That there is a Michele Wilson cover! I love her stuff, and Im so glad that she gets so much my way.

Mo Starkey was kind enough to take the image and set it up as a cover for me! Shes an absolute star, no? That pun was, almost, completely intended. So, Mo Starkey is Art Director for this one! OK, this issue has 2 Steve Stiles images! Gotta love that1 Whens he getting his Hugo? Thats one right there! A man who has saved kitties from Fires, has donated ferrets to orphanages, who has tamed the Nubian Lion on the Plains of North America! The man deserves a Rocket to use as the paperweight for his pile of commendations for Meritous Service! Now, theres a lot to talk about. Turns out Ill be working the Napa Valley Film Festival in November. Love me some film festival! Im going to be running the Wine Tent in Calistoga! Cant go wrong with that! Theres my look at ConQuesT, a couple of LoCs, and theres art! Thats this issue. Not a big one, but one Im looking forward to putting out because Ive been falling off schedule more and more often. I gotta get back into the rhythm. Were doing the Hugo Award for Best Novel issue for Westercon, and theres gonna be at least two more issues between now and then! Not to mention my issue of Claims Department about the music of The Smiths. I love the Smiths, and it took The Smiths Project by Janice Whaley to make me realise exactly how much. its been tied into much of my life. Its gonna be one of those Giant Garciazines that no one actually reads, but I will be printing and mailing a few out, probably give some away at Westercon. Its looking like 80 or so pages. What else is there? Oh yeah, Im currently loving the few booksIve been able to start reading.Theres a great Psych novel (more on that later) and a couple of Non-Fiction Things (including The Science Fiction Reboot, which Ill be writing more about, probably in the next issue) and a couple of J. Daniel Sawyer books. Theyre really enjoyable! Also, all my Bay Area Sports Teams in the Playoffs are no longer in The Playoffs. Warriors did great, if they can keep the team together, theyll do well the next few years. The Sharks... well, they went 7 with the Kings and then they dropped off. Sad, but theyre always at least something of a contender! ALso, Ive been watching One Life to Live. Its my Soap Opera, has been for ages. Id watch Aussie Rules Football on ESPN 2 at noon, then at 1 turn over to ABC for One Life. Its back after ABC cancelled it in 2011. They brought it back on Hulu and Im so excited. They show two new episodes a week, and it works. They can swear now, and it seems like the writers just discovered the word shit as they use it all the time. Actually, there are several instances where the swearing actually helps, which can be rare.

A Series of BBQ Reviews Masquerading as a ConQuesT Report

Kansas City. I love it. Its a city built around BBQ. Thats not true, obviously, but its also a MAJOR industry, it seems, and so on my trip to KC for ConQuesT, its what Ill write about most. Because Thats what I do! Of course, a city with a Con that is having you as a Guest of Honor for the weekend is instantly going to get some extra love from ya! Ive been lucky, Ive been Fan GoH 4 times (in Chicago, Minneapolis, Toronto, and now Kansas City), and the best part isnt just that theyll fly you out and put you up, but its that youre given a bit of a star-turn on a big fun stage. So, we got in on Wednesday and Eric Orth got us at the airport and we had our first meal at a place in KC called Shoneys. They do burgers and sammiches, which is what Linda had, and I had the tiny miracles: Fried Cheese Curd. Now, I usually enjoy my cheese curd melting over Fries and under Gravy, but these were AWESOME! They still have a bit of squeak to em, and dippin em in BBQ sauce was nice.They were a bit heavy, but its Cheese, so what you gonna do? After that, Linda and I watched a little Castle, then the BBQ began! Jesi Pershing led the way, and various others joined up.There was Keri OBrien, who I only knew as a name on an eMail string, and Jeff Orth, who was actually putting us up for the night. James Murray showed up, and I LOVE Jim. Hes the worst punster in the world* (* - Glenn Glazer gives him a run for his money) and there was also Jo, who I know on Facebook as Mutha Hydra. Shes from the UK and is an absolute RIOT! We had those hilariously dark conversations that allow me to go all blue, as well as surreal, and it was a blast. Of course, I stayed up too late, had a little bit to drink, but

