Posted 14 August:
- Carter Moody realizes how much his Locus Poll vote counted, or didn't count, and recalls Poul Anderson
- Malcolm Edwards needs to recontact the Fletcher Pratt estate
- Frances Hickey endorses the "what's new in paperback" suggestion
- David Swanger amends his earlier comments about Spielberg and Kubrick
Note: Return e-mail addresses will be posted only if you include it in your closing, or your subject matter specifically requests some sort of response; otherwise it will be omitted.
Dear Locus Online,
In case anyone ever doubts that their vote in the annual Locus Poll really matters, it is because of a mistake on my own ballot this year that The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon Volume VII: Saucer of Loneliness narrowly missed the Best Single Author Collection Locus Award.
This collection and last year's Selected Stories (published by Vintage) were both on my mind when I filled out the Poll. I'd intended to vote for Complete Stories Vol. VII but accidentally wrote in Selected as Best Single Author Collection. The Poll results in the August Locus show that Complete Stories missed the award by a single first-place vote—my own, due to this mistake (not that Michael Swanwick isn't deserving, but I hadn't read his volume).
At least next year, I'll get a chance to vote for Sturgeon's Complete Stories Vol. VIII. Unfortunately for us all, we will no longer have Poul Anderson's remarkable novels to enjoy and nominate for awards. Like Sturgeon, he brought a poetic sensibility to science fiction. Never guilty of pastiche, he took the field and his craft seriously while exploring enduring human themes and cosmic possibilities with an open-eyed sense of wonder.
Carter Moody
13 August 2001
Dear Locus Online,
After a previous letter to you asking for any information about the literary
estate of Fletcher Pratt, I was contacted by email by a woman called Carol
Burnett-Jones who had inherited part of the estate via a connection with
John D. Clark. Unfortunately, a systems crash obliterated all her emails
and I now need to start again in search of her. I would therefore be
grateful if whoever put me in touch with her before could do so again.
Best wishes,
Malcolm Edwards
9 August 2001
Dear Locus Online,
I read the letter from Scott Ogle concerning a "What's new in paperback" section. I agree with Mr Ogle 100%, since I too tend to restrict purchases to trade paperbacks or mass market soft covers. I admit there are a few SFF authors I'll buy in hardcover, but usually I just make a note of the hardcover I'm interested in, and wait for the paperback.
So I add my vote for support of Mr Ogle's proposal of a new Section in Locus, "Whats New In Paperback" To pick up extra space you might try reducing the reviews. They're good but some are a bit wordy.
Frances Hickey
8 August 2001
[ We're still working on it, for the website, honestly!
--ed. ]
Dear Locus Online,
A correction to my previous e-mail and a further observation:
Philip Wylie's novelization of his script for Los Angeles: A.D. 2017
was from Popular Library, not Pyramid.
And the director who beat Spielberg in his first shot at Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo in 1972? Stanley Kubrick, of course, for his own near-future dystopia, A Clockwork Orange. Who could have guessed they'd collaborate on still another 30 years later?
David Swanger
5 August 2001
