November 2011 1 2 File 770: 160 File 770 is Taral: 40; (photos) 4, 12, 13 available for Andrew Porter: (photos) 9, 32, news, art, 33 arranged trades, Brad Foster: Cover, 39, 45, 50 o r b y Steve Stiles: 38, 43,49, 51 subscription: $8 Alan Beck: 16, 19, 52, 53 for 5 issues, $15 Marty Cantor: (photos) 4, 5 for 10 issues, air John King Tarpinian: (photo) mail rate is Grant Canfield: 3, 54 160 $2.50. Karl Lembke : (photo) 6 File 770:160 is edited by Mike Keith Stokes: (photos) 7, 46 Glyer at 705 Valley View Ave., Art Credits Michael Nelson: (photo) 10 Monrovia CA 91016. Telephone: Alan White: 2 Alice Lawson: (photos) 11, 17 (626) 305-1004. E-Mail: Bill Rotsler: 2, 18, 35, 37 Frank Wu: 14 [email protected] John O’Halloran: (photo) 15 Editorial Notes by Mike Glyer Rich Lynch in China: Did you know that the File 770 blog is Sending My Name to Mars: I unhesitatingly and unthinkingly added blocked by the Great Firewall of China? my name to a list being sent on a microchip to Mars aboard the Mars Rich sent an e-mailed to tell me about this interesting discovery – Science Laboratory rover. That’s the only way to go. If I stopped and “I’m in the People’s Republic of China on a business trip all this week thought about it at all, why would I do it? and discovered that the F770 website is blocked over here! I didn’t Will anybody ever find that chip? Why would anybody read it if realize that you were such a subversive!” they did? And since earthbound operating systems change all the time, Now you know. often ceasing to support previous file types, what are the odds that Rich’s Chinese visit was captured in an AP photo – he appeared NASA itself won’t be able to read the chip by the time astronauts go seated behind China’s Science and Technology Minister and the U.S looking for the rover? Secretary of Energy in a snap taken at the 4th Carbon Sequestration Pshaw — only a party pooper cares about those questions. The cor- Forum (CSLF) Ministerial Conference in China on September 22. rect response is, “Yippee! My name’s going to Mars!” Wild Wild Westercon By John Hertz At Westercon LXIV (West Coast S-F Con, this year 1-4 July. Fair- mont Hotel, San Jose, California) the news of the weekend was site selection. Seattle for 2012 was voted last year. Portland, Oregon, was the only Westercon LXVI bid to file in time for this year’s voting. Its committee lacked many known Portland veterans and its proposals struck many voters as vague. A bid for Granzella’s Inn amidst the California olive country which did not file, apparently on purpose, and seemed to be presented as both a joke and a protest, outdrew the Port- land bid 42-41. This threw site selection to the Business Meet- ing. After three heated hours, ably chaired by Kevin Standlee, the Portland committee still had not enough support and the Business Meeting, attended by far more than cast votes before, voted the 2013 Westercon to the Granzella’s committee, which under the By-Laws is not bound by its original proposal but may settle on any site in the west of North America. Gene Anderson of the Portland committee, and Kevin Roche & Andrew Trembley of the Granzella’s committee, Foglio’s Girl Genius . As noted here earlier I led discussion of three S- were seen in conference. At one point Roche spoke opposing his own F classics, Leinster’s “Ethical Equations”, Anderson’s Brain Wave , bid urging voters to consider in earnest. and Dick’s Man in the High Castle . Watching the Masquerade cos- Hugo nominee Maurine Starkey exhibited in the Art Show for the tume competition, which was short but sweet, I sat with two Sikhs, one first time I remember. She noted with pleasure work by Stu Shepherd of whom was at his first s-f con and had many accurate remarks. A who had long drawn for Revell. I moderated Chris Garcia and Randy Spokane bid for the 2015 Worldcon emerged. In the Fanzine Lounge, Smith at the annual Westercon Last-Minute Hugo Nominees Review, John O’Halloran talked of taiko drumming. At filking, our home- managing somehow to go over the entire ballot in one hour-and-a-half made music, Barry Gold sang his wife Lee’s “No More Need to Pray” session. Regency dancing had been hosted by me on Friday; Alan of Asimov’s Mule, and Kate Gladstone’s “Waldo” of Heinlein’s Winston, who was otherwise unable to attend the con, came on Sunday Waldo Jones. Round about midnight Monday with hotel restaurants to host a second evening, for which I borrowed a costume from Roche all closed I left to eat, upon returning found the Dead Dog party (until to dress as Vanamonde Von Mekkhan from Guest of Honor Phil