Lots of zines now available for poolside reading!

From South Africa:

Good day all Here is the June issue of PROBE, number 196. I hope you enjoy reading it    PROBE196X

Best

Gail

From Bill Burns at e-fanzines:

Editors have been busy this week, with eleven titles having new issues. Added at https://efanzines.com are:

  • Alexiad #123 through 128 edited by Lisa & Joseph Major
  • Graeme Cameron’s BCSFAZine #554
  • Nic Farey’s This Here…#66
  • Andy Hooper’s CAPTAIN FLASHBACK #55
  • Opuntia #551, edited by Dale Speirs
  • Octothorpe #86, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line
  • Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #44
  • Kurt Erichsen’s Endeavor #16
  • Guy & Rosy Lillian’s 2004 archive trip report The Antipodal Route
  • Guy H. Lillian III’s Spartacus #66
  • Bruce Gillespie’s SF Commentary #113

And another update followed:

To the sound of fireworks, I have added these new issues to https://efanzines.com:

  • J.L. Farey’s JenZine #5
  • Journey Planet #74, edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia et al. Vincent Docherty special issue
  • Perry Middlemiss’s Perryscope #34
  • Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #45
  • Opuntia #552, edited by Dale Speirs

From Garth an update to CUFF:

Even yet more news about the Canadian Unity Fan Fund! Slowly but surely WE ADVANCE!  Shooting My CUFFs #3

From Nic Farey:

“Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control. And it didn’t have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realized that you either became a power or you were crushed.”   TH 66

From Joe Major: Alex129

From the N3F:

Yes, a new issue of Eldritch Science the N3F Fiction zine .ES202306

 

CLUB EVENTS FOR JULY!

Mark the next two Saturday’s on your calendars! MonSFFA’s Summer Barbecue-in-the-Park 2023 is scheduled for this Saturday, July 8, with a virtual get-together/picnic, our Relax-a-ZOOM, to follow one week later on Saturday, July 15.

Barbecue-in-the-Park

MonSFFen and their families, as well as friends of the club, are invited to gather at 10:00AM in Parc Maisonneuve on Saturday, July 8, for the club’s 2023 Barabecue-in-the-Park! Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Botanical Gardens and the Olympic Stadium. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.

Our intention is to claim a picnic spot somewhere along one of the lines of trees, not too far from the parking lot and the chalet. Our “Preferred Picnic Area” is indicated on the map (above). Look for us in roughly that area.

So do join us for a relaxing day in the park! Friends, fun, food, and fire, the latter in the form of our new “Dragon’s Breath” propane barbecue, which we’ll have on site for those who may wish to grill up a couple of hamburgers, hotdogs, and such! Bring your own refreshments, snacks, and any meats you may wish to barbecue. And note that proper washroom facilities are located in the chalet.

Should the weather prove inclement on the 8th, the event will be shifted 24 hours forward to Sunday, July 9. We will post a notice of any change in the schedule no later than 9:00AM, Saturday morning, the 8th.

Then…

Relax-a-ZOOM Virtual Picnic

We will also host a “Relax-a-ZOOM” Virtual Picnic right here at www.MonSFFA.ca on Saturday, July 15, at 1:00PM—have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand!

No formal programming is planned, just a game or two, and an afternoon of casual conversation with friends on topics SF/F and fannish, including, given this opportunity, a little bit of club business regarding our planned August in-person meeting, and related issues, for which the input of our membership is desired.

