BOC: E-mail from John Shirley

[John A Swartz]

I got an e-mail recently from John Shirley.  He was mainly writing because
he took exception to one or 2 sentences in the BOC FAQ regarding his book,
*Transmaniacon* - unfortunately, this was a spot which I didn't do a good
job as an "editor", and the info on that book basically came from a post
to BOC-L -- and as a post, the information had a few opinions in it, and
John didn't like them.  While I respect the opinions of the person who
wrote the review, I also recognize that this person did not write the
review specifically for inclusion in the FAQ, and I should have edited it
to include only more factual information (which, to be fair to the
reviewer, was most of his post).

I have apologized to John for not editing this so that it would be merely
factual (as I feel I should have done, for I have always stated that I
want the BOC FAQ to be "factual", and not trying to take any particular
side where there are differences of opinion), and have promised to update
the FAQ shortly with this edit (I'll also throw in several other things as
I've compiled quite a list of new things to be adding to the FAQ over
the past few months).

John also gave me some other information that might be of interest:

1. He says the album will be out in early 1998, with the rest of the
recording be finished this fall.

2. He says that he is involved in getting BOC gigs - I don't think he
means that he's taken over that job, but that he is working to line up a
number of gigs for them.

3. Tim Burton is planning a remake of the old Ray Milland movie
Man with the X Ray Eyes and as John wrote a song about that movie, he
sent the song to the producer, who like it, and may use it in the movie
(since BOC will do this song on "Ezekiel's Wheel", perhaps BOC's
rendition will be used.

4. John has his own CD at his website (which I list in the FAQ) and it
has John's rendition of "See You in Black" (same words, but very different
music than BOC's version) on it - Buck Dharma has personally given the
CD a "thumbs up" quote on John's website.

5. John's new book, "Silicon Embrace" contains many BOC references - I
think I've seen this book at my local Barnes & Noble so I'll probably
pick it up.

John