By Daniel Dern: Boskone 63 – “the longest-running science fiction & fantasy convention in New England” — was held Friday, February 13 through Sunday, February 16, 2026 at the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel in Boston, with Featured Guests Greg Cox – Guest of Honor, Charles Urbach – Official Artist, Stefan Rudnicki – Special Guest, Diego Patrimonio – Hal Clement Science Speaker, and Keith R.A. DeCandido – Master of Ceremonies. (Here, veryveryvery belatedly not due to any actual problems, crises or events, is my report’n’pix.)
Approaching The Westin Hotel: Welcome To (Another) Boskone!Welcome to Boskone! (Signage just before Registration)
PIX OF BOSKONE 63/2026 GUESTS
Greg Cox – Guest of HonorCharles Urbach – Official ArtistDiego Patrimonio – Hal Clement Science SpeakerKeith R.A. DeCandido – Master of CeremoniesStefan Rudnicki – Special Guest
According to Helmuth, Speaking For Boskone 63 #2 (Boskone’s official newsletter), “As of 1:00 today [Saturday, February 19], Boskone has seen 893 attendees, which is up a little bit year-over-year.”
(Last year’s Boskone 62/2025 — according to the NESFA’s History Of Boskone web site (which does not, as of mid-April), have Boskone 2026 up), had 933 “warm bodies” and 1,378 total membership. (The latter, per the page’s footnote, “is the total membership including program participants, lifetime members and former GoHs who attended, and no-shows. (No-shows include not only people who paid and couldn’t attend for one reason or another, but also lifetime members who have gafiated and many former GOHs, who all received lifetime memberships.)”)) (Sorry, yeah, 3-deep nested parenthesis, reflecting the limits of non-level-differentiated punctuation marks – paging Ian Strock to the Punctilious Punctuation Phone!)
[Daniel Dern’s report and gallery of a zillion photos follows the jump.]
The New England Science Fiction Association honored the winners of two annual awards at Boskone 63 on February 13.
SKYLARK AWARD
NESFA presented the Skylark Award for 2026 at the Friday night awards ceremony.
2026: Keith R.A. DeCandido
The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark) is presented annually by NESFA® to some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late “Doc” Smith well-loved by those who knew him.
JACK GAUGHAN AWARD FOR THE BEST EMERGING ARTIST
2026: Abigail Larson
The Gaughan Award honors the memory of Jack Gaughan, a long-time friend of fandom and one of the finest SF artists of the 20th century. Because Jack felt it was important to encourage and recognize new blood in the field, The New England Science Fiction Association, Inc., presents the Gaughan Award annually to an emerging artist (an artist who has become a professional within the past five years) chosen by a panel of judges.
Abigail Larson is an American illustrator. She creates mixed media original artwork in the dark fantasy genre, drawing on themes from Gothic and horror literature. Abigail’s illustrations detail a mixed-media approach to dark fantasy and gothic romance. Her illustrations often feature Victorian fashion and fantasy or horror elements such as ghosts. She uses a combination of traditional sketching and digital coloring to complete her illustrations. She works primarily with pencil, ink, watercolor, and Photoshop to merge classical drawing techniques with digital drawing tools.
Abigail Larson won the Best Professional Artist Hugo in 2016.
She resides in Turin, Italy with her husband, Davide.
Now, you can read my thoughts on the actual trailer, which was released today. But first, let’s have a look at the full trailer below:
Okay, have you all watched it? Then here are my thoughts:
The trailer opens with a sweeping view of Eternia and Zoar flying over the land. There’s a cut and we see Zoar flying towards Eternos. Then there’s another cut and the camera zooms up towards Castle Grayskull and the open jawbridge. It’s notable that the bridge leading towards Castle Grayskull is partly damaged….
And later….
…Adam’s obsession with sword and nerd stuff may not look good to human resources, but Adam clearly isn’t going to give up, because we see that he is looking for the Power Sword, posting a sketch of the sword online and asking if someone has seen it. And then he gets a message that someone has.
Next we see Adam going into a collectibles shop and then there is the shot from the teaser where Adam has that deer in the headlights look, while there are statues and action figures on a shelf behind him. As for why Adam had that deer in the headlights look, the Power Sword is in that shop, in the hands of a life-size muscular statue.
We later see that the statue is Vikor, a character based on an early sketch by Mark Taylor which was long believed to have been an early He-Man concept, though it’s more likely that it was intended for a never produced Conan toyline….
The new look at the fantasy adventure film sees He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine) undercover in the real world, and a brief visual gag shows his nameplate at his desk as he works an office job. The nameplate reads “Adam Glenn,” with “He/Him” emboldened underneath the warrior’s alias.
While certain viewers saw the “He/Him” moment as a joke — a play on the protagonist’s redundantly masculine name, perhaps — others were offended by those five unassuming letters, as they interpreted the pronouns as a political statement.
“Now they’re making a Masters of the Universe and giving He-man pronouns,” conservative author Jon Del Arroz wrote on X. “These people won’t stop until they ruin everything.”
(3) KINUKO Y. CRAFT ART AVAILABLE. [Item by Colleen Doran.] Kinuko Craft’s agent has officially shut down, and while her prints went on sale over awhile ago, her original art is 70% off until end of January. Kinuko turned 86 this month. “From the Archives of Kinuko Y. Craft”.
Over the past few months, we’ve been honored to offer a rare glimpse into Kinuko Y. Craft’s personal archives—a collection of original paintings that span her storied career. From iconic fairy tale illustrations to visionary standalone pieces, each work reflects Kinuko’s unmatched mastery of myth, magic, and imagination.
Now, as we prepare to part with our final inventory, we’re offering an unprecedented opportunity.
In addition to the 50% savings already reflected on our website, you can now enjoy an extra 20% off with coupon code: KYC20.
This extraordinary offer is available only through January 31, 2026, and only while our remaining archive works last.
Fourth Cone Restoration is in the business of bringing old posters back from the dead. Or at least back from the weathered, worn, torn, faded, folded, and wrinkled. Co-founders and partners Katie Dimond, Melissa Scott, and Chelsea Scheller started the business 12 years ago after all meeting at a previous restoration job.
With a studio in Canoga Park, CA just outside of LA, they’ve honed meticulous techniques to make vintage posters look good as new. Process videos on their Instagram reveal just how incredible these transformations are, and the level of care and detail that goes into their process….
… Our field is special in that we are always working with art that was meant to deteriorate. Posters were intended for one-time use— they’re usually made with the cheapest materials possible. Cheap paper often has a high acid content, which means it breaks down over time, turning brown and brittle. In some of the older posters, the paper was made with straight-up river water! The cheapest materials will change from time to time, so it’s difficult to predict how best to stabilize each poster. Fortunately, we have been in this business long enough to recognize most types of printing and paper. And when we don’t recognize the poster, we follow a strict protocol to test the paper for possible reactions.
What are the main tools and techniques you all use at Fourth Cone Restoration?
FCR Team: When a poster comes to us, our first order of business is to stabilize the paper. If it’s safe, we wash it with water and a mild detergent. If the paper has mold or mildew, or if it’s discolored, we perform a bleaching treatment. If the poster is getting linen backed, we apply an archival adhesive and mount it to a stretched canvas lined with acid-free paper. We let that dry for a few days, and then the poster is removed from its temporary frame and trimmed so that it has an extra margin. With some types of posters, we will do a gelatin resizing treatment instead of linen backing. This involves applying archival gelatin sizing to the back of the piece while the paper is still wet and temporarily adhering it to an aluminum board. It’s then left to dry before removing it from the board. The gelatin acts as an invisible strengthening agent. We do have other alternatives for backing and treating paper, but these are the two main ones.
Once a poster has been backed, many of the visual problems will have been solved. With glossy posters, especially, the change will be dramatic. The glare from all the ridges and waves in the paper can really confuse the eye. Once the paper is flat, you’ll be able to see what the poster actually looks like. Many clients prefer to stop there and keep all the remaining blemishes visible as part of the poster’s history. This is totally a matter of taste, and we don’t have any opinion as to whether it’s better to restore or not to restore. However, our expertise in restoration has been honed over decades, and it’s one of the skills we’re known for….
JS: I’ve long wondered if one reason so many SF/F writers and editors worked in both fields is because back then both the porn and the SF/F genres were looked down on by intellectuals and so-called “mainstream” society. Any thoughts on if this is a correct or wrong view?
[EARL KEMP]: You could have a point here but also that “pulp” writing was considered to be worthless and should be ignored by publishers so they could produce more meaningful products. (There was a constantly ongoing effort on the part of some persons to “clean up” publishing, make it all Pollyannaish and meaningless.) Note especially Charles Keating and Citizens for Decent Literature (an illiterate man and a profoundly stupid organization) but it got Keating on Nixon’s side as his personal helper/friend earning him a position and instructions to “destroy” President Johnson’s Porn Committee before Keating himself turned major criminal and robbed Lincoln Savings and Loan of all those retiree’s hard-earned cash in order to build THE PHONECIAN ultra lavish and expensive resort for his Republican moneygrabbers. All criminals…all directly related to or sponsored by Nixon. Yetch!
Our kickstarter was a huge success, gaining more than our set goal! Thanks to everyone who donated, shared the page, and volunteered for us. While the project has now been funded, you can still get perks like a bookmark with original artwork with a $5 contribution, an ebook with a $15 contribution, and artwork and a hard copy of the book for larger contributions. If you really want to splurge, you can also get yourself featured in an upcoming book for $500 or access to a Boskone mixer with both Cox and Urbach for $250. These perks are exclusive to Kickstarter and can’t be purchased anywhere else. The kickstarter page will be available for about two more weeks, ending on January 27th.
Stay tuned, as we may add a stretch goal for some fun at the end!
The Authors Guild has significant concerns with Amazon’s new “Ask this Book” feature, which has been available since December 11, 2025, on certain Kindle devices and the Kinde iOS app. It is the most recent in a suite of new AI Kindle features, which also includes a “Recaps” feature summarizing prior books in a series and expanded AI-based translation. The Guild is looking into whether the feature, which was added without permission from publishers or authors, might infringe authors’ and publishers’ rights.
