Friends of Fandom - The Triumphant Return of ...
The Info Alert
http://www.clever.net/cam/archive/
June 2001
Greetings From the First Year of the 21st Century. Somewhat delayed
greetings perhaps, but greetings all the same.
Propriety would suggest that an explanation of the delay was in order, and
indeed one or two are forthcoming. There are, in fact, a host of reasons
of varying complexity.
The simplest is that Clif and Margaret, your editors, placed the Info
Alert on hold in order to give Clif a chance to graduate and find a job.
The fact that this is an Info Alert might suggest that he has graduated
and is now gainfully employed.
This is more or less true as Clif is now Dr. Clif with a diploma hanging
on the wall to prove it AND he has a job as an instructor at University of
Houston, albeit a short-term teaching position which is currently set to
disappear at the end of the summer.
Other than the lack of a permanent job, other factors have come into play.
Margaret was attacked by a vicious chair-dolly which led to a fractured
elbow. (That may sound simple enough, but a lot of nerves run through that
area. You would be surprised how much functionality you lose when you are
right handed and your entire right arm is disabled. She is much better now
and was finally dismissed by her physical therapist, but is still not
fully recovered).
Vicious Chair-Dolly - 
[BUT delete
chairs & upright handle. Note both "teeth" (the upright triangles) and the
wheels. Now add in a free-standing bulletin board ready to entangle and,
with the chair dolly, trip Margaret with disastrous but not immediately
evident results. Most foul chair dolly! - I did not understand how badly
I had been injured until I got home & suddenly could no longer feed myself
right-handed. - Margaret]
The rains that flooded Houston are familiar to most of you, but you
probably don't know that among the casualties are the building that houses
the computer that holds the Info Alert email for the last 6 months.
http://freeweb.pdq.net/stuartf/flood.htm
We could go on...
But we won't. But it is clear that many of the reasons for the delay are
still in place. And so the delay would be just a little bit longer.
But...
ConSortium is coming June 29-July 1.
With the indefinite retirement or demise of ConTROLL, CONTEX, and even
some of the very small Houston conventions, ConSortium is left standing as
the major SF event of the Houston area and our best hope for a long term
continuing general interest Science Fiction convention. (Admittedly,
Several Unlimited is still waiting in the wings with plans for the proper
place and time, but they are yet to be heard from.)
ConSortium has their first convention under their belts, doing well their
first year (despite competition from weddings in Margaret's family that
kept us away) and are expanding mightily for their second year.
Boy, are they expanding!
They will have guests including their Author Guest of Honor, David Weber,
whose long list of SF credits include the popular Honor Harrington series,
which mixes Military Science Fiction, Romance, Humor, and lots and lots of
violent action. Did we mention page-turning character development?
David will be joined by Michael Stackpole who authored the core BattleTech
novels and a long line of Star Wars novels including the current Dark Tide
series.
Additionally, various pros and neo-pros will be guests including
vampirologist Tippi N. Blevins, Elizabeth Kelley Buzbee known for her
Tales from Azuni series about a sentient planet (Elizabeth is a graduate
and mover in the Internet "Critters' Workshop," that you've seen mentioned
here in previous issues), P.C. Cast whose first novel "Goddess by Mistake"
is hitting the bookshelves this summer, Melanie Fletcher who not only
writes speculative fiction, but is also a famed web-blogger with her site,
Neekid Clueless and Feelin' Good, AND has done the artwork on more than
one occasion for the covers of The Erotic Writer's Market Guide, Julia
Blackshear Kosatka who sold her first story to the new fantasy magazine
Black Gate and currently has a novel in progress, and Lee Martindale whose
fantasy fiction has seen the insides of numerous anthologies.
Selena Rosen, whose Queen of Denial has attracted quite a bit of favorable
interest will be at ConSortium and will appear on a panel or three.
Jonathan Lyons whose Science Fiction Noir novel, Burn, was named a best
seller by Adventures in Crime and Space will be reading and signing at
ConSortium.
This is also your opportunity to meet Nick Pollotta whose 35 published
novels include the famed Bureau 13 series mentioned here a time or two and
currently being re-released by Wildside Press (with new additions).
The Clear Lake Reading/Discussion group will have a session at ConSortium
and there will be a mini-writer's workshop for those learning to write and
sell Science Fiction.
So does this mean that ConSortium is all writing and writers?
Absolutely not. For a media guest, fans of Babylon 5 will have the
opportunity to hang with Claudia Christian, Cmdr. Susan Ivanova on the
show.
