Let’s Just Shuffle Up The Postbag, Reach In And See What We Pick Out:
(Picture Swap Shop, only in the 21st Century).

Here’s an interesting letter from Peter Rogers of Scunthorpe (location changed to protect the innocent):

He says: I keep telling the wife that Stargate and Atlantis are more real than Eastenders or Corrie but she will not have any of it. Perhaps we could meet half way and have a Stargate in Albert Square or have the cast of Walford eaten by a Wraith Invansion?

Either way at least she would get some sort of History lesson rather than just pure escapism.

We say: Peter, that’s true, very true.

Stargate excretes pure realism, whereas Eastenders and Corrie are but figments of someone’s deluded mind, portraying apparently real people in such a chaotic setting, with unrealistic storylines and baffling lingo, which teeters on the edge of being Ricki Lake.

Meeting halfway would be particularly thought provoking idea, especially if the cast in Walford are teleported away into oblivion. Or even teleported into Coronation Street - at least we’d only have one of them to watch.

Now that makes eighteen pence.

Another solution, would be to play all ten series of Stargate, for her, back to back, then top it off with Atlantis, repeat if necessary. Eventually she’ll come around to the idea that Stargate is more real, than boring, over the top soap operas.

I just wanted to wish all scifi’ers a Happy New Year, and good luck with your new year’s resolutions.

I’ve also recieved a submission off a reader, for short fiction, which I’ll be putting up soon in the Reader Fiction category. You can submit your own fiction using the contact form.

And for a bit of fun, check out Elf Yourself. It’s not scifi specific, but fun all the same.

Essentially, you choose a picture of someones face to upload, which gets attached to an Elf’s body, then watch the Elf rock n’ roll like an insane rock n’ roller. Isn’t the internet funky.

Or If You’d Prefer: Happy Newton’s ‘day!

But whatever you do today, whether you celebrate anything or not, we here hope that you all have a great time!

And we want to thank you for coming back time after time, the daily amount of visitors, either to the page, or viewing through syndications etc, is phenominal. When I started it last year, I never thought there’d be so many people interested.

Just goes to show that scifi is still going strong.

Anyways, what are you doing reading this? You should be with your family and friends, watching Star Wars back to back, or a few James Bond films with Christmas hats on and your new scifi DVDs/comics/books/costumes and armour. Or just waving your Light Saber around making Bzzzz noises (if it’s not built in).

Have a good one people!

Because They’re Cool - That’s Why

Well, realistically, who knows? Well apprently a writer at the Observer likes to think he does.

Go there and comment at him, and read the comments. I admit it’s been a while since he’s written it, but what is one year.

Some of the comments are very interesting too. To quote just one comment:

“It’s also a necessary social filter. Good looking chicks don’t like science fiction; so you over the course of time you’ll get a race to the bottom amongst sci-fi geeks as they have to mate with uglier and uglier women until they eventually join the neaderthals.”

And I have to say, ‘good looking chicks’ DO like science fiction. I can vouch for it.

Still, it’s an interesting read.

Gareth D Jones / Gareth is a writer of science fiction, inbetween working in Waste Management and studying part-time for a degree in Environmental Studies.

He’s been published on-line and in print and has had his work translated into Hebrew. His blog can be seen here.

He has already reviewed two publications : Scifantastic and Universe Pathways.

We welcome him to the team, and remember, if you’d like to contribute in any way, please let us know via the feedback form.

Where Do All You SciFi People Come From?

I’d love to know how you got here and whether you’ll keep coming back, don’t forget there’s an RSS feed so you can get immediate updates.

And don’t forget you can submit articles for review or just point us in the direction of your work.

We know what it means to work so hard on something.

We’re all SciFi Junkies together! (whether we read or watch it).

And of course you can request photos from us.

Right, I’m off to watch LOST the other 48 days. I’ve got my theory on LOST, but I’ve decided to keep it secret until I get upto speed with all you other viewers. (That’s parallel timelines for you I believe).

Algerian SciFi?

For the last few weeks I’ve been away from the keyboard (so to speak), travelling around certain hot places, and therefore I’ve not been able to update as much as I would have liked - though I have managed to read some pretty cool novels, of which reviews will be done soon. And for the record, I couldn’t locate any Algerian SF; no films, no books, nothing on the local cable. I wonder if there are any Algerian SF writers?

It’s pleasantly suprising the amount of visitors which are passing through this site, especially the recurring visitors - thanks for coming back. And if you’ve mailed me in the last month, I promise to get back to you as soon as I can, I’m currently going through all the correspondence. It’s nice to know people are taking an interest!

