March, 2018 Volume XLIV Number 3 ASKANCE Whole Number 43 Edited & published by John Purcell, 3744 Marielene Circle, College Station, TX 77845-3926 USA Once again, proofreading services rendered by Duckie, the wonder Labrador. Any typos are not my fault. Honest! Contents © 2018 by John A. Purcell. Contact information: [email protected] Even so, all rights revert to original artists and authors upon publication. Disclaimers are a dirty business, but are always included. You understand. I know you do. What you have here in your hands (or on screen) is another Mythical Publication. Copies of this fine, back on a quarterly schedule fanzine can be had for The Usual, which means expressed interest, submission and eventual inclusion of articles and artwork, letters of comment, and cold hard cash in the amount of $3.00 USD if you want a printed copy mailed to you. Bribes are also accepted. Of course, if you send in locs, articles, and artwork, you just earned a life-time free subscription. Consider yourself lucky, indeed. Table of contents Bemused Natterings………………………………………………………….3 The Care and Feeding of the Purcells, by Valerie Purcell…..7 Off to Europe!, by John Purcell……………………………………..…12 Traveling Woes, by Taral Wayne…………………….……………….16 Book and Fanzine Reviews……………………………………………….20 Chat: the 4th Fhannish Ghod, by Teddy Harvia…………………23 Incident at Babel, by Taral Wayne……………………………………24 From the Hinterlands – letters………………………………………….25 Regional Convention Calendar………………………………………….33 What’s Next……………………………………………………………………..35 Art credits: Denny Marshall – front and back covers Sheryl Birkhead – 2; clip art – 3, 12, 18, 24, 33; photo of Kate Wilhelm from file770.com – 5; Image Googled – 16; photographs by John Purcell – 13, 15, 19, 25, 29, 30, 32, 34, 37; Worldcon 75 Hugo Awards website photo - 36 2 Member: FWA (since 2007!) Page As the new year begins, it is time to wonder exactly how much of each issue of this fanzine will be devoted to recounting my 2017 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund trip to the 75th World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, Finland. Even now, over seven months after that trip began, I still find it hard to believe that Valerie and I actually went there, experiencing a lifetime of events, meeting tons of wonderful people, seeing incredible places, and generally just being overwhelmed by the awesomeness of Europe. We were world travelers, and would love to do it again. In two years the Worldcon will be held in Dublin, Ireland. How can we possibly resist? This year our convention travels are deliberately restricted to local – as in Texas – conventions. On our radar for calendar year 2018 are ArmadilloCon 40 in Austin over the first weekend in August, a mere two weeks before the 76th World SF Convention out in San Jose, California, which sadly we will be missing due to saving up for our trip to Dublin next year. Then at the end of September is one of our favorite Texas cons, FenCon XV, which is not quite a three hour drive north of us. There are other sf conventions scattered around Texas and in nearby states, notably SoonerCon up in Oklahoma City (June), which is roughly eight hours away, and New Orleans, Louisiana hosts Contraflow, among many others. The weekend before Worldcon is when Bubonicon occurs west of here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but that is a non-stop 12 to 14 hour drive for us. Some year, though, we will get to Bubonicon because it is another con with a very fannish reputation. So this year we are a bit limited, but not out of the cycle. We will go to cons as we can afford them. I look forward to whichever convention we attend, and promise to raise funds for TAFF at them. Late again?! Why the heck not? As the old saying goes, it’s not fannish if a fanzine is not late. This particular issue was originally planned to appear at the end of January this year. Then it got shoved back to February. Obviously that did not happen. So I wrote off to cover artist Denny Marshall to quickly re-date the splendid artwork he created, thus now you hold the properly dated 43rd issue of Askance, albeit two months later than expected. There is a very simple explanation for the delay: I’ve been busy. Since mid-December I have written approximately thirty thousand words on my 2017 TAFF Trip Report, segments of which 3 have appeared in Vibrator #46 (November 2017), Exhibition Hall #28 (March 2018), Banana Page Wings #69 (March 2018), and the soon to be published zines Inca #14 (March 2018) and Beam #14 (April 2018). Technically, two precursor entries appeared last October in my zines Askew #21 and Askance #42, so a lot of this is out there. The next Askew (April this