Locus: New books for July

JULY 2023

  • GARTH NIX  • Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz • Harper Voyager US, Jul 2023 (c, hc, eb)
  • GARTH NIX  • Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz • Orion UK/Gollancz, Jul 2023 (c, hc, eb)
  • PAUL TREMBLAY  • The Beast You Are • HarperCol­lins/Morrow, Jul 2023 (c, hc, eb)
  • T.L. HUCHU • The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle • Macmillan/Tor UK, Jul 2023 (h, hc, eb)
  • SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA  • Silver Nitrate • Quercus/Jo Fletch­er UK, Jul 2023 (h, hc, eb)
  • SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA  • Silver Nitrate • Penguin Random House/Del Rey, Jul 2023 (h, hc, eb)
  • NEAL ASHER • War Bodies • Macmillan/Tor UK, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • D.J. BUTLER • Between Princesses and Other Jobs • Baen, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • P. DJÈLÍ CLARK • Abeni’s Song • Tor/Starscape, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • JASPER FFORDE • Red Side Story • Hodder & Stough­ton UK, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • SHARON LEE & STEVE MILLER • Salvage Right • Baen, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • VIOLETTE MALAN • The Court War • Astra House/DAW, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, ET AL. • Wild Cards: Pairing Up • Penguin Random House/Del Rey, Jul 2023 (hc, eb)
  • SEANAN MCGUIRE • Be Sure • Tordotcom, Jul 2023 (om, tp, hc)
  • SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL • Fate of the Argosi • Hot Key Books UK, Jul 2023 (ya, hc, eb)

Aurora Awards Voting Info & Voters’ Package

From the CSFFA, news of the Aurora Awards.Membership is not expensive, and the voter package is well worth the cost. The deadline for membership is tomorrow!

Aurora Awards Voting Info & Voters’ Package

In this newsletter:

  1. Voting information for this year’s Aurora Awards
  2. Aurora Awards Voters’ Package
  3. Change of dates for membership payments and voters’ package download
  4. Reminder: CSFFA AGM June 25

Voting has begun: how to vote in this year’s Aurora Awards

Voting is open for CSFFA members.  You have until 11:59 pm EDT on July 29th, 2023, to submit your ballot.  Remember, vote for what you know.  You do not have to vote in all categories, and you do not have to rank all nominated works.

We use a ranked or alternate voting method.  To vote, sort your choices from 1 (your favourite) to 5 (your least favourite).  For full details about this and how votes are tabulated, go to our about voting method page, https://www.csffa.ca/about/aurora-awards-voting-method/

Unlike our nomination process, when you submit your ballot, it will be locked, and you will NOT be able to make any changes or return to it another day.  Do not start to vote until you are sure you know everything you wish to vote for.

We are using the same voting form that we used last year.  It is easy to use.  Each category allows you to move your selections either with your mouse or finger (if you have a touch screen) on most devices.  Move your choices above the voting line which says, “No pick underneath this line will be counted”.  As you do this your choice will show you what its ranking is.  If you make a mistake, you can move your choice to a different position or back below the voting line.

For your ballot to count you must click the “Send Ballot” button at the bottom of the form.  This will lock and submit your selections.  Do NOT submit your choices until all of your selections are arranged.  This must be done at the same time since you will not be able to return to edit or add to your ballot once it has been submitted.  If you close the form before you submit all of your choices, they will be cleared and not saved, and you will have to start again.

So, download and read the nominated works that are in our voters’ package.  When you are done, go to our online voting form and rank all of your choices.  When you’ve done this for all the categories that you’re interested in, click the “Send Ballot” button at the bottom of the form to lock and submit them.

Join us for our online awards ceremony at 7 pm EDT on August 19th to find out who takes home this year’s trophies.  We will be live streaming on both Facebook and YouTube.

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.

Change of dates for membership payments and voters package download

We are changing the closing date for people to purchase CSFFA memberships and to download works from our voters’ package.  The new date is 11:59pm EDT, July 22nd, 2023.  This does NOT affect voting for the awards, that date is still one week later, July 29th.

Membership Payments:  Purchases of CSFFA memberships must be made one week prior to the close of voting.  If you purchase your membership and your account has not been automatically updated, then you must contact us ASAP.  Do NOT wait days, contact us with a copy of your payment notice from PayPal.  We will manually update your account.

Voters Package:  The download form for the voters package will also close one week prior to the close of voting.  If you have not taken what you wish to read it will be unavailable.

