Terry Pratchett (1948-2015)

Sir Terry Pratchett died yesterday after a battle with early-onset Alzheimers. People far more eloquent than I have eulogized him elsewhere, and the hundreds of obituaries provide far more detail and understanding of the man and his life than I could hope to compete with. So I will just stick to what I know.

I didn't enjoy Pratchett's books. This disappointed me greatly. I remember getting The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic via the Science Fiction Book Club not all that long after they became available in the U.S. and being distressingly unmoved by them. I'm not sure I laughed even once. It's not that I couldn't see what he was doing or the tropes he gleefully lampooned--that should've been catnip for me, and indeed, was what caused me to seek them out in the first place--but the prose lay lifeless upon the page for me. Over the years, as I grew more widely read and Pratchett's Discworld satires grew progressively more sophisticated and cast an ever-expanding net, I revisited his work. Strata, Interesting Times, a handful of others I can't quite recall (Mort? The Fifth Elephant?) remained stubbornly closed to me. I could see the jokes. I could see the biting commentary. I understood what he was accomplishing, and saddened by the fact I could not participate no matter how many of his books I read.

I have exactly one Terry Pratchett story.

Back in 2000, at Aggiecon 31, Pratchett was guest of honor and I was a regional guest. I hadn't been able to get close to him because of the swarms of fans that followed him everywhere, but we had one panel together. Fate conspired to seat me right next to the man. As we introduced ourselves, I said, "I'm Jayme Lynn Blaschke, and I write short fiction because I don't have the discipline to write novels."

Without blinking an eye, Pratchett said, "I'm Terry Pratchett, and I write novels because I don't have the discipline to write short fiction."

He was a witty, friendly and effortlessly funny man in person. I could not help but like him immediately, and count myself fortunate I had the opportunity--however brief--to make his acquaintance.

Now Playing: Gustav Holst The Planets
Chicken Ranch Central

Happy Trails, Trigger

Trigger is gone.

I cannot express how much this sucks. As near as I can tell, William Rogers was rehabbing from back, and complications set in. He passed away March 16 at the age of 47.

March has been a very difficult month for me, with too much death and dismay. It's been hard to process. Hard to function, really. Trigger's death was the coup de grace, so to speak, which is why it's taken me so long to write this remembrance. He's one of the few college friends I've stayed in touch with. We last spoke in October, trading insults as always. He was from La Grange, I was from Columbus, two small Texas towns just 20 miles apart, so we had a built-in rivalry we never failed to capitalize on. He was a few years older than me, so we never actually competed against each other in high school, but really, that was just a technicality.

I took my family to his wedding at the Texas Renaissance Festival. My daughters played peek-a-book with fairies in the chapel. That was a fun wedding. And to tell the truth, The Wife and I were jealous--we'd briefly considered getting married at a renfaire, but gave up on the idea because we knew our respective parents (not to mention our priest) would throw a fit (we were somewhat less assertive back then).

Facebook, in it's infinite wisdom, decided I didn't need to see his update feed sometime in November, so I was completely unaware of his growing medical issues. Word of his death blindsided me. Thanks a lot, Zuckerberg.

I remember the day he found out I was writing a book on the Chicken Ranch. He called me up and bellowed into the phone, "What makes you think a Columbus PUNK has any right to write about the La Grange Chicken Ranch?"

"You La Grange slugs had 40 years to get it done, and didn't," I answered. "I figured it was time the professionals took over."

He paused a moment, then answered, "Good point."

Few people supported my book projects as enthusiastically as he did. He shared stories, pointed me toward potential local sources and loaned me some of his family's photos of the place. It breaks my heart that he joins the growing list of people who never got to see the book in print.

Lest I get too maudlin, I shall now share the True Story of How Trigger Got His Name.

