File 770 142 (june 2003).pdf

June 2003 1

2 File 770:142

bec

baby, programmed a Westercon, and got a

promotion. Suddenly he was halfway through

his twenty-fifth year of publishing and hadn’t

put out an issue in over twelve months.

That would be me.

Several friends noticed the long silence.

They asked with utmost delicacy if they had

missed an issue or their subscription had ex-

pired. I felt like the press agent of a critically

ill celebrity each time I gravely assured them

another issue was in the works. Indeed, the

next issue always seemed “just about finished”

because I worked on it a couple of hours every

week. But do the math: it takes a hundred

hours of work to produce an issue of File 770 .

That means I’ll finish the next issue…right

about now.

And since I’d hate to start over from

scratch, I beg your pardon for all the antique

“news” this time. Tom Galloway encouraged

me to call it “revisionist history” and let it go

at that.

The three things I devoted so much time to

since last issue all get their due here. Sierra’s

progress is reported in loving detail on pages

8-9. Westercon comes alive from the pages of

John Hertz’ notebook. And the promotion?

I’ve worked for IRS Appeals since 1987,

and last October successfully applied to join

its Technical Guidance unit. Right out of the

box I was assigned to advise the creators of

the “Offshore Voluntary Compliance Initia-

tive.” The program is aimed at bringing back

into the system those who have stashed unre-

ported income in a tax haven country and are

using part of it to pay charges incurred on a

Visa or Mastercard issued by the foreign bank.

I do much more work-related writing than

before, and I enjoy that, although it’s an added

challenge to have my vocation and my recrea-

tion powered by the same creative battery.

Fifty Candle Blowout: File 770 passed its

25 th anniversary in January, then came my 50 th

birthday in February: there have been a lot of

birthday candles blazing in Monrovia. In our

family we spread the celebration out for a full

seven days, and Diana treated me to the great-

est Birthday Week in history.

For the family party on Sunday, February

16 (my actual birthday) everyone dressed in

Fifties theme costumes. Sierra wore a poodle

skirt her aunt had made. Diana had great deco-

rations. She bordered the top of the living

room walls with construction-paper 45-rpm

records. Each had a label of a rock-’n-roll hit,

plus a few special dedications like “O Daddy,

O Daddy” by Sierra and the Graces. I enjoyed

them so much we left them up for weeks.

A couple days later, on Tuesday, Diana

engineered a surprise party at work and

brought Sierra, who everybody loved getting

to see in person. I enjoyed that a lot, and there

was more to come.

For Thursday night’s LASFS meeting,

Diana conspired with my friends Rick Foss

and Ed Green to deliver the surprises: a huge

chocolate cake and an order of pizzas. Every-

one pounced on the food like starving wolves

the moment they finished singing “Happy

Birthday.”

When I blew out the lone candle Ed com-

mented, “I see you didn’t get your wish” –

Jerry Pournelle was still in the middle of ren-

dering the mournful variation of Happy Birth-

day sung to the tune of “Volga Boatman.”

Truthfully, I enjoyed Jerry’s enthusiasm. A

good thing, because five minutes later Larry

Niven arrived and proved that great minds

think alike. Hearing the reason for the party,

Larry decided he should serenade me with the

“Volga Boatman” birthday song as well. I

enjoyed it again.

Diana later told me she had a hard time

getting Ed to tell her what kind of pizza the

club members would like. He kept answering,

well, what kind of pizza does Mike like? I

explained to Diana that Ed hadn’t really been

evading her question, just being polite, be-

cause he knows that LASFS members’ favor-

ite kind of pizza is -- free!

Colleen Crosby. She should have been cred-

ited in File 770:141 for her photograph of

Chaz Boston Baden (first photo at the top of

page 11, on the left.)

And thanks to Chaz Boston Baden, the

hard-working proprietor of the site where I

found the photo, Hazel’s Picture Gallery

(www.boston-baden.com). Chaz writes, “It

may interest you to know that I now have

about 9000 digital photos in Hazel’s Picture

Gallery. He’s doing everything he can to iden-

tify the faces in his pictures, and make it possi-

ble for people to search by name in the index.

