Author: ianrandalstrock

Albacon this weekend

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Got my schedule for Albacon this weekend, and it’s pretty packed. I expect it to be a cozy, friendly convention, and hope to see a bunch of you there.

Unlike most of my sf conventions, there won’t be a specific dealers’ room, but instead, a few dealers vending from their hotel rooms. Thus, Fantastic Books will be selling out of room… well, I don’t know the number yet. I think we’re all supposed to be on the first floor, near each other. But I’ll be on a lot of panels, so unless Michael wants to sit in the room selling books, we will only be open very limited hours. Look for a sign on the door.

And if you’re looking for me on programming, I won’t be hard to find:

Friday, September 8

5pm in Meeting A: “Starting a Small Press” with Inanna Arthen, Bianca D’Arc, and Claire Houck, and Bianca D’Arc

6:30pm in Meeting B: “The Role of Antiquity and Myth in Science Fiction” with B.A. Chepaitis, Walter H. Hunt, and Anna Rose

8pm in the Lobby: “Ice Cream Social”

9pm in Meeting A: “The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian” with Keith R.A. DeCandido, Daniel M. Kimmel, Hildy Silverman, and Michael Ventrella

Saturday, September 9

10:30am in Meeting B: “I Used to Be…” with Susan de Guardiola, Daniel M. Kimmel, Matthew Kressel, and Alex Shvartsman

6:30pm in Meeting B: “Choosing an Independent Publisher” with Bianca D’Arc, Sally Wiener Grotta Tris Lawrence, and Anna Rose

9:30pm in Meeting A: “Friendship in Science Fiction and Fantasy” with B.A. Chepaitis, J.A. Fludd, and Daniel M. Kimmel

Sunday, September 10

10:30am in Meeting A: “Crowdfunding For Print” with Bianca D’Arc, Claire Houck, Tris Lawrence, and Alex Shvartsman

Good review of Jewish Futures

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Untitled-150Sorry you haven’t heard from me recently; it’s been a busy month. There was the trip to South Carolina, four days at home, a week-long family cruise (from which I still haven’t gone through the pictures, though I intend to, in order to share some), the book-launch event in Massachusetts (I was there for three days), and now, finally, trying to get back up to speed.

In the midst of all that comes this wonderful review of Jewish Futures from the Elder of Ziyon blog:

“[M]any of these stories are good enough to be included in collections of the best SF of the year.… [Samantha] Katz is an enormously talented writer for a 16 year old high school student.… Leah Cypress’ ‘Frummer House’ is a laugh-out-loud funny story about smart homes that suddenly enforce a higher level of religiosity on their Jewish residents than they are comfortable with. It is so steeped in frumkeit that it has its own glossary so everyone else could understand it. For religious Jews who would get the references, the book is worth it for this story alone.… ‘Initial Engagement’ by Steven H. Silver uses a future world to help us understand our world [and] is the epitome of what SF should be.… The longest, and best, story in the collection is ‘Moon Melody’ by SM Rosenberg. It is outstanding in how it explores the moral issues of [the characters’ superpowers].… I would be surprised and disappointed if ‘Moon Melody’ is not included in the Best of the Year anthologies for 2023.… Altogether, it is a really good collection of stories, with a higher percentage of stories that I enjoy than most anthologies I have read. There have been other Jewish science fiction anthologies… but this is to my mind by far the best, the most professional, and the most Jewish of all of them.”

Amazon Rejects Jewish Futures

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Breaking news: Amazon.com has decided to “block [the ebook version of Jewish Futures] from being sold on Amazon.” Apparently, the fact that Fantastic Books published the print version means that Fantastic Books submitting the ebook version to publish through them violates… something. I have no idea. So, if you use a Kindle ebook reader, and you’d like to read an electronic version of Jewish Futures, we recommend you buy it directly from Fantastic Books. Doing so will get you both the epub and the mobi versions of the book.
Amazon provides a number of ways to load your eBooks on to your Kindle. For instance, you can email it to your Kindle address. Click this link for their email instructions, however the “Other Ways to Send” column on the right side of the Amazon page also shows you the other options available to you.
Also, they seem to have finally realized that the trade paperback version of the book is available.

