PO Box 656, Washington, DC 20044 - (202) 232-3141 - Issue #102 - Sept. 1998 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: http://members.aol.com/lambdasf/home.html Gaylaxicon 1999 “Video Madness” Party Gayteways Is Completed - Con Committee Meeting Set for Sept. 19th Finally! announced by Rob Gates (New Location, reported by Rob Gates Same Old Madness) GAYLAXICON 1999: THE 10TH GAYLAXICON After almost two years, it’s fin- That’s right, gang, it’s time for ished! Gayteways is Lambda Sci-Fi’s first another bout of “video madness”! It’s set foray into ‘zine publishing. It’s been a for Saturday, Sept. 19th - beginning at 3:00 long time coming; but the finished prod- The Gaylaxicon 1999 ConComm PM and lasting until ??? However, the uct is fabulous. It includes original fiction, will hold its next meeting on Saturday, latest outbreak of this dreaded mania is poetry, and artwork submitted by LSFers, Sept. 12th, beginning at 4:00 PM. All are scheduled for a brand-new location: the Gaylactic Network members, and others. welcome. The meeting will be held at the home of LSFer Bethany Ramirez in Takoma As a reminder, our premise was home of LSFers Nan & Kay. There will be Park, MD! to put together a collection of quality, a BBQ grill out on the patio - so BYOG Other than the new site, the rest gay-positive, non-slash, non-porn, genre (bring your own grillables) - and the usual of the “rules” remain the same. As with works. The idea was originally put for- munchies and soda. previous Lambda Sci-Fi “Video Madness” ward by Philip Wright and myself in 1996. The main discussion topic for parties, bring along your favorite genre With Philip’s unfortunate passing in the this month will be “potential event spon- videos (science fiction, fantasy, horror); Spring of 1997, Michael Cornett took over sors” - so, come with your ideas (includ- attendees will vote on which videos to co-editor duties. ing contact information) and we’ll put watch on the two different “tracks” of Gayteways debuted at together a complete sponsorship plan! programming. The party will also include Worldcon in Baltimore; and copies will be We’ll also hear reports from various com- the traditional LSF pot-luck pig-out, so available for sale at future LSF meetings, mittee members on various aspects of the bring along something scrumptious to through the Gaylactic Network, and wher- convention; and we’ll begin planning for eat. We’re not pre-assigning categories ever else we can manage! our first Progress Report (scheduled to be of what food to bring; everyone should mailed out in October). just bring something from one (or more) of ΛΨΦ With Gaylaxicon about a year the following “basic food groups”: appe- away, the committee will begin holding tizers (veggies, chips, etc.); a main course SEPTEMBER monthly convention meetings, starting (enough to serve at least 4-5 people); LAMBDA SCI-FI MEETING with this one. (In other words, there’ll be dessert (of course!); non-alcoholic drinks * * * * another meeting next month, in October, (both diet and regular). The next Lambda Sci-Fi meeting will be and every month after that.) How to Get There held on Sunday, Sept. 13th, at James For directions to this month’s The party will be held at Crutchfield's apartment: 1414 17th St., meeting - or for more information - contact Bethany’s home in Takoma Park. It’s NW, Apt. 413 (near Dupont Circle) - 1:30 Gaylaxicon 1999 Co-Chair Jack Frost at located at 805 Maplewood Ave., Takoma PM for business meeting; 2:00 PM for (703) 567-8530. Park, MD (phone 301-495-0427). social meeting. Please bring munchies or soft drinks if you can. Hope to see you there! ΛΨΦ (directions continued on page 5) WHAT'S INSIDE? The No-Sleep, Post-Worldcon, Post-Move, "Where's-the-LSF-Box?" [August] Minutes (pg. 2);Hugo Award Winners An- nounced at Bucconeer (pg. 2);Looking at Looking Backward (book review - pg. 3);A Cartoon by Chris Browning(pg. 3);Worldcon Wrapup (pg. 4); Quatermass and the Pit (video review - pg. 5); Information about Lambda Sci-Fi: DC Area Gaylaxians andCon Calendar (pg. 6) 1 Hugo Award Winners An- The No-Sleep, Post- nounced at Bucconeer Worldcon, Post-Move, reported by Carl Cipra "Where’s-the-LSF-Box?" [August] Minutes Here ’tis, gang, the list of Hugo Award winners, as voted by the membership by Rob of Bucconeer, this year’s Worldcon. The Hugos (first awarded in 1953) are “amateur” (or “fan”) awards, in that the voting is not exclusively by professional readers; Hugo Yeah, yeah, I know - I said I was winners are chosen by ballot, generally by a mail-in ballot to the members of that year’s going to stop naming the minutes differ- Worldcon. ently every