The Devniad, Book 11 Bob Devney 25 Johnson Street, North Attleboro, MA 02760 508-699-7885 [email protected] APA:NESFA #309, February 1996
Orbita Dicta those horribly gory special effects Heard in the halls of looked much too real. Arisia, January 1996 [Proper Boskonian editor and NESFA stalwart Ken Knabbe is the first to inform me [Shaggy fan arriving festooned with that I won’t be spending a weekend in backpack, parka, blankets, maybe a garbage wonderful Worcester this summer] bag or two, about to shatter the expensive They’ve moved Readercon to the hush of a stylish Park Plaza restaurant] Marriott in Westboro. Shall we add a touch of class to this place? [New Jerseyite first-time-Boston-area-con- goer Jeff Wendler on why he was thoroughly [Fan Nomi Burstein at the Boston in 2001 familiar with almost every single work bid party Friday night, babbling the typical discussed in the Postmodern Classics of SF airheaded bimbospeak that fangirls spout as panel] they party heartiest] You can get through a lot of books if English doesn’t have split infinitives. you just come home from work and do They’re really just perfectly proper nothing else but read until 3:00 or 4:00 in phrasal infixes. the morning. [Observer admiring fetching fan Becca [Reviewer Dan Kimmel on Neal Henry’s transcendent party headgear] Stephenson’s cyberclassic Snow Crash] Now, that’s a hat! Sort of like The You’ve got to love a book whose Grinch That Gave Back Christmas meets main character is named Hero Glitter Period Elton John. Protagonist. [At breakfast Saturday, writer Greer Gilman [Editor and rock star lookalike Warren points out the forest despite the trees] Lapine at Roger Zelazny Memorial panel] The wonderful Emma Thompson Yes, Roger Zelazny saved me from a movie of Sense and Sensibility isn’t set in life of crime. I was a really messed-up England, you know. Not the real, kid when I somehow picked up Nine historical England. It actually takes place Princes in Amber. When I put it down, I in Arden... knew this was what I wanted to do from then on. It changed my life. [Fan Kris Page brings the subject to the film version of what few realize is Jane Austen’s [Editor Darrell Schweitzer about when it lost classic, Death and Decomposition] was advisable to catch some of Z’s work] The only movie I ever walked out on Roger Zelazny was a really great was An American Werewolf in London. I’m writer for about 6 years, from “A Rose a Vietnam veteran, and let me tell you, for Ecclesiastes” through Isle of the Dead. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 2 of 16
After that -- well, it’s like Joanna Russ said, “Here’s this really magic writer [Half-of-the-writer-known-as-J.V.-Rivkin, slowly putting his tricks back in his hat.” also on making those tough marketing decisions] [Schweitzer waxes nostalgic] Several publishers have told me this In those days, we had a radical about my still-unpublished mystery concept, now long forgotten: the one- novel: “Loved it; great read; couldn’t volume novel. put it down; can’t sell it.”
[The Hero Schweitzer on one writer who was [Hemi-Rivkin again, who despite this and not a Zelazny fan] above has sold quite a number of things, Zelazny early on sometimes used his thank you] pseudonym, Harrison Denmark. Which I did more research for my unsold really pissed off Harry Harrison, who at historical novel on Lewis Carroll than I the time was living in Denmark. did writing my dissertation.
[Writer David Alexander Smith on the [If you think Tony Lewis is proud of his problem afflicting a number of Zelazny ancestors, how about Craig Shaw Gardner, heroes] who boasts] You become the god you’re I’m a direct descendent of Billy the masquerading as. Kid’s stepfather.
[Warren Lapine succinctly defines the [Gardner on an early -- and notably Zelazny difference] unsuccessful -- example of toughlove] His were the first literary novels I When he was 14, they took Billy out could read without thinking, “This is a West to get him away from the bad pretentious piece of shit.” elements in his neighborhood.
[Local writer Craig Shaw Gardner defines [Urbane cowboy/writer Gary Bowen on why] genre diversification, or slicing the baloney He could make the fantastic increasingly thin] colloquial. One of my books is a gay supernatural military SF novel. [Gardner again, in the Writing in More Than One Genre panel, on making those [Bowen applauds an unsung force for -- well, tough marketing decisions] if not for good, then for good hot stuff] Why are Guy Gavriel Kay’s books in Circlet Press single-handedly the fantasy section when they may have invented SF erotica. If you’d mentioned only trace amounts of fantasy? Because the term 5 or 10 years ago, people historical fiction doesn’t sell bubkes. would have laughed and said, “SF erotica. Nerds doing what?”
