Austin SlugTribe Newsletter

Date: December 1996

December Issue

SF/F Meeting Hiatus!

We've been notified that, due to renovation of Hancock Rec Center, we won't have access to a meeting room through the first part of January '97. We'd already decided NO meeting on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. That means no Slugtribe meetings for a month! We'll get the room back starting the 4th Tuesday in January (Jan. 28th), but through March the place will be dusty and somewhat torn up. Mark your calendars! And in any event, Very Merry and Happy Holly to everybody!!

Saturday Meeting, Jan. 18th!

Because we'll have such a long hiatus, I've volunteered my new house for a Saturday meeting for 1/18/97. We used to have these Saturday meetings each month at someone's house to discuss longer works and critique our backlog. Now the Saturday workshops are needed infrequently-but this seems a good time! These typically start at 1 pm and go until we're too limp to talk. Then we head somewhere to eat dinner out. Bring a munchie or snack if you want. Warning: this house is definitely a work-in-progress, but it has a nice big living room for us to meet in.

The meeting place info is Wendy Wheeler, 11804 Prairie Hen Ln, Austin, tel 832-1925. Easy directions: just get to the corner of Metric Blvd and Braker Ln (i.e., take the Braker exit off of IH-35 and go west, or from MoPac go east); go north on Metric. The first traffic light is Gracy Farms; take a right. Prairie Hen Ln is the 3rd street on the right. My house is the 8th house on the right; it's the pale yellow one with blue-gray trim.

New Year's Party Too!

And just letting y'all know I'll have a New Year's party at my new house (see above) starting at 9:30 p.m. and going until after midnite. Sodas and munchies provided; BYOB if you want liquor. We'll get about as wild as writers usually get (usually not much). Come and bring friends!

Big World SF Convention in SA!

It's coming soon (Labor Day weekend, 1997) to a town near you (San Antonio)! It's the big science fiction and fantasy convention of the year-WorldCon. Five days of panels, presentations, exhibits, dealers' rooms, masquerades, dances, =8A and for this convention, our own Shirley Crossland is helping coordinate a whole writerly program. I'm helping her with what may turn out to be a short story contest judged and awarded by William Fawcett (editor of many fine SF/F anthologies). It's pricey: $120 until the end of the year. It'll be more in '97, and even more $$ at the door. They accept checks and credit cards, so write them soon for membership at LoneStar Con 2, P.O. Box 27277, Austin TX 78755. Phone is 512-472-9944.

New Editor at F&SF

=46antasy & Science Fiction magazine will soon have a new editor. Kristine Katherine Rusch is stepping down since she's got contracts to write about a dozen books. The new editor (part-time) will be Gordon Van Gelder of St. Martin's Press. He'll keep his day job and do this on the side. A new address for submissions will soon be published; until them send short stories to the address in Connecticut where the publisher, Ed Ferman, lives, and not to any address in Oregon. What's cool about this is Gordon Van Gelder published Bill Spencer's Zodwallop, knows and likes Don Webb, and has been to Austin several times and really likes the writers here!

Send Steamy Stuff to Antho

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are reading for yet another anthology (Alien Sex, Snow White Blood Red, plus many others, were done by them). This one is about SF/F erotica. They're reading through February, and word is, they don't think the submissions they're getting are hot enough. You up for the challenge? Submit the stories to Ellen at the Omni Magazine address, and mark your envelope and cover letter as being for the SF Erotica Anthology.

New Work in March

Jay Lake's "Letters to the Child Within" will be available this March as part of a collection written by and for survivors of miscarriage. His was the longest piece, and one of only two written by a man. Write Jay at jlake@jlake.com or see him at a meeting to see how to purchase your own copy.

Walton Edition in November

Shawn and Jim Walton collaborated on a new edition that arrived Veteran's Day-about a week or so early, according to Shawn. Baby Derek was born at Round Rock Hospital, and is already over a month old and flourishing. He's a real alert and dark-haired cutie! Shawn is doing well and will be working at home for awhile. She says a new mom gets about 40 minutes of free time per day, if she's lucky.

Russ Williams: Master of Orion II

Erstwhile member, Russ Williams, finally finished his 2-year computer game project at Sim-Tex Software. The long-awaited Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is now on the shelves. I've seen it-very impressive. It's a space strategy game with gorgeous art. They've already sold (in a few weeks) 150,000 copies. Boy, if those were books, that would be a best seller! Russ does most of the AI opponents.

AggieCon XXVIII.

March 20-23, 1997: College Station, TX (Texas A&M University Memorial Student Center). Sponsored by Cepheid Variable.

Guests:

Other guests include:

Convention Information:

Write AggieCon, Memorial Student Center, Box J-1, College Station, TX 77844; call (409) 845-1515 (ask for Judy with Cepheid Variable); e-mail cv@tamu.edu, or Web: http://charlotte.tamu.edu/MSC/CepheidVariable/aggiecon/aggiecon.html; membership rate $20 (full weekend/non-student).

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