If Instagram had existed in 2004, back when the Worldcon took place in Boston, it would have looked a little something like this …

William Tenn and Scott Edelman

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Yet another couple has discovered that years before they met, one of them had photobombed the other. Last time, it was a photo taken at Disneyland. This time, it was at the beach.

This gives me hope.

Because, you see, my wife and I were both at the first comic book convention I ever attended, and while we did not meet until four years later, I’ve always wondered whether there might be a photo out there of us side by side … sitting in the audience, wandering the dealers room, waiting for an elevator … and not knowing the future that lay in wait for us.

There’s still a chance one might turn up, isn’t there?

SFWA will have a presence at this year’s Baltimore Book Festival, held September 26-28. If you make it to the Inner Harbor that weekend, here’s when you’ll be able to find me.

How can I get my writing noticed?
Saturday 4:00-5:00
You’ve finished a story or book and now you’d like to get it published and start buzz about your work. But in this modern age, the avenues for publication and promotion are dizzying, and they often tangle together. What are your options? What will bring you the most word of mouth? The most reviews? The best pay? Should you go it alone or seek a major publisher? Come talk with publishers, editors, con organizers, and reviewers about your options.
with Elektra Hammond, Don Sakers, Peggy Rae Sapienza, Mike Underwood, and Jean Marie Ward

Reception and Meet & Greet with authors, music, and food
Saturday 5:30 -7:00
Join the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at our reception, autographing session, and Meet and Greet with our program participants at the Baltimore Book Festival.
with Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeanne Adams, Jill Archer, Catherine Asaro, Jack Clemons, Brenda Clough, Charles Gannon, Ronald Garner, Em Garner, Herb Gilliland, Anne K Gray, Elektra Hammond, Justina Ireland, Jim Johnson, Alma Katsu, Cheryl Klam, L. Jagi Lamplighter, John Maclay, Marrisa Meyer, Sunny Moraine, Christine Norris, Ellen Oh, Sarah Pinsker, Caroline Richmond, Don Sakers, Karen Sandler, Peggy Rae Sapienza, Rori Shay, Alex Shvartsman, Dawnyell Snyder, Bud Sparhawk, John Tilden, Mike Underwood, Jean Marie Ward, Fran Wilde, Ilene Wong, and Karlo Yeager

Science Fiction and Fantasy Mysteries
Sunday 2:00-3:00 p.m.
Mysteries in science fiction are one of the trendiest new subgenres. What happens when you add “What if?” to “Whodonnit?” Join our panelists to discuss detectives, procedure, body disposal in the past, present and future, and more. They will talk about how you can extrapolate all that into the future for science fiction mysteries.
with Jeanne Adams, Sarah Pinsker, and Don Sakers

Hope to see you there!

I’ll be arriving in London a week from today to attend Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, and it occurred to me that this will be the 40th anniversary of my first Worldcon, Discon II. And since the con’s on the other side of an ocean, and some there might know me by name only, I figured I’d share a photo from that long-ago time in Washington, D.C.

Yes, that’s me on the right, taking a break from the con and sitting by the White House fence with three friends some of you may recognize.

So if you’re looking for me at the ExCel convention center, well, now you know what I look like.

I haven’t changed, have I?

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, then you already know the drill—as each month ends, I gather the dreams I’d previously posted to Twitter to see what sense their surreality makes when all in one place.

And so … here’s what happened in July as I slept, starring Joel McHale, Donald Trump, Mariah Carey, Will Sasso, and many others.

July 2014

I dreamt I was with my (long dead) grandmother, posing for a photo with her since none exist IRL. My awareness of her death dId not wake me. Jul 31

I dreamt a friend told us he had cancer and was going deaf, “But the good news is — I’ll be dead before anyone realizes I can’t hear them.” Jul 31

I dreamt I was at a con where I took a donut, sliced it in half and used a cookie to make a sandwich. WHY HAVE I NOT DONE THIS IN REAL LIFE? Jul 31

I dreamt comic book artists I used to know in the ’70s showed up at Readercon, and when we chatted, the friendliest was Bernie Wrightson. Jul 30

I dreamt I offered my parents individually wrapped Life Savers, and Dad (dead IRL) demurred, while Mom took a cherry and gave me a lemon. Jul 30

I dreamt Jon Stewart and I were watching a member of The Daily Show staff try out a new bit … and I was the only one who was laughing! Jul 29

I dreamt I was fighting beside The Thing as part of a quartet — NOT the Fantastic Four — and he was shot in the neck. Bleeding, he fell. Jul 29

I dreamt I wandered a Worldcon and spent more time paying attention to racking up @fitbit steps than what was going on around me. Jul 28

I dreamt I lived in a Boston brownstone, used a shotgun to scare a burglar, then waited for police since (I assumed) guns are illegal there. Jul 28

I dreamt I interviewed a politician who’d edited a science fiction magazine when he was a kid. But he refused to answer questions about it. Jul 27 (more…)

Before heading off to Wooster last week to visit the Ohio Light Opera, I checked Yelp in search of a worthy restaurant to stop at for lunch, not wanting to rely on whatever fast-food monstrosity happened to be visible from the highway. About 2 1/2 hours out (which based on our planned departure, would be just the right time for lunch), in a little town called Acme, I found a spot called Brady’s Restaurant, which at first seemed as if it would not be a place anyone would want to eat.

