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Happy 100th birthday Robert Heinlein. If you are like your long lived characters you have taken on another identity and another set of women companions. If not, then you are worm food but your legacy is still out there. You may have written some awful rubbish, especially in the later part of your career but at your peak you were the most important writer in the field. It is hard to think of another person more influential to the genre as a writer. Long may your name be remembered.

It was only a matter of time before somebody conducted research into the effect your choice of avatar has on how you are perceived. I wonder if this carries over into lj icons?

There is a long running ad on tv about host responsibility. A bloke stops his mate from drinking and driving. The thing is, way back this ad used the phrase "you're a bit pissed" to convey intoxication. But I notice that the ad had been changed so now the bloke says "you're tanked". Why the change? I know the American usage of "pissed" is different to the one we use locally. But this is a local ad, so I don't see the need to change the wording. Unless, this is another piece of language which is being colonised by american english. Unlike some, this type of language drift does not annoy me all that much in principle - languages change - but I would like it to be other than one way traffic. In this case I did think that is was a usage that was going in the other direction. You hardly ever hear "pissed" used to mean "annoyed" on american tv any more. In fact I think you are more likely to hear "pissed off". So, I wonder what is going on here with this change to the ad - am I wrong about this word?

So the America's Cup is over. Good thing too. Also good that the cup is not headed this way. I am so fed up with all news sources leading with a yacht race as if it is the most important item of the day - every day. I suppose it is sport - barely. It should go in the sports news. This isn't an anti-sport thing. I like following sport. It is just that I don't see the importance of this event. Unless of course the news outlets here have a vested interest in sucking up to some very rich and powerful owners/sponsors. With a bit of luck, we might get some real news now.

No serious collector me. Oh no. None of that obsessive searching around to complete a collection. If there are gaps in the sequence, if I don't have every rarity or special edition then I don't care too much. Sure, if I find an author I like then I will buy every thing I can get my hands on, but I won't get upset if there are titles that are too hard to get. So why them am I so miffed that I cannot get issue #1 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Y'see I have, and have just now read, every issue from #2 up to the current one. I really would like the complete set. Hmmm, I know Ian Nichols has a spare copy - I wonder what cunning plan I can come up with to part it from him.

For reasons too boring to go into, I found myself with a copy of The Magicians's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. Because it was a prequel which answered a number of questions and did the origin myth thing, I always liked this one more than most of the Narnia books. But then it has been a long time since I read any. Reading it hasn't changed my opinion. It is still a charming, if somewhat condescending, children's story and it still has a rather disturbing sermonising religious subtext. Luckily, the subtext can be ignored and the charm enjoyed.

I am not as obsessed (insane?) as the folks contributing to

lastshortstory, but I do like reading short stories. They are how I got into reading sf and the appeal remains. Unlike some people, I don't think that they are an endangered species, but their commercial viability died a long time ago. No writer is going to get rich writing short fiction. Heck, no writer is even going to scrape a living at it - you have got to be writing novels. Even a successful novelist can struggle to get collections of their short work out there. Look at Jack McDevitt. He is one of the top writers in harder science fiction these day. Of currently active authors, he is the best around at taking the spirit of what science fiction used to be all about and presenting it in a way that is relevant to modern audiences. While his novels are picked up by major publishing houses, his collected short stories were not wanted by them. Ships in the Night is published by Altair Australia, who with the best will in the world are not major players. I'm glad they made the effort though.

It is fairly common that an author who writes both shorter and longer works will be better than one than the other. Sometimes the shorter form will give an author more freedom and really let them spread their wings. In other cases, the short form is constricting - the author needs the scope of a novel to fully develop their ideas. Based on the stories in Ships in the Night, I would say that McDevitt shades a little to the latter. The stories are well crafted but a little predictable and seem to lack a bit of character development. In support of this, the longest story, the title story, is pretty much the best. Only a short piece called Report from the Rear shows the sharp sting that characterises the best short stories. But remember these stories are only weaker compared to his novels - a field where he excels. Thus from my point of view this collection is certainly worth reading. I wonder if the folks on

lastshortstory agree.

