Monthly Archives: August 2009

Bradbury Turning 89

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 Ray Bradbury’s 89th birthday party

Mystery and Imagination Bookstore will throw a party to celebrate Ray Bradbury’s 89th birthday on August 22. The store is located in Glendale, CA. The event will double as a signing event for two newly-released Bradbury editions.

Marionettes, Inc. is newly released by Subterranean Press. Limited to 2,000 copies, the hardcover is printed in two colors, with a full-color-illustrated dust jacket, as well as pen and ink illustrations by Mark A. Nelson at the head of each story by Mark A. Nelson. The endpapers are illustrated by Ray Bradbury himself. The collection includes one original story plus a rare, previously unpublished screen treatment. Five of the stories are about robots and their impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation translates Bradbury’s masterpiece ito a hardcover graphic novel. Artist Tim Hamilton’s color illustrations appear on every page of the project, which was done with Bradbury’s full cooperation –and he has penned an original foreword.

[Thanks to Willard Stone and John King Tarpinian for the story.]

Taral, Tourist Guide

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Taral helped LA fanartist Marc Schirmeister see the sights after Anticipation. His good deed, making the rounds with Marc, was rewarded by the discovery of a prime collectible:

Another memorable moment occurred when I browsed the table of a dealer in bubble-gum cards. As a kid I owned a complete set of the centennial year Civil War set, but had long ago (and stupidly) outgrown them. I recovered a few over the years, but despaired of ever owning a complete set. To my surprise he had one for sale, and it was in perfect shape. I won’t mention what he wanted for it — the price was outrageous of course, bur reasonable for what the market would bear. Nor will I go into how I raised the money. I did, and took home with me all 88 glorious pasteboard paintings of men being bayoneted, shot, blown up, impaled, burned to a crisp, and occasionally playing the harmonica.

I collected these, too! The set was published during the Civil War centennial. Most unforgettable of all the cards was the one showing the “wall of corpses” at the Battle of Fredricksburg. I never accumulated anything close to a complete set and the ones I had vanished in the Sixties.

Charting Fantasy Book Covers

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Thanks to Tim Holman’s neat bar graph we can tell at a glance which fantasy art clichés appeared most often on book covers in 2008:

[The] most commonly seen element appearing on fantasy books published last year was, it seems, the sword. Closely followed by glowy magic, castles, and dragons. I suspect a few covers contained all these elements. Meanwhile, fans of unicorns, maps, and stilettos had a disappointing year, and perhaps were lost to other genres.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]

John Hertz: An Anticipation Appetizer

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By John Hertz: Some Worldcon notes while I work on my fuller report.

The Fanzine Lounge by Day, hosted by Yvonne & Lloyd Penney in the Palais des congrès, was a success. Given adequate if not ample room just outside the Art Show, they laid out fanzines for sale and free, and conversation space, peopled by fanziners and askers. Issue 31 of WOOF (Worldcon Order Of Faneditors), the annually collated apa (amateur publishing ass’n) invented by Bruce Pelz, was duly assembled and distributed, with a superb Brad Foster cover; Alan Stewart will serve as Official Editor pro tempore next year at Aussiecon IV.

The Fanzine Lounge at Night, hosted by Catherine Crockett and Colin Hinz in a suite at the Delta Centre-Ville (our party hotel), was a great success, and the last party in business (not counting the Hospitality Suite, blessedly open 24 hours), although I confess a regrettable habit of leaving early, about 4 a.m. Just as I left one morning Geri Sullivan came with Basque food.

Hinz brought a mimeograph and accoutrement, abetted by Marty Cantor and Ned Brooks who showed what one can do if one can’t attend. Sharee Carton instigated a one-shot fanzine, or anyway Randy Byers said she did. Marc Schirmeister, Sue Mason, Steve Stiles (I think; unsigned), Alexis Gilliland, and Brianna Spacekat & Frank Wu drew with styli and shading plates. I wrote a poem.

