Chall Pals

Issue #28

2008-07-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

Among the contributors to Challenger #28 are:

James Bacon, London, U.K.

Sheryl Birkhead, Gaithersburg MD

Warren Buff, Raleigh NC

Randy Childers, Bowling Green KY

Randy B. Cleary, Madison AL

Liz Copeland, Bellevue WA

Dennis Dolbear, Jefferson LA

Mike Estabrook, Acton MA

Brad Foster, Irving TX

Alexis Gilliland, Arlington VA

Mike Glyer, Monrovia

Laura Haywood-Cory, Durham NC

John Purcell, College Station, TX

Charles Williams, Knoxville TN

Gregory Benford, Joseph Green, Toni Reinhardt, Mike Resnick, c/o Challenger

Visited: CON*CAVE!

2008-07-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Rose-Marie and I were pleased to be named Guests of Honor at Kentucky's Con*Cave in April.Some scenes: Tim Lane and me, seemingly lost in prayer, Pirate Beauties, WigWam Village.

Why It's Called "Con*Cave"

Our trek through Mamoth Caves covered 4 1/2 miles in 4 1/2 hours, and showed us wonders. Lower right, la belle in a tight squeeze. Below, graffiti left by a Civil War soldier.

Issue #27

2008-01-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

CONTRIBUTORS

Just visit the website. They're all there...

gws

Issue #26

2007-06-14T18:00:00.001-07:00

Contributors

...to this issue of Challenger include

Eve Ackerman, Greg & Elisabeth Benford,
Mike Bishop and Mike Resnick
contact c/o Challenger

Sheryl Birkhead
Gaithersburg MD USA

Jeffrey Copeland
Bellevue, WA USA

Kurt Erichsen
Toledo, OH USA
http://www.kurterichsen.com

Tom Feller
Nashville TN USA

Barry Hunter
Rome, GA USA

Julia Morgan-Scott ,
Chattanooga, TN USA

Gerald W. Page
(check out Jerry's extraordinary thoughts on Va. Tech)

Charles Williams
cwilliams@knology.net

plus William Rotsler, Ian Gunn, Joe Mayhew and Elizabeth Atkinson, street angel, God bless her, wherever she might be.

Visited

2007-06-14T17:40:00.001-07:00

On a recent trip to Baltimore, the extended Green
family visited the grave of one of the greats. Here
are Annie -- Joe -- Patrice-- Rosy and yhos at the
tomb of Edgar Allan Poe.

At Fort McHenry
(home of the Star-Spangled Banner)
justice is served on GHLIII.

La belle Rose-Marie
adds to the beauty of the

Blue Ridge Parkway.

Visitors and Visited - The Howard House

2007-02-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

625 West Highway 36, Cross Plains, Texas, 76443.

A tiny room in a tiny house in a tiny town …

And from it came a whole wide world.

It’s a neat house, surprisingly small, freshly painted, with a knee-high picket fence around its front yard, and a sign: The Robert E. Howard Home. A local group called Project Pride bought it in 1989. They’ve repainted and refurbished Dr. Howard’s home with period pieces and what genuine family possessions they could find. There is no charge for admission, nor any rules. The sweet grandmotherly lady – how un-Hyborian can you get? – let us carry Jesse as she escorted us through the five small rooms.

Mrs. Howard’s bedroom had a bed, the tubercular lady’s own black iron sewing machine and a chifferobe – a near-duplicate to the actual furniture. Across the hall, the living room, an art deco bust of Cleopatra (purchased by Robert, in New Orleans, no less) sitting atop an upright piano. The room’s other genuine Howard artifacts were seascapes on the walls. One wondered, did they impart a sense of adventure to the home’s imaginative child?

On display in the dining room, adjacent, was the manuscript of an unpublished (!!!) short story. One page, 7, was original, the rest xeroxes. Howard typed in 10 point pica, with 1½ line spacing – and without margins! And he did his typing right across the hall.

