By
Mark L. Blackman: New York fan Ariel Makepeace Julienne
Winterbreuke – also known as I Abra Cinii, Ariel Cinii and simply Abby – was
found dead in her “Upstate Manhattan” apartment on Sunday, March 8. She was 66.
Neighbor and fellow fan Bill Wagner provided the few details available:
Some sad news. New York fan and my direct next door neighbor Ariel Winterbreuke was found dead in her apartment. She had been dead at least a week. A neighbor said the police went down the fire escape to get into her apartment for a wellness check. Reportedly she had recently appeared thin and not looking well. No cause of death is yet known.
Abby, one of the first trans people in Fandom, was phenomenally creative and inventive (she even devised an alien language and way of thought for her fiction called Sartine). She was an apahack (in both incarnations of APA-NYU), an artist, a filker and performer (known for “Imported Sly,” “Unknown is Unending,” and the New York-centric “The Alternate Side” and “Swing Low, Sweet Double-A”), and the author (as Ariel Cinii) of the Touching Lands’ Dance trilogy (The Family Forge, The Organized Seer and The Telepaths’ Song).
Abby attending an open-air art exhibition in Rockefeller Center. Photo by and used with permission of Deb Wunder.
By Mark L. Blackman: On the evening of Wednesday, February 19, the monthly Fantastic
Fiction at KGB Readings Series hosted award-winning authors James Patrick Kelly
and P. Djèlí Clark at its longtime venue, the definitely Red Room at the 2nd
floor KGB Bar in Manhattan’s East Village.
The event opened with Series co-host Ellen Datlow (fighting
through a cold) welcoming the crowd and announcing upcoming readers:
March 18: Robert Levy, Daniel Braum
April 15: Michael Cisco, Clay MacLeod Chapman
May 20: Leanna Renee Hieber, Ilana C. Myers
June 17: N.K. Jemisin, Kenneth Schneyer
July 15: Mike Allen, Benjamin Rosenbaum
She concluded by introducing the evening’s first reader.
P.
(for Phenderson) Djèlí Clark (and yes, it’s a penname) is the author of the
fantasy novellas The Black God’s Drums and The
Haunting of Tram Car 015, and “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro
Teeth of George Washington,” a short story that earned him both a Nebula and
Locus Award, and was a finalist for both the 2019
Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the 2019 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. As
it was Black History Month and just after Presidents’ Day (formerly
Washington’s Birthday), his opening offering was from that story, the first six
teeth.
Washington’s famous choppers were not wooden (and certainly not
carved from that legendary cherry tree), but were made from his own teeth that
had fallen out, animal teeth and slaves’ teeth purchased from slave-owners. (His
dentures, one might say, were the original George Washington bridge.) Clark,
an historian in the other part of his professional life, imagines a mouthful of
supernatural backstories for the titular dentation, of African warriors and
conjuremen (wisdom teeth?), a strange counterpoint to the barbaric practice.
He followed up by reading from an advance bound manuscript of his
forthcoming (in October or November) dark fantasy novella Ring Shout. In an alternate 1922 Macon, Georgia, a trio of black
women – a bootlegger with a magic sword, a sharpshooter World War vet, and a
“Harlem Hellfighter” – hunt Klansmen (“Ku Kluxers”). The original Klan’s sheets
were intended to make them seem ghostlike, adding to the terror they induced,
but here their hell-raising is given a literal twist, evil, malevolent sorcery.
(While Clark didn’t say, in his story, it seems that D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation cast an actual
spell drawing on the hatred and ugliness at America’s heart, leading to the
rise and rebirth of the Klan … much as, absent the sorcery, it did in ours.)
Advisory: there was much use of the n-word (small “n”) and “graphic language.”
After an intermission, Mercurio
David Rivera, filling in for co-host Matthew Kressel (who
was off on another island), introduced the second featured reader.
James Patrick Kelly has been honored with the Hugo Award for his novelettes “Think Like a Dinosaur” and
“1016 to 1,” and the Nebula Award for his novella Burn. His most recent books are the novella King of the
Dogs, Queen Of the Cats (which he described as a “romantic comedy” set on another planet
in the far future, where dogs and cats have been uplifted, mostly in a circus),
and a collection, The Promise of Space. (Like Clark, he too likes secret
history;with John Kessel, he
co-edited the anthology The Secret History of Science Fiction.)
Despite his description of it, he did not read from King of the Dogs, Queen
Of the Cats, but instead a story so new that his wife (who was
present) hadn’t read it, and that didn’t yet have a title (working titles
include “Showdown,” “5°C” and, maybe seriously not in contention, “OK, Boomer”).
Set in New Hampshire, it’s a future of cybernetic prosthesis and rejuvenation
drugs, where rangers hunt Boomers (the only generation, he said, everyone
agrees on hating – Kelly is one, as am I – but I thought it was Millennials
whom everyone agrees on hating), like Willow’s great-grandmother.
Datlow closed the evening with the traditional exhortation to
support the Bar by buying a drink. Prior to the readings, as usual, she snapped
photos of the readers and the audience. Her photos of the event may be seen on Flickr now, and later
at the Series website, http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/.
