(1) BRAITHWAITE RESTORES CLASSIC ARTWORK. Gracing the cover of Warp #93, the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association clubzine, is this superlative painting —
The Doctor and his Companion, by Claude Monet (oil on canvas, 1875), a painting dating from a most fertile phase of the renowned French Impressionist’s career, was recently discovered in the attic of a house in Argenteuil in which Monet lived in the 1870s. Little is known of the subjects depicted as the artist left no notes as to their identity or relationship to him. No particulars on the gentleman or lady are to be found, either, in the local historical records of the time and the odd structure beside which the gentleman is standing remains a puzzle. Civic records offer no indication that such a structure ever existed, as if this curious blue box simply appeared out of thin air, and then disappeared just as mysteriously. The title of the work gives us our only clue as to the two subjects, suggesting that the gentleman was, perhaps, a medical doctor travelling with a female relative, Fiancée, or mistress. MonSFFA’s own Keith Braithwaite worked on the restoration of the painting.
(2) BLUE PEOPLE BEWARE. Yahoo! Movies reports “’The Force Awakens’ Barreling Toward ‘Avatar’Record”.
The space opera sequel is moving up the all-time domestic box office charts at a record clip and now is poised to overtake those pointy eared blue aliens as the top grossing film in history. Avatar earned $760.5 million during its stateside run and Star Wars: The Force Awakens has generated $740.4 million domestically after picking up $88.3 million over New Year’s weekend. It should take the crown from Avatar early next week.
(3) AXANAR DECONSTRUCTED. (There’s that word again. I hope I know what it means…) John Seavey at Mightygodking has created a FAQ about the Paramount/CBS lawsuit against Axanar Productions:
Q: Then why are they being sued? Paramount allows lots of these things, don’t they?
A: Oh, yeah. “Star Trek Renegades”, “Star Trek: Of Gods and Men”, “Star Trek Continues”…basically, it seems like as long as nobody’s making any money, Paramount turns a blind eye to these fan films.
Q: But this one they wouldn’t? Why?
A: Well, there is the fact that, in an update on Axanar’s Indigogo campaign, they said, “EVERYTHING costs more when you are a professional production and not a fan film. All of this and more is explained, along with our budget of how we spent the money in the Axanar Annual Report.”
And in that latest annual budget report, they said, “First and foremost, it is important to remember that what started out as a glorified fan film is now a fully professional production. That means we do things like a studio would. And of course, that means things cost more. We don’t cut corners. We don’t ask people to work full time for no pay. And the results speak for themselves.”
And:
“Please note that we are a professional production and thus RUN like a professional production. That means our full time employees get paid. Not much honestly, but everyone has bills to pay and if you work full time for Axanar, you get paid.
Also, no other fan film has production insurance like we do. We pay $ 12,000 a year for that. Again, a professional production.”
Also, in their Indiegogo FAQ, they had this little gem:
“Q: What is Axanar Productions?
Axanar is not just an independent Star Trek film; it is the beginning of a whole new way that fans can get the content they want, by funding it themselves. Why dump hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on 400 cable channels, when what you really want is a few good sci-fi shows? Hollywood is changing. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and other providers are redefining content delivery, and Axanar Productions/Ares Studios hopes to be part of that movement.”
Which kind of contradicts the “fan film” statement.
(4) WILL SMITH’S CHARACTER IS LATE. John King Tarpinian imagines the conversation went like this: “You want how much? Sorry but your character just died.” In a Yahoo! News interview, “Will Smith Says It Was Terrible When He Found Out His Independence Day Character Died”.
Will Smith found it unpleasant to learn that the fat lady had sung on Steven Hiller, the character he played in 1996’s Independence Day. “It was terrible when I found out my character died,” Smith told Yahoo.
Hiller’s death was revealed on a viral site for Independence Day: Resurgence. “While test piloting the ESD’s first alien hybrid fighter, an unknown malfunction causes the untimely death of Col. Hiller,” the site’s timeline reads. “Hiller’s valor in the War of ’96 made him a beloved global icon whose selfless assault against the alien mothership lead directly to the enemy’s defeat. He is survived by his wife Jasmine and his son Dylan.” You can see an image of Hiller’s fiery death by clicking here.
