Monthly Archives: January 2015

Lloyd Penney and the Regents

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By John Hertz: Letters of Comment, it’s been said, are the lifeblood of fanzines; not only for any boost they give to the recipient’s self-esteem, but even more because fanzines are communication and at best communication goes both ways: fandom is participatory. We write “LoC” and “loc” which we pronounce without preference ell-oh-see or to rhyme with flock. Comedy, when successful, may cause LOL (short for LOLFFSC i.e. Laughing Out Loud, Falling on the Floor and Startling the Cat).

The other day while being shown the Great and Terrible Internet (“who are you, and why do you seek me?”) I came across a remark by Lloyd Penney, who said – quite rightly – we must loc, loc, loc the zines. Even Claire Brialey has urged this. Maybe it should be sung.

Bass
Loc loc loc, loc loc the zines.

Baritone joins
Loc loc loc, loc loc the zines.

Tenor over them
Oh, loc the zines.
Go make their scenes.
Oh, loc the zines.

All
Get out there loc’ing and a-lol’ing,
Flocking and a-feeling,
Loc the zines.

Try Doctor Who,
Try manga too,
Try Mary Sue,
But you know they’ll never do.
So loc the zines.

The title seemed better – the word appealed to me somehow – than troubling Hawthorne, California, by suggesting Penney, who practices what he preaches, was a son of the beach.

2015 Pulp Convention Schedule

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Pulps SMALLA rundown of 2015 pulp collector conventions is available at Yellowed Perils. The article lists a baker’s dozen which have confirmed dates.

The first of the season is Pulp AdventureCon on February 21 in Ft. Lauderdale.

The other highlights include the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show on March 22, the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention near Chicago on April 17-19, and PulpFest 2015 from August 13-16 in Columbus, OH.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.].

Eric P. Scott Passes Away

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Bay Area fan Eric P. Scott was found dead in his apartment on January 16 by friends who had grown concerned they had not heard from him for awhile.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office said he died peacefully in his sleep (he was in bed) reports Lynn Gold. However, he had been battling a heart condition for some time.

Scott was a highly-regarded convention party-thrower, as Chaz Boston Baden emphasized in a moving tribute to Eric posted here.

Eric P. Scott (“EPS”) was my friend for twenty years. He (along with Lynn Gold) taught me everything he knew about hosting room parties at science fiction conventions. One of the things he was passionate about was raising the bar for room parties, for example at Loscon (the Thanksgiving weekend convention in L.A.)….

Scott also was active in the Bay Area Science Fiction Association.

Cardiff Eastercon Bid Withdraws For 2016

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The only announced bid for the 2016 British Eastercon has withdrawn because another major event in Cardiff will create too much demand for rooms in its overflow hotel. The committee issued this statement:

Shortly before Christmas, the Bid Committee were made aware that Cardiff will be hosting the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon on Easter Saturday that year. While our intended venue was still comfortable with hosting the event, the knock-on effect on the availability and prices of overflow hotel capacity has left our original bid untenable. Thus we are, with regret, officially withdrawing as a 2016 Eastercon bid.

The Cardiff team hopes to reformulate as a bid for 2017.

The 2016 site will be selected at this year’s Eastercon, Dysprosium, in April if a bid is submitted. The Dysprosium committee posted the news to encourage formation of a rescue bid.

Djinn Faine Recalled

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Djinn Faine, an editor of LASFS’ fanzine Shangri L’Affairs in the 1950s, passed away in 2007, however, this was only recently brought to the club’s notice.

Faine, who was briefly married to sf writer Gordon R. Dickson, remarried and became Virginia Faine Russell.

She was the author of one published sf story, ”Daughter of Eve” which appeared in a 1962 issue of F&SF.

Faine appears on this page from the LASFS Album published in 1966 by Al Lewis for the 1500th meeting of the Los Angles Science Fiction Society. Photo via Fanac.org.

Faine appears on this page from the LASFS Album published in 1966 by Al Lewis for the 1500th meeting of the Los Angles Science Fiction Society. Photo via Fanac.org.