Giving Donald Trump too much oxygen

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Dear CNN and MSNBC (I’m sorry, those were the only two news channels I could get to yesterday):

I found it ironic, watching your coverage August 3rd, that so many of your anchors, reporters, pundits, and guests repeated the comment that “Donald Trump is sucking up all the oxygen in the political room,” while what you were doing was giving it all to him. The story that you gave wall-to-wall coverage yesterday—a grifter, liar, and multiple business failure had been indicted and was being arraigned for serious crimes against the American people—could have been adequately covered in five minutes at the top of the hour with another one-minute recap at the bottom.

From your business point of view, I understand the appeal: your team didn’t have to ferret out actual news stories, and it’s much cheaper to just keep talking about politics as if the election were next week, rather than fifteen months in the future. But maybe we need to bring back the fairness doctrine, and give all the candidates equal air time. Because Donald Trump’s third indictment—as serious as the alleged crimes are (and I sincerely hope he is quickly found guilty)—certainly did not merit our undivided attention all day yesterday. When the trial is actually happening, sure, we’ll need to see that. But the preliminaries we’re suffering through? The live coverage of his motorcade from his golf course to Newark Airport? Were you proud of the story you were telling yesterday? I wouldn’t have been.

Home from Baltimore

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IMG_9436
Ian Randal Strock and Laurie Strock at the Mensa Foundation Reception, held during the 2023 American Mensa Annual Gathering.

I’m back from Mensa’s Annual Gathering where I took (checks phone) seven pictures of fireworks, one of the moon, and none of the event or people there. I was too busy participating and socializing to remember to take pictures (though I may appear in one or two photos others took).

Now I’m home (and I slept for 13 hours last night), I’ve got (checks in-boxes) more than 400 emails waiting for me to attend to, not to mention a dozen text messages, some paper mail, and who knows what else. I’m working through it all as quickly (and efficiently) as I can, as well as the projects that were waiting for me the whole week I was gone. So you should hear from me soon, but not immediately.

Also, I’m going to take a little more of a break here, and head into Manhattan for the movie at Bryant Park this evening. See some of you there!

[Edited a day later to note that I actually do have a picture of people from the AG: this shot of me and my sister.]

Book signing in Boston

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Untitled-150We are delighted to announce that on Wednesday, August 23, at 7 pm, we will be having a book event for Jewish Futures at Brookline Booksmith! Editor Michael A. Burstein will be moderating a panel discussion with me as the publisher, cover artist Eli Portman, and contributors EM Ben Shaul, Abraham Josephine Riesman & SI Rosenbaum. If you’d like to attend, please use the link to let the store know you will be there! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jewish-futures-stories-from-the-worlds-oldest-diaspora-tickets-667143473087?fbclid=IwAR1rINPQkYChS-w_ISSURifRYdnL9QwNuOO9mhQ2UCbP7MPe7phtplva1e4

Impending computer retirement

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I fear it may be time to get a new computer. This one is almost six years old, and while it does almost everything it’s supposed to, and I like it just fine, too often it takes too long to boot up. And sometimes, it does so incompletely, so I have to restart two or three times in sequence to get it going properly. Thus, I’m assuming replacement (before it totally dies, so I can transfer files) is my best option <grump grump over unexpected expense>.

I’m looking for suggestions, while noting my probably incredibly finicky wants and needs:

At this point, I’m too stuck in my habits to switch away from Windows to Apple. The current computer is an HP, and I have had no complaints (other than this glitching system, which I assume is a symptom of age, not manufacture), but neither am I wedded to the brand.

I’m adamantly opposed to “subscribing” to the programs I use, especially since I often use the computer while not connected to the internet.