(5) ALL KNIGHT. Admiring Fred Kiesche’s Damon Knight quote in a comment here, Damien G. Walter tweeted —
https://twitter.com/damiengwalter/status/683681839463022592
(6) HE FIGURES. Camestros Felapton forays into toy design with his new “Hugo” brand “Stage Your Own Kerfuffle” figures….
(7) JEFFRO MOVES UP. Vox Day is delegating management of the Castalia House blog to “The new sheriff in town”, Jeffro Johnson:
As Castalia House has grown, it has become increasingly difficult to balance my responsibilities as Lead Editor and as the manager of this blog. Because Castalia House shoots for excellence across the board, I have decided that it is time to step back and hand over my responsibilities for this blog to someone else.
And who is better suited to take it over than one of the very best bloggers in science fiction and gaming? I am absolutely delighted to announce that the Castalia House blogger, author of the epic Chapter N series, and 2015 Hugo nominee for Best Fan Writer, Jeffro Johnson, has agreed to accept the position of Blog Editor at Castalia House.
(8) ARISTOTLE. That leaves Vox Day more time to orchestrate his winter offensive. His first target is File 770 commenter Lis Carey.
Even I occasionally forget how fragile these psychologically decrepit specimens are. Anyhow, it’s a good reminder to ALWAYS USE RHETORIC on them. They’re vulnerable to it; they can’t take it. That’s why they resort to it even when it doesn’t make sense in the context of a discussion, because they are trying to make you feel the emotional pain that they feel whenever they are criticized.
Day is developing a Goodreads author page, and Carey mentioned yesterday she had already seen early signs of activity:
Ah, this may explain a recent comment on one of my reviews of last year’s Hugo nominees–and means maybe I can expect more.
The particular comments were on her review of Castalia House’s Riding The Red Horse.
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY
- January 3, 1841 — Herman Melville ships out on the whaler Acushnet to the South Seas.
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born January 3, 1892 – J.R.R. Tolkien, honored by Emily Asher-Perrin at Tor.com:
But of course, the world remembers Tolkien for changing the fantasy genre forever. By penning The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien set a framework for fantasy literature that countless authors have attempted to recapture over the years. The creation of Middle-earth, from its languages to its poetry to its rich cultural history and varied peoples, was an astounding feat of imagination that no one had managed before with such detail and ardent care.
(11) SEMIPROZINES. Camestros Felapton continues moving through the alphabet in his “Semiprozine Round-Up: Cs and Ds”.
Keeping on going in the Cs and Ds of semiprozines.
- The Cascadia Subduction Zone
- The Colored Lens
- Crossed Genres Magazine
- Daily Science Fiction
- The Dark Magazine
- Diabolical Plots
(12) PARTS NOT TAKEN. “Leonardo DiCaprio Reflects On Turning Down Anakin Skywalker And Two SuperHero Roles” at ScienceFiction.com:
And it’s a philosophy that has led to him turning down parts in some guaranteed smashes and lots of cha-ching. He recently revealed that he actually met with George Lucas, but ultimately passed on playing Anakin Skywalker in the ‘Star Wars’ prequels.
“I did have a meeting with George Lucas about that, yes. I just didn’t feel ready to take that dive. At that point.”
Around this time, DiCaprio instead chose to make ‘Gangs of New York’ and ‘Catch Me If You Can’, the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Still he must be kicking himself. The role instead went to Hayden Christiansen and look at how his career took… oh, ahem. Nevermind.
(13) REMEMBERING BAEN. While researching another post, I rediscovered David Drake’s 2006 tribute to the late Jim Baen, who had just recently passed. Shortly before Baen’s death the two were on the phone and Baen asked, “You seem to like me. Why?” The answer is rather touching.
And then I thought further and said that when I was sure my career was tanking–
“You thought that? When was that?”
