Thinking of Ray...

Like so many other people, I was saddened to learn recently that Ray Bradbury's home had been demolished. The news made me think to pull out the reply I received from him in 2006 when I wrote a fan latter. He was as gracious as always

Preliminary Ravencon schedule

Although Ravencon in Richmond, Virginia, isn't until April 24-26, they've already sent a preliminary schedule to me - which is pretty organized, I must say. I'm on panels about Short Stories, Writing Dialogue, Tips for Aspiring Writers, Plotting and Pacing a Short Story, and Alternate History in Science Fiction & Fantasy,

Of course, it's subject to change, but this looks like another great set of panels.

All caught up

Reports are that, with the Jan. 31st deadline looming to buy WorldCon memberships that include nominations for the Hugo Awards, approximately 600 people registered at the last minute. The folks in Spokane, though, have got all caught up,and I got my email with my registration information today. I copied it below, in case anyone is interested.

---

Sasquan
Worldcon 2015 "Sasquan", the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention
Greetings Antonelli Lou:
The 2015 Hugo Award nomination period continues through March 10, 2015 at 11:59 pm PDT. You can find all the details for this process on the Sasquan website Hugo Nominations page.
There are printed ballots there that you can print out and mail in, or you can participate online. To use the online functions you will need to enter your Sasquan membership number as well as the PIN assigned to you in order to access the ballot(s).
You may use the following information to submit a nomination ballot:
Name: Antonelli Lou
Membership number: 4303
PIN: XXXXXXXXXX
If you have difficulties accessing the online ballot(s), or you have more general questions on the Hugo process, you can e-mail us at hugoadmin@sasquan.org for assistance.
Just a reminder: To be eligible to nominate for the Hugo Awards, one must be a member of Sasquan (or MidAmeriCon 2 or Loncon 3) by January 31. Also, Sasquan1 1 's attending membership rate increases on February 1. People can use Sasquan1 1 's online registration system. Information about staying at hotels during the 2015 may be found on Sasquan1 1 's Hotels page.
Thank you and we look forward to your participation in helping choose the 2015 Hugo Awards.
John Lorentz and Ruth Sachter -- Hugo Administrators
Sasquan -- The 73rd World Science Fiction Convention • http://sasquan.org
August 19-23, 2015 • Spokane, Washington

Upcoming at ConDFW next weekend -

My schedule starts Friday at 3 p.m. with a panel on alternate history, "For Want of a Nail". It will be held in the Madison Room, and I am moderating. The other panelists are Julie Barrett, Melanie Fletcher, Katherine Eliska Kimbriel, and Rie Sheridan Rose.

The panel's description is as follows:

"How big of a change is needed to change history? The traditional tale of losing a war due to not having a nail for a horseshoe is a perfect indicator that not much is needed. However, if you make small changes you need to be able to predict where the nail falls, so to speak. Our alternate history experts talk about how to alter history in ways which are quite subtle, but create huge results."

I've gone to conventions over the years where the programming seems random and a bit arbitrary, or at least inexplicable, when it comes to what's handed me, and then there are times when the panels indicate my someone actually ready my biography and bibliography with an eye towards the choices.

This upcoming ConDFW has one of the best matched up line-ups for me, if not the best, I've ever seen. Having been a finalist for the Sidewise Award in 2013 gives me a modicum of respectability as an alternate history author.

Of course, anyone who plans to attend the panel needs to buy"The Clock Struck None" as the primary textbook.

Note the First: I will never, however, complain about convention programming because the people who do it are volunteers, and any time anyone gives of their time freely like that is to be thanked, and if there are any inadequacies, they're only human. A number of years ago I left a convention halfway through because my programming was messed up, but it was because of the human factor; it was when the Great Recession was beginning to bite and people were losing their jobs left and right. As it happened, that was the last time that convention was held, it didn't survive the Recession.

Not the Second: One of the best panel line-ups I ever was presented with was from last year's WorldCon. LonCon offered me panels on both Alternate History and Steampunk, but I had to renege on my offer to participate because the newspaper I worked at was sold in June and the bastards refused to honor my two weeks' paid vacation accumulated under the previous owners. I went from 14 days vacation to zero, and LonCon went out the window.

