Top 10 Posts and Episodes for May 2017
Time for another statistics post! Here’s what readers and listeners loved on our blog or podcast throughout May 2017: Top Posts: A Book by its Cover: The Dispatcher by John Scalzi (written by Shaun Duke) Metropolis (1927), Feminism, and Influence by Stina Leicht The 2017 Charity Fundraiser for Human Rights Watch: Make Us Review Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) for a Good Cause! (PLEASE DONATE!) Book Review: CUCKOO SONG by Frances Hardinge (written by Daniel Haeusser) Breaking News: Peter Jackson to turn The Silmarillion into a 14-movie epic by Mike Martinez Book Review: All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (written by Paul Weimer) Switching Between Lanes by Stephanie Burgis Ten Post-Apocalyptic Novels Written by Women by Nicolette Stewart Book Review: The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley (written by Paul Weimer) Book Review: Children of the Different by S.C. Flynn (written by Daniel Haeusser) Top Episodes: 324. Inclusivity in Fairy Tales — A Discussion w/ Sara Cleto, Brittany Warman, and Shveta Thakrar #55. Attack the Block (2011) — A Shoot the WISB Subcast w/ Tiara W. Signal Boost #6: Sophia Chester (Cosmic Callisto Caprica/Rocket Romance) and Heather Rose Jones (Alpennia Series/Lesbian Historic Motif Project) 313. Looking Back, Moving Forward: Anticipating 2017 Signal Boost #3: A Conversation about Marvel’s Nazi Problem Signal Boost #4: Gideon Marcus (GalacticJourney.org) and Andrew Barton (Tailings of the Golden Age) 323. Betsy Dornbusch (a.k.a. The God Sword) — Enemy (An Interview) Signal Boost #5: A Conversation about CoGeeko Ergo Sum 322. Babylon A.D. (2008) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” w/ DongWon Song #58. Night Watch (2004) w/ Juan Sanmiguel — A Shoot the WISB Subcast What did you enjoy the most? Let us know in the comments!
Top 10 Posts and Episodes for April 2017
Time for another statistics post! Here’s what readers loved on our blog or podcast throughout April 2017: Top Posts: Metropolis (1927), Feminism, and Influence by Stina Leicht Beyond the Cliché Shelf: Making Characters Vibrant and Unexpected by Aliette de Bodard Breaking News: Peter Jackson to turn The Silmarillion into a 14-movie epic by Michael J. Martinez Book Review: CUCKOO SONG by Frances Hardinge (Reviewed by Daniel Haeusser) Ten Post-Apocalyptic Novels Written by Women by Nicolette Stewart The Intersection: AI and Creator-bias by Stina Leicht Book Review: Wothwood by Natania Barron (Reviewed by Paul Weimer) Book Review: The Weight of the World by Tom Toner (Reviewed by Paul Weimer) Book Review: Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (Reviewed by Paul Weimer) Book Review: The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard (Reviewed by Paul Weimer) Top Episodes: Signal Boost #1: George Sandison (2084) and Alexandra Pierce (Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler) 321. The Immigrant Experience in SFF w/ Sabrina Vourvoulias, Rose Lemberg, and Bogi Takács #55. Attack the Block (2011) — A Shoot the WISB Subcast w/ Tiara W. #03. The Last Command — Thrawn and On and On (A Star Wars Literary Podcast) 317. Disability in SF/F — A Discussion w/ Sarah Chorn and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry 313. Looking Back, Moving Forward: Anticipating 2017 #57. Get Out (2017) w/ Faridah Gbadamosi and Andrew Hackley — A Shoot the WISB Subcast 294. Mazes and Monsters (1982) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” 320. Alex Wells/Acks (a.k.a. Social Justice Biker Witch) — Hunger Makes the Wolf (An Interview) 304. Scott Lynch and Elizabeth Bear (a.k.a. The Rakish Rogue and the Sky Marshall) — An Interview What did you enjoy the most? Let us know in the comments!
