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OtherRealms Issue 28 Part 18
Electronic OtherRealms #28
Fall, 1990
Part 18 of 18
Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved.
OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original
form and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact.
OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use.
No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other
publication without permission of the author.
All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author.
Your turn
Letters from our readers
[[Most of the mail OtherRealms got over last issue was, of course, about
the termination of the Electronic OtherRealms. Since I cover that in my
editorial, I'm not repeating a lot of that mail in the lettercol unless
there's something notable in the letter. My thanks to everyone who
wrote on the subject, supportive or not- chuq]]
Wayne G. Morrison
I want to thank you for mentioning Westlin' Wind in the Fall '89 issue.
I don't know if I'd ever heard of Axolotl Press prior to that, but if so
it hadn't made much of an impression on my memory. Ever since
fortuitously stumbling upon Moonheart one winter five years ago, I have
been an avid de Lint fan. I have snapped up anything by him I could
find, searched diligently for his "out of stock indefinitely" book I
have only heard the title of, and recommend him to anyone who will talk
books with me. (This has caused some amount of frustration for my wife,
herself an unpublished author and de Lint fan, in that she doesn't think
I'll ever feel the same about her work.) Now that I have been given a
reason to acknowledge Axolotl's existence, I have given them a nice
amount of business- three books and one magazine in the space of two or
three months. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for putting me on to them
and so further enabling me to fulfill my de Lint addiction.
[[Then you'll be thrilled to know that de Lint's latest in the Moonheart
cycle, Ghostwind is now available from Axolotl/Pulphouse Press.- chuq]]
Wayne Throop
Sorry to hear that electronic OtherRealms is soon to be no more, but I
certainly sympathize with your reasons. It might be realistic to boost
the reviews-to-noise ratio of available USENET by creating
rec.arts.sf-reviews a-la rec.arts.movies.reviews. While it is a far cry
from "filling" the void left by OtherRealms, it would at least provide a
service to the uunet without the noise that makes sf-lovers such a
time-sink.
Has anybody else proposed members of such a class of things? Do you have
any thoughts on the pros and cons, or of how to set such a thing up?
Should I contact the RAMR moderator for advice, do you suppose? If a
chicken and a half lays an egg and a half... uh, sorry... I get
carried away with long lists of questions.
[[As I told Wayne in mail, one of the reasons I gave as much notice as I
did about the termination of Eeyore was because I hoped someone would
take the hint and volunteer to either start their own on-line fanzine or
some kind of moderated group. With a year's notice, the hooks could be
in place and the network could move on without missing a beat.
It didn't happen- frankly, I didn't expect it to. Wayne was the only
person who suggested the idea, and is still trying to figure out if he
has the time to do it. So here's a public call to the people on the
net: quit complaining about Eeyore going away and do something to
replace it. Complaining is easy. Try contributing.
rec.arts.sf-lovers.reviews is a great idea. I'd hate to see absolutely
nothing come out of the years of publishing on the net except some fond
memories -- if you really want, you can keep what I started alive. -- chuq]]
Cathy Howard
My city launched a recycling campaign on Earth Day which is still going
strong. I will admit my comments were (1) about time, and (2) they need
to recycle more types of things.
What's being recycled is aluminum cans, clear glass, newspapers, plastic
milk jugs and soft drink containers. It's made a real difference in the
amount of trash outside this house. I hope they expand the program in
the future.
I'm sorry you are having to cut back on OtherRealms' publication, but
agree heartily that you can't let it take over your and Laurie's life.
"Behind the Scenes" by Michael Kube-McDowell was a fascinating account
of how he wrote The Quiet Pools. I hung on every word.
You'd mentioned you're working on a book. How is it going?
And, of course, thanks for the reviews. Your zine has pointed me in the
direction of more than one book whose charms I'd overlooked.
[[I'm happy to say that, to some degree, my pessimistic view on Earth
Day wasn't warranted. People do seem to be taking things more
seriously. I'm encouraged, but we have a long way to go (on the other
hand, I recently read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a classic work in
environmentalism. How far we've come is amazing, especially when you
realize how far we have left to travel). We're now recycling cans and
bottles (we've always recycled newspaper) and I've started mulching the
cut grass back into the lawn to reduce garden wastes. By spring I hope
to have a full compost pile running, in fact, and I'm starting to take
white paper to work, where Apple has a full-scale waste-paper recycling
plan going. Earth Day was the last straw in getting me motivated on a
lot of this- and it seems to have had that effect elsewhere, too. Maybe
there is hope for humanity.
