Word has come down that writer Bill Crider died on February 12.
Bill was a prince among men and a welcome face at Armadillocon and elsewhere. He will be missed.
Posts Tagged ‘Bill Crider’
Bill Crider RIP
Tuesday, February 13th, 2018Sad News: Bill Crider Enters Hospice Care
Tuesday, December 5th, 2017Well this plain sucks. Bill Crider’s cancer has stopped responding to treatment:
Things could change, but I suspect this will be my final post on the blog. I met with some doctors at M. D. Anderson today, and they suggested that I enter hospice care. A few weeks, a few months is about all I have left. The blog has been a tremendous source of pleasure to me over the years, and I’ve made a lot of friends here. My only regret is that I have several unreviewed books, including Lawrence Block’ fine new anthology, Alive in Shape and Color, and Max Allan Collins’ latest collaboration with Mickey Spillane, The Last Stand, which is a collection of two novellas, “A Bullet for Satisfaction,” an early Spillane manuscript with an interesting history, and “The Last Stand,” the last thing that Spillane completed. It saddens me to think of all the great books by many writers that I’ll never read. But I’ve had a great life, and my readers have been a big part of it. Much love to you all.
Bill is a prince among men, a fixture at Texas science fiction conventions, and beloved by all. He will be deeply missed…
Armadillocon 2011 Photos for Friday, August 26
Saturday, September 10th, 2011
Mark Finn, rocking the cutting edge of FEZ NATION!
Howard Waldrop.
Dwight Brown gets the pre-convention lunch off to his usual facepalming start. What set him off this time was Todd saying “Look! We’re haircut twinsies!”
DUFF winner David Cake.
Early Turkey Citizen Joe Pumilia.
There was a picture of William Browning Spencer, but he has evidently grown disenchanted with his own visage, and asked that it be removed..
Al Jackson. For once I snapped a picture with his eyes open. Thanks for lunch, Al!
Dwight, mournful that his mama took his Kodachrome away.
Michael Sumbera, taking a break from assembling his retail sales empire.
Aaron Allston. Generally, I only see Aaron at: A.) Cons, or B.) Indian restaurants.
James Reasoner.
John DeNardo: “You know I hate having my picture taken.” Naturally, after he said that, I’m required to take his picture several additional times.
Like this one.
And this one.
Bruce Sterling was having a garage sale of books at the con. Here he is holding aloft the (true story) Rudy Rucker books I had pulled from the pile, refusing to sell them to me. Including the copy of The 57th Franz Kafka I had given him as a gift 15 years before. “I’ve got to donate these to UT.” Thanks a lot, Bruce.
Bill Crider, reenacting a scene from Daredevil.
Bill again, now with added sight.
Stina Leicht, with her hair in the traditional Blue Con shade.
Two people, both of whom complained that I took their picture too much. You can see how well those complaints worked out for them.
Rocky Kelley, artistic dandy and man-about-town.
Jessica Reisman. The camera is set properly, it’s just that Jessica lives her entire life in soft focus. Doctors keep doing tests to determine the cause.
Jasmina Tesanovic and Bruce Sterling. “It’s a 110° out today! I’m feeling pretty darn good about my Global Warming predictions!”
Derek Johnson. You can’t see it, but just below the frame of this picture, he’s clutching a snifter of brandy with one hand and stroking a white cat with the other.
Gretchen Peterson Johnston shows that she is totally ready for the Fetish Boot Ball.
Chris Nakashima-Brown n. Brown this guy I know.
Yvonne Daily and Phil Brogden, who you may remember from such hits as “Goddamnit, Lawrence, you sure take a lot of freaking convention pictures, don’t you?”
Robert Jackson Bennett, author of the spiffy first novel Mr. Shivers, copies of which can be obtained in the usual manner.
Bradley Denton assumes the now-traditional “Oh yeah? Then I’ll take YOUR picture!” position.
Jessica Reisman Redux.
Paolo Bacigalupi and Bruce Sterling, debating whose global warming future is more wretched and dystopian.
Rich Simental.
“NEVER MIND!”
The Space Squidians, shortly after freebasing some ink.
Brad Foster, with a Hugo that might seem familiar.
“You so naughty!”
Kasey Lansdale, mooning over Mark Finn. (I warned you, Finn! I said UNMARKED twenties!)
Scott Cupp, James Reasoner and Joe R. Lansdale, talking about F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and why you can’t get good belt onions anymore.
Ben Yalow.
It was….the unnameable.
Apollocon 2011 Pictures
Monday, July 4th, 2011My computer was in the shop, so I haven’t had a chance to do the usual photo roundup until now.
The public has cried out “Stina! We just can’t get enough photos of her! Could you possibly put up a bunch more?” The blue hair fetish crowd has spoken, and who am I to deny the public what it wants? Vox populi, vox dei.