The CSFFA board felt that members should be part of the society at least a week prior to when voting closes.  We provide the voters package to help you vote and if you don’t download it until the last few days, you don’t have time to read the works before you vote.  The other reason is that we don’t feel the support team should be scrambling for those who decide to only join at the last moment and have problems.

We hope CSFFA members appreciate that our board members are all volunteers and cannot be monitoring the site 24/7.

Reminder: CSFFA AGM June 25, 2023

To attend the AGM, email president@csffa.ca. You will be emailed a Zoom link a few days before June 25.

The 2023 CSFFA AGM materials and motions can be viewed by logged-in members (Home page -> Annual General Meeting). Members can vote until 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.

 

More zines to share!

From the N3F,

Attached are the June issues of The National Fantasy Fan and FanActivity Gazette.

From Bill Burns, an update to the e-fanizes archive.

Added today at https://efanzines.com:

  • New page for Robert J. Sawyer’s Alouette archive (1992-97)
  • Leybl Botwinik’s CyberCozen – Jun 2023
  • David Grigg’s The Megaloscope #7
  • Henry Grynnsten’s Wild Ideas #36
  • Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #42 & #43


    Bill

June 2023 Virtual Meeting; Post 7 of 7, 4:30PM: Answers to Trivia Quiz and Wrap-Up

This is our closing post of the afternoon.

11) ANSWERS: TWO-FOUR SCI-FI TRIVIA QUIZ

Following are the answers to the trivia quiz we posted at 1:00PM. How many questions did you correctly answer? Compare your answers to these:

1) Fill in the blank! These SF/F titles are missing a single word: The ______ Tree; Haunted______; Dinosaur ______; and Without a ______. What is that missing word?

ANSWER: “Summer” is the missing word.

The Summer Tree (1984) is a novel by Canadian fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, Book One of his Fionavar Tapestry.

Haunted Summer (1988) is a film dramatizing the famous summer of 1816 at Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Romantic poet Lord Byron had rented the house and invited a group of his aristocratic friends to join him there. During their stay, a horror-story writing contest was organized, spawning two classics of Gothic literature, John William Polidori’s “The Vampyre” and Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley’s (née Godwin) Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Polidori’s story is cited as the originator of romantic vampire fiction, Shelley’s often as the first true science fiction story.

Dinosaur Summer (1998) is an alternate-history novel penned by Greg Bear. It’s 1947 in a world where the dinosaur-populated South American plateau of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) is an actual place, and his Professor Challenger a real person! Among the central group of characters are versions of real-life fantasy filmmakers Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, whose lives take a different turn in a reality where the existence of the real thing rendered unnecessary animated rubber models of dinosaurs.

Without a Summer (2013), a novel by Mary Robinette Kowal, is Book Three of her Glamourist Histories series, which injects an element of magic—here called “glamour”—into historical romantic fiction. The title refers to the so-called “Year Without a Summer,” 1816, the same period in which is set Haunted Summer. A volcanic eruption in the Pacific the previous year triggered a global climate anomaly and a decrease in normal temperatures, resulting in a chilly, rainy summer in Europe and food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.

2) First seen in the opening minutes of Star Wars (1977), what is the name of this CR90 corvette, employed as an Alderaanian diplomatic cruiser and rebel blockade runner?

ANSWER: Tantive IV.

3) Which of these characters does not belong? A) Jaime Reyes, B) Samuel “Sam” Guthrie, C) Dan Garrett, D) Theodore “Ted” Kord

ANSWER: B) Samuel “Sam” Guthrie, alter ego of the Marvel superhero Cannonball, a founding member of the New Mutants.

The other three have this in common: each has donned the mantle of the superhero Blue Beetle. Garrett (spelled “Garret” initially) was the original Golden Age character (1939, Fox Comics; later Charlton Comics, where the character was refurbished for the Silver Age). Kord followed (Charlton Comics, and eventually DC Comics), and finally, Reyes (DC Comics). Reimagined and retconned over the decades, Blue Beetle has usually been depicted as deriving his superpowers from an ancient mystical Egyptian scarab, most recently interpreted as a technologically advanced device of alien origin.