Ask this Book, which is slated for a wider rollout in 2026, allows readers to query an AI chatbot about books they have purchased or borrowed. So far there is no way for publishers or authors to opt their books out of the feature, though as of this writing the feature is not available for all ebooks. It allows a reader to highlight text and click on an “Ask” icon to ask the AI to “explain” the selected text or enter their own question in the chatbot. All responses are generated from the book itself.
The Guild is concerned that Ask this Book turns books into searchable, interactive products akin to enhanced ebooks or annotated editions—a new format for which rights should be specifically negotiated—and, given Amazon’s stronghold on ebook retail, it could usurp the burgeoning licensing market for interactive AI-enabled ebooks and audiobooks.
Amazon’s Response
We reached out to Amazon with our concerns and they reported to that “The feature only uses content from the book as a prompt which is not retained or used to train the underlying AI model.” An Amazon spokesperson explained that Amazon considers the feature to be “a natural language expansion of the search functionality that already exists in Kindle apps and for which no license is required.” Amazon further reasons that “readers have been asking these questions through internet searches for years and that this feature is more native, spoiler-free, and helps customers keep reading as opposed to coming out of the book, which is the case today with all other ways to answer questions about the book you’re reading.”…
(8) EVOLUTION IN ACTION? Gary Westfahl was pleased to tell me that his essay “To Learn the Cause of Autism, Ask Darwin”, although declined for publication here, was posted ny John Clute at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. It begins —
…Well, respected scientists have been researching this subject for decades with no definitive results, and quacks relying on other quacks to reach questionable conclusions will never persuade the scientific community, which has already rejected Trump’s and Kennedy’s proclamations. But I have my own theory about the rise of autism, which is relatively simple: it represents the process of evolution, operating in its usual fashion.
That is, as Charles Darwin explained long ago, when a favorable mutation arises in a species, it tends to become more common, because beings with that mutation tend to be more successful, and produce more offspring, than beings lacking that mutation. Autism, I argue, represents one such mutation that has become increasingly advantageous over the centuries, accounting for its modern prevalence….
(9) ‘UNCLE FLOYD’ HAS DIED. [Item by Andrew Porter.] The Uncle Floyd Show had “A Day in the Life of a Food,” which usually ended with the food screaming in agony as it was washed, cut, and.. It was weird!!! “Longtime N.J. comedian, pianist ‘Uncle Floyd’ has died, family says” at NJ.com.
“With a heavy heart I am sad to announce the passing of my brother and everybody’s favorite uncle, Floyd Vivino. After a two-and-a half year battle with ongoing health issues his curtain peacefully closed at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday January 22,” Vivino’s brother Jerry Vivino wrote on in a Facebook post early Friday.
Vivino was born in Paterson and grew up in multiple towns, including Glen Rock, where he attended high school. The local TV star rose to fame with his “Uncle Floyd Show.” The show featured Vivino’s piano stylings, celebrity guests and musical performances as well as a cast of sidekicks (puppet and human), and had everyone in the New York-New Jersey area, including David Bowie and John Lennon, tuning in starting in the 1970s.
“Back in the late 70’s, everyone that I knew would rush home at a certain point in the afternoon to catch the Uncle Floyd show,” Bowie said. “He was on UHF Channel 68 and the show looked like it was done out of his living room in New Jersey. All his pals were involved and it was a hoot.
“It had that Soupy Sales kind of appeal and though ostensibly aimed at kids, I knew so many people of my age who just wouldn’t miss it. We would be on the floor it was so funny. I just loved that show.”…
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
January 23, 1950 — Richard Dean Anderson, 76.
I’ve liked Richard Dean Anderson from the very first time I saw him playing Lt. Simon Adams in the one-season Emerald Point N.A.S., which befitted him more than his first acting job playing Dr. Jack Webber on the General Hospital daytime soap opera, as Emerald Point was a military soap opera of the first degree.
Going from the short-lived and uniformed Emerald Point N.A.S. role, he got arguably the most interesting acting role of his career of his performing career, the lead in MacGyver. Was it genre? I think so. I enjoyed it immensely.
It had a very lean regular cast with Dana Elcar as Peter Thornton, MacGyver’s immediate supervisor at the Phoenix Foundation, and Bruce McGill as Jack Dalton, MacGyver’s best friend, the whole supporting cast. There were a few other performers that showed on up a recurring basis plus a legion of background characters.
Remember Heinlein’s “Specialization is for insects” quote from Time Enough for Love? Well MacGyver comes as close in his problem solving to that as any individual could. And with a sense of humor to boot. Something I sometimes suspect Heinlein characters are lacking.
It lasted seven seasons comprising 139 episodes plus two films. The seventh was short as it was cancelled but as Anderson noted in a later interview, “The only reason it went off the air was that everybody was ready to move on. I was physically exhausted and had no life.”
As it’s streaming on Paramount+, I know what I’ll be watching soon!
So having survived, and by his own admission mostly enjoyed, a long running series, what came next for him? Well you take a half decade off before getting involved in a series that was even a lot longer lasting than MacGyver turned out to be!
Oops, my bad. I almost forgot about the series he did in between the two most important, that being Legend, all twelve episodes. Yes, you heard me. Twelve. He played Ernest Pratt, a hard-drinking writer who created Nicodemus Legend, the main character in pulp novels. The only other ongoing character was a Tesla ripoff by the name of Janos Bartok played by John de Lancie. Think SF western and you’ve got it. It was fun, it had absolutely no audience and it was cancelled apparently before it aired. Oh well.
So now for his longest running series. I loved Stargate, I really did. So when I heard a series was being made from the film I was definitely intrigued. And I was pleasantly surprised how well Stargate SG-1 worked. Stargate wasn’t really a developed reality, Stargate SG-1 was. So comparing the Jack O’ Neil character that he plays there to the character played Kurt Russell once and done makes no sense, really it doesn’t.
It was a great role that Anderson was allowed to develop I assume as an Executive Producer of the series. So how the long did it last? An amazing ten seasons, 214 plus two films. And he shows up elsewhere in the Stargate Universe unsurprisingly.
So two-long running roles, 357 episodes between them. Quite impressive I would say.
The Trek Talks online marathon has become a yearly highlight, always featuring a variety of panels with Star Trek luminaries from behind and in front of the camera, deep dive episode discussions, and a fascinating combinations of guests. Plus, it’s all to benefit the Hollywood Food Coalition. This year, the Trek Talks 5 day-long event will be on Saturday, March 28, once again streaming on YouTube. Today, we have some of the first panel announcements….
…Planning is still underway, but the first two panels were just confirmed:
From the VO booth to the writers room
Gates McFadden talks with Tawny Newsome about her journey from voicing Lower Decks’ Mariner to a seat in the writers room of Starfleet Academy as she reflects on her own struggles getting her voice heard in the TNG writers room… and how things have changed for the better.
Star Trek: Voyager‘s “Critical Care”
In an era when affordable medical care in the United States is less attainable than it’s been in years, we’re taking a closer look at “Critical Care,” which takes place on a world where medical treatment decisions are based on the patient’s social standing. The discussion will focus on the episode itself with star Robert Picardo and writer Ken Biller, plus the way it connects to the present with infectious disease expert (and Trekkie) Dr. Elizabeth Hudson.
It’s been no small potatoes that Rhode Islanders have been able to choose the image of Mr. Potato Head as a specialty license plate for decades.
Yet with Hasbro’s decision to move its headquarters from the smallest state in the U.S. to Boston, two lawmakers say it’s time to hash out whether Rhode Island should continue promoting one of the company’s most iconic characters.
Under the proposal introduced earlier this month, Rhode Island’s Division of Motor Vehicles would stop providing Mr. Potato Head as an option for a specialty license plate. Currently the plate costs around $40, with half of that amount going to help support the Rhode Island Community Food Bank….
This image provided by Rhode Island DMV shows the Rhode Island specialty license plate. (Courtesy of Rhode Island’s Division of Motor Vehicles via AP)
The universe continues to surprise those who study it. This week, astronomers announced the discovery of a new kind of cosmic object, something that is very nearly a galaxy, save for one crucial, missing ingredient: stars.
The almost-galaxy is about 14 million light-years from Earth. It was the ninth cloud found to be associated with a nearby spiral galaxy, leading to its serendipitous name: Cloud-9. The object is starless, consisting of only a haze of hydrogen gas that astronomers believe is swaddled in a much more massive clump of dark matter, the invisible substance that permeates the cosmos and shapes its overarching structure.
“There’s nothing like this that we’ve found so far in the universe,” Rachael Beaton, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix on Monday.
“It’s basically a galaxy that wasn’t,” she added.
Cloud-9 is the first confirmed example of what astronomers call a RELHIC, short for Reionization-Limited H I Cloud and pronounced “relic.” Such objects are rich in gaseous hydrogen but devoid of any stars. They are failed galaxies thought to be nearly as old as time itself, primordial fossils that can help astronomers understand the conditions required for galaxies to grow.
Studying such objects will also help astronomers better understand the nature of dark matter, including what type of particle it may or may not be. Such research could also help explain how exactly dark matter influences the shape of the universe that can be seen.
The leading theory for cosmic structure and evolution posits that structures of dark matter, known as halos, are abundant across the universe. Above a certain mass, the gravity of these halos can attract enough gas to ignite the creation of stars, eventually forming a galaxy.
But the theory also predicts that dark matter halos of a slightly lighter mass can exist, and that these objects can accumulate gas without bearing stars. Because they produce no starlight, astronomers searching for these objects instead try to detect radio waves emitted by the gas itself….
(15) TRAILER PARK. This trailer reminds me of stories about someone in the audience who yells a warning at the screen. Dracula In Space Official Trailer. “Don’t open it!”
A bold new sci-fi horror movie that reimagines the legendary vampire myth in the cold darkness of space. Blending gothic horror with futuristic sci-fi, this upcoming film delivers blood-soaked suspense, cosmic terror, and cinematic spectacle in stunning 4K.
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Colleen Doran, Gary Westfahl, Jeffrey Smith, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Greg Hullender.]
(1) CANADIAN ZOOM DURING WORLDCON. The Montreal in 2027 and Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bids are planning to run an “online party” during the Seattle 2025 Worldcon — – actually a concurrent virtual program — either Friday August 15 or Saturday August 16 (or possibly both). They are recruiting through this form: “Montreal and Edmonton: online bid party”.
