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Joe Haldeman is a deserving winner of this year's SFWA Grand Master Award
Submitted by Capt. Xerox on January 27, 2010 - 10:24pm.
I'm glad to see that Joe Haldeman is being honoured by the SFWA with a Grand Master Award this year. He's written some great books over the years and seems to be a genuinely nice guy. He deserves it. I'm glad to have met and chatted with him a bit at Worldcon last summer.
Another Worldcon attendee who is a nice guy and is also a Grand Master is the venerable Robert Silverberg. I've always thought that he was too often overshadowed by other big names in the genre and, despite the SFWA award, never truly got the recognition he deserved from fans. He recently spoke about his time writing for the pulps in this fascinating interview.
SF Signal recently posted a batch of video interviews with previous Grand Master winners. They are fascinating artifacts from the past.
One writer who surely deserves the Grand Master title, but never received it is none other than Philip K. Dick. The L.A. Times recently wrote about his last decade when he lived in Orange County, California. During that time he wrote some of his best books, including VALIS and A Scanner Darkly.
Interest in Dick's works seems to grow with each passing year. One of his short stories will soon be published as a graphic novel by Marvel.
I guess they don't hand out the award posthumously.
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My brother's letter to the LA Ttimes
My wife and I got a kick out of Scott Timberg's Sunday story about Philip K. Dick. In fact, when I read the first portion to her, we both had to laugh out loud because it was so out of synch with reality. Somebody sure got this one wrong.
If you are a fan of Phil and you want an accurate account, please read on.
First, we were not at the Fullerton apartment. We were at the house on Santa Isabel.
Second, it was not nighttime. It was bright daylight.
Third, I never entered the house on that day and I never "started grabbing" anything. My wife did go in and help carry out Chris's clothes and toys, but she isn't even mentioned.
Fourth, we had no truck, no van, no trailer to transport chairs or tables.
Mr. Timberg asserts "the details...come from Powers' journals." I doubt Tim Powers was there. My sister Tessa says it was Kevin Jeter who was in the house.
If the fallacious account really does come from Tim Powers, he owes me and Tessa and Phil's fans a sincere apology.
~~~
Joe Haldeman - what a guy!
I talked to Joe Haldeman recently about his latest, Starbound, and he told me that the series started out as a novella -- and was originally rejected by the editor! Now, it's winning critical acclaim, and Joe has been named to the Grand Master Award, the highest award in science fiction. Also, Ridley Scott (yes, THAT Ridley Scott) is considering turning The Forever War into a 3D movie. (If you're interested, you can read my Joe Haldeman interview for free at SciFiBookshelf.com )
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