March 1999

Welcome Aboard

We want to welcome Info-Alert newcomers, Robert Trobaugh and Sophia
Snider, both from Oklahoma City (coincidence or cosmic fate, you
decide). A welcome also to Debbie Awad who was apparently subscribed
by someone else (not something we want to encourage), but is getting
this copy anyway. Good to hear from you, Debbie. Let us know if you
decide you would like to be removed from the list. A semi-welcome to
Arlene who should be getting her own personal copy by email-to-fax.
We will see how it works.

May I Have The Envelope, Please?

The 1998 Nebula Award Ballot is now available. Congratulations to
College Station resident Martha Wells upon her first Nebula novel
nomination (for Death of the Necromancer)! Also, if you have never
met Nebula nominee Catherine Asaro, look for her at the upcoming
International Space Development Conference (more about that later)
here in Houston this May!

Catherine Asaro - http://www.sff.net/people/asaro/
Last Hawk
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312860447/fantasicfuturesbA
Tor, November 1997

Joe Haldeman - http://www.teleport.com/~cos/jhald/index.html
Forever Peace
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0441004067/fantasicfuturesbA
Ace, October 1997

Jack McDevitt - http://www.sfwa.org/members/McDevitt/
Moonfall
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0061050369/fantasicfuturesbA
HarperPrism, April 1998

Harry Turtledove - http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/turtledove.html
How Few Remain
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345416619/fantasicfuturesbA
Del Rey, October 1997

Martha Wells - http://www.charisat.com/
Death of the Necromancer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0380973340/fantasicfuturesbA
Avon, July 1998

Connie Willis - http://www.starsend.com/authors/cw/cwhome.htm
To Say Nothing of the Dog
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0553099957/fantasicfuturesbA
Bantam Spectra, January 1998

The 1998 Nebula Awards will be given out on Saturday, May 1, 1999 in
Pittsburgh, PA.
http://www.sfwa.org/awards/99wknd.html

For more information, see our Nebula Novel Awards listing at
http://www.clever.net/cam/nebulanovels.html .

Science Fiction at the Movies

The age of digital theaters dawns June 18, 1999 in four theaters
(cities & locations to be announced later) when Star Wars: Episode 1:
The Phantom Menace is beamed via satellite to theaters and shown by
digital projectors for the first time.
See:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/news/1999/10/showest.html

Also of note: A new, longer theatrical trailer is now available (in
the Quicktime 3.0 format) at both:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/news/trailer/
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/trailers/fox/episode-i/

Fans will further be happy to hear that Phantom Menace's premiere
date has been moved up from Friday May 21 to Wednesday May 19 in
order to give the fans a "head start", so that the lines won't be
so prohibitively long for families to see the movie by the time the
weekend comes along!

Forthcoming SF&Fantasy Books

New Books By Piers Anthony, Catherine Asaro, Terry Brooks, Lois
McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, C.J.Cherryh, Arthur C. Clarke,
William Gibson, Brian Herbert, Katharine Kerr, Mercedes Lackey,
Andre Norton, Charles Sheffield, Sheri S.Tepper, and Harry Turtledove.

March releases from Barbara Hambly, James Hogan, Guy Gavriel Kay,
Larry Niven, Terry Pratchett, and Dan Simmons.

Hold the presses! The first two Acorna books were co-authored by
Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball. It seems that the one is by Anne
McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. The fourth will be by Ms.
Scarborough alone. Look for Acorna book 3 (Acorna's People) this
July 1999!
For the latest on Ms. McCaffrey's works, see:
Anne McCaffrey publications
http://hometown.aol.com/Coelura/McCaffrey.html

For more sf&f new book listings and more detail (updated monthly),
see http://www.clever.net/cam/forthcomingsf.html .

Selkie of Approval

Anne McCaffrey is this year's recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards
Award for lifetime achievement writing books popular with teenagers.
In a sense it is the American Library Association's version of a
Grand Master Award. The ALA has created a gold seal for placement
on all Anne McCaffrey titles.

http://www.sfwa.org/News/edaward.htm

Ms. McCaffry Responds:

27 February 1999

"The American Library Association has informed me that I have been
awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Literary Achievement Award
for The Harper Hall trilogy, the Dragonriders of Pern novels, and the
Ship Who Sang. That they had the perspicacity to include the novel,
and story, which means to most to me personally is a matter of great
joy and elation. I shall, of course, be collecting the Citation in
person in New Orleans in June, 1999. Hey, guys, now I can prove I'm
a "Literary" science-fiction writer."

http://members.aol.com/dragnhld/index2.html

Deeper Yet

Vernor Vinge's Hugo winning novel, A Fire Upon the Deep, finally,
after seven years, has a prequel, A Deepness in the Sky. It is the
pre-history of one Pham Nuwen, a Qeng Ho legend.
Those who enjoyed the first will probably enjoy the new book also.

