Pixel Scroll 5/24/18 Filenheit 770

(1) LEAVE OF ABSENCE FOR FANX’S BRANDENBURG. Salt Lake City’s Fox13 news has been told “FanX co-founder Bryan Brandenburg stepping aside amid criticism of handling of harassment complaint”.

Salt Lake City FanX co-founder Bryan Brandenburg is stepping aside in response to criticism of his handling of a report of harassment.

Brandenburg told Fox 13 News Thursday he is taking an “immediate and indefinite” leave of absence.

He said he wants his decision to step down from the convention to show the women who have complained that he has heard their complaints. He said it was a hard decision to leave the company he founded with Dan Farr in 2013, but he would rather step aside so that the fan base can thrive.

Brandenburg told a Good4Utah reporter (ABC-TV):

“If it takes me walking away, to see something survive, it’s my baby. And I would rather see it thrive than to have it go through the trauma that it’s going through now,” said Brandenburg.

Brandenburg said he was saddened by all of the divisiveness this caused within his organization.

He said he didn’t want to distract from FanX which is why he’s taking that extended leave of absence.

Today’s TV interviews indicate a definite break, in contrast to superficial changes shared by con organizers in yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune story “After sexual-harassment controversy, FanX says its founders are stepping back and it will donate to Time’s Up” which had only said Dan Farr and Bryan Brandenburg were stepping back from social media. (Indeed, Brandenburg’s Facebook page is now offline.) The Tribune  reported further defections among FanX guests and vendors:

With authors, celebrities and a major publishing house saying they will pull out of FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention over its insensitive response to sexual-harassment accusations, organizers say they will donate an unspecified amount to the Time’s Up campaign and reduce the public role of co-founders Bryan Brandenburg and Dan Farr.

Brandenburg set off a firestorm on social media this week by posting about best-selling Utah author Shannon Hale, who was questioning FanX’s handling of a sexual-harassment accusation against Utah author Richard Paul Evans.

Without contacting Hale, FanX social media manager Manda Bull posted Tuesday that the convention was inviting her to join a new committee to improve its recently revised anti-harassment policy. The author said Wednesday she’s not interested.

…Since Monday’s dust-up, two celebrities booked for FanX — Lindsay Jones and Arryn Zech, voice actors on the popular anime-style web series “RWBY” — have canceled their appearances. Several authors, showing solidarity with Hale, also have said they will skip the convention.

On Tuesday, one of Utah’s biggest publishing houses — Shadow Mountain Publishing, an imprint run by LDS Church-owned Deseret Book — ended its association with FanX.

…It was the Shadow Mountain booth where, according to a complaint filed with event organizers, Evans harassed a woman at last September’s convention. The woman told FanX in a written account that Evans “touched me several times and went so far as to kiss my cheek. I had never met him before … but he made me very uncomfortable and even said, ‘You’re so pretty’ after he touched me, as though he couldn’t help himself.”

In an interview that aired Tuesday on KUTV-Channel 2, Evans told reporter Chris Jones that “there is a war on men, and that men — white men in particular — are under attack, oppressed by a changing culture, victims of an extremist feminist agenda.” Evans compared the plight of white men in America to “Jews in Nazi Germany.”

(2) EYE PROBLEM. Larry Niven will miss Balticon 52, where he was scheduled to be Author Special Guest. The convention announced the news on its website

Larry Niven will be unable to attend Balticon this year:

We are sorry to report that at the last minute Larry Niven developed a problem that will prevent him from traveling to Baltimore and attending Balticon 52. He suffered a minor complication from a recent eye procedure and lthough is readily reparable it needs to be fixed soon and will require a week or so of bed rest. Riding in a pressurized aircraft is not a good plan at the moment as it could cause his retinas to go all retrograde. He sends his regrets, and we send our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

(3) PACKET IS COMING. Worldcon 76 knows you’re waiting: “Hugo Voter Packet News”.

