Welcome to Melbourne’s ALL - CLUB mini- convention Your convention book

Saturday 18 April 2009 10.00 am - 4.30pm St David’s Uniting Church Hall, 74 Melville Rd, West Brunswick

All Melbourne’s science fiction clubs under one roof!

Guest of Honour - Kim Westwood author of The Daughters of Moab Assassin. Protector. Blood sister. “Mad Max meets feminism with a nice sense of humour” Melbourne’s sci-fi clubs Specialist dealers and booksellers Collectibles, memorabilia, books for sale Rarities auction Trivia Quiz Panel discussions All Club Minicon - from the Convenors

Welcome to the 2009 All-Club mini-convention! We hope you have a fun enjoyable day, make new friends, learn new things, and take advantage of the collectibles, books, food and coffee!

2009 is the fourth year running that the various science fiction clubs of Melbourne have joined together under one roof to talk about what the various clubs do. We are promoting the various SF Clubs within Melbourne and Victoria so people can see what is on offer and the wide variety of things, events and activities in the science fiction world here in Victoria. We are wonderfully sup- ported by the retailers and distributors you see represented here today, and we ask that you give them your support, today and in the .

We are privileged to have Kim Westwood, author of The Daughters of Moab, as our Guest of Honour today. Kim is based interstate, in Canberra, and so has come some distance to be here! The Daughters of Moab is a fine addition to the sub-genre of poetically-expressed humourous post-apocalyptic Mad Max meets feminist Australian future tales. You can read more about Kim and her other work later in this booklet, and the centerpiece of this convention is her Guest of Honour speech. It’s timely too to give you news of the new Norma K. Hemming Award.

Thank you to the many volunteers who have been involved in this convention - from the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, Star Walking, Dr Who Fan Club, Austrek and others.

A question we got as organisers last year was a newcomer’s “don’t you all end up competing among each other?” Actually, no. Many people who join Victoria’s science fiction clubs are mem- bers of more than one club, and we know they spend their money and time in many different se feel welcome, places and ways. In that spirit of generosity, plea Murray MacLachlan thank you for coming along, and enjoy your day! President, MSFC for the Convenors

ALL CLUB MINICON - WELCOME TO THE VENUE

Auction: a maximum of FIRST AID - First Aid kit is 5 items per person TOILETS in the kitchen. Qualified please. The organisers are to the left of the First Aider is on call: 040901 LOUNGE 8151 stage. Goods need to STAGE be in to the organisers before 2.00pm. The Incidents & Security: report auction takes 10% of to Murray 0409408 805 or the selling price. Auction go to the Melbourne SF Payout is between Club table outside the 4.30pm and 5.00pm at HALL kitchen. the organisers' table. Kitchen Security. - SF clubs Security and Disabled Access theft/shoplifting pre- - Sales and emergency exit vention - is your - Guest of Honour responsibility. The speech organisers are not In emergency - Auction liable for any thefts, assemble on the property loss, or dam- age to your personal lawn here property or sale goods, including from your Toilets are behind vehicle as well as in the building. We don't the stage expect any problems, MSFC MAIN (along the corridor to but please don't be MELVILLE RD the right of the stage) complacent. LIBRARY ENTRANCE CONVENTION CALENDAR 2009 -2010 for melbourne and parts beyond ...

RICHARD MORGAN UK author of Altered Carbon at the Melbourne Science Fiction Club Friday 8 May 2009 9.00pm - 10.30pm non-members $5.00 Continuum 5 (Aug 14-16, 2009) The Ether Centre, Melbourne, Australia. www.msfc.sf.org.au Continuum is a convention that spans all genres and media. This year’s theme is “Galaxies by Gaslight”. GoH Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. For more information: http://www.continuum.org.au/.

