Actor Stephen Furst, RIP

News outlets are reporting that actor Stephen Furst has died. According to JD Knapp at Daily Variety [June 17, 2017]:

Stephen Furst, best known for getting his start in “Animal House,” has passed away due to complications with diabetes, Variety can confirm. He was 63 years old. 

Furst died in his Moorpark, Calif. home on Friday. His sons Nathan and Griff Furst confirmed their father’s death on Facebook Saturday evening.

New media are highlighting what they regard as Furst's most noteworthy acting achievements, such as roles in Animal House, Babylon 5, and St. Elsewhere. They're overlooking the work by Furst that most impressed me: that of "Junior" Keller in the 1980 horror film, The Unseen.

The Unseen is one of my favorite horror films. (And I am not the person to say that lightly.) A framed poster from the film currently hangs in my living room. The one on the right. There are many Unseen posters out there, with different images. I should know. I own a few. 

In The Unseen, Furst performed splendidly as an inbred, retarded killer. In my review of the film, I wrote: 

But it is Stephen Furst (Animal House) who shines as Junior Keller ... the unseen. Weldon describes Junior as a "murderous, retarded, overweight, full- grown baby." That's kinda what Junior looks like, but not really what he is. Having seen The Unseen a dozen or so times, I suspect he kills the women by accident. He merely wants a closer look (at Lamm's golden hair, for instance), and pulls too hard. A child who doesn't know his own strength. And he's not a "full-grown baby," he just looks like one because he's fat, dressed in soiled diaper-like rags, and he can't talk. He can only grunt.

Okay actors. Here's an assignment: Portray a sympathetic mutant retard killer, while wearing soiled diaper-like rags, in makeup that makes you look like some ugly incestuous spawn from Deliverance. And all you're allowed to do is grunt. Grunt and stomp and pound and grunt.  And oh yeah, try and be nuanced and subtle.

Furst does it.

His Junior is ugly and frightening, yet we detect his motivations beneath his grunting and stomping. His frustrated ineffectual attempts to communicate with Bach and recruit her for his playmate. His love for mom. His fear, then anger, at dad. However repulsive and scary and unsympathetic Junior initially appears, his demise is poignant. I hesitate to equate Furst's Junior with Karloff's Monster, but I also hesitate to dismiss the comparison out of hand.

You can see the entire film on YouTube (although I also own it on Beta, VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray -- in addition to seeing it in the theater when it was first released).

Some horror fans hate The Unseen. Why do I love it so much? You can read my entire review here. I've also written about this film in my book, Horror Film Aesthetics: Creating the Visual Language of Fear.

===================

New York City Subways Deteriorating to Disasterous 1970s and 1980s Standards

New York City's famed subways were famously horrifying during the 1970s and even the 1980s. I know, because I rode the subways back then. I even memorialized the experience it in my novel, Manhattan Sharks, set during the rise of the yuppies in 1983.

And so this New York Times article by Emma G. Fitzsimmons and J. David Goodman [May 15, 2017], about the subway's current woes, evoked memories. The article says, in part:

A signal malfunction at the height of the morning commute in New York City upends subway service from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Switch problems leave riders stranded across Brooklyn. A power failure at just one Manhattan station snarls nearly a dozen of the system's 22 lines....

The subway -- a crown jewel of urban diversity, a vital piece of the local economy and a point of pride for millions of New Yorkers up and down the economic ladder -- is rapidly deteriorating. Delays have soared to more than 70,000 each month from about 28,000 per month in 2012. Riders are losing wages when they miss work. Business leaders are worried about the future. Residents are souring on the city.

"I never know if I am going to get to anything on time," said Frank Leone, 31, who lives in Queens. Worsening subway service has made him rethink living in New York City. "I give myself an hour to get to work everyday, even though it only takes 35 minutes," he said, "and I still show up late to work."

In the 1990s, Mayor Giuliani did much to improve the subways. But now it seems that, under Mayor De Blasio, the system is reverting to its previous state of urban chaos and mechanical decrepitude.