It happened this way: In 1989, William Rogers arrived at a Cepheid Variable meeting at Texas A&M eager to meet like-minded genre-oriented folks and make friends within the tribe. All members of the tribe sported Delta Names, which are generally nicknames of a vaguely demeaning, silly or embarrassing nature. When it came to Will's turn for Delta Name discussion, one of the committee officers suggested "Buck," for as all good science fiction fans know, the biggest pulp hero of the 25th century is Captain William "Buck" Rogers. Which would've been fine and dandy, if someone in the crowd hadn't half-remembered that there was once a cowboy singer who had the last name of Rogers, nevermind that his first name was Roy. "Trigger!" someone shouted. I wish I could say that I was the shouter, but alas, I wasn't so clever. "Trigger!" others picked up the cry (I was amongst these folks--never look a gift bandwagon in the mouth, that's my motto). And thus, by the end of the meeting, Trigger was firmly ensconced as his Delta Name.

We harassed each other consistently from that point on. Trigger ran dealers room for the Aggiecon I ran in 1991, and did a mighty fine job of it. He co-directed Aggiecons in 1992 and 1993, simultaneously running the dealers rooms for those cons as well (the dealers rooms were great, but the overall conventions weren't as good as mine--he did pretty good for a La Grange guy, tho).

What bothers me most is the blatant unfairness of his untimely death. I know life isn't fair, but damn. Trigger was probably the most earnest person I've ever known. He was goofy as hell and could go out of his way to be annoying as all get-out, but he was earnest. He was profoundly rude to go see Billy Joel in Houston on the Stormfront tour without me. He was a big fan of Jim Henson's Dinosaurs and could readily be counted on to provide a quote from that show at a moment's notice--"Not the momma!" more often than not. He was an organ donor, so even in death, he's still helping people. He was a fun guy, and we are all diminished by his passing.

His extended hospitalization left his wife and son facing a mountain of medical debt. If anyone is so inclined to help out, donations to the family may be made at www.gofundme.com/for-will-rogers.

Now Playing: Donal Hinely We Built a Fire
Chicken Ranch Central

Aggiecon 45: Who cares?

As Lawrence Person so helpfully pointed out, Aggiecon 45 has announced its guest lineup for this year. Which consists of exactly two people, an obscure anime voice actor and some guy who does a podcast that isn't StarshipSofa or any of the other A-list podcasts up for Hugos every year.

I used to be emotionally invested in the success or failure of Aggiecon, because hey, I ran the damn thing long years ago and was a regional guest on a regular basis for a decade running. I even received the "Aggiecon Lifetime Achievement Award" from those good folks (which puts me in a small fraternity including the likes of Harlan Ellison). But you know what? I just don't care anymore. Year-in, year-out I've offered advice and offered to open my SFWA directory for them to land some really cool guests, comparable to the really cool guests Armadillocon and Apollocon bring in. Crickets chirp in response. They've even stopped inviting me as a regional guest--not that I'm a huge draw, by any means, but I'm fun on panels. Surprisingly, this doesn't bother me. The current students seem to be fixated on emulating Dragoncon, which means lots of C-list media celebrity types and as few of those boring old writers as possible. Sorry, I've got better things to do with my time.

I do believe we're watching the final stages of the Aggiecon death spiral. At this point, it's a question of "when," not "if." Surprisingly, that doesn't bother me, either. I'd rather let the con die the true death rather than watch it limp along in the hollow, irrelevant manner that's come to dominate of late.

Now Playing: Baja Marimba Band Best of the Baja Marimba Band
Chicken Ranch Central

AggieCon 41 in the rear-view mirror

AggieCon has a proud, yet tumultuous history. Run by students at Texas A&M, it is the oldest science fiction convention in the state and the guest list of years past reads like a Who's Who of genre and comics publishing of the last 50 years. Almost all of the big names have attended at one time or another, and during the 1970s the con was akin to a giant astride the Earth. Being a student organization, however, left it with one major Achilles heel--the inevitability of graduation and younger generations reinventing the wheel over and over again. Still, there were more good AggieCons than bad.



