Leave the Puppy, Take the Cannoli – 4/30

All the myriad realities parade through today’s roundup, arrayed by Jason Sanford, George R.R. Martin, John Scalzi, Vox Day, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Alexandra Erin, Tom Knighton, Anna Butler, Matt Hotaling, Ann Leckie, Katya Czaja, Rich Horton and Declan Finn, plus a few less easily identified others. (Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day James H. Burns.)

Jason Sanford

“When science fiction authors are no longer grounded in reality” – April 30

Let me put this delicately: WRONG WRONG WRONG! AND WHAT WORLD ARE YOU ACTUALLY LIVING IN?

First off all, if what [John] Ringo says was true why would science fiction have first begun hitting the bestseller lists in the late 1970s and early 1980s? Those were the decades when Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and many other top SF authors landed massive advances and sales for their novels. Most of which, I should note, were not published by Baen, which wasn’t even founded until 1983.

But we don’t have to go back to the ’70s and ’80s to prove Ringo wrong. For example, the April 2015 Locus Bestseller List had only one Baen title on it (which is Ringo’s Strands of Sorrow, which debuted at number 5 on the list). That’s one title out of 25 novels on the different Locus Bestseller categories for April. The March 2015 list had no Baen titles and neither did the February 2015 list. The January 2015 list had a single Baen title on it.

A similar pattern emerges from the last few years of the Locus Bestseller lists, which cover genre sales in the hardback, paperback and trade paperback formats….

And it isn’t only the bestseller lists showing this pattern — all of this is backed by sales figures from Bookscan, the publishing industry’s system for tracking book sales….

If you are going to make a provocative statement like Ringo’s, you need to back up your words with, you know, some facts. You need to show that you actually understand reality and aren’t simply saying whatever pops into your head.

 

George R.R. Martin on Not A Blog

“More Hugo Musings” – April 30

BEST SEMIPROZINE. This category has always pissed me off, since it was created largely to kick LOCUS out of Best Fanzine, where it was winning every year. Of course, once Semiprozine was created, LOCUS proceeded to win that a bunch of times too, until the rules were jiggered once again to kick it out once more. (This is one reason I oppose jiggering the rules, even to stop the Puppies). They really ought to call this category BEST SEMIPROZINE THAT ISN’T LOCUS. But they don’t. We have five finalists here, only two of which are from the slates… and one of those, ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS IN FLIGHT MAGAZINE, has been loudly declaring that they were not informed and never asked to be on anyone’s slate. I am really only familiar with LIGHTSPEED and STRANGE HORIZONS from this category. Both of those are pretty good. If anyone has an opinion to offer on the others, do speak up. If I have time to check them out, I will… if I don’t, I will abstain in this category, i.e. not vote. I won’t go NO AWARD, since I do think the two semipros I know are worthy. Not as worthy as LOCUS, mind you, but there you are…

 

Daniel on Castalia House

“Snapshot in Time: The 2002 Hugo Recommended Ballots”  – April 30

Possibly because of the records that have been legitimately broken, there have been a few minor misconceptions recently that a number of other events associated with the 2015 Hugo Awards process are unprecedented. One of these has to do with recommendation lists.

By merely examining a single category (best novel) on the NESFA Recommendation list from 2001 (which promoted candidates for the 2002 Hugos), a few myths are easily dispelled:

 

John Scalzi on Whatever

Redshirts as a Social Justice Cabal Hugo Pick” – April 29

[First and second of 13 tweets in series.]

 

Vox Day on Vox Popoli

“Compare and contrast” – April 29

The SJWs in science fiction believe that if they can control the narrative, if they can convince the media to tell the story their way, they are going to retain their control of the science fiction establishment. They are given every opportunity to spin the narrative and make their case; Brad, Larry, and I were contacted by a Wall Street Journal reporter yesterday, which was a welcome change from most of the coverage that we’ve been seeing of late, but so too were John Scalzi and George Martin.

It’s just like one sees on the cable news. If a talking head has on a liberal guest, the liberal appears alone to sell the narrative. If a talking head has on a conservative guest, a liberal guest usually appears to dispute the narrative. And although it is only a guess, I suspect that the way that the story is likely to go will be moderately anti-Puppy, in light of the reporter actually “playing devil’s advocate” in conversation with me.

 

L. Jagi Lamplighter on Superversive Blog

“Signal To Noise” – April  22

Ever wonder why the opposition—whatever side you are not on—only ever seems to attack and quote the outliners on your side? The most horrible folks? The most obnoxious comments? How they never seem to get the point? How the throwaway line you, or your favorite blogger, tossed off when you were pissed off is repeated everywhere, while the strongly-reasoned arguments are ignored?

This is why.

To them, that throw away line is signal—because its on the subject they care about. To you and your blogger friend, it’s noise.

So, next time you feel the urge to bridge the endless gap—and maybe talk to that crazy lunatic on the other side who used to be a bosom buddy—try this simple trick:

Pick the lines the other person says that upset you the most. Ignore them. Just pretend that they are not there. Pretend that they are static. Noise.

Because, chances are, that to him, it is just noise.

And you’ve been missing the signal, tuning it out, all along.

Then, listen closely to whatever he seems to think is the most important part–even if it sounds like mad nonsense to you. NOT, mind you, what he says at loudest volume—that is likely to be noise, too—the part he speaks about fervently or with reasoning.

From there, you can often find a bridge, a common point of agreement—because at the very least, you now know what the important issues actually are.

 

Bojoti in a comment on Arhyalon – April 29

I think what the TrueFans and Sad Puppies don’t realize is that they are being watched by the great unwashed masses, hoi polloi, the little people of science fiction. Some of the behavior and rhetoric is so hateful and venomous that I regret my membership. Authors were saying that the new members didn’t love science fiction; they were claiming that they didn’t even read! Some were even saying stupid things like the Koch brothers bought my membership. TrueFans were disgusted by the thought of new members. They like the WorldCon being small and are actively against new members.

 

Chaos Horizons

“Declined Hugo and Nebula and other SFF Nominations”  – April 28

[Needs also to deal with the less-easily-researched self-recusals from awards that led to people not being nominated at all, therefore not registered as declining.]

Since Chaos Horizon is a website dedicated to gathering stats and information about SFF awards, particularly the Hugos and Nebulas, a list of declined award nominations might prove helpful to us. There’s a lot of information out there, but it’s scattered across the web and hard to find . Hopefully we can gather all this information in one place as a useful resource.

So, if you know of any declined nominations—in the Hugos and Nebulas or other major SFF awards—drop the info on the comments. I have not included books withdrawn for eligibility reasons (published in a previous year, usually). I’ll keep the list updated and stash it in my “Resources” tab up at the top.

 

Hipster Racist

“The Anti-Geek Manifesto #gamergate #sadpuppies #sjw” – April 30

But fucking #gamergate? Who could possibly fucking care, at least after the age of 14? I mean, there is serious shit going on in the world, and you’re worried that some pink haired hipster chick with a nose ring sucked a bunch of dicks to get her game a good review? I mean, I read about “Depression Quest.” Anybody should have been able to figure out she spent a lot of time on her knees to get any recognition for that crap.

