Prolific sci-fi trio landing at Keycon

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This article was published 16/05/2015 (4144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s science-fiction and fantasy convention, Keycon, is showcasing a trio of American authors this weekend whose careers may be the cause of deforestation and the Great Ink Shortage of ’98-’99.

The three guest authors, speaking today and tomorrow at the Radisson, have published more than 100 novels and short-story collections, including David Weber‘s 13-novel Honor Harrington series (a Patrick O’Brian-style roman-fleuve about the life and career of an officer in an outer-space navy), Janny Wurts‘s 11-novel Wars of Light and Shadow fantasy series, and Elizabeth Moon‘s Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke-nominated novels Remnant Population and The Speed of Dark.

Details on the gathering, which includes panel discussions on all things science-fiction and fantasy, are available at keycon.org. Weekend passes are $60.

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New York-based Canadian Emily St. John Mandel has won this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award for her fourth novel Station Eleven, a literary dystopian tale of a troupe of Shakespearean actors travelling through a post-pandemic U.S.

The Arthur C. Clarke award is presented by the British Science Fiction Association and named for the author of the short story that was the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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The joy of victory, the pain of defeat and the smell of sweat are the inspiration for the first poetry collection by former Manitoban Debbie Okun Hill, who launches Tarnished Trophies May 25, with a team of Manitoba writers.

Hill, who worked for the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Selkirk Regional News before moving to Ontario, will be joined by local writers Brenda Hasiuk (Boy Lost in Wild), Carmelo Militano (Sebastiano’s Vine) and Brenda Sciberras (Magpie Days) at McNally Robinson Booksellers starting at 7:30 p.m.

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Courtney Love is haunted by more than one ghost.

The New York Times reports that the Hole frontwoman/rock widow is being sued by the ghostwriter she hired to help her with the memoir tentatively titled The Girl With the Most Cake.

The writer complains Love failed to make her full payment on a 125,000-word manuscript he delivered to her last year. According to the lawsuit, Love received a $400,000 advance (on a total payment of $1.2 million) from her publisher; her contract for the book called for the ghostwriter to earn $200,000 plus royalties.

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Christmas-season book sales numbers from the United Kingdom suggest the celebrity memoir/biography trend may finally be coming to a close.

Autobiographies and biographies, the largest category in non-fiction, were down seven per cent last year, the Guardian reports. Cookbooks were event harder hit, losing 11 per cent in sales. The drop in non-fiction led to an overall decline of two per cent in U.K. book sales, with children’s and young adult books propping up the industry by rising 11 per cent.

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A Toronto lawyer and author known for a scathing look at his own profession entitled Lawyers Gone Bad, turns his sights on Canada’s civic leadership in his new book Mayors Gone Bad.

Author Philip Slayton touches on former Toronto laughing stock Rob Ford, as well as mayors in Montreal, Laval and London, all of whom have ended up in court on corruption or fraud charges, as well as the conflict-of-interest allegations that plagued former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz.

Slayton launches the book May 26 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson.

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