Mabfan's Musings

I'm desperately trying to find the time to write up a Readercon 20 report. In the meantime, I've managed to label all the photos in my Readercon 2009 gallery, and I've gotten all but two names. So for those of you who are interested, here's the list of people whose pictures appear in the gallery:

Scott Edelman, Kristin Janz, Chris Davis, Mike Allen, Bob Colby, Danielle Friedman, Hildy Silverman, Jennifer Pelland, Vylar Kaftan, Warren Lapine, Gordon Van Gelder, Tom Purdom, John Benson, Lev Grossman, Allen M. Steele, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Bishop, Barry N. Malzberg, Todd Giles, Art Henderson, John Joseph Adams, Ian Randal Strock, Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald, Drew Morse, Robert Killheffer, Michaela Roessner, F. Brett Cox, Paul Di Filippo, Stephen Frug, Sara Frug, Joseph Frug, Margaret Ronald, and of course Nomi and me.

And to answer the question posed earlier: my college friend is Lev Grossman, who is just about to publish his third novel, The Magicians. Hopefully, I'll have more to say about him (and others!) later on.

College Friends: Lev Grossman, Michael A. Burstein Photo copyright ©2009 by Nomi S. Burstein

In the midst of everything else going on, I didn't want to miss boosting the signal on this event.

Tomorrow evening, the Somerville Public Library is hosting a publication party for Mary Alexandra Agner, whose new book of poetry, The Doors of the Body, has just been published by Mayapple Press. Mary is a good friend; her poems rekindled my interest in poetry and actually got me more interested in the intersection between speculative fiction and poetry.

I'm planning to be at the party to join Mary in celebrating the publication of her book, and I encourage anyone who can to stop by and hear Mary read. It'll open your mind.

The event listing can be found here, but here's the pertinent details:

Mary Alexandra Agner Book Party & Reading

Join Somerville poet Mary Alexandra Agner as she celebrates the publication of her new book, The Doors of the Body (Mayapple Press.) Agner writes of dead women, telescopes, and secrets. All her life she has observed the universe and written about it. She can be found online at www.pantoum.org.

This event is free, and all are welcome to attend.

Date:
Thursday Jul 16, 2009

Time:
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Location:
West Branch Library, 40 College Avenue

My review of the new Harry Potter movie is now up at http://sfscope.com/2009/07/young-wizards-in-lovea-review.html

If you're a friend of mine who reads this blog without an LJ account, and you want to be kept up to date on recent personal events in my life, send me an email.

Nomi and I spent the weekend at the Readercon 20 science fiction convention, and I'm still catching up from it. I'm hoping to have something of a report as soon as I can; in the meantime, if you want to see some pictures from the convention, as yet unlabeled, check out my Readercon 2009 Photo Gallery. Note that it's three pages of photos.

To make this more fun, one of the pictures shows me posing with a friend from college who was in the same dorm as me freshman year. Guess who it is.

My review of C.C. Finlay's Traitor to the Crown series, which consists of the three novels The Patriot Witch, A Spell for the Revolution, and The Demon Redcoat, has been posted at SF Scope at the following link: http://sfscope.com/2009/07/the-british-are-cominga-review.html.

If you don't have time to check out the full review (although I did try to keep it short, even though it's for a three-book series), here's the upshot quote:

"The Traitor for the Crown series is a delightful blend of historical fiction and fantasy, with a clever idea well executed. Seek it out; you'll be glad you did."

Yes, it's true. Nomi and I will be at Readercon this weekend, although chances are we won't be wandering around a lot. More likely, Nomi will pick a place to sit and stay there, so we'll expect the wandering vortex to come toward her.

I will be bringing hardcover and softcover copies of I Remember the Future for anyone who wishes to purchase an autographed book directly from me. If you know you'll want one, let me know in advance which kind. Copies should be available at the SF Scope table and directly from me at my Sunday 12noon Autographing.

Speaking of which, here's my schedule, including descriptions (let me know if you have any questions):

Friday 6:00 PM, RI: Workshop (60 min.)

Speculative Poetry Workshop.  Mike Allen with participation by Leah Bobet, Michael A. Burstein, Vylar Kaftan, Ernest Lilley

What is speculative poetry? How do you write it, why would you want to, and which editors will buy it? Come prepared to write on the fly.

Saturday 12:00 Noon, ME/ CT: Talk / Discussion (60 min.)

