Kronos May Newsletter of the Middle Tennessee Science Fiction Society The next meeting is May 12 tomorrow (Yes the thing is real late.. I have been in computer and internet hell more on this below) At 6pm The place is the Green Hills Public Library which is located at Green Hills Mall but not in the Mall. At Hillsboro Rd & Crestmoor (a Krystal is on the corner) Turn right and go down Crestmoor and look for the library sign Or call the library at: 615 - 862- 5863 Who we fear..Anita Feller president… (Anita is so nice she is letting me live) . Ray Jones Treasurer Robert Edwards, Pat James programming, and cast of ones.. Bemscribe as the pookha Want to contact the bemscribe Call 292 - 1306 or e-mail bemscribe_too@hotmail.com Check out my web page at http://www.oocities.org/area51/dimension/4242/ For back issues of the newsletter go to http://www.oocities.org/area51/dimension/4242/clubs.html ================================================================== A major good announcement My friend Tom Norris will be starting a new position down Manchester way next week for a lot more money. Bad part he and Sherry will move,, sigh TEMA is in for a world of hurt with his leaving. ===================================================================== Yep we survived the recent nasty weather. We had two f1 tornadoes here plus a squall line that came in at more than 90 miles an hour. As far as I can tell the fans came through ok this time, though Susan Stockell’s mother lost several trees. It has been reported that Shelby Park alone had 800 trees damaged or destroyed. The most frustrating part and maybe why some people didn’t take it seriously was that the local stations did a pretty poor job of tracking it. Seems as if sweeps ratings are more important. A lot of times the usual severe weather crawl wasn’t running on the bottom of the screen. The weather continued a pattern and hit the last of the untouched airports..the main one. A lot of small planes were damaged.. the larger commercial planes were annoyed (stop scratching me they said) The airport and at one time over 50,000 homes lost power. NES has said this will be more difficult since the outage is more widespread. Luckily there were no deaths or major injures in Nashville and the border counties. But a several counties away there were four fatalities. All in all after what happened to Oklahoma and Kansas earlier we were really lucky. =================================================================== The next big shindigs are LibertyCon on Memorial Day weekend (May 28-30) At the Ramada Inn South This year you can make a confirmed reservation with a check or a major credit card. The room rate is $ 52 plus tax. If you have a confirmed reservation and cancel two weeks ahead of time the hotel will give you a refund. If you cancel within two weeks of the con then things get dicey.. the LibertyCon people will attempt to help you out. The hotel is the same one they used last year just off of I 75 exit 1 in East Ridge. Ramada Inn South I 75 at US 41 East Ridge, Tn. 37412 Or call 423-894-6110 The prereg of $25 must be postmarked by May 8 and received by May 17. And to receive an adult badge you must have a photo id. LibertyCon 13 Pob 695 Hixson, Tn. 37343 I am hoping to make it to LibertyCon sometime Saturday afternoon. ============================================================ Space Con is cancelled If you want to go to Space Con you have to have your paid hotel reservations in to Rusty Hevelin by May 15. Remember he needs 30 room deposits for the Holiday Inn. And Rusty not only doesn't "take" Visa; he doesn't take MasterCard, Discover, Amex, etc., either. Room Rates: $59.00 [including tax] per night Memberships: $15.00 Send All Monies to: Rusty Hevelin / PO Box 1332 / Dayton OH 45401 For more info: Rusty Hevelin [937] 223-2144 Bill Bowers [513] 251-0806 Roger Sims [513] 771-7587 / <73473.2247@compuserve.com> All hotel reservations must be made through Rusty. Which means if you don’t preregister and reserve a room you better call Rusty to make sure there is a con. July 23-25, Wapakoneta, OH. Which is the birthplace of Neil Armstrong -- and the Holiday Inn is located adjacent to the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum. ======================================================================== Room reservations for MidWest Con must be made no later than June 1. They now have suites (bedroom with a sitting room) for $115 as opposed to $85 for a typical room. (Both rates are pre tax) Hmm and we are considering reviving the sardine can -- hmmm The hotel is the Blue Ash Hotel (yes it survived the tornado.. so did the GA airport)) The telephone number for the hotel is 513- 793- 4500 (you may notice I don’t give 800 numbers for con hotels.. I don’t believe in them.. ( except for a couple of rare exceptions) trying to make a reservation for a con on a 800 number is just asking for the chance to here the brain circuits of the hotel reservationist fry as you try to explain there are rooms left but they are in a block; dealing with night clerks ( except for Rickey Sheppard) is bad enough.) Rickey is just about the most sane and knowladgele night clerk I have ever met. ======================================================================= On Parthecon First I want to thank the con suite staff which was mostly made up of members of the SF club and some out of town friends. I have received a lot of compliments about the con suite. So a lot of thanks and appreciation