Author: ianrandalstrock

President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)

~ ianrandalstrock ~ 1 Comment

President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. died today (December 29, 2024). He was the first of the modern presidents to run—and be elected—as an “outsider” (not part of the Washington, DC, political establishment, though he had served four years in the Georgia State Senate, and was governor of that state from 1971 to 1975). He defeated President Gerald Ford in the surprisingly close election of 1976 (after Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon, his defeat was all but assured). Carter was an engineer who tried to bring an engineer’s sensibilities to the Oval Office. Unfortunately for his presidency, that skill set could not overcome other external political factors, leading to his landslide defeat after only one term in the White House. His post-presidency, however, was far more impressive, and will leave a much stronger, more enduring legacy. From the Carter Center to his work with Habitat for Humanity, he was the ideal former president. The Carter Center, with its goal to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering, is best known for its international election monitoring, but also works to build democratic institutions, help mediate conflicts, advocate for human rights, and treat diseases.

As president, in 1978, Carter brokered the Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt, for which Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Carter’s own Nobel Prize was awarded in 2002, for his work “to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development” through the Carter Center.

Carter was born in Plains, Georgia, on October 1, 1924. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 (part of the accelerated class of 1947)—the only president to do so, although he was the fifth straight Navy veteran to serve as president. He met his future wife, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, while he was a cadet. They married on July 7, 1946. Carter retired from active duty in 1953, to take over the family’s peanut farming business, though he was in the inactive Navy Reserve until 1961. He left the service with the rank of lieutenant.

After losing his re-election bid, Carter told the White House press corps he intended to emulate Harry Truman, and not use his presidential retirement to enrich himself. He continued to live in the same modest house in Plains, Georgia, until his death. During his retirement, he wrote more than 30 books, ranging from memoirs to children’s books.

Carter’s state funeral will be in Washington, DC, with details announced in the next few days. He will be buried at his home in Plains. Carter is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren (one grandson pre-deceased him), and 14 great-grandchildren. His eldest son, Jack, lost the 2006 Senate race in Nevada. Jack’s son Jason served in the Georgia State Senate, and lost the 2014 race for Governor of Georgia.

Carter retired from the presidency on January 20, 1981, at the relatively young age of 56. He was younger than his two successors (Ronald Reagan was 13 years older than Carter; George H.W. Bush was born 111 days before Carter).

Carter had been the senior living president since Gerald Ford’s death December 26, 2006. That title now belongs to Bill Clinton, who was president from 1993 to 2001.

On September 7, 2012, Carter exceeded Herbert Hoover’s record as the longest-retired president: that mark now stands at 43 years 343 days. Clinton will surpass that record in 2042, at the age of 96.

On March 22, 2019, Carter surpassed George H.W. Bush’s mark as the longest-lived president (Bush had died 111 days earlier, at the age of 94 years 171 days). That record now stands at 100 years 89 days. The oldest living president is now Joe Biden, who was born on November 20, 1942. The longest-lived vice president, John Nance Garner (1933–41), died at the age of 98 years 350 days old on November 7, 1967.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter enjoyed the longest marriage of any presidential couple, from July 7, 1946, until her death on November 19, 2023: an astonishing 77 years 135 days. The previous record-holders, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, were married from January 6, 1945 until her death on April 17, 2018: 73 years 101 days. The current longest-married presidential couple are Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were married on October 11, 1975.

Following Carter’s death, there are now five living presidents: Bill Clinton (1993–2001), George W. Bush (2001–09), Barack Obama (2009–17), Donald Trump (2017–21), and Joe Biden (2021– ).

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in 2016.

Barry N. Malzberg (1939-2024)

~ ianrandalstrock ~ 1 Comment

Late last night, I learned that Barry N. Malzberg had died. Born July 24, 1939, he was a writer and editor. His daughter, Erika, wrote: “My dad passed away this evening, around 4:30pm. My sister had been with him for a few hours and I was just getting back after having visited with my mother. He took his last breath almost the moment I arrived. It was very, very peaceful and we are so grateful.”

His fiction was ground-breaking and seemingly everywhere moments after he started publishing (his first science fiction story, “We’re Coming Through the Window,” was published in the August 1967 issue of Galaxy), but I’ll probably remember him more for his non-fiction: his essays on science fiction, literature, and the people in the field, which was his stock-in-trade for the last couple of decades.