“Ethics” in “game journalism?”

“Game Journalism?” Holy fucking God, we had Judith Miller writing in the New York Times about non-existant Weapons of Mass Destruction and you’re worried about “ethics in game journalism?”

 

Alexandra Erin on Blue Author Is About To Write

“Sad Puppies and Magical Thinking” – April 30

So, I’ve characterized the line of thinking behind the Puppies’ discontent as being unable to understand when reality runs in ways that are counter to their tastes/beliefs without imagining some kind of dark conspiracy or cabal (or “clique”, to use their preferred term).

This belief is so strong that a combination of confirmation bias and the effect of “believing is seeing” causes them to interpret all available information in ways that point to the existence of the cabal, even when this requires them to imagine that people are meaning the exact opposite of what they say.

 

Tom Knighton

“Thoughts on ‘slate’ voting”  – April 30

Yeah, trust Vox to not make it any easier on us.

However, it’s worth noting that a number of Vox’s “Dread Ilk” have stated quite publicly that they didn’t nominate just as he wrote them down.  Why is that?  Probably because people who value individualism tend to be individualists.  Getting any collective of individualists to do anything exactly as you want makes things like cat herding appear to be simple matters.  No one is the boss of us unless we want them to be, and even then, we’ll disagree with them all we want.  I sincerely hope some of the ilk stop by and tell us how they didn’t nominate a straight slate either.

Lockstep, we ain’t.

 

Anna Butler

“Links To Blog Posts on Writing” – April 30

The Clusterfuck that is the Hugo Awards: If you hadn’t heard this already, then the Hugo Awards this year have been torpedoed by a coalition of white, reactionary, middle-aged male writers who call themselves the ‘Sad Puppies’ and who hate women/gays/anyone who isn’t them. They’ve gamed the system to get all their books put in for awards, and effectively destroyed any credibility the Hugos had. Sad.

 

Matt Hotaling in The Beacon

“Hugo Award for Science Fiction not looking so progressive this year” – April 30

At the end of the end of the day and when all the hate and bile is removed from the conversation, the core of what both sides want doesn’t sound too unreasonable. The conservative nerds simply demand excellence from their media, they want the very best that the great wide geekdom has to offer; they recognize work on all of its merits, what it does, not just what it contains. The conservative nerds have no problem if their media contains progressive themes or characters, or if it comes from creators of diverse backgrounds, they simply feel that everything should get its fair shake, nothing should elevated simply because it has progressive representation. The new liberal nerds simply want broader, equal representation of all genders, races, and creeds. They want to create a climate where is it is not just acceptable to play with progressive content, but encouraged. They don’t want representation to be pandered to, they want representation done well and recognized.

The two ideologies at the base of each side of the argument are not mutually exclusive; the only thing standing in the way from the two sides making truly great sci-fi together is that the most vocal members of each group are also the most toxic.

Sad Puppies’ coup of the Hugos went too far; its list is not just a slap in the face to progressive works, but is an outright regressive move as it includes more than one openly homophobic writer.

 

Rich Horton on Black Gate

The 2015 Hugo Nominations – April 30

To take one more example, hopefully close to the hearts of many reading this: I have to confess that I never nominated Black Gate as Best Fanzine. (I nominated it as a Semiprozine back in the print days, to be sure.) The reason: I simply didn’t think of it as a Fanzine. But it is, really, and (leaving my contributions out of the mix), I honestly think it’s a damn good Fanzine. So I’m glad to have this whole matter bring to my mind the notion that Black Gate is eligible for a Fanzine nomination. At the risk of campaigning, let me suggest that people keeping reading it through 2015, and if it seems to hold up, nominate it again next year.

 

Ann Leckie

“Hugo Voting Is Open” – April 30

When I first voted for the Hugos, several years ago, I didn’t fully understand the voting system, or how No Award fit into things. But I’m going to be entirely honest, I have felt the need to use No Award in at least one category every single year that I’ve been eligible to vote. No, I’m not going to say what I’ve No Awarded over the years. Nor am I going to tell you whether or how to deploy No Award yourself, if you’re a Hugo voter. That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself, for your own reasons.

 

Katya Czaja

“Vogon Poetry and Rabid Puppies” – April 30

Not every species can appreciate Vogon poetry. It turns out, I don’t appreciate Vogon poetry.

The Rabid Puppies claim they want stories with better ‘plot’. “So the conservative SF fans can get together and let their hair down and talk about stuff they want to talk about (like books with actual plots and dialogue)” (John Ringo)

I’m currently about 80 pages into a RP nominated novel and I have finished several of the RP short stories. Sure, the stories have plot, but plot alone is not enough. The dialog is wooden. There is a whole lot of telling and very little showing. The prose doesn’t sparkle, it doesn’t even shine. There are more characters than a Russian novel and less characterization than Twilight. In other words, it is not the kind of fiction I enjoy.

 

Vox Day on Vox Popoli

“Moderates gonna moderate” – April 29

[Second and third of four verses]

They do not like me here or there

They do not like me anywhere

They do not like me on the Net

Because they are so moderate

 

If only I would be more nice

And pour out sugar in place of spice

Then it would all be duly meet

We’d march off to our brave defeat

 

Declan Finn

“Puppies Come to WorldCon” – May 1

…If you haven’t read the last two blogs, you might be new here.  This started with a thought: what if Sad Puppy authors were SWATted (part 1)? Then it sort of drifted from the “ringleaders” in part one (Correia, Torgersen, Hoyt) to “mere” supporters in part two (Kratman, Ringo, Weber)….

WORLDCON, SPOKANE WASHINGTON

[WorldCon is practically empty, for a Con. A borderline ghost town of two thousand people.  If DragonCon is New York City, WorldCon is Detroit.  Suddenly, the ground shakes. The front windows rattle. It feels like an earthquake!  Suddenly, the squeal of brakes as a tank rumbles to a stop outside.]….

[Gerrold straightens.]  And another thing–

[Larry whistles]  Wendell’s Roughnecks!  Charge!

[Two thousand men and women, all wearing a t-shirt with a cuddly manatee on the front, all invade WorldCon, en mass, with Schardt, Lehman, and Paulk leading the charge.  David Gerrold is lost in the stampede.]

[Sarah rolls her eyes and smiles] Show off.

[Kratman]  Outstanding!

[Knightman shrugs] I’ll go park the tank.

[Everyone disperses]

[Scalzi, still under a pile of carp] Had enough? I’m invincible! I’ll bite your legs off! Hello!  Hello! All right, we’ll call it a draw! Hello?

~The End~

I want to thank all of the people who have made these go over so well, including Tom Kratman, Sarah Hoyt, Brad Torgersen, Tom Knighton, everyone who has shared this throughout the net, everyone who offered suggestions, and even those who asked to be apart of it. I’m honored, touched, and a bit surprised that something that started as a “fever dream” has been suggested (seriously) for a Hugo.

