A SPECIAL NOTE FOR THE NECRONOMICON GUESTS All of you who are participating in our program are dear to our hearts. We need your help to make the convention a pleasure for those who attent and you have our gratitude. There are still a few of you who have not sent your panel lists back, but since I did not give you a specific deadline by which we wanted the lists returned, you are not in for verbal abuse. I do know that some of you just got your lists and have not had the time to send them back and some have been out of town, but if you would try to get the lists back to us by September 15, it would be helpful. If anyone needs a new list, let me know and I will send one to you. We would like to be able to get the schedule made and send you what panels you will be on before the convention, so you can be prepared. We can figure out which panels are appropriate for some of you but not all. We also need information telling us when you will be arriving and leaving the convention, so we will not schedule you to be on a panel that is going to take place while you will be on the road to or from Tampa.
We were given some really good suggestions for panels by some of you this year, and we are thankful. It's hard to come up with panel topics year after year. Some of you also volunteered to be panel moderators. Nothing will get you in good with the people who have to make up the schedule and find moderators for all those panels like offering to be a moderator will. Big brownie points are earned that way.
One last note for you nifty-keen folks: If you have any items you would like to donate to our charity auction, we would love to have them. One of the things we will be auctioning this year is "Brunch with Ben and Barbara Bova." This is a good auction "item" as being able to talk with a famous writer and a literary agent for an hour and a half is not an easy thing to come by. You can see from this too that we are open to creative donations. Anything you have to offer will be welcome and we can give receipts for the monetary value of your donations for tax purposes. We are a nonprofit organization and of course, Wildlife Rescue, Inc., to which auction proceeds go is also a nonprofit organization.
CALLING ALL COSTUMERS There are some changes in the masquerade that we hope will make it better than ever. This year, we will have seating for over six hundred people at the masquerade and it will be presented in the round. This should give everyone a chance to see the costumes from all sides.
In the past, we have never allowed those who worked on the convention to enter but I, your friendly neighborhood masquerade goddess, have figured out a fair way to allow them to enter and even win awards for it. We will be giving out the usual first and second place awards to our convention member entrants. Any NECRONOMICON staff member or guest who enters will not be eligible for those awards, but will be eligible for the two special awards the judges will be allowed to give. So, I hope that we will be seeing a lot of our "official as they get" NECRONOMICON people getting out their garb and showing it off to the delight of their fellow fans' eyes.
OCTOBER STONE HILL MEETING--THE FIRST SUNDAY!! We cannot have our meeting on the second Sunday of October because we will all be gone. You know where. We will be at NECRONOMICON!
The date of the next meeting is October 6. It will be at Linda and David Bennett's house at 12215 Spottswood Drive, Riverview. The pone there is (813)671-2859. This will be a blood drive meeting. We had an excellent turnout of donors at the August meeting. Let's see if we can keep up the good work. The winter season is a time when more blood than usual is needed and there tend to be fewer donors than in other seasons. Take those vitamins and eat those green, leafy vegetables, so you will have good blood. There is no easier way to do something heroic and save a life than by blood donation.
We will have convention T-shirts at the October meeting. At this time, I am not sure of the cost to club members, but they will be either seven or eight dollars. We have no children's sizes but we did order a few smalls so that some of our younger members who really are growing up too fast can wear them just a bit baggy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU..... Here's the birthday list for September. Many, many happy returns to all of you !!!
Scott Ciencin--1st Richard Lee Byers--21st Julie Oswald--6th Chris Littell--21st Dale Shuman--10th Richard Louis Newman--25th James Thomas Hillyard--13th Mike LoBue--30th Lauren Podolak--17th
HUGO WINNERS These were sent to me by Ellen Lindow. I admit to not having kept up with current events in SF, so I depend on those such as Ellen who give me the news to pass on to you.
NOVEL: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
NOVELLA: "The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele
NOVELETTE: "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly
SHORT STORY: "The Lincoln Train" by Maureen McHugh
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: "The Coming of Shadows" (from Babylon 5)
NON-FICTION BOOK: Science Fiction Illustrated Encyclopedia edited by John Clute
PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: Gardner Dozois
PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: Bob Eggleton
ORIGINAL ARTWORK: "Dinotopia: the World Beneath" by James Gurney
SEMI-PROZINE: "Locus"
FANZINE: Ansible
FAN WRITER: Dave Langford
FAN ARTIST: Bill Rotsier
The JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for best new writer went to David Feintuch.
TILL NEXT TIME, TAKE CARE AND HAVE FUN!!!
--Annie