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RIP OSJ 1957-2021


Zimbra

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I always get worried when he doesn't post for a while and it appears he passed away on April 12th from an apparent heart attack according to Locus.

I'll miss the cantankerous old bastard, and his love of weird books, custom action figures, and his menagerie of cats.  

I don't know much about his literary career, but hopefully others here do.

Godspeed, John

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Ah fuck.

He was a character. A guy from a different time that went out of his way to try and better understand the views of different generations on here as much as he was tremendous at putting his hand up and admitting fault when he'd said something that upset someone.

His stories will be missed. 

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John was always good to me. Like a lot of us here, there are a number of things I ended up reading that I never would have without him. Some I just got to earlier like Malazan or Locke Lamora (though then I got to be ahead of the curve) but someone like Michael Shea would have never come my way without him. And when I needed to figure out how to get a friend an issue of Fantasy Macabre, he told me where to get it, who to talk to, how to get it signed, etc. It's a huge loss, for what he knew that no one else did, of course, but for the personality behind it as well.

Thankfully, I have a small list of books he recommended me that I still haven't gotten to, when I asked him about under the radar 75-85 fantasy.

Our Lady of Darkness - Fritz Leiber

The Dragon Waiting - John Ford

Little, Big - John Crowley

I just bought the Crowley.

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I know he had some recent issues going on but I'm still in a bit of a shock.  The guy was always great to me and it sounded like he lived one helluva life.  I remember when I was having a down period between jobs he messaged me saying if I ever needed to talk to reach out to him.  I really appreciated that but didn't want to bother him with my woes.  Though looking back I kind of wish I did reach out.   Really gonna miss him but feel these words aren't doing him justice.  Damn, this sucks.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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I haven't responded to this thread because I was still in a bit of denial, but now I am just plain sad.  John and I have been friends for as long as this board has existed.  He has been my cantankerous conscience, my online drinking buddy, and my wise and demented guide through the wonderful realm of pulp horror and speculative fiction for over twenty years.

He was also my older brother from different parents.   I will miss him and my prayers will be with his wife and family. 

Rest well, my friend.

Edited by J.T.
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Oh man. I'm going to miss him. Who am I going to talk with about Jack Vance now? Rest in Peace John.

He had a great life. But he should still be having it.

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This is terrible news.  I remember posting something about a book idea, and unexpectedly I get a really encouraging direct message about how much he loved reading my posts and if ever wrote a book, he'd be first in line to buy it.  It was completely out of the blue, but it really made me feel great.  He could be a comically crotchety old man on the board, but deep down he could be a really kind human being.  He will be missed.

 

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1 hour ago, J.T. said:

I haven't responded to this thread because I was still in a bit of denial, but now I am just plain sad.  John and I have been friends for as long as this board has existed.  He has been my cantankerous conscience, my online drinking buddy, and my wise and demented guide through the wonderful realm of pulp horror and speculative fiction for over twenty years.

He was also my older brother from different parents.   I will miss him and my prayers will be with his wife and family. 

Rest well, my friend.

Virtual hugs. Here if you need to chat, @J.T..

This sucks. R.I.P. @OSJ xxx.

Edited by The Natural
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What in the fuck? This feels like it can't be right because it feels like he's been posting as recently as last week. That's just the presence he's had here for years though.

RIP OSJ.

I just feel numb to this, but if I could add anything light to put something close to a smile on your faces it would be that his inevitable baseball hall of fame posts will be missed.

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I'm stunned to learn he was John Pelan.  I knew he was a writer/editor, but that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge.  I don't read the social threads much, so there's a lot of common knowledge I'm ignorant of even though my history with the board goes back 15-20 years

I bought quite a bit from Axolotl Press in the late 80's and 90's.  I bought off him directly some, so I was probably a semi-regular, though I probably bought more from other small press distributors like Mark Ziesing.  I probably corresponded with him some.  Back in those days,  i was still filling out order forms or calling distributors to place orders (pre-internet, or at least, not relying on the internet like we do today).  I'd call Axolotl or Mark Ziesing to place an order and end up talking to whoever answered the phone for an hour.  Haven't read sci-fi or fantasy much in the past 20 years or sp, but I used to be a big fan of Tim Powers, James Blaylock, Kristine Rusch, etc.  Wish I'd known.  John and I probably had a lot to talk about.  

Honestly, I thought I'd seen him on the board in the past few days.  Guess not.

RIP John. 

Edited by Eoae
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This is awful. He had a huge wealth of knowledge on such a large variety of topics and always had stories to related to just about everything.  He clearly had a boundless curiosity and always tried to comprehend other viewpoints, even when they were opposed to his own. I kind of feel bad that I never got around to reading any of his work, even though it struck me as stuff I'd enjoy.

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I think what I'm going to miss the most is that when you reached out to the guy about anything, anything at all, even just... you know, I offered him some condolences in a PM back in November, just a simple message, right?

He came back with a fascinating 700 word anecdote about some related literary event (This time based on the Howard estate's control over Conan lapsing) that no one would have known but him. Just as a response. He'd do that all the time.

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Damn. I traded messages with him a few times over the years (not to the extent that some of you did though) and he was always super cool to chat with. I remember him mentioning that Mark Lewin owned a restaurant in Everett, Wa and when I told him that while I knew Lewin's name he was a bit before my time John sent me a LOOOOOONG history of Mark Lewin. Rest in peace to a hell of a good dude

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