…As well as a hang out room, we want to showcase how amazing the Canadian and Indigenous Science Fiction Community is. We are interested in authors who want to read, artists who want to show and talk about their work; musicians who might want to take us through a medley of their music; podcasters who might want to run a session; anyone who fancies running an interview or Q&A; and researchers who might want to give a short talk. We will have multiple zoom rooms and an actual program…
(2) GARTH NIX HONORED. Congratulations to Australian author Garth Nix, who has received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division. (“King’s Birthday Honours List 2025” at ARTShub.)
Mr Garth Nix, NSW
For service to literature as an author.
The author of over 40 books including the Old Kingdom series (including 7 novels), 1995-2021; The Seventh Tower series (including 6 books), 2000-2001; and The Keys to the Kingdom series (7 books), 2003–2010, was also a National Library of Australia Ambassador (2018). Among the many prizes won are a slew of Aurealis Awards, the Ditmar Award, Best Novel 2021, Best Australian Novel (2002), the Golden Duck Award for Excellence in Children’s Science Fiction (1999) and the Australian Book Industry Award, Book of the Year for Older Children (2021).
(3) TOMORROW. On June 14, Gabrielle Zevin will give an author talk at the Glendale (CA) Central Library at 4:00 p.m. as part of “One Book, One Glendale”. Full information at the link. (Seating limited to 200, get tickets tomorrow at the library at 2:30 p.m.)
Join us with author Gabrielle Zevin to discuss the New York Times bestseller and our One Book, One Glendale selection, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. A glorious and immersive novel about two childhood friends, once estranged, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives.
Author Biography: GABRIELLE ZEVIN is a New York Times best-selling novelist whose books have been translated into forty languages. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was published by Knopf in July of 2022 and was an instant New York Times Best Seller, a Sunday Times Best Seller, a USA Today Best Seller, a #1 National Indie Best Seller, and a selection of the Tonight Show’s Fallon Book Club. Following a twenty-five-bidder auction, the feature film rights to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow were acquired by Temple Hill and Paramount Studios. She is currently writing the screenplay.
(4) AI ON THE VINE. Jason Sanford has a vast roundup about and commentary on AI in “GenAI Grapevine for June 2025”. He begins —
Will GenAI Change How People Think and Experience the World?
But why did these corporations come after writers and artists first? Essentially, we’re the low hanging fruit – our works were easy for corporations to access and pirate for training their AI systems. As an added bonus from the corporate point of view, most writers and artists are economically weak. Yes, there are artists and writers whose work has made them rich and powerful, but they’re the exception not the rule.
Female writers have been summoned by police for posting and sharing homosexual romance stories online, in a widespread crackdown on the “boys love” genre in China.
If convicted, they could be subjected to detention, financial penalties or even prison sentences.
Many of the targeted writers published their work on Haitang, a Taiwanese website popular with fans of boys love fiction — a genre that features romantic relationships between male characters, often depicting sex scenes.
Some of them have been documenting their experiences on Chinese social media.
A writer who goes by the pen name Sijindejin said she was served a notice in May to present herself at a local police station in Gansu province — about 970km away from her village in Chengdu.
Sijindejin, who says she grew up in a “poor village”, bought the cheapest flight available and took her first plane trip to comply.
According to Chinese laws, police in any part of the country who claim they have received complaints about an individual can call them in for questioning.
Having only made 4,000 yuan ($857) after writing for years, Sijindejin said she never knew it could be a crime….
… Three lawyers, representing some of the writers, also posted about the crackdown, noting the scale of action has been widespread, with estimates that at least 100 writers have been affected.
Radio Free Asia reported that police in remote north-western Gansu province had called in dozens of writers, with some subsequently being detained, fined or charged with offences that could result in prison terms….
Those regulations said the “production, reproduction, publication, trafficking, dissemination” of any obscene works that generate more than 5,000 clicks online, or that make profits of more than 5,000 yuan ($1,072), should be treated as a crime….
There have also been some protests about this crackdown outside of China; here’s a recent Mastodon post of photos of a protest in (apparently) Washington DC: “Charlie’s Notebook: FreeWritersofHaitang”.
(7) CRAIG MCDONOUGH OBITUARY. Massachusetts sff fan Craig McDonough died June 12. Leslie McDonough announced:
My husband Craig McDonough died yesterday. He had been suffering from heart disease for some time. He was formerly very active in fandom, especially Boskone and Readercon and, more recently, Arisia. Many years ago he was also active in the SCA.
Among his contributions to fandom was editing the first edition of the NESFA Hymnal, a collection of filksongs, which came out in February 1976, in time for Boskone XIII.
(8) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
June 13, 1980 — The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything
Forty-five years ago, a rather charming film premiered in syndication this evening as produced by Paramount. The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything was based on the novel of the same name by John D. MacDonald, who of course did the Travis McGee series. I know I watched it and I know I like it even four decades on.
It was written by George Zateslo who hadn’t written anything prior to this save an episode of CHiPS. After writing this, he’d write the script for the sequel, The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite, originally titled the The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything Else before they realized that was way too long. Or so they thought.
The two cast members to note here are Robert Hays as Kirby Winter and Pam Dawber as Bonny Lee Beaumont. That because the story is —
SPOILER ALERT
a rather thin SF plot involving a young male who inherits from his millionaire uncle a gold watch that has the power to stop time. A series of quite unlikely and comic adventures ensue. And yes there’s a girl involved. Thie girl is entirely, I believe, why the novels were written, but then a girl was always present in John MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels as well.
END OF SPOILER ALERT
An episode of the Twilight Zone, “A Kind of Stop Watch”, has essentially the same story as that of “The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything”. A lot of Twilight Zone fans would claim very loudly that McDonald ripped off Serling’s script. That episode, however, aired in October of 1963, the year after the publication of the novel on which the movie is based. Sigh.
Can y’all remember how far back this story plot device goes? I assuming it’s present in the beginning of the genre, isn’t?
(9) COMICS SECTION.
F Minus has a new POV for the closet monster problem.
Every year, we review the short stories shortlisted for the famous Hugo Awards. It’s our way of keep abreast of trends in the field of science without having to read a ton of longer works!
All of the shortlisted stories are available online for free (see links below), so why not take a look at them yourself, and see if you agree with Colin’s and Phil’s assessment?
…[Pete] Docter confirmed that Toy Story 5 will explore the challenges of the digital-first world from the perspective of the toys. “It’s Toy meets Tech,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. The original gang will be forced to grapple with the takeover of technology in their home, with eight-year-old Bonnie Anderson now the proud owner of a tech tablet (pictured below). Its wide-eyed and friendly exterior might prove deceptive, as it threatens to steal Bonnie’s attention away from the toys, as she finds herself drawn towards screens over playthings….
(13) DRAWING CARD. Chinese fan Riverflow has given his Hugo trophy to one of his friends to display in a coffee shop called “Ansible” they are opening in Chengdu. We do not know whether this is a temporary or permanent loan.
(14) THE ETHICS OF BRAIN-READING DEVICES. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] One area of science that is decidedly SFnaly adjacent, if not just a few years ago would be considered decidedly SF, is that of the use of technology to read thoughts: techno-telepathy if you will. Yet recent advances are such that we are beginning to actually do this. However, such technology has ethical implications. As SF fans we are all too aware of Orwell’s ‘thought police’…
An article in this week’s Nature looks at the ethics behind this technology. You can access it here.
For two decades, Ann Johnson has been unable to walk or talk after she experienced a stroke that impaired her balance and her breathing and swallowing abilities. But in 2022, Johnson was finally able to hear her voice through an avatar, thanks to a brain implant.
The implant is an example of the neurotechnologies that have entered human trials during the past five years. These devices, developed by research teams and firms including entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Neuralink, can alter the nervous system’s activity to influence functions such as speech, touch and movement. In April, they were the topic of a meeting in Paris, hosted by the United Nations scientific and cultural agency UNESCO, at which delegates finalized a set of ethical principles to govern neurotechnologies.
The recommendations focus on protecting users from technology misuse that could infringe on their human rights, including their autonomy and freedom of thought. The delegates, who included scientists, ethicists and legal specialists, decided on nine principles. These include recommendations that technology developers disclose how neural information is collected and used, and that they ensure the long-term safety of a product on people’s mental states….
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Ersatz Culture, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
Boskone 62 Pocket Program (cover)[Image by Theresa Mather]
By Daniel Dern: Until Arisia 2025 this January (which, per my File 770 report, I went to), I hadn’t been to a Con since Boskone 57 back in 2020, from a mix of COVID caution and pandemic anxiety (and for some of those years, many Cons not being IRL anyway). Halfway through this year’s Arisia, I decided that I wanted to also resume going to Boskone. (I’m a Boston-area local living near public-transit, so easy-enough decisions in terms of planning/convenience.) As this Scroll shows, I did, indeed go to Boskone 62…and had a good time.
Boskone 62 was held Friday, February 14 through Sunday, February 16, 2025 at the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel in Boston, with the semi-predicted snow holding off until late Saturday afternoon.
Approaching the Westin Boston Seaport HotelSarah, On StiltsYou Are Here (Registration-level Floor Plan)
(1) A RECOMMENDATION. The Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog has posted a review of Speculative Whiteness titled “The Nerd Reich”.
…[The sff] genre often portrays societies where eggheads and dweebs are central in the fate of society. Intellectual elites or highly skilled individuals dominate, reflecting a vision where scientific knowledge and technical prowess are the ultimate sources of power. It is not lost on us that these “nerds” are mostly depicted as male and white.
In his recent book Speculative Whiteness, Jordan S. Carroll tackles the problematic consequences of this legacy. The book traces a history of the ways in which the genre was and continues to be co-opted by the alt-right.
It’s an excellent work, and probably the most important book about science fiction written this year….
The cover price is just $20, however, its publisher, the University of Minnesota Press, has made the entire book available to read online for free here. This is UMP’s description of Speculative Whiteness:
Fascists such as Richard Spencer interpret science fiction films and literature as saying only white men have the imagination required to invent a high-tech future. Other white nationalists envision racist utopias filled with Aryan supermen and all-white space colonies. Speculative Whiteness traces these ideas through the entangled histories of science fiction culture and white supremacist politics, showing that debates about representation in science fiction films and literature are struggles over who has the right to imagine and inhabit the future. Although fascists insist that tomorrow belongs to them, they have always been and will continue to be contested by antifascist fans willing to fight for the future.
