Omni Daily News

Science Fiction Innovator, Charles Nikki Brown (1937-2009): Charles N. Brown, the co-founder and publisher of Locus Magazine, the Billboard of science fiction and fantasy, passed away on Sunday, July 12th. Over several decades his publication chronicled the business and art of genre fiction with a rare precision and level of detail. [Locus]

Before Michael, There Was Judy: Author and critic Michael Korda discusses Susie Boyt's new biography of Judy Garland--that childhood star whose adult life was vexed by her phenomenal early fame, the media hype, and her uncontrollable personal demons.  Korda observes:

"Some stars, not many, develop an eerie ability to share their own emotions, problems, weaknesses, and fears with their fans—of these, perhaps the most notorious was Judy Garland, whose stage concerts, in the last part of her life, were like a mass group-therapy session, as well as the emotional equivalent of watching some death-defying feat, like Evel Knievel’s attempt to leap across Snake River Canyon on a motorcycle."   [Daily Beast]

Nabokov's Laura Has Not Left the Building: Why have advance copies of Knopf's upcoming publication of Vladimir Nabokov's The Original of Laura been unavailable to reviewers?  The New York Observer tries to get to the bottom of it. The book's cover on Amazon also seems to be somewhat shrouded in mystery. Curiously, only half of it is visible. [The New York Observer]

--Lauren