Pixel Scroll 5/6/16 Waggin’ Train

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(1) WELL WISHING. James H. Burns, the frequent File 770 columnist, is in the hospital – keep him in mind.

Hey, folks: Quite unexpectedly, I’m in Mercy Hospital, in Rockville Center, at least through the weekend. Cards and visitors welcome! Room 245A.1000 N Village Ave.Rockville Center, NY.11570

(2) NEW BEST FANZINE FINALIST. Lady Business acknowledged its nomination in “Hugo Ballot Finalist Announcement, or More Ladies and Queers on Your Ballot”.

We at Lady Business are excited to announce that we have accepted a place on the final ballot for Best Fanzine in the 2016 Hugo Awards.

This is a strange year to be be a Hugo finalist. If you’ve been following the Hugo Awards, you know that the last couple of years have been controversial. We prefer not to dwell on the controversy here, but if you’re unfamiliar and would like a summary, Fanlore has a good overview. After the 2016 finalists were announced, one of the original five Fanzine finalists, Black Gate, withdrew from consideration. The Hugo administrators contacted us to let us know that we were next in the voting tally, and offered us the open slot. After some conflicted deliberation, we decided that we wanted to acknowledge the people who voted for us in the nomination phase, and we accepted a place on the final list….

(3) KRITZER ON SHORT STORY NOMINATION.

(4) PARTY PLANNER. George R.R. Martin welcomes “The Replacements”. And contemplates their impact on the Alfies.

…((Though I am curious as to whether these two new finalists were indeed sixth. It seemed to take MAC a rather long time to announce the replacements after the withdrawal, something that could presumably be accomplished in minutes just by looking at the list and seeing who was next up — unless, perhaps, there were other withdrawals along the way? We’ll find out come August)).

Short Story and Fanzine were two categories where the Rabid Puppies had swept the field, top to bottom. Accordingly, they were also two categories that I had earmarked as being in need of Alfies. But the withdrawals and replacements broke the Rabid stranglehold, leaving me with a decision to make — do I still present Alfies in those categories, or no?

I am going to need to ponder that for a while.

(5) KNOCK-ON EFFECT. With SF Signal’s announcement fresh in mind. Adam Whitehead discusses “Blogging in the Age of Austerity” at The Wertzone.

…For bloggers who do have day jobs and families, it’s become clear that the lack of material reward for blogging means greater pressure to step away and spend that time instead with loved ones or doing other things. And that’s why it’s easy to see why the guys at SF Signal decided to step away. If I get one of the several jobs I’m currently going through the recruitment process for, the amount of blogging on the site will have to fall as I devote time to that instead.

Is there a way around this? Should there be? Kind of. For a lot of bloggers, blogging is a springboard into writing fiction and once they make that transition, the blogging is left behind. For me, I have no interest in writing fiction day in, day out. I may one day try my hand at writing a short story or a novel if a story demands to be told, but I’m never going to be a career fiction writer. I much prefer writing about the genre as a critic, but the paid market for that is much smaller. After over five months doing the rounds with my agent, A History of Epic Fantasy has failed to garner as much as the merest flicker of interest from a professional publisher, despite the people nominating it for awards (and in any year but this one, it might even have stood a chance of making the shortlist) and clamouring for the book version (look for an update on that soon). But even if that takes off, that’s just one project. Being an SFF critic isn’t much of a career path these days, especially with venues drying up (even the mighty SFX Magazine seems to be in financial trouble and may not last much longer)….

(6) WITHOUT MUMBLING. At Fantasy Literature Sam Bowring takes up the perpetual challenge — “Coming Up with Fantasy Names: A Somewhat Vague and Impractical Guide”.

One of the hardest aspects of writing a fantasy story, I find, is conjuring a bunch of made-up names that don’t sound like I spilled alphabet soup on a crossword puzzle. It’s important to get names right, of course. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has flung away a potential read in disgust because the blurb said something about a protagonist called ‘Nynmn’dryhl of the Xyl’turym’. Can I buy a vowel, please? I’m also guessing this is one reason why so few fantasy worlds include any equivalent of telephones, for everyone would be forever spelling their names over them.