(2) REMAIN CALM. “’Doctor Who has not been shelved’ – BBC responds to rumours” – Radio Times covers the official statement. And heck, I hadn’t even heard the rumor yet! (Probably because all of you are too smart to pass along links from The Sun.)
The BBC has assured Doctor Who fans that the sci-fi drama has not been cancelled, following an “incorrect” tabloid report.
The Sun stirred up concern that the long-running series was to go dormant again for between five and ten years, as it previously did after Sylvester McCoy’s final season – and once again after Paul McGann’s 1996 standalone film.
The speculation comes after perceived disappointment over Doctor Who season 14’s viewing figures, although the BBC and showrunner Russell T Davies have previously drawn attention to the show’s strong engagement from younger viewers.
The Sun’s anonymous source claimed that star Ncuti Gatwa was eyeing a move to Los Angeles to pursue Hollywood work – and that he had filmed a regeneration sequence for the end of the current run.
However, a spokesperson for Doctor Who commented: “This story is incorrect, Doctor Who has not been shelved. As we have previously stated, the decision on season 3 will be made after season 2 airs.
“The deal with Disney Plus was for 26 episodes – and exactly half of those still have to transmit. And as for the rest, we never comment on the Doctor and future storylines.”…
… Addressing the show’s ratings, Davies said last year: “In coming back, I wanted to make it simpler and I wanted to make it younger. Those two things are often not discussed – you read reactions to it and people are missing that.
“It’s simpler and younger – and it is working. The under-16s and the 16-34 audience as well is massive. It’s not doing that well in the ratings, but it is doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.”
Doctor Who season 15 – also known as season 2 – is expected to premiere in May 2025, with Gatwa returning alongside Boom’s Varada Sethu as a new companion and former co-star Millie Gibson….
(3) THE BLACK FANTASTIC ONLINE PANEL IS TOMORROW. The Library of America will host an online event featuring Tananarive Due, Victor LaValle, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and andré carrington, “The Black Fantastic: The New Wave of Afrofuturist Fiction Registration”, on Wednesday, February 19 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. Eastern. RSVP at the link. Contribution to attend: $5 (can be applied toward purchase of The Black Fantastic or any other book on the LOA Web Store.)
A new wave of science fiction and fantasy by Black writers has burst onto the American literary scene in recent decades: tales of cosmic travel, vampires, and alternate timelines set in profound social and psychological orbits. Building on the legacy of titans Octavia E. Butler and Samuel R. Delany, these visionary writers root their imagination of other worlds in the multilayered realities of Black history and experience.
Award-winning SF authors Tananarive Due, Victor LaValle, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah join andré carrington, editor of The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories, for a conversation about genre, influence, and the fascinating and phantasmagoric universes conjured by these new voices on the vanguard of American fiction.
Winner: Hazel Milla from North Carolina for the story “Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy”
Runner-up: Michael Burianyk from Nice, France for the story “The Witches of Kyiv”
Runner-up: Bailey Maybray from Somerville, MA for the story “Hook, Line, and Clinker”
Runner-up: Brad Halverson of Utah for the story “Top Dog”
Honorable Mention: Veronika Majerová from Bratislava, Slovakia for the story “Sleepwalker’s Survival Guide”
Honorable Mention: E. R. Cook from Westminster, CO for the story “Metamorphi”
Honorable Mention: Jun Schultz of Cambridge, Massachusetts for the story “The Strid”
There were 45 entries in this year’s contest. The final judges were Jasper Fforde (B62 Guest of Honor), Kelley Armstrong (B62 Special Guest) and E. C. Ambrose (author and teacher).
(5) FUN WHILE IT LASTED. [Item by Steve Green.] The Hungry Hobbit, a Birmingham cafe neighbouring Sarehole Mill (inspiration for Tolkien’s ‘Shire’) was famously forced by New Line Cinema (producers of the Lord of the Rings movies) to change its name to the Hungry Hobb, even though ‘hobbit’ is apparently not a trademarked term. At some point, this was further shortened to the Hungry Hob, and now I learn the business closed in late October 2024. There was an announcement on Facebook, which I’m not on. A fried chicken outlet now occupies on the site.
(6) YOUNG EYEBALLS ON THE JOB. James Davis Nicoll recently had the Young People Read Old SFFpanel react to Eleanor Arnason’s 1974 Nebula finalist The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons.
…Warlord has been anthologized many times in the half century since it first saw print. I own it in three anthologies and one collection. No surprise. Rereading Warlord, I see themes relevant to the world in which we now live… as much as I might wish that were not the case.
But will young eyes see the same story I do? Let’s find out!
…Lethem digs into his reasons on re-reexamining the Brooklyn he wrote about 20 years earlier in The Fortress of Solitude, but doing so this time with the tools of a journalist including long interviews conducted amid the dislocation and isolation of the COVID lockdown, and much more:
“One of the things I was really interested in was the idea of collective psychic experience, that that people go through things in a space together and then they don’t even know what part of it is really in their own head, and what was pushed in, stuck in there, from someone else. In a way, it is a typical New York thing. We were all there, right, when Mike Piazza hit the home run after 9/11? Every one of us, 9 million people were in the stadium that day. Well, we weren’t all there. We didn’t even all have the TV on. But somehow, retroactively, you fit yourself to this experience because it’s been had so intensely by other people that you’re confused about whether it was you or someone else who was there.
“And this was true for me in exploring the myths of a neighborhood and the myths on the street: individual moments of violence or confrontation or trauma on the street like that day that this guy put this other guy in a head lock and then he pulled out a knife. Somehow, we were all on that street corner. “I saw it with my own eyes!” Well, that isn’t true. There wasn’t some, stadium full of people watching this thing. It happened in a fugitive instant, but somehow we were all firsthand witnesses. So this idea that this transmission of mythic collective experience, this was a lot of what my questions for people were about: Did something that we all remember really happen? And if so, who did it happen to? Maybe I was the victim or maybe I was just a bystander. I don’t know…“
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
February 18, 1919 — Jack Palance. (Died 2006.)
Jack Palance in 1954.
Let’s talk about Jack Palance who was born of Ukrainian immigrant parents with name of Volodymyr Palahniuk. His professional surname was actually a derivative of his original name. While guesting on What’s My Line?, he noted that no one could pronounce his last name, and how it was suggested that he be called Palanski but instead that he decided just to use Palance instead. He didn’t say where his first name came from.
(OK nitpickers, I do not want to hear from you. Seriously, I don’t. His career makes a gaggle of overly catnapped kittens playing with skeins of yarn with lots of lanolin still on it look simple by comparison so I may or may not have knitted it properly here, so bear with my version of it.)
Surprisingly it looks like that he got his start in our end of things in television performances and relatively late as they started in the Sixties with the first one being Jabberwock on a musical version of Alice Through the Looking Glass. I’m sure I want to see that as it had Jimmy Durante as Humpty Dumpty, and the Smothers Brothers as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Next up was a Canadian production with him in the title role of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that in turn saw him being the lead in Dracula, also known as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Dan Curtis’ Dracula, the last when the ego of the Director got way, way too big.
Jack Palance as Dracula (1973)
I’m going to digress here because it’s so fascinating. In 1963, The Greatest Show on Earth first aired. This Circus drama had Johnny Slate as the big boss who keeps the circus running as it moves from town to town. It was produced by Desilu, the production company founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Sr. It lasted but one season as it was up against shows by Jack Benny and Richard Boone.
A bit of hard SF was next, Cyborg 2, released in other countries as Glass Shadow, creative but terribly uninformative, where he’s Mercy, an old renegade cyborg.
Rod Serling and Jack Palance in 1957
Remember my Birthday on the wonderful Carol Serling? Well, he was in The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics film that she made possible as Dr. Jeremy Wheaton in “Where the Dead Are”.
If Treasure Island counts as genre and yes I do count it in my personal canon, then his role as Long John Silver is definitely canon.
He got to play Ebenezer Scrooge in Ebenezer. Now the fun part is that it’s set in the Old West, where he is the most greedy, corrupt and mean-spirited crook in the old West obviously, he sees no value in “Holiday Humbug” by several reviewers. This film I went to look up on Rotten Tomatoes, but no rating there.
Not at all shockingly to me, he shows up on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. where he plays a character of Louis Strago in a two-parter “The Concrete Overcoat Affair” which got re-edited as “The Spy in the Green Hat”.
A bit of horror was next in Tales of the Haunted as Stokes in “Evil Stalks This House” was up late in career.
Finally for roles that I’m reasonably sure were of genre interest, he was on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as Kaleel in the “Planet of the Slave Girls” episode.
One more gig for him related to genre or at least genre adjacent, though not as a performer, but as the host of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for four years. He had three different co-hosts from season to season, including his daughter, Holly Palance, actress Catherine Shirriff, and finally singer Marie Osmond.
The New York Public Library is opening up its archives of Joan Didion and her husband Gregory Dunne to the public beginning March 26.
The Library acquired the late writers’ archives in 2023, just over three years since Didion’s 2021 death at age 87. Dunne died in 2003, aged 71.
The dual collection comprises a total of 336 boxes “most of which have never been seen publicly” and which represents “the most comprehensive collection of the authors’ materials” according to the library’s announcement.
These materials feature a vast array of both professional and personal documents from the couples’ lives, including six decades of correspondence, hundreds of photographs and 26 screenplay drafts the pair worked on together. The 1971 film “The Panic in Needle Park” and 1976’s “A Star Is Born” are among them. Visitors will also find annotated typescripts from Didion’s political reporting in the 1980s and ‘90s, and reference material for her books “The Year of Magical Thinking” and “Blue Nights.”…
There aren’t many video game developers as outspoken as Hazelight’s Josef Fares. Infamous for his expletive-laden viral rants at livestreamed awards shows, Fares is a refreshingly fiery and unpredictable voice in an all too corporate industry. As he puts it, “It doesn’t matter where I work or what I do, I will always say what I want. People say to me that that’s refreshing – but isn’t it weird that you cannot say what you think in interviews? Do we live in a fucking communist country? Obviously, you have got to respect certain boundaries, but to not even be able to express what you think personally about stuff? People are too afraid!”
