(1) WHEN FANDOMS COLLIDE. Publishers Weekly’s “Image of the Day” —

Brandon Sanderson and his arch-nemesis John Scalzi took the stage in Decatur, Ga., for a lively q&a and conversation before a sold-out crowd of more than 1,000 fans, organized by Eagle Eye Book Shop and Dragonsteel, Sanderson’s specialty publishing company.

Brandon Sanderson and John Scalzi

(2) ASTRA BOOK AWARDS. And on Monday, John Scalzi learned he is the winner of one of the inaugural Astra Book Awards: “When the Moon Hits Your Eye the Winner of the Astra Book Award for Best Science Fiction Novel”.

The award’s 17 categories include 6 of genre interest:

Best Comic Book

• Absolute Wonder Woman #1 – Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire & Becca Carey

Best Fantasy Book

• The Midnight Carousel – Fiza Saeed McLynn

Best Horror Book

• Dollface – Lindy Ryan

Best Romantasy Book

• Alchemised – SenLinYu

Best Science Fiction Book

• When the Moon Hits Your Eye – John Scalzi

Book of the Year

• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

(3) WOMEN’S PRIZE SHORTLIST. The 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist dropped today. However, none of the three books of genre interest on the longlist advanced to the shortlist.

(4) STATE OF AMERICA’S LIBRARIES REPORT. “Book bans and attempted bans remain at record highs, with ‘Sold’ topping the list” – Yahoo! runs the numbers.

Book bans and attempted bans remain at record highs, according to the American Library Association. And efforts to have titles removed have never been more coordinated or politicized.

The ALA on Monday issued its annual list of the books most challenged at the country’s libraries, part of the association’s State of America’s Libraries Report. Patricia McCormick’s “Sold,” a 2006 novel about sex trafficking in India, topped the list for 2025. Others targeted include Stephen Chbosky’s high school novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” and Sarah J. Maas’ romantasy favorite “Empire of Storms.”

The ALA usually features 10 books, but this year has 11, with four tied for eighth place: Anthony Burgess’ dystopian classic “A Clockwork Orange,” Ellen Hopkins’ sibling drama “Identical,” John Green’s boarding school narrative “Looking for Alaska” and Jennifer L. Armentrout’s paranormal romance “Storm and Fury.”

Objections include LGBTQ+ themes (“Gender Queer,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”), sexual violence (“Sold” and “A Clockwork Orange”) and use of alcohol and cigarettes (“Looking for Alaska”). Overall, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom recorded challenges to 4,235 different works, topped only by 4,240 in 2023 since the association began keeping track more than 30 years ago.

The association defines a challenge as “an attempt to have a library resource removed, or access to it restricted, based on the objections of a person or group.” Monday’s list arrives during National Library Week, which runs through April 25….

(5) PROTECTING UNPUBLISHED WORK. The Authors Guild has devised contract language to address the use of AI in publishing workflows: “Authors Guild Statement on Use of AI in Publishing and New Model Contract Clause”.

The Authors Guild is concerned about reports that some publishing professionals are uploading manuscripts and authors’ personal information into consumer-facing AI systems for uses such as generating summaries, assessments, and marketing copy without permission from the authors or adequate guardrails to ensure that the manuscripts are not used by AI companies for training.

Uploading or inputting a copyrighted work or an author’s personal information into AI systems without permission may constitute a violation of the author’s copyright or right of privacy, and it puts the author’s intellectual property and personal information at risk. Editors, agents, and others in the industry who have access to authors’ works should not upload any manuscript to or otherwise prompt consumer-facing chatbots with any author’s works without first getting the author’s written permission. Where consumer-facing chatbots are used in workflows, publishers and other industry professionals should ensure that they opt out of having the work used for training. All of the common chatbots provide this option in their user settings. Publishers should also take care that any internal AI systems are sandboxed models with guardrails to prevent the manuscripts or author information from being used as inputs for training.

Further, to prevent injecting any AI-generated text into an author’s work, publishers should not use AI to edit a manuscript with the exception of basic spelling and grammar- checking applications.

The Authors Guild calls on publishers and others in the industry to enforce strict policies with their staffs to ensure that authors give written permission before their work is uploaded into any AI and to ensure that authors’ works and personal information are not used for training.  

The Authors Guild recommends including the following clauses in publishing agreements to prevent objectionable uses.