That said, personal appreciation of fantasy names is about as subjective as it gets. One person’s ‘Nynmn’dryhl’ may be another’s ‘Bilbo Baggins’. It would be arrogant for me to sit here (I really must get a standing desk so I can sound more authoritative when I type) and tell you what does or does not make a good fantasy name, especially when I myself have created names I know for a fact that others find cringe-worthy. One of my good friends, for instance, never lets me forgot that I named a place ‘Whisperwood’. ‘Whisperwood,’ he will say, years later, out of the blue, shaking his head in dismay.

Thus instead I’ll merely tell you about general approaches I find to be useful. One such, which I imagine is a common starting point for many authors, is to simply diddle around with various syllables, rearranging them in different ways until striking upon a pleasing combination. I do not own the patent for this, and mind altering drugs are optional. Losara, Olakanzar, Lalenda, Elessa are all the results of such a ‘process’, as we shall kindly call it…

(7) SCIENCE TOO. The Traveler at Galactic Journey begins “[May 6, 1961] Dreams into Reality (First American in Space)” by connecting the dots.

I’ve been asked why it is that, as a reviewer of science fiction, I devote so much ink to the Space Race and other scientific non-fiction.  I find it interesting that fans of the first would not necessarily be interested in the second, and vice versa.

There are three reasons non-fiction figures so prominently in this column:

1) I like non-fiction;

2) All the science fiction mags have a non-fiction column;

3) Science fiction without science fact is without context.

(8) SENSE8. From SciFiNow, “Sense8 Season 2 sneak peek photos give a look at what’s to come”.

Sense8‘s co-creator Lana Wachowski shared a tonne of brand new Season 2 production stills on the show’s official Tumblr page recently (sense8.tumblr.com if you’re bored…), and they are absolutely delightful. They also look potentially spoilerific, so browse through the above gallery with caution.

(9) TRIBAL THEORY. Damien G. Walter takes up the topic “Have the Locus awards been hit with ‘myopic sexism’” at The Guardian.

Taken as a whole, the Locus awards were broadly representative of a sci-fi field that is continuing to grow in diversity: 18 female to 17 male writers, with many upcoming writers of colour among the voters’ top picks. Placed in that context, the way the YA category has turned out seems less like myopic sexism, and more indicative of the older demographic of readers who read Locus magazine and see the YA genre from their own preferences. When I caught up with Joe Abercrombie, nominated twice in the category for his Shattered Seas trilogy, he agreed.

“I think this has much more to do with adult SF&F readers voting for the authors they recognise, and tending to read YA that crosses over into SF&F territory.” Abercrombie’s popularity among adult readers has carried over to his YA books, which in America have been sold and marketed as adult fantasy; it’s that adult readership, who recognise Abercrombie as one of their tribe, whose votes count in the Locus award. “I’m pleased people voted for me,” he says, “but I don’t think it’s ever a good thing when someone’s on the same shortlist twice.”

(10) SF IN PORTUGAL. Luis Filipe Silva’s new entry on Portugal for the Science Fiction Encyclopedia chronicles the past century of sf/f there. The focus is on fiction, as one would expect, with this being the only comment about the interaction between literature and national politics:

Nevertheless, if utopia bewitches the faithful, it frightens the unbelievers. A decade of political and social turmoil, following the Regicide in 1908 that turned Portugal into an uneasy Republic, inspires some highly pamphletary Dystopian fiction: in A Cidade Vermelha [“The Red City”] (1923) by Luís Costa, the misguided Portuguese people welcome a full Republican/Communist government, only to see the country devolve into absolute chaos; it is not surprising that the people then cry for the return of the unjustly deposed monarch, who comes back from exile and sets things right again. Amid such strong ideological trends, any text that pictures an ideal future based solely on the workings of science and technology becomes a rarity: in the landmark vision of Lisboa no Ano 2000 [“Lisbon in the Year 2000”] (1906), Melo de Matos (years) turns Lisbon into a major world economic hub thanks to advances in Transportation and Communication made by Portuguese Scientists.