Art Credits

Alan White: Cover, 3, 5, 21, 24,

26, 31, 40, Bacover

Bill Rotsler: 2, 13, 18

Kurt Erichsen: 11, 14, 30

Joe Mayhew: 20

Julia Morgan-Scott: 28

Keith Stokes (photos): 4, 10,

17, 24, 33, 34

Sheryl Birkhead: 35

Grant Canfield: Cover, 37

Grant Canfield: 13, 22, Bacover

Rick Foss: (photos) 2

Diana Glyer: (photos) 8,9,40,41

Jim Bearcloud: 16

Mike Glyer’s Editorial Notes

“I used to get frustrated that [File 770] ap-

peared so irregularly, but now that it is one of

the few fanzines that has survived earlier eras

I have to assume that it is all part of a Master

Plan.”— John Foyster

Revisionist History: Once upon a time, there

was an editor who published a newzine for

twenty-four straight years. Then he had a

Left: My ex-

pression the

moment Ed

sprang the sur-

prise; Middle:

Party conspira-

tors Ed Green

and Rick Foss;

Right: Birthday

soloist Larry

Niven. Photos

courtesy of Rick

File 770:142 is edited by Mike Glyer

at 705 Valley View Ave., Monrovia

CA 91016. File 770 is available for

news, artwork, arranged trades, or

by subscription: $8 for 5 issues, $15

for 10 issues, air mail rate is $2.50.

Telephone: (626) 305-1004

E-Mail: MikeGlyer@cscom

Art Credits

June 2003 3

News of Fandom

Scare Wares

The Fears For Ears CD featuring the vocal

talents of Lloyd Penney appeared in time for

Hallowe’en 2002. The spoken-word anthol-

ogy contains five horror stories, written by

some of Canada’s best-known horror writers.

The five stories on disk are: “Manifestations”

by David Nickle, “Underground,” by Tanya

Huff, “The Witches’ Tree” by Shirley Meier,

“The Vampires Next Door” by Peter Sellers,

and “The Rug” by Edo van Belkom. The

recordings are broadcast-quality audio, remi-

niscent of popular old radio dramas, and

created with the most modern technology,

music and sound effects. The makers boast

that their work involved, “Three hundred

hours of recording and editing, more than 20

actors, scores of sound effects and lots of

fabulous, creepy music make for one chilling

disk, guaranteed to send that shiver up your

spine.”

To order your own copy of Fears For

E a r s , c h e c k o u t t h e w e b s i t e

www.fearsforears.com. The CD is US$17.95,

plus $1.95 administrative fee, payable by

PayPal.

Fandom’s World Class Lifter

Fandom’s future Olympian, Benn Overkamp,

keeps climbing the ladder of athletic success.

In March 2001, his performance the Jr. Na-

tional Championships in Los Angeles se-

cured his place on the United States’ Jr.

World team. He followed that success by

placing fourth at the National USA Weight-

lifting Championships in April 2002.

Now age 20, Benn is competing for the

first time as an adult lifter by Olympic stan-

dards. At the 2003 National USA Weightlift-

ing Championships, held in Chattanooga this

May, he competed against 20 men (including

three former Olympians) and astounded eve-

ryone by taking a silver medal (second

place), lifting 324.8 lbs. in the snatch and

396.5 lbs. in the clean and jerk.

Benn had been struggling this past year

with a back injury and feared he would lose

his spot as a resident at the Olympic training

center. After this performance, his spot for

next year is secured. Although he did not

score the qualifying totals for the Men’s

World team, he may be sent in place of an

injured team member. Videos of Benn lifting

are online at: http://benn.vectorx.org/

Benn also has a personal website at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~joverkamp/

Time to start thinking about the 2004

Olympics, August 13-29, 2004! Some of

Benn’s supporters have talked about arrang-

ing group rates for travel to Athens 2004

Olympics. If you are interested in receiving

further news of Benn’s progress and maybe

joining a group going to Athens for the 2004

Olympics, please e-mail his mother, Jenny

Overkamp, at sosqej@hotmail. com.

[[Source: Chronicles of the Dawn Patrol]]

1980s. She also painted cover art for paper-

back novels. Her years of popularity, how-

ever, have not prepared her to handle the

discovery that her legions of fans include

Iraq’s former dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Televised reports about Saddam’s palaces

and residences revealed two of Rowena’s

paintings hanging on the wall in a secluded

Baghdad townhouse where Saddam brought

his girlfriends.

Rowena told a reporter for the New York

Daily News, “I would give anything to get

them back. I am so upset that they are there.”

She sold the two paintings years ago -- one

went for $20,000 to a Japanese collector --

and hadn’t heard about them since.

The reporter supposed Rowena was upset

to discover her works in the hands of an infa-

mous figure. Or did she take it badly that her

paintings remained untouched while looters

were emptying the city of four thousand

years of great art?

