LASFS Sends a Platoon to the Storage Wars

Color photo. Taken outside storage unit. Four people looking into cardboard storage box.
LASFSians hard at work: What’s in this box?

[INTRODUCTION. I got a little misty reading Heath Row’s article in The Stf Amateur about LASFS divesting some of its fanzine files. Since the clubhouse was sold in 2016 these decades-old legacies have been in a storage unit, and the club is no longer willing to bear the cost. The good news is part of them will end up filling gaps in the Eaton Collection at UC Riverside, with the remainder hopefully accepted by the University of Iowa’s collection, so the materials will live on. While people were pulling stuff out of the unit they also found some club heirlooms. Heath Row gave File 770 permission to run his account of the work party.]

By Heath Row: Fun with Fanzines. Last weekend, I went to Sylmar to join a handful of LASFSans in cleaning out one of the club’s storage units. At the December board meeting, Elayne Pelz informed the board that the unit’s monthly cost had increased substantially, and the board voted to divest the club of the filing cabinets holding the club’s archives and various clubzine back issues, including De Profundis, APA-L, and LASFAPA.

I went to see how much of those I could salvage, box, and fit in our car, for donation to the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy at the University of California, Riverside, and the Iowa Archives of the Avant-Garde at the University of Iowa, which has a sizable holding of apae material, including my previous donations. Pelz had previously reached out to potential homes, finding no takers, but I was able to identify and secure interest. The storage unit in question is not one we have ready access to. Materials are stored in large, wooden walk-in crates—pods—that are then warehoused. With a work group involving Pelz, Christian B. McGuire, Cathy and Dean Johnson, Gavin Claypool, and myself, we were able to empty three of five such crates, cutting the club’s storage costs substantially.

Color photo. 14 "banker's" storage boxes stacked against an iron paling fence.
The resulting Banker’s boxes, now in my storage.

Over the course of several hours, I was able to prepare almost 20 Banker’s boxes of De Profundis dating back to 1957 (three boxes), APA-L #1-360 (five boxes), and LASFAPA #1-487 (11 boxes). While no archive wants the hard copy APA-Ls—they’re scanned and available online—the other materials will eventually go to Eaton. Duplicates from their holdings will hopefully go to Iowa.

Color photo of 5 three-drawner steel filing cabinets and 1 two-drawer filing cabinet. Gavin Claypool in background.
Gavin Claypool and some of the filing cabinets for disposal.

Pelz plans to donate early materials from the 1940s and 1950s to Fanac. Cathy Johnson assessed the club archives, and as far as I know, only clubzine and apae materials were set aside for disposal. (I didn’t see any back issues of Shangri L’Affaires, but there weren’t any in the cabinets we got rid of, so they’re still in storage.) After I’d boxed the materials I wanted to salvage, I got a chance to see some other prime holdings of the club. That included William Rotsler’s 1997 Hugo for Best Fan Artist and the urn that held his ashes after cremation. His ashes were subsequently spread by his family; the urn is empty.

I also learned about a new—to me—LASFS-oriented apa, SSAPA, or the Second Sunday APA. It debuted April 14, 2002, and didn’t seem to last long. Does anyone remember anything about the SSAPA? (Joe Zeff, perhaps? You were in #1!) One additional vignette: When we identified the filing cabinets containing LASFAPA, they were locked. There was an assortment of keys and padlocks on hand, but none of the keys worked for those cabinets. I was worried we wouldn’t even be able to open them. I tried to jimmy it open with a flat key ring attachment, and Dean Johnson used what few tools he’d brought. Then we had the storage unit staff drill the lock bolts out! That did the trick.

Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild To Dissolve

The Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild, owing a staggering attrition penalty after failing to meet the hotel room block commitment for Costume-Con 40 in 2022, has announced they will dissolve.

Jamie Peddicord, the group’s representative on the International Costumers’ Guild Board of Directors, made the announcement on Facebook.