[Former Aboriginal Sandra Hutchinson with [After quick objections from lotsa an insight guaranteed to appall teenage boys interlocutors] everywhere] Okay, history sells -- but only if it’s a Think about the fantasy scene a multigenerational epic. while back. There was kind of romantic The Devniad, Book 11 Page 3 of 16
high fantasy, and there was swords ‘n’ sorcery. The joke used to be that fantasy [Writer Sarah Smith imparts advice on do-it- appealed chiefly to teenage boys and yourself photo ops] their mothers. There’s the weekly, Bookselling This Week, that’s always trying to feed their [NESFAn Deb Geisler (host throughout the insatiable appetite with stories. con to the mother of all head colds) at dinner Particularly stories with pictures. So you Saturday, on what she’d had to eat earlier in 1) Get a bookseller who will do the day] something really weird to help you Nyquil. publicize your book, and 2) Get somebody who will take a picture of it [Relentless salesman Darrell Schweitzer to for you. unwary guest at the Boskone 33 party Saturday night, drawing a small box full of [Smith refuses to take preemptive contracts old Roman coins from his pocket while sitting down] beckoning his victim closer] Here is where I jump up wild-eyed How would you like to own the and say, “At all costs, retain your treasure of the ancients? electronic rights!” Consider that a dealbreaker clause. [My brother Michael, who had to attend a bachelor party all Friday night and a [Smith reminds us who really won World wedding all Sunday] War II on this timeline] This con seems kind of short to me. Make sure the contract lets you keep foreign rights. The Japanese and the [Fan waiting in the brunch line Sunday, on German are usually the two biggest sets why he had chosen to don on this bright, of rights economically. sunny morning a black t-shirt bearing the cheery Nine Inch Nails song lyric, [Rising NESFAn and hot new writer GODDAMN THIS NOISE INSIDE MY Michael Burstein on the Babylon 5 Is Really HEAD. GODDAMN THIS NOISE X in Disguise panel, about why the show is INSIDE MY HEAD. GODDAMN THIS a cut above the usual] NOISE INSIDE MY HEAD, etc.] Most TV writers have been raised I was up late. not on books but on TV, and they’re putting into TV what they got out of it. [Comix writer and editor Ken Gale indulges Nothing more. in wishful thinking during the After the Book Is Sold panel] You’d think in comix, communication between the artist and the writer would be an absolute necessity.
{Gale shows how it works when it works] So I got this idea. And I said to the artist, “Do you know about a Surinam Toad?” And the answer was, “Oh. You mean -- right, perfect!” The Devniad, Book 11 Page 4 of 16
[On the other hand, netmeister Colin Roald [Videomancer and fanzine writer Peter offers proof that Babylon 5 producer J. Maranci applying a rigorous critical Michael Straczynski may have cracked a book standard] once or twice] Oh, Stargate? I didn’t see it, so I’ll He quoted from Kierkegaard: “I’m give it a 5. being nibbled to death by ducks!” [Non-Arisian in elevator whose question [Burstein on the open-mindedness necessary about what “Arisia” means had just elicited to appreciate the hanging gardens of a brief historical overview] Babylon 5] Say, I read a little sci-fi from time to If you can only present this to time. This Lensman book sounds somebody who’s willing to get beyond interesting. Would I like it? the costumes and not think, “Oh this is Lizard Man fighting Bad Hair Day Man.” [Smiling hotel guy at checkout Sunday afternoon, when asked if he had held up OK [Guess which Boskone this fan was while spending the weekend with all us reminiscing about] weird fannish people] For me, the final straw was the Oh, I’ve seen weird before. And we pillow in the ladies room toilet. need the money.
[Fanzine writer Barnaby Rapaport during the Good Fanzine Writing panel, on the average fanzine half-life of approximately 0.5 ish] Something like 90% of all fanzines never make it to a second issue....Most of my submissions to fanzines have never been published, because the fanzine folded.
[Classic fanzine writer Lee Gold on how fanzine flamewars can flare up] “Tone of typer” is one of the most difficult things to “get” as a reader. Especially when the tone is supposed to be humor or disagreement.