There were lots of one- and two-star reviews for Brady’s on Yelp, complaining about the “terrible service,” turkey that “always tastes gamey,” and “the absolute most disgusting meatloaf ever” … but as I read on, I came across this review by Greg B.—

Good food at decent prices. If your some snooty tourist who is used to eating hormone injected slop that’s full of who know’s what, then don’t come here. The meet is locally raised and some of the fish is from right up the road. The people who own this place are decent hardworking people who give allot to local charities. The original owner was a hard working business women who employed 100’s of people in the area and never turned someone down in need. My family fell on hard times many years ago and Mrs. Brady was always willing to help us out and even brought us christmas gifts one winter when my wife passed away. The night she delivered the gifts, my children and I watched her through the candlighted window as she walked over 30 yards in her work dress through a snow drift to bring my kids a christmas ham and I’ll be damned if I will stand for some jerk with a smartphone disparage her and the business she created. This place serves good food at decent prices. IF you want something fancy, then go up the highway . The Brady’s don’t need your cash. Excuse me, you people with your bad reviews probably pay with credit cards because you spend your paycheck before it came in.

Which had me saying, I don’t care what all those other reviewers say—I’m in! (more…)

A friend who’d spotted all the sharing I was doing on social media this weekend about the sights in Wooster, Ohio wondered what the heck had brought me there, and the answer is—why, the Ohio Light Opera, of course!

Back in 2012, we saw three of their performances, and this year, we decided to make it four. The reason it’s worth driving hundreds of miles to Wooster (or in the case of other audience members, flying in from far greater distances) is that the OLO is dedicated to staging not just excellent productions of Gilbert and Sullivan classics, but also lesser-known operettas which can be seen no where else.

For example, Emmerich Kálmán (with whose daughter I can be seen above) was considered one of the masters of the operetta early last century, yet his works are now rarely performed. Except at the Ohio Light Opera, which this year launched its eleventh Kálmán production. And while the OLO also did a Pirates of Penzance this year—and I’m sure the production was wonderful—the world has no shortage of G&S, so what drew us to Wooster were the once popular but now mostly forgotten operettas which make OLO unique.

Here’s what we saw (with a few photos smurched from the OLO Facebook page) … (more…)

It’s been two weeks and a day since my dinner at Journeyman during Readercon, a meal which I should have shared with you sooner. Ah, Life … it does get in the way.

But since it would be unfair to the wonderful meal not to give you a few details even after this passage of time, read on.

After last year’s meal at Journeyman, I was eager to return.

And so, on Saturday night, I skipped out on the con, along with Cecilia Tan (above), David Shaw, Diane Martin, and others, for a meal that began at 8:00 p.m. and went on way past midnight. (And if I’d gotten to this sooner, I could have told you exactly when we left.) (more…)

I’m working on an essay in which I intend to insert that famous Charles Beaumont quote about achieving success in Hollywood, a quote I’ve had reason to paraphrase many times before. This time, though, since I’ll be sharing it in a major national newspaper, I’ve decided that paraphrasing just won’t cut it. But nailing down Beaumont’s exact wording, even with the Internet, has proven difficult.

For example, one version, as passed along by Harlan Ellison in his introduction to Shatterday, goes—

Attaining success in Hollywood is like climbing a gigantic mountain of cow flop, in order to pluck one perfect rose from the summit. And you find when you’ve made that hideous climb … you’ve lost the sense of smell.

While another site replaces the cow flop with cow shit like so—

Achieving success in Hollywood is like climbing an enormous a mountain of cow shit so that you can pluck that one perfect rose from the top. And you find after you’ve made that hideous ascent, you’ve lost the sense of smell.

Still another misattributes the quote to Henry Slesar, while changing the make-up of that mountain—

Success in Hollywood is like climbing to the top of a mountain of manure to pluck one perfect rose– only to discover that you’ve lost your sense of smell.

So … which is it?

Climb? Ascent?

Achieving? Attaining?

Cow flop? Cow shit? Manure?

Do any of you know of a primary source for this quote? Should that first Ellison source be considered the most accurate?

Jaym Gates has announced the Table of Contents for her upcoming anthology Genius Loci—and I’m on it!

There are a bunch of very happy people out there today. And their names and story titles are …

Santa Cruz–Andy Duncan
And the Trees Were Happy—Scott Edelman
Blackthorn—B. Morris Allen
Ouroboros in Orbit—Jason Batt
Reef—Kathleen Miller
Scab Land—Wendy Wagner
The Forgetting Field—Caroline Ratajski
The Town the Forest Ate—Haralambi Markov
Imperator Noster—Sonya Taaffe
The Other Shore—Rebecca Campbell
The South China Sea—Z.M. Quynh
Iron Feliks—Anatoly Belilovsky
Forest For the Trees—Steven S. Long
Drowning Again—Ken Scholes and Katie McCord
The Grudge—Thoraiya Dyer
Twilight State—Gemma Files
Coaltown—Heather Clitheroe
In the Water, Underneath—Damien Angelica Walters
Afterparty—Chaz Brenchly
The Gramadevi’s Lament—Sunil Patel
Blue & Grey and Black & Green—Alethea Kontis
Heartbeat—Laura Anne Gilman
Long Way Down—Seanan McGuire
The Snow Train—Ken Liu
The City–Vivienne Pustell
The Crooked Smile Killers—James Lowder
Threadbare Magician—Cat Rambo
Serenity Eternal–Steven Silver
Beer and Pennies—Rich Dansky
The Sleck–Keris MacDonald
The Transplant Specialist–Sarah Goslee

So what’s the theme of Genius Loci? Here’s how Jaym explained it in her original call for submissions: (more…)