ConFrancisco, the 51st World Science Fiction Convention, has announced that it is expanding its official dates by one day, and will now begin on Thursday, September 2, 1993 and run through Monday, September 6, 1993. In a related development, the convention has changed its headquarters hotels to the Parc Fifty Five and Le Meridien hotels. The Marriott, which was initially announced as the headquarters hotel, has withdrawn from association with the convention.

ConFrancisco has published a statement in its Progress Report 1 explaining that last July, while San Francisco was still bidding for the 1993 Worldcon, Ford Motor Company approached the Marriott and offered cash up front to reserve a large block of the Marriott hotel rooms during dates overlapping ConFrancisco's. As announced at ConFiction in Holland ConFrancisco expected to be able to negotiate back some of the rooms. However, in early January, it became clear that this was not going to work. ConFrancisco and the Marriott have now agreed to cancel their arrangements. Hotel rooms and function space was quickly obtained at two nearby hotels, the Parc Fifty Five and Le Meridien, and ConFrancisco also increased its space commitment at the Moscone Convention Center.

Dialog on CompuServe last December revealed that ConFrancisco knew it was having trouble securing rooms in the Marriott, its ostensible headquarters hotel, last July while bidding was in progress. That's why ConFrancisco originally announced a Friday through Monday convention, instead of the customary Thursday start.

Sasha Miller of the '93 committee ultimately admitted that their decision not to reveal the situation was, "an error, a mistake, a goof. We made a bad judgment call on that one, pure and simple. The (fuzzy) thinking was, we'd promise only what we knew dead-certain we could deliver at that time, and then expand as things loosened up. Much better that way, we thought, than promising a lot and perhaps being in the uncomfortable position of having to cut back. Turns out, either way we jumped we were wrong, but that's the direction we chose."
Further describing the committee's decision, Miller said: "We found out about Ford's yanking the hotel out from under us -- or apparently so -- in July. ConFiction was in late August. One, there was no time to 'publicize a problem with rooms' before the vote. Two, there was no problem with rooms per se -- only rooms in what we had wanted to be our main hotel. Being one to plan for worst-case contingencies, I already had Plans B, C, and D ready to go.
"Plan B involved scrapping the idea of a main hotel altogether and housing ConFrancisco members in hotels surrounding the Moscone, and using the Moscone as our sole convention facility. Not pretty, not neat, but workable. When I notified the Moscone people that this might be in the offing, they were delighted to have it all under their roof. I think someone jumped the gun and snickered to the Marriott people because a day later, I got another phone call from the Marriott, panicking at the prospect of losing the function space we would have been renting and promising to talk some reason with Ford. The situation was in a gigantic state of flux, with nothing definite to report to the 'outside world' for quite a while. By July 18, we had a written agreement giving us more rooms and a promise to endeavor to get more released to us.

"End of problem. Plans B, C, and D went back on the back burner. I've been asked about this before, and I still fail to understand why something that almost happened but didn't should have been publicized."

The Baltimore Science Fiction Society has voted to make an offer on a $75,000 property for use as the BSFS clubhouse provided they find a lender. The amount of loan needed was not published. Meeting minutes in the November and December issues of the BSFS newzine Mark of the Beast announced a possible deal in Highlandtown for a place that was once a movie theater before its conversion to an artist's studio. The seats that used to occupy the sloping door are gone, but as the secretary says, "We can take care of that." Should BSFS acquire a clubhouse it will join LASFS and NESFA as clubs owning their own meeting place.

Early October 14, thieves broke into the BSFS' current meeting place in Baltimore City and stole two TV sets, a VCR, photocopier, answering machine, and portable typewriter -- plus 154 t-shirts and 31 Balticon coffee mugs.

"The thieves were very picky, though," reported editor Hal Haag in the December issue of the clubzine, Mark of the Beast . "They went through every box of t-shirts in the storeroom and took all of them except the Balticon 22 t-shirts. You know, the gray ones with 'Mini-Con' and the spider on the front and the large 'APRIL FOOL' on the back." Also taken were t-shirts for eight past Balticons.

It looked to police officers as though the thieves had been interrupted, for remaining on a hallway floor were other typewriters and pieces of office equipment deposited as a stage in a methodical removal.

Wakened at 3 a.m. by police, club president Martin Deutsch went to the scene, helped investigators gather evidence and listed the missing property. Four-and-a-half hours later he emerged to find that his vehicle was no longer parked where he had left it in the "No Parking Zone After 7 AM" space. After a taxi ride to an automatic bank teller and to the tow yard Deutsch retrieved his car and went to breakfast. He was there just long enough to earn another parking violation....