Artist Guest of Honor is Charles Keegan, winner of Judges' Choice Award at
the '98 Worldcon Art Show and Chesley Award nominee. Charles has done
cover art for Tor, Del Rey, Baen Books and Meisha Merlin as well as art
for the Doomtown card game.
In addition to 4 tracks of regular programming ConSortium will have a
separate, extensive gaming track, the extreme point of which is a live
action Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, "No dice, no table, no pizza
boxes", just you and your fellow ex-prisoners drafted as Human Medical
Experimental Subjects. Other gaming includes Steve Jackson's creations,
miniatures starship combat game set in the Babylon 5 universe, White Wolf,
and much much more.
Filkers will be also be happy with Claudia Christian who is not only also
a songwriter, but also a guitarist. Filking will occur repeatedly
throughout the con headed by Judy Craft and the Dandelion club.
There will be an art show and auction, an Anime Room, a Costuming
Workshop, a Masquerade & Dance, a con suite and just about everything you
would expect to find.
Additionally, there are things you wouldn't expect to find such as
workshops in sword-fighting, Tarot reading, and other highly diverse
skills.
The HeartFires people (we talked about them last time) will be there as
will our friend Charlayne Denney (we know her first as Bruce Denney's
better half, but she was active in fandom back as far as SuperCon in '79).
The popular Master of Ceremonies from last year, Tony Elam, will be back
again this year. The Hotel will offer Party and Non-Party (quiet) floors.
Does that cover everything?
Oh, yeah! The fan guests of honor will be someone named
Margaret Adamson Fincannon and Clif Davis.
Which kind of brings us to a point. ConSortium is going to be full of
people who have never heard of us.
At times the multi-track programming is going to have us on opposite David
Weber and at least once opposite Weber AND Stackpole. Do you have any idea
how embarrassing it would be to be talking to an empty room???
We are depending on you.
Please, please please! If you can attend the convention and hit our
events we would really REALLY appreciate the moral support (though if you
snuck off to listen to Weber, we would understand).
Hmm. Saturday instead of competing with Weber we are merely competing with
"Sex, Humor and S-F" (P.C. Cast). (Gee, is that all?)
And if $30 for the weekend is just too much to support ConSortium and
watch Clif melt down (Margaret will be her usual calm and collected self)
then ConSortium has a special Saturday price break ($10) for people with
Houston area IDs to provide a break for those digging out from the
tropical flood and aftermath who just need to get away from their problems
for awhile.
If you really want to support ConSortium, they could use volunteers.
Email volunteer@con-sortium.org now. They need gophers, people to set
up/tear down, help staff the con suite and other positions, and possibly a
few experienced game-masters as well.
ConSortium's charity this year will be Bay Area Turning Point, Inc., a
non-profit organization providing shelter to women and their children and
outreach services to victims of family violence and sexual assault.
And we have a whole raft of URLs:
ConSortium's main web page - http://www.con-sortium.org/index.html
ConSortium Registration Info - http://www.con-sortium.org/registration.html
ConSortium Hotel - http://www.con-sortium.org/hotel.html
ConSortium Schedule - http://www.con-sortium.org/programming.html
Several Unlimited - http://members.aol.com/ErikaF/su/
David Weber - http://weberworld.virtualave.net/
Honor Harrington - http://w1.545.telia.com/~u54504162/honor/
Michael Stackpole - http://www.stormwolf.com/
BattleTech - http://www.fasa.com/battletech/WhatisBT.html
Claudia Christian - http://www.claudiachristian.net/
Tony Elam - http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~elam/
Tippi Blevins - http://tippinblevins.com/
Elizabeth Kelley Buzbee
http://www.greatunpublished.com/Authors/Elizabeth_Kelley_Buzbee.htm
Tales from Azuni - http://www.skyaxe1.com/kbuzbee/index.html
Critters Workshop - http://www.critters.org/
P.C. Cast - http://www.pccast.net/Index.htm
Melanie Miller Fletcher - http://www.io.com/~hoosier/
Julia Blackshear Kosatka - http://www.io.com/~julia/
Burn, by Jonathan Lyons - http://www.the-foundry.net/burn/
Adventures in Crime & Space - http://www.crimeandspace.com/
Nick Pollotta - http://www.sfwa.org/members/Pollotta/
Wildside Press - http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
Lee Martindale - http://www.sff.net/people/lee-martindale/
Bureau 13 - http://www.bureau-13.com/
Charlayne Denney -
http://www.txpn.org/laborday/testimonials/testimonials/denney.html
Selena Rosen - http://www.angelfire.com/biz/MeishaMerlin/bioselena.html
Queen of Denial - http://www.angelfire.com/biz/MeishaMerlin/queenclip.html
Queen of Denial reviews -
http://www.meishamerlin.com/QueenofDenialReviews.html
Houston - Clear Lake Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Group
http://www.con-sortium.org/flyer.gif
Charles Keegan - http://www.keeganprints.com/
Steve Jackson Games - http://www.sjgames.com/
Judy Craft - http://home.earthlink.net/~jkcraft/jkcfen1.html#bio
HeartFires - http://www.heartfires.com/
Bay Area Turning Point, Inc - http://www.bayareaturningpoint.org/
And now...