I was curious, after reading many posts by Sarah A. Hoyt.

(11) COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PRIZE. Locus Online reports a speculative story by Tina Makereti is one of five winners of the 2016 Pacific Regional Commonwealth Prize.

The 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize judges have announced this year’s five regional winners, including the speculative story “Black Milk” by Tina Makereti (New Zealand) for the Pacific region.

…The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded to the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English, and short stories translated into English from other languages (stories may be submitted in their original language if not in English). Five winning writers from five different Commonwealth regions receive £2,500 (USD $3,835), and the overall winner receives £5,000 ($7,670)….

(12) BLAME HARRY. Fantasy causes brain damage, according to a school headmaster in the UK — “Nailsworth teacher claims Harry Potter books cause mental illness”.

A headmaster has urged pupils not to read Harry Potter – claiming the books cause mental illness.

Graeme Whiting also said other fantasy titles such as Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and Terry Pratchett encourage ‘difficult behaviour’. He told parents to steer clear of JK Rowling’s ‘frightening’ books and they should read classics like Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare. Writing on his blog, Mr Whiting, head of the independent Acorn School in Nailsworth, Gloucester, thinks that people should have a ‘special licence’ to buy fantasy books. He wrote: “I want children to read literature that is conducive to their age and leave those mystical and frightening texts for when they can discern reality, and when they have first learned to love beauty….”

(13) AFTERMATH. Anne Heche and James Tupper have been cast as the leads in Syfy’s forthcoming post-apocalyptic series Aftermath. Deadline reports the former Men in Trees co-stars will reunite on screen  as a married couple who “have to contend with supernatural creatures as well as their own teenage children after a series of natural disasters finally sticks a fork in life as we know it.”

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]

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215 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/6/16 Waggin’ Train”

  1. After reading Steve Rzasa’s “Turncoat”, “Damage” was like a breath of fresh air. It was well-written & would not have surprised me if it made the longlist.

  2. JJ: I found James’ Facebook profile, and it appears that post is Friends-only. But I hope that it’s not serious, and that he’s better soon.

    Aha! For once I didn’t think of that. It being Jim, I wanted Filers to know. Ordinarily I only link to public FB items.

  3. “Damage” was the other likely nominee that I really wanted to make the ballot. Even though it would have given me tsuris to decide between it and Cat Pictures.

  4. JJ: I was surprised GRRM thought there was anything odd about the elapsed time between withdrawal and announcement of new finalists. I’m sure that he knows how the process works.

    It no doubt took some time to sort out the replacements, however, I also wonder if they didn’t build a couple of days of waiting into the process to see if any more people would announce they were dropping off. Anyone in their position would prefer to take care of everything at one go.

  5. Mike Glyer: Anyone in their position would prefer to take care of everything at one go.

    Exactly — because people last year kept dropping out one-by-one, so that Sasquan finally had to just freeze the ballot to keep it from continually changing.

  6. It is reasonable to think that Vox Day’s recommendation could have helped to push two Abercrombie YA titles into the final list, giving them an edge over the other popular contenders.

    (Probably also that stunning Gene Wolfe SF novel that hardly anyone seems to have actually read. I suspect his plug for “Folding Beijing,” hands down the best story of 2015, may have helped make it a finalist too.)

    It’s nobody’s fault that everyone voted for Pratchett.

    Liking Daniel Jose Older’s book about a young woman named Sierra Santiago is less obviously myopic sexism.

    That leaves the myopically sexist Tor readers who enjoyed Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory.

  8. I doubt Vox Day helped Gene Wolfe – he’s had 65 Locus nominations (for fiction). That’s #5 all-time.

  9. Bartimaeus, 65! Wow, that’s so great to hear. I nominated A Borrowed Man for the Hugo.

    I wonder by how much the Locus voting went up, overall, this year.