The Worldcon 76 Hugo Team are working on testing the Hugo Voter Packet and expect to have it online shortly, within the next few days.

The Hugo Voter Packet is a collection of finalist works for the 2018 Hugo Awards and 1943 Retrospective Hugo Awards, made available to members of Worldcon 76 to better allow voters to make their decisions when voting on the Hugo Awards. Finalists’ works that appear in the Hugo Award Packet appear through the courtesy of the finalists, publishers, and rights-holders. Not all finalists will be in the Packet.

(4) COPYEDITOR’S CORNER. Is it just me? I find the wording of this headline troubling. It probably wasn’t written by the author of the article itself who knows how to make her points.

For decades, the field of fantasy books was dominated by white men penning tales about dwarfs, elves, and other Norse-based mythology. Today, that’s changing as diverse writers are bringing fresh voices to the field, incorporating the myths and legends of cultures around the world. “People have been trying to do this for decades,” says author Tomi Adeyemi. “It’s just that enough people have broken down the doors over the decades that we’re where we are now.” Certainly, speculative fiction writers since at least Octavia Butler, the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur Grant, have looked beyond Europe for inspiration. But no longer can they be dismissed as niche. From the $1 billion-plus box-office take of “Black Panther,” directed by Ryan Coogler, to the success of Ms. Adeyemi’s breakout debut, “Children of Blood and Bone,” audiences and readers are flocking to well-drawn worlds inspired by African and Asian countries. As one science fiction professor says, “We are not the field that thinks that what white men say is the only way to say things.”

(5) SALVAGE. When Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star, did you think the whole thing vanished into its component atoms? Not so! Cnet brings word: “Chunk of original Star Wars Death Star goes for sale on eBay”

…Get started on your very own Death Star by picking up a prop piece of the original ship from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope on eBay.

…Most of the pieces ended up in a landfill, but an anonymous former ILM employee grabbed this particular panel and kept it safe for decades.

… The panel measures nearly 24 inches (61 centimeters) long and “every inch of the piece has complex modeling used to create the raised elevations and valleys of the Death Star.”

The eBay auction from Hollywood Memorabilia on Thursday, timed to coincide with the weekend release of the Han Solo origin movie Solo: A Star Wars Story. The Death Star chunk is expected to bring six figures in US dollars.

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • May 24, 2008 — The sci-fi musical Christmas On Mars premiered.

(7) COMICS SECTION.

  • John King Tarpinian discovered evolution in action at Non Sequitur.

(8) CONVENTION TOOL. A feature at this year’s Confab —

(9) DOWN TO THE WIRE. One of Minnesota’s best-known conventions announced they are being squeezed in hotel negotiations and haven’t secured the DoubleTree Hotel for this July’s con, although they hope to. Lawyers are at work: “CONvergence 2018 Timing Update—Please Bear With Us”.

Dear CONvergence Members,

We wanted to make you aware of some ongoing negotiations regarding this year’s convention. Over the past year, the Board has been in conversation with the DoubleTree Hotel regarding the arrangements and logistics for CONvergence 2018. The hotel has put forth several demands regarding the practices and procedures of the convention. The Board has been negotiating with the DoubleTree regarding which demands we feel are reasonable and which are not. The Board’s main objective is to preserve and provide the best experience for our members.

Unfortunately, these negotiations have gone on longer than we had hoped and have not yet reached resolution. We do currently anticipate being able to hold this year’s convention on time, but must resolve these outstanding issues first. Because of these negotiations, we’ve had to delay some of our normal processes, including room reservations. We are working hard to bring everything to resolution as soon as possible and will keep you updated as quickly as we can, but due to the nature of the negotiations and on advice of counsel we can’t discuss in full detail. We appreciate your understanding.

For now, let’s continue to build those costumes, launch those campaigns, and get ready for the 20th year of CONvergence!

