1993 - 06/1993 Meeting

Page Created: 09/18/10. Last Updated: 10/27/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 02/06/08.

JAMES MAC DONALD

Selected Titles:

Solo:

The Apocalypse Door

With Debra Doyle:

Bad Blood

By Honor Betray'd

The Gathering Flame

Groogleman

Hunters' Moon

Judgment Night

Knight's Wyrd

Land of Mist and Snow

The Long Hunt

Night of the Living Rat

The Price of the Stars

Starpilot's Grave

The Stars Asunder

Timecrime, Inc

A Working of Stars

The official James MacDonald / Debra Doyle website is: http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: June 12, 1993.

Meeting Site: Science Fiction, Mysteries & More!, New York, New York.

Official Attendance: 18.

Meeting Program: Talk by science fiction writer.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1993 Philip J De Parto:

The June 12, 1993 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen Couinty was held at Science Fiction, Mysteries & More! bookstore, 140 Charmbers Street in Manhattan. Our June meeting is normally our most sparsely attended gathering of the year and Alan Zimmerman's place met the criteria of being both rent-free and air-conditioned. Things actually worked out rather nicely.

First to arrive (besides Alan's Expert Staff) were Leora Baeder, Philip De Parto, and Charles Garofalo. Leora and Chuck began buying books and Phil began assembling shelves and rearranging bookcases. While this was going on, a half dozen or so members of Mensa stopped by the store on the way to an outing.

Jim Emerson, the editor of the magazine, FUTURES PAST: A VISUAL GUIDEBOOK TO SCIENCE FICTION HISTORY, gave a talk and answered questions beginning at around 3:15 PM. This was not formally a part of our meeting, but an optional beforehand activity scheduled by Alan. I was in the back of the store puttering around, so I caught only bits and pieces of his talk and can offer no coherent account of his presentation. (Actually, the coherence of my reporting in general is a subject of some debate, but that's a topic for discussion some other time).

After opening remarks and a brief introduction, James Mac Donald gave a brief recap of his bibliography. He and his wife, Debra Doyle, (referred to only as "Doyle" by our guest) have written about a dozen short stories and a dozen and a half novels in a five year span. They have written science fiction, fantasy, and horror under both their own names and under "house" names (Tom Swift, Horror High, Planet Builders) in the adult and YA marketplaces. Their most recent works include a YA fantasy novel, KNIGHT'S WYRD, from Jane Yolen Books, and an adult space opera series, the Mageworlds Trilogy (THE PRICE OF STARS, STARPILOT'S GRAVE, and the forthcoming BY HONOR BETRAYED) from Tor.

After the overview as completed, Mac Donald read "Uncle Joshua and the Grogglemen," a short story which will be appearing in BRUCE COVILLE'S BOOK OF MONSTERS from Scholastic.

He then began talking about the collaborative process used by he and Doyle. He writes the first draft which lays out the plot, principal characters, main settings, and so on. Then Doyle goes over it, removing bad puns, absurd scenes, gratuitous sex scenes, tightening descriptions and polishing the dialogue. They then pass the sheets of Doyle's rewrites back and forth until the wind up with something they can both live with. They always work on two stories at once, so that if they hit a block on one, they can move forward on the other. If Mac Donald runs out of ideas for what happens next, he will have a woman run in from offstage, rip off her shirt before the hero, and then exit, stage left. Anything to keep the action moving.

After a period of questions and answers, we took a 15 minute break. We then resumed with a reading totally unrelated to anything before or after it.

Phil had been looking for a forum to share his enthusiasm for SLAY AND RESCUE, the first novel by John Moore from Baen Books. This is a comedic look at the true adventures of Prince Charming. Phil arranged a group reading in which Prince Charming meets the evil sorceress meets the evil sorceress Queen Ruby. Paul Dellechiaie read the part of Prince Charming; Phil, the part of Wendell, his pre-pubescent page; newcomer Rebecca Nugent, the imperiled Princess Ann, Rebecca's mother, Ruby, the evil stepmother; Mac Donald did the narration. No one complained about the digression.

There were more questions and answers for our guest. He then read the prologue to BY HONOR BETRAYED. Then we broke up, with most of us walking across the street to a Chinese Restaurant for dinner.