(1) HARRY POTTER ON STAGE. The lead roles in Harry Potter and The Cursed Child have been cast: Jamie Parker as Harry Potter, Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger, and Paul Thornley as Ron Weasley.
First look at cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child https://t.co/jLzTKy5R30 pic.twitter.com/zcPgBOBPq9
— West End Frame (@West_End_Frame) December 20, 2015
(2) BABY FACE. Mark Zuckerberg seems just as excited about the launch of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” this week as everybody else — judging by the two new pictures he posted on his personal Facebook page.
First of all, he dressed up his daughter Max as a jedi, surrounded by Star Wars related plushy toys, on December 17 with just a one line caption — “The force is strong with this one”…
On December 18, Zuckerberg then posted a picture of his Puli, a type of Hungarian sheepdog, Beast dressed as a Sith (basically a baddie). The picture was accompanied by just one line too — “Meanwhile, Beast turned to the dark side”…
(3) NO ANIME CONJI 2016. The “Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation” has canceled Anime Conji 2016, which had been scheduled for March 25-27 in Anaheim, CA.
We have collectively decided to focus on expanding and improving each of our events, bringing a level of quality seen in our larger shows to our smaller events. Unfortunately to meet this goal, Anime Conji will have to take a small break.
Refund information at the web page.
(4) EXPANDED COVERAGE. Frequent File 770 contributor James H. Burns set up the Sunday New York Times article “Incredible Bulk at a Comic Book Warehouse in Brooklyn” about Joe Koch’s comics and science fiction book warehouse — a big injection of publicity for the once-“Secret” Bookstore he wrote about here last month.
“There’s two neat things to know,” says Jim. “One is that Corey Kilgannon is a terrific writer; we first met when he did a story about WFAN, New York’s sports -talk radio station — the only time I made a cover-story in a New York paper, either as a writer, or in this case, a participant/interviewee! The second is that after File 770 ran the story about Joe’s place, just after Thanksgiving, several of the File 770 faithful made their way to Brooklyn!” The Times story begins:
It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas in Joseph Koch’s Comic Book Warehouse.
In classic Koch style, a Christmas tree was suspended from the ceiling, with a bloody, severed ghoul’s head hanging (by the eyelids, of course) from the side.
This passes as mistletoe for customers entering Mr. Koch’s world: a cavernous second-floor space that he has run for the past 30 years, in an industrial section of Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
It houses one of the largest collections of comic books in the country. Also on offer are memorabilia, action figures, books, records, posters and the like.
It is a back issue browsing paradise, with comics filling long white cardboard boxes, placed on shelves extending high overhead.
Mr. Koch, 66, refers to the place as his “Warehouse of Wonders,” with a vast inventory that he calls “The Avalanche.” It consists of “the largest assemblage of sci-fi, comics and fantasy genre-related ephemera on the planet,” according to Mr. Koch, whose trove nevertheless remains relatively obscure outside the world of hard-core comics lovers.
(5) MAGIC NUMBER. “Paul Weimer’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015” at Helen Lowe…on anything really.
2015 has been a bumper crop of books for me to devour. I’ve enjoyed the end of series of old favorites, the start of new series by beloved authors, and eagerly tried some debut authors too. Limiting myself to five was difficult, but here are my favorite five books of the year….
(6) MANATEE SEASON. Larry Correia renews a Christmas tradition with “Christmas Noun 8: Too Noun Much Adjective” at Monster Hunter Nation.
“’Sup, nerds,” John Ringo said as he came back into the room. He adjusted his kilt and sat down. “Sorry my fine Cuban cigar lit by hundred dollar bills break took so long, but I got spun up and wrote another bestselling novel during it. What did I miss? Hey, who ate all the Cheetos?”
“Meehwhoooooooo.”
“Cthulhu showed up because Correia pissed off the DM again.”
“I have an eighteen in charisma. I try to seduce Cthulhu!” Brad exclaimed, because every game night has that guy.
And that’s just the scene about him trying to think up an idea for the post. The actual story has 12 parts and an epilog.
(7) SUPPORTING (DIE) CAST. Brad R. Torgersen was so pleased to have lines he wrote his own “A Christmas Noun: The Unauthorized Spinoff – teaser trailer”, though it’s his comment at Monster Hunter Nation that deserves a blue ribbon.
