FROM MY CLIPPINGS FILE

The July 31, 2009 issue of The Week ISSUE 3 – January 2010 magazine had this illus- EDITOR’S NOTE… tration. In these days of As I write this note, I am luxuriating in the 12-day break I had photoshop, the between my last December final – ever – and the day that law art painting school resumes on January 4. with real tools seems to be Aside from my mundane world commitments of two weddings and dying out. a funeral, I managed to squeeze in two major holidays, three work days and some much-needed spousal time. This exception was well- That leaves me today and tomorrow to complete the following N3F received by tasks: [1] Collate and finalize the official tall of the Neffy Awards, me, But I [2] (finally) write Jon Swartz back about our pending co- regret that the magazine didn’t give the artist proper credit for her collaboration on a new N3F book reference books on the Neffy or his work. winners, and [3] start writing this installment of my much- neglected fanzine. (Like Denny Davis, I find that the instant Dragon*Con 2009 gratification of Facebook is eating into my fanac.) To the left is a scan of the badge I got This issue, you’ll get more of my boring fan life – a quick review for attending Dragon*Con 2009 this list, a little bad fic, and I plan on breaking into my stash of past Labor Day. My Con report starts clippings and other geek detritus I’ve gather through the years. on the next page.

And as we celebrate the passing of 2009, which was not a well- loved year in my household, I send you all the warmest wishes for 2010. - Davodd To the right is the cover art from the Devoid Specimen © 2010 by David Speakman, who may be reached 2009 at [email protected] or the web site: www.davodd.com – or at his Dragon-Con N3F Tightbem.net user page: http://tightbeam.net/members/davodd. program This issue was created expressly for N’APA, although I tend to guide. reprint my stuff other places out of sheer laziness. Started: 11/15/2009; Ended 01/03/2010 Convention Report: Dragon*Con 2009 top-notch writers workshops. (You can get the complete scoop on the website: http://www.dragoncon.org) Originally written for the TNFF but repubbed here to add graphics… And for those that pooh-pooh “media” – the literature tracks are also huge. Along with the generic SF/F literature track, there also Ever since I first stumbled upon are specific tracks for book fandom including Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon*Con (yes, that asterisk is Worlds, Tolkien, Wheel of Time, and Alternate History – each really part of the name) in 2001, it with four days of programming – 12 hours each day. has become an annual pilgrimage Officially it has 35,000 attendees. (But from what I hear – those for me, depending upon my numbers are purposefully poverty level. This is a very lowered by the organizers limited story of the twenty-third because of fears that the fire Dragon*Con, a multi-media con marshal would go into held annually in Atlanta, George conniption fits if she found every Labor Day Weekend, as out that the number was seen through my eyes. actually closer to 50,000.)

My report is limited because it There is simply too much has to be. Dragon*Con is, I for one person to do, see or believe, the largest of the fan- even take in. But for my run fan conventions. And to fellow Neffers, I’ll explain call the event a “convention” is really an under how I spent my Labor Day exaggeration – just like saying the Mall of America is a “store” or weekend in Atlanta this calling J.K Rowling a author who sold a few books. year.

Dragon*con is actually 30 very large “tracks” – which, compared My focus is on the to other cons, are in reality semi-autonomous and fully-staffed American Science Fiction conventions that just happen to be under one Dragon*Con and Fantasy TV group, umbrella and spread among four large hotels over in downtown which I first became Atlanta. involved with in 2001, when I was part of a cadre of folks working (unsuccessfully) to save a little The Star Trek track, alone – if separated from the rest of steampunk TV series called, “The Secret Adventures of Jules Dragon*Con would be the largest Trek convention in the world. Verne.” Anyway, on to the con report. Other TV tracks include Stargate, Joss Whedon, American SFTV, Asian SFTV and British SFTV. Other tracks include Star Wars, GETTING THERE Anime-Manga, Comics, Costuming, Filk, Horror and Goth tracks. Flying from Silly Valley (this is what I call Silicon Valley) in There is also a full-fledged four-day SF/F/Horror film festival, and California to Atlanta is easy – but not cheap. We almost didn’t go this year because Rich was expecting to be laid off from his job and we had no money to spare. But our friends all chipped in and geeks. And that was just the first 90 minutes of the first day of paid our way there and bought our hotel room, too. programming.