So R. Graeme Cameron titled his reaction to the discovery that his Vancouver-area apartment had been burglarized. BCSFAzine's editor wrote in the January issue, "I'm 39 years old, and this is the first time I've been robbed. It's a bit of a shock. $1600 worth of stuff taken, and me with no insurance."

But thieves left his computer, and some other things including a model dinosaur. The model had been moved from its place and so was examined by police for any clues.

As Cameron watched, "Carefully, gingerly, Constable Fiddler grasped the head of the Plesiosaur twixt thumb and forefinger and dangled the beastie inches from his eyes while shining a powerful flashlight over its surface. I wish I'd had the guts to grab my polaroid and snap a picture. Would have made a great cover for BCSFAzine.

"To be fair, Constable Fiddler was looking for fingerprints, but my Plesiosaur was too dusty, the fingerprints were smeared.

"'You should dust your dinosaurs more often,' he said.

"Actually, Constable Fiddler was quite helpful. 'We haven't a hope in hell of recovering your stuff.' I always appreciate truthfulness, especially from a man fingering his holstered pistol while he talks to me. Rather keen on the job, are we? Hmmm.

"When I think about it, I become giddy with happiness at the thought of all my wonderful treasures left unscathed. The thieves didn't take my 49 plastic dinosaurs, my inflatable dinosaur, my 15 battle-beasts, my 17 lead Cthulhu figures, my lead figure of the Shah, my lucky-lottery altar to Zeus, my life-size bust of Augustus with pith helmet, my framed photograph of a statue of the Aztec Earth Goddess Coatlicue, my 'Metaluna Mutant' model, my crossbow, my 'Mr. Spock' liquor bust, my 'Chill Wills' autograph, my complete set of Monster World my $100 stereo, my can of Inca Cola, my military Dinky Toys collection, my 'WOMBATS NEXT 9 KM' sign, my 'Mole People' model, my back issues of BCSFAzine, my video collection (which includes 'Attack of the Giant Leeches', 'The Giant Gila Monster', 'The Three Stooges Meet Hercules', and 72 other classics) or even the rubber lizard dangling from my ceiling.

"I can only conclude that the aforementioned are so common as to be a glut on the 'hot' market, and therefore not worth stealing. Either that, or their eyes were so dazzled by the sight of the splendours before them that they were unable to make up their minds what treasures to seize before they had to scram. I sigh with relief."

The 1991 TAFF race will select one of three British fans, Abigail Frost, Bruno Ogorolec or Pam Wells, as a delegate to this year's Worldcon, Chicon V.

DUFF voters selected Art Widner over Janice Murray as the fund's delegate to a major Australian convention. In alternate DUFF races an Australasian fan is sent to the Worldcon or NASFiC, or a North American fan is sent Down Under.

Turning every whistlestop in North America into a bagpipe stop DUFF delegate Greg Turkich, of Australia, showed that charm and the profession of policeman are not mutually exclusive. At least in Queensland.

Turkich visited the LASFS on September 6, charming and entertaining members for over an hour while he raised hundreds of dollars to replenish the treasury of the Down Under Fan Fund. Greg treated the 60 people in the meeting room to a bagpipe serenade, beginning with "an ancient song of your homeland" -- the Mickey Mouse Club theme. Regaling the audience with stories of his Western Australian origins, and participation at an international police sports festival in Vancouver, Turkich built interest in the souvenirs he'd brought for sale. Besides such tame stuff as an authentic team rugby jersey, or pins and patches made for boosters of his local police soccer team, he also sold police badges, and even sold the Western Australian flag given him by his chief to fly at the games and return to Perth. "I'll tell him it was lost," Greg said at first, then admitted he actually intended to replace it and moved a LASFSian to buy the old flag for more than the replacement cost.

While Turkich auctioned his friend sat nearby taking in DUFF donations and fielding questions from SMOFs anxious for reliable word that the Sydney in '95 bid is dead. The friend's report that Jack Herman had resigned crystallized listeners' belief that the conspicuous inactivity of the Sydney bid, rumored not even to be in communication with fans in two US cities who had committed to host their parties, justified the conclusion it had been abandoned. A third agent-recruit, Dennis Virzi, never even received an answer from the bid when he replied to their request for help.

