David Nickle's Blog, page 14

Frank Frazetta - 1928- 2010

The Death Dealer comes for us all - even Frank Frazetta, the illustrator who almost single-handedly shaped the id of the 20th century teenaged boy, put the thew in Conan and painted the covers of three-quarters of the paperbacks I read in 1979, easy.

I would say Rest in Peace, but in Mr. Frazetta's case, I can't imagine how that would work.

Road Rage, Canadian Style

The red car was in front of us - like us,  intending to make a left turn from Danforth onto Coxwell. When the light turned green, the car proceeded a nose-length into the intersection but no more - so that only one car - the red one - would be able to make it legally through the intersection on a yellow, if it came to that.

It seemed to be coming to that. So I tapped the horn. Twice.

We both made it through. But once we were through, the red car stopped, blocking us. A stout young man got out o...

Remember this?

Dedicated yard apes will recall last watching this video here in July, 2008, when I congratulated winners of the ChiZine short story contest I helped judge. Well, the creepy android lady is back - and so am I.

This year, I'll be helping judge the 15th ChiZine Short Story Contest with a deeply cool slate of judges including fellow CZP authors Gemma Files,  Brent Hayward and Paul Tremblay. Those are actually all of the primary-tier judges. Breaking ties will be Hellblazer writer Mike Carey.

Here ...

The Radejastians, at Pseudopod

I knew this was coming at the end of April, but - like the tax deadline - it crept up on me. Pseudopod, that weekly horror podcast of which we've heard so much, has, while I wasn't looking, uploaded a most excellent podcast of my story "The Radejastians" - introduced suavely as ever by Alasdair Stuart, given earthy life by Erik Luke of Extruding America. 

This is the bit they blew out to get folks to listen:

There is a cathedral in the middle of Radejast. It addresses the approaching pilgrim...

You know, this week I would have taken a bad review...

... with the same equanimity I brought to what seemed like the total collapse of my car's suspension as we drove back from Port Huron (don't worry - part of the plastic on the wheel-well had come loose, and we were able to fix it handily, thanks the terrifying and barely-legal pocket knife that the Sarnia convenience store clerk loaned us).

But this is not a post about Port Huron, or car trouble, or armed convenience store clerks, or even bad reviews. Matt from ChiZine just pointed me to a ver...

... and Back Again

We got back into Toronto last night at around 9:30, from the sentencing hearing that saw our friend Peter Watts avoid jail time. The crossing back from Port Huron was happily uneventful - particularly as we passed the spot on the bridge where, in December, U.S. Customs and Border official Andrew Beaudry beat and pepper-sprayed Peter without any rational cause, then presented a spurious allegation of assault that might have seen Peter in jail for as long as six months.

As I posted all too brief...

Peter Watts is free

I type this from the basement Quay Street Brewing Company, where manager Mike Ziegler has kindly let me post this.

Sentencing is finished. Judge Adair dismissed any thoughts of jail time, made Peter pay a fine, and shared wisdom about the respect we must afford police.

But never mind that. No jail time. We are celebrating for a bit at Quay Street, then heading home.

Off to Port Huron tomorrow

Tomorrow (Monday April 26) Peter Watts will be in a Port Huron courtroom to learn what the spring and summer have in store for him.  It is his sentencing date. As discussed on this blog and elsewhere earlier, Peter was convicted of resisting and obstructing border guards, stemming from an incident late last year at the Blue Water Bridge. He is facing jail time - at this point, reading the sentencing report that came forward just last week, it looks like four months, if he pays about $2,000 in...

Affection for the Kindle!

A brief note, to let those of you who've shelled out for a Kindle and have come to mistrust paper, that Monstrous Affections (and other great ChiZine titles) are now available for Amazon's Kindle. I think, actually, that you could read digital versions through the Kindle before. But now you can buy one through Amazon. And there's no digital rights management gewgahs attached either.

And you can order it right here.

Other ChiZine titles are also available. Check 'em all out here.

(H)ad Astra

Well that was some Goddamn fun I had, spending the weekend at Ad Astra as I did, staying up too late and doing a stink of a lot of panels and flashing the cover of Monstrous Affections in front of very many people who had no idea what was coming. Ad Astra is the local literary sf convention for me, and I always manage to have a good time there. This time was busy, and enlightening. My high school pal Steve Bevan showed up with Gwen and their daughter Grace, and my only regret was not being ab...