1994 - 05/1994 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/26/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 02/20/08.

PETER RUBIE

Novels:

Mind Bender (co written by James Cohen)

Werewolf

Mr Rubie has since founded his own literary agency: http://www.prlit.com/prlitnews.htm.

The agency is affiliated with FinePrint Literary Management: http://www.fineprintlit.com/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: May 14, 1994.

Meeting Site: Yeager Residence, Paramus, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 41.

Meeting Program: Talk by literary agent / author.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

Robert Yeager and family were gracious enough to host the May 14, 1994 meeting of the S F A B C in their domicile. Literary agent and author (and former editor, journalist, and reviewer) Peter Rubie of Lori Perkins Associates was the featured speaker.

After the usual preliminaries, Mr Rubie gave a brief overview of his literary career. He got his start in England working as a journalist for the BBC and several of the "Fleet Street" newspapers. He came to America, did freelance work for a number of publishers and reviewed for PUBLISHERS WEEKLY before becoming Fiction Editor of Walker and Co for five years before leaving to join Lori Perkins. He described the plots of his two fiction novels, MIND BENDER and WEREWOLF. MIND BENDER was a collaboration with James Cohen and is a "psychic thriller" about two people with the paranormal ability of telekinesis, one a male terrorist, the other a female cop. Despite its title, WEREWOLF is not a horror novel, but a thriller set in World War II England featuring a feral child unleashed by the Blitz. Most of his presentation consisted of answering questions and telling stories about the publishing business, a subject of intense fascination for some of our members and indifference to others.

At the midpoint of Mr Rubie’s talk, we took a break and Robert Yeager took people on a tour of the house. Actually, there were so many of us that he had to give two tours because we could not all fit into the rooms being spotlighted. Robert did a fine joy pointing out the many curios and oddities present (no, I am not referring to our members) and telling stories about how they were acquired.

Part of the fun is to listen in the back to comments by the newcomers. One young lady gushed, “This is the neatest house I’ve ever been in!” Stragglers wandered by in a state somewhat akin to a daze.

While this was going on upstairs, people in the basement played pool on the pool table from another dimension, picked at the refreshment table, conversed, and helped keep an eye on a crawling Elizabeth Nash who was good but active.

Robert Yeager went above and beyond his duties as host by donating five autographed photos of various science fiction personalities. We held a drawing for the booty. Sharon Archer and Leora Baeder won photographs of George Takei of the original STAR TREK series, Charles Garofalo and Carol Smith won pictures of BABYLON 5’s Michael O’ Hare, and Enid Huskiewicz won a shot of STAR WARS’ David Prowse.

The dinner crowd, who got to hear many of Peter’s best stories at the Ground Round in Hackensack, consisted of Sharon Archer, Nancy Denker, Mary Ann Denny, Roy Greenberg, Thomas Pope, Peter Rubie, and Carol Smith. Sharon Archer, Paul Dellechiaie, Philip De Parto, Elizabeth Grout, Chris, Elizabeth, and Pat Nash, Peter Rubie and Robert Savoye had coffee and at the Forum Diner in Paramus after the meeting.

Our thanks to Sharon Archer and Pamela Webber for handling attendance, Robert Savoye and Mary Ann Denny for help with the vehicularly challenged, Chuck Garofalo for the refreshments, Tom Pope for giving our guest a ride to New Jersey, and most especially the Yeager family for opening their house and hearts to us.