ahmedakhan

I have in my hands the very first "Writers of the Future" anthology, featuring stories from the 1984 prize winners.

On an impulse I googled the names of these winners to see where this brilliant start in their writing career took them in the 24 years since 1984.

Before I write about my googled results, here is a list of the prize winners:

Dennis J. Pimple
Leonard Carpenter
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Jor Jennings
Mary Frances Zambreno
Randell Crump
David Zindell
Ira Herman
Michael D. Miller

How many names do you recognize out of that list? Personally, I recognized only two names: Nina Kiriki Hoffman and David Zindell.

So then I googled the other names and here is what I found out:

Dennis J. Pimple, Randell Crump and Ira Herman apparently did not write anything except for the WOTF award winning story.

Leonard Carpenter did write quite a bit, mostly in the Conan series.

Jor Jennings had published stories in Galaxy, Twilight Zone, etc., but all before the Writers of the Future prize. I could not locate any story of his published after winning the WOTF award.

Mary Frances Zambreno did write a couple of stories and a couple of novels.

Googling Michael D. Miller brought up some religious books but no SF.

Net result: 5 out of 9 WOTF prize winners did not write anything after their win.

So what happened here? Are they still writing but are not publishing? Did they stop writing? Why? Will I be writing 24 years from now, provided I am alive and well? Why? Interesting questions, all.

 When I read an SF magazine, I almost invariably read the non-fiction first. That is what I did here. Charles de Lint's review of Duma Key was good. I had come across the term "The New Weird" several times but had not fully understood it until I read the James Salis piece. This new understanding of mine may even spark a separate blog entry about the new weird. Paul di Filippo was his usual entertaining self. As I had neither read "Jumper" nor seen the movie, I just skimmed through Kathy Maio's review.

And now to fiction:

Reader's Guide, by Lisa Goldstein: This story is a great combination of fiction and metafiction. The story is short, clever and extremely readable and I love short, clever and readable stories. It entertained me and at the same time made me think about my favorite hobby - writing. It even sparked some story ideas in my brain. What more can one ask from a story? If I was an editor of an "Year's Best" anthology, this story would surely be in it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Fullbrim's Finding, by Matt Hughes: "...the kind of story, allegedly humorous, that consists of a long and complex build-up, leading to some cave on a mountain peak, where the end of all the striving turns out to be no more than a deflating inanity!" This quote from the story perfectly describes the story itself. Matt Hughes is an entertaining writer and I usually like his Henghis Haphthorn stories but I did not like this one. 

Enfant Terrible, by Scott Dalrymple: The story deals with the age-old SF trope of superhumans among us. Nothing new here, but it was quite readable and entertaining. However, it raised some questions in my mind. [SPOILER ALERT] If the superhumans ate up the intelligence of the people around them, how come so many gifted children still remain in Michael's class? Second question: Why the second person, present tense narration? It doesn't seem to serve any purpose - just sounds contrived.

The Roberts, by Michael Blumlein: Impressed by the writing; not too impressed by the story. Takes too long to convey a small point.

The Dinosaur Train, by James L. Cambias: Take a slice-of-life story about a circus. Replace the elephants (and other such animals) with dinosaurs. The resulting story is The Dinosaur Train. Readable.

Poison Victory, by Albert E. Cowdrey: I usually like Cowdrey's writing but I do not like alternate history and I do not like WWII stories so I skipped this story altogether.

Overall: A readable issue, the highlight being Lisa Goldstein's story.

The first ever review of SFWP, by Simon Petrie, is up at Andromeda Spaceways.

My recent review of EC Comics Sampler, here on this blog, has been noticed. Scoop has mentioned it and linked to my journal.

You can now listen to the podcast of "Thus Spake Bleerbo" here: http://web.mac.com/normsherman/iWeb/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html. If you do take time to listen to it, I hope you will tell me what you think of it.

My story, "Thus Spake Bleerbo", has been accepted for podcast production at Drabblecast. In the course of this acceptance, I found editor Norm Sherman a very nice person to deal with.

I, too, availed myself of the "Free Comic Book Day" on May 3 and got myself 17 free comics. Of the 17, 3 were anime which I never read but my children love them. Of the other 14, I have now read 10. Of those ten, there is one comic that I feel compelled to speak about, and that comic is the "EC Sampler".

Gemstone is bringing out the whole EC archives in hardcover volumes. If this sampler is anything to go by, I would love to get my grubby hands on those volumes.

There are 4 stories in this sampler: Spawn of Venus, by William M. Gaines and Al Feldstein; Dying City, by Harvey Kurtzman and Alex Toth; Curse of the Full Moon, by Johnny Craig; and Under Cover, by William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein and Wally Wood.

"Dying City" is a great story which, in 7 pages, portrays the futility of war better than any story or novel I have ever read on this theme. But the story that totally blew me away was "Under Cover". Written more than 50 years ago, the story seems as relevent - if not more so - today as it was in the day it was written. It is an incredibly intense story about a town where the people are so bigotted that a woman is flogged to death just for befriending a black man. This savagery is observed by a journalist. I don't want to go into spoilers, I will stop here but not before quoting the last lines of the story:

"Yes...Safe! Safe behind their masks of prejudice, these hooded peddlers of racial, religious, and political hatred operate today! Mind you, they are shrewd and ruthless men such as those in our story. How long can we stay 'cool' and indifferent to this threat to our democratic way of life? It is time to unveil these usurpers of our constituionally guaranteed freedoms."

I want those "EC Archives"!

My first acceptance for the submissions I had made in April: My story, "Fault", will appear in "Blazing Adventures" #5, out at the end of this month.

