette ("Medium")
Geena Davis ("Commander in Chief")
Mariska Hargitay ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit")
Sandra Oh ("Grey's Anatomy")
Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer")

3 January 2006

Nebula Preliminary Ballot
The Nebula Preliminary Ballot has been released. The members of SFWA will vote in each category to limit the categories to the five items which will appear on the ballot. A jury can then add an additional item to each category (three for the Andre Norton Award) to make up the final ballot. Due to the number of nominees for Novella, Script, and the Andre Norton Award, all items on the preliminary ballot will appear on the final ballot. This is the first year the Andre Norton Award will be presented.

Novels (15)
Bujold, Lois McMaster: The Hallowed Hunt (Eos, May05)
Clarke, Susanna: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Bloomsbury, Sep04)
Czerneda, Julie E.: Survival (Species Imperative 1) (DAW, May04)
Dann, Jack: The Rebel: An Imagined Life of James Dean (William Morrow, Dec04)
Haldeman, Joe: Camouflage (Analog, May04 (Serialized in Analog Mar-May 04, also Ace book Aug 2004))
Hand, Elizabeth: Mortal Love (William Morrow, Jun04)
Marley, Louise: The Child Goddess (Ace, May04)
McDevitt, Jack: Polaris (Ace, Nov04)
Metzger, Robert A.: Cusp (Ace, Jan05)
Mièville, China: Iron Council (Del Rey, Jul04)
Pratchett, Terry: Going Postal (HarperCollins, Oct04)
Robinson, Kim Stanley: Forty Signs of Rain (Bantam Spectra, Jun04)
Ryman, Geoff: Air (St. Martin's Press, Sep04)
Stevenson, Jennifer: Trash, Sex, Magic (Small Beer Press, Jun04)
Williams, Walter Jon: Dread Empire's Fall: The Sundering (Harper Torch, Mar04)

Novellas (5)
Cowdrey, Albert: The Tribes of Bela (F&SF;, Aug04)
Link, Kelly: Magic for Beginners (Magic for Beginners, Small Beer Press, Jul05)
Sawyer, Robert J.: Identity Theft (Down These Dark Spaceways, Mike Resnick, Ed., Science Fiction Book Club, May05)
Sparhawk, Bud: Clay's Pride (Analog, Aug04 (In July/August issue))
Witcover, Paul: Left of the Dial (SCI FICTION (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction), Sep04)

Novelettes (11)
Abraham, Daniel: Flat Diane (F&SF;, Nov04 (Oct/Nov 2004 issue))
Bacigalupi, Paolo: The People of Sand and Slag (F&SF;, Feb04)
Barton, William: Harvest Moon (Asimov's, Sep05)
Cambias, James L.: The Ocean of the Blind (F&SF;, Apr04)
Doctorow, Cory: Anda's Game (Salon.com, Nov04 (Online 15 Nov 04))
Gunn, Eileen and What, Leslie: Nirvana High (Stable Strategies and Others, Tachyon Press, Sep04)
Kelly, Jim: Men are Trouble (Asimov's, Jun04)
Link, Kelly: The Faery Handbag (The Faery Reel: Tales From the Twilight Realm, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Press, Aug04)
McDaid, John G.: Keyboard Practice Consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord with Two Manuals (F&SF;, Jan05)
Melko, Paul: Strength Alone (Asimov's, Dec04)
Shope, Beth: Dragon's Eye (Lords of Swords, Daniel E. Blackston, Ed., Pitch-Black Books, Dec04)