[Film reviewer Dan Kimmel in the Bad SF Films panel, raising a lonely voice in qualified defense of the movie Breakfast of Aliens] I got paid to see it and review it. So there was something good about it. To that extent only, of course. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 5 of 16
[Placing first in the “I wuz robbed” Orbita Dicta category, NESFA President Tony Lewis Heard in the halls of explains his whisker-close third-place finish Boskone, February 1996 in the Trivia Bowl (behind your orbiting reporter and big winner Tom Galloway)] I was only there for the last 20 [Guest of Honor Lois McMaster Bujold minutes. musing on her wildly popular Miles Vorkosigan books before reading Chapter 1 [Good sport Lewis when asked about from Memory, due out in October] standing in front of the banquet audience This series is spanning fractal and reading aloud a letter from Mike Resnick sequels. More possibilities than one which had as its chief comic engine the device author could possibly do in a lifetime. of heaping abuse and ridicule on Lewis himself] [On where her muse might carry her next] It’s all in good fun. Besides, I’ll get I’m fascinated by Venice. Either a him later. sequel to Spirit Ring set in Venice, or a fantasy Venice of my own devising. Not [Bujold on the rewards of successful sure what I’ll actually do when, though. imagination] These projects are duking it out in my I feel especially good when a brain with the Miles Gets Married book. military person writes to tell me I captured the feel of the military, or an [My mild-mannered sister Liz, the Stealth engineer tells me I got the engineering Devney, who hadn’t been to a con or indeed right, or a gay person says I did a good much outside the house since the Boskone job with Ethan of Athos. And when from Hell and was lured to this one only by someone who’d been abused as a child Bujold and the promise of a serene, blissful told me I’d captured that, I really con experience -- on her somewhat cherished it....You don’t have to be one inauspicious start] yourself. You just expand on a little bit After 3 hours of driving here at a of experience. slow crawl with a broken wiper in a snowstorm, I found the hotel gave away [My brother-in-law and major fantasy fan my promised room on the 1st floor and Bob Kuhn on how not to impress an author] had me booked for one night, not two. I I must have talked about the book was ready to kill. nine times today, and told people it was her only fantasy and the one of her [Fan waiting interminably in Molly books I really responded to, and I used Malone’s for his mediocre Irish stew] the correct name every time, no Is there another pub restaurant in problem. But naturally when I meet America where they don’t have Bujold face-to-face I immediately burgers?...Interesting service ratios here. compliment her on The Serpent Ring and Fifty tables, but never more than two she has to tell me no, it was The Spirit waiters. Or menus. Ring. Great. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 6 of 16
[Since he’s last one in, panelist Daniel Hatch Outside of a dog, a book is man’s gets stuck with attempting a précis of the best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to Generations panel’s springboard book, read. Generations: The History of America’s Future, by Strauss and Howe] [In the Hard Fantasy? panel, scholar Faye Basically, the authors see a pattern in Ringel deconstructs the Sheraton Tara American history of four different types Framingham] of generations that follow sequentially in We’re having this conversation in a a repeating cycle. There’s the idealistic postmodern building where a half- generation, like the Puritans, the New timbered cottage had a terrible accident Dealers, the Boomers. Then the Xers, with an Irish castle. who are kind of losers and pragmatists like Truman, Bogart, or Twain. Then the [Ringel on shifting literary definitions] civic-minded team spirit generation, like A trilogy has become any collection those who lived during the Depression of four or more books. and all pulled together to get through. And the conformist/adaptive [Bujold interviewed by editor Toni generation, like the Eisenhower people. Weisskopf, on how science was bred in her And this all repeats in a four-part cycle bones] with a two-stroke overlay of first secular My father would have taken a crisis, then spiritual awakening. certain physics course from Robert Oppenheimer, except that he’d taken it [Generations Moderator Michael F. Flynn the previous year from Enrico Fermi. bites off a smaller piece] What accounts for the change that [On the early years] has overtaken old people? They’re not Baycon [Oakland, CA, 1968] was my the same old people. Those other old very first encounter with fandom.... people -- they died. My first pregnancy was the first time I ever completed something I started.... [Author Melissa Scott explains that Why do I write SF? Because I read it sometimes the grass really is greener] when I was young. I was imprinted like In the Civil War, New England a baby duck.... farmboys went south and made a great I started reading romances in my discovery: there is land that doesn’t have 20s, just after I got married. I was trying rocks in it. to figure out, “What’s wrong with this picture?” [Audience member on one of God’s more inspired twofers] [On romancing the reader] Abraham Lincoln and Charles The idea of writing should be like a Darwin were born on the same day. dance. You draw out of the reader half the book....