Yet while gamers know him as a grinning chaos merchant and passionate ambassador of co-op gameplay, in Fares’ adopted homeland of Sweden, he is best known as an award-winning film director. His goofy 2000 comedy Jalla! Jalla! was a domestic box office success, while his 2005 drama Zozo was a more introspective work about his childhood experience of fleeing the Lebanese civil war…
… He soon took his evolving prototype to a respected game studio in Stockholm – Starbreeze. “They were like, ‘Well, maybe you can do this as a kind of test project.’ But I’m like, fuck a test, I’m going to do the whole thing!”
That passion fuelled a year and a half of intense work, with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons being released in 2013. The co-op adventure about siblings embarking on a dangerous journey to find a cure for their sick father has now sold over 10m copies. Despite its success, many in Sweden were baffled by his artistic pivot, a transition for Fares that felt natural. “With movies, I came to a point where I felt that the passion really wasn’t there. Passion lead me to video games. It was very challenging being new in the industry and coming in with a different approach – wanting to create new mechanics. Today it’s different because [people] listen to me, but it was very hard in the beginning.”…
(12) A CULTURE WARRIOR MUSTERS OUT. Doris V. Sutherland has surprisingly devoted a full article to “The Brief Life of the Helicon Awards”. I say “surprisingly” because this was simply an award made up by Richard Paolinelli so he could give it to friends and authors he wanted to ingratiate himself with. (And that worked, because writers can’t resist anything labeled an “award” — David Weber thanked him online for his.) I have followed the Helicon Awards from start to finish – Paolinelli says it is being retired this year — and did not think its pretentions were even worth making fun of anymore. But fine minds can differ…
…Even the names chosen for some of the award categories serve as battle-standards for the culture war. The original Helicon category line-up included a Laura Ingalls Wilder New Author Award, a Melvil Dewey Innovation Award and Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award.
For context, in 2018 the US Association for Library Service to Children removed Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from an award for children’s literature in response to a controversy regarding racial attitudes in her writing, while 2019 saw Melvil Dewey’s name stricken from an American Library Association award over his history of racism, antisemitism and sexual harassment. (The Frank Herbert Award would appear to be the odd-one-out, as I’m not aware of Herbert having been particularly controversial circa 2019.)
In 2020, after Worldcon’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer was renamed (again, because of its namesake’s racist attitudes) the Helicon Society introduced the John W. Campbell Diversity in SFF Award. This was around for three years, the winners being Larry Correia (founder of the Sad Puppies), Orson Scott Card (controversial for his homophobia) and J. K. Rowling (no introduction needed). When the category was retired, Paolinelli admitted on his blog that it served as a “trolling the SJWs award”….
(13) RETURN ADDRESSEE UNKNOWN. [Item by Steven French.] Another argument for why Oumuamua was (most likely) not an alien spacecraft. “Many stars could have sent us ‘Oumuamua” reports Phys.Org. And here’s the take-home message:
Interstellar space may therefore be full of dagger-shaped shards of rock and ice (an exaggeration, but a fun quote for dinner parties nonetheless).
Faced with a perilous mission to save the earth, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck eschew confidence… “How could we possibly screw this up?” How could they not? …
…In the brand-new 2D animated sci-fi buddy action comedy, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck turn into unlikely heroes when their antics at the local bubble gum factory uncover a secret alien mind control plot. Against all odds, the two are determined to save their town (and the world!)… that is if they don’t drive each other crazy in the process….
[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Olav Rokne, Steve Green, Cathy Green, Steven Lee, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Olav Rokne.]
The New England Science Fiction Association honored the winners of two annual awards at Boskone 62 on February 15.
SKYLARK AWARD
NESFA presented the Skylark Award for 2025 at the ceremony.
2025: Ian Randal Strock
The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark) is presented annually by NESFA® to some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late “Doc” Smith well-loved by those who knew him.
Eleonor Piteira was announced as the winner by Dave Grubb. She was not there to accept but sent a video message.
The Gaughan Award honors the memory of Jack Gaughan, a long-time friend of fandom and one of the finest SF artists of the 20th century. Because Jack felt it was important to encourage and recognize new blood in the field, The New England Science Fiction Association, Inc., presents the Gaughan Award annually to an emerging artist (an artist who has become a professional within the past five years) chosen by a panel of judges.
????Hi, I'm Eleonor and I'm a freelance illustrator from Portugal! You can see my art in ttrpgs, card games, the one videogame, other assorted projects, and lately book covers :)Everything I paint is 100% human-made, as are the occasional bad jokes ?????? eleonorpiteira.squarespace.com
Tony Lewis at the 2019 Boskone. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.
“Dr. Tony Lewis, one of the last surviving founders of NESFA, Chairman of Noreascon, and longtime Press Czar of NESFA Press passed away yesterday at home,” announced Gay Ellen Dennett on Facebook on February 12. “Both Suford and Alice [his wife and daughter] were by his side.”
Anthony R. Lewis, called Tony, was a leader who helped organize and grow Boston sf fandom in the Sixties. While earning a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he joined MITSFS. Although the science fiction club had formed in 1949, more than a decade passed before the club finally became actively connected with fandom – their motto was “We’re not fans, we just read the stuff.” They read a lot more of it after Tony Lewis became the club librarian in 1961: within a few years their library grew to over 10,000 volumes. He also served as MITSFS’ Onseck, and he was known as the Evil Dr. Lewis, a title he relished.
Fancyclopedia 3’s entry adds this story about his MIT years:
When he was in grad school, he witnessed a test nuclear explosion in New Mexico (he told the story that he was possibly the only fan injured by an atomic bomb: he stood up too quickly after the blast and was knocked on his rear by the ground shock.) He spent most of his career in a “safer” industry, computers, as a technical writer then technical writing manager for Prime Computer.
Boston fandom’s growth was seen in the Sixties at the first Boskones, and in a joint attempt by BoSFS (which ran the con), MITSFS, and the University of Massachusetts Science Fiction Society to bid for the 1967 Worldcon. Although they lost, local fans were energized to create a group to supersede BoSFS, named the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA). In 1967 Tony Lewis became the first President of NESFA. Among the officers was the editor of Instant Message, NESFA Clerk Susan Hereford. She became Susan Hereford Lewis in April 1968 when she married Tony — which Instant Message phrased: “ARL announced that to consolidate power he will annex the Clerk on April 7th.” By the beginning of 1969, Susan became known in fandom as Suford Lewis.
The ambition to bring a Worldcon to Boston continued to burn in a few hearts. In 1968 Charlie Brown, Ed Meskys and Dave Vanderwerf created Locus to promote the (ultimately successful) Boston in ’71 Worldcon bid. The first trial issue was scheduled for May of 1968; it featured news of Suford Lewis’ auto accident – 10 days after her marriage to Tony. That first issue was run off in the Lewis’s living room in Belmont, MA on Tony’s AB Dick mimeograph.
Tony Lewis in the 1970s. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.
While continuing as NESFA President and chair of Noreascon, the 1971 Boston Worldcon, Tony somehow found time to launch himself as a professional sf writer. His first published story, “Request for Proposal”, appeared in the November 1972 Analog. It is written in the form of interoffice memos about using nuclear warheads for slum clearance and urban renewal. The story’s dry political satire was so successful that it has been reprinted in five collections. In future years Tony had stories in themed anthologies edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Mike Resnick. Also, for over thirty years he contributed a calendar of upcoming events, such as sf conventions, to every issue of Analog. He was an active member of SFWA.
At the 1997 Worldcon, Mike Resnick’s panel of contributors to his Alternate Worldcons anthology (published 1994), Tony reminisced about the basis for his story “Keep Watching the Skies” — an actual Highmore, SD bid with one co-chair, Richard Harter, who gave a “speech.” Asked, “Would you like to say anything?”, Harter answered, “No.” Also, George Flynn, wearing a paper bag over his head, came up and read a piece in Frisian, which is why nobody realized it was in foul language.
Tony Lewis was active for many years in compiling the NESFA Index to Science Fiction Magazines. He invented the term “recursive SF” (any sf story that refers to sf) and wrote An Annotated Bibliography of Recursive Science Fiction (NESFA Press).
He was twice a Hugo finalist, for Space Travel by Ben Bova and Anthony R. Lewis from Writer’s Digest Books, nominated for the 1998 Best Non-Fiction Book Hugo, and Concordance to Cordwainer Smith, Third Edition by Anthony R. Lewis from NESFA Press was nominated for the 2001 Best Related Book Hugo.
Among his many talents he was a well-known (and skilled) auctioneer.
Tony and his daughter Alice Lewis as a toddler. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.
Lewis is generally credited with coming up with the name of the NASFiC (the North American Science Fiction Convention run when the Worldcon is outside North America).
“I was on the committee that made the report to the business meeting that set it up and I named the damn thing to keep George Nims Rayben from calling it the USCon,” he said.
Appropriately, Tony and Suford Lewis were the Fan GoHs at the Buffalo 2024 NASFiC. Prior to that they were GoHs at Conebulus (1978), and Windycon VI (1979). Tony was GoH at Lunacon 42 (1999), and Arisia ’03 (2003).
Suford and Tony Lewis at the Buffalo 2024 NASFiC. Photo by Rich Lynch.
Tony did not put himself forward as a fan humorist, being someone who always appeared wrapped in a certain amount of dignity, but he could surprise with his readiness to “unwrap” if there was an opening for a good line.
I remember at Magicon (1992) the highlight of “The Spanish Inquisition” panel of worldcon bidders was an exchange between NESFAns. Tony Lewis said a 1998 worldcon in Boston “is not going to be Noreascon 3 mark 2.” Anne Broomhead agreed, “Mark wouldn’t stand for it.” Deb Geisler said, “We won’t make the same mistakes.” Tony Lewis enthusiastically agreed, “We’ll make a whole new lot of mistakes, in new areas. We’re going to be the first people to make mistakes in these areas.”
Someone planning to kick off his new music blog by interviewing Paul Kantner of Jefferson Starship, whose Blows Against the Empire was a Hugo nominee in 1971, asked Tony Lewis, that year’s Worldcon chair and Hugo administrator, about the relationship between fandom and rock at the time. Tony provided this insight: “I was never really into rock myself, preferring baroque and bagpipe music.”