Marvel Comics to Implode — End of a Fifty-Plus Year Era

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Art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnot.

Art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnot.

By James H. Burns: One of the greatest fantasy universes ever created, the complex and enchanting worlds found within Marvel Comics, are coming to an end. The vast storylines initiated by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Simon, Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Don Heck, John Romita and Roy Thomas, and myriad other talented writers and artists, is to be imploded —

During a live “Secret Wars Kick-Off” press event at New York City’s Midtown Comics, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Senior Vice President of Publishing and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort confirmed that the upcoming eight-issue limited series Secret Wars will represent the end of both the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe.

Saying that the mainstream Marvel Universe and Ultimate Universe would “smash together” during the upcoming Secret Wars crossover event, Alonso and Brevoort went on to elaborate that, by the time Secret Wars #1 hits the stands in May, every world in Marvel’s multiverse will be destroyed, with pieces of each forming Battleworld, the staging ground for the Secret Wars storyline

“Once we hit Secret Wars #1, there is no Marvel Universe, Ultimate Universe, or any other. It’s all Battleworld,” Brevoort said.

Today’s Birthday Boy 1/20

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Ray Bradbury and Buzz Aldrin in 2010.

Ray Bradbury and Buzz Aldrin in 2010.

Born 1930: Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin

John King Tarpinian reminisiced a few years ago  —

Thanks to Ray, at one of his 90th birthday celebrations I got to be in the same room with THREE of my childhood idols: Ray, Buzz Aldrin and Hugh Hefner. That gave me the opportunity to tell Buzz that he knew another in-law of mine, Pancho Barnes. (Look up The Happy Bottom Riding Club).

In the photo is Buzz talking with Ray. Also visible is Hugh Hefner (just below Aldrin’s chin). The brunette is Hugh’s granddaughter.

2014 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot Announced

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The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has released the Preliminary Ballot for the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards®.  This is not the list of finalists, but the list which HWA’s members will vote on to determine the finalists — who will be revealed on February 23.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

  • Tim Burke – The Flesh Sutra (NobleFusion Press)
  • Adam Christopher – The Burning Dark (Tor Books)
  • Michaelbrent Collings – This Darkness Light (self-published)
  • Lawrence C. Connolly – Vortex (Fantasist Enterprises)
  • Craig DiLouie – Suffer the Children (Gallery Books of Simon & Schuster)
  • Patrick Freivald – Jade Sky (JournalStone)
  • Chuck Palahniuk – Beautiful You (Jonathan Cape, Vintage/Penguin Random House UK)
  • Christopher Rice – The Vines (47North)
  • Brett J. Talley – The Reborn (JournalStone)
  • Steve Rasnic Tem – Blood Kin (Solaris Books)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

  • Maria Alexander – Mr. Wicker (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • J.D. Barker – Forsaken (Hampton Creek Press)
  • Janice Gable Bashman – Predator (Month9Books)
  • David Cronenberg – Consumed (Scribner)
  • Michael Knost – Return of the Mothman (Woodland Press)
  • Daniel Levine – Hyde (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Josh Malerman – Bird Box (Harper Collins)
  • Whitney Miller – The Violet Hour (Flux)
  • Chantal Noordeloos – Angel Manor (Horrific Tales Publishing)
  • C.J. Waller – Predator X (Severed Press)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

  • Ari Berk – Lych Way (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • Jake Bible – Intentional Haunting (Permuted Press)
  • Ilsa J. Bick – White Space (Egmont)
  • John Dixon – Phoenix Island (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books)
  • Kami Garcia – Unmarked (The Legion Series Book 2) (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
  • S.E. Green – Killer Instinct (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse)
  • Tonya Hurley – Passionaries (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
  • Micol Ostow – Amity (Egmont)
  • Peter Adam Salomon – All Those Broken Angels (Flux)
  • Sam Swanson and Araminta Star Matthews – Horror High School: Return of the Loving Dead (Curiosity Quills Press)
  • Johnny Worthen – Eleanor: Book 1 (The Unseen) (Jolly Fish Press)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

