IN THIS EDITION:

MEETING INFO
BOOK STUFF
RIVERCON TO CLOSE
MILLENNICON REVIEW

MEETING INFO

The next meeting will be on Saturday, April 4 at the Children's Museum.

Gathering begins about 6:30 p.m. See you there!

BOOK STUFF
Lacking any real news we searched the nets for some news on books.

Michael Banks [75300,2721]

Following up on the "it's almost science fiction in real life" theme of his book, WEB PSYCHOS, STALKERS, AND PRANKSTERS: HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF IN CYBERSPACE, SF writer Michael Banks has set up a series of Web pages that will be of interest to anyone who wants to avoid being victimized by online criminals and protect their privacy. The pages, at http://w3.one.net/~banks/psycho.htm are jam-packed with links to online safety and privacy resources, as well as demonstrations of online dirty tricks and excerpts from the book. (If the name Don.Mac is familiar to you, you'll want to read the excerpt about an early online simulacrum that was inspired by Vernor Vinge's classic TRUE NAMES.)

John Barnes [71042,1171]

John Barnes recently turned in his short story and essay collection, APOSTROPHES AND APOCALYPSES, to Tor (for US publication) and Millenium Orion (for UK). It will be coming out sometime in the fall. He also turned in PAYBACK CITY, a mainstream thriller, to Millenium; as of this moment the book still has no US publisher. He is currently typing like a sonuvagun on FINITY, another SF novel, which he really wants to finish before going off to France for several weeks of research in his academic specialty of theatre history. He will be meeting later this month with Buzz Aldrin, with whom he wrote ENCOUNTER WITH TIBER, to finalize the proposal for their next book together.

In his spare time, he sleeps.

SPIDER ROBINSON

Baen Books is publishing the paperback original USER FRIENDLY, Spider Robinson's first short story collection in 13 years. It resurrects a few stories from the always-out-of-print 1980 collection ANTINOMY (the month ANTINOMY was released, its publisher decided to drop its sf line), and also includes a few essays. A striking (and uncredited) cover painting by David Mattingly depicts an angry mob burning a mainframe computer in the village square, and features Spider himself in the foreground in a characteristic pose--dressed in a suit of armor and, in the words of his editor, "surrounded by flaming faggots."

CALLAHAN'S CHRONICALS, the trade-paper omnibus reissue of Spider's first three Callahan's Place books, reached #1 on the Locus SF Bestseller List--and CALLAHAN'S LEGACY, the latest book in the series (released almost simultaneously with CHRONICALS), made #5 in hardcover. Both books were published by Tor.

LATE-BREAKING NEWSFLASH: Nevertheless, Tor inexplicably passed on the proposed NEXT Callahan-series book, CALLAHAN'S KEY...which instead has just been snapped up (along with first-option on future books in the series) by Pat LoBrutto of Bantam Books; contract being drawn at this writing. Spider says, "I'm overjoyed to finally have an opportunity to work with Pat LoBrutto, after a quarter of a century of friendship: he was the first book-editor ever to express interest in Callahan's Place...but changed jobs before he could publish the first book." CALLAHAN'S KEY will, among other things, be moving the series and cast from Long Island, NY to Key West, FL.

Canadian members who get Space Channel on their local cable TV system may notice Spider appearing from time to time, unscheduled, as filler in the gaps between programs with odd timings: sometimes he sings songs from the CALLAHAN'S CROSSTIME SALOON CD-ROM computer-game soundtrack, sometimes he talks about sf and his own career. The taping was done in White Dwarf Books, Vancouver's premiere science fiction specialty shop.

Anne McCaffrey [72007,45]

Anne reports, "MASTERHARPER OF PERN is now an international best seller, having hit the London TIMES and is still on the New York Times, Wall St. Journal and Publisher's Weekly - so my child is doing well."

"REDSTORM Entertainment has bought a games option on the Catteni Series...I'm excited because I even got an email from Tom Clancy, welcoming about his gaming business."

"GROLIER Interactive are working hard on the DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN(R) GAME and the artwork of backgrounds and the DRAGONS is great! Should be. I spent a whole day telling the artist exactly how a McCaffrey Pernese dragon should look."