And when the Outer Space Treaty declared that the Moon belongs to all mankind, science fiction fandom did not take this lying down. At a December 1970 meeting of the New England Science Fiction Association, “[Tony Lewis] showed the moon map from the Nov 1970 issue of Sky and Telescope. Hugo Gernsback crater was identified, as were Wiener, Ley, Verne, Wells, etc. As a result of this increase in cultural knowledge it was [moved, seconded and passed] that the Moon be designated NESFA’s Moon and that the Aerospace Cadets protect it.” NESFAn Harry Stubbs, then a Lt. Col. in the Air Force, was named commander of the Aerospace Cadets, holding the title “Lord of the Wings.”
NESFA has kept a close eye on its property ever since. When there was a total eclipse of the Moon in July 1982, Tony Lewis wrote a letter protesting the unauthorized use of NESFA’s Moon. The club voted him responsibility for preventing the occurrence of any further unauthorized eclipses.
A visitor to NESFA wrote a 2007 article for Bostonist about slowly realizing that Tony was kidding them:
…The jokes can get more complicated. Wednesday, as NESFA members collated the “Instant Message” newsletter by hand (a process involving a continuous procession around a table), a visitor asked about the “Fanzine Control Number” (71-58837 791) printed at the bottom of each page. Nobody had a clue, and the matter was referred to Tony Lewis, a founding member.
“I can’t remember which President it was,” he explained, “but in the fifties there was widespread worry about the proliferation of fanzines and fanzine material. The Fanzine Control Number was introduced to limit the spread of fanzines.”
The visitor, looking for the Fanzine Control Number on his copy of Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, finally realized that Lewis was putting him on….
Andrew Porter, Suford Lewis, Tony Lewis at the 2019 Boskone. Photo by Daniel P. Dern.
However, Tony’s significance as a friend and mentor extended beyond Boston. When File 770 ran its 20th Anniversary Poll in 1998, one of the questions asked people “to name three fans who had the most influence on your fanac.” Lewis was named by four people – which was substantial given that seven was the highest number received by anyone.
His home club, where people got to see and work with him regularly, gave him their highest honors. He received the Skylark Award in 2021, given by NESFA to “some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late E. E. “Doc” Smith well-loved by those who knew him.” It is “an award for being both a pro and a ‘good guy’”.
Also, the editors of the NESFA Press book Ingathering dedicated it, “To Tony Lewis who created NESFA in his own image.”
During the 1993 Worldcon at “The Asimov Memorial Panel” Robert Silverberg offered many warm reminiscences of Isaac. Tony Lewis asked Silverberg, “Will you say nice things about me at my memorial?” Silverberg agreed, “Certainly, but don’t make it too soon. It’ll take a long time to think up nice things.” That was a humorously-meant exchange, of course, however, today everyone is finding it easy to think of nice things to say about Tony Lewis, especially on Facebook – on his personal page, the Boskone page, and individual tributes by David Gerrold and Michael A. Burstein.
(1) KRESS Q&A. Asimov’s “From Earth to the Stars” department brings us a “Q&A With Nancy Kress”
AE: What is your process? NK: For any story with real science (or rather, real-to-a-point science; if it were all real it wouldn’t be science fiction), I research first. The characters, like Kenda and Dayson, might already be in my mind, but characters have to actually do things, and the majority of those things should be connected in some way to the science. So I begin with reading, note-taking, and playing with the concepts and details of the science, be it genetic engineering, stellar physics, or—in this case—the Earth’s geomagnetic sphere (which is not a sphere but an elongated shape that extends from the center of the Earth to several hundred miles into space.) Because I knew next-to-nothing about geomagnetism, this involved a lot of study, a lot of going “Huh?” and then “Huh!” Also a lot of cursing; I am not trained as a scientist. Research not only grounds a story in actual science, it can also suggest plot ideas, and I ended up with as many pages of story ideas as research facts. Next all this gets reviewed and a loose outline emerges. Actually, to call it an “outline” is to vastly overstate. It’s one or two pages labeled MASTER SHEET which pretty much ends up mastering nothing, but at least it’s something to point out which direction I am hypothetically going and a few possible pathways to get there. Not so much GPS as a faded, dog-eared, slightly outdated Atlas roadmap that lacks all the new roads, collapsed bridges, and accidents on Interstate 90.
(2) GREENE’S REPLY. YouTuber Daniel Greene has responded in a 1-minute video to the sexual assault allegations reported in yesterday’s Scroll: “In Response To Naomi King’s Allegations”. Here is the transcript:
Hello, my name is Daniel Greene. This is an important message in response to various false allegations made against me by Naomi King of alleged sexual assault in a campaign launched on YouTube and more.
Let me be clear: I had consensual sex with Naomi King. Yes it was an affair that my then girlfriend and now fiance took several years to move on from. I also have clear and convincing evidence to prove everything was consensual.
Myself and my team are now planning to sue Naomi King in a court of law. The communication Naomi King has inaccurately used against me online has greatly damaged me and others to date. I also have many other pieces of evidence which prove my innocence.
Look for more communication from me based on truth and fact in the near future. Naomi King took time to launch a campaign against me and I will need time to communicate my truth as well more soon.
A commenter with the handle @ndrew7707 left these exceptionally worthwhile remarks after Greene’s video:
I doubt you’ll read through these comments, but just in case: I’ve never SA’d anyone, but I have cheated and sexually harassed people. I am a survivor of SA, though, and one that looked a lot like the situation described. Between this Naomi’s video about the cease and desist letter, it’s pretty clear to me that this is, in fact, a pattern of behavior that you’ve been denying for a long time. And I get it. Painful is an understatement for how it feels to fully admit to yourself the kind of person you’ve turned yourself into by following that impulse time and time again and learning new ways to hide it and justify it to yourself. So, please, take this from someone who does want you to get better: DO NOT sue them. Not just for their sake, but yours, and all the people you’ve hurt before this and the people you will hurt in the future if you don’t make real changes. Get out of the public eye, get into a treatment program, find a therapist that’s a social worker so that they can walk you through the change process and help you construct barriers to these thoughts and actions, including people who fully know the extent of what you’ve done and are willing to work with you to keep them in check. You cannot do this on your own. I know this comment section is full of people calling you a terrible person, and I don’t blame them. What you did is terrible, disgusting, all those things. But the most terrifying part of this is that you are not fundamentally, irredeemably bad. Very few people, if any, are. You are just a person who’s made a lot of bad decisions, and you are fully capable of making better ones. So, please, from one person who has unlearned abusive behavior: do not try to save your channel, your reputation, your career. Take the stability you’ve been able to build for yourself and actually get help. That is a privilege that should not be taken lightly. You might feel like you’re dying, but that’s normal. Feel that shit fully. Ask yourself for the rest of your life how you make certain you never treat someone else like that again. There is life to be lived on the other side of this, but you gotta figure out what that looks like without this attention, manipulation, and ill-gotten satisfaction you are clearly addicted to. And it is an addiction. Codependents Anonymous helped me tremendously for this reason, but I’d suggest some one-on-one treatment first before putting yourself in any group situation which will undoubtedly have survivors in it. I unsubscribed, but I’ll be back to remind you if you keep trying to do this. It’s bullshit, we all know it. It’s ok if the channel falls apart, it really is. There are a million other things one can do with the gift that is our one, finite, human life. Don’t waste yours on excuses.
…To younger fans (and by “younger” here I mean, “People in their 30s and 40s”) the Fifth Doctor has undergone a bit of a memetic evolution. Among the Doctors of the classic series, he was the Young One. We see him being chummy with David Tennant in the Children in Need “Time Crash” short, and hanging out with Tegan in “The Power of the Doctor”, and we watch Peter Davison in “The Five-ish Doctors” and he seems… nice. A bit grumpy. Definitely not on a par with the likes of McCoy, Ecclestone and Capaldi when you need a Doctor to go dark.
Yet what you forget about Tegan is that she’s the companion who left the TARDIS in “Resurrection of the Daleks” because it was too fricking violent. If you watch this charming collection of times the Doctor has shot someone to death with a gun, the Fifth Doctor is better represented than most – especially when you consider that in context, the Fourth Doctor is being framed in most of his scenes, and the Second Doctor is carrying a couple of big torches.
The show had been on the air for 20 years, and a battle was raging over whether it was going to be dark and grown-up and edgy now its audience was growing up, or be a kids’ show forever. And one of the definitive strikes in that battle was “Earthshock”, where the show killed off Adric. Sure, Adric will never rank well in our “Top 10 Least Annoying Doctor Who Companions” listicle, but if Star Trek: The Next Generation murdered Wesley Crusher, it’d still be considered a dark move.
It set the tone that would eventually lead to the All-Time-Favourites-List regular, “Caves of Androzani”….
A Lancaster teen was sentenced to four years in prison after making more than 375 hoax calls that included threats to detonate bombs, conduct mass shootings and “kill everyone he saw,” authorities said.
The calls targeted high schools, colleges and universities, places of worship, government officials and individuals across the United States, according to prosecutors.
The serial swatter, 18-year-old Alan W. Filion, pleaded guilty to making interstate threats to injure others, which frequently led to massive law enforcement responses and rendered officers unavailable to assist with other emergencies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He made hundreds of calls from August 2022 to January 2024, according to his plea agreement.
Filion was both a recreational swatter and a swatter-for-hire who advertised his services of mass disruption on social media platforms, prosecutors said.
In a January 2023 social media post, he claimed that when he swatted someone, he usually got police “to drag the victim and their families out of the house cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.” In some instances, officers entered the targeted buildings with their weapons drawn and detained individuals who were inside, prosecutors said.
He was arrested in January on Florida charges connected to a threat he made to a religious organization in Sanford, Fla., prosecutors said. Filion threatened to commit a mass shooting at the site and claimed to have an illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails….
Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the United States.
In 2020, the media and technology conglomerate filed an unprecedented AI copyright lawsuit against the legal AI startup Ross Intelligence. In the complaint, Thomson Reuters claimed the AI firm reproduced materials from its legal research firm Westlaw. Today, a judge ruled in Thomson Reuters’ favor, finding that the company’s copyright was indeed infringed by Ross Intelligence’s actions.
“None of Ross’s possible defenses holds water. I reject them all,” wrote US District Court of Delaware judge Stephanos Bibas, in a summary judgment….
