Nominate Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart, for an Aurora Award for Best Related Work - English

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. 

Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, is the latest of the Tesseracts anthologies from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. This is the first one with the theme of religion in science fiction and fantasy. The stories are diverse and at times profound and give readers a chance to see faith from the believer to the skeptic in worlds where what you believe is a matter of life, deth, and afterlife.

Since the Kindle e-book edition was released in November 2014, Wrestling With Gods and all its stories are eligible for the 2015 Aurora Awards. 

The Kindle edition is already available on Amazon, and the print edition will be out in March 15, 2015.

To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

 http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) charges an annual $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. Renewing members can access the membership portal and make nominations after paying the membership fee. New members will receive a Society number by email and can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

The online nomination deadline is April 25, 2015, 11:59:59 PM EDT.

Nominate Ricepaper Speculative Fiction Issue 19.3 for an Aurora Award for Best Related Work - English

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. 

Ricepaper magazine's Speculative Fiction Issue 19.3, edited by Derwin Mak and JF Garrard, is eligible to be nominated for an Aurora Award for Best Related Work - English. Ricepaper is Canada's Asian Canadian literary magazine, and issue 19.3 was its first issue devoted to fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

You can purchase copies of Ricepaper's Speculative Fiction issue here: http://ricepapermagazine.ca/19-3-issue/

To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

 http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) charges an annual $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. Renewing members can access the membership portal and make nominations after paying the membership fee. New members will receive a Society number by email and can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

The online nomination deadline is April 25, 2015, 11:59:59 PM EDT.

Nominate "Mecha-Jesus" for a 2015 Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction - English

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. This year, my short story "Mecha-Jesus" is eligible to be nominated in the category of Best Short Fiction - English.

"Mecha-Jesus" was published in the anthology Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart, from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. Since the Kindle e-book edition was released in November 2014, Wrestling With Gods and all its stories are eligible for the 2015 Aurora Awards. 

During the nomination period, "Mecha-Jesus" will be available free on my website at http://www.derwinmaksf.com/Mecha-Jesus.html

 To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

 http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) charges an annual $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. Renewing members can access the membership portal and make nominations after paying the membership fee. New members will receive a Society number by email and can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

The online nomination deadline is April 25, 2015, 11:59:59 PM EDT.

Doctor Who Fans: Please Do Not Hang the British Flag Upside Up.

Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) wearing a shirt emblazoned with the Union Flag. I approve of Billie Piper and Rose cosplayers displaying the Union Flag in this fashion.

The Doctor Who convention season begins in February with Gallifrey One in Los Angeles, and all over North America, Doctor Who fans will be hanging up the British flag, also called the Union Flag. As a devoted monarchist and Anglophile, I enthusiastically support the display of the Union Flag. 

But, please, my fellow Doctor Who fans, stop hanging the Union Flag upside down. 

You may be wondering how can anyone hang the Union Flag upside down. Take a close look at the two saltires, the X-shaped crosses, especially in the corners of the flag. The Union Flag is not symmetrical.

The Union Flag (1801 - now)

I've seen the Union Flag hung upside-down at almost every Doctor Who convention or fan party that I've attended. Below is how the flag was displayed at Reversed Polarity, a Doctor Who convention in Richmond Hill (north of Toronto) in 2013.

Reversed Polarity, 2013

Reversed Polarity had so many Union Flags hanging throughout the hotel that it looked like a V-E Day celebration in 1945. I was overjoyed by such an open display of patriotism. Alas, half the flags were hung upside down, often beside flags that were right side up (upside up).

More Union flags at Reversed Polarity, 2013

This is the Union Flag, again displayed upside down, at a Doctor Who tea party at Ad Astra, another science fiction convention in the Toronto area in 2014.

Ad Astra, 2014.

Also, never use the Union Flag as a tablecloth, as was done at this reception with an actor guest at Gallifrey One in 2014.

Gallifrey One, 2014

How did the British develop an asymmetrical flag composed of symmetrical shapes, the crosses? The answer lies in the union of three kingdoms into one United Kingdom.

England, Scotland, and Ireland have individual flags, each showing a cross symbolizing their respective patron saints: St. George for England, St. Andrew for Scotland, and St. Patrick for Ireland.

The first Union Flag was created in 1606, three years after King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. He hoped to unite his two kingdoms into one, but their parliaments resisted a union. Nonetheless, he created a new flag that combined the flags of England and Scotland by superimposing the Cross of St. George over the saltire flag of Scotland, along with a change of the shade of blue in the Scottish part of the flag. Since heraldic rules prohibit a colour to be placed atop another colour (i.e., red upon blue), a fimbriation (thin outline) of the metal (i.e., white) was added to the arms of the Cross of St. George. Some Scots objected to this design, considering it a defacement of their saltire flag, but the design stayed and became the national flag in 1707, when England and Scotland finally united to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Union Flag, 1606-1800

In 1801, Ireland formally joined the Union to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Now the British added the red Cross of St. Patrick to the flag, but instead of superimposing it unaltered over the existing two crosses, counterchanged its colours. Counterchanging is a heraldic practice of dividing an object and its background into segments and colouring them in two contrasting colours.

To see better how the new Union Flag counterchanged the Cross of St. Patrick, remove the Cross of St. George and look at how the Crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick are combined:

The current Union Flag with the Cross of St. George removed. The Cross of St. Patrick is counterchanged and fimbriated in white.

