The older I get, the harder it is to do some things. Time seems to speed by faster and faster. On top of that, getting old is hell on the body, especially when you have hypertension and diabetes. I had a diabetic incident with my eyes and had multiple visions in one of my eyes forcing me to wear an eye patch. That really cut down on my reading even more than getting adjusted to my new glasses. After that I had a capillary burst in my other eye that made it look extremely red. According to all the material I’ve been able to find, I’m doing all the right things to prevent strokes, heart attacks and others things that go with my condition. It’s better now and I hope it stays that way.

To everyone I promised reviews, I’ll do my best to get them into the next issue. I appreciate your patience and understanding.

I’ve lost several friends lately and have a mention about some of them in this issue. Irv Koch’s was the most unexpected. Bob Sheckley and Ken Bulmer wrote a lot of the good stuff in the 60s and 70s and I hope their books will be reprinted for a new generation.

I’ll do my best to get the next issue out on time. Everyone take care and be sure to tell the ones that matter to you how much they mean to you – you can never tell when they might not be there.

Although he has retired, Stephen King will have at least two books out in 2006. CELL is out now and LISEY’S STORY will be out in November. There is a review by Harriet in this issue

Irvin Meyer Koch, a mainstay of southern science fiction fandom, died on Saturday, November 19, 2005. He was 58. Over the years, Irv produced the fanzines Maybe and Imk; worked at different levels at many science fiction conventions; and founded the conventions Gnomoclave, Kubla Khan, and Chattacon. He was the organizer of the 2004 Charlotte Worldcon bid. Active at various times in several southern states, Irv was the third recipient of the Rebel Award and the fourth recipient of the Rubble Award. He was also into filking and Sherlock Holmes. The only time we worked together was on the Charlotte bid but we knew each other through various conventions, Southern Fandom Publishing Association, and the Southern Fandom Confederation. Irv was a Vietnam vet and had worked for the Department of Defense. Irv was a Master Librarian and was working at Clark University. Graveside services were November 22 at Jackson City Cemetery in Jackson, Georgia. His wife, Kay Pinckney, survives him.

SF writer Robert Sheckley died in Poughkeepsie, New York, at the age of 77. One of the field's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the SFWA in 2001. Sheckley was hospitalized earlier this year in Ukraine, until he recovered sufficiently to return to the US, though he was unable to attend the WorldCon in Glascow where he'd been the scheduled Guest of Honor.

Henry Kenneth Bulmer, (January 14, 1921 – December 16, 2005), born in London, was a British author, primarily of science fiction. He was married to Pamela Buckmaster. They had one son and two daughters. Bulmer lived inTunbridgem Hills, Kent, England.

An extraordinarily prolific writer, Bulmer penned over 160 novels and innumerable short stories, both under his real name and numerous pseudonyms. For instance, his long-running "Dray Prescot" series of planetary romances was initially published as by Alan Burt Akers, and later as by the first-person protagonist of the series, Prescot himself.

Bulmer's pseudonyms include Alan Burt Akers, Frank Brandon, Rupert Clinton, Ernest Corley, Peter Green, Adam Hardy, Philip Kent, Bruno Krauss, Karl Maras, Manning Norvil, Chesman Scot, Nelson Sherwood, Richard Silver, H. Philip Stratford, and Tully Zetford. Kenneth Johns was a collective pseudonym used for collaboration with author John Newman. Some of Bulmer's works were published along with the works of other authors under "house names" (collective pseudonyms) Ken Blake (for a series of tie-ins with the 1970s television program THE PROFESSIONALS), Arthur Frazier, Neil Langholm, Charles R. Pike, and Andrew Quiller. He also ghost-wrote a couple books for Barry Sadler.

Bulmer's works are popular in translation in some non-English-speaking countries, particularly Germany, to the extent that in some cases they have been published only in German editions, with the original English language versions remaining unpublished.

Barry