I . . . I have been given a significant speaking role in this year’s CHRISTMAS NOUN episode. And it’s an accurate speaking role! They say only Audie Murphy could play Audie Murphy, but all I have to say is, Audie Murphy, eat your heart out, son. Meanwhile, do I roll ten-sided dice for skill performance? Or is that a 20-sider, minus half a dozen penalties for cursed afflictions assigned via the six-sider cursed afflictions table? What? Wait, I don’t get it. That was the previous universe?? Yeah, shut up, I know I missed two Writer Nerd Games Nights in a row! For hell’s sake, what game are we playing now? Dude, I didn’t even bring the right character sheets. Screw it, I will just act like I know what’s going on, and go with whatever Steve Diamond says. Steve always has pity for me…
(8) RED NOSED DRONE. In “The Christmas Edit” video by Ascending Technologies, a modified AscTec Falcon UAS drone creates Christmas-themed light paintings in the sky.
(9) WHERE REAL WRITERS WORK. An Allen Steele profile published in October, “When the books take over; Walls of shelves dominate sci-fi writer Allen Steele’s Whately workspace”.
Hanging from the railing of the upstairs loft is an enormous yellow banner with black and red lettering spelling out “Robert A. Heinlein Centennial” and bearing the date 2007 beside a black-and-white photo of Heinlein. It’s from a science fiction convention, but it’s a declaration of sorts. There are lots of branches of science fiction these days, with subgenres that include things like steampunk, urban fantasy, soft science fiction, space opera and many more. But Heinlein represents old-school science fiction, often called “hard SF,” the kind that filled Astounding and Galaxy and other seminal magazines and was focused on future events that were mostly plausible and based on real science.
Steele’s work manages a deft trick: It reads, in many ways, like that brand of old-school SF, but it feels quite current, too. The interstellar voyage he portrays in one of his best-known works, “Coyote,” seems as if, given sufficient financial backing, it could well happen in a few decades.
(10) CHEAP SHOT. Writer Beware blogger Victoria Strauss reports she received a nasty bit of payback in “Almond Press Redux: Revenge-Rating A Critic”.
Case in point: Almond Press, whose short story competition I featured here last July. Essentially, the competition was a way for Almond to gather free material for an anthology–the competition winner received a cash prize but none of the other entrants received any payment other than “exposure.”…
Well, Almond Press was not happy with that assessment, which is understandable. But did they change the competition rules? Did they decide to compensate all their authors? Did they contact me to discuss my post or even to threaten me with legal action? No. Nothing that mature. Last week I was checking my books on Goodreads, which I do sometimes to see if there’ve been any new reviews (yes, yes. I know). I noticed a brand-new one-star rating on one of them, from…could it be? Almond Press! …
(11) DEAR MAC. Kate Paulk sent an “Email to MidAmericon II Programming” with a modest suggestion:
In view of the extraordinary levels of hostility and controversy surrounding the Sad Puppies campaigns and the 2015 Hugo Awards, I would like to offer to host one or more panels on the history and goals of the Sad Puppies campaigns.
As one of the organizers of Sad Puppies 4 and an attendee at MidAmericon II, I can offer a factual perspective that has been lacking in a number of circles, leading to a number of people making statements so ill-informed they bordered on actionable libel and slander….
(12) TRAILER PARK. Sychronicity, which its makers compare to Blade Runner, Gattaca and Memento, is coming to theaters January 22
Daring physicist Jim Beale has invented a machine that can fold space-time and ruthless corporate tycoon Klaus Meisner will stop at nothing to get it. When Jim uses the machine to tear open the fabric of the universe, a rare Dahlia appears from the future. But in order to keep the rights to his invention he must prove that it works by finding the flower’s identical match in the present. Jim soon discovers that the Dahlia lies in the hands of the mysterious Abby, who seduces him into revealing his secrets. Convinced that she is in league with Klaus to take ownership of his life’s work, Jim travels back in time to stop the conspiracy before it can happen. But once in the past, Jim uncovers a surprising truth about Abby, the machine, and his own uncertain future.
(13) CRIMINAL HAS HIS PRINTS TAKEN BY FBI.“When ‘Return of the Jedi’ Was Stolen at Gunpoint” at Mental_Floss.
