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December Party Issue of the Nashville SF Club



Collector’s Item

The meeting in December was the last meeting of
the Nashville Science Fiction Club.
Yep you read that right...
After a long strange sometimes glorious trip we are retiring the club.
And placing MTSFA on hiatus. Out of this will come a new club...
something of a hybrid of the two.
With some elected officers... Probably a publicity chair, a president ,
treasurer and newsletter editor.

Sometimes we will have program, sometimes just an informal discussion group.
The new club will have a new home:
a new night and a new time.

The new home will be the Green Hills Public Library
in the Green Hills Mall area off of Crestmoor.

We will be meeting the second Wednesday of the month from 6 - 8 pm.

The first meeting at the library will be January 14

and the after the meeting place will be Rotiers.

And the search is still on for monikers for
both the new club & the newsletter...
We have had a couple of suggestions and are
currently pondering a few including
something like the Speculative Fiction Society Of Nashville.

There will be other informal gatherings at members houses
throughout the month and we will be having special events
like the chili bash someplace else tba.

The big event for December is the beat the Holiday Blues Party
It will be on December 20th which is a Saturday
e mail us at sf_nashville@oocities.com
for more information

Local Fan news

Report on Tom Norris's dad :
Tom's dad who has been in the hospital since October has now
been transferred to a place here in Nashville.
He is doing a little better but is still battling
the nasty super pneumonia bug.
Tom really has appreciated all the good wishes and notes of concern.
Tom's e mail address is badger@telalink.com.

The aunt of Andy Bateman died last month .
All of us would like to pass along our condolences.
A couple of items from Sharon Green:

Her noel Tanderon, which is the third in the Diana Santee series
is being published chapter by chapter on the net.
Check out http://tale.com.huh.htm , for more details.
Also she is working on a agreement to bring back into print some
of her out of print books..
you might want to check out her web site http://home.att.net/~sharongreen/ , the Sharon Green Home Page or http://www.voy.net/~lensman/sgreen.html ,
Realms of Sharon green and http://www.integrity.tech.com/SharonG.html

Convention news...

Thanksgiving weekend was a big weekend for a lot of fans...
Anita & Tom Feller and a couple of other fans
from here went to Concat. The air situation at Concat
was reported to be improved with the food room
non smoking meant that smoke wasn’t creeping its way into the non smoking con suite.
But, the function rooms still allowed smoking.
The fans shared the hotel with the UT football team
{ the weekend of their game with Vanderbilt}
Everyone has reported they mostly just kept to themselves on their own floors.
They also were sharing the place with an Fraternal Order of Police convention.
But, there were no accounts of any encounters ;
except for warnings for people to behave themselves.
The convention was reported to be really laid back and fun.
There were a couple of programming hitches.
.primarily with some Klingons not showing up.
But, John Hudgens was there with his B5 music videos
and gave away some prizes at a B5 trivia contest
no if I can only remember to get it out of her car.}
There was once again a lack of parties..
suprsingly there were very few people from Chattanooga and no Chattacon party.
There was a Magic Tourney but the players were not counted as part of the con
A lot more Nashville fen made the trek up north to Chambanana Con.
Several of them even went up early for a pot luck..
Ken Moore, Carl Pearson from Texas and Arthur Townsend included.
Some of the other fans who went were John Hollis, Dan Caldwell ,
Lee Billings and Tom & Sherry Norris.

This was Tom & Sherry's first Chambanana Con and,
Sherry being a filk 'puppy' was in heaven.
The con was small compared to previous Chambanana cons below 200.
Most of the fans they found out had been to
10 or more of the previous ones.
There was a lot of filking , but only the Chicago
Worldcon committee threw a party.
All in all it was a laid back weekend, fun weekend.

Future Cons:

Chattacon is coming up next month.
If you don’t have a hotel room it may be to late.
If you want to try the number for the Clarion River Plaza is
423-756-5150.
The last day to pre reg is Jan 1,1998
. It is $30 and then at the door it is $35.

Chattacon Registration POB 23908 Chattanooga Tn 37422
Need additional info call:
Zanny Leach or Mike Dillson at 770-578-8461

Twelfth Night in Spain a SCA event Jan. 2-4, 1998
Shire of Glaedenfeld at Henry Horton State Park Lodge
Featuring a Medieval feast with entertainment between removes.
$ 15 includes feast...
Henry Horton State Park 1-800-250-8612

all checks for the event should be made payable to:
SCA INC. Shire of Glaedenfeld
and send them to:
Shire of Gladenfeld
POB 41416
Nashville Tn 37204

This is the last couple of weeks to get your name
in the ConCave room lottery.
Send it to:
ConCave POB 3221
Kingsport, Tn. 37664
The drawing will be held in January. Do not call the hotel.
.do not call Gary.
The winners will be notified by mail.

More news about LibertyCon from the LibertyCon Gazette
LibertyCon will not have a huxter room,
instead they will have an huxter's alley.
The Ramada has 142 rooms but there is Ecno Lodge
next door and other hotels in the area.
I have read a lot of books this past couple of months...
maybe next month will finally see book reviews.
The favorite was Neil Gaimens, "Neverwhere" set partially
in the London Underground.