Fasten your seatbelt and bring your browser window to an upright and
locked position.
And we are off ....
As always, how far off you have to determine for yourself.
Forthcoming SF&Fantasy Books
Nebulas were awarded April 27-29, 2001.
Bear, Greg: Darwin's Radio (Ballantine Del Rey, Sept. 1999)
is the 2000 Nebula Award winner for the novel category.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345435249/fantasicfuturesbA
For the complete list, see
http://www.sfwa.org/awards/current.htm
New books announced from Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Peter David, Eric Flint
& David Drake, Michael F. Flynn, Alan Dean Foster, Steven Gould, Brian
Herbert, Robin Hobb, Mercedes Lackey, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Andre Norton,
Harry Turtledove, & David Weber.
June releases from Harry Harrison, James Luceno, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Andre
Norton, Frederik Pohl, & Robert Silverberg.
For more sf&f new book listings and more detail (updated monthly),
see http://www.clever.net/cam/forthcomingsf.html .
Fans Are Slans
Since the last Info-Alert, Starbase Houston held their chili cookoff, held
an auction and otherwise raised large sums of money.
Sounds like it may be getting time for an ambitious celebration of Star
Trek again.
Star Trek Voyager received a fitting send off and various away teams were
assigned special missions. An away team checked out the Tomb Raider's
movie, and noted Starbase member Mary Ann Salinas launched her web
publishing empire with a site promoting her business as an independent
beauty consultant. (See if you can spot the diabolically clever Trek
references ;-) ) And, like the rest of us, Starbase waits for the new
show.
Starbase Houston - http://www.starbasehouston.org/
MARY ANN SALINAS, Independent Beauty Consultant
http://www.marykay.com/msalinas
Several Unlimited lost another of its long time members, Jackie Horgan, in
November. When Jackie put a large amount of Anne McKannan art collection
into the REVELcon Art show in 2000, Margaret mentioned to me that Jackie
looked ill then. Only later did we learn that she had breast cancer.
Several Unlimited has a site to share memories and stories about Jackie.
Once again Several Unlimited held a wildly successful Internet Zine Sale
as well as having a lot of fun. Their president was elected on a platform
of spending even less money than last year. What is Several Unlimited
planning? The not very secret answer is a convention. Eventually.
REVELcon in 2001 marked Candace Pulleine's last year of putting on
REVELcon and Several Unlimited expressed interest in putting on a
successor con with Candy's blessings. Interestingly, three different
groups were interested in not letting REVELcon die. (Interestingly, but
not surprisingly. REVELCon is/was unique).
Agreements were reached and next year's Revelcon will be run by Mercury
with the usual players including Several Unlimited (and for that matter,
Friends of Fandom) playing their usual roles. But Several Unlimited has
energy and interest and cash and at some point I expect to see them make a
move back into conventions, if not in that venue, then in another.
Several Unlimited officers Dee Beetem and Erika Frensley, who have been
roommates as long as anybody now living remembers, cut the knot in late
2000.
Now they live a few houses down from each other.
Several Unlimited - http://members.aol.com/ErikaF/su/
Jackie Horgan - http://members.aol.com/erikaf/su/jackieguest.htm
REVELcon - http://www.clever.net/cam/revelcon.html
Mercury - fb_mercury@hotmail.com
FACT, The Fannish Association of Central Texas continued their tradition
of partying from a 60 passenger boat on Lake Travis this June and the
subsequent flood in Houston was purely a coincidence.
The Star Wars exhibit inspired numerous Houston area fan groups to visit
the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). Somewhat further afield, this
included FACT who decided that not only would this be an excellent road
trip it would be a good chance to touch bases with some of their Houston
members.
Margaret and I put in our bid early to be included in the group, but as
luck would have it two different people were handling the ticket and
travel arrangements and we found out near the last minute that we had
fallen through the cracks.
However we were able to switch to a group from the Saturday Morning
Breakfast Group (Houston SF Ritual Breakfast) and catch the tour earlier
in the day so no harm done.
Except of course we missed seeing some of our Austin friends.
