ASKANCE #21

Back to school special issue!

Featuring a really spiffy Do It Yourself section.

September, 2010 September, 2010 Volume IV, number 3 AskancE

whole issue number 21

Edited and published by John Purcell, 3744 Marielene Circle, College Station, TX 77845-3926

Contents © 2010 by John A. Purcell.

All rights revert to original artists and authors upon publication. So there.

What you have here in your hands (or on screen) is another Mythical Publication. Copies of this fine QUARTERLY fanzine can be had for The Usual, which means expressed interest, submission and eventual inclusion of articles and artwork, letters of comment, expressed interest, and cold hard cash in the amount of $2.00 USD to cover mailing of a hard copy. Bribes encouraged. Of course, if you send in locs, articles, and artwork, you‟ve earned a life-time free subscription. Heckuva deal, eh?

Contact information via e-mail: [email protected] contents

Bemused Natterings…………………………………………………………..….…….2 Not Quite the Marching Morons, but… – Thomas Sadler……………….…….……6 10 Embellished Stories from Randy’s NASFiC – Randy Cleary………..…….……9 My NASFiC Ghost of Honor Report – John Purcell………………………………. 11 Sixty Years Ago in Science Fiction – Robert M. Sabella………………………….14 Penney for your Thoughts – Lloyd Penney…………………………………………16 My Two Cents Worth – John Purcell……………………………………….………..18 Figby – Bill Fischer…………………………………………………………………….20 Science Fiction Books The Editor Has Actually Read ...... 21 From the Hinterlands – locs and bagels from readers…………………….……….25 Do-It-Yourself Fanzine Arkle – by you! The readers write. Literally………………34 Regional Convention Calendar ………………………………………………………36 What’s Next……………………………………………………………………………..39

Cover: nicked from the Internet (7 Aug 2010)

Art Credits: photo from the Bryan-College Station Eagle website by Stuart Villanueva– 3; image googled ―Marching Morons‖ – 6; image googled ―Gradall‖ – 7; image googled ―Raleigh, NC‖ – 10; photos from Gary Farber‘s FaceBook NASFiC folder – 9,10,11, 12, 13; image googled ―Galaxy Magazine‖ – 14, 15; Alan White – 16; image googled ―pennies‖ – 18; clip art – 21, 33; book cover scans, John Purcell – 21, 22, 23, 24; Image goggled ―middle of nowhere‖ – 25; Jose Sanchez – 24, 26, 39; Valerie Purcell – 28; image googled ‗funny dogs‖ – 29; Sheryl Birkhead – 31; Jonny Duddle – 32; image googled ―sf cons – 36; image googled ―furry cons‖ – 38; Taral Wayne – 38.

Backcover: provided by R-Laurraine Tutihasi

Member FWA (since 2007!)

2

I got them old kosmic blues again…

On the second weekend of August – to be precise, August 13-14, 2010 – the annual Navasota Blues Festival was held in the Grimes County Expo Center, a mere 20 minute drive south of the Purcell abode in College Station, Texas. Expendable fundage during the summer months is always a problem for us (oh, hell, for virtually all of us fans this is a problem) so I wasn‘t able to attend both days of the festival. But I was able to participate in a bit of a blues jam/music lesson with Michael Birnbaum, who is a fine guitarist and Blues Scholar; his primary research interest is Mance Lipscomb - even played with him in the 60s.

The Lipscomb songs we learned (there were about thirteen of us with our guitars) were ―Freddie‖, ―You Reap What You Sow‖ and an open-D tuned version of ―When the Saints Go Marching In‖. Michael was playing it with an aluminum slide, too, so when I broke out my glass slide and started playing along, he looked over and smiled. He gave me a nice compliment about my playing despite the fact that I was sorely out of practice. It was fun and I learned some new tricks at playing turn- arounds and such.

The scheduled blues musicians who played on Saturday afternoon and evening were wonderful. Allow me to single out Gary Boehm and the Blues Cats, Texas Johnny Boy, and the all-star jam that closed out the festival with Texas Johnny Boy, Milton Hopkins, Hash Brown, and Christian Dozzler. Michael Birnbaum and Steve Howell also joined in. Great music and great people. Next year I would like to take in Friday night‘s show as well.

Armadillocon 32

This convention did not happen for us, which supremely bummed me out. It was held over the last weekend of August (the 27th-29th), and that could have been a big problem for me since we started fall semester classes on Monday the 30th. *grumph* Valerie didn‘t say much about missing it, either, but I could tell she was sad because she wanted to get there and see if there was any call/demand for the Steampunk wearable art/jewelry she has been making this year. So our goal is to definitely get to Dallas in two weeks time from now – in other words, September 17-19 – for Fencon VII. Val has a nice selection of items to peddle sell now, so we shall see what happens as far as those items go.

In the meantime, here are the two websites where my wife has her wares displayed: http://www.artfire.com/users/IronicIcons and http://www.madeitmyself.com/user/ironicicons.aspx They obviously overlap in content, but that‘s okay. I think she‘s made some very cool looking wristbands that fen would like. We shall see.

3 And furthermore (to invoke the title of a prior fanzine of mine), the Texas Renaissance Festival is rapidly coming up, and once again we‘ll traipse on out to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. That is always a good time, and the fireworks display each night at dusk is the best we‘ve ever seen, including College Station‘s Fourth of July celebration. That fireworks display is positively anemic compared to what the RenFest offers each night at closing. If you are here, come on down for a visit and enjoy it with us. I was going to surprise Joe Lansdale, but…

This is definitely not going to happen. The plan was to either see the movie Jonah Hex, starring Josh Brolin in the title role, and write a review of it, or run a review of it written by someone – preferably a comics fan – who had seen it, and then give a copy of this fanzine to Mr. Lansdale at Fencon VII. Alas and alack, I didn‘t get to the movie, and the word from other fans was that the movie wasn‘t that good. In fact, James Bacon, whom I know is a big fan of the Jonah Hex comic book, sent a link to me via FaceBook that was a rather, shall we say, unflattering review of the movie. Rather than risk getting slugged in the face by the creator of Jonah Hex, I opted to not run that review; instead, I will still go ahead and hand Joe Lansdale a copy of this fanzine at Fencon and hope for the best. My personal plan is to still watch the movie when it comes out on DVD, which will probably happen before Christmas this year. Then I will review it.

Thank you, Hal Hall.

Halbert Hall, the long-time curator of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection at Texas A&M University, finally achieved retirement status as of 5:00 PM on August 30, 2010. The torch has been passed to the very able Catherine Coker. Cait – as she likes to be called – is also a fan who is a regular at Aggiecon and other conventions in this area. Hal also told me in an e-mail on August 29th that he will continue to read SF, fanzines, and visit the collection to do research. Chances are that I will be running into him from time to time, and the good news is that Hal is going to remain actively connected with science fiction fandom, and that is most definitely A Good Thing.

Hal started the collection in 1978, and his vigorous efforts have resulted in the collection now numbering well over 46,000 items; contents include books, prozines, fanzines, manuscripts, correspondence of authors, artwork, and other scientifictional memorabilia pertaining to Science Fiction (and Fantasy, too) and the subculture that this literary genre spawned. In the 19th issue of Askance I wrote about the opening of the exhibit ―One Hundred Years Hence‖, which is on display of the 2nd floor of Cushing Library and runs through the end of January 2011.

So now I get to work with Cait Coker on some SF collection projects. That article on Cepheid Variable, TAMU‘s student SF club, will be written someday, requiring some trips to the Cushing Library to dig through the club‘s boxes of goodies stored in the collection. Also, there is a book sorting project that I will be doing, greater details of which I will share later once I have been given the final go-ahead. In short, all I can say for now is that a few months ago Dr. Stephen Atkins passed away; he was a research librarian at Texas A&M University specializing in military history. Dr. Atkins also read science fiction, specifically SF that dealt with future war. His widow has already given me the green light to choose which books I would like to have, but there is no way that I could house so many books that, quite frankly, I am not interested in. That sounds like a terrible thing for a science fiction fan to say, but military science fiction really isn‘t my forte, so I need to clear it with his widow that the remaining SF books can be donated to the SF collection at Cushing Library. My job will be to sort and organize them, and there‘s a lot to sort through. My guesstimate is there are over 200 SF titles. I would love to write up my findings once I complete this task.

4 Who and what is in this particular issue

An interesting blend of old and new faces with an interesting assortment of material. Some of it is culled from the Southern Fandom Classic Listserv while others are returning columnists and what-not. What might surprise the bejeezus out of my readers is that there is a lot of material actually about Science Fiction in this issue! What‘s up with that?

Anyway. Here are this issue‘s responsible parties:

Randy Cleary

I have never met Randy in person, but he posted his ―10 embellished stories from Randy‘s NASFiC‖ on the Southern Fandom Classic listserv in mid-August, and I was fortunate enough to beat Guy Lillian to the punch in requesting the rights to reprint it in my zine. Hey, Guy: Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah…… Sure makes me wish I really was there!

Bill Fischer

Wrapping up a brief foray into anthropology, Bill provides the closing chapter to the current Figby storyline. Next issue Figby begins yet another mis-adventure in the research laboratory that Figby and the Professor populate at Mythical University. Personally, I would love to have Figby as my lab assistant; he‘s one smart cookie! Hmm… cookies….

Lloyd Penney

It definitely seems as though Lloyd is enjoying the three month gap between issues; that gives him plenty of time to mull over the various fanzines that he sees online or gets in the mailbox. Truth be told, Lloyd does receive more paper fanzines than I do, but that‘s because he is actually a more diligent loc-writer than I have been in the past couple years. At Aussiecon 4 Lloyd lost the Best Fan Writer Hugo to that rank neo, Frederik Pohl. I suspect Lloyd‘s next column will offer reflections on this experience.

Robert M. Sabella

Newly retired high school math teacher Bob Sabella provides one of his semi-annual fiction reviews, this time focusing on the 60th anniversary of the first issue of Galaxy magazine. I always enjoyed reading Galaxy, and discovered it while Frederik Pohl (there‘s that name again) was still editing it and If magazine in 1970. As most of us know, and Bob writes about the history and key stories published in Galaxy, Jim Baen took over in 1974. But you can read all about it in ―Sixty Years Ago in Science Fiction‖ starting on page 14.

Thomas D. Sadler

Tom is the editor of one of my favorite fanzines, The Reluctant Famulus, and was kind enough to offer ―Not Quite the Marching Morons, but…‖ to me. In return, I will be reviewing the non-fiction book The Monsters: the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for the 78th issue of TRF. This is what we faneds do sometimes for material: scratch my back and I‘ll scratch yours. Oh! A bit lower… Yeah….. *that‘s* the spot…

“It seems impossible to stamp out or even control human stupidity.”

