Scientifiction A publication of FIRST FANDOM, the Dinosaurs of Science Fiction

New Series # 34, 3rd & 4th Quarters, 2012 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

First Fandom at Chicon 7 Earl Kemp and son Terry were guest The World Science Fiction Convention speakers at the San Diego October was amazing! It was great getting to Comic Fest (19-21). Topics included: spend time with so many of our friends freedom of speech, sleaze books, and during the weekend. A lot of fans visited science fiction/comic fan Ken Krueger. the First Fandom display in the exhibit area. Please see the convention reports Congratulations to Laura Freas, who and photographs throughout this issue. was married on June 17, 2012. Her First Fandom Awards, 2012 new full name is Laura Brodian Freas Beraha. (Visit www.kellyfreas.com.) This year’s inductees into the First Fandom Hall of Fame are: Ray Fred Prophet informed us that George Bradbury, Larry Farsace, Claude Henry Young died in August, 2009. Held, Rusty Hevelin (Posthumous) And, Robert C. Peterson reported the and Jack Robins. The Sam Moskowitz recent death of Conrad B. Peterzen. Archive Award for Excellence in Collecting is presented for 2012 to Recommended Reading Donn Albright. The recipients were John C. Tibbetts has authored “The given wooden plaques, each of which Gothic Imagination – Conversations on featured a new full-color adaptation of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction in the classic Paul design for scientifiction. the Media.” This is a fascinating book, scholarly and entertaining, lovingly Rusty Hevelin’s award was sent to his woven together by a genuine enthusiast. son, Bruce, in Union City, CA. At the Excellent interviews are embellished request of the Bradbury family, Donn with fine illustrations and photographs. Albright has arranged for Ray’s award to Published by Palgrave Macmillan, it is be on display at the Bradbury Center. available in hardcover and paperback News Items editions. ISBN: 978-0-230-11816-4.

Les and Es Cole have been very busy. Jerad Walters (Centipede Press) has "Spithead," an alternative universe, is issued “The Best Horror Stories of Karl Les’ fourth novel. "Baker's Dozenth" is Edward Wagner” in a hardcover trade a spy story set against the American edition (two volumes), and in a beautiful Civil War. "Neighborhood Watch" is a deluxe, single volume slip-cased edition murder mystery with a light touch, and it signed by many of the contributors. is Es’ first novel at age 88. Look for Edited by Stephen Jones, illustrated by their books, available at Amazon.com. J.K. Potter. ISBN: 978-1-933618-97-5.

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Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of FAPA Information Needed Several members of First Fandom Please help us get in contact with the contributed to the 300th mailing of the estates of Donald Wandrei, Neil R. Fantasy Amateur Press Association. Jones, Oliver Saari and Ray Cummings. David A. Kyle, Frederik Pohl and Jack Latest First Fandom Emblem Robins wrote letters of congratulation and reflected on the past seventy-five years. Robert A. Madle (one of the three original members) wrote an informative article that recalled events during the 1930s which led up to the formation of the FAPA. This milestone issue featured more than 400 pages of great material, and a highlight for me was “Sonnets for the Space Age,” written by the late A. Langley Searles. New Contact Information

Edmund Meskys 322 Whittier Highway This is the design that we featured on Moultonborough, NH 03254-3627 the First Fandom Hall of Fame Awards. Tel: (603) 253-6207 1933 World’s Fair (Century of Progress) [email protected]

Ben Miller P.O. Box 1165 Argyle, TX 76226-1165 Tel: (940) 262-3105 [email protected]

Sam J. Lundwall

Radhusallen 21 Bromma, SWEDEN S-167 54 Did you visit the Sinclair Dinosaur Exhibit? [email protected] First Fandom Photo Gallery

Fred Prophet We have received some wonderful 2436 Dorchester Court pictures from the collections of Robert Apartment 118 C. Peterson, Ray Nelson and Jack Port Huron, MI 48060 Robins! Work continues on the book Tel: (810) 987-0845 project and we are asking our First Fandom members to please loan or Membership Dues donate photographs, slides and other Thanks to all of the First Fans who have images from the “good old days.” paid dues for their annual membership. Please send any material (labeled on And, if you haven’t done so yet, please the back) via the US Post Office mail a check to Keith W. Stokes, 14305 (INSURED) to John L. Coker, III – 3701 West 83rd Place, Lenexa, KS – 66215. Glen Garry Lane – Orlando, FL – 32803.