The fifth speculative fiction convention held under the Conflux name in Canberra. The first was in 2004 and was the national convention (Natcon) for that year. One of Australia’s finest conventions. http://www.conflux.org.au/

WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION

This calendar is a http://www.anticipationsf.ca/ Montreal, Canada Melbourne Science Fiction Club compilation

October 17/18 2009 Melbourne Exhibition Centre www.armageddonex- po.com/ Sci-Fi and connections for Victorians October 2007 LUBS Friday 5 October Melbourne Science Fiction Club St David' s Uniting Church, Australian SF Foundation 74 Melville Rd, Brunswick West http://home. Meets almost every Friday night, vicnet.net.au/~asff/ 8-11pm .msfc.sf www .org.au Nova Mob: SF book dis- cussion group Carlton & Northcote. Meeting monthly since 1970. Contact: [email protected]

Western Suburbs Wargamers Association SF and fanta AusTrek: S ar Trek Fanclub sy wargaming. t Meet Northcot treet, Northcote s fortnightly. e Town Hall, High S Includes Warhammer 40k Meetings first Saturday of the month, 2-5pm http://www.wswa.com.au/index.html http://www.austrek.org/ Society for Creative Anachronism Medieval re-enactment including costuming, bat- tles, bards and beer. http://www.sca.org.au/lochac/groups/groups.php

SFFG - Science Fiction & Fantasy in Geelong http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/SFFiG Dr Who Fanclub of Victoria Doctor Who Club Of Victoria PO Box 8080. Rippleside, Victoria, 3215 ONLINE ETC Meetings once a month http://www.dwcv.org.au/about Hitchhiker's Fan Club of Victoria Conceptual group admiring Douglas Adams. Melbourne Anime Society Contact: [email protected] Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote http://www.mas.org.au/ Harry Potter Meetup Group Meets monthly. Spaced Out: Australia's http://harrypotter.meetup.com/13/ first science fiction club for gays, lesbians and friends. FICTION Grandma Funks, 256 Swan St. Richmond Meetings Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine once a month, from AndromedaSp aceways-subscribe 6:30pm @yahoogroups.com http://www.spacedoutinc.org/

Orb - Australian SF magazine http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kendacot/Orb/

Starwalking: Star Wars Appreciation Society of Australia Aurealis - Australian SF magazine PO Box 427, Northcote VIC 3070 http://www.aurealis.com.au/index.php http://www.starwalking.net/ Borderland - Australian SF magazine http://www.borderlands.com.au/

Fiction magazine:Eidolist Subscribe: [email protected] | subscribe eidolist (body of message)

The Australian National Science Fiction Convention & Ditmar Awards

Subscribe: [email protected]

History of Australian SF fandom  A.R.N:A0030794M Oz-fan History ([email protected])  AUSTREK, The Star Trek Fan Club Inc, is a not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne Australia. The newsletter of the SF world: mailing list Established in 1976, AUSTREK is the second oldest Star Trek Fan Club [email protected] in the world. It is a social club for people of all ages, from all walks of life who share an interest in the many worlds and incarnations of https://mr1.dcs.gla.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/ansible Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek”

Becoming a member of AUSTREK allows you to become involved with other like minded people with regular meetings, costumes, quizzes, trivia, media presentations, conventions and “Away Missions”. FANZINES You will also receive our bi-monthly newsletter “The Captains Log” with Trek news, reviews, letters, articles, stories, club news, event details and lots, lots more. Nerds Gone Wild PO Bo AUSTREK Contact Details x 185, Coburg VIC 3058 Ph – (03) 9481 1883 or 0402 017 498 [email protected] Email – [email protected] Web – www.austrek.org

a - Post – GPO Box 5206 Anzap Melbourne, Victoria, 3001 amateur press association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ANZAPA#_note-anzapaindex

On-line fanzine repository: http://www.efanzines.com/ Melbourne SF club fanzine collection Monash University Library Special Collection 6ORZ*ODVV%RRNV University of Sydney collection 0HOERXUQH9LFWRULD BOOKSHOPS ETC: $XVWUDOLD·VOHDGLQJPDLORUGHU Slow Glass Books DQGOLEUDU\VXSSO\VSHFLDOLVW .slow ss.com.au/ http://www gla 6FLHQFHILFWLRQIDQWDV\KRUURU $PHULFDQSDSHUEDFNFULPHILFWLRQ Suz’s Space - Books JUDSKLFQRYHOV http://www.suzs-space.com/ SOXVUHODWHGILOPWHOHYLVLRQ DUWDQGKXPRXUWLWOHV