month; but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Best Novel Best Professional Editor I arrived at the August meeting Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman Gardner Dozois a half hour late - without having slept the night before while trying to finish Best Novella Best Professional Artist Gayteways - only to discover that no one “...Where Angels Fear to Tread” Bob Eggleton had been taking any notes or minutes. So, by Allen Steele my completely fried brain and handwrit- (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 97) Best Semiprozine ing were put to the test. Any errors, Locus, edited by Charles N. Brown weirdnesses, or things not-of-this-Earth Best Novelette are completely the fault of my over-abused “We Will Drink A Fish Together” Best Fanzine mind. by Bill Johnson (Asimov’s, May 97) Mimosa, edited by The big news in the business Nicki & Richard Lynch meeting was that there was *no* new Best Short Story Gaylactic Network news to report and no “The 43 Antarean Dynasties” Best Fan Writer discussions on Network issues. We did, by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s, Dec 97) Dave Langford however, discuss an LSF issue: the pos- sibility of registering our own domain Best Related Book Best Fan Artist name on the Internet and moving our The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, Joe Mayhew website (and Gaylaxicon 1999’s) to a new edited by John Clute & John Grant web host. Nan & Kay offered to pay the John W. Campbell Award for Best New monthly hosting fee for a particular web Best Dramatic Presentation Writer of 1996 or 1997 service; and Jim Williams offered to pay Contact Mary Doria Russell for the domain name registration. With ΛΨΦ those offers on the table, the group over- whelmingly approved the plan... so watch fandom” gathering). Michael reported on replaced. soon for the appearance of: the small-but-fun recent group outing to That was it - no dinner trip, no lambdascifi.org the 18th Century Market Fair - including wild arguments, no grandstanding. Thank- LSF T-shirts were distributed to commentary on Bethany’s choice of head- fully, rather boring. I made it home all right, those who had pre-paid for them. The gear to purchase. with Carl and Peter’s help, and took a nice shirts look fabulous and were thankfully Jack offered to coordinate plans loooooooong nap. in time for us to wear them at Worldcon. for the upcoming LSF Avengers movie Gayteways was reported to be “almost” outing, scheduled for Sunday, August finished, with plans to absolutely have it 16th. Various people reported on recently- done by Worldcon. (These plans suc- seen trailers and upcoming flicks, includ- ceeded. Refer to theGayteways article on ingA Bug’s Life,Antz , Prince of Egypt,My ΛΨΦ page 1.) Peter distributed stuff from the Favorite Martian, and Blade. Niko also LSF P.O. box - nothing excessively excit- praised a new Elizabeth Lynn novel, Science Fiction writers ing. Peter also passed around an amusing Dragon Winter. Finally, updates on the do have their blind spots “head swap of the month” from an action- world of genre TV were made, including: despite the fact that figure magazine - it crossed X-Files with the departure of Terry Farrell (“Jadzia Dax”) we're all geniuses, Star Trek. He also mentioned that he was fromDS9 , her replacement by a new “Dax,” we're all marvelous people, completing the LSF Directory Update. and the departure of Jeri Taylor from the and some of us can spell. A final planning brainstorm was Star Trek production world. In addition, --- Isaac Asimov --- done regarding Worldcon. Then Dan rumor has it that the actor playing “Boone” gave us a brief report on his recent atten- will be leaving Earth: Final Conflict; no excerpted from Science Fictionisms, compiled dance at Albany Anthrocon (a “furry news on whether he’ll be killed off or by William Rotsler (Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1995) 2 Looking at Pretty cool - a building design "... And for those long space missions, Looking Backward influenced by a work of science fiction. a self-gratification device!" a review by Carl Cipra As I’d never heard of either Bellamyor his book, I made a mental note to look it up Has serendipity ever led you to “some day.” And thus things sat until I a fascinating book? You know what I happened to find a cheapy Signet Clas- mean - you just sort’a happened onto sics copy in a used book store. one? Well, it happened to me again re- Well, talk about a case of sic cently. transit gloria mundi! It seems that this Back in April, I was working on little book I’d never heard of (and, ‘fess a course design task force in downtown up,you’d never heard of it either!) was one L.A.