The Hugo Wars: How Sci-Fi’s Most Prestigious Awards Became A Political Battleground

Larry Correia

I am reposting this because it is a very cogent summation of this particular controversy. If you would like to read the article at its original location, here is the link:

by ALLUM BOKHARI
and MILO YIANNOPOULOS
Breitbart.com.
Few walks of life are today immune to the spectre of political intolerance. At universities, speaker disinvitations and censorship campaigns are at an all-time high. In technology, there are purges of chief executives with the wrong political views and executives who make the wrong sort of joke. In the world of video games, petitions are launched against “offensive” titles, and progressive journalists wage smear campaigns against conservative developers.
It may not, therefore, surprise you to learn that similar occurrences are taking place in the science-fiction and fantasy (SFF) community, too. Previously a world renowned for the breadth of its perspectives, SFF increasingly bears the familiar hallmarks of an ideological battleground.
The story begins, as ever, with a small group of social justice-minded community elites who sought to establish themselves as the arbiters of social mores. This group would decide who deserved a presence in SFF and who deserved to be ostracised.
Their victims are littered across the SFF community. In 2013, the Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) were targeted by a shirtstorm-like cyber-mob of digital puritans after one of their cover editions was deemed to be “too sexual.” The controversy did not die down until two of its most respected writers, Mike Resnick and Barry Malzburg, were dismissed from the publication. This occurred despite a vigorous counter-campaign by liberal members of the sci-fi community, including twelve Nebula award winners and three former presidents of the SFWA.
Unfortunately, the current crop of elite figures in the SFF community have become either apologists or out-and-out cheerleaders for intolerance and censorship. Redshirts author John Scalzi, a close friend of  anti-anonymity crusader Wil Wheaton – was head of the SFWA at the time of the controversy and quickly caved in to activist pressure. This was unsurprising, given that he shared many of their identitarian views.
But Scalzi is, if anything, merely the moderate ally of a far more radical group of community elites. He hasn’t gone nearly as far as former SFWA Vice President Mary Kowal, who handles political disagreement by telling her opponents to “shut the fuck up” and quit the SFWA. Or former Hugo nominee Nora Jemisin, who says that political tolerance “disturbs” her. Or, indeed, the prolific fantasy author Jim C. Hines, who believes that people who satirize religion and political ideologies (a very particular religion, and a very particular ideology, of course) should be thrown out of mainstream SFF magazines.
Most of these people are small fry compared to the true big beasts of the SFF world, like Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, or J.K. Rowling. But through a mix of obsessive politicking in institutions like the SFWA and the familiar whipping up of social-justice outrage mobs online, they have been able to exert disproportionate influence.
Today, no one is safe. Right-wingers like Theodore Beale face ostracization over accusations of racism (Beale is himself Native American), while even progressives or independent authors like Bryan Thomas Schmidt are denounced as “cultural appropriators”; in Schmidt’s case, because he prepared an anthology of nonwestern sci-fi stories. Peak absurdity was achieved in 2014 when Jonathan Ross was forced to cancel his appearance at the Hugo Awards after the SJWs of SFF whipped themselves into a panic-fuelled rage over fears that Ross might – might! – make a fat joke. Even the New Statesman, which sometimes reads like an extension of Tumblr, came out and condemned the “self-appointed gatekeepers” of SFF.
But while the examples of manufactured grievance may be absurd, few members of the SFF community are laughing. New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia told us that SFF is currently in the grip of a “systematic campaign to slander anybody who doesn’t toe their line,” which is breeding a culture of fear and self-censorship. “Most authors aren’t making that much money, so they are terrified of being slandered and losing business,” he says. The only exceptions are a “handful of people like me who are either big enough not to give a crap, or too obstinate to shut up.”
After years on the back foot, that obstinate handful are preparing to fight back.
Sad Puppies
To the outside world, the Hugo Awards are known as the most prestigious honor that a sci-fi or fantasy creator can achieve. However, inside the community they are widely seen as a popularity contest dominated by cliques and super-fandoms. This can be seen most clearly in the dominance of Doctor Who in the TV award categories. The show’s enormous fanbase has garnered 26 Hugo nominations in the last nine years. Episodes from the show triumphed in every year between 2006 and 2012, save one.
The Hugos have an advantage, though: they are difficult for a single group to dominate if others rise to challenge them. All one has to do to vote in the awards is pay a small membership fee to the World Science Fiction Convention. For the few who are brave enough to defend artistic freedom openly, the Hugos are a good place to make a stand.
