Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Cybils Fantasy/SciFi Shortlist 2008

Well, it is near two weeks since the peep of the year and have you heard anything from me..?!

I am very chuffed to break silence (as it were), do as others have done and post up a shortlist from the up and coming Cybils Awards in my own chosen genre, Fantasy & Science Fiction:

Cabinet of Wonders written by Marie Rutkoski, Macmillan
Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins
Magic Thief written by Sarah Prineas, HarperCollins
Savvy written by Ingrid Law, Penguin USA
Airman written by Eoin Colfer, Hyperion
Curse Dark as Gold written by Elizabeth C. Bunce, Scholastic
Explosionist written by Jenny Davidson, HarperCollins
Graceling written by Kristin Cashore, Harcourt
Hunger Games, The written by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
Wake written by Lisa McMann, Simon & Schuster

... and (*drum roll*)

Lamplighter written by some weird fellow surrounded by notebooks in a darkened room, Penguin USA.

A true and dare I admit astonishing honour - (watch for my over-use of this word in Book 3... :( - to be included amongst such lights. Congrats to us all, to the judges for hour upon hour of reading to get to this list, to anyone who dares attempt to write a book - shortlisted, awarded or otherwise - and to you most excellent folk who read! Thank you R.J. Anderson for pointing my shortlisting out to me; thank you Laini Taylor-Di Bartolo for you great summary and to you all for your continuing support.

Only a couple of weeks away from the 2008 Aurealis Awards too.

My head is so swollen at the moment I am having trouble fitting through doors and cannot drive my car. Of course, ego takes a big hit when confronted by the daily struggle with the English language, which often feels a lot like...

English language & Plot not doing what it ought to: 1 - D.M.Cornish: nil.

Never-the-less, we are getting there folks!

Klesita (welcome to you!) was asking... "Is it true that Jim Henson Co has the rights of the series? Do you still retain some kind of rights over the script that will allow you some control over the final product? It would be a shame if the movie trashes this beautiful/fearful/incredible world and its inhabitants..."

Yes, the Henson company does indeed have the rights to MBT; no, I think they have to right to make the story what they want it to be, and if I get any say in how it turns out it will be purely on the condescension of the director etc. I too am nervous of what the final product my morph into; I reckon at this very moment the Henson Company are probably nervous how I actually end the story (and me along with them) - so nerves all round.

Ben Bryddia ponders... "Do they have land mines in the Haacobin Empire? You know, big ceramic or porcelain spheres full of mordants, just waiting for some hulking unterman to step on, and crack open? Which makes me wonder, are there any poisonous potives of the gas variety?"

Not in the way we have landmines, no. More like buried or hidden bombs with long fuses, and with or without potives. There are devices known as belchpots (amongst other names): large cauldron-shaped pots of cheap iron or clay with a metal base plate and filled with black powder (sometimes called cannon char) and lots and lots of langridge (or langrage, read: shrapnel). These pots are then buried into the soil, their mouths pointed in the desired direction of the blast, and when needed are set off with a long fuse. Variable and messy, but very cheap and relatively simple to produce.

Most repellents and the like work on a rapid expansion in air principle, so it that sense much of a skold/legermain's arsenal is somewhat gaseous, if not to start with, certainly once "deployed". There are a few pure gas potives, but they are rare due to difficulties of storage (usually in a tightly stitched animal bladder of some variety).

Breakfast today: Apricot Fruity Bix

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi again. Like Portals, it's been 'long time no post' from me too. I just wanted to congratulate you, Mr. Cornish, for being on the Aurealis (belated, I know) and the Cybils shortlists. You are in some great company with the Cybils shortlist; I've read Gaiman's "Graveyard Book" and Davidson's "Explosionist" and both were very good. Eoin Colfer is a great author too (I've only read the Artemis books, though). I'm still rooting for "Lamplighter," of course. Congrats again!

Sam Hranac said...

So much great news! Congrats!

Laini Taylor said...