GUFF

GUFF is the Going Under Fan Fund or the

Get Up-and-over Fan Fund, depending on

which direction it’s running. So GUFF will

be “going under” its next time around, send-

ing the winner to either Australia or New

Zealand (or both) in 2004. Interestingly,

GUFF is a fund that imposes no requirement

on the winner to attend a particular conven-

tion in either of those countries. Vying for

the right to attend no particular convention in

the Antipodes are Doug Bell and Pat

McMurray.

Voting is open to anyone who was active

in fandom prior to Easter 2001, and who

contributes at least £5 or A$10 to the fund.

You can vote (and donate) either on paper or

online.

To vote on paper, download the PDF from

the GUFF website, print and read it, fill it in,

and post it with your cheque or money order

to one of the administrators (addresses be-

low).

http://www.ericlindsay.com/guff/ballot03.pdf

To vote online, go to http://

www.ericlindsay.com/guff/ballot03.htm

The voting deadline is midnight on Mon-

day, 10 November 2003 (GMT).

Frequently Asked

FFANZ Questions

When last heard from Paul Ewins wanted

candidates for the Fan Fun of Australia and

New Zealand (FFANZ). To make being a fan

fund candidate more comprehensible to the

masses, Paul published some useful informa-

tion in a question-and-answer format. For

Wall of Fame

Fantasy artist Rowena frequently won

awards at sf convention art shows in the

Benn Overkamp warms up at the

Kirkwood, MO school gym.

4 File 770:142

example, what could be more helpful than to

know:

“ Can I nominate a stuffed toy?

“Well, yes, but I would suggest that the

stuffed toy should run in conjunction with

someone capable of taking on the administra-

tor functions. Otherwise the stuffed toy will

be placed in a padded bag and mailed to New

Zealand.”

“This really is a priceless gift - an embar-

rassment of riches,” says Blane Hogue, the

library’s Director of Development. “Our next

challenge is to find the necessary funding to

clean, preserve, catalogue and house the

Gibson Collection.” Librarians estimate it

will take roughly $20 per item to complete

those tasks; the library hopes to raise about

$500,000 - from public and private sources -

to maintain the collection.

Ultimately, the Gibson Collection will be

made available to students, scholars and

members of the public through the Special

Collections Reading Room at the U of C’s

MacKimmie Library. Depending on funding,

it could be ready for use in about a year.

None of the materials will circulate, how-

ever, since the library believes they are far

too fragile.

Sirois Lands in Bucks

Al Sirois encourages everyone to go online

and buy his fiction at Fictionwise, http://

www.fictionwise.com/. While he waits for

readers to make him a rich man, Al will be

moving his family to Doylestown, PA where

they’ll definitely be in the bucks – Bucks

County, anyway.

His new short stories at Fictionwise in-

clude a tale of revenge, “Stress Management

for Time Travelers.” Then there is a

Bradburyesque story about a young girl’s

quest for recognition in her male-dominated

life, “Fausta Carbajal Goes to Mars.” An-

other is a comedy called “This Chicken Out-

fit.”

Al’s novels are available in paperback or

as downloads of various types. There is a list

of links on his website, http://

www.alsirois.com/writing/pubs.htm. The

paperbacks are readily available from Barnes

and Noble, or Powells in some cases. One of

the novels, Boss Tweed’s Dinosaurs , is an

historical Young Adult novel. He’d like it to

get more word-of-mouth.

Fictionwise also distributes his nonfiction

about the emerging science of quantum con-

sciousness.

Al turned 53 in March. In his off-hours he

is webmaster for Far Sector, http://

www.farsector.com/, a web-based e-zine of

science fiction, dark fantasy and horror. It’s a

free site.

Todd Dashoff, MilPhil chair, re-

charges his batteries at 2002 Mid-

westcon. Photo by Keith Stokes.

Chuck It Out!

Ironically, in the province next door, the

University of Winnipeg library was about to

break up another of Canada’s largest collec-

tions of science fiction books. The trove of

30,000 books and periodicals was willed to

the university in the late 1990’s by local

collector Robert Stimpson. The American

book dealer L.W. Curry purchased it in Octo-

ber for $140,000.

The university had been storing the col-

lection in a basement storage room at the

Greyhound bus terminal because it didn’t

have space in its climate-controlled book

room. A librarian explained that it would

have cost $400,000 to catalog and house the

collection, which it could not afford, and

storage in the non-climate-controlled facility

left the collection in deteriorating condition.

Imagination Fully Dilated, Volume 4 , edited

by Patrick Swenson. According to David,

“This is a book of ‘literated pictures’ or, to

put it another way, an illustrated anthology of

stories inspired by the paintings of Alan M.

Clark. It will be out in both paper and e-book

editions, most likely in 2003.”