A Warner Bros./DC film adaptation of the Reyes Blue Beetle is scheduled to premiere August 18 of this year.

4) Most Worldcons have been held in the U.S.; how many have been held outside of the United States?

ANSWER: There have been 80 Worldcons held to date. Excluding CoNZealand in 2020, which was moved online for reasons of pandemic-related safety, 21 have been held outside the U.S.

The U.K. has hosted seven, five in England, two in Scotland; Canada has hosted five, Australia four, and Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Finland, and Ireland, one each.

The 81st Worldcon will take place in Chengdu, China later this year, and Glasgow, Scotland will again host in 2024, which will boost the number of non-U.S. Worldcons to 23.

5) Who played youngster David MacLean in the original Invaders From Mars (1953), in which the vanguard of a Martian invasion force lands in the boy’s hometown?

ANSWER: Jimmy Hunt. Decades later, an adult Hunt appeared as the town’s police chief in Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars.

6) The novels Omnivore (1968), Orn (1970), and OX (1976) constitute which SF trilogy?

ANSWER: Of Man and Manta.

All three novels were collected as Of Man and Manta (1986). Explorers from Earth investigate a world populated by fungi, including the intelligent mantas, which superficially resemble manta rays.

7) What is the title of the fifth Indiana Jones movie, scheduled to premiere later this month, on the 30th?

ANSWER: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

8) “They Were Looking For Chicks…To Go All The Way!”—the marketing campaign of which sci-fi movie employed that tag line? A) Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), B) Mars Needs Women (1968), C) Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), D) Invasion of the Saucer-Men (1957)

ANSWER: B) Mars Needs Women (1968), written, produced, and directed by self-proclaimed schlock artist Larry Buchanan. Disney mainstay Tommy Kirk starred, along with Yvonne “Batgirl” Craig.

9) How many Worldcons has Canada hosted?

ANSWER: Five; three in Toronto (1948, 1973, and 2003), one in Winnipeg (1994), and one in Montreal (2009).

10) The Humanx Commonwealth, an organization similar to Star Trek’s Federation of Planets, is featured in the science fiction stories of which writer?

ANSWER: Alan Dean Foster.

11) What two sentient species jointly administer the Humanx Commonwealth?

ANSWER: the mammalian Humans, of Earth, and the insectoid Thranx, of Hivehom are the Commonwealth’s two principal players. Alan Dean Foster’s Nor Crystal Tears (1982), a first-contact story, sees the beginnings of what would eventually become the Humanx Commonwealth, that tale detailed in the author’s Founding of the Commonwealth trilogy, comprising Phylogenesis (1999), Dirge (2000), and Diuturnity’s Dawn (2002).

12) Which of these men develops psychohistory, a fictional algorithmic science that allows general predictions to be made of the future in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series? A) Harrison Bergeron, B) Harry Harrison, C) Harry Mudd, D) Hari Seldon

ANSWER: D) Hari Seldon.

A mathematics professor at Streeling University on the planet Trantor, Seldon employs sociology, history, and the laws of statistics as applied to large populations in order to arrive at general forecasts of future events. He is thus able to predict the inevitable fall of the Galactic Empire, of which he is a citizen.

Harrison Bergeron is the titular character in a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. short story, Harry Mudd is a Star Trek rapscallion, and Harry Harrison is a real-life science fiction writer known for his Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, the Galactic Hero series.

13) Who played Camie Loneozner in the original Star Wars (1977), only to see her scenes excised from the final cut?

ANSWER: British model/actress Koo Stark.

Born Kathleen Norris Stark and known for her roles in a couple of mid-1970s erotic films, she also appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the sci-fi/romantic comedy Electric Dreams (1984), and a 1989 episode of Red Dwarf.

She was Prince Andrew’s girlfriend for a time, something of a scandal in that she had starred in what the press categorized as soft-core porn films—yeah, she was the degenerate! Stark later became an accomplished photographer.

