Dedicated

While preparing the Anzu print edition yesterday, I realized I omitted the Dedication page from the eBook version. Not that much trouble to correct. This is what I wrote …

In memory of Alan Maury Razovsky, who became my Dad in December, 1955.

He was the sweetest, kindest man ever. I still miss him.

That’s us, in 1957. We were at Lake Taal, Tagaytay, in the Philippines. It was probably our first visit there. 

But there was so much more I would like to have said. Not enough room, even here, and I would get too emotional. Still, I thought about how Dad introduced me to science fiction by way of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, and the day he bought me the first book that was ever really mine, at a sidewalk newsstand in Hong Kong.

It was Doctor No, by Ian Fleming. I might have been 11, and I remember thinking it was SF because of the rocket ship on the cover. Dad tried to tell me it wasn’t but I begged, and he bought it for me.

It’s an old memory, but still pretty clear … I read a few pages and went “Hey, this isn’t what I thought it was”.

Dad was right a lot. God bless him.