Monthly Archives: May 2023

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

CSFFA Special Update: AGM Date Changed, Voters Package Ready

Membership in CSFFA is really worth the price if you enjoy reading, and there is a lot of reading in the awards package!  https://www.csffa.ca/ CPL

In this newsletter:

  1. Change of Date for CSFFA AGM
  2. Aurora Awards Voters’ Package

The CSFFA AGM has a new date: June 25, 2023

The CSFFA 2023 AGM now will occur Sunday, June 25. The 2023 CSFFA AGM materials and motions can be viewed by logged-in members (Home page -> Annual General Meeting). Members can vote now on the motions. Voting ends June 24.

The AGM will begin Sunday June 25, 10 a.m. Pacific/ 11 a.m. Mountain/ noon Central/ 1 p.m. Eastern/ 2 p.m. Atlantic/ and one half-hour later, Newfoundland & Labrador.

2023 Aurora Awards Voters’ Package

The Voters’ Package is now available for the 2023 Aurora Awards. It can be accessed and the files downloaded from https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/. You must be logged into your account to access it.

Good luck to all of the nominees. Voting will begin on June 17th and close six weeks later on July 29th. The awards ceremony will be held online starting at 7pm EDT, August 19th, 2023. The ceremony will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Links to both a Facebook and YouTube page for the ceremony will be posted in August.

Fanzines

Zine to share!

Nic Farey has sent us This Here.

TH 65

The ish opens with an interesting article about the settlement movement, a friend he shared a settlement flat with  and a terrible murder that occurred near there which remains unsolved.

Nic has been diagnosed with a form of leukemia. There is a reasonably effective treatment, he says, but we’ll keep him in our thoughts through what must be a difficult time.

Space Travel / Exploration

Rocket plane returns to spaceflight

Virgin Galactic: Sir Richard Branson’s rocket plane returns to spaceflight

By Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic rocket plane is back in action after a gap of almost two years.

The Unity vehicle, with two pilots and four passengers aboard, climbed high over the New Mexico desert to the edge of space – before gliding back down.

It was billed as the plane’s final test outing before entering commercial service in June.

Galactic has sold over 800 tickets to individuals who want to ride more than 80km (260,000ft) above Earth.

The company expects to start working through this passenger list with Unity flights initially occurring at the rate of one a month. New rocket planes are being designed for service in 2026 that should each be capable of increasing the cadence to one a week.

Flight profile

Unity is a sub-orbital vehicle. This means it can’t achieve the velocity and altitude necessary to keep it up in space to circle the globe.

The spaceship is designed to give its passengers stunning views at the top of its climb, and allow them a few minutes to experience weightlessness.

Click https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65714340 to read the full article with video and pictures.
Montreal Area Event / Convention

One of the World’s Best Comics Events | May 26-28

François sends us news of an event many will be interested in. It’s free, and looks to be a lot of fun. https://www.fbdm-mcaf.ca/en/  En français, ici: https://www.fbdm-mcaf.ca/

 

One of the World’s Best Comics Events | May 26-28

Come join me and over 200 other creators at the Festival BD de Montréal | Montréal Comic Arts Festival! I may be biased, but I think that the Festival is one of the top events in the world of comics, a huge, FREE event that takes over over a mile of Saint Denis Street, creating a pedestrian-friendly street fair with a vibrant and unique atmosphere.

Officially bilingual, this event should definitely be on the radar of anglophone comics readers… Think of it as a North American Angoulême, but maybe even better! Some of the many publishers present include Drawn & Quarterly, Oni Press, Pow Pow Press, Floating World Comics, Uncivilized Books, La Pastèque, and so many more. Guests this year include Gabriel Ba and Fábio Moon, Nick Drnaso, Aisha Franz, Sarah Anderson, Sourya, Manuele Fior, Dorothée de Monfreid, and so many more!

CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

2023 Aurora Award Ballot

 2023 Aurora Award Ballot

This ballot is for works originally done in 2022 by Canadians.  The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.  The top five nominated works were selected.  Additional works were included where there was a tie for fifth place.  An online awards ceremony will be held on August 19th, 2023, at 5pm EDT, with hosts Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Details at www.csffa.ca

Best Novel

All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay, Penguin Canada
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey
The Embroidered Book, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
The Void Ascendant, Premee Mohamed, Solaris Books

Best Young Adult Novel

Black Hole Radio – Ka’Azula, Ann Birdgenaw, DartFrog Books
Ghostlight, Kenneth Oppel, Puffin Canada
The Hollow Boys: The Dream Rider Saga, Book 1, Douglas Smith, Spiral Path Books
Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Rati Mehrotra, Wednesday Books
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Xiran Jay Zhao, Margaret K. McElderry Books

Best Novelette/Novella

Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk, Tordotcom
High Times in the Low Parliament, Kelly Robson, TordotCom
The Jade Setter of Janloon, Fonda Lee, Subterranean Press
“A Sky and a Heaven”, Eric Choi, Just Like Being There, Springer Nature
The Tiger Came to the Mountains, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Amazon Original Stories

