Blog Posts

My Superpower: Mur Lafferty

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Mur Lafferty to talk about how the power of giving nicknames relates (not quite) to The Ghost Train to New Orleans. ——————————————— My super power is dormant; I haven’t used it for years. Like most powers, I didn’t realize I had it until the power had gotten out of control. I have the power to give people nicknames that stick. I started with myself — totally unintentionally. My name wasn’t Mur when I went to college; it was just a pet name my parents called me. But there was another woman named Mary in our suite of eight, so I decided since very few people knew me, I could start introducing myself as Mur. It worked. Now only my aunts, bankers, and doctors call me Mary. Everyone else calls me Mur.

Blog Posts

#16 — Godzilla (1954) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB16Godzilla1954AShootTheWISBDiscussion/Shoot%20the%20WISB%20%2316%20–%20Godzilla%20%281954%29%20–%20A%20Shoot%20the%20WISB%20Discussion.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSKaiju classics, Tokyo destruction, and mad science, oh my!  Shaun, Julia, Paul, Mike, and Kaiju Master David join forces to tackle Ishiro Honda’s 1954 classic, Godzilla (or Gojira), for the World SF Tour! Question for everyone:  What is your favorite kaiju movie and/or favorite kaiju? Spoiler Alert:  the following podcast contains spoilers for the film being reviewed; if you wish to see the film without having it ruined for you, download this podcast and save it for later. Download the episode here. Show notes (info about our contributors can be found on the about page): Godzilla (1954)(IMDB) Godzilla (Criterion Edition on BluRay, DVD, or Digital) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKPY3LkotE

Blog Posts

Book Review: Debris by Jo Anderton

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Tanyana is an architect, and a pretty good one, if you’d ask her. Actually, Pride is indeed her nearly mortal sin. While her control of pions, the magical particles at the base of all of the technomagic of the city of Movac-under-Kepper is indeed strong and clever, it is not perfect. An incident in the construction of a great and mighty statue leaves Tanyana cut off from being able to see and access pions. Worse, from her perspective, her abilities have been replaced with the underclass ability to see and manipulate debris, the waste product, the garbage created by pion technology. This debris can be actively dangerous to society, and those capable of manipulating it are tasked with cleaning it up and keeping it from harming the city. And so, the proud and mighty architect has become something she never expected and never wanted–a lowly garbage collector.

Announcements and Errata

The World SF Tour: Marvelous March Dates!

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Here’s what’s on the tour docket for March: 3/14:  Shoot the WISB episode on Godzilla (1954) 3/18:  Shoot the WISB episode on Babylon 5 (Season One; Disc Four) w/ Erika Ensign & Jaimie Wyman 3/29:  Discussion of Brazilian speculative fiction (tentative) 3/31:  Torture Cinema (title TBA) D/U:  Discussion of Japanese speculative fiction (tentative) D/U:  Interview w/ Sofia Samatar at ICFA (tentative) D/U:  Other recordings at ICFA are TBA; we may or may not drop them in March, depending on which episodes have to be pushed back to April D/U = Date Undetermined There are still a bunch of things up in the wind for March, but we should have everything figured out by the end of the week!

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Jonathan Wood

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Jonathan Wood to talk about how the power of Multitasking and Toothpaste relates to No Hero. —————————————— When asked to write about my super power, I panicked. I am British and middle class. There’s my ability to consume staggering amounts of bland, flavorless food, but that doesn’t seem like exactly the right subject matter. So I did what I usually do when I am at a loss. I turned to my wife. She shrugged (which, in retrospect, was not the most encouraging sign) and said, “You could write about your multi-tasking thing.”

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