As summer passed into fall SMOFs meeting at NASFiC, Armadillocon and elsewhere repeated the news that the Sydney bid was dead that each had heard directly from an Aussie fan. The very same Aussie fan. Before it could be determined whether this news distribution pattern more closely resembled a grapevine or a daisy chain, the secret masters were thrown into an uproar the like of which has not been seen since Lazarus walked from the grave.

Jack Herman circulated a letter to agents of the Sydney bid stating, "As you may know, Cath and I have been trying to establish our own business -- running conferences professionally. In late July, we got our first job but not paying enough for either of us to resign from our jobs -- so we've been working most nights on the seminar we're organizing. Consequently in early August I resigned from the Sydney in '95 Committee. Therefore as a parting gesture, let me introduce you to Jo Kaye, the new speaker-to-agents."

Jo Kaye's letter announced a bid APA is in formation. She also reported, "Some of us in the bid have sent money overseas to the 'Magicon' bid. We also asked if they had appointed an Australian agent. We haven't heard anything back from them. If anyone could find out what's happening with that could you please get back to us and let us know as some of us are rather worried about what's happened to our money."

Of course, the world did not stand still while the Sydney bid pulled out of its tailspin and chairman Rod Kearins' accompanying letter admitted, "Lastly, and probably most importantly, we are trying to ascertain the relative strengths of the Glasgow/UK bid and ours. To my mind it seems silly to have competing non-North American bids especially if they are both strong bids. This competition will probably prove fatal for both. We need to know on-the-ground strength of both bids in order to make a decision about the future of ours."
Meanwhile, Virzi writes in Uncle Oswald's Journal , "Let me know if my name shows up in Aussie bid flyers. I'd like to know what it is they think I've agreed to."

The "sheet of shame", John Foyster's Doxy, tells us, "Aged fans gathered in Melbourne at the Mexicali Rose (Richmond) on the evening of 11 August to try to remember the first meeting of The Nova Mob (aka The Returned Starmen's League), which had taken place twenty years previously. Also present were New Wavers Ian Gunn and Karen Pender-Gunn, but they can't drink the way old fans can and probably don't need this note to remind them about the event.

"There were dreary reminiscences of the early meetings with Bruce Gillespie speaking into two rooms (but no one was listening) and of the meeting at which Lee Harding made a bid for the Guiness Book of Records by interrupting the speaker more than 100 times.

"John Bangsund was not present.

"Meanwhile in Adelaide the August gathering of Critical Mass, meeting at its new central city location, was assured by John Foyster that science fiction no longer existed, that it probably never had existed, and that in any case Sam Moskowitz was wrong in all respects."

Three fannish households have been graced with newly-arrived children, we learn from fanzines and letters. Adrian Jamie Hirsh was born to Aussie fans Wendy and Irwin Hirsh on July 14. Alexander Dafydd Lee Sinclair was born to Louisville fans Christa and Michael Sinclair on November 6. Karen Celeste Digre was born to Minn-Stf members Maryellen Mueller and Mark Digre on December 19.

Elise Krueger and John ("Juan") Ladwig are engaged, according to the August 1990 issue of Einblatt, the Minneapolis clubzine. The same issue reported that "Cats Laughing", a favorite local band featuring several sf writers, was "about to join the Choir Invisible."

Bay Area fan/writer Daniel Murphy became seriously ill for several weeks in July and August. He was diagnosed with a rare and acute form of viral meningitis, a disease of the tissue surrounding his brain. While things were dicey for a while, he is at home, recovering, and hopes to return to work and normal life soon. He was hospitalized at the University of California, San Francisco, and credits their neurology department with his recovery. ((Source: David L. Jadiker on CompuServe.))

Sales of the Charlie Card Fund's 1990 fantasy art calendar raised approximately $300 for United Cerebral Palsy. The Card Fund, named for Orson Scott Card's son, who has the disease, is run by the Contraption convention committee of Michigan.

Now the Card Fund announces its 1991 Fantasy Art Calendar featuring black-and-white drawings by Sheryl Birkhead, Heather Bruton, P.L. Carruthers-Montgomery, Colleen Doran, Tom Dow, Brad Foster, Teddy Harvia, Linda Leach Hardy, April Lee, Peggy Ranson, Laurel Slate, Diana Stein, Gale Tang, Sylvus Tarn, Ruth Thompson and Robin Wood. The calendar includes convention dates and addresses, major and minor holidays and astronomical information. ….The after- expenses income from the fund will be donated to United Cerebral Palsy.

