Monthly Archives: November 2010

Realms of Fantasy — It’s Alive!

Posted on by

Here’s why fantasy is more fun than reality. Realists would have believed we’d seen the last of Realms of Fantasy once Warren Lapine announced he was closing it because of the prohibitive investment required to continue. Throughout history print magazines have fallen faster than autumn leaves, and in real life autumn leaves do not climb back on the tree.

It was easy to overlook that Lapine’s announcement included a wishful offer to “sell Realms to a responsible party for $1.00 and give them the finished files for the December issue.” But guess what? Wishes can come true: SF Scope reports Realms has been bought by Damnation Books:

Warren Lapine, publisher of Realms of Fantasy, and Kim Richards Gilchrist, CEO and co-owner of Damnation Books LLC announce the sale of Realms to Damnation Books LLC Damnation Books.

The just-concluded deal will see the December 2010 issue produced in print (as opposed to the previous announcement, which expected it to be an electronic-only final issue). The new owners will begin their tenure with the February 2011 issue, meaning there will be no gap in the bi-monthly magazine’s publication schedule. All subscriptions already paid for will be honored.

The new proprietors say:

Future plans include continuing to produce the same quality fiction magazine in print and to expand digital editions for ebook and desktop readers. The April 2011 issue will be themed ‘dark fantasy’ to coincide with World Horror Convention 2011 where Damnation Books will be hosting a party, and a booth in the dealer’s area.

[Via Don Glover.]

George Brickner (1952-2010)

Posted on by

George Brickner

Chicago area fan George Brickner reportedly died over the weekend. While the cause of death has yet to be reported, he publicly shared on his blog in April 2009 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and wrote often about his treatment and health.

George, also known as Dupa T. Parrot, was one of the most amusing and popular members of Compuserve’s Science Fiction forums, where I got to know him in the mid-1990s.   

A devoted cat owner, George was active online in The Pets Forums and through that message board friends learned of his passing after police called a member listed in George’s cell phone as they attempted to notify relatives.

[Via Wilma Fisher.]

Glen GoodKnight (1941-2010)

Posted on by

Glen GoodKnight, founder of the Mythopoeic Society, died November 3. As Bonnie Callahan told readers of a Yahoo group:

“….Glen GoodKnight passed away on Wednesday night. He had been in poor health for a number of years, but was actively participating in many online activities, cataloging his collection for eventual sale/donation, and appeared to be in stable condition.”

I was often in the home of Glen Goodknight and his partner Ken Lauw when I was on Glen’s 1997 Mythcon committee. It was the ideal fan’s home, walls covered with bookcases, though unlike other fans Glen’s shelves were filled with editions of Lord of the Rings in every language it had appeared: collecting them was his passion. He was a highly interesting and very knowledgeable fan.

Glen founded the Mythopoeic Society in 1967 in the aftermath of the legendary “Bilbo-Frodo Birthday Picnic” held in September of that year. He invited fans to his house on October 12 to form a continuing group. The 17 attendees became the Society’s first members. Within a few years they had planted 14 discussion groups around the country. In 1972 at the suggestion of Ed Meskys of the Tolkien Society of America the two organizations merged and overnight the Society grew to more than a thousand members.

Mythcon I in 1970 was organized to help knit the Society’s different groups together. Glen married Bonnie GoodKnight (later Callahan) at Mythcon II in 1971.

Glen edited 78 issues of the Society journal Mythlore between 1970 and 1998.

After staying away from Mythcons for several years, Glen returned to celebrate the Society’s 40th anniversary at Berkeley in 2007. Greeted with a standing ovation, he delivered an emotion-filled reminiscence of the Society’s early days. Glen came back to Mythcon the following year, too. I was glad to see him renewing his links with the Society. Now I’m sad to know I won’t be in his company again.

Ken Lauw and Glen GoodKnight at 2007 Mythcon.

Lance Christie Dies

Posted on by

R. Lance Christie died November 4, reports David Klaus: “I don’t know the circumstances but I presume it was the pancreatic cancer which he had been living with which finally overwhelmed him.”

Lance and Oberon Zell-Ravenheart founded the Church of All Worlds on April 7, 1962 while both were students at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, after the Church of All Worlds in Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

Lance received undergraduate and postgraduate training in behavioral psychology at UCLA, where he did psychoacoustical research for the U.S. Air Force, and psychopharmacological research at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.

He served nine years on the Grand County Planning and Zoning Commission, on both the Grand County and Moab City Board of Adjustment, directed several environmental and land use task forces for local and regional government in Southeast Utah, and was Grand County Regional Water Planning Administrator.

