My friend/collaborator and I met up at the national SF Convention Au Contraire 2 last weekend. Our alternate history SF novel, QUEEN OF IRON YEARS was on the voting ballot for the Sir Julius Vogel – for Best SF/F book published the previous year and by an NZ author. And I guess from the headline on this you know the rest. Yes, we won. More than that, this was Sharman (Horwood’s) first fiction book, AND the book is the first GLBT Book to win either a Vogel or the award’s predecessors. So we’re doubly delighted and thank everyone who nominated us, voted for us, and have since sent congratulations. It’s made our Year!
We Won. We Won! (er. sorry, just a bit excited.)
Privacy Laws (or People) Seem to Be Going Crazy.
I’ve recently had two rather odd things happen on this subject. The first was when I emailed Prime TV to ask about the cow they feature as a break between programmes. She’s a Jersey cow, and I was interested. I wrote to them thus – “Prime TV shows a jersey cow on the change between programmes. I’d like to know about the cow. Where did you get her? Who is she? How old was she when you did this? And was the clip genuine or CGI’d? Perfectly reasonable questions I thought. Note that I was asking about the COW. Was she borrowed, rented, or bought for the purpose? What is her name? How old was she at time of filming? Or is the entire clip merely clever CGI? I was NOT asking about her owners’ names or location, her handlers’ names or location, or her closest human friend’s name and location. I merely wanted to know about the the COW, the actual cow and nothing BUT the cow!
In reply SKYTV – whom I feel, must have either completely misunderstood my request, or be in need of an elevator that goes all the way to their penthouse responded – Unfortunately, due to privacy reasons, we will not be able to provide you with this information. I gaped at that. Huh? They can’t tell me the cow’s name or if she’s real for PRIVACY REASONS? They’re what? Worried that I’ll become a mad stalker of the cow? (Abusive emails perhaps? Sending her gifts of hay and asking to meet her? Turning up to skulk around her cowbail?) All I wanted was something along the lines of “Yes, that’s Daisy, she was eight when we filmed her, and we borrowed her, afterwards she went home to her herd quite happily.” Or “Nope, the cow is clever CGI, but we’re pleased you found it so interesting.” They added that I could respond via return email and we will endeavour to reply within 24 hours. They couldn’t get that right either. I did respond June 19th and to date their 24 hours response is just a little slow – as in nothing yet weeks later.
Then a friend who lives nearby dropped in to tell me that she has a chest infection, that half her work is down with it, but that the medical centre she attends had said it wasn’t contagious. That sounded a bit odd, and as I can have respiratory problems I phoned the same centre (where I’ve also been a client for the past 24 years and counting) and asked about this chest infection?’ I explained that a friend had it, had been told it wasn’t contagious, but that she also said many at her place of employment were ill with this and I’d like to know about the problem. Was it about that much? What causes it? Should I be taking any sort of specific precautions against this and was it really not contagious? The response to that was to ask me the friend’s name, and my relationship to her. Then to inform me I was unable to be given information BECAUSE I WASN’T A RELATIVE and there were privacy issues! Huh again? I wasn’t asking for any information about the friend, I know all I need to know about her. I was asking about the claimed-to-be-prevalent chest infection, and I really doubt that it’s owed privacy under any law I can think of! I said so and apparently ticked off the person, so that the conversation was all downhill from there. I was fobbed off with a string of brusque generalities and left as much in the dark about this possible chest infection epidemic as I had been when I first heard about it.
But what I’d like to know is, have people stopped reading what you actually wrote, or listening to what you actually ask? Or are they all so terrified about breaching privacy laws that they’re going completely overboard in an effort not to find themselves in court for breaching said laws? Because I’ve been left with the recent impression that cows and chest infections have more rights under those laws that I may have and it bothers me. What’s next? My house sues GoogleEarth for breach of privacy? Thunder, my Ocicat is provided with a court-appointed lawyer and I have to take his photo off my website? Something’s crazy around here and for once I’m not all all sure that it’s me!