"FREEDOM'S CHALLENGE is in bound galley stage for May publication. ACORNA'S QUEST with Margaret Ball will be out in May as well. And by next December, the third of my fairy tales IF WISHES WERE HORSES will be published by Penguin for John Betancourt's Wildside Press."

"I'm busy on this year's novels and anticipating involvement in the bible for the tv series of THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN(R) to be filmed by Atlantis/Toronto and here in Ireland."

"I commissioned Tania Opland and Mike Freeman to do a CD of Teaching Songs and Ballads by Master Robinton, using instruments available to the Pernese at that point in time, setting the verses from DRAGONFLIGHT to music. The same cover art that's on the book - Gerald Brom's EXCELLENT MasterHarper with C'gan and blue Tagath behind him - will illustrate the cd."

Mel. White [melwhite]

Mel is happy to report that her first novel--a romance--has been accepted by an agent.

She'll be at Aggiecon this month.

M Slater & S Jones [100257,3051]

This Spring Carroll & Graf will be publishing a Revised and Updated trade paperback of HORROR: 100 BEST BOOKS edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman to celebrate the Bram Stoker Award- winning reference book's Tenth Anniversary.

Meanwhile, Victor Gollancz has contracted for a fourth DARK TERRORS anthology edited by Jones and David Sutton, and Jones is currently working on a major non-fiction volume, provisionally titled THE ESSENTIAL MONSTER MOVIE GUIDE, which will have an extensive Introduction by Forrest J, Ackerman and is set for publication at the end of the year by Titan Books.

Mandy Slater turned in a report on British science fiction television and movies to SCI FI ENTERTAINMENT magazine.

She hopes to attend the 1998 World Horror Convention, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention, the 1998 British Fantasy Convention and the 1998 World Fantasy Convention this year.

ROBERT J. SAWYER [sawyer]

Rob would like to respectfully remind Hugo nominators that he had two novels published in 1997: FRAMESHIFT from Tor and ILLEGAL ALIEN from Ace.

Although FRAMESHIFT got rave reviews most places ("Highly recommended" -- LIBRARY JOURNAL; "Sawyer has my vote for the next Nebula and Hugo Awards" -- EXPLORATIONS), LOCUS left it off their "Recommended Reading" list.

Since a lot of people use that list as a memory aid when filling out their Hugo ballots, Rob hopes that those who enjoyed FRAMESHIFT won't let it slip their minds at nominating time.

For those who haven't read FRAMESHIFT, check out the sample chapters of it, ILLEGAL ALIEN, and Rob's forthcoming tenth novel, FACTORING HUMANITY, at Rob's new web site: http://www.sfwriter.com. There is much to explore at the new web site, too. You'll find 340,000 words, 270 files, and 3,800 hypertext links there, including:

• Full-text short stories, such as the Aurora winners "Just Like Old Times" and "Peking Man," plus "Lost in the Mail," which came in second in 1996
• Sample chapters for each of my novels (including the forthcoming FACTORING HUMANITY)
• Back installments of my "On Writing" column from ON SPEC
• Many files related to Canadian SF, including:
• TESSERACTS 6 cover, introduction, afterword, table of contents, and contributor notes
• Northern Lights: 10 years of Canadian SF newsnotes
• ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA entries on Canadian SF and several Canadian SF writers
• Interviews with Terence M. Green, Donald Kingsbury, and Edo van Belkom
• Reviews of some Canadian-authored books
• An essay on what's wrong with the Auroras
• Histories of Ontario Hydra, the Canadian Region of SFWA, and PRISONERS OF GRAVITY

Sargent/Zebrowski [sarzeb]

Pamela Sargent, along with Jack Dann and George Zebrowski, is the editor of a new series, the White Wolf Rediscovery Trios, which is reprinting works of science fiction worthy of rediscovery in definitive trade paperback editions. Two volumes in this series are now available.