(10) GRRM MOVIE PROJECT ANNOUNCED. “George R.R. Martin’s ‘The Ice Dragon’ to Get the Animated Movie Treatment”The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

Martin’s children’s fantasy novel, The Ice Dragon, has been picked up by Warner Animation Group to be adapted for the big screen, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The writer will be actively involved with the project, acting as a producer. There is even a possibility he will take a crack at penning the script, although that is still to be determined (and will undoubtedly scare GoT fans who are awaiting him to finish the latest, long-in-the-works and who knows when it will come out novel).

(11) THE EXISTENCE OF YOUR BANE. Gizmodo’s take on this invention begins: “Hello, You’ve Reached Gotham’s Reckoning. How May I Direct Your Call?”

How many times has this happened to you? You’re trying to organize the destruction of a major metropolitan area and the overthrow of a system you view as irredeemably corrupt, but you keep having to step out of the office to take a call. That problem is no more thanks to Bloxvox, the voice muffling muzzle that lets you plot to fulfill Ra’s al Ghul’s destiny from the comfort of your desk.

The actual item is a “voice privacy tool” that’s supposed to let you make private phone calls in public place.

A new Kickstarter seeks money to develop Bloxvox — a Bane-like mask that’s supposed to let you make private phone calls in public places (think open-plan offices, airports, etc.). At this writing, the Kickstarter is approaching $2000 out of a $25,000 goal; that amount raised from a mere 15 backers. The device allows you to insert the microphone part of your earbuds into the mask, providing some level of voice muffling for your office mates (or the other people in the coffee shop or what have you) but none for the microphone. A head strap holds the mask in place while a hole in the front “allows you to breathe, while letting minimal sound escape.” A soft seal around your mouth is said to “[create] a comfortable fit and voice-blocking seal against your face.”

(12) WATCHMEN CASTING. Here are the players – but who they’re going to play is still a secret: “‘Watchmen’: Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson to Star in Damon Lindelof’s HBO Pilot”.

Watchmen, Damon Lindelof and HBO have announced the star-studded cast of the drama pilot take on Alan Moore’s beloved comic series.

The Leftovers grad Regina King will reunite with Lindelof on the HBO pilot and lead a cast that includes Don Johnson (Miami Vice), Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Louis Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman), Adelaide Clemens (Rectify) and Andrew Howard (Hatfields & McCoys).

Details about their respective characters are being kept under wraps.

(13) HE’S WHO? You can watch Dr. Michael Keaton’s complete Kent State University commencement address, or skip ahead to the genre-related peroration at about the 18:00 mark.

(14) NOT JUST HANGING AROUND. A teenager dressed as Spider-man, dropped out of a window upside down, and asked his girlfriend out to the prom. Insider says “It’s the most extra thing we’ve seen today”.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Daniel Dern, JJ, Steven H Silver, Martin Morse Wooster, Andrew, David Doering, Chip Hitchcock, David Doering, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W.]

73 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/24/18 Filenheit 770

  1. Just finished Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War. Wow.
    Just, wow. Maybe it’s because I’m a dog person, but this one hit home and hard. Highly recommended.

    And news item 1: Looks like they had an attack of common sense.

  2. @ bookworm1398: RE (11) Texting isn’t always an option. Quite a few of my friends just don’t text so sending them one would be an exercise in futility. And, yeah, sometimes you just have to call a landline (or a line that could be a landline for all you know). Not that I’d want one of the Bloxvox masks anyway…

  3. (11) this sounds like the sort of terrible idea that will do well on Kickstarter. I’m surprised it hasn’t already met its goal.

    (4) The title and quick read view are hiding a decent article behind them.

  4. (1) Only a month (or year) too late, but better late than never. Cooler heads (or lawyers and accountants) have prevailed. Let’s hope his leave of absence extends for many years. The con needs a whole new management, to rethink.

    (2) Hope he gets well soon. There’s a lot of this going around (I refuse to admit it’s b/c my friends are getting older) and while it’s quickly treated, you do have to not travel and not move your head much. I wonder if he’s got the “must stare at the ceiling for days” or the “must stare at the floor for days” treatment after the procedure.