Science Fiction Trails 10. large softcover format, June 2013. Published by SF Trails and edited by David B. Riley.
Reviewed by Steve Johnson.
Lyn passed this along to me once she’d read it, I read it overnight, and yup, a review and an easy one because I like what this editor does. He seems to have almost cornered the market on that difficult crossover, western and SF. Some of the stories are a little weaker than others, but they’re all very readable. I particularly enjoyed C.J.Killmer’s The Strongbox, (I could see where it was going but it was a great ride.) Vivian Caethe’s The Kid. (Very good twist on an old story.) and J.A. Campbell’s, Brown vs The Martians.(clever and amusing and I really liked the dogs.) Dave Riley must be doing something right because as he says himself, the first in the series sold very well and continued to sell, and has only recently been overtaken by sales of issues 6 and 8. And in the past seven years he has developed a stable of some solid writers who do this genre crossover well. To which I can add, that he’s also producing the series with some very good covers. I loved issue I’s cover, clip art or not, and really liked the front and back cover art on this one. A good job by all concerned.
How to Become Paranoid.
It occurred to me the other day, that this can be easy, I’d taped a movie to watch the next day, and also begun reading a book. The combination had me with, once I’d finished both, an uneasy feeling at the back of my neck. The movie was Die Hard 4.0 in which Bruce Willis is told to collect a possible computer hacker and bring him to FBI H.Q. He’s no sooner reached the young man than a professional hit team appears targeting the kid, and all hell breaks loose in normal Die Hard style. But the real kicker is the plot, in which it’s demonstrated that if you’re sufficiently computer-savvy, you can cause incredible mayhem in every aspect of the life of a country’s citizens. You can switch every traffic light to green, producing multiple pileups with many dead and injured people. Power goes off all over the country, cue old people dying of hyperthermia etc. Gas backflow in pipelines causes flash fires. And there is huge panic in stock exchanges as all stocks apparently nosedive. New Zealand may not be so reliant as the USA on centralized computerized utilities, but I wonder how long it will be before we are, and if once that happens then if we won’t have some stupid computer-very-literate, but lacking-in-any-common-sense kid, seeing if they can do this sort of thing, just for the fun of it and without emotionally comprehending the consequences?
And before and after this time, I was also reading Orson Scott Card’s novel, Empire. Now that’s a book also likely to give some of my American friends nightmares, and it didn’t do a lot for my peace of mind either. It explains how a second American civil war could be sparked by a small group. It follows a soldier involved in special ops, a decent moral guy, happily married with a number of kids, and a very smart wife, but who finds that he may have contributed to the civil war that’s begun. Loosely it’s a war of the liberal left, against the conservative right, and Card has a number of points to make, and which are made very well about how this scenario is all too possible. That it may not happen exactly this way, but unless both sides shut their fanatics UP sometime soon, it could come about, and that killing moderates on either side is a good start for a war. The scenario used is all too possible and again it left me with an uneasy feeling at the back of my neck. No, New Zealand isn’t anywhere near that level of vitriol or polarization as yet and I don’t think it will be in my lifetime, but I’d rather it didn’t happen here at all or in American for that matter. I guess that reading the book, and watching the movie in the middle of it, reinforced each other, but I’m currently thinking about adding a few more cutouts for farm utilities. I do have several backup systems already in case of quakes, but maybe I should consider future computer-hacking and expand those. If or when it happens it”ll be too late to wish I’d done so earlier. See what I mean about paranoia?
Story Sold and More Out.
A nice twofer, with Wolf In The Fold accepted by the Strange Lucky Halloween anthology, (Whortleberry Press) and my story, The Third Floor out in the same publisher’s current anthology, Dandelions of Mars: Tributes to Ray Bradbury.
As well, the latest Tales of the Talisman (Volume VIII, issue 4 from Hadrosaur Productions,) carried my weird western ghost tale, I shall Do Nothing. And, with two books out (Rusted (And Rusted) Days, and Flying Free) and a third (Katalagein) to appear in 2-3 months, plus a dozen short works already published or sold, 2013 looks to be another productive year.