Best Short Story

“Big Trouble in Droidtown”, Hayden Trenholm, The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, Tyche Books
“Broken Vow: The Adventures of Flick Gibson, Intergalactic Videographer”, Peter G. Reynolds, On Spec Magazine, Issue 120
“Douen”, Suzan Palumbo, The Dark, Issue 82
“The Five Rules of Supernova Surfing, or A For Real Solution to the Fermi Paradox, Bro”, Geoffrey W. Cole, Clarkesworld, Issue 184
“Green Witch”, Elizabeth Whitton, Prairie Witch, Prairie Soul Press
“A New Brave World”, Eric Choi, Brave New Worlds, Zombies Need Brains
“Schrödinger’s Cats”, Wayne Cusack, Polar Borealis Magazine, Issue #22
“We Are the Thing That Lives on the Moon”, Gillian Secord, Fireside Magazine, Issue 101, March

Best Graphic Novel/Comic

Birds of Maine, Michael deForge, Drawn and Quarterly
Cupcake War Machine, Marika Kapogeorgakis, webcomic
Goblins, Ellipsis Hana Stephens, webcomic
It Never Rains, Kari Maaren, webcomic
Mistress of the Winds, Michèle Laframboise, Echofictions
Questionable Content, Jeph Jacques, webcomic
Wychwood, Ally Rom Colthoff, webcomic

Best Poem/Song

“After the Apocalypse”, Colleen Anderson, NewMyths, Vol 16, issue 61
“Ghost Stories”, James Grotkowski, Polar Starlight Magazine, Issue 6
“In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White”, Terese Mason Pierre, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Six
“Poltergeist”, Rhonda Parrish, Star*Line, Vol 45, Issue 2
“Rapunzel in the Desert”, Melissa Yuan-Innes, On Spec Magazine, Issue 122
“a sinkhole invites a street to consider its future”, Dominik Parisien, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Four
“Three Herons”, Geoffrey W. Cole, Polar Starlight Magazine, Issue 5
“The Wolf of Your Passions”, Lynne Sargent, Augur Magazine, Issue 5.2

Best Related Work

The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, edited by Shannon Allen and JR Campbell, Tyche Books
Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson, Renaissance
On Spec Magazine, Issues 119, 120, and 121, managing editor Diane Walton, The Copper Pig Writers’ Society
Prairie Witch, edited by Stacey Kondla, Prairie Soul Press
Strange Wars: Speculative Fiction of Coalitions in Conflict, edited by Don Miasek, TDotSpec

Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration

Arboreality, cover art, Rachel Yu Lobbenberg, Stelliform Press
The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, cover art, Kayla Kowalyk, Tyche Books
Birthday of the Unicorn, cover art, Marco Marin, TdotSpec
Weird Fishes, cover art, Julia Louise Pereira, Stelliform Press
The World We Left Behind, Swati Chavda, On Spec Magazine, Issue 119

Best Fan Writing and Publication

JenEric Movie Reviews, Éric Desmarais, JenEric Designs
Polar Borealis Magazine, Issues: 21, 22, and 23, edited by R. Graeme Cameron
Polar Starlight Magazine, Issues: 5, 6, and 7, edited by Rhea E. Rose
The Travelling TARDIS, Jennifer Desmarais, JenEric Designs
Young People Read Old SFF, edited by James Davis Nicoll, online

Best Fan Related Work

Augurcon, Terese Mason Pierre and Kerry C. Byrne, co-directors, Toria Liao, operations director, online
Can*Con, Marie Bilodeau and Derek Künsken, co-chairs, Ottawa
ephemera Reading Series, KT Bryski and Jen R. Albert, co-chairs, online
When Words Collide, Randy McCharles, chair, online
The Worldshapers Podcast, Edward Willett, online

Fanzines

Zines to share!

From Leybl in Israel, CyberCozen

CCMay2023-v01

And an update from Bill Burns at e-fanizes

New today at https://efanzines.com:
  • Added page for Martin Petto’s Moot
  • Leybl Botwinik’s CyberCozen – May 2023
  • Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #37
  • Henry Grynnsten’s Wild Ideas #35
  • Guy H. Lillian III’s Spartacus #65
  • Octothorpe #83, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line

    —
    Bill

CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

2023 Aurora Awards Ballot


2023 Aurora Awards Ballot

The 2023 ballot is out. The top five works in all ten categories have been determined from the nominations by CSFFA members. It can be viewed on our website. It contains the most up to date listing.

Good luck to all of the nominees. Voting will begin on June 17th and close six weeks later on July 29th. Before you vote make sure to download the voters package so you can read the works on the ballot.

The awards ceremony will be held online starting at 7pm EDT, August 19th, 2023. The ceremony will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Links to both a Facebook and YouTube page for the ceremony will be posted in August.