Dragon*Con (sometimes abbreviated as “DC”) is a four- My highlight this day was going to a panel (am a huge day event: Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday fan) to watch , , and of Labor Day weekend. But as veterans, Lani Tupu relive a show that began 10 years ago and was we usually try to arrive on prematurely cancelled by the SCIFI Channel. I think the Thursday, as do most of our stars of the show were genuinely touched by the turnout a con friends. This gives us all decade later for a show that any folks have either long- a day to meet up and catch up forgotten or never heard of. on all that has happened over the past year – without the I also made a point to travel to all four hotels and put crowds of newbies - or the threat N3F pamphlets out on fan tables on Friday. of missing one of the programs. That night, we skipped the parties, which included a I also Unfortunately, aside from my couple cosplay/masquerade balls (Zombie Prom, Pirate Silly Valley-to-Dragon*Con travel Bay) and had a quiet evening with friends. mates of Rich Speakman and Jen Coats, none of my other con friends at DC this year were also N3F members, but there is SATURDAY always hope that will change for next year. On Saturday the 3-hour time difference and jet lag finally caught up with us – we overslept and missed the Dragon*Con parade – FRIDAY which is a community event in Atlanta and parents bring their kids It is common for cons to start programming on Friday nights. But to see TV and movie stars and hundreds of fen dressed up. new this year, DC responded to the fact that may, many con vets started arriving on Thursday. So this year, the con started some of We also missed the cast of the new Battlestar Galactica give their the more popular tracks’ programming at 10 a.m. on Friday. take on the season finale. This was really too bad because a couple of years ago when the show was relatively new, we had befriended I fact, the first – and probably most mainstream media newsworthy Aaron Douglas, the actor who played Chief Tyrol, on BSG. And in event that happened at D*C this year was the Leonard the crowds of Dragon*Con and other shiny objects that caught or Nimoy/William Shatner panel at 10 a.m. on Friday. CNN carried attention in the next few days, we never did get the change to look part of their banter – which was quite humorous – especially the him up and say hello this year. teasing Nimoy gave the first captain about not being invited to be in the 2009 movie remake. Being on a limited budget, the dealer’s room was window- shopping only. IN previous years, we’d been known to bring an My mother-in-law, a huge Trek fan, saw the coverage on CNN and extra, empty suitcase with us to DC just to hold the stuff we bought actually called us to let us know that Nimoy and Shatner were at while there. That didn’t stop me from looking through the used the convention. We told her, that yes, we knew so and were there books, comics, board games and T-shirts, though. to watch it live in a room with about 3,000 of our fellow Trek Jet lag still in high-gear, we persevered and hosted our annual I ended up skipping a lot of the con programming on Sunday as I consuite party. Among our group is the leader of the American stayed in the room reading my law books and briefing cases. Being SF/F Media track, so our little party has become the unofficial a 40-something taking night law school in addition to working full official party for staff members and occasionally guests of honor time really cuts into my fanac – even when I’m at a con. who want to duck away from fawning fans for a few hours. IN throwing this party, we missed the official-official parties (Dance MONDAY of the Concubines [belly dancing], Star Wars dance, BSG party, Rich and I ended up missing all of the Monday programming as and the Rainbow Dance for LGBT fen). our flight back to Silly Valley left that morning. Instead we made sure to say goodbye until next year to the friends we only see at SUNDAY our yearly jaunt to the Southeast. By the time we made it back By the time Sunday arrived, we were getting used to Eastern Time home, it was dark and about bed time. I turned in early as I had to Zone. We went to another Farscape panel in the morning, but I we be at work in the mooring and a Wills and Trusts night class. split up afterward. Rich and Jen continued their geekfest while I stopped by a panel that was a tribute to Forry Ackerman, who died Jen was on Con staff – so didn’t come back to the Silly Valley/Bay in December 2008. Area until Tuesday.

