I’ve just sent the following message to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, State Senator Simcha Felder, and State Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz. Does anyone else share my concern?

I’m opposed to congestion pricing in Manhattan, but you seem to have sewn up enough support that my opinion doesn’t matter. However, as a resident of Brooklyn who sometimes has to drive to New Jersey or upstate New York, I want to know how your congestion pricing will affect me and those like me, who aren’t trying to drive into Manhattan, but must drive through Manhattan to get to the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge. Will there be a non-tolled option for us, or are we restricted to our home borough? For instance, will I be able to drive over the Brooklyn Bridge and onto the West Side Highway or the FDR Drive without paying a congestion toll? Or are those who are geographically required to travel through lower Manhattan on our way out of town going to be forced to pay for all the cars actually stopping in Manhattan?

#andrewcuomo #billdeblasio #simchafelder #stevencymbrowitz #congestionpricing

With nearly a week still to go, the Kickstarter campaign has hit its goal, fully funding publication of the anthology Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles, so the book will be appearing from Fantastic Books this December. Thank you, all, for your incredible support!

If you haven’t yet gotten involved, now is the time. The campaign runs for another few days, and we’re only $406 short of our first stretch goal (which will result in an even bigger, better book).

And for the more than a few people who asked: yes, the book is open to submissions of more stories. Editors Randee Dawn and Michael Ventrella have announced the writers’ guidelines, which are available on this page.

Again, thanks!

As of March 21, 2019, Jimmy Carter (born October 1, 1924) is now the longest-lived US president. He eclipsed George H.W. Bush’s record of 94 years, 171 days (Bush died November 30 of last year, setting the mark). Bush had originally taken the title about a year before his death, from Gerald Ford, who had set it at 93 years, 165 days.

The Presidency is usually considered an older person’s job, but Carter has been retired from the Presidency for more than 38 years, since January 20, 1981. He holds the record of longest-retired President, having eclipsed Herbert Hoover’s record of 31 years. Ford was retired for just shy of 30 years.

Carter has been senior living President since Ford’s death twelve years ago, and the oldest living President for the 111 days since Bush’s death. Carter is the oldest person to become the oldest living President.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter married on July 7, 1946. Their 72 years of marriage is the second longest in Presidential history (George and Barbara Bush married on January 6, 1945, and remained married until her death on April 17, 2018, setting the record at 73 years, 101 days.

The list of longest-lived US presidents is now:

Jimmy Carter: 94 years, 171 days-plus
George H.W. Bush: 94 years, 171 days
Gerald Ford: 93 years, 165 days
Ronald Reagan: 93 years, 120 days
John Adams: 90 years, 247 days

I saw author David Gerrold this weekend at the Big Apple Comic Con, and while he was supposed to be signing comic books, he couldn’t keep himself from telling me all about the alternative Beatles story he’s planning to write for Across the Universe, just as soon as the anthology is funded. The Kickstarter campaign has been live for just over two weeks (half the campaign’s scheduled time), and it’s nearly two-thirds funded, so things are starting to look exciting.

The time to join in has never been better, and due to public clamoring, we’ve added two new pledge levels (based on the two least-used denominations of American currency). Please check them out, join in the fun, guarantee you receive one of the first copies of this exciting anthology in the works, and tell your friends! Thanks.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/667435382/across-the-universe-tales-of-alternative-beatles

Last Tuesday, we launched the Kickstarter campaign for Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles. In that time, 112 backers have pledged 44% of the $6,000 we need to actually publish the book. We’re off to a great start!

But now that the first-week excitement has passed, we have to really dig in to raise the rest of the money (in order to pay the authors and editors and artist, and actually produce the book). If you’d like to join us (we’d love it), the time to get involved is now. Tell your friends, share the link, and pledge a bit yourself (those pledges are actually pre-publication orders, not donations). The early-bird bonus offer — the ebook for a scant five dollars — ends at 11am Tuesday, so get in on it now!

And for the few of you who haven’t been paying attention, here’s the description of the project:

What if the Beatles had never met? Would we enjoy Dave Clark Five-mania (as Spider Robinson suggested)?

What if Brian Epstein hadn’t managed the band? What if George Harrison hated sitar music? What if Ringo had been the true star of the band all along?

What if the Beatles had been aliens? Or magic users? Or zombies? Or <gasp> American?

Help us answer those questions, and many more, as we gather together some of the biggest names in speculative fiction — and some wonderful musicians — to create Across the Universe: an anthology of speculative Beatles fiction. The writers who’ve already clamored for places in the anthology will be writing a series of speculative fiction stories across the genre-verse: horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Some humor, some not.