Aurora Award Voter’s Package

We are hard at work compiling the Voter’s package for the 2023 Aurora Awards. We are happy to say that there has been a wonderful response from all the nominees which will make for a wonderful package for you to enjoy. It is our hope to have the package into member’s hands by May 22, 2023 so watch the website!

This year has an amazing list of nominated works. Take your time, read everything in the package and vote for what YOU like, what moves YOU. Your participation makes all the difference.

MonSFFA Website

MAY 2023 E-MEETING, Post 6 of 6: Cottingley Fairies and Wrap-Up

This post closes today’s MonSFFA e-meeting. 

10) COTTINGLEY FAIRIES

In 1917, cousins Elsie Wright, aged 16, and Frances Griffiths, aged 9, lived in the English village of Cottingley, near Bradford, West Yorkshire, and claimed to have seen and photographed tiny fairies dancing amid the foliage around Cottingley Beck, a brook near their home.

Locale where occurred the supposed sightings, and photographing of the Cottingley Fairies.

Belief in things supernatural, like ghosts and fairies, were widespread in the early years of the 20th century, especially in English-speaking countries, and many high-profile citizens were adherents of Spiritualism, not the least of whom was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, prolific author of the popular Sherlock Holmes stories published in The Strand Magazine. Doyle, in fact, took an interest in the girls’ claims and interpreted their photographs as clear evidence of supernatural phenomena. His view was shared by many, but not all, with detractors pegging the pictures as clever fakes. Elsie and Frances maintained that they had seen fairies, and that their photographs were genuine.

Frances amidst a grouping of fairies.

Doyle, meanwhile, had secured permission to use the photographs to illustrate a magazine article he was writing about fairies, while associate Edward Gardner, a leading member of the Theosophical Society, an organization of Occultists, arranged for the cousins to take more pictures of the fairies in 1920. The tiny creatures would not show themselves if other than they two girls were watching, Elsie and Frances cautioned, so they were left to their own devices, returning later from the beck with fresh photographs.

Elsie with the so-called “Leaping Fairie.”

Gardner and Doyle had a number of experts examine the photographs to determine if there was anything amiss, and were met with mixed opinion. But several of the experts had judged that no tampering with the photographic plates had occurred, noting, however, that this did not necessarily provide proof positive that fairies were real. The camera had simply recorded what was before the lens, and the fairies could have been paper dolls or some such positioned on branches and leaves.

Over the years, interest in the Cottingley Fairies waxed and waned, with later investigations launched to get at the truth of the matter, until finally, Elsie and Frances, now elderly women, put the question to rest in 1983, confessing that the whole thing had been a fraud. Their fairies were nothing more than drawings on cardboard rendered by the artistically inclined Elsie, copying illustrations of dancing girls in a children’s book of the day. She had drawn in wings, cut out the figures, propped them up in the garden with hatpins, and voilà: fairies!

Still, Frances insisted that they had actually seen the fairies, and unlike the others pictures, the last photograph taken was bona fide. Elsie did not concur, and remembered that the two felt embarrassed, at the time, to admit the truth, having fooled so many, including a brilliant man like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!  “I can’t understand to this day why they were taken in—they wanted to be taken in.”

Both women died in the late-1980s. Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book (1994), by Terry Jones and Brian Froud, parodied their famous images, and prints of their photographs, along with the cameras used, and other associated material, now reside in the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford.

11) THANK YOU!

We sincerely hope you have enjoyed your time with us these past few hours and encourage you to visit www.MonSFFA.ca regularly for additional content.

We thank Kofi Oduro, Danny Sichel, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister for their contributions to today’s programme. Thanks is extended, also, to all of our supporting contributors this afternoon.

And of course, to all who joined us today and took in our online get-together, we thank you for your interest and attention, and remind you to leave a comment!

12) NEXT MonSFFA e-MEETING

As club members are aware, our hoped-for return to in-person MonSFFA meetings has been stalled by lingering pandemic-related circumstances! We continue our search for an available, affordable meeting hall and are currently exploring a couple of new possibilities; we’ll keep you updated as to any notable progress.

And so, join us next month, on Saturday, June 17, beginning at 1:00PM, right here at www.MonSFFA.ca, for another in our series of MonSFFA e-meetings! We’ve booked a special guest speaker for the occasion who we think you will enjoy!

Please take note that we’ve moved this e-meeting from our usual second-Saturday-of-the-month one week ahead to the third Saturday so as to avoid conflicting with Scintillation, a local SF convention taking place this year over the June 9-11 weekend.

Also, note that a social event is open to MonSFFen, said event scheduled for Saturday, June 10. Any MonSFFen not attending Scintillation are welcome to attend this casual affair, which will take place from 2:00PM-6:00PM at the same West Island address that served as our 2022 Christmas Luncheon locale. (We will post on the site information about this event in the coming weeks; check back regularly!)

13) SIGN-OFF 

Until June, then, bask in the sunny, warm weather we’ve been experiencing of late, quaff a cold one, and keep well.