We joined the group at the Ritual Breakfast and this was my first
opportunity to see where the Breakfast had moved to. John Moore had
reserved the tickets and we formed a caravan of cars that negotiated a
twisting route complete with backtracks through Houston's ever-changing
road construction.
The Star Wars exhibit itself was enjoyable if not wildly informative.
The earphones MADE the tour by giving the exhibit an ambiance and
immediacy that it otherwise would not have had. At the same time, it
acted to isolate each member of the group, each in their own audio world.
I could frequently tell from Margaret's expression when she hit something
I had heard earlier. But the big thing about seeing something like that
with a group is the shared experience (complete with wisecracks and jokes)
and I wound up feeling vaguely cheated of what the entire experience
should have been.
For the record, Museum of Fine Arts Houston was the first location where
the Darth Maul Costume joined the exhibit.
I toyed with the idea of hanging around to say hello when the Austin group
arrived, but by the time we were through both Margaret and myself were
completely tired.
FACT - http://www.fact.org/
Houston Ritual SF Breakfast - http://www.flash.net/~aajiv/
Star Wars: The Magic of Myth - http://www.nasm.edu/StarWars/
http://www.mfah.org/Star/star.html
The Force is Strong with Star Wars Exhibit
http://www.heres2houston.com/hou/entertainment/stories/entertainment-53254620010308-210325.html
It's been interesting watching the online discussions of the Clear Lake
Reading Group grow.
As you may remember, their premise was that books would gradually be
circulated around the group and when enough people had read a particular
book it would become a topic of discussion.
They have moved the site of the meetings northward (to the IHOP at IH 45 &
Fuqua) to make it easier for members from Houston proper to attend.
Something that this format seems to encourage is meta-discussions about
whole categories of fiction that become recognizable from seeing various
examples. The latest example is the shanghaied visitors through time
genre. The group has a new flyer for ConSortium which reflects the name
change to incorporate Houston.
Houston - Clear Lake Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Group
http://www.con-sortium.org/flyer.gif
The FACT Reading Group in Austin has just read and discussed Galveston by
Sean Stewart. Their April take on The Road to Mars by Eric Idle and
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire are available at
http://www.crimeandspace.com/reading/apr01.html .
They are still meeting at their co-sponsor's, Adventures in Time and Space.
FACT Reading Group - http://www.crimeandspace.com/reading/mtgpast.html
Adventures in Time and Space - http://www.crimeandspace.com/
The ex-STAFF division of the greater CatBoxe group has just about taken
over University of Houston Math Department. Jason and Dave are running
their networks and computer system, Jennifer is running their entire
office and Alison is keeping their books. Various people associated with
CatBoxe/ConTROLL have moved to new locations since last issue (Jason and
Jennifer among them) and Lynn and Ahliana Bird have a new addition to the
family, a baby girl. (Congratulations, guys!)
You Heard It Here.
Look for ALAMO (based in San Antonio) to start making moves towards
another Worldcon bid based on the success of their last Worldcon (I.e.
1997)
Other parts of area fandom have probably been busy in 2001 but we haven't
stayed up to date on their activities. Sorry if we left your group out!
Send us an email occasionally to let us know what you are up to.
Science Fiction on TV
Fall 2001 network TV schedules have been announced.
Star Trek: Enterprise will be making its debut as the fifth incarnation of
the franchise. If Star Wars can do prequels, why can't Star Trek? (For
those of you who have been in another galaxy for the last year or so, the
next Star Trek series is set sometime soon after Star Trek: First Contact
and many, many years before Star Trek: The Original Series. Yes, they
will have aliens as friends [the Vulcans] and aliens as enemies [the
Klingons] and yes, they will have transporters. But you can forget the
holodeck.) http://www.startrek.com/production/
Smallville (with a teenage Clark Kent) is another series set for a Fall
2001 debut. I'm sorry. I've seen Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of
Superman. I'm not watching a series focusing on Clark's teen angst and
especially one where his arrival on Earth causes the accidental death of
Lana Lang's parents! Give me a break! [End rant- Margaret]
http://www.thewb.com/fallseason2001/smallville/
Also returning this fall are Farscape, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda,
Stargate, X-Files, Dark Angel, Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict, &
First Wave.
>From Magrathea's Science Fiction on TV pages
http://www.sftv.org/sftv/sftvschd.txt
SFTV News and Info
Gormenghast miniseries on PBS June 27, 28
The BBC/WGBH Produced four hour mini-series based on the fantasy trilogy
by Mervyn Peake will finally air on PBS on Wednesday, June 27th and
Thursday June 28 at 9 pm ET/PT on most PBS stations. Check your local
listings to be sure, though. It stars Ian Richardson, Christopher Lee,
Stephen Fry, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
For lots more info on the original books, the making of the series, check
out the PBS Gormenghast site at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/gormenghast/ They
also have a one page preview in their PBS picks section at
http://www.pbs.org/whatson/press/jun01/gormenghast.html
....