 

Ellen Klages Ends a Tiptree Era

SpaceBabeBIGAfter 20 years as WisCon’s Tiptree auctioneer, Ellen Klages is passing the torch. She recalls how it all began in a nostalgic post on the convention’s blog:

In 1994, on the weekend of my 40th birthday, I was in Worcester, Massachusetts, for Readercon, the guest of my friend, Pat Murphy. Ursula LeGuin was the Guest of Honor, and Nicola Griffith was the winner of the Tiptree Award. I knew nothing much about all that, just that the prize was given by an organization that Pat had founded.

One of the committee members in charge of the evening’s banquet and awards ceremony told Pat that some generous people had donated a few items — t-shirts, a handful of books — to benefit the Award, and asked if Pat was willing to auction them off.

Pat was already emceeing the awards and interviewing Ursula, so she said, “No, but I bet my friend Ellen will do it.”

“Sure,” I said. What the heck? It sounded like fun.

And so it was that, at the end of a very long evening, I got up on stage in a hotel ballroom for an impromptu performance, convincing an audience to buy random objects for startling sums of money. Forty-five minutes later, the Tiptree coffers had a thousand dollars, and I was suddenly, accidentally, notorious.

A man asked Spike, “Who is she?”

A total stranger came up to me. “Where else in Worcester are you performing?”

It was a heady experience.

She also pays tribute to some of the people whose handling of the logistical chores has made it all possible.

Jeanne Gomoll — a national treasure — was, for a long time, the person accepting donations, setting up the display of items, and making sure the trains ran on time. Scott Custis hauled boxes down from their attic every year. Jim Hudson, a mensch if there ever was one, handled the accounting, a most important part of any fundraiser. In recent years, Nevenah Smith streamlined the process and added her own flair to the event.

Klages actually concedes she may participate in future Tiptree Auctions — but not as a solo act.

The First Ever Call For Hugo Bloc Voting

Sad and Rabid Puppies are spending unlimited effort to find old Hugo recommendation lists in order to prove with geometric logic that people were trying to manipulate the awards before they came along.

Allow me to spare you further digging!

I now provide definitive evidence that the earliest appeal to organize bloc voting for the Hugos occurred in the very year the awards were invented.

What may surprise you is that the appeal came from the Philcon II committee itself. See the second paragraph below from the August 1953 Progress Report.

Philcon2r4-03 CROP

Lee and Miller Tour for “Dragon in Exile”

Layout 1Sharon Lee and Steve Miller continue the Grand Sectional Liaden Universe® World Tour with a whirlwind trip through the bookstores of the Northeast in support of Dragon in Exile, the eighteenth Liaden novel, coming out in hardcover from Baen Books on June 2.

2015 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award Winners

ronlogo1

After seven weeks of voting, yielding 3,100 ballots, the 2015 winners of the Rondo Hatton Awards have been announced.

guardians-of-the-galaxy COMP

BEST FILM OF 2014

  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
  • Runner-up: THE BABADOOK
  • Honorable mention: GODZILLA; DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

BEST TV PRESENTATION

  • THE WALKING DEAD: ‘The Grove’
    • Runners-up: DOCTOR WHO; AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN
    • Honorable mention: PENNY DREADFUL

BEST CLASSIC DVD OF 2014

  • NIGHTBREED: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (Shout!)
    • Runners-up: THE TIME MACHINE; THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
    • Honorable mention: THE INNOCENTS

BEST CLASSIC DVD/BLU-RAY COLLECTION

  • BATMAN: THE COMPLETE TELEVISION SERIES (Warner Home Video)
    • Runner-up: VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION VOL. 2
    • Honorable mention: UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS: 30-FILM COLLECTION; HALLOWEEN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

BEST RESTORATION

  • NIGHTBREED: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (Shout!)
    • Runner-up: THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (Kino)
    • Honorable mention: THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (Kino); THEATRE OF BLOOD (Arrow)

BEST COMMENTARY

  • Clive Barker and Mark AlanMillerNIGHTBREED: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT
    • Runners-up: Tim Lucas (PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES); Klaus Kinski (NOSFERATU)

BEST DVD EXTRA

  • PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE: PAULWILLIAMSANDGUILLERMODELTORO
    • Runner-up: Tribes of the Moon: Making Nightbreed (NIGHTBREED: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT);
    • Honorable mention: Caligari: When Horror Came to the Cinema (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI)

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM

  • WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, directedbyJemaine ClementandTaikaWaititi
    • Runner-up: THE LASHMAN
    • Honorable mentions: A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE; GODZILLA BATTLE ROYALE

BEST SHORT FILM

  • THE MILL AT CALDER’S END, directed byKevinMcTurk
    • Runner-up: A ZOMBIE NEXT DOOR
    • Honorable mentions: BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP; BROKEN; WITCH GIRL; THEATRE FANTASTIQUE: MADAME LA SOEUR

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

  • JODOROWSKY’S DUNE, directed byFrankPavich
    • Runner-up: AS TIMELESS AS INFINITY: THE TWILIGHT ZONE LEGACY
    • Honorable mention: UNCLE FORRY’S ACKERMANSIONS

BOOK(S) OF THE YEAR

TIED:

  • THE CREATURE CHRONICLES by Tom Weaver with David Schecter and Steve Kronenberg
  • THE OUTER LIMITS AT 50 by David J.Schow with Ted C.Rypel.
    • Runner-up: THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF DON POST STUDIOS by Lee Lambert
    • Honorable mention: THE ART OF JAPANESE MONSTERS by Sean Linkenback

BEST MAGAZINE

  • RUE MORGUE
    • Runners-up:  FANGORIA, HORRORHOUND
    • Honorable mention: VIDEO WATCHDOG

BEST MAGAZINE (classic)

  • FAMOUS MONSTERS
    • Runners-up: DIABOLIQUE; SCARY MONSTERS; MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT
    • Honorable mention: LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS, G-FAN, FILMFAX

BEST ARTICLE

  • ‘The Complete Godzilla Chronology, 1954-2004,’ byAugustRagone, FAMOUS MONSTERS #275
    • Runners-up:  ‘Days of Future Past: Remembering the Outer Limits,’ by David J. Schow, SCREEM #29; ‘Dick Smith: An Appreciation of the Master of Make-Up,’ by Scott Essman, BELOW THE LINE (industry magazine).
    • Honorable mentions:’Family Man,’ by James Gracey, DIABOLIQUE #20;  ‘Lady Impunity,’ by Max Weinstein, DIABOLIQUE #22; ‘Arkham House Publishers: 75 Years of Scares,’ by Mark C. Glassey, SCARY MONSTERS #94; ‘Ghost Stories for Christmas,’ by Kier-la Janisse, VIDEO WATCHDOG #176; ‘Carnival of Monstrosity: 70th Anniversary of House of Frankenstein,’ by Greg Mank, MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #33; ‘For the Love of Schlock,’ by Nathan Hannemann and Aaron Crowell, HORRORHOUND #46; ‘The Making of Dracula, Prince of Darkness,’ by Bruce G. Hallenbeck, LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #33.

BEST INTERVIEW (Award goes to interviewer)

  • Chris Alexander interview with Werner Herzog,FANGORIA #334
    • Runner-up: Jessica Dwyer interviews Anne Rice, HORRORHOUND #48
    • Honorable mentions: Michael Doyle interviews Ivan Reitman, RUE MORGUE #151; Rod Labbe interviews Jerry Lacy, SCARY MONSTERS #90; Joe Moe interviews John Logan, FAMOUS MONSTERS #276.