I'm pulling for Lamplighter for the Cybil! I was so blown away by it. Can't wait to see what happens next :-)

P.S. my word verification word is "yankofin" which kind of sounds like it's waiting for somebody clever to come up with a meaning for it. I wonder if I know any authors who make up words. . .

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Master Cornish, a well deserved honour and I am sure there will be many more to come.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the shortlist! I'll be rooting for you! And we'll see how Henson handles your stories. I wouldn't know what to do with them, but I'm not a film maker. I know that Guillermo Del Toro would make your monsters better than anyone else. Perhaps, he can party up with Henson to make an awesome flick!

Word verification UNESSEM - don't know how to use it but you know it can be used!

portals said...

Wow! Congradulations! That doubles your chance of winning something! I hope you win. Your books deserve it. They're both excellent.

Even if the movie is a flop (Which it better not be - grrr), it will still force people to read the book, which is excellent.
I think there are only a few thing that could go wrong:
Rossamund's actor's acting,
Europe,
Misbegotten Schrewd,
Monsters in general,
Complete overdoing of things like leer's eyes,
There are probably more, but I won't get bothered by things that could go wrong.

portals said...

Oh, Anna-
Probably Paperback. Hardcover just tends to be too expensive for me.

ms_ventress said...

Congrats! Lamplighter is one of the most fabulous books I have read in a long time. Wishing you good luck. :)

Anonymous said...

DM,
I was wondering. I read in your books that the HC is an oversized peninsula. If this is so, is the mainland to the north, with the other side of the peninsula to the right like the state of Florida in the USA, or is the mainland to the left, with the other side of the peninsula to the north?
(PS My verification word is otteriti. Sounds like a pasta.)

Anonymous said...

Congrats with the shortlists. Are you going to go to the ceremony's?



My Verication Word is pruming..

Anonymous said...

congratulations! your nominations are utterly deserved. may you win and permanently render yourself headswollen :P

RottenPocket said...

You earned the Short list, that's for sure.

I watch much much movie magic, the special features on DvD's are my vice. I can safely say that Guillermo Del Toro would be curious and might work on MBT, if he had the time. He's booked up until 2013, and I'm still waiting on news on 'Splice'. For all of you who are familiar with Del Toro's Notebooks, he is a movie genius.

Jim Henson Co. is fantastic at conveying the original visualization of a story, so that's why I'm rooting for them. Although If Del Toro got his hands on it, he'd put everything he had into it and make the audience melt into their seats. The only thing I fear if that were the case, were losing the original feel of the HC.

Either way, I'd work under it if I could. I'm already doing two concept positions indie style :D

Anonymous said...

I will alos join the choir (or is it chorus, grr english dictionary not good): Congratualtions!
Hope your head is less swollen so you at least can go to the kitchen and eat breakfast, or drive your car around.

I´ll keep my fingers crossed that you can keep an hold of the scriptwriters (?) if they are turning it to a movie later on, so the don´t destroy it like they have other books-made to-be-a-film. They have an tendancy to "add" stuff that aren´t in the books (which I don´t get. Have the original author´s nothing to say about it?)

Portals, here paperbacks (not counting pockets) and hardcoverbooks has almost the same price so it´s an easy choice for me who likes hardcovers. I used to go to antiquarian bookshops to find cheaper books but in later years the government have taken away the "booktax" so books are a bit more affordable.
The amount of book I have right now? 1556! not counting pocketbooks.

Anonymous said...

You are lucky Anna, here a hardcover is sometimes twice as much as the same paperback.

My verification is later, not a particularly imaginative one.

tanita✿davis said...

Congratulations! Lamplighter is such an amazing book it just had to be nominated!

And the Henson news is just -- WOW. It will be so interesting to see what they come up with... Or maybe not. I have to say, many times good fantasy books aren't done justice to by the movies, so I may just stick to your vision!

Anonymous said...

So Mr Cornish, now that Factotum is almost done, you might be able to answer the first question I asked on this site:are there going to be a book no 4 or this is the finale? Any spin-off´s?

portals said...

Hi all,
Commenting is still slow, so how about we think of topic?

Anonymous said...

