By Daniel Dern: I’d been noodling this piece on “where to find/e-find Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s fiction” for the past few weeks, and, conveniently, Item (1) in the Dec 15, 2023 scroll, noting and excerpting Episode 214 of Scott Edelman’s Eating the Fantastic podcast both motivated me to finish this piece — and saves me some background contextual exposition re Hoffman’s about/career/awards, by letting me simply point to Scott’s. (Thanks, Scott!)
Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Photo by Scott Edelman.
Between some gafiating and other distractions, while I may have read of Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s short fiction, I didn’t really become aware of her work until her 1995 novel, The Silent Strength of Stones (the second in her Chapel Hollow novels), which became (and has stayed) one of my two favorite sf/f novels (tied with John Crowley’s Engine Summer, with Patricia McKillip’s The Riddle of Stars trilogy just below them), and in the core pile of books I re-read more or less yearly.
(Slight digression: Based on the inscription, which includes “Moderator!”, in my autographed Stones paperback, I (briefly) met Hoffman at a ReaderCon. It’s possibly our paths also crossed at Sasquan, 73rd Worldcon, 2015, in Spokane (aka “SmokeCon” due to, well, the at-times oppressive smoke blowing in from major fires).)
But I hadn’t, until a month or so ago, realized that Hoffman has published not only around a dozen-and-a-half-novels, but also 200+ stories (ranging from short through long). That’s my bad: for no clear reason, I hadn’t taken my frequent next step of going to the library and bookstores (new and used) to read everything else a new-to-me-author had written (or, to a lesser extent, an author’s character and/or series). (E.g., as I did with Ross Thomas, Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe.) I did keep up with some of her subsequent books, and stories in F&SF. Some.
Then, a few months ago, I saw Amazon was having another of their periodic Kindle Unlimited deals — here, three months for a buck-ninety-nine per — which I use to explore and enjoy. (I don’t feel the need for the regular KU subscription.)
Something led me to search on her name, within the “Kindleverse” along with Hoffman’s Wikipedia entry.
And, via info/links at the end of Hoffman’s stories on KU, her page on Ofearna.
Hoffman’s Ofearna page lists what looks like most (possibly all? ) of her work (including showing a lot of book cover art on the novels and collections), with links to Amazon/Kindle links, and, in many cases (presumably, where available), legitimate links to specific story text (many from Daily Science Fiction).
It turned out that there’s a fair amount of Hoffman in Kindle Unlimited (also purchasable, ranging from $0.99 to $8.99) — searching Kindle Unlimited on her fullname, 33 hits, including numerous stories I’d not previously heard of nor read.
(Note: At least two of the KU hits look like false positives, meaning not, based on author/title, by Hoffman. This is a problem that, in my annoyed experience, nearly every library, comic and bookstore catalog search is abysmally prone to. I blame a lot of this on incomprehensibly bad search coding/design. I’m still waiting for “only look/match within the specified field” and “only precise matches, please” search options, grumble.
Searching Amazon on Hoffman’s name yielded 171 hits, including novels, stories, collections, and magazine and anthology appearances…and a bunch more false positives.
(Note: Your own searches may yield significantly different results. My own efforts, with a different browser and/or other tweaks, and probably with changes in barometric pressure, burped up lots more bogus hits and other “huh, why’s this here” results. Again, IMHO bad search design. Bleh.)
Searching (my public) library’s (and the 40-library consortium the e-catalog aggregates) physical and e-holdings turns up far fewer Hoffman hits (not surprisingly):
The full library (consortium) catalog (includes both books and e-books) shows 21 hits, including about half a dozen of her novels…two of which I recently reserve-requested and are now there waiting for me to pick them up.
Libby (the OverDrive library app’s successor, there’s a paltry one hit (of what’s available through my library), of an issue of Uncanny with one of Hoffman’s stories in it. Tsk!
And HooplaDigital.com, which is available via my library, but has its own inventory) yields a modest seven Hoffmans — The Silent Strength of Stones, Ghost Hedgehog, and a few anthologies (Note, I don’t know whether Hoopla’s offerings are uniform to all the libraries and institutions it provides access through, or not — if you know more, please let me know in a comment or directly).