GCFCG logo

I unfortunately have some difficult news to share. You might be aware that Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild (GCFCG) did not have the attendance we needed at Costume-Con 40 to meet the room block for the hotel, which is in large part because of complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One thing that worked against us is that the hotel penalized the convention heavily for not reaching a room block practically doubling the bill to $200,000. Since the con the guild has worked hard to come up with some means of paying the hotel to be able to continue the chapter and unfortunately we have exhausted our options.

The chapter board of directors, after looking at every option possible, had to come to the extremely difficult decision, due to the unmanageable debt, to dissolve the GCFCG. This is definitely not something we are doing lightly and to quote Sarah [Richardson] “It is painful and it hurts, but it has to be done.”

The GoFundMe appeal Richardson set up for the group last year only raised $1130. As she explained at the time:

…Many of our attendees, especially our international members, were unable to attend due to Covid travel restrictions were levied right before the convention. Because of this, over a fourth of our registered members (100+ people) were not able to attend. This led to our not meeting the room night obligations in our contract, and so we must pay a hefty “attrition” penalty….

Formed in 1982, the GCFCG was the founding chapter of the International Costumers’ Guild. Plans are being made for a new ICG chapter in Maryland.

First Meeting Ever in the LASFS Clubhouse: October 25, 1973

By Mike Glyer: Fifty years ago on October 25, 1973 the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society met for the first time in its very own clubhouse. Founded in 1934 in a member’s garage, over the decades the club led a nomadic existence, at better times meeting in Clifton’s Cafeteria, or the former beauty shop it rented on Bixel Street, or a room at the Palms Park Playground, and even a Unitarian Church parish hall. But sooner or later the LASFS always had to move on.

In the Sixties treasurer Paul Turner helped members catch the vision of buying their own clubhouse. They incorporated LASFS as a non-profit educational organization and started a Building Fund.  When Bruce Pelz took over as treasurer a few years later fundraising really intensified. Every bit helped – I remember at the 1970 Directors Dinner where Harlan Ellison was guest speaker, Len Moffatt and others auctioned off their desserts for the fund. By 1973 there was over $26,000 in the fund.  

Although the club had always met in central Los Angeles, due to property prices the directors started looking in the San Fernando Valley. They found a building that was about the right size and price in the Studio City area, a former single-family residence which had been remodeled for use as a small shop on one of the Valley’s busiest streets. In August the club voted to buy the property at 11360 Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood for $32,000.

LASFS Board of Directors outside the first clubhouse. Back row: Bill Warren, Bruce Pelz, Drew Sanders. Front row: June Moffatt, Phil Castora, Fuzzy Pink Niven, Milt Stevens, Dave Fox, Fred Patten, and Dan Alderson.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the LASFS Milt Stevens did the time-consuming work of getting all inspections and preparatory financial arrangements made. Fans spread the word that the first meeting would be held on October 25. Members chipped in to buy large numbers of folding chairs – with the inducement that each chair would have a little stick-on plaque with the donor’s name.   

And on that night a famous society reporter captured all the important details of the celebration:


BY TALLULAH FUGGHEAD. Christmas season came early to Tinsel Town as the members of the nation’s oldest science fiction club gathered to unwrap their new toy, the Clubhouse. Announcements had been sent to the roster of former attendees and to several pros in the area inviting them to attend. 108 people showed up to vibrate and soak up the gemutlichheit. Pros included Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, George Clayton Johnson, Ted Sturgeon, Mitchell Harding, Ron Cobb and who else but Forry Ackerman.

Despite the crunch, the meeting went extremely smoothly and even started on time. Pournelle, as President of the SFWA, read a congratulatory speech and relayed a very warm and egoboosting phonecall from Robert Heinlein.

SFWA President Jerry Pournelle reads a congratulatory letter from Robert A. Heinlein.