In the mid ’90s, I explained, when Military SF was going down the tubes with the downsizing of the military. But when I was at my lowest point, which was very low, I thought, “I can write two books a year. And Jim will pay me $20K apiece for them–”
“I’d have paid a lot more than that!”
And I explained that this wasn’t about reality: this was me in the irrational depths of real depression. And even when I was most depressed and most irrational, I knew in my heart that Jim Baen would pay me enough to keep me alive, because he was that sort of person. He’d done that for Keith Laumer whom he disliked, because Laumer had been an author Jim looked for when he was starting to read SF.
I could not get so crazy and depressed that I didn’t trust Jim Baen to stand by me if I needed him. I don’t know a better statement than that to sum up what was important about Jim, as a man and as a friend.
(14) PEACE IN OUR TIME. In “The Stormbunnies and Crybullies”, John C. Wright devotes over 2,000 words to making his closing offer irresistible in that special way only he knows how.
But I am a forgiving man, jovial and magnanimous. I make the following peace offer: Go your way. Cease to interfere with me and my livelihood, do your work, cease to libel me and meddle with my affairs, withhold your tongue from venom and your works from wickedness, and we shall all get along famously.
Otherwise, it is against my self interest to seek peace with you. Peace is a two sided affair: both parties must agree. So far only Mr. Martin has even expressed a desire for it.
(15) WHAT KEEPS YOU FROM WRITING? Nandini Balial at Pacific Standard helps writers name their fears — “Gremlins and Satyrs of Rejection: A Taxonomy of Writers’ Foes”
THE SATYRS OF MOUNT OUTLET: Like its cousin Olympus, Mount Outlet stretches far beyond human sight into luxurious billowy clouds. The work its satyrs produce is sharp and daring. Vast networks of bloggers, freelancers, and even reporters churn out viral but self-aware listicles, personal essays that make me cry more than they should, and short stories so good I’m inclined to simply put my pen away. On Twitter, their satyrs (editors) trade barbs and witticisms with the speed of a Gatling gun. A poor peasant like me may approach the foot of the mountain, but my tattered, unworthy scrolls and I will soon turn around and head home.
(16) PUBLISHING STINKS. Kristen Lamb, in “The Ugly Truth of Publishing & How BEST to Support Writers”, says don’t bother reviewing her books on Goodreads, because that’s where the trolls are:
Tweet a picture of our book. Put it on Facebook. People in your network ARE noticing. Peer review and approval is paramount in the digital age. And don’t support your favorite author on Goodreads as a first choice (AMAZON reviews are better). The only people hanging out on Goodreads for the most part are other writers and book trolls.
Support us on your regular Facebook page or Instagram or Twitter. Because when you post a great new book you LOVED your regular friends see that. When they get stranded in an Urgent Care or an airport? What will they remember? THAT BOOK. They won’t be on Goodreads. Trust me.
(17) DISSONANCE. After reading Kristen Lamb’s discouraging words, I encountered M. L. Brennan calling for everyone to get up and dance because “Generation V earned out and what that means”. That’s not the next post I’d have expected to see, straight from leaving Lamb’s black-crepe-draped explanation of the publishing industry.
One thing to bear in mind, because it’s easy to lose sight of it when you look at that last paragraph — if I hadn’t received an advance, I wouldn’t have made more money on this book. I would still have earned $7615.78 on the series — except earning that first $7500 would have taken me two years, rather than being entirely in my pocket on the day that Generation V hit the bookstores. And that $7500 paid my mortgage, my electric bill, and other bills, which made it substantially easier for me to write. Without that advance, it would’ve taken me longer to write Iron Night, Tainted Blood, and even Dark Ascension, because I would’ve been having to hustle other work elsewhere and spend less time writing.
(18) NONE DARE CALL IT SF. Whether Joshua Adam Anderson styles himself an sf fan I couldn’t say (though he did take a course from Professor James Gunn), but his LA Review of Books article “Toward a New Fantastic: Stop Calling It Science Fiction” is a deep dive into the abyss of genre. His attempt to define (redefine?) science fiction is precisely what fans love.