Since heraldic rules prevent putting one colour atop another colour, a fimbriation (thin outline) of white was put along the arms of the red Cross of St. Patrick where they met the blue field. This made the white arms of the Cross of St. Andrew appear wider.

Why did the British counterchange the Cross of St. Patrick? The reasons seem lost in history, but it was probably a way to make an arm of the Cross of St. Andrew uppermost in two quarters of the flag and an arm of the Cross of St. Patrick uppermost in the other two quarters of the flag. Thus both Scotland and Ireland could claim to be equal.

However, the Scots and Irish argued that their crosses had been disfigured and noted that England's Cross of St. George was the only cross that survived unbroken in the Union Flag. These rivalries threatened the United Kingdom from time to time. Scottish rebellion against the Union did not effectively end until the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and the Irish successfully rebelled and pulled five-sixths of their island out of the United Kingdom in 1922. There was another attempt at Scottish independence, this time by peaceful means, in 2014, but it failed.

Despite such trials and tribulations, the United Kingdom has been remarkably strong. Great Britain became head of an Empire, which later evolved into a Commonwealth of Nations. Britain became a leader of art and culture in the world, and it was Britain that created Doctor Who. The Doctor might be from Gallifrey, but he's actually British.

Doctor Who fans, please continue displaying the Union Flag to show your pride and admiration of the Doctor and all things British. But please hang it up the right side up.

Presentation "China vs. North Korea: Who Owns the Monster of Mount Paektu?": Saturday, January 10, 2015, at the North York Public Library

I will be giving a presentation on "China vs. North Korea: Who Owns the Monster of Mount Paektu?" at the U.S.S. Hudson Bay (science fiction club) meeting at the North York Public Library, North York Centre, Toronto, on Saturday, January 10, 2015. The meeting will be held in the library's Auditorium on the 2nd floor and will begin circa 1:30 p.m. The presentation will be approximately 45 minutes. The closest subway station is North York Centre. You do not need to be a member of the U.S.S. Hudson Bay to attend this open meeting.

A monster allegedly lives in the lake of Mount Paektu, the sacred birthplace of the Korean people. Mount Paektu is also the centre of a border dispute between China, North Korea, and South Korea. Chinese Communists and capitalists, North Korea’s Kim Dynasty, and South Korean nationalists all have interests on the mountain. Centuries of history and legend continue to influence how these countries view Mount Paektu. Will North and South Korea unite against China to regain Mt. Paektu? Who owns the monster?

I'm Not Afraid of Kim Jong Un! My Novel Has A Coup Against His Dynasty.

In today's startling, real world news, IT hackers sympathetic to North Korea's Kim Dynasty have caused Sony Pictures to withdraw its movie The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un, by threatening violent attacks on theatres that show the movie.

But people of the free world, do not fret! My novel The Shrine of the Siren Stone is still available, and its plot includes a coup against the Kim Dynasty (chapter 4). Okay, it's just a subplot, but it's still offensive to Kim Jong Un and will get me banned from any science fiction convention in North Korea. That's not a big loss, though, because I hear the hotels have electricity shortages and there are no cosplayers there.

 
You can buy the book that dares to speculate on murder and mayhem against the Kim Dynasty from Amazon in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere.

At Amazon Canada
At Amazon U.S.
At Amazon China
At Amazon Japan

 

Wrestling With Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen): "Mecha-Jesus" is the Lead Story

 

 

My story "Mecha-Jesus" is the first story in the anthology Wrestling With Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen), edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart. This is the latest of the Tesseracts series of anthologies of Canadian science fiction and fantasy.

 

"Mecha-Jesus" is about a Japanese town that uses an android of Jesus as a tourist attraction at its Christ Festival, where the locals, none of whom are Christian, celebrate the life of Jesus, the Israeli rebel who escaped crucifixion and became a rice farmer in Japan.

 

Wrestling With Gods' theme is religion in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The stories draw from a wide variety of inspirations. A sample of the stories includes the myths of cuttlefish, a vampire in residential schools, a Muslim woman who wants to get closer, surgically, to her god, the demons of outer space, the downside of Nirvana. Wrestling with Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen) take their faith and religion into the future, into the weird and comic and thought-provoking spaces where science fiction and fantasy has really always gone, struggling with higher powers, gods, the limits of technology, the limits of spiritual experience.
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At times profound, these speculative offerings give readers a chance to see faith from the believer and the skeptic in worlds where what you believe is a matter of life, death, and afterlife.
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The stories are by: Derwin Mak, Robert J. Sawyer, Tony Pi, S. L. Nickerson, Janet K. Nicolson, John Park, Mary-Jean Harris, David Clink, Mary Pletsch, Jennifer Rahn, Alyxandra Harvey, Halli Lilburn, John Bell, David Jón Fuller, Carla Richards, Matthew Hughes, J. M. Frey, Steve Stanton, Erling Friis-Baastad, James Bambury, Savithri Machiraju, Jen Laface and Andrew Czarnietzki, David Fraser, Suzanne M. McNabb, and Megan Fennell. 

Wrestling With Gods is already available as a Kindle edition from Amazon:

Wrestling With Gods
Other e-book editions will be available in February 2015, and the print edition will be available in Canada in March 2015 and in the United States in April 2015.

There will be a book launch at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy in Toronto on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Stay tuned for more information.

Because the Kindle edition was released in 2014, "Mecha-Jesus" will be eligible to be nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Short Story for 2014. Please read it and consider nominating it for the Aurora Award.