    (4) That’s awkward. Particularly since the plural of the fantasy folk is usually “dwarves”.

    (8) Lots of cons have quiet areas/rooms nowadays. Even quiet parties.

    (10) The parenthetical amused me.

    (11) Tell them you’ll call back later? Send texts instead? Talk quietly for a change? There are all sorts of ways to get around this problem without looking like a supervillain with too much cash and no fashion sense. And you’re supposed to carry this thing around, taking up more space in pockets?

    (14) Awww. Have a good time, kids.

    Off to Baycon this weekend for fun and frivolity. Will probably run into a Filer or two five.

  5. @KatG: So they really haven’t changed a bit. Why am I not surprised? That Twitter conversation says a lot. Now Mr. “ooh I’m so supportive of women” is apparently dragging his wife into it too.

    Scrap it and start fresh with all new people in charge. T’row da bums out. The owners are older than I expected, certainly old enough to know better or at least be better at PR and not putting foot in mouth.

    No written policy (b/c copying one from a con with a clue is so hard?), and lying about what they can do (b/c they’ve never seen/thought about this issue till now?). And even the worst predator isn’t likely to go groping people in front of the staff.

  6. KatG: twitter link

    OMG, he admits in the private forum that his public apology was fake, AND he’s bragging about his wife’s new-agey woo-woo life coaching business and the women she’s suckered into paying a shitload of money as “powerful women who wouldn’t have anything to do with a sexist, therefore I am not a sexist”. 🙄

    I just can’t even with this guy.

  7. I just can’t even with this guy.

    He also seems to be still financially benefiting from the show; he may be stepping down from management responsibilities for a while, but he’s a co-founder and very likely a co-owner.

  8. 9. July, not September. CONvergence is six weeks away. They have a contract (year 5 of a contract, IIRC), just that the DoubleTree is loading on additional and unpalatable demands of the convention and membership.

    Based on all the other fannish conventions that have been driven out, DoubleTree does not seem to want our business.

  9. (1) At least he has more sense than certain members of the Swedish Academy…

    At least I hope this and similar instances drive home that ignoring harassment and sweeping it under the rug is a fundamentally unsafe behaviour. Not only for the person who is harassed, but for the people who choose to ignore it. And even if I view the current tool of public outrage and shaming as deeply problematic and at times muddying the waters, at least it is moving the needle in the right direction.

    For those who want an overview of the Swedish Academy, Der Spiegel recently published their long-form piece on the events so far, never losing track of the original claims of sexual abuse.

    (2) I wish a speedy recovery for Larry Niven.

    (4) I like that the original article author said “since at least Octavia Butler [ … ] have looked beyond Europe for inspiration”. Decent read and overview.

    (9) I wonder how things could get so bad that they needed to involve the lawyers.

  10. BravoLimaPoppa3 on May 24, 2018 at 8:12 pm said:
    Just finished Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War. Wow.
    Just, wow. Maybe it’s because I’m a dog person, but this one hit home and hard. Highly recommended.

    Tchaikovsky is really hitting the mark with his forays into SF. Both this and Children of Time are very satisfying for me in a ‘classic SF’ kind of way.

  11. (4) COPYEDITOR’S CORNER. Appertain yourself a beverage, @Mike Glyer! The text of the article says “dwarves,” not “dwarfs” (which looks silly alongside “elves”; at least be consistently wrong, says I), FWIW. BTW the article’s by Donna Bryson; I’ve never heard of her, so I don’t know whether she knows how to make her points or not.

    The “quick read/deep read” toggle is an interesting gimmick, though where I work, we’d call it “summary/full text.”

    (8) CONVENTION TOOL. LOL, I’ll take the one on the right, please!

    (9) DOWN TO THE WIRE. Ugh! I wonder which demands regarding the convention practices and procedures are at issue. Anyway, anyone taking odds on whether they’ll be at a new hotel next year? I hope they can get things squared away in the little time remaining for this year!