BEST OVERALL ISSUE

  • DIABOLIQUE #22 (Childbirth, family and horror)
    • Runner-up: FANGORIA #330 (Nightbreed)
    • Honorable mentions: MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #33 (Karloff); HORRORHOUND #48  (horror fiction); RUE MORGUE #151 (Ghostbusters); FAMOUS MONSTERS (Matheson); LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS (Dracula);

BEST COLUMN

  • DIARY OF THE DEB byDebbieRochon (FANGORIA)
    • Runners-up: They Came from the Krypt, by Jon Kitley (HORRORHOUND); The Doctor Is In-Sane, by Dr. Gangrene (SCARY MONSTERS)
    • Honorable mentions: It Came from Bowen’s Basement, by John Bowen (RUE MORGUE); Fright Gallery, by Gary Pullin (RUE MORGUE); Tales from the Attic, by Tim Lucas (GOREZONE); Scare-News (John Skerchock, SCARY MONSTERS)

BEST COVER

  • FANGORIA #330 by Nick Percival
    • Runners-up: RUE MORGUE #150 (Gary Pullin, Andrew Wright); DIABOLIQUE #16 by Robert Aragon
    • Honorable mentions: HORRORHOUND #50 (Ed Repke); MAD SCIENTIST #29 (Mark Maddox); FAMOUS MONSTERS #272 (Simon Thorpe); MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #33 (Kerry Gammill);  SCREEM #29 (Maddox)

BEST WEBSITE

  • Joe Dante’s TRAILERS FROM HELL
    • Runners-up: Dread Central; Count Gore De Vol’s Creature Features; Mick Garris Interviews

BEST HORROR BLOG

  • GANGRENE’S MAD BLOG
    • Runners-up: Collinsport Historical Society; Video Watchblog; Terror from Beyond the Daves
    • Honorable mentions: Peter Cushing Appreciation Society; Frankensteinia; Day of the Woman; The Good, the Bad and the Godzilla

BEST CONVENTION OF 2014

  • MONSTERPALOOZA
    • Runners-up: Monster Bash; HorrorHound Weekend
    • Honorable mentions: G-Fest;Texas Frightmare; Fright Night Film Fest;  Mad Monster Party; Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear; WonderFest

BEST FAN EVENT

  • EVIL DEAD CAST REUNION (HORRORHOUND WEEKEND)
    • Runner-up: Karloff: A One-Person Show starring Randy Bowser (Salem, Ore.)
    • Honorable mentions:Poe Bronze Bust in Boston; Outer Limits art show at Creature Features; Ifukube 100 concert at G-Fest.

FAVORITE HORROR HOST

  • SVENGOOLIE
    • Runner-up: Penny Dreadful
    • Honorable mentions: The Ghouligans; Dr. Gangrene; Count Gore De Vol.

BEST HORROR COMIC BOOK

  • THE WALKING DEAD by Robert Kirkman andCharlesAdlard
    • Runners-up: AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE; BELA LUGOSI’S TALES FROM THE GRAVE;
    • Honorable mentions: CLIVE BARKER’S NEXT TESTAMENT; Corben’s EDGAR ALLEN POE (Morella and Rue Morgue)

BEST HORROR MULTI-MEDIA OR PODCAST

  • MONSTER KID RADIO (Derek Koch)
    • Runner-up: KILLER POV
    • Honorable mention: FANTASTIC FILMS OF VINCENT PRICE; KAIJUCAST; WELCOME TO NIGHTVALE

BEST CD

  • ORIGINALGODZILLA SOUNDTRACK (Death Waltz)
    • Runner-up: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (new score by The Laze)
    • Honorable mention: BIG BAD (Horrorhound compilation); SPINE CHILLERS (Halloween haunt music by Sam Haynes)

BEST TOY, MODEL OR COLLECTIBLE

0003348_universal-monsters-select-creature-from-the-black-lagoon-ver-2-figure_300

  • CREATURE, Universal Monsters Select (Diamond Select Toys)
    • Runners-up: Lily Munster maquette (Sideshow);  Forrest J Ackerman statue (Dark Horse)
    • Honorable mention: War of the Gargantuas (X-Plus)

CLASSIC MOST IN NEED OF RELEASE, UPGRADE OR RESTORATION

  • I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF/FRANKENSTEIN (both films)
    • Runners up: OLD DARK HOUSE (1932); THE BLACK CAT (1934); BEN/WILLARD

INDIVIDUAL RONDO AWARDS

WRITER OF THE YEAR

  • MAXWEINSTEIN  (Diabolique editor)
    • Runners-up: Tim Lucas, Greg Mank, April Snellings, Nathan Hanneman, Gary Don Rhodes, Kim Newman

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

  • BOBEGGLETON
    • Runners-up: Mark Maddox, Daniel Horne, Ed Repka,  Joel Robinson, Frank Dietz, Steve McGinnis

LINDA MILLER AWARD FOR FAN ARTIST OF THE YEAR (In memory of the late Linda Miller)

  • WILLIAM C. COPE
    • Runners-up: Jason Brower, Eric Puckett, Jerrod Brown, Eric Swartz, John Febonio, Malcolm Gittins, John Sargent

REVIEWER OF THE YEAR

  • MARK D.CLARK (Monsters from the Vault)
    • Runners-up: Tim Lucas, David-Elijah Nahmod, Glenn Erickson, Stuart Andrews, Nathan Hannemann, Eric Shirey

HENRY ALVAREZ AWARD FOR CREATIVE DESIGN

  • SCULPTOR MIKE HILL

INTERNATIONAL FAN OF THE YEAR

  • NIGEL HONEYBONE (Australia)

 MONSTER KID OF THE YEAR

  • FRANK J. DELLO STRITTO

THE MONSTER KID HALL OF FAME

The four latest inductees are

  •  MICHAEL WELDON, The Psychotronic pioneer
  • JOSE MOJICA MARINS (COFFIN JOE), Brazil’s superior master of horror
  • GARY DON RHODES, Lugosi’s grand biographer
  • SARA KARLOFF, Daughter of the gentleman actor

 

2015 Edgar Award Winners

Mystery Writers of America has announced the winners of the 2015 Edgar Allan poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2014.

BEST NOVEL

  • Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

  • Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (W.W. Norton)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

  • The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani (Penguin Random House – Penguin Books)

BEST FACT CRIME

  • Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

  • Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe by J.W. Ocker (W.W. Norton – Countryman Press)

BEST SHORT STORY

“What Do You Do?” – Rogues by Gillian Flynn (Penguin Random House Publishing – Bantam Books)

BEST JUVENILE

  • Greenglass House by Kate Milford (Clarion Books – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

  • The Art of Secrets by James Klise (Algonquin Young Readers)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

  • “Episode 1” – Happy Valley, Teleplay by Sally Wainwright (Netflix)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

  • “Getaway Girl” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine By Zoë Z. Dean (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER

  • Lois Duncan
  • James Ellroy

RAVEN AWARDS

  • Ruth & Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine
  • Kathryn Kennison, Magna Cum Murder

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

  • Charles Ardai, Editor & Founder, Hard Case Crime

* * * * * *

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Tuesday, April 28, 2015)

  • The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey (Minotaur Books)

[Via Nick Mamatas.]