Close runner up was Allen Steele's, A King of Infinite Space.
A coming of age story set in the same universe as "Clarke County, Space.”
The main character does mature but,
some of his friends still need a little work.
That last chapter really gets a little holier than thou...
A special note...the book is dedicated to the memory of
Claude Gross,Paul Stacy and Rick Dunning.

The IV Dark Tower book by Stephen King mostly tells
the tale of how Susan and Roland met before Gilead fell.
Most interesting the companions are currently in
Kansas were earlier 'Captain Tripp' has visited.

The most disappointing book was Caleb Carr's, " Angel of Darkness".
The story itself was horrifying and riveting but
the book overall was bogged down by what to much technical detail clumsily inserted...
found myself skipping ahead to were the narrative picked back up.
Never did that with the " Alienist".

Now for news elsewhere in fandom:

The World Fantasy Con Awards
as announced in Ansible:
NOVEL Rachel Pollack, "Godmother Night"
NOVELLA Mark Helprin, "A City in Winter"
SHORT James P.Blaylock, `Thirteen Phantasms' ("Omni" ANTHOLOGY Patrick Nielsen Hayden, "Starlight 1"
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Madeleine L'Engle.
British Fantasy Awards_ were also presented at WFC.
NOVEL (August Derleth Award) Graham Joyce, "The Tooth Fairy"
SHORT Martin Simpson `Dancing About Architecture'
SPECIAL (Karl Edward Wagner Award) Jo Fletcher.

From the December,Ansible:
Novacon Report
Dave Langford on a `Desert Island Books' panel had this to say,
" saw me quailing under the serious and constructive eye of Maureen Kincaid Speller
as I explained my choice of Borges's
imaginary _Book of Sand_ on the basis that its inexhaustible infinity of pages
solves the castaway's twin problems of kindling and toilet paper."

Also from Ansible something that could be titled 'Critics are Idiots'

Even if they write for the London Times.....
"DAVID GEMMELL was alarmed to hear he'd been rubbished in "The Times", by a reviewer who
claimed to like Gemmell-style action-adventure fantasy but
thought his latest novel was dull. DG glumly bought the paper,
to find a review of `"Polgara the Sorceress"
, by David Gemmell'. [SJ] Such is the peril of having a surname so very similar to Eddings."

The rest of the issue had more on Judith Merril,
interesting tidbits from the publishing world
{ including an item about prequels to Dune}

And:

There was more on the London, World Fantasy Con in the December issue..
Jo Fletcher noted the abundance of authors and artists and
mentioned that the 'Committee award went to Hugh B Cave,
but most of the comments had to do with the rottenness of the hotel...

This hotel seemed to be nightmare.
The choice of cold water or no water at all,
freezing rooms sounds like scene from "Harpo Speaks" and other
Marxist memoirs were they had to break up the furniture in a London
room to keep warm.....
. But, then again I remember some stories about an WFC held in Rhode Island..

the hotel was being remodeled during the con..
And,it was either during either a WFC or a World Horror Con
{ I get these things confused but I tend to get things confused sometimes..
.goes along with being a pooh}
that a water main broke in downtown Nashville.
The resulting flood then shorted out most of the underground power
grid for part of downtown. Including the main function hotel { the then Hyatt now Holiday Inn}
and the historic Hermitage Hotel.
The Hyatt equipped for an emergency had lights and some of the elevators running.
The big loss was the escalators and some effect on the kitchens.
The Hermitage were some of us stayed was an another matter...
those of us staying at the Hermitage weren't so fortunate.
The Hermaitage had very few emergency lights...the turn of the century style
combination of emergency lights and candle light.
Very atmospheric.
The con was great due a lot to the Chair Maurine Dorris
who just took it all in stride...
And by the way we still had hot water....

By the way: You can subscribe to the e mail version of Ansible by sending a message to ... Majordomo@imi.gla.ac.uk ... containing the sole text: subscribe ansible (Subject line irrelevant.) Please send a corresponding `unsubscribe ansible' to resign from this list if you weary of it or plan to change e-addresses. An idle check mere days ago disclosed that the "Ansible"e-mail list has 1,248 subscribers. To access the Ansible archives: FTP, ftp://ftp.dcs.gla.ac.uk/pub/SF-Archives/Ansible Web, http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Ansible Langford's Ego, http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/
A couple of items about Harlan Ellison:
First, in 1985 Harlan won a suite against Heimdale Film Corporation
concerning James Cameron "s Terminator.
Harlan won $ 72,000 in the initial suite and an agreement was reached
that all future prints would include an acknowledgment to Harlan's "Soldier".
In 1991 the film switched distributors and the credit was pulled from the prints
that have since been released on video and shown on tv.

