I’ve been home for more than a week, so I guess it’s time for another convention. This weekend, it’s Chicago Area Mensa’s HalloweeM Regional Gathering (in Wheeling). Since it’s not a science fiction convention, there’s no dealers’ room, so it’ll mostly be not-work for me, but if you’re looking for me, I will be participating in the “Meet Your National Board of Directors (AMC)” session Friday at 10:30am in the Elm Room. And then I’ll be giving a special presentation on “The Eye of Argon” that same day, at 5:30pm in the Willow Room. Other than those two scheduled events, I expect I’ll be hanging out in Hospitality or Games, and of course at the Costume Contest and Pretentious Drinking, and out and about. Hope to see all you Mensans there!
Cut loose the Trumpians
Watching the Keystone Kops routine in the House of Representatives as the Republican “party” tries to elect a Speaker, is it finally time for them to admit they are no longer a party, but a coalition? It sure seems to me like it’s time for the Republicans to cut loose the Trumpian party and admit they do not have a majority, that the Democrats currently have a plurality in the House. Then the Republicans could negotiate a coalition government with the Democrats, who are actually willing to govern, as most of the Republicans are, and cut out the Trumpians who only want to watch it all burn.
DC convention next weekend
Convention weekend: I’ll be at Capclave in Gaithersburg, Maryland, September 29 to October 1. It’s a smaller, powerful convention that tends to focus on short fiction.
If you’re looking for me, I will be (as always) tethered to the Fantastic Books table in the dealers’ room (open Friday from 3 to 6pm, Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and Sunday from 10am to 2pm).
I’ll also be on programming
Friday at 5:30 pm in the Wilson room: “Exquisite Corpse Writing Challenge” with Hildy Silverman, Richard Peter Haviland Sparks, and Mary G. Thompson
Friday at 7:00 pm in the Washington Theater: “Anthology Builder” with Neil Clarke, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Mike McPhail, Neil Clarke, and Alex Shvartsman
Friday at 10:00 pm in the Wilson room: “The Writer’s Toolkit” with Ken Altabef, Morgan Hazelwood, Mike McPhail, and Adeena Mignogna
Saturday at 10:00 pm in the Washington Theater: “The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian” with Hildy Silverman, Michael A. Ventrella, and perhaps some other special guest
Albacon this weekend
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
Sorry 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
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
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
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
We 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
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?
Ian Randal Strock 