ŷ������

Favorite tracks: Masquerade, Tell Me Why, The Metro, Pleasure Victim

I think my first exposure to Berlin’s music was in 1984, hearing “No More Words�� either on the radio or at a church youth dance. I later heard “Now It’s My Turn�� in one of those same ways. In 1985, when I started to listen to the local New Wave station (KCGL 105.5 FM), I heard their song “Masquerade��, and it quickly became my favorite song. I bought their album Pleasure Victim on vinyl just for that song. I recorded it onto a cassette tape with songs by a bunch of other artists, and never really listened to the rest of the album until 2007.

Favorite tracks: Now It’s My Turn; Fall; Rumor of Love; Dancing in Berlin; Touch; In My Dreams; Beg, Steal or Borrow

Sometime during my first year of college (��85-��86), I bought their album Love Life,��which in addition to “No More Words�� and “Now It’s My Turn�� had a bunch of other songs I ended up liking. It was very unusual for me to like every song on an album �� the only other album I can think of at the time was Prince Charming by Adam & the Ants �� which is why I tended to buy vinyl and record songs onto mix tapes.

Favorite tracks: Hideaway, Like Flames, You Don’t Know, When Love Goes to War, Will I Ever Understand You

Their 1986 album Count Three & Pray came out after I had already left on my two-year mission to Italy,�� so I didn’t know about it at the time. Also, the movie Top Gun came out while I was on my mission, so I missed their�� greatest success on the charts (“Take My Breath Away��, from the Top Gun soundtrack, which hit #1 in the US and various other countries).

In 1987, while I was still on my mission, Berlin disbanded.

Favorite tracks (not mentioned elsewhere): Blowin�� Sky High, Matter of Time, For All Tomorrow’s Lies

After I returned from my mission in the summer of 1988, I bought a CD player, and one of the first CDs I bought was Best of Berlin 1979-1988, which included some songs off Count Three & Pray, so I didn’t feel the need to go back and find it �� which was kind of silly in a way, since I had liked every song on their previous album. But in those days if an album wasn’t in stock at your local record store, it was a bit of a hassle to order it in.

Favorite tracks: Who’s Gonna Take You Home Tonight, Go Ask the Lonely, Confession Time

In 1991, Terri Nunn released a solo album, Moment of Truth. I bought a CD maxi-single of a remix of “Take My Breath Away�� that was released that same year, but I didn’t get around to buying her solo album until 2019.

After some legal wrangling, Terri Nunn got the rights to the name Berlin, and she re-formed the band with new musicians.

In 2000, I went to the Synthstock 2000 concert at the Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake. The headline act was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), and Berlin was one of the other acts (along with Anything Box, Cosmic Moscow, and Real Life.) At the time, Berlin was a band I liked, but not my favorite band.

After almost a 16-year gap, Berlin released a new album in 2002: Voyeur. But I didn’t bother to get it, if I even knew it had come out.

In 2004, I ran across a remix album titled Berlin �� The Greatest Hits Remixed. Since I love remixes, I bought it, and there were several that I liked a lot.

In 2005, Berlin released an album, 4play, that consisted mostly of covers of songs by other bands. That was their musical low point �� when I eventually bought it, I didn’t particularly like anything from that album.

In 2006, I got an iPod, and a few months later I posted . “Masquerade�� was the only song by Berlin on that list, at #16.

Favorite tracks: Shiny, Blink of an Eye, Stronger Than Steel, Drug, With a Touch, All I Ever Need

In 2007, I finally got around to buying Voyeur. Several songs from that album quickly rose in my list of most-listened-to songs in iTunes. That encouraged me to pick up Count Three & Pray, and I found I loved some songs that hadn’t made it onto the Best of Berlin album. I also went back and listened to some of the songs I hadn’t originally paid much attention to on Pleasure Victim.

At some point after that, I did an analysis of my iTunes listening habits, and I found the top two bands I listened to were Garbage and Berlin. Since then, Berlin has pulled far ahead, and I hardly ever listen to Garbage anymore.

Favorite tracks: With the Lights On, Break the Chains, Nice to Meet You, Animal

In 2013, they released Animal, which had several songs I loved.