Andromeda Guest Stars - CSM, Byers, Joshua and Spike!
>From various reports and an appearance by several Andromeda writers at
Agammemcon 5, we've learned of a few of the guest stars for the second
season of Andromeda.
>From The X-Files will be William B. Davis, aka the Cigarette Smoking Man
on The X-Files, Bruce Harwood, Byers of the Lone Gunmen, Roger Cross,
Joshua on First Wave, and James Marsters, Spike on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer.
Davis will be playing a scientist curious about Trance Gemini "obsessed
with ripping the veil of secrecy" from her. Harwood will be a defense
contractor working with Andromeda with Cross playing a government agent
trying to track the two down. Marsters will portray the Nietzchean
Archduke Charlemagne Bolivar, first mentioned in "The Honey Offering".
The character is described as "Foppish yet fearsomely intelligent and
lethal."
In an interview with zap2it.com, Robert Wolfe reveals that they originally
had Bruce Campbell in mind for the character, but Campbell was not
available due to his book signing tour. They also considered Deep Space
Nine's Alexander Siddig, but he's overseas filming the movie "Reign of
Fire." With James Marsters currently on hiatus with Buffy, the third
choice looks to be a good one as well. Writers Zack Allen and Ashley
Miller were very excited about having Marsters in the episode and were
wishing they could have traveled to Vancouver to watch. The full
zap2it.com interview can be found at this url:
http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?18568
In other online Andromeda News, Andulasia of the Andromeda Realm web site
recently visited the set during filming and filed a detailed report on her
web site available at this url:
www.andromeda-realm.com/Andi/Vancouver/vancouver.htm
Web Sites Update:
Cinescape Down, Assignment X Up, New B5 Rangers site and XXX Rex
The Cinescape.com site has been shut down, however, the name has lived on
(although not currently being pointed to by the website) with the new
www.assignmentx.com website, started up from the ashes of Fandom.com. A
few of the Fan Domains and message boards have been brought over from
fandom.com and new areas are in the process of being set up.
Following the "secret" preview of the Babylon 5 Rangers movie in
association with the Dune repeat airings, SciFi has now launched the
official "Babylon 5: Legend of the Rangers" web site at
www.scifi.com/b5rangers. The current site is a preliminary one and more
info will be added later in the summer including photos taken on the set
by J. Michael Straczynski, interviews, weekly updates and much more.
....
The Mists of Avalon on TNT
The four hour mini-series The Mists of Avalon based on the Marion Zimmer
Bradley novel will debut on TNT with Part 1 on Sunday July 15th and part 2
on Monday July 16th. Each part will air three times starting at 8 pm
ET/PT.
TNT will also air both parts in a four hour block on Friday, July 20th at
8 pm ET/PT, Saturday, July 21st at 12 pm ET/PT, and Monday, July 30th at 8
pm ET/PT.
The mini-series stars Angelica Huston as Viviane, the High Priestess of
Avalon, Julianna Margulies as Morgaine, Joan Allen as Morgause, Caroline
Goodall as Igraine, Edward Atterton as Arthur, Michael Byrne as Merlin,
Michael Vartan as Lancelot, Samantha Mathis as Gwenhwyfar, and Hans
Matheson as Mordred. In a nutshell, it retells the legend of King Arthur
from the point of view of Morgaine, who is a victim of the manipulations
of Viviane and Merlin. I'll have a more detailed review posted on the web
site in the next couple of weeks.
http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/mists/
....
In July, SciFi will be relaunching Saturday prime on July 14th, debuting
their new series The Chronicle at 9 pm ET/PT. To help launch it, SciFi
will air a new episode of Farscape that night at 8 pm ET/PT and The Outer
Limits will move to Saturdays at 10 pm ET/PT. The following week, First
Wave will return in the 8 pm ET/PT time slot with the remainder of its
third season episodes.
As with Friday Prime, SciFi will be airing each episode twice on Saturday
Prime. Replacing the Outer Limits on Fridays will be the fourth season of
Lexx, starting July 13th. SciFi will also be airing the Robocop: Prime
Directives miniseries, airing each movie at 9 pm ET/PT Mon July 16 through
Thursday July 19th.
Also, from their preliminary July Schedulebot, it looks like SciFi will be
airing the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie starring Paul McGann as The Eighth
Doctor on Sunday, July 15th at 9 pm ET/PT. This is the first time it has
been broadcast in the U.S. since it originally aired on FOX and it has not
yet been released on video domestically, either.