By Mark L. Blackman: On Tuesday, February 4th, at its venue, the Brooklyn
Commons Café in Brooklyn, which has its own “dreadful record of sin” but is no
“great cesspool,” the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series hosted
an evening of “Crimes, Capers, and
Conan Doyle,” featuring two award-winning writers whose methods have delved
into Sherlockiana, Elizabeth Crowens and
Teel James Glenn. (The program, it should be noted, missed Holmes’s birthday by
a month.)
The event opened, as usual, with producer and executive curator
Jim Freund, host of the long-running sf/fantasy radio program Hour of the Wolf (who described himself
as a “Holmes Pun Philosopher”), welcoming the audience and noting that the night’s
readings would be on Facebook Live, plugging that the Café’s kitchen would be
open till intermission (so order hot food early), and announcing upcoming
readings. Guest-hosted by Amy
Goldschlager, March 3rd’s readings would be the third in a series
featuring writers from Serial Box. On a future date there will be a Latinx
Night. (Check the website for details.) He reminded those who
can to donate to the Series ($7 is the suggested donation, but no one is ever
turned away due to lack of funds), and reported that the home audience may
donate on its Patreon page. Finally, as they would be performing in tandem, he
introduced both of the evening’s readers.
Elizabeth Crowens has worn many hats in
Hollywood (she wore a couple last night), is a Sherlock Holmes fan and an
invested member of the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, and a contributor to Sherlock
Holmes Mystery Magazine, among others. Additionally, she has two
award-winning alternate history novels, Silent
Meridian and A Pocketful of
Lodestones, with A War in Too Many
Worlds forthcoming, in her “The Time Traveler Professor” series, described
as “a 19th-century X-Files meets Doctor Who.” (The titular professor
was inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Time
Machine to build his own working one.)
Teel James Glenn (or “T.J.,” whom I
knew many years ago from fannish gatherings) notes that he “has killed hundreds
and been killed even more times – on stage and screen, traveling the world as a
stuntman, fight choreographer, swordmaster, bodyguard, actor and haunted house
barker.” (I remember when he played a Soviet spy on The Guiding Light, but, with
due apologies, not his fight scene with Hawk – the future Captain Sisko – on Spenser for Hire. In most of his parts,
he told me, he has three lines, then gets “punched in the face;” fortunately, we
presume, Freund didn’t know.) As a writer, he has had stories in over a
hundred magazines including Weird Tales, Fantasy Tales, Sherlock
Holmes Mystery, and even Mad(!), and is the author of the bestselling SF thriller series “The
Exceptionals,” one book in which was a finalist in the EPIC book awards, and
the winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Ward for Best Author. (As both he and
Crowens have black belts in martial arts – and also have appeared in Black
Belt Magazine – some in the audience wondered about a match between them,
but she declined. “He’s a stuntman – he gets lit on fire!”)
Elizabeth Crowens and Teel James Glenn. Photo by Mark Blackman.
Appropriately, Crowens’ selection from A Pocketful of Lodestones featured Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has
been called in to solve a real mystery at a house in Brighton (England, not
Brooklyn) during the Great War. (Glenn voiced Doyle, with a Scottish burr,
while she handled the other characters.) The McGuffin is a ghost-haunted red
book that writes itself and manifests whatever is drawn in it in a closet.
This was followed by Glenn’s “noncanical” story “The Case of the
Final Interview,” with him as Dr. Watson (doing an English accent this time)
and Crowdens as a dissolute actor (he even is a cocaine user) being recruited
to pose as Holmes during his supposed absence; the role, he’s cautioned, can be
dangerous (poisonous snakes being only one potential peril).
During the
intermission, a Raffle was held for those who donated, with the prizes Glenn’s Tabloid Terror and Crowdens’ A Pocketful of
Lodestones. (Something else they had in common: he had
illustrated his book covers and she had designed hers.)
Resuming the evening’s program, though stepping away from the
Great Detective, Glenn soloed with an amusing short story from Tabloid Terror, “Were Goes There?,” featuring Hollywood reporter and PR flack,
Maxie Donovan, up in Québec, Canada for a movie premiere. (Glenn clearly had
fun with the broad French accents of the locals.) In lumberjack country, a loup-garou has been killing girls, and he
undertakes to figure out who in the tavern with him is the “furry fiend.”
Crowdens’ unpublished “A Case Study from a Scarlet Planet” sends
Holmes to Mars, with her enacting a futuristic Dr. Watson and Glenn (doing an
English accent) as the Holmes stand-in, who might be a clone of the original
(via blood from a bee’s stinger). The two meet while seeking affordable lodging and wind up at Cell 221B. (A Study in Scarlet, Red Planet,
elementary.) They have been called in by the android Inspectors Lestrade and
Greggson to investigate a murder.
The traditional Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered a small
assortment of books and a few magazines. The audience of close to 40, not
counting Freund and the readers, included Amy Goldschlager, Karen Heuler,
(House Manager) Barbara Krasnoff, John Kwok, Lissanne Lake, James Ryan and
Susan Ratisher Ryan. Over the course of the evening, audience members availed
themselves of the Café’s food, coffee bar, beer and wine.
By Mark L. Blackman: The Beatles entered my consciousness not
through the bathroom window but with my brother telling me about a new singing
group with “haircuts like Moe” of the Three Stooges. (Decades later, he watched
Sir Paul perform in Tel Aviv.) Soon after I saw their landmark first appearance
on Ed Sullivan. By then Beatlemania had
erupted – the moptops were the Fab Four – everyone had to get them into their
lives. We followed their long and winding road from sweet love songs to India
and Sergeant Pepper and The End.
