Reflections on a Life

Today it has been six months since my beloved wife Betsy suddenly died.

And in the last six months, I have learned a lot.

There is pain in being alone. And I didn't know how alone felt anymore, having been with Betsy for more than 26 years.

There is comfort in having two cats who curl up with me at night, so I don't feel entirely alone.

There is pain in having to be both father and mother to Andrea who is just as poleax stunned as I am that Betsy is gone.

There is comfort in pain shared between a grieving father and a grieving daughter.

There is pain in having to do what seems to be an unending stream of paperwork to remove her name from legal documents, accounts, and property. It is a little like having her die all over again each time.

There is comfort in being able to touch her yet another time, even if only through her things and her papers.

There is pain in not being able to hear her voice.

There is comfort in dialing her voice mail, even if only for a few seconds.

There is pain in the process of adjusting to being alone, and the process of grief.

There is comfort in knowing that it is indeed a process, a journey, and there is another side, with stages along the way.

There is pain in the loss of my lover, my other half.

There is comfort in the expectation that life will go on, both for me and for Andrea.

Betsy was a young, somewhat sheltered woman, highly energetic and full of vigorous happiness when we married. I am proud to have known her in her journey from being that young woman to being the mature, powerful, self-assured, loving and happy mother and wife and teacher she became. She overcame great physical pain and adversity to become that woman.

The world, if only in some small portion, is a better place for her having been here for 51 years. It is a poorer place for her absence. She made a difference in the lives of every single person she touched. That was her intention, her goal, her profession and her pride.

I can only go forward knowing that I am who I am, and what I am (both personally and professionally) because she touched me, too.

We are within $500 of our final goal. It would be great to do better than that, because Dave wasn't willing to admit that he needs more money, but he does. The costs of the quarantine kennels and the transportation will be far more than what we've been able to collect, but Dave doesn't want to beg. So if you want a copy of Save the Dragons, drop $25 bucks in the plate, and we'll see to it that you get one, as soon as Dave sells it to a publisher.

And if you've read it so far, and like it, I betcha Dave would love some fan mail. He's in Tasmania now, with sporadic internet access, but you can send him fan mail at daveza@gmail.com and he'll get it eventually.

Thank you all for caring enough about some dogs and cats halfway around the world to be able to do this.

And if you would rather spend your money on relief for Haiti, I'm sure Dave won't mind. We have done what we set out to do, or rather, we'll be done in just a few more donations.

Thanks all!

Nearly twenty years after arranging with Margaret, the special collections librarian at UC Santa Cruz to donate my science fiction and fantasy library to the Heinlein Papers Collection "because yours will dovetail nicely with Mr. Heinlein's," UCSC has decided they don't want the collection after all.

They want me to give it to UC Riverside, who has a science fiction collection.

Unfortunately, while I was willing to discuss providing funding in addition to the books, which wasn't in the original deal, I don't know anybody at UCR, and I don't give a whoot about UCR.

So, if UCSC doesn't want the collection, they can whistle for any money from me ever, and my daughter gets the books after all.

Holiday greetings from Walt Boyes, and a holiday wish for you all.

Eric Flint was the Guest of Honor at the 39th running of the Chambanacon last weekend. His wife Lu couldn't make it, so he asked if I wanted to go as his guest. I drove us down, to make it fair.

Chambanacon is what they call a "relaxacon" which means there isn't much programming, and what there is of it is really loosey goosey. It is really a weekend to relax with friends, meet new friends, and talk about whatever we wanted to talk about. Which, in this crowd is science fiction, space travel, fantasy, politics, authors, religion, high tech, gaming, lather rinse and repeat.

I met some fantastic folks. Bill and Brenda Sutton were Toastmaster and Fan Guest of Honor, respectively, and Brenda and the wonderful Juanita Coulson, an absolutely underrated science fiction and fantasy author and filker, who has been around fandom since way before it was cool, were in charge of a large filking contingent.

Attendance was down at Chambanacon, probably due to the economy, but there was a very strong gaming contingent that filled up all the tables in the con suite, overseen by Mike Wallis and his wife Faith, ably assisted by their scary-smart young daughter. I even played a great game with the Wallis family.

The Wallises are the con-com for a gaming convention in April in East Peoria at the campus of Illinois Central College, called Spring-Offensive, which my daughter Andrea is considering taking the Gaming Club of Waubonsee Community College to as a school activity.

"And a great time was had by all."

Once in a very great while, I am able to feel privileged to read a masterwork. I felt that way when I read The Riddlemaster of Hed and The Tombs of Atuan. I felt that way reading Rachel Neumeier’s The City in the Lake.