SFTV Scorecard
Renewed:
Angel, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (UPN for 2 more seasons), Charmed, Dark
Angel, Futurama, Mysterious Ways, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, X-Files,
Andromeda, Beastmaster, Earth: Final Conflict The Immortal (supposedly),
Relic Hunter, Sheena (13 episode commitment), Stargate SG-1, Roswell (by
UPN), Special Unit 2
Unknown:
Black Scorpion, The Fearing Mind, First Wave, Secret Adventures of Jules
Verne, The Lost World (may not continue, currently up in the air)
Too Early to Tell:
Invisible Man, Outer Limits, Exposure, Lexx (season 4 in production),
Farscape (likely)
Cancelled/Ending:
Star Trek: Voyager, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Cleopatra 2525, Queen of Swords
(likely), Xena: The Warrior Princess, Batman Beyond, Men in Black,
Freakylinks, Level 9, Freedom, Jack of All Trades, La Femme Nikita,
Manhattan, AZ, The War Next Door All Souls, Lone Gunmen, 7 Days
SFTV Calendar
Scheduled Specials/Movies/Special Airings of note:
July 4 - Twilight Zone Marathon on SciFi - All Day
July 13 - New SciFi Friday Prime starts
July 14 - New SciFi Saturday Prime starts
July 15 - The Mists of Avalon Part 1 on TNT - 8 pm, 10 pm, mid ET/PT
July 15 - Doctor Who - SciFi 9 pm ET/PT [First U.S. Broadcast since original
FOX airing]
July 16 - The Mists of Avalon Part 2 on TNT - 8 pm, 10 pm, mid ET/PT
July 16-19 - Robocop: Prime Directives - SciFi 9 pm & midnight ET/PT
July 20 - The Mist of Avalon Parts 1 & 2 - TNT 8 pm ET/PT
July 21 - The Mist of Avalon Parts 1 & 2 - TNT 12 pm ET/PT
July 30 - The Mist of Avalon Parts 1 & 2 - TNT 8 pm ET/PT
SFTV New Season start dates :
Witchblade (TNT) June 12 (series debut)
Stargate SG-1 (SHO) June 29 (Season Five)
Night Visions (FOX) July 12 (debut)
Lexx (SCIFI) July 13 (Season Four)
Mysterious Ways (NBC) July 13 (Season Two on NBC)
The Chronicle (SCIFI) July 14 (debut - was "News From the Edge")
Dead Last (WB) Summer (debut)
Enterprise (UPN) Sept 26 (debut)
Special Unit 2 (UPN) Oct 3 (Season Two)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer(UPN) Oct 9 (Season Six)
Roswell (UPN) Oct 16 (Season Three)
The Tick (FOX) Fall (debut)
When Is It Our Pern???
Regrettably, the Pern TV series is not happening. But I (Margaret) agree
that it is better not to have it than to have a series not true to the
books.
http://php.dreamhaven.net/~archives/Links/series.html
For more information, see our listing at:
http://www.clever.net/cam/sftv.html
Science Fiction at the Movies
Star Wars fans who were dissatisfied with the Phantom Menace have
re-edited it to pick up the pace and make Jar Jar a less jarring and more
sympathetic character. And distributed it on the internet.
Initially Lucasfilm was tolerant and Lucas himself expressed interest
but then they decided that things were getting out of control.
Lucasfilm asserting its copyright over Phantom Edit.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2001-06/15/10.30.film
Awards Awards Awards
The Libertarian Futurist Society presented its first Prometheus Award for
special lifetime achievement to Poul Anderson in May. The Prometheus
Awards honor "outstanding science fiction or fantasy that explores the
possibilities of a free future, champions human rights, dramatizes the
conflict between individuals and coercive governments or critiques the
tragic consequences of abuse of power, especially by the state".
The society will present an award for best novel at the upcoming 59th
World Science Fiction Convention, Millennium Philcon. Nominees including
Terry Pratchett and L. Neil Smith are listed on the following web page:
Prometheus Awards
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2001-06/15/08.00.books
2001 Hugo nominations are out.
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (Voyager; Bantam Spectra)
Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (Bloomsbury;
Scholastic/Levine)
Midnight Robber
http://www.sffworld.com/authors/h/hopkinson_nalo/excerpts/midnightrobber1.html
(excerpt) by Nalo Hopkinson (Warner Aspect)
The Sky Road
2001 Hugo Nominations
Forthcoming SF, Fantasy, & Gaming Cons
Mark your calendars now for ConSortium 2: A Science Fiction, Fantasy, &
For all you fellow Babylon 5 fans, come out ConSortium 2 to meet Cmdr.
