The Open Page: Book & Print News – 3/24/08
 
1) Kevin Lima, the director of the recent Disney hit Enchanted, will direct the Warner Brothers movie adaptation of The Spook's Apprentice. Based on the first book in the popular Wardstone Chronicles trilogy by British author Joseph Delaney, the story centers on Thomas Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son who is being trained to be an exorcist in the 1700s.

2) Borders Group, Inc., the major bookstore company, may be going on the sales block. The chain has been in the middle of a massive restructuring and may need additional financing. Pershing Capital, a private equity firm with a large stake in Borders and two board seats, is loaning the company $42.5 million and will acquire Borders’s Australian, New Zealand, Singapore and Paperchase subsidiaries for $125 million if Borders cannot find another buyer at a better price. Borders has hired J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch & Co. as financial advisors to review how the company might raise funds, including selling all or parts of the chain’s assets. There’s no word on whether the company will be closing further bookstores or not as part of its restructuring.

3) The British Science Fiction Association is launching the rebirth of their online media magazine, Matrix Online. The magazine offers features, articles, reviews and news from the world of SF media. To view the magazine, you must be a BSFA member. Visit http://www.matrix-online.net for more details or http://www.bsfa.co.uk

4) In other BSFA news, the winners of the BSFA Prize have been announced. Ian McDonald’s Brasyl won for best novel. Ken MacLeod won for best short fiction with “Lighting Out.” Andy Bigwood won for best artwork with “Cracked World.” Noted SF author Brian Aldiss was presented with the BSFA 50th Anniversary Award for best novel of 1958 for his novel Non-Stop. The awards were presented at a ceremony at Eastercon 2008 in London. 

5) The Horror Writers Association, in conjunction with the World Horror Convention and iSCIFI.tv, will be broadcasting live on the Internet the awards ceremony for the 2007 Bram Stoker Awards, to be held at the World Horror Convention on Saturday, March 29. The convention is taking place at Salt Lake City and the awards ceremony will be at 9:00 p.m. local time, 11:00 p.m. Eastern Coastal time. To view the awards, click to www.iscifi.tv/live, where the podcast will be displayed in the center of your screen. The Master of Ceremonies will be Jeff Strand, and a series of horror authors will present the Stokers. Several non-Stoker awards will also be presented, including:

The 2008 Grandmaster Award (presented by the World Horror Society)
The co-winners of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award
The Richard Laymon Award (HWA President's Award)

6) In other award news, the 2008 Philip K. Dick awards have been given out at Norwescon. M. John Harrison won the main award for his novel, Nova Swing, which also won the Arthur C. Clarke award. The other nominees were Grey by Jon Armstrong, Undertow by Elizabeth Bear, Gradisil by Adam Roberts, Ally by Karen Traviss and Astropolis: Saturn Returns by Sean Williams. A Special Citation was awarded to From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain, by Minister Faust.