READING HOFFMAN: NOT JUST FANTASY AND PERSONAL MAGIC/POWER, BUT ALSO SF. Back to the original motivating deal: Once I’d done the search within KU I e-borrowed and read pretty much all of Hoffman’s work that was there that I hadn’t previously read, with about a fortnight to spare on the KU deal:
Savage Breasts and Other Misbehaving Body Parts: Eight Short Stories
Faint Heart, Foul Lady: A Novelette: & Bonus Story: Night Life
Meet in Fear and Wonder: Four Science Fiction Stories
Wild Talents: Three Short Stories
The Skeleton Key & Bright Streets of Air: Two Stories
Surreal Estate: A Short Story
Short, Sharp Snacks: Fifteen Flash & One Short Story
Antiquities: Five Stories Set in Ancient Worlds
Escapes: A Short Story
The Spirit in the Clay : A novelet in the Chapel Hollow/Silent Strength of Stones universe
The Other Side Secret: A Short Young Adult Novel
The Dangers of Touch: A Short Story
A lot, unsurprisingly, was fantasy, ranging from contemporary to whatever-we-call-non-contemporary fantasy. Magic powers, abilities, beings/races and artifacts figure strongly in Hoffman’s fantasy; what’s interesting is that while there are some common methods/terms, even within a given book (or series), there’s often a mix, so characters who discover they both have abilities, etc. are often puzzled/impressed/startled.
Until this binge, however, I hadn’t realized how much science fiction Hoffman has written.
Most (possibly all) of Hoffman’s fantasy shows magic, rather than fueling a quest, empire, fight-universe-ending-evil or other large-scale plot, as somewhere between personal and interpersonal, discovering/learning/coming to terms with one’s often-newfound powers, sorting out how they relate to it, and do/don’t use it within the world around them. (The same goes for much of the science fiction.)
What it all has in common is how enjoyable it is.
Now (well, over the weekend and beyond), I’ll be clicking through Hoffman’s Ofearna page/links (to read, etc.).
Nina Kiriki Hoffman, who aside from having sung the earworm “Feelings” with me more times than I can count, has either won or been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the HOMer award from CompuServe, the Endeavour Award, the Mythopoeic Society Award, the James Tiptree Jr. Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award.
She won the 2008 Nebula Award for Best Short Story for “Trophy Wives,” and her novel The Thread That Binds the Bones won the Bram Stoker Award for first novel. Other novels include The Silent Strength of Stones (a sequel to The Thread That Binds the Bones), A Fistful of Sky, and A Stir of Bones. Her novella ‘”Unmasking,” published in 1992 by Axolotl Press, was a finalist for the 1993 World Fantasy Award. Her novella “Haunted Humans” was a finalist for the 1995 Nebula Award for Best Novella and on the same ballot as her novelette”The Skeleton Key,” shortlisted for Best Novelette.
We discussed the way a ghost story which left her wanting more led to her taking her writing more seriously, her early reactions to reading Robert A. Heinlein and Ursula K. Le Guin, how the Clarion workshop convinced her she could have a career as a writer, the way she wanted to grow up to be a combination of Ray Bradbury and Zenna Henderson, what she learned about characterization from Samuel R. Delany while at Clarion, the major difference she saw between the horror and science fiction communities during the early days of the Internet, how my perception of the arc her career was affected not by what she wrote but by what she sold, the lesson Ellen Datlow taught her which she passes on to her students, and much more.
WWII training cartoons led the way for special to get made
During WWII, a lot of talented artists were enlisted to create materials that would help the war effort, or help train troops heading overseas. Two of those talents were animator Chuck Jones and [Theodore] Geisel, who met and worked together on the U.S. Military commissioned animated short films produced by Warner Bros. Studio. The Private Snafu series helped educate G.I.s on a range of subjects in an easy and entertaining way.
Having worked well together, Jones approached Geisel about adapting the book into an animated holiday special in the same vein as the hit 1965 animated special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Unhappy with previous adaptations of his books, Geisel agreed to give Jones the rights because of their previous personal collaborations.
(3) CLIMATE ACTION ALMANAC. ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination and the ClimateWorks Foundation will launch their new book, The Climate Action Almanac, with a free virtual event on January 16, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The event will feature, among its speakers, the SF authors Kim Stanley Robinson, Libia Brenda, and Vandana Singh. They’ll explore how to craft narratives about hopeful climate futures that catalyze real-world action and resonate with policy realities, especially in the wake of the recent COP28 UN climate summit.
When we think of climate, the stories we tell about the future are bad: megastorms, crop failures, and heat waves loom over us. These narratives are compelling, but can leave us feeling hopeless, helpless, and disillusioned.
To motivate broad-based change in the present, we need visions of positive climate futures grounded both in science and in local geographical and cultural particularities. We need stories that bridge the imperative for global coordination with values, resources, and community action, envisioning transformation that grows bottom-up and bottom-out, rather than top-down.
In the wake of the COP28 climate summit, join us for the launch of a collection of such stories: The Climate Action Almanac, presented by CSI and the ClimateWorks Foundation. We’ll hear from contributors from across the globe who have charted pathways toward a vibrant, decarbonized future.
This event will take place in English, with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish. It is presented by CSI and Future Tense in collaboration with the ClimateWorks Foundation and ASU’s Convergence Lab.
As Seen In:Batmanthe Movie Year: 1966 Estimated Value: $4.6 million*
Built by famous designer George Barris, the original Batmobile was based off a 1955 Ford Lincoln Futura. This concept car was worth $250,000 at the time. But by the time it had become an iconic part of pop culture, the Batmobile was worth $4.6 million.