got to enjoy the Pork that Jeff had been preparing for the Con Suite. Oh. My. Ghod. Now. Ive had BBQ all over the world, in just about every potential form, and this was some of the best Ive ever eaten. It was powerfully smoked, had enough bite of the wood to give it the distinctive Kansas City bark. Its why KC is just bout the only place you find the menu option of Burnt Ends. They are impressive. The sauce was Arthur Bryants bottled, as I understand it, and it only needed a hint of it to give it a bit more over-tones.We had a great evening before the night was done. Also, Jo mixes a helluva a Gin & Tonic. So, the night ends, the next day brings us our precon traditions: museums and meals. Whenever Ive been a GoH, or if weve decided to make a trip to a con thats out of town, we always have a day to go to the museums and tourist attractions of the city were visiting. In this case, there were two museums I had to get to: The National Negro Leagues Museum and the American Jazz Museum. Luckily, theyre in the same building, a part of the 18th & Vine Jazz District, right across from the GEM Theatre, which still has the original sign and whatnot. Its a nice part of town, though at points they put up fake facades to mimic oldtimey building fronts and these were starting to show their age. Now, we got there early, but we had not had breakfast, and it was after 10am, so I convinced Linda to walk over to one of the places Id been told was the Best BBQ in Kansas City: Arthur Bryants. It was a nice walk through a semiindustrial-esque part of town, but it was only 3 or 4 blocks aways.We got there and the place was deserted, so much so that we wondered if it was open until I tried the door and walked in. Now, this is not an upscale joint. The window where you order reminded me of nothing so much as a Fourth of July Fireworks stand (buy one, get five free!) and we walked

up and ordered.The Lovely & Talented Linda had a Pulled Pork Sammich, which I had a slab of ribs. My Ghod, the ribs First off, they did not bother with a plate. They just set the slab of ribs, mound of pickles and bread right on the lunch tray. Thankfully, they put Lindas on a plate. I took it back to a table in a little niche in the far wall, just big enough for two at the table. I dug in, as Linda sampled her fries (which she declared Not Great). The Ribs were perfect, even without sauce. The bark was there, they were just fatty enough, they had immense flavor and texture. It was ideal. They had three sauces. The Sweet and Spicy was OK, but certainly not spicy. The Hot and Spicy was not spicy, and the regular was so full of flavour that I nearly passed out. So very damn hell ass good! I couldnt quite finish the rack, so I gave a rib to Linda, and she is the cutest when shes eating Ribs! I was very happy and very full. We went to the museums, starting with the Negro Leagues Museum, which was very nice in a late 1990s sort of way. It was very much a Colourful Text Panels against the walls with a few cases sorta museum, which was the way folks were doing things back then. It makes a lot of sense youre thinking that youre going to have to move them, because its not a whole lot of work to move that kind of set-up. They chose a very bright color pallet and a lot of video. They were careful to put historic context in with the baseball stuff, which was nice. And while they did mention the House of David Baseball

Team, and the Mexican and Cuban and Japanese Leagues, they were careful to point out that only Black players were banned from baseball. This is certainly not true, ALL non-white players (with the possible exception of Mexicans and a few Cubans) were not in the Bigs until after Jackie Robinson. They said that Blacks formed their own leagues and were the only ones who did so. On the West Coast, there were Japanese Leagues, largely Semi-Pro, that played up and down the coast. A few of these lasted until the 1960s! Still, the material they had was great, and the looming presence of Bock ONeil, an incredibly important figure to the History of American Baseball, figured prominently. The Jazz Museum was a bit of a disappointment, but also had some incredible stuff. it was set-up as a series of pods dedicated to an individual figure: Charlie Parker, Duke

Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, though they also had a more general section that talked a lot more about concepts; rhythm, horns, melody, etc. That section was largely done via audio, and that stuff tends to break down, and in several parts it was broken stuff. That happens. Still, hardly any love for some of the figures that I consider to be among the most important in Jazz. There were none of the Avant Garde, which was sad. Folks like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, as well as Earl Fatha Hines, Eubie Blake, Django Rheinhart (OK, hes not American, but he influenced American Jazz greatly of the 1940s and 50s), Dave Brubeck, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, and on and on and on. Its hard, I know, to give everyone the attention they deserve, but they could have done a somewhat better job. One of the things they had was a touchscreen interactive with a bunch of Historical films. One of them was Bill Bojangles Robinson doing a call and response dance film which was GREAT! I watched it twice. After that, we had some time. Jeff had been telling us to go to the National World War I museum. To be honest, I wasnt that interested. Im not a big War History guy, and World War I was both the first Modern, and the last Traditional, war. The interesting thing about it was that had an amazing space, a HUGE monumental tower. We drove over there, paid admission, and walked through. Pretty Darn Glad I did! They have you walk over a glass bridge

with poppies underneath it. Theyre fake, Im pretty sure, but the connection to In Flanders Fields is obvious, and it was a nice touch. The museum itself had a TON of space, which allowed them to do three things I like. First LOTS of text. Everything is explained and theres lots of scene-setting done in text panels. Second, they do a lot of atmospheric stuff, like a recreation of trenches and a battle field with a multimedia presentation. Finally, theres a lot of interaction. They separate it into a European Side, and an American side. Its actually kinda Good Guys and Bad Guys, but not entirely. The interactive tables with all up and operational, though a bit difficult to operate. Still, lots of good stuff. AND TONS OF ARTIFACTS! There were cannons, and mortars, and swords, and shells, and uniforms, a tank, and