Fortunately, New York's subways are no longer my problem. I've long since escaped New York for Los Angeles, penning Manhattan Sharks as my good-bye, good riddance note to the Big Apple. The City of Angels has its own troubles (e.g., Hollywood Witches), but at least it's not New York.

============

Publishers Hire "Sensitivity Readers" to Censor Books

In Fahrenheit 451, American author Ray Bradbury predicted that progressives (not conservatives) would enforce censorship in the United States, beginning with books deemed "insensitive" to minorities. Well, today's publishers have caught up with Bradbury's dystopian vision. 

Everdeen Mason of the Washington Post (reprinted in the Chicago Tribune, February 15, 2017) reports:

These days, though, a book may get an additional check from an unusual source: a sensitivity reader, a person who, for a nominal fee, will scan the book for racist, sexist or otherwise offensive content. These readers give feedback based on self-ascribed areas of expertise such as "dealing with terminal illness," "racial dynamics in Muslim communities within families' or "transgender issues."

"The industry recognizes this is a real concern," said Cheryl Klein, a children's and young adult book editor and author of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults. Klein, who works at the publisher Lee & Low, said that she has seen the casual use of specialized readers for many years but that the process has become more standardized and more of a priority, especially in books for young readers.

Sensitivity readers have emerged in a climate -- fueled in part by social media -- in which writers are under increased scrutiny for their portrayals of people from marginalized groups, especially when the author is not a part of that group.

Last year, for instance, J.K. Rowling was strongly criticized by Native American readers and scholars for her portrayal of Navajo traditions in the 2016 story "History of Magic in North America." Young-adult author Keira Drake was forced to revise [my italics] her fantasy novel The Continent after an online uproar over its portrayal of people of color and Native backgrounds. More recently, author Veronica Roth -- of Divergent fame -- came under fire for her new novel, Carve the Mark. In addition to being called racist, the book was criticized for its portrayal of chronic pain in its main character.

 
Some might argue that "sensitivity readers" are no big deal, because their use is not government imposed (yet), and so it's not really censorship. It's an editorial decision. Some authors quoted in the article even claim to be grateful for the "help" they receive from "sensitivity readers" -- helping these authors to portray their characters "correctly."

"Thank you Comrade Sensitivity Reader, for correcting my errors!"

But how voluntary is that consent? "Progressive" activists are never satisfied. They will increasingly pressure hold-out publishers to hire "sensitivity readers." Publishers, in turn, will increasingly pressure authors to make the corrections "requested" by "sensitivity readers."

As Mason notes:

Lee & Low Books has a companywide policy to use sensitivity readers. Stacy Whitman, publisher and editorial director of Lee & Low's middle-grade imprint Tu Books, said she will even request a sensitivity reader before she chooses to acquire a book to publish [my italics].

"It's important for authors to consider expert reader feedback and figure out how to solve the problems they point out," Whitman said.

In other words, whether an author consents to "solve the problems" complained about by some sensitivity commissar will determine its chances for publication. This will mean ever less diversity in literature, because weak, cowardly, incompetent, stupid, and evil personality traits will become (even more so than already) reserved for straight, white, Christian, male characters.

Returning to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, here's an excerpt from the Fire Chief's speech, explaining how society eventually got around to book-burning:

Now let's take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere.

The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy [my italics], remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic-books survive. And the three-dimensional sex magazines, of course.

There you have it, Montag. It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! [my italics] Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.

Bradbury didn't get everything right. Publishers don't care about the sensitivities of Mormons or Baptists or Swedes or Germans. Such is our "progressive" culture. Poking fun at non-Christian religions is hate, but bashing Christianity is healthy satire. Nazis are unqualified villains, but Communists are at worst misguided idealists. At best they are the noble victims of McCarthyism. (The sensitivities of the victims of Communism be damned.)

But Bradbury had a great insight. Censorship doesn't start with government dictates. It begins with popular pressure. It begins in the private sector. And the signs are ominous.