“No Uploading Author’s Personal Information or Manuscript to Commercial AI

“Publisher shall not upload the Work or any of Author’s personal information to consumer-facing AI systems for purposes such as generating summaries, assessments, or marketing copy without written permission from the author or as otherwise agreed to hereunder; and when such permission is granted, it shall ensure that the manuscript is not used by third-party AI companies for training, such as by opting out of allowing training in user settings.

“No Substantive Editing with AI

“Publisher agrees and warrants that it will not use AI to substantially edit a manuscript (excepting the use of basic spelling and grammar-checking applications).”

(6) SHOCKED, I TELL YOU. “Why Are There So Few Movie Or TV Adaptations Of Harlan Ellison’s Work”. Despite Looper’s headline, even they know the answer is no mystery:

…A precise history of why people haven’t flocked to adapt Harlan Ellison’s work doesn’t exist, because it’s hard to catalog things that haven’t happened. However, a likely reason for entertainment industry folks generally steering away from Ellison adaptations is simple: Harlan Ellison was a difficult, even combative man.

The author, who died in 2018 at age 84, was a proud disruptor and overall agent of chaos who was known for his quick litigiousness and his clashes with other industry notables. His most famous feud is probably the one over a classic “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode, “The City on the Edge of Forever.”

Ellison’s original script was heavily revised and rewritten by “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and others, prompting years of bad blood between Ellison and Roddenberry. As late as in 2009, Ellison had filed a lawsuit for residuals regarding the episode. Another notable court case was over James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi classic “The Terminator,” which Ellison argued was based on his previously-adapted story, “Soldier.” The case was ultimately settled and Ellison received an “inspired by” credit.  

Apart from bigger fish like “Star Trek” and “The Terminator,” Ellison was also known for suing comic book publishers, websites, and suchlike for reasons ranging from logical to “what the hell, man.” From a prospective filmmaker’s viewpoint, all of this would likely be plenty of reason to avoid adapting Ellison’s work, as opposed to more amenable authors….

(7) EKPEKI INJURY UPDATE. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, who suffered a spinal fracture after being struck by a delivery cyclist in February (see GoFundMe for details: “Help Award-Winning Author Ekpeki After Near-Fatal Accident”), was interviewed about his experience on Channels Television. See the video on Facebook.

I spoke on Channels Television with Soonest Nathaniel about delivery safety, accountability, and the Chowdeck rider accident that left me with a spinal fracture two months ago and also affected Purity Addereth. This is not just about one incident, it’s about how these systems affect Nigerians. Apart from the initial medical payment in the first few days, there has been no further support or resolution. So far, engagement has been through legal representatives, and I have not had direct communication with Chowdeck decision-makers. We deserve better. I remain open to a fair and realistic resolution.

(8) LOTR-THEMED GOODBYE GIFT. “Jake Tapper gives ‘Lords of the Rings’ fan Stephen Colbert a very precious gift” – Entertainment Weekly shares the story.

Jake Tapper made sure to give Stephen Colbert a precious sendoff.

The CNN anchor appeared on The Late Show this week, and knowing it was likely his final time guesting before Colbert signs off, he brought a gift for the J.R.R. Tolkien superfan, whose next gig happens to be writing a Lord of the Rings film.

“I was thinking about how special you are to me, and how special this show [is],” Tapper said to Colbert, who he described as “tough to shop for.”

So he opted to make a gift instead. Apparently Tapper was an art minor in college and “dabbles” in painting, so he began brainstorming what he could paint for Colbert. When a staff member suggested a Hobbit or wizard because of his passion for Lord of the Rings, Tapper sought the counsel of Colbert’s wife, Evelyn.

“She was like, ‘He’s got plenty of those. He doesn’t need another ‘Stephen Colbert as a Hobbit.’ He doesn’t need another ‘Stephen Colbert as a wizard,'” Tapper shared.

Saying he wanted to stick with the Middle-earth theme, Tapper then unveiled his masterpiece: Colbert as the ring-loving Gollum.

“It’s beautiful,” Colbert declared, before dropping Gollum’s famous line, “My precious.”

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 22, 1992 — Quantum Leap’s “The Curse of Ptah-Hotep”

Razul: You are a student of Egypt, but you are not one of its sons. And until you have heard what I have heard and seen what I have seen, I would not expect you to believe that such a thing as a curse could be true, but it is. 

Sam: 3500-year-old dead men don’t just get up and walk around.