When
friends visited from England, they made a pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields – a
place to go – then across the street to the Dakota.
This
time of year is a sad one for Beatles fans. Last month saw the anniversary of
George’s death, next week will be that of John’s murder. A celebration of their
music, fame and legacy, what they meant, something to say that it’s O.K. and
make us feel good in a special way, is most welcome. We saw a reminder of their
status as The ’60s Icons last summer as fans gathered on the 50th
anniversary of Abbey Road on, where
else?, London’s Abbey Road.
Yesterday,
on the evening of Tuesday, December 3rd – Giving Tuesday
– at its venue, the Brooklyn Commons Café in Brooklyn, the New York Review of
Science Fiction Reading Series hosted a launch party (we’re going to a party
party) for Across the Universe, an anthology
of 25 freaky and twisted (and shouted) speculative fiction
stories about the Beatles and alternative variations of the still-Fab Four.
Edited by Michael A. Ventrella and Randee Dawn, the ticket to ride features
what-ifs by Spider Robinson, Jody Lynn Nye, David Gerrold, Cat Rambo, Lawrence
Watt-Evans, Allen Steele, Pat Cadigan, Gregory Frost, Gregory Benford, Matthew
Amati, Ken Schneyer, Bev Vincent, Patrick Barb, Gail Z. Martin, Barbara Clough,
Eric Avedissian, Alan Goldsher, R. Jean Mathieu, Beth Patterson, and Christian
Smith, coming together, plus the, um, Fab Five readers of the evening: Charles Barouch, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Carol Gyzander,
Gordon Linzner, and Sally Wiener Grotta.
All together now.
As we gathered, Beatles tunes played to get us into
the spirit of things. The event opened, as usual, with producer and executive
curator Jim Freund, host of the long-running sf/fantasy radio program Hour of the Wolf (with WBAI-FM back on
the air, he’s no longer sitting in a nowhere land) welcoming the audience to
the last reading of 2019. He began by noting that tonight’s readings would be on
Facebook Live, rather than streamed on Livestream, plugging that the Café’s
kitchen would be open through most of the evening, and announcing that next
month’s readers (January
7th) would be Hildy Silverman and A.C. Wise (though without
glitter). He reminded those who can to donate to the Series ($7
is the suggested donation, but no one is ever turned away due to lack of
funds), and reported that the home audience may donate on its Patreon page, Jim
Freund.
Randee Dawn
Bringing up guest host and the book’s co-editor Randee
Dawn, he reported that Across the Universe is actually the second such
anthology, the first being All Together
Now, edited by James Ryan. Dawn is a Brooklyn-based author and
entertainment journalist who focuses on speculative fiction, but is co-author
of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion. After
recounting how she and Ventrella pretty much simultaneously came up with the
idea, presented it to Ian Randal Strock of Fantastic Books and launched a
Kickstarter campaign to realize it, she introduced the evening’s first reader.
Sally Wiener Grotta is the author of The Winter Boy and Jo Joe, a journalist and the co-curator of the Galactic
Philadelphia author reading series. She read from her story “The Truth Within,”
in which George goes to Key Biscayne and tries to get Nixon interested in
(“hooked on”) transcendental meditation: “Imagine a chilled Nixon at peace with
himself. … And poof! No more carpet bombing and napalm.”
Carol Gyzander, writer of various crossgenre ’punk
stories and the second reader, read from “Deal with the Devil”, which is one
answer to “how did the Beatles get so good?” Set in Liverpool after their
return from playing clubs in Hamburg (Pete Best is still their drummer), two
kids, fans of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, using black magic to connect
with their idols, instead reach – through their old black and white “telly” –
the Beatles.
Next up was Gordon Linzner, founder and former editor
of Space & Time Magazine, author of The Spy Who Drank Blood, and who, as lead singer of the Saboteur
Tiger Blues Band, has covered a fair share of Beatles songs. His story alludes
to a tv show with four protagonists, “The Hey! Team.” With John as leader and
wacko Richard “Ringo” Starkey in the Murdoch role, they try to prevent the
abduction of Chuck Berry’s guitar Maybellene, while being pursued by Colonel
Pepper (he was promoted).
Charles Barouch
“The Perfect Bridge,” Charles Barouch’s quickie was
another time travel story. A computer programmer in 1978, using a “Yellow
Subroutine,” reaches across to 1967 to plant an Appleseed.
During
the intermission, a raffle was held for those who donated, with three prizes:
from Carol Gyzander’s What
We’ve Unlearned; Sally Wiener
Grotta’s Jo Joe; and Gordon Linzner’s
The Spy Who Drank Blood. Freund
reported that the Brooklyn Commons was starting a series or festival of short
subject films and invited us to sign up electronically at a terminal up front.
Keith R.A. DeCandido
Opening the second half of the show was Keith R.A.
DeCandido, who is perhaps best known for his media tie-in work across “33
different universes, from Alien to Zorro.” In “Used to Be,” which is set sort of in his “Precinct” fantasy
police procedural series, the Beatles are recast as Jahn, Gyorg, Paol and
Starki, D&D tropes (Jahn is a bard, Starki a barbarian).
Filling in for the scheduled final reader, Dawn read Matthew Amati’s “Apocalypse Rock.” Set in an alternate
history where the U.S. lost JFK’s Cuban Missile Crisis gamble, four musicians
wander a postapocalyptic landscape of gangs and cannibal mutants to a battle of
the bands at the titular site.
