Tag Archives: Craig McDonough

Pixel Scroll 6/19/25 The Scroll Of My Enemy Has Been Pixelated, And I Am Glad

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(1) DO READERS NEED PROTECTING FROM THESE? ScreenRant has a little list: “If You’re Just Getting Into Sci-Fi Books, These Are 10 You Should Absolutely Avoid”. Dhalgren and Anathem, okay. Starship Troopers and Ringworld, huh. Slaughterhouse-Five, too.

…The wild world of sci-fi literature is full of fantastic books and incredible storytelling, but like any canon that’s been evolving for over a century, it also has some incredibly inaccessible and difficult books. While many of them are also some of the greatest works in the genre, they’re also frequently heavy on the technobabble – or worse, real science – and often stray into some very experimental and existentially challenging forms of storytelling. So, while these books are all (or at least mostly) excellent, beginners should be cautious about jumping straight into the deep end of this particular pool…

Slaughterhouse-Five

By Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

Kurt Vonnegut, another one of America’s greatest authors, clearly drew on his experiences as a German prisoner of war in Dresden during the Second World War when writing Slaughterhouse-Five, given that the book’s protagonist Billy Pilgrim endures a similarly harrowing experience. Unlike Vonnegut, though, Billy is abducted after the war by the alien Tralfamadorians, who place him in a zoo with a porn star for a mate and send him flashing back and forth through time.

Everything about Slaughterhouse-Five, from its brilliant nonlinear structure to its powerful anti-war message, makes it clear that the book has deserved every iota of praise it has received over the years. Yet that same nonlinear structure, and the raw power of how it explores Billy’s (and by extension, Vonnegut’s) traumatic experiences in the war, make it hard to recommend as anyone’s starting point.

(2) VARNEY BANNED FROM WORLDCON. Literary agent Leslie Varney complained about being banned from attending Seattle Worldcon 2025 in an op-ed today at Jon Del Arroz hate site Fandom Pulse . Worldcons (and most other conventions) rarely make public statements when someone is banned anymore. And Varney says she wasn’t given a reason, either: “the organizers chose to keep me entirely in the dark.” Varney’s op-ed advances several strawman reasons and knocks them down.

Varney included Seattle Worldcon 2025’s email in the article:

Varney, who regularly trades salvos with Patrick S. Tomlinson, also characterizes Seattle as having chosen to side with him against her (he’s on Seattle’s list of selected program participants). She is dropping heavy hints in social media about her plans for revenge.

(3) SOURCERY. Christopher Lockett’s grand tour of Pratchett brings us to “Discworld Reread #4: Sourcery”.

…The Librarian. Of all the dozens of vivid, weird, hilarious, and poignant recurring characters who come to populate Discworld, the Librarian is one of my favourites. In this I am not alone.5 Transformed from a man into an orangutan by a magical accident, he resists the efforts of some of his fellow wizards to turn him back, finding contentment in his new form, in part because he can now climb through the labyrinthine stacks in the University Library with ease. So long as he has his books and a healthy supply of bananas, he’s happy.

The Librarian, the Library he occupies, and the books crowding the shelves—all of which, being magical books, have lives of their own—are very obviously the creation of an author whose own spiritual and emotional connection to libraries is profound. …

(4) POP QUIZ. Take the New York Times’ interactive quiz, “Match These Books to Their Movie Versions”. Link bypasses the paywall. Reader, I nailed it!

Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions, video games and more. 

Here’s one of the questions:

Question 2 of 5

“Sunrise on the Reaping,” the Y.A. novel released earlier this year by Suzanne Collins, is the fifth installment in which book/film series that was first adapted for the screen in 2012?

(5) CELEBRATE RY HERMAN’S NEW RELEASE. The Lighthouse bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland is offering tickets to their June 19 event: “This Princess Kills Monsters: Queer Fairytale night with Ry Herman”.

A princess with a mostly useless magical talent takes on horrible monsters, a dozen identical masked heroes, and a talking lion in a quest to save a kingdom—and herself—in this affectionate satire of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale The Twelve Huntsmen.

Join us to celebrate in this DELIGHT of a novel, to raise a toast to feminist fairy tales and gorge on the magic of queering familiar stories.

We’ll have 40 minutes of discussion with the author, followed by time for questions, signing and festive good vibes: We’ll be in the bookshop garden for this very special launch, expect themed surprises and refreshments – costumes and extra fabulousness most welcome.