In 1998, Lance co-founded the Association for the Tree of Life and served as its President, pursuing ecological preservation and restoration projects including the Colorado Plateau Ecosystem Heritage Plan Project.

NASA’s Cometary Enterprise

Posted on by

Hartley 2

Once upon a time a spacecraft really did have a five-year mission.

It is NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft, which paid its second visit to a comet since 2005 when it flew past and photographed the Hartley 2 comet on November 4.

The EPOXI mission is recycling the Deep Impact spacecraft, whose probe intentionally collided with comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, revealing, for the first time, the inner material of a comet. In fact, I have been able to find a whole riff I did about comets, with a preview of Deep Impact’s first mission for the late, lamented Trufen.net (scroll down).

CNN’s coverage of today mission used the word “survived” in its lead, dramatically implying the spacecraft had gone in harm’s way:

A spacecraft survived the closest encounter ever with a comet on Thursday, tracking it just 435 miles (700 kilometers) from the comet’s nucleus.

Since 435 miles is farther than Los Angeles is from San Francisco my initial reaction wasn’t to gasp in amazement. Yet people in San Francisco give the impression they’d like to be even farther away, so who can say? NASA also says comet Hartley 2 is “much more active” than Tempel 1, the previous comet visited by Deep Impact, despite being smaller. Smaller and much more active – there’s San Francisco all over again.

Amateur skywatchers may be able to see Hartley 2 in a dark sky with binoculars or a small telescope.

Tolkien Still Printing Money

Posted on by

J.R.R. Tolkien placed third in Forbes Magazine’s 10th annual ranking of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, trailing only Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

Financially it’s been a good decade for Dead Inklings. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide while the first two films in The Chronicles of Narnia series grossed $1 billion, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is still on the way.

Are those old friends Tolkien and C.S. Lewis sitting on a cloud somewhere watching Box Office Mojo in a spirit of friendly competition, all the while scoffing “Oh no, couldn’t care less, the director murdered the book you know”?   

The Forbes list also included other figures beloved by genre fans, Charles Schulz at #4 and Dr. Suess at #7.

[Thanks to John Mansfield for the link.]

Top 10 Posts For October 2010

Posted on by

We interrupted our regular coverage of Hugo Awards and Australian camels for a news flash about WisCon’s cancellation of Elizabeth Moon as GoH. A many-sided discussion proceeded at a furious pace, then strangely dissipated into a cozy chat roasting George Bush. (I wonder if this is a corollary to Godwin’s Law for the 21st century.)

The surprising thing is that there were any readers still hanging around after I declared a strong preference for Doomsday Book over A Fire Upon the Deep, the two novels that tied for the 1993 Hugo (see #4 below).

Here are the Top 10 most frequently viewed posts from October 2010, according to Google Analytics.

1. SF3 Cancels Elizabeth Moon as WisCon GoH
2. Moon, WisCon Covered in Mundane Press
3. Hole New Issue
4. Ties for the Best Novel Hugo
5. Overserved at The Drink Tank?
6. David Brin: AboutSF Wants Help
7. Australia’s Camel Problem and Alternate History
8. New Ansible E-List
9. Grumbles From the Graveur
10. Amazon Invents the Novella

Terry Pratchett’s Coat-of-Arms

Posted on by

Pratchett ArmsThe College of Arms, official repository of the coats of arms and pedigrees of English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Commonwealth families and their descendants, granted a coat-of-arms to Sir Terence David John Pratchett of Broad Chalke, Wiltshire on April 28:  

Illustrated left are the Armorial Bearings granted to Sir Terence David John PRATCHETT of Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, Knight, OBE by Letters Patent of Garter and Clarenceux Kings of Arms dated 28 April 2010.

The Arms are blazoned: Sable an ankh between four Roundels in saltire each issuing Argent.

The Crest is Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Sable On Water Barry wavy Sable Argent and Sable an Owl affronty wings displayed and inverted Or supporting thereby two closed Books erect Gules.

The motto means “Do Not Fear the Reaper.”

[Lightly thieved from Ansible Links via Graham England.]

2010 Delta Film Award Given

Posted on by

The winner of this year’s  Delta Film Award was the animated short Pigeon: Impossible, directed by U.S. film-maker Lucas Martell.

The award was presented at the 21st Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, England.

The festival also Highly Commended Back In the Woods, directed by Liam Engle (France), and Commended Short Lease, directed by Jennifer Eiss and Prano Bailey-Bond (U.K.)

Next year the 22nd Festival of Fantastic Films will be held October 21-23 at the Manchester Conference Centre. Further details will be posted at the Festival website.

[Thanks to Steve Green for the story.]