[Tee shirt with a quote attributed to Marx -- Groucho, that is] The Devniad, Book 11 Page 7 of 16
[On the methods to her madness] When they ask where do I get my “Write what you know” is a ideas, I always want to say, where do tautology. Write what you know as you not get any ideas? Having ideas is opposed to what other choice?... not the abnormal state, it’s the normal Doing female viewpoint is almost state for all of us. harder, because [in this culture] you’re so soaked in the male viewpoint....I may [On her characters] do a female viewpoint thing next.... What makes a hero? Sometimes it’s People who read for style are for me just desperation. Like Cordelia in a mystery -- it’s an utterly alien way of Barrayar.... reading. You mean, some people see the I love Ivan. [To get exposition in], sentences?... you need someone to ask, “What does Story is biologically based. “Boy this mean, Miles?” Besides other things, meets girl” is an emotional core story. So Ivan is the consummate straight man. I’ll are the revenge story and others. Across never kill him off.... different cultures -- tap into one of these Which character would I want to be and your reader will respond.... marooned on a desert island with? You write a novel linearly, but you Probably Miles. Because that would be must make it up globally.... my best chance of getting In high school, I never got the unmarooned.... difference between plot and theme. “Plot is what it’s about, and theme is [NESFAn eminence Mark Olson, ending what it’s about.” Huh? Now I think plot countless whispered speculations involving is what happens, theme is what it professional fútbol tryouts for late bloomers, means.... a foot-first management style, or bizarre Levitate the table, and then put the fetishistic maneuvers gone painfully awry -- legs under it. Get the solution, then as to why the cast and crutches] make a problem to fit. As Toni says, it I was climbing a ladder at Tropicon can be a brilliant way to write hard SF.... trying to get at some old treasury records. [On her sources] I usually do my research after [Veteran David Pelz wouldn’t say half what writing the book.... he knew at the Gimme That Old Time Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a book I Fandom panel, except to intone] read every decade because it keeps Fans do stupid things when they rise changing on me....Miles certainly owes up in righteous wrath. something to Lawrence of Arabia.... A friend sent me Liddell-Hart’s [In Doppelgangers: The Character as Strategy. I got The Vor Game out of that Reflection of Self panel, author James Patrick book.... Kelly demonstrates that every writer is a I have a PBS/Nova-level knowledge high-function schizophrenic] of psychiatric subjects.... When I write a story, I’m the boy Arising out of my East African trip, and the girl and the man-eating plant. in the planet in Shards of Honor, actually they land on Mount Kilimanjaro and walk to Mount Meru.... The Devniad, Book 11 Page 8 of 16
[Fantasy writer Greer Gilman agrees that [Bob Kuhn from the audience, answering a the map is not the territory, she is] Hartwell question] Really classic fantasy is turning What’s missing from the SF of the yourself into a world and walking 90s? Heterogeneity. We still have whole through it. planets thinking the same.
[A more modest view from SF and mystery [According to Edghill, sales figures don’t mistress Rosemary Edghill] reflect the whole of an author’s audience] In my mystery books, I’m not the All writers are engaged in winning main character. She has good hair and is arguments with the dead. desperately cool. I’m the murder victim. [Bujold gives some advice to the 10 people [Gilman takes a Revenge of the Nerds slant] who signed up for her intimate little If it happens that the best-dressed kaffeeklatsch, plus the horde of nervy person in your story is always the partycrashers who swinishly jammed the villianness, you’re revealing something room (he observed atrabiliously)] about yourself. If you write yourself into a corner, paint a door on the wall. [Kelly makes a comparison to which the only proper response is "That’s Mr. Heinlein to [Turns out that miles and miles of Miles was you, pilgrim!”] created the old-fashioned way] Heinlein is like John Wayne. You I only started writing on a word always know you’re reading a Heinlein processor in Chapter 20 of Mirror Dance. book. Before that, it was all handwritten.
[Discussing another writer’s unique [My sister Darcy Devney praises the authorial persona, Kelly searches for exactly discernment of her friend, amateur artist and the right word] distinguished disher Cassandra Boell] Barry Malzberg’s world is, well -- You haven’t seen the Art Show until you’ve seen it with Cassandra. She’ll [Greer Gilman joins in with humour] give you a running commentary....Just Atrabilious. try to make sure that none of the artists are in earshot. [Departing from the panel subject, Moderator Hartwell goes his own sweet way [In the Build an Alien panel, writer David and probably succeeds in tripling Swanwick Alexander Smith warns colleagues against sales to the readers of this fanzine] the warm and fuzzy] My favorite sex scene of the last Aliens often fail because you make decade is in Michael Swanwick’s Vacuum them too humanoid -- you give them Flowers, wherein essential exposition is smile-equivalents. delivered in bursts over 20 pages while honey is being licked off the body of a [Artist Bob Eggleston recalls some wisdom naked woman. an editor once imparted on the subject of marketing choices for book cover art] Don’t you know that aliens don’t sell books? Spaceships sell books. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 9 of 16
[Completist collector Jeff Rogers being totally paranoid about what your orbiting reporter [New author Katya Reimann gets the Books might quote him on] We Love That Aren’t SF panel off to a What are you going to put in for my disturbing start by dishing one of your quote this year, that thing today where orbiting reporter’s favorite historical series] you happened to be hanging around the I find Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey- dealer when I bought the Ballantine Best Maturin stories irritating. Because I’m an of Eric Frank Russell and you said “I 18th century scholar. thought you already had a complete set of the Ballantine bests?” and I said “Yes [Mark Keller applies balm by praising but this is a first edition”? People are another favorite series, by George going to think I’m obsessive.... MacDonald Fraser] Flashman is a lecher, a cad, and a [My brother Michael, clever creator of bounder. But he looks good. ChronoCollisions, the trivia game for time travel fans, after weeks of preparation and [Although your orbiting snoop thought this anxiety as to whether the game would be a recent book had a great subject but spotty success at the con] writing and uneven coverage, reviewer and Over 40 contestants already! We new author Peter J. Heck disagrees] made it! Perhaps the most interesting nonfiction book I’ve read in the last [She may be a combat veteran and chief couple of years is Longitude by Dava engineer of the Navy’s newest missile Sobel. It’s the story of the quest for a destroyer, but this is E. J. McClure’s first reliable method of determining con and that has a certain effect on a trufan] longitude. Who finally solved it was not I can’t believe how fast my heart is some aristocratic scientist but a British beating. Incredible. This is all so exciting! clockmaker -- a mechanic.