That day I also stopped by to talk to this year’s WRAP-UP organizers of the annual Robert A. Heinlein blood The next day, my boss wanted the scoop on when the nest drive, which was co-sponsored by the producers of Wheel of Time book(s) would come out. I told him. the new TV show, “The Vampire Diaries.” You got a free vampire T-Shirt if you gave blood. I thought Rich, Jen and I also made plans to go back next year (rooms the tie-in was rather brilliant and paid off as I hear already reserved and tickets already bought). they got more than 2,000 donors that weekend. I also learned that the TV series was being filmed in GOH already signed up for next year include Laurel K. Atlanta and they were doing casting calls for extras Hamilton, Brandon Winn Sanderson, Rene Auberjonois, and bit actors at the cons. Having the perfect face Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis. for radio, I passed on a screen test – but was sure to tell others I thought may have been interested. But I gotta say that if you hate crowds – the Dragon*Con is not for you. I missed the 2009 Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant – and instead caught the “unauthorized: But, if you are excited about the change to spend 4 (or 5) peek at “The Hobbit” – which is being made into days with thousands of other geeks and goblins over Labor two films by that same folks who brought Lord of Day – then I’ll see you at Dragon*Con 24 – September 3 - the Ring to the big screen. I learned some 6, 2010. The best part for me? By then, I’ll have graduated interesting stuff about the production, but found it law school and will already have taken the bar exam – so quite amusing that some people asked for “no 100% of my time will be devoted to geeking out with spoilers.” Suggested to them that they read the 50,000 of my closest friends. Hope to see you there – you book as it is quite short compared to other Tolkien works. can buy tickets online at the www.dragoncon.org web site.

MOVIES I WATCHED IN 2009 JUNE JANUARY Outlander (AppleTV) **** Hellboy II: The Golden Army (AppleTV) *** The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) (AppleTV) ** Babylon A.D. (AppleTV) ** W. (AppleTV) *** Quarantine (AppleTV) ** FEBRUARY The Spirit (AppleTV) *** Burn After Reading (AppleTV) *** Dying Breed (AppleTV) ** The House Bunny (AppleTV) *** Splinter (AppleTV) *** Blood and Chocolate (AppleTV) *** MARCH The Midnight Meat Train (AppleTV) *** Watchman (Theatre) **** The Burrowers (AppleTV) *** Twilight (AppleTV) *** Alien Raiders (AppleTV) **** Religulous (AppleTV) *** Screamers: The Hunting (AppleTV) ** Scab (DVD) *** Underworld 3 ** JULY

Push (AppleTV) *** APRIL Cutting Class (AppleTV) * Tropic Thunder Director’s Cut (AppleTV) **** Moon (Theatre) ***** Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood

(AppleTV) *** AUGUST Caprica (AppleTV) *** Knowing (AppleTV) * Role Models (AppleTV) *** Let the Right One In (AppleTV) **** Ghost Town (AppleTV) *** District 9 (Theatre) **** The Cove (Theatre) **** MAY Stephen King’s N (AppleTV) *** X-Men Origins: Wolvering (Theatre) *** The Garden (AppleTV) *** Star Trek (Theatre) **** George A Romero’s Land of the Dead (AppleTV) *** Hollywood Shuffle (DVD) [repeat viewing] **** Inglorious Basterds (Theatre) **** Mom (DVD) *** The Time Traveler’s Wife (Theatre) **** Fido (DVD) [repeat viewing] **** Harry Potter 6 (IMAX 3D) *** Mommie Dearest (DVD) [repeat viewing] **** Star Trek (Theatre IMAX) **** SEPTEMBER Nightwatch (AppleTV) [repeat viewing] *** FICTION SNIPPET Daywatch (AppleTV) ** 1984 (AppleTV) *** The following was a story idea I’ve had for a while – started as a Alien Trespass (AppleTV) *** NaNoWriMo project – then eventually put up on Protagonize.com – so it could torture others instead of just me. It’s more of a study in The Host [English dub] (AppleTV) ** mood than anything else. The Hamiltons (AppleTV) **** Dregs of the Great Black Swamp