The Genre Roots of the Mainstream Tradition in American Fiction.  C. C. Finlay with discussion by Michael A. Burstein, Helen Collins, F. Brett Cox, Debra Doyle, Chris Nakashima-Brown

The plots of Charles Brockden Brown, America's first novelist, frequently hinged on scientific speculation. Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne employed fantasy elements, Edgar Allen Poe invented a range of genre tropes, and  James Fenimore Cooper introduced the series character-a staple of modern genre fiction.  In the last century, some of F. Scott Fitzgerald's earliest works depend on fantastic elements.  Mainstream American writers, in fact, have regularly created fiction that would now be considered part of the speculative genre.  Finlay will argue that genre elements are not isolated in a separate branch of the American literary tradition, but are instead at the heart of it.

Sunday 10:00 AM, ME/ CT: Panel

The Future of Speculative Fiction Magazines, Part 1: Introduction / Print Magazines.  John Benson, Michael A. Burstein (L), Warren Lapine, Tom Purdom, Hildy Silverman, Gordon Van Gelder

Are print magazines doomed?  (Heck, if _newspapers_ can't make it ...)  Or will they survive in their tiny niches? Are there ways to make them more viable?  Is that even worth the bother?  After all, online magazines are now easy and relatively inexpensive to start-are they the answer?  Part one of our discussion begins with an overview and then examines the future of print magazines.

Sunday 12:00 Noon, Salon F: Autographing

Sunday 1:00 PM, Salon A: Panel

We Won, We Lost.  John Joseph Adams, Michael A. Burstein, F. Brett Cox (L), Paul Di Filippo, Robert Killheffer, Michaela Roessner

[Greatest Hit from Readercon 12.]  It's an sf world. Our once-visionary iconography is now commonplace. The present turns into the future even before we wear it comfortably, let alone wear it out, and this sense of constant change is now the common currency of our culture  rather than our precious private truth. And yet the sf readership shrinks, or at least gets older, every year; as sf media ascends (and merges with real life), the written sf word seems ever more irrelevant-and certainly wins no greater prestige for its creators than in the past. Maybe this has nothing to do with sf, but just reflects the death of reading (a development we perhaps ironically foresaw). But maybe somehow the contents of sf, the accidents, have conquered mass culture, but some crucial part of the form, the essence, has been left behind. Is it an sf world after all? Or just a holographic simulation of one?

Sunday 2:00 PM, RI: Talk / Discussion (60 min.)

Lasers, Death Rays, and the Quest for the Ultimate Weapon.  Jeff Hecht with discussion by Ian Randal Strock

Nature invented lightning bolts first, but the ancients put them in the hands of their mythical gods, and ever since we've had dreams of destruction in fiction and in fact. H.G. Wells armed his Martian invaders with heat rays; Nikoka Tesla and others tried to build real death rays. In 1958, the director of the then-new DARPA said his agency would be interested in far-out ideas like death rays, and a few months later Gordon Gould arrived at their door with a plan to build the laser. Hecht will talk about the real (and the questionable) science, the fictional visions, the bizarre history, and the quest for the ultimate weapon of directed energy.

Dean Wesley Smith has the answer at Life After Copyright.

As I mentioned before the weekend, although I was (and still am) recovering from oral surgery, on shabbat afternoon I was scheduled to give a talk at my shul. The fact that July 4, American Independence Day, fell on shabbat was amusingly convenient. For one thing, it was more specifically the shabbat of the combined parshiot of Chukas and Balak, and so I had a convenient excuse to wear my Democratic donkey tie. You see, parshas Balak is the one that includes the story of Balaam talking to his donkey, and since my tie includes donkeys along with stars and stripes colored in red, white, and blue...

But I digress. A few people have asked me to reproduce the talk here. Since my talks tend to be extemporaneous, I can't reproduce it exactly, but for those who are interested, here's a short recap.

I began by riffing on the rabbi's drash from the morning, in which he talked about the great leaders sent to the Jews and the non-Jews, and I gave my opinion that the founders of American independence could be considered great leaders among the non-Jews. From that tenuous connection, I talked about freedom of religion in this country, and how it was never really the plan at the start to extend those freedoms as far as they did. The original colonists who came to these shores wanted religious freedoms for themselves, and in the end it turned out that the only way to protect their own freedom of religion was to protect the same freedoms for the many other sects that disagreed with them.

The idea that those same freedoms ought to be extended to the Jewish people was not one that a lot of colonists really would have embraced in the 18th century, but then came Washington's letter to Touro Synagogue in August 1790. Below, I've provided a link to the historical background, but the basic story was that Washington was touring the country and paid a visit to Newport, Rhode Island. The warden of the synagogue wrote a letter to Washington, welcoming him and giving Washington his own vision of the United States as a place where there would be freedom of religion for all. Washington responded with a letter in which he copied many of the warden's own words and made it clear that he agreed with the idea of freedom of religion for all.