It is likely that I wouldn’t have found this book, even though I find myself reading even more young adult (YA) fantasy, except that I ran into Rachel at Windycon, and she gave me a copy to read. Frabjous joy!

Oh, boy. From the very first page, I got the same sense of being present at the unfolding of a wonder that I received reading Ursula LeGuin, Patricia McKillip, Peter Beagle, Lynn Abbey and the other great modern fantasists, or Cecelia Holland or Dorothy Dunnett, great writers as well.

I am here to tell you that this is a great book, and it is a wonderful read. It should not be restricted to young adult readers, either. The themes and dimensions of the story resonate well with young adult readers, and also the most adult of us.

There’s a City in the lake, beside which a city has been built. As in Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber, this city is more than just a single place, it spans all of existence and is the bedrock upon which the entire universe is built. There is evil in the world as well, and the evil wants to devour the power that is intrinsic to the City.

The evil is personified in a woman, sorceress and perhaps demon. She bears a child to the King of the City, and then leaves, abandoning her son.

There is a girl-child named Timou, fathered by a mage named Kapoen, who decides, when her father disappears, to seek him in the City. Timou has grown up in a small village, learning wizardry from her father, and the customs and culture of a small village from her surroundings. Yet she’s different, apart, and sees herself that way.

On her way to the City, and once she arrives, Timou immediately finds herself embroiled in the almost hieratic play that unfolds when the King’s legitimate son, the heir to the throne that the sorceress covets for her own, bastard son, disappears, followed shortly after by the King’s own disappearance.

The book is extremely visual, and could be a terrific fantasy film.

As the characters move through the plot, they grow and change, in some cases maturing, and in some cases learning who they really are, for the very first time.

I think this is, or should be, an award-winning book.

I think you should run right out to your local bookstore, or jump right onto Amazon and buy it.

Then you, too, can have the experience of wonder and awe at reading what is sure to be considered a masterwork in the future.

Thank you to all who have donated so far. We're on our way, but we need more than $5000 more to get Dave's pets to Oz. Today we've posted chapter 3! So have fun reading it at Save the Dragons! Chapter 4 will be posted on Thursday!

Breaking News Update!

Save the Dragons, the exciting Storyteller's Bowl project to raise enough money to get author Dave Freer's dogs and cats to Flinders Island, Tasmania when the Freer family ups stakes and moves has reached the 25% milestone!

That's wonderful, but we're still only 25% of the way there! Please donate and ask your friends to donate. This is a very worthy cause.

Six chapters have been paid for, and the second chapter is posted today. Chapter 3 will be posted September 7. Visit http://www.savethedragons.nu to read the first chapter and donate to this project. People who donate at least $25 US will receive a signed copy of the book once Dave finds a publisher for it. Higher donation levels will receive appropriate thank yous including Tuckerization in a forthcoming Freer story.

If you love good fantasy, Dave is your man. Save the Dragons!

South African author Dave Freer is emigrating to Australia for safety and security, even though his family has been in SA for a couple of hundred years. It took several years, plus the intervention of Australian SF and F authors like Garth Nix, to get him the visa for his family. While he waited, he saved the money for getting his dogs and cats into Australia-- heavy quarantine you know.

Unfortunately, the exchange rate is heavily against him. So he has less than half the money he needs-- and his house in KwaZulu Natal is sold.

Dave had a novel that was going to be serialized in Jim Baen's Universe magazine, but since the magazine is closing, we gave it back to him to find a publisher.

Dave has decided to try another of the begging bowl experiments (a la Miller and Lee's "Fledgling" and "Saltation" and others) with this novel, a fantasy called "Save the Dragons."

We've posted the first chapter-- as Jim Baen always said, "It's book- crack, and the first taste is free." As long as he receives donations enough, he'll post each successive chapter once per week until all the chapters are online.

People who donate at least $25 US will receive an autographed copy of the book, as soon as Freer finds a publisher-- and there are additional priviledges for people who donate higher amounts, like Tuckerization, etc.

The website is http://www.savethedragons.nu

Dave's dogs and cats deserve the chance to become Aussies...

Thanks,

Walt Boyes
Associate Editor
Jim Baen's Universe magazine

As Toby waits for his mommy to come home, we are proud and honored by the long list of people who have donated to either the Betsy Boyes Corgi Fund site or to CorgiAid directly.

We thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts:

• Anonymous


• Mike Boudreaux
  
• John and Laura Cappelletti
  
• Lisa Chandler
  
• Eric Cosman
  
• John Cusimano
  
• Emerson Process Management
  
• David Emerson
  
• Karen Evans
  
• David Fisher
  
• Chris Gerrib
  
• Prentis Hall
  
• Tara Kusumoto
  
• William Lydon
  
• Bobbie Mayer
  
• Amy Micallef
  
• T. G. Nelson
  
• John Nero
  
• Lawrence F. O'Brien III
  
• Eoin O Riain
  
• Chris and Lisa Olson
  
• C H Ostling
  
• C Lawrence Pereira
  
• Andrew Ramage
  
• Jeffery and Kimberly Ringel
  
• Ripple Effect Communications
  
• Andre Ristaino
  
• Michael Saucier
  
• Michelle Taylor
  
• Steven Toteda
  
• Joyce Trittipo
  
• Jenn Valencia
  
• Ian Verhappen EXP
  
• Kathy Wentworth
  
• Marjorie Widmeyer and Bob Webb
  
• Maurice and Sara Wilkins
  
• Millie Williams
  
• Shari Worthington
  
• Eugene Yon
  
• Rick Zabel
  
• Anne Zabransky
  

I'm sure there are some people whose names are not on this list. We appreciate your donations too, believe me. Betsy is smiling somewhere near the Rainbow Bridge. Andrea and I want to thank also the literally hundreds of people who have sent condolence messages, and just generally "been there" for us.

This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The only way Andrea and I will get through this is through the love and support of family and friends.

Our humble thanks.

Walt and Andrea

In the era of the Kindle, too many people don't know who started it, who proved it would work, and who continues to show that ebooks without DRM are not only profitable but create whole new sets of customers.

That would be Baen, Jim Baen, and Baen Books (Toni Weisskopf, prop.) and Arnold Bailey the Evil Henchman who started and runs Webscriptions.

This month is the 10th Anniversary of Jim Baen's greatest experiment.

I hope Jim's shade is pleased that it worked. He listened to us all the way...he even asked us to vote on whether he could raise prices-- we said, "Of course," what else?

He showed great perspicacity when he and Eric Flint established the Baen Free Library. More than one author has reported that their sales increased dramatically when they permitted their backlist books to be posted in the free library. The most recent to say so was K. D. Wentworth, in an email to me a couple of weeks ago.

Congratulations to Arnold Bailey, for having the idea and selling it to Jim. Congratulations to Toni Weisskopf for carrying it on, and staying behind the idea. And where ever you are, Jim, thanks again for my daughter's ability to read.

One of the things I'm happiest about is that a year or so before he died, Jim went out to dinner with some friends, including Kathy Wentworth, me and my daughter. She sat next to him and told him that the reason she had beaten severe dyslexia was that he had made Webscriptions available in .rtf format without encryption, and that Arnold Bailey had found a text to speech program to read the books to her (TextAloud MP3).

Jim, of course, didn't know what to say.

Well, I do.

Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Baen. Thank you, Arnold.

Happy anniversary!

My friend Mike Boudreaux of Emerson Process Management was kind enough to set up a fund for people who wish to donate to Corgi rescue in Betsy's name. If you're so inclined, here it is: Betsy Boyes Corgi Fund

Our family thanks you.

Walt and Andrea Boyes

I've gotten many messages from many people, and calls from all over the world. Andrea and I want to thank you all for your caring. Some people have asked where to send flowers.

In one of those macabre coincidences that life seems to be full of, Betsy and I somehow got on the subject of endings out at our seasonal campsite two weekends ago. So I know what she wanted done...of course, the discussion mostly centered around me-- we both felt that I would go first.

She didn't want a wake, viewing or funeral. We're going to have a celebration of her life in a week or so, and then we're going to take her home to California where we'll scatter her ashes as she wanted.

Betsy was a fervent supporter of corgi rescue, and now we have three very confused and upset Corgis, including Toby, the fear biter she retrained after we decided to keep him a couple of years ago. My daughter and I have decided that in lieu of flowers, we would request that donations be made to your favorite corgi rescue charity.

Here are some we've supported over the years...but if you have a favorite, please donate to that one in Betsy's name.

Lakeshore PWC Rescue http://www.lakeshorecorgirescue.com/index.html
CorgiAid http://www.corgiaid.org
Cascade Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/cpwcc/Rescue.htm
Cardigan Welsh Corgi Rescue Trust http://www.cardiganrescue.org/

If you wish, donate to any other corgi rescue charity of your choice...

I don’t know that I should be sharing this. But I live my life in public, and so I will.

At 4:30 pm on July 29th, my life changed completely. The 911 operator called and told me my wife was found slumped over the steering wheel of our car at the supermarket, and when I got to the hospital, my wife, Betsy, who was 51 and in good health, was dead.