Larry Dewayne Riddick, Jr. had no way of knowing there would someday be an easier way of doing this. In just a few years, pirating feature films for profit—or just for the sake of undermining huge corporations—would be as effortless as clicking a mouse.
But this was 1983. And if Riddick wanted his own personal print of Return of the Jedi to peddle on the black market, he’d have to resort to more crude methods. He’d have to take it by force.
Riddick, 18, stood in the parking lot of the Glenwood Theaters in Overland Park, Kans. and watched as John J. Smith exited the building. Smith was the projectionist; Jedi was finishing its sixth week as the most popular film attraction in the country. It was after midnight. As Smith walked to his car, Riddick came up beside him and flashed a gun. He had come for the movie….
(14) ANNUAL REVIEW. 2015 was a great year for Ann Leckie.
Other things that happened this year: Ancillary Sword won the BSFA! That was super exciting, actually. I figured most voters, no matter how much they liked Sword, would figure I got more than enough recognition last year. And to be entirely honest, that’s a completely valid position to hold. I was super chuffed at the nomination. And that wasn’t all–Sword was nominated for the Nebula and the Hugo as well! And the Hugo nom–well, that was in circumstances that made it clear that a flattering number of readers had a very high opinion of it. So I got to enjoy the Nebs and the Hugos in a very low-stress way–I was pretty sure my book wasn’t going to win–and to happily applaud the results of both.
(15) CAR WARS. On the other hand, it’s been a tough year for law enforcement. The Fulshear, Texas police pulled over this odd crew and got their police car stolen.
[Thanks to Will R., John King Tarpinian, Michael J. Walsh, Eylat Poliner, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day redheadedfemme.]
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CHEAP SHOT: Ugh, that’s disappointing. I’m only using Goodreads to keep track of what I’m currently reading and what I’ve read (because it’s so integrated with the Kindle) yet the more I read about how they do (or don’t) manage things, the more I think I ought to find a different way to track things…
After offering a “factual perspective”, Paulk then goes on to repeat one of the most easily refutable Puppy talking points:
Hugo Award voting statistics from the Hugo Awards site’s history section:
2008: 483 nominating ballots, 972 final ballots
2009: 639 nominating, 1074 final
2010: 864 nominating, 1094 final
2011: 1006 nominating, 2100 final
2012: 1101 nominating, 1922 final
In the last five years before the Puppies came along, participation more than doubled. That doesn’t look much like an award on the verge of ceasing to exist. Indeed, it makes Sad Puppies look more like a reaction to the growing profile of the Hugos than anything.
Third!
Given past Puppy accuracy with easily accessible documented facts, I would not be interested in any Puppy offer to “provide a factual perspective.” And programming might prefer to avoid the inevitable fight when fans show up to the panel to correct her misstatements of fact. I’m guessing she gets a form letter back saying that many people want to hold panels; we can’t accomodate everyone, of course but we will take your offer into account, and thanks very much. Either that or no response at all.
Voting will likely be closing in four hoursish so there’s still time to torture yourself with Hampus’ evil, evil dice in the first heat of the second round of the Science Fiction Movie Bracket. Luckily, Cally is on hand to provide all the forehead cloths you’ll undoubtedly be needing.
Maybe MidAmericon could have two Sad Puppy leaders do simultaneous panels on the history and ideals of the Puppies, tape them and afterward count up all the contradictions.
Finished reading Leviathan Wakes tonight and really enjoyed it. Near the end I found myself making involuntary “what? no! nooo! that is NOT good!” exclamations. In the interest of not spoiling things, and of being annoyingly enigmatic, the only response I gave to any of my husband’s “What? What?” interjections was “You want to read this.”
(11)DEAR MAC – I guess with a ‘movement’ that claimed everything from being for the common fan against the literati, or really a literary movement in the first place called United Underground, or that they’re fighting against an old clique voting on new progressive works instead of swashbuckling fun, or whatever the hell they felt it meant that day, they’d need at least 2-3 panels to explain their goals and actions. At least one panel for Sad Puppies: We Don’t Like What You Have Been Voting For, then Wrong Fun and You: What We’re Telling You People Are Saying About You, and then We Don’t Care But We Really Want The Thing We’ve Been Insulting.