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The eagerly awaited first novel by writer Kim Westwood is here…

The Daughters of Moab

Kim Westwood

The Daughters of Moab is a provocative, beauti- fully written novel from the hugely talented new- comer Kim Westwood. With its evocative settings, great characters and a compelling story, Kim's first novel cannot fail to intrigue all those who read it ... word of mouth will quickly spread the news of this fabulous book!

Kim Westwood is the recipient of a prestigious Varuna Writer's Fellowship, and an -winner for her short story writing. Her sto- ries have been chosen for Year's Best anthologies in Australia and the US, and for radio broadcast.

You don't want to miss out on this one…..

In a world torn asunder by geological and climatic disasters, a small corner of Australia is having a chaotic rebirth.

Eustace Crane II is the leader of the over-zealous Followers of Nathaniel, who have taken posses- sion of a ruined convent. Begrudging custodians of this ravaged landscape, they are harvesting the genetically modified blood of the captive Daughters of Moab - because the Daughters, unlike the Nathans, have an unnatural abundance of good health.

Assumpta Viali, a loner in this remade world, likes her solitude. But her boss, the crotchety Eustace, has other plans for her unique and deadly skills. He needs her to track and return an escaped captive, Easter.

The hunter and the hunted forge an uneasy alliance, and are joined by Angus O'Connell, a Nathan with questionable motives. While Assumpta returns to the place of her childhood where her community was destroyed long ago, Easter realises for the first time the perils of her lineage ... and Angus discovers that hope springs eternal in the most unlikely of places.

Driven by loss, and the search for home in an unpredictable new world, each of them must ulti- mately decide who to trust, and where they belong. Kim Westwood

Kim was born in Sydney and spent several years of her child- hood in New Zealand. She has always written, secretly and obsessively, while doing other more acceptable things. But that changed when her story “The Oracle” won a 2002 Aurealis Award. Since then more stories have appeared - in anthologies such as Agog! Eidolon 1, and Dreaming Again; and in Year’s Best collections in Australia and the USA. Kim’s work has also been heard on ABC Radio National.

She is a graduate of the inaugural Clarion South writer’s workshop, and the recipient of a prestigious Varuna Writer’s Fellowship for her first novel, The Daughters of Moab.

THE AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE FICTION FOUNDATION

The Australian Science Fiction Foundation was established in 1976 partially to carry on the work of Aussiecon, first Australian World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne in 1975. Its main purpose is to sponsor and encourage the creation and appreciation of science fiction in Australia. The Foundation does that through the sponsorship and administration of writing workshops and short story competitions, seed loans to national conventions, and the publication of its newsletter, The Instrumentality. The Foundation has, since its inception, been a resource centre for everyone involved in Science Fiction in Australia. The Foundation and its members worked, along with many others, to run the 1985 and 1999 in Melbourne and it is an enthusiastic supporter of Aussiecon 4 (68th to be held in Melbourne on 2-6 September 2010). Major recent initiatives include setting up the Meteor Fund (a long term project for the acquisition of funds to set up a permanent science fiction institution and research collection in Australia) and the Norma K Hemming Award (details of which are in this program book). Joining fee is $10.00, plus an annual membership fee of $10.00. Membership application forms are available at the ASFF table. Currently, the Foundation is seeking new members to help carry on its good work. Please visit the ASFF table, pick up an information flier and join now! DAUGHTERS OF MOAB Kim Westwood Harper Voyager $22.95 Reviewed by in The Age

