Top 10 Posts and Episodes for November 2013

By popular demand (Paul!), I present to you the top 10 posts and episodes for November 2013. Enjoy! Posts: Out-Brutalling the Last Guy: “Grim and gritty, yes…but make sure it’s doing some honest work” by K.V. Johansen Worldbuilding: Why It Ain’t So Easy by Stina Leicht Mining the Genre Asteroid: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (post by Paul Weimer) Adventures in SF Parenting: the Wild, Wild Web by Jen Zink Mining the Genre Asteroid: Way Station by Clifford Simak (post by Paul Weimer) The Disquieting Guest — Horror in/and Fantasy by David Annandale LitBits: The Politics of Author/Work Separation by Shaun Duke Movie Review: Mama (2013) by Stina Leicht The Disquieting Guest — A Belated Explanation by David Annandale Geekomancer Under Glass: Beyond the Capes (Part Two) by Mike Underwood Episodes: 177. Nick Mamatas — Love is the Law (An Interview) Episode 4.2 — Torture Cinema Meets The Wicker Man 175. Religion and Genre Fiction w/ Max Gladstone & David Levine (A Discussion) 176. Sam Sykes at Worldcon (An Interview of Sorts) 174. Cassandra Rose Clarke at Worldcon (An Interview of Sorts) 178. Emma Newman (a.k.a. Tea & Cake) — The Split Worlds Trilogy #05 — Pacific Rim (2013) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion w/ Michael R. Underwood #03 — Man of Steel (2013) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion w/ David Annandale and Michael R. Underwood Episode 84 — Women in Military SF (or The Kratman Rule is B.S.) 173. The Gate (1987) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” (the Halloween Special)
Torture Cinema Poll: 2013 Christmas Special! (You Decide)

You know the drill. VOTE!
Torture Cinema Poll: November Torture (You Decide)

It’s that time again! You know the drill. Vote!
Announcement: Skiffy and Fanty 3.0 Begins Now!

A lot of things are happening around the Skiffy and Fanty compound. Big things. You’ve already heard about Stina Leicht joining the crew and the World SF Tour. Now it’s time to announce the next big step for the show: the 3.0 Upgrade. What is it? 3.0 is the next phase of The Skiffy and Fanty Show. It will involve a slightly revamped audio program and a complete content overhaul on the blog. We decided it was time to take this venture to the next level, and everyone who has contributed to this show in recent weeks jumped on board without much hesitation. When you have that many people enthusiastically jumping into the mixer, you just can’t ignore it! Here’s what you can expect from the podcast for the next few months (before the World SF Tour kicks off): 3-4 discussion/interview episodes of the podcast, including our Worldcon interviews and new interviews with Nick Mamatas, Emma Newman, Ann Leckie, Doug Lain, and more. The continuation of the Torture Cinema feature: September (Sharknado — recorded at Worldcon), October (The Gate — the Halloween Special), November (listener’s choice), and December (listener’s choice — the Christmas and Winter Holiday Special) 1-2 episodes of Shoot the WISB, featuring reviews of new movies and/or re-watches of movies (coming soon: The World’s End, the Riddick Trilogy, and a Babylon 5 re-watch) And here’s what you can expect from the blog: Almost daily posts, each one written by an S&F crew member. These will include discussions about recent SF/F-related events and reflections about genre fiction, geek parenting, the business world of SF/F, the wonders of horror, and much more. Our new “My Superpower” guest posts (Stina Leicht is the first victim)(authors are welcome to email us if they’d like to write one) A new monthly post: Recommend Reads (self-explanatory, I hope) A maybe, just maybe, a few more things! This is just the beginning for 3.0. Who is involved? The Skiffy and Fanty Crew’s contributions will be made by our regulars — Shaun Duke, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, Jen Zink, and Adam Callaway — and by a whole bunch of new folks, including David Annandale, Stina Leicht, Mike R. Underwood, and Keffy Kehrli. Basically, Jen decided five people wasn’t enough for a single podcast, so she went ahead and added four more, bringing our total up to nine. We’re pretty sure it’ll turn out OK. How can you get involved? Join the Discussion! Leave a comment, email us your opinions about an episode, or share our stuff on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and wherever else you feel like. S&F is an open door. If you’ve got something to say, then say it. And if you want to help contribute to the show or the blog, let us know. Nothing like a crowd to make a blog and a show, wouldn’t you say? There may be more announcements in the future. For now, enjoy the beginning of what we hope will be a really good thing indeed!
Torture Cinema Poll: The Halloween Special (You Decide!)

We’re getting close to recording our Halloween Special episode of Torture Cinema, which means we have to pick a movie! You know the drill. Vote!
Announcement: The World SF Tour Begins in 2014 (Here We Come!)

(Note: if you’re just arriving to this post, you can find episodes for the World SF Tour under the Interviews tab; additionally, posts and other materials will be listed under the World SF Tour label.) For those who hung out with us over the course of this year’s Worldcon, you’ll have heard us talk about our 2014 schedule or seen our magic “We’re All About World SF in 2014” super special t-shirts (pics coming soon). But all of you at home missed the big announcement: The Skiffy and Fanty Show is proud to announced our 2014 World SF Tour. What does this mean? One of the things we care a great deal about on this show is diversity in SF/F. But we’re all based in the U.S., which means it is easy for the show to get stuck on what’s going on here. Since 2014 is the same year of the World Cup (Brazil!), a huge international competition, we decided to celebrate SF/F from all over the world at the same time. The World SF Tour will consist of discussions about World SF, the SF/F literary traditions in non-U.S. spaces, and related topics, along with interviews with SF/F authors from as many places as we can fit on a single season of the show. So far, we know we’re going to talk to South African, Japanese, Irish, Canadian, and Israeli authors, critics, translators, and publishers. That list of countries will get much longer (we’re working on authors and fans from the Middle East, Central and South America, other parts of the African continent, the Caribbean, and so much more)! How can you help? Share this news with the community. The biggest challenge will be reaching writers, editors, translators, and fans from other parts of the world. Let’s face it: the Earth is actually quite a big place, with over two hundred individual countries and more languages than we can count on our figures. So if you know somebody from Nigeria, South Korea, New Zealand, Qatar, American Samoa, etc. (or someone who knows a lot about the SF/F in X country), let them know about what we’re doing! Authors, publishers, editors, filmmakers, and translators from all over the world should contact us at skiffyandfanty[at]gmail[dot]com and tell us about yourself. Do you have a book coming out next year? A movie? Do you work with translators to or from a language? Contact us! We’re going to try to cover as many topics, peoples, and countries as we can, but we can’t do that without people to talk to! So that’s the big announcement. Long live World SF! ————————————————————- Note: We’ll still have American guests; when we say “the world,” we mean “the world” and not some essentialized version where there’s the “United States” and “Everyone Else.” The U.S. isn’t the center of the universe, so a true World SF tour has to acknowledge the contributions of writers from as many places as we can possibly fit in a year.