  10. (1) WELL WISHING. – All the best to James – Get well soon!

    (8) SENSE8. – Squeee! Will resist looking though….

    @lace – thanks for that 538 post on Civil War, gotta love geeking out!

  14. @BrianZ

    It’s much more likely that the Abercrombie titles benefited from being sequels to the previous years winner than that VDs slightly belated and lackluster slate attempt had any real effect.

  15. (12) Has the good man read Shakespeare? Or Keats?
    On the other hand Shelley (Mary Shelley of course) is an excellent suggestion 😀

  16. Winning the previous year was enough of a push to get the next two on as simultaneous finalists? Doesn’t the trilogy lose a bit of steam?

    So… I don’t know. They were up against stiff competition and Vox has a couple hundred readers on his blog who take it seriously when he suggests that they do something, even on short notice, and Abercrombie is the sort of thing they like over at Castalia.

  17. @BrianZ

    I actually think book 2 works even better than book 1, although I suppose the viewpoint change may mean that others mileage varies.
    The previous win both implies that Locus readers like Abercrombie already and makes it more likely that they would have subsequently checked his series out, so at the moment I don’t see why Abercrombie’s presence on the ballot needs to be explained by slating.
    It’s a fair point that Voxman’s readers will pitch in on a lot of stuff just for giggles, but compare his one post about Locus to his 20-odd building them up to do his bidding at the Hugos.
    We won’t know until we see the long list – if his joke noms are lurking in 6th then that would imply he had some effect – but until then I can’t see anything he listed that doesn’t have a strong claim to have made it on its own merits anyway.

  18. Glad to see Cat Pictures on the ballot, I nominated it. But I hope Zoe Quinn gets to give an acceptance speech for somebody

  20. Brian Z on May 7, 2016 at 1:59 am said:

    Anyone read the third yet? Did it hold up as well?

    Pretty good. Veers a bit more towards Abercrombie’s trademark grimdark but as with the other two, same characters but different POV and different plot structure. One plot twist is a bit obvious.

    Clever, the YA in my house really enjoyed them all but liked Half a World the least. I enjoyed all three and think they work as either YA or as not-particularly-YA.

  21. (12) what Robinareid and Cora said. Also, when attempting to lay down the law, a teacher shouldn’t say “conducive” when he means “appropriate”. Children have birthdays, no matter what they read. Idjit.

  22. It’s 4:30 am here, and I just got home from my board games night with friends. Why is that relevant? Because Leane, head of Exhibits for MAC II, was there, and I was able to ask her, in person, about the parks. Note: we were talking in between trying to learn a new game, and there were some small children (not related to either of us) running around and having crises, and so questioning and answering was not as organized as one might have liked, but here’s what I learned.

    The parks will be a maximum of 10’x10′. “Probably less”. They will be on both sides of the “river”, which will be blue vinyl during the day, and be exchanged for “lava” during the night. (Red vinyl?) Plants (or “plants”?) and/or other “landscaping” will be along the riverbank to prevent people from just walking across. There will be “bridges” at intervals.
    One side of the river (the side with the dealer’s room on it) will be closed “at night” (hours not mentioned). The bridges will be walled off in some way. The other side will be open during all convention center hours. So basically there’ll be the secure-at-night side and the open all hours side. We get to choose. She showed me a picture on her phone, and it had a 10′ x 10′ grid showing the river (which was allotted 10′ by itself) and the parks on each side. I should have counted, but I didn’t; vague visual memory says there was room for 8 to 12 parks on each side of the river. There is what appeared to me to be a dead end on one side (it was up and so maybe north?) where the insecure side parks are opposite what looked like it might be the secure storage room; in any case probably not a public space. The south (?) side parks looked more in the traffic pattern. Note that my visual memory is pretty poor.