He may also have a story in the second

Phobos anthology, as a result of his winning

the Phobos Fiction Writing Contest. “Ukaliq

and the Great Hunt” was one of 12 winners

for 2002. David won $500 and the story will

be considered for publication. The first Pho-

bos anthology received a very favorable re-

view in Locus . More information about the

contest can be found at:

http://www.phobosweb.com/contest/

Keep up-to-date by reading his “David’s

SF Writing” web page, which runs back-

ground information, reviews, and excerpts

for some of his stories. Go to http://

www.bentopress.com, click on the David’s

SF Writing link, then click on the story title.

Music of the Spheres

“Overture to ‘X World’” by Steven Rothstein

opened a concert given May 4 at UCLA’s

Shoënberg Hall. This was the premiere of his

“overture to an unwritten science fiction

opera,” dedicated to his father, long-time

LASFSian Allan Rothstein.

The concert was part of the doctoral re-

quirement for the conductor, who hired a

professional orchestra and invested over

$20,000 into the event. The same orchestra

performed the premiere of Steve Rothstein’s

setting of the 27th Psalm at UCLA last June.

Fiction With Feline Tendencies

It may not have as many lives as a cat, but

David Levine’s James White Award-winning

story, “Nucleon,” has already enjoyed two

reincarnations since appearing in Interzone .

The story was collected in The Year’s Best

Fantasy #2 , edited by David G. Hartwell and

Kathryn Cramer. And it will be back again

next year in Mike Resnick’s New Faces of

Science Fiction .

Not that there’s any dearth of new fiction

by David hitting the shelves. Beyond The

Last Star , the final SFF.Net anthology, con-

tained his story “Written on the Wind.” L.

Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future,

Volume XVIII , included his story “Rewind.”

And Apprentice Fantastic , edited by Martin

H. Greenberg and Russell Davis, is coming

out with his story “Zauberschrift.”

In the future, look for David to return to

hard SF in “Legacy,” which will appear in

Check It Out!

University of Calgary Library officials an-

nounced in August 2002 that they received a

gift of 30,000-40,000 science fiction books

and magazines from the family of William

Robert (Bob) Gibson, a local collector who

died in 2001at the age of 92. His son, An-

drew, a U of C alumnus, arranged for the

donation.

Librarians know from the collector’s in-

dexes that the boxes they’re unpacking in-

clude material spanning Jules Verne to cy-

berpunk. in the 21st. Some of the items are

worth hundreds of dollars, and some of the

magazine sets are worth thousands.

Welcome To Earth!

Proud grandfather Dave Kyle sent word to

the Internet that his daughter, Kerry Kyle

Pearce, gave birth to her first child early on

the morning of August 1, 2002 in West-

chester County, NY. The baby, Kyle Inman

Pearce , weighed 8 lbs 8 oz. “All is happi-

ness,” Dave concluded, with uncharacteristic

brevity.

Baby Elizabeth Constance Cramer

June 2003 5

Hartwell arrived October 21, 2002 weighing

6 lbs 8 oz at birth. David Hartwell e-mailed

to announce that mother, Katherine Cramer,

and baby are fine.

fiction writers, was presented November 3 to

Julian West for his short story “Vita Brevis,

Ars Longa.” West receives a cash prize and a

trophy and his winning story will be pub-

lished in Interzone .

West’s story was chosen from a field of

over 100 entries from all over the world. The

final judging was conducted by a panel

drawn from the science fiction field in the

USA and Europe: Michael Carroll, David

Pringle, Orson Scott Card, Christopher

Fowler and Graham Joyce.

Originally from Southampton in the UK,

West now lives in Dublin, Ireland with his

wife and three children, where he works as a

computer programmer. He says “Vita Brevis

Ars Longa” was inspired by a visit to the

Irish Museum of Modern Art in the Royal

Hospital Kilmainham and in particular by a

series of works by Janine Antoni. “I saw a

series of busts in chocolate and soap and the

artist had cast her nipples in gold. This led

me ask ‘how far can you go with this?’”

Commenting on the winning story, judg-

ing panel member Orson Scott Card said,

“While the premise is outlandish, all the

surrounding characters, attitudes, and - above

all - reviews, are dead on. This omnidirec-

tional satire leaves no victims standing in the

international arts scene. Yet the satire is al-

ways deft, the writing smooth and clear, so

that even if you don’t “buy” the premise,

you’re still swept along to the inevitable --

but satisfying -- end.”

Paper Training

Ohio fans Mary and Doug Piero Carey were

surprised to open their local paper this sum-

mer and discover an article revealing that a

deceased member of the N3F was the source

of a paranormal legend.

