Funeral for a Friend

Louis Antonelli was a relative latecomer to being an author. He didn't publish until he was 46 years old, in 2003. But in less than 20 years, he wrote over a hundred stories to publications around the world.

His dayjob was a professional journalist, For the past six years, he was the managing editor of The Clarksville Times. 

His first novel was alternate history novel Another Girl, Another Planet, which was reviewed here at Upstream Reviews. When it first came out, I insisted that it be nominated for a Dragon award. He said that if he was nominated, he owed me a beer. Lucky for him, I don't drink. When a rain storm and massive traffic problems prevented him from attending DragonCon that year, he sent me his speech, just in case I had to give it for him. Sadly, it was a year Harry Turtledove was nominated.

When the Upstream Review went live last week, he texted me to thank me to the review. I was happy to hear from him, since I wanted to see him while I was visiting Texas this week. But he told me he was texting from his hospital bed. He was in for heart troubles. When I asked him how serious it was, he did not reply.

Lou Antonelli died on yesterday, October 6th, he was 64 years old.

I am in Texas for a wedding. I may have to stay for a funeral.

~Declan Finn

Texas, 2021.