5

Not Quite The Marching Morons, but . . .

Thomas D. Sadler

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying something which I particularly like and try to keep in mind: ―The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.‖. How very true that is, and we humans try to prove that every day in one way or another.

We all make mistakes and we all do and say stupid things from time to time. What gets me the most, though, is that the infinite human stupidly refuses to let things go at a simple acknowledgment of the error or the stupid thing and instead will blow such things way out of proportion to the actual initial incident.

Then of course there are those fools who deliberately tease or torment wild animals and then are surprised and upset when the victim of their treatment naturally retaliates in an effort to end its humiliation. As, for example, those people who while visiting a zoo manage to bypass the barricading intentionally installed to protect both the humans and the animals and is consequently attacked by the animal and seriously injured if not killed. If that isn‘t a prime example of human stupidity I don‘t know what is.

But there is also the practice in Spain called ―the running of the bulls‖ wherein crowds of people race along the streets in which probably enraged or at least panicked male bovines are let loose. Inevitably during the running one or more of those people get gored or trampled by the bulls or otherwise injured in the tumult. Surely that could be considered a stupid activity.

I remember once many years ago on a Sunday forenoon at the end of a convention I had attended alone in, I think, Indianapolis. It had rained earlier on--and in fact may have still been raining lightly at the time. I had just taken the left lane of a two-lane entry ramp to the Interstate when some guy in a white pickup went flying by me in the right lane. I watched in surprise and fascination as the truck made it onto the Interstate--and then went into a 360 degree skid across the highway, almost ending up in the median dividing the the opposing lanes. The driver was extremely fortunate in that the traffic was very light at that time and--I‘m not completely sure after all these years--there were no other vehicles in that area when the truck performed its little trick. Still, talk about stupid! The man had to have known even vaguely what the pavement would be like, and he should at least have suspected there might be other vehicles on the

6 highway when he took the entry ramp. But he got partially lucky because he wasn‘t killed in some spectacular crash.

But then that driver isn‘t the only one who drives in such a dangerous or thoughtless manner. Drivers weave in and out of traffic frequently, pass other vehicles on two-lane roads when there isn‘t sufficient room, switch lanes abruptly without signaling ad/or, apparently, not even looking to see if it‘s safe. It isn‘t just the average driver who does such idiotic things. Even so-called professional driver--truckers, they‘re called--drive too fast for the conditions. I‘ve seen semis speed by in a near blinding rain definitely moving at a higher than maximum speed. I‘ve also seen semis on their sides on the right hand berms of Interstate highways or in the ―no-mans land‖ between northbound/southbound and eastbound/west bound lanes, in some instances with another semi or two which were somehow involved. Those guys know how large a rig they‘re driving, how much of a load they have, the need for a much longer stopping distance than the average auto, and, maybe, the kind of damage their rigs can do to the rig itself, other vehicles, and anything they may smash into if the driver loses control. You‘d think so. But I‘ve seen semis pass wrecked semis and never slow down the slightest unless forced to by traffic backups and state police.

Another somewhat similar incident I personally witnessed happened a long time ago, back when I was working the the Parks and Trees Department of the City of Adrian. In late Summer one year a major storm swept through Lenawee County and Adrian was among the victims. The storm resulted in a lot of downed tree limbs and trees almost citywide. The cleanup job fell mostly to P&T and lasted close to two months (though I suspect my memory is faulty in that regard and it only seemed that long). It probably would have taken longer but someone high up in the city found a contractor who owned a piece of machinery called a Gradall. It was similar to a backhoe but instead of a jointed ―arm‖ with a bucket at the end it had a straight, telescoping boom and a three-fingered metal claw. The regular kind of Gradall just described was used primarily for digging wide trenches and cleaning out roadside ditches. The modified model the city hired was used for gathering up items such as railroad ties and piles of lumber or--brush.

For the relatively brief period we had the use of that machine it was a real time-saver. But to continue. This Gradall was attached to a turntable on the chassis of a large truck. The cab of the Gradall was as wide as the truck chassis but somewhat longer. When the machine was situated to pick up whatever material was to be removed the Gradall operated off the right, or curbside, of the truck. Thus when the machine was picking up the items or material the rear end of the cab extended three or four feet beyond the left side of the chassis and presented a potential traffic hazard. Because of this fact, we partially blocked off whatever street we were working on and had someone to direct traffic.

At the time of this incident I happened to be the one directing the traffic, which was light, fortunately. As I recall, a pickup truck had come up to where we were working at the time the Gradall operator was about to drop a load of brush onto a large high-sided stake bed truck. I signaled for the driver to stop, then turned to check on the Gradall which had just finished. I turned back to the pickup truck just as it began moving forward, without waiting for a signal that all was clear. Before I could say or do anything, the truck was passing me and quickly abreast of the Gradall as it started to rotate back to curbside to grab another bundle of brush. What followed took only a few seconds but they were terrifying ones. I stood there, stunned, expecting at the least the passenger side of the truck being caved in and at the worst . . . By some stroke of dumb luck on the idiot driver‘s part he made it past before any damage was done. But it was damned close. From then on, when I was directing traffic, nobody got past me until I gave the okay.

Another prime example of human stupidity at its finest.

Independence Day provides great opportunities for people to do stupid things, especially with fireworks. I confess I did something like that, once, when I was a kid but which fortunately for me was relatively minor. We were ―playing‖ with those small firecrackers, the ones not much bigger than a kitchen match. I had lit one and had just brought my hand back to toss it away when--bang!--it went off in my hand just as it was

7 almost past my ear. There was an instant of shocked surprise and a very numb and slightly tingling thumb and forefinger. Thanks to some sort of luck to which I probably wasn‘t due there was no other damage to those two digits, no torn flesh or blood. But the feeling of stupidity was just as bad. Needless to say, I never did that again.

Other people haven‘t been so lucky. Take this past Independence as an example. On the 4th--the evening news, I think, though it might have been the following day--there was a film clip of a fireman who was presumably demonstrating something about fireworks. He had on his usual yellow fireman‘s gear and safety helmet and had what looked like one of those small rockets fastened to a stick which is inserted into the ground. He took it to the side of the road, holding it out at arm‘s length, and lit it. The rocket did what it was supposed to do after being launched--went off. But the fireman-caught some of the back blast in his face. He hurried over to the nearby fire engine, his hand near his face, likely seeking first aid. He was not, apparently, seriously injured. But he probably felt really stupid--as he should have. When I saw that clip I couldn‘t help wondering why he wasn‘t wearing one of those plastic fill-face safety shields which, one would think, would have been mandatory.

There was also a news story around the same time about some man in, I think, New York state who wasn‘t quite so fortunate. He was allegedly firing rockets from some sort of metal tube affair and one appeared not to have gone off. He went up to check it out and, according to the news story, somehow the firework blew off his left arm. The damage, though it sounded serious, might--and I say this with no certainty--not have been because as he was being rushed to a hospital emergency room some friend of his followed after with his arm packed in ice for possible reattachment. I haven‘t seen any follow-up on the story and so have no idea if any reattachment was attempted.

We can‘t forget those ―genius‖ bank robbers who write their holdup notes on the backs of deposit slips or some other piece of paper which contain their personal information.

For those who may not be aware of them, there are the Darwin Awards, given out (often posthumously) in honor of people who voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool. Generally that involves some stupid action on the award winner‘s part which results in serious injury and, often as not, death. A couple of examples should suffice to show what I mean.

Dinant, Belgium, September 26, 2009. Two bank robbers tried to make a sizable withdrawal from an ATM with dynamite. They greatly overestimated the amount needed. The resulting blast demolished the building in which the bank was housed. Nobody else was in the building at the time of the attack. One robber was rushed to the hospital with severe head trauma but died shortly after arrival. Investigators assumed his accomplice had managed a getaway, but the second bungler‘s body was excavated from the debris twelve hours later. The would-be robbers weren‘t exactly impoverished--their getaway car was a BMW.

Quebec, Canada 13 August 2009. A 24-year-old woman was was ironically successful in her attempt to catch a bus in Quebec City. The woman ran into a restricted area and tried to flag down the 45-foot bus that had left on time--without her. As she tried her best to get herself noticed, she failed to notice the bus was making a swift turn in her direction. The woman disappeared beneath the wheels of the turning bus. A former nurse, who rushed to the woman‘s aid, said that she was no longer able to worry about getting there on time. Instead of riding home in a crowded bus, the deceased enjoyed the luxury of a one-way trip ―home‖ in a private hearse.

And there you have it, a small sample of human stupidity.

Unfortunately, in the end, it seems impossible to stamp out or even control human stupidity. There are just too many of us around and it‘s probably also impossible to predict when any given individual will do something stupid. I guess I‘ll just have to live with it as will everyone else.

- Thomas D. Sadler

8

10 EMBELLISHED STORIES FROM RANDY'S NASFIC

Randy Cleary

Reprinted by permission from the Southern Fandom Classic Listserv. – ed.

POLICE. BLOOD. SWEAT. TEARS. ETC.

1) POLICE: I got a Police escort into downtown Raleigh. Turned off highway into downtown and saw Marriott, 35MPH sign, and cop in that order. Did not have time to slow down (going downhill just off highway) before cop turned on lights. Convinced him that these were not the droids he was looking for and got just a warning ticket. ;-)

2) ETC.: Taxied Toni Weisskopf to the nearest liquor store. She offered me a crisp $100 for the services rendered but I gave the money back to her. Not the toughest liquor store that I've been to at a con but all the liquor was behind the counter and a line was forming behind us. All that liquor and more was used at the Baen party the next night. The Baen party was THE best party. Smoothed Jim Beam's Choice with Toni and others. Developed a cold sore a few days later. When you smooth with someone, you smooth with everyone they have ever smoothed with.

3) ETC.: I got to be a panelist on three panels, only one of which the panelists outnumbered the audience (4 to 1). The others were fan track and I was the young punk of the panels where the other really BIG NAME FANS looked at me with puzzlement as I sat down behind the table Fanzine lounge (Left to right): Steve Miller, Chris Garcia, with them. Rusty Hevelin.

4) TEARS: Accidentally put in contacts using disinfectant solution causing tears. Accidentally left solution behind in hotel when I checked out. Sub-concious revenge. BLOOD: Scratched a bug bite in one panel and started to bleed nicely.

5) EAT, DRINK, SLEEP: Had a great 3 hour nap Saturday. Friday's "meet and greets" were awesome. Thursdays were no existant. Saturday's were good. Never ate alone except once on Thursday for lunch at

9 Shiska Bob (adequate) and then ate at the con Banquent (good), Big Easy (very good), Hotel Restaurant (poor), Parties (good), Con-Suite (good), Gastro Pub (great), Saigon Grill (Durham) (good) and Goodberries (Durham) (great).