LAST JULY, Pakistani science fiction writer Usman Malik published a clarion call for his home country. In it, he made the claim that “[e]ncouraging science fiction, fantasy, and horror readership has the potential to alleviate or fix many of Pakistan’s problems.” While it would be difficult to disagree with the idea that science fiction is a positive force in the world, many of Malik’s reasons for championing the genre are problematic. To begin with, Malik — along with just about everyone else — still, for some reason, calls “science fiction” science fiction. His essay actually contains a handful of reasons why we should stop calling it “science fiction,” and it also inadvertently addresses how and why we need to liberate ourselves from genre itself — and how “science fiction” can help us do just that.
(19) PLANNING BEGINS: Paul Johnson’s early word is that the event to honor his father, the late George Clayton Johnson, might be in February at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Will R., Paul Weimer, Brian Z., and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
The Big Five have been increasing their market share.
Self-Publishing & Big Five Dominate Book Market, According to Nielsen
:: godstalk ::
What exactly is the active blacklist campaign that is being organized here ? I must have missed that missive.
@Shambles
Nothing organised here or anywhere else so far as I know, but there was something mentioned here in the last two or three days that may be what’s referred to. Deliberate vagueness because hearsay and rumour only.
Numerous Worldcon members attacked me and falsely accused me of gaming the 2014 Hugo Awards. I had nothing to do with it.
You mean other than publishing a virtually identical slate to that created by Correia and encouraging bloc voting for the 2014 Hugos. Other than your actual attempt at trying to game the 2014 Hugo Awards, you didn’t try to game the Hugo Awards.
@Shambles
Supposedly someone told a shop in Toronto that Teddy and his little chums were horrible people and they stopped ordering their books. There is a lack of evidence.
I find this somewhat difficult to believe. It’s a foolish bookshop that stops ordering works that sell. I would be less surprised if the conversation went the other way.
“We’re just not selling any of these books. Sales have just dropped through the floor. Which is odd, because they used to sell well.”
“Oh, hadn’t you heard, they’ve been acting like petulant children and everybody hates them.”
“That explains it. No point restocking them then.”
Worst Baen cover? Ooooh, so many choices. I’ll go for Sir Dominic Flandry by Poul Anderson.
@Aaron
That was 2015, not 2014.
There really needs to be an emoji for
::twirls mustache manically::
Then TB could just copy and paste it over and over again.
Shambles: What exactly is the active blacklist campaign that is being organized here ? I must have missed that missive.
Supposedly someone in some town somewhere is trying to persuade bookstores not to carry someone’s books.
I am mystified how anyone here — or anyone other than that person, if they are actually doing something — is accountable for what they’re doing.
But I guess VD is used to sheep who follow his orders, so he assumes that actually intelligent people are all following someone’s orders as well.
You know, in the same way that cheaters are always convinced that everyone else is cheating, too.
I held off buying _The Warrior’s Apprentice_ for years because of its cover. A half-dressed woman clinging nervously to a man on the bridge of a ship–it didn’t look like my kind of thing at all, beyond being SFF.
After I’d read two or three other Bujold books I decided to take a chance on it based on the author, and I’m not sorry. But sheesh. _A Civil Campaign_ at least didn’t have that problem. Of course by _A Civil Campaign_ the only necessary cover element was Bujold’s name in a readable font.
The last couple of WorldCons had some 10,000 members. I wonder what percentage of members would have to behave well before the event should be allowed to go on without being attacked.
Sigh. There are so many good Baen books that I would never want to be seen reading in public because of the covers.
But I still read them. They are good books.
And Jim Baen was a good man.
That was 2015, not 2014.
No, VD also published a list similar to Correia’s in 2014 with a few additions. It shows up on his blog in an entry dated March 26, 2014.
Aaron: No, VD also published a list identical to Correia’s in 2014. It shows up on his blog in an entry dated March 26, 2014.