goes out to all the people who helped make it work so well. Sherry Norris for being my principal driver and to Dan Caldwell for pitching in as the con grew near. Also to Dan for allowing me to name him the beer meister. .and keeping an eye on the con suite late at night. For Ray Jones for keeping Dan company while Dan was keeping the beer company. To Pat James and Robert Edwards who put in a lot of time Saturday afternoon and Robert for most of the tasty tangy salsa (except for the garlic salsa.. we wont talk about it) to Boris and Joe & Lisa Major for sitting a spell. To Tom and Anita Feller who had the all critical early morning shift and saw to it that things got started on the right foot.. David Haynes who did major fetching and make sure that the smoking con suite was picked up . . To Vance who when he could pull himself away from the beautiful and gracious Jennifer and do a couple of important runs. . Bill Payne for coming and just enjoying himself and for blessing the Pepsi fountain (the demon possessed Frugal McDougal thing was something else.)))) . Patricia for getting things done and running interference.. Bob Embler did courageous battle with it and then the replacement gave us trouble.. (Of course the dark beer foamed not the other) and then the demon spawned cold plate cooler tried to pee all over the carpet (prevented by my paranoid distrust of fountains and a lot of layered plastic and duct tape.) Ken Moore and his truck for fetching the beer and trying to get things straightened out with Frugal., plus a lot of other stuff like bringing the coolers. And for taking off on Monday to make sure to stuff was returned to Frugals and closing down the last con suite room. The con suite room arrangement worked very well.. we stole the idea from ConCat. It can be run by one person and still have an eye for the beer. Plus even though some of the smokers were a little out of sorts that the beer wasn’t within easy reach of look of the non-smoking beer drinkers were just ecstatic. ========================================================= Cruel to be kind in the right measure... There will be a Parthecon next year. I wish Charles and Patricia all the luck and wishes in the world. And a little bit of advice.. Charles needs to consider getting off for Monday and Friday of the con.. I know that he is a college professor and has a lot of responsibilities but being a con chair is a really demanding thing. Most chairs I know of take off Wednesday - Monday of the con. Ken used to take off the entire week before the con for Kubla. Make sure to check the phone messages. . the time period of two to four weeks before the con is critical and that is when I got the message that the voice mail was full. The people working on your convention are volunteers. They are doing you a favor. So treat them with respect and know that words like please and could you help work wonders. If your department heads set deadlines by which they need information and money abide by them. Don’t make them chase you down for what they need to do their jobs. Let them know about committee meetings, keep them informed of what is happening with the convention. If the person who is doing your program book has set a deadline get the stuff to them. The program can be slipped in later as a separate piece of paper and so can a bio when you lose your MC. Don’t blame the program book person if they don’t receive the stuff in time and cant do the program book. Consider getting operations person to keep track of the things that need to be done. The operations person can do things like help set up late registration, something that needs to be set up ahead of time not dropped onto the con suite staff at the last minute. Consider having at least one committee meeting at the hotel. Introduce your department heads to the some of the hotel people. This especially goes for your ops person and the head of the con suite, dealers and programming. And make sure that all the important staff people at the hotel know about the convention and what to expect. You cannot depend on the sales manager of the hotel to do this. It is not a good sign when the hotels housekeeping inspectors don’t know about the convention on the day you are setting up. Go to some other cons and actually work on them.. help at reservation, sit in the con suite, schlep for other people. Don’t criticize other cons, especially on how they do their art auctions.. There are some real hurt feelings among a couple of con coms about this. Making suggestions is one thing but telling people they don’t have any idea of what they are doing is something else. (Unless you have an awful lot of experience and even then there are nice and not nice ways to say things) In closing I believe that Parthecon would make a good relaxacon. It would be a lot easier on the con staff and is a lot cheaper. Parthecon had maybe a 120 people ConCave had over 350. Because it is a relaxacon and because it has a con chair and staff who know what they are doing it pretty much runs like clockwork. From the gaming to the art show, which filled, it’s space before the con this year. It also works really well because they have a hote l that is for the most part fan friendly. Almost everyone knows that Concave has become the place for fannish parties. It shows that you don’t need to have a big name guest or 10 tracks of programming for the fans to have fun. And there is a place for larger conventions like Rivercon and Chattacon. But they work