    Decorations must be “fire marshal approved”. Electricity may be available; at least one of the other parks (Boston) will have Christmas trees with, they hope, lights and an inflatable lawn Santa. New Orleans will be making an alligator for the river, so making river decorations is allowed. There are currently only three other parks besides ours reserved, but it’s early days yet. (I said, “I read a blog that’s reserved some parks” and she said “Oh. File770!”

    There may end up being some sort of “grass” (carpet? vinyl? actual fake grass? No answer given), but that depends on the budget, and so far there isn’t the budget for it.

    Among other decorations (not affiliated with any of the parks as far as I gathered) will be an 18′ tall mountain, and a 31′ cold air inflated astronaut. Because the venue is Very Tall. 40 feet? Something like that.

    She was very enthused about some of the guests they’ve got coming (and I was, too!), but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say anything about that, so I won’t.

    Sorry about any incoherence; it’s very sleepy out and time for bed.

  23. @JJ:

    When I’ve read a dozen which I thought were much more deserving, and those 2 stories really didn’t make me squee, it’s hard to feel enthused about ranking them on my ballot.

    Good point. While I do think “Cat Pictures Please” belongs above No Award, and is pretty good, it was not even in my top 20 for the year; and the legitimate nominees in some categories were just not exciting to me. This really highlights the problem with having only one or two legit nominees in a category: it gives fans so little to argue happily over – no “this awesome story is awesomer than that one”. You can only debate the merits of a single story so much, and if it’s just OK to you, you are left without any strong feelings.

  24. Nthing all the people who say that the headmaster seems not to have read more than two poems by the poets he recommends as wholesome. Seriously, Shelley is supposed to teach schoolchildren not to be “difficult”, the guy who was a notorious atheist radical, whose “Mask of Anarchy” is a raging attack on the power structure of England at the time…

  25. For most finalists most years a strong majority of the nominating voters originally thought something else was better, so I don’t really see that as a bar.
    It’s a great pity that many categories are still slated or lacking a decent unslated competition, but the knowledge that NA won’t be announced for any fiction categories makes me very happy.

  26. Cally: Leane, head of Exhibits for MAC II

    Oh, is Leane in on this? Maybe I’ll just message her. The guy with whom I’m working for the funds transfer doesn’t seem to be particularly au fait with what’s going on, and what he’s telling me we get for the money we raised is much less than what the Press Release says, so I’m not going to transfer funds until I’ve got confirmation of what’s really included.

  28. If we are placed near a wall, there is the possibility to put up cheap scenesetters in thin plastic. I have an enormous amount of them at home, but all are for Halloween-purposes. The same with inflatable ghosts, cats and whatnot.

  30. @Cally:

    “There will be “bridges” at intervals.”

    With trolls living underneath them?

  31. Peter J: Presumably “trolls”.
    James, get well soon or, if that is not possible, get as much better as possible as quickly as possible.

  33. A heads-up for anyone who likes Neal Asher’s Polity series–I see that a new novel, War Factory, has been released.

  34. Bookworm1398 on May 6, 2016 at 7:51 pm said:

    I’ll be happy to send all the students a copy of Shelley’s Men of England and Woodworth’s Argument for Suicide.

    You’re less chaotic evil than me. When the “parent and former teacher” suggested avoiding Roald Dahl, I imagined giving all the students a copy of My Uncle Oswald. 🙂

  36. I don’t know if the bridges will actually go up into the air at all or not; I’m guessing not, because money and accessibility. Note that all scarequotes are my own; this was a verbal conversation and Leane didn’t do the fingerquote thing.

    I’m trying to remember if any of the parks backed up onto a wall, and my lousy visual memory is failing me. I should have taken a picture of the picture on her phone….

  37. With that much headroom available in the File770 park, a figure similar to these* would be feasible, to enable Filers to indulge in occasional recreational Space Raptor Butt Inflation…

    *I’m sure there must be cheaper versions available.

  38. @ Brian Z – I usually don’t read reviews there but I read that one. Is it typical of their reviews to take swipes at other writers like the one made about GRRM?

  39. at least one of the other parks (Boston) will have Christmas trees with, they hope, lights and an inflatable lawn Santa.

