Friends of Fandom - Info Alert
February 1999
New Blood
A heartfelt "Welcome Aboard" to our sole newcomer to the ranks this issue,
Herb Focken from Coweta, Oklahoma. From his parenthetical comment, it seems
that Coweta is in the greater Tulsa area.
Grand Announcement of New Location (Trumpet Flourish)
We are extraodinarily happy to declare http://www.clever.net/cam/archive/ the
official home of the Info-Alert. You can always view our latest issue as well
as the archived copies. Please give the URL to your compatriots who have not
yet discovered us.
Friends of Fandom Info-Alert - http://www.clever.net/cam/archive/
Forthcoming SF&Fantasy Books
February releases from James P. Hogan, Anne McCaffrey, George R.R. Martin, and
Harry Turtledove. For more listings and more detail (updated monthly), see
http://www.clever.net/cam/forthcomingsf.html .
What Do Larry Niven and Dan Simmons Have in Common??
Well, aside from both being SF authors....
No joke, both will be doing signings in Adventures in Crime and Space in
Austin Texas in early March. Our guess is that Niven will be promoting
his new book, Rainbow Mars, a fun romp that pulls out all the stops,
Martians, Time Travel, Ecological Catastrophe on a Global Scale. Dan
Simmons will probably be talking about Crook Factory, a more serious
effort difficult to categorize. Imagine Hemingway as a WWII spy. Well
apparently he really was. He asked the American embassy for help in
establishing a counterintelligence outfit he called "The Crook Factory,"
designed to investigate Nazi activity in his adopted home of Cuba. And
then Simmons mixes in his fictional account. Is it Science Fiction?
Maybe its Speculative Biography.
Rainbow Mars -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312867778/fantasicfuturesbA
The Crook Factory -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0380973685/fantasicfuturesbA
Adventures in Crime & Space - http://www.CrimeandSpace.com/
Art for Art Sake
Science Fiction Weekly features a different "front cover" each week,
many of them with excellent sf art. If you want to just browse
through Science Fiction Art, you should look at their gallery of
past covers.
Science Fiction Weekly Art Gallery
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/gallery/gallery.html
Science Fiction Weekly http://www.scifi.com/sfw/
The Future of Literature??
Alexandria Digital Literature is a bookstore that sells electronic editions
of books. Their most recent addition is Robert Silverberg's "Tower of
Glass". While many of their writers will be unfamiliar, you may recognize
some names such as Lawrence Watt-Evans, Vonda N. McIntyre and Ardath Mayhar.
Alexandria Digital Literature - http://www.alexlit.com/
Forthcoming SF, Fantasy, & Gaming Cons
Zine and media fans in particular will be marking their calendars for
REVELcon 10 March 19-21 in Houston, with general SF AggieCon XXX to
follow March 25-28 at Texas A&M.
See also our monthly What's Happening list at
http://www.clever.net/cam/concalendar.html .
Space: The Next Millennium
Actually that's the title of the 18th Annual International Space
Development Conference. They have pulled in Apollo 10 Astronauts Tom
Stafford, John Young, and Gene Cernan to celebrate the 30th anniversary
of Apollo 10.
The conference will cover a number of topics dear to the heart of SF fans
everywhere including the development of commercial space, Space Station,
"Return to the Moon", "On to Mars", and deep space discovery. Check it
out at http://www.nss.org/calendar/isdc52699.html .
REVELcon Music Video Contest
My (Clif's) favorite part (OK, one of my favorite parts) of REVELcon
every year is the Music Video Contest. The Rules are on the Web
now at http://www.clever.net/cam/musicvid.html , so you budding
video artists out there need to keep in mind you are restricted to
three entries and 15 min.
While you are perusing the REVELcon information at
http://www.clever.net/cam/revelcon10a.html
You should click on the link that says Internet Zine Sale.
Houston-area and Texas Science Fiction Organizations
Dinosaurs of Houston Fandom Congregate
The original Science Fiction group in Houston, the HSFS, (Houston
Science Fiction Society), had its annual get-together in the home
of Joe and Dennis Pumilia. The torch was passed to a new
generation and Joe and Luce's son, after demonstrating that he had
inherited the bad (but fun) amateur movie gene, was inducted into
the HSFS in a short moving ceremony video-taped for posterity. Joanne
Burger re-emerged into fandom from her new location in Pasadena. Al
Jackson was introduced as a rocket scientist and didn't kill anyone.
T'Pell was _not_ on crutches this year. Stanley Sutton, temporarily
car-less, called and partied over the phone by proxy. Clif only left
the post party - party because Margaret needed to buy groceries.