year) will have another short segment, and I foresee at least a couple more chapters appearing in Askance. I really want to get my Netherlands and Czech Republic sections done for CounterClock Real Soon Now. As for my actual Worldcon 75 convention report, I am now thinking of putting that out as a one-shot sometime this spring. My goal is to have the entire shebang done and released as a book in time for the Dublin Worldcon in 2019. Pray for me. I’m definitely going to need it. An Announcement – of sorts Many science fiction fanzine fans have been inundated by a flood of science fiction academia from the pen of one Robin Bright, PhD, a resident of Australia. Personally, I believe this is a fictitious name – a nom de plume, a pseudonym, a bit of literary chicanery – to protect the writer, but just in case, I think it is best to acknowledge that Dr. Bright really does exist and has done extensive research into the Biblical/futanarian linkages in the fiction of Robert A. Heinlein. When attempting to read these articles, many fanzine fans have run screaming into the night, ripping their eyes out, crying “no more! Please, no more! We can’t take it!” Thus I hereby announce that this fanzine will no longer publish contributions from the aforementioned scholar. I do admit, however, it has been fun. The academician who resides inside me – who has been frequently released to stretch his literary limbs over the past decade – has taken a perverse delight in reading these glorious obfuscations of Dr. Bright’s that require, near as I can tell, a Fog Index of 27 to comprehend. Yes, I actually figured this out during the Holiday break between semesters. I took four articles (two from Askance, two from Charles Rector’s fanzine Fornax) and computed out that a reader needs to have surpassed 27 grade levels to understand these texts. In other words, these texts are damned near incomprehensible. Yeah. I think enough is enough. It is time to move on and make room for other contributors. Who’s in this issue We have familiar faces herein. And they are… Teddy Harvia At long last, “Chat, the 4th Fhannish Ghod,” returns! It has definitely been a while since this fhannish furry feline has graced the pages of Askance, and I do hope there will be many more installments of this cartoon. Hopefully next issue will also see the return of Bill Fischer’s “Figby.” Won’t that be lovely, hmm? 4 Page Valerie Purcell My darling wife, and 2017 TAFF trip companion, wrote up the “Care and Feeding of the Purcells” as a how-to guide for our host families during last year’s European trek. It makes a delightful introduction to my trip report, and Valerie eventually plans to write a Food and Drink Supplement to be included when the entire trip report is compiled into one volume. Taral Wayne Everyone in science fiction fandom is enjoying the writings again of Taral as he continues to recover from the stroke he suffered a year ago. “Traveling Woes” is the second installment of the Taral Triptych, begun last issue and will conclude in the next issue. These articles are a shining example of his wit and ability to relate his progress to all of us. I am very glad he is doing so well, and hope he continues to regale us with his unique perspective for many more years. Kate Wilhelm (1928-2018) Back in 1986, Minicon 21 featured as its Professional Guests of Honor Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm. According to the Minicon history on the website minnstf.org, 1475 warm bodies came to see this famous and fantastic husband and wife team grace Minicon’s podium. My big regret was not being at that convention because that was the year I was living in Los Angeles. As a result, I never had the chance to meet either of them, although there were distant chances – as in, being in the audience – at two world conventions (1976 and 1978). From what I remember from those long ago convention panels, they were both intelligent, witty, and simply wonderful in all aspects. Sadly, Damon Knight died in 2002 at the age of 79, and on March 8th of this year, Kate Wilhelm passed away: she was 89. Her work has received numerous awards. Here is the brief listing from her Wikipedia entry: • Nebula Award for Best Short Story, 1968, "The Planners" • Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Novel, both 1977, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang” 5 • Nebula Award for Best Novelette, 1986, "The Girl Who Fell into the Sky" Page • Nebula Award for Best Short Story, 1987, "Forever Yours, Anna” • Hugo Award (best related book) and Locus Award (best nonfiction), both 2006, Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop I have always loved her writing, be it fiction or non-fiction.