[McClure reverently describes her first con [Children’s writer Bruce Colville discusses party] his grown-up tastes] We sat at the feet of Lois McMaster This is the printout of my last couple Bujold. of years of reading. Of course I list every book I read onto the computer. Doesn’t [McClure sums up] everybody?... I learned more in two days of Beloved by Toni Morrison is one of listening to writers talking about writing the best American novels of the last 50 than I did during an entire semester of years.... creative writing in college. Bruce Maguire, who’s in the audience, did something unique with [Netborne SF Reviewer and Sci-Fi Talk Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked FREQUENCIES newsletter editor Ernest Witch of the West.... Lilley, in the con suite, recalls one of Tom Twain’s Christian Science is one of his Swift’s swifter rivals] most entertaining books, though most Remember the books about the boy people don’t know about it.... scientist Rick Brant? They were my William Goldman’s The Color of Light favorite. He lived off the coast of New is the best by one of the best. The Jersey -- on Spindrift Island. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 10 of 16
second time I read it, I stayed up until In her novels, the people who are 3:00 a.m. to see how it came out.... broke only have two servants. Then there’s another subcategory, books with which I’ve embarrassed [The exquisite tortures you suffer with myself by laughing while on public Austen’s characters are described by transportation.... Rosemary Edghill] No one’s going to die, but it’s [Faye Ringel makes a timely point] agonizing anyway. It’s like suspense, One pet peeve is that people don’t but it’s not suspense -- read anything written before their time. Once they get out of school, anyway. [Esther Freisner] It’s social suspense. [With the exception of Little Friend of All the Con Mark Keller] [Teresa Nielsen Hayden reveals a little- A writer named Murari was so known aspect of Austen’s career] annoyed by Kipling’s India that he wrote You’re all aware of that fine alternate two sequels to Kim, giving the history book, Jane’s Fighting Ships? character’s later life. By 1915 he has Kim getting involved with the Congress Party [Nielsen Hayden reminds us that Austen and starting to doubt the rightness of the took no side in the great Mac vs. PC debate] British Raj. She composed all her novels in the front parlor. On little scraps of paper she [Keller doubts the rightness of a choice of could shuffle quickly under something. subject made by the great writer of Westerns, Because she wrote while on more Louis Lamour] important duty, waiting to see if any He did a historical once. Not good. visitors arrived. There’s one line in a scene where some Christian knights have just driven off a [Rosemary Edghill’s version of car talk circa band of horse nomads. One knight says, 1811] “Those were the Pechins?” or whatever That fast carriage that Willoughby tribal name he used. The other knight drives Marianne around in in the Sense answers, “Yes, in about 200 years they’ll and Sensibility movie was a family model become the Mongols.” compared to the notorious “high- perched phaeton.” This baby had the [Dyspeptic fan answering the question, seat 3 feet higher and further forward, “Who’s on this panel?”] and if you ran it with a unicorn hitch it Oh, the usual -- Worst Voices in was an invitation to death. Specifically Science Fiction. designed to be the Ferrari of its time. Totally buffed equipage.