Amid all the hype for Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, it tended to be forgotten that he was working in a venerable and popular genre: the post-apocalyptic novel. Australia has pro- duced few of these, of which the best known is Neville Shute’s On the Beach. Now debut author Kim Westwood has added a very Australian take on the theme. She mixes ecological disaster with religious cults, Mad Max with feminism. Eustace Crane controls the Followers of Nathaniel, struggling to stay alive and exploit the few remaining unpoisoned resources. A mini-Machiavelli, his chief weapon is the hired assassin Assumpta—a woman who is more than she seems. Westwood is a stylist, with a line in lyricism, and a nice sense of humour: “Styx and stones”. Daughters of Moab is a richly-peopled canvas, of which perhaps the real star is the ravaged landscape, so intensely depicted as to be almost a presence.

DUFF BALLOT 2009

Australasia to North America Since 1972 the required to fill in more than their name, address and Down Under first choice.) Fan Fund, a Ballots must be signed and accompanied donationby a fan-supported of at leastUS$ 5, AUS$8 or NZ$9. Anyone may fellowship, has encouraged closer ties between contribute and donations in excess of the voting science- fiction fans in Australasia and North America minimum are gratefully accepted. Checks should be through an alternating exchange of representatives. made payable toSue & Steve Francis (in North DUFF delegates attend the Worldcon or a national America) or Norman Cates (in New Zealand/ convention in the host country and visit fans they Australasia) in the administrator’s home currency. might otherwise never meet in person. Delegates are Thanks to Jean Weber, you can also vote and pay responsible for raising funds and administering DUFF at http://wrevenge.com/duff2009/ until a new delegate from their continent is elected, and are expected to publish trip reports which can be Anyone may vote who has been active in fandom on or sold to aid the fund. before January 1, 2008. “Active in fandom” means involved in fannish pursuits such asanzine f writing or VOTING : DUFF uses the preferential balloting reading, convention running or attending, amateur system to guarantee an automatic runoff and a majority film/video production, or club participation. Only win. The voter ranks the candidates in order of natural persons may vote. Each voter may vote only preference (1, 2, 3, etc.). Ifhere t is no absolute once. majority for one candidate after the first count of votes, first-place votes for the lowest-ranking candidate are CANDIDATES : Three Australasian fans andtwo dropped, and the second-place votes on those ballots North American fans nominate eachndidate. ca Each are assigned to the candidates named. This goes on candidate has written a platform and promised (barring until one candidate has a majority. So it’s important to Acts of God) to travel to the2009 Worldcon, vote for second, third, etc. places, especially if you Anticipation in Montreal, Canada, 6th to 10th August, choose to write in a candidate. (The voter is not 2009.and to serve as administrator of the fund until the next Australasian delegate is lected.e FANFUNDERY PLATFORMS DUFF: the 2009 race from Australasia to Anticipation, in MontrealEmma is Hawkes on, with candidat es Emma Hawkes, Chris Mumblings from Munchkinland– the only West Nelson-Lee, David Cake & Grant Watson (joint), and Alison Australian fanzine ever published in Pakistan, BartNominators:on. V AUS (Justin Ackroyd. MoreCathy atCupitt, Bill Tasmania, the South Pacific or (currently) Canberra– Wright), NAoting (Naomi deadline Fisher 17 and May Patrick Molloy, Ivy Smith) sffanz.sf.org.nz/duff. in 1989. Organised the first regional sf con held in Fannish Highlights:Concom for two WA cons. Samoa (2002). I’m fascinated by fan and pro sf GUFF:_Reinvigorated Down-Under the localdelegat artes show. Sue Co Ann-edited Barber the and first Trev or - history and the father of three avid Dr Who fans. I’d Clarkfeminist are at SF large zine in in the Australia. British CurrenIsles, withtly on plenty Australian of uncom love to compare Canadian, US and Australian fandoms mitSFted Foundation. time to meet National fans andAustralian fan groups: Fan Fund delegate - firsthand and make many new friends. Previous North htintp://guff 2002. Havepeeps.liv continuedejournal.com/898.html NAFF fundraising. Fan guest American con: OmniCon IV (Florida, 1983). at Swancon 2004. Marg Hughes award for significant FFcontributionANZ: the Fan to Fund WA ofandomf Australia in 2005.and New Zealand was David Cake and Grant Watson es ablished in 1982 t een fans Interests?t Art, charactero encourage-based SF&F, closer medieval ties betw Nominators: AUSDanny ( Oz, Sue Ann Barber,Damien in Australia and New Zealand. The two countries play host Warman), NA (Randy Byers, Colin Hinz) ohistory, trans- a slash fiction,s onsocial alternat justice. ears. t t sman guest e y David Cake! Grant Watson! Only 100 words! Go! htPrevioustp://ffanz.sf US.org.nz/ visits? 72 hours in Detroit in the 1990s (!) Qualities as a delegate? Sociability, organisation and David Cake! 39 years old! Fanince s 1988! Knows fundraising. weird things! Never been to Canada! Natcon Business Meeting addict! Online rights activist! Owns a Anything else? I will bring, at my own expense, my theremin and too many books! fifteen-month-old girl. My sincere thanks to Anticipation for providing child-minding facilities. Grant Watson! 32 years old! Fan since 1990! Five Ditmar Awards! Edits fanzines! Makes own comics! Chris Nelson Has never been to a convention outside Australia! Nominators: AUS (Robin Johnson, Grant Stone, Bruce Actor, writer, playwright! Gillespie), NA (Robert Lichtman, Gay Haldeman) Together! Run conventions! Operate fan clubs! Edit Born in Chicago, a twister carried me to the magical small press magazine! Many panels! Beer! Party! Love land of Oz at the age of 10. Raised by quokkas, I SF in all media! discovered fandom at early SwanCons in Perth. Was a We promise we make more sense than this in person, midwife at the birth of Susan Calvin (1982). Began but we've only got 001 words to- Page 1 of 2