The event also will be livestreamed on Lighthouse Bookshop’s YouTube channel.

(6) FUNERAL FOR CRAIG MCDONOUGH. Leslie McDonough, widow of Craig McDonough, whose death was reported in the June 13 Scroll, sends word that the funeral will be July 1, calling hours 10-11 am, service at 11, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Shrewsbury MA.

(7) SF COMMENTARY. Bruce Gillespie’s SF Commentary 120 includes extensive tributes to two major figures in Australian sff who recently passed away: Race Matthews and Damien Broderick. Download free at eFanzines.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

June 19, 1947 — Salman Rushdie, 78.

By Paul Weimer: It was senior year in high school that I first heard of Salman Rushdie, and yes, it was the fatwa issued against him for The Satanic Verses.  As a result, he first came onto my radar, but I didn’t pick up a copy at that point.  Coming from a conservative family, even with all the SF I had read to that point, a book named “The Satanic Verses” would be a bridge too far.  I already had had to deal with my mother coming to terms with Dungeons and Dragons.  But one day, after Chemistry class, I noticed my teacher was in fact, reading the book.  

I asked him about it, asked him what it was like, and if it was any good.  (This was also the conversation where I learned that ennui was not pronounced en-you-eye, although my teacher thought I was just messing with him). In any event, I waited for the book to hit paperback, by which time I was commuting to Brooklyn College, and so I could read it on the subway in surety and safety.  

The Satanic Verses, brilliant, strong and vibrant, was probably my first real contact with magic realism and was perhaps the most “literary” novel I attempted reading that wasn’t assigned in school. I am pretty sure that 19-year-old me didn’t grok the half of the book. Or maybe even that much. But it stunned me all the same. 

In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed a number of other works of his, particularly in audio (a couple of them read by Rushdie himself), like Midnight’s Children, The Enchantress of Florence, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In all of this and throughout all of these books, including The Satanic Verses, there is a strong and abiding interest in the nature and the use of stories. I know there is plenty to untangle in terms of immigration, East-West Relations, history, mythology, and faith. Salman Rushdie’s work is a seemingly bottomless well for exploring and investigating these themes. 

Does he consider himself a SFF writer? I’m not sure, but if he isn’t, he has a house on the borderlands, ready to provoke and evoke thought in readers.

Sakman Rushdie

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) LAWYER LETTER. CBR.com knows “Why Marvel Hit a WWE Hall of Famer With a Cease And Desist”.

An amusing thing about the connection between comic book superheroes and professional wrestlers is that, of course, Spider-Man’s very first appearance saw him become a professional wrestler in Amazing Fantasy #15 (by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee), where he fought against Crusher Hogan in the ring, and easily defeated him because, well, you know, he has superpowers….

… So, obviously, there has always been a connection between comic books and wrestlers, but an issue over the years has been when wrestlers got TOO close to superheroes, and in the case of the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) superstar, Rey Mysterio, it turned out that he had come TOO close to Marvel’s characters for their liking when WWE received a cease and desist letter over his usage of costumes inspired by Marvel sueprheroes and villains!…

…As I wrote about in an old Comic Book Legends Revealed (by “old,” I mean literally almost TWENTY YEARS AGO), “The Incredible Hulk” Hogan made his debut for World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) in late 1979. The Incredible Hulk was, at the time, a fairly popular television program. WWF, never one to ask for permission first, did not confer with Marvel before debuting this new character. As you could imagine, Marvel did not take kindly to the idea of someone using their character’s name, and warned them to stop. However, Vince McMahon Sr. had a clever way of avoiding the problem. Rather than get caught up in litigation, he just struck up a deal with Marvel to license the name “Hulk” from Marvel for his new wrestler….That’s how Hulk Hogan handled it, but it was another story for the WWE Hall of Famer, Rey Mysterio….

(11) WHY-TO-WATCH. They say if you liked the 90s movie True Lies, you’ll like Netflix’s series FUBAR.

In JustWatch’s latest “Why-To-Watch” feature, they caught up with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Monica Barbaro to talk all things FUBAR—the Netflix action-comedy now climbing to #9 on the U.S. JustWatch streaming charts.

SYNOPSIS: Luke Brunner is a CIA operative who has hidden his identity and work from his family his whole life. Little does he know, his own daughter Emma is also a CIA operative. As they realize the truth about each other suddenly all of their differences begin to become clear.