  • Charles Burns – Sugar Skull
  • Emily Carroll – Through the Woods
  • Victor Gischler – Kiss Me Satan
  • Joe Hill – Locke and Key, Vol. 6
  • Joe R. Lansdale and Daniele Serra – I Tell You It’s Love (Short, Scary Tales Publications)
  • Jonathan Maberry – Bad Blood (Dark Horse Books)
  • Paul Tobin – The Witcher

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

  • Michael Bailey – Dandelion Clocks (Inkblots and Blood Spots) (Villipede Publications)
  • Taylor Grant – The Infected (Cemetery Dance #71) (Cemetery Dance)
  • Eric J. Guignard – Dreams of a Little Suicide (Hell Comes To Hollywood II: Twenty-Two More Tales Of Tinseltown Terror (Volume 2)) (Big Time Books)
  • Kate Jonez – Ceremony of Flies (DarkFuse)
  • Joe R. Lansdale – Fishing for Dinosaurs (Limbus, Inc., Book II) (JournalStone)
  • Jonathan Maberry – Three Guys Walk Into a Bar (Limbus, Inc., Book II) (JournalStone)
  • Joe McKinney – Lost and Found (Limbus, Inc., Book II) (JournalStone)
  • Gene O’Neill – Ridin the Dawg (Mia Moja) (Thunderstorm Books)
  • John F.D. Taff – The Long Long Breakdown (The End in all Beginnings) (Grey Matter Press)
  • Gregor Xane – The Riggle Twins (Bad Apples) (Corpus Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

  • Dale Bailey – Sleep Paralysis (Nightmare Magazine, April 2014) (Nightmare)
  • Hal Bodner – Hot Tub (Hell Comes to Hollywood II) (Big Time Books)
  • Patrick Freivald – Trigger Warning (Demonic Visions Book 4) (Chris Robertson)
  • Sydney Leigh – Baby’s Breath (Bugs: Tales That Slither, Creep, and Crawl) (Great Old Ones Publishing)
  • Usman T. Malik – The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family (Qualia Nous) (Written Backwards)
  • Alessandro Manzetti – Nature’s Oddities (The Shaman: And Other Shadows) (self-published)
  • Rena Mason – Ruminations (Qualia Nous) (Written Backwards)
  • John Palisano – Splinterette (Widowmakers: A Benefit Anthology of Dark Fiction)
  • Sayuri Ueda – The Street of Fruiting Bodies (Phantasm Japan) (Haikasoru, an imprint of VIZ Media, LLC)
  • Genevieve Valentine – A Dweller in Amenty (Nightmare Magazine, March 2014) (Nightmare)
  • Damien Angelica Walters – The Floating Girls: A Documentary (Jamais Vu, Issue Three) (Post Mortem Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

  • Michael Bailey – Inkblots and Blood Spots (Villipede Publications)
  • Stephen Graham Jones – After the People Lights Have Gone Off (Dark House Press)
  • John R. Little – Little by Little (Bad Moon Books)
  • Helen Marshall – Gifts for the One Who Comes After (ChiZine Publications)
  • David Sakmyster – Escape Plans (Wordfire Press)
  • Terrence Scott – The Madeleine Wheel: Playing with Spiders (Amazon)
  • Lucy Snyder – Soft Apocalypses (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • Robin Spriggs – The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom (Anomalous Books)
  • John F.D. Taff – The End In All Beginnings (Grey Matter Press)
  • Alexander Zelenyj – Songs for the Lost (Eibonvale Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