Collectors and the curious can still receive copies of the 1990 edition -- with black-and-white art by Teddy Harvia, Peggy Ranson, Diana Harlan Stein and Mary Hanson-Roberts …

Two unexpected sequels to The Enchanted Duplicator  have been completed by Walt Willis and James White and will be published in mimeographed editions in early 1991. Illustrations are by Stu Shiffman. Beyond the Enchanted Duplicator, and To The Enchanted Convention may be ordered from Geri Sullivan, 3444 Blaisdell Ave. S., Minneapolis MN 55408-4315: $15 for the collector's edition (numbered and signed), $6 for the standard edition. Proceeds to fannish causes, it says here.

After many years the last issue of Terry Carr's genzine, Innuendo, reached print last May, with editorial help by Robert Lichtman, and reproduction by Jerry Kaufman and Suzle Tompkins Aficionados will welcome a chance to read articles by Carr, Greg Benford, Calvin Demmon, Harry Warner, Arnie Katz, Susan Wood, Elmer Perdue, Sidney Coleman, Tom Perry, Carol Carr, Carl Brandon, plus an letter-column filled with familiar names out of the past including Philip K. Dick.

The science fiction club of Panama City, FL, known as Nova Odysseus since its founding in 1977 is on the verge of renaming itself the Panhandle Science Fiction Society. [Source: Transmissions, January 1991]

Tim Powers' novel The Stress of Her Regard  has won the 1990 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. This historical fantasy, set in early 19th-century Europe, features poets Byron, Keats and Shelley as major characters. Powers mixes them thoroughly with the supernatural and creates fantastic origins for that feverish Romantic poetry.

The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award went to The Annotated Hobbit, text by J. R. R. Tolkien, annotations by Douglas A. Anderson. This volume combines an authoritative text of The Hobbit with some useful annotations, an international selection of illustrations, and a comprehensive textual history.

The winners were announced at Mythcon XXI in Long Beach, CA, on August 5, 1990. Both awards are presented for achievement in fantasy by the Mythopoeic Society, an international organization devoted to the study, discussion and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams. For more information, contact the Mythopoeic Society, P.O. Box 6707, Altadena CA 91001.

The Nebula Award is presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America for achievement in science fiction. SFWA appoints two Nebula Juries to survey the original works published in each year and each chooses a single work to supplement the titles voted onto the preliminary ballot by the membership at large, one novel and one shorter length work.

The novel jury for 1991 are Kevin O'Donnell Jr., chair, Adrienne Martine-Barnes, Susan Schwartz, Sherwood Smith and Thomas Perry. The short fiction jury for 1991 is Marilyn Holt (chair), Julia Ecklar, Scott Edelman, Brad Strickland and Todd Johnson. For more information contact Chuq Von Rospach, Nebula Awards Administrator...

The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has put together a recommended reading list for young people age 9 and up. Galen Tripp announces that the list of 149 books and series is available free to anyone who sends a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Recommended Reading List, LASFS, 11513 Burbank Bl., North Hollywood CA 91601.

NEW ORLEANS CON OUSTED BY HOTEL 
Vul-Con (August 17-19, 1990)

New Orleans' Fairmont Hotel canceled its agreement to host the 1990 Vul-Con at the last moment, forcing its organizer, Jim Mule,  to salvage the convention by finding nearby hotel to rent its facilities. Said Mule, quoted in the Baton Rouge, La., Morning Advocate, "We thought everything was ready to go, but when we got to the hotel [Thursday night] we were told we'd been canceled. They said we had a history of damaging hotels and that we're enticing to people who are derelicts and drunks."
Further details are provided by Guy H. Lillian III, below.

FAIRMONT HOTEL AWASH IN BLUE PEE
Report by Guy H. Lillian III

Wanted to write File 770  about Vul-Con and its recovery from a sleazy bit of hotel chicanery.

You see, originally this fifteenth Vul-Con was scheduled for the Fairmont Hotel, one of downtown New Orleans' most prestigious. On Thursday night, after Chairman (he likes to say "Captain") Jim Mule already had his hucksters room and registration table set up, his Guest of Honor in place, and everything ready to roll, the hotel abruptly withdrew from its written  contract and booted Vul-Con bod and baggage out the door. Reason given? Apparently the "riff-raff" attendees scared the blue pee out of the hotel staff.

