August 1998

New Blood

A hearty welcome aboard to newcomers to the list. These include
Houstonians Linda Spar, Dave Branda, and close at hand, Erik Cowand
from Spring. Somewhat further away, we have representatives from
three Texas centers of civilization, Doreen from Austin, Mark Hayes
from Dallas and Terry Babcock from Keller. From the frozen Northlands
(which is a good place to be, considering the number of 100+ days we
have had here of late) we have Michal Kirkpatrick from Little Rock,
Arkansas and Daveda Sisk from Indianapolis, Indiana. Finally, there
is M.R. Saunders who comes to us somewhere out of cyberspace, just
what quadrant he doesn't say. It's good to see you here, both old
friends and new.

Communications

At long last Friends of Fandom has a permanent email address. You can
now contact us at fof@clever.net . This is about three issues after
we originally promised. Like the man says, [expletive deleted]
happens.
Speaking of which, our previous message board, 001-Science Fiction,
was hosted by people who kept deleting any message much more than a
week old. Given the less than frantic pace of our discussions (which
of late have centered on the correct division between Science Fiction
and Fantasy) the discussion kept disappearing off the board.
Disconcerting to say the least. The solution? The All New and
Improved 001-Science Fiction Board brought to you with the help of the
Server Corporation people. It supports message threads and lets you
include html code if you are so minded. So far it just has a
couple of messages from me (Clif) so drop on by, post a message, and
maybe we can pick out the best SF work of all time. :-)
001-Science Fiction at http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=24083

And It Was Uphill Both Ways

By the way, Mark Hayes (mentioned above), helped us start the first
001-Science Fiction message board mumbly years ago as a BBS on an
ancient machine with a floppy and 300 baud modem. Progress is wonderful!!!

Forthcoming SF&Fantasy Books

A new James White Sector General novel due October 1998 and August
releases from Nancy Kress, Linda Nagata, Charles Sheffield, Robert
Silverberg, Sean Stewart, and Jeri Taylor. For more listings (updated
monthly), see http://clever.net/cam/forthcomingsf.html .

Forthcoming SF, Fantasy, & Gaming Cons

Meet your favorite sf author/editor and/or pick up advice from the
pros for wannabe sf authors at ArmadilloCon 20 coming up August 28-30
(Austin)! If, however, you prefer to meet Robert J. Sawyer, Jane
Lindskold, and Robert Vardeman, be at Bubonicon 30 (Albuquerque),
also August 28-30. Star Trek fans (BOTH Federation and Klingon) won't
want to miss TrekFest 98 (Houston) Saturday Sept.12. Babylon 5 fans
will be in Dallas Sept. 18-20 for Stellar Occasion 5.
Check out the details on our What's Happening list at
http://clever.net/cam/concalendar.html .

Houston-area and Texas Science Fiction Organizations

TREKFEST 98 (Sept.12) is jointly sponsored by Starbase Houston and the
Intergalactic Klingon Empire. For more information, email Robert
Greenbaum at robg@wt.net and/or see the TREKFEST 98 listing on our
What's Happening Calendar at http://clever.net/cam/concalendar.html .

Science Fiction on TV

Houston's newest UHF channel, Channel 55 The Tube, debuted on the air
in July 1998 and is showing both Star Trek: The Original Series and
Star Trek The Next Generation. As an independent station, Channel 55
is not restricted to any one network's programming nor does it have to
pay high first-run syndication prices, if it shows older series (which
have already been around the block a few times like Hogan's Heroes and
I Love Lucy!). Ch.55 The Tube, the poor man's Nickelodeon/Sci-Fi
Channel, will likely show up on basic cable this fall as well. Keep
tuned! (Note: Unfortunately, I have yet to discover Ch.55's web site,
if it has one already. As soon as I get the URL, I'll add it to our sf
on TV page. Sorry about that! - Margaret)
For more information, see our listing at
http://clever.net/cam/sftv.html .

Not A Suburb of Houston?

A lot of what we mention here is centered in Houston because that's
where we are (mostly). On the other hand, Info-Alert members are
scattered all over.
The next largest concentration is San Antonio. Could we get a
volunteer or two to let us know what is going on there? Failing that,
could any of you share an official email address of any SF related
organizations there. We KNOW there is an SF group, Ursa Major, and I
know there have been SF writer's workshops held there in the past. A
city which hosted such an excellent Worldcon is bound to have other
things going on. (Yes, we know you guys had a bit of help, what with Fact
and Cat Box etc., but still ...)

Reading Groups

We used to have a reading group here in Houston. It died under the
double whammy of gafiation (read: exit) of its leading lights and the
lamented death of Future Visions, the Science Fiction Bookstore. The
only Reading group in the greater Texas Area that we are aware of is
the FACT Science Fiction Reading Group in Austin (jointly sponsored by
FACT and Adventures in Crime &Space).
Their schedule is:
Aug 18: Black Wine by Candas Jane Dorsey
Sept 1: Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel
Sept 15: An Exchange of Hostages by Susan R. Matthews
Oct 6: Spiritride by Mark Shepherd
(Note Spiritride is one of the Serrated Edge Series, without
Mercedes Lackey this time around - Clif)
Oct 20: The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
November 3: Godheads by Emily Devenport
See the web page for the FACT Science Fiction Reading Group at
http://www.eden.com/~acs/reading/index.html
for Black Wine at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312865783/fantasicfuturesbA
for Corrupting Dr. Nice at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312865848/fantasicfuturesbA
for An Exchange of Hostages at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0380789132/fantasicfuturesbA
for Spiritride at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0671877755/fantasicfuturesbA
for The Calcutta Chromosome at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0380794934/fantasicfuturesbA
for Godheads at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0451456807/fantasicfuturesbA
And of course for FACT at http://www.fact.org/
and Adventures in Crime &Space at http://www.eden.com/~acs/
A good place to keep up with Austin Fandom is The FACT sheet available
at http://www.fact.org/fact-sheet/
If you are aware of other active reading groups in the Greater Texas
Empire, please let us know. ( fof@clever.net )

Greater Texas Empire

When we express an interest in fannish activities/events happening
within Texas, you should be aware that we have a somewhat fuzzy
definition of Texas in mind. We specifically include the Great Desert
to the West (New Mexico), the Great Swamp to the East (Louisiana),
Indian Territories to the North (Oklahoma) and even almost Yankee-Land
to the North East (Arkansas).
Just thought we should be clear about that.

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 join the list by
entering your email address on any of our Web pages as listed above
(where it says LISTBOT).

Be seeing you!

Margaret A. Fincannon, Friends of Fandom &
Clifton B. Davis, Friends of Fandom Vice Pres. of Publications

http://clever.net/cam/fof.html [Activate fine print generator]
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