Zines!! If you have zines you'd like to sell, remember to check out Several
Unlimited's upcoming March-April 1999 Internet Zine Sale at
http://members.aol.com/ErikaF/su/sale.htm
Several Unlimited has reserved SIX full tables at REVELcon
just for zines and are following that with an Internet Zine
Sale. Their Internet Zine Sale last year sold thousands of
dollars of zines, (mostly media fanzines, but they do take
other items). Most of their current info is for people who
want to sell zines but its also a great way to whet your
appetite. :-)
To find out more, see our listing at
http://www.clever.net/cam/clubslist.html .
Science Fiction on TV
Star Trek: Voyager's first made-for-TV two-hour movie (ala B5), "Dark
Frontier", premieres Wednesday Feb.17. Quick movie preview: The Borg
have come for Seven of Nine!
For more information, see http://www.startrek.com/gotocontinuum.asp
J.M. Straczynski and TNT might soon be parting ways. Will the Sci Fi Channel
come to the rescue? Inquiring minds want to know what's going on with
Babylon 5's followup series Crusade!
See:
Crusade might leave TNT & go to Sci-Fi Channel
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=2947
Sci-Fi Channel on Crusade
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?1999-01/30/13.53.tv
On the other hand, Star Trek's future is assured. This season is the last, of
course, for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, leaving the prospect of next fall
having only Star Trek: Voyager back for its sixth season. Will there be
another, new series? Well, yes, actually!
Rick Berman himself has been quoted as saying "There is no doubt that there
will be another series. The question is when it will premiere. I can tell
you with some degree of assuredness that it will not be next fall when
Deep Space Nine goes off the air. As for whether it will be a year later
or 18 months later or two years later. Those are all things which will be
decided over the next few months." (As quoted in the Star Trek Communicator,
the offical ST fan club magazine, issue 120.)
For more information see: http://stzone.simplenet.com/GreatLink/frontier.html
For more information about Science Fiction on TV, see our
listing at http://www.clever.net/cam/sftv.html .
Just the Facts, Ma'am.
According to Ansible 139, they sighted briefly (very briefly I imagine) on
Today's Space Fact at the NASA Human Spaceflight web site the question
"How can the space shuttle move when the astronauts are sleeping?" Ansible
speculated that Newton could be "heard continually falling around in his
coffin".
Ansible - http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/ftp/pub/SF-Archives/Ansible/
Speaking of Newton
Funding for the Russian Space Station, MIR has evaporated, and it may be
abandoned and then de-orbited in August or September 1999. Never intended
to last for 13 years it has far outlasted the period of time it was
designed for. Current Mir cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev, who has already spent
half a year in space will orbit for another six months and will be joined by
the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Haignere who was originally to stay for 99 days,
but now may also have his trip extended to six months.
Mir may ditch in August
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_277000/277748.stm
Martian Microbe "Lives" Again
In 1996 NASA researchers found what they believed might be Martian
microfossils in a Martian meteorite found in the Antarctic. Their
finding was, however greeted with enormous scepticism by those who
believed the shapes were too small to have come from any bacteria-like
organisms. Now in a new study conducted at the Lockheed Martin Space Mission
Systems and Services in Houston, Texas, it has been shown that such
small fossils can form due to filaments from bacteria. Earth bacteria,
taken from rocks in Washington state, were bred in conditions that
simulated the environment deep beneath the Earth's surface. When
they died, they became fossilised in only eight weeks.
About 30% of the microbes grown in the laboratory had filaments attached.
Crucially, filaments that were not attached to the organisms also became
fossilised. Researchers say it is the first time such tiny parts of bacteria
have been shown to become mineralised in the same way as whole microbe.
It suggests the structures on the Martian rock may also be the fossilised
remains of filaments.
Martian 'bacteria' matched to Earth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_277000/277674.stm
Pluto Hangs On
Weeks of Controversy over the status of the planet Pluto were finally
resolved this month with the decision that Pluto would still be recognized
as the ninth planet. As it became clear that Pluto had more in common
with the trans-Neptunian objects than the other eight planets, there
was a desire to reclassify it. It has been agreed among all the relevant
bodies in the IAU that Pluto will be number 1 in a sequential listing of
all TNOs (trans-Neptunian objects). But because of the historical
precedence it will also maintain its accustomed place in the list of
planets.
