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MARY ELIZABETH ALLEN
WILLIAM ENGFER
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: March 23, 1991.
Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance:
Meeting Program: Talk by romance / science fiction writer / editor. Talk by space enthusiast.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1991 Philip De Parto.
The March 1991 meeting of the S.F.A.B.C. was rescheduled in order to avoid conflicting with Lunacon '91. It was held on Saturday, March 23, 1991 at the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River.
Mary Elizabeth Allen was the primary guest. Ms Allen is an editor at Walker & Company, a hard cover publisher based in New York. She has written two pieces of interest to science fiction fans, "Voice of Memory" foundin TALES OF THE WITCH WORLD # 3 and CURRENT CONFUSION. This latter is a time travel romance in which the author uses a misunderstanding of quantum physics to send her heroine back in time. While her science may be faulty, she attempted to do a more serious attempt at plausibility than other time travel romances in which it is apparently possible to travel back in time by falling asleep in one's dentist's chair.
Because I was uncertain as to what type of reception a romance writer/editor would get from our group, I wanted to establish her science fiction credentials by reading her short story. This was not the most sage of all ideas I've had in my life, as this represented the author's first attempt at a public reading. Ms Allen realized that things were not going well and abridged the tale to speed it along. Everyone has to start somewhere, though, and our club is just about the least intimidating group in which to get one's feet wet. Kathleen Morrison deserves kind words for making a couple of suggestions to Ms Allen to help her through the reading.
After a short recess, we resumed with a far-ranging discussion of the similarities, differences, and interplay between the sf/fantasy and romance genrres. Mary Ann Denny ws particularly active in this discussion, as she is an active fan of both categories. Thee is a much greater readership crossover between the two than is generally recognized, a point underscored by the enthusiastic response to the two panels on the subject I put together at Lunacon.
Before Ms Allen began her presentation, William Engfer gave a short talk about the Space Frontier Society. John Schilling was also called onstage to report on LEMMINGS, a hot new computer game in which a player is assigned to keep alive as many incredibly stupid, reckless lemmings as possible in a danger-filled city.
Patricia Nash joined the club at this meeting. She had picked up a newsletter at the Bergen County Arts Festival several years ago which had only recently reappeared. She, Mary Ann Denny, and Robert Yeager won doorprize books.
Ms Allen also did a plug for a novel written by former S.F.A.B.C.er Eliza Shallcross, a fantasy romance based on the fairie tale, Puss'n Boots. The book is called THE MARQUIS OF CARABAS by Elizabeth Brodnax from Walker & Company.