a few vehicles, and medals, and letters, and posters and on and on. These set the scene beautifully and were celebrated. All too often, museums that use lots of text and atmospherics forget about the power of the artifact, but not the National World War One museum! Very very well-done. When KC hosts the 2016 WorldCon, James Bacon NEEDS to see this place! After that, it was off to the Hotel.We checked in, hung around a bit, and then off to Gates for a BBQ dinner with the staff. Only the Toastmaster, Patricia Wrede, and I went of the GoHs, but a bunch of the staff was there. It was a lot of fun. And MY GHOD the BBQ! The spicy versions werent great, again hardly spicy at all, but the regular were spectacular. TONS of Flav-R.The meat was well-smoked, had a nice bark on it, and as I had the beef and ham, it was a HUGE portion on a sammich. It was delicious. Linda had the same sammich, but with sliced pork instead of Ham. it was equally huge and delicious. The conversation was awesome, and it was a nice start for the Con portion of the con. Yes, the Con is bigger than just the con. Linda and I then hung out in the

ConSuite, did a Crossword puzzle that included two word (Monotheism and Cockknocker) that we had brought up at the BBQ. It was fun! They had a really delicious queso dip in the ConSuite. This might have had the most food, and almost certainly the BEST, of any ConSuite I have ever been to of a con this size. It was awesome! Off to bed, kinda early sadly, and then it was morning and we ended up having breakfast with Joel Philips, one of my favorite people in the world! He was awesome and brought his son, the great artist Alec, with him. Sadly, the service at the Hotel Restaurant was slow slow slow. It took them about 30 minutes to get our order, early an hour for us to get our food. That said, the French Toast was pretty damn tasty. I mean, it was exactly what I like about French Toast, and it was coupled with crunchy bacon. Some find it crumbly, but thats exactly how I like it. After that, we got ready for the day. That started with hanging with our good buddy John Picacio. He was the Artist Guest of Honor at BayCon, and wed met a few times at WorldCons.

He was starting to hang his art in the Art Show and we gave him a hand. Hes such a great artist, easily my favorite of all the Pro Artists out there. We talked and he was showing some great art, most notably a Loteria Card that his new project, Loneboy, is doing. Its awesome stuff and I cant wait until the entire Loteria set is out there. We were having some time crunch, most notably I had three panels on Friday and not nearly enough time between them to get lunch, especially if the service at the Hotel Restaurant was going to be so slow. So, we put in an order for more Arthur Bryants! No question, great choice. The first panel I had was about the State of the Art, about cover and comics art, where John put together a slide show and George RR Martin, Pat Rothfuss (the Author GoH), John Hornor Jacobs, me and Mitchell (head of the ASFA) talked about our thoughts on them. There were some great pieces, largely covers of books, and we gave our thoughts. I loved it! There were a couple of artists I had no idea about who I am very grateful that John exposed me to!

After that, I wandered around, talked to folks for the documentary, had a good look around, and then headed to my next panel, which was the first of my editions of Themed for Your Pleasure, the Pseudo-Official Podcast of Journey Planet. I got to do silly little interviews with Catherine Spector (author and lovely woman, exceptionally funny), McKay (a fan and computer guy!) and Brett, who was awesome! Theyre going up on our website, and on the Drink Tank Review of Books, and ALSO we shot it for 5 Cons (5consdocumentary.weebly.com)

and its good stuff. I had a lot of fun with this one! After that, Opening Ceremonies, also up on my YouTube page (Im JohnnyEponymous on the YouTubes) and it was cool. We all said a little bit, got an introduction, and then they had announcements from folks. At one point, someone announced that they were having a Dark Shadows marathon room party, and at the end of their announcement, I proclaimed I love Johnny Depp! and the woman who made the announcement stormed the stage! It was the peak of my funny for the Weekend! We were brought the Arthur Bryants, this time I had the sliced pork and Linda the Pulled pork. We ate up in the ConSuite, where they were having a homemade BBQ challenge where they had 4 sauces competing. I used the first one as the sauce on my Pork and OH MY GHOD it was awsum! I mean it was sweet, and there was a great touch of peppery flavor, vinegar, and smoke to it. I loved it, easily my favorite of the 4 that were out there. I used it on my pork and it made it even better because it played so