From the Science Fiction Writers of America. Science fiction clubs and SF fandom are a nearly unique phenomenon. Few other literary genre enjoy this kind of enthusiastic support from their readers. Not long ago, the Los Angeles Shakespeare Society lost its clubhouse — and here is LASFS, moving into its own. We’re the wave of the future, all right. We presume that within a few years you will install a Dean Drive or Daleth Effect engines or some other means of locomotion for a tour of the solar system. We trust that we’ll be invited for the second cruise. On behalf of all the members of the SFWA, congratulations to LASFS, Inc. on the realization of a dream. /signed/ Jerry Pournelle

From Robert A. Heinlein. To the Officers and Members of LASFS: At last a home of our own!! I joined the LASFS in December of 1938, or possibly January 1939. It was at a meeting of the Hollywood chapter at which Forrest J. announced that a new magazine — UNKNOWN WORLDS — would be on the stands in February 1939: so that makes me a junior member, as the club was established five years earlier. I met Russ Hodgkins that night, and other old timers. Morojo, Forrest J., Doc Daugherty, and others — then started attending meetings at Clifton’s Cafeteria and met Hank Kuttner, Jack Williamson, Julie Schwartz, Bob Olson, Frank Brady, Ray Bradbury, Bruce Yerke, Pogo and many others. I remained active until after Pearl Harbor, then settled in Colorado after the war — and have never joined any other SF club, and thought of myself as still a member. In fact I was told so several years running. What is your lifetime non-resident fee for an old crock whose life expectancy is now 13 years, if they don’t lynch him first? I’ll pay it. Again, congratulations to us all on achieving a dream that started almost 40 years ago — and seemed as fantastic then as atomic bombs, nuclear power, men on the moon, and other such nonsense — nonsense to all practical, clearthinking, sober citizens who wouldn’t be caught dead reading one of those silly magazines with space ships on the cover. Warmest greetings to my fellow dreamers, /signed/ Robert A. Heinlein.

There were also good wishes from another cherished sff author.

From Theodore Sturgeon. Dear and valued LASFS. Without readers a writer would be somewhat less than nothing. Without the SF reader, the most passionate and talented SF writer would have nowhere to go. Without the SF fan, who is the most ardent and the most articulate of all readers, I would have been without the notice and encouragement which has been so valuable to me all my writing life. LASFS is the archetype of fandom, and as I celebrate this occasion with you, I welcome the chance to express my gratitude. Thank you. /signed/ Theodore Sturgeon

Ackerman talked about the club’s origins, and read a list of the loved departed, like Ron Ellik. The program was a slide show of the history of LASFS meeting places, including a Polaroid slide of Forry taken minutes before at THE Clubhouse, which LASFS may even decide to formally name “Evans-Freehafer Hall,” to honor a lapsed Tradition.

Traditionally, this type of program would evacuate the meeting more than the usual program, but interest held up. LASFS, of course, is an excuse to talk; some quiet types listen, instead, but they aren’t really faaaans, now are they? So the “meeting” exists on three levels: The Formal Meeting cum Program, the groupings that talk to each other outside the meeting. And the APA L collation and attendant talking. Praise Herbie and pass the insulation.

The attendees were too impressed by the actual B*U*I*L*D*I*N*G and the Population Density (as dense as usual) to infight, though Bjo suffered from Crowdstrophobia. The one anticipated issue, smoking, turned out to be no problem due to the evening breeze and the ceiling fans. Physically, the modest bungalow (fire marshal rated at 80 people max) has a meeting room the size of two living room cubicles (and thus half is paneled, half is painted an orcish yellow, with no trace of the knocked-down wall that separated them). The den is also paneled, but will soon be LASFS Library book-lined. Kitchen is painted green, service room blue, and the corridor reddish-purple, color-coordinated by Shirley Scrounge.

Dan Goodman, Craig Miller and Milt Stevens in the kitchen.
The back of the main meeting room, looking into the service room. Standing: Jack Harness, Fred Patten (in doorway), Harlan Ellison. Foreground: Elst Weinstein.

$25 grand paid down, with the remaining $7,000 handled by personal bank loans, which will have to be repaid. The chairs were personally paid for so swiftly, with plaques (“endowed” as the term goes) that a couple of paid-for hoaxes have to be combined with others, or something. LASFS may have some deadbeat members, but two hoaxes have dues paid scrupulously by their perpetrators.

Fan Historians are alerted that the first person to utilize the LASFS Toilet during a meeting was Ray Bradbury.

