Monthly Archives: April 2009

File 770 #155 Posted at eFanzines

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Alan White’s cover and Taral’s bacover bookend one of the longest issues in File 770’s history, now posted here in PDF — http://efanzines.com/File770/File770-155.pdf. 

The 50-page issue is loaded with stories about the late Forry Ackerman, and photos too. Taral provides insightful commentary about the styles and history of all 10 previous Rotsler Award winners. John Hertz contributes his definitive Denvention 3 report. James Bacon muses on the things fandom could learn from Britain’s cosplay balls. Steve & Sue Francis highlight the 9689-mile road trip they took en route to last year’s Worldcon. And I have a number of pieces, including my Corflu Zed report and analysis of the Hugo ballot. 

Hope you enjoy it!

Jack Jardine Dies

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Appreciation by Bill Mills: Author and longtime L.A. area fan Jack Jardine (aka Larry Maddock) passed away April 14, 2009 after a long illness. In addition to ongoing cardiac problems, Jardine suffered a serious stroke in 2005 from which he never fully recovered. He was 78 years of age at the time of his death and is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren.

[See the rest of Bill’s news after the jump.]

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Where Colbert Goes,
Now Angels Fear to Tread

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When Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert won NASA’s online poll to name the International Space Station’s third habitat node, the agency invoked a contest rule allowing it to pick the name regardless of the vote. Though if Firefly fans bet NASA would choose Serenity, the second most popular name – they lost!

Colbert had threatened to become “space’s evil tyrant overlord” if he didn’t get his way. NASA mollified him by dispatching astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams to announce the chosen name during his Tuesday broadcast. SeattlePI.com reports that NASA reached down to eighth place in the poll and chose “Tranquility”, a name that refers to the Sea of Tranquility, Apollo 11’s lunar landing site.

But NASA did throw Colbert this bone:

On Tuesday’s The Colbert Report, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams announced that Colbert will get his small piece of immortality after all, as the organization voted to name a treadmill on board the space station after him.

The treadmill in question will heretofore be known as the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT). Williams explained that treadmills are vitally important to astronauts, as they use them to prevent bone-strength loss while in space.

Area 51 – For the Record

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The LA Times recently published a story about Area 51, headlined After decades of denying the facility’s existence, five former insiders speak out:

Area 51. It’s the most famous military institution in the world that doesn’t officially exist. If it did, it would be found about 100 miles outside Las Vegas in Nevada’s high desert, tucked between an Air Force base and an abandoned nuclear testing ground. Then again, maybe not– the U.S. government refuses to say. You can’t drive anywhere close to it, and until recently, the airspace overhead was restricted–all the way to outer space. Any mention of Area 51 gets redacted from official documents, even those that have been declassified for decades.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.] 

Self-Publishing Not Necessarily a Bowl of Cherries

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After seeing stories here like “Self Publishing Success Story”, Craig Miller sent me a link to author Lee Goldberg’s skeptical warning about self-publishing titled “More Vanity Press Kool-Aid”. Craig explained:

Lee is a mostly-former TV writer and now writes a lot of tie-in mysteries (Monk books, for example) and original mysteries.  His blog is, like most people’s, about what he’s doing but he occasionally talks about self-publishing – because self-publishing authors who he’s never heard of contact him for reviews of their books.

Lee’s article particularly warns about the expense of self-publishing an inventory of books:

These articles never mention the tens of thousands of dollars that these “successful” self-published authors had to spend…and how extraordinarily rare it is for vanity press authors jump to a real publisher, which despite their hoo-hawing for vanity presses is what they all want.

He points to SFWA’s full discussion of the business on the Science Fiction Writers of America site, which says in part:

The average book from a POD service sells fewer than 200 copies–mostly to “pocket” markets surrounding the author–friends, family, local retailers who can be persuaded to place an order–and to the author him/herself. According to the chief executive of POD service iUniverse, quoted in the New York Times in 2004, 40% of iUniverse’s books are sold directly to authors.