Ian Randall Strock
Then, in a bonus, the book’s publisher (“the guy who
writes the checks”), Ian Randal Strock, read “Rubber Soul” by Spider Robinson.
In the 1985 story, John is resurrected 24 years after his death at 40, making him…
Finally, it being a party party and all the world is birthday
cake, Dawn brought out a huge cake (though not honey pie or marshmallow pie) decorated
with a copy of the cover art by Dave Alvarez. (I took a piece but not too much.)
The traditional Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered a
small assortment of books. The audience of close to 80, counting Freund and the
readers, included Karen Heuler, (House Manager) Barbara Krasnoff, John Kwok,
James Ryan and Susan Bratisher Ryan.
It was a hard day’s night.
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.
By Mark L. Blackman: On the evening of Wednesday,
October 16th, as a nor’easter raged outside, the monthly Fantastic
Fiction Readings Series hosted authors Barbara
Krasnoff and Nicole Kornher-Stace at its longtime venue, the most
sincerely Red Room of the second-floor (or third – there’s a major schism –
but, either way, it’s a steep climb up stairs) KGB Bar in Manhattan’s East
Village. (The Room seemed darker than usual.)
The
event opened with Series co-host Matthew Kressel welcoming the crowd (who’d
come out in the storm) and the standard exhortation to thank the Bar by buying
drinks, hard or soft (readings are always free, and our patronage keeps it so) (somewhat
smaller, likely due to the holidays) and reported on upcoming readings. The
next months’ readers are:
November 20 David Mack Glassner
December 18 Paul Tremblay Nathan Ballingrud
January 15, 2020 Cassandra Khaw Richard Kadrey
February 19 James Patrick Kelly P. Djeli Clark
(Details
are available at here.)
All dates are the third Wednesday of the month.
He
concluded by introducing the first reader of the evening. Nicole Kornher-Stace
is the author of the Norton Award finalist Archivist Wasp and
its sequel, Latchkey. Her next
novel, Firebreak, is due out from Saga in 2020, and it was
from it that she read. Firebreak, she relayed, has been
described as “if Saga Press and Black
Mirror had a baby.” Set in the future, in an oppressive company town –
notably, they’ve locked up the water supply – Mallory Parker leads a protest
(the revolution is being broadcast online), and security, behind disruptor
shields, is brutally disbanding the crowd. (Though, of course, not intended, it
was hard not to think of what’s happening in Hong Kong.) When there is a rainfall,
protestors grab red plastic cups to catch it, deemed illegally “poaching
water.” Her offering was well-received, though Kornher-Stace did read a bit too
fast.
After
an intermission, the Series’ senior co-host, Ellen Datlow, introduced the
evening’s second reader. Barbara Krasnoff is the author of over 35 short
stories, including “Sabbath Wine,” which was a finalist for the Nebula Award,
and recently published a mosaic novel (connected stories) titled The History of Soul 2065, a generational
saga of two Jewish girls’ descendants, spanning from the eve of World War I to
the second half of the 21st century, including “Sabbath Wine.” (She’s
also responsible for a series of wryly captioned photos delving into the inner
situations of street objects and urban wildlife that can be found under the
hashtag #TheirBackstories.)
Her reading was of a story from The History of Soul 2065, “Stoop Ladies.” Set in 1983, in Brooklyn (of course), Julie Jacobson (not strictly speaking on either girl’s family tree), newly laid off from her office job (a PR representative) after 17 years, sighs and decides to join the crowd (a very different one from Firebreak) of mostly elderly women who congregate evenings in the yard outside her brownstone to schmooze and gossip, and with whom she occasionally sits. (My mother called the bunch who set up beach chairs outside our apartment house “Rogues Gallery,” with people passing by on the sidewalk or entering the building running the gauntlet of their scrutiny, though we dubbed them “Yenta Center.” Julie’s neighbors are more ethnically diverse.) Sharing her woes, she finds Chablis and sympathy, and perhaps a little magic. The story was quirky – like the ladies – and enchanting.
Prior
to the reading, as usual, Datlow whirled through the audience, taking photos.
(It looks like she’s also using a cameraphone these days.) Her photos of the
event may be seen on her Flickr page.
By Mark L. Blackman: One might think that, as we all
breathe air and need potable water to survive – among the few things that all
of humanity has in common – the environment would be as noncontroversial and
nonpartisan as anything could be, but no. Even the very first Earth Day in 1970
was savaged as, variously, Hitler’s birthday and Lenin’s birthday. One button
that I have from back then displays an upside-down peace sign, resembling a
tree, calling us to “make peace with nature” … thus environmentalism was deemed
“unpatriotic” (and ridiculed as “tree-hugging”) long before visible and
undisputed climate change was called “a Chinese hoax” and even weather reports
were politicized.
On
the evening of Monday, October 14 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Federal Columbus
Day and the start of the second day of Sukkot (a Jewish festival with arboreal
aspects) – at its venue, the Brooklyn Commons Café in
Brooklyn, two floors below the beleaguered WBAI-FM (more on that below), the New
York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series spotlighted Reckoning, an annual journal of creative writing on
environmental justice. (Trade paper, perfect-bound copies
are $15, but are free online to get the message out. The
4th issue will be out in January. Visit Reckoning.press for more information.) The event was guest-hosted by its
publisher, Michael J. DeLuca, and featured
readings by Emily Houk, Krista Hoeppner
Leahy, Marissa Lingen, Emery Robin and Brian Francis Slattery. (The readers
read from works in Reckoning 1 and 2, with the exception of Robin, whose
story will run in Reckoning 4.)