by David Speakman OCTOBER Battle for Terra (AppleTV) *** This world's remaining strange mysteries exist among the nooks and crannies of civilization. In nations like the United States, most enquiring eyes remain Lost Boys: The Tribe (Uncut) (AppleTV) * focused along the coasts or dwell upon geological wonders such as the vast Outlander (AppleTV) **** mountain ranges, canyons and the great rivers of the West. But those places have been plundered of their secrets as the world becomes evermore entrenched Where the Wild Things Are (IMAX) *** in the 21st century and humanity's faith that increasingly ever-present technology has exposed and defanged all those creatures that used to bump in NOVEMBER the night; making them shrivel in the glare of halogen spotlights. Or, at least, in the glare and flash of a cell-phone camera. But tucked away in the otherwise Mutant Chronicles (Director’s Cut) *** boring parts of North America, such as the marshy and mucky and generally flat The Proposal (AppleTV) *** and uninteresting terrain of northeastern Indiana and northwestern Ohio, some of Nature's magic still exists. Magic, that is, in that local folks with their large Horsemen (AppleTV) * faith in God and little understanding of science, geology and biology are quick Dance of the Dead *** to assume as supernatural what trained scientists could explain with careful observation and scientific testing - or so they think. Twilight: New Moon (Theatre) ** The Road (Theatre) **** = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - =

2012 (Theatre) ** Eddie sat in the kitchen, back to the picture window, using the natural late morning light to read the daily paper. He was supposed to be DECEMBER looking at the want ads, but there were never any jobs for people like him - over 40 with no high school diploma - that is, ever since Dana Thirst (AppleTV) ** closed its plant in the nearby town of Churubusco. Instead, he leafed Star Trek (IMAX DOME) *** through the pages and his eyes settled on the "CONSTRUCTION' Avatar (IMAX 3D) **** section of the paper. It said:

Madden Road is scheduled to close between Bryie KEY: and North County Line roads for a few days next week. * AVOID The Allen County Highway Department said the ** BAD closure should start about 7:30 a.m. Monday and end *** GOOD about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. **** GREAT Crews are fixing a soft spot in the road. ***** MUST SEE