I remember Barry as a fixture at the science fiction conventions I attended when I first got into the field, but I never really got to know him: there were too many bright and shiny new things and people clamoring for my attention for me to seek out the austere, somewhat foreboding looking fellow he was. Now, reading the reminiscences of so many of my friends, I’m realizing just how much I missed out by not getting to know him better. Rather than trying to recapitulate them, I commend to you posts on Facebook by John Kessel (https://www.facebook.com/john.kessel3), Adam-Troy Castro (https://www.facebook.com/adamtroycastro), and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (https://www.facebook.com/kristinekathrynrusch). I’m sure there will be more in the coming days.

He was nominated for a dozen Hugo and Nebula Awards, and his novel Beyond Apollo won the inaugural John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1973. His nonfiction works won two Locus Awards: The Engines of the Night (1983), and Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium (2008), and I was pleased and honored to publish his third volume, The Bend at the End of the Road (2018).

T. Jackson King (1948-2024)

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just learned of the death of Thomas King, Jr., who wrote as several dozen books as T. Jackson King, on December 3, at the age of 76. In his last post on Facebook, dated November 24, he wrote:

Sorry for the delay on AI SURVIVAL [his planned next novel]. 2024 has been traumatic for me. Wife divorced me. Coping with Diabetes and Asthma. Now diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure! Still hanging in there. Planning to write on the novel come Jan. 1, 2025. Thanks for being loyal readers! Tom. FYI, Readers can contact me via email. Or visit my Facebook page for T. Jackson King. Tom.

His YA novel, Little Brother’s World, was one of the first original books I accepted for Fantastic Books. In 2014, we launched his novel The Memory Singer at Balticon, which is when I met him in real life (whence the attached picture; apparently I didn’t get a picture of the two of us together). I think that convention was the only time we were physically in the same space together, but he seemed to relish life, taking great joy from whatever he was doing. And his tales of his life beyond the walls of the convention hotel seemed to reflect that, too.

He was much more than just a science fiction writer, but it’s probably easiest to let him tell that story (this is his biography from his web site, https://www.tjacksonking.com/):

T. Jackson King (Tom) is a professional archaeologist and journalist. He writes hard science fiction, anthropological sci-fi, dark fantasy/horror and contemporary fantasy/magic realism—but that didn’t happen until he was 38.

Before then, college years spent in Paris and in Tokyo led Tom into antiwar activism, hanging out with some Japanese hippies and learning how often governments lie to their citizens. The latter lesson led him and a college buddy to publish the Shinjuku Sutra English language underground tabloid in Japan in 1967. That was followed by helping shut down the University of Tennessee at Knoxville campus in 1968 and a bus trip to Washington, D.C., for the Second March on Washington where thousands demanded an end to the Vietnam War.

Temporary sanity returned when Tom worked in a radiocarbon lab at UC Riverside and earned an MA degree in Archaeology from UCLA. His interests in ancient history, ancient cultures and journalism got him several government agency jobs that paid the bills, led him to roam the raw landscape of the Western United States, and helped him and his wife Leslee raise three kids.

A funny thing happened on the way to normality. By the time he was 38 and doing federal arky work in Colorado, Tom’s first novel Star Traders was a stage play in his head that wouldn’t go away. So he wrote it down. It got rejected. His next novel was published as Retread Shop (Warner Books, 1988). It was off to the writing races and Tom’s many voyages of imaginative discovery have led to 24 published novels, a book of poetry, and a conviction that when Humans reach the stars, we will find them crowded with space-going Aliens. We will be the New Kids On The Block! This theme appears in much of Tom’s short fiction and novel writing.

Tom lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and hangs with a group of smart and tolerant Westerners. Divorce has taught him to smile a lot and to work at being a Nice Guy. Still, he is pretty weird. Has been since fourth grade when he began reading sci-fi. Since then, he and Authority have rarely been in agreement.

Donald Trump Sure Can’t Pick ’em

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Thinking about Donald Trump’s choices of appointees for his upcoming administration.

His supposed business acumen apparently doesn’t extend into the realm of choosing the right people to do the jobs. I mean, look at all the people he’s hired and then fired. Uppermost in my mind at the moment is Christopher Wray, who he hired as Director of the FBI. Wray is resigning coincident with the end of Joe Biden’s term because Trump has made it quite clear that if he stays, Trump will fire him—even though the job has a ten-year term to keep it out of the political realm (see former director James Comey’s commentary in this article). And Trump keeps bad-mouthing Jerome Powell, who he appointed chair of the Federal Reserve in 2018, which similarly is supposed to be above politics.