People seem to be realizing there may be Art Show tours. Talking about art is itself an art. This year I arranged tours led by Phyllis & Alex Eisenstein (team tour), Gilliland, Mason, Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Ctein (team tour), Jean-Pierre Normand, and me; the con committee added Jon Singer, scheduling him at the same hour as the Eisensteins. Morris Keesan played walking-stick flute as background for Singer. All Singer’s pots went to auction.

The PLOKTA Cabal did the newsletter, brilliantly. I said to Flick “It’s writing!” She said “No, editing.”

A good Masquerade, some entries comical, some beautiful, some both. Perhaps as I was announcing awards I should have explained we gave no Best in Show because we found none outstanding above the rest. Back home I tried explaining this art form the s-f community invented, once a fancy-dress ball, now an on-stage competition, to my barber. He was Milton Berle’s barber. I told him how in “Twilight of the Gods” (Best Presentation, Master class) Anubis gestured with his ankh and the gods collapsed. “That’s deep,” he said; “I like deep.”

On the back of Taral Wayne’s apartment (life-size color photos) Murray Moore arranged two panels I could use for a Rotsler Award exhibit. He & Mary Ellen, also Dave Howell, Mark Richards, and a host of others, helped me with it and “Current Fanzine Art” for the Art Show. Dave Hartwell exhibited the first three or four hundred ties he could lay hands on. When at Élisabeth Vonarburg’s birthday party after some remark of mine she said “I’ll drink to that” I saw her hand empty, I fetched a glass of Merlot, which seemed to surprise her, but this was Montréal.

Neither File 770 nor I won our Hugos, alas for us but hurrah for the winners. Mary Robinette Kowal, quite possibly best-dressed, gave the Campbell Tiara to David Anthony Durham. Howell, the contest-winning designer of this year’s trophy base, explained making asteroids from scrap granite. Running into Kevin Standlee, who had administered, and Irene Gallo, who had judged (neither alone) the contest for a Hugo logograph, I congratulated them on the result, simple, elegant. That was Monday, in the Intercontinental, which had the best hotel food.

Japan announced a bid for 2017. Denvention III, last year’s Worldcon, brought to its thank-you party a copy of the July 21, 1969, New York Times headlining men on the Moon. It was the 70th anniversary year of the first Worldcon. Not bad.

Time.com Spotlights Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore

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Time.com included Don Blyly’s historic Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore on a list of “50 Authentic American Experiences”, one for each state. Uncle Hugo’s of Minneapolis was named Minnesota’s authentic experience:

In this age of the world-devouring chains, an independent bookstore is as rare a sight as a first edition of Harry Potter. An independent bookstore devoted to science fiction is even rarer still. But since 1974, Uncle Hugo‘s in Minneapolis has been stocking its shelves with a huge variety of new and used sci-fi books and earning a national rep among fans of the genre. Don Blyly opened the store 34 years ago when he was in law school, and he runs it to this day. (Right next-door is Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Bookstore, also owned by Blyly.) Drop by before a Barnes & Noble puts him out of business. 2864 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis.

[Via Evelyn Leeper.]

Discworld Con Is Full

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The First North American Discworld convention still expects GoH Terry Pratchett and chair Lee Whiteside says they’ve sold their limit of 900 memberships.

The con will be held September  4-7, 2009 in Tempe, AZ. Other featured guests are Jennifer Brehl, Diane Duane, Esther Friesner, Anne Hoppe, Peter Morwood, Bernard & Isobel Pearson, Colin Smythe, and Terry’s assistant Rob.

Discworld conventions have been held since 1996, never before in North America.

Anticipation Stuff

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Thanks to all the bloggers and photographers who are helping me get a taste of what I missed at the Worldcon.

A life-size photographic reconstruction of Taral’s apartment was created for Anticipation – one of the most ambitious tributes to a fan guest of honor I’ve ever heard about. See Andrew Porter’s photos – he caught Taral himself on the premises in a couple of them.

