Just The Caffeine Talking

Space Battle Music

When I learned that James Horner had died, I felt as sad as if it was one of my friends. Mr. Horner and I never met, but I have enjoyed his work ever since I became aware that someone had to create the music behind my favorite movies. It is literally true that on more than one occasion his name in the credits made me decide to see a movie. 

In particular, the music he wrote for two of the Star Trek films — Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock — was a large influence on my latest novel. Both when I wrote the original short story "The Barbary Shore" and then the novel Corsair, I used Horner's music for inspiration during the space-battle scenes.

If you want to read those scenes with "the original" soundtrack, play this music, and think for a moment of the man who wrote it.

Hieroglyph Blog Fight!

I was afraid my epic four-part essay about the Hieroglyph Project had gone unread, or worse yet, had been read and disregarded. So I'm delighted to see that David Haden has taken up arms in defense of the Hieroglyph anthology over at his own 'blog, 2020: Tracking Optimism.

Mr. Haden thinks it's too soon to tell if the anthology has any impact; after all, it hasn't even made it to the discount bin yet. Perhaps he's right and we just need to be more patient. I still maintain that we attempted an impossible task, because you can't sit down to consciously create an icon.

Or can you? Can anyone think of a deliberate and successful attempt to create something "iconic"? I know every author and moviemaker dreams that their current project will become an enduring classic, but has anyone done it deliberately? 

What Time Is It?

It's PLUTO TIME! 

In honor of the New Horizons probe's approach to Pluto (which isn't a planet, and don't argue about it or the IAU will send their Goon Squad to settle the matter), NASA has set up the "Pluto Time" Web site. Here's how it works: you enter your location, and the site tells you what time it will be as bright where you are as it is on the dwarf planet Pluto. Then they want you to take a picture at the appropriate time and send it in.

The fact that it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere on our own (major!) planet means you're likely to be a lot more warm and comfortable than on Pluto. If NASA leaves the site in place, I'm tempted to upload a photo next winter, when New England's climate isn't so different from the ex-Ninth Planet.

 

Congratulations to Nebula Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 Nebula Awards, chosen by the members of SFWA. This year's honorees are:

Jeff VanderMeer, for his novel Annihilation

Nancy Kress, for her novella "Yesterday's Kin"

Alaya Dawn Johnson, for her novelette "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i"

Ursula Vernon, for her short story "Jackalope Wives."

The Ray Bradbury Award went to James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, for their film Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Andre Norton Award went to Alaya Dawn Johnson, for her young adult novel Love is the Drug.

Congratulations to everyone.