A hundred copies of a 65-page APA L were collated and distributed in amongst the program and talking, and eventually the meeting dispersed to check out nearby restaurants for the after-meeting discussions. About ten years to the day before this meeting, the Building Fund was started, and behold, we have the first Pandemonium. Well, Talu has to cover the Fatty Arbuckle scandal now, so goodbye until tomorrow.


(Rumors abound that Tallulah was a fan whose writing style would be instantly recognizable to those who had been active some years in the past. I’m pretty sure it was Jack Harness.)

Here is the top page of the sign-in sheet from the first meeting. My name is scrawled in the third column twelve lines down, right after Nancy Kidd and before Craig Miller.

And most of the pros on hand were assembled for a photo in the paneled back room where eventually the club’s library would be squeezed.

First meeting at the original LASFS clubhouse in 1973. Photo by Stan Burns. Back row, L to R: Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Jerry Pournelle, A. E. Van Vogt, Forry Ackerman. Middle row, L to R: Unknown, Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven, Wendayne Ackerman, Uknown. Front row, L to R: Unknown, Bill Mills, Ron Cobb.

Bruce Pelz confirmed the rumor Sandy Cohen circulated that night that the club would be starting a new Building Fund immediately to buy a bigger building. Surprisingly, that didn’t take very long, either. In 1977 the LASFS replaced it with a larger clubhouse at 11513 Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood, where meetings attracted as many as 150 fans a week. 

Here’s a recent photo of the old place — the building in the center. Some windows have been enlarged since the LASFS was there.

MITSFS Library Update

MITSFS’ Kat Allen has given an update about the club library materials that suffered water damage in February, and work to repair the club’s space on campus.

As previously reported, over the February 4-5 weekend water pipes in the MIT Student Center in Boston froze and burst, causing significant damage throughout the building including to the fourth floor where the MIT Science Fiction Society club library is housed. The MITSFS Library, the world’s largest public open-shelf collection of science fiction, had an inch of water in it.  Students initially were denied access to the area to rescue books for several weeks, but eventually they were able to assess the extensive mold damage that occurred (see “MITSFS Library Damage Assessed”.)

Kat Allen told NESFA President Rick Kovalcik:

We were able to get MIT to pay to have the collection moved by book preservation specialists, who could address the water damage issues.  Now it is in special storage with that company, waiting for the student center renovations to complete—the original timeline for those renovations was August, but I don’t think we were given any updated dates when the scope increased due to the water-damage-caused asbestos remediation.

So “we’ll be back in August maybe, TBD” is the status of the Library, and the Society is back to being mostly online like we were during the pandemic.

[Thanks to Rick Kovalcik for the story.]

UMass Amherst SFF Library Still Homeless. Sign the Petition!

Paul Basile, a member of the UMass Science Fiction Society at UMass Amherst from 1966 to 1970, reports the group is flourishing but still has no space for its 9000-volume library two years after the university took away the offices they were using. File 770 signal boosted news of the eviction in 2021. The Daily Hampshire Gazette covered it, too, in “Storied sci-fi library lost without a space at UMass”, with response quotes from University spokespeople, and statements by other affected student groups.

Basile recently contacted NESFA and several fan news outlets to mourn that the state of affairs has remained unchanged since 2021, and ask fans to help by contacting the University, signing a petition at Change.org, or sending e-mails to the RSO asking them to reconsider.

Basile’s recent email reminded readers: “Two years ago the Office of Registered Student Organizations threw the club out of their offices where they maintained a library of over 9000 science fiction books. They were forced to put them in storage. These materials were available to the entire University community and the town of Amherst. I have been in contact with the group and have written many e-mails to the RSO office and the president of the University. They have done and will do nothing to help. The group has all its books in storage where they do no good for anybody. I have also contacted some former members of the club and the local TV stations as well as the Daily Hampshire Gazette, but no one seems able to change the RSO’s mind.”

The Change.org petition, “Help save a historic student library”, has gained over 4,000 signatures since it was created in 2021. Sign it at the link.

MITSFS Library Damage Assessed

MITSFS now has an idea how much flood damage the MITSFS Library suffered at the beginning of February.

