A talent passes

Like a lot of speculative fiction readers and writers, I'm saddened by the death this past weekend of Steve Utley. He was diagnosed with fairly advanced cancer approximately a month ago, and then slipped into a coma late last week. I was checking my email and Facebook Sunday morning before going to church when Gardner Dozois posted that Steve has passed away the previous evening.

My first thought was to call and tell Howard Waldrop, since I knew he and Steve go back a very long ways, and if you know Howard, he doesn't do internet. He knew Steve had been in the coma, but as I suspected, my timing was such that I was the one to let him know Steve had passed on.

Howard said he knew Steve back when they both lived in Dallas, and Steve was at the last local science fiction club meeting he attended before he enlisted in the Army in 1970! Howard's first story acceptance happened while he was in the Army, so that goes back a long, long way.

Howard said that Steve had once been a heavy smoker, but had quit a long time ago; still, it couldn't have done much for his health in the long run. Utley was about 64, and had moved to Tennessee a number of years ago to be close to his elderly mother; as Howard noted, now his mother survives him, and since he had a sister die, his mother has survived both her children.

I met Steve a couple of times at past Armadilocons. We probably shared a panel or two, I really don't recall. He was friendly when we actually met face-to-face.

One nice thing about Steve was that he published with anyone, from Asimovs to Bewildering Stories. Back in 2007 I bought two reprints from him of stories that had originally been published in a small magazine called Sheol that he and Howard had written for in the 1970s. I used them in my short-lived ezine, Sentinel Science Fiction. Howard made the original suggestion that I ask about the stories, and he was right, they were good, and I was happy to give the some exposure again.

Utley was a very talented writer, and his passing is a milestone in the Baby Boom generation of s-f writers.

"There Was a Crooked Man"

One of my chores for this weekend was to finish reading the first installment of Ed Morris' "Crooked Man" series, which is slated to be published in a few months. I promised Ed I would do so, and write a blurb. I enjoyed it very much.

Here is a little background on this series, from the publisher Mercury Retrograde Press, which from what I can tell will be published in seven or eight books:


"On the American east coast four hundred years after a nuclear holocaust, Civilization has rebuilt from the ashes. The Imperial brain-trust of the great city of Shang 2 has invented a perpetual energy source, the Peacemaker. One disgraced soldier finds a way to harness that energy source toward godhood, and uses the Peacemaker to rip a hole in Spacetime to begin. He just never counted on getting caught..."

As I said, I enjoyed the first book, and here is the blurb I wrote:


"In this book, the first in the "Crooked Man" series, Ed Morris takes us on a far-ranging romp across quantum worlds to start us on a kaleidoscopic journey through time and space in pursuit of one of the most fully-fleshed out (pardon the grisly pun) villains in science fiction, fantasy and horror.*The Crooked Man, a supreme monster created through science run proverbially amok, will give you the cold creeps. In this start of the journey, we learn clues from the future on how this came to be, and start on a romp through Colonial-era Pennsylvania that reads like John Jakes gone to Hell on acid - a take on the era unique to Ed, and enormously entertaining.*Ed Morris has poured his heart and soul (I hope he gets it back!) into this tautly written science fiction horror thriller. The writing is tight, the pace like a rocket-sled, the imagery searing. You won't be able to put this story down until you've read it, and then you will be looking over your shoulder for...The Crooked Man."

Never say never

Although I'm not seeking convention invites any more, on the other hand I'm not going to snub any con that is nice enough to ask me, and sure enough, I received an invite last week to attend GalaxyFest in Colorado Springs next month.

I considered attending GalaxyFest in 2012, but had to beg out because of health concerns. I already had my first bout with the flu the previous December and was badly run down as a result of that as well as working extra hours because staffing problems on the job. One thing I have learned is that, when you have working parents as employees, they often are out sick - not just when they are sick - but when their kids are sick.

The folks at GalaxyFest asked me to consider attending this year as an author, and I have decided to accept. The slate of guests looks pretty laid back, and I only have on other firm commitment this year, to ConDFW the following weekend (which being in Dallas and only two hours away is practically local). Since I'm not going to LoneStarCon in San Antonio and there really isn't an ArmadilloCon this year, I don't see a terrible demand on my time.

Strangely enough, my dislike for going to cons and getting snubbed by big shot pro authors peaked right at the time my schedule changed to where I could take a full weekend off. Since 2007 I have had a work schedule that required me to work Saturdays, which required me to often only attend cons starting Saturday night (such as I did at SoonerCon last year) or only on Sunday (which is what I did at FenCon in September), but my schedule changed as of Dec. 1st.

I have never attended a con in Colorado, so I am willing to give it a try. The guests authors at GalaxyFest seem among the nice guys, and the con got a great deal on the hotel rooms. Frontier Airways has frequent flights from Dallas to Colorado. So I am giving it a shot. I plan to take my manual typewriter and show young people how it was done at my author's table. I will be there Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 9 and 10.

More Year in Review

Reviewing my records, I see I wrote ten stories this year, and published 12. Three stories were written and published in the same year - "Double Exposure" in Daily Science Fiction, "Barsoom Billy" in Science Fiction Trails' Martian Edition, and "The Relic" in Stupefying Stories.