===================

Huffington Post Quotes Me -- Misspells My Name

I guess it's nice to be quoted in a major publication like The Huffington Post, even if they do misspell my name (something I've lived with since childhood -- Why is it so hard to spell Sipos?).

In her article, "5 Reasons Kevin Sorbo Should Play John Galt," Jennifer Anju Grossman writes:

"Sorbo has already played a John Galt-like character in an indie film called Alongside Night, based on a 1979 novel by Neil Schulman. Writing for HollywoodInvestigator.com, Thomas M. Sipo [sic!] observes:

" 'In the near future, the U.S. government grows ever more oppressive as it tries to avert economic collapse due to its excessive taxing, borrowing, spending, and regulation. Meanwhile, a morally principled group of anti-government cadres prepares for a freer, post-socialist America. Atlas Shrugged? No, it's Alongside Night, a new indie film based on the 1979 novel of the same name.

" 'The two films do differ on some ideological points. Atlas Shrugged promotes Ayn Rand's Objectivism, a philosophy that supports small government. Rand expressly rejected anarchism. By contrast, Alongside Night advocates Agorism, a school of anarchism founded by Samuel E. Konkin III.' "

Sipo? Really? I've seen my name spelled Sinos, Sitos, Sipas -- Charlton Heston even spelled it Sippos when he autographed his photo for me. But Sipo is a new one.

Grossman is CEO of the Atlas Society, former Cato Institute policy director, and former speechwriter for President H.W. Bush.

================= 

Food Cart Vendor Turf Wars

Sometimes it takes a while for reality to catch up to satire. I first wrote Manhattan Sharks as a screenplay in 1987, later turning it into a novel. Nearly 30 years ago.

Manhattan Sharks is a tale of job-hunting and career competition in the "Decade of Greed," from the highest CEOs to the lowliest food cart vendors.

At one point, two characters -- competing food cart vendors -- engage in a food fight over a New York City street corner. At the time I worried that I was being too ... out there. Too wacky and unrealistic. But it seems these things do happen.

Reporting for the The New York Daily News [June 23, 2016], Rocco Parascandola and Edgar Sandoval write:

A West Side turf battle between two rival food vendors vying for the same street corner turned cutthroat when one of the men slashed the other in the back, police sources said Wednesday.

Mohamed Awad, 39, was charged with felony assault and weapons possession in the Tuesday afternoon confrontation, while his competitor, Eissa Naser, 37, required five stitches. The two men got into argument at 10th Ave. and W. 30th St., each laying claim to station his food cart at that corner. As the dispute became heated, Awad allegedly pulled out a razor, and sliced Naser, who collapsed by a Jolly’s Gyro food cart.

A year earlier, Gary Buiso wrote for the New York Post [February 15, 2015, see above image]:

... a group of irate Egyptian competitors block the kosher vendor from setting up on the sidewalk, literally squatting on the curb or placing umbrellas and beverage cartons to cordon off the space

... Licenses granted by the city do not specify where vendors must locate, but the city can force vendors to move for a variety of reasons, including being parked too close to a subway entrance. Intense competition prompts vendors to arrive with their carts by 3 a.m. to claim a spot, with some camping out overnight.

My Googling also uncovered a 2009 New York Times article [June 30, 2009], Julia Moskin reporting:

... "The police told these guys that nobody owns the streets. But it sure doesn’t feel that way," said Mr. Di Mille, who called the Midtown North precinct -- not for the first time -- when a jewelry vendor set up shop directly in front of his sales window.

In four weeks of business, the couple has been threatened at the depot where they park the truck; cursed by a gyro vendor who said that he would set their truck on fire; told to stay off every corner in Midtown by ice cream truck drivers; and approached by countless others with advice -- both friendly and menacing -- on how to get along on the streets.

"I want to be a good neighbor," Mr. Di Mille said. "But I am nobody's fool, and nobody's pushover, and I should not have to carry a baseball bat on my truck in order to sell cupcakes."