And, while you are there, PLEASE, PLEASE come to the Fan Guest events.
>From the ConSortium 2 Web page: http://www.con-sortium.org/
Conestoga 2001 will be happening July 27-29, 2001 in Tulsa, OK, with
Fellow Farscape fans won't want to miss Crescent City Con XVI August 3-5
For a more complete listing see our monthly What's Happening list
Space, The Final Frontier.
Say what you will about Dennis Tito, the space tourist, he is a successful
The US crew gave Tito a frosty reception and NASA is ticked, but Space.com
http://www.space.com/dennistito/
Second Nubula to the Right
Seen a moonbow recently? How about some nice earthshine? If not, you can
And Straight on Thru Morning
Lots of strange things are happening on the frontiers of science. For an
The Write Stuff (Pen and Ink Optional!)
One of the promises of the Internet is that the middlemen between creator
But once something is on the Internet it becomes in practice infinitely
Part of the function of a publisher is to make a minimum guarantee of
But putting the whole package together so that the creator (say an SF
Stephen King appeared to be opening a new path by demanding a certain
Some e-publishers have tried a market ploy of allowing readers to peruse
In the old days, a storyteller would come to a market-day, offer the start
Sometimes a rich man paid for a story, so others could hear. Sometimes
An attempt to recreate this is taking place at the StorytellersBowl.com
Until or unless the story receives the value that the story teller has set
If the story teller sets the value too high he never gets paid, but his
On the other hand, once the bowl is full the story teller is paid and it
But the creator has already received his money and the more people who
At the same time the audience is protected.
StorytellersBowl will not list a story unless the complete finished story
In the event of the death of the story teller, the story is published and
If the writer pulls a story, the accumulated money is returned to the
Initially StorytellersBowl is dealing only with published writers offering
Eventually they hope to charge a very small percentage of the bowl (in
Eventually they could prosper from the interest on collected money not yet
The StorytellersBowl - http://www.storytellersbowl.com/
Yet another approach is heralded at the GreatUnpublished.com
FFFeedback
We heard from Ted and Carol and Nessus:
Hi,
It has come to our attention that you are still linking to the old address
This has now been moved to www.larryniven.org, we'd appreciate it if you
Thanks!
---
Hi Carol! Congrats on becoming the co-Webmaster of the new Known Space
Anyway, we are trying to get out an Info-Alert in the next day or so and
--Margaret
We also heard from Michael Casavant:
Hello,
I am the President of Fast Warp at Rice University, a conglomerate of
A blurb:
"Fast Warp is a Rice University club for fans of gaming in all of its
Please link "Fast Warp" to http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~warp
Can you suggest any other club listings that we might try to get onto?
Thank you for your time!
--
"The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep"
We also heard from Dave Branda:
Dave Brandon emailed a URL he thought we might be interested in.
Actually I think he is right.
DVD Star Trek The Motion Picture Director's Edition
(Clif here - We have a ton of email since last year and all of it [that
Maybe next time we will do an all Feedback issue).
Be seeing you!
*** NEWSFLASH - STOP THE PRESSES ****
Ahem... Be seeing you!
Margaret A. Fincannon, Friends of Fandom Info-Alert Staff
And now with a certain inevitability, THE FINE PRINT...
To be removed from this Mailing List, please send a remove request to
MacLeod
(Orbit 1999; Tor 2000)
http://www.netaxs.com/~phil2001/hugos/press-release.html
Gaming Convention coming up June 29-July 1, 2001 at the Radisson Hotel &
Conference Center Hobby Airport Houston! I'm especially looking forward to
getting to meet David Weber, now that I've FINALLY gotten caught up
reading his Honor Harrington books (except for the most recent one)!
Plus, another one of my favorite authors, Michael Stackpole (I, Jedi,
several Rogue Squadron novels, & much more) will be there.
Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) as the media guest!
(I did say please, didn't I?) Clif is petrified that we'll get there to
do our segments and no one will have shown up to see us! (Then you can go
back to your gaming!) (Just kidding! :) )
Come Hell or ...
Well, anyway, ConSortium is ON as scheduled. Same time; same location.