Thirty-four years ago this evening, Quantum Leap’s “The Curse of Ptah-Hotep” first aired on NBC. Sam leaps into the body of Dale Conway, an American archaeologist at a dig in Egypt, in 1957 just as he and his partner Ginny Will discover the tomb of Ptah-Hotep. A sand storm traps them deep in the tomb’s inner chambers.

You think that they made up this particular Egypt royal person but no, he was quite real. Ptahhotep, sometimes known as Ptahhotep I or Ptahhotpe, was an ancient Egyptian vizier during the late 25th century BC and early 24th century BC Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.

The curse that forms the story here was evidently a real one that affected a number of archeological digs undertaken here. Or possibly not. 

And it is worth definitely worth noting that Sam, throughout the entire series, thoroughly disbelieves in the supernatural, except for the force has him leaping around and that could be science. He frequently tells Al not to be superstitious about anything. But here he certainly seems to take the resurrected mummies in this episode as a given.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

• Bob the Squirrel has a reason for being unhelpful.
• Dinosaur Comics claims to quote Batman.
• Strange Brew is no longer self-propelled.
• Waynovision does a removal.
• xkcd expands into decorative mapping.

(11) BAFTA GAMES COMMENTARY. [Item by Steven French.] Keza MacDonald enthuses over the Games BAFTAs in the latest “Pushing Buttons” newsletter: “The Bafta games awards showed me again that honouring art over commerce is a win for all” om the Guardian.

The 22nd Bafta game awards were on Friday, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the biggest game prize. This makes it only the second game ever (after Baldur’s Gate 3) to win top prize at all five of the main awards shows: the Dice awards in Vegas; the Game awards in LA; the public-voted Golden Joysticks in the UK; the Game Developers Choice awards in San Francisco; and now London’s Baftas, the final event to celebrate the gaming output of 2025.

I’ll be honest: I was hoping for a different winner. Blue Prince, an eight-year project by the visual artist and former film-maker Tonda Ros, is the most extraordinary thing I played last year. It’s the game where you inherit a sprawling mansion that changes shape every day, and you must navigate its ever-shifting blueprint to find its secret room. I went so deep on this game that I was still playing it and thinking about it weeks after solving its initial mystery, piecing together bits of opaque lore from Reddit threads. I think it deserved at least one best game award (apart from ours).

At least it won the game design award, and seeing Ros pick up his trophy was rather moving. A late convert to video games, in his acceptance speech he thanked everyone else in the room for making things that showed him how interesting games could be. Indeed, as is the case most years, due to its unique shortlisting process, the Baftas showcased the widest range of games of all the year’s awards shows. I always enjoy seeing less celebrated fare such as And Roger (an extremely sad game about navigating dementia) and Despelote (winner of the Game Beyond Entertainment award) on the same nominations lists as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Ghost of Yōtei….

(12) THINK BIGGER. Space.com reports “The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next great observatory, is finally complete”.

…Named for NASA’s first chief of astronomy and the first woman to hold an executive position at the agency, this space telescope should turn out to be yet another valuable tool in our species’ hunt to understand the true nature of the universe. It’ll stand among the ranks of our other powerful robotic eyes on the sky — famed instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), SPHEREx, the Euclid Space Telescope and even the aged but always impressive Hubble. Except, as is the case with each of those landmark observatories, this new one has its own specialty. We’ll get into some of those specs soon….

…Above all, now projected to launch in September 2026 — eight months ahead of schedule, and under budget — the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (or “Roman” for short) has the potential to show us pockets of the cosmos we’ve yet to touch….

…According to NASA, Roman’s primary mirror measures about 7.9 feet (2.4 meters) wide, which is similar to Hubble’s. However, Roman has the ability to take images that capture a patch of the sky at least 100 times larger than Hubble can.

“Its surveying capabilities are over 1,000 times faster than Hubble, and can chart 200 times more sky in a single image,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said during the conference. “What would take Hubble 2,000 years to process, Roman can do in a year — the images it captures will be so large there is not a screen in existence large enough to show them.”

To put that into context, over its approximately 35 years of service so far, Hubble has gathered about 400 terabytes of data; once fully operational at its workstation in space, Roman should be able to create 500 terabytes of data per year….

(13) COYOTE VS. WARNER BROS. The coyote won. Trailer for Coyote vs. ACME, in theaters August 28.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, N., Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Tom Becker.]