Arnie took a swing at guessing his most popular films—according to viewing data from JustWatch’s 60 million global movie fans.

Arnold’s guesses

  • True Lies
  • The Terminator
  • Kindergarten Cop

JustWatch Streaming Data:

  • #1 – The Terminator
  • #2 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • #3 – Predator

Watch his surprise here: 

(12) NOT EASY MAKING GREEN. Popular Mechanics made me click. I’m sure your will is stronger: “Scientists Have Discovered the Recipe for Real-Life Kryptonite”.

Most of us know kryptonite as the mineral weakness of the otherwise invulnerable Superman. But geologists are also familiar with its real-world counterpart, known as Jadarite. Initially discovered in Serbia’s Jadar Basin—the only place in the world where it’s been found—in 2004, the mineral is actually sodium lithium borosilicate hydroxide, which is remarkably similar in chemical composition to the fictional kryptonite. (Additionally, krypton is an unrelated chemical element, so jadarite is the most scientifically acceptable name.)

Now, scientists at the Natural History Museum in the U.K. have discovered why the white mineral is so rare on Earth—producing the stuff requires a series of very specific geologic events. The results of this study were published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“Similar to baking a cake, everything needs to be measured and exact for this rare mineral to form,” Natural History Museum scientist Francesco Putzolu, lead author of the study, said in a press statement. “For instance, if the mineral ingredients are not just right, if the conditions are too acidic or too cold, jadarite will not form.”

In jadarite’s case, those ingredients include a precise interplay among an alkaline-rich terminal (or endorheic) lake, lithium-rich volcanic glass, and crystalline structures formed from clay minerals. A previous paper, published last month in Economic Geology (on which Putzolu was also the lead author), goes into more specifics….

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Little Caesars Pizza has an ad tie-in to Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Paul Weimer, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bruce D. Arthurs.]

Pixel Scroll 6/13/2025 Pixel Scrolls And Sandworms Always Bring Me Dune

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(1) CANADIAN ZOOM DURING WORLDCON. The Montreal in 2027 and Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bids are planning to run an “online party” during the Seattle 2025 Worldcon — – actually a concurrent virtual program — either Friday August 15 or Saturday August 16 (or possibly both). They are recruiting through this form: “Montreal and Edmonton: online bid party”.

…As well as a hang out room, we want to showcase how amazing the Canadian and Indigenous Science Fiction Community is. We are interested in authors who want to read, artists who want to show and talk about their work; musicians who might want to take us through a medley of their music; podcasters who might want to run a session; anyone who fancies running an interview or Q&A; and researchers who might want to give a short talk. We will have multiple zoom rooms and an actual program…

(2) GARTH NIX HONORED. Congratulations to Australian author Garth Nix, who has received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division. (“King’s Birthday Honours List 2025” at ARTShub.)

Mr Garth Nix, NSW

For service to literature as an author.

The author of over 40 books including the Old Kingdom series (including 7 novels), 1995-2021; The Seventh Tower series (including 6 books), 2000-2001; and The Keys to the Kingdom series (7 books), 2003–2010, was also a National Library of Australia Ambassador (2018). Among the many prizes won are a slew of Aurealis Awards, the Ditmar Award, Best Novel 2021, Best Australian Novel (2002), the Golden Duck Award for Excellence in Children’s Science Fiction (1999) and the Australian Book Industry Award, Book of the Year for Older Children (2021).

(3) TOMORROW. On June 14, Gabrielle Zevin will give an author talk at the Glendale (CA) Central Library at 4:00 p.m. as part of “One Book, One Glendale”. Full information at the link. (Seating limited to 200, get tickets tomorrow at the library at 2:30 p.m.)

Join us with author Gabrielle Zevin to discuss the New York Times bestseller and our One Book, One Glendale selection, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. A glorious and immersive novel about two childhood friends, once estranged, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives. 

Author Biography: GABRIELLE ZEVIN is a New York Times best-selling novelist whose books have been translated into forty languages. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was published by Knopf in July of 2022 and was an instant New York Times Best Seller, a Sunday Times Best Seller, a USA Today Best Seller, a #1 National Indie Best Seller, and a selection of the Tonight Show’s Fallon Book Club. Following a twenty-five-bidder auction, the feature film rights to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow were acquired by Temple Hill and Paramount Studios. She is currently writing the screenplay.

