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12/22/95
Not-very Special Short News Update:
Harlan will be appearing in a biography of Stan Lee on A&E (that's
a cable channel in case you didn't know) on December 26th. Check your
local listings for time.
The following is a copy of a post I put out on a jillion Usenet
newsgroups:
YOU CAN HELP MAKE EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS MEMORIAL PARK A REALITY!
Author Harlan Ellison and local conservationists have recently rescued
Oak Forest Canyon in Sherman Oaks, CA from developers.
Buckley High School purchased the land south of the school and has offered
it to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in exchange for an oak
grove near the school.
Harlan Ellison, who has fought back developers in the area for years,
would like to create a 24-acre park in Sherman Oaks canyon dedicated
to the memory of Edgar Rice Burroughs. ERB is said to have frequented
the little canyon, riding on horseback and picnicking there. The area
is also the inspiration for Tarzana.
Now, this is where you come in - this park simply won't happen without
your help. Harlan, along with naturalist Arnold Newman, are seeking
small donations, $5 to $10, to help build a docent's station at the
top of Oak Forest Canyon. The station would include panels illustrating
the paleontological history of Fossil Ridge and a small museum of Edgar
Rice Burrough's work.
If enough money is raised, Ellison would also like to erect a life-size
statue of Burroughs in the park on a black-marble pedestal, with another
of Tarzan alongside. Ellison also says all of "ERBdom", the
world's Edgar Rice Burroughs bibliophiles, would picnic on the property
next May during their upcoming every-five-years gathering.
If you've got a little money left after Christmas shopping, or perhaps
received a little in your stocking, whatever you could give could make
a big difference in making this park happen. And if you're still looking
for that perfect gift, or you've got the post-Xmas blues, what better
way to show your love or perk yourself up than doing something for the
planet and helping remember an author who has been a joy and inspiration
to several generations?
HOW TO HELP:
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has set up as trust account for
private donations to help create the Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Park.
To contribue, send a check to the ERB Memorial Fund at:
Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority
2600 Franklin Canyon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Also, please download a copy of this notice and distribute it widely,
anywhere you don't see it, to help spread the word about this important
project. Thank you!
sources: Harlan Ellison, LA Times (December 11).
12/07/95
Special News Update: Appearances in LA, San Francisco
(taken nearly whole from a PR announcement)
Harlan will be making personal appearances at at Tower stores in Los
Angeles and San Francisco signing copies of the "No Mouth"
CD-ROM game.
His Los Angeles appearance is Wednesday December 13 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
at the Tower Video Store at 8801 Sunset Blvd. (store number 310/657-7300);
that's not the big CD store but the smaller store on the south side
of Sunset. The San Francisco appearance takes place Thursday December
14 from 6 - 8 p.m. at 3205 20th Avenue, 2nd Floor (store number 415-681-2001).
E! Channel has threatened to cover the L.A. appearance so fans, stalkers,
etc. who turn up MAY BE ON TV!
HE will also be doing a live radio interview to promote the Tower appearances.
The interview will take place at 7:45 a.m. Thursday Dec. 14 on KITS
FM (Live 105) with Alex Bennett.
11/30/95
This is one of those long-ass updates, so hang on tight.
"Ah'm not QUITE dead yet!":
Rumors on the Webderland comments page notwithstanding, Harlan is not
dead or even coughing up blood. HE says he is perfectly healthy and
that this has happened to him about 25 times in his life, most recently
when the author Hal Ellson died. PLEASE don't wake up Harlan or his
wife to ask if he's dead. He's not.
Pending Publications:
Quite a few rumors have floated about as to problems with upcoming Ellison
publications ranging from delays to impending doom. Allow me to address
each separately:
The City on the Edge of Forever
The limited edition of this book IS out from Borderlands Press, and
several people report receiving their copies. The trade edition has
NOT been cancelled, although Borderlands will not be producing it. Harlan
took away Borderland's right to publish the trade edition, and is now
in negotiation with a major hardcover house in New York. The trade edition
should come out within a few months. HE will not go into the reasons
why because he does not want to say negative things about Borderlands,
but does say that they have been basically rewriting what happened and
that Borderlands "made it impossible for me to permit them to do
the trade edition". Harlan also brought up the possibility that
the trade edition will contain an expanded introduction.