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FIRST FANDOM AWARDS, 2012

Ray Bradbury Jack Robins (Hall of Fame Award) (Hall of Fame Award)

Larry Farsace Rusty Hevelin (Hall of Fame Award) (Posthumous Hall of Fame Award)

Claude Held Donn Albright (Hall of Fame Award) (Sam Moskowitz Archive Award)

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CHICON 7 – THE WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION (A REPORT BY JOHN L. COKER III)

I arrived in Chicago a day before the John Hertz, Doug Ellis, Alex Klevitsky, start of the convention, in order to set up Robin Johnson, “Filthy Pierre”, Beth the First Fandom display in the exhibit Gwinn, Joe Siclari, Pat and Roger Sims, area. We constructed a 6’ x 16’ wall to David G. Hartwell, Steve and Sue put up our material, and then we sat in Francis, Betsy Wollheim, Dr. Elizabeth chairs out front at two large tables Anne Hull, Maggie Thompson, George where we greeted friends and made R.R. Martin, Scott Edleman, Connie new acquaintances throughout the Willis, Mike Resnick and Gene Wolfe. weekend. Fans enjoyed free souvenirs On Thursday, I was moderator of a very from our table, including copies of the interesting panel “Origins of the Small newsletter. We were located next to the Press,” featuring David A. Kyle (Gnome dealer’s room and the table for Press) and Erle M. Korshak (Shasta Shasta/Phoenix Publishers, where Erle Press). It was scheduled at the same and Steve Korshak and Robert time as opening ceremonies, but we still Weinberg were on hand to discuss their had seventy-five people in the room. upcoming book about Margaret We brought out historical information Brundage. There were a few rare book that had not previously been discussed. sellers (David Aronovitz, Greg Ketter That evening, I walked to Billy Goat’s and Michael Walsh) with great material Tavern and had their “Cheezeburger, for sale, and several specialty press Cheezeburger dinner. And later, after publishers promoting their new books. looking in on a few room parties back at During the weekend, many of our the hotel I called it an early night. members stopped by the First Fandom On Friday, I was the moderator of a table, including: David A. Kyle (and panel “The 1939 World SF Convention daughter Kerry), Keith W. Stokes, and New York World’s Fair,” and it Joannie (and Jim) Knappenberger, Fred featured two men that were in Prophet, Ed Meskys, Peggy Rae attendance at that convention: David A. Sapienza, Robert Silverberg, Joe and Kyle and Erle M. Korshak. We had Gay Haldeman, and Andrew Porter prepared two dozen oversize B&W (who brought a beautiful selection of photographs relative to the topic, and several dozen vintage worldcon brought these for display on the tables membership cards to display). Among at the front of the room. There were the other enthusiasts we visited with more than seventy-five people in the during the weekend: Stephen Jones,