... Turf wars are nothing new for carts selling kebabs and cheap coffee. But the makers of thumbprint cookies, chicken-Thai basil dumplings, and crème anglaise are not happy about the sharp elbows that are part of the city's sidewalk economy, or the murky bureaucracy that oversees the issuing of permits. (Six people were arrested on Tuesday on fraud charges related to food vending permits.)

Of course, I didn't have Google when I wrote Manhattan Sharks. I thought I was making it all up. But food cart vendors really do battle -- sometimes violently -- over street turf in New York City. Go figure.

=======================

My 2016 World Horror Convention Panels

As in most years, I'll be attending the World Horror Convention. This time it's being held in Provo, Utah.

It seems it's held in Utah every four years. It was in Salt Lake City in 2008 and again 2012. The 2008 convention included a fun ghost tour. The 2012 con had a séance.

I'll be on only one panel, on Saturday, April 30th, from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m.. It's called My Favorite Horror Film. Panelists to include: Darren Shan, Jeff Strand, Linda Addison (m), Sunni K. Brock, Sanford Allen, and Thomas M. Sipos.

====================

My 2015 World Horror Convention Panels

I'll be participating in several events at the 2015 World Horror Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, over the weekend of May 7 to 10, 2015.

* On Friday, and again on Saturday, (May 8 and 9), from 5 to 6 p.m., I'll be part of the Filmmakers Lounge. This is described as "a free and easy conversation on whatever the filmmakers want to discuss -- their own projects, favorite films -- as well as a networking opportunity. Daniel Griffith will moderate. Panelists to include Lynne Hansen, Daniel Knauf, Frazer Lee, Ryan Lieske, Thomas M. Sipos, and John Skipp.

* On Friday night, May 8, from 8 p.m. to midnight, I'll be hosting a "best of" screening of past Tabloid Witch Award winning horror films. Details on the Tabloid Witch blog.

* Also on Saturday, May 9, from 2 to 3 p.m., I'll be moderating the panel: Two Stumps Way Up: Horror Film Criticism, Journalism and Scholarship. Panelists to include L. Andrew Cooper, James Newman, and Gord Shriver.

============

Hollywood Witches Skewers Liberal Diversity Hypocrites

The 2015 Academy Awards once again exposed Hollywood's hypocrisy on diversity. The film industry has a long history of promoting diversity on screen -- but only as a message, not as an actual practice. As a random example, consider the 1980 TV-movie, The $5.20 an Hour Dream. In it, Linda Lavin (TV's Alice) fights sexist bosses and co-workers for her right to do "a man's job" on a factory assembly line.

The makers of that film likely felt a smug pride in berating manufacturers for their unequal hiring practices. And a sense of moral superiority in belonging to the more enlightened entertainment industry. Indeed, Hollywood has been so prolific in fighting prejudice (on screen) that it's hard to list every film and TV episode with an equal opportunity message. Norman Lear made a career of producing "liberal message" sitcoms in the 1970s-1980s.

But that's okay. The message -- that one should provide equal opportunity to all job-seekers, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity, sex, or age -- is right and proper. The problem is that while Hollywood loves to wag its finger at all those other "bigoted" businesses -- which are nearly always depicted as being run by snotty, blue-blooded WASPs -- Hollywood has yet to practice what it preaches.

According to the AP's Jake Coyle, "[T]he academy is a reflection of the film industry; it can only reward the films that get made. What this year's all-white acting nominees did was lay bare the enormous, hulking iceberg of the movie business' diversity problems." And NPR's All Things Considered adds, "If you want an accurate picture of ethnic and gender diversity in the United States, don't look to Hollywood."

Both articles cite the 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report prepared by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. But this is only the latest in a long line of dismal Hollywood diversity reports. In 2000, the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute released a report with the self-explanatory title: Still Missing: Latinos In and Out of Hollywood.

