Those of you going to Worldcon will have a great opportunity: Michael Whelan, the extremely talented sf/f artist whose work has appeared on multiple book covers, in gallery exhibits and in art books, will be present. You can visit his site online at Glass Onion. It's not too late to register, though it'll cost you an arm and a leg.

Sfsite ran a nice column on graphic novels and their current role in science fiction publishing. The point about Neil Gaiman's graphic novels not being listed on his previous publication credits was interesting. Usually if someone writes something radically different from what they're trying to sell, you won't see it listed on the inside of the book (a romance-sf/f author won't have both his/her romance and sf novels listed in the sf book)... but if The Sandman doesn't fall under the same audience preferences as American Gods, where does it belong?

Locus Online reports that the deadline for submitting Hugo ballots has been extended, in part due to a computer glitch which deleted a number of online ballots. Millennium Philcon will accept ballots, electronically or by mail, through July 25. Anyone who submitted votes online on or before July 12 should cast another ballot.

In the 'conventions I wanted to attend this year' catagory, there was Convergence, which takes place over the July 4th weekend in Bloomington, Minnesota. I didn't make it this year, but the minions at Cthulhu Coffee did. Here's their Convention Report. Also of interest to furry fans may be their Hastur's Guide to Hosting a Room Party. Furry fandom has a dearth of good convention room parties, and we should attempt to learn from the experts.

One of the most eagerly awaited movies of the year is finally opening. Starred with heroes and heroines with much more refined polygons than those of Lara Croft, the teasers and art have every geek salivating entry to the theatres. Without giving away any spoilers, here is what to expect.

Not sure whether to call this sf or furry news; it's relevant to both. Publishers Weekly recently had a fascinating article about selling graphic novels in bookstores, why booksellers should and how to do it... as well as a series of articles on how comics publishers are trying to reach a broader audience through online and bookstore distribution channels. This is greatly encouraging to me, since one of the reasons I've never really considered doing a graphic novel was because of the ghetto graphic novels are shoved into when the time comes to sell them. You don't reach an audience without distribution, and it looks like booksellers might be waking up to the fact that graphic novels do sell. Indeed, I remember the pleasure I felt when I discovered my local Borders had a shelf of graphic novels (and in fact, I bought one; while I don't buy single comic books, I will buy compilations of them). Here's hoping there'll be more graphic novel sections in the future. And hey, wasn't there talk of a Fusion graphic novel? Lex, are you reading? *grin*

For the women in our audience (and fans of women), a link to Broad Universe seems in order, an organization devoted to the promotion of science fiction and fantasy written by women. Men are also encouraged to join if they support the cause. The website has a regular newsletter with industry and writing tips, a book list and some other info, as well as some cool things coming down the pike (like a PR database). The newsgroup is active and turns up some interesting posts on a regular basis. The Broad Universe launch was noted by Locus Magazine and the website got a review on the latest issue of SF Weekly.

I wanted to share with you my views of Steven Spielberg's A.I.

Succinctly, the movie is long, grim, more Kubrik than Spielberg and will utterly fail in the box office.

ABCnews reports that space scientists the world over are a little worried that the 50-year-old Deep Space Network, may be overloaded by all the traffic from over 25 space probes currently in-flight to various locations. Peak traffic is expected to happen in 2003-2004. 6-14 Update from Aureth: Additional information from Shockwave, who works for a NASA contractor, is in the comments. Very interesting...to me at least, since I'm a minor space buff.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the Sci Fi Channel is proceeding with the development of a four-hour miniseries based on The Left Hand of Darkness, a Hugo- and Nebula-award wining novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. This deal follows an earlier announcement to develop Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy into a six-hour miniseries for Sci Fi. (Scalie fans can look forward to cool dragons in Earthsea!)

Locus Online reported nominees have been announced for the Theordore Sturgeon Memorial Award. The same organization chooses inductees for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. This year's inductees are: Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Click "Read more..." for more details.

According to SF Wire, Douglas Adams's publisher is piecing together the remains of his last novel from his computer for publication. The novel, The Salmon of Doubt, will also include some extras like a screenplay and some email essays. Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about a publisher trying to patch up an unfinished manuscript by a dead author for publication posthumously. What do you guys think?

It must be that time of year. Finalists have been announced for the Mythopoeic Awards and Spectrum Awards. And winners were recently presented with the Harvey Awards and the Aurora Awards.

Click "Read more..." for details and websites.

This fall, CBS will feature a new TV series with a potentially furry theme. Wolf Lake, which CNN describes as "a science-fiction drama about wolves who live in the form of humans", will star Lou Diamond Phillips and Graham Greene and will air Wednesdays at 10:00pm Eastern/Pacific, 9:00pm Central. For more information, click on the title.

Assuming this is the correct Mel White (I'm pretty sure it is though I'll confirm with Mel myself): http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/news.html