I wish I could have shared the following videos while Chicon7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, was still ongoing, as that would have hewed to Edelman’s Schadenfreude Rule of Convention Reporting. But alas, I was far too busy. (Future posts will show you just how busy.)

First up, on Thursday, August 30, Adam-Troy Castro read his short story “My Wife Hates Time Travel,” recently published in Lightspeed. Since you weren’t there, you don’t get any of the chocolate chip cookies he was handing out in support of his new novel Gustav Gloom and the People Taker—which should teach you to show up in person next time.

And then, on Monday, September 3, I read “A Most Extraordinary Man,” a sequel of sorts to Saki’s “The Open Window,” which will be published in the anthology The Monkey’s Other Paw: Revived Classic Stories of Dread and the Dead from NonStop Press. (more…)

Behold the true but secret headline which hides beneath all headlines …

If only a newspaper would run this for real instead of leaving it as subtext!

(panel from Hawkeye #2, November 2012, words by Matt Fraction art by David Aja)

As usual, whenever a new month begins, I gather together all of the dreams I tweeted the previous month to see whether they gain anything by rubbing up against one another. During August, I dreamt of Cornel West, Jaclyn Smith, Nelson Van Alden, Cory Doctorow, Boyz II Men and more.

August 2012

I dreamt I sat with ‪@MaryRobinette at a Star Wars event, eating ‪@Alinea‘s Lamb 86, watching James Lipton interview Ralph McQuarrie. 30 Aug

I dreamt Harlan Ellison had written a controversial story starring Sammy Davis, Jr. which we couldn’t stop arguing about during ‪#Chicon7. 29 Aug

I dreamt I was a new SNL cast member, performing in my second show, having a ball watching the band from backstage. (I don’t remember who.) 29 Aug

I dreamt I sent President Obama a postcard, and though I have no memory of what I wrote, I remember very meticulously applying the stamp. 27 Aug

I dreamt I rode shotgun in a car, trapped listening to an extremely unfunny comedian sitting between me and the driver, testing out his act. 27 Aug

I dreamt my dad was Terry Crews in his persona from the Chris Rock Show and I disappointed him by not understanding a chore he tried to describe. 27 Aug

I dreamt I was in some unidentified foreign country buying pastries to eat aboard a train, and when I turned around — my bags were gone! 27 Aug

I dreamt I escaped (from who knows what) on a riverboat, pursued (who knows why) by a woman who turned herself into a mouse to sneak aboard. 27 Aug

I dreamt a group of friends and I watched ALL of Lost, and as the final credits rolled, we stood, held hands, and sang. I don’t recall what. 26 Aug

I dreamt that as I walked crowded city streets, Darrell Schweitzer zoomed by on a Segway, handing out flyers for a new Kickstarter project. 26 Aug (more…)

If you’d like to know more about The Scarecrow, who I created for Marvel Comics back when dinosaurs still walked the Earth, pick up a copy of Back Issue magazine #60, which features a five-page article by Dewey Cassell focused on the character.

In addition to gathering and making sense of everything I’ve written about the Scarecrow on my blog over the years, Cassell also conducted new interviews, melding it all together to finally put in one place the story of the character’s creation, how he almost got his own book, and why that never came to pass.

So pick up a copy, if for no other reason than that it will satisfy your craving for the history of Marvel in the ’70s that you won’t get a full picture of until Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is published next month.

According to the latest issue of Roy Thomas’ fanzine Alter Ego, artist Odgen Whitney used himself as a young boy as the model for Herbie Popnecker, star of the wonderfully surreal comic published by ACG during the ’60s.

Which kinda boggles the mind.

I mean—have you seen Herbie Popnecker?

Which makes me ask—does anyone out there have a photo of a young Ogden Whitney? Because if Whitney really once looked like Herbie … this I’ve got to see!

I got back home from my Chicago Worldcon trip after midnight last night—or should I say, this morning—and while I’d love to write up right now how much fun I had, both at the con and elsewhere (like at Alinea!), it’s unlikely I’ll be able to compose my thoughts until the weekend.

After all, I did return from my trip to something like 5,000 emails!

So let these eight photos, one for each day I was away, stand in for the posts to come.

Wednesday
A note left on our table at the start of Next restaurant’s Sicilian meal

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With Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, beginning in Chicago just a few days from now, here’s a flashback to the 54th World Science Fiction Convention, L.A.con III, which took place in Anaheim, California. Life sure was a lot different back in 1996.

I’d been editing Science Fiction Age for four years by then, and was about to take over as editor of Sci-Fi Entertainment as well.

Sovereign Media was flying high, with a booth promoting those two magazines plus Realms of Fantasy, and as you can tell from my smile, I was having a blast. Because in addition to the pure joy I was having editing SFA, that was also the year I’d gotten my first Hugo Award nomination for Best Editor.

There’d be three more nominations to come, but the first was somehow the sweetest.

Here’s hoping you get to make some sweet memories of your own next weekend!

I’m so sorry to hear that Josepha Sherman, writer, editor, and owner of a vivacious laugh which echoed above the din of many a convention party, died yesterday. Unfortunately, her final years were not easy ones.

I’ll let others tell you of the charms of her writing (which included Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels) and of her editing skills, but as for me, my fondest memory was off the page and in the flesh—the time we sang “Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts” (because she’d co-edited a book on such songs) at one of the many parties in one of the many strange hotels in which our tribe gathers, part of the ongoing convention I’ve been attending with you all for decades. It was a moment of laughter and joy, and I wish she’d had more of them during her last years.

Here’s a photo I snapped of her at the 2007 Nebula Awards during happier times.

I’d prefer to remember her that way.

There will be a memorial on Wednesday, August 29 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art at 138 Sullivan St., New York, New York. Please RSVP to 212-228-2810 if you plan to attend. I’ll be in Chicago for Worldcon that day, but I’ll be sure to think of her. I’m sure you’ll be thinking of her, too.

I’m getting ready to head off to Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, and thanks to my boss, Craig Engler, I’m thinking back to Discon II, the 32nd World Science Fiction Convention—and my first. (As to the reason Craig caused my thoughts to wander that way, see below.)

I was 19 when I attended my first Worldcon, and I drove there from Brooklyn with a group that included the gang of idiots below. Recognize us all as we sit in front of the White House? Give the photo a look for a couple of moments before you read on to see who’s who.

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I was doing a lot of smiling last night. That’s because I finally carved out some time to read Dewey Cassell’s book Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of Comics. As I’ve told you many times, I don’t just like Marie—I love Marie.

And last night, I relived many of the reasons why. (I was about to write that I “remembered” many of the reasons why, but that would imply I’d forgotten those reasons … and no one could ever forget Marie.) (more…)