Dandelions of Mars:A Tribute to Ray Bradbury. Edited By Ahmed A. Khan and Jean M. Goldstrom.
tradepaperback. Published Whortleberry Press June 2013. Reviewed by Steve Johnson.
This was just a plain good anthology. I’m not much of a poetry fan so they don’t get a mention, but if you like Bradburyesque tales, then this is the go-to anthology. Marion Powell’s The Last Hotdog, is a great entry into Martian Chronicles, and the author is right, any time a company or a Government tries to clear people from their homes, some won’t goeven if they have to be sneaky about it. The City Electric (Shannon Fay) is the depiction of a city abandoned, it’s powerful, a lot in a few words. David Turnbull’s These Red Deserts Are Ours is an excellent reversal of a classic theme. A nice take on both Bradbury and H.G. Wells. Another Night Meeting (Jean Goldstrom) is clever, and thought-provoking. As indeed was Transition (Fred Waiss) which dealt with the subject of bullying. Apologies (Jack Hillman) also dealt with children – very neatly, and it amused me too. Something Wicked This Way Came (Arthur Sanchez) is strong writing and with a theme that fits Bradbury very well.
Lyn McConchie’s, The Third Floor, is clever and has a nice revenge twist. Excalibur it Ain’t (Gary Markette) is an interesting take on a PI’s case, and the final three stories that I liked, The Last Veteran Dies (T. Fox Dunham) Five Stories About Alan (Hugh Spencer) and Welcome by Kate Riedel, I found very good reads as well as somewhat disturbing. Almost Home I found vaguely confusing, it appeared to have no real ending, leaving me without resolution and Dream Job didn’t catch my attention. It semed to have no genre connection except very superficially and I disliked the characters and theme. The other stories unmentioned I found middle-of-the-road, good, but for various – often personal – reasons, I didn’t find them as good as those I really enjoyed. Again, however, this is a very solid anthology. Whortleberry Press’s anthologies are steadily improving in quality, and on that, a note on the cover art which is not only well done, but also very appropriate. Something that doesn’t always apply to anthology covers unfortunately. Long may the series continue.
Hammered
And anent my blog last week on the Bamboo Clump birds, the Yellowhammers are back. They seem to come and go, I see only one at a time although I’m sure there’s a pair, and sometimes I don’t see them for weeks. But when one shows, it’s unmissable. The first time I saw one just after I moved here in early 1989, I thought someone had lost a canary. Then I looked more closely and realized that it had brown streaks. But it was that vivid canary-yellow, and it stood out like a neon sign amongst the other small birds. It, or possibly they, is/are a lot more casual about me than the other small birds too. I walk out to toss wheat for the hens, and the Yellowhammer is down eating it while I’m still walking away, although the other small birds wait until I’m inside to descend. And if I emerge, the Yellowhammer keeps eating so long as I don’t get too close, while the others have all rocketed up and perched well away until I back off again. In fact they should all be very grateful to him/her. I find that one of their number is so charming that if s/he is around I toss out a little extra wheat to make sure they get a share, and now and again if a yellowhammer appears late, I’ve gone back out with bread crusts. There’s times it pays to be bright!
The Trouble With Humans – Christopher Anvil, edited Eric Flint.
paperback , published Baen SF, 2007.
A collection with a very wide timespan. Most of the stories appeared in the 1950s-1960s in top pulp magazines, but one is dated as the end of 1990. The stories are entirely as advertised, unfortunate aliens having real trouble with humans, and they’re very funny. My favourites were Compensation, Merry Christmas From Outer Space, Underhandler (the 1990 one thus showing the author hasn’t lost his sense of humor) and Behind the Sandrat Hoax, which wasn’t only very funny, it was unpleasantly true. I didn’t quite get Duel to the Death, but that was the only story of the 13 I didn’t like. And the author undoubtedly has cats. In Compensation I noted the following lines… “The cat suddenly decided to get up. Ral (one of the aliens) didn’t let go. The cat put forth eighteen claws and got up. ” Ah yes, no one prevents a cat from doing as it wishes not even a visiting alien. This was an excellent colection and I recommend it. There is a companion volume The Trouble With Aliens. which may also bear investigation.