I used to be way better at staying focused on pouring words into a word processor, which would puree them gently into a delicious word slurry that I would send to my publisher. (At which point the publisher takes the word slurry, mixes it with gravel and limestone to turn it into decorative bricks for your garden, or so I’m assuming.) Anyway, in recent years it’s gotten harder to tear my gaze away from the sussurating horrors gathering in the desolate crevices of the collective unconscious.
Basically, the doomscrolling has gotten harder and harder to resist. It’s bad for my concentration — and, frankly, for my mental health.
(To be clear, I support staying informed about the state of the world! But not to the point where you’re just marinating in learned helplessness. And I really believe what I wrote in that book, that creativity is a worthwhile and valid way to deal with awful times. And as I keep saying, daydreaming is the opposite of doomscrolling — and daydreams are powerful.)
So I’ve come up with a productivity hack to keep myself from staring at news sites and social media all day. I recently told a friend about this method, and she seemed to find it useful too. So here it is.
Basically, my main problem is social media and news sites, plus emails to some extent. All of this stuff lives on my browser on my computer at home, and I experimented for a few years with installing browser extensions to block certain sites during daytime hours — but they usually wanted to invade my privacy, and they weren’t super reliable.
Then I discovered a way to just make my browser inaccessible during work hours, using my Mac’s settings. (I’m running the latest version, Sonoma 14.1.1.)…
(6) MAJOR SF+F EVENTS IN EUROPE IN 2024. [Item by Dave Lally.] Now that Chengdu Worldcon 2023 is over… The year 2024 has a number of major SF+F events, in Europe, approaching (and all dates given herein are inclusive). And this data is primarily for those from outside the area (to help).
Mid April 2024 sees another major SF+F event (herein numbered No 2 : Eastercon/UK (in late March-early April) being No 1):
Luxcon (Luxembourg National SF+F Con): —
Fri 12 (unofficial for early arrivals), Sat 13-Sun 14 April
Venue: Forum Geesseknappchen, Hollerich, (western) Central Luxembourg City, L-1430, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Everyone in Luxembourg speaks English fluently (and many therein also speak many other languages).
The Grand Duchy (in the EU) has one of the highest standards of living in Europe. Currency: Euro.
Luxcon held a very successful Eurocon –with that year’s Luxcon– in 2022.
Their website: Official Luxcon. Also double check other media re updates.
Nearest Airport : Luxembourg [ IATA : LUX ] – fast connecting express bus from the airport to the Luxembourg City Central Rail Station. Thence and FREE (*) local buses (no 10, and no 20) from there to the Con venue.
[* Nota Bene within Luxembourg and at all times, all local public transport (standard class) — incl the Luxembourg City tram (LuxTram), local buses and local CFL (rail) trains– are Free. Hugo Gernsback (yes him, originally from here) has a street named after him in eastern Luxembourg City.]
Luxembourg City Rail Station is served by:
SNCB (Belgian Rail) trains from Brussels Midi (via Arlon and usually one per hour) tho the cost from Arlon (Luxembourg border) to the Luxembourg Rail Station portion (see * above) is free. And sometimes there is a train change at Arlon. Note this train usually has NO catering thereon (so stock up on food/drink before travelling). Brussels Midi is of course served by EUROSTAR trains from London St Pancras International Rail Station and from many other places, elsewhere in Europe;
SNCF (French Rail) – TGV (High Speed) trains (with catering) from Paris Gare de L’Est (via Metz, tho there may be a change of train on that route). Paris-Gare de L’Est is right next door to Paris-Gare Du Nord (which itself is well served by EUROSTAR trains from London St Pancras -as above).
[No doubt local Luxembourg fen, reading this, will be able to update/augment this data. ]
And as usual fen from anywhere overseas are very welcome at any SF+F Cons here in Europe, including Luxcon.
Neil Drossman, who brought a cheeky wit and a tireless work ethic to the award-winning print advertisements and television commercials he wrote for clients like Meow Mix cat food, Teacher’s Scotch whisky and 1-800-Flowers, died on Nov. 25 in the Bronx. He was 83….
From the late 1960s until this year, Mr. Drossman was a copywriter and an executive at several agencies, some run by the advertising guru Jerry Della Femina and some he helped run himself….
…One of the most enduring lines Mr. Drossman wrote was for Meow Mix: “Tastes so good, cats ask for it by name.” That came at the end of commercials in which cats appeared to sing (“Meow meow meow meow/Meow meow meow meow”) for their chicken and seafood…
…In 1973 and 1974, Mr. Drossman ghostwrote full-page testimonials for Teacher’s Scotch in the voices of celebrities like Groucho Marx, George Burns and Mel Brooks. The Brooks ad was written as an interview with Mr. Brooks’s character the 2,000 Year Old Man.