[In the Why Do SF Fans Love Jane Austen? panel, writer Debra Doyle indicates that one possible reason for our wistfulness about Miss Jane Austen’s vanished world is the economy, stupid] The Devniad, Book 11 Page 11 of 16
[Dr. Nielsen Hayden demonstrates her [Bujold has groupies in even odder places reassuring bedside manner] than Boskone, per this audience member] Smallpox is called “small” back then Falling Free is cataloged in the library because it’s so much less serious than of the American Welding Society. the real pox. Which is syphilis. [As does even Ivan, according to Bujold] [When you’re an editor, everything looks like A friend of mine wants a book a submission, as shown by Proper entitled, Ivan Vorpatril Explains It All for Boskonian editor Ken Knabbe’s reaction You. when handed a poem purely for his enjoyment that happened to contain a bad [Bujold wasn’t always in such a word -- well, several bad words] commanding position, she says] I can’t publish this! I didn’t start out having a say in the cover art. Warrior’s Apprentice was [Hot new writer, Clarion graduate, and supposed to be a Keith Laumer cover, NESFAn Michael Burstein at his reading (in and they recycled it. Originally, the front of the largest crowd ever gathered for a command chair Miles is in was empty. Burstein reading), as he deftly takes a sip of water to indicate a scene break] [But her publisher was fond of Miles from I learned that from Howard the beginning] Waldrop. I think Jim Baen kind of enjoys putting out a book whose hero is shorter [Incandescent new writer Maureen McHugh than he is. about to read the gentlest erotic ghost story ever told, In the Air] [Bujold has her own perspective on My family says this is the most marketing Miles] autobiographical story I’ve written, People recommend the books to one except that I have no ghosts in my another. Like literary Amway. family and am happily married. But I do have a golden retriever. [Not that it hasn’t been an uphill struggle] Until recently, most of the fans who [McHugh terminates the Death in SF panel wrote to me had better laser printers with her favorite tombstone quote] than I did. “I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK.”
[Chairing the Miles groupies panel, Suford Lewis hath her privileges] Wait a minute -- everybody gets to tell their story of why they love Miles Vorkosigan. But I get to go first.
[And later] We read one Bujold and we want to go on and read and reread all her other books, forever. That’s a very good effect for an author to have on a reader. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 12 of 16
Backchat For December on APA:NESFA #307, December 1995; Couldn’t agree more with your rave and APA:NESFA #308, January 1996 review for Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. Definitely my choice as To all best SF novel I read in 1995 (still haven’t Please note my new on-line address got to your other contender, Baxter’s The on the first-page masthead. E-mail at Time Ships). I’ve been thinking of a least, at last! Now if I had more than 4 review of the Stephenson for months, MB RAM, I could actually take a spin on but feared I couldn’t do it justice. the web.... It’s got the sociological insight, the technology, the characters, the fine To Tony, Suford, and Alice Lewis writing, the excitement and adventure For December salted with Big Ideas that we all want Sounds like wonderful news on the and so seldom find in one book. It’s a health front. Don’t think I’ve had the bildungsroman, a political thriller, pleasure of meeting Alice; will she be at several love stories; a book about war Boskone? Guess I’ll find out. and wealth and nanotechnology; China Suford, can’t wait for the Bujold and England and America; engineering book. Congratulations in advance. The and group sex and theater and crime crowds will line up for Miles. and the fall and creation of empires. My Tony, so you’re a technical writer. message to all: read it or miss a big one. That makes us related, since I’m a Mark, don’t think I put Haldeman’s technology advertising copywriter for a Worlds trilogy up with The Forever War. small agency. I don’t need a BS, just But it’s definitely a first-class work -- know how to. about which one hears little these days. Wasn’t aware you had so many More attention should be paid. stories written and published. Thirteen For January of sixteen and counting. I abase myself. Re Bujold’s Cetaganda, her latest Is yours a NESFA record? Maybe among Miles Vorkosigan adventure, think I current active members? liked it less than you. Struck me as only For January middling Miles. I remember seeing Admiral Grace Thanks for the Jack Vance recs. I’ll Hopper on TV. Grand old dame, and try to look for some Demon Princes one of the more colorful computer books in the dealers’ room at Boskone. pioneers. So they’ve named a destroyer Have just started the first of the after her. Quite a tribute. Wonder what Harry Turtledove WorldWar/Lizards the crew will call the ship privately, in series per your earlier recommendation. their respectful way: “When I was Pretty good so far. Very droll Lizards. aboard the old Slopper...the old Hopped [Late note: scoffed the whole Vance Up...the old Hophead.” Demon Princes set at Intergalactic Book Looking forward to the Bova-Lewis Works! Will try to read, report soon.] hit The Science in Science Fiction. Especially your snide footnotes.
