Back in January the website io9 re-posted my Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Covers of 2013. The discussion that ensued included a question from Tor Books’ creative director, Irene Gallo, asking if now was the time to consider long-time science fiction artist John Harris for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.

I responded with an emphatic “Yes!!!”.

I have long been a fan of the work of John Harris, and consider him one of my all-time favorite genre illustrators. His work fueled my imagination well before I ever read a book graced by one of his covers. His style is iconic, and yet I don’t want to give the impression that I think John Harris deserves a Best Professional Artist nomination for the work he has amassed over a long career.

To the contrary, his published output in 2013 speaks loudly and boldly proclaims the worthiness of his presence on the nominee list.

Continue reading My Best Professional Artist Hugo Nominations: John Harris →

I, Hugo set down my feelings about my upcoming first experience in nominating for the Hugo Awards. In the brief time I have left before the nomination period ends, I would like to discuss the candidates that I believe have earned a nomination, starting with the Best Professional Artist category. This is the first of five posts that will spotlight my nominees.

It might have been easy to overlook John Picacio for the Best Artist category this year. Notice that I wrote might have been and not would have been. I suppose some might look at the fact that John Picacio is the most recent back-to-back Hugo winner and feel that the spotlight should turn elsewhere.

But then John Picacio did what one would expect a two-time Hugo Award winner to do: he upped his game. So no, it would not have been easy to overlook John’s contributions to the realm of fantastical art in 2013. He made sure of that.

Continue reading My Best Professional Artist Hugo Nominations: John Picacio →

On Friday last I posted a series of videos on SF Signal created by sculptor Tim Bruckner to celebrate the upcoming Spectrum Fantastic Art Live event, May 9-11 in Kansas City, Missouri. The post started off with the above promotional video created by Tony Moorman and Making It Pictures.

I invite you to check out the post on SF Signal. Not only is Tim Bruckner an incredibly talented sculptor, but the efforts he is putting into promoting SFAL 3, and the live sculpture plans he has been making for the event itself, are kicking this year’s convention to the next level.

The post contains a series of mostly one minute videos, set to music, showcasing art of merely a handful of the nearly 200 artists that will be there.

Coming up beginning Monday will be a series of posts here revealing the 5 artists I am nominating for the Best Professional Artist category for this year’s Hugo Awards. I hope you’ll check them out and give the artists a lot of love. I’m off for a couple of days to our favorite Missouri inn to celebrate Mary’s birthday. Keep this place hopping for me while I’m gone.

(Art by Melissa Nucera)

“Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

~William Butler Yeats

As I walked along a wooded trail in nearly 70 degree temperatures over my lunch break I was indeed aware that Spring…had sprung. Or at least it has poked its head out of the ground for a few days before it turns cold again. Sigh.

At any rate, the calendar is telling us that the season has changed and that still small voice is calling, “Come away…”

It is that voice that beckons us to Middle-earth and Newford, that calls out from the gap in the village of Wall and from the world of London Below. It is the voice that packs so much promise into four little words…

“Once upon a time…”

Perhaps you too have heard that voice whispering on the spring wind, or perhaps Old Man Winter continues to drown out the sound; either way that time has come: Once Upon a Time is here!

Friday, March 21st begins the eigth annual Once Upon a Time Challenge. This is a reading and viewing event that encompasses four broad categories: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology, including the seemingly countless sub-genres and blending of genres that fall within this spectrum. The challenge continues through June 21st and allows for very minor (1 book only) participation as well as more immersion depending on your reading/viewing whims.

Don’t like the word “challenge”? We have something special just for you.

Come away, and I’ll tell you more…

Continue reading Once Upon a Time VIII →

(Interior art from Words of Radiance, painted by artist Michael Whelan)

My first introduction to the seemingly inexhaustible imagination of author Brandon Sanderson was when I joined several other readers in a group read of his novel, The Way of Kings, the first in a series of ten novels that will make up The Stormlight Archive. I was most impressed with the world-building and characterization, and contrary to my usual stance on long series, was satisfied to count myself as one of many who will be there waiting when each new novel is released.

My hope was to continue the group reading tradition with this series and here we are set to kick off the reading of book two of The Stormlight Archive, Words of Radiance.

Continue reading Words of Radiance Group Read →