Favorite tracks: On My Knees, In My Heart, Transcendance, Majesty

After that, original band members Dave Diamond and John Crawford rejoined the band, and I eagerly bought their 2019 album Transcendance the day it came out. And it has one of my all-time favorite songs, “On My Knees��, which is absolutely gorgeous. I think it’s awesome that more than thirty years after their peak on the charts, they are still making brand new songs that I love.

Since they’d released an album in 2019, I was not expecting them to release anything in 2020. But to my surprise, they released Strings Attached, a box set of orchestral re-recordings of some of their greatest hits. It is my favorite album �� not just by Berlin, but by anyone.

Currently, 11 out of my top 25 most-played songs* in iTunes are by Berlin, and I consider them my favorite band.

Now, here’s the difficult question: What is it about Berlin’s music that I love so much that they’ve become my favorite band?

And the answer is: I don’t know. Hmm, maybe it will sound better if I say it in a Frenchier manner: Berlin’s music has a certain je ne sais quoi. If I had more music education, I might be able tell you. Is it Terri Nunn’s vocals? No. Don’t get me wrong �� I love her voice, but her non-Berlin album and the 4Play cover album had her voice, and none of those songs are high on my list of favorites. Plus, one of my favorite Berlin songs is “Rumor of Love��, which has John Crawford as the lead singer and if Terri’s in it, she’s just doing backup vocals. Is it their distinctive musical style? Maybe they have one, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. It’s not as distinctive as Erasure, for instance, who I tend to recognize even if I haven’t heard the song before. So basically it boils down to this: More than any other band, Berlin has a bunch of songs that I love to listen to over and over.

I’ve had several favorite bands over the years. I’ve also been to several concerts. But I’ve never been to see a concert by a band while they were my favorite band.

So, in September, I drove out to Lake Tahoe to see Berlin perform live at Bally’s Casino. (Darci was nice enough to humor me and come along.) And thus I finally got to see my favorite band in concert. I enjoyed the concert a lot, and I’ll probably go again if they come to Utah.

��

*Excluding Russian songs, because I went through a phase for several years starting in 2008 where I mostly listened to Russian technopop.

The post first appeared on .

As an experiment earlier this year, I serialized my epic fantasy novel Heir of the Line on Kindle Vella.

Now, the complete novel is available for purchase from Amazon:

: $30.00: $20.00: $9.99 (free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)

If you’re planning to go to the convention in Salt Lake City on November 14-15, you should be able to buy the print versions at my booth.

Here’s the text from the back cover:

Epic fantasy from Nebula Award-winning author Eric James Stone:

Becoming a Protector of the Line is all Geradin ever wanted.

But guarding the last living descendant of the Line of Orcan will require much more than just his skill with a sword�� King Aumekor was born mostly paralyzed, and that secret must be kept. To protect his king and friend, Geradin must deal with brainwashed assassins, a scheming regent, and more. So he’ll need all the help he can get from Royal Omnimancer Selima and her powerful new apprentice, Allonna.

Above all is the threat from the immortal priestess of the Dark God, who wants to kill Aumekor because of an ancient prophecy that predicts the only one who can kill her will be the Heir of the Line.

Praise for author Eric James Stone:

“Eric James Stone is a genius!��
—Brandon Sanderson

“Unforgettable, in particular, will twist the heartstrings of anyone not made of stone. �� I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already read it.��
—David Weber

“[O]ne of the most interesting new writers of the decade…��
—Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

“Stone’s writing is stunning throughout; fans of all niches of speculative fiction will enjoy.��
—Publishers Weekly

“[O]ne of my favorite sci-fi writers, Eric James Stone…��
—Orson Scott Card

��

The post first appeared on .

Six years and one day ago, I posted about . Today, I’m going to explain why I’m voting for him for Senator.

In 2016, I happily cast my vote in the Senate race for Mike Lee. He and I shared a lot of political positions. Not only that, Senator Lee had worked hard against Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination because, like me, he believed that Trump was unfit for the office of the Presidency.

When the Access Hollywood tapes were released, showing further proof of Trump’s demeaning and degrading attitude toward women, :

“It’s occurred to me on countless occasions today that if anyone spoke to my wife or my daughter or my mother or any of my five sisters the way Mr. Trump has spoken to women, I wouldn’t hire that person. I wouldn’t hire that person, wouldn’t want to be associated with that person. And I certainly don’t think I’d feel comfortable hiring that person to be the leader of the free world,�� Lee said.