The status of my novel is that it's moving forward very slowly. Before
I retired from working the Writer's Workshop on CompuServe, I ran the
first few chapters through, and it was pretty heavily (and correctly)
savaged. I've been slowly rebuilding the story to remove the more
obvious stupidities, but between OtherRealms, the Nebula Awards stuff I
do for SFWA and work I haven't had a lot of free time. When I thought I
was going to have a few weeks of evenings free, Marion Zimmer Bradley
got ill and I found myself helping out with the layout of the Summer
issue of her magazine.As soon as I finish this issue I should have six
or seven weeks without ANY deadlines (other than work), and I plan on
taking the phone off the hook so nobody can borrow it. With any luck, I
can be halfway through the fixed-up first draft before the end of
October. We'll see. I'd hoped to finish Marowan by year-end, but right
now that doesn't look likely. But it's happening. Slowly, but it's
happening.- chuq]]
Arthur Hlavaty
I've been telling fanzine fans for years that apas, and now nets, don't
just suck talent out of the zines but open up two-way traffic. I'm glad
to see you of an example of this, and I look forward to the new
print-only version of OtherRealms.
I'm a bit bemused to see people burning out on the nets when I haven't
even started on them. It reminds me of the way I felt in my 30s, when
many of my contemporaries were on their second marriage and I hadn't had
one yet.
[[I agree with you about APAs- I think they're a place where you can
stay involved when the time it takes to do an independent zine just
doesn't exist. For newer people, building mailing lists and learning
the ropes can be a major problem, and APAs definitely help that. For
some folks, it's a choice between an APAzine and gafiating and I'm glad
they have the choice.
I'm not so sure about networks. They seem to be sucking potential
talent out of both. There are not many people who are making the
transition from network fandom to traditional fanzines- network fandom
encourages shallow work with immediate feedback and it's *easy* to do
(although it isn't easy to do well). Fanzine publishing takes a lot of
time and energy, and so it's easier just to stay on the nets. Some
people make the transition, but they're likely folks who would have
found fanzines anyway.- chuq]]
We Also Heard From: Mark Hill, Sheryl Birkhead, R. Allen Jervis, Larry
Estep, Mike Gunderloy, Evelyn C. Leeper, Richard Wexelblat, Alex
Heatley, joan hanke-woods, Teddy Harvid and David Shea. Thanks to
everyone for writing.
Masthead
OtherRealms
Science Fiction and Fantasy in Review
Issue 28, Fall, 1990
Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved
OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original form
and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact.
OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use.
No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other
publication without permission of the author.
All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author.
OtherRealms is published three or four times a year. Next deadling:
December 1, 1990.
Editors
Chuq Von Rospach
Laurie Sefton
Contributing Editors
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Charles de Lint
Dean R. Lambe
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Contacting us
Chuq Von Rospach
chuq@apple.com
GEnie: CHUQ
Laurie Sefton
lsefton@apple.com
CompuServe: 74010,3542
Delphi: LSEFTON
U.S. Mail
35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255
Newark, CA 94560
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available free fro arranged trades, your published letters,
articles, reviews, or artwork, or at the whim of the Editors. If you prefer
spending money, send $2.85 for one issue or $11 for four. Checks should be
made out to "Chuq Von Rospach". Canadian and overseas people, please write
about rates. Because my bank things foreign currency is the spawn of Satan,
all monies must be in U.S. Dollars.
Submissions
OtherRealms publishes reviews of Science Fiction, Fantasy and related books.
Authors are soliciety to discuss their work in the Behind the Scenes section.
This series allows you to describe the background and history of your works
in the kind of detail that helps make a book successful but isn't obvious
from the writing. Let us know why the book is special to you.
Please query everything except reviews, and please include a SASE if you
want a response.
Artwork
Submissions are welcome, but be aware that we only use one or two pieces per
artist each issue. We need work of all sizes and types, from good full page
or cover works to clipart. If possible, send a good reproduction. If you
wish the art returned after use, please let us know.
Letters
We solicit your feedback and comments, since they help us make a better
fanzine. All letters will be considered for publication unless otherwise
requested.
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