That is precisely what is now happening. Ahead of 2013’s Hugo Awards, Larry Correia began making public blog posts about his nominations, inviting his readers to discuss and agree on a shared list of Hugo nominations, and vote collectively. The idea was to draw attention to authors and creators who were suffering from an undeserved lack of attention due to the political climate in sci-fi. The “Sad Puppies” slate was born.
(The original idea was to call it the “Sad Puppies Think of the Children Campaign” – a dig at those who take their social crusades too seriously.)
What began as a discussion among bloggers has turned into an annual event. Last year’s Sad Puppies slate was extraordinarily successful, with seven out of Correia’s twelve nominations making it to the final stage of the Hugos. Among the successful nominations was The Last Witchking, a novelette by Theodore Beale, also known as Vox Day – a writer whose radical right-wing views had put him at the top of the sci-fi SJWs’ hit list. The fact that an author like Beale could receive a Hugo nomination was proof that SJW domination of sci-fi was not as complete as the elites would have liked.
In addition to humiliating the activists, the slate also triggered significant debate. Even John Scalzi, the privilege-checking SFWA President discussed above, was forced to admit that works of science fiction and fantasy ought to be judged on their quality, not on the politics of their authors. This greatly upset some of Scalzi’s more radical supporters, who openly called for exclusion on the basis of political belief. The debate also spread beyond sci-fi to the pages of The Huffington Post and USA Today.
 Stirring up debate was, of course, precisely the point of Sad Puppies. As well as ensuring that quality works of fiction made it past the cliques at places like SFWA and Tor.com to be considered by the fans themselves, the Sad Puppies slate also forced radicals to show their true colours. Those who supported political ostracism were outed as a tiny but vocal minority. As Correia explained on his blog, the slate managed to expose the “thought police” of the community before votes had even been cast.
This year, the Sad Puppies slate returns once more, championed by Hugo and Nebula-nominee Brad R. Torgerson. Although run by conservative authors, it includes many authors and creators who are left-wing, liberal, or non-politically aligned. In this way, the slate hopes to protect what radical activists want to eliminate: diversity of opinion and political tolerance.
The battle continues
 The debate generated by the Sad Puppies slate could not have come at a timelier moment. Although the radicals are in the minority, they have proven as disruptive to sci-fi as they have been to universities, secularism, and video gaming.
Character assassinations, doxing, and abuse campaigns from radical activists happen all the time, with little to no condemnation from the self-proclaimed opponents of “online harassment.” Activists urge conference-goers to avoid “unsafe” authors like Correia, in an echo of the excuses used by ‘Stepford Students’ to bar speakers from campus on the grounds of preserving “safe spaces”–an argument that has come under increasing fire from liberals and conservatives alike.
(The world of sci-fi even has its very own Shanley Kane. Last autumn’s controversy du jour was the outing of a notorious online abuser known as “Requires Hate,” a social justice activist who relentlessly abused anyone who got on her wrong side – regardless of their politics.)
Indeed, the reaction to the Sad Puppies slate proved that anyone can be a target in the new environment. When the slate was chosen, several authors came under attack simply for being recommended on it. In other words, the radical activists of sci-fi are no longer a threat just to right-wingers.
Even if social-justice radicals were only a threat to right-wingers, that would still be a problem in need of a solution. The breadth of perspectives accommodated by sci-fi has historically been one of its greatest strengths, allowing it to reach ever-wider audiences throughout the decades. The great dystopian writers of the early-to-mid twentieth-century included socialists like George Orwell, liberals like Aldous Huxley, and of course the objectivist libertarian Ayn Rand.
In the postwar period, conservatives like Robert Heinlein and liberals like Isaac Asimov were both among the leading figures of science fiction. Political tolerance, an idea loathed by radical activists, has ever been the norm in the community, and it has thrived because of it.
Wherever they emerge, social-justice warriors claim to be champions of diversity. But they always reveal themselves to be relentlessly hostile to it: they applaud people of different genders, races, and cultures just so long as those people all think the same way. Theirs is a diversity of the trivial; a diversity of skin-deep, ephemeral affiliations.
The diversity that writers like Correia and Torgerson have set out to protect is different. It is a diversity of perspectives, of creative styles, and, yes, of politics. It is the kind of diversity that authoritarians hate, but it is the only kind of diversity that matters.
Follow Allum Bokhari (@LibertarianBlue) and Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) on Twitter.

