George Alec Effinger, RIP

[bryant]

Numerous reports that George Alec Effinger passed away yesterday, including

From: smeghead@erols.com (Alex Jay Berman)
Newsgroups: alt.obituaries
Subject: George Alec Effinger, SF/F Writer, 1947-2002
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 02:55:05 GMT
Message-ID: <3ccb6482.48460738@News.CIS.DFN.DE>

Harlan Ellison reports being informed by Barbara Hambly, Effinger's
ex-wife, that Effinger, a Hugo and Nebula Award winner, died in his
sleep Friday night.

Starting in 1972 with his audaciously imaginative first novel, WHAT
ENTROPY MEANS TO ME, Effinger was nominated many times for both awards
before his novelette "Schrodinger's Kitten" won a 1988 Hugo and Nebula
each.

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From: Steven H Silver <shsilver@worldnet.att.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: RIP George Alec Effinger
Message-ID: <teuncuckfck6mene8svc8rg44a406p89qo@4ax.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 13:43:38 GMT

David Truesdale and Teresa Nielsen Hayden have both announced that
George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) passed away yesterday (April 27).  No
details have been released yet.

Effinger was a part of the Clarion class of 1970 and had three stories
in the first Clarion anthology.  His first published story was "The
Eight-Thirty to Nine Slot" in Fantastic in 1971.  During his early
period, he also published under a variety of pseudonyms.

His first novel, _What Entropy Means to Me_ (1972) was nominated for
the Nebula Award.  He achieved his greatest success, perhaps, with the
trilogy of Marid Audran novels set in a 21st century Middle East.  The
three published novels were _When Gravity Fails_(1987), _A Fire in the
Sun_(1989) and _The Exile Kiss_ (1991).  He apparently wrote a fourth
book, however legal issues prevented its publication.

His novelette, "Schr?ger's Kitten" (1988) received both the Hugo
and Nebula Award.

Other stories were the series of Maureen (Muffy) Birnbaum parodies
which placed a preppy into a variety of science fictional, fantasy,
and horror scenarios.

Throughout his life, Effinger suffered from health problems.  These
resulted in enormous medical bills which he was unable to pay.  A
lawsuit by the hospital tied up the rights to all of his books and
characters, causing a dearth of Effinger material.  Eventually the
suit was dropped and Effinger regained the rights to all his
intellectual property.