Today’s Birthday Boy 1/3
Born January 3, 1892: J.R.R. Tolkien Around the world people will raise a toast to the Professor at 9 p.m. local time – so it’s not too late for those of us in North America. And today’s recommended theme reading … Continue reading →
Donna Douglas (1933-2014)
Donna Douglas passed away January 2; she was 81. She gained fame as Ellie May Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, which premiered in 1962 and ran until 1971. Before that she worked everywhere on TV from Route 66 to 77 … Continue reading →
Cadigan Says Cancer Is Back
Pat Cadigan, who had successful surgery to remove cancer in 2013, announced today, “My cancer is back. The form I have can’t be eradicated or cured but only held at bay for a while by chemo. The specialist I saw today … Continue reading →
Then There Was One: Robert Conroy (1938-2014)
Alternate history novelist Robert Conroy died of cancer December 30 at the age of 76. His books were frequent Sidewise Award nominees — 1942 won the award in 2009, and he wrote seven other finalists. Conroy told an interviewer late last year that … Continue reading →
Last Unicorn Tour Reaches Southern California
SoCal fans have a rare chance to see The Last Unicorn movie on a big screen and personally meet the novel’s author Peter S. Beagle this week. Peter and Tour Team members Travis Ashmore and Dave Connick are putting on … Continue reading →
Uncanny Issue Two Coming 1/6
The second issue of Uncanny Magazine will be available January 6. Half of the free online content will be released that day, and the second half on February 3rd. Uncanny Magazine’s entire contents will be on sale in eBook versions … Continue reading →
File 770’s 50 Most-Read Stories of 2014
Here are the 50 the news stories and commentaries people were most interested in reading in 2014. File 770 broke some of these stories — like Tor pulling its MZB birthday article, Harlan Ellison’s stroke, the turnover in the WisCon … Continue reading →
Widner Named First Lifetime FAPA Member
Robert Lichtman, Secretary-Treasurer of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA), has announced that Art Widner is the organization’s first Lifetime Member, “forever freed of any obligations to pay dues and/or to contribute to the mailings.” FAPA is fandom’s earliest apa, … Continue reading →
Nature decrees that certain things tend to rise – such as the hitcounts on blog posts filled with bad news. Sometimes there are exceptions – in December, Sue Mason’s winning the 2014 Rotsler Award attracted more readers than the rest … Continue reading →
2015 Ditmar Nominations Open
Nominations for the Ditmars, the Australian SF awards, are open. A partial list of eligible works is online. The awards will be presented at Swancon 40, the 2015 Australian National Convention. Eligible to nominate are “natural persons active in fandom” … Continue reading →
2015 TAFF Voting Begins
Nina Horvath of Austria, or Wolf Von Witting of most everywhere else in Europe (born in Finland, worked in Sweden for 25 years, and now lives in Italy)? It’s time for you to decide which one the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund … Continue reading →
File 770 #164 Available
Ring out the year 2014 with the new issue of File 770! Featuring: My Short Career as a Chess Non-Prodigy by Rich Lynch A Switch In Time: Mr. Peabody and Sherman by Taral Wayne World Fantasy Convention 2014 report by … Continue reading →
2016 DeepSouthCon Names Guests of Honor
ABC DeepSouthCon 54, to be held in Roswell, GA in May 2016, has announced its guest of honor slate. Author John C. Wright, a Nebula nominee in 2006 for his novel Orphans of Chaos, is Guest of Honor. Wright’s wife, … Continue reading →
Rick Brooks (1941-2014)
Richard Alan Brooks, 73, passed away May 19 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Rick Brooks and Alan G. Thompson published four issues Nargothrond in 1968-1969, with contributions from leading Indiana fans like Buck and Juanita Coulson and Sandra Miesel, plus letters of comment … Continue reading →
Pournelle Plans To Live Long and Prosper
Chaos Manor’s latest update about Jerry Pournelle’s recovery came from the author himself. (Jerry supplied the words; the text was posted by a digital amanuensis.) Monday Dec. 25, I had a stroke. I think my head is all right, and I … Continue reading →
2015 British Eastercon Update
Entertainment reigns at Dysprosium, the 2015 Eastercon, being held April 3–6 at the Park Inn Heathrow. Guest of Honour Seanan McGuire, supported by Talis and her band, will give an evening concert on April 4. McGuire’s record as an award-winning singer/songwriter parallels … Continue reading →
2015 World Fantasy Con Website Goes Online
A new web site for the 2015 World Fantasy Convention has just opened — www.wfc2015.org. It has all the usual features, including writeups about the two guests of honor, Steven Erikson and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and two special guests, Glen … Continue reading →
The Box Score
Jetpack’s annual statistical report for File 770 (which you’re welcome to read) ranks the most prolific commenters of 2014. I thank them for making this a more interesting site! Robert Whitaker Sirignano David K. M. Klaus Taral Wayne Morris Keesan Continue reading →
Massoglia Merry Minds’ Morphology Mundifies Mystery
By John Hertz: Book dealer, Regency dance teacher, and wise guy Marty Massoglia at Loscon XLI (November 28-30) showed me this formula: (12 + 144 + 20) + 3 ? 4 ÷ 7 + 5 x 11 = 92 + 0 … Continue reading →
Verse and Re-Verse
Morris Keesan answered John Hertz’s recent metrical sally Verse and Verse with three haiku of his own. He sent them to John in a postcard, knowing better than to count on John seeing them online. However, the two poets have … Continue reading →
Ohio’s Context: Mostly Dead?
Harassment complaints made by several attendees at Context 27 in September resulted in a publicly-announced 5-year ban of the accused staffer. However, two committee members – Steven Saus and Lucy Snyder – resigned anyway, citing the resistance of several board members … Continue reading →
What You Learn From the Latest Mr. Sci-Fi
Marc Scott Zicree’s new Mr. Sci-Fi videolog documents what our idea of really really insufferably cold weather is here in Los Angeles. Cold enough to make you want to wear a hat. Yes, we whine and complain about temperatures that … Continue reading →
Feghoot Winners Posted
The victors in the Washington Post’s feghoot contest were published in the Style Invitational column on December 24. As you know, Bob – A little story that ends in an elaborate pun: It’s sometimes called a feghoot, named for a … Continue reading →
A Little Knight Cap
Sir Patrick Stewart is unaccountably overcome by the ordeal of wearing a talking Christmas hat. To paraphrase Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: “They put things on our heads to control our minds!” [Thanks to Martin Morse … Continue reading →
Added Mike Glyer’s File 770 #164
Added Rich Lynch’s My Back Pages #13
Added Christopher J. Garcia’s The Drink Tank #396
Added Robert Lichtman’s Trap Door #30
Added Opuntia #294 & archive issue 26.5, edited by Dale Speirs
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