“Sir, when was Scotch discovered?”
“It was during the Ice Age. We had so many tons of ice, we didn’t know what to do. So we made drinks, all kinds of drinks.”….
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Born December 15, 1951 — David Bischoff. (Died 2018.) Our community is blessed with many amazing writers of which David Bischoff was one. So let’s talk about him.
His first writings were in the Thrust fanzine where he did a mix of commentary and criticism. (Thrust got one Hugo nomination as a fanzine and four as semi-prozine.) Editor Doug Fratz would later convert it into a prozine for which Bischoff along with John Shirley and Michael Bishop were regular contributors.
David Bischoff
His first novel, The Seeker, which was co-written with Christopher Lampton was published by Laser Books forty-seven years ago. He was extremely prolific. No, I don’t mean sort of prolific, I mean extremely prolific. He wrote some seventy-five original novels which is to say not within of any of the many media franchises that he wrote within plus another thirty-five or so novels falling within those media franchises.
What franchises? Oh how about these for a start and this is not a full listing by any means — Aliens, Alien Versus Predator, Farscape, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Jonny Quest, SeaQuest DSV, Space Precinct and War Games.. And no, I never knew there were Jonny Quest novels.
Oh, and I must single out that he wrote two Bill, the Galactic Hero novels, Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure and Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars which is either a great idea or maybe not. Not having read them I have no idea.
And he wrote for the Trek universe, two most excellent episodes at that. He co-wrote the ”Tin Man” episode from Next Generation, a Nebula nominee, with Dennis Putman Bailey, and the “First Contact” episode from the same series written with Dennis Russell Bailey, Joe Menosky, Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller.
Almost none of his extensive fiction has been collected save that which is in Tripping the Dark Fantastic from a quarter of a century ago which collects a few novelettes and some short stories.
Very little of his fiction is available from the usual suspects, almost none of it his original works. And Tripping the Dark Fantastic is not available.
(9) COMICS SECTION.
The Far Side shows a new kind of “Love, American Style.”
Free Range found the answer to a super trivia question.
Mayim Bialik will no longer be part of the Jeopardy! hosting team.
The actor posted the news on Instagram on Friday.
The move comes as Ken Jennings has been hosting Season 40 of the syndicated show by himself.
Deadline revealed in May that The Big Bang Theory and Call Me Kat star walked away from hosting the final week of season 39 of the gameshow as a result of the strike.
“As the holiday break begins in Hollywood, I have some Jeopardy! news. Sony has informed me that I will no longer be hosting the syndicated version of Jeopardy! I am incredibly honored to have been nominated for a primetime Emmy for hosting this year and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the Jeopardy! family. For all of you who have supported me through this incredible journey and to the fans, contestants, writers, staff and crew of America’s Favorite Quiz Show, thank you.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk plans to launch a STEM-focused primary and secondary school in Texas before debuting a glittering university “dedicated to education at the highest levels,” according to a tax filing.
Musk, who moved from California to the Lone Star State during the pandemic, will build the schools in Austin with a $100 million donation from the billionaire’s charity called The Foundation, according to tax filings first reported by Bloomberg.
The charity’s name appears to be a nod to the science fiction series written by famed author Isaac Asimov that details the collapse of a ruling empire to make way for the birth of an alternate society — fitting considering Musk’s public criticism of the current education system….
… The Foundation’s application to open the schools was initially filed in October 2022 and approved in March, according to Bloomberg, though it’s unclear when the K-12 school will break ground…
… In the official video posted to YouTube on the Doctor Who channel, Gatwa talks about the design elements of the newly remodeled sonic screwdriver, which comes with its own unique bells and whistles. As Gatwa demonstrates, the sonic is much larger than most previous iterations and contains several new gadgets, including a connector allowing it to link to other devices like a “USB port,” as the actor describes it….
Since 2019, Kinnaman has played the show’s lead, Ed Baldwin, who begins his journey as an Apollo astronaut in 1969 in Season 1. By Season 4, it’s 2003, and Ed is pushing 80, but still living on the Mars colony Happy Valley. At 44 in real life, Kinnaman is convincingly playing nearly double his age but, as he tells Inverse, this is the moment he has been waiting for since getting cast in the first place.
“The idea of doing this is what initially really appealed to me with this character,” Kinnaman reveals. “But of course, it’s rare that you have to wait five years to do the thing that you really were looking forward to doing with a character.”
As Ed Baldwin leads Helios workers on Mars to a labor strike in the episode “Leningrad,” Inverse caught up with Kinnaman to get a sense of how he took Ed this far, and whether or not he can play the character again in Season 5.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Lise Andreasen, Scott Edelman, Joey Eschrich, Dave Lally, Kathy Sullivan, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day RedWombat.]