  • John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey – The End Is Nigh (Broad Reach Publishing)
  • Michael Bailey – Qualia Nous (Written Backwards)
  • Jason Brock – A Darke Phantastique (Cycatrix Press)
  • Ellen Datlow – Fearful Symmetries (ChiZine Publications)
  • Kate Jonez – Halloween Tales (Omnium Gatherum)
  • Eric Miller – Hell Comes to Hollywood II (Big Time Books)
  • Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas, and Dennis Widmyer – Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press)
  • Brian M. Sammons – The Dark Rites of Cthulhu (April Moon Books)
  • Brett J. Talley – Limbus, Inc., Book II (JournalStone)
  • Terry M. West – Journals of Horror: Found Fiction (Pleasant Storm Entertainment)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

  • Scott M. Gimple – The Walking Dead: The Grove, episode 4:14 (AMC)
  • James Hawes – Penny Dreadful: Possession (Desert Wolf Productions/Neal Street Productions)
  • Jennifer Kent – The Babadook (Causeway Films)
  • Alex Kurtzman and Mark Goffman – Sleepy Hollow: “Bad Blood” (Sketch Films/K/O Paper Products/20th Century Fox Television)
  • John Logan – Penny Dreadful: Séance (Desert Wolf Productions/Neal Street Productions)
  • Greg Mclean and Aaron Sterns – Wolf Creek 2 (Emu Creek Pictures)
  • Stephen Moffat – Doctor Who: Listen (British Broadcasting Corporation)
  • Cameron Porsendah – Helix: Pilot (Tall Ship Productions/Kaji Productions/Muse Entertainment/Lynda Obst Productions/in association with Sony Pictures Television)
  • Jack Thomas Smith –Infliction (Fox Trail Productions)
  • James Wong – American Horror Story: Coven: “The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks” (FX Network)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

  • Massimo Berruti, S.T. Joshi, and Sam Gafford – William Hope Hodgson: Voices from the Borderland (Hippocampus Press)
  • Jason V. Brock – Disorders of Magnitude (Rowman & Littlefield)
  • Hayley Campbell – The Art of Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins Publishers)
  • S.T. Joshi – Lovecraft and A World in Transition (Hippocampus Press)
  • Leslie S. Klinger – The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (Liveright Publishing Corp., a division of W.W. Norton & Co.)
  • Joe Mynhardt and Emma Audsley – Horror 101: The Way Forward (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Robert Damon Schneck – Mrs. Wakeman vs. the Antichrist (Tarcher/Penguin)
  • Lucy Snyder – Shooting Yourself in the Head For Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide (Post Mortem Press)
  • Tom Weaver, David Schecter, and Steve Kronenberg – The Creature Chronicles: Exploring the Black Lagoon Trilogy (McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

  • Robert Payne Cabeen – Fearworms: Selected Poems (Fanboy Comics)
  • G.O. Clark – Gravedigger’s Dance (Dark Renaissance Books)
  • David E. Cowen – The Madness of Empty Spaces (Weasel Press)
  • Corrinne De Winter and Alessandro Manzetti – Venus Intervention (Kipple Officina Libraria)
  • Wade German – Dreams from the Black Nebula (Hippocampus Press)
  • Tom Piccirilli – Forgiving Judas (Crossroad Press)
  • Michelle Scalise – The Manufacturer of Sorrow (Eldritch Press)
  • Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo – Sweet Poison (Dark Renaissance Books)
  • Tiffany Tang – Creepy Little Death Poems (Dreality Press)
  • Stephanie Wytovich – Mourning Jewelry (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Voting for HWA eligible members closes February 15.

Explain THAT To TSA

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Frequent File 770 contributor James H. Burns is included in a new feature at Scientific American about “The Ten Weirdest Things You’ve Taken Through Airport Security”. He told them —

In the late 1980s, I was involved with some of the STAR TREK and other pop culture conventions around the country. One Friday morning at LaGuardia airport, the security guard at check-in was going through my carry-on bag when, with some degree of alarm, he suddenly asked, “What’s this?” His cause for concern was a replica of a hand phaser from the original series. After an explanation, I was allowed to pass, either because I had an honest face, or because the phaser was, of course, non-operational!

Jim’s entry was ranked #5 behind such items as poison arrows (#3) and Mayan Burial Site Remains (#1).