I know about that report because I cite its statistics in Hollywood Witches, my satirical novel about Tinseltown's hypocritical hiring practices. In Hollywood Witches, a New Age coven infiltrates the studios, seeking control of the industry by hook or by crook -- or more specifically, through sex and black magic. Once in power, they will impose hiring quotas so that the industry "looks like America" on both sides of the camera. Coven leader Diana Däagen even has some programs on her Mac custom-designed for just that purpose: Glass Ceiling 4.0 and Bean Counter 2.1.

Diana Däagen is a villain. Her plans require widespread blood sacrifice to succeed. But like all great Hollywood villains, she has a point. There is method to her madness. When she states her case (as all great villains do before launching the final stage of their Master Plan), she cites hard facts and makes valid arguments. Hollywood does discriminate. Despite the usual boilerplate about "equal opportunity" on studio stationery, nepotism and cronyism rule the day.

And it's even worse behind the camera than on screen. Audiences will notice if there's no color on screen, but they never see who's writing and producing (or not) off camera.

The current controversy regarding the 2015 Oscars has focused mostly (albeit not exclusively) on the lack of diversity on screen. But Diana correctly understood that Hollywood will never achieve real diversity until there is diversity among the gatekeepers doing the hiring -- the agents, managers, producers, TV show runners, and studio bosses. Give the devil her due.

=============================

Tabloid Witch Award Screenings at Loscon 41

It's that time that of year again, time for Thanksgiving -- and Loscon!

As usual, Los Angeles's annual science fantasy convention will be convening over Thanksgiving weekend, at the LAX Marriott Hotel. And as is often the case, I'll be screening past Tabloid Witch Award winning horror films there.

I'll be screening the following horror films on Friday evening, November 28, from 8 p.m. to midnight, in the LAX Marriott Hotel's Saddle Brook Room. The schedule is as follows:

short film block: 8 - 10:00 p.m.

Psychic Sue -- A phony psychic meets a real ghost. Horror comedy.

Timothy -- A children's TV show rabbit turns out to be...not nice. We always knewBarney the Dinosaur and the Teletubbies were evil. Grisly dark comedy.

The First Step -- A young girl in a new house hears a monster creeping up the stairs.

Za Edgara (aka To Edgar) -- How Edgar Allan Poe got so weird. Animation.

Somebody to Love-- A lonely man rescues a beautiful corpse...but women are all the same!

The Heebie Jeebies -- A mother's terrifying bedtime tale...or are Heebie Jeebies for real?

The Stomach -- A tormented medium hosts spirits in his stomach. Bloody British horror.

The Fear Box: 666 Telemarketing -- Telemarketers really are from Hell.

Ticket to the Haunted Mansion -- It's only a show...it's not real...it's only a show...right?

Lancaster Square -- A woman hears a baby crying...but where is the baby?

Filmmaker's Q&A

feature: 10:30 p.m. - midnight

Tympanum -- A family man finds a portal in his own apartment. A portal leading to...another planet? Another time? Another dimension? 

===============

Self-Published Authors: It's Not About the Money

Does self-publishing a book make one into a real writer? That is, professional author? Or is a self-publisher merely a vanity author?

The outside world may not care about such definitions, but as self-publishing became ever cheaper and easier over the past 15 years (due to print-on-demand, distributing those POD books via Amazon, and finally Kindle ebooks), writers have hotly debated who is a professional.

Only professional authors are permitted to join many writers' organizations, so defining a professional is not an entirely fanciful past-time. It has real world consequences.

Richard Lea observes, in Britain's The Guardian newspaper [January 23, 2014], that most self-published authors not only don't earn much money from their books -- they also don't think it's relevant to defining a writer.

I found this excerpt especially interesting:


[T]he self-publishing revolution has allowed "hundreds of thousands of voracious readers with a dream of writing a novel" to write books "out of love and passion, just like a kid goes out and dribbles a basketball for hours every day or kicks a soccer ball against a garage wall". But over the past few decades we wouldn't have called these people "writers" any more than we would call that kid in the back yard a footballer. If all it takes to be a writer is to stick your work online then we're all writers now.

