C.J. Cherryh is still snagged in mover's no-man's-land–meaning, "It's in a box and I know it was a 703... or maybe a Xerox box....." She was at Lunacon, Minicon, and Neocon this winter and up to Philadelphia to speak to the friendly folks at the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. She also talked to various publishing people about work in progress. Most notably, Fortress of Eagles, which would be the sequel to Fortress in the Eye of Time if a deal can be made.
She wrote to us, "Tristen is one of the most complex characters I've ever done–and given that my major field is sf–it's odd that it wanted to happen in fantasy. But a person like Tristen couldn't exist in sf without doing an elaborate structure to support why he is and who he is... a structure which would take away from the conflict. So in a certain sense he has to be where he is, but readers who enjoy complexity in a character's makeup should enjoy the story."
Warner Books will be releasing Finity's End in August. It's a Merchanter novel–a piece of the whole Big Picture. Her appearance in TV Guide earlier this year was rather bizarre. The research she did for her tie-in novel Lois and Clark: A Superman Novel allowed her to provide an opinion on the Lois and Clark show. She will be attending Dragoncon, Thundercon, LoneStarCon2, and SoonerCon. Check her web site at www.cherryh.com for details.
Milt Rothman had a quiet winter. He is becoming acquainted with his new Chinese granddaughter, Aviva Gi Xi Lyon. As a result of his work for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSI-COP, pronounced sy-cop) and other similar groups, Milt occasionally receives interesting documents. His most recent was a treatise on everything: gravity, relativity, quantum theory, etc., in which the author gives his own model of what causes all these phenomena. All the author wanted was a detailed critique, showing where he is wrong. The main thing wrong with his paper was that there was not a single equation giving numbers that could be compared to observed quantities.
Milt recommends a very good web-site published by Eric Krieg, which criticizes claims of perpetual motion machines: http://www.voicenet.com/~eric/dennis.html. Eric is a member of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (Phact).
Stan Schmidt wrote his letter detailing his current activities after his first attempt to photograph Comet Hale-Bopp. In March, a television crew spent some time in the Analog offices interviewing Stan and Larry Niven (who was innocently visiting). Clips from the interview may show up sometime on WTBS and/or CNN.
Stan recently sold an article to Writer's Digest and a novelette (his first collaboration ever, with Jack McDevitt) to Fantasy and Science Fiction.
He reports that he is working on arrangements for the Analog Mafia Ragtime Band in odd moments (maybe even some very odd moments) in preparation for their premiere performance at Bucconeer. Stan and his wife Joyce are both looking forward to LoneStarCon2 in San Antonio.
Michael Whelan received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators at their recent 39th annual exhibition. The medal was awarded at the society's gala presentation on March 14th. The award is for a digital piece Michael created on his computer, and it is the first digital work in the society's history to be thus awarded. Another of Michael's works, an oil painting titled Something In My Eye was also selected for the show. Michael has a one man show opening August 30th at the Tree's Place gallery in Orleans, (Cape Cod) Massachusetts. This will be Michael's first show dedicated primarily to his non-commissioned work. The show will feature many new works only seen to date at his web site address. The new official Michael Whelan web resource is located at the new Glass Onion Graphics web site located at www.glassonion.com.
J. Michael Straczynski has finished writing the fourth season of Babylon 5, for a total of 48 or 49 episodes in a row. He also just finished two B5 movies for TNT, which will start shooting in May or June. In his copious spare time, Joe is writing an SF novel, a book on the making of Babylon 5, finishing off a few short stories, and is halfway through a screenplay that a producer associate wants to make. His wife Kathryn's Babylon 5 novel will be out in July. Joe will be at Marcon, Westercon, San Diego Comic Con, and probably at LoneStarCon2 since the Severed Dreams episode of Babylon 5 has been nominated for a Hugo Award.
Charles Sheffield reports Convergence (Baen) and The Billion Dollar Boy (Tor) came out in April. Putting Up Roots (Tor) is scheduled for release in September. Black Sheep (aka The Cyborg From Earth) has been accepted by Tor. Charles was all set to write Aftermath (Bantam) after his 94-year-old mother returned to England, but his 13-year-old daughter had to have her tonsils out. In April, Charles did a two-hour interview for a Discovery Channel program on space travel, which is supposed to air in August. As a result of all this, he'll be writing for most of the summer and may miss LoneStarCon2.
Both Charles and Michael Whelan are celebrating birthdays in June.