2010 Compton Crook Award Nominees

The nominees for the 2010 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award presented by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society are:

  • The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • Dying Bites by D.D. Barant
  • Soulless by Gail Carriger
  • Johannes Cabal, the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

 The winner will get his/her way paid to Balticon for two years, receive a plaque and $1000. Balticon takes place May 28-31, 2010.

The Compton Crook Award is presented for the best of the first novels published each year in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror. Selection is by vote of the BSFS membership. The Award is named for science fiction author Compton Crook, who used the nom de plume Stephen Tall. Compton Crook died in 1981. The award was first given in 1983. For more information check the BSFS website.

[Thanks to Michael Walsh for the story.]

Prop Driven History

Hollywood scriptwriters have a reputation for never letting history interfere with the story they want to tell, even in those “based on a true story” pics. I was surprised to learn that set decorators and prop masters have the opposite reputation.

The LA Times interviewed Jim and Pam Elyea, owners of History for Hire, a movie prop rental business located in North Hollywood not terribly far from the LASFS clubhouse. They are on a mission:

“Richard Attenborough told us that people learn their history from the movies, so it’s important to get it right,” Pam Elyea said. “That has been our philosophy.”

The Elyeas emphasize that people don’t simply rent an item from them, customers rely on their knowledge about the right way to use or display the item.

Painstaking historical research is a key part of the business. Hope Parrish, a veteran property master who worked with the couple on “The Aviator,” recalls how Jim drew a diagram on butcher paper showing precisely where microphones and cameras should be placed to re-create the actual Senate hearings depicted in the film.

“Their attention to detail makes my job 120% easier,” Parrish said.

Sounds like they run their business with the same passion for authenticity that drives the writing of Connie Willis and Harry Turtledove.

Old 1950s TV cameras like my father used at NBC.

Heinlein’s Tea for Two

I was feeling especially civic-minded after spending all of last week writing about Peter Watts’ trial. I’ve always intended to read Robert A. Heinlein’s Take Back Your Government eventually anyway so I decided to do it now. He might help me think about a citizen’s response to events like this. So I set out to order a copy.

First I went to Amazon.com. Three vendors were willing to sell me the 1992 paperback for $52. Others were willing to let me pay a lot more. Outrageous! Because I know these are not autographed copies. (Sherlock Holmes could not have deduced that more quickly.)

Then I remembered someone had written during last year’s campaign that Baen might reissue the book. What had they done since then? I checked the Baen website. Good news. Take Back Your Government was available as an e-book for just $5. A sweet deal, because Baen offers its e-books in multiple formats. I’d be able to load a copy on my Kindle.

There was an option to buy Heinlein’s book separately or bundled together with a book called Taxpayers Tea Party for $10. Why would I want that? So I hit the purchase button to order the Heinlein e-book. The shopping cart screen appeared — but it was empty. Well, I must have done something wrong. I worked my way back to the page with the purchase button and hit it once more. The shopping cart screen came back empty again.

The third time I tried clicking on the Heinlein/Tea Party bundle. This time the shopping cart showed my order. I said Aha! and started having conspiratorial thoughts. But because I’d have happily paid $10 just to get the Heinlein book, I rationalized going through with the purchase.

And I thought, I’m going to blog about this.

Then this morning I started wondering if I’d really just done something dumb? I’ve been happy buying from Baen all along. I’d hate to criticize them if it was my fault. So I returned to the Baen site and tried ordering a single copy of Take Back Your Government. And you know what? It worked perfectly the first time.

So I guess I just did something dumb yesterday. I will not get to name this post “Take Back My Merchandise.” Which just kills me.

Programming Just Ain’t That Easy

I’ve been on panels that drew single digit audiences where we were just too stubborn to quit: “What, and give up show biz?” (Can you believe people wouldn’t get out of bed at Loscon on Sunday morning to listen to Marty Cantor and I talk about fanzines?)

Last weekend at Lunacon the fans caught in a similar predicament made a higher quality decision.

Michael Walsh notes “So This Is Your First Con,” Friday at 4 p.m., had Ben Yalow and three other fans slated to participate. Only Ben showed, while Perianne Lurie was added at the last minute. There was an audience of one: Filthy Pierre Strauss, who probably went to his first con during the Kennedy administration. All decided that perhaps canceling would be best. 

They were very wise.

Vintage Photograph Auction Coming

Classic glamour photographs of Hollywood’s elite will be auctioned by Profiles in History on March 26-27.

The most famous item going on the block is George Hurrell’s iconic portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug. The original camera negative and a custom print will be sold, perhaps for more than $20,000.

Bidders will also have a chance at buying Hurrell’s photo of Johnny Weissmuller from Tarzan, which is the most symbolic ever taken of a male subject in Hollywood.

In addition to the Glamour photography collection, there master prints by Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Cindy Sherman, Julius Schulman, Jock Sturges, Howard Zieff and Edward Steichen.  There also is fine art by Andy Warhol, Richard Duardo, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Beatrice Wood and others.  

And there will also be work from photographer Len Prince, whose subjects include actresses like Kirsten Dunst and Teri Hatcher who have stfnal roles to their credit.

The full press release appears after the jump.

Continue reading

FAAn Voting Stats Released

Anyone interested in a detailed account of the FAAn Awards voting can get a report by clicking here (PDF file). My wholehearted thanks to the Corflu Cobalt committee for posting it so promptly.

A total of 43 fans cast votes this year. Nearly all of the races were competitive, however, the most dramatic outcome was in the Best Artist category where Steve Stiles edged Dan Steffan by a single point.