In the old days things were much clearer. All you had to do to call yourself a writer was publish a book, which meant you needed someone else to publish it – and someone else to buy it.


Read the full story here.

Bogus Amazon Reviews

As an Amazon Vine Voice, I take pride in my Amazon reviews. I am thus especially disgusted by bogus "reviews for hire."

I found the below ad on Criagslist, which takes bogus reviewing to new depths. "Reviewers" are hired to post pre-written reviews. That's right. These phony slimebag "reviewers" don't even bother to write their own lies.

I suggest that Amazon (and Yelp -- I've seen ads for bogus Yelp reviewers as well) should engage in sting operations. Respond to these ads, try to find out who's posting bogus reviews, and delete all their reviews.

Here's the Craigslist ad (contact info not included):

We are a literary marketing company that helps authors/publishers increase book sales.

We are looking for individuals who can boost the positive "Amazon book review" postings on selected titles. You will be given the reviews. No need to do any writing. The books are of all genres, but some are erotica so you should be fine with that. You must have an active Amazon account (meaning having purchased anything from there) and a computer with a unique I.P. address (no Kindles/phones, etc.).
 

Need a handful of people to post reviews on about 10 books/day (should take less than an hour total). You will be paid $5/book ($50 total/every day). Payment is by Paypal on a daily basis.

Serious responses only. This gig starts right away.

Please provide your email as the system here keeps sending replies to junk mail. Thanks!

You can find some tips on how to spot a fake review on this site and on this site.

===========================

The Quarterly Review Interviews Me

Canadian writer Mark Wegierksi interviewed me for the Quarterly Review, during which I mostly discuss the creative process and themes behind my novels.

 You can read Wegierski's article here.

My Horror Panels at Loscon 40

I'll appear on five panels at Loscon 40, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Thanksgiving Day weekend, in Los Angeles, CA.

Although Loscon is a mostly science fiction/ fantasy convention, they've been expanding their horror events over the years. Four of my five panels are horror-oriented. They are:


* Humanizing Our Monsters

Vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, serial killers. All have starred as sexy and dangerous, but ultimately misunderstood heroes and protagonists, of their own stories. What is it that drives us to give humanity to the manifestations of our darkest fears? Panelists: Jenna Pitman (m), Barbara Hambly, Julie Sczesny, E.E. King, Thomas M. Sipos. Friday, 8 - 9 p.m. Scottsdale Room.


I've much to say on this subject. In my book, Horror Film Aesthetics, I discuss the four appeals of horror. The fourth one I call "Sympathy for the Other" -- when "monsters" are viewed sympathetically (e.g., Dark Shadows vampire Barnabas Collins).



* Science vs the Supernatural

Ghosts or radiation? Mad science or necromancy? Medical malfunctions or immortal monsters? Does science or magic make for a better back drop to illustrate what scares us most? Is it all circumstantial? Panelists: Jenna Pitman (m), Julie Sczesny, Thomas M. Sipos, E.E. King. Friday, 9 - 10 p.m. Scottsdale Room. 


Yes, in Horror Film Aesthetics I break down horror's basic threats into three categories: the supernatural, horror/sci-fi, and the human (e.g., psychos). And I explain how horror overlaps with other genres, such as science fiction proper.



* Horror Literature vs Horror Cinema

Short horror works equally as well as a story or film. But horror novels and feature length are different monsters all together. What makes the novel different than a movie? Is one more frightening than the other? What do each of them get right? What do they get wrong? Panelists: Jenna Pitman (m), Thomas M. Sipos, Donald F. Glut, Tom Khamis. Saturday, 8 - 9 p.m. Atlanta Room.


In Horror Film Aesthetics I also explain why horror works better on film than on text, whereas the reverse is true of science fiction.



* And the Award Goes to...