The Melbourne Science Fiction Club is the best value science fiction club in Victoria, with weekly meetings, a fine clubzine, an excellent program of events, a massive library that covers the whole of science fiction and fantasy, and members who enjoy science fiction in all its forms. The MSFC is also the longest-running science fiction club in the southern hemisphere.

As an MSFC member, you join over 120 other people who enjoy science fiction and fantasy in books, TV, film, comics, art, fanzines and fandom, conventions, music, craft and games. You have free use of the club library, free access to meetings and activities, you receive the club magazine - 20 pages every 2 months, full of good reading - and you have discounts at shops including Minotaur, Syber's Books, Dymocks and Book Affair.

Our author meetings are fun! Our members have met Shaun Tan, Trudi Canavan, Jack Dann, Kerry Greenwood, Christopher Ride, and Alison Goodman.

Our film discussion nights are fun! Our members have seen Eureka, Dead Like Me, Death Note, Wonderfalls, The Tin Man, Dr Horrible, My Neighbour Totoro, Star Wars parodies, and fan films.

Our trivia nights are fun! From Terry Pratchett to Cormac McCarthy, from C3PO to Wall-E, from The Lord of the Rings to Dr Who, from Neil Gaiman to Arthur C. Clarke, from Moebius to Torchwood.

Our food nights are fun! Join in the conversation, find gems in our library of over 8,000 books, science fiction magazines, anthologies and fanzines.

You are welcome at the Melbourne Science Fiction Club: come along and join in!

Contact: [email protected] Website: http://www.msfc.sf.org.au

MEETINGS & MEMBERSHIP

Melbourne Science Fiction Club (MSFC). Meetings are every Friday except Good Friday and Christmas to mid-January at: St. David's Uniting Church Hall, 74 Melville Road, West Brunswick. Hall opens at 8pm, events start at 9pm, everyone out of the pool before 11pm. Melways ref 29 C5, or catch a #55 tram from William Street in the city, to tram stop 36. Friends, visitors and guests are welcome.