    One of my favorite memories from Sasquan is when someone at the Helsinki bid party took a tin of reindeer meat up to the Boston party.

  40. @jrlawrence: With that much headroom available in the File770 park, a figure similar to these* would be feasible, to enable Filers to indulge in occasional recreational Space Raptor Butt Inflation…

    A few dinosaur balloons would make it easy to find our park and if close together they’d be butting up against each other… Chuck Tingle the gift which keeps on giving. I don’t think this violates my don’t give attention to bad actors attitude. It might violate my don’t do something like the asterisks request. No wonder I’m frequently called a party pooper.

    Have we planned any cats?

  41. If we used the dinosaurs a bit differently they could be an homage to Rachel Swirsky’s If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love – get your picture taken.

  42. @Brian Z If that was “the sort of thing they like,” I’d hate to see one they didn’t. Oh, wait, those are the ones they nom. Well, some of the ones they nom anyway. I guess you get a bonus game with their participation–figuring out which ones were real.

  43. I have just read part of my first Ilona Andrews novel, Clean Sweep. It will be my last, not because of the fantasy aspects, which seem pretty interesting, but because of the romance aspects. The hero is an obnoxiously uber-alpha type who, the second time he talks to the heroine, tells her her breasts are underdeveloped, and throughout the book can’t talk to her without sneering and calling her things like “buttercup” — but of course he’s hot; late in the book he gets too close to her, she tells him to back off, and he ignores that and kisses her — and of course she decides she enjoys it. Just, nopity nope.

  44. @ PhilRM:

    I’m continually fascinated by how tastes differ: I thought that was a terrible, would-put-it-below-No-Award story.

    I’m not fascinated. As a lifelong condition, I often don’t like the books and movies that others like, and I am often bemused by what gets nominated and/or win awards. Seems perfectly normal to me.

    One of the many things that I find absurd about the Puppies is that they have decided to see this ordinary state (not liking most things that get awards) as persecution directed against them, rather than as a standard aspect of the human condition.

    (Then again, seeing the weak quality of the Hugo ballot that was heavily dominated by the tastes of SP3/RP1, it’s not hard to guess why works they like don’t get nominated for awards. I mean… “Wisdom From My Internet?” Of COURSE someone who thought =that= was a Hugo-quality work isn’t going to like the work that gets on Hugo ballots without a Puppy slate.)

  45. @Vasha

    By a strange coincidence I just read a James Nichol review of a different Ilona Andrews book in which he comments on the exact same issue in some of UF/PR, but says that particular book avoids it.

    Indeed, this novel plays with UF/PR romance conventions in an interesting way. A number of UF/PR books have a female lead whose romantic life is an example what is commonly known as egregious domestic abuse. Consent issues are ignored, and the romantic partner often seeks to control the protagonist’s life in all kinds of insidious ways. This kind of relationship is presented in many run-of-the-mill UF/PRs as acceptable and normal.

    That’s not the case here….

  46. One of the reasons I liked the Kitty Norville books is because in the first book it turns out the abusive social arrangements in Kitty’s pack are not because That’s Just How Werewolves Are but because her pack is made up of assholes, enablers and victims.

  47. @K8, other than reading some of Jeffro’s posts and an occasional review of really obscure SFF, I can’t say I follow that blog closely.

    @ Will R., apart from the obvious items chosen specifically to be provocative which we don’t need to go over again, doesn’t it look like Vox Day otherwise played it pretty straight and simply recommended lots of stuff he found award worthy?

  48. @Vasha
    From what I remember of Clean Sweep by the end he is less of an alpha male jerk/she likes it. Second book he changes even more.

    It’s a trope Ilona Andrews subverts or avoids in most of her books. Kate Daniels series is much more UF than PNR and while you do have alpha males they respect and support the women. No real romance for the first few books.

    But I respect your right to choose not to read any more of her books based on Clean Sweep.

  49. @Brian Z Isn’t the point of the provocative ones that we shall never know?

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