All horror fans know that the genre has lost respect in recent years. Once our movies and novels were good enough to be considered classics but now they've been reduced to jokes. When was the last time our genre was been acknowledged by mainstream judges? How can the genre return to its glory days? Is it possible? Jenna Pitman (m), Julie Sczesny, Thomas M. Sipos, Tom Khamis. Saturday, 9 - 10 p.m. Atlanta Room.


I disagree that horror has lost respect in recent years, which I explain in my other book, Horror Film Festivals and Awards. You can also read about that topic in the book's forward, which is reprinted for free on my website.



* Future of Investigative Journalism

The newspapers have been the only institution in society to commit to in-depth investigative journalism, which is sometimes antagonistic to both governmental and corporate power. Now that the print market is imperiled, can bloggers and web-only publications fulfill their role? Richard Foss (m) Thomas M. Sipos, Mike Glyer, Dennis Mallonee. Sunday, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Marquis 2 Room.


I say much about investigative journalism -- what it is, who's doing it today, its current state of heath -- in my novel, Hollywood Witches.


All in all, I've much to say about all the above topics. Drop in to Loscon if you happen to be in the Los Angeles area over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

France Bans Book Discounts

Small, independent bookstores in U.S. have long complained that publishers grant deeper discounts to bookstore chains and to Amazon.com, because the latter buy more books. The chains and Amazon then pass these discounts on to customers. This puts small bookstores at a competitive disadvantage.

Of course, the chains are at a competitive disadvantage even against Amazon.

But this disadvantage does not exist in France, which, forbids stores from discounting books beyond 5% of retail price.

According to Angelique Chrisafis, writing for Britain's The Guardian newspaper (June 24, 2012):

"In contrast to the UK's famous three-for-two deals, the French state fixes the prices of books and readers pay the same whether they buy online, at a high-street giant or a small bookseller. Discounting is banned. The government boasts that price controls have saved small independent bookshops from the ravages of free-market capitalism that were unleashed in the UK when it abandoned fixed prices in the 1990s. France has more than 3,000 independent local bookshops and 400 in Paris, compared with around 1,000 in the UK and only 130 in London. But online book giants are still eating into small bookshops, many of which struggle to stay afloat."

According to Wikipedia, this is called France's Lang Law. It was passed in 1981, and extended to cover ebooks in 2011. Similar laws exist in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

I love bookstores, but as a reader, I certainly appreciate book discounts. A conundrum.

Verizon Wireless Truly Sucks

I've written before about my problems with Verizon Wireless and how much they suck ... and suck ... and suck and really and truly suck.

Most (though not all) of my problems with Verizon were billing related, their robots automatically charging me for services or time that I never used.

Then, after long waits on their automated customer service line, Verizon would promise to credit me the full amount -- and then not do it.

So I canceled all of my Verizon Wireless accounts last August. I haven't had a cell phone since then. Which is good, considering that cell phones cause cancer. (Yes, they really do. Truly, they do.)

Now -- after not hearing from Verizon for nearly one peaceful year! -- Verizon has begun emailing me a "monthly bill" of $46.62.

Verizon is truly retarded! I have no wireless account with them. Yet they keep on billing, long after I've kicked them out of my life.

Ray Bradbury, RIP

I discovered Ray Bradbury in a trash can. On my way home from grammar school, I saw that someone had discarded some yellowed, worn 1970s paperbacks. I salvaged all the true ghost stories and horror fiction anthologies. One Berkeley paperback contained Bradbury's "The Small Assassin," the tale of a mentally mature infant who plots his mother's murder. (Think of The Family Guy's Stewie.)

People forget that Bradbury, known for his science fiction, was also a horror writer. With "The Small Assassin," I became a lifelong Bradbury fan, whatever his story's genre.

I first met Bradbury in 1992, at a Malibu, California book-signing. (His, not mine). He loved my trash can story. One would expect the author of Fahrenheit 451 to rejoice at people rescuing any books from landfills, incinerators, or recyclers.

Read the rest of my article in the Hollywood Investigator.