Watts Case Footnote

Late last week I wrote that the news coverage of Peter Watts trial didn’t explain clearly why the prosecutor was requesting an enhanced sentence under the habitual offender statute. So I sent an e-mail to the contact person at the St. Clair County courts and received this answer:

Habitual offender relates to previous convictions. It is not clear from the court record whether this will apply in the Peter Watts case but it will be clarified by the time of sentencing. 

Peter Watts by now has addressed this on his blog, but at the time I sent in my question I never expected anyone in his situation to be so forthcoming.

Snapshots 40

Here are 5 developments of interest to fans:

(1) When Aussiecon 4 GoH Shaun Tan was interviewed by Western Australia Today he spoke persuasively about the similarity of science and art:

“I think there is great similarity between science and art,” he said.

“The fact that they are fairly separate disciplines in our time says something about our culture.

“What they have in common is a curiosity about reality, and casting of the imagination over initial perception.

“Scientific ideas are profound acts of the imagination, prior to all testing and calculation, and similarly, all works of art are a series of hypotheses that have been put to experimental test on paper or canvas.”

(2) Megan Reid’s guest post about “Being a Bad Reader” is actually about reading quirks. It’s a fine post on its own terms, but after experiencing a sense of disappointment I realized that what I really hoped to find was someone at long last balancing fan criticism with examples of reviews by people who simply misread what was in front of them.    

(3) A library in South Yorkshire got a book back 45 years overdue. The paperback first edition copy of Quatermass and the Pit by Nigel Kneale was borrowed on September 24, 1965. The borrower’s name will remain forever unknown because library records don’t go back that far. And while a library can always use a windfall, the penalty for keeping the book so long wouldn’t have been very much: all fines are capped at 6 pounds ($9).

(4) From Letters of Note: Philip K. Dick sent the outline of A Scanner Darkly to his agent with  a cover letter full of excitement:

P.S. I swear, Scott, this is shaping up to be the greatest novel ever written. Or at least the greatest novel I’ve ever written, anyhow.

(5) From Scifiwire: “Guy spends 3 years building Minas Tirith out of 420,000 matches.” Awesome picture. But watch out for trolls — the very first comment is, “some lighter fluid, and one more match we can do what Sauron wasn’t able to.”

[Thanks to David Klaus and SF Signal for the links.]

Looking Down the Road

The Port Huron Times Herald story about Peter Watts’ conviction begins with the following lead:

Toronto author Peter Watts has been found guilty of assaulting, resisting and obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.

Watts calls this a mistake — saying he was not convicted of assault. Indeed, one of the jurors has written to tell Watts he felt obligated to vote for a conviction on grounds of resisting and obstruction, but says Watts was not guilty of assault.

I wondered if a look at the statute would reconcile both viewpoints. By that I mean — What if the newspaper reporter’s phrasing is legally correct, just less insightful than the juror’s explanation?

The St. Clair county court records and the Michigan code are all available online. Watts was charged under this section of Michigan law:

Section 750.81d: Assaulting, battering, resisting, obstructing, opposing person performing duty; felony; penalty; other violations; consecutive terms; definitions.

(1) Except as provided in subsections (2), (3), and (4), an individual who assaults, batters, wounds, resists, obstructs, opposes, or endangers a person who the individual knows or has reason to know is performing his or her duties is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than $2,000.00, or both.

Section 750.81d(1) deals collectively with seven distinctly different actions, five of which are in the title of the statute. So a jury that found someone guilty of any one of these actions might be said to have convicted him of violating the law against “assaulting, battering, resisting, obstructing or opposing” a person performing his or her duties.

But the reporter (or copyeditor) has taken a cafeteria approach, selecting just a few of the listed items. So it doesn’t read like a paraphrase of the statute — it reads like an assertion about the jury’s factual findings that led to Watts’ conviction. And since the jurors were willing to talk out of court the reporter had as much opportunity as the defendant to get the most insightful possible story. I don’t score the lead’s accuracy very highly.

On another topic… For the past two days I have searched for information about how frequently people convicted under this law avoid a prison sentence. I located the Michigan Department of Correction statistical report for 2008 (PDF file): it shows 42% of the people convicted under Section 750.81d just received probation, and another 8% received delayed or suspended sentences (or were dealt with under terms of a youth offender statute).

Everything ultimately comes down to the details in individual cases, of course.

2010 FAAn Award Winners

The FAAn Awards were presented  at Corflu Cobalt in Winchester, England on March 21. Thanks to Peter Sullivan for posting the names of the winners:

Best Fanzine: Banana Wings (Claire Brialey & Mark Plummer)
Best Fan Writer: Claire Brialey
Best Fan Artist: Steve Stiles
Best Letterhack (aka Harry Warner Memorial Award): Robert Lichtman
Best Website: eFanzines (Bill Burns)
Lifetime Achievement Award: Ted White
Number One Fan Face: Robert Lichtman
Best New Fan: Jacqueline Monahan of Las Vegas

D West was chosen Past President of FWA for 2009.

The 2011 Corflu will take place in Sunnyvale, California early in February. Chris Garcia and crew will host it at the Domain Hotel.

The first issue of Corflu’s daily newsletter The Cobalt Bomb is already online here. I thought its most helpful item was a notice to members hanging out in the bar that there was another bar open in the programme room.

Update 3/21/2010: Drplotka’s Flickr site has awesome photos from Corflu Cobalt, such as this 2010 Corflu group shot, and tableau of 15 TAFF winners from 13 races. (I shall think myself accursed I was not there!)