The simple fact is that the United States of American was the first country in history to give full and equal civil rights to the Jewish people, and Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport is an important part of American history, for it established the precedent that all non-Christian religions were meant to be afforded the same protections.

I concluded my talk by ruminating on how lucky we have it here in our ability to practice our religion the way we want, and how I can't be sure if I would be able to manage trying to practice my religion in a society in which I would be persecuted for it. For the most part, in the USA (and especially in Massachusetts) my biggest problem in practicing my religion is arranging my vacation days for my holidays.


If you want more background, the story behind the letter can be found here: Jewish Virtual Library: George Washington's Letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island. The letter itself can be found here: Teaching American History: Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport by George Washington.

For those of you who don't know, or were wondering, yesterday I had my wisdom teeth taken out. I'm doing generally okay, and gnomi has been taking good care of me.

In the meantime, tomorrow afternoon I'm giving a talk at shul. In honor of the Independence Day holiday, I'm going to speak about one of two topics: either the Jewish roots of Captain America, or the letter George Washington sent to the Jews of Touro Synagogue.

More later....

So, a few weeks ago, madwriter asked me if I wanted a Hebrew copy of Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions that had come into his possession. Now, while it's true that I can pronounce Hebrew, I don't read it too well, but I figured why not. After all, Nomi could read it, and maybe one day I'd be able to.

Dangerous Visions in Hebrew Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein

Dangerous Visions in Hebrew, Frontispiece Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein

Danny explained to me why he wanted me to have the book, though, and when he did, I felt a lump in my throat. I said to him, "I'm touched you would consider this gift for us. Rest assured we will treasure the book and keep it with all the other important books in our library."

Here's why:

Book Provenance Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. Text copyright ©2009 by Danny Adams.

In case it's hard for you to read, here's the text on the page:

This book previously belonged to my uncle, science fiction author (and anthology contributor) Philip José Farmer. I brought it from his home in Peoria, Illinois on June 9, 2009. From there I offered it as a gift to fellow sf writer Michael A. Burstein and his wife Nomi.

Thank you, Danny.

Back in December, I entered a competition over at the podcast The Chronic Rift, which is devoted to discussion on the latest in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic art. They were looking for a script to turn into an audio drama, and I thought that my Hugo-nominated short story "Decisions" (Analog, January/February 2004) might work well as an audio drama.

So, relying heavily on The Complete Book of Scriptwriting by J. Michael Straczynski, I sat down with a copy of the manuscript of "Decisions" and adapted it into an audio play. An audio play has different requirements from a short story to work properly. It may seem obvious, but to write an audio play, you have to imagine how the listeners are going to paint a picture of the action in their minds using nothing but sound. In his book, Straczynski gives an example of a television scene in which George shoots Frank, and points out that if you closed your eyes and listened to the scene the way it was presented, you could come away with the impression that Frank shot George.

I felt "Decisions" lent itself to the audio treatment for a few reasons. First of all, there were only four main characters, so it wouldn't be hard for the listener to keep track of them all. Secondly, there weren't that many different locales in the story, so once again I wouldn't have to set up too much for the listener. And finally, I felt that it was a tight little story with a lot of tension between characters that lent itself well to the audio treatment.

I had a lot of fun imagining "Decisions" as an audio play, and now here's your chance to decide for yourself if I succeeded. It's been produced by John S. Drew of The Chronic Rift, with an all-star cast, including Keith R.A. DeCandido, Andrea K. Lipinski, Orenthal V. Hawkins, Judith Furnari, and Jay Smith.

If you click on The Chronic Rift: Spotlight – Michael A. Burstein's Decisions you can listen to the episode.

And then you can add a comment at The Chronic Rift: Spotlight – Michael A. Burstein's Decisions Forum Discussion and you can rate the episode here.

Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

I kind of feel sad for Farrah Fawcett.

Apparently, today has been declared Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day. Not sure what I should do to celebrate...

Nomi and I have arranged for a friend, Carsten Turner, who is a certified instructor, to teach us CPR and First Aid at our place. He's willing to open up his class to any of our friends in the area that want or need certification.