I Sing the Puppy Electric 4/29

George R.R. Martin, John Ringo, Vox Day, John Scalzi, Aaron Pound, Jeb Kinnison, Jamie Ford, Glenn Hauman and lots of other cool cats and hot dogs sound off in today’s roundup. (Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.)

George R.R. Martin on Not A Blog

“No On NO AWARD” – April 29

No, I am not saying don’t use NO AWARD at all when you vote for this year’s Hugo Awards.

NO AWARD has been, and remains, a viable and legitimate option for the Hugo voter. I’ve been voting on the Hugos since the 1970s, and I use NO AWARD every year, usually in about a third of the categories. However, I have seldom (not NEVER, just seldom) placed it first. I rank the finalists that I think worthy of the rocket above NO AWARD, and the ones I think unworthy below it. That’s the way I intend to use the option this year as well, in spite of the slatemaking campaigns that buggered the nomination process to the seven hells and back.

NO AWARD is a scalpel, not a bludgeon. Voting NO AWARD on everything down the line… or even (the lesser option) on everything that appeared on either Puppy slate… well, I don’t think it is smart, I don’t think it is fair, and I know damned well that a NO AWARD sweep will kill the Hugos.

I think I have made my disagreements with Larry Correia and Brad Torgersen and the rest of the Sad Puppies abundantly clear in the many blog posts that preceded this one, and in my debates with Correia both here and on his MONSTER HUNTER NATION. And I think I have made my disgust with Vox Day and his Rabid Puppies clear as well. No one should be in any doubt as to where I stand on all this.

As much as I am opposed to what the Puppies did, and what they are trying to do, I am also opposed to Guilt by Association. Like it or not, the ballot is the ballot, and it is before it now, for each of us to deal with as he or she thinks best. For my part, that means it is now about the stories, the books, the work itself. Reading, thinking, weighing my choices… voting.

 

 

John Ringo on Facebook – April 28

[Originally a public post, it is now restricted, but a screencap of “Understanding SJW Logic” is hosted at Solarbird.net.]

So let’s drill this down to Science Fiction. Science Fiction has, historically, been something that looked to the future of technology and societies and tried to glean what might be possible. It has also, often, been an avenue for proposing change. Many of the most ‘misogynistic’ and ‘racists’ authors of the early SF years were, in fact, far FAR ahead of their time in proposing racial and gender equity or near equity.

To the Social Justice Warriors (their term and not one of derogation in their eyes) of SF fandom, the TRUE PURPOSE of Science Fiction is solely and ONLY such promotion. Let me repeat that as an axiom:

To the Social Justice Warriors of Science Fiction publishing and fandom, the true and only purpose of science fiction is to promote increased equity in the arena of social justice.

The purpose of science fiction is not to tell a good story. Most of what people call ‘good stories’ are not stories that promote social justice. So ‘good story’ or not good story, (and there we get to matters of taste) they are not good science fiction. Good science fiction is only that science fiction which promotes social justice.

If there is a choice between two good social justice stories, the choice is not based on which is the better story or which is better written. At that point you look at which promotes social justice better. So if Author A is a person of color or a transgenderist and Author B is a cis-male, even if he is a social justice warrior, the BETTER STORY is that which is written by the person of color or transgenderist UNLESS such person writes a story which does NOT promote social justice in which case they are a traitor and shall be treated as such.

The sole an only point is to view every work in a lens of ‘how does this promote social justice?

 

Font Folly

“It bothers some people that we exist, part 2” – April 29

Being reminded that queer people exist at all drives some people to crazy lengths. For instance, as noted at the Crime and the Forces of Evil blog, the Sad Puppies are angry that books containing queer characters aren’t clearly marked. For those not in the know, the Sad Puppies (and an allied group, the Rabid Puppies) are a bunch of arch-conservative sci fi writers and fans who organized a bloc-voting scheme to game the selection process for the Hugo Awards and put a specific slate of anti-progressive authors, editors, and fans in every major category. Their rhetoric leading up to their success was full of blatant misogynist and homophobic language (and threats), and only slightly-less-blatant racist language. It’s worth noting that they’ve been trying this for a few years without success. It appears that their success this year is primarily due to the fact that they managed to enlist a bunch of GamerGate trolls into the process…

Since succeeding in hijacking most of the Hugo Ballot, the Sad Puppies (that’s their own name for their movement, by the way) have started deleting or heavily editing their existing blog posts and such to downplay the bigotry. Though most of their revisions have been to obscure the racist language, to try to pretend that the most blatant bigot wasn’t considered an ally, and to make some of their threatening language appear to be aimed at individuals rather than whole groups of people. They have removed some of the comments and paragraphs in which they appear to be calling for the extermination of gay people, for instance, though they remain absolutely clear that they object to homos and women being portrayed positively (or at all) in science fiction, fantasy, or any other cultural product.

 

Vox Day on Vox Popoli

“THEY are in retreat” – April 29

The main reason SJWs were successful in infiltrating the science fiction establishment and imposing their ideology on it was due to their Fabian strategy of denying any conflict was taking place. Their entryism depended entirely upon stealth and plausible deniability. That’s why the single most important aspect of both #GamerGate and #SadPuppies was the way in which it was made perfectly clear to everyone that there are, in fact, two sides.

There are those who want to be able to define what is permissible to read, write, design, develop, play, think, and say, (SJWs) and those who wish to read, write, design, develop, play, think, and say whatever the hell they happen to please. (Everybody else)

Jim Hines isn’t “so damn tired” of “an artificial Us vs. Them framework”. He is simply alarmed that their most effective tactic has been exposed and rendered impotent.

 

John Ringo on Facebook – April 29

Because as a conservative, that’s what you are to all the hardcore liberals. Purest evil. ISIS has nothing on being an American conservative. There is nothing worse than being a conservative white male. We are the ultimate super-villain and nothing can be anything like our equal. (Thus the humorously entitled ‘League of Evil Evil’ started by Sarah Hoyt of which I am a card-carrying member.)

Which is why there have arisen conventions that really avoid letting the CHORFs in at all. So the conservative SF fans can get together and let their hair down and talk about stuff they want to talk about (like books with actual plots and dialogue) and not be continuously insulted by the CHORFs. And even large cons that are ‘balanced’ tend to toss the SJW contingent the minute it starts to be a problem. Because nobody CARES about their issues. Not in the broad sense of what is marketable. (Just as at ‘balanced’ conventions conservatives who insist on being buttheads are tossed. I’ve seen both and I’m all for it. When it’s balanced.)

By the way, I prefer SJBs to CHORFs as a term. SJWs, social justice warriors, is not an insult as many articles have indicated. It’s the preferred term of the SJWs. And there are SJWs who are not SJBs. An SJB is a ‘Social Justice Bully.’ Because they are bullies. They are not even about social justice. They’re about being bullies.