I'm struck by the similarities between Ben Peek and Clive James. There is a certain physical similarity, a similar background in Sydney and both are too smart for their own good. Both have written autobiographies where truth becomes a slippery concept. In James' case he described it as "unreliable memoir". For Ben Peek, it is less and more than that and it is called twenty-six lies/one truth. A series of dictionary like entries derived from a blog meme. It tells a personal story, an autobiography and plays with the concepts of truth in literature. I really wish I had one of those "I hate Ben Peek" buttons. That way when people ask why I am wearing it, I can say that I don't hate his work at all and that you should be read it. To tell you the truth, I am a little surprised that I feel that way, but there you go.

Edit: I have found one reason to hate him though. I went to put the book away on the shelves where I file other work by Australasian authors only to find that the form factor of the book is such that it does not fit on the shelf. Bastard!

I am sure that I have read Indoctrinaire by Christopher Priest before. Despite not owning a copy , I would have sworn to having read it. Well I was sure until I attempted to (re)read it. I don't remember any of it. It could be that it is, probably because it is his first, the most ordinary of Priest's novels. I mean ordinary in terms of the writing skill shown. It is rather patchy. When it was written, the subject area was fairly ordinary too. That was in 1970 when behavioural science was considered a fit subject for SF authors. For reasons related to general social attitudes towards behavioural studies, it is not a targets for authors very often these days. I am sure a behavioural scientist would be fascinated by my inability to determine whether I had read this book before.

And now for something very very silly. Remember those cheap knockoffs of cheap tacky reading lights I was complaining about the other day. Well I found the real thing. To me they just look like they should be rocket nacelles for a spacecraft. To illustrate my point, I thought I'd soup up one of my remote controls.
( See what you think. Warning - contains silliness )

Yes it is cold today. It was cold and wet yesterday. Wonderful conditions to be out and about. The thing is that yesterday I took my car in for a service. It needed some parts which had to come down overnight from Hamilton. So I took it back in today. What that means is a big chunk of time to kill in central Wellington. There is just so much time that even I can spend at bookstores. Well, OK that limit is determined by my feet getting too sore to be able to spend any more time looking at the shelf contents. So what I need is something to do where I can sit in a warm environment and be entertained. Yes I went to the cinema. I went to the new Fantastic Four effort as well as Zodiac - a choice dictated by session times as much as perceived quality.
( Probably no spoilers but it means you can ignore more easily )

I did manage to read Banana Wings in under the delivery time (context). It made me a little uncomfortable. This may be in spite of or more likely because it is such a fine example of its kind. It is well produced and has loads of good writing - including a piece giving an ABC on how to thin out your book collection should you want to do such a thing. But the thing about a fanzine is that it is about things fannish. I realise that I haven't read such a fanzine in a long time - local club newsletters really do not count. I realise that I have become distanced from the terminology, people and ethos of fandom as represented within. I used to have more of a connection back when I was attending worldcons and especially reading a lot more fanzines. It isn't just me, I think most of the local fan community has separated itself from these traditional aspects of fandom. It might be interesting to examine why this drift away has happened - I suspect that there are lots of contributing factors but a big generational change where a whole group of fans left the scene is going to be very high on the list of causes.

So is this a big deal? Not necessarily. It isn't as if the connections that I have are gone completely. It is just that it is a bit like meeting an old friend that you haven't heard from for a long time. You still know them and they are still your friend, but there is a lot that just seems unfamiliar too. As I said at the beginning, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Sometimes when you meet an old friend again, you hook up and re-establish your relationship - sometimes you know that you have drifted too far apart. Uncomfortable because I'm not entirely sure which way this is going to go.