What Does It Mean to Be Published?

Back before Kindle, before print-on-demand even, the public derided self-publishing as vanity publishing. Vanity books were not real books. Vanity authors were not real authors.

To be published -- to be truly published -- required more than having a book in print. It required that an objective third party had invested in printing your book. A commercial publisher believed that your book was entertaining or interesting enough to find favor with the paying public.

Commercial publishers are motivated not by vanity, but by an objective calculation of how much a book is worth on the market. Self-publishers call these people "traditional publishers," as though self-publishing is new and ground-breaking. It's not. Self-publishing is not ground-breaking. And "commercial publisher" better describes non-vanity publishers than the term "traditional publisher."

If your book was printed by a commercial publisher -- an objective third party who risked his own money to publish your book -- then you, the commercially published author, derived prestige and status. The public admired you for overcoming the hurdle of an objective third party.

By contrast, if an author self-published, that meant the book was printed solely because of the author's faith (i.e., his vanity) in the book's merits. And because every mother believes her child to be beautiful and gifted, however ugly and stupid a child may be, the public was rightfully skeptical of self-published books. Which the public called "vanity books."

Vanity were not real books. Vanity books weren't published, they were printed. They sat stacked in cardboard boxes, unsold, in the author's basement or garage.

Read the rest of the article.

The Celestine Prophecy: Old Socialism for a New Age

I'm not a big admirer of the New Age. My Hollywood Witches satirizes, among other targets, La La Land flakes and their silly infatuations with New Age make-believe.

The New Age movement is a blend of self-obsession, self-delusion, squishy-Left politics, greedy scam artists, second-hand cafeteria spirituality, and pseudoscience -- with many practitioners embodying all of those seemingly contradictory traits.

The dreadful Celestine Prophecy -- a huge bestseller in the 1990s -- is a good example of New Age nonsense. I reviewed the book in 1995. That review is now reprinted at the Weekly Universe.

Jonathan Frid, RIP

I just learned that Dark Shadows actor Jonathan Frid has died at age 87. The Chicago Tribune reports:

"Jonathan Frid, star of the original 'Dark Shadows,' died of natural causes in Canada last Friday (April 13) at the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario.

"Frid was best known for playing Barnabas Collins on gothic soap opera 'Dark Shadows,' which aired on ABC from June 1966 to April 1971. The character of Barnabas appeared a year into its run on TV and catapulted the show's popularity.

"Frid did not do much acting other than in 'Dark Shadows' and did not have an acting credit since the 1974 film 'Seizure' until he filmed a cameo for the 2012 release 'Dark Shadows,' which features Johnny Depp as Barnabas."

Well, that's not true. Jonathan was a seasoned stage actor long before being cast as Barnabas in Dark Shadows. He went on to do much stage work after Dark Shadows, notably his one-man-shows.

I interviewed Jonathan in 1986. He was gracious and kind, even buying me lunch and inviting me into his home. At that time he lived in an apartment in New York City.

I returned a week later to see Jonathan's one-man-show, which he performed in his apartment for select fans. He normally changed his show's contents every few months, pre-testing new material before his fans.

Much of Jonathan's show consisted of him reading short-shorts, so I lent him a copy of Fredric Brown's Nightmares and Geezenstacks, which is filled with excellent short-shorts. Jonathan liked some of Brown's tales, and would have liked to incorporate them into his show. But due to copyright considerations, he couldn't do so without permission.

I was honored to have met and interviewed Jonathan Frid, and will continue to admire the body of work he left behind.

The Myth of True Communism

When my anti-Communist satire, Vampire Nation, was first published some dozen years ago, I began receiving complaints from self-identified Communists.

A common theme arose among their emails and postings. They said that I had misrepresented Communism, because Communism as historically practiced was not True Communism.

They claimed that True Communism was beautiful and wonderful and full of warmth and peace and love for all humanity.

I replied to their arguments with an article (which has now been reprinted) that I called: The Myth of True Communism.