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SPIDER’S NEW PAPERBACK IS OUT!
Spider’s latest novel VERY HARD CHOICES, sequel to VERY BAD DEATHS, is finally available in Baen paperback. You’ve heard Spider reading extensive excerpts from it in his podcast Spider On The Web between 4/11/08 and 6/13/08 (archived here and at the iTunes Store); now you can finally read the whole story yourself and learn how everything came out.
Smelly is a hermit by necessity. He's the world's most receptive telepath--and it hurts. His old college roommate Russell, a Sixties survivor entering his sixties, is one of the few people Smelly can stand to be near. But now sinister government forces are after them both for unknown dark purposes, and Smelly and Russell must depend on Nika, one of the straightest cops in the world, to help them and Russell's visiting son Jesse dodge deadly peril in the dark. Before long Russell finds himself literally up Howe Sound without a paddle--and with a collapsed lung...
Read Cory Doctorow's review of VERY HARD CHOICES at Boing Boing. David Gerrold, award-winning author of THE MARTIAN CHILD, says, “Spider Robinson is at his best when he is most passionate—and this is Spider Robinson at his very best. This isn’t a story, it’s a wake-up call. And it isn’t over until you decide it’s over.”
A new Spider? In paperback? Not one of the very hard choices....
• Remember, you can custom-order signed and/or personalized copies of these or ANY of Spider’s titles from White Dwarf Books.
Inconceivable Mutual Benefit
(music by Lisa Thiel and Colin MacDonald)
On Sept 18, the residents of Bowen Island held a benefit concert to support Jeanne’s ongoing battle with biliary cancer. I’ve talked about that concert in my podcast, but I wanted you to see at least this part of it, in which Jeanne thanked her audience the best way she knew how, the same way they had just spent the evening helping her: with her art. Most of our Bowen friends met us after Jeanne retired from performance; a few were not even aware she had been a dancer once. So for the first time in years, she (in Roger Zelazny’s words) took on her Aspect, and raised up her Attribute, to bring them this three-minute dance of gratitude. Its title is its topic: Buddhists say the highest state of samadhi comes when you realize that the whole universe and all its inhabitants are linked together in a web of inconceivable mutual benefit.
The applause at the end hints at how much the audience enjoyed it. But it had an even more powerful impact on me.
We met in near-total darkness, in a cabin in the woods, and we flirted by singing harmonies in the dark. The first time I ever saw her clearly, she was onstage, dancing. I was there to pretend I gave a damn about dance so I could get her into bed. Thirty seconds into her first solo, “Meditation,” I knew I was looking at my life companion. Now you see why.
That’s my baby!
—Spider
HELP JEANNE STAY HEALTHY
Earlier his year a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Andresz Busczowski, helped Jeanne Robinson beat back a rare and virulent form of biliary cancer. But it’s so rare even he can’t say how much time he‘s bought her, how soon it might recur—and her latest blood tests have been so discouraging they’ve now decided she needs to start chemotherapy as soon as possible. Besides the prescription drugs to counteract the chemotherapy, she needs special therapies and supplements, counseling, and extensive diet and lifestyle changes, to reduce her stress level and the strain on her liver to as close to zero as possible. All those things are expensive...and like many artists today the Robinsons were already running on fumes financially.
But Jeanne, a Soto Zen monk, has been spreading love and kindness in all directions for a long time. So her Buddhist sangha in Vancouver, her neighbors on Bowen Island, and friends as far away as Florida have all spontaneously come together to raise funds to help keep her around as long as possible. Your participation is welcomed. An amazing Bowen benefit concert, “WE DREAM FOR JEANNE,” was held at Cates Hill Chapel on Friday Sept 18; download Spider’s 10/09/09 podcast, Music from the Heart, for a sampling of the concert. Also goods or services can be donated for eBay auction by contacting Jan Schroeder at <dreamforjeanne@aol.com>. You can get in on the bidding at http://shop.ebay.com/dreamforjeanneauctions/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1. The auction items include a few of our books and lots of fun SF memorabilia. Lastly, PayPal donations can be sent to http://wedreamforjeanne.blogspot.com/.
You can read Jeanne’s recent blog entries, Inconceivable Mutual Benefit, about the benefit concert with photos of Jeanne dancing, and The Third Act, to get a sense of how she’s feeling at: http://stardancemovie.blogspot.com/.
Another way to help would be to buy the Robinsons’ books from Amazon by clicking-through from this site http://www.spiderrobinson.com/books.html, so Jeanne and Spider can get the affiliate commission. They promise you an entertaining read.
Spider and Jeanne both wish to express awe and gratitude at the kindness and generosity of the listeners to Tony Smith's famous SF podcast, Starship Sofa, who together just sent so large a piece of money to help Jeanne in her battle with cancer that they produced what can only be called a smile of shock--happy brain freeze. Large thanks to Tony and his mob, and especially to colleagues Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi, who helped substantially with their Tweets. Similar stunned thanks also go to Mrs. Svetlana Sloan, and to the Janus of Janus Science Fiction Fan Club of Central Indiana, who run each year's Inconjunction, a 700-member con in Indianapolis which the Robinsons had been planning to attend this year, before Jeanne got her diagnosis. (They still hope to participate in at least a few program events there...by Skype.)
Spider has won the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award for Lifetime Excellence in Literature!
This year’s co-winners of the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award for Lifetime Excellence in Literature were announced at the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, Denvention 3; they are Ben Bova...and Spider Robinson.
...and more happy Heinleinian news!
Most readers who’ve responded to VARIABLE STAR by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson have expressed strong desire to know what happened next. Spider is delighted to report his agent Eleanor Wood has, in the worst times in sf publishing history, sold Tor Books not just one but three sequels to VARIABLE STAR, to be known collectively as The Orphan Stars Trilogy. For more information, listen to Spider On The Web #59.
Please help save Nikola Tesla's memory.
Wardenclyffe, Nikola Tesla's only surviving labratory is currently for sale, and the owners are threatening to raze the buildings in spite of the state acknowledging their importance as an historical landmark.
Fans of the CALLAHAN'S series know that Tesla was an important figure in Spider's heart, and he mentioned Wardenclyffe in several books beginning with CALLAHAN'S KEY. Anyone interested in preserving the memory of Tesla can make a donation to The Tesla Science Center to help save Wardenclyffe.
Spider reads his short story "Distraction" on the StarShipSofa Podcast. Download the episode here.
Jeanne Robinson and her co-producer/writer James Sposto have launched a website to promote the Stardance feature film project at: www.stardancemovie.com. Get the all the news and photos at the Press Room link and the blog http://stardancemovie.blogspot.com. Watch video clips of the Stardance team adventures on the December 30, 2008 flight on Zero-Gravity Corporation’s refitted 727 on the Homepage, where Jeanne put her concepts of “dance beyond the bonds of gravity” to the test.
Spider’s latest novel 
Spider has won the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award for Lifetime Excellence in Literature!