6) SWEAT: Got a good workout early Saturday walking with Toni and flapping my gums about various current affairs in an ignorant manner while Toni made polite noises of agreement while rolling her eyes (I assume). I tried to take the stairs often, instead of escalators and/or elevators. Did not gain weight from all the eating over the weekend.

7) SMOOZE: Saw a LOT of southern fandom in attendance. Chatted with them through the convention. Hoped they recognized me. Most claimed that they would confirm my friend request on facebook REAL SOON NOW. Looked several pros briefly in the eye. The Fanzine Lounge had several zines that I had contributed to.

8) TEARS: Cruelest comment of the con to me was when I was checking Filthy Pierre's Voodoo Message Board Sunday for any messages to me. A strange woman (not Julie Wall) spoke loudly that "No one loves you. Perhaps you should leave a message for yourself." Somehow, I can annoy people without even trying. It's a gift.

9) SWEAT: Volunteered at the NASFiC Volunteer table and at the ASFA Suite, leaving my cell phone number. Was never called. Apparently my services were neither needed nor wanted. Brought the ReConstruction T-Shirts from Dan Caldwell in Chattanooga at LibertyCon in two of my plastic tubs. Got one tub (empty) back at the end of the con. Help carry and prep for the Baen party. If you popped a ballon, there is a good chance that my saliva sprayed you. Luckily, this was before Smoothing later that night.

10) LOOT: Bought a Convention t-shirt and THEN realized that my name was on the back (for being a program participant). Attended the Charity Auction (time shifted) at the last minute and bought Gurps books (Steve Jackson will be at the Huntsville ConStellation Convention September 17, 2010), a "The Crow" Poster, a "The Wraith" poster, a StellarCon 2011 membership (1 dollar cheaper than the current rate but with a button and a T-Shirt). In the art show, bid on three items with no contesting (and their was no auction). Gave Toni the original Brad Foster of her inner robot. Got a Clyde Caldwell print of a warrior lass. Got a little colored winged lady print by Angela R. Sasser. Bought an Innerzone magazine. Bought the second book in the Dresden Files series. Read it Monday (action, action, action).

Got some cool badge ribbons (Program Participant, Volunteer, Worker Bee, Up-Timer, Down-Timer) and lots of party stickers. Pick up a Baen CD and a nice Clyde Caldwell book cover flap ("Fangs for the Mammaries").

- Randy Cleary

10 My NASFiC Ghost of Honor Report

You are NOT here.

by John Purcell

Gee, based on all reports it sounds like I had a great time in Raleigh, North Carolina at the recent North American Science Fiction Convention (a.k.a., NASFiC) since this year‘s Worldcon was down in Melbourne, Australia. To be fair, the reports of my attendance at NASFiC have been grossly exaggerated and mostly by myself.

It all began innocently enough when Gary Farber, who I met (probably) at a convention many years ago, made the comment on his FaceBook page that he had seen me at a party at NASFiC with Steven Silver. Keep in mind that Gary has not been to a convention in a rather long time, so perhaps he was seeing the Ghosts of Conventions Past as he traveled the halls of ReConStruction (this year‘s nickname). Well, fans being slans – and smart-asses – some of us picked up on this and ran with it. Gary even had fun with his mental faux paux, mentioning that he found great amusement in croggling people‘s minds at seeing them again after so many years away from a con. It had been something like 18 years, so naturally, people‘s appearances changed, thus I forgave Gary for ―seeing‖ me at Reconstruction, which was chaired by the lovely Warren Buff (shown here).

That wasn‘t the only silly thing that happened. Apparently there were some errors in the program book, which from all reports I read on the Southern Fandom Classic listserv was a very attractive production. Guy H. Lillian III, the editor of Challenger, had produced it, but Chris Garcia noted on FaceBook that Steven H. (note the period – that‘s how it appeared in the program book) Silver edited Askance. That boo-boo caused a few mental gears to grind. Guy then made this comment on the SFC listserv: ―AGGGHH!!! One guess whose idiotic mistake that was. Of course Silver edits Ansible, John edits Argentus, Dave Langford edits Askance, and Guy Lillian edits Assh*le ...‖. followed by ―GHLIII -- as in Guy H Lillian, Idiot, Imbecile, Illiterate. At least I gave Steve credit for a great fanzine ...‖ a few minutes

11 later. After much self-flagellation, Guy calmed down, noting about Joel Zakem‘s con report on SFC, ―What I like about your report is its emphasis on what's important in life: FOOD. Phooey on this science fiction bushwah, let's EAT.‖ With Guy‘s fannish equilibrium restored, the universe called Fandom resumed spinning merrily on its axis.

But back to my ghosting at NASFiC. There is actual evidence of my really being there. It turns out that not only did Gary see me there, he even took photographs. It turns out I had even brought along my ghost guitar to entertain the gathered fen, and even found a nice quiet place to practice Saturday afternoon, which Gary captured here.

The convention‘s attendance wasn‘t very high, but the quality of the attendees was exemplary. At the Reno Worldcon party – which, if the Fannish Ghods line up correctly, I might be at, but doubt it – I had a great time meeting folks like Ben Yalow and playing my guitar. I have never been one for filk songs, so I played some old Credence Clearwater Revival, Beatles, Doobie Brothers, and a handful of my original songs. We had a great time, as the picture below clearly attests.

I was very happy to squeeze into the Reno party at NASFiC. As you can see, it was a happening place to be. Funny, nobody seems to be joining in as I play a rollicking version of “Born on the Bayou.” Tough audience.

One of the major attractions for many of us in attending conventions is the chance to meet up with old friends and make new friends. This has always been my number one reason for going, other reasons being the hucksters room, all-night gawd-awful science fiction films, the parties, going to panels, admiring masquerade costumes – well, I guess pretty much everything there is about a science fiction convention.

12 But the most important reason is the people. They make a science fiction con work and so much fun. Without good people, it is not a good con. Simple as that.

Case in point. For years I have heard about Ben Yalow and how he‘s one of the ―most loveliest‖ people one will ever meet in fandom. Once again, the Reno party provided the opportunity to do this, and Ben and I had a great chat about old fanzines, apas, and conventions that we had both attended, yet somehow missed each other at in the crowd. MidAmeriCon (1976, Kansas City) and Iguanacon (1978, Phoenix) were sources of much animated discussion between us, as you can see from this photo taken by Gary Farber. I am so glad to have finally had the chance to meet Ben, who really is a southern gentleman in the finest sense of the word.

The problem with any convention, especially ones where you‘re having a onderful time with friends is that they have this nasty habit of ending. Fortunately, with a little creative effort – and the sound of strangulating cats – closing ceremonies on Sunday afternoon don‘t have to be downers. Steven H (no period) Silver made the suggestion that bagpipes should be played at this juncture of the convention. The ensuing hubbub hurt many an ear, but I have to admit the sound of bagpipes is inspiring. So much so, in fact, that I could not resist jumping up with my guitar, ran to the podium, grabbed a chair, and played along.

After this impromptu jam session, it was time to pack up my guitar and play just like yesterday and head homeward. The great thing about ghosting ReConStruction was that I had fun there, and met many good people accompanied by fine southern hospitality. I may have to get to another one of these NASFiCs again.

The funny thing is, it all seems like it was just a dream. - John Purcell

13 Sixty Years Ago in Science Fiction -

Galaxy Magazine: 1950-1980

by Robert Sabella

*

In the 1940s, genre science fiction was dominated by Astounding (which underwent several name changes in its history, from Astounding Stories of Super Science to Astounding Stories to Astounding Science Fiction and finally to Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction) under editor John W. Campbell. While several other prozines were published in that decade (including Amazing Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Planet Stories.), they were generally secondary markets where top writers only sent stories either rejected by Campbell or obviously unsuitable for him. This basically meant that a single editorial prejudice dominated the short fiction field during that decade.

Near the end of the 1940s though, two other major markets appeared. The Magazine of Fantasy (soon to add and Science Fiction to its title) appeared in 1949, edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas. While a major prozine from its first issue, its title announced it was as much a successor to the lamented Unknown as it was a science fiction prozine.

Then in 1950 appeared the first issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, edited by H.L. Gold. In other to be considered ―major,‖ a prozine needs to attract major writers in its first few issues. Galaxy certainly succeeded in this. Its first issue contained stories by Astounding stalwarts Isaac Asimov, Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon, Fredric Brown and the first installment of a serial by Clifford D. Simak called Time Quarry.

During its first year Galaxy published numerous stories by the top writers in the sf field, including ―Ray Bradbury‘s ―The Fireman‖ (later Fahrenheit 451), Isaac Asimov‘s serial Tyrann (later The Stars Like Dust), William Tenn‘s ―Venus is a Man‘s World‖, and Robert Heinlein‘s The Puppet Masters. In addition to the superstars, Galaxy in its first year also discovered talented new writers such as Damon Knight (―To Serve Man‖), Wyman Guin, (―Beyond Bedlam‖), Cyril Judd (a pseudonym for Cyril M. Kornbluth & Judith Merrill for the serial Mars Child), and Edgar Pangborn (―Angel‘s Egg‖) as well as publishing stories by such stalwarts of the sf field as James H. Schmitz, Ross Rocklynne, Richard Matheson, Frank M. Robinson, Lester del Rey, Murray Leinster, John Christopher, Poul Anderson, Katherine MacLean, Alan E. Nourse, John Wyndham and Jack Vance.

1952 opened with Alfred Bester‘s instant classic The Demolished Man, which won the first Hugo Award as Best Novel at the 1953 World Science Fiction Convention. Later that year Galaxy tied for Best Professional Magazine with the revered Astounding for the first Hugo Award, announcing to the sf world that there was definitely a new kid in town.

H.L. Gold edited Galaxy until 1960s, when health issues forced him to turn over the editorial reins to Frederik Pohl, one of the magazine‘s most prolific authors. During Pohl‘s decade as editor, fiction from Galaxy won more Hugo and Nebula Awards than any other prozine, 8 (compared to 5 for F&SF, 3 for Worlds of IF and 2 for Analog). Its dominance peaked in 1968 when all 3 short fiction awards appeared

14 originally in Galaxy: "Nightwings" by Robert Silverberg won Best Novella, "The Sharing of Flesh" by Poul Anderson won Best Novelette and "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" by Harlan Ellison won Best Short Story.

In 1969 Galaxy was sold to Universal Publishing and Pohl decided to retire to fulltime writing. Unfortunately, his replacement as editor was the decidedly inferior Ejler Jakobsson who presided over its gradual decline for the next half-dozen years. The only reason the prozine remained among the elite was because Robert Silverberg was still operating under the legendary deal offered him by Frederik Pohl in the mid-1960s, that he would publish every Silverberg story submitted to him so long as those stories continued to represent Silverberg at the top of his form. During Jakobsson‘s half-dozen years as editor, Galaxy serialized 4 major Silverberg novels (Downward to the Earth, A Time of Changes, Dying Inside and The Tower of Glass, as well as publishing another 5 pieces of Silverberg short fiction.