Her role in Star Wars was as one of Luke Skywalker’s group of friends on Tatooine. Those excised scenes have since become available for ardent fans.

14) Match the robots (left column) with the science fiction titles in which they appear (right column).

ANSWERS: A-7, Robby the Robot appeared in the classic Forbidden Planet; B-10, robot servant Jenkins attended generations of the Webster family in Clifford D. Simak’s City; C-8, Hector was the homicidal robot in Saturn 3; D-9, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were maintenance drones aboard the Valley Forge in Silent Running; E-3, Police robot Gort appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still; F-2, Diktor the robot lover appeared in the Barbarella comic books;

G-11, Number 5, later renaming himself Johnny 5, was an experimental military robot that gained sentience after a lightning strike scrambled its programming in the sci-fi/comedy Short Circuit; H-1, Box was a shiny, chrome-plated robot designed to capture food—and runners!—outside the city in Logan’s Run;I-12, Ash was the duplicitous android in Alien; J-5, Gnut was the robot featured in the Harry Bates story that served as the basis for The Day the Earth Stood Still; K-4, Ro-Man was bent on the destruction of Earth in Robot Monster; and L-6, “The Robot” was principally the companion and protector of young Will Robinson in TV’s Lost in Space.

Clockwise from top-left: Robbie, Hewey and Dewey, Box, and Ro-Man

15) Who played astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston in the original Invaders From Mars (1953)?

ANSWER: Arthur Franz.

16) The protagonists of the science fiction novel Icerigger (1974) crash-land on what frozen world?

ANSWER: Tran-ky-ky.

Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger is the first book of a trilogy set on this frigid, windswept planet, inhabited by the cat-like, bipedal Tran, who sport batwing-like menbranes under their arms and specialized claws on their feet with which to windskate across the arctic landscape.

Artist Wayne Barlowe’s interpretation of a Tran.

Mission to Moulokin (1979) and The Deluge Drivers (1987) are Icerigger’s two sequels.

17) “Derelict of Space” (1939), “Meteor” (1941), “Tyrant and Slave-Girl on Planet Venus” (1951), and “The Red Stuff” (1951)—who wrote these science fiction short stories?

ANSWER: They were all penned by English SF writer John Wyndham writing as John Beynon. The author of The Day of the Triffids (1951) and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) derived several pseudonyms from his birth name, John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris; John Wyndham itself is one such alias!

“Tyrant and Slave-Girl on Planet Venus” was published in the premiere, and only issue of 10 Story Fantasy.

18) Which of these science fiction characters does not belong with the others? A) Ethan Frome Fortune, B) Hellespont du Kane, C) Raymus Antilles, D) Skua September

ANSWER: C) Raymus Antilles. Played by Peter Geddis in the original Star Wars (1977), he was captain of the Tantive IV, and was choked to death by Darth Vader in a memorable early scene from the film.

The others are all characters in Alan Dean Foster’s novel Icerigger (1974).

19) Rudolph Martin, Gary Oldman, Frank Langella, and Nicolas Cage—other than their profession, what do these actors have in common?

ANSWER: They have all played the role of Dracula, Martin in the fifth season premiere of TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oldman in the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Langella in the 1979 film Dracula, and Cage in the 2023 film Renfield.

Clockwise from top-left: Martin (with Sarah Michelle Gellar), Oldman, Cage, and Langella

20) With regard to the horror genre, what do the towns of Rockbridge, Midwich, Haddonfield, and Antonio Bay have in common?

ANSWER: They all served as the setting of a John Carpenter film.

Rockbridge was the setting of Christine (1983), Midwich of Carpenter’s remake of Village of the Damned (1995), Haddonfield of Halloween (1978), and Antonio Bay of The Fog (1980).

21) André Morell, Andrew Keir, Brian Donlevy, and John Mills have all played which acclaimed scientist-hero?