(4) AI ON THE VINE. Jason Sanford has a vast roundup about and commentary on AI in “GenAI Grapevine for June 2025”. He begins —

Will GenAI Change How People Think and Experience the World?

I’ve written before that artists and writers are the canaries in the coal mine with regards to what the tech companies pushing generative AI systems plan for the coming years. Essentially, the threat genAI poses to the livelihoods of artists and writers will soon expand to numerous other areas of people’s work and life.

But why did these corporations come after writers and artists first? Essentially, we’re the low hanging fruit – our works were easy for corporations to access and pirate for training their AI systems. As an added bonus from the corporate point of view, most writers and artists are economically weak. Yes, there are artists and writers whose work has made them rich and powerful, but they’re the exception not the rule.

And equally as important: while artists and writers may generally be economically weak, what we create is powerful. Stories and art change the way people think and experience the world around them. That ability is something the rich and powerful have long coveted and attempted to use for themselves….

(5) NOT THIS ONE. A Deep Look by Dave Hook finds a clinker in its run through 1949 — “’From Off This World: Gems of Science Fiction Chosen from “Hall of Fame Classics”’, Oscar J. Friend & Leo Margulies editors, 1949 Merlin Press”.

The Short: I just read From Off This World: Gems of Science Fiction Chosen from “Hall of Fame Classics“, Oscar J. Friend & Leo Margulies editors, 1949 Merlin Press, all reprints from Science Wonder Stories/Wonder Stories/Thrilling Wonder Stories. My favorite story was the superlative “A Martian Odyssey” novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum, Wonder Stories July 1934, and my “Hidden Gem” was “The World Without“, a Parling & Klington short story by Benson Herbert, Wonder Stories February 1931. It was dramatically uneven, with an average overall rating of 3.29/5, or “Good”. This is one of the lowest ratings I have ever given an anthology I finished reading. Not recommended….

(6) CHINA ENFORCES ‘DIGITAL OBSCENITY’ REGULATIONS. “Police in China arrest female authors of homosexual novels in crackdown on ‘boys love’ fiction genre” reports ABC News (Australia).

Female writers have been summoned by police for posting and sharing homosexual romance stories online, in a widespread crackdown on the “boys love” genre in China.

If convicted, they could be subjected to detention, financial penalties or even prison sentences.

Many of the targeted writers published their work on Haitang, a Taiwanese website popular with fans of boys love fiction — a genre that features romantic relationships between male characters, often depicting sex scenes.

Some of them have been documenting their experiences on Chinese social media.

A writer who goes by the pen name Sijindejin said she was served a notice in May to present herself at a local police station in Gansu province — about 970km away from her village in Chengdu.

Sijindejin, who says she grew up in a “poor village”, bought the cheapest flight available and took her first plane trip to comply.

According to Chinese laws, police in any part of the country who claim they have received complaints about an individual can call them in for questioning.

Having only made 4,000 yuan ($857) after writing for years, Sijindejin said she never knew it could be a crime….

… Three lawyers, representing some of the writers, also posted about the crackdown, noting the scale of action has been widespread, with estimates that at least 100 writers have been affected.

Radio Free Asia reported that police in remote north-western Gansu province had called in dozens of writers, with some subsequently being detained, fined or charged with offences that could result in prison terms….

…China last updated its laws on “digitally obscene” content in 2010.

Those regulations said the “production, reproduction, publication, trafficking, dissemination” of any obscene works that generate more than 5,000 clicks online, or that make profits of more than 5,000 yuan ($1,072), should be treated as a crime….

There have also been some protests about this crackdown outside of China; here’s a recent Mastodon post of photos of a protest in (apparently) Washington DC: “Charlie’s Notebook: FreeWritersofHaitang”.

(7) CRAIG MCDONOUGH OBITUARY. Massachusetts sff fan Craig McDonough died June 12. Leslie McDonough announced:

My husband Craig McDonough died yesterday. He had been suffering from heart disease for some time. He was formerly very active in fandom, especially Boskone and Readercon and, more recently, Arisia. Many years ago he was also active in the SCA.

Among his contributions to fandom was editing the first edition of the NESFA Hymnal, a collection of filksongs, which came out in February 1976, in time for Boskone XIII.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

June 13, 1980 — The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything

Forty-five years ago, a rather charming film premiered in syndication this evening as produced by Paramount. The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything was based on the novel of the same name by John D. MacDonald, who of course did the Travis McGee series. I know I watched it and I know I like it even four decades on.