She and I had been married for over 26 years. She was simply put, the most wonderful person I ever met. She was a bubble of champagne, as one of our friends put it when I called to tell her the horrible news.

She fed all the doves and half the birds in Aurora Illinois, and most of the rabbit population, too. She loved children, took in strays, and worked very hard to rescue everyone and everything that came her way that needed it. She made magic happen. She was my heart and my soul, and now she’s suddenly gone. When she was very savagely bitten by a dog we were trying to rehabilitate earlier this year, she sat on the floor of the vet’s office, holding the dog and telling him she loved him as the vet put him down.

She made a difference in people’s lives. The year she worked as a special education teacher at a high school in Kent Washington, 10 students graduated high school who would not have, if she hadn’t intervened in their lives. She was a natural born teacher, and taught in every grade level down to preschool. She spent her last year teaching at the Goddard School in North Aurora, Illinois, where she taught the 2-1/2 to 3 year olds…and who will miss her terribly tomorrow when Ms. Betsy isn’t there.

She made a difference in my life. I am a better and greater person for having her as my wife. I hope that the rest of my life will be lived the way she would encourage me to.

We made a wonderful daughter together. Andrea, who will be 21 in September, is just as punch-drunk as I am.

What I wish for is that everyone can meet someone as marvelous as Betsy Gail.

Those of us who work with dogs and cats often tell the story of the Rainbow Bridge. That’s the place our pets go to wait for us so that when we join them, we can all walk across the bridge and through the gate of Heaven.

Betsy is there, now, with The Fabulous Jilliedog, with Laddybuck, with Susan the Princess, with Starr, and with Rosie, and with her true heartdog, Ladybug. And all the cats, Leo, Katie, Cody, Kitten are there with her too.

And one day, the rest of us will join her.

Until then, I will miss her desperately.

And do your humble editor a favor. Go home, find someone you love, and hug them, and tell them so. The last words she said to me on the phone were, “I love you.”

I just want to say that I love her too.

David Friedman, libertarian, analyst, economist, and teacher-- and SCA Bard-- some years ago wrote a tremendous novel, published by Baen in 2006. It was called Harald...and it tanked.

The reviews quarreled with the writing style, which updated that of the Icelandic Eddas...but I just re-read it, and found it what I had already decided. It is one of the best fantasies published in the past ten years. Why? There's no magic in it. There is just a complete, well realized alternate world in which people live, work, love and fight.

It drops the reader in medias res into a deeply confused political situation. The Vales, which have a bunch of interdependent yet independent steadings, like mid-10th century Norway and 11th century Iceland; the Kingdom, which is a lot like 12th century England; and the Empire, which resembles 6th century Byzantium; all are struggling for power, independence, or control-- or all of the above. Added to the mix are the Ladies of the Order, a group of female warrior monks; and a bunch of barbarians resembling Mongols, Arabs, Saka and suchlike.

It is a politics and strategy fantasy...there's no quest. There are a bunch of smart people, and others who get outthought by Harald and his friends...but sometimes Harald gets pretty beat up.

I really liked it, and I was ecstatic to see that it had been donated to the Baen Free Library where you can download it and read it for free.

Then, just recently, David Friedman announced that he had developed a series of podcasts in which he read Harald aloud.

This is a great book, and I wish more people had liked it. The economic facts of life in science fiction and fantasy are that, even if you get your first novel published, the second one may not be. Toni Weisskopf, publisher of Baen Books, and my vote for the second best editor in the science fiction and fantasy business, calls it "the sophomore hump." The sophomore hump has to do with writing, but also has to do with whether the publisher thinks anybody wants to read something else you've written. And in these economic times, it ain't pretty.

Friedman says he has more fantasy in him...he just needs a publisher. Maybe he ought to self-publish at Lulu and on the Kindle for a while, until he builds up a following.

But the fact remains, Harald is once again available...so go read it.

In the wake of the potentially disastrous revelation that Amazon.com not only had the power to remove ebooks from purchasers' Kindles, but actually would do so, contrary to their own Terms and Conditions of Sale, Barnes and Noble has announced a hugely expanded "every device" ebook catalog.

The Financial Times reported:

Barnes & Noble bookstore chain on Monday unveiled its challenge to Amazon’s Kindle e-book service with an expanded online store selling more than 200,000 e-book titles for both laptop computers and mobile devices.
.

The chain also said it would provide the e-book store for a wireless portable e-reader being developed by Plastic Logic, a UK-based technology company, that is scheduled for launch next yearThe Barnes & Noble service will also provide free access to about 500,000 titles out of copyright available on Google Books, bringing the total number of titles to more than 700,000.