By the time Jim Baen took over the reins of editor in 1974, the publisher of Galaxy had decided to cut costs drastically, including payments to writers, so that the magazine was in freefall when Baen took over. Somehow he reversed the slide during his three years as editor, both in quality and in level of sales, but he finally abandoned the effort in 1977, and Galaxy limped along for a dreadful three more years.

In 1980 Galaxy was purchased by Vincent McCaffrey, the publisher of another prozine named Galileo, but cash-flow problems killed the magazine after a single non-digest-sized issue. It was a sad finish to one of the proudest prozines in the history of the science fiction genre.

Although Galaxy is remembered most for its award-winning stories, no magazine can depend on one or two stories per issue for its quality. A successful prozine must also have a stable of talented storytellers who appear in the magazine on a regular basis, providing both the bulk of the magazines stories and the dependability an editor can build his issues around. Galaxy‘s regular stable included Poul Anderson (18 appearances), Gordon R. Dickson (17), Damon Knight (23, primarily in the 1950s), R.A. Lafferty (24), Fritz Leiber (28, primarily in the 1950s), J.T. McIntosh (20), Larry Niven (17, primarily in the late 1960s), Frederik Pohl (49 solo, 7 with C.M. Kornbluth and 1 with Jack Williamson), Jerry Pournelle (46, primarily during the Jim Baen era), Robert Sheckley (47, primarily in the 1950s), Robert Silverberg (30), Clifford D. Simak (34, primarily in the 1950s), Theodore Sturgeon (26, primarily in the 1950s), William Tenn (16, primarily in the 1950s), and Richard Wilson (16, primarily in the 1950s). Hardly an issue of Galaxy went by without at least one of the above names on its contents page, which was an important part of its success. A prozine whose contents page is mostly unfamiliar to casual readers is unlikely to build a dependable audience, since readers are more likely to spend money on reliable storytellers whom they know they can depend on for a good read every time. That was how thousands of readers of sf in the 1950s through the 1970s felt about Galaxy, including me. It has been gone 30 years, but it is still missed.

- Robert M. Sabella

15 fanzine reviews

by Lloyd Penney

First up this time around is Griff, a new fanzine from Ian Millsted in the UK. I‘ve got the first two issues, and with luck, there‘ll be more.

The first issue arrived unannounced, had no idea it was on its way, and by the look of the front cover, I had to wonder if it was a mystery/detective fanzine. Shapely legs and hips hiding a gun, and a man in a black suit lying on the bed…we are left to arrive at our own conclusions. We know better than to judge a fanzine by its cover; the contents are a combination of perzine, travelogue, and nostalgia. The first issue talks about the British book town of Hay-on-Wye, reminiscences about the early Doctor Who, a convention report, and remembrances of Kirk Burdick and Robert Holdstock. An entertaining mix.

The second issue is about British politics, SF/F/H writers who ran for public office in Britain, more Doctor Who, more cons, and the comments on the first issue. What do I like about them? I‘m old fashioned; it‘s digest-sized, A4 folded, and portions of it are in full colour. I appreciate the finances of fanzine publishing, but hey, this is a **Fanzine**. They are still nice to get. Ian has written his bit, gotten other submissions, gotten some nice artwork, and committed it all to paper, and bless ‗em for it. This perzine is calm, easy to read and a nice surprise. It looks like Ian is enjoying his pubbing, and it shows in the atmosphere of the zine.

To see about getting past and future issues of Griff (hint, hint, Ian), send him a message of desire to [email protected].

Then, comes another in the long line of fanzine titles that are returning to print after long absences, and hey, it‘s local. After not pubbing for 19 years, Colin Hinz has produced another issue of Novoid, no. 9. Start with the art…Freddie Baer‘s cover can only be described as steampunkish, there‘s some artwork by Spider Robinson (!), and the bacover is a blast from the past, produced by David Vereschagin.

The articles within…Colin comments on getting his act together to do another zine (Corflu is the great excuse to Pub Yer Ish), Earl Kemp comments on past adventures with acid, Allegra Sloman pays homage to the Parking Goddess, all hail, Richard Brandt comments on the girls of his past mixed with alcohol, and Taral makes cogent comments on the link between going green and going broke. There‘s something there for most, and something to make you think, which doesn‘t seem to be too popular an

16 activity these days. Then, there‘s a 19-year-old locol in the back, a true time capsule, and yes, I‘m there, and that realization is a little chilling. Some of the remarks in the locs are pre-Internet, which gives the impression of being even older. There‘s a simple solution for that…produce Novoid 10. There‘s also some names there from the past, like Allan Burrows and Brian Earl Brown. It is good to see this title return, another reminder that Death Shall Not release you, so don‘t expect fanzine fandom to do so any time soon. We‘re greedy that way. Even though the editorials gave me the impression that Colin Had To Do It, he‘s put out a very good zine.

Pester Mr. Hinz for more Novoids, and make sure it‘s not another 19 years. He‘s at [email protected].

Fanzines received via post or via the aether-net

Alexiad #51 - 52 Lofgeornost #100 Ansible #276 – 278 Motorway Dreamer #7 The Astronaut #3 (1934) Mumblings from Munchkinland #2,3,6 AN Fleghes Hager-Na Yu Canjeons #1-2 MT Void #1601 – 1614 Banana Wings #43 My Back Pages #2 BCSFAzine #445 – 448 Newsletter of the Mid-TN SF Society #93-95 Challenger #32 Nice Distinctions #19 Cloud Chamber #161 The Original Universe #11 Drink Tank #250 – 258 Relapse #17 E Corflu Vitus Progress Report #1 The Reluctant Famulus #75-76 eI #51 Royal Swiss Navy Gazette #21 Einblatt! (July – September 2010) Science Fiction in San Francisco #106 - 108 Exhibition Hall #11- 13 Sense of Wonder Stories #4 Feline Mewsings 41 SF Commentary #80 & 80A Futurian Observer #19 (1940s) Siddhartha #3.8 The Fortnightly Fix #13 – 14 Southern Fandom Confederation Bulletin #16 Home Kookin’ #14a,14b,14c Time & Again #12 InterGalactic Medicine Show (June 2010) Tolkien Fandom Review Interstellar Ramjet Scoop(June & August 2010) Visions of Paradise #154 - 156

Okay. By now most of you are screaming and running for your lives at the sight of this live-size photo of the arachnid clinging to the wall above the front door of our house on the evening of September 7th. My wife Valerie had just come home with daughter Josie, who saw this spider before Val did. The screams they emitted didn‘t quite wake the neighborhood, but I‘m sure some folks drowsily exclaimed, ―What the….?!?‖ But this is yet another fine example of the indigenous critters that live in our part of Texas. Yeesh….

Even looking into the downtown core might get you arrested.

17 My Two Cents Worth:

John Purcell’s Commentary on the 2010 Best Fanzine Hugo Award

At the time that I am writing this, it has been five days since the 2010 Hugo Awards – a.k.a., the Science Fiction Achievement Awards – were announced, and much to the consternation of many, but not as much of a surprise, the Best Fanzine Award went to StarShipSofa, a podcast winner in a print-oriented category. (Note those terms because they are important.) Even more non-surprisingly, the fannish aether started vibrating so violently that the very fabric of space was near its rupture point. Needless to say, I refer to the assorted science fiction related listservs, FaceBook, MySpace, LiveJournal, assorted blogs, websites, to say nothing of e-mails, text messages, twitters, and good, old-fashioned phone calls. On the Southern Fandom Classic listserv, Curt Phillips posted his annual ―Hugo Awards and a Rant‖, which is still generating many responses. The Fmzfen listserv has been remarkably quiet on this topic, with some commentary posted every so often, quite possibly since the fans involved there could be described as more jaded since they‘re old, tired phans who have seen this day coming for years and have railed about it in the past.

Essentially, nearly everything that I have been reading in reaction to StarShipSofa winning the Best Fanzine Hugo has been negative, which is to be expected. What really surprised me was when Dr. Amy Sturgis wrote the following, which appears in the current newsletter of the Middle Tennessee Science Fiction Society (#95):

For nearly three years now I have thoroughly enjoyed being a regular contributor to StarShipSofa: The Audio Science Fiction Magazine with my "History of the Genre" segments and my narrations, and I've been delighted to work with its wonderful editor, Tony C. Smith.

Today, StarShipSofa became the first podcast ever to win a Hugo Award.

To Tony, to the other StarShipSofa contributors, to all of our listeners and supporters, and to every member of the larger podcasting family, I offer heartfelt thanks and congratulations. History has been made!

And, of course, congratulations to all of the 2010 Hugo Award winners. (Note: It was my special privilege this year to get to narrate two of the winning stories, Will McIntosh's "Bridesicle" and Peter Watts's "The Island." I'm so thrilled for these deserving authors!)

18 So far, outside of the targeted audience of StarShipSofa – which I have been following this week from time to time, being an interested party in this particular award – this is the only positive reaction I have read to the award. It was also interesting to catch the tail end of the live feed on Ustream early on Sunday, September 5th (good heavens, normally I never get up that early on Sundays; local time, the Ustream feed began at 5:00 AM, and I woke up at a little after 6:30 AM) and read the chat window as the winners had been announced. (Before I go on, I really must thank Cheryl Morgan and whoever else was responsible for providing the Ustream feed, running the tech work as needed to keep it going, and providing updates in the chat window as each category‘s winner was announced. Good show, Cheryl, and thank you very much.) And when my scrolling got to the chat comments when StarShipSofa was announced as the Best Fanzine Hugo winner, the vast majority of the commentary was positive. There were a few negative comments posted, of course, but as I read the chat, a distinct observation came to me and I really need to share that here.

Consider the simple fact that StarShipSofa is a podcast. In case anybody hasn‘t noticed this yet, a podcast is a wonderful example of the communication technology available for our use in any form we see fit. Bill Mills out in Las Vegas fandom created the Voices of Fandom project, an audio compendium of assorted recordings from old and recent conventions to store for posterity. Heck, even Arnie Katz, a long- time fan editor, hosted a webcast, The Wasted Hour, for a short while that was like an audio fanzine but done LIVE online – again, thanks to Bill Mills‘ technical expertise in making it possible – that even I appeared on when Arnie interviewed me. I mean, ghosh-whow, how stfnal! Furthermore, I confess that I have a My Yahoo page on which I have windows and links to some science fiction podcasts, notably Slice of SciFi and Old Time Radio SciFi. On our home computer, my folder under the bookmarks tab has links to StarShipSofa, Whatever, and The Way the Future Blogs. Every so often I listen to these podcasts – the interviews, readings, etc. – and peruse the blogs. The thing that I have to point out is that blogs can be read. Online fanzines stored at http://eFanzines.com can be read. Heck, any of those zines can be printed out, for that matter. Even stfnal websites, listservs, FaceBook, and LiveJournal all have to be read to be enjoyed. These are all examples of the electronic fanac that we fans can enjoy here early in the early 21st century. The technology to commit Cyber Fanac is here. Funny thing: some of our old habits from the distant past of the 20th century have been transferred into Cyber Fanac. Like reading.