Snapshots .22

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Here are 6 high-caliber developments of interest to fans:

(1) Jeff Prucher, of Brave New Words, admitted to The Guardian that he got into hot water by crediting of the term “genetic engineering” to Jack Williamson’s 1941 novel Dragon Island:

[A critic pointed out] that Williamson has admitted that “some scientist beat me by a couple of years.” “Thanks for pointing that out,” Prucher replied to his critic. “Add it to the list of Words You Might Think Came from Science Fiction but Actually Came from Science.”

(2) We interrupt our regularly scheduled “End of Publishing As We Know It” broadcast to report the discovery that the economic collapse has a silver lining. Says the New York Times: sales of romances, SF, and fantasy are up, up, up!

Such escapist urges are also fueling sales of science fiction and fantasy, said Bob Wietrak, a vice president for merchandising at Barnes & Noble. Mr. Wietrak said sales of novels with vampires, shape shifters, werewolves and other paranormal creatures were “exploding,” whether they were found in the romance, fantasy or young-adult aisles,

(3) The Sunday Times (UK) offered an homage to John Wyndham on April 5:

The mole men of Broughton put the brakes on Google… No wonder they didn’t want the cameras around; indeed, the Google car driver wants to be thankful he wasn’t eaten on the spot, or vaporised with a death ray. They should get the army to seal off the village; that’s what they’d do in a John Wyndham novel. … 

(4) Great White Snark posted “The Top Eight Awesome Things About Starship Troopers.” Who knew there was even one? (Via SF Signal.)

One minute there are alien guts and then the next there’s a group shower scene. This is exactly how my brain worked at the age of fourteen and I’m sad to admit it’s the way it works now.

(5) A New York Times article speculates that advances in communication are depleting the stockpile of familiar literary twists:

Technology is rendering obsolete some classic narrative plot devices: missed connections, miscommunications, the inability to reach someone. Such gimmicks don’t pass the smell test when even the most remote destinations have wireless coverage.

Andrew Porter is sure the headline would read “Gandalf Rescued from Top of Orthanc” …after he calls friends using his cellphone.

And before the final item, a warning:

SPOILER ALERT

(6) In a recent episode of the cable tv series House a supporting character rather suddenly committed suicide. The character, Kutner, was a smart young doctor who had suffered the loss of both parents to violence at an early age, though his suicide came as a complete surprise to the other personalities in the show.  Immediately after, Fox posted “memorial site” for Kutner. Laurie Mann spotted this intriguing line in Kutner’s bio:

“He enjoyed science fiction and was a frequent participant in the Clarion Science Fiction Workshops.” 

Juggling

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The traffic has been backed-up at File 770 headquarters for awhile, but very soon I’ll have time to cover subjects I’ve been wanting to discuss, ranging from the Semiprozine Hugo debate to why ET deserves more love than it’s gotten from unsympathetic commenters here.

A new paper issue of File 770 was finished, copied and mailed the end of last week. The electronic version presumably will be posted to eFanzines.com after Bill Burns returns from his Eastercon trip. I’ll post more details when that link becomes available. 

One more assignment on the front burner needs to be finished pronto for the Anticipation souvenir book.  

But there will continue to be a flow of news here while all that’s happening at home.

DUFF Voting 2.0

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Steve and Sue Francis, the Down Under Fan Fund’s North American administrators, remind everyone that the race is open. Fans have until May 17 to cast their ballots.

Anyone may vote who has been active in fandom on or before January 1, 2008. “Active in fandom” means engaged in fannish pursuits involving fanzines, sf cons, amateur film/video, or club participation.

Ballots must be signed and accompanied by a donation of at least US$5 or AUS$8 or NZ$9 New Zealand.

A downloadable ballot form is available. Thanks to Jean Weber, fans also have the option to contribute (using PayPal) and vote electronically.

Snail mail and snail money still work, too. Checks should be made payable to Sue and Steve Francis (in North America) or Norman Cates (in New Zealand/Australasia) in the administrator’s home currency. Their addresses are:

Australasia: Norman Cates, P.O. Box 13-574, Johnsonville, Wellington, New Zealand

North America: Sue & Steve Francis, P.O. Box 58009, Louisville KY 40268, USA