In this corner: Fanfic Makes Us Poor

In that corner: Fanfic Makes Us Stupid

For myself? Fanfic makes me really bored.

But, before I go, just two short points related to the first article.

First, the majority of fiction readers are women, and the largest fiction genre (romance) is overwhelmingly written by women -- so women are not actually marginalized in the fiction marketplace of 2007.

Second...and this is the tricky one... perhaps, just perhaps, if you want to "earn a legitimate income from what [you] create," you should actually, um, create something, instead of writing unsalable copies of already-exisiting material?

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The entity known only as akirlu asks the question no one else cared about: is John Scalzi really a fan, or just one of those dirty pros? (And the Internet erupts in argument.)

Once we get that ironed out, let's make it clear, once and for all, whether or not faanish writings count for Hugo nominations or just the important sercon stuff.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The New York Times recently sent a reporter to the monthly meeting of the New York C.S. Lewis Society. I don't detect any snark, here, though: it seems to be a straightforward look at a social club, without any Times down-nose-looking. 

[via GalleyCat]

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kathryn Cramer -- anthologist, blogger, and all-around smart person -- has had it up to here with Wikipedia's odd take on the culture of amateurism, and is calling for the ISFDB Wiki to be the central home for biographies of SF authors. To put it bluntly, Wikipedia has snubbed her (among many others in the SF world), and she thinks we'd all be better off if we snubbed them.

Sounds plausible to me...

Update, 1/30: She's since posted twice more on related topics: How to Write an Author Bio and Has Wikipedia Declared the Death of Print? Meanwhile, Jed Hartman explains (better than the Wikipedia folks have, actually) what Wikipedia actually is and what it's not trying to be.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Star Trek's 40th Anniversary (and the attendant celebratory conventions) continue to fascinate the mainstream press:

• Seattle Times
• The State (South Carolina)

Incidentally, where does South Carolina get off calling itself the state? The other forty-nine of us are getting a bit annoyed about that...

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since some of the people reading this are probably not heavily plugged into the blog world, I'll just briefly mention that Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis (with humorous intent, if that matters) during the Hugo Awards on Saturday night at L.A. Con IV.

Many, many people have been outraged by this, and the best place to begin exploring the controversy (should you wish to) is Big Blog of Cheese, which has a relatively straightforward account and several links. Or you can just try blog-Googling "Harlan Ellison Connie Willis" and see what comes up.

I've posted personal thoughts about it on my own blog, but here, for the SFBC, we'll stick to news and facts, as is appropriate. I don't expect to post about this again here unless there is actual news.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In the tradition of TAFF, DUFF and other strange fan-fund acronyms, this year bring JETS, a one-off fan fund to send a European science fiction fan to the 2007 Worldcon in Yokohama, Japan.

JETS stands for Japan Expeditionary Travel Scholarship; full details for applying and voting are on the website.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A somewhat quirky anti-map essay at Strange Horizons has led Matthew Cheney of The Mumpsimus to defend maps, and further led to a lot of comments.

So, what do you folks say? Are maps a useful tool or a sign of by-the-numbers world creation?

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you wonder why David Langford keeps winning all of those Best Fan-Writer Hugos, you probably haven't read his free newszine Ansible, which is puckish, lively, and always entertaining. Luckily for you, can can correct that lack right now, since #227 just came out.

Posted by Andy Wheeler at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Emerald City has reported that Bridget (Bug) Bradshaw is the winner of this year's Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund; she will be attending L.A. Con IV and also touring the fannish parts of the US as part of her official duties.

The TAFF is the oldest of the fan funds, and started in 1953 as a way to help popular but impecunious fans from North America travel to major European conventions and vice versa. It's voted on each year by interested fans, and funded by the same.

Posted by Andy Wheeler at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)