The event opened, as usual, with producer and executive curator
Jim Freund (and, until last week, host of the long-running sf/fantasy radio
program Hour of the Wolf) welcoming
the audience. He began by noting that tonight’s readings would on Facebook
Live, rather than streamed on Livestream, (Livestream should be back in
November.) He then addressed the
elephant in the room two floors above. A week earlier, WBAI-FM’s parent
company, Pacifica Across America – or, more specifically, a group of the owners
– abruptly shut down the listener-sponsored station. Legal counteractions
ensued, with more to come. Freund (who was wearing a WBAI t-shirt) assured all
that WBAI-FM would be back, and announced that there would be a rally and press
conference on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday the 15th at noon
(too late for those reading this) in support of BAI.
Michael J. DeLuca
Returning to why we were there, he reminded those who can to
donate to the Series ($7 is the suggested donation, but no one is ever turned
away due to lack of funds), and reported that the home audience (to coin a
phrase) may donate on its Patreon page. He concluded by announcing future
readers: On Tuesday (yes, the
Series returns to its usual schedule), November 5th (Election Day
and Guy Fawkes Day – “Remember, remember, the 5th of November”), the
readers will be Gay Partington Terry
and Robert V.S. Redick. December 3rd will be “party time,” an
evening of Glitter Spec Fic, featuring A.C. Wise and others to be corralled “reading
stories and performing music to do with glitter.” (On the Series webpage, this
notice was displayed in multiple colors.) Disclosing his own early environmental
activism, he then turned “the show” over to DeLuca.
DeLuca describes his “roots as mycorrhizal with sugar maple and Eastern white pine,” a theme seen in his website, mossyskull.com. His fiction has appeared most recently in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Strangelet and Middle Planet. He observed that holding the event on Indigenous Peoples’ Day was “in keeping with the spirit of environmental justice” (some anthropologists may disagree).
Brian Francis Slattery
First up was Brian Francis Slattery, who has written four novels and is also the arts editor and a reporter for the New Haven Independent, and a musician. “For a week out of every year, lives without electricity” (and that’s without living in California). He read from his semi-fictional essay “The Kinder and More Caring Future,” musings on sustainability (we shouldn’t eat meat-eating predators, including certain fish like haddock) and a reminiscence on the wake of Hurricane Irene. “Hurricane Irene was the future calling,” showing us the perils of seas rising.)
Krista Hoeppner Leahy
Krista Hoeppner Leahy, the second reader, has appeared in a Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Clarkesworld, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and Farrago’s Wainscot. Her offering washer short poem “Eathspun,” about our relationship with Nature (“All of us belong to the sky”). (Another memorable line was “Breathe through your cloaca.”)
During the intermission, a raffle was held (for those who
donated), with the prizes being copies of Infomocracy by Malka Older and Galápagos Regained by James Morrow. DeLuca then opened the second half of the
evening.
Emily Houk
Emily
Houk commented that her story “Plague Winter” reads as science fiction, but is
historical, about bio-control of invasive species (we were referred to The Simpsons). Here a lab assistant sets
plague doctor beetles on hemlocks. (I might have seen the trees in her story in
Western Massachusetts.)
In keeping with the ecological theme, Marissa
Lingen reported that she has “a large collection of foliage-themed jewelry.” She read her story “The Shale
Giants.” (“Humans want to steal their breath.”)
Marissa Lingen
Emery Robin
The final reader of the evening, Emery Robin, read a story set in her hometown Oakland, “Ambient and Isolated Effects of Fine Particulate Matter.” After fires – and drought – in Northern California, the sky is hazy, and the air quality has been severely affected, become unbreathable (people wear masks) and ashy – people are turning gray.
DeLuca concluded the evening by inviting submissions.
The traditional Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered a
small assortment of books along with copies of Cultural Survival Quarterly (focused indigenous issues and
traditional knowledge; DeLuca’s sister is on staff). The audience of about 40,
counting Freund and the readers (but not the Chabad duo who wandered in with
the Four Species), included Amy Goldschlager, (House Manager) Barbara Krasnoff,
John Kwok and (Tech Director) Terence Taylor. The kitchen closed early, but the
Café still offered beverages, cold food and snacks.
By Mark L. Blackman: On the evening of Tuesday, September 3, 2019, the New York Review
of Science Fiction Readings Series opened its 29th Season with the
stellar line-up of Gregory Feeley and Michael Swanwick at its venue, the Brooklyn Commons Café in, of all
places, Brooklyn.
The event opened, as ever, with producer and executive curator Jim
Freund (and host of the long-running sf/fantasy radio program Hour of the Wolf) welcoming the audience
back after the summer hiatus. For a while now, the Readings have streamed on
Livestream, however, due to a difficulty, tonight’s wouldn’t be – we were on
Facebook Live! (Livestream will be back in October.) He reminded those who can to donate to the
Series ($7 is the suggested donation, but no one is ever turned away), and
reported that the home audience (to coin a phrase) may donate on its Patreon
page. He concluded by announcing future readers: on Monday, October 14th, guest
host Michael J. DeLuca will present
readers from Reckoning, including Emily Houk, Krista Hoeppner
Leahy, Marissa Lingen and Brian Francis Slattery. On Tuesday, November 5th
(Election Day and Guy Fawkes Day), the readers will be Gay Partington Terry and Robert V.S. Redick. December 3rd
will be “party time,” an evening of Glitter Spec Fic, featuring A.C. Wise and others
“reading stories and performing music to do with glitter.” (On the Series
webpage, this notice was displayed in multiple colors.)