On August 12, 2002 the Akron (Ohio)

Beacon Journal ran a story headlined “Clock

runs out on long-told story of time traveler,

European man ends up in Akron while get-

ting to bottom of strange mystery.” Spaniard

Chris Aubeck was seeking the original ac-

count of a story well-known to believers in

the paranormal -- that Rudolph Fentz had

vanished in 1876 and reappeared in June,

1950 in Times Square. Fentz was killed by

traffic, but his dress, appearance, and evi-

dence from his pockets dated him to 1876.

Aubeck traced the publishing history of

the story to France, Italy, Norway, Sweden,

California, and finally to Akron, where the

late Ralph M. Holland had been living in

1953 when he published a paranormal pam-

phlet titled “A Voice from the Gallery.”

The paper says Holland served as presi-

dent of National Fantasy Fan Federation,

pubbed a zine called The Science-Fiction

Review , published a book “featuring a fan-

tasy character called ‘Ghu,’” and as Rolf

Telano, was the author of the book, A Space-

woman Speaks . He also studied claims of the

paranormal. He seems to have kept his fan-

nish life separated from these studies.

The August 19 Beacon Journal ran a fol-

low-up, “Time-travel tale gets new ending.”

Rev. George Murphy of Tallmadge, OH read

the earlier story. An sf fan of 40 years, he

correctly identified the time-travel story as

“I’m Scared,” by Jack Finney, a 1951 short

story anthologized in Heinlein’s Tomorrow,

The Stars .

There must be many fans who knew

George Holland well. The paper asks anyone

with more insight into Holland or in posses-

sion of the ‘Voice’ publication to e-mail

Aubeck at caubeck@yahoo.com

Seiun Award Nominees

Here are the Seiun Award nominees in the

translated works catagories, courtesy of Hiro-

hide Hirai of the Japan in 2007 Worldcon

bid. Works are eligible in the year of transla-

tion into Japanese. The winners will be an-

nounced at T-con2003, the 42 nd Japanese

National Science Fiction Convention in July.

Translated Novels : Illegal Alien , Robert

J. Sawyer; Cryptonomicon , Neal Stephenson;

Gloriana , Michael Moorcock; Davy , Edgar

Pangborn; Freeware , Rudy Rucker; The

Telling , Ursula K. Le Guin; Passage , Connie

Willis; A Deepness in the Sky , Vernor Vinge;

The Reefs of the Earth , R.A. Lafferty;

Thraxas , Martin Scott.

Translated Short Stories : “A Spy in

Europa,” Alastair Reynolds; “A Map of the

Mines of Barnath,” Sean Williams; “Pilot,”

Stephen Baxter; “Funny Fingers,” R.A.

Lafferty; “Luminous,” Greg Egan; “Different

Kinds of Darkness,” David Langford;

“Seventy-Two Letters,” Ted Chiang; “What

Continues...and What Fails,” David Brin;

“Partial Eclipse,” Graham Joyce.

2002 Prix Aurora Results

Best Long-Form Work in English: In

the Company of Others, Julie E. Czern-

eda (DAW, June/2001)

Best Long-Form Work in French: Les

Transfigurés du Centaure , Jean-Louis

Trudel ( Médiaspaul , 2001)

Best Short-Form Work in English:

“Left Foot on a Blind Man”, Julie E.

Czerneda ( Silicon Dreams , DAW)

Best Short-Form Work in French:

“Souvenirs de lumière,” Daniel Sernine

( Solaris 138)

Best Work in English (Other):

“Underwater Nightmare”, Isaac Szpindel

(Rescue Heroes Cycle II -- Episode 17a,

air-date Aug/2001) [TV screenplay]

Best Work in French (Other): Solaris ,

Joël Champetier, réd. (Les Compagnons

à temps perdu)

Artistic Achievement: James Beveridge

( On Spec Spring/01, On Spec Sum-

mer/01)

Fan Achievement (Fanzine): Voyageur ,

Karen Bennett & Sharon Lowachee, eds.

(USS Hudson Bay /IDIC) (www.idic.ca)

[clubzine]

Fan Achievement (Organizational):

Peter Johnson (USS Hudson Bay /

IDIC)

Fan Achievement (Other):

Alex von Thorn, fan writing/écriture

fanique

Medical Updates

Well-known film critic (author of Keep

Watching The Skies !) and long-time LASFS

member Bill Warren had successful heart-

valve replacement surgery on July 31, 2002.

Doctors replaced his aortic and mitral valves,

and also did a bypass using a vein from his

leg.

James White Award

The 2002 James White Award, established

to honor one of Ireland’s best-loved science

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