Good Housekeeping’s May 2010 issue continues the year-long celebration of the magazine’s 125th anniversary with an article featuring “125 Women Who Changed Our World.”
Michele Obama, who also appears on the cover, is joined by women from all fields including astronaut Sally Ride, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and Nobel laureate Rosalyn Yalow.
[Thanks to Diana Glyer for the story.]
Diana Glyer and Michael Ward (Planet Narnia) headlined the 13th annual conference of the C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society last weekend (April 9-11) in Oklahoma City.
Jason Fisher, who will co-chair Mythcon 41 in July, was there. Jason had high praise for Diana’s speech and reading:
Diana Glyer gave a terrific after-banquet keynote speech, in which she discussed the central hypothesis of her own book, The Company They Keep: whether, and to what extent, Lewis and Tolkien (and to a lesser degree, the other Inklings) influenced one another, and moreover, what “influence” itself really means. I say “hypothesis”, but the persuasive power of Diana’s argument is such that it is hardly that any longer. I regard it as established fact…
Finally, a real gem, the very Arkenstone of the entire weekend’s embarrassment of riches: Diana Glyer and Michael Ward performed a reading of selected letters from the unpublished (as yet) correspondence of Major Warren Lewis and Blanche Biggs, a missionary doctor stationed in Papua New Guinea. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, Warren Lewis? But trust me, their correspondence, of which we heard roughly a quarter of the extant material, was funny, affectionate, clever, and in the end, profoundly moving. It brought tears to my eyes.
Diana and I will be reading these letters again at Mythcon 41, but since I can’t promise to acquire a British accent by then Michael Ward’s performance is likely to remain unequalled.
Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon, has increased membership rates. Adult attending memberships are now US$280.
Pre-con registration closes on 31 July 2010. Rates will be higher at the door. Single day rates will also be available at the door.
The full press release follows the jump.
Leading Portland fan John Andrews passed away April 9 at the age of 58. He contended with muscular dystrophy for many years.
Andrews assisted the rebirth of Portland fandom in the 1970s. He was treasurer of the Portland Science Fiction Society and personally fronted the money for the first OryCon in 1979.
I knew John for a long time — his File 770 sub dates back decades — and appreciated his insights into conrunning.
[Via John Lorentz.]
In the April 13 Chicago Tribune On-line Crossword Puzzle the clue for 34 Down is “Sci-Fi Author Frederik.”
Note: The link opens the current day’s puzzle, but there is a button to call up the earlier ones.
[Thanks to Steven H Silver for the story.]
Amazon.ca will establish a fulfillment center in Canada following approval of its application under the Investment Canada Act by the Canadian Heritage and Official Languages ministry.
The application had been vehemently opposed by the Canadian Booksellers Association, which has spent many weeks encouraging writers and people in the publishing industry to contact elected representatives to voice their displeasure.
I have read the opposition’s series of press releases without quite understanding how more damage was going to be done than under the status quo. I wish I did understand, though I haven’t been able to get past the fact that people buy books online in Canada now. What is the issue with doing fulfillment in-country?
The Canadian Heritage ministry’s James Moore stated the decision is based on commitments made by Amazon, which include:
· new jobs for Canadians and improved service for Canadian consumers;
· increased visibility for Canadian books on the Amazon.ca Web page;
· an investment of over $20 million, including $1.5 million in cultural events and awards in Canada and the promotion of Canadian-authored books internationally;
· increased availability of French-language Canadian cultural products;
· the establishment of dedicated staff to assist Canadian publishers and other suppliers of cultural products;
· making more Canadian content available on the Kindle e-reader; and
· creating a summer internship program for Canadian post-secondary students.
The CBA’s complete press release follows the jump.
[Thanks to John Mansfield for the story.]
Publishers Weekly features SF and fantasy in its April 12 issue.
JoSelle Vanderhooft’s cover story begins with the familiar black crepe overhanging the publishing business — “Last year was sluggish for book sales and gloomy for publishing personnel, with layoffs, hiring freezes, and cutbacks at an all-time high” — then surprises with examples of sf/fantasy publishers that seem to be immune. Of course, their books are tie-ins to the Star Trek and World of Warcraft franchises, so the cheering may be a little subdued.
All reports on the state of book publishing need comic relief, supplied here by Naomi Novik in her contribution “Why I Write…”
My grandmother, among other varied professions undertaken during an eventful life, once sold vowels in the market on Tuesdays in Warsaw. Under the difficult climate of the region, situated as it was between Latin and Cyrillic, they were more difficult to raise than consonants and consequently more rare.