Fair warning: I initially thought Trump had fired far more Cabinet secretaries than he has. But these numbers don’t take into account other appointees, aides, and advisors, such as White House Communications Director, Press Secretary, lawyers, and so on.

During the first Trump administration, he fired four Cabinet secretaries (three others resigned under suspicion of ethics violations or misuse of funds) and two chiefs of staff. In fact, he had 24 Secretaries and five Acting Secretaries lead the 15 Cabinet departments.

By way of comparison, only two of Biden’s Cabinet secretaries left office in the middle of the term (one to become Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, the other to leave public life).

So Trump does have a track record for picking people who won’t stick around too long (either by their choice or his).

For a historical perspective, when I wrote The Presidential Book of Lists, I also looked at presidential cabinets. At that time, Theodore Roosevelt topped the list for the president who had the greatest number of people serve in one cabinet post: he had six Secretaries of the Navy during his seven and a half years in office. Three others (and TR himself) had five people serve in one post: Andrew Jackson (Secretary of the Treasury), John Tyler (Secretary of the Navy), Ulysses Grant (Secretary of War and Attorney General), and Theodore Roosevelt (Postmaster General). Trump joined the list with five Attorneys General (two confirmed, and three acting). He and Tyler are the only ones to do it in single four-year terms.

I also looked at the presidents who had the greatest number of people serve in their cabinets. That list naturally skewed toward the more recent Presidents because the size of the Cabinet has changed over time, from the four officers who served Washington (Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, and Attorney General) to the 15 who currently serve. Harry S Truman topped the list with 34 Cabinet officers, an average of 3.4 per department. Ronald Reagan was right behind him, with 33 Cabinet officers (2.5 per department; only one of his Secretaries served the full eight-year term). Tied for third were Richard Nixon (31 Cabinet officers, 2.6 per department) and George W. Bush (31 Cabinet officers, 2.2 per department—the Department of Homeland Security was created during his term). Tied for fifth place were Theodore Roosevelt (29 Cabinet officers, 3.2 per department) and Bill Clinton (29 Cabinet officers, 2.1 per department—four of Clinton’s Cabinet officers served out his entire eight-year term). Now we can add Donald Trump’s first term to that tie.

To take account of the growing number of Cabinet departments, I also calculated the number of officers per Cabinet department (and then split the list between one-term and two-term presidents). Topping the list of those serving two terms was Ulysses Grant (3.6 officers per department—25 Secretaries, 7 departments). Tied for second were James Madison (3.2—16 Secretaries, five departments), Andrew Jackson (19 Secretaries, six departments), Theodore Roosevelt (29 Secretaries, nine departments), and Harry Truman (34 Secretaries, 10 departments). Topping the list of one-termers was John Tyler (3.5 officers per department—21 Secretaries, six departments). Next was Chester Arthur (2.4—17 Secretaries, seven departments). Third was Gerald Ford (2.1—23 Secretaries, 11 departments). Fourth was James Buchanan (2.0—14 Secretaries, 7 departments). And then Andrew Johnson (1.86—13 Secretaries, 7 departments). Donald Trump joined the list slightly ahead of Johnson (1.93 officers per department—29 Secretaries, 15 departments).

Only four Presidents served their terms without replacing any Cabinet officers: William Henry Harrison (admittedly, he died one month after being inaugurated), Zachary Taylor (died sixteen months into his term), Franklin Pierce (the only President to have served a full term with his original Cabinet), and James Garfield (died six months into his term).

[Edited several hours after posting to add:] A friend asked: How did you count those Secretaries who resigned in the wake of the events of January 6, 2021.

I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t. Skipped right over them. However, I did count Attorney General William Barr’s resignation on December 23.

Other than Barr:
* Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao resigned January 11, 2021.
* Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos resigned January 8, 2021.
* Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf resigned January 11, 2021. In his resignation letter, he cited “recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary.” Two days after he resigned, Wolf said that Trump was partly responsible for the storming of the Capitol.

The reason I left them out of my analysis is that their resignations did not result in new Secretaries or even acting Secretaries. Their workloads were picked up by the deputies, who were never appointed to the Secretary’s position.

Thanks for catching that oversight.

Future Boston

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

A press release from Fantastic Books:

Fantastic Books is pleased to bring the Future Boston series back into print.

