Te Shutle July 2013 Te Next NASFA Meetng is Saturday 20 July 2013 at te Regular Locaton ConCom Meeting 20 July 2013; ConCom Meetings now twice a month; see page 2 for details JULY ATMM d Oyez, Oyez d The July After-The-Meeting Meeting will be at Dunkin’ Do- nuts—1221B Memorial Parkway NW in front of Costco. The next NASFA Meeting will be Saturday 20 July 2013 They’re open until 10P and, if the weather is nice, they have an at the regular meeting location—the Madison campus of Wil- outdoor seating area between them and the Five Guys Burgers lowbrook Baptist Church (old Wilson Lumber Company build- and Fries next door. ing) at 7105 Highway 72W (aka University Drive). Please see the map at right if you need help finding it. PLEASE NOTE that the meeting will start at 5:30P (30 minutes earlier than usual) so we can leave the church in time Road Jeff Kroger to make it to the program. JULY PROGRAM The July program will be at the Von Braun Astronomical US 72W Society Planetarium <www.vbas.org/index.php/planetarium>: (aka University Drive) “Life in the Universe” with Gena Crook. The program starts at 7:30P, but we need to get there 7-ish to make our way in and get settled. NASFA will pay for VBAS entry (though donations are wel- Road Slaughter come). Please contact Judy or Sue <nasfa.programming@ Map To con-stellation.org> if you plan to attend so we can get an ap- Meeting Parking proximate headcount. Directions are available on the VBAS website <www.vbas. Location Willowbrook Madison org/index.php/directions> or on a custom Google Map 7105 Highway 72W <tinyurl.com/WMtoVBAS>. Huntsville AL 35806 Continuing Our 33rd Year of Publication Inside this issue… Awards Roundup !..................................................................4 News & Info!.........................................................................2 No Need for a Ring—Chapter 43!...........................................7 NASFA Calendar!..................................................................3 Art by Alan F. Beck!...............................................................7 Minutes of the June Meeting!.................................................4 Letters of Comment!..............................................................8 Deadline for the August 2013 issue of The NASFA Shuttle is Monday 29 July 2013 CONCOM MEETINGS sign itself will be kept under wraps until the convention. The next Con†Stellation XXXII concom meeting will be 3P WORLDCON SETS AT-THE-DOOR RATES Saturday 20 July 2013—the same day as the club meeting at Several membership rates for LoneStarCon 3 will change as the church. There will be a dinner break between the concom of 1 August 2013. These rates will also apply to at-the-door and club meetings. memberships. The rates will be: Future concom meetings will be on a twice-a-month sched- Adult Attending!................................................................$240 ule; first and third Saturdays. Conversion from Adult Supporting to Adult Attending!......$180 First Saturday meetings (3 August, 7 September, and 5 Octo- Young Adult (17–21) and Military Attending!....................$120 ber) will be after dinner. Stay tuned for locations. Child (0–16) Attending!...................................$75 (unchanged) Third Saturday meetings (20 July, 17 August, and 21 Sep- Supporting Membership!..................................$60 (unchanged) tember) will be at 3P at the club meeting location. Family Rate (2 adults and 2 or more dependent children)!..$540 There will also be the usual working meetingThursday prior Day Rates were previously-announced. to the con—10 October 2013, all day, at the hotel. Information WORLDCON AND NASFiC BIDDER INFO about the pre-con dinner that evening will be available later. This year’s Worldcon website has links to both text FAQs CHANGING SHUTTLE DEADLINES and video presentations by the combined five bidders in the The latest tweak to the NASFA Shuttle schedule shifted the current Worldcon and North American Science Fiction Con- usual repro date somewhat to the right (roughly the weekend vention races. Scroll down near the bottom of their Site Selec- before each meeting) but much of each issue will need to be tion page <www.lonestarcon3.org/wsfs/wsfs-site.shtml> for the put to bed as much as two weeks before the monthly meeting. links. Please check the deadline below the Table of Contents each For even more info on the Helsinki bid, you can check out month to submit news, reviews, LoCs, or other material. We Cheryl Morgan’s website <www.cheryl-morgan.com/?page_id will generally need to enforce that deadline strictly. =16980> which has more than a dozen videos from a visit she FUTURE PROGRAMS AND ATMMs made to their proposed site (and other parts of the city). Future programs include: WORLDCON EXHIBITS ANNOUNCED •! August: “Adding Bling to Your Costume” with Angela from LoneStarCon 3 has announced a number of exhibits, includ- Sci-Quest <sci-quest.org>. ing: •! September: The More-Or-Less