So, yes, there are two different fandoms. And it’s very much a Political divide. And it’s not going away any time soon.

 

John Scalzi on Whatever

“Drinking Poison and Expecting the Other Person to Die” – April 29

This whole Puppy mess is because some of them weren’t happy, and were searching externally for that happiness, either by seeking a validation in outside rewards, or by punishing people they saw (erroneously and/or conspiratorially) blocking the path to that validation. Envy and revenge, basically. They’re drinking poison and hoping others die, or at the very least, suffer. It’s why they called themselves “Sad Puppies” in the first place: it was about what they thought their Hugo nominations would make people they decided they didn’t like feel.

Which is their karma. It doesn’t have to be mine (or yours).

So, no. I wish the Puppies success in their publishing endeavors, and I wish them happiness — genuine happiness, not contingent on comparison to, or the suffering of, others. I also wish for them the capacity to recognize success, and to be happy. It doesn’t seem they’re there yet. I hope they get there, and will cheer them if and when they do.

 

Jeb Kinnison on According To Hoyt

“’Selective Outrage’ – Jeb Kinnison” – April 29

Hatred and prejudice harm real people, but the harm echoes on through the generations as the original victims teach and promote an us-vs-them worldview that harms everyone. The people who are less wrong learn to understand where the hateful emotions come from, and start to cut off the sources of funds and fury that feed the continuing conflicts. Understanding the backgrounds of the partisans and arguing toward acceptance of others’ right to be wrong is the beginning of reconciliation and cooperation. I think we can get most reasonable people to agree that an award that supposedly recognizes the best SFF should be more broadly representative of the readers, including the vast majority who can’t take time out from busy lives or afford to go to conventions. Having a tiny in-group select award winners from their friends and people they know leaves out most of the writers, and almost all of the readers.

 

Aaron Pound on Dreaming About Other Worlds

“2015 Prometheus Award Nominees” – April 29

The interesting thing about the 2015 list of nominees for the Prometheus Award is not who is on it, but rather who is not. Even though the set of authors that make up the core proponents of the “Sad Puppies” very clearly view themselves as being on the libertarian side of the spectrum (and in some cases they have inserted segments into their books that are clearly pandering to Prometheus Award voters), and yet, there is zero overlap between the set of books they promoted for the 2015 Hugo Award and the set of books that were chosen as finalists for the 2015 Prometheus Award. In short, despite sharing an ideological bent with many of the authors promoted by the Puppies, the Libertarian Futurist Society didn’t see fit to even consider honoring any of the novels that were pushed for the Hugo ballot with a Prometheus Award nomination. If the Puppy slate is in fact about recognizing good books that the Hugo Awards have overlooked because they are supposedly ideologically biased, why is it that the works on the Puppy slates have been, with some rare exceptions, pretty much ignored by all of the other genre related awards? In fact, no one making decisions regarding other awards has seemed to think the stories promoted by any iteration of the Puppy slates have been worth nominating. It would be one thing if the works favored by the Puppies were getting nominated for many other awards while being snubbed solely by the Hugo voters. But they haven’t. They have been ignored by all the major awards because they simply aren’t good enough.

 

John C. Wright

“After Inaction Report from Ravencon” – April 29

A read[er] with the unexpectedly commonplace yet giant-killing name of Jack writes and asks:

Mr Wright: no word on Ravencon? maybe I missed it. Were you barbequed on sight, or just smugly ignored? Or, was it really civilized? At this point I would imagine many of the detractors on the left are wary of confrontation with those of the Puppy and Ilk fame. If so, good. They need a nice dose of apprehension to temper their attack dog tendencies of attack, attack, then worry about truth and accuracy.

I am pleased to report that there were no incidents of which I was aware at Ravencon. Everything went swimmingly.

No, that is not quite true: I heard from one of the organizers, a friend of mine, that Brianna Wu sat on a panel on Gamergate on Friday (before I arrived), and asked for there to be no photographs. As far as I know, this is a perfectly reasonable request, and, as a matter of professional courtesy, it is usually honored. One fellow — I did not catch his name — took photos nonetheless, Brianna Wu raised an objection (whether reasonable or hysterical I cannot say, hearing of this only third hand) and the photographer was asked to step out of the room. He was not kicked out of the Con. He left a snarky comment on his social media page.

That makes a grand total of one almost-rude incident and one perhaps-illtempered comment. And it was not related to Sad Puppies as far as I know, merely the psychodrama of a seriously disturbed person.

Aside from that, the topic came up only once, at the Trollhunter 101 panel, where the moderator merely described that the controversy existed, but his description of the controversy was fair and free from libel, so he was on our side (whether he knows it or not).

 

 

Jamie Ford

“A bystander’s view of the Hugo Awards” – April 29

I joined the World Science Fiction Society so I could officially vote in the Hugo Awards. Not for myself (I don’t even pretend to that kind of greatness) but I had hoped to vote for The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.

Much to my chagrin, this amazing book didn’t make the ballot because a disgruntled group of conservative writers who felt slighted by the Hugos decided to emotionally vomit all over the voting process.

It’s much more nuanced I’m sure, but to an outsider, that’s what it looks like.

*Tantrum. Barf. Point fingers of blame.*

And I get it. I love Orson Scott Card’s work and have always found him incredibly supportive of struggling writers. But I disagree with his political views, which have begun to obfuscate his stories. And I’ve participated in online writing communities where people were banned for unpopular opinions, which never sat well with me.

 

Doctor Science on Obsidian Wings

“The Varieties of Fictional Pleasure” – April 28

One much-discussed Puppy statement is by Brad Torgersen, from January:

In other words, while the big consumer world is at the theater gobbling up the latest Avengers movie, “fandom” is giving “science fiction’s most prestigious award” to stories and books that bore the crap out of the people at the theater: books and stories long on “literary” elements (for all definitions of “literary” that entail: what college hairshirts are fawning over this decade) while being entirely too short on the very elements that made Science Fiction and Fantasy exciting and fun in the first place!

Among the many problems with this statement is that Worldcon members (that Hugo-voting “fandom” of which Torgersen speaks so sneeringly) did in fact give a Hugo to The Avengers, in the same year they gave the Best Novel Hugo to John Scalzi’s Redshirts — a work which, Scalzi admits, can only be called “long on literary elements” if you’re making a joke.

 

Glenn Hauman on Comic Mix

“Hugo Awards, No Awards and Network Effects” – April 29

[The] question has come up about voting for “No Award” over various nominees, whether it should be done, and whether it would be an unprecedented event.

The answer to the last part is: No, it’s not unprecedented. “No Award” has won categories before, most recently in 1977 when no award was given for Best Dramatic Presentation.

And ironically, that’s really a shame. Because it turns out there was a really great science fiction movie that year that showed us where we were heading. I’m not talking about any of that year’s actual Hugo nominees– Carrie, Logan’s Run, The Man Who Fell to Earth, or Futureworld.

No, I’m talking about Network.