So in October Harlan won another $ 72,000. Harlan also needs a copy of
the 2nd SFBC edition of
I, ROBOT: THE ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY. If you have any information, write to rwyatt@menagerie.net.
And some news about Jack Chalker that I gleamed from his web page...
Jack was in the hospital in September for a lengthy stay.
They never found out exactly what was wrong .
He went back in for tests in October and they turned out ok.
Jack is still going through heck with Del Rey.
If you want to find out what kind of a nightmare being
an sf author is nowadays,
.check out Jack's page on the web

Departures

From Ansible Ross Pavlac_, 1982 Worldcon chair, SMOF and connoisseur of Christian sf/ fantasy, died of colon cancer on 11 Nov. From his Chairman's Message to Windycon this year: `I always used to hate the word "bittersweet" when applied to a book or a film; this year I have experienced it to the fullest as this will probably be the last convention that I chair.' [DD] Also from Ansible ### MARGARET ALDISS (1933-1997) ### _Margaret Aldiss died of liver cancer in early November. She had been married to Brian Aldiss since 1965 , compiled a succession of standard Aldiss bibliographies, and brought good cheer to many conventions. A lady of great charm, she will be much missed. The following comes by the way of Michael Banks { who sent the news first and Uncle Timmy, who received word from Michael plus Arnold Bailey and Jean Goddin}. "I'm sorry to report that G. Harry Stine, author of more than 50 books of science fiction and Fact, died suddenly on Friday, October 31, at his home in Phoenix,Az. Presumably of a stroke or a heart attack. His wife,Barbie, found Harry at his keyboard working when he passed away The last words on the screen . were save to disk a:'. He had been fine the night before and seemed fine when Barbie left that morning. His most recent fiction was the Warbot series plus the Star Sea Invader Series. G. Harry Stine was perhaps best-known by SF fans for his series of "Alternative View" columns in ANALOG, as well as his SF, most written under the penname "Lee Correy." (His novel, "Shuttle Down," was perhaps his best-known work of fiction.) Among Stine's many non-fiction works were "The Space Enterprise" and "The Third Industrial Revolution" which concerned the future of industry in space. And, just before he died had finished updating a new edition of it. Harry loved both airplanes an rocketships.... He acquired his pilot licensee at 16 and continued to fly until only a few years ago when he quit due to concerns about his health. Also Harry was known as the father of model rocketry partly because of his book on the subject but also for developing safe lightweight rockets and prepackaged engines But most of all, Harry not only wrote about rockets he lived among them. He was the man with" the million dollar finger" the civilian range safety officer for the US Navy who had to destroy rockets went they went awry at White Sands in the early 1950'. Plans are being made to launch his remains in space..
Now for some happy fannish news

This was also from Uncle Timmy: Kelly Lockhart who most of you don’t know but , should have heard of if you spend time visiting fannish web sites , Since he has the best convention resource for southern cons. Anyway, Kelly a Chattanooga fan just went through an interesting job experience.. Lost his radio job..found another right away and then was promoted after only being on the job for two weeks... . so no longer is he just a DJ but now he is also the program director for his station..

Some of the fanzines I received :

The Nasfa Shuttle, The Memphen which among other things had an article about why fandom is greying
and where have all the young people gone.
Also through e mail I recieved : Ansible
and from Uncle Timmy { tbolgeo@cdc.net}
The Blue Monday Funnies, Revenge of Hump Day and the Frantic Friday Funnies.

or email to dah2@hotmail.com or nashville_sf@oocities.com Check out the web page at http://www.oocities.org/area51/dimension/4242/
A special note: Want to have your fanzine reviewed in the SFC Bulletin? Send it to Tim Gatewood, who does them nownot to SFC prez Tom Feller. The address is: 3125 South Mendenhall #353 Memphis, Tn. 38115
Some one gave this to me at work: Happy Holidays...

Not long ago and not far away Santa was getting ready for his annual trip.. But there were problems everywhere.. four of the elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones. Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule. Then, Mrs Claus told Santa that her mom was coming to visit. Santa stressed out even more. He went to harness the reindeer .. found out three of them were about to give birth..two had jumped the fence... the stress was piling up.... Just as he was loading the sleigh one of the boards on the sleigh cracked. The toy bag fell through the crack.. scattering all the toys as it fell. Frustrated , Santa looked at the spilt and scattered toys, the broken sleigh, the knocked up and reduced in number reindeer... turned around and stalked into the house.. for a cup of coffee and a very needed shot of whiskey.. But, he found out why the elves were sick. They had discovered the liquor cabinet. They had drunk all the liquor; not even a drop was left. He flung up his arms in frustration. Forgetting that he was holding the coffee pot which was flung through the air.. crashing on the floor into a hundreds of tiny pieces { it was ceramic..this is the northpole} Santa went to get the broom... all he found in the broom closet was a stick and a few straggly pieces of straw.. the mice had eaten the rest. Just then the doorbell rang.. Santa went cussing and stomping to the door. He opened the door and what did his eyes behold but, an angel. An angel with a great big Christmas tree.. bigger than the wee angel. And the angel said: "Santa were would you like to put the Christmas tree"?? And that my friend is how the angel came to be on top of the Christmas tree.