May, 2014 Askance Volume VII, Number 1 Whole Number 31 Edited and published by John Purcell, 3744 Marielene Circle, College Station, TX 77845-3926 Contents © 2014 by John A. Purcell. Contact information: [email protected] 3744 Marielene Circle, College Station, TX 77845 Even so, all rights revert to original artists and authors upon publication. What you have here in your hands (or on screen) is another Mythical Publication. Copies of this fine, sort of semi-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 $3.00 USD. Bribes are also accepted. Of course, if you send in locs, articles, and artwork, you just earned a life-time free subscription. Not a bad deal, if you ask me. Contents Bemused Natterings………………………………………3 Go Ahead. I Dare you. Define Fannish! by John Purcell………………………………………….5 Remembering Lucius Shepard, by Randy Byers………………………………………...9 Problematic Space Cowboys, by Cait Coker …………………………………………12 Tales From the Convention by Lloyd Penney………………………………………..16 Fanzines Received, Read, & Reviewed – abridged………18 From the Hinterlands, letters from devoted readers…………………………....21 Regional Convention Calendar…………………………..28 What’s Next………………………………………………32 Art credits: Front Cover by Al Sirois Sheryl Birkhead – 2; clip art – 3; photo of art by Valerie Purcell – 4; nicked off the Internet – 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 21, 28, 32; Googled “Lucius Shepard” – 9; photo provided by Randy Byers – 11; Lloyd Penney – 16; photo by David Dyer-Bennett – 17; Steve Stiles – 18, 20; Taral Wayne – 25; Al Sirois – 27; Teddy Harvia – 31. Member FW A (since 2007!) 2 This issue is *not* late… …it only feels that way. But that works out fairly well since this is essentially the seventh anniversary issue of this fine fanzine. Busy seems to be my new middle name these days, since I spent a good amount of time preparing for facilitating a discussion workshop at a professional conference out in the Texas hill country west of Austin that happened to be on the same weekend as AggieCon 45 (April 4-6,2014) which once again was held in the College Station Hilton Hotel and Conference Center. Valerie had artwork on display in the AggieCon 45 Art Show, which is always a good thing. Then the following week she had a “booth” – one of those tent thingies on legs, that is – at the Mid-Town Art in the Park Show in Houston, Texas (just Saturday, April 12th), at which she did very well. Also, some of her work sold at Aggiecon 45, so that was likewise A Good Thing. And speaking of Valerie and her artwork… We have ourselves a winner! In January of this year – 2014, that is, although unless I get off my ass and finish this issue the date references herein are going to need some serious revising – Valerie entered a juried art show here in College Station, and, lo and behold, she received the Best In Show Award in the Mixed-Media, Semi- Professional category. The truly amazing thing about this win is that it was the original artwork for what became the cover of the WOOF collation at last year’s world science fiction convention in San Antonio, Texas. How about them apples, eh? Not only that, but another of her pieces – a shadow box that lights up featuring a mermaid shaped out of a cut up aluminum lemon-lime soda can – won second place in that same division. So hats off to Valerie for these awards! They are much deserved. This year is definitely going to be her break out year, no question. In fact, the next art show she will be entering is Apollocon’s: this convention is slated for the weekend of June 27-29, 2014, and will be held at the Doubletree International Hotel by Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas. Details on this convention can be found in the Regional Convention Calendar found in this issue. We hope to see some of this fanzine’s faithful readers there. FYI: Apollocon 2014’s Professional Guest of Honor is David Gerrold, and the Artist Guest of Honor is Theresa Mather. The unique thing about Apollocon is that Theresa’s husband is an old friend of mine, Barry Short. I will have to write about this later on at some point, probably as the need to fill up the odd page space appears. 