I use WordPerfect (I have my old copy that still does everything I want it to), PhotoShop (ditto: my old copy), Excel, Microsoft Word (because too many other people use it, so I have to use it sometimes, even though I prefer WordPerfect), PowerPoint, Chrome (for web browsing), Adobe Acrobat, PDFsam Basic, and Calibre, Kompozer, and Sigil (for ebook creation).

I do book layout and cover design on the computer, so this 17″ monitor is pretty much a minimum. On the other hand, I also have to use the computer on the road, so anything much bigger/heavier might be a problem (big fingers, so typing on a tiny tablet keyboard would not be easy).

So (to anyone who’s had the patience to actually read all of that): any suggestions?

Busy day in publishing-land

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Untitled-150It’s been a busy — but productive — day here in publishing land.

I woke up early, hoping to get a lot done. But looking back on the not-yet-complete day, there’s been even more accomplishment than I expected.

One of those accomplishments which I can talk about include finalizing and revealing the cover of the forthcoming anthology Jewish Futures, edited by Michael A. Burstein, with cover art by Eli Portman.

And then, following up on emails from two friends, and a slew of people looking to download a non-existent ebook, I was able to finalize and make available the ebook versions of Barry N. Malzberg’s essay collection The Bend at the End of the Road.

Beyond those, there was a bunch of not-yet-talking-about-it-publicly work that got done, and I also managed a little time for my own writing. So yes, it’s being a pretty good day.

Mike Pence announces his campaign for high priest

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I just listened to Mike Pence announce his campaign for pope… er, priest… um, religious leader. I mean, wow! From his point of view, every right listed in the Constitution is a “god-given right.”

It started with his wife’s introduction of him, noting that he is here because of his humility before god. And then he took the stage to introduce himself, telling us he is a Christian first, a conservative second, and a Republican third. Well, that’s very nice, but we don’t (or shouldn’t) elect religious leaders in this country.

It’s almost like he’s forgotten the last phrase of the Constitution’s Article VI: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” While he wasn’t saying his Christianity is required to be president, he certainly made me—as someone who is not a Christian—feel like I won’t be welcome in his United States.

Mind you, none of this is a surprise; it’s nothing new from him. It’s just that a Christian President Pence would not be hidden by the masking effect that Vice President Pence had in Grifter-in-Chief Trump’s shadow.

Longer AFK than anticipated

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If you’ve been waiting for an email response from me recently, I regret that I’m going to have to ask you to wait a little longer.

The last time I had my computer on was Thursday, doing a full back-up prior to leaving for Balticon. Then I was at the hotel all weekend. The convention ended Monday afternoon, and then I was in the wilds of western Virginia seeing friends and business associates. Got to civilization Tuesday night late, only to discover some computer difficulties. Those difficulties have finally been resolved, but it’s Thursday afternoon, I’ve been away from the keyboard for a week, and I’m leaving dark and early in the morning for ConCarolinas. I’ll be back from that convention late Sunday night, so I should finally be able to start working my way through the email backlog Monday.

Again, I’m sorry. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

And if you’re going to be at ConCarolinas, here’s the reminder that you’ll be able to find me at my dealer table in what they call Authors’ Alley (NOT the dealers’ room). Scheduled to be open 3–8pm Friday, 10am–7pm Saturday, and 10am–2pm Sunday.

The panels I’m scheduled to be on at ConCarolinas are:

Friday at 10 PM in Olmstead: “The Ethics of Using AI and Machine Learning in Content Creation” with Bishop O’Connell, William C. Tracy, and Brandon N. Whitworth.

Saturday at 12:30 PM in Olmstead: “How to Destroy the World” with Charlie Kaufman, Darin Kennedy, Cisca Small, and Mel Todd.

Sunday at 12:30 PM in Keynes: “Walking On Sunshine and Where’s the Beef” with Samantha Bryant, Nancy Northcott, and Amy Ravenel.

Sunday at 1:30 PM in Walden: “Mars Wants What?” with R.M. Hamrick, Michael Mammay, Edward McKeown, and Sumiko Saulson.