Single membership: $30 per year Family: $40 per year Ethel the Aardvark MSFC clubzine subscription rates: Interstate members: $20 per year International members: $40 per year Rainmaker art by Shaun Tan (c) MSFC 2008

Norma K Hemming Award

Since the 1970s when the late Susan Wood sparked the feminist movement within the world science fiction community, no less than three American awards have been set up to promote positive images of racial and sexual minorities in North American science fiction. Australia has no such award. In recent years concerned science fiction fans, including a number of editors, authors and academics, have identified the need for one. The Norma K Hemming Award is a major fan initiative that was referred to the Australian Science Fiction Foundation (ASFF) in 2007 by the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation; on the basis that, since it will be a national award, it needs the national SF association to sponsor and administer it. The award was st accepted in principle by ASFF on 1 September 2007 and, after investigation, th formally accepted at its annual general meeting on 25 January 2009. Biography Norma Hemming was a British author who migrated to Australia in 1949 and soon started writing (as N K Hemming) for local pulp magazine Thrills Incorporated and participating in the fan scene. She was a founding member of the femme fan group Vertical Horizons and a member of the Arcturian Players, a science fiction theatrical group for whom she wrote and acted. In the late 1950s she returned to international publishing with stories in Nebula SF and New Worlds before dying of lung cancer, at age 33, in early 1960. Award description Like the A Bertram Chandler Award (given by ASFF for distinguished lifetime achievement as an SF fan) this will be a jury award but with specific professional focus, ie. to mark excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, class and sexuality  in the form of science fiction and fantasy or related art work or media;  produced either in Australia or by Australian citizens; and  first published, released or presented in the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is given. The Norma K Hemming Award will be given only for excellence (i.e. provided an acceptable standard of competence is achieved); although it will be awarded annually for the first two years to establish the award. It th will be launched at Aussiecon 4 (6 worldcon in Melbourne on 2-6 Sep 2010). --- A number of events are planned to celebrate the event, including the release of an edition of Norma Hemming’s collected writings put together by Dr Toby Burrows, head of the Scholar’s Centre at the University of Western Australia. Only one script has survived out of Norma Hemming’s five stage plays, ie. The Matriarchy of Renok that was th first performed at the 6 Australian SF Convention in 195 and recently read over two consecutive Swancons. Perth stage director and actor Grant Watson says he will be happy to look at the script and draw up some notes on how many people it will require, how long it will run, what the budget should be, what kind of space it requires, etc. ASFF will take him up on the offer if there is enough support from Melbourne fans to state the performance at Aussiecon 4. What do attendees at this MSFC Minicon think of the idea? Speak to the people at the Australian Science Fiction Foundation. --- Hot off the press is the following text of an address to the Norma K Hemming Award panel at Swancon 2009 last (Easter) weekend by University of Western Australia librarian David Medlen…