well with the smoked meat. There was also BBQ Beef and Pork in the ConSuite, the stuff made by Jeff, and it was great, especially with the sauce. Others didnt seem to like it as much as I did, and I would still take it 100 times out of 101! It was great. There were a bunch of my favorite people in fandom who showed up, most notably Elizabeth and Dave McCarty, with the adorable 3 Year Old Mia, Tim Miller and his son, Joel, Diane Lacey, Leann Vurlhurst and many, many more. We were talking about various cons, and we got to watch the fireworks from across the freeway at Royal Stadium. Dave, that scamp, was making lewd comments all the way through. That was awesome! Dave also came up with a brilliant concept for Fencon in a couple of years for the 11th annual edition. Tims often the chair, and the concept was dark: Fencon 9-11: Fucking Al-Qaeda. I think it works. We got a little extra sleep and Saturday was around and we shot more, and then did what I think was the best of the Themed for Your Pleasure Podcasts. It was Lawrence Schoen (Hugo and Nebula-nominated author), John Picacio (Hugo winning artist), and Brad Denton (Hugo-nominated author). It was a great trio and the interviews were all pretty spectacular. John, in particular, was awesome. He talked some art philosophy, which is stuff I like. After that, it was time for breakfast, which was Dennys, across the street. Even accounting for the walk, it was twice as fast as the meal in the Hotel. We got back and I went to a panel about WorldCons called WorldCon 101, which was a basic WorldCon panel, but done in a room full of folks who regularly attend WorldCons. It was weird. I did a panel about Film Adaptations, which was amazing because everyone on the panel had a different direction for their enjoyment. I liked the films like Dune (Lynchs, not the SciFi Channels) and The Shining and The Hunger Games. I was alone on those. I wasnt as big a Princess Bride fan as others on the panel save for the guy who HATED it and thought it wasnt well-cast. Andre the Giant was the best thing about that movie! It was a fun debate. At every Con Im a guest at, I have Unreasonable series of Requests, and my Unreasonable Request for my Liason, Meghan Petersen, was for Pudding Cups and Slap bracelets. I can not think of better results!

 After that, it was a night out. Dave McCarty, Liz, Mia, Tim, his son (Ewan? Ian? I can never remember, but hes a lot of fun!) and Eric Olson along with Linda and I. We headed into town for Jack Stacks, the place Id been told was most important to get to! It was a sit-down place, but since it was Memorial Day Saturday, there was a wait later, so we went in early. Driving over, we had the typical SMoFish conversation that youd expect in a year where there are 3 groups bidding at the next WorldCon. Its an awesome place, all dark wood, and we sat down, and Mia was pretty amazing. She wasnt loud or anything, possibly due to the fact that Liz brought her iPad, and Mia loves it! Every time shed finish a level, shed throw her hands up and say I did it!, which was just adorable! Oh yeah, the food. OH! MY! G! H! O! D! It was amazing! The regular ribs were great, they didnt really need any sauce, the ribs themselves were great, the pork ribs being solid, very tasty. The Babybacks were even better, delicious and smokey. Then there was the Crown Rib. It was perfectly marbled, incredibly tasty, needed no sauce, was hyper-tender and deserving of far better adjectives than I am able to provide! You only got two of em, and Linda and I were sharing, but that one was spectacular. Then there were the Lamb Ribs. These are deserving of a sonnet, no a Villanelle! So

tender, so tasty, and these, when you added a dab of sauce, practically exploded with full flavor! Again ,we only got two, but they were the best ribs Ive ever had. I might have to see if I can find a Lamb rib provider. MUST DO THIS!!!!! As amazing as the ribs were, the sides were better. The Beans, heavy with BBQ Sauce flavor, were great. BIG TASTE! And then, there was the Cheesy Corn. it was Corn in Cheese Sauce, and it was fantastic! No, it was Fantastical! It was so good, I forgot that I normally dont like cheese sauces! There were cheesy potatoes, and they were even better! Au Gratin, only WAY better than anything other than Gregoire! And then, we had dessert! I ordered Carrot Cake. It was easily the best carrot cake Ive ever had. Liz ordered the Chocolate Brownie Cake. That was a revelation! No, a REVOLUTION!

It was so much better than anything Id ever had in that genre before! Back to the con, they had a live Art Auction, and Linda had her eyes on some things. I have a theory about Fannish auctions. They are more a form of entertainment than an ACTUAL auction. I, then, will assume a sort of persona. In this case, it was mostly my own darn self. Jim Murray, who was the auctioneer, has a thing about primes. Here are a couple of actual exchanges Other bidder - 17. Jim - Thats Prime! Chris - 21, ALSO prime! Jim - Thats not Prime! Chris - Now whos being naive Or, the one that really made folks laugh for some reason, possibly because of how fast it happened. Jim - Do I hear 10 dollars? Chris - 12. Other Bidder - 17 Chris - Sixteen! Other bidder - 19! Crowd laughs loudly Jim - Wait, what just happened? Linda got a few pieces of art, most importantly a piece by Mitchell (for less than 100 bucks) and a lovely Picacio. I got a GREAT pottery piece that was Fredos Bread Bowl, but Im using it to hold my keys and wallet! Its completely different than the John Singer piece I bought at SFCOntario, but its absolutely lovely! After that, we hung out in the ConSuite, then I found that I wanted to see a few folks who I figured were in the Gaming room. Clay and Hershey, two Minnesota fans, were indeed in there, and they were playing a game called Lost