That should be enough. (nevermind, Kurt has the better suggestion)
Synchronicity sounds cool though.
Lexica on December 20, 2015 at 9:49 pm said:
Lexica: Finished reading Leviathan Wakes tonight and really enjoyed it. Near the end I found myself making involuntary “what? no! nooo! that is NOT good!” exclamations. In the interest of not spoiling things, and of being annoyingly enigmatic, the only response I gave to any of my husband’s “What? What?” interjections was “You want to read this.”
I’d never heard of Leviathan Wakes until it showed up in my Hugo packet a few years ago. And my reactions while reading it were the same as yours — I was pretty much squeeing the entire time.
How generous of Paulk to offer to provide a Puppy Propaganda Panel at MidAmericon II.
Given the Puppies’ pervasive inability to get almost any fact correct in their blog posts, I can only imagine that the suggested panel — if MAC II were stupid enough to take Paulk up on her offer — would be garnering a nomination for “Best Dramatic Presentation — Fantasy Category”.
#6 – I like the opening narration. Which reminds me, I need to go build more settlements.
#11 – …leading to a number of people making statements so ill-informed they bordered on actionable libel and slander….
That’s certainly a long-winded way of saying “I got nothing”. I expect some inevitable whinging when she either doesn’t get a panel (because (a) she is Important!. So Very Important!, and (b) There’s no entitlement like Puppy entitlement), or when she gets her arse metaphorically handed to her in an environment she doesn’t control.
#14 – Yes, yes good year congratulations blah blah you deserve it blah blah. Now PLEEEEAAASSE write The Further Adventures of Sphene and Translator Zeiat
snowcrash: Yes, yes good year congratulations blah blah you deserve it blah blah. Now PLEEEEAAASSE write The Further Adventures of Sphene and Translator Zeiat.
I await with bated breath Neil Gaiman’s next blog post: 😉
“Ann Leckie Is Not Your Bitch”
P.S. I
secondfifth your request.Ms. Paulk’s panel suggestion would be even more interesting if someone like Eric Flint were on it also …. his commentary on his blog was fascinating.
Michael J. Walsh: Ms. Paulk’s panel suggestion would be even more interesting if someone like Eric Flint were on it also …. his commentary on his blog was fascinating.
Not only that, I suspect that the Puppies would not have the chutzpah to be abusive to Eric to his face, whereas they’d probably have no problem being abusive in person to most non-Puppies.
I wouldn’t want to be the Moderater on that panel, though.
Books!
The Rim of Morning by William Sloane: This is a compilation of two short(ish) novels first published in the late 1930s: To Walk the Night and The Edge of Running Water. It was described to me as early cosmic horror, which is accurate . . . but this definitely isn’t Lovecraftian cosmic horror–it’s more “SF that touches on otherworldliness”. To Walk the Night is the story of two friends who find their former professor dead under mysterious circumstances, and the events that unfold when one of them falls for the professor’s mysterious widow. The book opens with the suicide of one of the two men, and the story is told primarily in flashback. It is, in my opinion, the better book by leaps and bounds—clear prose, well-drawn characters, an engaging plot, with a fantastically subtle sense of dread permeating the narrative. The Edge of Running Water involves a professor who goes to visit a former colleague, who’s gone full Mad Scientist in a semi-isolated rural setting. Parts of this one were very engaging, but I felt the pacing had some real issues, and I didn’t think the characters or prose were quite as engaging. Still well-worth reading, but not quite at the writing level of To Walk The Night. I found both books’ treatment of women particularly intriguing, though whether that treatment is ultimately positive or negative is something to debate. Overall, I’d absolutely recommend this to anyone interested in early works of SF or horror.
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis: This book was painful, and I loved it. It’s set in an alternate 1926, two hundred years after the Dutch created mechanical golems that allowed them to conquer the world. (Well, Western Europe and parts of America—either I missed it, or the exact status of Asia/Africa/South America/Australia isn’t mentioned.) The Dutch are opposed by New France, the New World-based last bastion of European resistance to Dutch rule, with the Protestant/Catholic wars continuing in the context of a sort of alchemy/chemistry arms race. Some very strong but flawed female characters, with some excellent prose and vivid worldbuilding. It’s a book about slavery, about violation, and there’s no real catharsis to be found here, though it’s possible that might change in the next installments. I’ll definitely pick up the sequel (which is out right now, thankfully).