the last dog is –) closed too, and reluctantly slept. November 2011 3 Crotchety is Amazing Steve Davidson (“The Crotchety Old Fan”) is celebrating because he was finally awarded the trademark for Amazing Stories by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on September 28. He originally applied for it in 2008. Davidson is familiar with Amazing Stories rocky history, — “stumbling along through bankruptcy (when Gernsback lost ownership), through a series of publishers and editors – Teck Publications, Ziff-Davis, Ultimate (where it enjoyed a brief and all too short resurgence under the tutelage of Ted White), Dragon Publications and, through a series of corporate buy-outs, ended up as a Hasbro (toys) property and licensed to Paizo Publica- tions, which re-introduced it as a mass-media/ geek culture mag until its demise in 2005.” By 2007, Hasbro had abandoned the trade- mark. Davidson, then managing the intellec- tual property department of an R&D firm, was routinely reviewing the status of some of his favorite marks. Noting rights to the Amaz- ing Stories mark had lapsed, he filed an appli- cation for the mark in 2008. Davidson’s ambition is to revive Amazing as an online magazine and he has rounded up a brain trust to advise him. Serving as his board of advisors are four former editors of Amazing Stories , Barry Malzberg, Patrick L. Price, Ted White and Joseph Wrzos (who edited under the pen name Joseph Ross). Each has extensive ex- perience in the sf genre as an author, agent, News of Fandom editor, collector and/or historian. Also, Frank Wu has been enlisted to cre- ate the cover for the Davidson’s first issue of Amazing Stories. did not fight extradition to California to face To be eligible for the Monica Hughes murder charges. When arraigned in an Al- Award, a book must be an original work in 2011 Rebel and Phoenix Winners hambra, CA courtroom on July 8 he pleaded English, aimed at readers ages 8 to 16. The The Rebel and Phoenix Awards were pre- not guilty to the murder charge. first award will be given in October 2012. sented September 24 at Fencon VIII and Gerhartsreiter will be back in Alhambra DeepSouthCon. Superior Court on January 18, 2012 for a 2011 SF&F Translation Awards Brad Foster received the Rebel Award for preliminary hearing where a judge will decide The winners of the 2011 Science Fiction and his work as a fan artist, presented by Steven if enough evidence exists for the case to go to Fantasy Translation Awards were announced H Silver. trial. at the 2011 Eurocon in Stockholm. Selina Rosen won the Phoenix Award for Long Form: A Life on Paper: Stories , her work with up and coming authors, and her HarperCollins Sponsors Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated work on Yard Dog Press. Toni Weisskopf Monica Hughes Award by Edward Gauvin (Small Beer Press). Origi- presented the Phoenix. Bill Parker received The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has nal publication in French (1976, -2005). the Rubble Award at the hands of Gary Robe, launched the Monica Hughes Award for Ca- Short Form: “Elegy for a Young Elk,” for bringing the Worldcon (and two years of nadian children’s literature. Sponsored by Hannu Rajaniemi, translated by Hannu Ra- work) to Southern fandom. HarperCollins Canada, the new award will janiemi ( Subterranean Online , Spring 2010). honor children’s sf and fantasy fiction and Original publication in Finnish ( Portti , 2007). Clark Rockefeller Faces comes with a $5,000 cash prize. A special award also was presented to Murder Trial in LA Hughes, who passed away in 2003, wrote British author and translator Brian Stableford over thirty-five books and has been called in recognition of the excellence of his transla- Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. Clark tion work. Rockefeller, will be tried in California on “Canada’s finest writer of science fiction for children” by critic Sarah Ellis in The Horn Each winning author and translator will charges of murdering LASFS member John receive a cash prize of US$350. Sohus in 1985. (He is also a suspect in the Book magazine. She won many major literary awards in- This was the inaugural year of disappearance of Sohus’ wife Linda, whose the awards, given by the Association for the body has never been found.) cluding the Governor General’s Award (then known as the Canada Council Prize) for Chil- Recognition of Excellence in Science Fiction Already serving 5 years in Massachusetts & Fantasy Translation (ARESFFT). for kidnapping his daughter, Gerhartsreiter dren’s Literature in 1982 and 1983.