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Fantasy news round-up 26/04/2010

Image: NASA space image Hubble Telescope: NASA release dramatic space image to mark 20th birthday
The new image, captured earlier this year by Hubble’s brand-new Wide Field Camera 3, shows a cosmic pillar of gas and dust piled high in the Carina Nebula. Located about 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina, it shows a craggy mountaintop that is enshrouded by wispy clouds which would not look out of place in JRR Tolkien’s epic fantasy or even a Dr Seuss book. It captures in amazing detail the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars.

Eoin Colfer on writing fantasy novels for children
This film is the first in a series that features a wide range of arts figures including writers, musicians, directors, performers and artists giving advice about a specific aspect of their work. Author of the Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer talks about how to write fantasy novels for children.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8635562.stm

Gaiman double on the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway shortlists
Children’s titles covering topics such as racism, war and global warming have been nominated in the CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist. While, Bloomsbury and Walker both have a duo of titles on the shortlist for this year’s CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. It is also the first time for 30 years that a title has appeared on both the CILIP Carnegie and CILIP Kate Greenaway shortlists, with Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, illustrated by Chris Riddell (Bloomsbury) appearing on both.

Carnegie Medal shortlist is as follows:

  • Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Bloomsbury)
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury)
  • The Vanishing of Katerina Linden by Helen Grant (Penguin)
  • Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn (OUP)
  • The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Walker)
  • Nation by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday)
  • Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)
  • Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion)

The Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist is as follows:

  • Leon and the Place Between by Grahame Baker-Smith (Templar)
  • Harry & Hopper Freya Blackwood (text by Margaret Wild) (Scholastic)
  • The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins)
  • Millie’s Marvellous Hat by Satoshi Kitamura (Andersen Press)
  • Crazy Hair by Dave McKean (text by Neil Gaiman) (Bloomsbury)
  • The Graveyard Book by Chris Riddell (text by Neil Gaiman) (Bloomsbury)
  • The Dunderheads by David Roberts (text by Paul Fleischman) (Walker)
  • There are cats in this book by Viviane Schwarz (Walker)

Ronan Keating’s Hobbit Ambition
The Boyzone singer auditioned for a role in upcoming fantasy movie ‘The Hobbit’ – based on the JRR Tolkien novel of the same name, a prequel to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy – and is still waiting to hear back. He said: "I don’t think I’ll get the role of the hobbit. But I would like to take on roles which nobody would expect. I don’t want to be reduced to love stories. I’d like to try dark, edgy roles. I need a challenge." Ronan – who has three children, Jack, 11, Marie, nine, and four-year-old Ali, with his model wife Yvonne – is even considering leaving his native Ireland to live in Los Angeles to pursue his big screen dream.

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