 

Vox Day on Vox Popoli

“They also serve” – April 29

It was suggested that they also serve, who inadvertently and unknowingly do the bidding of the Evil Legion of Evil through their ludicrously predictable reactions. And lo, a badge for this brigade of Unwitting Minions was created. Evil Legion of Evil minions are free to award it to those whose behavior is so egregiously stupid or shortsighted or self-destructive that they could not possibly serve your Supreme Dark Lord better if they were consciously doing His Evil Bidding. Given that they are, without exception, unique and special snowflakes, they naturally all bear the title “Minion #1”.

Unwitting-Minion_512x512

Stilicho in a comment on Vox Popoli April 29

Shouldn’t there be some more formal methodology to award Unwitting Minion badges?

No. I am Vile Faceless Minion and so can you.

 

Fiona L. Woods on Cats and Crime

“Hugo Awards and Puppygate” – April 28

Puppygate is a term George R.R. Martin came up with. There are two groups, one called the Sad Puppies and the other the Rabid Puppies. Each group encouraged their followers to buy memberships for Worldcon so they could vote for stories and novels they wanted to get nominated for the Hugo Awards. Apparently, some of those nominated feel the two groups succeeded in loading the nominations with their picks. Hugo Award nominees Mark Kloos and Annie Bellet have withdrawn their work from the competition.

Panzer says, “What do you expect? They’re not the smartest potato on the truck. They’re puppies. You want smart? Get a kitten.  No kitten would have anything to do with this kind of litter box game.”

 

William Reichard

“My God, it’s full of puppies” – April 29

Even the roundups of news about the Hugo Awards fracas are getting too long to read all of every day. One thing you have to admit: this topic is clearly a deep nerve.

 

 

Hello, Dalek! Hour of the Wolf Live with Writer Robert Shearman

Robert Shearman. Photo by Mark Blackman.

Robert Shearman. Photo by Mark Blackman.

By Mark L. Blackman: The night of Tuesday, April 28, 2015 featured a special event, a “hybrid” of the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings and an episode of Jim Freund’s WBAI-FM radio program, Hour of the Wolf. The world’s longest-running science fiction/fantasy radio show (now in its 44th year), Hour of the Wolf broadcasts and streams every Wednesday night/Thursday morning in New York from 1:30-3:00 am at 99.5 FM and worldwide at hourwolf.com. The combination was a natural one as Freund is also producer/executive curator of the Readings Series, and has, in fact, been taping the readings and airing them on his show almost from their inception nearly 25 years ago. Transmitting from the Series’ alternate venue, the newly renovated Brooklyn Commons, the evening’s guest was London-based author, playwright and radio/tv scriptwriter Robert Shearman.

The Brooklyn Commons has been transformed into a high-tech café with its main space converted for all forms of multimedia and, while the program was being taped for radio broadcast the next night, it was live on Livestream (and, for those who missed it, it still available to be viewed); there were, however, a few bugs in the system, delaying the start for nearly half an hour. (The reverb was a form of echo-terrorism.) Finally, Freund was able to welcome the audience to “the first Hour of the Wolf tv show” (sort of, with Livestream utilizing three robotic cameras). He reported – to hearty applause – that his upcoming show would be the last from WBAI’s studios at CCNY, and that, as of Friday, May 1, the station (and thus his program) would be broadcasting from the third floor of the Brooklyn Commons building. Continuing, he noted that this was the second event in “our Brooklyn trilogy” of three consecutive Tuesdays at the Brooklyn Commons. Last week’s featured “the two Sams (Delany & Miller),” and next week’s (Tuesday, May 5, Cinco de Mayo) readers would be Sheree Renée Thomas and N.K. Jemisin. The June 2 readings will be back at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art (aka Gallery La La) in Manhattan, with Ron Hogan as guest curator presenting Lev A.C. Rosen and Adam Sternbergh, “two disastrous writers,” that is, the authors of apocalyptic novels set in (of course) New York.

Concluding his opening remarks, Jim introduced his guest co-host, Ellen Datlow, “who fostered the evening,” and who, by the way, has just returned from a trip to China.  Datlow has edited more than fifty anthologies, and is the most honored editor in the sf/fantasy/horror field, having received (more than once in a few instances) the World Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Karl Edward Wagner Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Locus Award, and the Hugo Award. (What does one do after two Lifetime Achievement Awards [Horror Writers Association and WFA]? Certainly not retire.) She is also the co-host of the monthly Fantastic Fiction Readings at the KGB Bar in the East Village. She introduced the evening’s featured guest.

Robert Shearman’s short stories have won the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Edge Hill Readers’ Prize and three British Fantasy Awards, while his plays have won the World Drama Trust Award, the Sophie Winter Memorial Trust Award, and the Guinness Award for Ingenuity. His black comedy, Easy Laughter, which is currently running Off-Broadway and which he is in New York to promote, is the winner of the (London) Sunday Times Playwriting Award. Rob, though, is probably best-known here as the writer of “Dalek,” a pivotal episode in the revived series of Doctor Who, starring Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, and a nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Jim returned to the spotlight to conduct an interview of Shearman.

Robert Shearman at NYRSF Reading. Photo by Mark Blackman.

Robert Shearman at NYRSF Reading. Photo by Mark Blackman.

New York, said Shearman, feels like a movie set and feels so familiar. (Jim felt the same way about London.) Having a childhood stammer, to overcome it, he began appearing on stage, and started writing plays to get a part; then, because he “didn’t want an actor as bad as me to ruin it,” he became a fulltime writer. His first radio plays were adaptations, then he shifted to writing original works. TV, he commented, is “very unsubtle,” whereas radio, his preference, is “very ambiguous.” (During a later break, I wondered about that. True, radio lets listeners use their imaginations, but, at the same time, it didn’t seem “subtle” to have action being narrated, and then there were things like, for example, Superman shouting “Up, up and away!” to tell the audience that he was flying or change his voice to show that he’d changed from Clark Kent. “That’s just bad exposition,” said Shearman; there were ways around that.) Jim and Rob chatted a bit about radio groundbreakers like The Goon Show, (in the U.S.) Firesign Theatre and, of course, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; both greatly admired Douglas Adams. Rob feels “a bit guilty” about doing TV.

Shearman doesn’t write stories to fit genres; the genre that it fits into comes after the story. He thinks that just about all of his work is comedy; the horror stories are “just unpleasantly funny.” His play Easy Laughter is a “savage satire” set at Christmastime; seeing it again after a while, in retrospect, he was a bit surprised by how dark it was. The play is currently running at the Alchemical Theatre Laboratory Thursdays through Sundays, April 30 through May 10. (For ticket information, visit dirtcontained.com.)

Shearman’s first Doctor (that is, the first actor he saw in the role; “Doctor Who,” for those unfamiliar with the series, is not the character’s name – he is The Doctor), Tom Baker, “scared me” (he had those “bulgy eyes”), and he’s still scared of him; he became a fan of the show with the next (the fifth) Doctor, Peter Davison, a nice guy. (Adams, Jim noted, was the show’s head writer during their transition.) Rob came to the revived series after writing half a dozen Doctor Who radio dramas. The series was seemingly the least wanted revival – children didn’t know it and adults had grown past it and didn’t care about it. TV executives (and, they imagine, their viewers) want something predictable, while Doctor Who is a different show from week to week; some episodes are dramatic, some are comedies, some horror, some even romance. It’s been on (not counting its hiatus) for 51 years, and has three generations of fans; the kids who first watched it are now grandparents. Eccleston hadn’t been a fan and didn’t intend to do the show long-term, was just curious to see what he could do with the role. David Tennant (the tenth Doctor) had been a big fan, as was Peter Capaldi (the twelfth and current Doctor). (In an aside, Rob mentioned that Katy Manning, who had played a Companion, or sidekick, to the third Doctor, was a friend of his wife’s.)

