1995 - 04/1995 Meeting

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

DORIS VALLEJO

Books:

The Boy Who Saved the Stars

Windsound

Collaborations

The Art of Rowena (with Rowena Morrill)

Enchantment (with Boris Vallejo)

Mirage (with Boris Vallejo)

Ladies: Retold Tales of Goddesses and Heroines (with Boris Vallejo)

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: April 8, 1995.

Meeting Site: Yeager Domicile, Paramus, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 45.

Meeting Program: Talk by Fantasy Writer.

Notes:

Independent film maker / past speaker Ted Bohus attended,

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1995 Philip J De Parto:

Robert Yeager and family were once again kind enough to allow the Association to conduct a meeting at their home in Paramus. Despite the lateness of the newsletter, the turnout was more than respectable. The featured speaker was fantasy writer Doris Vallejo.

As usual, the day began earlier for some of us than others. William Molendyk conducted the club game of Dungeons & Dragons at the Game Master for Philip De Parto, Charles Garofalo, and Scott Schmitt, as well as Igor Goldberg and two other non members from 2:00 - 5:00 PM.

The pre meeting dinner with our guest was held at Ruby Tuesday in the Garden State Plaza. For the second month in a row we could have charged people to witness the proceedings, as dinner was a surreal experience. The dinner crowd consisted of Ted Bohus, Philip De Parto, Robert Pinkus, John Upton, Dorian, Doris, Leanna and Maya Vallejo. We could actually write a full page about the restaurant hijinks, but will be content to mention that Philip De Parto was first brought the wrong order, his dish was then made up again and given to another table. Finally, it was cooked up once more and brought over. Naturally, it was awful.

Meanwhile at the Yeager house, early arrivals to the Final Frontier were treated to a video on the behind the scenes work in making STAR TREK, DEEP SPACE 9 from the collection of Robert Yeager. As more people trickled in, the group recessed downstairs to discuss STAR TREK's Prime Directive and other topics.

After the usual preliminaries, Patricia Oprysko and John Scrivens from the Ramapo College Comics and Science Fiction Club talking about an upcoming event, Doris Vallejo was introduced and read the story "Arachne" from the book LADIES. As usual, some of our crowd very much enjoyed the retelling of this tale and others fell asleep.

After the reading, we took a break for Robert Yeager to give a tour of the domicile. For those of you who have never been there, this is no ordinary house. Each room is crammed to the walls with all sorts of neat bric a brac and has its own theme, Spanish, Oriental, South Seas, nautical, and so on. The experience is indescribable to someone who has never been there.

The meeting resumed after the tour. Ms Vallejo talked about her background and career. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at selling mainstream works, she had a conversation with STARLOG'S Terry O' Quinn which resulted in the publication of her first novel, THE BOY WHO SAVED THE STARS, from Starlog Press. A discussion with Adele Leone led to the expansion of a short story into WINDSOUND, a stand alone novel about a brain transplant. A few short stories were next, followed by a series of collaborative efforts (MIRAGE, ENCHANTMENT, and LADIES: RETOLD TALES OF GODDESSES AND HEROINES) in which she wrote the fiction and former husband Boris did the artwork.

She is currently working on a mainstream novel with a collaborator and has plans for a mystery after that.

Robert Yeager donated five photographs autographed by various sf media personalities as door prizes. These were won by Bobbie Bauer, Elizabeth Grout, William Molendyk, Roz Pelcyger, and Thomas Purdy.

The Yeagers supplied their usual generous supply of food and beverages. These were nicely supplemented by ice cream and cones brought by Charles Garofalo.

A small army of us marched, well drove, actually, to the Forum Diner on Route 4 West afterwards. The crowd included Sharon Archer, Thomas Bauer, George Boisvert, Paul Dellechiaie, Nancy Denker, Mary Ann Denny, Philip De Parto, Elizabeth Grout, Ernest ("I'm not going") Lilley, Eileen Madison, Debra Matofsky, Sharon Roberg, Robert Saovye, Daniel Serafin, Carol Smith, Anthony Tellado, John Upton, Pamela Webber, Barry Weinberger, Taras Wolansky and Thomas Zych.