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Friday, October 26, 2012

Almost to World Fantasy!

I'm anticipating the con.  The schedule's come.

Packing, arranging, and so on will be keeping me busy.  :D

Expect some quiet from me a weekend hence, from 1-Nov. through 4-Nov.  Probably major quiet.  Radio silence sort of quiet.

Unless I use Twitter.  Odds for that are not strong, even though this con is rather different than Chicon 7.  It being in Toronto will give me some challenges that no American con ever has, for one thing!


WFC will be interesting.  Some people who do Michigan cons are part of WFC 2012 staff.  

I'll work at the con, not sure where yet.  Possibly registration, possibly ops.  Don't know.

Cons tend to overset some of your plans... a bit like Pennsic War does.  8)

Anyway, I expect to Do Stuff, visit with friends, meet people, and come back both wired and exhausted.

Whatever happens for you, have a Happy Halloween!  I know I will.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

A favorite anthology: 100 Great Fantasy Short-Short Stories.

Talking to a friend on Twitter... I remembered this book, the anthology 100 Great Fantasy Short-Short Stories.

Edited by Isaac Asimov, Terry Carr, and Martin Greenberg.  I miss you all, guys.  Thanks for collecting so many stories for us all!

I love this antho.  Here's the TOC.


Some of my very favorites:

  • "Angelica" by Jane Yolen
  • "Apocryphal Fragment" by Edward Wellen
  • "But Not the Herald" by Roger Zelazny
  • "Controlled Experiment" by Rick Conley
  • "Deadline" by Mel Gilden
  • "Final Version" by John Morressy
  • "Pharaoh's Revenge" by C. Bruce Hunter
  • "Some Days Are Like That" by Bruce J. Balfour


I'm fond of an awful lot of them -- my copy pops open to certain pages from frequent reading.  But the book's in storage, so I had to recollect titles from memory.  Some are dark, some are funny, some are wicked, some are clever...

I'd recommend any of these to you.  If you can read the rest, do.  :D  They're like potato chips -- can you just have one??


Thanks to Robert Sawyer for kindly having the TOC on hand!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Voting: Dirty Tricks Dept.

So, is this a triumph of OCD, or something else?


Something came in the mail marked as Absent Voter Ballot.

My family's all applied for our absentee voter ballots.  My mother was going to give this ballot application to a friend of hers...

I said she should make sure this ballot was valid first.

She called the township clerk and discovered that  it was NOT valid.  Any ballot application must say Absentee Voter Ballot.


FYI:  Both my parents work local elections.

This application claimed to be from the MEA, and it could not have been, the real MEA would have offered a valid absentee ballot application to its members.  How  do I know that?  Well, to start with, the MEA is for educators.

Welcome to defrauding the voters of America, 2012 edition.


Make sure you check when your ballot has to be in this year!  Call your township clerk, ask friends, hit Google -- do whatever you need to do.

If you haven't registered to vote, please PLEASE go do it.  Don't let yourself get cheated out of your vote.  Voting is your right; exercise it!