That‘s right. Even electronic fan activity requires a fair amount of reading. This also includes visual and audio fanac when we access them via the Internet. So it really isn‘t a very far leap of logic to follow my train of thought: a podcast does not require reading. It does not have many of the features of fanzines, either on paper, as .pdfs on your computer screen, or even websites or blogs, such as layout, pictures, feedback (letter columns or comment windows), and so forth. Sure, it takes time and effort to create a good podcast, just like a fanzine – as Nicki Lynch pointed out in her rant on the SFC listserv Thursday morning, September 9, 2010 - but there the similarity ends. A podcast is not meant to be read; it is meant to be heard. And that, my friends, is a HUGE distinction that needs to be addressed.

Even Steven Silver‘s 12-year old daughter has been quoted as saying, ―A podcast is not a fanzine.‖ If that‘s the case, and since Cyber Fanac is growing at such a rapid pace, perhaps it really is time for not a new category of Hugo Awards, but maybe offer Science Fiction Cyber Awards, which could be handed out at Worldcons, kind of like having their own award ceremony on a different night than the Hugos, of course, kind of like how the Sidewinder Awards for Alternative History novels and stories are handled. There would be best cyber fiction categories, but only appearing in electronic format, and then the same could be done for pro/fan blogs, websites, and then electronic fanzines and podcasts. This is what I‘ve been thinking of this week. I wonder what the rest of you think of this idea. In the meantime, I will continue to follow the discussions online. Or in the paper fanzines I sometimes get in the mail.

19

20 Science Fiction Books your humble editor has recently read

Really?? I don’t believe it… This fanzine is actually talking about SCIENCE FICTION ?!? Gaack!

Yes, it is true: Over the summer I was actually reading science fiction. Naturally, that means, if you‘re a science fiction fan who happens to be producing a fanzine, you have to write about them. So, what the heck: here are some brief encapsulations about them. Sometimes I even surprise myself.

Mission to Universe, Gordon R. Dickson. (1965) Berkley Medallion.

This is one of those books you buy as a teenager that gave you that ―ghosh-whow‖ sensawundah feel when you read it, but when re-read as an adult that great feeling has pretty much become only a memory.

A good memory, though. I remember buying this book at a used bookstore in Minneapolis in something like 1972 on one of those bookstore runs Steve Glennon and I used to take once a month, hitting up a half-dozen of them on a Saturday afternoon. This was during our pre- Minn-stf years, so it was only a matter of time before our paths crossed and the ordered universe was forever altered.

At any rate, Mission to Universe was still a fun read, even after all these years. It is not one of Dickson‘s better books, very typical of his military mindset at the time, but I have always enjoyed Dickson‘s clear, uncluttered writing style. It is a very easy book to read and understand, even when the characters start discussing at great length how they need to compute their next jump coordinates on their quest to find planets habitable for humans.

So there is the core of the plot. Brigadier General Benjamin Shore, a by-the-book military man, has overseen the construction of a phase ship – hence the jumps from here to there around the universe – and ignores a Presidential command to not launch the ship. Naturally, there are repercussions both on Earth and on the ship itself while it bounces around the Milky Way like a galactic pinball. General Shore‘s hope is that the launching of this phase ship will encourage the warring nations of Earth to realize that peaceful coexistence is possible, and the human race really can move out onto other worlds. Problem is, where are these worlds? And that‘s what Shore‘s mission into the universe is all about: finding habitable planets. Oh, guess what? Some of them are already occupied…

Predictable: yes. A bit dated: absolutely. Fun reading: oh, yeah. Gordon R. Dickson has always been one of my favorite SF writers, so reading Mission to Universe again was worth the effort.

21 Space Lords, Cordwainer Smith. (1970) Sphere.

I have long felt that anything written by Cordwainer Smith (a.k.a., Paul Linebarger (1913-1966)) is an acquired taste. This British collection of four stories features the ―weird and wonderful universe of Cordwainer Smith‖ (back cover blurb), those being ―Mother Hitton‘s Littul Kittons,‖ ―The Dead Lady of Clown Town,‖ ―Drunkboat,‖ and ―The Ballad of Lost C‘Mell.‖ Of them all, the one story that drove me nuts was ―The Dead Lady of Clown Town.‖ I simply could not get into that story, and the writing style was very off-putting. Considering when the story was first written and published (1964) best explains the whys and wherefores of this story‘s construction. It is very New Wave-ish, shifting back and forth between straight narrative, poetry, almost musical in spots, and back to narrative. ―Dead Lady‖, the longest story in the book, is what I would call pure experimental fiction, and it didn‘t appeal to me at all when I read it two months ago.

Now, the other stories still hold well for me. I liked ―Drunkboat‖ probably for its brevity, and it actually reads like the most linear story of the bunch. The same could be said of ―The Ballad of Lost C‘Mell.‖ Both of these stories contain passages that are like reading prose poetry. Smith was, no question, a master stylist who could create moods and imagery with his language usage. Reading a bit about Linebarger‘s background helps to understand his fiction: he was a US foreign policy advisor and studied Chinese literature. As a result, much of his work focuses on the future of human society and verges on philosophy; ‖The Dead Lady of Clown Town‖ is definitely a surreal allegory of modern Western society, more so now than back in the early 60s due to the advances in genetic engineering that have made cloning, choosing a child‘s sex, and human organ marketing reality.

Any SF fan should be familiar with Cordwainer Smith‘s stories, and this particular collection has two of his best: ―Mother Hitton‘s Littul Kittons‖ and ―Ballad of Lost C‘Mell.‖ After slogging my way through Space Lords, I am tempted to try reading Norstrilia or Quest of the Three Worlds. Tempted, that is. It may be awhile before I‘m in the mood to tackle either one.

Breached Fallacy, Brent C. Green. (2010) Self-published.

This is the book that I briefly mentioned last issue, the one written by a high school senior here in College Station, Texas. Sadly, that shows. The basic plot has been done before numerous times: a tyrannical ruling authority, called Soltruc, controls planet Earth, and this domination has resulted in an underground independence movement – the Free People‘s Liberation – that has secretly built (literally underground) an interstellar colony ship. It can‘t travel faster than light, but it is capable of near light speed, so volunteer colonists from the FPL hibernate during the multi-year journey to their new home, free from Soltruc‘s nasty influence. Little do these colonists realize that a Soltruc spy is in their midst, so not only do they know what the FPL is up to, Soltruc has even been able to crack the light barrier. Needless to say, the plot from there is predictable.

22 The writing style of Brent C. Green is at first too heavy-handed with the description; there is an awful lot of information dump narrative paragraphing. At least the dialogue between the characters is relatively clean of these distractions; their language is very much modern American youth (remember, this is a 17 year old‘s first novel), and the interaction, including romantic interests, is very basic and superficial. The biggest problem Green has is that the opening narrative is very disjointed and hesitant. Once Green actually gets into the real story that he wants to tell – starting around page 41 of a book that is only 160 pages long – the pace finally picks up and gets more interesting. Until that point, the narrative is virtually pure exposition, and that‘s dangerous: most readers would have stopped long before then. With a good editor over-seeing a rewrite or two, there is definite potential here. The science is sound, the extrapolations do make sense, and even the imagined near future Earth society is believable, probably because experienced readers of science fiction are familiar with such a structure. I would like to see what young Mr. Green can do with some constructive criticism on Breached Fallacy. Seems to me this young man has promise.

Halting State, Charles Stross. (2007). Ace Books – hardcover.

I had a helluva time getting into this story. Written in the second person, this near-future (2018) novel is best described as a mental roller-coaster and reinforces why I normally cannot stand narratives like this. Then again, it is a style that fits the subject matter. In a nutshell – as if it‘s at all possible to briefly summarize the plot of Halting State – a bank located within an online role-playing game has been robbed by orcs supported by a dragon providing covering fire. Literally. A person might think, ―Big Deal. This is a game, so it‘s not real.‖ However, to those with vested interests in on-line gaming – and enhancements that can, in fact, be purchased online with the capability to be played in other on-line games – the relevancy and importance of the potential fiduciary loss becomes apparent. The police have been brought in to investigate, and even though this starts off as a bit of a routine investigation, it rapidly spins out of control as the implications of what this robbery actually ―means‖ instead of what was actually ―stolen‖ become extraordinary. Perhaps, more than anything, Halting State is a warning of the dangers of living too much or getting too involved within a wired society. One review I read on the Internet – by Cat Eldridge – shows the link between John Brunner‘s 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider and Alvin Toffler‘s Future Shock, the latter stating that technology will always outpace society‘s ability to adapt to technological changes. Much as Brunner anticipated the cyberpunk genre, Stross is extrapolating how our tech-dependent society is endangering our individualness, that people will become as intangible as the virtual worlds in which we play our games, thereby people will become more of an informational byte than a real human being.

23 Before I forget, the dust jacket notes that Stross does hold a degree in Computer Science, and I wonder if he has experience in writing on-line gaming; he uses technical jargon with ease not only in the narrative (again, this is where the second person comes in very handy) but also in character dialogue. The effect of this is dizzying, but then again, the technology involved in this novel is so damned current that it is frightening, and that was three years ago! On FaceBook, when I made the comment that I was reading this book, Charles Stross came back to me by saying that the sequel to Halting State has now been delivered to the publisher.

So I checked the Internet. (Shades of irony!) If I can trust Wikipedia‘s accuracy, Rule 34 is due to be released in the summer of 2011. For once, I actually may have to read that one when it‘s published. Halting State is definitely a strong novel; it is the first fiction of Stross‘ that I have read, and I am very impressed.

The Rim-World Legacy, F.A. Javor. (1967) Signet.

Okay, this is an old novel – a mere 144 pages long – that I enjoyed a lot. There are certain cross-genres that I believe work well, such as mystery + science fiction or history + detective. Murders and science fiction are a natural. Face it: I love a mystery. Match with science fiction and you‘ve got me. The current wave of Steampunk fiction, lots of it that I dig a great deal, is hybrid literature, and while The Rim-World Legacy is obviously science fiction – set on another planet, for one, plus other future-flung technology – but at its heart this is a murder mystery that opens with the protagonist fleeing for his life, accused of an attempted murder that he did not attempt. No wait: there is indeed a murder involved here. And everybody that the protagonist has been in contact with is more embroiled in the plot than suspected. It‘s The Fugitive on another world with a splattering of The Prisoner tossed in. Because those were two favorite television shows of mine in the 1960s, reading this novel was a bit nostalgic, making me pine for the days of my youth.