Fantastic Books today is launching our newest Kickstarter campaign. Across the Universe is planned to be an anthology of alternative Beatles stories (What if John hadn’t died? What if the Beatles were aliens? Or superheroes? Or… well you get the idea).

Editors Randee Dawn and Michael A. Ventrella each approached me with the idea, so I put the two of them together, and we’ve fleshed it out. We’ve already got promises of stories from the likes of Spider Robinson, David Gerrold, Jonathan Maberry, Alan Goldsher, Cat Rambo, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jody Lynn Nye, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Gail Z. Martin, with notes by Janis Ian and Nancy Holder. And artist Dave Alvarez is finalizing a wonderful cover.

So please, help us spread the word. And surf on over to the Kickstarter page. Maybe the muse will grab you, and you’ll realize you need to be a part of this project!

Across the Universe, live on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/667435382/across-the-universe-tales-of-alternative-beatles

Fantastic Books is pleased to announce that Barry Malzberg’s The Bend at the End of the Road has been named to Locus Magazine’s “2018 Recommended Reading List.”

Not quite making the list, but still eligible for your awards nomination consideration, are several other books and stories we published during 2018:

The Red Carnival by Susan Casper (dark fantasy/horror novel)
Fantasy for the Throne edited by Judith K. Dial & Tom Easton (fantasy anthology)
The Favored by Morgan J. Bolt (YA science fiction novel)

Fantasy for the Throne is a mostly reprint anthology, but it did include two pieces of new work:
“The Violinist” by Amir Lane (fantasy short story)
“A Medieval Christmas” by Christopher M. Easton (fantasy poem)

Publishers Pick for the coming week is once again featuring a Fantastic Books book. This week, it’s the anthology Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic, edited by David Sklar and Sarah Avery. This anthology of fantastical stories combining magic and, well, traffic, is one of our more popular.

As the editors wrote, “What do you seek at the end of this road? What have you brought to pay your way? The road is full of hazards, and the marketplace can cost more than you expect. In Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic, editors David Sklar and Sarah Avery bring you 18 magical tales of travel and transactions, ranging from busking in a train station to walking between the worlds, from doppelgangers for hire to capturing the remnants of the dead.”

As with all Publishers Pick books, the ebook version of Trafficking in Magic is available for one week only at a massive discount: nearly two-thirds off the suggested retail price of $7.99 (you can get it for $2.99). Also available this week are Robert Reed’s trilogy The Memory of Sky, and John Brunner and Damien Broderick’s combined effort Threshold of Eternity.

I know I’ve mentioned that Fantastic Books is one of the founders and regular participants in Publishers Pick. PublishersPick.com is “independent publishers and authors of speculative fiction bringing you the best of their catalog at incredibly discounted prices.” Each week, three new ebooks available (for one week only) at more than 50% off their cover prices. This week, once again, one of the three books is a Fantastic Books book, specifically, Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano’s The Biggest Bounty. This comic sf novel follows two interstellar bounty hunters, who aren’t very good at their job yet. Grab it now! (The other two books available this week are L. Sprague de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall and the 1632 novel The Monster Society.)

After the December hiatus, I’m back on the convention schedule. This weekend, the first of the year will be Arisia in Boston (back at the Park Plaza for this year).

As always, I’ll be spending a lot of time at the Fantastic Books table in the dealers’ room. We’ll be open Friday from 5 to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 7pm, and Monday from 10am to 2:30pm. And be sure to stop by for your first look at both Release the Virgins edited by Michael A. Ventrella, and Father of the Bride of Frankenstein by Daniel M. Kimmel.

And again, I’ll be on programming, though not a lot this weekend. They’ve got me scheduled for three panels:

Saturday at 2:30pm in the Cabot room, “Creating Cover Art” with Athena Andreadis, Michael Bailey, Elizabeth Leggett, and Kevin McLaughlin

Saturday at 4pm (despite my request to not have back-to-back panels while the dealers’ room is open, and I’ll be looking for someone willing to watch the table for me) in the Brandeis-Fast Track room, “Short Story Contest” with Kevin McLaughlin (I’m kind of surprised, given the dearth of available panels for me, that so few people have been assigned to this one)

Sunday at 8:30am (yes, you read that correctly: 8:30 in the morning) in the Winthrop room, “Siblings in SFF” with A.J. Odasso, Julia Gilstein, Nathan Comstock, and Debra Doyle

Hope to see you there!