Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society officers revealed on Facebook that the club has agreed to sell its clubhouse. The terms allow the club to continue to use it for eight months while they search for a replacement in the southeast/central San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
LASFS moved to its Van Nuys location in 2011, which proved to be a poor choice because of extremely limited street parking, and the large population of homeless who camp literally across the street.
The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society will soon release its first e-book, an anthology, Ad Astra and Beyond the Forry Award Anthology.
The anthology features some of the top names in science fiction: Frank Kelly Freas, Forrest J Ackerman, John DeChancie, David Gerrold, Len Moffatt, C.L. Moore, Larry Niven, Fred Patten, Jerry Pournelle, and A.E. van Vogt, all of whom are among the honourees of the “Forry Award”, presented each year since 1966 to an individual for an outstanding achievement in the field.
Edited by Forry laureate Charles Lee Jackson, II, the volume includes fiction, non-fiction, art, and even a filk song, a cross-section of the talents of those who have been honored with the Forry Award.
The Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) announced the finalists for the 2016 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction on August 9:
The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2015). An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story.
The winner is chosen by the members of the hWashington Science Fiction Associaton and will be presented at their annual convention, Capclave, held this year on October 7-9, 2016 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Keith DeCandido in 2010. Photo by Luigi Novi..
By Mark Blackman: On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 (or Star Date [-27] 04610.00), the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series boldly commemorated the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek on NBC-tv with a stellar crew of writers reading from their or others’ Trek-related works and performing a comedic skit about Trek Fandom. (Fittingly, the day was as hot as Vulcan.) The event, opening the Reading Series’ 26th season, and held at its current venue, the Brooklyn Commons Café, located in the Alpha Quadrant near the Romulan Neutral Zone and the Barclays Center, was guest-curated by Keith R.A. DeCandido, the author of 16 Trek novels (several of them best-sellers), 13 novellas, seven short stories, six comic books, and the coffee-table book The Klingon Art of War, as well as articles, reviews and overviews on Star Trek.
The voyage began with a welcome from producer/executive curator Jim Freund, longtime host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy, and giving a rundown of upcoming readings: On Sept. 27th (the last Tuesday of the month), readers will be N.K. Jemisin (“the award-winning N.K. Jemisin,” he beamed) and Kai Ashanti Wilson. Nov. 1st – all Souls Day, the day after Hallowe’en – will debut the Margot Adler Memorial NYRSF Readings Series, with Terence Taylor its first guest curator. (Margot was the original host of Hour of the Wolf; the Series’ topics might range from vampires – in her later years, she became addicted to the genre, reading 325 vampire novels, and, in fact, once guest-curated a NYRSF Reading spotlighting the creatures of the night – to Faerie to Wicca and psychology.) One of the readers on Tuesday, Nov. 15th will be Kij Johnson. Also reading in November will be Matthew Kressel, Alyssa Wong and Madeline Ashby. December will, as traditional, feature a Family Night, with readings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman.
Continuing, Freund plugged a variety of CDs from Skyboat Media for sale, including a 13-volume set of his interviews over the years, and, marking Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, Harlan Ellison’s full-cast original teleplay of “The City on the Edge of Forever” (which is not what aired on tv). He also noted that, as it happens, Gordon Van Gelder, the first curator of the NYRSF Readings Series, was born on the very date that Star Trek broadcast its premiere episode, “The Man Trap” (aka “The Salt Monster”).
(Curiously, there was, I observed, what might be called a generation gap, with some in the audience – and even of the readers – having never seen the show in its original run and had watched it only in its syndication on local stations, demonstrating Trek’s enduring appeal. The other generation gap – between the classic and the subsequent series – never really arose.)
In due course, Freund turned the podium over to guest host Keith DeCandido, who described himself as “a Star Trek fan since birth, having grown up watching the show in reruns on Channel 11.” (Coincidentally, he remarked, it was also the 47th anniversary of the premiere of the underrated animated series.) Star Trek, he extolled, gave us “a wonderful future,” where Earth – where humanity – had come together and was working together in space. It was the era of the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War, and here were an African-American, an Asian and a Russian (not to mention an alien) as part of the crew.