Short Stories (15)
Anderson, Kevin J. and Moesta, Rebecca: Rough Draft (Analog, Feb05 (Jan/Feb 2005 issue)
Bailey, Dale: The End of the World as We Know It (F&SF;, Nov04 (Oct/Nov 2004 issue))
Bowes, Richard: There's a Hole in the City (SCI FICTION (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction), Jun05)
Emshwiller, Carol: I Live With You (F&SF;, Mar05)
Harris, Anne: Still Life With Boobs (Talebones, Aug05 (In Summer 2005 issue))
Hemry, John G.: Small Moments in Time (Analog, Dec04)
Kress, Nancy: My Mother, Dancing (Asimov's, Jun04)
Lethem, Jonathan: Super Goat Man (New Yorker, Apr04 (Appeared 5 Apr 2004))
Resnick, Mike: A Princess of Earth (Asimov's, Dec04)
Rickert, M.: Cold Fires (F&SF;, Nov04 (Oct/Nov 2004 issue))
Rosenbaum, Benjamin: Start the Clock (F&SF;, Aug04)
Schoen, Lawrence M.: The Sky's the Limit (All Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, David Moles and Jay Lake, Ed., Wheatland Press, Nov04)
Vukcevich, Ray: Glinky (F&SF;, Jun04)
Webster, Bud: Christus Destitutus (Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic, F. Brett Cox and Andy Duncan, Ed., Tor, Aug04)
Wentworth, K.D.: Born-Again (F&SF;, May05)

Scripts (2)
Bobrow, Andy: The Old Negro Space Program (www.negrospaceprogram.com, Apr05 (Andy Bobrow writer/director.))
Whedon, Joss: Serenity (Universal Pictures, Sep05)

Andre Norton Award (1)
Black, Holly: Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie (Simon & Schuster, Jun05)

2 January 2006

Wooden Rockets
The Winners of the 2005 Wooden Rockets Award, presented by Crowsnest, have been announced. These awards are a fannish-voted award for SF excellence on the web.
Best Online Magazine: Sci-Fiction, http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/
Best Print-to-Web Magazine: Locus Online, www.LocusMag.com
Best Author Site: The Manifold (Stephen Baxter), www.themanifold.co.uk
Best Artist Site: Michael Whelan, www.michaelwhelan.com
Best Gallery Site: asfa, www.asfa-art.org
Best Print Publisher Site: The Black Library, www.blacklibrary.com
Best E-book Publisher Site: Blackmask Online, www.blackmask.com
Best E-book Site: FB Hamilton, www.slicerdragon.com
Best Official Movie Site: Serenity, www.serenitymovie.com
Best Fan Movie Site: Kong is King, www.kongisking.net
Best Official TV Site: Doctor Who, http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/index.shtml
Best Fan TV Site: Krypton Site, www.kryptonsite.com
Best Online SFF store: Forbidden Planet, www.forbiddenplanet.com
Best Directory Site: Internet Speculative Fiction Database, www.isfdb.org
Best Convention/Organisation/Society Site: SF Hub, www.sfhub.ac.uk
Best Foreign Language Site: Galaxies, www.galaxies-sf.com
Best Blog: Boing Boing, www.boingboing.net
Best Rich Content: TSFPN, www.tsfpn.com

Obituary
Fan "Big Hearted" Howard DeVore (b.1925) died on December 31 following a stay in the hospital for an infection in his legs. DeVore had been active in fandom since the 1930s, and when he went off to fight in World War II, he padlocked his collection in a room in his parents' house to ensure it would be safe, and took the key with him. DeVore published numerous fanzines and was active in several fannish ventures, including NFFF and First Fandom. DeVore was also a book and magazine dealer. He had been scheduled to be the fan guest of honor at LACon III in 2006. DeVore was nominated for the Best Hugo in the Related Work category in 1999 for his book The Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.

1 January 2006

Infinite Matrix Finite
Eileen Gunn has announced that Infinite Matrix, which has been on-line since August 2001, will cease publication in early 2006, although the content will remain up for at least a year. Gunn explains that she now believes it will be impossible to break even, an opinion confirmed to her by the recent decision by SciFi.com to close SciFiction.

Special Hugo Category
LACon IV, the 2006 Worldcon, has announced a special category for Best Interactive Video Game. This category will allow games, for any platform, to be nominated for a Hugo Award. This award is only to be given in 2006 for games released in 2005. The category implies, but does not make it clear, that a single game is considered the same on multiple platforms.

Obituary
Rona Jaffe (b.1931) died on December 30. Jaffe's tie to the genre was the novel "Mazes and Monsters," an indictment of the Dungeons and Dragons fad of the early 1980s. "Mazes and Monsters," which espoused the idea that role-playing led to more dangerous activities was also turned into a film of the same title starring Tom Hanks.