News Notes

First National Conference

The Free Press Association will hold its first national conference on Saturday, October 25th in New York City. The conference will be held in conjunction with the Fifth Annual Mencken Award ceremony. Attendance by major journalists and libertarians has been confirmed. For those wishing more information, Michael Grossberg will be glad to help. Please call him at work, (614) 461-5266, or write him at P.O. Box 15548, Columbus, Ohio 43215.

All I Have to Do Now is Learn How to Use it!

The editor would like to thank all those who gave her ideas and suggestions about a computer. We now have an Amiga, and are looking for a printer that can do excellent graphics and near letter-quality type. Any suggestions?

Reviewers Welcome

I would also like to thank all those who offered to write reviews for up-coming issues. Anyone who has an idea for a book to be reviewed feel free to call me at (716) 288-3167 weekdays from 5 pm to ll pm and weekends from 9 am to midnight. Or, of course, write a letter or card. Fiction, or non-fiction about space exploration, futurism, or technology would all be welcome. But please contact me before you do the work to make sure that someone else hasn't reviewed the book first.

Something new from L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith's The Crystal Empire is late being published. The word now is anytime. His book The Wardove is scheduled for October. Both are very different from his previous works, he says, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief, since he seems to have been wasting his talents lately. Hope we get something as good as, or better than The Probability Broach.

“Not now” voted for short story award

Many LFS members sent in comments on the possibility of allowing short story collections into the Prometheus nominations. The general consensus ls that a separate award would be necessary, that most members would be willing to give a special award for an exceptional collection, and that no one is willing to deal with another regular award right now. Whew!

Hall of Fame to Change in 1988

When the LFS membership created the Hall of Fame, we decided that the award would be given to two books annually for five years. and then to one novel per year thereafter. 1986 will mark the fourth year the Hall of Fame awards have been given, and so next year (1987) will be the last with a double award.

So far, the Hall of Fame award has been given to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in 1983, George Orwell's dystopias warning 1984 and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in, appropriately enough, 1984, and Poul Anderson's Trader to the Stars and Eric Frank Russell’s The Great Explosion in 1985. (See the nominees for 1986 on page 3.)

After 1987, we will have picked out all the "easy" winners—those books best known and most loved by libertarian sci-fi fans. (It is interesting to note that all of the winners so far were among the original 25 novels nominated in 1983.)

In 1988 we'll begin the careful process of adding to the ten titles already in the Hall of Fame. Which means we must begin now to find, read, and write reviews about relatively unknown novels that are worthy of becoming libertarian classics. Remember, nominated novels must be at least five years old to be eligible.