A Fire on the Deep
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0812515285/fantasicfuturesbA

A Deepness in the Sky
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312856830/fantasicfuturesbA

The Robot's are Coming. The Robots are Coming!

Now you can have a robot, a database-driven Web site, recomend new
Science Fiction to read based on your individual tastes, and in the
privacy in your very own home. After checking on your preferences
from a number of interesting lists of well known novels, the robot
will make recomendations from its list of 400 works of Science
Fiction. Besides Science Fiction, you can get recomendations on
Mysteries, Fantasy, Popular Science and a wide variety of other
catagories.

Reader's Robot - http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/rr.html

More SF at the Book Club

The FACT Science Fiction Reading Group is reading Marina Fitch's The
Border and discussing it on March 16. F&SF called Marina Fitch "one
of our best contemporary fantasists". Then in early April, the FACT
reading group will be discussing A King of Infinite Space by Allen
Steele. This is one of Clif's favorite authors. Margaret reports
with disappointment that this is his last space book and his newest
book is set in the ocean. But she admits grudgingly that she might
read the new book anyway because he's such a good writer.

FACT Science Fiction Reading Group
http://www.eden.com/~acs/reading/index.html

The Border
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0441005942/fantasicfuturesbA

A King of Infinite Space
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0061052868/fantasicfuturesbA

Allen Steele
http://www.cybersecretary.com/allen/index.html

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/isdc/home.html .

Speaking of Gene Cernan

The first man to travel around the earth without being in a craft
(he was spacewalking at the time) now has his own book out. I (Clif)
probably won't be getting the hardback out of a limited grad student
budget, but I sure wouldn't return it if it were a gift.
Last Man on the Moon :
Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312199066/fantasicfuturesbA

Other Gift Ideas

Looking for a birthday or special occasion present for that hard-to-
shop for sf fan of yours?

You could get her (or him) a zine (see below), a coffee mug or
diorama (see Starbase Houston's new line of collectibles from
Applause), something from the dealer's room at REVELcon, or for
that really rare sf item, see:
Ann's Collectibles: Rare and Unusual Items of Fandom
http://hometown.aol.com/desannie/collect/index.htm

Houston-area and Texas Science Fiction Organizations

Starbase Houston is pleased to announce the 5th Annual Chili Cookoff
and Dessert Bakeoff on Saturday, April 17, 1999 at Midnight Comics
(13155 Westheimer, between Dairy Ashford and Synott). For those
entering the contest, the start time is 12 noon. Judging commences
at 12:30 PM and serving at 1:00 PM. Starbase Houston will be holding
a Sci-Fi Auction at 3:00 PM. For more information contact the Warp
Line at 713-790-0044.
See:
http://web.wt.net/~robg/sbh/chilickoff99.html

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

Crusade will premiere on TNT Wednesday June 9, 1999. The first 13
episodes have already been filmed so we will get to see these. But
will there be a second season?
See:
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=3D3132

And
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990302/ca_netter__1.html

Mystery Science Theater 3000's tenth and last season will premiere
April 11 and end August 8, according to a recent article in the
Houston Chronicle.
See
http://www.scifi.com/mst3000/

For more information about Science Fiction on TV, see our listing at
http://www.clever.net/cam/sftv.html .

Houston and/or Texas Area Writers Groups

Houston area authors will be marking their calendars for the fast
approaching Writer's Tool Kit Conference to be hosted by the Houston
Writers League March 18-21, 1999 here in town.
See:
http://www.swammi.com/writers/hwl/conf99.htm

A Web of Writer's Workshops

Asimov's James Patrick Kelly while discussing national writer's
workshops such as Clarion, Clarion West, and Odyssey, points out that
instead of sacrificing a summer, you can try an online workshop. He
claims the best known one is Critters Workshop. Run by Andrew Burt,
it is reputed to be well organized and free. Members can submit
manuscripts monthly and are required to write a critique each week.
Most pieces get 15-20 critiques.

Critters Workshop
http://brain-of-pooh.tech-soft.com/users/critters/

Clarion - http://pilot.msu.edu/~lbs/clarion/select.html

Clarion West - http://www.sff.net/clarionwest/index.htm

Odyssey - http://www.nhc.edu/odyssey/

Asimov's - http://www.sfsite.com/asimovs/

For more information on local writer's groups and our ever-expanding
list of writer's resources, see our listing at:
http://www.clever.net/cam/writers.html

Space, The Final Frontier

Scientist and science-fiction writer Geoffrey A. Landis (1998 Nebula
nominee for Novella and Short Story) has been awarded a fellowship
from the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts to study advanced
concepts for an interstellar probe. His study will analyze the
possibility of using dielectric films to increase the performance
of laser-pushed lightsails, a concept first proposed by Dr. Robert
Forward, another well-known science fiction writer, in 1984. (The
fact that Drl Forward is a speaker at the upcoming IDSC in Houston
is pure chance - honest).