Hampus Eckeman: Worst Baen cover? Ooooh, so many choices. I’ll go for Sir Dominic Flandry by Poul Anderson.
What. The. Fuck.
Okay, you win.
Peace Is My Middle Name: There are so many good Baen books that I would never want to be seen reading in public because of the covers.
Likewise. Which is why I love my Kindle. Also, having been fortunate enough to get hold of the Baen Free CD in Cryoburn which had all the Vorkosigan novels up to then (with the exception of Memory, due to a goof), means never having to be seen with those hideous covers.
So this isn’t you in 2013?
http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/john-ringo-on-2013-hugo-winner.html
@Shambles
Dexfarkin said here the other day that
VD* then quoted Dex’s full comment on his blog, claiming
To state the obvious: there’s not much evidence (no offense to Dex) that any books aren’t being bought and in any case if true it seems that it’s simply bookstore owners deciding not to buy some bigots’ books** because of one person sending them information about them being bigoted. It’s not an organized boycott by Fandom. I also don’t think those four are among the most popular sci-fi writers but whatever. Finally, there’s no evidence at all that Baen books are being boycotting. Baen isn’t even mentioned in the original comment and Wright at least writes (or wrote?) for Tor.
So basically VD is a lying idiot. Which you probably knew already.
*I still can’t believe he’s not a parody after choosing to name himself VD.
**at least Wright and Williamson are. Puppies say so much stupid stuff I can’t (and don’t want to) keep them all straight.
@ Hampus @ JJ
(re: Sir Dominic Flandry cover)
O.o
Ooookay then. That was released under Toni Weisskopf, by the way, since it was published in 2010.
(1) BRAITHWAITE RESTORES CLASSIC ARTWORK
Mildly disappointed. I checked and this is not a fully painted repro but a classic Monet painting, “Woman With A Parasol (Madame Monet And Her Son)”. Only the figure of the Doctor and th TARDIS have been added.
This does clear up a few discrepancies that were niggling at me. The perspective is slightly off. We are looking up a hill at Madame Monet. She stands above us. And yet we are looking at the TARDIS not from below but from about level. The perspective lines by the bottom of the box are straight on or even a bit below our eyeline.
Plus also the grey thing. Monet just didn’t use it. Check out his “Houses of Parliament” or “Rouen Cathedral” series to see how he handled color and architectural forms.
It is still a fun and pretty image, but less a tour de force than it first appeared.
@ Hampus,
To be fair, it’s probably the best rendition of Timothy Dalton protects woman smeared in marmite that we will ever see.
@Aaron & JJ
I stand corrected.
Here’s an interesting riff on classic art:
Manchester Street scene, it’s almost biblical.
Especially the drunk lying on the floor, it’s like the Sistine chapel but with added beer.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/jan/04/manchester-street-scene-perspective-sistine-photo-new-year-renaissance-painting#img-1
Normally I read all the comments before adding anything of my own, but not today. That can wait until after I’ve added my bit to the words of support for Lis Carey. Keep on with the good work, Lis, and don’t worry about being bitten by the fleas off the Puppy’s back.
And if you were impressed by the cover of Sir Dominic Flandry, take a look at the cover of Young Flandry.
It was such a good episode! I watched it online so have had a long wait for this week’s ep. After reading the book I had such high hopes for the Donnager setpiece and the show didn’t disappoint. The shot of the Taichi taking off was amazing.
Are we all not sure that Teddy’s blatant dishonesty isn’t some clickbait or SEO strategy? He says something demonstrably untrue, and then people go to his blog to link to where he said what he said?
I prefer this version of Young Flandry
Didn’t Scalzi and a couple of male authors redo that cover with them in the women’s poses as part of their charity drive a few years ago?
EDIT: Ninjaed by NickPheas
The “Michael Jackson” cover of Weber’s Field of Dishonor deserves at least a mention here, I think. (Image here)
One of a few books that I own but won’t read in public….
@ Charles Stuart
Are we all not sure that Teddy’s blatant dishonesty isn’t some clickbait or SEO strategy? He says something demonstrably untrue, and then people go to his blog to link to where he said what he said?