Yeah, I liked it. A fast read, and from what Joe Major tells me, the ending of Cherie Priest‘s Hugo-nominated Boneshaker is very reminiscent of the final scenes in The Rim-World Legacy. Okay. So does that mean I don‘t have to read Boneshaker?

24

Having a three-month gap between issues is an interesting experience. Many years ago – the 1970s and early 1980s, to be exact – I pubbed THIS HOUSE on a thrice-yearly schedule for a few years, and that was when I had a wealth of fannish energy to expend – plus, I was single. Married, family life does takes it toll on one’s fanac, to say nothing of money – of which I usually have nothing thanks to the family life.

Still, I have received some interesting letters this time, starting with this one from the editor/publisher of the fanzine Luna!, the publication of The Luna Project (http://www.lunarcc.org/ ), a non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas, whose purpose is to promote the return of humankind to the moon, establishing a permanent base there as a stepping stone to the stars, yada-yada… What follows is actually a response to a loc I sent to Chris Carson after receiving the November, 2009 issue in early August of 2010. Right on time… This guy is obviously a fan.

From: "C D Carson" [email protected]

Although it was meant to appear last November, the truth is that I only got Luna! no.8 finished in time for the recent NASFiC. No.9 should not take so long, hopefully!

I'll be glad to pack you up 48 copies of mixed issues, which is the quantity I can get in under the 13-ounce first-class limit (the Post Office is never sure whether newsletters count as Media Mail or not, & the days they don't think so, I have to pay Priority Mail postage). I've started to do what I should have been doing

25 before: keep a calendar showing all the conventions & other events I should be sending things to, to remind me to do it. Of course, this still doesn't help with my fits of inactivity, but it does help get something more done. {Don’t fight it, Chris. We fen all do this. It’s in our nature.}

The major incentive for the PG&E space solar deal was the California 30% renewable energy generation requirement. Considering the high cost, limited supply, & above all complete mismatch of generation to load associated with ground-based solar & wind, which are the two main choices to date, a renewable source with baseload reliability (which space solar is) would be worth a large multiple of the prevailing kilowatt-hour rate -- somewhere between 30 cents & a dollar per kWh, which is enough to pay for some rather exotic things. Of course, under the economic conditions, which have people talking environmental regulations versus prosperity (though how we can be prosperous if we can't breathe the air or drink the water I don't know), & with the Farnsworth-Bussard polywell electrostatic confinement reactor apparently on the verge (there is talk that the Navy's next class of nuclear submarines will be powered by plasma-state light-element fission on the boron-proton reaction) of delivering on the promise of atomic power, with its direct conversion of atomic energy to electricity, cheap fuel, & lack of radioactive wastes, the project may end up cancelled. We shall see.

As you will understand from the tenor of my writing, I think there are good prospects for near-term human lunar occupancy, IF it is done in the right way. I am confident that the costs can be held down, the time required can be reduced, & the necessary resources can be gathered outside the stagnant government- industrial complex which currently controls space activity. The problem is not one of possibilities but one of realizing them.

Incidentally, you will see if you go to the Luna Project home page that I am currently conducting a couple of fund drives -- one for advertising posters, the other to send me (mote or less because I'm available) to this year's Worldcon & to the New Zealand NatCon (which is the previous week) to evangelize for space. I'm gratified by the progress so far. It suggests that this kind of thing is more than sheer lunacy.

The Stars Are Ours!

Chris

{I have long been a supporter of manned space exploration, believing that it is a natural extension of the human need to explore and see What’s Out There, be it across the seas, over the next ridge, under the sea, take it from me. You get the idea. (*) I would love to see that space solar plant become a reality. It has been talked about a lot over the years, and we do indeed have the technology to pull this off right now. Sounds to me like this would be a very practical usage of manned space programs. It would definitely benefit the rest of us planet-bound idjits with a plentiful and cheaper (I hope) source of energy.}

Providing what is best described as an addendum loc, here’s Robert Sirignano adding some more examples of his family’s high tolerance for pain, which he wrote about last issue. Then he goes off on some interesting tangents about old movies, which is always fun to read about.

26 From: Robert W. Sirignano [email protected]

Thursday, Aug 12, 2010

My mother reminded me of an incident:

She got a call from her sister, my Aunt Dot, who told he she had been feeling as if she had a bad stomach ache for the previous week. She went to a Doctor, who told her she'd had a heart attack...

And she had just ignored it.

I'd put my left hand through a window, and the only time it hurt was after the doctor trimmed out a flap of flesh and sewed it up. This was about two hours of waiting....When I need to do something I can ignore the pain, solve the problem, and then feel hurt. {Well, I suppose that’s one say to save time.}

As for RIO RITA, it was a successful 1929 musical film which made a lot of money. It was an adaptation of a Broadway play--it had song and dance and two tone technicolor, and the film was a novelty. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were the stand up vaudeville comics who were in the original stage production. The initial print doesn't exist anymore. It ran two hours and only a 90 minute print survives, and only in black and white.

It is the sound and feeling I get when I saw JUST IMAGINE that an attempt was made to replicate the duo. The manner of delivery and interaction and several kinds of body language and hand movements.

[But what of] Wheeler and Woolsey? Did lots of films. Not too many in circulation, but one was science fiction. Bert had made a machine that would "make" you tell the truth. It was called THE NITWITS and co- starred Betty Grable, and Arthur Treacher. And it was directed by George Stevens, who went on the direct films like GIANT (with James Dean).

But watching JUST IMAGINE and seeing the spaceship and the "Martian Dance" which were lifted for Flash Gordon serials was a surprise. On the other hand, JUST IMAGINE was a box office bomb, so why spend money to build another spaceship?

I dunno if you saw the film in 1982. I got the feeling it was uncovered and rediscovered a bit later. Could be wrong though.

My review for JUST IMAGINE is below... http://personanonsequitor.blogspot.com/2010/01/just-imagine-1930-nominated-for-academy.html

Robert

{Old science fiction movies – oh, heck, old movies in general – are so much fun to watch. I must have seen Just Imagine somewhere along the track because the description of it in your review sounds so very familiar. Sounds like one that needs to be brought back for those late-night/early morning film programs that I always love at conventions.}

27 Now to shift gears into a whole new direction. In last issue, there was a loc from Taral Wayne which dealt with his feelings about Furry Fandom and how he had been treated as an outsider, though not deliberately, at a Toronto Furry Convention. I say “not deliberately” because in that loc Taral said he was not really known by anyone at that con, so the feeling of being an unknown was interesting to him. One response to that loc was from the following person. I have never met Richard Handloff, but I think he brings up some very good points about how fans view fans, and how we respond to fandom after we Get A Life and drift away from it. This is a very interesting letter, and I am glad Richard sent it in. Thinking back on comments folks have made over the years about fans being very insular, this loc becomes rather important. At least, I think it is.

Richard Handloff 264 Massachusetts Ave #102 Arlington, MA 02474 [email protected]

Thursday, June 24, 2010

In a letter printed in Askance #20 Taral Wayne wrote about furry cons. I don't consider myself a furry but I do feel rather ashamed of the way I've talked about furries and thought I'd use this LOC as an act of repentance.

When I was a kid, I was a fan. I was probably a very typical fan, too. An outsider who longed for the company of other fans but had trouble finding them. Conventions were not easy for me to go to for a variety of reasons both practical, economical, and psychological. But I managed to find some fans and was at least a little bit tied into fandom.

Time went on and I drifted away from fandom in general. I let myself be trapped into living by what other people thought and said instead of what I determined to be true by experience and reason.

I started to look down on fans as being sort of pathetic and as a rather pathetic aspect of my past but I especially developed a contempt for furries as a number of folks I spent time with and websites I frequented used furries as a sort of generic dumping ground for hate and a short- hand for unthinkable deviancy.

Thankfully, I was suitably humbled and had the pretension knocked out of me by various trying circumstances. I look back and I am just stunned at how judgmental I was toward people I did not know when my life was falling apart and I could barely cope with even the most trivial of challenges. I had no basis for judgment and

28 certainly no foundation for my sense of superiority.

I wonder how many opportunities to meet interesting people I missed by my disdain for fandom in general, and furries in particular. I also feel terrible that things I might have said or written in blogs might have forced people to hide parts of themselves. I'm sure my writing didn't get around too much so I doubt this is likely, but as someone who has often felt the need to hide who I am, it seems a terrible crime even to contribute to this in a minor way.

I have a son now and I hope to teach him to avoid some of these regrets. As good as it is to learn from other people and to listen, I don't want him to listen blindly. I'd rather he - as St Paul wrote - "examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good". I've been tempted to teach him to "be true to himself", but I wouldn't want to inflict that on him. As the weeping prophet wrote:"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick" (Perhaps that explains Taral's observation that it is the fringe elements of furry fandom that appeal most to the newbies.) I don't want my son to follow his bliss, as they used to say. I want him to dig deep into things and not settle for "this is true for me and that is true for you" laissez faire mentality. I hope to teach him to be respectful of the views of others and to consider seriously viewpoints other than his own and to be charitable when disagreements come up, but I also want to teach him not to settle for platitudes and a surface spirituality.

It is sort of depressing to hear Taral's dissection of the "spoiling" of furry fandom. But as John Teehan points out in his Letter of Comment, fandom itself is changing. The fandom I loved and left may be a fandom to which I cannot go home again. But perhaps this is okay. Like Lloyd Penney, I want to support Big Tent Fandom. Maybe the things that I find unfortunate about fandom today are the things I will look back on in 10 years and say, "Why didn't I give that a chance? Why didn't I meet the folks who were into that?"

Richard Handloff

{Thank you, Richard, for sharing your thoughts. It sounds to me like you have a much healthier attitude about fandom and furries now that you have experienced Life. Having children really re-shapes we think of ourselves and the influences that shaped us as kids. Living should teach us to be more tolerant and accepting of others, so the Big Tent Fandom analogy still fits. It was the tolerance of Minn-stfers when I started attending club meetings in Minneapolis back in the mid-70s that really appealed to me. There was a genuine acceptance of someone new simply as himself or herself. I do know that other fan groups aren’t, or weren’t in the past, as accepting as Minn-stf, so my experience is fairly limited. Then again, all those cons I attended between 1973 and 1988 taught me a lot about the character of fans. Most of them are wonderful people: genuinely caring and non- judgmental. Unfortunately, in any population there are always assholes present, and those are the ones we need to not ignore, but try not to become. Sometimes I also wonder about all the missed opportunities of being away from fandom during the 1990s. I can’t undo the past, but like you say, maybe I can teach my own son to avoid some of the regrets of my past. It is not worth dragging those forward with me. So therefore, welcome to the pages of my fanzine, and I hope you will continue to contribute.}

29

So next up is our erstwhile Canadian letterhack extraordinaire, and recent Hugo- losing fan writer, Lloyd Penney. Let’s see if there’s anything he regrets reading last issue.