Annual NASFA Auction. •! Special exhibit on Texas writer Robert E. Howard Please start saving stuff to donate. •! Original artwork from TSR’s Dungeons and Dragons •! October: Con†Stellation XXXII Post-Mortem. •! “Texas-Israeli War of 1999,” based the on the novel by Jake •! November: Max Rosenthal, a former manager on the Hubble Saunders and Howard Waldrop program, shares personal stories and highlights of the Hubble •! A recreation of the bridge of the USS Enterprise from the development and its remarkable pictures. original Star Trek •! December: Holiday Party (volunteer host(s) needed). •! A celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Doctor Who We need ATMM volunteers for August and most future •! An exhibit inspired by the genome of sf writer Jay Lake months. (November is tentatively spoken for, but otherwise it’s (mapped as part of Lake’s fight against cancer) pretty much wide open.) •! A special display on sf music FUTURE CLUB MEETING DATES •! The World Science Fiction Society banner, first flown at Remaining NASFA meeting dates for 2013 are all sched- NyCon II, the 1956 Worldcon in NYC uled for the normal 3rd Saturday. •! Guest of Honor exhibits for the LoneStarCon 3 guests and JOINING THE NASFA EMAIL LIST special guests All NASFANs who have email are urged to join the NASFA •! 70 years of Worldcon history, with photos, programs, arti- email list, which you can do online at <tinyurl.com/ facts, and much more NASFAEmail>. The list is usually low traffic, though the rate •! Hugo Award Display, featuring Hugo Award trophies, from is rather variable. Generally the list is limited to announce- the first presentation of the award in 1953 to the present ments about club activities plus the occasional message of gen- Exhibits will be in Exhibit Hall A of the Convention Center. eral interest to north-Alabama sf/f/h/etc. fans. Non NASFAns More info on LSC3 exhibits can be found at <www. are welcome to join the list, but please only do so if you’re lonestarcon3.org/exhibits>. interested in the above restricted topics. Posts unrelated to those DUFF WINNER ANNOUNCED purposes are strongly discouraged and could result in you being The winner of this year’s Down Under Fan Fund has been asked to leave the list. announced by DUFF administrator David Cake. Bill Wright NASFA CALENDAR ONLINE took the honor in a close race and will travel to attend Lone- NASFA has an online calendar on Google. Interested parties StarCon 3 in San Antonio. He will also make other stops on his can check the calendar online, but you can also subscribe to it visit to North America, The votes, broken down by region, and have your Outlook, iCal, BlackBerry, or other calendar were: automatically updated as events (Club Meetings, Concom Meetings, local sf/f events) are added or changed. You can North America Australasia Total view the calendar online at <tinyurl.com/NASFACal>. Bill Wright 032 034 066 Clare 018 046 064 News & Info McDonald-Sims Hold Over Funds 001 000 001 HUGO BASE DESIGNER CHOSEN No Preference 001 001 002 LoneStarCon 3 has chosen a Texas-based artist, Vincent Vil- lafranca, to design the 2013 Hugo Award trophy base. The de- Total 052 081 133 2 EBOOKS VERDICT RENDERED 29! BD: Mark Paulk. Recall that the US Department of Justice was pursuing a AUGUST lawsuit against the Big Five publishers and Apple for conspir- 01! Bailey Cove Library Book Discussion: Left Hand of acy to fix prices on ebooks. Recall also that all five publishers Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin; 6P. had—one by one—settled with DoJ and avoided trial. 03! Con†Stellation XXXII Concom Meeting—after dinner, Though there will undoubtedly be an appeal, Apple may stay tuned for location. wish they had settled, too. The judge in the case has ruled in 05! Civic Holiday (Canada). DoJ’s favor, with a separate penalty phase to follow. 08! BD: Jim Woosley. HUNTSVILLE RANKS IN TWO TOP 10s 09–11!WhedonFest—Scottsville KY. Huntsville made the news recently with two quite different 12! BD: Sue Thorn. Top 10 rankings. 14! BD: Edward Kenny. NerdWallet.com came up with a list of the top US metro 15–17!OnyxCon—Atlanta GA. areas for graduates in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer- 17*! Con†Stellation XXXII Concom Meeting—3P, at Wil- ing, Math) disciplines. Perhaps not too surprisingly, Huntsville lowbrook Madison. did well, coming in third nationwide <tinyurl.com/ 17*! NASFA Meeting—6P Business, 7P Program, at Wil- HSVSTEM3>. lowbrook Madison. Program: “Adding Bling to Your After exercising (their brain) all day, what does the STEM Costume,” Angela (Sci-Quest). ATMM: TBD. worker want to do on a hot summer night? Stay cool, of course. 21! BD: Deborah Denton. ApartmentGuide.com analyzed apartment listings for “cool” 29–02!LoneStarCon 3 -- San Antonio TX. amenities, specifically AC units, pools, and ceiling fans. 30–02!Dragon*Con—Atlanta GA. Huntsville finished a very respectable tenth. If your domicile is 31–02!Mephit Furmeet—Memphis TN.