A tiny room in a tiny house in a tiny town …

Decades ago, an owner with no concept of the greatness of that little closet had walled up one of its windows. Project Pride, with every concept of the room’s greatness, had restored the window frame and placed a painted panorama behind it: the flat fields that the occupant would have seen when he rose from the narrow cot, or turned from his work at the adjacent desk. That was about all there was to the room: a steel cot, a chest, a chest of drawers piled with early editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a chair and a table, bedecked with a beautiful Underwood typewriter. Wadded paper was scattered around the table, as if the author had just risen from his chair, and around the platen was wound a single sheet. On it was typed

All fled—all done,

so lift me on the pyre—

The Feast is over,

and the lamps expire.

“This couplet,” says the website, “once thought to be a paraphrase from Ernest Dowson’s poem ‘Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae’, is actually from a little-known poem entitled ‘The House Of Cæsar’ by Viola Garvin.” They found it in Robert E. Howard’s pocket, outside in his car, on the day he learned that his dear mother was moribund, and ended his life.

John Guidry recently leant us a DVD of The Whole Wide World, the film about Howard’s relationship with Novalyne Price (a special guest at Nolacon II). The Vincent D’Onofrio/Renee Zellwegger movie was shot in a larger house, but here I could understand the film’s depiction of Howard and his care for his dying mother. The obsessiveness of that care baffled us during the movie, but inside this tiny house, it made perfect sense. Robert E. Howard was no Conan. He was a sad – probably bi-polar – and insecure young man. Though he made plenty of money, with renown in distant cities, who understood or appreciated him in this tiny house in this tiny town – besides his mother? Robert could not bear the thought of life without her. Thirty years old.

Strangely, though, as we stood in the hallway and looked over the family photographs (and an excellent local portrait made from the famous snapbrimmed hat picture), we couldn’t pity the tremendous – and tragic – fantasy genius. Instead, we felt exhilarated by the imaginative majesty that bloomed from that flawed man in that lonely little home. If there is one thing this trip taught us, from that day through to the very last, it’s this: What amazing things people can achieve even though they are imperfect.

On display in the kitchen, a photo of publisher Glenn Lord and a group from REHUPA, the apa devoted to Howard and his work. I knew three of them: Nancy Collins, Vern Clark, and Rusty Burke. It’d give them a boost to know where their faces were on display. As we left, the ladies of Project Pride loaded us down with fabulous freebies: postcards, magnetized Conan page-markers (that’s one on my cover), a copy of the Howards’ funeral notice – mother and son, together forever – and four prints of the Howard portrait. I gave one to Hank Reinhardt, Conan fan supreme, at L.A.Con, and donated another to DUFF. One I keep for us. The last? It’s for sale – the price, less postage, to be donated to Project Pride.

Outside, from the very spot where Robert E. Howard left this planet, we called John Guidry. I think he appreciated it.

Watts Towers Photos from Challenger 25

2007-02-08T00:15:00.000-08:00

Click on any image for larger view.

Challenger #24

2006-09-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

CONTRIBUTORS

Greg Benford, c/o Challenger
Mike Resnick, c/o Challenger
Toni Weisskopf Reinhardt, c/o Challenger

Sheryl Birkhead
Gaithersburg MD USA

Randy Cleary
Madison AL USA

Alexis Gilliland
Arlington VA USA

Craig Hilton
Melbourne, Victoria Australia

Trinlay Khadro
Brown Deer WI USA

Richard Lynch
Gaithersburg MD USA

Joseph Major
Louisville KY USA

Don Markstein
Phoenix AZ USA

Scott Patri
Cumberland BC Canada

Ruth M. Shields
Jackson MS USA

Taral Wayne
Toronto ON Canada

NOTES ON CHALL PALS #24

2006-09-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Our great friend, frequent Challenger contributon, and Melbourne host Craig Hilton is both doctor and cartoonist, and as "Jenner" is doing a comic strip called "Doc Rat" at http://www.docrat.com.au. Check same out.

Joe Green, NASA pro and Rosy's father, has been gratified by the fan response to his article on John W. Campbell, which ran in our last issue -- but even more so by the cheers from his fellow professionals: "Our Five Days of JWC JR." is being reprinted in the SFWA Bulletin. Joe's trying to get the editors to mention Challenger in the credits.

Joe Major's book on Heinlein is out and available through him, and his cool alternate history of Manfred von Richtofen is at a prominent SF publisher. I'm reading it on line, and it's choice.