Slippage
Publication of Slippage has not been cancelled. Rumors
to this nature probably come from a notice in Publisher's Weekly,
also reported on Ellison's web page, that the book was pulled by HE
in order to add some 30,000 words of new stories. The book is coming
along and should be out in the first part of 1996 in a limited edition
from Mark V. Ziesing Books. Houghton-Mifflin has NOT cancelled the trade
edition and will still produce it shortly after the limited edition.
Members of the Harlan Ellison Recording Collection will, as usual, be
sent a flyer announcing the publication of the limited edition and members
will be able to order the book from the HERC at a discount.
Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor
Dream Corridor has NOT been cancelled. The comic book will begin publication
in an expanded 64-page quarterly squareback book edition. This decision
was made in order to get the publication into more bookstores in response
to Harlan's name-recognition and the latest problems in the comics market.
The last issue of Dream Corridor was Issue Five (with the
red cover with the Roc on it). Issue Six will not be re-solicited but
instead will be folded into the first quarterly issue, which should
come out in March/April of 1996.
Other News:
The Comedy Channel no longer carries tapes of Harlan's appearance on
"Politically Incorrect". Harlan suggests that if enough people
call them (at 1-800-4-COMEDY), maybe they WILL start carrying it again.
The latest issue of the magazine Gauntlet has an article
on Christopher Priest and his polemic The Book on the Edge of
Forever. Check it out.
THE HARLAN ELLISON WANTED LIST
Needed: Reviews of HE's computer game:
The new computer game, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
is out now on CD-ROM, and flying off the shelves. A lot of reviews are
appearing in various computer magazines, and Harlan would like to keep
a copy of these magazines. However, HE does not have the time to go
to the local Babbages' and Electronics Boutiques and scavenge the racks
for that one rag he missed. So if anyone runs across a review, please
send a copy of the magazine to the address for the Harlan Ellison Recording
Collection listed at the end of this post. They are desperately needed
for Harlan's bibliography.
Note: do NOT xerox or cut out the articles. Harlan needs the whole magazine,
and your costs will be reimbursed.
Essay on HE's first day in kindergarten sought:
Harlan once wrote an essay describing the traumatic events surrounding
his first say in kindergarten, and he's looking for it. He needs it
to finish a book introduction and if anyone can help him locate it,
he would be most appreciative.
Does anyone know Alexander Blumke?
In 1993, just before the earthquake, a guy in Switzerland named Alexander
Blumke wrote HE and wanted to publish a pamphlet version of "Repent
Harlequin, said the TickTockMan", but that he had written a new
ending to it. This gentelman had read the end of the story where the
TickTockMan goes "MrmeeMrmeeMrmee" and decided that the TickTockMan
was a robot, and wrote this new ending based on it. Despite Harlan's
speaking to him and asking him to PLEASE NOT do this, apparently Mr.
Blumke went ahead with it. Harlan called him back September 12th of
1993 in Switzerland and told him again he denied his right to publish
the story. Mr. Blumke was supposed to send the Ellisons a letter specifying
he agreed to this, and the Ellisons never received this letter. The
story may be associated with something called 1999: The Year of
Fun. If anyone out there knows Alexander Blumke, or knows anything
about this story or pamphlet, or has seen it, please advise Harlan of
this!
Other stuff wanted:
Harlan is seeking several foreign magazines, including an issue of the
French magazine Galaxie which has one of his stories in
it (possibly "Pennies Off a Dead Man's Eyes") and an Italian
version of the graphic novel Vic and Blood. Also lost in
an earthquake were some dinosaur collector plates from the Smithsonian.
I will have full details on these magazines and the plates in the near
future, but if you know about any of them it wouldn't hurt to jump the
gun a little...