The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs: Set in a secondary world in which a version of ancient Rome survived into the Wild West era, with non-human races in the mix, and guns powered by demons rather than gunpowder. If you like Weird Westerns, you’ll probably love this. I found the worldbuilding intriguing, and some of the characters intriguing, but the pacing tended to drag more often than not. I’m not really a fan of Westerns, and I found the more Western-inspired elements/sections here to be somewhat tedious. Fans of Westerns might feel differently. Also, gur fgbel gnxrf cynpr qhevat n cyrnfher pehvfr qbja n evire, nf ivpvbhf abg-ryirf (pnyyrq “fgergpuref”) sebz gur uvyyf guerngra gur cnegl, naq zhpu bs gur fgbel eribyirq nebhaq gur cnegl npgvat fgenatryl hapbaprearq nobhg gung yvggyr gvqovg. I’ll probably pick up the sequel because there was a touch of Lovecraftian horror here, and I’m interested to see where that element goes in future books.
Novellas!!
Envy of Angels (Sin du Jour #1) by Matt Wallace: Heh. This was awesome! Sin du Jour is a restaurant (well, more of a catering company) that serves food to demons, goblins, etc. The story follows the adventures of the staff (including two newbies) in assorted and various insanity. This was hilarious, kind of twisted, and very, very engaging. Highly recommended. (And there’s a sequel novella, Lustlocked, coming out at the end of January. It got a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly!)
X’s For Eyes by Laird Barron: This one was pure pulp. It’s cosmic horror in a very Golden Age aesthetic: i.e., characters have names like Dr. Bravery, Macbeth and Drederick Tooms, Cassius Labrador, etc.; teenagers go on adventures without anyone really treating them like kids; science follows the rules of pulp instead of the rules of reality. (Be aware: though cosmic horror, this is not part of Barron’s Children of Old Leech cycle.) The setting lends itself to a certain amount of WTFery—like, a 12-year-old and a 14-year old casually picking up some hookers—and sometimes the overall story didn’t seem to quite . . . gel? as much as I thought it should have. But I don’t know that it was supposed to, given the pulpiness. The cover copy gave some details that I don’t think actually made it into the story, and the ending kind of confused me. Overall, this was pretty good, if you enjoy pulp sf/horror . . . but I thought it could have been a bit better.
Gameshouse #1-3 (The Serpent, The Thief, The Master) by Claire North: In the Gameshouse, a gaming establishment that magically moves throughout the world, people play ordinary games for money and property in the lower level, and rather more “expansive” game, for much higher stakes, in the upper level. I’d recommend reading these in order, though I suppose you could perhaps read The Thief before The Serpent (but definitely don’t read The Master before either). The Serpent follows an unhappily married Venetian woman as she vies to enter the Gameshouse’s upper levels; The Thief follows an experienced player on a game of hide-and-seek through Thailand, and The Master follows a power play by a character who appears in the earlier two novellas. I’d say The Serpent works best as a stand-alone, and was my favorite of the three. Overall, these novellas didn’t quite blow me away in the The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August sense, but they were more or less on the Touch level of quality.
The King’s Justice by Stephen R. Donaldson: A mysterious man, veteran of a magical war, arrives at a village to investigate a murder. This was really nothing special, honestly. Told entirely in the present tense, with short, staccato prose that did not flow well to my ear, reading this was a chore. (I kept expecting the narrator to fall on his backside mid-monologue—the story opens with some tediously over-the-top “I am Darkness! I am Of The Night!” (I paraphrase, but not by much) nonsense of the sort that usually heralds ironic pratfalls. Alas, the Incredibly Super-Serious Narrator is apparently meant to be taken, well, seriously, and the story suffers.) The storyline itself is rather clunky, uninspired, and forgettable. Not recommended.
The Augur’s Gambit by Stephen R. Donaldson. Much better. The court augurer of an extremely small yet prosperous (and completely isolated) island nation foresees his land’s doom. All of the wit lacking in The King’s Justice seems to have washed up on this particular shore. I’m not sure if it really was a good novella, or if it just seemed that way in comparison to The King’s Justice. In retrospect, the ending didn’t really make a ton of sense, elements of the worldbuilding don’t make a lot of sense, and parts of the plot really didn’t make a lot of sense. I can say with absolute certainty that I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than The King’s Justice, though.