Hemming Prize

An Australian award on the exploration of race, gender, class and sexuality in speculative fiction - What a good idea! But who the hell is Norma K. Hemming and why are we naming an award after her? Norma Hemming wasn't the first woman to write science fiction in Australia. That honour falls to Catherine Helen Spence who's novel "Handfasted' in 1879 speculated on a future where there will be trial marriages was branded 'socialistic and dangerous'. Nor is Norma Hemming the most influential or the best Australian female science fiction writer. You could run several Swancon panels to decide that. No, Norma Hemming was the first Australian woman to dedicate her entire writing career to science fiction and to . Her work during a brief blooming of Australian science fiction and fandom between 1950 and 1960 exemplifies all that is honoured in this award both in literary output and in life. Born in Essex in 197 Norma Kathleen Hemming migrated to Australia in 1948 with her family. In 195 she started her nine year career with a string of stories in and local pulp Thrills Incorporated under the androgynous moniker, N.K. Hemming. Her first work, Winner take all, is all about gender and race. In a story that seems to start off with the worst possible clichés space test pilot Mike leaves girlfriend Jane to go exploring space. However a few pages in Hemming turns all this on its head, Mike is killed off and the real hero of the story is revealed to be Jane who helps bring a devastating to a stalemate. Hemming then turns things on their head again with a startlingly grim finale. The humanoid aliens and Jane's father come to a peace deal. Technology to rebuild earth in return for interbreeding races. Her own father prostitutes her off to gain alien technology. Hemming outed herself as a woman to her readership at the first Australian science fiction convention in 195. One fanzine reported this with a line like "N.K. Hemming a woman!- who would have believed it!". The convention itself was a catalyst for change for women in Australian fandom. Up until that time many had been unable to take out full membership to science fiction clubs and had to be 'guests' of male members. At the Sydney Futurian Society Rosemary Simmons and Norma Hemming, along with male sympathisers, pushed for change. After two votes a motion was finally passed 'not (to) discriminate on the grounds of race, creed, party or sex'. Rosemary Simmons was finally allowed as a member followed by Norma Hemming. Not satisfied with this in the same month Rosemary Simmons, Norma Hemming and other female fans started the first Australian femme fan group and fanzine both called Vertical Horizons. Like most fanzines it contained news and reviews but also passionate essays on being a female fan. By the mid fifties Hemming was writing for the few remaining Australian science fiction publications as changes to trade agreements saw a flood of overseas publications. She also wrote for newspapers, fanzines and importantly for the stage, writing Australia's first science fiction plays and participating in Australia's first science fiction theatrical group- The Acturian Players. The biggest problem facing Hemming was the lack of local editorial advice. Her stories grew in maturity but were sometimes flawed. Starchild published in the semi-prozine Forerunner dealt with the difficult issue of sexual abuse in a cult. In Dwellers in Silence, published in New Worlds, a young woman's telepathic abilities are so strong she cannot help but hear the thoughts of everyone around her. In an office job her life becomes a living hell as she is exposed to the sexual thoughts of the men in the office. While a perfunctory ending where she makes contact with telepathic aliens who offer to help her undercuts this. The idea of office sexual harassment as horror is extremely interesting. Tragically lung cancer saw her output diminish as returned to international publication in New Worlds and Nebula. She died 4th of July 1960 aged 31. The following decade saw the implosion of the fan scene she had contributed so much to into sets of self destructive feuds and local publication of science fiction declined further. For nearly forty years after her death Norma Hemming was just a footnote for magazine bibliographers until in 1998 Sean McMullen and Russell Blackford did Australian science fiction a great service in producing a detailed biography and analysis of her work for the publication Fantasy Annual. In 001 I gave a presentation at UWA and later Swancon which became a 008 magazine article on Norma Hemming and her work. In 004 Rob Gerrand selected Hemming's Debt of Lassor for inclusion in The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection. Next year not only sees the inaugural Norma K Hemming Award but also hopefully the first collection of her works to be produced. Dr Toby Burrows at the University of Western Australia is collating her works with the aim of publishing by Worldcon

68th World Science Fiction 10.30 am - WELCOME Convention and a brief introduction to all clubs September 2nd - 6th, 2010 - 11.00am - SCIENCEWORKS Melbourne, Jenine Fleming talks about the forthcoming Australia Star Wars exhibition at Scienceworks. Based on the proven track Become a volunteer! record of three successful Australian worldcons in 1975, 1985, and 1999. 11.30am GUEST OF HONOUR Kim Westwood The Daughters of Moab and more With great Australian experiences nearby - wineries, wildlife reserves, 12.30pm Lunch and Book signing beaches, historic gold- mining towns, and the 1.30pm TRIVIA QUIZ famous penguin parade. And a compact venue, the form teams of 3 or 4, answer 30 science fiction and fantasy new Melbourne questions correctly, and fame and lasting glory are yours! Convention Centre.

Guests Kim Stanley 2.30pm PANEL DEBATE Robinson, Shaun Tan and “What's Hollywood going to ruin next?" Robin Johnson. http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/ 3.30pm Club introductions - what’s coming up at the various Clubs and events

3.45pm Auction

4.25pm CLOSING, and door prizes. Doors close at 5.00pm. Have a great day!