Over the February 4-5 weekend water pipes in the MIT Student Center in Boston froze and burst, causing significant damage throughout the building including to the fourth floor where the MIT Science Fiction Society club library is housed. The MITSFS Library, the world’s largest public open-shelf collection of science fiction, had an inch of water in it.  Students initially were denied access to the area to rescue books for several weeks, and unable to assess how much mold damage was occurring.

MITSFS’ Kat Allen told NESFA’s Rick Kovalcik that when the initial MITSFS team got into the building in late February there was water on the floor in the entire library. While the books on shelves were mostly safe, anything in boxes was exposed to water. The books in boxes molded, and were almost a total loss. Some of the books in boxes were near shelves, and the books on those shelves including, unfortunately, in “Damnation Alley” where the bound magazines are shelved, have visible black mold.

The team removed everything obviously moldy, trashing over 1000 volumes, mostly paperbacks and unbound magazines. They isolated the bound magazines with desiccant and hope to save them.

Rick Kovalcik says since then NESFA has been in touch with MITSFS on an ongoing basis. And what’s more, NESFA just found in their dead storage an archive of multiple copies of old magazines including Astounding/Analog in remarkably good condition (given that they were stored in an unheated storage area.) They have mentioned this to MITSFS as a possible replacement for some of their damaged collection.

First Fandom Takes Aim at the Future

After the last original member of First Fandom, Bob Madle, died last October, the organization’s leadership decided to canvass the membership, now composed of Associate Members who have been active in fandom for more than three decades, asking whether First Fandom should continue and in what form. President John L. Coker III has shared the results of the survey in the group’s newsletter and with File 770.


First Fandom Questionnaire

(Reprinted from Scientifiction, the First Fandom quarterly newsletter, No. 75 – 1Q2023, edited by John L. Coker III.)

(75) questionnaires were sent out to the members.  (57) members responded (that’s an approximately 78% participation rate).  Here are the four questions:

(1) Now that there are no original members left, should we continue as an organization?

(2) If you do feel that we should continue, should we reorganize under a new name to legitimately continue our original mission of presenting awards, issuing our publications, keeping alive the memories, and having fun?

(3) Do you agree that, in the new organization, the members’ annual dues should be current?

(4)  Do you wish to become a Charter Member?

Results

(1) An overwhelming majority of respondents said that we should continue as an organization, and only four said we should not continue as an organization.  One respondent felt that “it was time everyone moved on to something else, whether it be a foundation or something not yet thought of.”    One stated that they did not care. Another: “I like the idea of an organization bringing together long-time fen interested in the history of fan-dom.  I’m not enthusiastic about organizing the group as a memorial to a generation of folks all of whom I love to read about but not all of whom I necessarily feel comfortable lionizing.” Another: “I think First Fandom should now be ended.  Some kind of organization to honor the first fans is a nice idea.  I’ll applaud it, but probably won’t join it.  Another: “First Fandom was *their* thing.  I was friends with some of them, but I wasn’t *one* of them.  Some of those guys made it clear to me that they wanted the organization to end when they did.  So, I say, let it end.”

(2) An overwhelming majority of respondents said that we should reorganize under a new name so that we could continue our original mission, and only three respondents said that we should not reorganize under a new name.  One person stated “…they had no problem keeping the organization going with the original name.”  One stated they did not care.  Another wrote: “Count me in!” Another person wrote: “If the questionnaire were longer, I’d vote for measures to broaden rather than freeze the definition of ‘First’.” 

(3) All but two respondents felt that, in order to belong to the new proposed organization, the members needed to be current in their dues.  One person felt that if some members were unable to afford dues, that their dues should be paid for them by a reserve fund.  One person noted that in the past some members had made a lifetime dues payment.

(4) An overwhelming majority of respondents felt that they did want to become charter members of the new organization.  Only four respondents did not want to become charter members.  One respondent said it depended on the cost.  Another suggested that we could merge with or align themselves with another organization (for example, the Science Fiction Research Association) so that our members would have opportunities to be published.