Well I can't say that I wasn't warned. But the thing is that over the years I have enjoyed the occasional short short story - the sub 1000 word form that seems to have acquired the flash fiction label in recent years. But in the past these very short stories were not all that common. The odd little gem in an author collection or in one of the magazines. Always I looked for and enjoyed them. I suspect it is a phenomenon related to the pervasive nature of the internet, but there are more of these stories around now - hence the trigger for the form to get its own label. The type of subject and story addressed has widened too. That then is the background to why, despite warnings, I bought Flashspec edited by Neil Cladingboel. I should have listened.

The first few stories in this collection are truly dire. I almost didn't read any further. Then suddenly the stories got noticeably better. It is no coincidence that that is the point where the first person narrative stories stopped. Maybe its just me, but first person just does not suit this form. The rest were a mixed bag. Some were pretty good but others were ordinary at best. I think it comes down to execution. The ideas were generally pretty good even if the hidden monster reveal was overdone but they were not always handled that well. This very short form requires hard edged writing. If you will pardon the simile, it has to stab your consciousness like a dagger - too many of these stories were more of a bludgeon. So my advice to anybody attempting these stories - polish and sharpen (repeat). When this happens, perhaps I will read a few more.

Peace Kills by P.J. O'Rourke is another book with a big font, big margins and a corresponding low word count. I'm not complaining. I wish the word count had been even lower. Over the years I have enjoyed O'Rourke's humour and insight even as I rarely agreed with his politics. It is dangerous to only read the work of people you agree with. O'Rourke is how I used to gain insight into the USA right while still being entertained. But with this effort, the entertainment is almost gone. It is replaced with sad excuse making for what passes for American foreign policy. Why the change? The articles in this book date from 2001, so there is a change in mindset with the whole "war on terror" thing going on. O'Rourke also has changed publisher for his pieces. Previously he wrote for Rolling Stone, now he writes for The Atlantic. It isn't all bad - the pieces written about Israel and Egypt retain the old humour and observation of local character. The rest varied from the interesting but unfunny to the outright offensive. Another author for the "don't bother any more" category. Perhaps I should start watching Fox news instead.

Sometimes the little everyday miracles impress me. I got an envelope delivered to me in the mail today. It was posted in the UK on the 19th. I figure that this means the time from posting to delivery was about 90 hours allowing for the time zone differences - possibly a little more but more likely a bit less. Sure, this post will be available all over the world pretty much the instant I click submit, but I am still very impressed by how quickly a physical object can be sent. Remember that it has to go through various delivery and sorting processes at both ends of the journey as well as the day or so it will spend on a plane covering the 20,000K journey. Given that the UK is almost the furthest country from New Zealand (we are actually opposite Spain) I should point out that physical distance is not a great determinant about speed of delivery. Things usually take a day or two longer to get here from Australia and twice as long as that to get here from the USA. Lets not even think about some places where the paper of the envelope will degrade before a letter ever gets delivered.

The envelope in question contained that rarest of items in these parts - a real printed-on-paper fanzine. In particular a copy of

fishlifter's fanzine Banana Wings. I wonder what my chances of getting it read in less than the time it took to get here are. Not good I suspect, but out of respect to the process that got it here I think I should try don't you?

Another Janet Evanovich book. It's called Lean Mean Thirteen so it is another Stephanie Plum book. It is hard to know what to say about such books after there have been thirteen of them plus specials. You gotta know what to expect by now and if you are a fan you won't be disappointed by this one. I did try to manufacture some disappointment anyway, just to give me something to write about. First I looked at the large font, line spacing and margins. The word count is pretty low and the appearance of the book inflated to make it look bigger. But it isn't as if you are short changed by the story - it is densely plotted with lots of action and very little padding. You might even find something to admire in that. So, secondly I have tried to find fault in the content. There was a time during the Stephanie Plum stories where they got a bit hackneyed. The plots and characters seemed to be an exercise in going through the paces - pot boilers in other words. Then a couple of books ago, it all changed for the better and everything was reinvigorated. For a bit it looked like the series had slipped back to the pot boiler state with this one. But no, the quality is still well up there. Not as good as the previous one but still one of the better ones. So back to the original point - if you know the others then you will like this one. Nothing more to be said really.