Domnall and the Borrowed Child by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley: A sweet story about an aging fairy scout trying to save a sick fairy child. Overall, this was a relatively light and cozy read, with an engaging protagonist and a plot that held my interest. Not the best novella I’ve ever read, but far from the worst.
Perhaps Ms. Paulk shouldn’t have called a member of the MidAmericon Programming Brain Trust “delusional or a liar” before claiming she can do a good job of providing facts. As for fact checking Puppy panels, unfortunately the 2016 election will be heating up around then, so there may be a general lack of available fact checkers.
As a side note, I believe six months from August is February. CUL posted on his Facebook page yesterday:
“Met a deadline to get a promised story in to an anthology yesterday.
Also got a sale to another anthology. Waiting for the contract. Lots of stories flying around slush piles like happy little drones.” So much apparently for that six month submission moratorium.
(11) DEAR MAC
It would be an interesting panel; I would staff it with half people and half straw men 😉
Among these figments we could have Nazis (a favorite), SJW (for all puppies), radical feminists (just for James May), the 30 years of non-golden fiction that won awards, a Seckrit Cabal of logrolling Masters of Fandom, EVIL Scalzi (from the Mirror Universe), the Silent Majority (that support us in email but nonetheless don’t vote, nominate, or review books), ….
Kidding aside maybe some of these straw men could be confronted and knocked down. A win-win for us all.
@Shambles
Needs moar Marxists.
Nah, strike that. I’m sure Hoyt will spot some regardless.
::tick::
If I were MAC II Programming, I might well decide not to run any Puppy-related programming. If that where my decision, I would send an extremely polite note to Kate Paulk explaining that the concom had decided not to have panels on that topic. While I might enjoy the spectacle (I have a low taste for train-wrecks), I cannot see any way in which a panel on Puppygate would actually change anyone’s mind, or really educate anyone usefully. To me, it seems toxic and controversial, without the possibility of communication. But, you know, if they are so unwise as to have Puppygate programming, I’m totally bringing popcorn. And bheer. Lots and lots of bheer.
Oh god, a veiled “give me a panel or I sue!” Yeah, you know what, Kate? There’s a whole bunch of stuff that “borders” on actionable slander and libel which is all perfectly legal. (Not that MidAmericon is responsible for the statements of random fans in the first place. I assume Ms. Paulk is unable to distinguish one type of non-puppy from another, and assumes that everyone not part of her little group is part of some organized active opposition. That seems to be a common delusion among the puppy crowd.)
As for this “factual perspective” she’s offering, the simple fact is that the puppies had their chance to take over the ballot, and they did, and they offered a steaming pile of puppy poo that nobody liked, and proved they don’t have good taste, and I don’t see what more needs to be said after that. 🙂
I doubt the Con was planning to host a panel on Puppygate hosted by… whoever is top of this week’s enemies list
Winners for the first heat of the second round in the Science Fiction Movie Bracket can be found here. Next round is open for voting here.
(11) That’s no moon!
— with apologies to Star Wars.
13) This reminds me of the swedish translator of Lord of The Rings who, upon the death of Tolkien, traveled to England to break into his house, searching for scripts. If I remember correctly, he was found by Christopher Tolkien, sitting at a desk, reading excerpts from Silmarillion.
It is a weird story at that. The Translator, Åka Ohlmark, messed a bit with the foreword of LOTR which Tolkien didn’t like, so he was forbidden to translate any more works. This pissed him of leading up to the burglary. Which didn’t help the contacts with the family.
As many swedes had opinions on Ohlmarks translations, he got angry at that and started a vendetta against the fans. In 1982, he wrote a book called “Tolkien and the Black Magic” where the Tolkien Fellowships of Sweden were accused of satanism, drugs, ritual murder, sexorgies and organized crime.
I must say I was really taken aback by the casting choices for the Harry Potter thing. Then I realised that the characters must be all grown up in the play, so of course they’d cast adults. Guess it’s really not a prequel, then.
I think the correct answer to Paulk would be to instead invite her to a panel discussing if calling people nazis for not liking the same works as themselves is an acceptable response.