HOW TO CONTACT HARLAN AND RECEIVE YOUR JUST REWARDS:
Harlan can be reached snail mail via his personal mail-order hours,
the Harlan Ellison Recording Collection (or the HERC). The HERC can
be reached at the following address:
The Harlan Ellison Recording Collection
P.O. Box 55548
Sherman Oaks, CA 91413-0548
If you don't feel like waiting on the U.S. Postal Service, you can send
e-mail to me, Rick Wyatt, as webmaster@harlanellison.com,
or contact me through this site in various ways (figure it out, eh?)
YOUR HARLAN ELLISON QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
This is a compilation of a few of the questions that have appeared in
my e-mail or the Webderland web page. Even though Harlan says that "Most
of these questions are asked by people coming late to the party",
he was gracious enough to give one last shot at them.
If I missed you, please let me know.
Is Harlan ever going to write a sequel to "A Boy and His
Dog"?
Harlan doesn't write sequels, not as a rule, but EVER. However, "A
Boy and His Dog" is only part of a novel. The graphic novel Vic
and Blood contains three stories: "Eggsucker", "A
Boy and His Dog", and "Run, Spot Run". These stories
represent the first three chapters of a book entitled Blood's
a Rover. The book title is a pun based on a quotation from A.E.
Houseman's A Shropshire Lad.
Blood's a Rover is a long novel, around 100,000 words,
and HE has been writing it for 15 years. The final section, called "Blood's
a Rover", was written as a teleplay for a two-hour movie some years
ago, but the movie was never read. Harlan says "I'll finish it
when I get fucking well around it".
In "Repent Harlequin", Harlan mentions Dick Bong (Ace
of Aces) and Shipwreck Kelly. Who is Dick Bong? Who is Shipwreck Kelly?
HE's response is this: "That is why the universe created encyclopedias
and books of references. What you do is, you go and LOOK UP these two
people!". Harlan offers the following clues: Shipwreck Kelly was
a huge popular figure in the 1920's, and HE suggests looking in a book
on popular culture or the Encyclopedia Brittanica. For Dick Bong, look
in any book on WWII flying Aces.
Harlan also says "this is an exact example of why this infobahn
information explosion crap is such bullshit. Here are two names this
person wants to know, and instead of looking them up, he asks US! This
is what is called Stupidity. This really gets me angry, because the
same people who are talking about how much information they can get
over the Internet are the same people who would not bestir their lazy
asses to walk over to the library and look in the Encyclopedia!".
I heard [insert any current work] has been cancelled. Is this
true? Does Harlan know about this?
It's probably not true, and if it were, Harlan would probably know.
Various rumors have floated about lately as to the demise of several
of Harlan's most recent works, and none of them contain more than a
shard of truth. Harlan is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to
his work, and has been known to take back a book to add more material
he feels necessary, or to correct errors or typos. Naturally when this
happens publication will be delayed, and distributors may cancel their
orders until the book actually comes OUT.
News as to the most recently reported status of various to-be-published
books or works-in-progress can be found on the World Wide Web at http://harlanellison.com/ellinews.htm.
These news items will occaisionally be cross-posted to appropriate (depending
upon your opinion) Usenet groups as well.
Does Harlan read Usenet? Does he look at web pages?
No. HE has no computer, no modem, and no desire to surf. End of story.
11/19/95
Babylon 5 Fans Take Note: Beginning with the Episode
airing on or around February 15th (depending upon your area), the voice
of the Babylon 5 computer will change - to that of HE. The episode will
be named Ceremonies of Light and Dark. From this episode
on, the computer should speak in the dulcet tones of Unca Harlan.
The cluebook for the computer game I Have No Mouth, and I Must
Scream has already sold 7500 copies and will soon be in its
second printing. Harlan wrote the character biographies for the cluebook
in addition to the material previously reported here on 10/11/95 (keep
reading, trust me, it's there). Over 40,000 copies of the game are now
in stores everywhere. Bring your VISA card and buy out your local Babbage's
today!
The biggest news on the Net, IMNERHO, is the addition of a new Ellison
Site, The Islets of Langerhans,
to the World Wide Web. Islets is the lovechild of one
Michael Zuzel,
who has spent the last three months writing a brief description of every
Ellison tome he knows of. The descriptions include historical perspective
and critical commentary, and do a good job of introducing people to
Ellison's variety of works. The site also includes a biography of Ellison
and pictures of a ton of book covers. Since it fills a critical gap
in Webderland, expect to see it cross-linked on here in many places
soon.