Read the rest of the story...

In 1966, a young (19 year old) woman published a fantastic historical novel about the Norman Conquest of England called The Firedrake. It made a big splash, since she was so young for a major novelist, and because it was published on the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

In 1966, I was a young(er) junior high school student looking for something to read that wasn't in the children's section. A nice librarian handed me The Firedrake and said, "Here, that'll keep you most of the summer." Well, not. I finished it in less than a week, and I have been in love with the writing of Cecelia Holland ever since.

Over the years, she has written some of the finest historical fiction of the 20th century, and so far, the 21st. She has written some absolutely excellent fantasy, and she wrote in 1975 a science fiction novel, Floating Worlds, which was completely ignored by the science fiction establishment, made fun of by the SMOFs, but was a tour-de-force of writing and worldbuilding-- and it should have won the Hugo Award in 1976 or 1977, depending on when it was actually eligible for best novel-- and the competition was very stiff both years. It was that good.

David Drake is commonly identified as the "writer's writer" in science fiction. Dave and I stood in line at World Fantasy Con a few years ago to get Cecelia Holland's autograph. He told me that she was one of his favorite writers...and he said so in front of her. Cecelia was embarrassed, I think.

So it is wonderful that Floating Worlds is back in "print" as an e-book from Webscriptions. Journey with earth diplomat Paula Mendoza as she uses intelligence and guile to overcome strength and fury.

If you haven't read it, go immediately and buy and download a copy. If you have read it, read it again. I plan to. And now I don't have to go dig out my autographed first edition to do that.

And if you want to see what else Cecelia Holland has written, visit her website, Cecelia Holland's Home Page.

It isn't a secret that Dave Freer and I are friends...as much friends as can be when I only get to see him once every few years, since he lives in South Africa. But I have to tell you that his new novel, Dragon's Ring is one of the best fantasies I've read in years. It is due out soon from Baen Books, but it is available from Webscriptions as an electronic Advanced Reader Copy (e-ARC). Using a variety of mythological sources, especially Norse, but also including Celtic, Hellenic, Hebraic and Arabic, Freer tells the story of a...well, not exactly a world, but rather a constructed place called Tasmarin. And once again, Freer shows why he is one of the most inventive practitioners of fantasy in the world today.

One of the towers that support Tasmarin collapses, and a baby is flung across universes to land on the beach near a fishing village in a land where Dragons rule. Dragons, that is, who used to be servants of human High Mages... but who have killed all the magic-using humans they could find and now treat their humans as talking cattle.

Who is this child, called Meb? Why do the demons, the woodsprites, the alfar, the dvergar, the centaurs and the dragons want her so badly?

And who is Fionn, the little black dragon, and what does he want with Meb?

Why do dragons need to sleep on beds of gold? Why do alfar prefer silver? Why do all the woodsprites act as though they were one? And what is that curious piece of seaweed and pearls that Meb wears on her head?

Dragon's Ring is a tale of innocence lost, and love regained. Freer has once again written a brilliant fantasy that doesn't talk down, doesn't preach, and tells a forthright tale with totally believable characters, whether that character is a merrow or a mountain.

When it comes out, buy it. But don't wait until it comes out...go to Webscriptions and buy it now as the electronic Advanced Reader Copy. And then buy the hardback when it comes out...

This is one of the best books I've read in the last six months. Quick, grab it before it gets away.

From SFCrowsnest.com comes the news that Charles N. Brown, founder and publisher of Locus Magazine has died on his way back from Readercon. He was 71.

I first met Charlie Brown in about 1975. Locus was still truly a fanzine then, and Charlie was still married to Dena. They had mailing parties in Berkeley to get the magazine out. Over the years, my tastes in SF and Fantasy diverged from Charlie's, and I sometimes had problems with his jiggering the Hugo ballot criteria so that Locus stayed a fanzine and was basically guaranteed a Hugo almost every year.

But Charlie's magazine is the "magazine of record" for the science fiction and fantasy publishing genres. And it will apparently outlive him, as Liza Groen Trombi takes over with the August issue. Liza has very large shoes to fill-- sorta pun intended.

But Charlie, you've owed me the poster for Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen since 1976...and now I won't even be able to twit you about it anymore.

Requiescat in pace

One of the things the Internet has done is freed the consumer from the very high cost of complaining. If you don't get satisfaction, put it on a website, put it in your blog, email it to all your friends...and now make a video and put it on YouTube, and Twitter.

Here's one in the eye for United Airlines from Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell.