Archive for December, 2013

Library Addition: A [Gene] Wolfe Family Album

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

I’ve been busy and have gotten slightly behind in cataloging books that have come in. In the interests “some content is better than no content,” I’m going to catalog the more interesting ones one at a time until I catch up with the backlog.

Up first: One of the few Gene Wolfe chapbooks I didn’t already own:

Wolfe, Gene. A Wolfe Family Album. United Mythologies Press, 1991. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Signed by Gene Wolfe. Chapbook of mostly Wolfe family photos, evidently issued with the hardback edition of Letters Home (which I’ve owned for some time, but which didn’t come with the chapbooks when I bought it).

Wolfe Family Album

Photos from the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon

Monday, December 9th, 2013

I knew that dealing books at Worldcon would eat up a lot of time, but I had no idea just how much time it would take me to not only get all the books back on the shelf, but to catch up on everything I set aside while getting ready for, then recovering from, Worldcon.

Which explains why I’m just now putting up the pictures I took there. Here are the handful of pictures I took at Worldcon that came out decent.

Clotheshorse that she is, the lovely and talented Gail Carriger kicks off our review with the first of three outfits I managed to photograph.

P1000047

A second.

P1000065

And a third.

And here’s the same outfit she insisted I snap with her own camera. “You’ve got to include the shoes!”

P1000034

Stina Leicht, sitting next to me at the Rayguns Over Texas event at the San Antonio Library.

P1000035

Scott Cupp and Josh Rountree at the same event. The other photos I took there came out crappy.

P1000039

Bookseller and con chair Mike Walsh.

P1000043

Lou Antonelli channels Flavor-Flav.

P1000044

Howard Waldrop and Eileen Gunn, just before Howard went three rounds with a concrete step.

P1000066

And here’s Howard just after that bout.

P1000046

Andrew Porter, now free of the terrible burden of publishing a semi-prozine.

P1000048

Pat Murphy, back again.

P1000050

Ex-NASA employee Al Jackson.

P1000051

Ex-Austinite Maureen McHugh.

P1000052

Kim Stanley Robinson, back from whatever frozen locale he’s visiting this time. Possibly Iapetus.

P1000054

Gardner Dozois at full rant.

P1000055

Gardner Dozois at full rest. The two modes are deceptively similar.

P1000058

In 2012, Pat Cadigan asked me to take down one of her pictures. So this year I made sure that this picture with Robert Silverberg was 100% flattering.

P1000059

I think this is a very good picture of Dwight Brown.

P1000060

Rich Simental, who spent much of the con in his room working on a completely different con.

P1000062

Ben Yalow. Or possibly one of those hundreds of Ben Yalow impersonators you hear so much about.

P1000067

Max Merriwell, in a very clever diusguise.

David Kyle

David Kyle, who I think has passed the late Forrest J. Ackerman for Most Worldcons Attended.

I’m sorry that I didn’t get pictures of Alastair Reynolds, David Brin, Jack McDevitt, Joe and Joy Haldeman, and Lois McMaster Bujold (among others I missed), who were all kind enough to come by the Lame Excuse Books booth.

Shoegazer Sunday: Eluvium’s “Don’t Get Any Closer”

Sunday, December 8th, 2013

I was in the mood for mellow, and Eluvium‘s “Don’t Get Any Closer” (which has a definite ambient film score tinge to it) fits the mellow bill.

Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark

Friday, December 6th, 2013

Thanks to the keen eye of SF Signal’s John DeNardo, we have word that the auteurs at The Asylum or offering their homage to Terror of MechaGodzilla: Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark.

It looks like pretty much everything we’ve come to expect from The Asylum…

Library Additions: Dan Robertson’s The Ideal, Genuine Man inscribed by Stephen King

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

While it’s gotten much harder to find undiscovered gems in used bookstores thanks to the Internet, there are still bargains to be had if you know what you’re looking for.

Take, for example, this:

Robertson, Dan. The Ideal, Genuine Man. Philtrum Press, 1987. Second Printing of the first edition hardback (numberline starting with 2 and “Distributed by the Putnam Group” on the copyright page), a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a slight indention and 1/16″ closed tear along spine. Signed by Robertson and inscribed by introduction author Stephen King: “1/29/88” then further down: “To Lady Pat and/Sir Barr/all best,/Stephen King”//.

Ideal Genuine

Ideal Genuine Sig

Friends tell me that King used to regularly attend SCA events on the east coast (which is where his cameo in Knightriders came from), and the inscription suggests that this might have been inscribed to someone King knew in that context.

Philtrum Press, of course, is Stephen King’s own press, and he did initially tour with Robertson (a writer King long admired) to promote the book. So I always check copies when I come across them. This one I found at the Half Price Books on outer Westheimer in Houston for $18, minus roughly 25% off thanks to a coupon for the day after Thanksgiving.

This is, I think, the 6th book signed Stephen King book in my library, but the first I’ve found cheap in a used bookstore…