“The fact is, we have been asked to settle on matters of great principle with our candidate for President of the United States,�� Lee said. “It’s for precisely that reason, Mr. Trump, that I respectfully ask you, with all due respect, to step aside. Step down. Allow someone else to carry the banner of these principles.��

I admired Senator Lee for being willing to stand up for principles of good character against the leader of his own party. So I had no problem voting for Mike Lee for Senator as I was voting for Evan McMullin for President.

Fast-forward to the 2020 election. I could understand Mike Lee’s willingness to work with President Trump on issues where they agreed. That’s a very reasonable stance. I could even understand if Lee reluctantly supported Trump’s re-election as preferable to the alternative. But I was shocked when I heard that he had said:

“To my Mormon friends, my Latter-day Saint friends, think of him as Captain Moroni!��

For those of you not familiar with Captain Moroni, he is an important figure in the Book of Mormon. Among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Captain Moroni is generally considered a paragon of virtue. The prophet Mormon said,

So this endorsement of Trump by Lee went far beyond a pro forma show of support for the party leader. He was asking us to consider Trump as equivalent to a paragon of virtue.

Apparently Lee had changed his mind: even if Trump said horrible things to Lee’s wife, or daughters, or mother, or sisters, he would still be comfortable to hire that person as the leader of the free world. OK, maybe not if said directly to Lee’s relatives. But other people’s wives, daughters, mothers or sisters being demeaned by Trump was no longer disqualifying in Lee’s mind.

It was at that point I lost all respect for Mike Lee.

And that was before he attempted to help Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election by getting Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint alternate slates of electors. He denied doing so in the debate last night:

There is absolutely nothing to the idea that I would have ever supported, or ever did support, the fake electors plot �� nothing, not a scintilla of evidence suggesting that. []

But here’s a . . . scintillating . . . text from him to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff:

It’s not your fault. But I’ve been calling state legislators for hours today, and am going to spend hours doing the same tomorrow. I’m trying to figure out a path that I can persuasively defend, and this won’t make it any easier, especially if others now think I’m doing this because he went after me. This just makes it a lot more complicated. And it was complicated already. We need something from state legislatures to make this legitimate and to have any hope of winning. Even if they can’t convene, it might be enough if a majority of them are willing to sign a statement indicating how they would vote. []

Fortunately, Lee’s efforts failed, so he ended up voting to certify Biden’s election. But that’s only because enough Republicans in state legislatures resisted his efforts to have them appoint new electors. You don’t deserve much credit for doing the right thing only because you failed in doing the wrong thing.

Given his Trump sycophancy and willingness to try to overturn a legitimate election, there was no way I could support Mike Lee for re-election.

I grew up Republican. I still consider myself a Republican �� I now call myself a Mitt Romney Republican. During the Republican primary for Senate this year, I supported Ally Isom. If she had won the nomination, I would happily be voting for the Republican in this race. But the Utah GOP has followed Mike Lee into Trump-worship, and so they selected Mike Lee as their candidate. They had their chance to earn my vote, and they failed.

That’s why I am supporting Evan McMullin’s independent candidacy for Senate. I heard him speak a couple of weeks ago at an event, and I believe he can be a good senator. He talked a lot about wanting to emulate Senator Romney. For some, of course, that’s a mark against him, but for me it’s a positive. I believe our growing political polarization is one of the greatest threats to our nation, and so I would like to see more moderate voices in D.C.

In the cesspit that is Twitter political discourse, I’ve seen a bunch of people on the right claim McMullin is a socialist through and through, and a bunch of people on the left claim McMullin is a hard-core conservative. I think that puts him closer to the middle than to either extreme �� which is actually where a lot of people are.

Is he as conservative as I would prefer? No.

Is he so liberal I can’t bring myself to vote for him? Also no.

If you’re still a Mike Lee supporter, I doubt I can say anything to change your mind. But if you’re not, please consider voting for Evan McMullin so we can get Mike Lee out of office.

Utah is still a pretty staunchly Republican state, so it’s going to be tough for McMullin to win. But not impossible �� an is often vulnerable, and most of the undecideds are moderates. One poll released last week even , although the shows Lee is probably ahead.