I think VD genuinely believes whatever he says is true, and the rest of us are wrong. Because he Aristotles all the time, he can’t remember what is true and what is his own internal fantasy.
Hampus Eckeman on January 4, 2016 at 5:42 am said:
They mostly reminded me of the old Del Rey books I used to find in drift stores
I expect this is a typo, but now I really want to know what a drift store is.
BTW, is it really possible that no one has yet suggested “With Pix You Get Eggscroll” as a title?
Lis has my support.
On covers: whoever criticized the old Del Rey covers, which ones did you have in mind?
Allow me to introduce you to the glorious world of Why James Had to Be Careful Which Books He Took to His Predominantly Mennonite High School, Lest the Content be Misjudged. Although at least Whelan is familiar with human anatomy.
We can turns puppy lies into truth. I’d like to start an active campaign to get filers together for a Blacklist viewing party because James Spader is an awesome actor.
Strong Female Characters all round on those covers.
Is there a page on the site that lists all the scroll titles to date? That would make it easier to suggest new ones without accidentally repeating the past.
You know, walking in my place of work I saw the big tv in the lobby, and the BBC was interviewing somebody against the background of the latest masked bloke who is trying to play dodge-the-drone currently in Syria. The BBC isn’t showing Daesh’s latest production but they can’t resist using the still frame.
And that’s because we all like to imagine that our adversaries are big, bad, powerful and scary. We want them to be Darth Vader, not Kylo Ren.
But they’re not. The pups are not smart but misguided, full of wasted talent and scary machiavellian smarts. They’re pillocks. VD got so totally trounced by Scalzi in that Electrolite thread long ago that other commenters had to ask Scalzi to have mercy. Tank Marmot has had is military CV examined by a forum of Sf loving veterans who have found it less than impressive, to say nothing of the mirth he elicited with his, er, tactical opinions – the thing with the ammonia and the tank filters for example. JCW… well, we’ve seen that.
The truth is these people are not very bright. It’s sad that they have created so much damage, but it is not down to greatness, it is down to glitches in reality.
And yeah, I am starting to feel sorry for JCW too. I have the feeling he is not a well man, and I don’t mean mentally. He has had serious health issues, he is broke, he clearly was very hurt by the Hugo debacle, and the fact that he was too thick to see the train that was about to hit him – well, it’s not his fault, is it? I have a hard time feeling sorry for TB or TM, but JCW is a pitiful human being.
Matthew Johnsson:
Me too! I have absolutely no idea what word I should have used and where I got that one from.
RE: Books not to read in public, I find that whenever I’m reading a Richard Morgan book on public transport, within 5 pages there’s a graphic sex scene. And I really feel like everyone around me can see what’s on the pages and are scandalised.
I’m not sure whether a drift store is one that itself drifts, or one that sells items found adrift.
I suppose “thrift store” was meant, however.
@Hampus:
I assumed you meant “thrift store”, which around here is basically a charity resale shop.
This one as an example. It isn’t as much that the covers are bad as that I never liked the content. So I started to associate that kind of cover with bad books. Sorry I can’t give more examples. Possibly not only Del Rey that made the books.
“However weak…” That’s an Ayn Rand thing, being brave enough to attack someone weaker than you. Otherwise, their weakness is a form of power over you, just as surely as A** equals A**.
The common element I see in a lot of conservative, libertarian, reactionary right-whiners seems to be a feeling that *OTHERS* (immigrants, minorities, wrong-religionists, badthinkers, the handicapped, other genders) are somehow getting *FREE STUFF* — money, jobs, prestige, living space, mana — that the self-anointed Good Guys feel is rightfully theirs. That’s what I hear at Trump rallies, at western-state standoffs, in the Tea Party, on editorial pages, and now in the halls and pages of SFF fandom.