Volume 1, THREE IN TIME: CLASSIC NOVELS OF TIME TRAVEL, includes the following novels:

THE WINDS OF TIME by Chad Oliver, with an introduction by George Zebrowski
THE YEAR OF THE QUIET SUN by Wilson Tucker, with an introduction by Pamela Sargent
THERE WILL BE TIME by Poul Anderson with an introduction by Jack Dann

Volume 2, Three in Space: Classic Novels of Space Travel, includes the following novels:

THE VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE by A.E. van Vogt with an introduction by George Zebrowski
GALAXIES by Barry N. Malzberg with an introduction by Jack Dann, an afterword by Marta Randall, and an epilogue by Barry N. Malzberg
THE ENEMY STARS by Poul Anderson with an introduction by Pamela Sargent

Each volume of some 600 pages on acid-free paper is $14.99--a bargain! Future volumes on other great science fiction themes are planned. For more information, or to order books, go to http://www.white-wolf.com.

MARIANNE DYSON [mjdyson]

Marianne Dyson's short story, "The Shape of Things to Come" (first published in ANALOG, March, 1996) made the Preliminary Nebula Ballot.

She continues to publish science non-fiction for children. ODYSSEY magazine's March issue will have her design for an electroscope you can make at home. The premier issue of APPLESEEDS, a new magazine from Cobblestone Publishing, will have an article about fish in space and several activities for kids by Dyson as well. She will be doing a seminar on science writing at Rice University in March.

For more information or to comment about Dyson's stories, send e-mail to: mjdyson@CompuServe.com.

Tammy P. Liebe (writing as TAMORA PIERCE) [tamora_pierce]

Tammy reports, "As of January, THE REALMS OF THE GODS, the fourth and final book of the Immortals YA fantasy quartet, was issued in paperback by Random House books. That means all eight of my previous YA books for Atheneum are now out in Random House paperback. My Random editor, Mallory Loehr, said that both quartets (Immortals and The Song of the Lioness) are now in their *third* printing--approximately 12,000 copies of each were sold *in December*. Ingram, one of the big book wholesalers, listed five of my titles in their "top 50 sellers in 1997" list!"

"VILD MAGI, the Danish language translation of WILD MAGIC (Book 1 of The Immortals), has been published in trade paperback by Forlaget Tellerup."

"I just signed a four-book hardcover/paperback contract with Scholastic Press (US) for The Circle Opens, the next level in the lives of the lead kids in my current Circle of Magic series. In the current Circle series, I just delivered DAJA'S BOOK, the third in that series."

FRANK CATALANO [fcatalano]

MARKETING ONLINE FOR DUMMIES, written by Frank Catalano and Bud Smith and published by IDG Books Worldwide, will be in bookstores in late March.

His weekly "Byte Me" columns (commentary on computer and technology industries, which he has been penning for 4 years) are now finally on the Web. They can be found at http://www.seattleweekly.com and archives are at http://www.catalanoconsulting.com.

RIVERCON TO CLOSE
by Larry Ulrey

The last year for Rivercon will be the year 2000. This is official. I heard it from their con-chair, Steve Francis, at Millennicon.

They are burned out and don't want to do it anymore.

Since they own the rights to the name "Rivercon" and they don't want to sell those rights, if someone else starts up a con down there, they can't call it "Rivercon."

[I spoke to Steve Francis over the telephone. He says they have had the same crew working Rivercon for most of its existence. 2000 will mark the 25th anniversary of Rivercon. They think that's a good place to stop. Rivercon has always been one of the best cons in the midwest, even if it is a little south. The same crew put on NorthAmericon in 1979. I think we should all go down and enjoy them while they last. DAH]

MILLENNICON REVIEW
by Larry Ulrey

Last weekend I went to Millennicon in Cincinnati. Attendance was only about 350 instead of the normal 400+ they usually get.

But they got over 4 inches of snow Saturday, so that may have cut down on the number of one-day memberships.

The guest of honor was Mike Resnick.

The hotel was the Blue Ash Best Western. It's a pretty good hotel in general. Oh, there's the usual problem of slow elevators, but nothing major.

They combined the Masquerade with the dance this year. This seems to be a common trend from what I've observed at several cons.

The dealer's room was fairly small (of course, this is a small con), but there was still a good variety of merchandise available.

Their programming was pretty good. They had three tracks going most of the time. There was usually something interesting on the schedule.

So in general, it's a pretty good little con. A few things could have been better, like getting a hotel with a hot tub and one that doesn't charge corkage - but these are minor things. If you're looking for a nice little relaxicon, you might consider going to this.