In “Dalek” Shearman had the daunting task of bringing back the iconic Daleks after 16 years, and was worried about dropping the ball. Its Hugo nomination is resounding proof that he didn’t. “Dalek,” said Freund, was one of his favorite episodes. Rob is proud of having created something that inspired parodies, filksongs and cosplay; however, he is nevertheless afraid of returning to Doctor Who and writing a bad episode. It is, he marveled, already the 10th anniversary of “Dalek” airing (April 30th). (He wasn’t yet gray, he informed the radio audience.)

On the set, he was impressed that the new incarnation of Doctor Who actually “had a budget,” unlike the series’ original run; there were CGI Daleks! In the episode, he pointed out, Eccleston’s Doctor who, until then, had been unflappable, was actually scared. The torture scene pushed the envelope. The graffiti “Bad Wolf,” he revealed, was just there accidentally, and didn’t have meaning until showrunner Russell Davies decided to give it meaning; and it worked, said Freund, because it developed slowly.

In the interview wrap-up, asked about his favorite media, Shearman said that he was proud of his stage plays, but “adored prose” (we might say fiction) and nowadays “feels like a prose writer.”

After a brief “intermish,” there was a raffle for a copy of Nightmare Carnival (edited by Ellen Datlow and including “The Popping Fields,” a story by Shearman) and for tickets to Easy Laughter. In the second part of the evening, Shearman read two short stories, prefacing his performance with the warning that “I am not an actor, but I am an overactor.” His first offering was “Joke in Four Panels,” which began “Snoopy is dead,” and included the throwaway line “It’s a doggone shame, Charlie Brown.” Peanuts is not the cultural phenomenon in the U.K. that it is in the U.S., Shearman noted, giving his satire the distance to reconsider Snoopy’s delusions (the World War I Flying Ace, Joe Cool, the attorney, the tennis player and the novelist) as not charming, but as symptoms of sociopathic disturbance. (Snoopy changed and took over the strip from Charlie Brown.) Yes, his overacting included doing “the Happy Dance.”

His second story was briefer. Over the PA, a flight attendant advises the passengers on an intercontinental flight from LA about to land in Paris that they are required to have faith in the existence of Paris in order to arrive safely. (83% of the airline’s passengers, she reports proudly, survive their flights.) Vivid memories are encouraged to be brought up and photos of city scenes are displayed to assist them.

As customary at these Readings, the Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered giveaway books, and refreshments (cheese and crackers).

The crowd of about 20 included Melissa C. Beckman, Barbara Krasnoff (floor manager), John Kwok, Gordon Linsner, Edie Nugent (publicist for Dirt [Contained]) and Terence Taylor (the event’s video producer), some half of whom adjourned afterward with Jim, Ellen and Rob to a nearby bar and grill.

The Storied Career of Ed Green

F&SF coverActor and past president of LASFS Ed Green is Tuckerized by David Gerrold in “Entanglements,” a story in the latest Fantasy & Science Fiction.

The protagonist describes the birthday party he is having:

By the time the party finally broke up, after the last ambulance pulled away and the police were satisfied that Ed Green was going to keep his clothes on this time–we told them he was practicing for an upcoming audition (“The Canoga Park Players are planning a revival of NAKED BOYS SINGING…”) and that seemed to mollify the officers, although they declined the offer of comped seats for opening night…

And the story begins, “I am going to kill that Pesky Dan Goodman,” a reference to another LASFSian.

Mr. Green, when approached by the media, said “I was young and I needed the rent money.” Also, “David actually asked permission in advance.”

The story has elicited a range of responses:

Lois Tilton on Locus Online

A “thematic sequel”, says the editorial blurb, to the author’s award-winning “The Martian Child”. Which means . . . What? Both stories are autobiographical fiction, with narrator and author not clearly distinguished. But “The Martian Child” is a story about something the narrator did: adopting a son and the consequences this had in his life. “Entanglement” is at its heart about what didn’t happen: a void in his life and its consequences; the narrator is the passive observer of events that never took place.

Jerard Bretts on Tangent

“Entanglements” by David Gerrold is a very strong novelet, with playful autobiographical elements. A “quantum empathiser” provides the first person narrator, an SF writer called David Gerrold, with access to parallel universes that show how his life might have developed in different circumstances. Although written in a deceptively relaxed and rambling style, underneath it all Gerrold makes a very moving point about the roads we take and don’t take in life. There is also a surprising Author’s Afterword.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster for the story.]

“Best of Galaxy’s Edge” for 99 Cents Today 4/29

Best of Galaxys Edge COMPThe Kindle edition of The Best of Galaxy’s Edge 2013-2014 edited by Mike Resnick is priced at 99 cents today.

Table of Contents

• Introduction (The Best of Galaxy’s Edge 2013-2014) • essay by Mike Resnick
• I, Arachnobot • [The Positronic Robot Stories] • (2014) • shortstory by Brian Trent
• Pocket Full of Mumbles • (2014) • shortstory by Tina Gower
• Creator of the Cosmos Job Interview Today • (2013) • shortstory by Nick DiChario
• Will You Volunteer to Kill Wendy? • (2013) • shortstory by Eric Cline
• Neep • (2014) • shortstory by K. C. Norton
• Effect and Cause • (2013) • shortstory by Ken Liu
• Ghost in the Machine • (2013) • shortstory by Ralph Roberts
• The Prayer Ladder • (2013) • shortstory by Marina J. Lostetter
• Holland: 1944 • (2014) • shortstory by Steve Cameron
• The Spinach Can’s Son • (2013) • shortstory by Robert T. Jeschonek
• Intersection • (2014) • shortstory by Gio Clairval
• No Place for a Hero • (2014) • shortstory by James Aquilone
• Happily Ever After • (1930) • shortstory by C. L. Moore
• Upright, Unlocked • (2014) • shortstory by Tom Gerencer
• Love in Bloom • (2013) • shortstory by Sabina Theo
• Icarus at Noon • (2014) • shortstory by Eric Leif Davin
• Matial • (2014) • shortstory by Lou J. Berger
• Do You Remember Michael Jones? • (2014) • shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Zombies at Work • (2014) • shortstory by Leena Likitalo
• Exemplar • [Secret World Chronicles] • (2014) • novelette by Mercedes Lackey
• The Nechronomator • (2014) • shortstory by Brad R. Torgersen
• Today I Am Nobody • (2013) • shortstory by Tina Gower
• God Walks Into a Bar • [Draco Tavern] • (2014) • shortstory by Larry Niven
• Totaled • (2014) • shortstory by Kary English
• The Unchanging Nature of Stones • (2013) • shortstory by Andrea G. Stewart