Quick Update on the RSS Feed and iTunes (Check Your Feeds)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/PodcastUpdateFeedsAndITunes/Podcast%20Update%20–%20Feeds%20and%20iTunes.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSFolks following us on Twitter may have noticed some concern regarding our two RSS feeds: the full feed to the blog/podcast and the podcast only feed for iTunes (or folks just trying to snatch the podcasts, not the blog). This is what happened: We use Feedburner to funnel the podcast to iTunes and podcast directories, and we keep a dedicated podcast feed so these directories only get pinged for media files and not for blog posts (which limits how many eps show up at a time). A few days ago, I went into Feedburner to update both feeds to make sure the information was up-to-date. For the podcast, that included an updated description, updated cast list, and so on. In the course of doing this, Feedburner started renaming both feeds to the same address. I don’t know why, but it happened so many times in a row that I actually got confused which feed was supposed to have which address. Eventually, I got the feeds corrected, but by then, iTunes and iTunes derivative programs were registering a problem with the feed; at least two people reported that they could download episodes, but could not properly subscribe. Since iTunes can take up to a week to register changes to a feed, I have no idea if this is a permanent error or if the changes to the feed confused iTunes enough that it’s locked onto a feed that doesn’t exist or isn’t the correct feed. On top of that, Feedburner now registers a massive drop in subs to both feeds, which may or may not be relevant depending on when it did its last subscriber “catch” and depending on how many people checked their feeds on Friday (the last day Feedburner would have grabbed subscriber numbers). Either way, it’s weird. I don’t currently have a solution for iTunes or iTunes derivative users. It may be weeks before I can fix whatever is wrong with our iTunes page (a week to find out if the feed corrected itself and possibly another week to correct any errors that might exist). It may turn out that all of this is worrying for nothing; the feed could correct itself on iTunes and everything could work out just fine. For everyone else, the feeds should work just fine, though you should probably update your RSS reader or podcast catcher so it grabs the appropriate feed. If you want the full blog, use this feed; if you want the podcast ONLY, use this feed. Sorry for the inconvenience! Download the audio version here.
Tobias Buckell on the (New) Art of The Xenowealth Saga
In 2006, I came out with my first novel in the US, a somewhat hard-to-categorize (I’m told, I think it makes perfect sense, I wrote it after all) science fiction novel with Caribbean peoples settled on an alien world that have long since lost touch with their home world. That was Crystal Rain. I alternated between calling it Caribbean steampunk (a few years early, I think, for steampunk) and Caribbean SF. It had a cover I adored — created by the amazing Todd Lockwood, a well known fantasy artist who’s work is amazing. I have a print of the art framed on my wall: an airship above a verdant forest being chased by another distant ship. But when the novel came out, booksellers emailed me to say that the cover looked like the book was a fantasy, creating confusion among casual browsers. Core SF readers didn’t want to pick up the book. Fantasy readers put it down when they realized what it was.
Update: Blog and Podcast Feed Changes!
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShowRRSFeedAndITunesUpdate/The%20Skiffy%20and%20Fanty%20Show%20–%20RRS%20Feed%20and%20iTunes%20Update.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSI’ve attached a brief audio explanation for the feed changes for our blog. This is to make sure folks who are subscribed to the old feed will get the update, as the following things have changed: I have split the podcast feed from the regular blog feed to facilitate iTunes’ rules. That means there are two feeds: one associated with iTunes (which is the feed most of you are subscribed to; this feed now only includes media items) and a new feed which includes all content. Why did I do this? Simple. The way iTunes works is it recognizes every item in the RSS feed as a “post.” However, it only adds to its own feed those items which contain media elements. If we have 3 podcasts and 7 posts over the course of a week or something, it will only recognize the podcasts, but count the posts against the “total.” This means that our iTunes feed will show considerably less content in podcast form than we actually have. Why? I don’t know. That’s just how things work. And that means anyone who reads this blog, rather than subscribes via iTunes, will have to update their feed. If you look to the right, you’ll see two RSS feeds (Full Feed and Email) and the iTunes feed. If you don’t use iTunes (or you use both so you can read the posts), you’ll need to update your feed to the new one there. Just click the link and update what you’ve got. And that’s it. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully it won’t be too big of a deal for everyone. Thanks for listening. Have a great holiday!
