(0) The Saturday Scroll will be a short one. I am on my way to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday — which will feel a bit incongruous because I’m still shocked and saddened by this first piece of news:
(1) DEB GEISLER, FN (1957-2024). Dr. Deborah M. Geisler (Deb), chair of Noreascon 4, the 2004 Worldcon, died today at the age of 66.
Her husband, Mike Benveniste, announced on Facebook that she passed at home while resting comfortably under hospice care after a long battle with lung and heart disease. He added:
Deb was, at her core, a teacher. As a professor of Communication and Journalism at Suffolk University, she touched the lives of students for over 30 years. Deb never stopped caring profoundly about her students and the material she taught. She was also a science fiction fan, fellow of NESFA, and conrunner and made many friendships in that community.
She was chair of Noreascon 4, a Boskone, the 2004 Worldcon, and volunteered her time, experience, and snark to many other conventions. She was also the love of my life — we would have been married 33 years this October.
Deb is survived by her sister Libby and brother Doug as well as her extended family. I will post arrangements for a wake and a memorial in the future once I know them.
(2) FRANK R. PAUL AWARDS DEADLINE. The submission window for the Frank R. Paul Awards closes March 31. The relaunched award will be presented at the 2024 NASFiC in Buffalo. Award administrator Frank Wu reminds artists:
Frank R. Paul was the first great science fiction magazine artist; he did the covers for the first few years of Amazing Stories, and Ray Bradbury, Forry Ackerman and Arthur C. Clarke were enticed into this field by his art. The FRP awards for best book cover and magazine cover art offer a $500 honorarium for each. Any artist, author, editor or publisher can submit up to 5 of their own works from 2023; the awards are open to everyone, including pro, semi-pro, fan or indie. Reprinted works are fine, as long as the art is new for 2023. The award winners will be determined by a panel of judges, and Frank R. Paul’s grandson Bill Engle is a member of the award committee.
For more information, please see the award website or contact the chief awards administrator, Frank Wu, at [email protected].
The Frank R. Paul Awards were last run in 1996 by Kubla-Khan and the Nashville SF Association. Frank Wu is funding the first year’s award. For subsequent years they will be setting up a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and taking donations.
(3) COIN OF THE REALM. “Coming to a Galaxy Near You – The Royal Mint Launches New Star Wars™ Range”.
The Millennium Falcon today (Monday 18th March) landed onto an official UK coin, as The Royal Mint unveils its latest collectable Star Wars™ coins and bullion bars.
Following the success of its first Star Wars coin series, Series 2 is dedicated to the franchise’s iconic vehicles. Designed by Ffion Gwillim, the first coin is the series depicts the infamous Millennium Falcon, one of the most recognised and celebrated vehicles in the Star Wars galaxy. Collectors and fans will enjoy the coin’s unique lenticular feature, depicting a silhouette of the Millennium Falcon and the Rebel Alliance ‘Starbird’ symbol.
Combining traditional minting techniques with modern technology, The Royal Mint’s craftspeople have faithfully reproduced the Star Wars vehicles for the first time on official UK coins. The lenticular feature, which tilts in the light to reveal symbols, is favourited by coin collectors, and demonstrates The Royal Mint’s specialised striking techniques. An advanced picosecond laser was used to imprint the intricate designs onto coin making tools to ensure exquisite accuracy.
Other coins launching in 2024 will showcase a TIE Fighter, X-Wing, and Death Star II.
(4) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Born March 23, 1952 — Kim Stanley Robinson, 72. If the Mars trilogy was the only work that Kim Stanley Robinson had written, he’d rank among the best genre writers ever. So let’s talk about it. The trilogy consists of Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars plus The Martians collection of short stories which I’ve not read because I didn’t know it existed until now.
(He wrote another Mars set novel prior to this, Icehenge, but it is not related to this continuity however it shares much of its themes.)
The trilogy with its colonizing and terraforming of Mars told through many narratives is quite fascinating. The use of multiple narratives isn’t by any means my favorite approach to telling a story but works perfectly here and I can’t imagine a more traditional approach working here.
Red Mars won a BSFA and Nebula. Green Mars and Blue Mars won Hugos.
Then he went and wrote the outstanding Three Californias Trilogy. The novels that make up the trilogy are The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge. I’ve only spent brief periods of time there, though I lived in both states north of there, but I found his creation of three possible future Californias rather interesting.