Did you know the Chinese make cheap fake kiwifruit? But did you know they make cheap copies of their own cheap stuff too? A few months ago, I bought one of those clip-on LED reading lights from one of the $2 stores about town. It was quite cool as it looked like something you could use for scratch modelling as an engine pod on a spaceship - complete with light effects. It works very well for what is essentially a cheap toy. So I was in another $2 shop today and I saw what appeared to be the same lights on sale. So I bought another one. But when I got it home it didn't work. A dissection showed that it was much more shoddily made than the original and was missing a vital component - the internal switch mechanism. So, a cheap knock-off of what was just a piece of cheap ephemera in the first place. Isn't the free marketplace wonderful.

I have a sad little story for you readers of science fiction out there. Once upon a time there was a pretty good science fiction writer. He wasn't at the very top of his profession, but he was in Sturgeon's 10 percent. I for one greatly enjoyed his work. We cannot know for sure, but we can guess that someday he realised that he was never going to make it big from the sf mid-list. He also realised that the step from telling near future sf to hi-tech crime thrillers was not that big. So he started writing such books and got them published. We can assume they sold pretty well because he wrote another one and yet another one after that. To start with, they had a fair bit of the sf about them. You could tell that he wasn't letting go of his old habits and by extension his old readership. Smart thinking that. It certainly kept me reading his work - anyway, I like good crime thrillers. But now the time has come where those links to sf have been more or less severed. What is left is a rather shambolic mid level crime thriller. Not something I would ever read from a cold start. I guess I will have to stop reading this author. As I say, sad.

The author in question is Paul McAuley and the book which pushed me over the edge is Players. It is a fair effort I suppose, but it isn't great. In particular, the organisation of the book is very poor. It does have a gaming aspect which may lure a few people over from the sf realms but it isn't convincing and certainly not beyond the normal. Interestingly, this book gets good blurb by Michael Marshall - another author to whom the above tale could apply. I still have a book by Marshall on my to read shelf. I wonder if reading that will bring the same result as Players.

A few days without entering here and there seems to be quite a lot of trivial stuff to note. And one thing not so trivial.
( meanderings cut )

Are human brains too big? Would we be better off reverting to animals and being happy just eating, sleeping and having sex. This is part of what Kurt Vonnegut throws at you in Galapagos. I re-read this on the plane back from Oz and was just as dumbfounded and delighted by it as I was when I read it the first time. Simple words and a wandering story that somehow entertain while making profound comment about human nature. To say that the story is narrated by the ghost of the son of Kilgore Trout as he observes the life of the people who will carry on the human line after all others have died does not begin to cover what it is all about. There is only one way to do that - read the book and think a lot.

The law of diminishing returns kicks in quickly with con reports. Already there are so many out there in the marketplace that the marginal return on investment is, umm, er, well, marginal. Just go over to this month's spec fic carnival to see what I mean.

However, a few thoughts at random ...
( below a cut because I don't want to bore people with old news )

I just had a look at the photos I took at Convergence. As I suspected, what few skills I possess deserted me for the weekend. Here are 20 or so that are not quite so awful. If I took a photo of you and it isn't here, you can assume that you are safe.

( OK, maybe just one deserves to be highlighted )

There are new people on my flist. Welcome welcome welcome. I can even figure out who half of you are - even though I probably met most of you within the last few days. I lost count of the number of times I introduced myself twice - by name and then again as threemonkeys so folk could recognise me (or not). Perhaps there is something to this literal name approach.

I'm back. Time to talk about Convergence 2. Except - no. I'm not ready. Anyway everybody who was there seems to have posted about it already. Perhaps later when I have managed to restock some food into the house. In the meantime, a few random thoughts about the holiday in Melbourne aspects.

The weather forecast was the same every day. The weather changed but not the forecast.