To Ray Bowie To Mark Olson For December The Devniad, Book 11 Page 13 of 16
Interesting how you and I, as a These congratulations on new conservative and a liberal, jockey for the achievements every ish must be getting honor of being in the besieged group, boring for the audience. OK, OK, the underdogs. congrats on recognition (of the sterling An old thought, but ever qualities that have been obvious to us increasingly valid: everybody wants to for months) by NESFA, SFWA, Barnes be seen to be the victim. We all rush to and Noble, the Hugo voters, and the boast of being the most disadvantaged, Swedish Academy. (So maybe I’m a little the most overworked or underpaid. premature with these latter -- just trying Well, OK, maybe not the most to keep up by keeping ahead.) undersexed or humor-deprived or We’ll have to work on superhero socially inept. (Although some fans costume ideas for your Ubiquitous Boy would certes be in strong contention.) persona. By definition, need something Still, it all has the zany tilt of the that would “go” anywhere. Pearls and a Bizarro World, doesn’t it? Or perhaps little black dress? Maybe with a rumpled Niven’s Puppeteer society, where all are tweed jacket thrown over, to show led by the Hindmost.... you’re a SFWA member now. Lawrence of Arabia was a masterpiece. By the way, as Ubiquitous Boy, you One of my all-time favorites. Did that now have no excuse for not attending a letterbox version you saw have the single NESFA meeting or event. Or restored scenes they put back in for the calling in sick to work. theatrical re-release a few years back? For January As my friend Christopher Dean would Great to see you and Nomi at Arisia say, David Lean is a god. and to meet your mother-in-law Eleanor For January plus friends Elka and Becca and Colin I have trouble remembering the etc. Man, talk about party animals! blizzard of last week, let alone years Especially that Eleanor. It’s always the ago. So your compilation of all-time quiet ones.... worsts was quite interesting. My story Love that witspeak definition re about the Blizzard of ‘78 is that if it had Magic from your friend Harold Feld. happened 24 hours earlier, Sunday Positively Wildean. instead of Monday, I would have been Arisia marks the first time I’d seen “marooned” for a week at Mont Orford, you as a panelist. Thought you made an a beautiful resort in the Laurentians, excellent one. (Ghod knows they gave with nothing to do but ski, slurp the you enough practice.) Enough ego and world’s most delicious soupe l’onion energy to get your opinions out there, gratinee, and chase lovely dark-haired but not so much you hog the show. Quebecoise waitresses around the lodge. Leaven with wit and a quote from J. (Or, to be brutally realistic about my Michael Straczynski. chances, at least ski, slurp, and get some Per your question on The Day That reading done.) Instead, I went home Locus Lost, I was at Confrancisco in 1993 Sunday and spent the week shoveling as the looooong Locus winning streak for out scenic Mansfield, Massachusetts. best semiprozine Hugo was broken C’est la vie. when Andy Porter’s SF Chronicle won by a single vote. The story I remember -- To Michael Burstein which I believe Charlie Brown For December subsequently confirmed in print -- was The Devniad, Book 11 Page 14 of 16
that the one “staff member” who Carpathian wolves that howls in the neglected to vote for Locus was Editor- nighttime terror-forest of my dreams. in-Chief Brown himself. Was Brown’s Groveling thanks from the bottom of face red.... my omphalos for accepting me as your Now, Brown’s missed vote would unworthy pseudopod. Thanks also for merely have resulted in a tie. But since I the kind words about my writing. Think was there and personally voted for SF your own style is beautifully clear, Chronicle, I’ve always privately given entertaining, informative -- as proved by myself credit for the upset. Of course, our first taste of your Glasgow world any one person who so voted could say convention trip report. the same. By the way, I like, respect, and Great-looking piece. Professional- subscribe to both magazines. quality format, typeface, layout -- [Late note: great reading you did at complete with slick visuals. Made many Boskone, Michael. The crowd went of the rest of us look like, you know, wild.] amateurs. If not a trade secret, could you name your software application(s), To Paul Giguere typefaces, etc.? Did you do the art For December yourself? Great to meet you on AOL! Yours Re the place-name in your title, was the first screen name I encountered “Rubha Mór.” How would you on AOL’s SF boards that seemed to be pronounce that in American? somebody I knew. Lucid verbal snapshots of the Terrific squib about Alfred Bester’s layouts of the city and the convention bartender/executor. I always thought of spaces. Hadn’t had as clear a picture Bester as kind of Doc Smith on before. methamphetamines, but maybe it was Thanks for the new term: a just whiskey. rectangular stone paving block is not a I envy your new computer setup: “cobblestone” but a “Belgian block.” new LaserJet, Power Mac, CD-ROM. Also a phrase for what too much Belgian Now all you need is a new 20” monitor chocolate does to your heart.... and souped-up multimedia sound Re the Scottish designer Charles system and you can -- well, contribute to Rennie Macintosh. Always thought that, the APA every month. had he lived later, he would have been [Late note: Thanks for being my the perfect illustrator for Ursula LeGuin; charming, witty, informative dinner always somehow associated the two in companion at Boskone banquet. I told my mind. Looking at his lovely stained you we should have filled up on bread.] glass tea room doors in your visual, occurs to me that the link may simply be To Leslie Turek that the Dillons’ beautiful cover art for For December the 1969 Ace paperback of Left Hand of Re your ancestry (related to Turok Darkness might have been influenced by Son of Stone?), I’ve had a soft spot in my Macintosh. One more note: hope the tea ghoulish heart for the Carpathians since room people didn’t actually make you reading Saki’s “The Wolves” at an sit in the chairs CRM designed. impressionable age. Forget Dracula and Beautifully neo-Gothic, but really co., it’s the image of those damned uncomfortable-looking. The Devniad, Book 11 Page 15 of 16