Another story of mine - a short-short titled "Promises to Keep", submitted a couple of days back and accepted within a day, will appear in a hitherto unnamed anthology of stories based on the theme of summer vacations, from Whortleberry Press.

I have been tagged by Kay with an interested meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The nearest book is "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep.

The 3 sentences from page 123 are:

I might have known the demon girl would tag along. She walked behind us, pretending to be interested in various houses and gardens that just happened to lie along the way we were taking. Finally after this had gone on for three blocks, Father turned.

In turn, I will tag:
praetorian1001
silk_noir
snickelish
summers_place
wendigomountain

The month of April is come and gone. It started in a depressing way (refer to my April 7th post), but improved quite a bit.

Weather-wise, it was beautiful. Did a bit of gardening and landscaping. Celebrated a birthday (mine). Posted 11 entries on LJ. Received some interesting comments.

On the writing front, good news was sparse. Submitted and re-submitted about 2 dozen stories (originals and reprints). Received about half a dozen rejections. Jury is still out on 8 original stories and 11 reprints. The brightest spot, writing-wise, was the receipt of the "SF Waxes Philosophical" anthology.

And now we are in May and hopefully the April story submissions will bear fruit in this month. After all, don't they say: April showers bring May flowers?

Here is the final story from my scrapbook. I don't know why but of the three stories this was the one that moved me the most.

Those Who Serve

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies...

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

Here is another story that moved me when I heard it:

REACHING OUT IN SPITE OF DOUBT

A little girl named Liz was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

The boy hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

In these times of bitterness and dehumanization of human beings where humans(?) torture other humans (see the posts of jlassen- specifically these:  http://jlassen.livejournal.com/552097.html and http://jlassen.livejournal.com/552397.html), a little bit of sugar may not be amiss.

I often receive emails from various sources, that pass along inspiring and motivational stories. I save the best ones in my inbox for a rainy day. I have no idea whether these stories are true or not, but they are definitely moving and heart-warming and humanity-affirming.

Here is story #1:

PICK UP IN THE RAIN

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an elderly African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway, trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 60s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached...

It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

Though I did attach this cover image in one of my previous posts on LJ, here it is again: a low resolution picture of the front cover of the anthology.

I have just seen the final proofs of "SF Waxes Philosophical" anthology and I am proud to say that the book looks gorgeous, with a wraparound cover art by Laura Givens. The printers assure me that the book will be out by Monday.

Yay!!

Here is the TOC:

Diary of a Dead Man - Michael Bishop
Liw Osfeo and the Worm - Matt Hughes
The Day The World Lost Gravity - Ian Shoebridge
Wave Form - Paul Carlson
Categorical Imperative - Marian Powell
Different and Different Again - Sean M. Foster
Chaos and the Gods - Steven Utley
The Saving Power - Luke Jackson
The God Engine - Ted Kosmatka
Lords of Light - Ren Holton
These Old Bones - C. June Wolf
The Third Scholar - Jetse De Vries
The Shores of Id - Ahmed A. Khan
The Squirrel That Didn't Bark - Douglas A. Van Belle

 Quite some time ago, a colleague of mine had passed on some actual English subtitles used in films made in Hong Kong. I found them "surprising", to say the least, so I had written them down. Just recently I came across my notes and could not resist posting the choicest of the subtitles here. In my opinion, each of these is capable of inspiring a story all by itself:

* Same old rules: no eyes, no groin.

* A normal person wouldn't steal pituitaries.

* You always use violence. I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken.

* Yah-hah, evil spider woman! I have captured you by the short rabbits
  and can now deliver you violently to your gynecologist for a thorough
  examination.

Here are some medical terms, defined as never before:

Antibody - against everyone
Artery - a place where paintings are sold
Bacteria - back door to a cafeteria
Benign - what you become after you be eight
Caesarian Section - a district in Rome
Cardiology - advanced study of poker
Cat Scan - searching for the lost kitty
Coma - punctuation mark
Cyst - short for sister
Diagnosis - person with slanted nose
Dilate - the late Princess Diana
Dislocation - this place
Duodenum - couple in denims
Enema - not a friend
Genes - blue denim
Impotent - distinguished
Labor Pain - hurt at work
Microbes - small dressing gowns
Obesity - city of Obe
Protein - in favor of teens
Psychopath - road to the asylum
Red Blood Count - Dracula
Subcutaneous - not cute enough
Ultrasound - radical noise
Urine - opposite of you're out

Just browsing through my diary, I came across an entry dated March 18, 2005 and it made me smile. Thought I would share it:

Yesterday, I took my ten year old to a games shop because he wanted to trade some of his used games for new ones. At the shop, the trade-in price offered for his games was very less and the cost of new games was pretty high so the deal didn't work out.

On our way back, in the car, my son said: "When I grow up, if I become the president of a company producing games, I will make rules so that games would be sold for a maximum of $20 and a minimum of $5 and trade-in prices will be a minimum of $10. This will make kids happy."

I said: "But then, let us say there is someone who had purchased a new game for $5. He would be trading that in for $10 which is more than the price he paid. Doesn't make sense."

And my son came out with: "Dad, everything makes sense when you are a kid."

All I could do was laugh at this gem.

Is it possible on LJ to get and/or monitor statistics about the number of hits a blog/blog post receives?

How?

Quite some time ago, writer, editor, artist, G.W. Thomas had published a cartoon dedicated to me. And it came about as a result of a statement of mine in my report of VCON 2006.

And I didn't know about it and found this cartoon just yesterday while self-googling.

Here is a belated "thank you" to Gary...

And here is the cartoon:




PS: I seem to be out of my doldrums, thanks to the inspiring comments of so many of my friends-in-writing.