2012 - The Year in Review

Well, in 2012 I had a dozen short stories published in venues big and small, ranging from professional level (Daily Science Fiction, Buzzy Mag) to non-paying. They were, in chronological order:


"The Centurion and the Rainman" - Buzzy Mag, March 2012
"Encounter in Camelot" - 4 Star Stories, Spring 2012
"Great White Ship" - Daily Science Fiction, May 11, 2012
"Accidental Witness" - Planetary Stories, Spring 2012
"Double Exposure" - Daily Science Fiction, June 11, 2012
"The Starship Theodora" - Nova Science Fiction, Summer 2012
"Pirates of the Ozarks" - Science Fiction Trails No. 8, Fall 2012
"Barsoom Billy" - Science Fiction Trails, No. 9 All Martian Spectacular Fall 2012
"Damascus Interrupted" - Phantasmagorium, Sept. 2012
"The Way of the Heretic" - 4 Star Stories, Fall 2012
"Snow Globe" - Bewildering Stories No. 500 Fall 2012
"The Relic" - Stupefying Stories Dec. 2012

The two stories in Daily Science Fiction, "Great White Ship" and "Double Exposure", were two of the best things I have written, and include some of the best snappiest prose I have ever come up with:


From "Great White Ship":

"You ever been to East Texas? You ever been in an East Texas thunderstorm?"

I shook my head.

"It's like God dumps a big tin bucket of water on top of your head, then drops the bucket over your head, and then he pounds on the bucket."

and also:

"I clicked on my radio. 'Something is just breaking through the clouds, hold on, Billy,' I said. Then I saw it. 'Oh, God!' was all I could mutter. It was like a giant ocean liner parting the clouds only 500 feet above the ground, and lumbering straight towards the main runway. A long, pale cylinder coming at us like the finger of God."

From "Double Exposure":


"Oh, my God!" he thought as he flipped through the photos. "This is the life I could have had!"

Through the photos--as happens with dying men--his life flashed before his eyes, but it was the life he should have had. The birth of their first son. Then their sweet baby girl. Their lovely house. Another son. Kids on bicycles. And on and on.

He began to cry.

Crime writers

I spent some time today picking the brain of a crime author I respect. I'd like to look into penning some crime and mystery fiction in 2013. The s-f and fantasy field has become so hidebound and inbred - at least in the U.S. - because of PC that I'm taking it as a good opportunity to venture farther afield. (I know another author with attitudes similar to mine he doesn't even submit to U.S. s-f mags any more - he sends everything overseas.) I really don't think crime and mystery editors make their editorial decisions on the basis of the religion, politics, gender and ethnicity of the author - unlike the PC nazis who currently have s-f  by the throat.

Nothing new is going to be written on my part for at least two or three weeks, with my Christmas vacation coming up - other than having to work on Christmas Day, I'm off work until Jan. 2nd. I have eleven stories in various slushpiles, so there's a nice supply still out there.

Reallocating time

Dropping cons is part of a general re-allocation of time I plan to 2013, anyway. They've not been very useful in recent years. When I first started out, I learned a lot, but I have a lot more experience under my belt now. The social aspect is useless to me. Science fiction is an inbred clique and I don't fit in. The SFWA has the same problem at the national level. That's why Lone Star Con would be so unpleasant for me. It will be the usual bunch of Austin Assholes chumming up with SFWA Snobs.

Membership in the con costs hundreds of dollars, so it's not really readily available to the normal working guy and gal. That's going to drive down attendance, and draw the circle of exclusivity tighter.

I also don't have a real good feeling about the con in general. The Texas s-f community is so inbred with a narrow social base that I really wonder whether there are the numbers of volunteers there to run such a large undertaking. I had extreme difficulty communicating with the group. Of course, I may be overthinking the issue. It may simply be blackballing. There are many zines and outfits where I can't even get a rejection or reply to a query anymore, where I have been blackballed because I'm not PC. This widespread blackballing is the genre's dirty little secret. I know another author who doesn't even submit to U.S. mags any more. The PC Nazis have been especially emboldened since their Messiah in the Rose Garden got re-elected. John Salzi, the SFWA President, even has a PC hitman, Jim Hines, whom he sends after people who refuse to toe the party line. So much for tolerance and the so-called Big Tent.

One thing that will be taking more of my time in 2013 is the Texas Nationalist Movement. I joined up after the general election in November. Actually, I've been a big supporter for years, but after the election my wife agreed to let me pay the dues. Texas will be having a Constitutional amendment election in 2013, and I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't something on the ballot regarding Texas independence. By the time Lone Star Con rolls around over the Labor Day Weekend, it will probably be a hot topic. I'd like to spend some time in 2013 helping the TNM.

Here is another example that highlights the elitist hypocrisy of the PC Nazis who have the whip hand in the U.S. now. The America Left supports the right to self-determination and autonomy of all oppressed peoples across the world - unless they are Christian and/or Patriots.

SASS - the Society for the Advancement of Speculative Storytelling - was incorporated this year and is ready to start taking members and becoming an active, public organization. This is also a project where I want to invest a lot more time.

On a personal level. plans are to have my 81-year old mother come and live with me and Patricia after Christmas. That will also be taking up my time, in a nice way.