Given that most of the clothes I own are black or at least dark, I felt right at home on the streets of Melbourne. That might explain why people were inclined to ask me directions. A couple of times I was even able to oblige. The travel gods got their revenge once I got out of the central block. I managed to end up going the wrong way along Lygon street on my last night.

Apart from that brief excursion, the travel side of this trip went very well even if a fair bit of waiting around was on the cards. Perhaps the omen reported previously actually did mean something. The main thing was that on both legs of the plane journeys there was an empty seat beside me and I could overflow the bounds. I may have to fly Air NZ more often too - the seats on their Airbus planes are just a tiny bit wider than the ones that QANTAS run.

Trams really do have inspectors. They arrive in teams dressed and acting to be as intimidating as possible. After they had done their shock and awe thing down the tram I talked to a couple of them for a bit. I think they were genuinely surprised that anybody would want to chat.

The hotel was right at one end of Chinatown. Random food choices were so easy and they were all good. Following a recommendation from

strangedave proved to be even better. I do not however recommend coughing at the wrong moment when eating the hottest item on the menu. There are certain membranes which were never designed to come into contact with chilli.

I enjoyed wandering around the Queen Victoria market this time around. The first time I got a little intimidated by the aggressive selling, noise, crush etc. Once adjusted I could enjoy it properly.

littenz scouted out a place in or near the market which sold a brand of beer called "Temple". I haven't seen it before. We sampled it and were pleasantly surprised by the quality. Something to find out more about. On the subject of beer, the hotel had Mountain Goat beer in the bar. Pity I didn't find that out until near the end of my stay.

Having just got up in the silly hours of the morning to begin a trip to Australia I turned on the radio. They played an interview with Shaun Tan discussing The Arrival. If I believed in signs and portents then this would be a good one.

Most of the folk reading this are sf fans of some sort. Are you ever apprehensive about admitting your hobby? Do you think that people will think you are strange for liking this stuff? (Do you want them to think you are strange?) With sf being so mainstream these days, I don't think there is the reluctance to admit your interest that there might have been in the past. But I wonder if there is still the tiniest little bit of doubt when it comes to the crunch. This story may remove any lingering worries.

I drove

strangedave and Robin over to Martinborough yesterday for a bit of wine tasting and sightseeing. After checking out Martinborough Vineyards who are always good, I planned to go to Muirleigh Rise or one of the other places along the same road but they were all shut. So instead we went around the corner to Tirohana Estate. As we were tasting the wines (not me personally - I was doing the driving) we were talking to the guy there about why Dave was in town all the way from Perth. When we mentioned an sf convention he became very interested and we found some common ground - turns out that as well as running (owning?) the winery he is also one of the main figures at Cloud 9. This is the company which made The Tribe and a bunch of other TV series aimed at younger audiences. They are also subcontracted to do prop work for other productions like LOTR and Hercules. We were invited into the back room and shown a little treasure trove of props. Swords from LOTR, Hercules and a crystal sword from William Tell. There was also a very strange alpenhorn from William Tell. Not to mention various models and costumery including a very peculiar helmet that Robin got to model. Dave took some photos so, with a bit of luck, you will all be able to see how cool it all was.

So letting slip that you are an sf fan can have all sorts of potential benefits. We didn't mention that we were fans at anywhere else we visited - perhaps they all have interesting collections hidden away.

In case anybody was wondering, these are the results to the Sir Julius Vogel awards as presented at Conspiracy 2. This list is strictly unofficial - a proper announcement is awaiting notification to nominees. Congratulations to all the winners.

Best Novel - The Assassin of Gleam by James Norcliffe (Hazard Press, 2006, ISBN: 1-877270-99-7)

Best Short Story - Western Front 1914 by Peter Friend (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #22)

Best Dramatic Presentation - Maddigan's Quest (South Pacific Films Ltd)

Best New Talent - Douglas A. van Belle

Best Fan Writing - Alan Robson

Services to Fandom - John and Lynelle Howell

As usual, nothing that is in any way a proper con report. Just throwing stuff out there.