Finally, Christmas is almost upon us, so I hope you have a Cool Christmas and a Most Excellent New Year.

Editorial Three: A Lifetime Of SF Backlog.

Well it’s been a busy few weeks. I am still busily reviewing my backlog of SF; which you’ll notice as some of the entries are blank. I’m gradually going through them and writing my thoughts and views. It’s a long old slog, but enjoyable all the same.

Other news;

AFO Broadcasting - Live Streaming SciFi Radio.
We’ve been invited to participate in the birth of a new Internet Streaming SciFi Based Radio Station which is due to start test transmissions around the 15th October. They will be broadcasting from California at their Sci-Fi Convention on October 23rd, which will include interviews with top guests. After this they will be broadcasting live from the Docklands London Expo in front of an audience of about 300,000; and again with many guests lined up.

They are the only professional broadcasting company on the Internet, offering Sci-Fi fans great music, entertainment, features and innovative programming.

Stay tuned for more information.

Forbidden Planet Weblog.
Joe Gordon over at The Forbidden Planet Weblog has done a writeup of SciFi UK Review which can be found here. He has injected some of his humour and it made me laugh. The Weblog itself is very informative and is useful for the general public and employees alike, to get news on happenings within Forbidden Planet. Well worth a visit.

Inc Writers Science Fiction Issue.
Speaking of writeups, a small writeup I did on Philip K Dick has been publisher over on Inc Writers website. They do a periodical publication geared around most types of fiction. This edition was specifically Science Fiction and includes interviews with Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams. Plus views from two Philip K Dick fans (one of them me). It’s interesting to see the differing angles from both contributers; probably because one is female and the other is male. A very interesting read.

Image Content.
Finally, I am in discussions to acquire images of certain SF authors and SF actors for the simple reason that I am adament that I won’t just blatently copy images from other sites and post them without the copyright holders permission (as most other sites seem to do). At the moment you will notice that a lot of the images are simply Amazon links. This is a nice easy way to put visual images on the site without breaking copyright, but that is not good enough for me. I want ‘proper’ images, not just Amazon link images (which normally only pertain to book or dvd covers). Fingers crossed.

There are also links to posters, which add a bit more graphical content, and again I’m in two minds are to whether this is the ideal way. I’ll keep you posted on how the image discussions go.

Frilly Bits.
I’ve added a ‘Send To A Friend’ link and ‘Subscribe To The Newsletter’ link; they can both be found in the grey information box in the top right of each post.

That’s it for this time, but remember; SF Junkie - and proud of it!

Editorial Two: SF RSS Link Enabled.

Just a quick interim editorial to let you know that the RSS feed is now enabled. If you point your RSS/XML reader here you can get instant updates on news and reviews on dvd movies, books, magazines, comics and essays.

I don’t mind if you use the content as long as it’s left intact, and linking to us would be appreciated.

That’s what RSS is all about, sharing.

Now back to going through my lifetime backlog of SF literature and movies. What fun!

Editorial One: Celebrating SF.

It has certainly been a hectic month what with putting together this site, writing some reviews of our most favourite books and movies and catching up with some new releases. During this time I’ve reflected on a whole lifetime of SF stories.

It is a most pleasing exercise, going through all my old books and movies, finding suprises along the way. I had forgotten I had so many books and movies stacked in nooks and crannies, getting pushed onto the historical pile, not to be seen for years. I found quite a few back issues of Interzone (a British SF Magazine), and suddenly found myself rereading stories I hadn’t thought about for years.

I have also noted that, within myself, I have been reading and watching SF with a view to review, as opposed to just viewing for the view. And in fact I was doing that before I ever put this site together as a platform to air my thoughts. I am sure this is a positive change, as it allows me to ask questions as I am watching/reading, it almost forces me to think more about the story, how everything interacts and how I feel of the whole entity, rather than just maybe getting to the end and then not thinking too much about it.

The site itself has now been built up to a stage where we are happy with the design so we will be concentrating on the content, slowly building up a database of SF from our personal points of view.

If there is anything you would like to see, or have any comments, or wish to contribute, then please feel free to use the Contact Form, and we’ll respond to you personally.

Finally, we just want to say thank you for stopping by and hope you come back soon to catch up on our small part of the SF universe.

I’ve added links to the left hand side for easy direct access to scifi links (internal links and external links).

If you’d like your site adding, please use the contact form and give us some good salesman talk on why it should be added!