May 2014 NASFA Shuttle
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Te Shutle May 2014 The Next NASFA Meeting is Saturday 24 May 2014 at the Regular Location d Oyez, Oyez d Con†Stellation 2014 ! The next NASFA Meeting will be 6P Saturday 24 May Canceled 2014 at the regular meeting location—the Madison campus of ! Willowbrook Baptist Church (old Wilson Lumber Company Circumstances beyond our control have caused NASFA to building) at 7105 Highway 72W (aka University Drive). take the unprecedented step of canceling Con†Stellation for Please see the map below if you need help finding it. 2014. Rest assured the convention will be back in 2015— Note that this meeting is one week later than usual due to a bright, shiny, and better than ever. We've set up a special e- convention conflict (DeepSouthCon 52). mail address related to the cancellation (should you need to contact us about it) at <[email protected]>. You can also keep up with what’s happening with Con†Stel- lation on our website <www.con-stellation.org>, or you can Road Jeff Kroger follow us on Twitter <@Con_Stellation>. We will be contacting—via old-school snailmail or hand delivery—everyone who pre-registered for 2014 to ask US 72W whether you'd like us to carry your pre-registration forward to (aka University Drive) Con†Stellation 2015, or would prefer a refund. Letters (which have already gone out) include a pre-paid postcard for you to return with your preference. If we don't hear back from you, we'll default to carrying over your membership to 2015. This Road Slaughter is not a deadline—we want to honor everyone's preference— Map To but if we somehow miss contacting you by the end of May Meeting Parking 2014, please jog our elbow at the email address above, or Willowbrook Madison check the website <www.con-stellation.org> for other contact Location methods. 7105 Highway 72W Huntsville AL 35806 Continuing Our 34th Year of Publication Inside this issue… Nebula Awards Winners .............................................................7 News & Info ...............................................................................2 Awards Roundup ........................................................................7 NASFA Calendar ........................................................................3 Letters of Comment ..................................................................10 Minutes of the April Meeting .....................................................4 Breaking News: DeepSouthCon 52 ..................................12, 13 Hugo Awards Nominations ........................................................4 PieEyedDragon’s adventurers were bumped due to an Retro Hugo Awards Nominations ..............................................6 extra-long issue, but they should return next month. Deadline for the June 2014 issue of The NASFA Shuttle is Monday 2 June 2014 MAY PROGRAM next year's Worldcon, not just the current and immediate past This month will be the More-or-less Annual Club Auction, ones. Too, Loncon 3 has an unusually large membership base; so please gather up all the donations you’ve been saving (you it’s likely to be the largest Worldcon in recent years and has an have been doing that, yes?) and schlep them along to the met- outside chance of setting the all-time record. (There were 6095 ing. Genre books, movies, games, etc., are always popular, but members of all stripes as of 21 March 2014.) general-interest items are fine, too. Bring cash, also, or at least And then there are the semi-controversies about campaign- your checkbook. Sorry, but no credit cards. ing/bloc voting. Even (sort of) newspaper USA Today chimed MAY ATMM in <tinyurl.com/USATHuCo> on the campaign by Larry Cor- Maria and Adam Grim will host this month’s After-The- reia, et al., to get some “right-leaning” authors on the Hugo Meeting Meeting, at the church. The usual rules apply—that is, ballot. (Whether they would have made it on the ballot or not please bring food to share and your favorite drink. Also, please without Correia’s blog—though he certainly claims credit stay to help clean up. We need to be good guests and leave <tinyurl.com/CoBlogCredit>—it’s true that several things he things at least as clean as we found them. promoted made the ballot… including one of his own novels.) CHANGING SHUTTLE DEADLINES Aaaand the interwebs take much notice. The latest tweak to the NASFA Shuttle schedule shifted the Other parts of the interwebs are exercised by the nomination usual repro date somewhat to the right (roughly the weekend of the entire Wheel of Time series in the novel category. The before each meeting) but much of each issue will need to be put WSFS Constitution does have an accommodation to make a to bed as much as two weeks before the monthly meeting. serial work eligible in the year the last part is published (n.b.: Please check the deadline below the Table of Contents each serial is not synonymous with series). Publisher Tor champi- month to submit news, reviews, LoCs, or