My ConDFW schedule

I will be at ConDFW in Dallas Feb. 13-15. In addition to these panels, author Stoney Compton and I will be sharing a table in the dealers' room.

FRIDAY:

PROGRAMMING 2 (MADISON)

Friday, 3pm: For Want of a Nail

Panelists: Lou Antonelli (M), Julie Barrett, Melanie Fletcher, Katherine Eliska Kimbriel, Rie Sheridan Rose

How big of a change is needed to change history? The traditional tale of losing a war due to not having a nail for a horseshoe is a perfect indicator that not much is needed. However, if you make small changes you need to be able to predict where the nail falls, so to speak. Our alternate history experts talk about how to alter history in ways which are quite subtle, but create huge results.

READING (ADAMS)

Friday, 5pm: Lou Antonelli, Stoney Compton

SATURDAY:

MAIN PROGRAMMING (JEFFERSON)

Saturday, 11am: Q&A with Sherwood Smith

Panelists: Lou Antonelli (M), Sherwood Smith

We put our Guest of Honor to the question!

PROGRAMMING 2 (MADISON)

Saturday, 4pm: Death of Cyberpunk

Panelists: Lou Antonelli (M), Katherine Sanger, Chris Donahue, Michael Ashleigh Finn, William Ledbetter

According to Wikipedia, Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a near‐future setting, noted for its focus on "high tech and low life.” However, other genres have stolen some of Cyberpunk’s thunder: Steampunk with high tech in a unique setting, and Urban Fantasy with a more realistic near‐future setting. Where are the new 1984 stories? Fahrenheit 451? Neuromancer? Our panelists look for answers and recommendations.

AUTOGRAPHS (DEALERS ROOM)

Saturday, 5pm: Larry Atchley Jr., Lou Antonelli

SUNDAY:

MAIN PROGRAMMING (JEFFERSON)

Sunday, 11am: Steam Powered: The Science of Steampunk

Panelists: Lou Antonelli (M), Stephen Sanders, Shanna Swendson, Michael Ashleigh Finn, Rachael Acks

Welcome to the wonderful world of fantastical gizmos! But what powers these devices? Something from Nikola Tesla? Ghost Rock? The aforesaid steam? Our panelists attempt to answer these questions and more as they describe how to write in the Steampunk genre.

PROGRAMMING 2 (MADISON)

Sunday, 1pm: Interstellar Archaeology: Part Two – The Debunking

Panelists: Mel White (M), Sherwood Smith, Michael Ashleigh Finn, Rachael Acks, Lou Antonelli, Scott A. Cupp

The second of two panels where we inflict discover startling artifacts of OBVIOUS alien origin. Our experts tell us how wrong the previous esteemed panelists were! Last year, Sunday’s panel thoroughly debunked Friday’s experts. Help us, they can! Confuse us, they will not.

PROGRAMMING 2 (MADISON)

Sunday, 3pm: Adventuring in the Age of Chivalry

Panelists: Melanie Fletcher (M), Adrian Simmons, Rie Sheridan Rose, Frances A. May, Lou Antonelli

A common thread through most fantasy novels is the armor that is worn usually dates to knights during the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. It is no surprise then that there are many novels that cover this age as well, from Arthur Pendragon to Canterbury Tales. Our panelists explore the details of this age, from the imagery of the noble knight to the realities that underlay feudalism.