    @BravoLimaPoppa3: “Dogs of War” sounds interesting, but isn’t around in these parts (yet?) (U.S.). 🙁

    I mean, what the heck – even @rob_matic has it! 😉 (joking re. your comment on the other thread, Rob)

  12. Dogs of War releases June 1 in the US. I adore Adrian Tchaikovsky so I’m going to pre-order.

    See you at Baycon, Lurker! I’m almost finished packing, and my poor innocent SJW credential is sleeping beside me without a clue he’s going to be visiting a brand new pet boarding place tomorrow.

    Just saw Solo. Kinda liked it. Lando has won my heart, and one of the few characters from Episode 1 that I actually like made an appearance.

  13. it occurs to me, somewhat belatedly, that Mike’s subtitle for (8) would work equally well for (1). For a very different reason though.

  14. Kendall: The odds of moving are 100%. The last concom meeting took place at, and had a tour of, the downtown Minneapolis Hyatt. I hear CONvergence has a contract for next year.

  15. +1 to Dogs of War for sure! I read both that and Children of Time over the past couple of months and thought they were both excellent especially in their exploration of ideas, with decent characters to back them up (doesn’t hurt when it’s doggos!)

    I am two thirds of the way through Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and it’s a solid YA read with great worldbuilding. It reminds me a lot of Avatar: The Last Airbender in its character beats and societal treatment of magic, but it’s definitely its own thing.

  16. @John A Arkansawyer,

    in the webcomic Something Positive, one of the main characters, Aubrey Chorde, runs a phone sex line catering to geeky and nerdy clients, Nerdrotica – introduced in these two episodes in 2004 (before the SNL sketch you linked to) and continuing to pop up in the story to this day.

  17. If Convergence moves to downtown Minneapolis, it’s probably going to need more than just the Hyatt. I would guess they’d need both it and the Hilton, and maybe more. I haven’t been getting a room for Convergence, but I probably would if it were downtown.

  18. @ Lurkertype:

    I’m OK with either “dwarves and elves” or “dwarfs and elfs”, but there may be incontinent hobgoblins involved.

  19. 3) Hugo Packet — Sigh. A week is more than “shortly, within the next few days.” Particularly when it was previously announced that it would be out a week before that. They’re making me nervous with this testing stuff.

    I’m nearing the end of what I already have or can easily get from my library. I’d like to know what’s in there before I do interlibrary loan or consider buying.

    I know it’s just a courtesy and nothing is guaranteed to be in there. But saying that they would put it out and then continuing to postpone it is trying my patience.

    1) ‘[Richard Paul] Evans compared the plight of white men in America to “Jews in Nazi Germany.”’ Aaaaargghh!

  20. @Lurkertype Particularly since the plural of the fantasy folk is usually “dwarves”.

    I remember a story by David Langford with a mention of were-dwarves, who are dwarfs by day and dwarves on nights of the full moon. A tricky problem for wizards whose magic depends on correct naming…

  21. @ Elisa:

    In (some) circles, the saying “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a little mind” has mutated to ” is an incontinent hobgoblin of the mind”, I guess I could’ve been clearer in my self-deprecation.

  22. (8) I’ve just learned something that I probably should have noticed much earlier. My background is in Psychology where the word is always spelled ‘extravert’. I was going to post something here criticising the spelling on the sign, but apparently I’m wrong. Some googling shows that most people now prefer ‘extrovert’. I actually didn’t know that.

  23. 11) Struck by an inspiron particle, have a story:

    I still have a green/black PrivacEar headset from the first kickstarter. Of course, I don’t use them, they are far too valuable as a collectible, but yeah, I was one of the initial supporters. Loved them from day one. I used to play music too loud, just to drown out the conversations from randos on the street, so having the headphones cancel not just noise, but unwanted speech as well, was perfect.