Steven Barnes
That diversity was an apt introduction to his pre-recorded interview with Steven Barnes. Barnes is a New York Times bestselling author who has written comic books, animation, newspaper copy, magazine articles, television scripts – from Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits and Andromeda to Baywatch (that’s a fantasy, right?) – and three million words of published fiction (including the novelization of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Far Beyond the Stars,” the alternate history Lion’s Blood, and collaborations with Niven and Pournelle), and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Cable Ace awards, and received the Endeavor and the NAACP Image Awards. Regrettably, the recording was badly glitched (Keith probably forgot to open hailing frequencies before Skyping), and DeCandido was obliged (with profuse apologies to us and to Barnes) summarize his talk about writing and about race on ’60s tv. Barnes respected the intent of “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (Frank Gorshin and Lou Antonio in split black/whiteface), what they were trying to do, though it looks ridiculous now. (Isn’t that a satisfying sign of progress since?) He also discussed the importance of black characters equal with and alongside whites on Trek, Mission: Impossible and I Spy, and of having Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) as a nonwhite lead on a genre show.
David Mack in 2010. Photo by Luigi Novi.
There being fewer technical glitches in a live reading, DeCandido introduced the first reader, David Mack, a New York Times bestselling author of roughly 30 sf, fantasy and adventure novels, including the Star Trek Destiny and Cold Equations trilogies, and the forthcoming Star Trek: Legacies, Book II: Best Defense, part of a new trilogy celebrating the franchise’s 50th anniversary. Mack’s offering departed from The Original Series as it was set in the Next Generation era several years after Nemesis. The Enterprise follows clues to a planet where someone has been cranking out copies of Lore – Dr. Noonian Soong, they learn, who has uploaded his consciousness into an android body. Soong is soon laboring to resurrect Data (B-4 may have Data’s memories, but not his “soul” or his emotion chip), even at the cost of his own existence. (Mack did a delightful Worf, by the way.)
Emily Asher-Perrin
Next up was Emily Asher-Perrin, who described herself as a kid as “a great big geek who preferred to talk about robots and aliens and lightsabers and magic,” and who works on the internet, notably on Tor.com, “talk[ing] and get[ting] excited about all the science fiction and fantasy that she loves most.” She read a couple of scenes from Jean Lorrah’s The Vulcan Academy Murders; in the first, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are on Vulcan, and have joined Sarek and Amanda’s healer for dinner at an Italian restaurant (meatless, of course – vegan Vulcans, you know); and in the second, they are at a funeral (spoiler: no, not Amanda’s), where they encounter T’Pau, the Vulcan matriarch from “Amok Time.”
During the intermission, people grabbed a bite (happily, the Commons Café did not offer gakh) and a raffle was held for a flash drive that might be called a mix tape, including miscellany like Shatner’s rendering of “Rocket Man” and bridge sound effects, and for two tickets to an astronomy lecture at the Intrepid on Saturday the 10th.
The second half of the program opened with a comedic skit by another New York Times bestselling Trek novelist, Dayton Ward (who was not present). Set in a movie theater “somewhere in the U.S.” on June 9, 1989 where Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is about to begin, a group of Trek fans (the word “Trekkie” was never, never uttered all evening), played by Keith, David, Emily and Jim (typecasting) schmooze about – and one persistently pans – the year’s sf movies, and Batman. (Some ironic humor was derived from what we know about subsequent films.) Plus ça change …
Finally, DeCandido, drawing from his “Federation version of The West Wing,” delivered the Federation President’s commencement address to Starfleet Academy in the wake of the events of Nemesis.
The crowd of about 40 included Melissa C. Beckman, Catelynn Cunningham, Melissa Ennin (the landlady), Nora (NK) Jemisin, Barbara Krasnoff, John Kwok, Nora Larker, Mark W. Richards, Wrenn Simms, Ian Randal Strock, and Bill Wagner. As customary at these Readings, the Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered giveaway books, and copies of Trek books and stories by DeCandido and Mack were available for sale and autographs. As the evening concluded, various audience members hung around or adjourned to the Café.
