John DeChancie.com

John was Writer Guest of Honor at Loscon 38, held at the LAX Marriot, Nov. 25-27. He was a speaker and was interviewed by the net-radio show “Hour 25.” He also signed autographs and generally mixed with and partied with fans, fellow professionals, and friends.  When asked if he had a good time, John said, “The best weekend-long party I ever went to!” Over 1000 people attended the convention, many of them fans of John’s work.

This isn't a new picture, though.

Last week John was interviewed by on-line blogger Amybeth Inverness. He talks about lots of things. This new interview is different from the one on this site, entirely new, although it starts out quoting from the site. Don’t let that fool you, the rest is new material.

Click here for interview.

John Clute’s SF Encyclopedia is most authoritative and definitive reference work on SF/fantasy, full of valuable information on writers and related subjects. It is a massive work which has now become an on-line database. Here is what Clute and his collaborators have to say about John DeChancie.

Click here to go to SF Encylopedia

John DeChancie and Lydia van Vogt

On September 29, 2011, John paid a visit to the home of Lydia van Vogt, widow of famed SF writer A. E. van Vogt. High in the Hollywood Hills, the spacious house is full of mementos of the writer’s career, including the inlaid desk where “Van” wrote Slan, “Black Destroyer,” and other science fiction classics. Lydia is a wonderfully friendly woman with an amazing life story. During World War II she lived next door to Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun; after the war she was a translator for General Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was the famous Allied military chief who made it possible for Lydia to emigrate to the US, where she eventually met and married A. E. van Vogt.

John and two other writers had an enjoyable tea with Lydia, stuffing themselves with hors-d’oevres and feasting on Lydia’s stories of Van and Lydia’s own amazing life. A. E. van Vogt seeded the SF field with ideas still being mined by Hollywood today. Many of the ideas in media “sci-fi,” including the Alien movies and TV’s Star Trek, derived from van Vogt’s body of work.  Lydia is still receiving revenue from Van’s literary estate. Paramount just renewed its option on The Voyage of the Space Beagle, the classic novel of space exploration that served as a template for many science fiction adventure stories coming after.

John has begun and is steadily, if slowly, working on a NINTH Castle Perilous novel. The tentative title is THE PIRATES OF PERILOUS, in which you will meet the scurvyest pack of cutthroats from here to Far Tortuga.

John will have no less than three articles on Sf/fantasy films in the latest issue of MONDO CULT magazine, due out at the end of 2011. These articles are highly informative and entertaining for anyone with an interest in the cinema of the fantastic.