ANSWER: Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Experimental Rocket Group—later shortened to British Rocket Group.

Quatermass was the main protagonist in the influential BBC science fiction television serials created by Nigel Kneale, and subsequently adapted as a trio of movies by Hammer Film Productions. Morell and Keir both played the role in Quatermass and the Pit, Morell on television (1958-1959), Keir in the Hammer film version (1967). Donlevy played the scientist-hero in Hammer’s The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass II (1957). And Mills played the character, now retired, in Quatermass (1979), a four-part ITV television series recut later that same year by Euston Films for theatrical release as The Quatermass Conclusion.

Clockwise from top-left: Morell, Keir, Mills, and Donlevy

22) In which Canadian province is set American International Pictures’ 1976 B-movie The Food of the Gods?

ANSWER: British Columbia.

The film was written and directed by low-budget movie-maker and visual effects artist Bert I. Gordon.

A group of friends travel to a remote island in British Columbia on a hunting trip, where they encounter oversized wasps and rats made gigantic after having ingested a strange, porridge-like liquid—the Food of the Gods—bubbling up through the soil on a nearby farm.

The movie was not only set on a remote island in British Columbia, but filmed in B.C., specifically on Bowen Island, part of Metro Vancouver.

A local angle is that some of the special effects sequences were shot in Montreal.

23) The Lady of the Sorrows (2002) and The Battle of Evernight (2003) are the second and third books, respectively, of Australian fantasy writer Cecilia Dart-Thornton’s Bitterbynde trilogy. Name the first book in this series.

ANSWER: The Ill-Made Mute (2001).

24) Who played army commander Colonel Fielding in the original Invaders From Mars (1953)?

ANSWER: Seasoned character actor Morris Ankrum, who was a fixture of sci-fi movies in the 1950s.

12) THANK YOU!

We extend a special “Thank You” to our guest speaker, Olivia Atwater, for taking part this afternoon. We also thank Joe Aspler, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister for their contributions today. And, we offer a nod of appreciation, as well, to all of our supporting contributors.

MonSFFA hopes you have enjoyed your time with us this afternoon, we thank you for dropping in, and we ask all of you to check in regularly here at www.MonSFFA.ca for additional content.

We look forward to again gathering, face to face, at our Barbecue in the Park in July, and at August’s get-together, the first in-person meeting we’ve been able to schedule in over three years!

Thank you for your interest and attention today, and don’t forget to comment on this afternoon’s e-meeting!

13) JULY CLUB EVENTS

Barbecue-in-the-Park

MonSFFen and their families, as well as friends of the club, are invited to gather at Parc Maisonneuve on Saturday, July 8, for the club’s 2023 Barabecue-in-the-Park! Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Botanical Gardens and the Olympic Stadium. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.

Should the weather prove inclement on the 8th, the event will be shifted 24 hours forward to Sunday, July 9.

Relax-a-ZOOM Virtual Picnic

We will also host a “Relax-a-ZOOM” Virtual Picnic right here at www.MonSFFA.ca on Saturday, July 15, at 1:00PM—have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand! No formal programming is planned, just a game of some kind, and an afternoon of casual conversation with friends on topics SF/F and fannish, including, given this opportunity, a little bit of club business for which the input of our membership is desired.

14) SIGN-OFF 

And so, until we meet again, whether in person on a club outing, live in a physical meeting hall, or online again right here at www.MonSFFA.ca, keep well, everyone; soak in the summer sun and fun! And, remember: only you can prevent a forest fire!

June 2023 Virtual Meeting; Post 6 of 7, 4:15PM: “What Are You Reading/Watching?”

10) “WHAT ARE YOU READING/WATCHING?” 

On ZOOM at this moment, we’re asking “What are You Reading, or Watching?” Give us your quick book report, or your brief review of a film or TV show you’ve recently enjoyed!

For those not participating in our ZOOM chat today, you may still contribute by submitting your concise book reports or movie and television-series reviews via this post’s “Leave a Comment” option. We welcome your input.