I agree, portals, although I have hopes that Master Cornish will bless us with another post in a few days, so that may stir some comments.
Until then, perhaps: Books/events that should be made into films (assuming the films are good).

My votes would go to- The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy.
Our own MBT of course.
And the events surrounding the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Pure heroism on the part of the doomed defenders.

If thats no good as a topic then I humbly suggest jellybean flavours, what are good and what are bad?

Anonymous said...

congratulations again, Mr Cornish!

>Guards! Guards! [Terry Pratchett] would make an amazing movie, if done correctly [w/ Edward Norton as Samuel Vimes, i think]
>MBT naturally.
>Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel.
>A decent, non-cheesy version of the old werewolf story about the lady who lost a hand.
>Orpheus In the Underworld.
>Pwyll and Arawn's identity switch [from the Mabinogion]

[buttered popcorn: bleagh.
grapefruit: thumbs up.]

Hoteccu: a pair of barbecue tongs so large that both hands are needed to operate

Snooze said...

Congrats on the short-list Mr Cornish!

hmm... as for books becoming movies. Well I must admit I haven't read that many books (or rather, haven't remembered the names) but going on some goodies that I've read, I believe that "the chronicles of ancient darkness - Michelle Paver,' and 'the power of five,' would make good movies, and I think they should make a tv series of deltora quest, but I'm seeing lots of possible faults in that...
Other than that I'm having a mental blank and can't think of any other books to suggest, and as for jelly beans, well I don't eat them, and when offered them I just take the red ones. lol.

smudgeon said...

You know where's "cool" to start random topics related to MBT? The fan forum! Seriously, it could do with a few extra bodies over there to really kick it into gear. Plus Mr Cornish puts his two-bob's worth in there, too.

There's currently a thread running about the movie project, some other great questions & topics just waiting for the regulars over here to pitch in & add on. Plus some mysterious guy called Fouracres who seems to have a lot of inside info...

/end unsolicited (but somewhat appropriately targeted) advertising.

noelle said...

Congratulations Mr. Cornish! How exciting.

Hmmm, books to movies...the Hungry City Chronicles would make a fantastic movie series if done right. A Dirk Gently movie would be pure brilliance and there's a kid's book called Alex and the Ironic Gentleman that would make a cute, entertaining movie for kids and grown-up kids alike. I think a movie has already been made of The Phantom Tollbooth, but a more modern one would be cool. Monster Blood Tattoo is, of course, at the top of the list...and I wouldn't mind my own book being made into a movie, of course ;)

Midehug: a well-meaning gesture that ends up being disastrous for the person you tried to help. Literally, it means a hug that causes a person to turn to solid gold.

Polymath Paradise said...

Congratulations on your short listing. It is well earned, as I suggest in my personal review of your remarkable work:

http://polymathparadise.blogspot.com/2009/01/literary-impressions-dm-cornishs.html

Bennett

D.M. Cornish said...

My word Bennett (aka Polymath Paradise) so happy to have hit the right nerve, so delighted to see you so thoroughly get what I am daring to try.

I cannot tell what deep warming-glowing satisfaction it is when folks get into the Explicarium and read it as it ought to be. I fill them with treasures for the doughty soul who dares enter deep enough.

I surely hope I can continue the path I have started too.

M. Walker said...

Hello Mr. Cornish, I have just recently discovered 'MBT' and can now consider myself a fan. As an aspiring writer myself, I find the complexity and skill of your world building mind-blowing, and I can only express to you a hearty 'Bravo!'

As a man with a name that is considered by some to be a more feminine one (although it's not, the original Welsh 'Morcant' was a name meant for men), I found something in the character of Rossamund--from the first page!-- with which I could commiserate. I enjoy reading his story, and will be quite lucky if the my recently purchased copy of 'Lamplighter' won't distract from my schooling at University this semester.

Keep up the good work!

D.M. Cornish said...

Well shucks and cheers, good sir!

Kathryn said...

WOW!!! congratulations on so much good news. but to be honest im not all that surprised MBT are such great books that they deserve a lot of awards!!