TOOTIN' MY OWN HORN In the new book SERVE IT FORTH Cooking with Anne McCaffrey, edited by Anne McCaffrey and John Betancourt, you will find along with the recipes of many well-known SF people, those of some not so well known people like me. In fact, you will find my recipes for Chicken Paprikash and Dumplings, Russian Tea Cakes and Pink Lady Salad. These have all been in past issues of STONE HILL LAUNCH TIMES but the Chicken Paprikash one has been revised to make it easier to make and much lower in fat since it appeared here.
The book has a lot of recipes I'd like to try myself and I do recommend it as a good cookbook. The authors of the recipes have all waived payment for their contributions. The royalties will go instead to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund. The book is a trade paperback from Warner Books and costs $12.99. If you look for the book and can't find it, ask your local bookstore to order it. I've seen it in Barnes & Noble and B.Dalton.
WHAT THEY MIGHT BE READING IN ENGLAND Stone Hill's resident author Richard Lee Byers has just had one of his books come out in a British edition. Netherworld, which is based on the "Vampire" game from White Wolf has just come out in the UK. I have to wonder what the British will think of Florida after reading Richard's book in which there are not only vampires in residence, but pit bull fights as well.
TRIVIA TIME Okay, here's a little game for you. After my name on the masthead of this paper, are the initials "E.E." I will give a cool prize package of genuine SF collectibles to the person who can tell me what those initals stand for. I used them way back when I first started publishing the Stone Hill paper. Those who live in my house are not eligible to win and they will not tell any of you what the answer is. You have to either remember or find the answer on your own. You can mail or call in the answer. If you call my house with the answer, be sure to tell the person who takes the message if I'm not home to write down your answer and your name. If I get more than one correct answer, I will decide the winner by random drawing. Mail entries to my home address at 12524 Lovers Lane, Rivervie, FL 33569 or call 813/677-6347.
A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND This comes from the lovely Jeanette Spencer. When I was a kid, we never had air conditioning in the schools or at home and I got really good at making paper fans, learned to put wet paper towels on the back of my neck to feel cooler, and to get out of bed and lie down on the floor to get cooled off in the middle of particularly hot nights. I suspect Jeanette's experiences were similar and she's as spoiled by the artificial cold as I am. Now, we have the sacred A.C. and WE ARE NOT GIVING IT UP.
Thou shalt not mess with the great cooling device based on an invention by a FLORIDA resident back during the 19th century.
Further, ye shall not mess with the sacred cooling of enclosures-even if the enclosures are screened porches, open hallways, or cow pastures.
If ye violate the sacred coolness, ye shall be punished severely. (We wouldn't even bother with a trial; we'd just use the "perp" as gator feed.)
Should ye, whether by accident or plan, turn on the heat during the Summer (which includes all days but two and a half which occur over a two month period, a couple of minutes each occurrence) thou shalt be punished without mercy and with great glee. No exceptions.
JUST ONE MORE NOTE FROM ANNIE'S ATTIC When I first entered the science fiction fandom community in the 1970's, it was predominantly male. This is just a guess, but I'd say thaš for every ten men in it, there was only one woman. For women seeking romance those where great odds, but I think a more equal ratio is better for the community. There are still more men than women in the community but we of the feminine gender are gaining more ground. Still, we sometimes ponder why there are fewer women than men who read science fiction. Here is one famous author's theory about this. You may not agree with all he says, but I think there is at least some validity in it.
"There are two races of people - men and women - no matter what women's libbers would have you pretend. The male is motivated by toys and science because men are born with no purpose in the universe except to procreate. There is lots of time to kill beyond that.... Women, however, are born with a center. They can create the universe, mother it, teach it, nurture it. Men read science fiction to build the future. Women don't need to read it. They are the future"