SCIENTIFICTION New Series, page 5 audience. They asked lots of questions a well-deserved special Hugo Award to and enjoyed the conversation. The next Robert Weinberg for his decades of panel that I moderated was “Looking service to fandom. David A. Kyle Back Seventy Years on Chicago announced that Juanita Coulson was Fandom,” with David A. Kyle and Peggy the recipient of the Forrest J Ackerman Rae Sapienza (Fan Guest of Honor). A Big Heart Award for 2012. As the lot of the conversation had to do with the names of nominees for each category of Second World SF Convention, Chicon 1. the Hugo Awards were read, it was fairly David A. Kyle (who was part of a easy to predict winners, based on the carpool of fans who made that trip in prior applause of audience members. 1940 from New York) recalled some of Monday, Labor Day – A quote from the the highlights of that weekend. We had pocket program: “Eighty years ago a display of two dozen large B&W today, Ray Bradbury met Mr. Electrico photographs, courtesy of Robert A. who told him to live forever, causing Ray Madle. There were at least seventy-five to decide to become an author. Let us people in the audience, and they asked pay tribute to the Grand Master from interesting questions and shared Waukegan.” I joined panelists Gary K. personal anecdotes. We also discussed Wolfe and Kent Nebergall and a room Chicago Fandom during the 1950s and full of wonderful people and we talked 1960s, and origins of the Hugo Award. about how we first discovered Ray’s Throughout the weekend, excellent First stories, and what they meant to us. We Fandom-related programming included recalled the first time we met Ray or tributes to the living (such as legendary received letters from him or saw one of Frederik Pohl) and the recently his plays. It was fascinating that people deceased (Jay Kay Klein and Ray from so many different countries had Bradbury). For me, the best part of such similar experiences and points of these historic panels was having such view, and shared such a deep sense of good participation by such a diverse personal loss after Ray’s recent death. audience. There were some younger I enjoyed the Convention’s hospitality, fans at each of these panels and they from the helpful fans working at the seemed to have a\ real interest in the registration desk, and the many friendly early days of fandom. I recorded all of volunteers throughout the weekend, to the proceedings in which I participated, the complimentary deep dish pizza, and am in the process of transcribing shrimp and cold drinks in the con suite the tapes for publication in the future. First Fandom is already making plans to On Saturday evening, I joined my room- be part of next year’s World Science mate Michael Tallan and some of our Fiction Convention, which will be held in long-time friends (Larry and Kathy San Antonio, August 29-September 2. Hallock, Ron Larson, Bernie Goodman, For information: LONESTARCON 3, Dave Willoughby and others (sixteen P.O. Box 27277, Austin, TX - 78755. fans in all) for an excellent dinner at the We are seeking material to include in local Chicago Chop House. next year’s First Fandom display (old On Sunday, I attended several panels photographs, letters, fanzines, badges, and attended the Hugo Awards etc.). Please suggest discussion topics Ceremony. The Convention presented and sign-up as a program participant.

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CONVENTION REPORTS have to say that certain things are really evil. CONTEXT By Joe Martino Don’t Open the Door This annual regional convention is held If you open a horror book, you know in Columbus, OH. This year I wasn’t on something scary is going to happen. any panels, but I enjoyed several. The problem is to get people to do something stupid to get to the scary The Real Indiana Jones situation. Stupid moves must be seen Roy Chapman Andrews, with the as in character. Some stupid actions American Museum of Natural History, allow the author to tell something about was the model for Indiana Jones. He the culture the character has wandered made five trips to the Gobi Desert in the into. Do something that’s taboo without 1920s. Although his real expertise was realizing it. The “save the cat” moment whales, he made numerous discoveries in a movie. Let’s the audience have of dinosaur fossils. The expedition some empathy with the character. travelled in Dodge touring cars. However, the character must previously Andrews mounted a machine gun on have been seen interacting with the cat one of the cars, to convince bandits to to make the stupid move seem let them alone. In one incident he was plausible. scared by a snake, which became the Short Stories Are Still Worth Writing basis for Indiana Jones’s fear of snakes. The market for short stories hasn’t Exomusicology disappeared. However, it has moved. Alien music may differ from human There are electronic outlets for short music. Much of human music is based stories. An author can’t make a living on our physical capabilities: audible writing short stories, but can get his/her range from 10 Hz to 20 KHz; how long name before the reading public. we can hold a note; vibrato in singing; ARCHON the half-steps in the Western scale derived from the fact our little fingers are By Joe Martino shorter. Aliens with different physical This is an annual regional convention capabilities may have different music. held near St. Louis. This year it was However, chords are made by the way back in Collinsville, IL. sound waves interact. They are not arbitrary. Aliens are likely to have the ERB/The John Carter Movie same chords humans do. The movie didn’t exactly follow the books but the characters were well Our Fascination With Evil played. Deja Thoris was more active What drives us to the horror genre? than in the books. Not just a damsel to Horror fiction lets people admit that bad be rescued, but a fighter. Without CGI things happen. It would be difficult to the movie couldn’t have been made. A convey horror if cultural relativism were realistic six-armed alien costume could really true. To make horror possible, we not have been built.