Gregory Feeley
Gregory Feeley, the
evening’s first reader, describes himself as a writer of and
about science fiction. His first novel, The Oxygen Barons, was nominated for the
Philip K. Dick award and his short fiction has twice been nominated for the
Nebula Award. His most recent novels are the historical novel Arabian Wine and Kentauros, “a fantasia on an obscure Greek myth.” He recently
completed a long novel, Hamlet the Magician. (In addition, he is
Thomas M. Disch’s literary executor for prose, and was part of the Series’
tribute to Disch last year.) He read the first half of “Cloudborn,” which also
draws from Greek myth. (Despite my childhood reading of Greek mythology, not to
mention watching Mighty Hercules
cartoons – his sidekick, recall, was a centaur – I was unaware that “cloudborn”
was an epithet for centaurs; as their genesis involved two separate instances by
Itzion of cross-species copulation, this omission is understandable.) The story
centers on children aboard a spaceship very slowly heading toward Neptune to
terraform and settle it; there are, of course, secrets being kept from them.
The girl Asia, it should be noted, is very into Greek mythology.
During
the intermission, a raffle was held (for those who donated), with the prizes
being copies of
Kentauros and The Iron Dragon’s Daughter.
I was asked to draw the tickets; no surprise, and despite the small number of
raffle tickets, the winning numbers were one immediately before and one immediately
after mine.
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick, the evening’s final reader, is the author of ten novels, including Vacuum Flowers, Stations of the Tide, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Jack Faust, Bones of the Earth, The Dragons of Babel, Dancing With Bears, Chasing the Phoenix and the recently published The Iron Dragon’s Mother; and roughly 150 stories, many of which have been reprinted in Best of the Year anthologies. Notable among his non-fiction is Being Gardner Dozois, a book-length interview. Since his first story was published in 1980, Swanwick has been honored with the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon and World Fantasy Awards, and received a Hugo Award for fiction in an unprecedented five out of six years. (He also has “the pleasant distinction of having lost more major awards than any other science fiction writer.”) The Iron Dragon’s Mother, from which he read, completes “a trilogy begun with The Iron Dragon’s Daughter twenty-five years ago. That’s far longer than it took Professor Tolkien to complete his trilogy.”
Caitlin, of House Sans Merci,
a dragon pilot, after a hard landing, is immediately arrested when she returns
to her base, and charged with corruption, a wide-ranging crime. It’s quickly
evident that the trial is rigged (her virginity is denied), so she escapes on a
Kawasaki and attempts to get answers from a dragon committing perjury against
her. As Swanwick’s reading selection breaks off, she discovers that she has the
mind of a dying old woman in her head.
The traditional Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered a
small assortment of books. The audience of about 20 – we were mystified by the
size of the turnout (but what there was, “was cherce”) – included Alan Beck,
Amy Goldschlager, (House Manager) Barbara Krasnoff, John Kwok, Marianne Porter,
Hildy Silverman and Henry Wessels. The Café closed early.
By Mark Blackman: On the damp, almost-almost summer
evening of Wednesday, June 19th, the monthly Fantastic Fiction
Readings Series hosted authors Keith R.A. DeCandido and Chuck Wendig at its
venue, the aptly-named Red Room at the 2nd floor KGB Bar in
Manhattan’s East Village.
The event opened, as customary, with Series co-host Matthew
Kressel’s exhortation to support the Bar by buying a drink and tipping the
bartenders who help hydrate, and announcing upcoming readers:
July 17: Cadwell Turnbull, Theodora Goss
August 21: Lara Elena Donnelly, Paul
Witcover
September 18: Sarah Beth Durst, Sarah
Pinsker
October 16: Nicole Kornher-Stace, Barbara
Krasnoff
(All
dates are the third Wednesday of the month. Details and lineup well into 2019
and the dawn of 2020 are available at the Series website.) He concluded by
introducing the evening’s first reader, Keith R.A. DeCandido (who is used to his name being misspelled or
mispronounced).
Keith R.A. DeCandido
Keith, whom I know from way, way back and who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his fiction writing career, is perhaps best known for his media tie-in work across “33 different universes, from Alien to Zorro” (one of his releases this year is Alien: Isolation, based on the classic movie series), which earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and even inspired one fan to cosplay him. His original work includes a fantasy police procedural series – the latest is Mermaid Precinct – and A Furnace Sealed, launching a new urban fantasy series set in the Bronx (a borough sorely neglected by urban fantasy, he feels), where he currently lives. He read from Chapter 5 of the latter novel.
Brom
Gold, MD, is, in his other profession, a courser, an agent for the Wardena, who
is in charge of all magic in the area, monitoring and, where necessary,
restricting it. While facing the pseudo-Haitian Madame Verité (“Mrs. Truth”),
he discovers that something is interfering with spells. (We meanwhile learn
that “unicorns are nasty” and, in detail, how difficult it is to drive and park
in the Bronx, even on Sunday.)