Always interesting to hear about the would strike him as the right and proper convention from a con-runner’s point of ratio. view. Sounds like the trick is to blend Practical question: at these British organization with a good helping of bed-and-breakfasts, do you get a choice creativity. Come to think of it, that’s the in the dinner menu, or is it eat what you trick to a lot of things. get? For example, I’m benighted enough For January not to care for seafood. Will I have lots Loved Mel Gibson’s movie of hungry nights? Braveheart -- as I assume you did, Finally, lovely to finally meet you at although I couldn’t quite make out your Boskone, Leslie. Only confirmed all the attitude -- but was amused when I read good impressions I got from your up on the historical background. One big writing. Also nice to meet Alex. fight you allude to was known as the Although I was disappointed that he Battle of Stirling Bridge, and famously didn’t actually read through any involved lots of pushing the English into manuals or play with his camera in front the river and butchering them. The way I of me. recall Gibson staging it, there was nary a bridge or drop of water in sight. Instead To Anna Hillier of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, would For December have been called the Battle of Stirling Big So you say you’ve snuggled up to Flat Open Field. Hal Clement. Are there photos? Your stuff about the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders regiment at To Joe Ross Stirling Castle sent me to my favorite For December reference book in all the world -- Great quotes, as usual. And like you Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable -- and Ray, I still have trouble with the for its section on Regimental Nicknames Channel 4/Channel 7 swap. One and stories. Unfortunately, no luck with particularly loathsome consequence is your regiment. But I did revisit items that, to be able to keep the Today show such as how the Royal Scots regiment on and not have to fiddle with channels came to be nicknamed “Pontius Pilate’s during our morning ablutions, Maureen Bodyguards.” When in French service a and I are forced to endure news breaks few hundred years back, they disputed from the Channel 7 staff, who strike us with the Regimente de Picardie as to as ratings-hungry sleazebucket airbags. seniority, and a French officer claimed For January that his regiment was so old it stood Fascinating report on Speaker guard the night of the Crucifixion. To Bulger’s departure and Thomas which the Scots officer replied, “Hud we Birmingham’s swearing-in. been on dutie, we wouldna hav sleppt at So Birmingham wants a new our post.” convention center. I know this will Must show your Dunain Park room instantly mark me a dolt with the con- service menu bit to my brother-in-law running core of NESFA, but what’s Bob Kuhn, the Australian Fred Lerner wrong with the Hynes? I don’t mean this lookalike I introduced you to at the antagonistically; just a request for info. Boskone Art Show reception. Two pages Haven’t followed the debate on this of snacks and 11 of malt whiskeys issue. Noreascon 3, for instance, seemed to me to go off wonderfully. And those The Devniad, Book 11 Page 16 of 16
large, dark Hynes rooms and hallways get a new computer, and so on. But had a certain brooding, magnificent since you’ve already uprooted yourself futurity that impressed me as perfect for at least once (leaving Europe), I know an SF con, for one. Are the hotels the you’ve got the courage to do it all problem? smiling. Thanks also for clarifying that you Once you get a computer -- if you don’t have to repeat an oath word-for- don’t return to the APA or LOC to Proper word to take it. I should have thought of Boskonian too often, but do get on the the examples of courtroom “I do’s” that net, please drop me a line at my new e- you mentioned; plus marriage. mail address in the masthead. And if you start up your own fanzine as To Tom Endrey threatened, I’d love to be on the list. It For December feels sad to lose touch just when I was Wonderful to finally meet you at getting to know you. Oh, and at least I Arisia, Tom, in that noisy, crowded hope to see you at Readercon, Arisia, party room. I know I’d seen you around Boskone, or all the above. at previous cons and wondered who that You brought a whole other distinguished-looking gent was, but viewpoint that I very much enjoyed. never actually spoke to you. Wish we’d Good to know you, Tom. Stay in touch. had a chance to talk longer this time. But as I recall, Darrell Schweitzer dragged me away to sell me something.... For January Thanks for telling us about veteran space art master Robert McCall -- famous to art connoisseurs like yourself, but new to me. If he goes all the way back to the poster art for 2001, it’s just another proof that I haven’t paid enough attention to the art side all these years. We wordpeople can be so blind. Well, I’ll try to keep an eye out for him now. Sounds like your work group handles retirements with some old- fashioned grace -- expensive sit-down dinner, plus drinks party. In many corporations these days, you only get a drink if the guard escorting you allows a sip from the bubbler on the way out. Wonder how you’re bearing up to retirement? The English essayist Charles Lamb, after working for more than 30 years at the East India Company in London, wrote to a friend, “Yesterday I came home forever.” A strange feeling, people who have done it tell me. And I understand you’re also going to move,