Lloyd Penney 1706-24 Eva Rd. Etobicoke, ON CANADA M9C 2B2

June 25, 2010

Finally, a little time presents itself, and greedily, I grab it to devote to a loc here and there. I haven‘t had much of that time lately, but this weekend is the G20 summit, being held in downtown Toronto, which is under security lockdown. Even looking into the downtown core might get you arrested. What better time than to stay at home, let Obama, Harper and the rest of them have their important meetings, and delve into the text of Askance 20? Congratulations on the 20th issue, by the way.

This was an excellent DUFF race, and John Hertz will represent us well. And, you did very well, so no shame in placing second. It‘s good to see that fan funds are still vital, and there area number of fan funds here and there in various places, letting those who can‘t always travel get about and meet their fellow fans a distance away. {I am already looking forward to reading John’s trip report. Judging by how much he writes about these things called world conventions, this could very well be a long one – but probably not as long as Chris Garcia’s 50,000 word TAFF report!)

The change in frequency is a good thing, not only for you, but for your contributors, too. Time is never really my own, and sometimes, I have little say over how I spend it. I‘d like a week or two to simply write, but there‘s the job hunt, preparations for future cons, local steampunk group activities, family gatherings…recently, Yvonne‘s family moved their mother Gabrielle into a French-Canadian retirement home where she is thriving, being a minor celebrity in the local French-Canadian community.

I like all kinds of zines, and I do like genzines. Once we get past the obvious point that we all like SF and fandom, we can then go on to talk about any other topic under the sun, and a genzine can and will contain all those topics. Nothing is off-topic. We might even discuss SF at times, who knows, anything‘s possible.

I‘m afraid Bill Wright‘s article has already become a little dated with the near-firing of Labour leader Kevin Rudd, and the appointment Julia Gillard to the head of the party, and de facto new Australian prime minister. I get the feeling that Rudd liked being in power more than he liked keeping his election promises. Also, Taral‘s and Bill articles are very relevant given that the G8 summit in Huntsville, Ontario started today, and the G20 starts tomorrow in downtown Toronto. When it comes to Barack Obama, I think the world wants him to succeed, but there are so many Republicans and further to the right who want him to fail, and are trying to make him fail, all the time forgetting that Obama‘s failure means America fails. American may not be able to afford to keep its foreign military presence in the future, but I hope this won‘t mean that the Fortress America mentality will return, should any of those foreign bases be given up. Yet, if the hugely inflated military budget were t rimmed even a little, the money that could be saved could help to pay down the enormous debt, or be invested in the country so that the debt might be better handled. As Taral says, not a chance in hell.

John Straede‘s article reminds me of an event that happened when we lived elsewhere in Etobicoke…a cousin of Yvonne‘s was a senior fireman, and he confirmed that in most areas, it is illegal to fire up a barbecue or Hibachi or an apartment balcony, fire code and all that. An apartment across the street from us did just that, fire up a Hibachi on his balcony, and he used far too much firestarter, and he had a

30 roaring blaze licking up to the balcony of his upstairs neighbour. We called 911 and got the police and fire department, and they put out the fire, and the police ticketed him.

Thank you for allowing a reprint of my review on the two steampunk fanzines…that column should see reprint in the first issue of The Dominion Dispatch, which should be out in a couple of weeks. It‘s the official newsletter of Steampunk Canada, and editor Adam Smith should have that issue out in about four weeks. {Very cool! I would like to get a copy of that zine. Kindly provide the address for Adam Smith so that I may request one. Of course, you could review it in your column.}

We all have our cat stories, and once again, mine is about the cat we don‘t have, Momcat. She needed some thyroid medication, and it is difficult to determine how much medication a cat needs, so she got too much, and the reaction was a detachment of the retinas in both eyes. Momcat is now quite blind, but she is with someone who loves her, and she rarely leaves his lap, and follows him around otherwise. Momcat seems to know she is old, and readily accepts any help and attention. We still miss that gentle little tabby, and seeing she is 15 years old, we know bad news may come soon, and on that day, we will mourn.

Taral‘s letter…the reason why I went to the new furrycon in Toronto in March was to drop off Ad Astra flyers. I saw some people in fursuits, and the usual caps with cat or bunny ears, and a tail hanging off the back beltloop, but I expected to see lots of males, and what I saw was about an equal division between males and females. Time marches on, and you‘re only known by your own peer group, so for many people who attend local cons, many of them have no idea who we are…maybe they think we‘re Mom and Pop looking for their kids at the con, I don‘t know. {Makes sense, Lloyd. After any length of time spent attending club meetings or conventions, people tend to glom together with folks the either have come to know very well or share specific interests with. I think we all still have that primal urge, or need, to belong to a tribe. Quest for Zines, mayhaps.}

Yeah, here‘s my loc, like it or not. (Carrying on the conversation from Facebook, it looks like…) I would like to return to the Law Society of Upper Canada, but my contract expired, and I am trying to find something new. I may be able to return to the LSUC in the fall, but I am not holding my breath. Instead I have taken a new tack…through some luck in spotting it on Craigslist, I have hooked up with a local talent agency, they have recorded a demo-disk for me, and they have already successfully pitched me to a potential client. Should this actually work out (I will find out on Monday), I will audition for the client, and if they like me, I will record commercials for them, and that‘s a low-to-middle four-figure payday. Good stuff! Let‘s hope I can at least supplement my income from the Globe and Mail.

I would have liked to have been on that letterhacking panel in Austin. I type up my reactions to what I read in the zine, and relay interesting things I‘ve heard and read, and do a little personal journalism, and drop in a little Cantoresque smartassery. Still well and print, serves the whole readership, I hope anyway.

I have enjoyed two of Spider‘s Beatles singalongs, one in Vancouver, and one in Rochester, and both times, I was singing along with Spider and Jeanne. A singalong won‘t be the same without her, but I hope Spider will continue along in her memory. I have no idea what I would do if I were to become a widower; I

31 hope I‘d have the backbone to pick myself up and carry on. {Next week – Sept. 17-19 – is Fencon VII, and my next issue will have a report on it.}

Our next convention in Toronto is Polaris 24, and Yvonne has a crafter‘s table at the convention. She is busy with her friend Carol putting jewellery together, and tomorrow, she will be doing a lot of sewing, and Sunday, and the weekends following until the convention itself. And then, we‘ll see what the local fannish market likes.

Three pages again…I‘m doing well, that that means that you‘re doing well, too, putting together some interesting reading for us. There, a loc from me, and serves you right. Did you figure out what the emoticon for a raspberry was? Many thanks, it‘s getting late, and I am having a tough time typing, and correcting my mistakes. Take care, my greetings to the family, including the Zoo, and this should get the Askance 21 locol started. See you in a couple of months, and I need to start thinking about my next review column. Ideas?

Yours,

Lloyd Penney

{Well, you didn’t start off the lettercolumn – editorial decision-making is a WONDERFUL thing – but you always write such wonderful, wide-ranging locs. (*) You mention Yvonne having a crafter’s table at Polaris 24. Valerie is debating doing something like that at a con some time in the future, but for now, her goal is to place her creative wares – the jewellery and crafty doo-dads she makes are more like wearable artworks – in convention art shows and see what the reactions and bids are like. We shall keep you informed of what happens.}

Bringing up the rear, a position he is very used to, is my good buddy and Figby creator, Bill Fischer.

From: "BILL FISCHER"

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Just caught the latest ish on my babbage machine - Microsoft and HP keep "upgrading" my computer. Every time it get "upgraded" I lose some more functionality. I figure only three or four more "improvements" from the people at Microsoft and my computer will be using ferrite cores to store its 200 bytes of memory.

The issue looks great! Also — Taral Wayne speaks my mind- he is spot on about the Mandarin Menace and this problem (such as they own about 60% of our national mortgage) seems to slip all of the Fox News viewers. Not that it‘s real hard to slip something by those folks — they appear to think that Hitler was a Marxist. Of course, they also think that Glenn Beck is an intellectual.

Some good news — after my 18-month ―sabbatical‖ I‘m a working stiff again, in St. Louis Park. To think

32 that I started my programming career thirty years ago, about 500 feet away in the North building of the old Shelard complex. Now I‘m in the middle building.

So ... any chance there‘ll be a ―muffycon‖ or ―lutefisk-con‖ or something up here on the tundra in the next year or so which you might be able to attend? I‘d love to get a chance to chat again after all of these years.

Bill

{At least the quarterly publication schedule of this fine fanzine gives you more time to create your little artistic masterpieces – minipieces? – so you shouldn’t feel pressure to crank these things out at a breakneck pace. (*) Welcome back to the world of the gainfully employed. So you’ve been working out of Shelard South? I remember when that development all went up, thought it was a pretty cool set-up, too.}

WAHF Section

Doug Bell: Asking for my mailing address in order to send the next issue of Head! To me, which is due out (hopefully) in time for Novacon in November.

George Berger: This guy is my hero. George supplied me with material for next issue.

Jeffrey Boman: Informing me that the latest issue of his fanzine, Original Universe, is close to completion.

Leslie David: ―I know I said I was doing this once before, but this time I‘m serious—I‘ve had it with aol and Error! Hyperlink reference not valid not being able to access my mail for 2 days. Please update your e-mail address for me to be [email protected]. Thanks.‖

Brent C. Green: Informed me that his plan do include a re-writing of Breached Fallacy.

Hal Hall: In response to an e-mail, he noted his retirement. See page 4 for a brief appreciation.

Arnie Katz: Catching me up on doings in Vegas, and thanking me for sending positive energy his way when he needed it.

Steven H Silver: Hatching an evil plot to edit an issue of Askance next year while I edit next year‘s issue of Argentus. Blame Gary Farber for this crazy idea.

R-Laurraine Tutihasi: Her latest issue of Feline Mewsings, her FAPA-zine, is downloadable at http://web.me.com/laurraine/Felinemewsings/FelMew41.pdf . Laurraine also sent an Earth Science Picture of the Day back on June 10th that featured a cloud shot over College Station, Texas. See the last page for this picture.

Lesley Ward: Gave me an URL so I can see some of her artwork, and offering small illos on call. She is another hero of mine.