There’s also a sidebar on Tor’s 30th anniversary with insights from publisher Tom Doherty and several of the editors:
“We try not to get too far afield of stuff somebody around here sincerely likes and understands,” adds Patrick Nielsen Hayden, senior editor and manager of science fiction. “But we’re a broad church. One of Tom’s strengths has been his willingness to work with an array of editors who represent very diverse tastes, even within particular genres.”
[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link]
“I’m assuming, since Gaylaxicon is cancelled, that my guest of honor appearance is also cancelled,” writes Elizabeth Bear on her LiveJournal.
Con-News reported Gaylaxicon 2010’s cancellation on April 9. The committee explained on their website:
After months of negotiating in good faith with our chosen hotel, we came to the conclusion that they were not acting in kind and an agreement with them was not possible. At this point, we cannot find suitable space for the same weekend, without risking the financial well being of convention. As Gaylaxicon 2011 is already scheduled for April 29 – May 1 2011 in Atlanta, GA, delaying the convention was also not a good option. As a result, we are regretfully canceling Gaylaxicon 2010.
They had intended to hold the 2010 Gaylaxicon at the Marriott Chateau Champlain in Montreal.
Bear’s lighthearted reaction could make a literal-minded reader imagine the GoH showing up regardless of the con being cancelled. The one time that happened it certainly wasn’t voluntary — when Larry Niven arrived at Ozarkon to find it had been called off while he was en route.
[Thanks to Dan Goodman for the link.]
Matt Bowles has posted the London Calling 2014 Worldcon bid launch video. Steve Cooper, a bid co-chair, said he expects it will get taken down before long so enjoy it while you can. It was still available when I posted.
The video is a montage of London being destroyed in sf movies and tv shows. The choice of visual references and the manner in which they have been edited is touched with genius. I especially liked how The Prisoner’s Patrick McGoohan and Angelo Muscat appeared to be fleeing across a London boulevard to escape the alien army shown in the preceding clip.
When I became an avid sf reader in the late 1960s every prozine on the local library shelves was digest-sized and there wasn’t a hint that the case had ever been any different.
Then I met LASFSian Ed Cox and saw his pulp magazine collection, filled with perfectly preserved copies of Thrilling Wonder, the pages inside still looking as white as the day the magazine appeared on the newsstand.
Another friend impressed me even more with the news that my favorite prozine had experimented with a large format during WWII — collectors called them “bedsheet Astoundings” — and had briefly revived the format (as Analog) just a few years before. I found them for sale in used bookstores and soon owned a copy of the most dramatic prozine cover ever, John Schoenherr’s depiction of a sandworm for the March 1965 Analog.
Now the artist has passed away at the age of 74. He died April 8. His son Ian mourned him, saying:
He was a man of many talents and I can’t say what he was best at, but he was, among countless other things, a great artist, a great husband to my mother for almost 50 years, and a great dad to my sister and me.
For science fiction fans the physical passing of John Schoenherr will represent perhaps the third time we’ve mourned his loss, because of the times he’s left the sf magazine field. The first came in the late 1960s when he stopped doing covers for Analog. John W. Campbell said in a 1967 letter: “We’re losing him now; we can’t match Reader’s Digest’s $3000 offers — nor the book illustration rates the big publishing houses give him. The man is good.”
However, following Campbell’s death in 1971, Ben Bova became editor of Analog and Schoenherr resumed working for the magazine. He produced 22 more covers in the next six years. That association ended again when Bova moved to Omni. Also, around that time Schoenherr began to focus on wildlife painting.
He would win a Caldecott Medal in 1988 for his work in Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon.
Schoenherr’s death has prompted some fans to wonder why an artist whose sf work was so esteemed practically never won awards and was never Worldcon guest of honor. John W. Campbell, in that same 1967 letter, bluntly answered: “Jack Schoenherr, probably the best artist science fiction ever had, got one Hugo once. He never attended a convention, never did any artwork for the fan magazines, never made personal friends.”
He did not court fandom, which may be all the answer needed. But he did make personal friends elsewhere as Carl Zimmer testifies in his reminiscence for Discover: “Everyone always joked that Jack was a great bear. It wasn’t just his ursine cast that earned him that name; it was also his combination of grouchiness and loyalty.”