Cities. I watched, kibbutzed, made fun little comments, and after they were done, we played some Zar. That is my favorite game in the world! Its a card game and its awesome! I love it too much, and I seldom get to play it. Alec Philips joined us and we had a great time. This is a game where I can trashtalk with the best of them. Im usually good at Trash-talking, but having Minnesotans around me makes my brash sort of humanity more flaming. We played, and while I didnt win, I didnt lose either, which for a guy with little experience is a good sign! WHile we were playing, a couple came in and mentioned that I had said that I love BBQ and if there was any left over, they should bring it my way. I had said so in my GoH speech, so I was pleased to see that they brought me left-over Arthur Bryants! It was chicken and burnt ends, neither of which Id had. The chicken was good, but those burnt ends were AWEMAZING! Maybe not quite Lamb Ribs, but they were still WOOHOO!!!!! We played until 2am. It was late, and we were leaving on Sunday at 5, so after staying out so late, I, of course, had a 10 am panel, which was another Hard Copy Podcast. John Hornor Jacobs and Teresa Nielsen Hayden were the guests and it was a good time. Teresas so great! We chatted, I got a few words out of Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Linda shot stuff, and it was great! After that, there was the charity auction, which was nice, and and we packed and got ready. We didnt get into as much fun as the Art Auction, Deb Giesler was there and shes a shark! I would never want to go up against her, so I only bid a few times. Jeff took us to the airport, and we had Mexican food there. Not BBQ, but there was Mexican so I ended trip foodwise, with cooked cheese, much as it begun. Queso fonduta, which was really tasty. We flew home, and on the plane, I read a novel. Ive been watching Psych, and Ive been in the mood to read a mystery, and Psych is the kind of mystery I enjoy. Pop Culture-soaked and hilarious at times. This one was about a murder that Shawn, the main character who happens to be a fake psychic, managed to get a woman off for, only to have a MASSIVE web of murder, deception and funkiness happens. I loved the book, the work of William Rabkin is typically delightful, and it was a fast read. It was called A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read. Gotta love it. So, I headed back home, dropped by BayCon for Monday, thus maintaining my Cal Ripken-like streak at my hometown con, but still, it will always be the year I got to hang out in Kansas City and eat OH MY GHODLY GOOD BBQ!

Art from Steve Stiles!

Diane O. Reads Books, Then She Reviews Them!

Title: Affinity Bridge: A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation [2009] The Osiris Ritual: A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation [2010] Author: George Mann Publisher: Tor Wherever Tor found this author, they need to find more. George Mann delivers a tour de force with his series, Newbury and Hobbs Investigations. In Affinity Bridge, we get the first glimpse of an author whose writing sucks you in like a riptide and tosses you onto the shore of this Steampunk world with no life preserver, no water, no rations. Forget getting lost in the depth of imagery he conjures with a steam-powered world. Forget getting lost in the glimpses into the life of the various levels of society in this version of England. Forget getting lost in the delightful gadgetry. You are lost in the sheer reality, improbable, impossible, surreal, yet maybe maybe not. With The Osiris Ritual, Mann delves deeper into the psyche of characters and countries.The humanity of his characters wins out against the horror of what they face. This is no gilded mystery filled with neat gadgets and neat endings. Does Mann deliver nicely wrought plots with credible endings? Absolutely. He also leaves you reeling with the awareness of what is to come. Mann is so deft at his craft that he make you believe. He is so good that he make you crave more from this series, even when you know there will be disappointment and betrayal, danger and drama, and no truly safe haven at the end of the tunnel. Like his characters, we go on because to stop is unthinkable. One does what one can, and stays as true to oneself as one can. Author Title: Editor: Publisher: A Fantasy Medley 2 [2012] Yanni Kuznia Subterranean Press