June 2023 Virtual Meeting; Post 4 of 7, 3:00PM: The Break!

Time for a break! News, displays, & raffle prizes!

Get your Bheer & Chips!
It’s time for the break!

NEWS

JULY 8: Picnic in the Park

Our July meeting will be a BBQ in the park! Come join us at Maisonneuve Park to celebrate Keith’s birthday!

AUGUST12: Meeting at the Legion Hall in Lachine!

We are renting the Legion Hall in Lachine for a real, live in person, meeting! It’s a bit far for many, but easily reached by public transport, and has lots of free parking. We are going to test the WiFi in hopes of a hybrid meeting.

Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 085/090
3015, rue Henri-Dunant,
Lachine, Qc,
H8S 1R5

DISPLAY TABLE
RAFFLE PRIZES

Click the thumbnails to view full size image.

The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Vol II, hardcover. Donated by Brian Knappe

Affixed to each Voyager craft was a recording inscribed with the music and images of our planet. Donated by Mark Burakoff.

60 cards portraying visual scenes from Burroughs’ creations like Tarzan, Mars etc. Card backs show more Burroughs artwork & Jusko’s commentary (Sylvain)

DVD: Martians launch a ruthless assault on an unsuspecting Victorian England, in an attempt to escape their dying planet. Donated by Brian Knapp.

The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, In the Days of the Comet, The War of the Worlds

From Sylvain’s collection, a very small fossil, about 3.5 cm, of what appears to be a fish in sandstone.

Animated full length film based on novel by HG Wells

Three young survivors of vicious demon attacks dare to step beyond the crumbling safety of the wards,  risking everything in a desperate quest to regain the knowledge of the protective wards.

Collaborative novel by George RR Martin & John J Miller., a murder mystery set in the Wild Cards Universe.

​​

June 2023 Virtual Meeting; Post 3 of 7, 2:30PM: Show-and-Tell, Zdenek Burian Illustrates Jules Verne

6) SHOW-AND-TELL

For those participating on ZOOM, today, we open the floor to any club members who have “fancraft” projects to showcase—sci-fi scale models, SF/F woodworking or needlecraft, whatever genre-themed, hands-on project it may be that you are working on at present, or have recently completed. Share your fancrafting experience with the group!

Those not equipped to join our ZOOM chat for the show-and-tell may contribute by using this post’s “Leave a Comment” feature to type in a quick description of any such project on which they are currently working or have recently completed.

7) ZDENEK BURIAN’S 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA ILLUSTRATIONS

Keith Braithwaite is on vacation this week, but offers the following discovery, which may be of interest to this group; Keith writes:

While combing the Web for paleontological art some years ago for a presentation I was preparing, I came across a series of beautifully rendered monotone illustrations by artist Zdeněk Burian, produced for an illustrated Czech edition of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Burian (1905-1981) was an influential paleoartist whose dynamic canvases depicting prehistoric life set the template during the mid-20th century for the reconstruction of dinosaurs. His work, portraying the ancient beasts as active animals, anticipated and later embraced the Dinosaur Renaissance before the thinking of scientists like Robert Bakker became widely accepted.

Applauded worldwide for his paleoart, Burian’s paintings graced several books on prehistoric life published in the 1960s and 1970s. My high school’s library stocked a couple of these, and that’s how I became aware of his work. But as I discovered decades later, he was also a prolific book illustrator, turning out hundreds of illustrations for Czech editions of adventure novels by such renowned authors as Rudyard Kipling, James Fenimore Cooper, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. But he most enjoyed illustrating Jules Verne.

His non-paleontological illustration work is not well known outside of his native Czechoslovakia (today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). It should be!

Strikingly dramatic, painterly, and deftly crafted, the work that most captured my attention, of course, was produced for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and absolutely deserves to be seen by a wider audience. So, this is my small way of doing just that, showing and telling all of you about Burian’s extraordinary illustrations of the Verne classic. (Click on an illustration to enlarge the image.)

Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association