After an intermission, Series co-host Ellen Datlow took the podium
and introduced the second reader of the night.
Chuck Wendig was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His body of work includes the bestselling Star Wars: Aftermath, (like DeCandido, he is no stranger to media tie-in novels), the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, Zer0es/Invasive, and Wanderers (coming in July); he has also written comics, games, films and more, and served as the co-writer of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus. He is also known for his blog, terribleminds.com, and books about writing, such as Damn Fine Story.
Chuck Wendig
His offering was the opening of Wanderers. In the wake of Comet Sakomoto (which became as famous as Halley’s and Hale-Bopp), a plague of sleepwalkers (more than a dozin’, sorry) have joined together and cross the country, accompanied by followers. Shana is the sister of Nessie, one of the sleepwalkers.
The familiar bookstore was not set up at the back of the room
(therefore they don’t get a plug here), but DeCandido had copies of some of his
books available.
Prior to the readings, as is customary, Datlow wended through the
audience, snapping away; her photos of the event may be seen at the Series
website, http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/.
By Mark L. Blackman: On
the bitingly cold evening of Fat Tuesday (yes, it was Mardi Gras), March
5, 2019, at an event held at its venue, the Brooklyn Commons Café, the New
York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series featured a joint reading from Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera of their co-written story “The Walk to Distant Suns,” which appears in the March issue of Analog.
The
evening kicked off as customary with a welcome from producer/executive curator
Jim Freund, longtime host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy, a
heads-up that we were on camera – the proceedings were streaming live via
Livestream (they may be accessed by going to Livestream.com and searching for
NYRSF) – and an announcement of scheduled upcoming readings. April 2nd’s event will be
guest-hosted by Mike Allen and feature Theodora Goss and Barbara Krasnoff. May 7th readers are to be
determined. June, being the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, on the 4th
will offer Katharine Duckett and another writer to be named; it will,
said Freund, be “queer-oriented.” He
then introduced the evening’s two readers before ducking into the control
booth; he was handling Tech.
Matthew Kresselis the author of the well-received novel King
of Shards and of short fiction that has appeared in Lightspeed,
Clarkesworld, Analog, Nightmare,
and Year’s Best Science Fiction anthologies, and been honored as a
three-time Nebula Award Finalist and a Eugie Award Finalist. Additionally, as a
coder, he created the Moksha submissions system currently in use by many of the
largest SF publishers. Locally, with Ellen Datlow, he is the co-host of the Fantastic
Fiction at KGB reading series at the titular East Village bar.
Mercurio D. (for David) Rivera is the World Fantasy Award-nominated writer of short fiction that has appeared in markets such as Analog,
Asimov’s, Lightspeed, Interzone, and Space and Time, and been anthologized
in several
Year’s Best Science Fiction compilations as well as podcast. His most notable stories include “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect
Us,” “Longing for Langalana,” “Tethered,” “Dance of the Kawkawroons,” and
“Those Brighter Stars;” his own collection, Across the Even Horizon, was
critically acclaimed. Like Kressel, he is a member of
the Manhattan writing group Altered Fluid.
After
a silly attempt to read together, the duo took turns reading “The Walk to Distant Suns,” with Rivera leading off. The
“walk” is along an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, called “the Lift,” which transmutes
matter and transfers it, both objects and people, one quark at a time, through
a wormhole, from Earth (more precisely L-5) to a world dubbed Iris in the
Trappist-1 System 40 light years away; it is a one-way trip. Earth is in bleak
shape, with 80% of the population living in poverty and many eking out by
foraging through garbage, so a new life on the paradisiacal planet beckons.
Among them are Shandi, an engineer at the Lift, who hopes to make the trip one
day with her family (her mother is ill and her little sister is artistic).
Alas, the corporation that operates the Lift keeps raising the cost, so only
the rich can afford to go. Using the opportunity that her position affords,
Shandi schemes to smuggle them all onto the Lift. To be continued.
During
the intermission, there was a raffle drawing (with Freund boothed, Amy
Goldschlager was drafted to oversee it) with the prizes including the issue of Analog
containing the story, The Best
Science Fiction of the Year , and a signed copy of the manuscript
from which they were reading.
Subsequently,
with Kressel leading off, the reading continued through to the end of the story
and its twist ending (no spoilers).
Goldschlager
then moderated a Q&A, opening with a question from her about their
collaborative process. They broke up scenes, characters and motivations, said
Rivera, though Kressel wrote the first section, then they went back and forth.
It was “a successful collaboration;” in the end, they each “feel like they
wrote the whole thing.” Even outside of Altered Fluid, they’re used to
criticizing each other. Asked by an audience member if they’d thought of expanding
it, Kressel said that they’d thought that it would be a short story, but it
grew to 8,600 words. Goldschlager also delivered the “outro.”
As
traditional at these Readings, the Jenna Felice Freebie Table offered giveaway
books, and the Café saw to food, a coffee bar, beer and wine.
The
crowd of about 25-30 included Karen Heuler, Raj Khanna, Barbara Krasnoff (House
Manager), Lissanne Lake, and James Ryan and Susan
Ratisher Ryan. Afterward, there
was schmoozing, and feasting.