In this concept, a large space-based laser, powered by solar energy
generated near the orbit of Mercury, is focused on a thin, reflective
sail. The pressure of the laser light accelerates the sail to
near-relativistic velocities. The baseline mission being studied is
an unmanned fly-by mission of the nearby star Alpha Centauri. He is
scheduled to present his studies at the NASA symposium on advanced
concepts in Washington, DC on April 25.

NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
http://peaches.niac.usra.edu/studies/

Geoffrey A. Landis
http://www.sff.net/people/geoffrey.landis

NASA had a troubled February and March. First there was a delay in
the launch of NASA's Stardust spacecraft when it was aborted about
one minute before liftoff due to a problem with telemetry data from
a radar beacon on the Delta launch vehicle used to track the rocket
as it ascends. But, after a rescheduling it was safely on its way
to a rendezvous with Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2") on January 2,
2004. The spacecraft will gather particles flying off the nucleus
of the comet and return them to Earth in January 2006.

Stardust - http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html

Less happily, early March saw the launch of NASA's Wide-Field
Infrared Explorer (WIRE) astronomy spacecraft (with an infrared
telescope). This was an air launch from a Lockheed L-1011 jet
aircraft. The launch was successful enough, but soon the
spacecraft began to experience attitude control problems during its
second pass over the ground station at Poker Flat, Alaska. The NASA
team declared a spacecraft emergency and communicated with the
spacecraft while attempting to slow the spin rate and cool the WIRE
spacecraft. Ground controllers were slowly gaining control of the
Explorer by imparting small, countering forces using the satellite's
onboard magnetic attitude control system to gently slow the
spacecraft's spin but the entire supply of frozen hydrogen needed
to cool its primary scientific instrument was released into space,
ending the scientific mission of the spacecraft as the telescope's
own heat emissions would now mask the infrared light from starburst
galaxies that it was trying to detect in space.

WIRE - http://sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov/smex/wire/wire_top.html

Even the wildly successful Hubble Space Telescope is having problems
as only three of its six gyroscopes are still working properly. One
is acting abnormally and another two are completely dead. If one
more fails, Hubble will automatically go to a protective "safe mode"
which means it will do nothing more until it can be fixed. NASA has
scheduled an emergancy "callup mission" for October to replace the
gyros and also replace a failed spare transmitter. At the same time
the astronauts will replace a guidance sensor and the spacecraft's
computer.

Hubble Space Telescope - http://oposite.stsci.edu/
Service Mission Press Release
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-038.txt

On a much happier note the Mars Global Surveyor finally started its
gobal mapping mission and the very first day discovered ....
A "Happy Face Crater" on the east side of Argyre Planitia? This crater
is officially known as Galle Crater, and it is about 134 miles across.
It looks like a smiley face to me. JPL has a thumbnail photo of the
smiling crater at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/thumbnail/happyface.gif
and a larger view available at the image release directory
http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/index.html .
The bluish-white tone is caused by wintertime frost.

It's Super Sun

Using the Japanese Yohkoh spacecraft, NASA-sponsored scientists
have discovered that an S-shaped structure often appears on the Sun
in advance of a violent eruption, called a coronal mass ejection,
that is as powerful as billions of nuclear explosions. Coronal mass
ejections are violent discharges of electrically charged gas from
the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. The largest explosions in
the solar system, they hurl up to 10 billion tons of gas into space
at speeds of one to two million miles an hour.

"S marks the spot," said Dr. Alphonse Sterling of Computational Physics,
Inc., Fairfax, VA, detailed to the Institute of Space and Astronautical
Science (ISAS), Japan. "We have found a strong correlation between an
S-shaped pattern on the Sun, called a sigmoid, and the likelihood that
an ejection will occur from that region within days. Each sigmoid is
like a loaded gun that we now know has a high probability of going off."

Now a statistical study by Canfield, Hudson, and McKenzie shows that
the sigmoid shape can be used as a reliable indicator of the likelihood
that an active region will erupt. Additionally, the study links eruptive
probability to the size of the region.

For more information and photos of the S on the Sun see the
Coronal Mass Ejection Prediction Page at
http://solar.physics.montana.edu/press/

Global Warming

From time to time we've mentioned the TOPEX/Poseidon ocean topography
satellite that scans the earths oceans for hight changes as subtle
as 1 millimeter per year. Although it has lasted an unprecedented
monitoring lifetime already, its primary radar altimeter had started
showing signs of age. By sending instructions to shut off the primary
altimiter and force the switch to the back up altimeter, the satellite
should last for years more, with the capability to switch back to the
primary altimeter remaining. This should be far more than needed since
its successor JASON-1 launches in May 2000.