…Notably, Judge Bibas ruled in Thomson Reuters’ favor on the question of fair use. The fair use doctrine is a key component of how AI companies are seeking to defend themselves against claims that they used copyrighted materials illegally. The idea underpinning fair use is that sometimes it’s legally permissible to use copyrighted works without permission—for example, to create parody works, or in noncommercial research or news production. When determining whether fair use applies, courts use a four-factor test, looking at the reason behind the work, the nature of the work (whether it’s poetry, nonfiction, private letters, et cetera), the amount of copyrighted work used, and how the use impacts the market value of the original. Thomson Reuters prevailed on two of the four factors, but Bibas described the fourth as the most important, and ruled that Ross “meant to compete with Westlaw by developing a market substitute.”…
(6) TONY LEWIS (1941-2025). “Dr. Tony Lewis, one of the last surviving founders of NESFA, Chairman of Noreascon, and longtime Press Czar of NESFA Press passed away yesterday at home,” announced Gay Ellen Dennett on Facebook today. “Both Suford and Alice [his wife and daughter] were by his side. Further information will be posted when known.”
Tony Lewis
Fancylopedia notes Anthony R. Lewis co-founded the New England Science Fiction Association in 1967. He chaired the Boston Worldcon of 1971, Noreascon.
He was active for many years in compiling the NESFA Index to Science Fiction Magazines. He invented the term “recursive SF” (any sf story that refers to sf) and wrote An Annotated Bibliography of Recursive Science Fiction (NESFA Press).
Space Travel by Ben Bova and Anthony R. Lewis from Writer’s Digest Books was nominated for the 1998 Best Non-Fiction Book Hugo and Concordance to Cordwainer Smith, Third Edition by Anthony R. Lewis from NESFA Press was nominated for the 2001 Best Related Book Hugo.
Among his many talents he was a well-known (and skilled) auctioneer.
He was an active member of SFWA.
Tony is survived by his wife, Suford (they married in 1968) and daughter Alice.
File 770 will post a fuller tribute later this evening.
(7) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
“Ill Met in Lankhmar” (1970)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser faced each other across the two thieves sprawled senseless. They were poised for attack, yet for the moment neither moved.
Each discerned something inexplicably familiar in the other.
Fafhrd said, “Our motives for being here seem identical.”
“Seem? Surely must be!” the Mouser answered curtly, fiercely eyeing this potential new foe, who was taller by a head than the tall thief.
“You said?”
“I said, ‘Seem? Surely must be!'”
“How civilized of you!” Fafhrd commented in pleased tones.
“Civilized?” the Mouser demanded suspiciously, gripping his dirk tighter.
— “Ill Met in Lankhmar”
Fifty-four years ago at the first Noreascon, Fritz Leiber would win the Hugo for Best Novella with “Ill Met in Lankhmar”, a Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser tale. It was also be awarded a Nebula Award for Best Novella.
The other Hugo nominees that year were “The Thing in the Stone” by Clifford D. Simak, “The Region Between” by Harlan Ellison, “The World Outside” by Robert Silverberg and “Beastchild” by Dean R. Koontz.
It was first published in the April 1970 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. A prequel to the series, Leiber had by that time been chronicling the pair’s adventures for some thirty years.
The story is the third one in Ace’s 1970 Swords and Deviltry paperback collection. It is available from the usual sources as are the later volumes. Audible has them as well.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
February 12, 1950 — Michael Ironside, 75 .
I most remember Michael Ironside for his role as Lieutenant Jean Rasczak in Starship Troopers. There wasn’t much great about that film but I thought that he made much of that character.
Do I need to say that I’m not covering everything he’s done of a genre nature? Well most of you get that. Really you do. So let’s see what I find interesting.
Scanners is one weird film. It really is. And he was in it as Darryl Revok, the Big Baddie, a role he perfectly played.
Next he got cast as the main antagonist in another of my favorite SF films, this time as Overdog McNab in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. Who comes with these names?
Then there was Total Recall where he was Agent Richter, the ruthless enforcer of Cohaagen, the source of everything corrupt on Mars. Great role that fit his gruff voice and frankly even gruffer looks absolutely perfectly.
One of his major ongoing roles was in the V franchise, first as Ham Tyle, a recurring role in V: The Final Battle, and then playing the same character in all episodes of V: The Series.
Now we come to my favorite of his roles, in one of my favorite series, seaQuest 2032, where he was Captain Oliver Hudson. Great series and an absolute fantastic performance by him! Pity it got cancelled after thirteen episodes.
Finally, he has one voice acting role I loved. In the DC universe, he was Darkseid, the absolute rule of Apokolis. He voiced him primarily on Superman: The Animated Series, but also on the Justice League series as well, and to my surprise on the HBO Harley Quinn series as well.
Unhappiness is a dreaded condition in the Civilization game series. Unhappy citizens stop working, stop researching scientific pursuits and, worst of all, start rioting.
In the new Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, which introduces three historical ages and a mounting series of crises during the transitions between them, my ancient Persian empire was running smoothly and expanding with ease. Then, suddenly, things struggled to feel cohesive. The game declared that my empire had fractured “as once-loyal settlements seek their own path forward.”
The unhappiness in my cities and towns grew so severe that several outlying settlements began trashing their districts and looking to outside civilizations for support. While I worked at putting out fires started by rioters, my neighbor Napoleon swooped in and quickly conquered one of my towns. This started a territorial war that only deepened the unhappiness of my population. Soon, half my towns were in revolt.
While following your chosen civilization’s path in Civilization VII, from the rough-hewed settlements of the past to the glistening megalopolises of the future, you move through ages that transform not just your technologies, government and civic policies, but also the broader identity of your civilization itself.
With its precipitous rises and falls, Civilization VII, which will be released on Tuesday for PCs, Macs and consoles, is a departure for the series. Although past iterations have had revolts, diplomatic incidents and civic upset, they tend to feel less closely connected to the ways that historical forces can boil over into crisis and conflict.
The violent and chaotic cuts here accurately reflect a world history where many things can happen all at once and often with surprising swiftness. History doesn’t always move forward in the routine, turn-based lock step of the 4X genre (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) that Civilization popularized. More often, root causes like financial instability, cultural changes and oppressive hierarchies stay below the surface until emerging in a cacophony of war, revolution and natural-disaster-fueled chaos….
A new test of nuclear propellant fuel under space-like conditions has been hailed as a success by NASA and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS), in what is considered one more step on the road to nuclear-powered rocket engines. Such designs have long been suggested as a more efficient method of space travel and could cut interplanetary voyages down to just a few weeks.
While this latest test doesn’t make nuclear-powered rocket engines viable just yet, it’s an important step on the journey. This latest batch of tests was conducted at the compact fuel element environmental test (CFEET) facility at NASA MSFC, as per Space.com. It cycled the nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) fuel up to 2600 Kelvin (4,220 Fahrenheit) and back down again several times, using superheated hydrogen…
Faced with the (very low probability) threat of an incoming asteroid impact, NASA is bringing out the big guns. The agency will employ its powerful Webb space telescope to monitor newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4, which has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032.
Based on current estimates, asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2.1% chance of impact on December 22, 2032. Although the odds are still in our favor, there are currently no other known large asteroids with an impact probability above 1%, according to NASA. The space agency tends to take these matters quite seriously, which is why it plans to collect additional observations of the space rock using the Webb telescope in March to refine the current estimates, NASA revealed in a recent update.
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile discovered the asteroid on December 27, 2024. Shortly after its discovery, the impact probability of the asteroid was set to 1.3%. However, additional observations increased the asteroid’s chances of crashing into Earth to 2.3% as of yesterday, before dropping slightly to 2.1% this morning. These odds are preliminary, and more observations of the asteroid are desperately needed….
A completely made-up scientific term is making the rounds in academic journals, and instead of being “oops!” one major publisher is basically saying “this is fine!”
As reported in Retraction Watch, A sharp-eyed Russian chemist (going by the extremely cool pseudonym “Paralabrax clathratus”) spotted the weird phrase “vegetative electron microscopy,” which makes about as much sense as “photosynthetic hammer” or “reproductive calculator.” The term has somehow snuck into nearly two dozen published papers, including one whose senior author is an editor at prestigious publisher Elsevier.
When called out on this obvious nonsense, Elsevier basically said “No no, it’s fine! It’s just a shorter way of saying ‘electron microscopy of vegetative structures'” which is like saying “vegetative car” is a dandy way to describe “a car that drives past vegetables.”…
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Daniel Dern, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Christian Brunschen, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]
… Jack Gaughan was the first artist since Frank Paul in ’56 to be the convention Guest of Honor. Harlan Ellison was the toastmaster, a job he’s quite good at. A little longwinded, but always funny. On Friday, he auctioned off Bob Silverberg for $66 before Silverbob, in turn, auctioned Harlan off for $115 to a bunch of young ladies wearing Roddenberry sweatshirts….
(2) SFWA’S NEW QUARK. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has inaugurated a monthly public-facing roundup of the organization’s news: “Quark – A SFWA Public Digest”.
In an effort to maintain transparency and foster communications with all members of the SFF community and the public, SFWA would like to introduce Quark, a monthly digest which will give quick updates on what’s been happening within the organization….
(3) I WISH I WAS A SPACEMAN, THE FASTEST GUY ALIVE[Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This week’s Word of Mouth over at BBC Radio 4 took a look at what it is like to be an astronaut. It began with a quick dive into the film Gravity musing on what was real – an encounter with an imaginary George Clooney who somehow imparted unknown but critical information – and what was not. But soon the programme got into the real meat of what it is like to be a spaceman with an interview with Chris Hadfield. I have to say it was one of the best interviews I have heard with an astronaut. Topics covered included: the why’s of space techno-speak, overcoming fear, sense of place and Chris’ getting into being a fiction author. All good stuff.
Colonel Chris Hadfield is a veteran of three spaceflights. He crewed the US space shuttle twice, piloted the Russian Soyuz, helped build space station Mir and served as Commander of the International Space Station.
Getting words and language right in as clear and a concise way is a matter of life and death for astronauts. Crews are traditionally made up of different nationalities and Russian is second to English on board. Chris Hadfield who flew several missions and captained the International Space Station talks about how astronauts communicate and the special language they use that he dubs NASA speak. He speaks several languages and lived in Russia for twenty years. As an author he has written several novels based on his experience in Space and as a fighter pilot the latest of which is The Defector. His books The Apollo Murders are being made into a series for TV. He tells Michael about the obligation he feels to share in words as best he can an experience that so few people have – of being in space and seeing Earth from afar.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 6, with separation confirmed at 6:04 p.m. Eastern time.