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Serenity & Firefly Logic and Time Travel The series was killed after 13 episodes, Probably the real answer is that there is yet a decade later it’s still popular. It no logic in time travel (see movie review was the timeless characters that made below). However, the panel attempted the story. Someone you could actually to sort things out and put as much logic meet. The popularity of the show among as possible in time travel stories. fans shows how starved we all are for good SF. Airships With the growing interest in steampunk Have Spacesuit, Will Travel there has been a revived interest in The panel was about Robert Heinlein. airships, that is, in dirigibles and similar He wrote about strong female vehicles. I was put on this panel, for characters, at a time when this wasn’t reasons unknown to me. I know little common. Heinlein wrote about people about airships. However, the panel rather than about gee-whiz technology. gave me an opportunity to learn a great He changed SF forever with his deal about the physical principles emphasis on people. Starship Troopers behind airships. was really a book about civic morality. It was only tangentially about the military. The Personal Replicator The interesting thing is that this old History of the Hugos science fictional idea is actually coming This panel was about the design of the close to realization. The 3-D printer awards, not the stories that won. Some allows people to print, layer by layer, an have been beautiful. Others were ugly. object described in a computer file. The The Hugos are intended to represent printer extrudes a thin stream of plastic, fandom’s encouragement of writers. and scans back and forth, like an inkjet printer, to lay down a replica of the Space Medicine object serving as the model. Small This deals with the human body in a home versions can now be had for very bad environment – space. There prices under $1000. are a lot of things that can go wrong with the human body, even in the Science in SF environment to which we are fitted. In This is a perennial panel at ‘cons, and I space we take along a miniature Earth enjoy participating. How much science with pressure, temperature, etc. that is needed? How much hand-waving and we’re used to. Microgravity is a smoke-blowing can the writer get away problem. Muscle and bone mass with? Does it matter if the science in the require gravity to retain normal levels. story is false? As someone remarked of The trick is to maximize the margin Cordwainer Smith’s stories, the science between critical and catastrophic. is so far out it’s not even wrong. CHICON 7 The Art of Worldbuilding By Joe Martino This is another perennial panel at ‘cons. Here are some of the panels I was on or I enjoy taking part in them, because I attended and enjoyed. enjoy worldbuilding in my stories. The

SCIENTIFICTION New Series, page 8 trick is to get a consistent world, so the they don’t exist in the collaborators’ parts fit together. Not every author gets time, no one misses them. Many of the it right. When the author doesn’t get it collaborators, the “loopers” of the title, right, the story suffers. are themselves sent back in time to be eliminated. That’s called “closing the Ceres, Our Nearest “Dwarf” Planet loop.” The main character in the story Ceries is the only dwarf planet in the finds that he has been selected to inner solar system. It is the largest eliminate his later self, who of course asteroid, and contains a full third of all has other ideas. Suffice it to say there the mass in the asteroid belt. It will be are holes in the logic that you could visited in 2015 by NASA’s Dawn drive a semi through. However, I just let spacecraft. myself be carried along by the action, and enjoyed the movie. I encourage I also attended the meetings of the you to see it. Science Fiction Writers of America and the Heinlein Society. FIRST FANDOM SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO THIS MONTH President John L. Coker III, 3701 Glen Garry Lane, In December 1937, John W. Campbell, Orlando, FL 32803, Tel: (407) 894-4425, Jr. became the editor of ASTOUNDING. [email protected] East Coast Vice President David A. Kyle, 3099 Maqua Place, Mohegan Lake, NY 10547 West Coast Vice President Arthur L. Widner, Jr., P.O. Box 5122, Gualala, CA 95445 Vice President at Large Erle M. Korshak, Shasta/Phoenix Publishers, 950 South Winter Park Drive, Suite 320, Orlando, FL 32707 President Emeritus Robert A. Madle, 4406 Bestor Drive, Rockville, MD 20853 Secretary-Treasurer Keith W. Stokes, 14305 West 83rd Place, Lenexa, KS 66215 [email protected] (Cover Artwork by Howard Brown) Editorial Staff MOVIE REVIEW Editor, SCIENTIFICTION Loopers Joseph P. Martino, 905 South Main Avenue, Sidney, OH 45365-3212, [email protected] By Joe Martino Special Features Editor This is a time travel movie. In the movie, Jon D. Swartz, 12115 Missel Thrush Court, a criminal organization makes use of Austin, TX 78750-2101 time travel to eliminate people who are SCIENTIFICTION is published quarterly by First Fandom. The name First Fandom, the slogan “The Dinosaurs of “in the way.” They are sent back to an Science Fiction,” and the First Fandom logo are all earlier time, where collaborators shoot trademarks of First Fandom, and may not be used without the expressed permission of First Fandom. Copyright © them and dispose of the bodies. Since 2012 by First Fandom and the individual contributors.