2000 - 02/2000 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Update: 10/25/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 01/12/08.

JOHN GRANT (PAUL BARNETT)

Selected Novels:

Albion

Dragonhenge (illustrated by Bob Eggleton)

Earthdoom (with David Langford)

The Far Enough Window

Guts (with David Langford)

The Hundredfold Problem

The Qinmeartha and the Girl-Child LoChi

The Stardragons

Strider's Galaxy

Strider's Universe

The World

Selected Non Fiction:

The Chesley Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Retrospective (with Elizabeht Humphrey and Pamela Scoville)

Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science

Discarded Science: Ideas that Seemed Good at the Time

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (with John Clute)

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters

The author's website is: http://www.johngrantpaulbarnett.com/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: February 12, 2000.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 29.

Meeting Program: Talk by Science Fiction Editor (Writer).

Notes:

Paul Barnett was joined at the meeting by his wife, Pamela Scoville--an appraiser specializing in animation--and past guest speaker, fantasy artist Jael.

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The February meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held in the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey on Saturday, February 12, 2000. Featured speaker Paul Barnett was joined by his wife, Pamela Scoville, an appraiser specializing in animation, and their good friend, science fiction artist (and past guest speaker), Jael.

Both pre meeting activities were well received, with the anime fans watching THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO in the basement and the Armchair Odyssey folks watching the broadcast of EARTH: FNAL CONFLICT and a tape of the first episode of THE PRISONER. The video proved popular enough to continue showing episodes in the 7:00 PM slot of Armchair Odyssey.

Paul Barnett knew that he wanted to be a writer quite early in life. He began his first novel, THE GHOST OF HORROR MANSION, when he was eight years old. He only completed three pages, but he knew that it was to be a novel.

He began working in a succession of small British publishing companies upon completing his schooling. He joined the Muller's Publishing Company and rose from being a "dog's body" to a position and title of helping the company plummet more effectively. The company's heads were Dutch some of whom "had just enough English to misunderstand what they were telling us."

He next worked at David and Charles, a publisher specializing in books about trains and canals. While he was there, the principals came to the shocking discovery that there were other subjects for books than THE GOLDEN AGE OF HIBERNIA RAILWAY. Among the ideas to emerge from sessions of brainstorming was a book designed to appeal to lovers of both crafts and cookery titled FURNITURE FROM FRUIT.

Sounding at times remarkably like last month's guest speaker, Paul Levinson, who had described how he felt that he was singlehandedly destroying the US sf short fiction market, Mr Barnett jumped David and Charles just in time to become involved with the dying days of the British science fiction book club. This occurred after he had been been headhunted away from D & C for a job which disappeared before he could report to work.

With the added responsibilities of caring from a young child, he and his wife moved back to London where he decided to begin a writing career. He figured he would give it a go since he had been dealing with all of these other writers who couldn't write either.

As a writer, he now needed a name. He and his editor were at a pub discussing possible nom de plumes when the eyes of his editor focused upon the selection of beverages available He took the first name from one bottle and the last name from another and dubbed Mr Barnett, John Grant. From that time on he divided his attentions between writing and editing.

More than half of his genre writing was a series titled LEGENDS OF THE LONE WOLF. Lone Wolf is a popular fantasy game on the other side of the Atlantic. When Philip De Parto inquired if they were the POKEMON of the U K, our guest's eyes turned icy. "Meet me outside later," he menacingly replied.

John Grant had become by this time friends with a number of British science fiction authors, including John Clute, who had been a contributor to Peter Nicholl's THE SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA. When Clute became over extended on professional commitments, he asked Barnett/Grant to pinch hit for him on a two page article about British science fiction.

This led to a number of other assignments. He won a Hugo and several other awards as co-editor of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY, wrote THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WALT DISNEY CHARACTERS, and became a contributor to the second edition of THE SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA. This last project took up four years of his life. At one point Clute and Nicholls were in heated discussion about an exact definition of Science Fiction. Our guest offered his own:

"Science Fiction is that branch of fantasy which panders to the scientific pretentions of its reader and writers." The silence was deafening.

Mr Barnett has also written a fair amount of humor. Much of this appeared in the Men's Magazine, KNAVE. Since people purchased the periodical for its pictures, the editor decided that he might as well fill the rest of the magazine with funny or thoughtful material. In short order, there were a number of British authors contributing literary and comedic pieces. Circulation boomed as a result. The magazine became THE place to be in certain circles.

Eventually, even the publishers noticed. They examined the magazine and determined that it wasn't being smutty enough. They also began to worry that the forces of "St Margaret Thatcher" would descend upon them. So they fired the editor, returned to bathroom humor, and dropped back down to the bottom of the foodchain in their corner of the marketplace. I suppose this proves that, despite popular myth to the contrary, that there are some publishers willing to forego commercial success to keep their "art" pure.

Among his works in this vein are SEX SECRETS OF ANCIENT ATLANTIS and THE FLAMING GHOULIES, the latter being his take on a THIS IS SPINAL TAP punk band. On a more serious note, he feels that the fantasies THE WORLD and ALBION are worth reading.

Mr Barnett is also an editor at Paper Tiger which publishes books of science fiction artwork. Among the upcoming books will be one featuring the art of Jael. Several people had wanted more information about Paper Tiger, so he gave out his email address.

Paul Barnett was an engrossing storyteller, with a fine voice punctuated by animated gestures. His talk was punctuated with pointedly funny asides and zany digressions. If you weren't there, you missed a good one.