Except that certain powers-that-be within the university disliked Cepheid Variable and the convention they orchestrated every year, and so back around 2005, these forces finally succeeded in getting Cepheid kicked out of the Student Programs Office, which meant the university no longer provided significant annual funding. But they persevered, landed some grants and other donations, and soldiered on. A focus on paid media guests at the expense of authors somewhat dimmed the lustre from the con, but it wasn't until 2008 that disaster really struck. Because of some person issues and a leadership vacuum, a mere handful of guests were invited and little advertising effort was made. The result was an all-time low in attendance and much ill-will generated amongst the Texas fan community. The following year vows were made to rectify the mistakes of the previous year, but despite good intentions, poor communication doomed 2009 to be a near-repeat of 2008. With limited funds, Cepheid didn't have much leeway in planning for the 2010 edition. Many guests and dealers were wary of committing their time, effort and money toward a convention most had written off as walking dead. To compound matters, the Memorial Student Center on campus would undergo a multi-year remodeling (remodeling in this case involving bulldozers and wrecking balls) forcing the convention off-campus for only the second time in its 41-year history. This relocation to the College Station Hilton meant more overhead than the cash-strapped organization had ever had to deal with before, and an unfortunate date change from late March to early February, a bare week before the popular ConDFW. The odds were grim. More than one attendee I spoke to over the weekend admitted they'd attended in part so they could say they were at "the last one." AggieCon 41 simply had to be a success. If it flopped, there would be no skiffy 42. Simple as that.



I'm happy to report the concom rose to the challenge. Down in the bottom of the ninth, they came through with at least a triple. AggieCon 41 was, without a doubt, the best AggieCon since Neil Gaiman ushered in hordes of swooning fans way back in 2002. The guest lineup was savvy and cost-efficient, with Guests of Honor including alums Steven Gould and Martha Wells, plus Marv Wolfman, Ellen Datlow, David Lee Anderson and Selina Rosen. AggieCon discovered the magic of editor guests, as regional authors who'd never attended before suddenly found time in their schedules for a trip to College Station. Bridges that had been burned badly years ago were mended. There were many enthusiastic reunions of friends who hadn't seen each other in decades, if not longer. Panels were very well attended, even on Sunday morning, which is practically unheard of.



That's not to say there weren't any screw-ups. Quite a few folks who'd requested no morning panels had multiple early slots; readings were initially left off the schedule, then held in the hallway outside the dealers room; Ellen Datlow, at one point before a hasty schedule revision, was down for six hours of back-to-back panels. For my part, I was placed on the ubiquitous "What You Should Have Read in 2009" panel, which I am utterly unqualified to speak on. Seriously--I didn't read a single thing published last year, as I go to these types of panels to take advantage of those who've already blazed the trails. Fortunately, Scott Cupp and Ellen Datlow were both well-read enough to make up for my slack-jawed ignorance, so the panel was a success despite my dead weight.



My other panels went swimmingly. The political commentary in SF, Whedonverse, urban fantasy and SF's predictions of the future panels were all entertaining and well-attended, and I like to think I made coherent contributions to the discussion. There were many gamers doing their thing, and costumers had a stronger presence than they had in years. Art show seemed smallish on Friday, but I didn't get a chance to go through on Saturday, so there may have just been a bunch of late arrivals. Dealers room, too, was small by past AggieCon standards, but the actual physical size was comparable to Armadillocon and Apollocon, and there were remarkably few empty tables considering most dealers opted to attend ConDFW the following week instead. The Saturday night blues/jazz concert by Bland Lemon Denton and the Lemon-Aids was a great deal of fun, and evoked memories of many of these same folks performing as Los Blues Guys at AggieCon 20 years prior. The Project: A-Kon people did a fine job in the hospitality suite as always. The biggest shocker of all was the fact that there were room parties both Friday and Saturday night. Apollocon and Texas 2013 had things going Friday, and then on Saturday Apollocon, Armadillocon and FenCon all had mighty festive shindigs. I took several bottles of my failed blueberry mead to the Apollocon party, and while everyone agreed that it was wholly without blueberry flavor, they admired the pretty color and were taken aback by its smooth, dry character. Nobody went blind, I gave a bottle to Kim Kofmel to take home to her husband, and I had none left by the end of the night, so somebody must've liked it.