Conclusions

Based on written responses to the questionnaire, the great majority of our members agree that we should continue, but that we should reorganize under a new name.  Most agreed that members should pay annual dues.  Nearly all respondents felt that if a new organization was formed, they wanted to be charter members of that new organization.

So, according to our membership, it seems that “First Fandom is not dead.”  It is just reorganizing.  Dinosaurs that adapt will not as easily go extinct.  More information about our path forward will be made available soon.


BSFS Reports Results of the Code of Conduct Investigation Concerning Balticon 56

The Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) Board of Directors today issued a statement about their investigation into “Stephanie Burke’s comments at Balticon 56 and our senior staff’s treatment of Stephanie Burke.”

They determined Burke’s statements on Balticon 56 program did not violate the Code of Conduct. They also looked at the actions of two “Senior Staffers” and determined one “acted courteously” but the other violated the Code of Conduct and “will be barred from volunteering for Balticon for a period of 2 years and from serving as a Department Head for an additional 2 years.”

The full text of the press release follows:


The BSFS (Baltimore Science Fiction Society) Board of Directors (Board) Investigation Team, (consisting of Paul O’Neil and Leona Thompson) have concluded their investigation into Stephanie Burke’s comments at Balticon 56 and our senior staff’s treatment of Stephanie Burke. The Board has reviewed their findings and recommendations and made the following decisions:

Of the complaints against Ms. Burke, our Investigation Team determined there were no Code of Conduct violations. Witnesses confirmed that she was speaking of her own experiences and not making general statements about another individual or class of people. Speaking one’s own truth is not a violation of our Code of Conduct. Ms. Burke is welcome to be a program participant in the future. Again, we apologize for the manner in which the reports were communicated. 

The BSFS Investigation Team and Board of Directors have found that Senior Staffer 1 who approached Stephanie Burke prior to her panel and asked her to step away acted courteously and in accordance with our policy. Senior Staffer 2’s behavior during the discussion violated our Code of Conduct. The Board has determined that Senior Staffer 2 will be barred from volunteering for Balticon for a period of 2 years and from serving as a Department Head for an additional 2 years.

BSFS gives every complaint equal attention and will not tolerate inappropriate behavior at any BSFS-related event, including Balticon. All members and guests are encouraged to bring such matters to the Board’s attention at any time, without fear of any adverse action being taken against them for doing so.

The Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc. is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1963. BSFS holds an annual convention, Balticon, during Memorial Day weekends in Baltimore, MD. In addition, BSFS offers a 14,000+ lending library at its building in eastern Baltimore City, as well as ongoing events featuring book discussions, movies, anime, and gaming. The calendar of events is available at www.bsfs.org.


File 770’s previous coverage of the events and issues is here:

Save Uncle Hugo’s – December 2021 Update

A future location where Don Blyly can reopen Uncle Hugo’s and Uncle Edgar’s may have been found he says in his December update, if he can get it at the right price. His two stores were burned by vandals in 2020 while protests were happening elsewhere in Minneapolis. Blyly has since cleared and sold that lot, and is looking to reopen elsewhere assisted by an insurance payment and the Official Help Save Uncle Hugo’s Fund at GoFundMe which has raised $190,880 to date.

Don Blyly

Here are the highlights of Don Blyly’s December 23 “How’s Business?” update.

Last month he found three prospective buildings to consider – one would be satisfactory if he can get it for the right price.

Around the first of November I found 3 new listings that seemed to be worth looking into.  One was another strip center in Richfield which claimed to have 25 off-street parking spaces.  When I got there, I counted 15 off-street parking spaces and no on-street parking spaces for blocks.  The building seemed to be divided into two spaces, both of which had signs in the windows to indicate that they had businesses operating there. The one that had about 2/3 of the space was clearly occupied, while the other side with about 1/3 of the space looked empty.    Any property I buy has to be used at least 51% by the Uncles to avoid really bad tax consequences, so I crossed this option off the list.

The second new option claimed to be in Edina, but was actually in Minneapolis near the border with Edina, but was priced high enough to have been in Edina.  It had four off-street parking places, and parking on-street looked very difficult.  The total retail space would have been a little over half of the old Uncles location.  I crossed this option off the list.