Sad Puppies slate

Some of my work in 2014 has received plaudits from the Sad Puppies project of Hugo award recommendations. "Letter from Gardner" is recommended for Best Related Work, and "On a Spiritual Plain", published in Sci-Phi Journal, is recommended in the Short Story category.

If you attended GalaxyFest in Colorado Springs in 2013, and saw me using a typewriter at my table - "On a Spiritual Plain" was the story I wrote.

Thanks to fellow SASS member Brad Torgersen, who assembled the slate this year.

Best Novel
“The Dark Between the Stars” – Kevin J. Anderson – TOR
“Trial by Fire” – Charles E. Gannon – BAEN
“Skin Game” – Jim Butcher – ROC
“Monster Hunter Nemesis” – Larry Correia – BAEN
“Lines of Departure” – Marko Kloos – 47 North (Amazon)

Best Novella
“Flow” – Arlan Andrews Sr. – Analog magazine November 2014
“One Bright Star to Guide Them” – John C. Wright – Castalia House
“The Jenregar and the Light” – Dave Creek – Analog magazine October 2014
“Big Boys Don’t Cry” – Tom Kratman – Castalia House

Best Novelette
“The Journeyman: In the Stone House” – Michael F. Flynn – Analog magazine June 2014
“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale” – Rajnar Vajra – Analog magazine July/Aug 2014
“Championship B’tok” – Edward M. Lerner – Analog magazine Sept 2014
“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium” – Gray Rinehart – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Best Short Story
“Goodnight Stars” – Annie Bellet – The Apocalypse Triptych
“Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer” – Megan Grey – Fireside Fiction
“Totaled” – Kary English – Galaxy’s Edge magazine
“On A Spiritual Plain” – Lou Antonelli – Sci Phi Journal #2
“A Single Samurai” – Steve Diamond – Baen Big Book of Monsters

Best Related Work
“Letters from Gardner” – Lou Antonelli – Merry Blacksmith Press
“Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth” – John C. Wright – Castalia House
“THE HOT EQUATIONS: THERMODYNAMICS AND MILITARY SF” – Ken Burnside
“Wisdom From My Internet” – Michael Z. Williamson
“Why Science is Never Settled” – Tedd Roberts – BAEN

Best Graphic Story
“Reduce Reuse Reanimate (Zombie Nation book #2) – Carter Reid – (independent)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
“The Lego Movie” – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
“Guardians of the Galaxy” – James Gunn
“Interstellar” – Christopher Nolan
“The Maze Runner” – Wes Ball

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
Grimm – ” Once We Were Gods” – NBC
Marvel’s Agent’s of Shield – ABC
Warehouse 13 – SyFY
A Game of Thrones – “The Mountain and the Viper” – HBO

Best Editor (Long Form)
Toni Weisskopf – BAEN
Jim Minz – BAEN
Anne Sowards – ACE/ROC
Sheila Gilbert – DAW

Best Editor (Short Form)
Mike Resnick – Galaxy’s Edge magazine
Edmund R. Schubert – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
Jennifer Brozek (Shattered Shields)
Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Shattered Shields)
William Schafer (Subterranean Press)

Best Professional Artist
Carter Reid
Jon Eno
Alan Pollack
Nick Greenwood

Best Semiprozine
Sci Phi Journal – Jason Rennie
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show – Edmund Schubert
Abyss & Apex
Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine

Best Fanzine
Tangent SF On-line – Dave Truesdale
SF Signal – Jon DeNardo
Elitist Book Reviews – Steve Diamond
The Revenge of Hump Day – Tim Bolgeo

Best Fancast
“The Sci Phi Show” – Jason Rennie
Dungeon Crawlers Radio
Adventures in SF Publishing

Best Fan Writer
Matthew David Surridge (Black Gate)
Jeffro Johnson
Amanda Green
Cedar Sanderson
Dave Freer

The John W. Campbell Award
Jason Cordova
Kary English
Eric S. Raymond
Amy Turner Hughes