Just as the last El Niņo experianced a long lingering lifetime after it
was no longer the dominate influence, battling for control into October
of 1998, the current cold pool of water in the Pacific known as "La Niņa"
still persists, although it is slowly giving ground. The latest image at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino/ shows that La Niņa still dominates the
equatorial Pacific Ocean but the image also shows that the very large,
unusual area of higher or warmer water (shown in red and white) in the
western Pacific Ocean, from the tropics to the Gulf of Alaska, continues
to expand. Although the appearance of this feature is not fully
understood it is recognized as influential on both weather and climate.

Possibly unrelated, a NASA research document strongly suggests that
Greenlands glaciers are repidly thinning and their lower elevations
may be particularly sensitive to potential climate changes. In the
March 5 issue of SCIENCE, researchers report the glacial thinning is
too large to have resulted from increased ice-surface melting or
decreased snowfall. The researchers believe the thinning, as much as
30 feet over five years in some locations, is the result of increasing
discharge speeds of glaciers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Surface-
melt water might be seeping to the bottom of glaciers. Such seepage
may be reducing the friction between the ice and the rock below it,
enabling the glaciers to slide with less friction across the bedrock
and thus allow more ice to slip off into the ocean.

"The excess volume of ice transported by these glaciers has
had a negligible effect on global sea level thus far, but if it
accelerates or becomes more widespread, it would begin to have a
detectable impact on sea level," said Bill Krabill, principal
investigator at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight
Facility, Wallops Island, VA.

FFFeedback

Marianne Dyson writes:

Dear Margaret and Clif -

Thanks for including a plug of the ISDC in the latest Alert. A quick
update on program participants of interest to the SF community:
unfortunately, Majel Roddenberry had a conflict arise, and will not
be attending. However, we are pleased to announce that Babylon 5's
BRUCE BOXLEITNER will be the Master of Ceremonies at our Awards
Banquet on Sunday night (May 30)! We are in discussions with another
actor for Saturday night, and will pass that along to you as soon as
we find out anything firm.

The Saturday night event is still our Dreams to Reality banquet with
an audience participation slant. First, we have a live professional
space band, Zia (from Boston), to get us in the mood during a reception
that will include book signings by all SF and NF authors in attendance.
We are pleased to add Robert Forward to the list of confirmed guests.
(He will be speaking about tethers on Sunday.) Then, participants will
be seating at "topic" tables with an author or scientist, and during
dinner, discuss how they see their topic, computers or transportation
or education, etc. being different in the next millennium, and how they
think we can get there from here.

While these discussions are going on, we will show the graphic arts
show Planetary Traveler on large screens. It will appear like we are
dining in a space ship and seeing these wild images out the window.
Then, the authors and scientists will join a panel and discuss the
ideas gleaned from their tables. The actor, if he says yes, will
moderate this discussion, and provide some comments of his own
before and after dinner.

We've never tried this format before, and are anxious to see how it
works. Hopefully, everyone will leave happy, having shared the next
millennium with some fascinating and a few famous kindred spirits and
gotten a decent meal along the way.

Of course we also have some fantastic science programming with top-
notch speakers and astronauts, especially important for writers who
would like to do a bunch of research and get great quotes all at once.

The children's program is being run by the same folks who ran the
Worldcon kids program with some really cool stuff planned like
building a space ship out of helium balloons. Kids (5 to 18) tickets
are only $5, so bring them along!

We've also confirmed 3 NASA exhibits and a Mars meteorite will be on
display. Our vendor's room is filling up nicely, but we are looking
for a good used book dealer. If you have some suggestions, please
send them along.

The price goes up March 15, so remind folks to register early. The
form is online at http://www.nss.org/isdc/ . If you hear about the
conference through this newsletter, you can claim the member rate
of $65 (which includes one banquet). Just circle the Clear Lake
Area NSS name on the sponsor list. If you want to volunteer, we can
probably find you a job, and offer you an even greater discount.

Hope to see you in May!

Marianne Dyson/ISDC '99 Chairman, author, Space Station Science
(Scholastic, 1999)

- Thanks Marianne!

And that wraps it up for another issue. See you at REVELcon.

Send any email comments or suggestions regarding fannish
activities/events 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!

Margaret A. Fincannon, Friends of Fandom &
Clifton B. Davis, Friends of Fandom Vice Pres. of Publications
http://www.clever.net/cam/fof.html fof@clever.net

Reverse Engines!!! Fine print detected ahead!...
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