because they have a lot of experienced people to work on them. And chairs that themselves who not only worked on their own cons before taking a leadership position but who have also worked on other conventions. LibertyCon is a little smaller but has found a happy medium. A programmed convention that feels a little like a relaxacon. It also works because of a seasoned con staff and a chairman who knows what he is doing and also knows that his staff knows how and what needs to be done. And no I am not perfect... I fuzted up the order for the Pepsi cups (a case is not always the same case) And sometimes was a little too grouchy when I am tired.. (good thing I went on prednisone after the con) I have thought long and hard if I should have written the above. . the easiest thing would have just left the playing field. But a lot of people I care about are going to helping on this thing and I wish them well. But I will not be among them.. I will not be running the con suite or have any other official position on Parthecon next year. I will do for them what I try to do for other cons as the editor of the newsletter, such as publish important information and pass along inquiries. But that’s it. Yes my mother is a major reason for this decision but really things were a lot harder than they needed to be. To many things decided at the last minute, not enough information when I needed it. Too much fussing over little things and not being concerned enough with the big picture. And I am tired of tilting at windmills and being fussed at for things I have no control over. I wish all that are staying behind well. And there were parts of Parthecon that worked really well. Make the con a relaxacon but keep the concert.. and most hotels have at least one good-sized meeting room. Even though I hardly saw him I heard that David Weber was a very affable and interesting guest. There were some good parties.. especailly Frank and Millies (sorry I broke your camera when you took my photo) Mike Kennedy and the Zielke’s had good parties and I am sorry I missed Felicia’s party which I heard was a lot of fun. There were some good huxsters who had interesting stuff. And dealers .. what is this that fans will not go into someone’s room to buy a book.. And fans don’t go into strangers rooms at cons?? Oh yeah know one goes to room parties in the rooms of strangers. So far I have seen three write-ups about the con. Two of them from Uncle Timmy and Michael Landis were positive. There was one very negative one which lost a lot of its credibility because it seemed as much of an attack on the fans at the con as on the con itself. It was also marred by the use of the term fanboy, one of those juvenile expressions that reflect far more harshly on the person using it instead of its intended target. One of the possible legitimate criticisms was that a fan was harassed by some of the kids staying at the hotel. But that also depends on whether they notified any of the con staff of what was happening. ===================================================================== Computer hell, too many flowers and things that happened at the last meeting. I spent part of last weekend in computer hell and in some ways I am still in it. All of a sudden the drive on my computer decided to be difficult. Finally got it to work again. Then I was going to get the computer hooked up the home network. Ha.. Let’s just say it wasn’t too much of a surprise when the tech said he had never seen one of the installations do some of the things it was doing. It knows looks as if it will be Wednesday at least before it gets straightened out. Wouldn’t you know that any computer I touch on a long-term basis would go a little neurotic and eccentric. After all the work monstrosity claims it doesn’t have a monitor. And just today they came to install a new server client. At first it did wonderful for the tech. . she even praised it because it was running so much faster and better that the other computers. Then it got difficult. She said she had never seen another computer to act like that.(of course) ========================================================= The last club meeting was small but entertaining. Anita regaled us with the legend of the dogwood while flashing me dirty looks. Something about a conversation that she overhead while in the restroom of a movie theatre. I don’t know why she would be upset with me.. I am so nice and mostly harmless (time to flutter the eye lashes and do the innocent pookha smile) Oh yeah by the way Anita know has boat fever. Sometime this summer we will be renting a boat and go out onto the lake. We will be renting a pontoon boat and not a sailboat. We are very aware of how inept we would be around a sailboat even though the idea of it sounds nice. Robert Embler’s post office box was rented out to someone else without his knowing about it. Talk of the IRS and taxes (it was that time of the year) Robert Embler also came in talking about having something at a place called Dam Village Park. Of course soon we were making puns about That Dam Con, Village of the Dam Con and on and on.. Somewhere the conversation veered toward an old Bowling Green based band Government Cheese and that pat James had read the Elmore Leonard book Maximum Bob. ---- Want to put in your two pennies worth on the next Southern Festival of Books here in Nashville. If you want them to consider an author you can call and/or send a letter and a copy of the book or books you would like to