I rode up to College Station and back with Scott Cupp, and I have to say there's not a finer person to share a ride with. His taste in music is gloriously eclectic, and after listening to CDs as diverse as Carlene Carter, a glam rock compilation and Ry Cooder, he treated me to a disc of British Invasion acts which included the awesome, yet utterly obscure, band called The Smoke. Good stuff, all of it.



So, the long and short of it is, the kids done good. They pulled it off. The Hilton proved to be a favorable venue for the con with better parking than can be found on campus, and several times over the course of the weekend I forgot that I was at AggieCon and referred to it as either Armadillocon or Apollocon. And I mean that in a good way. Nobody I spoke with had a bad thing to say about the con, and most of the problems that cropped up weren't anything that couldn't be fixed with a little better planning. If AggieCon 41 is the foundation of things to come, I can't wait until 2011.

A full gallery of photos from AggieCon 41 can be viewed at The Wife's website.

Now Playing: Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu

Aggiecon or bust

Well, by this time tomorrow I should be in the booming cultural Mecca of College Station, participating in what should have been my 20th Aggiecon. It's not, though, because I wasn't invited two years ago, and although I was invited last year, the con com was so unresponsive and slow to deliver information that conflicts arose in the interim and I had to bow out. The guest list is more impressive this year, with Steven Gould, Martha Wells and Ellen Datlow headlining, so that's an encouraging sign. The bad news is that despite assurances from the con com, I have no reading on the schedule (drat) and I'm listed as being on three morning panels, which is contrary to the one programming request I made to them. Ah well, I'll manage.

Because of the consecutive disasters that were the previous two Aggiecons, the group's budget is less than shoestring this year. This is bad. Also, because of renovations to the Memorial Student Center and Rudder Complex on campus, Aggiecon's being held off-campus, at the Hilton, for the first time since 1973 or so. This is even worse, as it puts a greater strain on an already stressed budget. But I shall do my best to give them a good con. Hopefully, Aggiecon will live to see another day. If not, at least I can say I was at the last one.

And yes, before you ask, I am indeed driving over there early in order to do some research on the Chicken Ranch. Much fun, yes. Here's my programming schedule if you want to drop in and say "Howdy."

Friday 4 p.m.
"Harvey Dent for President" How do science fiction and fantasy media comment on current political situation? Panelists discuss how these genres can be used as a powerful medium to talk about cultural issues. [Rosen, Gould, Sarath*, Blaschke]

Saturday 10 a.m.
"Year End Review: Books" What our panelists liked best from this past year as well as a preview to what books you won't want to miss in 2010. Also a discussion about 2009's award winners. [Cupp, Blaschke*, Datlow, Knowles]

11 a.m.
"Sorcerers in the Sewers, Dragons in the Penthouse" We decided in our Urban Fantasy world dragons would not live in the New York sewers but be running the town from a Manhattan penthouse. All things concerning the popular sub©genres of fantasy that have a modern setting. [Clement-Moore, Leicht*, Gould, Martinez, Blaschke, L. Donahue]

6 p.m.
"Whedonverse: A Developing Empire" Is he picking up or losing steam? What happened to Firefly? What's he doing next? And what happened to Dollhouse? [Bowers*, Montz, Blaschke, Rose, Leicht, C. Spector]

Sunday 11 a.m.
"Back to the Future, Again" Orwell's 1984 may not have come true in the eighties, but his Oceania is looking very familiar today. We look back at what science fiction thought today would look like. [Cupp*, Oliver, Blaschke, Turner, Sullivan]