The reusable crew module is expected to land at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time (10:01 p.m. Mountain time) Saturday at White Sands Space Harbor at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
After months of turmoil over its safety, Boeing’s new astronaut capsule departed the International Space Station on Friday without its crew and headed back to Earth.
NASA’s two test pilots stayed behind at the space station — their home until next year — as the Starliner capsule undocked 260 miles (420 kilometers) over China, springs gently pushing it away from the orbiting laboratory. The return flight was expected to take six hours, with a nighttime touchdown in the New Mexico desert….
… A minute after separating from the space station, Starliner’s thrusters could be seen firing as the white, blue-trimmed capsule slowly backed away. NASA Mission Control called it a “perfect” departure.
Flight controllers planned more test firings of the capsule’s thrusters following undocking. Engineers suspect the more the thrusters are fired, the hotter they become, causing protective seals to swell and obstruct the flow of propellant. They won’t be able to examine any of the parts; the section holding the thrusters will be ditched just before reentry….
(5) NESFA SHORT STORY CONTEST. The New England Science Fiction Association is having a Short Story Contest (again) for non-professional writers. Deadline is September 30. Submissions must be less than 7500 words, and sent to [email protected]. Full details here: “Short Story Contest”.
…The winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions will be announced during the awards ceremony at Boskone, in NESFA’s newsletter following Boskone, and in various electronic media, including e-zines, newszines, and the Boskone and NESFA websites, blogs, and Facebook pages.
The winner will receive a certificate of achievement, three NESFA Press books, and a free membership to their choice of the next Boskone or the Boskone after that.
Runners-up will receive a certificate and two NESFA Press books. Honorable mentions will receive a certificate and one NESFA Press book….
Horror writer William J. Donahue is the author of such novels as Burn Beautiful Soul (2020), Crawl on Your Belly All the Days of Your Life (2022), and most recently, Only Monsters Remain (2023). His short story collections include Brain Cradle (2003), Filthy Beast (2004) and Too Much Poison (2014). When not writing fiction, Donahue works as a full-time magazine editor and features writer. Over the past 15 years, his writing and reporting have earned nearly a dozen awards for excellence in journalism from the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
We discussed the artistic endeavor which had him performing under the name Dirty Rotten Bill, why the first three novels he wrote will never see the light of day, what he was doing with one of those heads from the film 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, why he finds playing with the apocalypse so appealing, the reason he’s neither a plotter or a pantser, but a plantser, how a vegetarian is able to do damage to human flesh in his fiction, the way our journeys were different and yet we managed to wind up at the same destination, how wrestling changed his life, why we keep writing and submitting in the face of rejection, and much more.
Last year saw the formal introduction of the Best Game or Interactive Work category to the Hugo Awards, set for re-ratification in 2028. This year saw beloved RPG title Baldur’s Gate 3 win the prize (accepted by an attending dev team!), showing that this category does indeed have juice.
Still, questions remain on logistics, and how Worldcon attendees can best evaluate games in the face of the sprawling gaming industry. That’s what we hope to tackle in this (sporadic) series of guest posts, in which we plan to highlight various genre titles worthy of Hugo consideration (and plain worthy of playing). Easing into this inaugural post, here are three acclaimed indie SFF video games of note released so far in 2024 that we think voters would enjoy…
…So, what was “Stargate SG-1” about? The series picks up roughly a year after the events in [Roland] Emmerich’s movie, by which point the titular artifact has become common knowledge among the masses and the U.S. government has leveraged it to traverse distant worlds. An elite U.S. Air Force squad named SG-1 is deployed with the intention of warding off alien attacks, as the dark forest hypothesis comes into play with access to galactic civilizations both benign and malignant. The Goa’uld, the Replicators, and the Ori emerge as key threats to Earth, and the series draws heavily from history and mythology to weave intriguing cultural tapestries that intertwine, and often clash, with our own.
However, this well-oiled machine, which often ran on fumes due to budgetary constraints or a dearth of fresh creative directions, came to a halt in August 2006, when the Sci-Fi Channel (where the show had migrated to in 2002), announced that there would be no 11th season. Speculations about dwindling ratings, ever-expanding production costs, and poor marketing were cited to justify this cancellation. However, the real reason “Stargate SG-1” was axed can be traced to a network decision that had little to do with such logistical aspects. But what happened, exactly?
… In a now-archived interview with Variety, Mark Stern, former exec VP of original programming for the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy), clarified that “SG-1” cancellation was not ratings-based. “[The cancellation] was not a ratings-driven decision. We’re actually going out on a high note,” Stern said, while affirming that the cast and crew were given enough time to wrap up the narrative in a satisfactory manner, with all loose ends tied up in the series finale….
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Dr. Valentin D. Ivanov.]
September 6, 1951 — Aleksandar Karapanchev. (Died 2021.) Aleksandar Karapanchev was a Bulgarian speculative fiction writer, journalist and poet. He was also an active fan, publisher and editor. He graduated from the University of Sofia with degrees in Turkish and Russian languages. However, the most impactful part of his career was the work at the specialized speculative fiction publishers Rollis, Orphia and Argus in the 1990s.
He joined fandom well before that and came to love and enjoy genre literature. He edited many dozens of books, served in the juries of a host of writing competitions and on the boards of non-profit organizations aimed to support and advance the speculative fiction. The last ten years of his life he was the secretary of Terra Fantastica – the society of Bulgarian speculative fiction writers.
Karapanchev authored tens of stories, published in the periodicals and in various anthologies. He was the recipient of tens of accolades and awards, including two Eurocons – for the Fantastica, Euristics and Prognotics (FEP) magazine he edited in 1989 and for his debut book in 2002. In 1996 as an editor he won, together with the team of the Argus publishing house, the most prestigious speculative genre accolade in Bulgaria – the Graviton award.
His most notable pieces of fiction are the short stories Stapen Croyd, describing the consequences of a noise catastrophe that has left the humanity in constant unrest and In the UNIMO Epoch, about the destructive effect of the consumerism. His stories have been translated in English, German and Russian. He also authored some poetry and a lot of genre-related non-fiction – reviews, articles on the history and modern tendencies of the genre.
Many young Bulgarian writers owe major improvements in their style to the diligent and careful editorial work of Aleksandar Karapanchev. His passing in 2021 was a major blow to the community.
(11) LATEST ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NEWS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.]“LLMs produce racist output when prompted in African American English” – a news report in Nature. “Large language models (LLMs) are becoming less overtly racist, but respond negatively to text in African American English. Such ‘covert’ racism could harm speakers of this dialect when LLMs are used for decision-making.”
From the research paper’s abstract:
Hundreds of millions of people now interact with language models, with uses ranging from help with writing1,2 to informing hiring decisions3. However, these language models are known to perpetuate systematic racial prejudices, making their judgements biased in problematic ways about groups such as African Americans4,5,6,7. Although previous research has focused on overt racism in language models, social scientists have argued that racism with a more subtle character has developed over time, particularly in the United States after the civil rights movement8,9. It is unknown whether this covert racism manifests in language models. Here, we demonstrate that language models embody covert racism in the form of dialect prejudice, exhibiting raciolinguistic stereotypes about speakers of African American English (AAE) that are more negative than any human stereotypes about African Americans ever experimentally recorded.
Primary research paper here, and it’s open access.
THE 60,000 BOOKS IN THE Joanine Library are all hundreds of years old. Keeping texts readable for that long, safe from mold and moisture and nibbling bugs, requires dedication. The library’s original architects designed 6-foot (1.8 meters) stone walls to keep out the elements. Employees dust all day, every day.
And then there are the bats. For centuries, small colonies of these helpful creatures have lent their considerable pest control expertise to the library. In the daytime—as scholars lean over historic works and visitors admire the architecture—the bats roost quietly behind the two-story bookshelves. At night, they swoop around the darkened building, eating the beetles and moths that would otherwise do a number on all that old paper and binding glue….
(13) VOLCANISM ON THE MOON 120 MILLION YEARS AGO. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Back when the dinosaurs were scaring Raquel Welch (I have never really forgiven them for that) 120 million years ago, there was volcanic activity on the Moon. Research reported in this week’s Science looks at samples from China’s the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.
Igneous rocks on the Moon demonstrate that it experienced extensive volcanism, with the most recent precisely dated volcanic lunar rocks being 2 billion years old. Some types of volcanic eruption produce microscopic glass beads, but so do impacts. Wang et al. examined thousands of glass beads taken from a lunar sample collected by the Chang’e-5 spacecraft (see the Perspective by Amelin and Yin). They used compositional and isotopic measurements to distinguish volcanic- and impact-related beads, identifying three beads of volcanic origin. Radiometric dating of those volcanic beads showed that they formed 120 million years ago and were subsequently transported to the Chang’e-5 landing site. The results indicate recent lunar volcanism that is not predicted by thermal models.
(14) REV. B. HIBBARD’S VEGETABLE ANTIBILIOUS FAMILY PILLS. [Item by Andrew Porter.] From the site Daytonian in Manhattan. An advertisement in The Evening Post on August 25, 1837 promised in part:
They are highly appreciated for the relief they afford in affections of the Liver and Digestive Organs. The worst cases of Chronic Dyspepsia, Inveterate Costiveness, Indigestion, Dyspeptic Consumption, Rheumatism, Nervous or Sick Headache and Scurvy, have been entirely cured by a proper use of them. Also, Liver Complaints, Fever and Ague, Bilious Fever, Jaundice, Dysentery or Bloody Flex, the premonitory symptoms of Cholera, Dropsical Swelling, Piles, Worms in Children, Fits, Looseness and Irregularity of the Bowels, occasioned by Irritation, Teething, &c.
Universal Pictures on Friday debuted the first teaser for Wolf Man, its new film in which Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) transforms into the classic movie monster.
Co-starring three-time Emmy winner Julia Garner (Ozark), Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid’s Tale) and young up-and-comer Matilda Firth (Subservience), the New Zealand-shot reboot helmed for Blumhouse and Universal by Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man) follows a family that is being terrorized by a lethal predator. Pic is slated for release in theaters on January 17, 2025….
[Thanks to Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, N., Steven Lee, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]