Lev Grossman’s Anticipation report for the Time magazine blog, besides being funny as hell, mentions my good friend from LASFS, Milt Stevens:

I was on a Steampunk panel with, among others, a really nice and clever fellow named Milt Stevens. Milt Stevens is a past Worldcon chair. He’s a retired crime analyst for the LAPD. I’m a snot-nosed ex-comp-lit-grad student. Even with all possible good will on both sides, it was harder than I expected to find a common critical dialect for talking about SF that was mutually intelligible. Same subculture, different worlds.

Kyle Cassidy offered to do a professional photo of anyone at Anticipation and his extensive gallery of those who accepted includes Dave Hartwell, Connie Willis, Jon Singer, John Scalzi and Suford Lewis.

Gary Farber is a fan of the story Scalzi posted about demonstrating Twitter at Silverberg’s request:

So I took out my cell phone and banged out a Tweet about being kicked out of the party, under Robert Silverberg’s bemused observation. When I was done, he looked at me and said “This has been a magical moment for the both of us.”

Gary included that item in a post on Amygdala with lots more Anticipation links and stories — click and enjoy.

Update: 08/16/2009: Added link to Amygdala.

Why Gaiman Won the Best Novel Hugo

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Neil Gaiman refused a 2006 Hugo nomination for Anansi Boys, but Charlie Brown’s timely insistence that he accept prevented Gaiman from declining his nomination for The Graveyard Book:

The late Charles N. Brown called me during that week having found out by his own methods, or possibly just guessing, and told me not to decline the nomination. He was astonishingly firm and bossy about it, and while I had been wavering, after that call I emailed the administrator of the awards to let them know that I accepted. I should have thanked Charlie, and I didn’t. So I am, here.

Gaiman nevertheless feels that Neal Stephenson’s Anathem ought to have been the winner.

Charlie Brown also made Gaiman a director of the Locus Foundation, which has assumed long-term responsibility for the magazine. Gaiman is having a little fun with it:

Yesterday began with the Locus Foundation Board Meeting, the Foundation founded by Charles N Brown before his death. These are the people whose responsibility it is to overlook Locus Magazine and make sure it continues into the distant future. I am on this foundation.

There may also be a shadowy Second Locus Foundation, whose job it is to ensure that the future of Science Fiction and Fantasy proceeds as Charles had planned it. Or that might be an Isaac Asimov book, now I come to think of it.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter and Lee Gold for the story.]

Examiner Interviews Hamit

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There’s a new interview with Francis Hamit, author of The Shenandoah Spy, by Frank Mundo of Examiner.com. Hamit makes very interesting observations about writing historical fiction set in the Civil War era:

This kind of historical fiction is actually a search for a deeper truth that surpasses the written record, and, where the American Civil War is concerned, the written record is always suspect. Memoirs seldom do damage to their subjects; everyone is the hero of their own autobiography. Letters are a very good source, but limited in scope and self-edited. Official Records, the reports of actual battles, often turn out to have been written weeks or months after the actual events by third party staff officers who were not present. The reports attributed to Stonewall Jackson were actually written by Charles Faulkner, who was not in the Confederate Army at the time. (Henry Kyd Douglas mentions this in his memoir — which was published decades after the war’s end and has been criticized by regular historians for its own inaccuracies. I heard one at a conference call him “a congenital liar”, which was a bit harsh. He simply remembered differently than others.) And then there are the Southern Historical Society papers, edited by Confederate general Jubal Early, which created the myth of “The Lost Cause”.  This was nothing less than a long-term attempt to rewrite history, a post-war disinformation campaign. That leaves the newspaper accounts of the time, which were always attached to one political cause or another, on both sides, and slanted to that end. These accounts and the Official Records disagree in many places. Finally, professional historians often get it wrong because they rely upon the authority of more senior historians who are quoting other historians and not these primary sources.