However, it would be pretty much impossible for McMullin to win if the Utah Democratic Party hadn’t decided to not field a candidate of their own and instead endorse McMullin’s independent bid. Some say that’s proof that McMullin is actually a liberal Democrat masquerading as an independent. But I think it’s merely a concession to the reality that it’s been years since the Democrats have been able to run a competitive statewide race in such a Republican state. From their point of view, it’s better to elect a moderate independent than get another six years of Mike Lee.

The post first appeared on .

You know how in boxing, if you beat the champion, you become the new champion?

Several years ago, I thought about how interesting it would be if college football had a championship like that: if you beat the champion, you become the champion. I even tried to research historical scores of college football games to figure out who might be considered the first champion, and then who beat them, etc. But I couldn’t find the data online.

As it turns out, I was not the only one with this idea. A few years ago, some people did the research, going back to the very first college football game in 1869, in which Rutgers beat Princeton. Rutgers was thus the first national champion. Princeton won the rematch, taking the title. And they have traced that title, referred to as the College Football Belt Championship, to the present day.

Sometimes that championship coincides with other national championships, as it did in 2021 with Alabama winning the College Football Playoff while holding the Belt championship. But a nice thing about the Belt championship is that it can be passed around more often than just once per year, and so there are more chances for teams to win it. There are 98 teams who have held the championship at least once.

In the past year, the championship has changed hands 4 times:
1. 10/9/2021 �� Texas A&M beats Alabama
2. 11/13/2021 �� Ole Miss beats Texas A&M
3. 1/2/2022 �� Baylor beats Ole Miss
4. 9/11/2022 (because the game ended after midnight) �� BYU beats Baylor

This is the first time since 1997 that the Belt championship has been held by a school outside the Power 5/automatic qualifying conferences. And that was also BYU, who held the title from 10/19/1996-9/6/1997. BYU also held the title 9/30/1995-10/14/1995. (BYU did not hold the title during its poll-based national championship year of 1984.)

You can see the history of the Belt championship on this spreadsheet:

The post first appeared on .

My story “Attitude Adjustment,�� first published in Analog in 2009, has been reprinted in the anthology Rockets and Robots from Word Balloon Books, publishers of kid-friendly SF and Fantasy books.
[image error]

The post first appeared on .

My story “Worse Than One�� appears in the July/August 2022 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It’s a Probability Zero flash piece. Here’s how it starts:

“It all started a few months back when I saw an ad looking for people to test a new drug for regenerating lost body parts. I lost a finger in an accident awhile back, so I figured, why not?��

“Did you sign a legal disclaimer for the drug trial?��

“Yeah, I guess. There was a bunch of paperwork.��

“Let me just say upfront that it may be difficult to sue the drug company if you waived that right.��

“Oh, I don’t want to sue the drug company. Well, maybe later, but that’s not why I’m here.��

“I see. Please continue, Mr. Cutler.��

“Anyway, the finger started growing back less than a week after they gave me the drug. Also, my appendix and tonsils, and my wisdom teeth.��

“Did they warn you that those effects were possible? Because–��

The post first appeared on .

Welcome to my brand new website design. One of the advantages of working for (formerly Business Promotion), the company I’ve worked at for over thirteen years, is that they have great website designers on staff. And they were kind enough to re-design my author website.

The post first appeared on .

I’ve decided to run for a Director-at-Large position on the Board of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The following is the platform statement I posted on the SFWA forum to announce my candidacy:

I’m Eric James Stone, and I’m running for Director-at-Large.

This is not the first time I’ve thrown my hat into the ring for SFWA office: in 2011, Mary Robinette Kowal encouraged me to run for Treasurer when it looked like Bud Sparhawk might not run for re-election. He ended up running, and I was soundly trounced. I just hope Bud’s not going to run for Director-at-Large this year!

I’ve been an Active member of SFWA since 2004, having applied for membership less than a month after receiving the contract for my third qualifying short story sale. From 2008 until late last year, I served as a member of the Grievance Committee. At Bud Sparhawk’s invitation, I also actively served on the Financial Oversight Committee from 2015 to 2017. I strongly believe in SFWA’s mission of informing, supporting, promoting, defending and advocating for our members. Service through SFWA is one of the ways I have chosen to pay back the SF community that has given me so much.