The third new option was in south Minneapolis.    The city election was November 2, with a battle between the abolish the police faction and the fix the police faction.    I waited until I saw that the “abolish” faction had lost before I was willing to look at the third option.    The third option has about the same retail space as the old Uncles location (but as one large space instead of two separate rooms), and about as much basement space as the old Uncles basement and back storage room combined.  It doesn’t have any off-street parking, but lots of on-street parking is available.    The owner of both the building and the business in the building wants to sell the building, wind down his business, and retire.  I’d be able to bring in contractors to do remodeling in the spring and open for business sometime in the summer.  It looked like a great fit. 

The seller knows how to run his business, and I know how to run my business, but neither of us is an expert on real estate transactions.  So, we are both represented by real estate agents.  One of the many functions of the agents is to come up with a “fair” price for the building, and this is done by looking at comparable recent sales.  My agent looked at 12 sales of single-story commercial buildings in the area to find what the average price per square foot of retail space was, and then figured that the basement space was only worth half of what the first floor space was worth per square foot. My agent concluded that the “fair” price for the building was about $250,000 less than the asking price.  The seller’s agent only looked at the 3 highest prices per square foot in the area and ignored the other 9 sales.  Also, a property that includes a building with off-street parking is going to go for more than the same building without off-street parking.  If you look at a sale that includes off-street parking and claim that the entire sales price should be used to calculate the per square foot value of the retail space, that will substantially inflate the value of the retail space.  The real estate agents have been doing a dance with their vastly different numbers, and my agent has been searching for other buildings to go on the market at a price he considers more reasonable.  I’ve offered considerably more than my agent considers a “fair” price, but we still don’t have a deal.  If we reach an agreement on the price, I’ll pass along more information about the location and an estimate on when the Uncles might re-open; but there’s no point in doing that now.

Blyly continues to sell off his personal collection of books, with the money going toward reopening the Uncles.

I’ve been working seven days per week (but fewer hours when real estate matters claim a lot of time) on listing the books in my personal library on Abebooks.com, and I’m now working on the authors with a last name starting with Pa (although I jumped ahead to list Terry Pratchett and Clifford Simak because of multiple requests for those authors, and most of their books were signed)

You can view the Uncles’ Abebooks listing by going here and clicking “View this seller’s items”. You should be aware that none of the images of the books are supplied by me, but rather are stock images from Abebooks which may or may not be accurate. Also, Abebooks wants to sell books, not necessarily just my books, so they make it easy to accidentally go from viewing the Uncles books to viewing books from hundreds of dealers.

He advises customers:

Abebooks takes a commission on both the price of the book and on the shipping charge, so I make more money if you buy directly from me instead of through Abebooks (email me ([email protected]) with what you want to buy and I’ll explain how to go about it). If you only want to buy one book, it costs you the same whether you go through Abebooks or directly through me, but if you want to buy multiple books you will save on shipping by buying directly from me. The money from selling my personal library will go into the pot of money to try to re-open the Uncles.

NESFA 2021-2022 Short Story Competition Taking Entries

The 2021-2022 NESFA Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Story Contest is accepting entries through September 30. The contest “encourages amateur and semi-professional writers to reach the next level of proficiency.” The complete guidelines are here.

Ineligible are writers who have been paid more than $1000 for their writing from any source, and/or have published a novel or multiple shorter works adding up to more than 40,000 words in any paying publication.

A qualifying story must have strong science fiction or fantasy elements and must be shorter than 7,500 words. Stories must be original works of fiction, submitted by their authors. No reprints, fan fiction. or poetry.

There is no entry fee. One entry per author.

The results will be announced during the awards ceremony at Boskone 59, to be held February 18–20, 2022. The winner will receive a certificate of achievement, three NESFA Press books, and a free membership in one of the next two Boskones (their choice). Runners-up will receive a certificate, and two NESFA Press books. Honorable mentions will receive a certificate and one NESFA Press book.

[Thanks to Steven Lee for the story.]