other material. We oned the concept <tinyurl.com/TORBlogWoTSerial> that the will generally need to enforce that deadline strictly. series was in fact a single multi-decade, multi-author, serial. FUTURE PROGRAMS AND ATMMs Some of the questions raised by this nomination are: (1) what Future programs include: makes a series of books one serial work versus multiple dis- • June: More-or-less Annual Club Picnic/Cookout, at Sam and crete (albeit connected) works, (2) does the WoT fit that defini- Judy Smith’s house, starting at 2P. This will presumably sub- tion of a single serial work, and (3) when is one actually sure sume both the club meeting and the ATMM that month. Stay there will be no more works in a given serial? tuned for other info. HUGO PACKET NOT TO INCLUDE ALL NOVELS • July: TBD. In recent years Worldcons have negotiated with publishers of • August: Les Johnson mixes science fact and science fiction with Hugo-nominated works to provide electronic copies of many Mars Exploration and Rescue Mode <tinyurl.com/RMBBLJ>. works to potential Hugo voters. (That is, to members of the We need ATMM volunteers for most future months in 2014 current Worldcon.) Note that this is a purely voluntary thing; (July and forward, except, possibly, November). the Worldcon has no obligation to put the packet together and FUTURE CLUB MEETING DATES the publishers have no obligation to cooperate. After this month (May), all further NASFA meeting dates This year one publisher is in fact not cooperating. Orbit, pub- for 2014 are currently scheduled on the normal 3rd Saturday. lisher of Parasite (Mira Grant), Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie), JOINING THE NASFA EMAIL LIST and Neptune’s Brood (Charles Stross) has decided that for poli- All NASFANs who have email are urged to join the NASFA cy reasons they will not furnish the full novels. Orbit does email list, which you can do online at <tinyurl.com/ promise to provide “substantial extracts” of each novel for the NASFAEmail>. The list is usually low traffic, though the rate is packet. rather variable. Generally the list is limited to announcements Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles (Larry Cor- about club activities plus the occasional message of general reia, Baen Books) and the entire Wheel of Time Series (Robert interest to north-Alabama sf/f/h/etc. fans. Non NASFAns are Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, Tor Books) are expected to be both encouraged and welcomed to join the list, but please only part of the packet. do so if you’re interested in the above restricted topics. HUGO/RETRO HUGO NOM CEREMONY ONLINE NASFA CALENDAR ONLINE The Hugo and Retro Hugo nomination announcement was NASFA has an online calendar on Google. Interested parties streamed live from the UK to the web and conventions in the can check the calendar online, but you can also subscribe to it United States on Saturday 19 April 2014. The presentation is and have your Outlook, iCal, BlackBerry, or other calendar available for online viewing at <www.ustream.tv/hugo-awards>. automatically updated as events (Club Meetings, Concom Sponsors helping out Loncon 3 <www.loncon3.org> with the Meetings, local sf/f/h/etc. events) are added or changed. You ceremony included Satellite 4, the British National Science Fic- can view the calendar online at <tinyurl.com/NASFACal>. tion Convention (Eastercon)—where the announcement ceremo- ! ny took place—plus Norwescon 37 and Minicon 49. ! SFWA, POLITICS, WHAT’S NEW? The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America <www. News & Info sfwa.org> and politics are no stranger lately. Two writers of at ! least some note have ratcheted up the confrontational tone— HUGO PROCESS IN THE NEWS John C. Wright has quit <tinyurl.com/JCWvsSFWA> and Brad The Hugos have been in the news—not all of it positive—for R. Torgersen has promised to let his membership lapse. Former aspects of the process. SFWA President Michael Capobianco has fired back, with a For one thing, a record number of ballots were received in reply on Wright’s blog and others (e.g., <katsudon.net/?p= the nominating round. The 1923 ballots received represent a 2995>) have also chimed in on the other side(s). bump of over 40% from the previous record, set last year. The The underlying differences are, well, political and thus inher- vast majority (1889) of them were cast online while only a ently complicated. The Shuttle declines to try to parse the ar- scant handful (34) were on paper. Part of this record came from guments but you're encouraged to do the research if you have the change in 2012 to allow nominating by members of the any interest. "2 GUFF BALLOT AVAILABLE ONLINE Diverse Writers Grant and Diverse Worlds Grant. Applications Voting for the Get Up and Over (or Going Under) Fan Fund will be taken until 31 July 2014. (Australasia to/from Europe) can now be done online <http:// The (to be) annual $500 Diverse Writers Grant is to “support rantalica.com/guff/guff-voting-ballot>.