A few people on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.harlan-ellison report getting
their copies of The City on the Edge of Forever in the
mail, and Bill Bullman of Darkest
Heart Books reports that he has them in as well.
11/02/95
Mefisto in Onyx Film: The film rights to the novella
Mefisto in Onyx (trade edition December 1993 Mark V.
Ziesing Books) were originally bought by MGM last year. MGM didn't do
anything with the film for a year so the rights reverted to Harlan around
April-May 1995. After a period of negotiation with the usual suspects
(including Francis Ford Coppola), the rights have just been bought by
Miramx in partnership with the actor Samuel L. Jackson. HE will be doing
the screenplay, and Jackson will be playing the part of Rudy Pairis.
What Harlan's Reading: Harlan has lately been reading
a graphic novel from Paradox Press (a sub-imprint of DC Comics) called
Green Candles. The graphic novel, in three small paperbacks,
is a historical piece by Tom DeHaven (who wrote Funny Papers.
Harlan is also heavy into Smoke, by Donald Westlake, which
he describes as Donald's take on the invisible man story.
I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream - The Computer Game:
Harlan says the game is getting tremendous response. The Oct 20th Issue
of Entertainment Weekly (Multimedia section, p. 70) gives the game a
B+, and has this to say:
Veteran Author Harlan Ellison makes a sure-footed leap here, turning
his 1967 Hugo Award-Winning short story in to a role-playing interactive
CD-ROM [...] The artfully-animated characters engage in more a morality
play than a "Game of Dripping Guts" as the computer describes
it, so the adult content warning on the packaging is merely precautionary.
Newsweek is supposed to be doing a story on the game, and HE has been
interviewed endlessly lately by magazines such as PC Novice, Details,
and Computer Player. The game, from Cyberdreams, will hit the stores
just any second now (Wait! Did you hear something?).
Book News: City on the Edge of Forever
shipped last Thursday, and should be showing up by next week. The White
Wolf reprints are still rolling along, with the first release in April/May
of 1996 still on schedule. Slippage is almost done, with
only a few additions remaining.
Quote: Harlan on personal questions: "I don't
mind people asking them, if I don't want to tell them I'm perfectly
content to tell them to piss off"
........aaaaaaand that's our show for today.
10/24/95
This is an interim update...I will have a full news entry on 10/28.
The City on the Edge of Forever shipped this week from
Borderlands, so if you're still waiting to call your book dealer you'd
better get on the stick.
Harlan got the Italian book Catastrofi! he was looking
for from someone who saw it on the Internet, so thanks, whoever you
are...
Finally, Rob Vaughn tells me the following concerning my 10/11 note
about I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream being the correct
title for the short story and computer game and I Have No Mouth
& I Must Scream being the correct title for the book: The
Pyramid Books paperback, second edition 1972, mistakenly has "Mouth
And I" on the spine and title page, and the seventh edition 1977
has corrected this but placed "Mouth And I" on the "Books
by H.E." page. I am happy to report, however, that (no doubt thanks
to ceaseless toil, vigilance, and the everlasting Grace of many Gods)
the Ace paperback edition got everything dead solid
perfect. You can all now breath a heavy sigh of relief.
10/11/95
This is a long one - stay with me, folks
Slippage, Harlan's first collection of new stories since
the 1988 Angry Candy, will be coming out before the end
of the year, "God willing and the creek don't rise". The first
edition will be a limited boxed edition from Mark W. Ziesing Books,
who gave you the wonderful Frank Miller-illustrated Mefisto in
Onyx. The limited edition will feature, in Harlan's words, a
"fuckin' SPECTACULAR" cover by Jill Bauman. The book was pulled
by Harlan in the fall to add 30,000 new words including some of the
stories which have appeared in the Dream Corridor comic
book. In all there will be more than 100,000 previously uncollected
words. The trade edition of Slippage from Houghton-Mifflin
will come out soon after, once again depending upon the water level
of that creek.