The publishing industry has changed a lot since I joined SFWA, and I have been pleased to see the organization adapting to those changes. On the whole, I have been pleased with the direction SFWA has been headed under the current Board and its predecessors, and I thank them for their service. I fully support the recent changes in membership criteria to allow self-published authors and game writers to join. I also think the re-incorporation in California as a 501(c)(3) non-profit that can accept tax-deductible contributions was a necessary modernization of the organization. On a few occasions, I have had some concerns about due process and/or transparency and expressed my concerns to Board members. In all but one of those cases, I ultimately agreed with the Board’s actions.

I believe that SFWA should be an inclusive organization, and that members should feel welcome regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, citizenship, immigration status, primary language, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, political ideology, or pretty much any other personal attribute. However, I also believe SFWA, as a private organization, is not required to tolerate members who are deliberately disruptive or who harass other members.

Some things to know about me:

My father was an immigrant to the U.S. from Argentina, so I grew up bilingual in English and Spanish, and spent over half my childhood living outside the United States.
I have a law degree, which may be either the result of or the cause of my concern for due process. (I let my law license expire long ago due to a career shift.)
I have worked in web development and/or systems administration for the past two decades, so I know my way around a computer and the internet.
I have spent several years as a financial clerk for my local church congregation, responsible for handling member donations, issuing checks, preparing for audits, and tracking down financial discrepancies.

If elected, I will do my best to work with the other members of the Board to represent the interests of SFWA members, expand the membership, and improve the state of the speculative fiction community.

Thank you for your support.

(I verified my eligibility with the Election Committee.)

I read �� OK, listened to �� 45 books in 2018, so a little less than one a week. I started the first one in 2017 and finished the last one in 2019. I’ve omitted any books I started and decided not to finish, so I felt all of these books were worth finishing. I have also omitted unpublished books I read in critique group. The list is chronological, not ranked.

I also read a bunch of children’s picture books, but I’m not counting them.

I promised to give away copies of the books I read in 2018. I gave away copies of the first 20 on the list, but after the baby was born in late June, I just got so busy that the Amazon Giveaways fell by the wayside. I will do giveaways for the rest of the books on this list (which is one of the reasons I wanted to make this list).

On 12/10/2018, I published . (I’ve since updated it a few times for various reasons, including an official response from the SFWA Board on 12/18/2018.)

On 12/11/2018, the :

Qualification Update: Publication Via Contests As Applicable to Rule III Sales

Short fiction and novels that are published as part of a contest, including publication in print or digital anthologies and magazines or online publication on a web site, can be used as qualifying sales under Rule III of the SFWA bylaws, provided they meet all requirements. The qualifying sales are subject to the same restrictions as sales to any other market (such as: no entry or submissions fee, no warnings by Writer Beware, no advisory by SFWA, appropriate minimum payment per word). The contract must show that the author is receiving payment for publication rights separately from any monetary contest prize that may also be received.

So, what does this mean, exactly?

A couple of years ago, SFWA added an alternative to the traditional route for qualifying for membership: Rule III. Basically, Rule III was a way to allow self-published authors to qualify by proving their earnings, since the publishing world has changed dramatically due to ebooks. The rule also allows proof of earnings from small presses and non-qualified markets. Since it requires proof of earnings, rather than just proof of publication, Rule III involves more paperwork in order to qualify, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same as far as I can tell:

For short fiction, three or more publications totaling at least 10,000 words, paid at the minimum SFWA professional rate (currently 6 cents a word).
For novels, a novel of at least 40,000 words, payment of an advance of at least $3000 (for traditional route) or earnings of at least $3000 during one year (for Rule III).

Since Writers of the Future pays 6 cents per word for publication, in addition to the prize money, that means publication in the Writers of the Future anthology could be used as a Rule III sale to qualify for SFWA, even though Writers of the Future is no longer listed as a qualifying market.

However, there are still a couple of questions unresolved:

What exactly is an “advisory by SFWA��?
What exactly are “warnings by Writer Beware��?

I was unable to find definitions for these terms on the SFWA website (which includes the Writer Beware website), nor in the bylaws or Operating Policies and Procedures Manual. Does the SFWA Board’s statement about concerns with the Writers of the Future Contest count as an “advisory��? Does Writer Beware blogging about the SFWA Board’s statement constitute a “warning��? Absent a further clarification from the Board, I think it’s reasonable to think that unless the specific terms “advisory�� or “warning�� are used in an official communication, those parts of the rule don’t apply.

But with regard to other contests, such as the