Clare McDonald-Sims visited LASFS’ labyrinthine library on July 21. Photo by Marty Cantor.
By John Hertz: Voters earlier this year (including me and maybe you) elected Clare McDonald-Sims the 2016 Down Under Fan fund delegate. DUFF has now brought her to North America. On Thursday she attended a meeting of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. LASFS has its own clubhouse, so I guess that’s a chamber. Or maybe I meant we took photographs.
Three DUFF winners in a row — John Hertz, Clare McDonald-Sims, and Marty Cantor.
As I write she’s at PulpFest – so Andy Porter was right again.
We have three intercontinental traveling-fan funds.
TAFF (the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund), the senior fund, was founded in 1953. In alternating years it brings over the Atlantic Ocean a fan nominated, and chosen by election, as someone whom fans across the water would like to meet. The TAFF delegate attends the World Science Fiction Convention if it’s on the receiving side, otherwise the national convention, with any further fannish travel that can be managed, meeting fans, making friends, radiating goodwill, publishing a trip report, and becoming the TAFF Administrator in turn until the next cycle on the delegate’s home side.
DUFF (the Down Under Fan Fund) was founded in 1972, operating likewise between North America and Australia – New Zealand.
I was the DUFF delegate in 2010 and with the blessing attended both Aussiecon IV and the New Zealand natcon.
In 1978 we completed the triangle with GUFF, operating likewise between Australia – New Zealand and Europe – Britain – Eire; southbound it’s the Going Under Fan Fund, northbound it’s the Get Up and over Fan Fund.
The current TAFF delegate is Anna Raftery. The current GUFF delegate is Jukka Halme.
Clare McDonald-Sims is singular, being a McDonald with one A (like Ian McDonald but unlike John D. MacDonald) and a Sims with one M (like Pat & Roger Sims but unlike Virgil Simms).
However, maintaining balance in the multiverse, this was her second visit to the LASFS, and the second time she stood for DUFF. Who can say what brought us to this miracle we’ve found?
Clare on the podium with LASFS officers Kristen Gorlitz
(Scribe) and Nick Smith (President). Photo by Marty Cantor.
Of herself she’s said that, when her high-school librarian tired of her asking for reading recommendations and suggested starting with A, Asimov came up, and she never looked back; also she’d attended four Worldcons in four countries and wanted to break that one-for-one streak. So far so good.
At the moment we expect her to be in the Columbus, Ohio, neighborhood until the end of July; then the District of Columbia neighborhood until about August 3rd; then New York (the City That Has Two Names Twice; see above) till the 9th; then Minneapolis (and St. Paul – the twin cities – I keep telling you) till the 16th; then Kansas City and the Worldcon; then home.
You can reach her in care of the North America Acting DUFF Administrator Lucy Huntzinger (assisting Juanita Coulson), <[email protected]> or (650)869-5771 (Pacific Daylight Time).
Huntzinger would also be good for discussing your DUFF-benefit contributions to the Fan Funds Auction at the Worldcon. That will be conducted by Naomi Fisher.
Or you can reach McDonald-Sims by E-mail to <[email protected]>. You know, the year Telemann met Handel. What’s that? The number 1701 has some other significance?
Clare McDonald-Sims and Mike Glyer. Photo by Marty Cantor.
Dale S. Arnold, Chair of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society Board of Directors, says the club is sending out this notice to people about last weekend’s convention.
Thank you for being a member of Balticon 50. We are the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, the 501(c)(3) which operates Balticon and provides oversight of the event.
We are an all volunteer organization and we strive to provide everyone with a great experience at Balticon every year, and this year we did not always live up to that mission. We understand that we failed at some basic organizational tasks for Balticon 50 and we wanted to contact you to apologize for our deficit in these areas. We are aware of the shortcomings in this year’s planning, and want to give you our pledge that we are taking steps to fix the problems.
We also are aware of the issues that some fans experienced with the improper actions of the hotel security staff. We are working with the hotel to make improvements for next year. We hope you will continue to attend Balticon and to help us make it the outstanding fan-run Science Fiction convention that we all know it can be.