Author: Liesel Schwarz Title A Conspiracy of Alchemists Chronicles of Light and Shadow Publisher Del Rey
Like Steampunk and want a good read? Like the madcap silliness of Keystone Kops? Take a Chance - Eleanor Elle Chance, that is and let the mayhem begin! Liesel Schwarz brings us a fantastic bit of fun with A Conspiracy of Alchemists, the first book in the series Chronicles of Light and Shadows. Part urban fantasy, part historical adventure, with a dash of silliness and paranormal, Conspiracy delivers a walloping good load of fun and the promise of more to come. The scene: London, Paris, Venice and beyond. The protagonists: Elle, airship pilot, and Marsh, a warlock who hires her to transport an unusual cargo. The adventures leap off the page like a barrel full of monkeys. Atrocious Alchemists. Calculating Warlocks. Absent-minded scientists. Altruists and traitors. Nightwalkers. Supernatural creatures of all stripes. And thats just for starters. Schwarz mixes humor and high adventure, immortality and immorality, zeppelins and gyrocopters, feminism and fanatics together as Elle faces an unexpected and unwanted destiny, with danger at every step. Allies and enemies bite off more than they can chew with this morsel of womanhood. Sit back and enjoy as she plots a course to save the world from a magical apocalypse and have some say in how she lives her life. This book is mind-boggling. With a quick turn of phrase, the author imbues a minor character with so much depth that you want to scream for more volumes just on the tidbits. Mrs. Hinges Guide to Housekeeping. La Fee Vertes Guide to Owning a Paranormal Pubs, aka Memoirs of an Absinthe Fairy. Oracles Gone Wrong. Visions of movies, TV spin offs and lead-ins to Oprahs Book of the Month fill my mind. If there is a God/dess of Steampunk out there, someone will make the author very, very rich and her fans very, very happy. Schwarz deserves a new word to describe her style. Paranormorality - paranormal morality tale doesnt quite do it justice but its a start. I cant wait for the next in the series. My dimples hurt from grinning. More, please!

Before I was handed his anthology, I was not overly familiar with Subterranean Press or Yanni Kuznia. I wish I was. If this is their usual, I have been missing out. Kuznias quartet of original stories is a wonderful array by gifted authors. Tanya Huff, Amanda Downum, Jasper Kent and Seanan McGuire. They deliver superb nuggets, stories that are top shelf offerings. The book is short, 160 pages. They bring fantasy to life with their own insight and love of a tale. I could write more but I wont. I want to chase down a copy of Fantasy Medley 1. Do yourself a favor. Read this book. Savor it. It is well worth it.

sent to Garcia@computerhistory.org by Our Gentlest Readers

Let us start with John Purcell!!!!! I think those are the latest issues of your zine. What I think I shall do is write a Lloyd Penney-style loc, which I havent done in many a moon, and make a handful of quick comments on each of these issues. Well, briefly they were, but you managed to get your LoC to me about 5 minutes after Id sent the next issue off to Bill! #340 - Taral Wayne can now crawl under a rock and whimper himself to sleep. Hard to believe that he wrote 100 articles for Drink Tank! Obviously, he has WAY too much time on his hands. Be that as it may, this was a very interesting article, one that begs the question: why? Well, I guess its the challenge. Once he pushed past the 50 article mark, I suppose Taral looked at himself in the mirror and said, well, why not? Why not make it an even hundred? So he achieved fannish history. Outside of writing apazines, I cant imagine anyone doing anything like this: writing 100 articles for somebody elses fanzine. There is no question in my mind that he couldnt have done it without an equally insane person publishing fanzines at a pace to rival cockroach reproduction --- you. In other words, you are just as much to blame for this milestone achievement, Chris, as Taral is for writing all those fershlugginer articles. And we were all here to witness it. Will fanzine history ever be the same? Wait, dont answer that question... I do what I can... #341 - I am not one for Hugo handicapping and such, and since Valerie and I will actually be there this year for the Award ceremony - shes soon to begin production on our fancy dress duds for Hugo night - for once I have more than a passing interest in them. And in actuality, I really dont care who wins for once: everybody seems to be worthy contenders, so Im going to be there to enjoy the show. Im still choosing between outfits! The really nifty thing is that I wont have to worry about copyright bots crashing my enjoyment of the proceedings. THAT will be a major plus, no? Thanks for pubbing, even if youre not cranking them out as rapidly as you used to. See you in San Antonio! The fanzine lounge is gonna be the place to be! All the best, John Purcell Very much looking forward to the Fanzie Lounge at San Antonio! I love a good Fanzine Lounge! Thanks, John! And now... Lloyd Penney! Dear Chris: Three issues of The Drink Tank are here, 340, 341 and 342. As you are enjoying Memorial Day, today for us is Victoria Day, and our first really warm day. And, Im going to see the mixedreview new Trek movie this afternoon, so Id better get with it on this issues. Victoria Day... I LOVED her in all those 1950s movies! 340We never get the egoboo wed like to get in our heart of hearts, but what we do get is pretty good. School was not a good place for me either when I was growing up, but I was prescient enough to realize that life could easily open up as soon as I was out of high school, and the family moved to the west coast, and thats exactly what happened. Taral, you were lucky enough to find someone in town who spoke your language, but I grew up in Orillia, north of Toronto, a small town of about 23,000. No one else there spoke the language I wanted to speakgetting out of Orillia and off to the west coast did the trick. Getting noticed is important, especially when youre a young fan. Its something thats always been true, and so often over-looked. Having someone who can speak their language. I was lucky, I had that in spades!

