“Yesterday a German news station had a major image fail. While covering the US Navy SEALs operation to kill Osama bin Laden they mistook a Star Trek fan-made emblem for the Maquis for the actual SEAL Team Six emblem.”
Evidently the Klingon skull and bat’leth blades simply weren’t a sufficient giveaway…
Vaguely related: Star Wars Propaganda posters.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
The Locus Foundation. Sorry I missed that after I posted the original story, though at least one emailer told me that the bidders would do right by the estate.
Though I could probably think of a few other buyers who could do as good a job, certainly the Locus Foundation should do right by Lafferty.
As previously mentioned, I attended the World Horror Convention here in Austin, where I moderated a panel with William F. Nolan. I cheekily had him sign some books while I was on the panel (all in good fun), but the real treat was grabbing several more signatures during the mass signing, as he likes to do drawings when signing. Here’s an example (or at least as much as would fit on the scanner) of the art he put on the blank page of “The Final Stone,” his story in Dennis Etchison’s Landmark Cutting Edge horror anthology:
Click to embiggen.
Thanks Bill!
I picked the following up at a Heritage Auction:
Heinlein, Robert A. Assignment in Eternity. Fantasy Press, 1953. First edition hardback, first state Currey A binding (brick red cloth, with six gilt bands on spine, and with “Heinlein” 3mm high), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
I started fairly late to acquire a complete collection of Robert A. Heinlein in first edition, but I’m working on it…
One of the things the WordPress stats package shows you is which Google search terms people use to reach your site. It is my suspicion that whoever was searching for “pictures of a person’s dick” was most likely bitterly disappointed at these scans of my Philip K. Dick first editions…
Blogging has been a bit light as of late because I was finishing up my taxes and then cleaning my house in advance of a party, the two of which have eaten up almost all my previously spare time.
I will be attending the World Horror Convention here in Austin next week. In fact, I’ll be moderating a panel:
Horror Without Stephen King
1:00 PM Saturday, April 30 – Phoenix Central
Jack Ketchum, Lawrence Person (M), Del Howison, William Nolan, Rocky Wood, Bev Vincent
Stephen King is the undisputed grandmaster of modern horror. But what if he had never lived, or went right to publishing literary fiction without ever writing a single scary story. What would the field look like today without the man from Maine? Would there even be a horror genre as we know it?
William F. Nolan has been writing since before I was born. He was also good friends with Chad Oliver, the late, great dean of Austin science fiction writers. I”m sure he has many an interesting story to tell.
I’ll also be part of the big group book signing at 7:30 PM on Saturday, though I’m sure I’ll get more signatures than I give…
You may have noticed that I’m a fan of William Shatner. I’m not so much of a fan of his music (or his direction; William Shatner still owes me $3.50 for Star Trek V); in fact, putting on a copy of The Transformed Man is a good way to clear out a room after a party. But Shatner being Shatner, that hasn’t stopped him, and he’s now putting out a new album.
A few notes:
He can’t sing, but Shatner has pretty good taste in music. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Peter Shilling’s “Major Tom,” “Iron Man,” tasty tracks one and all.
He also has lined up some pretty big names to help him out. Check out this list:
That’s not a lineup of sidemen, that’s the roster of a major benefit concert.
This is pretty much obligatory:
He actually lists exactly how much he made off the e-books edition of his short story collections Tides from the New Worlds (which, I should point out, I have one print copy of left over at Lame Excuse Books). His conclusion as a solid mid-list writer: You’re not going to get rich. Also, the magic 99¢ price point isn’t necessarily the profit-maximization point.
This was also pretty discouraging: “Collections are hard to sell in print, and I know from some discussions that many collections sell for $500 – $1,000 advances to medium or small presses, if you can sell them at all.” I know that short story collections aren’t going to make anyone rich, but I that that anyone who could actually sell a short story collection to serious small press (Subterranean, Golden Gryphon, PS Publishing, etc.) would be able to garner a (still paltry) $3,000-5,000 advance.
This time it was Peter Watts and Paolo Bacigalupi’s turn in the barrel. Link Updated
My many previous April 1 offerings include:
There’s a lot to like on George’s list, such as having Forbidden Planet as the number one film. I disagree with him on how well Star Wars holds up, but it’s still a pretty credible list.