IAU - The Status of Pluto - http://www.ss.astro.umd.edu/IAU/div3/pluto.shtml
That-Sa Old "Child"
If you've been following the ongoing indications that the last El Nino
has not yet completely died, some perspective can be found from looking at
the history. By looking at erosion in sediment layers, it now appears that
El Nino has been around some 15,000 years. Initially it occurred only
once every 15 to 70 years. About 7,000 years ago the periods started getting
shorter and it reached its current pattern about 2,000 years ago. Now
it may be changing again. The 1997-98 El Nino, the strongest ever recorded,
created record rainfall in California, heavy flooding in Peru, drought
and wildfires in Indonesia, and tornadoes and flooding in the Southeast
states. It was blamed for 23,000 deaths and $33 billion in damages worldwide.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/science/story.html?s=v/ap/19990207/sc/older_el_nino_1.html
Houston and/or Texas Area Writers Groups
We've included something about writing in virtually each isue of the
Info-Alert to date. Now, I've been able to start a Web page for writers
groups here in the greater Houston/Texas area.
See: http://www.clever.net/cam/writers.html
This month, I wanted to mention the Electronic Rights Clearinghouse for
out-of-print books as mentioned in the February 1999 issue of Locus. As we
move more and more into the digital age, authors will have to make
arrangements for electronic rights of their works as they do now for
hardback, paperback, and international rights, etc.
For more information see:
Electronic Rights Clearinghouse - http://www.e-rights.com/
Fair Use - http://www.clever.net/cam/cyberlib.34.html
Writer Resources
There is a nice collection of general (rather than SF/Fantasy related) writer's
resources maintained by Digital Images Publishing Studios at
http://www.bcity.com/dips/ .
The Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) not surprisingly, does have
a SF/Fantasy oriented web page of writer's resources at
http://www.sfwa.org/links/resources.htm#gen . Also of interest
to readers and writers alike is the Writer's Market Webzine at
http://www.writemarket.com/ featuring both material aimed at the neo-pro
and items of broader interest such as Steve Sawicki's Damn Alien Reviews.
Then you may want to look at the on-going debate at
http://www.sfwa.org/bulletin/articles/Web.htm on whether it is worthwhile
for SF authors to create and maintain a web page for publicity purposes.
(As interested bystanders, we're in favor of them - if there was any
doubt.) Finally, take a look at http://www.speculations.com/ for Speculations,
a print-based magazine aimed at writers who wish to break into or increase
their presence within the science fiction, fantasy, horror, or "other"
speculative fiction genres. They invite you to register for a free sample
over the web. Again they have a number of potentially useful articles
on their site.
FFFeedback
Marianne Dyson wrote:
Writing is often a lonely profession, and as some of you have suggested, we
As for conventions -- be sure that everyone knows that the National Space
So if people are interested in real space exploration, this is one Houston
Ad Astra!
Marianne Dyson/author, Space Station Science (Scholastic, 1999 -- it will
Marianne,
We are looking forward to hearing about the various other Science Fiction
- Clif
Neil Olsen wrote:
I really enjoy y'alls Friends of Fandom newsletters. I appreciate the
Neil,
Thanks for the kind words. In turn, allow us to wish you well on
If anyone else would like to comment, please send us email. And
Send any email comments or suggestions regarding fannish activities/events
Margaret A. Fincannon, Friends of Fandom &
Activate Shields!! Fine print detected ahead!...
To be removed from this Mailing List, please send a remove request to
writers need to get out more... Anyway, SFWA has at least a handful of
members in Houston, and when other SFWAns come to town on business or for
book signings, we try to let each other know so we can appropriately roast,
er, welcome our fellow writers at lunch or dinner. (Sometimes they have
even been tortured with dinner at my house! Just ask Geoffrey Landis...)
Anyway, this sort of thing usually happens on very short notice, but I can
try to let you know in time to alert FoF folks in Houston if they'd like to
join us sometime. Hey - now there's an idea -- how about a regular SF
authors night out? You can all pay for my dinner and...
Society's 18th annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) is
being held here in Houston May 27-31 at the Radisson hotel at Hobby
Airport.
conference they will not want to miss. The current price is only $65 which
includes one banquet. A registration form is available at www.nss.org/isdc.
be in stores in August!), SFWA member, Chairman ISDC '99
writers who will be joining Catherine Asaro, one of Margaret's favorite
writers, and Geoffrey Landis at the conference.
hard work that goes into the variety of information that is provided. As
they say, "it's a labor of love..." The end results are well worth the
effort.
your coming year of editorship of Starbase Houston's Log.
that wraps up another issue.
in the greater Houston area (or within Texas) or regarding this Info Alert
to fof@clever.net . If you received this Info Alert as a sample and would
be interested in receiving future editions directly, email clifton@cs.uh.edu
or click on "sign up" on any of our Web pages as listed above and register.
Alternately you can register directly on
http://www.clever.net/cam/register.html .
Be seeing you!
Clifton B. Davis, Friends of Fandom Vice Pres. of Publications
http://www.clever.net/cam/fof.html fof@clever.net
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