As the man read, the blood drained from his face. Almost She never asked for the dog back – and Eddie never brought it up. As his reflexively, Eddie looked over his right shoulder, out the window and sole companion, Eddie was much more attached to the dog then he ever toward the dip in Madden Road about a half block from his house. was to his sister’s kid, anyway. "Those stupid bastards," he half mumbled to himself. "What are they Pepper trotted out into the street and stood next to Eddie, looking thinking?" regal in her dog way. Absent mindedly, Eddie reached down with one Eddie put he paper down on the kitchen table, grabbed and put on his hand and scratched her between the ears. Bored, she walked toward the jacket and headed outside into the cold morning air. east edge of the road where the new puddle had appeared and sniffed at He looked fearfully at the small woods bordering his home and at the the water before looking back expectantly at Eddie. finger of dark water that jutted out of the overgrowth and barely “I know; I know,” the man said, as he started back to the house, touched Madden Road. “Let’s get you something to eat.” When he said “eat,” Pepper’s ears Eddie, hands in the jacket pockets to escape the autumn chill, walked perked up and she darted past Eddie and waited for him by the front briskly to the dip in the road. door, eagerly waiting for her morning breakfast: one coffee cup scoop of No traffic this morning. Hardly ever is; only he and the Rosentraders Iams dry-lamb dog food. live out this far since the bank foreclosed on the Holloworths last month. Eddie smiled at Pepper’s eagerness, thinking the world would be a All the commuters either take County Line Road to the north or much happier place if people took such joy in daily routine. Highway 205 - not this forgotten north-south stretch of chip-and-seal that bisects a 20-acre oddly-shaped marshland with its three muck-bottomed lakes. = - = - = - = Eddie stepped into the street and walked over to and stood in the middle of the so-called "soft spot" mentioned in the city paper. In the offices of the Allen County Highway Department, Looking toward the west he stared at a small hourglass-shaped 4- Construction Manager Michelle Schmidt was sitting at her desk looking acre black-water lake surrounded by waterlogged and stunted trees. Its at site photos and engineering schematics and various options the water was gently lapping against the crumbling tar and gravel of Madden contractor submitted to fix the dip in Madden Road. Road. With the poor shape of the economy, the initial bid to fix the road Eddie then turned to the east and that same black water, no more came in less than half what was budgeted, which left the county with than 12 inches deep picked up again as soon as the pavement ended. discretionary funds for some of the projects like Madden Road, which Madden was starting to look more like a causeway than a road. had been patched with short-term fixes for decades without addressing The water on the east side of Madden overflowed the shallow ditch the long term problem. and started spreading toward the Holloworth's waterlogged and At issue at Madden Road and most of Allen County is geology and abandoned yard. climate change. This climate change is not the recent 20th and 21st The dark water stretched for about nine feet before being swallowed Century Global Warming – the change here happened thousands of years by the overgrowth that skirted along the Holloworth property line and ago during the end of the last Ice Age, when the once-mile-think stretched all the way to Fulk's Lake about 100 yards away. continental glacier that covered Allen County, most of Indiana and the Looks like there was more wet here now than this past summer, surrounding states melted away and left the Great lakes and glacial Eddie thought to himself, moving closer to the edge but fearful to get too moraines, bogs, temperate swamps and till plains. close to the inky water. The geography of the area was working against the road builders of This survey was interrupted by sharp cracking sound behind him. On the 19th and 20th centuries, who were hellbent on draining the swamps instinct, Eddie turned and looked toward the source of the noise. to expose the rich black mucky soil to farming and carving an ordered Padding toward him, Eddie saw Pepper, the dog he inherited from grid of county and township roads in northeast Indiana to get the crops to his niece, Kelly, when she moved away to college. They didn’t allow market. The problem is that mucky soils are laced with peat veins and are dogs in the dorms. That was 6 years ago; now the nice is married to an inherently unstable – causing sink holes as the peat, which was once investment banker and lives the high life in a suburb of New York city. protected by being waterlogged, decays in a decades-long process. And the soils sink faster when you try to build a heavy road over the The worst part for him was knowing that unlike with Alzheimer’s, top of it. Stan’s Mom was fully aware of her condition and was terrified as she With Madden Road, the county had three options: First, the cheapest slowly lost control of her own body and each day lost a little more of would be another quick patch – raising the grade of the road with more what she used to refer as her dignity. asphalt; the second, install a culvert under the road at the heart of the dip Stan looked at the clock – it was 4:30 p.m. – time to head home as and bring in the backhoes and dig deep ditches on either side to drain his mom’s in-home caretaker was due to leave and go back to her own away the excess water; and finally the most-expensive but most- family in 45 minutes. He loved his mother, but still he dreaded going permanent option, dig out the peat under the road bed down to harder home these days since as her disease progressed and different parts of her clay and in-fill with a more stable substrate. brain died, the woman he knew as Mom was slowly turning into a wild- Number crunching, it looked like the county could afford any of the eyed stranger. options, but the culvert option was probably out of the question since it Placing his lesson plans for tomorrow on the top of the pile of papers would require environmental impact studies that hadn’t been done since on his desk, Stand left for home, stopping briefly to look at the leaves in the water drained was bordering a protected wetland. the school parking lot displaying their fall colors. Schmidt picked up the phone and dialed the department director – she was suggesting taking advantage of the down economy and opting for the permanent fix; going forward with the third option. >>>>AND …. That’s it … I merely created a bunch of people in a = - = - = world who were destined to interact with one another in a place that seemed interesting to me – but not interesting enough for me The semester was only half over for Stanley Krider and he’d already to fully develop and finish the story which I had hoped to meld written off his students this term. A tenure-track associate professor of environmentalism, diseases, overpopulation, plague and romance. biology at the regional campus of Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, a commuter campus tucked into the northern heart of the Then I realized that I was in law school and that I had no time to largest city in Allen County, Indiana. A teaching job at IPFW was not Stan’s first choice. A bright student, bury myself in world creating or storytelling.<<<< he had always been among the top 5 percent of his class at Stanford. His passion was cellular biology, parasitology and phylogenetics. When he graduated with his PhD from Stanford two years ago, he was set to join a team cataloguing endangered species and creating a DNA bank of plants, animals and microbial life of the various rainforest habitats of the islands of south Asia and the Indian Ocean. But the plans were dashed when his mother was diagnosed with variant Cruetzfelt-Jacob Disease and Stan had to move back home to Indiana to take care of his dying mother. So, instead of his dream job literally on the other side of the globe, Stan caretaker for the woman who gave birth to him; a woman whose brain was being relentlessly ravaged by prions attacking and rearranging the very proteins of her nervous system. He became numb to he co-workers jokes that Mom had “mad cow” disease. He never tried to correct them, because he new it was only a semantic difference anyway since the same prions that cause mad cow in cattle cause vCJD in humans, anyway.