Those of you who see this Chall before the Worldcon, or at it, be sure to find us and say hey, and be sure to pick up a copy of The Antipodal Route, our DUFF report detailing our trip downunder in 2003. All profit from such sales go to the Down Under Fan Fund. If you're reading this after the convention, contact me for the price and buy one! It's a good cause.

Visitors and Visited

2006-09-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Rosy and I spent the first week of June on a long drive through Texas, Louisiana and Florida. In New Orleans we paused to visit the Symphony Book Fair with its #1 patron, John Guidry, shown inspecting wares beneath a table.

We had just come from Texas A&M University, where I had just left a sub-stantial piece of my life: 36 years’ worth of SFPA – my collection of the Southern Fandom Press Alliance. I donated 21 boxes of mailings to Professor Hal Hall, at left with me, and below, with la belle, in the heart of the university library’s marvelous SF collection. That’s a near-complete set of Weird Tales by Rosy’s shoulder. Elsewhere in the magnificent stacks, manuscripts from George R.R. Martin and Michael Moorcock, the voluminous notes of SaM Moscowitz, and acres of other goodies. My SFPAs could not be in a better locale. I did Professor Hall another small favor – clued him in to the real identity of Analog writer “Winston P. Sanders”. Never heard of him? Try jumbling the letters in his name. You’ll get “P[oul]. Anderson’s twins”.

Challenger #23

2005-12-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

CONTRIBUTORS
Greg Benford
c/o Challenger

Sheryl Birkhead
Gaithersburg MD

Randy Cleary
Madison AL

Rich Dengrove
Alexandria VA

Kurt Erichsen
Toledo OH

Mike Estabrook
Acton MA

Brad & Cindy Foster
Irving TX

Dany Frolich
c/o Challenger

Alexis Gilliland
Arlington VA

Joseph L. Green
c/o Challenger

Dick Jenssen
C/o Challenger

Earl Kemp
Kingman AZ

Joseph Major.
Louisville KY

Peggy Ranson
NOLa

Mike Resnick
c/o Challenger

Alan White
Las Vegas NV

Charlie Williams
Knoxville TN

Visitors and Visited

2005-12-12T10:40:00.000-08:00

Katrina refugees JUSTIN and ANNIE WINSTON visited our abode after the hurricane, bearing MREs ...

And joined us in saying hello to JEFF and JENNY POTTER.

Challenger #22

2005-07-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

Contributors:

Alex Slate
Mike Resnick
Mike Estabrook
James Hogan
Jerry Page
Kevin Anderson
Craig Hilton
Jim Sullivan
Gene Stewart
Charlotte and Jerry Proctor
Sheryl Birkhead
Taral Wayne

And Art by:

Craig Hilton
Jerry Collins
Alexis Gilliland
Kurt Erichsen
Jerry Burge
Rosalyn Watson
Charlie Williams
Sheryl Birkhead
Taral Wayne

Challenger #21

2005-01-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

Some of Challenger #21's contributors are:

Greg Benford
c/o Challenger

Sheryl Birkhead
c/o Challenger

Randy Cleary
Madison AL

Rich Dengrove
Alexandria VA

Kurt Erichsen
Toledo OH

Christopher Garcia
c/o Challenger

Alexis Gilliland
Arlington VA

Terry Jeeves
Scarborough YO12 5RQ U.K.

Trinlay Khadro
Brown Deer WI

R'ykandar Korra'ti
c/o Challenger

Jeff Potter
Shreveport LA

Mike Resnick
c/o Challenger

Ruth M. Shields
Jackson MS

David B.Williams
Whitestown, IN

Velkommen

2004-08-09T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hi -- After having this blog up for two months, I figured it's about time I wrote something for it. Let's see how long it is before we get a second message.

This is the blog for CHALLENGER, my genzine. I hope each of you reads the pub and responds to part of it. I hope no one will mind my printing their responses in future CHALLs. So go ahead: this blog is for you.

What is a Chall Pal?

2004-06-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

Chall Pals are the authors, artists, fans and of course -- the commentators who contribute to Challenger. Challenger is an amateur magazine for Science Fiction fans - a fanzine.

Challzine is the Internet version of the Challenger fanzine.

We hope Chall Pals will be a lively forum, but for those who prefer you can still contact Guy by snail mail or email.