Taral Wayne: Sent assorted articles and artwork that he has completed for other publications. It‘s really a nice gesture to give some folks a preview of work that he has been working on.

“What a wee little part of a person’s life and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.” Mark Twain

33 The Askance Back-to-School Do-It-Yourself Fanzine Arkle

This is a very simple process. On the next two pages, you, the reader, will have the chance to complete and/or write your very own article to appear in your very own copy of this, the 21st issue of Askance, thereby instantly making your copy a one-of-a-kind collector‘s item. Ghosh-whow! Isn‘t that just really special, gang? At any rate, here‘s how this is going to work:

Part I: Fill in the blanks.

Choose a word from the Word Bank Box to complete the following paragraphs. Some words will naturally fit in specific locations, but you may be tempted to randomly insert the words. For that matter, you can even completely ignore the word box and make things up all by yourself. Be creative and spontaneous – like me, since it‘s Saturday morning, September 11, 2010, and I am desperately trying to finish this damned issue to send off to Bill Burns for posting on efanzines.

egalitarian SMOF Plergb faunch embedded etching nimbus FIAWOL oot-greet FIJAGH Hyphen rotted crottled greeps mimeo whow Ghu A Good Thing sex bilious haeccetic con chair loc Roscoe tuckerization illoes Rosebud split schmuck faned clubzine con suite blog dead dog concom bheer anemic smelled snogged quench listserv fanzine eating

Part II: Illustrations.

In the spaces provided within the paragraphs, use a crayon, colored pencils (if you‘re British, use coloured pencils), or anything that will leave a mark on the page. Hell, copy/paste stuff from the Internet if you want. Please do not draw or color – or colour – on your computer screen, especially if you are using a stencil cutting stylus as this will cause serious damage and reduce its resale value. To the computer screen, that is, not the stylus.

Suggested topics: aliens, rocket ships, ray guns, Bug-Eyed Monsters, groovy duds, convention scenes, naked women, naked aliens, naked female aliens, or anything else naked.

Part III: Free-Write.

On the blank lines provided, go ahead and free-write on whatever else pops into your bheer-besotted brain at this point. I mean, come on; does it really matter? Just write whatever you damn well feel like. Sheesh, I think I need another cup of coffee…

Compose a lino here:

34 The Paragraphs. Fill in the blank. Obviously.

The convention opened with an eerie ______roar that ______the air with a ______sound. Somewhere in the ______a shot rang out. It was then that a costumed ______screamed over the ______gathered fans that the convention was finally going to start.

Without warning, the only standing ______decided to issue a stern ______. “We have come to ______and possibly have rousing good ______. Everybody relax, enjoy, and by all means, ______here next year.” At that point, Graham Charnock rolled over and ______his armpit, then turned on his cellphone to talk with a member of the ______to complain about the smell of the ______and ______.

Shortly after opening ceremonies ground to a halt, ______captured Chris Garcia in a rare ______mood. ______and Chris ______for about half an hour before Garcia ______to go read a long-lost issue of ______that he found being used to prop up a table leg in the huckster room. ______

35 Regional Science Fiction Convention Calendar

Once again, no Anime or Gaming conventions are listed. The only Furry convention listed is included due to comments made in the lettercolumn; I felt this inclusion would help provide an example of what those people were talking about. Other than that, here are the stfnal type conventions in the Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana region. By the way, the picture on the left was taken at a recent Dragon Con by June Williams, who writes about costuming and other topics on the Buzzy Multimedia Blog. It is one of many blogs that are worth checking out.

FenCon VII: A Fan-Operated Science Fiction and Fantasy Literary and Filk Convention in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area September 17-19, 2010 Crowne Plaza Hotel North Dallas/Addison 14315 Midway Road (Near the Dallas Galleria) Addison, TX 75001 (Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex area) Guest of Honor: Spider & Jeanne Robinson Music Guests of Honor: Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff Fen Guests of Honor: Kevin Roche & Andrew Trembley Artist Guest of Honor: John Picacio Science Guest of Honor: John Randall Toastmaster: Joe R. Lansdale Special Guest: Jessica Wade Special Guest: Robert J. Sawyer plus many more guests... Fan-run convention featuring dedicated Filk Track and Costuming Tracks, Demos, Gaming, an Art Show & Auction, Panel Discussions, Science Programming, our annual Short Story Contest, Open Filking, the legendary FenCon Cabaret, a Writer's Workshop, over 100 Program Participants, and Much More! FenCon is a production of the Dallas Future Society, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of science, literature, and music for the future of all mankind.

36 Re/Max Ballunar Liftoff Festival October 29-31, 2010 NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas Visit this exciting and educational family-oriented event at NASA/Johnson Space Center and enjoy hot air balloon competitions, evening balloon glows, skydiving exhibitions, commercial exhibits, concession booths, food from local restaurants, arts & crafts exhibits, entertainment and various aviation equipment displays. Ballunar Liftoff Festival, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Its mission is to help the public learn about aviation and space exploration, and to sponsor and fund educational activities that encourage young people to learn about aviation and space and to study mathematics and the sciences.

OwlCon Gaming, Fantasy, & Science Fiction Convention January 28-30, 2011 RMC/Ley Student Center Rice University Houston, TX OwlCon is an annual gaming convention at Rice University, Houston, TX, dating back to 1980. We will feature table top and live action role playing games, miniatures games and events, historical miniatures, board games, card games, a dealers' room, and more. OwlCon 2k2 gaming events will include RPGA events, official tournaments for Warhammer 40k, Warmaster, Shadowfist, and Mage Knight, Matchbox- scale Car Wars, World of Darkness tabletop games, a Vampire LARP, a Call of Cthulhu LARP, a Crossroads fantasy LARP, and many other games with prizes galore! OwlCon will once again be swarming with official demo folks for various game systems to give you a chance to try some of their great games. We will also have open gaming, an anime room, a TV lounge running movies, some "all nighter" events, and our annual OwlCon party and costume contest in Valhalla.

ConDFW IX A Science Fiction and Fantasy Event February 18-20, 2011 Crowne Plaza Suites Dallas-Park Central 7800 Alpha Road Dallas, TX 75240 (Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex area) GOH: Jack McDevitt GOH: Tim Powers GOH: Brandon Sanderson 2011 sees the tenth ConDFW science fiction and fantasy convention, dedicated to promoting the advancement of education with emphasis on sci-fi/fantasy/horror literature, publishing and writing, and science, to Dallas-Fort Worth, TX! The Normal Features:

37 Art Show, Autographs, Dealer's Room, Con Suite, Panels & Readings, Gaming, Readings, Gallery Tables, Freebie Tables And the Abnormalities: Charity Book Swap, Hard Science Panels, Intergalactic Archaeology, "Late Night Double Feature", Ms. Celestial Starburst, ProArtist Drawing Challenge, Sci-Fi Spelling Bee, Short Story Contest Sponsored by the Texas Speculative Fiction Association

Furry Fiesta

Texas' only furry convention February 25-27, 2011 Crowne Plaza Hotel North Dallas - Addison 14315 Midway Road Addison, TX 75001 (Dallas / Fort Worth / Metroplex area) Dealer's Den, Artist Alley, Art Show, Video Room, Charity, and more!

Con-Jour 3 Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Convention March 11-13, 2011 Con itself held on the University of Houston, Clear Lake campus. [Hotel rooms at con rate: Candlewood Suites Houston-Clear Lake Extended Stay Hotel] Houston, Texas Greater Houston metropolitan area Discussion Panels, Media Rooms, Feature Films, Scheduled and Open Gaming, Cosplay, LARPS, Dealers Room, Masquerade Ball, Con Suite, and more! Presented by the UHCL Gamers' Guild.

38 To be honest, there are some items already stored in files for the 22nd issue, the December 2010 Askance. And I am very excited about how it is already shaping up.

For starters, the cover is by the talented Alan White, who sent it to me as an unsolicited contribution – meaning, I didn‘t have to bribe him for a cover or send a goon squad out to Las Vegas to track Alan down and beat on his kneecaps. It is different from the last cover he created, the third annish from this past March, but the quality of it is still marvelous. I really can‘t wait to print out color/colour covers when that ish hits the mail, meaning snail mail or e-mail. When you open it on your computers from www.efanzines.com , put it on full screen for the, um, full effect.

One article that I already have on hand is from the ubiquitous Taral Wayne, this one about a new acquisition to his Roman coin collection. To balance off Taral‘s fascinating article, I shall write about my small coin and stamp collections. If anybody else would like to contribute an article about coin or stamp collecting to next issue, get it to me by Thanksgiving, at the latest. No articles about book collections, though. Something tells me that such an article would be rather redundant for this fanzine‘s reading audience.

On the fannish front, next ish will have my recollections of Fencon VII , which is next weekend (September 17-19) in Dallas, and promises to be a good time. I still feel bad about missing out on meeting Warren Buff last year when he was Fan Guest of Honor. If you look at the first entry in the Regional Convention Calendar (see page 36) take note of all the really awesome folks who will be in Dallas next weekend. Short notice, I know, but next year‘s edition will also be DeepSouthCon 49, and that one I am sure many of you will attend. Let‘s get together then and have another faned‘s feast.

Another upcoming local event is the annual Texas Renaissance Festival in nearby Plantersville, a 40 minute drive from College Station. My family will be out there in our finest regalia – may have to do some fix-ups on the costumes – and wouldn‘t it be lovely to have some photos of the Purcell clan in their RenFest finery? Yeah, I thought you folks would like that. Okay. I will make sure to include those along with my impressions of meandering through the RenFest while discussing the obvious anachronisms that are always present.

And I doth believe that that should just about do it for this issue. Once again I have had a great time producing this fanzine, which is the only reason why I do this. It is a fun way to keep in touch with the friends I have in science fiction fandom, and I know that most of you feel the same way. Write in, write often, do art if that‘s your forte – hell, if it is, I will love you forever if you send some to me – but the main point is let me know what you think, positive or negative, about the issue.

There. That‘s enough groveling for locs. Thank you all, and see you in December.

- John Purcell

39

Contrail and Shadow above College Station, Texas

Posted: 10 Jun 2010 12:01 AM PDT

Photographer: Bronius Motekaitis; Bronius' Website Summary Author: Bronius Motekaitis; Jim Foster

This startling condensation trail (contrail), seemingly ripping apart a cirrus covered sky, was seen stretching above College Station, Texas on the evening of June 6, 2009. The jet aircraft creating the trail is moving east to west -- in the direction of the Sun. Of particular interest is the contrail's accompanying shadow. Because this shadow is cast on a thin and somewhat lower cloud deck it is visible to observers on the ground. If this cloud deck were slightly thicker, neither the shadow nor the contrail could be seen. The jagged appearance of the contrail is caused by wind shear.

40