A poster on one of my Armadillocon photo threads said that Joe Domenici, former co-owner of Houston specialty SF bookstore Future Visions, and more recently a thriller writer living here in Austin (his first novel, Bringing Back the Dead, came out in 2008) died on Tuesday. Sadly, the news has been confirmed in the Statesman obituaries. I had known he was hospitalized with pneumonia during Armadillocon (Mike had gotten a call full of hacking coughs apologizing for not being at the con), and I knew he smoked, but I hadn’t heard he had died until just now.
This is sad news, as Joe was a swell guy, always ready to talk about authors and books, and I bought my share of books from him back in the Future Visions days. I had seen him just a couple of weeks ago at the Recycled Reads book sale, and had bought more books off him when he had a book sale in his own apartment (just across Lamar from the main Half Price Books) a few months ago.
According to the Statesman he was only 49.
RIP, Joe.
🙁
Really sorry to hear this. Joe was always a big supporter of my work and a terrifically nice guy. This is just wrong.
Books don’t fly today on thier paper wings
And Stefnal muses in muted tones sing
I will mourn among Joe-acquired treasures
And my endless shelves are sadder in their measure
A great guy, may he Rest as he needs and Move as he wills.
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I was just hit upside the head with the news of Joe’s death. Joe and I sat on opposite sides of the fence in politics (and agreed not to talk about such things) but books were our passionate subject of discussion. We only saw each other infrequently but he was kind enough to let me know he had put me in his new book. And he knew darn well I would carry it then even though I don’t generally do ;thrillers. I loved talking (arguing) with him and I’ll miss him a lot.
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