Chris sez, "Mercedes Lackey's agent, who also represents a 'persuasive little gnome' named Cory Doctorow, has been talked around to the Creative Commons point of view. Hence, Misty has announced she is going to permit fanfic as long as it is released under a Creative Commons license (presumably a noncommercial one, though she does not explicitly spell this out on the site)."

BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/19/mercedes-lackey-embr.html

Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan's new anthology The New Space Opera 2 came out today, featuring all original stories by me, John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson, Jay Lake, Garth Nix, Bruce Sterling, Elizabeth Moon, Justina Robson and many others. My story, "To Go Boldly," is a look at the LARPing ethic that lurks under the skin of any space navy.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061562351/
Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/29/new-space-opera-2-sf.html

Viacom uses copyright to censor racism protest

Madeline sez, "To protest the casting of white actors in Asian and Inuit roles for the live-action production of 'The Last Airbender,' (based on the animated series 'Avatar: The Last Airbender,' which features primarily Asian iconography, calligraphy, and fight choreography), fan Glockgal began making t-shirts that read 'This is not a tan' and "Aang can stay Asian and still save the world.' Viacom, one of the companies which owns a license for the series, has ordered Zazzle.com to take down her storefront.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/03/viacom-uses-copyrigh.html

The Art of Penguin SF is a beautiful thumbnail gallery of the covers of every (?) science fiction novel published by Penguin UK, starting with the 1935 edition of Butler's Erewhon. I grew up on these, and just seeing them there makes me want to tile my bathroom with them.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/29/penguin-science-fict.html

http://www.penguinsciencefiction.org

I recently read the Tor book "The Truthsayer's Apprentice" by fellow Oort-Cloud member Deborah Teramis Christian, and it was great (and I'm very picky).

Things in particular that I like:

Well, as they say, turnabout is fair play, so, since Teramis has recently been inspired by me, then it's my turn to be inspired by her post:

What I hate about galactic empires

Forrest J Ackerman, who influenced a generation of young horror movie fans with Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and spent a lifetime amassing what has been called the world's largest personal collection of science fiction and fantasy memorabilia, has died. He was 92.

Ackerman, a writer, editor and literary agent who has been credited with coining the term "sci-fi" in the 1950s, died Thursday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, said John Sasser, a friend who is making a documentary on Ackerman.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-ackerman6-2008dec06,0,71791...

Just couldn't resist going to Wordle and making this word cloud from Rick and my work on Oort-Cloud.org and Social Publishing. I really like the way it turned out.

Click the image to go to Wordle to see it.

Tim sez, "Last year International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day was created by author Jo Walton in response to remarks by Howard V. Hendricks opposing 'the increasing presence in our organization [the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America] of webscabs, who post their creations on the net for free'. Today is the first anniversary of International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day and the celebration continues.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/23/pixelstained-technop-1.html

Once you register, you’ll receive our newsletter and a link to download a digital book, as well as free wallpapers from bestselling and award-winning SF and fantasy authors and artists. And you’ll receive a link to another new book, and new wallpapers, every week.

http://www.tor.com/