(If you’re wondering whether the phrase “Blue Hair Fetish” bring up a lot of Google hits, I can tell you: Yes. Yes it does. And you shouldn’t test this theory at work. (See also: Rule 34.))
Julia Mandala, Linda Donahue, and Bill Crider.
Martha Wells and Troyce Wilson, just back from their awesome private tour of NASA. They even showed them the video feed of the top secret moonbase and the dead alien in the third subbasement freezer…
Three of the four redheads of the apocalypse: Julia Mandala, Rhonda Eudaly, and Linda Donahue.
Stina Leicht: The Seconding.
Stina and SF Signal head honcho John DeNardo, whose mouth and eyes are wired in such a way that when one opens, the other must close.
Jayme Lynn Blaschke, who suffers from no such limitations.
Martha Wells, wearing a black outfit against the black backdrop the concom thoughtfully provided.
Editor Guest of Honor Ann VanderMeer, of the Florida Science Fiction VanderMeers.
Texas in 2013 Worldcon bid chair Bill Parker with international confidence man Fred Duarte.
Jonathan Miles, pledging to eat only the brand of butter-substitute promoted by William Shatner.
Stina: The Return of the Attack of the Revenge of the Quickening
Gabrielle Faust, who wisely opted for the decorative white corset and brass goggles against the black background.
Lou Antonelli, Bill Crider and Jayme Lynn Blaschke.
Artist Guest of Honor Rocky Kelley.
Bill Parker in the militantly festooned Texas in 2013 suite.
A closeup of Bill Crider from an earlier picture. Cropping! The hallmark of quality photographs!
Pictures from the World Horror Convention in Austin, Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, April 30th, 2011It looked like my Kodak Digital camera had died, but it seems to be working again after fiddling with it, removing the battery a few times, and plugging it in. Still, I’ll probably need to get a new camera before Apollocon in June, since the automatic shutter isn’t retracting all the way any more…
William F. Nolan and Rocky Wood, both of whom were with me on the “Horror Without Stephen King,” along with someone who wasn’t.
Bill Crider
Bill & Judy Crider.
Bill Spencer. A lot of Bills today, mainly because none of them had yet been signed into law.
Now THAT’s a HAT.
SF Signal’s John DeNardo, AKA “Mr. Saturday Night.”
Don Webb, in the one photo I took on my iPhone that didn’t completely suck.
Blogroll Updates
Friday, December 31st, 2010I’ve been doing a little blog-roll updating, and I’ve finally got around to adding the blogs of some other writers. (The Wheels of Futuramen may grind slow, but they grand exceedingly, well, slow. Glacial, even.) These are writers who are personal friends I know and like, who are excellent writers, who write interesting blogs, or all of the above. So I’ve gone ahead and added links to the blogs of:
No doubt I’ll be adding more as time permits.
Long Lost Print of King Kong Found
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010Supposedly one with the long lost “spider pit” footage. I’ll believe it when I see it, but that’s probably the second-most-famous missing footage from an existent film, behind only the missing reel of The Magnificent Ambersons.
(Hat tip: Bill Crider. )
ApolloCon 2010 Pictures
Sunday, June 27th, 2010Some pictures from the 2010 ApolloCon in Houston, just concluded today:
The lovely and talented Stina Leicht, celebrating her forthcoming novel by going blue in both ocular and follicular realms.
Gabrielle Faust, putting on her best “Who, me?” expression.
The dealer’s room. Neither Willie nor myself dealt there this year, meaning Edge Books was the only real bookdealer there this year.
SF Signal’s John DeNardo. I think the smug was entirely unintentional.
Scott Cupp, no doubt contemplating some book he’s owned, or will soon own, both of which are extremely target-rich environments.
GOH Catherine Asaro. This photo doesn’t show her high-heels. Without them, she’s actually only 3’6″.
Karen Burnham, searching her tattoos for the identity of the killer she’s hunting.
A fairly interesting tabletop boardgame featuring smooth pucks that you flicked to knock out your opponent’s pucks, sort of a cross between marbles and shuffleboard, except there are some screws around the circle in the center that you can bounce the pucks off of and which provide something of an obstacle. The name was “crocsomething,” but not crocodile. Please note that searching for “game” and “screw” is probably not something you should do at work.
Updated to add: The game is called “crokinole”.
Clockwise from lower left: Judy Crider, Lou Antonelli, Bill Crider, Scott Cupp. I think we were talking about bad movies yet again.
A pair of con-goers decked out to the nines in Steampunk attire. This takes an extraordinary amount of dedication. In Texas. In summer. Wait, did I say “dedication”? I meant “complete insanity.”
The Shrine O Dolls found at the “in-room convention party.” Sadly, there were no book dealers there either…