2 p.m.
"New Directions: Star Trek" With the new Abrams movie, the Star Trek legacy has been expanded to give future writers more freedom. Is this blasphemous to earlier canon or a creative solution? [Leicht, Bas, Oliver, Blaschke*, Rosen]

Now Playing: Melissa Etheridge Yes I Am

Aggiecon 40

Well, it's over and done: after 18 consecutive years of attending Aggiecon--making it as dependable a harbinger of spring as anything in my experience--I've now missed it two years running. In 2008 I wasn't invited. This year I was invited, but six months of radio silence from the convention and emails going unanswered didn't do much to reassure me. Ultimately, family obligations forced me to offer my regrets to the con, but my cancellation was never acknowledged and indeed, I have no idea if anyone at the con even noticed my absence.

From scattered reports surfacing online, it's looking like I didn't miss a heck of a lot. Todd McCaffrey is a great guy and a talented writer, but no convention is going generate much buzz by bringing him back as the sole author guest of honor year after year. Despite repeated warnings from myself and others that turning Aggiecon into a media con (ie paying B-list celebs to attend and charge money for autographs) lies the way to financial ruin, the students still seem hell-bent on charting this course. Repeated offers to put them in contact with authors, artists and comic book creators of their choice have been met with profound silence.

If attendance was as bad this year as rumor has it, maybe the few remaining Cepheids will take the hint and take the steps necessary to save the convention. More likely, with the Memorial Student Center set to undergo massive renovations next year--forcing the eviction of the convention from the home of the con for the vast majority of its 40 year run--I fear that this year marks the final chapter in that event's storied history. It's like Obama told GM and Chrysler today: Yes, you made some effort to right the sinking ship; but no, it's not nearly enough.

Ironically, I don't think many will miss it once it's gone. Once there was only Aggiecon and Armadillocon for Texas fandom. Now, there are two great conventions in the DFW area with FenCon and ConDFW, while in Houston Apollocon has grown into a very enjoyable event. As always, Armadillocon remains the gold standard. Still, anyone who knows me knows I have a profound emotional investment in Aggiecon and would hate to see it go. If any of next years' concom has any desire to solicit my advice, for what it's worth, I'm easy to get ahold of.

Now Playing: Pink Floyd Animals

Well, that's that

I just sent my regrets to Aggiecon, informing them I would not be able to attend the convention this year. That felt very odd. After having Aggiecon a part of my annual routine for 18 years, this will be the second year in a row that I've missed it. Last year I wasn't invited--nobody was invited--as the convention imploded. This year I simply have other obligations.

Even if that weren't the case, I'm not sure how eager I'd be to attend the convention. After contacting me back in the summer and insisting they (the students who run the convention) were intent on restoring Aggiecon to its former glory, bringing back all the authors slighted in recent years and asking for any advice I'd be willing to offer... well, six months of absolute silence followed. There was no update to the website, and repeated emails to both the con chair and guest relations officer met with deafening silence. Various writer types around the state approached me with the "What's up with Aggiecon" question, since they'd had variations on that experience. Or wanted to attend, but couldn't get any information from the con runners. A couple of weeks ago I got an email confirming I was a guest and asking my travel plans. No programming/panel communications ever happened, so there's no telling what kinds of events they'd have put me on had I attended.

Aggiecon could've recovered from the 2008 debacle, given some hard (and smart) work coupled with lots of diplomacy. I haven't seen that, from my vantage point. The students mean well, but I think this thing has gotten beyond them, that the con's been on too much of a media-oriented trajectory for too long, that too many upperclassmen with conrunning experience have moved on... it's too much to overcome. I feel like I've watched a hearty and hale loved one suffer a debilitating stroke, and for the past two years everyone's gathered around the bed watching decrepitude take over.

I sincerely regret missing Aggiecon in 2009, because I doubt we'll see one in 2010.

Now Playing: The Kinks Did Ya