SFC Handbook Progress Report 12/03/95

TO: A huge chunk of Southern Fandom
FROM: T.K.F. Weisskopf

RE: SFC History & Handbook 1996, Update III

The last mailing went out to about 60 people. This one will go out to even more. Here's what's been happening:

Tuesday November 15th:

• A package arrived from Janice Gelb featuring a card with a scantily clad young man on the front (the woman knows how to get my attention, what can I say?) & some program badges & a SFC button
• I had a phone call from Sam Smith, Web Head (not Boy), to discuss specs for the Web page that will be derived from the fanzine
• message from Susan Stockell
• phone call from Timothy Lane getting correct mailing address
• fax from P.L. Caruthers-Montgomery (who corrects my spelling of her name for the millionth time) and Larry Montgomery, who emerge from the "mists of GAFIA" sending greetings, full support and permission to reuse their material.

Wed. Nov. 16th:

• A Mimosa w/Chat & Mim history from the Lynchi came in the mail
• Had a long talk with Susan Stockell re: Nashville fandom (suggests Lee Billings for Musicon)
• Chatted w/Bill Francis, who is sending early SFC Bulletins & will search his "archives" for pre-1980 program badges. We, in a mad fit of enthusiasm, have decided that we will commit to finishing the project in time for this year's DSC, and will have a program item to roll the puppy out. (Aiee.)

When I returned home from Soonercon, Sunday the 19th, I found waiting for me:

• Fax from Holly Hina regarding Zielke & Associates & black olives (but she doesn't remember the Avocado--Julie will have to fill her in!), and a wonderful Kelly Freas cartoon of Tucker
• Fax from Julie Wall with her stuff & Charlotte's, with disk to come
• A letter from Meade with "The Birth of the Southern Fandom Confederation" & permission to use his earlier material
• A long phone message from Dan Caldwell promising wonderful things--and pointing out that he only heard about this a few weeks ago. Dan--you have an extension on the deadline till the end of the year if you need it.

Soonercon, by the way, is a great convention. Who would have guessed, out there in the middle of Oklahoma? Great spirit, good parties--although not nearly as elaborate as Southern parties have become these days--good attitude. Like Arnold, I'll be back.

Between Monday the 20th & Turkey Day came:

• A package from Ned Brooks with great photos of some of our founding fathers as teenagers (these will be the only photos I run), a sheaf of caricatures and zine covers, and a history of fandom in the Tidewater area (including the origin of the "purple mouth" part of his small press, Purple Mouth Press).
• A couple of messages from mike weber, who needs more time & can have it
• A talk with David Weber, who is getting a couple of his friends together to work on coverage of Magnum Opus Con
• A talk with Judy Bemis regarding Florida
• A card from Pat Molloy, who needed more time for his various pieces & can have it, and who gives permission for his earlier work on Huntsville cons (that he does not ever remember writing) to be messed with by Mike Kennedy
• A letter from Tom Feller, who is still working on finding someone to cover Baton Rouge and needs more time (I'm beginning to see a pattern here...).
• Possibly other stuff I am forgetting

As you can tell, the material is beginning to roll in. Charlotte's piece, by the by, is well nigh perfect. I've included it in this mailing for those who are still a bit confused about what I am looking for. In terms of deadlines, I think if everything else comes in by the end of the year, I should be able to mush it all together to be copied & collated in time for DSC. Those of you who need more time have had it bought by all those who delivered on time--and therefore have given me plenty to do in December getting it all prepped up.

After I returned from my epic California trip (two cons in one weekend, making a grand total of three in two weeks--I do not recommend this, by the way), I found waiting for me:

• From Bill Francis: copies of DSC badges from '79 and '78 (with the legend, "Wake up, lad! When convention's over, there'll be time enough to sleep.", and SFC Bulletins from '78, '79 and '80.
• The promised disk from Julie Wall and a pledge to record for posterity the Avocado Incident.
• Disk, art & hardcopy form Tim Lane on the long history of Fosfax with current subscription info.
• Disk & hardcopy from mike weber on Myriad and Kelly Freas, with a suggestion to beseech Lon Atkins for the art from his Rebel--will do.
• A fax from Greg Bridges of Memphis on the DSC Rebel & Phoenix winners, a precis of Darrell C. Richardson's career, and an index of a fanzine from the '70s, Diversity. He also mentions he did a short history of Memphis SF cons for P.L.'s SFC Bulletin that he says he can update. Okay, go for it, Greg!
• A fax from Mike Kennedy with the updated history of Huntsville fandom & a lovely chart listing all the cons to have taken place there with date, venue, attendance, GOHs and committee chairs. Disk is promised if he doesn't hear me scream. No screams, Mike, send the disk.
• A message from Sandra Miesel, asking me what the heck it was I wanted again, and can she have an extension (yes, till the end of the year).
• A message from Maurine Dorris, asking for a extension on her many pieces--I left a message, but in case you didn't get it: yep, you got until the end of the year.
• The piece from Steve & Sue Francis on NorthAmericon 1979

While I was at Loscon in L.A. I ran into once and future SFPAn Richard Brandt. He's doing a piece (for the San Antonio Worldcon, I think) on the history of Texas fandom. I asked him to send me a copy, too, when he's done. It'll need to be condensed, but I think it will make a nice addition, since Texas is officially part of the SFC territory even if in modern practice it's pretty much gone its own way. Although I vaguely recall a Texas bid for a DSC fairly recently.

A few days after I got back from my West Coast mega-roadtrip, came trundling in:

• "A Brief History of RiverCon" (longer version) and (shorter version), disk with both text and artwork & logo, and printout of art & logo. I'm using the longer version (you're right, for a twenty year history you get to spread out a teeny bit), don't know if I'll be using your art on disk or not yet. We'll see.
• And somewhere in there I talked to Chloie Airoldi who assured me Knoxville would be taken care of by somebody, if not her

Important pieces I still don't have confirmed authors for:

Phoenix winners:

+

Doug Chaffee & Joe Haldeman--Vern Clarke

Knoxville: Rusty Burke to talk about Satyricon. +

The Atlanta Worldcon Bid--Ron Zukowski + (Penny, you should know that if he doesn't come through I'm going to make you do this.)

I'll be contacting the above people this week and will hopefully get it all squared away. I'm assuming the rest of you will be delivering in the next few weeks--Gary Robe, Binker & Guy, this means you especially. I hope that I won't have to resort to torture by Lillian, as threatened in the first mailing. Hmm, I guess this doesn't have much weight against Lillian--it'd be more like an incentive to be late. Have no fear, I'll come up with something suitably hideous: how about tapes of Gordon Liddy's talk show? See, I knew I could motivate you, Guy!

To everybody else: thanks very much and KUTGW--I am very excited by the response so far. I just hope I do justice to the material and all of your terrific efforts!