By Mark L. Blackman: On the evening of Tuesday, January 8, 2019, the New York
Review of Science Fiction Readings Series held a Diamond Jubilee celebration
for local writer Richard (Rick) Bowes on the occasion of his 75th Birthday.
Richard Bowes is the author of six novels, four story collections
and over 80 short stories, earning two World Fantasy Awards, a Lambda Award, a
StorySouth Million Writers Award, and an International Horror Guild Award, as well
as works short-listed for the Nebula Award. He is a familiar face (and voice)
as reader and audience at both the NYRSF and the Fantastic Fiction at KGB
Reading Series. Born in Boston (with the accent to prove it), he grew up there
and on Long Island, and has lived for decades in Greenwich Village.
The event, held at the Series’ venue, the Brooklyn Commons Café on
Atlantic Avenue in the Borough sharing its name, kicked off as usual with a
welcome from producer/executive curator Jim Freund, longtime host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the
Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy (99.5 FM in New York and
worldwide at wbai.org), a reminder – or warning – that cameras were recording
(the readings are Livestreamed), and an announcement of upcoming readers:
Feb. 5: Karen
Heuler and Mimi Mondal
March 5: To Be
Determined
April 2:
Theodora Goss and Barbara Krasnoff, guest-hosted by Mike Allen
Concluding his introduction to the event, Freund remarked that he
“first met Rick forever ago” and described him as “a writer (and personal
friend) whose accomplishments have entertained and challenged the thinking of
innumerable readers” during his over 35 years in the genre, and his “go-to
guest on Hour of the Wolf.” A reading
by Bowes of his 9/11 story, “There’s a Hole in the City” (online now at Nightmare Magazine), is broadcast each
year around 9/11 over WBAI.
Ellen Datlow
At the microphone, much-honored editor of over 100 anthologies
(and co-host of the aformentioned Fantastic Fiction Reading Series), Ellen
Datlow, characterized Bowes as “a natural-born storyteller,” and read a tribute
essay by Jeffrey Ford, “Bowes.” In it, Ford related how he met Bowes (at a
Nebula Weekend) and how he was mentored by him. (Rick has also similarly helped
other writers in the sf/fantasy community.) Bowes, he declared, is “low-key,
but hysterical” (indeed, he has a wicked sense of humor that veers between
acerbic wit and smartass cracks). “No one writes about New York like Rick” (as
his followers on Facebook know) as “he moves through history in his fiction.”
His time in New York (by which is meant the Village, East and West) encompasses
the eventful (and tumultuous) times pre- and post-Stonewall, the AIDS crisis,
and, as noted, 9/11.
Next, Barbara Krasnoff conducted an interview with Bowes (both are
members of the New York City writers group Tabula Rasa) about his early writing
career and an overview of his body of work, which includes If Angels
Fight, Minions of the Moon,
From The
Files of the Time Rangers, and Dust Devil On a Quiet Street. If he is “remembered
for anything,” he mused, “it will be for ‘There’s a Hole in the City.’” (Set on
Wednesday, Sept. 12th, in it he alludes as well to past tragedies
like the General Slocum, an excursion
steamer that burned in the East River, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Fire.)
More recently, his work has appeared (or will be appearing) in Mad Hatter and March Hares, Queers
Destroy Fantasy, The Doll Collection,
Black Feathers, and The Eyes Of Jack Saul. He is currently
writing stories for a “fix-up novel” (short stories stitched together into a
novel) about a gay kid in 1950s Boston. In a closing quip, he thanked
Barbara and the gathering “for helping me remember stuff about myself that I
didn’t know.” (At one point, he attributed a memory lapse to “This is what Trump
has done to me.”)
During the intermission, there was a raffle drawing for donors
(suggested donation is $7, but no one is turned away), with the prizes being
Bowes’ Minions of the Moon and “short
short stories” in the form of haikus, plus a copy of Ford’s tribute essay.
Opening the second half of the evening, Freund revealed that,
among his other talents, Bowes is a songwriter, and brought up Natti Vogel to
sing a ditty, lyrics by Rick and his brother Jerry, “I’m Oedipus Rex” (to the
tune of “I’m Henry VIII,” from long before Natti’s time):
I’m Oedipus Rex, I am,
Oedipus Rex, I am, I am.
I got married to the widow next door.
She was married to my father before.
Rehabilitating himself from that literary travesty, Bowes read a
story from his fix-up novel about Kevin, a gay kid with a shadow, his
doppelganger, and the opening pages from “There’s a Hole in the City,” set on
the evening of the day after 9/11, smoke and dust still in the air (and a
family of tourists tries to get past checkpoints to gawk at Ground Zero).
Then, to conclude the festivities, a birthday cake – a vanilla
cake decorated by Randee Dawn – was brought out (only one candle) and Vogel led
us in “Happy Birthday.” Finally, his sister came up to share brief
reminiscences about her “amazing” and “remarkable” brother, “Ricky.” (He taught
her how to play chess and how to give him backrubs.)
As traditional at these Readings, the Jenna Felice Freebie Table
offered giveaway books. The Café saw to more
substantial food (and cake) needs.
The crowd of about 60 also included Rob Cameron, Madeline Flieger
(Tech Director), Amy Goldschlager (filling in as ticket-taker for Barbara),
Karen Heuler, Andrea Katz, Lynn Cohen Koehler, Matthew Kressel, Lissanne Lake, Brad
Parks, David Mercurio Rivera, Pam Roberson, and Paul Witcover.
