*Overheard in the Store:
"What do we want?" "TIME TRAVEL!" "When do we want it?" "THAT'S IRRELEVANT!"
"I certainly don't have enough shackles; I know that for sure."
"Sex in the spotlight -- That's what I want!"
"Cookie Monster doesn't have the attention span to be a Jedi. He'd end up a Sith."

Great news for fans of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series: Universal has acquired the rights to all of the books and plans to reboot the film series!  http://www.thewrap.com/anne-rices-vampire-chronicles-series-lands-at-universal-imagine/

The World Fantasy Awards ballot was announced and many of the nominees are friends of the store who have visited and/or had events at Borderlands in the past.  Congratulations to all our friends and those who will hopefully visit us in the future!  http://worldfantasy2014.org/awards2.php

These photos of the city of Pripyat before Chernobyl is a disturbing look into the city that was just like any other in the U.S.S.R. before a nuclear meltdown made the place famous for all the wrong reasons.  Haunting.  http://io9.com/photos-of-everyday-life-in-pripyat-before-the-chernobyl-1618107860

The finalists for the 2014 Parsec Awards, which reward excellence in speculative fiction podcasting, have been announced.  Take a look and make of list of podcast stories both long and short, novellas, audio dramas and anthologies to check out: http://www.parsecawards.com/2014-parsec-awards/2014-parsec-awards-finalists/

The Perseus/Hachette deal first announced over a month ago has fallen through.  http://www.quillandquire.com/industry-news/2014/08/08/hachettes-perseus-sale-terminated/

Zack Snyder called a local radio station to defend the much maligned Aquaman to two radio DJs who were asking why anyone would choose to put him in a film.  Snyder reveals himself to be a true comic book geek!  http://io9.com/zack-snyder-calls-into-local-radio-show-to-defend-the-h-1618361564

The 2014 Seuin Award winners for Speculative Fiction published originally in Japanese and translated into Japanese have been announced.  http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/07/2014-seiun-award-winners/

The long awaited, and long thought abandoned, Terry Gilliam movie "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" has a new production date and is now taking place in the modern day.  More Gilliam is always a good thing.  We look forward to being shocked and mildly confused by his artistic choices yet again.  http://www.thewrap.com/terry-gilliams-don-quixote-movie-will-shoot-after-christmas-with-modernized-plot/

The co-hosts for this year's Hugo Awards in London at the 72nd Annual World Science Fiction Convention have been announced: Geoff Ryman & Justina Robson!  http://www.loncon3.org/hugo_ceremony.php

The winners of the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award have been revealed.  http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/award-winners/2013-award-winners/

If you enjoyed "Guardians of the Galaxy" or are planning to see it soon: check out the character that didn't make it past the conception stage.  As awesome as we've heard the film is, the comic book nerd in us is sad Nova didn't make the cut.  http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Guardians-Galaxy-Concept-Art-Reveals-Nova-66663.html

A hilarious/sad example of how, when the internet world doesn't get the joke, the fangs and claws will come out!  http://gawker.com/how-i-became-thousands-of-nerds-worst-enemy-by-tweeting-1618323233

The 2014 Eisner Awards were announced and beloved comic series "Saga" took away awards for the book as well as the amazing writer Brian K. Vaughn and incomparable artist Fiona Staples.  See all the winners here:  http://www.comic-con.org/awards/gallery/2014-will-eisner-comic-industry-award-winners

The Longlist for the prestigious Man Booker prize has been announced and a third of the nominees are speculative in some way!  The shortlist will be announced next month and the winner in October.  http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/longlist-2014-announced

Read the amazing interview with Grand Master Ursula K. LeGuin.  She discusses the divide between mainstream and genre literature, how exploring gender in fiction helps people get a clearer view of gender expectations now, and other dynamic opinions.  http://electricliterature.com/ursula-k-le-guin-talks-to-michael-cunningham-about-genres-gender-and-broadening-fiction/

io9.com has compiled a list of the weirdest stories where God is an actual character rather than some abstraction.  I want to argue for Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, but can it be called an appearance if you're just a whirlwind of dust?  http://io9.com/the-weirdest-stories-where-god-is-an-actual-character-1617529217

Deadspin has worked out the statistical guide to deaths in "Game of Thrones" and then graphed it according to variables such as gender, age, affiliation, and more!  http://regressing.deadspin.com/valar-morghulis-a-statistical-guide-to-deaths-in-game-1618282560

The Horror Writers of America have made the decision to accept self-published writers into its ranks.  Check out the details here: http://horror.org/self-published-works-accepted-membership-qualification/

The European Science Fiction Society Hall of Fame Awards and Spirit of Dedication Awards nominees have been released. It's an interesting look at the all the speculative fiction that doesn't get translated and so is unavailable to English readers.  http://esfs.info/esfs-awards/esfs-nominations-2014/

The winner of the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award has been revealed: podcaster and author Mur Lafferty for the first novel in her series "The Shambling Guide to New York City."  Congratulations!  http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/07/lafferty-wins-wellman-award/

Kotaku reveals compelling evidence that the survey that Ubisoft did last year about Assassin's Creed was actually about planning the next iteration of the popular series to appeal more deeply to its fans.
http://kotaku.com/the-2013-survey-that-foretold-the-future-of-assassins-c-1618246631/

We are sad to announce to passing of the talented fantasy, mystery, and comic writer CJ Henderson last month.  http://cjhenderson.com/

Reportedly Warner Bros. is going to develop Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series into a film franchise.  Let's hope it gets made and that it's well done because this could be fantastic!  http://www.deadline.com/2014/07/warner-bros-new-franchise-play-dragonriders-of-pern-book-series/