Letter Graded Mail

 If I had my way, a number of us would have at least one silver rocket, but theres only so many to go around. Well have to make do with the egoboo. Theyre also highly practical! Ive used mine for a variety of purposes! 341Taral should have a silver rocket, and so should Steve Stiles. And it doesnt happen this year, those chances get slimmer as the days go by. Perhaps David Thayer/Teddy Harvias return to fanzines might get on the ballot again; the competition gets tougher. Can never be sure whats gonna happen! Id really like to see D. West on the ballot next year, though he may well decline the nom! I thought that Best Fancast and Best Fanzine were supposed to separate the blogs and podcasts from the fanzines, but as I expected, that didnt happen. I know my own time will be

done when I fail to recognize the majority of the people on the ballot, and that time is just about here, probably at London. If Montreal doesnt win the 2017 Worldcon, I think that time will be next year in London, and its been a good run. It should have separated em out, but alas, it was neutered by this years Administrator. There does need to be a Best Blog category, or somthing of the like. 342A fine Starkey cover We continue to lose our friends, with the departure of the Wombat and Roger Ebert. Jan was definitely hyperactive, but his happiness came about from being as involved with what was happening as possible. Really gonna miss Wombat at WorldCon... The Nebulas are handed out, and I saw something from Jean Martin about who won The Kim Stanley Robinson novel picked up the Lucite block, thats the only one I remember. I was there, man! It was a good weekend, and I got to meet KSR and folks. Alliette de Bodard was there and she also won! I got a 1956 Stanford Yearbook signed by a ton of the authors! It was awesome! The fandom I see from my own vantage is that fans do their thing, and as those things happen, we are successful most of the time, we fail here and there, and we try our best to enjoy ourselves, and make that enjoyment happen for others, too. I dont like to bring gender into it, but successful conventions, clubs, etc. are run by both genders, and I hope the day will come when we wont have to differentiate by gender.

Were not there yet, and discussion will bring us to that day. The last four or five conventions Ive attended were all run by women, so all of this will balance out over time. We all participate as best as we can. Thats probably true, time is the great equalizer, it seems. As we move along, we see more and more change, quite possibly not fast enough for many, if not most, folks, but its also the way things change. Even when you have periods of great expansion in laws and such, it still takes time, sometimes a great deal of time, to change attitudes and beliefs. This is perhaps a poor letter to receive for three issues of The Drink Tank, but this has been a busy weekend for me. Saturday was cleaning up the apartment as much as we could, Sunday was spent helping with the cleaning of one of our favourite pubs, and today is a day of rest, and trying to get over the various aches and pains of our labours. Tonight is a fannish pubnight at the same pub we cleaned, Tuesday is a doctors appointment in nearby Mississauga, and Wednesday is a job interview with an advertising agency. I think Im readyor maybe Ill just clone myself, and hell report back to see how I did. Hope all went well, Big Guy! Good luck with the Hugo, we have no vote this year because we bought for London instead of San Antonio, and we continue to save for London. Yours, Lloyd Penney. Well miss ya at San Antonio! Its always good to have yall around, but Londons gonna be off the hook!

Art by Teddy Harvia (aka Yiva Dreadth)

And now... Taral Wayne! Loc on Drink Tank 342, 17 May 2013 Dont look at me as a writer Drink Tank has lost look at me a loccer that Drink has gained. Potentially, anyway. I will do just that! To begin with, I have given up thinking about Hugos. The whole subject seems pointless, in as much as nothing that anyone can say or apparently do has any effect on them. The voter throws his dart and whichever balloon pops,Vox Populi has spoken. There is rhyme and reason to who the voters aim for, to be sure. I can name a half dozen influences on the outcome of the Fan Hugos. But like the weather, its easier to explain in retrospect than to predict in advance. I neither case the weather or Hugos can you do much about it. So you wont hear me complaining any longer At least not until next year. I started doing the entire Handicapping thing because I wanted to figure out those influences. Im just about .500 lifetime. A lot of fans have passed away recently, but you dont always feel much when you hear the news. Fandom is an awfully big place, after all. Take Roger Ebert, for example. He was a fan? I didnt know that. But it seems that he wrote for the fanzine Xero and hung around Forrest J. Ackerman. Xero was published quite a long time ago, though. Even after decades of fanzine collection, I own no copies and have never read one. They were all bought up by affluent comics fans in the 1960s and 70s, I guess. I remember a set that was put up for sale more than 35