Joe Haldeman, Tim Powers, & a bunch more people you won't want to miss.
in the greater New Orleans, LA, area, with Pau Zotah Zhaan (Virginia Hey)
& lots of other great people.
at http://www.clever.net/cam/concalendar.html .
space pioneer. Now, anybody with $20 million dollars can be a cosmonaut!
ran a survey revealing overwhelming public support for his flight. Tito
managed space sickness, took 25 rolls of film and ran out early on the
afterflight celebration of his Russian hosts. But he also joined
advocates for a citizens-in-space program during a special roundtable held
in the U.S. Senate, calling publicly for such a program.
catch these and much more on Starmatt.com, an incredible astrophotography
site now online at http://www.starmatt.com/ .
update catch Clif and Michael Stackpole 6PM Friday at ConSortium.
and the audience can be eliminated to the advantage of both.
replicable, no matter what the law may be.
quality. But reputation and recommendations can perform similar
functions. Word of mouth can be a powerful force on the Internet.
Distribution is trivial on the Internet. Micropayments via Pay Pal are
now possible.
writer) gets paid more while his audience pays less is proving difficult.
level of voluntary payment from people who downloaded in order to keep
writing segments of a serialized novel. But after two such segments King
turned to better paying projects, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of
many of those who had paid as requested but are now left indefinitely with
an incomplete story.
initial parts of stories, charging only for the right to view the
remainder. But writers have been reluctant to make their best work
available over the net as long as it can be so easily stolen, and as a
result sales of electronic novels have not been brisk, making authors even
more reluctant to place their best material in that market.
of a story, and then wait until his bowl was full before finishing the
story.
everyone in the crowd tossed in whatever coin they could afford.
and it has the virtue of protecting both the creator and audience.
on the story, the story past the teaser cannot be stolen because it is not
on the web.
creative efforts remain his own.
becomes very easy (though not legal) to steal.
read a story, the better the creator's reputation and the larger the
number of people willing to toss in payment next time.
is in their hands.
the accumulated money goes to his estate.
contributors and the writer has lost only time.
new material.
contrast to a traditional publishers 90%) but to start the process they
are willing to forgo payment to build a market.
paid out, but these are early days.
http://www.greatunpublished.com/
for the Known Space website, a fan run website for Larry Niven, which was
at http://members.xoom.com/Knownspace.
could update your link to us.
THANKS! I really appreciate your letting me know about the new Known
Space URL - http://www.larryniven.org/ .
site!! (Clif- you remember Carol Phillips [go to Web site and click on
"Latest News"] who we see at lots of Houston-area cons! Hope to see Carol
next week at Con-Sortium, too!)
will be sure to mention that Known Space has a new URL and a local
co-Webmaster known to many fellow Houstonians!
fantasy, sci-fi, and gaming folks. I am not sure how best to classify us
for your web site, but I welcome you to look at our web site and decide
for yourself. We organize and execute OwlCon, an annual convention that
is primarily gaming, but also includes a 24-hour anime room and some
Fantasy, Sci-fi, Action, Cult, Horror, etc. movies. We are planning to
have movie nights and readings very soon.
forms as well as the fantasy, science-fiction, horror, and action genre.
We organize and execute OwlCon, an annual gaming convention at Rice. We
have open gaming weekly, monthly game days, movie nights, and readings.
We are trying to become a locus of gaming in Houston. Come see what we're
all about!"
Please link "OwlCon" to http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~owlcon
Michael Casavant [http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~mjcasav/]
Rice University, Center for Nanoscale Science & Technology, MS-100
Applied Physics Doctoral Program, Rice Quantum Institute
Office: SS 319, 1.713.348.4541
BS, Physics; MS, Applied Physics; Army veteran; LVN; Gamer
- E. Joseph Cossman
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2001-02-08/stuff.html
is, ALMOST all of it] is on a computer rendered inoperable when Tropical
Storm Allison's visit flooded the University of Houston main campus.
I've killed the automatic forwarding, so email sent in response to this
issue should get to us.
Margaret's eagle eye just ran over the ConSortium Web page.
Nick Polotta has had to cancel. No reason given on the page that Clif can
see. - http://www.con-sortium.org/events.html
*** END NEWSFLASH ****
Clifton B. Davis, Friends of Fandom Info-Alert Staff
http://www.clever.net/cam/fof.html fof@www.clever.net
*************************************************************
The Friends of Fandom Information Alert is an official publication of
Friends of Fandom, distributed in electronic and print form in furtherance
of its tax exempt purpose. The information contained therein reflects
that believed to be true and accurate by its editors. However, we make no
guarantees. All opinions expressed are those of the individual
contributors and may not necessarily reflect either the official position
of Friends of Fandom or the opinions of the editors, nor the officers or
board of directors of Friends of Fandom. Friends of Fandom is a
nonprofit, literary, scientific, and educational 501(c) (3)corporation
committed to encouraging and facilitating interest and activities
pertaining to science fiction, fantasy, and science fact in its various
forms. See you at Con-Sortium.
*************************************************************
fof@www.clever.net
----------------------------