It was written by George Zateslo who hadn’t written anything prior to this save an episode of CHiPS. After writing this, he’d write the script for the sequel, The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite, originally titled the The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything Else before they realized that was way too long. Or so they thought.

The two cast members to note here are Robert Hays as Kirby Winter and Pam Dawber as Bonny Lee Beaumont. That because the story is — 

SPOILER ALERT

a rather thin SF plot involving a young male who inherits from his millionaire uncle a gold watch that has the power to stop time. A series of quite unlikely and comic adventures ensue. And yes there’s a girl involved. Thie girl is entirely, I believe, why the novels were written, but then a girl was always present in John MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels as well. 

END OF SPOILER ALERT

An episode of the Twilight Zone, “A Kind of Stop Watch”, has essentially the same story as that of “The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything”. A lot of Twilight Zone fans would claim very loudly that McDonald ripped off Serling’s script. That episode, however, aired in October of 1963, the year after the publication of the novel on which the movie is based. Sigh. 

Can y’all remember how far back this story plot device goes? I assuming it’s present in the beginning of the genre, isn’t? 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

  • F Minus has a new POV for the closet monster problem.  
  • Frank and Ernest combines H.G. Wells with Shakespeare. 
  • Spectickles updates another fairy tale.  
  • xkcd agonizes about a big number.  

(10) MURDERBOT AFTER-ACTION. Alex Brown is doing Murderbot episode reviews at Reactor: “Murderbot Coded”.

(11) SF 101. Colin Kuskie and Phil Nichols devote episode 55 of the SF 101 podcast to “Reviewing the Hugo Short Stories”.

Every year, we review the short stories shortlisted for the famous Hugo Awards. It’s our way of keep abreast of trends in the field of science without having to read a ton of longer works!

All of the shortlisted stories are available online for free (see links below), so why not take a look at them yourself, and see if you agree with Colin’s and Phil’s assessment?

(12) BEWARE LILYPAD. “’Toy Story 5′ First Look Reveals Return of Jessie and an All-New Enemy” at Movieweb.

…[Pete] Docter confirmed that Toy Story 5 will explore the challenges of the digital-first world from the perspective of the toys. “It’s Toy meets Tech,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. The original gang will be forced to grapple with the takeover of technology in their home, with eight-year-old Bonnie Anderson now the proud owner of a tech tablet (pictured below). Its wide-eyed and friendly exterior might prove deceptive, as it threatens to steal Bonnie’s attention away from the toys, as she finds herself drawn towards screens over playthings….

(13) DRAWING CARD. Chinese fan Riverflow has given his Hugo trophy to one of his friends to display in a coffee shop called “Ansible” they are opening in Chengdu. We do not know whether this is a temporary or permanent loan.

(14) THE ETHICS OF BRAIN-READING DEVICES. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] One area of science that is decidedly SFnaly adjacent, if not just a few years ago would be considered decidedly SF, is that of the use of technology to read thoughts: techno-telepathy if you will.  Yet recent advances are such that we are beginning to actually do this.  However, such technology has ethical implications.  As SF fans we are all too aware of Orwell’s ‘thought police’…

An article in this week’s Nature looks at the ethics behind this technology. You can access it here.

For two decades, Ann Johnson has been unable to walk or talk after she experienced a stroke that impaired her balance and her breathing and swallowing abilities. But in 2022, Johnson was finally able to hear her voice through an avatar, thanks to a brain implant.

The implant is an example of the neurotechnologies that have entered human trials during the past five years. These devices, developed by research teams and firms including entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Neuralink, can alter the nervous system’s activity to influence functions such as speech, touch and movement. In April, they were the topic of a meeting in Paris, hosted by the United Nations scientific and cultural agency UNESCO, at which delegates finalized a set of ethical principles to govern neurotechnologies.

The recommendations focus on protecting users from technology misuse that could infringe on their human rights, including their autonomy and freedom of thought. The delegates, who included scientists, ethicists and legal specialists, decided on nine principles. These include recommendations that technology developers disclose how neural information is collected and used, and that they ensure the long-term safety of a product on people’s mental states….

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “How Thunderbolts Should Have Ended”.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Ersatz Culture, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley  for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]