First appearing in 1994, this four-book cycle tells the history of New England’s most populous city from 1990 to 2100. In those years, Boston is slowly sinking into the sea. The citizens of Boston plan a revolution against the governments of Earth. Alien races occupy the city and must decide if the human race deserves full galactic citizenship—or total destruction.

The mosaic novel Future Boston is the sweeping saga of a handful of dreamers—artists and scientists, scufflers and survivors, revolutionaries and thieves—who dream of a new society as their ancestors did before them. From slums to Brahmin boardrooms, Future Boston is a rich mosaic of history and human drama, as real as the great metropolis that inspired it. It features the work of Jon Burrowes, Alexander Jablokov, Geoffrey Landis, Resa Nelson, Steven Popkes, David Alexander Smith, and Sarah Smith.

Publishers Weekly called it “Adventure-filled… a wealth of evocative detail.… The real star is a painstakingly constructed future Boston,” while Locus said “Future Boston is more than the sum of its parts—and its parts are very good.”

Following Future Boston is Jon Burrowes’ novel Vubré the Great, in which a space ship breaks down, and the aliens check into little old Motel-o Earth-o to see if they can find a new conduction bolt for their night-drive. And the next thing you know, alien technology and ideas are erasing the cultures of Earth forever.

In David Alexander Smith’s In the Cube, private detective Beverly O’Meara is paired with Akktry, a small, sharp-clawed animal that has an inhuman affinity with the past and an ability to recreate the history of any place or person from the remains of the present. They’re on the trail of Diana Sherwood, the missing daughter of the most powerful—and hated—woman in sinking Boston. Unfortunately, that trail leads straight into the Basement, the oldest, lowest, most dangerous part of Boston. The part below sea level. The part you can down in…

Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author James Patrick Kelly said “In the Cube is David Alexander Smith’s best book.… Not only do his humans live and breathe, but he has drawn some of the strangest and most convincing aliens you’ll ever meet.”

Rounding out the series is Steven Popkes’ Slow Lightning, in which Ira and Gray find an egg on an abandoned ferryboat. It’s wrinkled, with smears of red and yellow, and bigger than a basketball. They’re not sure why it’s there, only that it must have been left there on purpose.

Science fiction Grand Master Poul Anderson said “Slow Lightning does a remarkable job of conveying the sheer strangeness of the universe and the future.”

Future Boston
Edited by David Alexander Smith
ISBN: 978-1-5154-5823-4
$17.99, 328 pages, trade paperback; $7.99 ebook

Vubré the Great
by Jon Burrowes
ISBN: 978-1-5154-5824-1
$16.99, 256 pages, trade paperback; $7.99 ebook

In the Cube
by David Alexander Smith
ISBN: 978-1-5154-5825-8
$16.99, 242 pages, trade paperback; $7.99 ebook

Slow Lightning
by Steven Popkes
ISBN: 978-1-5154-8526-1
$12.99, 124 pages, trade paperback; $6.99 ebook

The Future Boston series—and all Fantastic Books books—are distributed via Ingram. Review copies are available upon request.

Book Birthday!

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

I’m so excited!

Today is publication day for my first fiction collection, Wandering Through Time!

I’ve been writing short fiction and being professionally published for a long time, but now, finally, I’ve collected those stories which appear in magazines and anthologies into a collection all my own. I’ve also written introductions for each story, to tell the reader a little about my writing process, and show from whence come the ideas behind them.

Today, I’m hoping all my friends, fans, and followers will do me the huge favor of sharing this post, to help me spread the word. Thank you!

I asked my friend and mentor Stanley Schmidt, who was the editor of Analog from 1978 to 2012, to give me a blurb for the collection. He read it, and then wrote “The short-short story is one of the hardest kinds of fiction to pull off, and few since Fredric Brown have done it as often or as well as Ian Randal Strock. But that’s not all he does. Wandering Through Time displays a delightful diversity of his thought-provoking ideas and engaging storytelling.”

His successor at Analog, Trevor Quachri, who also buys my stories for publication, wrote “This is the kind of classic, clever idea-oriented SF you’d find in the Golden Age, but built for today. Recommended for your witty friends, history buffs, time-travel fans, and anyone curious for a peek behind the curtain at magazine publishing.”

Hugo Award-winner Robert J. Sawyer offered these kind words: “Ian Randal Strock is a literal genius—a card-carrying member of Mensa—and his intellect shines through on every page of this fabulous collection. From the man who helped steer Analog for many years comes this wonderful sampler of just the sort of stories I love to read.”