Why should I have to press 1 for English?? Why does she get paid just for having a starving family?? Why do they get the best parking spaces?? Why does some stupid fish get to live in that river that could be generating power for me?? Why do I have to look at some dumb girl when I just want to see space explosions?? Why isn’t my church privileged above their church more than it is?? Why do they let these foreigners come in and either not work or take jobs?? Why should I be exposed to ideas I don’t like when reading fiction?? You’re stealing OUR stuff!
It’s the sputtering of the dying days of privilege, from those who feel it all slipping away. No more unearned respect! No more default assumptions that look like them! No more being able to feel superior to someone because they were born outside of the club! No more being able to picture yourself as the hero without having to adjust for gender, race, abledness, or religion! It’s being cannily exploited by industries, politicians, and rabble-rousers under the cloak of cultural images that convince their sheep that they stand with them against the real enemies, sometimes while rifling their pockets and carting their household goods away.
How awful it must be to perceive that the undeserved free ride is ending. I guess it feels like some uppity snip is taking *YOUR* free ride without having painfully earned it by the hard work of rolling 12s or better prior to birth. It sucks to be them, and all they can think of to do is try to drag as many *THEM*s down with them.
Improve themselves? Don’t wanna! Make things better for everybody? Don’t wanna! Take a hard look at what they’ve been given (and why) for so long? Sure as hell don’t wanna! So they kick and scream and hurt whoever they can, and salve their vestigial soul with the chant of the bully (which their institutions have assure them is perfectly justified): “You made me do this to you. This is all your fault!”
Yes, of course. *facepalm*
Anna Feruglio Dal Dan: Tank Marmot has had his military CV examined by a forum of SF loving veterans who have found it less than impressive
Oh really, where did that happen?
Lis, I always read your blog, and give the Goodreads trolls exactly the zero credit they deserve. Keep up the good work.
VD on January 4, 2016 at 4:57 am said:
Not the same thing at all. If you’re going to say that, then by the same standard, the United States Government has attacked you because some of those people criticizing you are Americans.
The World Science Fiction Convention and the World Science Fiction Society have not attacked you. I have been personally critical of you, but when I spoke about you in any of my official capacities, I was careful to never cast aspersions upon you. Indeed, as was recently pointed out on comments on Lou Antonelli’s FB page, when a member of Worldcon attacked you in debate on the floor of the WSFS Business Meeting, a point of order was raised (and I sustained it) rebuking such behavior and warning members to not do it. You were officially defended by me in my official capacity as Chairman of the 2015 WSFS Business Meeting. I’d go cite the specific point in the debate, but I don’t have the recordings indexed in that way, but I know it’s there.
You continue to claim this, but I can see no factual basis for the claim. Section 4.III.c.i of the SFWA Bylaws reads:
Now that’s part of the 2013-14 reincorporation of SFWA in California, so you could claim with some justification that you should be governed by the previous bylaws, where the relevant section IV.10 reads:
But even if you claim that the previous corporation’s bylaws should govern you and even if those bylaws required a vote of the entire membership to expel you, as I understand it (I’m not a member of SFWA, it being a completely different organization than WSFS, despite water-muddying to the contrary), the 2014 reincorporation effectively dissolved the old SFWA and formed a new one. You weren’t invited to join the new one. Under a particularly tortured reading, you might still be a member of an organization that legally no longer exists. No matter how you look at it, you’re not a member of SFWA, and your claim that you are seems easily refutable by anyone capable of using Google and reading English. You can’t just say “anything I say three times is true” and expect to be taken seriously.
Incidentally, the legal entity the SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS OF AMERICA, INC. is a non-profit public benefit corporation incorporated in the state of California (entity number C3542299), as can be easily looked up on the California Secretary of State’s web site.
Re: Books not to read in public, I was always grateful I had an e-book for this:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41xylZDQAAL.jpg
Ahhh, the terrible, terrible artwork of former “Reader’s Digest” illustrator Darrell K. Sweet.
To all accounts he was a gracious and amiable person. But his dreadful artwork scourged so many book covers.
That there would be your classic Darrel Sweet cover.
If it helps, I liked some of Blaylock’s later work.