Adeste Pixelis.
Is it just my perception, or do the Puppies constantly talk as if making money were the only thing that matters.
14) Ann Leckie is a class act, always gracious and full of enthusiasm.
Paulk, not so much.
People who take a dump in your pool happy to point out all the extra business they’re creating for pool cleaning companies.
Sychronicity, which its makers compare to Blade Runner, Gattaca and Memento, is coming to theaters January 22
Dumped in January is a bad bad bad sign of the confidence in, and the quality of, the movie.
Thanks for posting an item about my local newspaper, the Hampshire Daily Gazette, publishing a profile and pictorial about yours truly last fall. Unfortunately, the Gazette seems to have once again locked the article behind a paywall, making it available to casual readers (i.e. File 770 regulars) only if they spring for a subscription. It’s a good newspaper, but not that good.
Luckily, the article’s writer, James Heflin, sent me a PDF of the article when it was reprinted in the Gazette’s monthly magazine under his preferred title, “From Whately to Mars.” I put it up on my website where you don’t have to pay to read it. Here’s the link to my site — http://www.allensteele.com/ — where it can be accessed from the opening page.
NickPheas,
Re (11), thank you for putting it better than I was struggling to.
It takes a certain kind of personality (KP, not you) to try to spin that you made others so sick of your bullshit that they spontaneously rose against you en-masse, as a positive outcome of your actions.
Dear Mac: I kind of understand where Paulk is coming from with her request. I’m sure there’s been a lot of things said about the puppies that she don’t recognize as being correct when applied to her.
However, I doubt the version she’s likely to tell is more correct. I see no reason to assume Paulk would make a good moderator. Quite the opposite: That she considers herself a good choice for a moderator tells me that she’s unaware of her own bias, and is thus further evidence of her incompetence as a moderator for that panel. Add that a panel discussion is not a good place to refer to specific things that’s been said (like “here’s how Torgersen announced Sad Puppies 3: ..:”), and a panel moderated by Paulk seems like a very bad idea.
If Paulk is serious about “setting things straight”, I suggest she offers to sit on a panel – not host it – and, if possible, to attempt to recruit a moderator who isn’t a puppy spokesperson. (Flint, as someone suggested upthread, might be one option.)
Or even better, she could just write down her explanation of what the puppy movement is really all about. That has the advantage over a panel discussion that it’s much easier to quote sources. It’s revealing that all the attempts of historical roundups – like http://www.jimchines.com/2015/06/puppies-in-their-own-words/ or https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/the-puppy-kerfuffle-timeline/ – comes from non-puppies. If Paulk want to explain the “real” history and motivation of the Sad Puppies, I suggest she do something similar.
***
Also, I fifth the request for The Further Adventures of Sphene and Translator Zeiat.
+1 Johan P.
+1 Johan P.
However, I think the challenge for that proposition would involve it being fact-based, and with appropriate links to any statements that she puts forwards.
As has often been shown, facts are not the SP’s friends…
MANATEE SEASON and SUPPORTING (DIE) CAST:
This is what I like to see. The Pup-types just having fun doing and talking about what they like. And without having to drag CHORFs and Jimmy Carter into it. Like I said about that old Torgersen interview that Mamatas linked to a couple months ago: he sounded a lot happier before he let the awards thing start eating at him.
ANNUAL REVIEW:
I definitely want a Sphene and Zeiat book. I can write the blurb myself:
On a backwater planet at the edge of a galactic civil war, two diplomatic troubleshooters must figure out why the planet’s fish allow themselves to be eaten. The answer will threaten the stability of human, piscine, and Pres’ger space. Oh by the way, the fish? They’re all girls! Okay, they’re actually not all girls. We just call them all girls. Our troll game is strong.
Dammit. Ticky!
Is it just my perception, or do the Puppies constantly talk as if making money were the only thing that matters.
Leaving aside the fact that Paulk is talking about a five year increase when the Pups have only been a going concern for three, she’s also probably wrong about the money. I believe Standlee has pointed out more than once that Supporting Memberships are mostly a break even proposition for Worldcon and Attending Memberships aren’t really much better. An increase in the number of people joining Worldcon increases the income, but it also increases expenses, resulting in no real increase in profit. The Pups aren’t really doing Worldcon any favors on the financial front.