3 Who’s who in this issue This particular issue has a rather eclectic collection of fare. There is academic discourse about science fiction (in a *gasp* fanzine?? Say it ain’t so…), an obituary for a recently departed author, natter about things fannish (such as what that particular word means and fanzine reviews), plus the standard features of upcoming cons and letters. Yes, even this e-zine gets letters of comment. Will wonders never cease? Randy Byers Randy is a member of the editorial triumverate of Chunga, a Hugo-nominated fanzine. When preparing material for this issue I asked him if he had any ideas to write, and he directed me to his appreciation of the late author Lucius Shepard, which appeared on Randy’s LiveJournal blog, Dry Ice Factory. Shepard is definitely a fine writer who was not only admired and respected during his lifetime, but he passed away way too soon. It is an honor to publish Randy’s tribute in this issue. Cait Coker Cait is the former curator of the Science Fiction and Fanzine Collection at the Cushing Library on the campus of Texas A&M University here in College Station, Texas. She left a year ago for greener pastures at a higher altitude in Colorado, where she is literally pursuing higher education and research in the stratified regions of Colorado State University. Her interests range all the way from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to science fiction conventions and fanzines to Medieval Studies. Valerie Purcell’s WOOF 2013 original cover painting won Best In Show! Here it is practically covered up by the ribbon. Yes, we are very proud of her. (btw, I take lousy pictures). Lloyd Penney This guy really needs no introduction, so I’m not going to bother. Oh, okay. Fine. *ahem* Lloyd regales us with yet another of his Tales from the Convention, this time recalling his First Time: attending that all important initial sf convention. Be forewarned, gentle reader. It apparently was not a pretty sight. Al Sirois Long-time fans know this fellow’s name and work. Back when I produced This House (1976-1988), Al contributed artwork from time to time, and as you can see from the front cover, he still does. He has also been enjoying a spurt of professional writing and art success – if we can believe what Al says on Facebook – so it is an honor to have him return to the pages of one of my fanzines. Welcome back, Al! 4 Go ahead. I dare you. Define Fannish! Musings on the Topic by John Purcell A bit more than two months ago – March 13th, to be exact - my good friend, and compulsive loc-writer, Lloyd Penney sent out the link to a very interesting article written by Brad R. Torgersen that covered some interesting territory. A bit of background is in order: Mr. Torgersen is an author (of numerous short stories, one which received Hugo and Nebula nominations in 2012, “Ray of Light”; his novelette “Outbound” won the Analog ‘AnLab’ Readers’ Choice award for Best Novelette) who writes a blog that covers all sorts of topics relating to the science fiction field. Here is the link in question that Lloyd sent: http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/whence-fandom/. To quickly come to the point, Brad posits an interesting viewpoint of what SF fandom looks like to him. He starts off with a Venn Diagram (copy/pasted below) that looks more like a batch of multi-colored soap bubbles that came off a four year old’s bubble wand on a windy day. Like any good Venn Diagram, many soap bubbles circles overlap, each circle representing a particular fannish interest group (e.g., fanzines, conventions, clubs, Trek fandom, Dr. Who, Browncoats, Steampunk, etc.). Some of these float separate from the rest, but not many. For the most part, there are a lot of overlaps and a fair number of smaller groupings that don’t seem to hold a close attraction to other subgroups. I have to admit Mr. Torgersen’s viewpoint overlaps with mine. In fact, what he offers is not so much a radical interpretation of his observations of fandom, but is more 5 of a visualization and description of how science fiction has Balkanized since the mid-1970s. I can’t imagine many people disagreeing with the basics of this viewpoint; it has definitely become a familiar topic on convention panels and in assorted fanzines and blogs, and there seems to be, in my mind at least, a consensus opinion that SF Fandom has become a monster in more than just size: it is also capable of generating a massive amount of money. Greenbacks. Cashola. Beaucoups bucks. *ahem* One thing is definite to me: Science Fiction is now the mainstream. At least it is the Media Mainstream, in terms of how Hollywood sees it. Those of us who have been active in science fiction fandom through conventions, clubs, fanzines, and so on for any length of time – say, on the order of 40 years or so – understand that since the mid-1970s when Star Wars, and then Star Trek, proved how much money could be made through those two mega-popular franchises, every single production company in the television and movie industries decided to jump into the apparent lucrative Science Fiction pool and soak up some of that filthy lucre.