    My husband loved them too, once I showed how easy it was to set up the list of people you wanted to hear. No more shouting to get through to me when I had them on, he could just speak normally and I’d hear him. Like every other early adopter, we had our mishaps, shocking people overhearing our conversations. It’s so easy to forget others can listen in, when you have got used to not doing it yourself. It’s funny, but once you commit to respecting the privacy of others, you assume others will be as corteous.

    We make progress, as a society, but sometimes we need to be shown the way, so I was very happy when the government made PrivacEars – originals or one of the other makes, even though everyone call them PrivacEars too, no matter how much they insist on calling them Generic Device for Privacy Respect – mandatory in public. I think back to when everyone walked around and had to overhear the private conversations of others, and shudder. We were so barbaric, so disrespectful.

    “Excuse me, sir.”

    An unknown voice. I look to the side, and see a police officer. Of course, he is automatically authorised to speak to me while he’s on duty.

    “Yes, officer?” I say.

    “Please take a different route, there is a disturbance ahead.”

    I look past him. A large crowd of people, some with placards, are marching towards city hall. I can see them chanting something, but thankfully I don’t have to hear them.

    “Of course, officer. Thanks for warning me.”

    I leave him to redirect other pedestrians, and backtrack so I can avoid the obstruction.

  24. @Laura

    Well, yes, of course he did. Because being publicly rebuked and disavowed for actions disrespectful to a fellow human being is exactly like facing a government sanctioned campaign of violence and mass murder based on your religion…

  25. ‘Dwarfs and elves’ is fine, because those are the historically normal forms. ‘Dwarves’ was introduced by Tolkien (in origin accidentally, but then he worked out a justification for it). Fantasy writers in the tradition of Tolkien typically use ‘dwarves’, but there’s no requirement that they must: Pratchett uses ‘dwarfs’; the seven Disney characters are dwarfs. ‘Elves’, on the other hand, has been the norm (at least) since Shakespeare; ‘elfs’ was always a rarer variant. Tolkien was largely responsible for ‘elven’ replacing ‘elfin’, but he wasn’t responsible for ‘elves’.

    Regarding the substance of the thing, though, it seems to me that elves and dwarf/ves stopped being dominant in fantasy, even of the epic-ish kind, quite a long time ago. Jordan doesn’t have them, nor does Martin, nor does Rothfuss. The Fionavar Tapestry has them, but Kay’s work since then doesn’t. I know Katherine Kerr has them, and I’m sure there are others, but the idea that they are, or were, what the field is all about, seems misconceived.

  26. I hope Niven has a speedy and as-painless-as-possible recovery.

    I’d also like to point out that Niven, a well known conservative author, will be missed at the con. He’s a good guest and from what I’ve heard, definitely not an asshat. Cons don’t discriminate based on the guest being conservative.

  27. @Ultragotha:

    Niven is most certainly not an asshat. Very nice guy, gifted with more success (and more humility) than the Puppy Outrage Brigade will ever know, and IMO he deserves every bit of it.

    I mention humility because I picked up one of his books at a convention where he was a GOH, and mentioned the next day when I saw him that I’d stayed up longer than planned because it was so fascinating. He seemed genuinely baffled – but pleased, and perhaps embarrassed – that someone would actually give up sleep to read something he’d written.

  28. @Josh, Based on all the other fannish conventions that have been driven out, DoubleTree does not seem to want our business.

    For what it’s worth, the Westin chain (in the Chicago area at least) has been friendly and welcoming to local SF conventions, to the point that some of the hotel staff wear Halloween-type SF-adjacent costumes on duty and, at one convention, the hotel putting out complementary (not paid for by the concom!) pizza for the fans (explicitly for the fans; there was a “Welcome” sign naming the convention over the pizza) on Friday night.

  29. @ Laura:

    Agreed, it seems like the Hugo packet hasn’t been unconscionably delayed by historical standards, but it’s always a bad idea to set expectations you can’t meet. And the delay could be greatly mitigated if they simply told us what was and wasn’t included.

  30. (9) Convergence has long since outgrown their current hotel and I imagine that some of the DoubleTree’s demands are due to that fact. You can only do so much to shoehorn a 6,000 person event into a 3,000 person hotel. Moving downtown might not be popular with a significant number of fans though.