May I note that the Science in the Capital series (Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, Sixty Days and Counting) is one perhaps that I can’t judge fairly as I didn’t like the first novel so I stopped there.
His best one-off novels I think are without argument (ha!) The Years of Rice and Salt and New York 2140. Now I’ll admit that’s based at, in part, on the fact that he’s written a lot of novel outside of the series I’ve read such as The Ministry for the Future with future generations being vested now which sounds interesting and and Red Moonwell.
He’s won way, way too many Awards to go into in detail, but I’ll will note that he won both the Robert A. Heinlein Award for everything that he done to that date, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in service to society.
(5) VIDEO OF THE DAY. The Season 1 trailer for the new Doctor Who has dropped.
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Frank Wu, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peer.]
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(1) May her memory be a blessing.
(4) I’m very fond of the Three Californias and of his early Memory of Whiteness
Missing Deb already. Wish there had been more opportunities to cross paths with her.
Rich Lynch: Yes, and I thought she was a source of the kind of wisdom we need so much in the Worldcon area right now.
(1) Didn’t know her, but… so young. Damn.
(3) Great. In the US, the … is it “Liberty”? Mint makes collectable coins. The tories are this desperate?
Birthday: and a happy birthday to him. I got the chance to speak with him for a bit at the F. Scott Fitgerald festival in Rockville a couple of years ago (which I covered for Filers), and enjoyed talking to him.
Mark: I remember your report about that KSR appearance.
@mark
(3) They make money from these commemorative/collector coins. They are a real mint, unlike Liberty, and it’s one way to profit a little. (They do beautiful work. I got some a few years back.).
The “award website” link isn’t a link.
(4) Likewise re the “Science in the Capitol” series. I read the first book, at the conclusion of which I had no idea what the point of it was, what the plot was, nothing. My wife, having greatly enjoyed the Mars Trilogy, Antarctica, and Years of Rice and Salt said I must be mistaken, so she read it.
Same reaction.
1) Deb was good people and will definitely be missed.
4) A brief clarification. The novels in the Three Californias Trilogy were written and published before The Mars books. “The Wild Shore” was Robinson’s first novel.
PJ: that’s what I was wondering, if the tories are that desperate for revenue (since they won’t tax the wealthy).
(4) My introduction to KSR was Antarctica. The paperback is still on my physical bookshelf, surviving all purges, along with everything else of his that I’ve bought since then. The only omissions are A Short, Sharp Shock, Whiteness, and the Californias, I think.
The Science in the Capital series has fascinating insights into the peer-review process for scientific journals. The ending of Aurora isn’t strong, but Ship is a great character and its account of onboard conflict resolution is purest comfort reading.
(4) I understand that the Science in the Capitol series was edited into one volume, “Green Earth”.
F.J. Bergmann, go here until the link gets fixed.
I can’t fix the last character of the awards site link on my phone. What’s there will take you to his webpage.
Use Cat’s link above.
(1) Learning of Deb’s death today was a real blow, but not a surprise. As Michael says in his post, she’s struggled with heart and lung disease for quite a few years now. She deserved so many more healthy years.
From the ISFDB entry on “Green Earth”:
“Note: This single volume version of the trilogy was described by the publisher as “updated and abridged into a single novel” (this is confirmed by the author in the introduction for the book).”
In the introduction Stan writes about how and why the change from three novels to one came about. Sort of a peek into the craft of an author.
Anyway, the introduction is readable on Amazon’s Kindle edition. Well worth a read.
The Video of the Day gave a sweet nod to A Sound of Thunder at 51 seconds in.
Associational: I’m just back from seeing Boiled in Lead’s 41st anniversary show at the Parkway Theater. (And this is also the 5th anniversary of the last time I saw them, back on May 23rd, 2019.) Was a fun show! with a new drummer added to the lineup, and Haley Olson replacing the late, much-lamented David Stenshoel on violin.
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Meredith Moment: Simon and Schuster is having a sale on Star Trek ebooks through March 31.
Deb Geisler’s husband/widower has posted additional information on her facebook page about the Visitation this Wednesday, March 27th ay Mackey’s Funeral Home in Middleton, MA (the details are at the bottom of the page below the obit):
https://www.mackeyfuneralhome.com/obituary/Deborah-Geisler
Cat, I believe KSR’s Three Californias trilogy (three different futures in the same region of California) predated the Red Mars trilogy.