A less stubborn chair would have folded his tent and stolen into the night. Not so Mule. He went out and found another hotel and re-established his convention -- overnight. He went to a nearby Holiday Inn and by Friday afternoon had Vul-Con XV set up. Out- of-town attendees were stuck with their expensive Fairmont rooms -- the new place was booked solid -- but Jim got his hucksters room (never mind that you had to walk through the hotel restaurant to get there), his banquet (never mind that the facilities were so cramped we had to eat in two shifts; the food was pretty good), and his dance (featuring the Band of the Damned, a gang of local twits dressed up like pirates lip- synching various modern ditties -- whattya mean, The Who?) He also got the entire convention roused to his support. What's a little inconvenience when faced with such heroics, especially from a man, frequently hospitalized, suffering from kidney and liver failure?
The Fairmont is going to pay and pay for this. As an attorney, it was my raw rank pleasure to urge Mule to sue the dogs till blue pee runs out of their ears.

The Vul-Con itself? Delightful. Its Guest of Honor was Ray Harryhausen (or "Ray Harryharrison" as -- who else? -- John Guidry called him), the greatest special effects wizard alive. He was friendly and fascinating, showing clips, including his early family project Mother Goose, models, like the Medusa from his masterpiece Jason and the Argonauts, and a generous wit. A great.

BUBONICON 22    (August 24-26, 1990)
Report by Roy Tackett

Bubonicon 22 was held August 24-26 in Albuquerque and was, from the point of view of the concom, a moderate success. Which is to say that we were able to pay all our bills and have a nestegg left over for Bubonicon 23. Much better than Bubonicon 21 which left us collecting aluminum cans and holding flea market sales in order to raise enough cash to get started.

Jennifer Roberson was properly charming, witty and decorative as Guest of Honor and Harry O. Morris was properly weird and Lovecraftian as Artist Guest of Honor.

Attendance was about 225 and included most of New Mexico's writers in residence including Fred Saberhagen who had just undergone heart bypass surgery and been released from the hospital a couple of days earlier.

Highlights included Jennifer's telling us of her sex-change when she wrote a western story, the wedding of writer Robert Cornett to Mary Ann Lenth and, for the first time in six years, the 3 a.m. Nessie Dunk which took place in broad daylight to the surprise of mundanes sitting around the pool.

The Green Slime Awards were announced. Book: Tek War  by William Shatner. Movie: Moontrap, which was apparently so bad it had no credits. Artist: Janet Aulisio for her really ugly illustrations.

The hotel was apparently so pleased with the convention that management handed us a contract, at this year's terms, for Bubonicon 23 the day after Bubonicon 22 closed. "You people are weird," they said, "but you are not rowdy." We did not hesitate in accepting.

ARMADILLOCON 12 (October 12-14, 1990)
Report by Mike Glyer

"Lucy Huntzinger Killed Laura Palmer," read Bryan Barrett's t- shirt. Barrett watched over his table in the Armadillocon dealer's room on Friday afternoon, bantering wishfully, "It's a pity Iain Banks isn't here. Whenever he speaks I can't help but think of Scrooge McDuck."

Expectations are a powerful force in making or breaking a convention's reputation. While Bryan spoke I couldn't help but think how much I enjoyed the ambiance created by the compact layout of Armadillocon's dealer's room, registration area and principal program rooms, and how ConDigeo, despite its larger scale, boasted a comparable nerve center: yet one convention is reputed to be the country's best regional, while the other was badmouthed as a poor excuse for a NASFiC.

Armadillocon may boast 104 professional guests and other impressive numbers, but the reason these people come is because they have a good time. They succeed because the committee works diligently to extend hospitality to all, and because its core of southwestern pros (with a leavening of New York editors) have sparked a healthy rivalry to surpass each other's ability to entertain.

Armadillocon 12's pro guests of honor were author Pat Cadigan, artist Jean Elizabeth Martin and editor Susan Allison. Melinda Snodgrass took up the gauntlet of Toastmistress, and with it the challenge to equal the standard set in two previous years by Lew Shiner and Connie Willis.

Armadillocon's toastmaster presides over Opening Ceremonies on Friday evening, beginning with a humorous talk and ending with introductions around a room packed with science fiction celebrities. Melinda Snodgrass started her talk wearing a demure dress, and pearls. She explained how she wanted to grow up to be Pat Cadigan then ducked behind a canvas changing booth placed at the corner of the stage and emerged dressed in a black t-shirt and slacks, like Pat Cadigan. But Melissa said Cadigan wasn't the only woman present she admired: putting the pearls back on, she named editor GoH Susan Allison. Or to

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