Thank you
The Board of Directors of
The Baltimore Science Fiction Society(Dale S. Arnold, Chair BSFS BOD)
Turku Science Fiction Society (TSFS), founded in 1976, turned 40 on January 27 reports Partial Recall.
TSFS is the oldest sf club in Finland. Its activities are held in Terrakoti —
Terrakoti is the office and geek living room of six societies located in Turku. It is a safe haven for everyone interested in science fiction, fantasy, horror, Japanese popular culture, roleplaying or console games in Turku.
The other five societies TSFS shares the office with are:
TSFS also has close ties to the Finnish Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (FSFWA).
TSFS gives the annual Atorox Award for the best Finnish science fiction or fantasy short story published in the previous year.
By John Hertz: On Wednesday, February 3rd, between Groundhog Day (doesn’t that sound like someone who pitched a tent too wide?) and Chinese (and others’) New Year, the Casa Verdugo branch of the Glendale Public Library hosted a talk by Edmond J. Clinton III, eldest grandson of the founder of Clifton’s Cafeteria.
Edmond J. Clinton III
My local s-f club met at Clifton’s in the 1930s. It was the early days of each. We go back to 1934. Clifford Clinton opened a Los Angeles cafeteria in 1931, with 2,500 recipe cards and $2,000.
If you know about names and numbers, you’ll have already figured out that EJC III’s father was EJC II, i.e. not named for EJC II’s father (so not EJC Jr.) but for another EJC in the family (which was, in the Clintons’ case, EJC III’s great-grandfather).
Another restaurant in the family was called Clinton’s. So the Los Angeles ones took half of Clifford and half of Clinton.
At one time there were eight Clifton’s Cafeterias in town. They all ran for years.
Their history was glorious, by which I include the physical glory of neon lights – some of which were palm trees – and the moral glory of feeding thousands in the Depression days.
Clifton’s was the Restaurant of the Golden Rule, which was, in the Clifton’s case, if you didn’t have any gold that didn’t rule. A sign – neon – at the door said “Pay what you wish.” It wasn’t even qualified, as the Art Institute of Chicago sign was, “– but you must pay something.”
In the Depression days some s-f fans couldn’t pay anything. Some could. It’s no secret that Forry Ackerman staked Ray Bradbury to a New York trip for the first World Science Fiction convention in 1939. Far more people had then heard of Ackerman than of Bradbury.
Clifton’s at its peak had 15,000 diners a day. Everyone went there. Walt Disney. Mayor Hahn. Bradbury had his corner when his pockets were empty and when they were full.
Eventually all the Clifton’s Cafeterias closed but one, Clifton’s Brookdale at 648 S. Broadway down town, named for Brookdale Lodge 350 miles north in redwood country, near where its founder grew up. It was decorated accordingly, with wood and rocks and taxidermy. “Stuffed animal” did not then mean what it did when Chocolate Moose was the chair of Loscon XX in 1993 (okay, Elayne Pelz helped).
Clifton’s Cafeteria with original facade.
In 2010 the Brookdale was sold to restaurateur Andrew Meieran. He spent $10 million on a lot of restoration and a little renovation. He stayed open a few days a week as long as he could, then closed awhile. Before he was quite ready he powered up the lights for “A Night on Broadway” as noted here. Re-opening Day was October 1, 2015.
The original terrazo sidewalk is still in front of the door. The original tiles are still on the ground floor. There’s a stuffed bison and a stuffed mountain lion and a waterfall and a giant redwood fabulous two ways: it’s faux (it took a year to build), and it’s wonderful, bringing you into the forest – or the Forrest.
Clifton’s Cafeteria after the remodel.
The two bars are new, Mr. Clinton never served alcohol; the one on the third floor has a 250-lb. meteorite. Not that old, but old enough, is a neon lamp in the basement which was uncovered during renovation, still lit as it had been for almost eighty years and as it still is. The food too is old and new: hand-carved turkey every day, prime beef (in a cafeteria!), and pizza.
Also on the third floor you can recognize the Ray Bradbury corner. The handrail caps at the other three are animals; at his, an s-f widget which could be part of a time machine.
You may have known all that, particularly since Re-Opening Day. I didn’t know the crusader part of Clifford Clinton.
