Charles Coleman Finlay offers his oblogatory late take on the late SCI FICTION, which is interesting in of itself, but also includes an thought-provoking discussion in the comments.

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Dave Schwartz has set up a blog called the ED SF Project, in which he invites people to drop by and write an appreciation of one of the many stories SCI FICTION has published over the years. It’s first come, first serve, so get over there post-haste to claim your favorite SCI FICTION story and write up a nice tribute.

In Dave’s words:

By my count there are 320+ stories archived at the site. I’m willing to bet that there are that many SF writers/critics/fans/what have you who have some sort of presence on the web. So I’m thinking, let’s all of us write an appreciation of one of the stories.

It doesn’t need to be something long — it could be a few paragraphs, or it could be in-depth; it could be a critical analysis or just a reaction to the story. Just something that focuses on the fiction and shows how much impact the site has had. Remember, this is an appreciation. A celebration. Pick a story you love, or discover a new one by reading through the archives. Discover for yourself just what we’re losing. Then let’s give it the best sendoff possible.

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One of my favorite reactions thus far to the death of SCI FICTION, by Matt Hughes (via the Asimov’s forum):

Another dose of fucking corporate-think. Making a world full of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

One of these days we’re going to have to realize that an economy is a necessary part of a civilization, but not a workable substitute for one.

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Everyone who is dismayed over the death of SCI FICTION, email SCIFI.com at feedback@scifi.com and tell them of your displeasure. Also, if you want to write a long, detailed, and eloquent letter that you’d like the community to see, send a note to Science Fiction Weekly too, at scifiweekly@scifi.com, and maybe they’ll publish it in their letters column.

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I find it curious that SCIFI.com decided to pull the plug on SCI FICTION without exploring other options first. There have been a number of online ventures that have tried modified versions of the “give it away free” business model (for instance, Salon.com, with their subscribe or watch this ad system), yet SCIFI.com didn’t bother to try with any of these. Though we all have come to expect SCI FICTION will be free, and though some of us would abandon it if we were charged money for it, I’d wager a fairly large number of people would subscribe to it, or pay some sort of small fee in order to read a particular story.

Sure, any business model that includes payment for SCI FICTION might not put the ezine in the black–it would still be a money-losing venture–but I expect it would help quite a bit, thus lessening the burden on SCIFI. If a little money were to start rolling in, wouldn’t that have been enough to stave off execution, considering all the accolades SCI FICTION has received (and all the legitimacy it afforded the SCI FI Channel)?

The other issue is the SCI FICTION anthologies…or the lack thereof. Ellen Datlow has spoken of them informally, so I assume deals for books have been in the works, but none have materialized. These anthologies could have been a great potential source of income for SCI FICTION. I don’t know the terms of their contract, but if SCIFI.com reaped most of the rewards from royalties from such books, that would go a long way toward offsetting the financial drain the site put on the network. And though that’s probably not generally how anthology royalties work, that seems fair–they pay big bucks for the stories and gave them away for free to the general public; when it comes time to sell the anthologies, they’re entitled to making some of that money back.

So while I’m disturbed that SCI FICTION is no more, I think I’m more disturbed that nothing was done to try to save it. Or if anyone did make any of these suggestions behind closed doors, the beancounters at SCIFI chose to ignore them, and instead let the axe fall without listening to any pleas for clemency.

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Some wonderful items of interest were posted to BoingBoing while I was away, including reports of: a wall of boobs and a cruise ship fending off Somalian pirates with a sonic blaster. Also of interest was an item about the physics of cow-tipping, which was of particular interest to me, seeing as how during the con someone tried to convince me that cow-tipping was a myth (and that cows don’t sleep standing up); also, yesterday I bought a cow-tipping shirt at the Madison airport (a little local flava), so the subject was on my mind.

If you would all just read BoingBoing everyday, I wouldn’t have to post these things.

But the real reason I wanted to post about BoingBoing today is because of the story they posted about a new stupid Wi-Fi law being proposed. That post serves as a perfect example of the idiocy of the government, and how without watchdogs like Cory Doctorow and other journalists who point out such idiocy, this country would completely go to hell. Obviously, the issue of Wi-Fi is not an issue of monumental importance to the general public, but critical issues are dealt with by the government with that same clusterfuckery.