I wasn’t aware that Worldcon was supposed to make a profit – isn’t the usual idea to spend all the monies on guests and facilities and stuff, with just enough margin to avoid putting the organizing committee in the poorhouse?
Isn’t it for the love of the genre?
Or is that just the marxist in me?
Once again, the puppies miss the point. Paulk’s panel would be hysterical with real time fact checking – you’d need half a dozen fact checkers and a buzzer to interrupt with a correction, you might be able to get through the opening statement in a hour or so…
Re Palk and MAC II
One wonders whether the Puppies will be at their usual pitch of intensity come next July. There’s only so much air to fuel any fires. Given the self importance of some of the Puppies (vast) and the timetable of the interminable US election cycle, might they be proclaiming Armageddon for different reasons?
If the puppies are all be wailing that the One True Hope for all those Real Americans, who understand the Real Threat, has just been “robbed” of the GOP nomination, will they have the energy to make false police reports during MAC? Will Wright and Correia and that whole lot have the energy to think of pronouns as they look forward towards the inevitable End Of America that Trump loosing the GOP nominations inevitablely presages? Will Hoyt have anytime to write about SF when no Trump means that our current, Salazar regime Portugal-like utopia is about to degenerate into some hellscape of affordable healthcare and gays with equal rights?
These are self important twits who sees them selves as warriors for Civilization. By MAC II, Wright will be writing masterworks of misogyny and homophobia about Hillary Clinton, Beale will have all his little Stormers up in arms about Muslims registering to vote, and Larry will be draped in assault rifles, muttering “come and take them” and talking armed revolution if Clinton is elected.
They won’t have time to care about SF.
(11) If MidAmerica Con has any sense, they will stay far far away from the Impaler and her sycophants.
Also: Thanks, Mike!
I third fifth the request for The Further Adventures of Sphene and Translator Zeiat.
Aaron said:
I believe the idea in looking at five years is to see the horrible, anemic, declining numbers in 2011-2012 before the Puppies showed up and compare them to after the Puppies rode in to save the day.
It’s just that looking back a bit further makes it clear that the Hugos had already entered a period of explosive growth. The Puppy kerfuffle may have sped it up, but it is part of the trend, not the cause of it.
I didn’t say that the Puppies were being accurate, only that they seem fixated on money as the supreme virtue.
Remember the early recruiting for the Puppies gloated about how much money losing a Hugo would cost someone, enough to really hurt them, it said.
Remember how frequently some of the Puppies have raged about those who “take money out of my pocket” by denying them awards.
Remember how often the Puppies try to cite sales figures as proof of superiority.
I don’t know if my perceptions are off. It just seems jarring to me how often money comes up in Puppy statements.
Aaron: it is unlikely that supporting memberships are a break-even proposition; mailing has gotten more expensive but fewer publications are mailed than when I ran the numbers for 1989 (whose costs included buying computers, since home machines were rare then). Attending memberships certainly don’t increase costs proportionally; big chunks of the budget (e.g., facilities rental) have to be paid regardless of how few people show up.
However, the big financial benefits come not from the few hundred Puppies but from the thousands of fen who rose up to sweep away the mess the Puppies made. Considering how they vilified the voters, it’s amusing to see the Puppies claim responsibility for the benefits they brought to the Worldcon.
So it’s like the bit of grit taking credit for the pearl.
BTW, I’ve decided to go with the Three Pup Vote Scandal instead of Puppygate.
I said:
Just to be clear, because humor is hard to spot on the Internet sometimes, I’m saying that tongue-in-cheek. 2011 and 2012 both set new all-time records for Hugo voting participation.
I didn’t say that the Puppies were being accurate, only that they seem fixated on money as the supreme virtue.
I wasn’t trying to contradict you. The Pups do seem completely obsessed with money (even Correia’s “humorous” write up focuses on money at points). I was just pointing out that even if Paulk is obsessed with money, she’s also wrong about it with respect to the Puppy impact on the finances of Worldcon.
it is unlikely that supporting memberships are a break-even proposition; mailing has gotten more expensive but fewer publications are mailed than when I ran the numbers for 1989 (whose costs included buying computers, since home machines were rare then).
I’m just reporting what I recall that Standlee has said on the subject.