Carsten will be teaching layperson CPR for adult, child, and infant, including choke-saving (what was previously known as the Heimlich maneuver) and the use of AED, along with First Aid. If we can get a few more people to take the class, it'll only cost $50 per person for the CPR part, and $80 total for those who also stay for First Aid. In addition to getting a wallet card showing certification, you'll also get a book with a CD. Also, if anyone wants to purchase a pocket face mask, Carsten has wallet-size ones for $10 and a larger one that's $15.

We're planning to hold the class on Sunday, June 28 at our place, from 1 pm to about 6 pm. If you're interested in signing up, reply here or send me an email as soon as possible, as I need to give him a number by Wednesday.

violetcheetah pointed gnomi and me to the following article from yesterday's Boston Globe. I have to say, I find it the most applicable article of child-rearing advice that anyone has sent us, given the circles we move in.

What to Do If Your Child Has Superpowers

Reading back over my previous discussion about valuing creator's work properly, I've been pondering the correct way to ask someone to provide something for free. Specifically, I've been thinking about the request I had received to allow a nonprofit to reprint a story of mine in exchange for exposure. And I asked myself, if they knew from the outset that they couldn't offer me any money at all, was there a way they could have asked me that would have led to my agreement?

I already noted that I would have been more amenable if the man who made the request had started by asking me what I would charge as a reprint fee, or if he had said that they didn't have a lot of money but had offered me a token sum. That would have acknowledged from the outset his understanding that my work had value to it. But then I thought of one other approach he could have taken. I can't be sure this would have done the trick, but I think I would have been receptive had he said the following:

"I'm sorry to say that I can't offer payment. Would you be willing to donate your work?"

I would have been a lot more comfortable with this kind of request. Why? Because the original "offer" implies that "exposure" is a valid form of payment. But the request as phrased above makes it clear that the publisher understands that the work has value, simply by using the word "donation." And it implies a level of respect for the creator and the work that the offer of payment by exposure does not.

Of course, that mostly works if the asker is running a nonprofit or a charity, and if the writer can afford it.

Writers do donate things all the time, such as signed copies of their work or the chance for a person to appear in a book, to charity auctions. But people need to keep in mind that just because someone is a writer doesn't mean that they can actually afford to make donations. The writers who can are usually ones more famous and better off than I am, and yet there are a lot of people out there who seem to think that if you're a fiction writer you're automatically very well off, even if they don't see your name on the Times bestseller list.

I wouldn't be surprised to see someone like Stephen King on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy, trying to raise money for a good cause (and if Wikipedia is to be trusted, King did in fact appear on the show to raise money for the Bangor Public Library in 1995). But most of us who are writers would rather appear on Jeopardy for our own benefit, so we can avoid missing our mortgage payments.

If you do approach a writer for a donation, and you're turned down, you ought to be gracious about it. When I was just starting out, I got an email from some school asking me to make a donation of a personal item for a charity auction. (These requests are a lot more common than people realize.) I emailed back, explaining that I was a teacher myself (low-paid, of course, as many teachers are) and had agreed with my employer that I would only make such donations for my own school's auction. The other school's representative emailed me back indignantly, saying that he had never heard of such an arrangement and casting aspersions on my moral character because I wouldn't part with one of my possessions to help them out.

You can be sure that I crossed that school off my list of places I would ever help out if I found myself in a position to do so.

So let's go back to the question of Google and the artists that spurred these articles in the first place. Would it have been better or more appropriate for Google to ask the artists to donate their work instead of offering exposure? I would say no, that Google isn't in a position to ask artists to donate their work, for the obvious reason. Google isn't a charity; it's a company that makes a large profit every year and is looking to increase its own profits with wider distribution of their Chrome browser. In the end, I return to the point I made at the beginning: if Google thinks that the artists' work has value, they should be willing to match that value with payment.

ckd linked to this story last night, which he found via Consumerist. It's the kind of news story that brings tears to my eyes as I read it. So I share it with you.

Pixar grants girl's dying wish with home viewing of 'Up' (Orange County Register)

Today is Nomi and my fourteenth anniversary. Often we try to get to a movie on our anniversary, but it's been a busy and tiring week. I think we might end up going out to dinner instead.

Which is more, I suppose, than anyone reading this really needs to know...

From 7:00 pm to 8:45 pm tonight, I'll be participating in a science fiction author panel at the Falmouth Public Library. The other authors are Jennifer Pelland, Jeffrey A. Carver, and Walter H. Hunt.

I haven't decided what I'll speak about yet; if the audience seems engaged, I might try doing "A Thousand Ideas in an Hour."

I'll have copies of I Remember the Future in both hardcover and trade paperback, as well as my special signing pen, for those who wish to buy a copy and get it signed.