HAVE YOU OVERLOOKED NARRELLE M. HARRIS?
Narrelle M. Harris is a Melbourne-based writer of considerable versatility in many creative areas. Narrelle’s earliest writing was through science fiction fandom, including work based in Star Trek, Blake’s Seven and V universes. Her genzine, Inconsequential Parallax (co-written with husband, Tim Richards,) was nominated for a Ditmar Award in 1992. She wrote the award winning short play “Stalemate” in 2003, while in 2006 she appeared as ‘Ginny’ in the short film “Outland”.
Last year I attended the Australian Natcon and spent time in the huxters room selling some of my own books and buying those of other authors. I was attracted to the Clan Destine Press table and amongst other works ended up buying the two vampire books by this author. I arrived home, read them on arrival, grinned and added them to my ‘permanent collection.’ This week I sat down and reread them to see if they held up and if I should do Narrelle as one of my Overlooked Authors. They do and I have – herewith. I like a good Vampire book, not the teenage angst of Twilight, but the sort of work that looks deeper. Several authors have done excellent work on this sub-genre, authors such as Barbara Hambly, Misty Lackey, and Lee Killough, and I can honestly say that I found Narrelle’s work was right up there with those. The books are The Opposite of Life, and Walking Shadows and I’m hoping the promised third book doesn’t take too long to appear.
Lissa Wilson is the librarian daughter of a tranquillizer-addicted mother, and an alcoholic tennis professional father. Hauled out by a friend for a night on the town (Melbourne) after Lissa’s breakup with her boyfriend, she walks into the toilets at the nightclub and finds a very dead woman. As if that isn’t traumatic enough on another night out to a club a local dealer is found in similar condition, and Daniel the nice guy Lissa is starting to fall for has vanished. He subsequently turns up dead, with two puncture wounds in his neck and bloodless. It goes on full-tilt from there. Her creation of Gary has to be a high point. He’s very unlike the sort of vampire commonly appearing in that genre, yet you can see what he was like before he became a vampire and he’s so realistic as a character, his interaction with Lissa is priceless, and is part of what makes the best and most amusing parts of the book. These books are funny, sweet, and clever, with well-written plots, and characters and I throughly enjoyed them. So much so that I’m hoping to lay hands on more of her work. Recommended.
Bibliography (so far as I know it) :
Fly By Night (2004, Homosapien Books) two novellas about a gay musical duo who solve crimes,
Witch Honour (2006, Five Star Speculative Fiction) Fantasy with some SF as is the sequel.
Witch Faith (2007, Five Star Speculative Fiction) I understand a third book is intended.
The Opposite Of Life (2007, Pulp Fiction Press).
Walking Shadows (2012, Clan Destine Press.) And again, I believe there is to be a third in this series.
Showtime, (2012, Twelfth Planet Press.) a collection of short stories (including one featuring Gary and Lissa from The Opposite of Life and Walking Shadows)
The Witches of Tyne (2012, digital omnibus edition of Witch Honour and Witch Faith, including several bonus short stories and a song. Available currently on Amazon.com
Also published under N.M. Harris – spy-thriller-erotica story, Double Edged, with the second in that series, Expendable, due out soon.
Home Again…
22 July 2013
…to the huge delight of a large cat. Thunder heard us arriving and was already flat on his back in front of the door, paws waving in the air as my friend and I walked in. We dropped luggage and cuddled him as demanded – Immediately! Since I got back a week ago he’s been velcro-kitty in case I vanish again. I mean, I was gone less than five days, but it seems I was missed. I also received a welcome from the several hundred small birds around the place too, they descended in a twittering cloud when I went out that late afternoon to feed them, and the resident yellowhammer got closer than usual. It’s nice to be back.