The new essay in the upcoming White Wolf volume containing Over
the Edge is XENOgenesis, not EXOgenesis. Oops. In addition, The
City on the Edge of Forever, from Borderlands Press, has been
printed by Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan. It is now in the process
of being folded and gathered, and should be in your hands by the middle
of November instead of October due to minor production glitches.
The computer game I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, from
Cyberdreams, will have a simultaneous hintbook publication (from Prima,
written by Mel Odom). It will contain the entire original short story,
a memoir from Ellison describing how the story was written, and a new
1600 word cluebook introduction specially written by Harlan for this
ancillary publication. HE also performs on the computer game as the
voice of the nigh-omnipotent computer AM, and wrote the lion's share
of the game dialogue, including the entire opening sequence. An interesting
bit of trivia: the computer game and short story are correctly titled
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, while the collection
which first contained the short story is correctly titled I Have
No Mouth & I Must Scream.
Issue six of the Dark Horse comic book Harlan Ellison's Dream
Corridor will be out soon, with a new story entitled Goodbye
to All of That based on the Kent Bash cover painting. The original
Dream Corridor Special from January of this year has been re-issued
with an interview with Harlan included and both parts of "Midnight
in the Sunken Cathedral" as one entity.
Rough Beasts, a collection of some of Harlan's earlier
(and I mean earlier) work, will be coming out in the
next few months as a chapbook from Roadkill Press. Chances are you'll
have a hard time getting one of these very limited
editions...but you can try getting in touch with Doug and Tomi Lewis
at the Little Book Shop of Horrors, 10380 Ralston Rd, Arvada, CO 80004.
Harlan has recovered nicely from cataract surgery on his right eye on
Monday, October 2nd, and will possibly be able to dispense with the
glasses he's worn since age 3, after having surgery on the OTHER eye
(the left one, ya know) in three to six months.
I will have full information on mail-ordering Harlan's books
and recordings on a new page by this Sunday (October 15th).
09/28/95
Okay, I receive last week a packet in the mail from the Harlan Ellison
Recording Collection with all sorts of goodies, including books you
can order and some groovy information on upcoming projects including
an list of every last book included in the White Wolf deal. I sent in
a hardcopy of the page to them and am waiting for approval on my proposed
changes. They should get the hardcopy Any Day Now.
Meanwhile my main computer is still out of commission, leaving me scannerless,
photoshopless, clip-artless and saved-emails-and-net-searches-less.
I managed to get in a new Rant, and that's about it. I promise by the
weekend after the upcoming one to have significant amounts of New Schtuff
for you to peruse.
Oh, and the guy who sent me All That Stuff: I won't name you to protect
your innocence, but thanks...more than you'll ever know.
09/09/95
Here, as promised, is the scoop on the White Wolf thingie.
White Wolf (yes, the company that does Vampire and Werewolf) has the
rights to 31 of Harlan's books and will start re-releasing them in the
spring of 1996 (April or thereabouts). The first few books will each
contain two volumes. The first to be published will be the essay collection
An Edge in My Voice and the story collection Over
the Edge.
Of special interest in this book will be the 18,000 word essay
Xenogenesis, which is about some of the extreme things fans
have done to authors. Over the Edge will have 30,000 words
pulled of stories which were later re-published in other works, but
will have 38,000 new words of stories added.
Harlan also has been re-signed by the Sci-Fi Channel (and how he LOVES
that name) to provide 10-20 pieces of commentary for the next season
of Sci-Fi Buzz. Those of you lucky enough to get the
SFC send me a tape or something. Hell, I can't even get Space
Ghost Coast-to-Coast, and it's MADE here in Atlanta! And while
you're at it, send me a copy of Harlan's appearance on Politically
Incorrect, I hear it's a hoot.
08/29/95
I have it from the horse's mouth that the original version of The
City on the Edge of Forever was just turned in for publication
with a new 18,000 word introduction. I will try to have some news soon
about the deal with White Wolf to put like eleventy-jillion of Harlan's
books back in print.
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