years ago. The owner wanted $150 for them; an utterly scandalous price at the time. But with first issues of Spiderman going for thousands of dollars, and it not being nearly as old as the fanzine, $150 was probably a bargain. Thats just how comics fandom was and probably still is. I loved his reviews, and the few fannish pieces Ive read have been spectacular too! I quibble about hanging out with Forry, too. In my mind, Forry stopped being a fan when he started lurking around movie studios and he became the editor of Famous Monsters of Film Land. He may have been a fan at heart, but apart from talking to fans through his magazine, or from the front of a room at conventions, what fanac did Forry ever do after the 1950s? What fannishness could then possibly rub off on anyone who hung around with Forrest J. Ackerman? If any fannishness did rub off, it would be filmfannishness. Id argue that Forry was just as Fannish in the later years as he was earlier. I spent hours with him, talking about fandom. He did some fan writing all along, his stuff for Mimosa was particularly nice stuff. Maybe it was a bouncing ball, periods of fan stuff followed by periods of non-fan stuff. To me, then, Roger Ebert was only a television personality, and one I had seen little of, for that matter. I felt no sense of loss. Growing up a film fan means that he was an influence. He wrote reviews as if he was the ultimate film fan. Its a different case with Jan Howard Finder. He was a fan, a-yup. I know I met Jan at

least once, at one of those cons you know the one the con with guests, panels, a hotel, stuff like that. I seem to recall it was in upper New York State or maybe Pennsylvania. But, thats not the point, is it? I met him at least once and maybe two or three times. Somehow, though, I spent so little time with Finder that I knew him mainly by reputation. News of his death served mainly to remind me that I had once known him. I clearly felt he was one of our own. Ill miss him. Nice guy who always had a story. It was nearly the same with Andrew Offutt. I think I knew him but I cant recall when we ever met. Maybe I had just known about Andy for so long reading his letters in fanzines that it seemed like I knew him. I thought I might have read a few of his books. Well a couple. But ach! As I look down the list on Wikipedia of books hed written, I dont see a single familiar title! So much science fiction and fantasy; too little time and money. Also reported in File 770 in recent weeks were the deaths of Dan Adkins, Larry Farsace, and Ray Harryhuasen. Those guys will be missed, though Harryhausen is the only one I can say for sure that Id met. Really fandom is so big. Its a bloody shame, but how can anyone hope to know everyone in it, no matter how many cons a fan attends? I doubt I know one in a hundred of the people in fandom, and so far Ive been relatively lucky that few have passed on. I was not so lucky with Phyllis Gotlieb, though, who died some years ago. Nor with Bill Bowers, who also died a number of years ago. Nor with Mike Glicksohn,

who I knew well even if I did not include Mike in my closest circle of friends. Then the appallingly unexpected death of Dave Lockes, just when we had discovered so much in common, and had become regular correspondents. Just about two years ago, an artist friend of mine died suddenly, years before his time. Then there was the shock of Stu Shiffmans stroke. Finally, a few nights ago I heard that a fellow artist I know may have cancer. An old joke goes, I havent been feeling too well myself lately but no wonder, with so many in fandom taking their leave. One of the things I love about Fandom, and specifically about WorldCons, is that I can get to meet and know folks from various generations. Maybe its the Historian in me, but I love talking to the old timers! 1.72 people per 10,000 in the United States, or about .17% of the population, lives long enough to become a centenarian. In fandom, the leading candidate for this distinction is Art Widner, who flaunts his ninety-some-odd years of age the way other fans flaunt their Hugo pins or FAAn award nominations. Right away, statistics give us a fair estimate of the number of fans there must be in the U.S. If .17% is right, there must be under 5,000. Otherwise Art would be more than one person and from observations that Ive made on several occasions, this is not the case. Of late, an interesting fact has emerged about those who survive to an advanced age. Up until about the age of 90, each year we live increases the odds against our living another year, until the odds become quite low indeed. But for reasons that are still unknown, beyond the age of about 90, the risk flattens. If

you are 90 now, the odds of living to 91 are no worse than they were of your becoming 90, and the odds of living to 92 are no worse than they are of becoming 91, and so on Eventually the odds catch up, of course. But if you are 91 you just about as likely to make it to a 105 as to a mere 96. So it seems that Art has a mighty good chance of becoming fandoms first known centenarian. Its a dirty job but somebody has to do it! Art &I are gonna be the ones to turn the lights out on Fandom! What are we to make of Teresa Derwins statistic that only 4% of the respondents to a poll gave a book written by a woman as one of their SF favorites? Although it is a telling statistic, surely there is no such thing as a wrong answer to what is your favorite book? Do you tell the person who gives the wrong answer, Sorry, but Man in the High Castle is not your favourite book, The Dispossessed is. There are no remedies for the imbalance that I can think of, either. Its not possible to expel the right number of people from fandom to even up the percentages. At least I hope not. But what does that leave? Forced re-education, Mao-style? I think one important reason for the skewed percentage may be that even after two or three decades in which there have been large numbers of women writing science

fiction the bulk of books older readers have read are books that were written well before the feminist age. Only time can even up the numbers. Its an interesting point, but what I forgot to check was what do WOMEN say were their faves?