I was most impressed with the organisation of the con. There were a few glitches but nothing that couldn't be lived with. It is just a pity that there were not more people there to enjoy it (OK, that is down to organisation too, but you know what I mean).

I was very happy to see lots of programming items. I didn't attend a whole lot but the option was always there and I did end up attending more that I have for a while. The con bid for '09 made a big thing about having less programme items - idiots, they need a good kicking. The '09 con will be in Auckland at QB weekend (big tick on that one). I am rather concerned about one trend though - both the '08 & '09 cons will have australian fan guests of honour - just what does that signify?

The quiz went well I think. If the only complaints I received were about a couple of typos then I can feel pretty happy. I was very pleased to see that the team that included Russell Kirkpatrick was even able to answer this one "Name the author who wrote the 'Fire of Heaven' fantasy series and this year had the first book of the 'Husk' series published."

I think this is the first time at a NZ con we have managed to have both FFANZ delegates as well as DUFF and GUFF delegates all together at a con. Dave & Ang were great fun to have join us. The other guests were excellent too. Although I wasn't all that impressed with Eric Flint in some respects, he had a lot of very interesting things to say.

The walls in the hotel rooms were really thin and the rooms were very small. It is an old building with refurbished rooms but the age did show through - including rather disconcertingly the lift. On the plus side, they never ran out of beer (even if they had to keep nipping out the back to restock the bar fridge), there was a good range of con room sizes and there were no run ins with the staff. I was a bit worried that it might just be slightly too far from the rest of town for easy walking, but in practice it wasn't an issue at all. In fact, so easy was it to get to places of use that I didn't eat a meal at the hotel. That may be the first time ever. Lots of good meals actually - there was always a group available to join or gather.

The Aussie SF scene panel was pretty good - we covered all the bases that I wanted. Anybody who agrees to be on a panel and then professes to being a girly swot should be encouraged as they do lots of preparation (yes I do mean you Rowena). Of course with Dave & Russell you just need to wind up the big key and away they go.

I am no longer on the SFFANZ board. Hooray. I am now free of any fan positions for the first time in 15 years. To do this stuff, you need energy and enthusiasm. I don't seem to have enough to go around at the moment. Perhaps in a year or two I may be able to get back into it. The AGM was its usual rambling unstructured self, but all the issues god dealt with and there were more than usual to get stuck into this time.

No room parties. Not one. Nothing. One was advertised but then cancelled - well it was moved to the bar. The small hotel rooms & thin walls were a factor but it is much more than that. No room parties. None. We are so so so sad. There was plenty of other socialising going on and the bar/lounge area was busy. But no room parties. None. Oh where, oh where are the young fans who are serious about their parties?

Time to start thinking about packing for Convergence.

I feel like I have been asleep for most of the last 3 or so days. The annoying sniffle I had last week turned into a fully fledged cold this week. The thing about a cold is that you can dose yourself up with medication and just continue on living life through it. But if you don't have to, then you can sleep...and sleep...and sleep. I think I know how cats live their lives.

The cold isn't gone yet, but Conspiracy 2 starts tomorrow so I had better wake up properly for that. I hope to catch up with a few of you there.

I finished reading Glass Soup by Jonathan Carroll today. I can't really put my finger on the reason, but this books does not seem to have quite the impact that others of his that I have read. It could be that it is a sequel of sorts to White Apples which I have not read. But it isn't as if there is a conspicuous chunk of information missing. It could be that this time Carroll has leaned slightly to the more absurd side of the fine line he treads between fantasy and absurdist writing. But it isn't by very much and in any case I can't really see why that would leave me feeling a bit flat about it. Perhaps it is just that the dramatic tension in the book does not reach any great heights. Lets go with that last one shall we until some better explanation comes along. It isn't like I didn't enjoy this book - it just didn't quite get to the heights of the others.