And Andrew Andrews at True Review reviewed the book and wrote: “Ian Randal Strock is the Harry Turtledove of short-short SF. His alternate-history stories have punch. The take on a geographically divided America in the time of the Civil War rings strongly in ‘Shall Not Perish from the Earth.’ I think it’s Strock’s best tale. In ‘The Necessary Enemy,’ it’s always wars, it seems, that drive humankind’s progress and destiny. ‘Rockefeller on the Rocks’ proves that unique tales, true or not, of U.S. vice presidents could perhaps work, with sufficiently advanced technology. Why can’t we replace veeps with robots? Who would know?”

Again, thank you for all your support over the years, and for helping me spread the word to feel even more like a real writer today!

Tales of Fortannis

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Adventure! Drama! Mystery! Humor!

Author Michael A. Ventrella introduced the world of Fortannis in his well-received comic fantasy adventure series following the exploits of Terin Ostler. Now Editor Michael A. Ventrella opens the doors to the kingdom by inviting other authors to play in Fortannis, and the result is the wonderful new anthology Tales of Fortannis.

Some of the stories are simply amusing, some tragic, and others heartwarming. Taken together, they give us a picture of a living, immense world which can cover the span of human (and biata, dwarf, elf, ogre, and goblin…) endeavor and passion.

Contributing authors: Derek Beebe, Susan Bianculli, Dominic Bowers-Mason, W. Adam Clarke, Jon Cory, Tera Fulbright, Jesse Grabowski, Christine L. Hardy, Henry “The Mad” Hart, Jesse Hendrix, Miles Lizak, Mark Mensch, Bernie Mojzes, Beth Patterson, Sarah Stegall, and Mike Strauss.

“A wild and weird collection of fantasy stories that present some of the freshest writing around. Derring-do with a great sense of fun. Highly recommended.” —New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry

“You don’t need to know the background material to enjoy the range of stories from the talespinners assembled here. It has plenty of adventures that end with a twist that leave you shaking your head in pleased surprise.” —Jody Lynn Nye, author of Dragon’s Deal

Tales of Fortannis
edited by Michael A. Ventrella
$15.99, trade paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-5154-5829-6
$5.99 ebook

Tales of Fortannis—and all Fantastic Books publications—are distributed through Ingram, and available through all major online retailers and specialty sf shops via direct order from the publisher. And don’t miss the previous four books: Terin Ostler and the Arch Enemies (ISBN: 978-1-5154-2417-8), Terin Ostler and the War of the Words (ISBN: 978-1-5154-2418-5), Terin Ostler and the Axes of Evil (ISBN: 978-1-5154-4776-4), and Terin Ostler and the Zombie King (and Other Stories) (ISBN: 978-1-5154-4781-8). Review copies are available upon request.

Science fiction convention (twelfth of 2024)

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Next Friday I’ll be at Philcon, which is my last scheduled convention of the year. Last! (For those of you counting along at home, I’ve already been to eleven sf conventions and seven Mensa conventions, and that’s not counting meetings, speeches, and more personal out-of-town trips.)

If you’re looking for me at Philcon (in Cherry Hill, New Jersey), I will, as always, be spending a lot of time at the Fantastic Books table in the dealers’ room. But I’m also on programming. You’ll be able to see me at:

Friday at 7:00pm in Grand Ballroom: “Whose Line, SFF Style!” with Melody Cryptid, Randee Dawn, Odele Pax, Michael A. Ventrella, and Abigail Welsher.

Friday at 9:00pm in Crystal 3: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Con” with Tony Finan, Brian T. Price, Roberta Rogow, and Michael A. Ventrella.

Saturday at 12:00n in Plaza 5: “Remembering Tom Purdom” with Barbara Purdom, Mark Roth-Whitworth, and Michael Swanwick.

Saturday at 6:00pm in Plaza 5: “How to Write a Cover Letter for Your Novel” with Ken Altabef, Isabel J. Kim, and David Walton.

Hoping to see many of you there, because I don’t have another convention scheduled for more than two months.

Science fiction convention (eleventh of 2024)

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

I neglected to mention that this weekend is a convention, but it’s not like my typical sf convention. This weekend, I’ll be at Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This is a much bigger (than my usual) media convention, with a much greater focus on the media guests of honor, on the dealers’ room, on costuming, and somewhat less emphasis on programming. In fact, I’ll be at the Fantastic Books table all weekend, and not on programming. I was there in June and had a good time, so I’m looking forward to even more this weekend. Come, join us!