I don’t mean his parents’ being Salvation Army captains and taking him with them to China. I don’t even mean Clifton’s Golden Rule.
I mean he exposed waste in the food service at County General Hospital, and spearheaded a mayoral-recall election. I mean he founded Meals for Millions researching then transporting a cheap nutritious soy food round the world, in which eventually the United Nations got involved so as to teach local folks about better feeding themselves.
That’s in Edmond J. Clinton III’s new book Clifton’s and Clifford Clinton.
The Casa Verdugo Library kindly served refreshment, including Jell-O – lime Jell-O – savory lime Jell-O made with cucumber and sour cream and horseradish. Old and new.
At the end of the talk a man asked “Isn’t it true that the guys who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a bunch of science fiction buffs, were regulars at Clifton’s?” EJC III said yes. Then he called on me and I said “Since you mention it, I’m here from the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, the oldest science fiction club on Earth. We met at Clifton’s for years, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein and just plain fans like me and maybe you.”
So I made sure to dine at Clifton’s on Thursday.
Who started the first science fiction club? Aubrey MacDermott said he did in his 1987 article Recollections on the Origins of Science Fiction Fandom 1917 to 1948 now posted at Bill Burns’ eFanzines. A PDF of the manuscript (in Andrew Porter’s keeping) is also available for download.
Here’s an excerpt of MacDermott’s narrative:
Raymond A. Palmer, later editor of AMAZING, told me some years later that after I had organized the Eastbay Club in April 1928 Aubrey Clements in Georgia and Walter Dennis, Paul McDermott and Sid Gerson in Chicago had also formed fan clubs, and Richard Leary formed one in Boston. Ray was the eighth member of Clements’ club.
The Christmas of 1928 I received a Christmas card from Peter Schuyler Miller and a letter about the trouble he was having with a story about Mars, “The Titan”. I also received a Christmas card and autographed photo from Edgar Rice Burroughs which I proudly showed to the club members, an enlargement of which is now on my library wall.
In the spring of 1929 Ray Palmer organized the Science Correspondence Club, based on Clements’ and Dennis’ clubs. Later Richard Leary’s Bay State Science Club of Boston joined. But our own club voted not to merge. Clifton, Lester and myself joined immediately. Eventually most of the other club members joined.
At last some signs of life from New York. Allen Glasser formed the “Scienceers Club” on December 11, 1929. He proclaimed that it was “the first real club”, ”real” meaning that it took place in New York City. It soon fell apart. However, Sam Moskowitz in his “Immortal Storm” accepts Allen’s statement at face value Others in their histories of fandom copied Sam’s mistake without checking.
Early club history has been the topic of a couple File 770 posts, with some great discussion in the comments — see “Early Science Fiction Clubs: Your Mileage May Vary” and “The Planet: One Last Landing”.
MacDermott’s essay also has been uploaded to Fancyclopedia 3, which includes many links to names, places and events mentioned in the text.
[Thanks to Bill Burns, Mark Olson and Andrew Porter for the story.]
Mark Richards has resigned as chair of Lunacon 2016. He made this public announcement on Facebook:
It’s with a considerable measure of sadness that I take this step. My position as Chair has become politically and organizationally untenable. While I can go into detail as to the whys and wherefores that have made it impossible for me to continue, I would prefer to leave that discussion for another time and place.
I do not feel that the circumstances under which Lunacon and Lunarians are currently operating will allow me to continue with the lead in presenting the type of convention I envisioned when I took on this task. I feel I am no longer in a position where I can contribute positively to Lunacon.
As I do not anticipate those circumstances changing in the immediate future (or at least soon enough to matter), I feel I must step aside. I am proud of what I have accomplished, such as the choices I made for guests of honor. I hope that what input I have made contributes to the success of the convention….
The convention is scheduled to take place March 18-20 at the Hilton Westchester in Rye Brook, New York.
Stuart C. Hellinger, President, New York Science Fiction Society – the Lunarians (2), Inc. wrote that the organization will soon make an official response.
Richards was named chair of Lunacon 2016 last January. The Lunarians skipped the 2015 edition of the con in order to reorganize and address financial issues.