Joe H, I remember seeing Boiled in Lead at a Mpls venue in 1988. A terrific show, and thanks to Elise M, who took me there.
Joe H., I saw Boiled in Lead when they performing in a field during high summer in New Hampshire some twenty five years ago. Yes, a field. No idea why they were there, but it made for a very close up and personal concert as we were within a few dozen feet of the band.
The first time I could have seen Boiled in Lead perform was in … 1987, I think, when they played the homecoming dance at college. But I had a cold or something, so I just stayed in the dorm.
I don’t have ticket stubs to confirm, but I’m pretty sure that Boiled in Lead is the group that I’ve seen in concert the most times over the years, although Väsen is also a strong possibility.
I know Boiled In Lead but never got around to them (as we all probably know, music and book collecting are a lot alike—so much to discover). Guess I’ll give them a whirl—Songs From The Gypsy sounds like a place to start. 🙂
Joe H, I’ve seen Vasen three times and they were stellar all three times.
I wouldn’t say that Songs from the Gypsy is the place to start with them as is it’s atypical of them, I’d actually choose 40 Years of Rock ‘n’ Reel, their just released collection, and I’m personally very fond of Old Lead, a collection of BOiLeD iN lEaD, their first album, and Hotheads.
@ Cat Eldridge
Thanks for the advice. At the start, Old Lead is surprisingly near Steeleye Span’s Please To See The King (which I am inordinately fond of).
All that music, and no one mentions the love of fandom in the nineties, Tempest.
Rob Thornton says Thanks for the advice. At the start, Old Lead is surprisingly near Steeleye Span’s Please To See The King (which I am inordinately fond of).
Mostly it does though “Boiled in Lead”, their namesake song is definitely not Steeleye like. I always wanted a live version to put up on Green Man but BiL didn’t allow that.
@Mark: Tempest! I saw them in some tiny bar in Madison, WI, back in 1993 — as I recall, the audience might have been outnumbered by the band, but they put on a good show.
The thing with Boiled in Lead is that they went through three phases — well, one phase, then a second phase, then kind of back to the first phase. Phase one was when Todd Menton was fronting the band. Then at some point in the early 90s, I think it was?, he and David Stenshoel (the original fiddle player) left, and Adam Stemple (Jane Yolen’s son) took over singing and Josef Kessler joined on fiddle; and at that point, the band became more of a rock band, I’d say — that was when they did Songs from The Gypsy (a companion to the Steven Brust book) and Antler Dance. Then Stemple and Kessler left and Menton and Stenshoel came back and the sound went back to more of what it was on those earlier albums. Also, at some point Robin Adnan Anders, the original percussionist, left, and since then they’ve worked with different drummers, or sometimes with no drummer.
(n.b. I have no idea of what sorts of internal drama or politics may have been at play at any point during these past 40 years — this is just what I saw from the audience. And I’m probably conflating and/or eliding some of the personnel changes. But Drew Miller has been on bass for every show.)
EDIT: And Adam Stemple came over from Cat’s Laughing, if I have the timing right. Man, the Twin Cities was a hotbed of fantasy-adjacent folk-rock music back in the day.
FWIW, there’s a Wiki for Boiled in Lead that has a chart of all the band members.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiled_in_Lead
Thanks! I should have realized there would be such a thing … Fascinating to see it all laid out like that.
Re: Boiled in Lead, I have a number of their CDs, there is some good material on Old Lead, but for me the perfect BiL CD is “From the Ladle to the Grave”, every track is great. (This would be from their first phase)
Joe H) I saw Vasen for the first time a few months ago, playing with the American acoustic trio Hawktail. They were fantastic, as was Hawktail.
Tempest is still actively touring and releasing new recordings. I see them about once a year when they come to the east coast.
I was on my way to the Columbus airport to fly to Winnipeg for Conadian when I totalled my last Honda Civic station wagon, When a Cadillac and a Civic have a disagreement, the Cadillac wins. The tape playing in my car was Boiled in Lead’s “Antler Dance”, the track was “Rasputin”.
I made it to Conadian anyway, thanks to friends in Chillicothe who put me up for the night and got me to Columbus the next morning, and Northwest Airlines who changed my reservation after hearing why I’d missed my flights. My parents and big sister looked after me at the con. I retrieved the tape when I cleaned my poor dead car out at the junkyard it was towed to.