Jeremy Tolbert published a story in Interzone recently which postulated a future that included an “Otaku” political party–a geek party, for you non-geeks reading this (as if I would have any non-geek readers!). The story is a fun, farcical romp (not at all a political diatribe), but all this political bullshit that’s been going on lately here in the real world makes me long for such a party.

Cory for President! Doctorow in 2008!

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At some point during the con festivities this weekend, Gordon went on my laptop and googled “crazy monkey love + where to find it” and left the results for me to see. This was amusing, and resulted in a wonderful discovery: a film called Play Mate of the Apes. It sounds like one of those movies that one just has to see. Go read the customer reviews of it at Amazon, and then please go to the Netflix request a title page, and request that they stock this fine piece of independent filmmaking.

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Okay, so my previous post wasn’t very informative. So here’s what happened yesterday:

Flight got in around 4:15, caught the shuttle to the hotel with Jay Caselberg, Laura Anne Gilman, Darrell Schweitzer, Jo Fletcher, and others. Entered the lobby, was waiting as Gordon checked us into our room, and was pounced upon by Diana Rowland, who I’d exchanged emails with (and read the submissions of) but hadn’t yet met in person. Saw Toby Buckell in the lobby, who demanded a man-hug and followed it up with a complicated handshake. Went up to the room to deposit my goodies, tried without success to get the wireless internet working (it later started working on its own), then went back downstairs to registration.

Registration was nice and efficient — they had my stuff all ready for me and found it in a timely fashion. Received my big bag o’ books, which was considerably less big than I had anticipated. At the WFC in DC a couple years ago, the goodie bag was a really sweet score, full of brand new hardcovers — this one was smaller, had fewer books, and most of them were mass market paperbacks. Also, I was disappointed to see that my bag didn’t include a copy of the new Fantasy Magazine (though other people did receive it in their bags). However, I later found one on the retread table, which was dominated by several large piles of unwanted copies of Robert Jordan’s New Spring.

Wandered into the dealer’s room, made a circuit around it. Saw Diana Rowland again, and had more time to chat with her, found out some interesting stuff about being a NOLA police officer on the front lines in the aftermath of Katrina. Met and chatted with Daniel Abraham, whose first novel is due out from Tor early next year (and whose galley I was admiring at the office just the other day). Later last night, Daniel won the IHG Award for best short story, for his F&SF story “Flat Diane.” (Congrats!)

After chatting with Diana and Daniel for a while, my dawg, Charlie Finlay wandered over with Paolo Bacigalupi, one of my favorite new-ish writers, whom I hadn’t yet had the chance to meet. Had some more good conversation before wandering around the dealer’s room again, then joined Gordon as he chatted with Jeremy Lassen and Jason Williams from Nightshade Books, who, incidentally, seem to be doing quite well lately, with their new distributor, Diamond, and thanks largely to them now being the American publisher of UK uberkind Iain M. Banks.

Charlie Finlay had a reading at 7, so Gordon and I headed out to get something to eat beforehand. Wandered over to a nearby pub, and discovered Charlie (who was supposed to be prepping for his reading) having dinner there with a bunch of folks from the OWW (Online Writing Workshop, for which Charlie is an administrator). Toby Buckell was there too, and later, Paolo showed up. I had a caesar salad topped with cajun chicken–the chicken was great, but they put dressing on my salad despite my explicit instructions, and I didn’t have time to send it back. D’oh! Other than that, dinner was great.

Had to rush out a bit early to catch Charlie’s reading. He read most of a new “spicy” story, which he had intended for the Wheatland Press anthology, Spicy Slipstream stories, but though it was certainly spicy, everyone seems to agree that it’s not slipstream. It was terrific though, in any case, and I wished he could have finished reading it in his time slot. He got through most of it though, and what he did read makes it seem like a winner for sure. It’s funny and has a lot of cool SFnal concepts, and…how can you not like a story that begins with a guy telling someone about the eyeball he had inserted in his rectum?

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Test your monster knowledge. An amusing diversion, but honestly folks–if you’re reading this, then this quiz wasn’t designed with you in mind. If you don’t get at least, say 7 out of 10 without looking anything up, just tear up that SFWA (or HWA) application or membership card right now.

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Boing-Boing is reporting that statues of Darth Vader and Yoda have been
carved out a 1,000 lb. blocks of butter for a contest at the Tulsa State Fair.

Mmm … rich, creamy dark side.

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