Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
The Star Wars Celebration website has been updated with a pre-order store.
You can now order a t-shirt with Yoda all aglow in the Celebration VI logo. You can only get this design through pre-order at $30 (U.S.) You must have a ticket to order.
Also available is the souvenir program for $20. However, it appears that will be available on-site.
Go forth and shop!
Awards. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America gave out the Nebula Awards last weekend, and I’m shocked that my pick, Jo Walton’s Among Others, took the novel prize. Other winners include Kij Johnson, Geoff Ryman, and Ken Liu.
A Neil Gaiman-penned episode of Doctor Who, ‘The Doctor’s Wife,’ took the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and Delia Sherman’s The Freedom Maze won the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. Connie Willis was honored as a Grand Master, and the Solstice Award (“for those who have made a consistent, positive, major difference in the genre”) went to the late Octavia Butler and John Clute.
First look. Aaron Allston is currently revising his novels Doc Sidhe and Sidhe-Devil, and offers an early look at the new cover for Doc Sidhe. He hopes to make a new edition of the book available in the summer. In other Allstony news, he’s among the authors of a new short story anthology that will be published at Origins Game Fair , where, coincidently, several Club Jaders will be next week. Timothy Zahn and Michael A . Stackpole also have stories, as well as a few other names that may be familiar.
Comics. Marvel will be hosting its first gay wedding in June, as X-Man Northstar weds his partner Kyle in Astonishing X-Men #51. Northstar, a founding member of Alpha Flight, (the Canadian Avengers, apparently) has been out of the four-color closet since 1992. Making use of their parent company’s corporate clout, Marvel announced the move on morning talk show The View.
Not to be oudone, DC Comics recently announced that they’ll soon be reintroducing an existing character as gay. DC reimaged the character of Batwoman, Kate Kane, as a lesbian in 2009.
Something else worth checking out: A look at the evolution of LGBT characters in comics, fandom, and YA lit.
Look at your life, look at your choices. Ex-Twilight fan fiction Fifty Shades of Grey has sold 10 million copies. “BookScan data indicates that the trilogy has captured twenty-five percent of the adult fiction market in recent weeks.” Twenty. Five. Percent. Meanwhile, MTV’s Josh Horowitz risked opening up some kind of wormhole by getting Kristen Stewart (among others) to read from the book.
Also… Mira Grant’s Feed and sequels optioned for film / Charlaine Harris says the next Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Ever After, will be the last in the series / The most successful self-published SF/F authors / Michael Whelan’s cover for the final Wheel of Time book.
This summer’s inaugural Course of the Force, the five-day lightsaber relay from Santa Monica to Comic-Con to raise money for Make-a-Wish, just announced that The Clone Wars star and Her Universe founder Ashley Eckstein will be joining as co-host, joining veteran TV nerd Chris Hardwick. Not only will she be co-hosting the event, she’ll also be running one leg of the relay.
Hardwick says of Eckstein:
“Ashley is a glorious addition to the Course of the Force. She is not just an important character on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, she is also a true follower of the Saga. I am but a mere Padawan in comparison to her Jedi mastery,” states Nerdist Industries founder and Course of the Force host Chris Hardwick.
Now there are two of them! There is still room to register for a quarter-mile leg of the lightsaber torch relay, as it winds its way down the coast from Santa Monica to downtown San Diego, with nightly parties in cities along the route from July 7 to July 11.
I wore a t-shirt with Yoda on it in public, got funny looks, and was not embarrassed. I am reaching the pinnacle of nerd. #starwars #geek
— Inyri (@inyriforge) May 20, 2012
Anyone who can invoke the Star Wars prequels to explain something ridiculous in history is okay with me
— Matt Dusenbury (@MattDusenbury) May 19, 2012
Think how boring #StarWars would be if the Empire used cloud computing instead of data tapes.
— bob calhoun (@bob_calhoun) May 16, 2012
When I retire I’m going to write a screenplay for a gritty new soap opera featuring the Ewoks from #StarWars. It’s called EastEndors.
— James Bond (@JerkBond) May 16, 2012
Cindal goes soap?
Put a load into the dryer and had to twist every dial to correct setting. I won’t lie to you: it made me feel like a Space Captain #StarWars
— Will ‘Chief’ Roberts (@willrob7) May 15, 2012
Spike was showing the prequels this weekend, so naturally Twitter chatter followed. Head beneath the cut, my padawans… Continue reading “The pinnacle of nerd: Last week’s best #StarWars and #SWEU tweets”
EUCantina talked to LucasBooks Senior Editor Jennifer Heddle about her job and what’s coming up in the Expanded Universe. She gives some details on Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Annihilation, a return for Matt Stover (“a distinct possibility,) the chances of more X-Wing books and a Leia or Padme novel:
There are a couple different plans in the works to focus a bit more on Leia (in both the novels and the comic books). There’s nothing planned for Padme at this time, but never say never.
She also says we’ll get an announcement of what’s coming for post-Fate of the Jedi at San Diego Comic Con. Hopefully that means we’ll be getting further details at Celebration?
Lo, there is a comic coming out on Wednesday. Keep an eye out for Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison #1 in your local comic shop.
We’re in a dry period for Star Wars books, with nothing but reprints for the next couple months, but certain Jaders may be interested to hear that the third and final book of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, Blackout, is out today. Despite being fairly adverse to zombies, I recommended the first book, Feed, way back in 2010.
You don’t have to go all the way to Disney World to stock up on the latest shirts. All Her Universe’s new Star Wars stuff is now online to order at Her Universe now – including both new charms and the shirts that debuted on Hot Topic earlier in the month.
Plus-sizers, alas: The only shirt that comes in extended sizes seems to be the Dolman top (on the right) and it appears to only go up to 1X at the moment.
Empire was first released on May 21, 1980. Do you remember the first time you saw it? Please don’t tell us if you weren’t born yet, it only makes us sad. (I mean, it’s okay if you didn’t see it on first release: I didn’t, either.) Tumblr is being difficult today, but I will have some stuff to celebrate.
Rick McCallum talked to IGN about – what else – the live-action series. He reiterates the cost and technical issues with doing the series, saying, “They’re so complicated. Each hour has more visual effects, digital animation, than any of the films we’ve done.” He also clarifies his previous comments on ‘underworld,‘ saying that while the term has plenty of meaning for the series, it’s not a working title. Also: A Star Wars theme park and Joe Johnston’s hopes to helm a Boba Fett movie, and what’s on the horizon for George Lucas. And the interview ends when ‘1313’ is brought up. Curious! (via)
So the CJ Tumblr is coming along. It was born from last-minute disappointment, but I’ve actually found it fairly useful for stuff that I just don’t have the time to really blog. (It’s the new fandom minute!) This week we’ve featured so far, among other things…