  31. Niven is definitely a good guy; I watched him sit through a sharp-edged portrayal of his pairing with Pournelle with no objection, just a rueful smile on his face. He gives (or at least used to give) signed books to chairs whose cons he’d enjoyed — and he gave me one (with a suitable autograph) after the Boskone from Hell, which I suspect was no more fun for him than for much of the concom.

    Sondheim flashes on the dwar{f,ve}s argument in “Agony”.

  32. Hm. That “?” in my above post was a backwards R, since for years Gus Lopez’s web site about his collection was called toysrgus.com before the dying (ha! ha!) Toys-R-Us made him change it. Also, I just noticed that the article I linked mentions part of the name of the guy who saved both the full Death Star model and two trench pieces, I assume one of them that is in the auction.

  33. Meredith Moment:
    Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, US$1.99 at The Usual Suspects.

  34. Many, many years ago, when I was running Boskone programming, Larry Niven walked into my green room, and asked what panels we wanted him on.

    Since he hadn’t told us he was coming, we didn’t have a schedule for him.

    But even while quite obviously drunk, he wanted to be helpful, not have his status acknowledged, and was polite, accommodating, and respectful while we went over the convention schedule, looking for the panels where he’d be a good fit and/or plug holes because people had had to cancel.

    Yes, a famous man, important in the SF world, walked into my green room drunk asking to be put on program, and it was a completely positive experience.

    My dad, who was a recovering alcoholic, told me that you don’t drive too fast or get into fights or anything else because you’re drunk. You get drunk so you can do those things. Larry Niven showed me who he really is, and he’s a very fine gentleman.

  35. @Steven

    Yes, I’d like to be able to make plans. I can make reasonable guesses with some publishers, but others are unknown. Then for a number of categories (people, zines, fan), it’s really useful to see what they submit, rather than trying to figure it out on your own. If it doesn’t get out soon, some might think about following nerds of a feather’s example.

  36. Tolkien was largely responsible for ‘elven’ replacing ‘elfin’, but he wasn’t responsible for ‘elves’.

    In the German translation they used the madeup „Elben“, probably so nobody thinks of Tinkerbell (Im not sure if they have changed that in the last 20 years though)

    Chapter 5 – our last best hope for pixels!

  37. @Charon D.: The only “Dogs of War” I found at Amazon.com appeared to be a U.K. hardback (out in 2017) and a paperback coming June 1 from the same U.K. publisher (Head of Zeus) . . . or maybe I’m wrong and Head of Zeus is not (only) a U.K. publisher? They appear to be (plus, no U.S. ebooks). That’s fine, but I’d hoped for a U.S. release and ebook. Hmm, well I can get a preview via Amazon.co.uk, at least, yay, and use that to decide on buying the paperback coming out on the 1st.

    @Andrew M: When the body of the article says “dwarves,” it does seem like one is a mistake, though.

    @Laura: In fairness, for freely available content (people, zines, et al.), you don’t have to (only) use what they submit anyway. You can explore their sites on your own and see what catches your eye, if you have time. What they feel is their best work (i.e., what they put in the packet) may or may not actually work for you, after all. 😉 I’ve seen some packet entries that made me go, “Why did they include THIS item?!” (but clearly it was just something they liked or thought others would like, but I didn’t car for).

  38. Evans compared the plight of white men in America to “Jews in Nazi Germany.”

    Wow. I mean, beyond the blindingly obvious problems with this appalling statement, there’s also the insulting implication that all white men are gropers. And that only white men are gropers.

  39. @Kendall
    True, in past years I’ve been happy I was already familiar with some because their packet alone wouldn’t have done much for me. But for those you’re not familiar with, their submission at least gives you a jumping off point.

  40. Vlad Taltos’ grandfather calls Dragaerans “elfs”; that’s the most recent usage I can think of.

Comments are closed.