discuss to: Galyn Martin, Coordinator, Southern Festival of Books Tennessee Humanities Council 1003 18th Avenue South Nashville, TN 37212-2104 or call us at [615] 320-7001, ext. 15, fax your question to [615] 321-4586, or e-mail us at galyn@tn-humanities.org. ------------------------------------------------------ Every Monday night here in Nashville.. Cumberland Computer Club 7pm at 3023 Nolensville Rd 831 -- 9424 ================== May 8th LibertyCon prereg goes up to $35 from $ 25 after today. For registration info contact: bspraker@cdc.net A parent or legal guardian to attend must accompany children under 18. ------------------------------------- 12th Club Meeting 20th Space Shuttle Discovery launches or maybe the 24th May 22nd Sherlock Holmes The Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem DAVIS-KIDD BOOKSELLERS 2:45 - 5:00 PM | Buy food from 2nd Story Cafe Story: The Engineer's Thumb With Special Guest Lecturer: Annette Sisson, PhD, Victorian Specialist Belmont University Dr. Sission earned her PhD from Indiana University with a major in Victorian Studies, and has taught a course at Belmont University on Arthur Conan Doyle. --------------------------------------------------------- 22 – Spring Hunt IV An Dun Theine Huntsville , AL Ld. Dani of Raven's Nest's Castle Site ----------------------------------------------------------------- 28-30 -- LibertyCon 13 -- Chattanooga, Tennessee Ramada Inn South, East Ridge, TN 37412; 423-894-6110; rms: $52 sngl-quad. $35 at the door ; Children under 12 half price Parent or guardian must accompany children under 18. Info: LibertyCon 13, PO Box 695, Hixson, TN 37343-0695; 423-842-4363; libcon@cdc.net. 28 – 30th Star Trek Convention at Cumberland Science Museum The Star Trek: Federation Science TM features interactive programs for Children and adults, props and costumes from the Star Trek series, and hands-on experiments in astronomy, physics, and other sciences. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------June 1st Reservations must be made by today for hotel rooms at the Blue Ash Hotel in Cincinnati, Oh for Mid West Con. 1-800-528-1234 or 1-513-793-4500 $85 1 –4 plus taxes.. also after today the MidWest prereg goes up to $ 30 from $ 20 reservations and info Pat Sims 34 Creekwood Sq Glendale, Oh. 45246-3811 June 9th Middle Tn SF Society meeting TNT will premiere the first episode of "Crusade" 24-27 MIDWESTCON 50. The premier relaxicon. Blue Ash Hotel & Conference Center, 5901 Pfeiffer Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45242; 513-793-4500, Pat Sims, 34 Creekwood Square, Glendale, OH 45246. From their web site: “Midwestcon 50 will mark the approximate half-centennia l of Cincinnati's first(and very possibly last) Worldcon -- Cinvention, the 7th World SF Convention To help celebrate, Fanhistoricon will be running a little programming in conjunction with the con. (But Midwestcon has its relaxish tradition to uphold, so let's be perfectly clear: it's their programming, not ours. We never program)” ====================== July 1-4th DRAGON*CON. Atlanta Apparel Mart and Hyatt Regency Atlanta, GA ================== 2 –4th INCONJUNCTION XIX. Indianapolis Marriott, 7202 East 21st St., Indianapolis, IN; 317-352-1231; 5th The rates for Conucopia 1999 this years North Americon go up after today. They announced on their web site that the Marriott lowered the convention rate to just $99 a night (plus tax), for singles, doubles, triples, and quads. Attending membership: $100 and will be higher at the door $ 125 for full attending and $ 65 for one day. E-mail: info@99.nasfic.org Conucopia, c/o S.C.I.F.I., Inc. P. O. Box 844Van Nuys CA 91409 ============================= 9th Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93 with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory 15th Membership for Rivercon $25 and $ 35 hereafter and at the door July 23-25, Space Con Wapakoneta, OH. July 30-August 1 RIVERCON XXIV. Executive West Hotel, Louisville, KY; 800-626-2708; rms: $62. GoH: Esther Friesner; AGoH: Gary Williams; FGoHs: Pat & Roger Sims; Toast Master : Lawrence Watt-Evans. :RiverCon, PO Box 58009, Louisville, KY 40268-0009; _____________________ August 6th - 9th DSC /Crescent City Con Best Western Landmark Hotel 2601 Severn Ave., Metairie, LA 70002 504-888-9500 Room rate is $69.00 (You MUST mention you're with Crescent City Con.) Mike Resnick - Author Guest of Honor, Steve Jackson - Gaming Guest of Honor Toni Weisskopf - Fan Guest of Honor George Alec Effinger - Toastmaster, Barbara Hambly - Special Guest Call, E-Mail or Write: Robert Neagle 504-488-0489 CCCNO@AOL.COM Crescent City Con P.O. Box 52622 New Orleans, LA. 70150-2622 Crescent City con http://www.fatsnake.com/ccc/index.html#Links =============================== The filker Turnia@aol.com is still looking for other filkers since moving to Nashville. ======================================== http://www.sfwa.org/News/neb98.htm 998 SFWA Nebula Awards Winners *************************************************** Announced May 2, 1999 in Pittsburgh, PA. Novel: Joe Haldeman: Forever Peace Novellas: Sheila Finch: Reading the Bones Novelette: Jane Yolen: Lost Girls Short Storie: Bruce Holland Rogers: Thirteen Ways to Water Grand Master: Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) Author Emeritus: William Tenn (Phil Klass) Bradbury Award: J. Michael Straczynski The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. -====================================== all for this month....