1996 - 06/1996 Meeting

Page Created: 08/25/10. Last Updated: 10/26/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 03/01/08.

BETSY MITCHELL

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: June 8, 1996.

Meeting Site: Borders Books & Music, Wayne Town Center, Wayne, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 36,

Meeting Program: Talk by Science Fiction Editor.

Notes:

This Borders Books location no longer exists.

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1996 Philip J De Parto:

The June 8, 1996 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held in the video section of the music department of Borders Books & Music, Wayne Towne Center Mall, Wayne, New Jersey.

Anthony Tellado guest hosted the meeting of the Final Frontier and covered a wide range of STAR TREK and other happenings. It was good to see him back at the helm after an absence of several months. the club television could not pull in a strong enough signal to make viewing the DEEP SPACE 9 rerun worth watching, so we turned it off and simply continued the discussion.

The Frontier ran late, so the S F A B C meeting followed suit. The store had selected an assortment of science fiction movie scores to pump through the PA system. This was enjoyable during the intermission but an annoyance when it was Betsy Mitchell's turn to speak.

Ms Mitchell is the Editor-in-Chief of Aspect Books, Warner Books' Science Fiction imprint. She has had editorial stints with Bantam and Baen Books, and has also worked on a newspaper. The people skills she learned as a journalist have served her quite well as an editor.

One of her objectives is to develop a cadre of new writers who will be identified as Aspect Writers. She has already unearthed fantasy writer J V Jones and promoted David Feintuch as new stars in the field and has established a New Aspects program to spotlight fledgling authors. She is also sponsoring a first novel contest and will publish the winning novel from the C J Cherryh-judged contest.

Ms Mitchell informed us that she will be publishing a science fiction novel by Levar Burton. The story will be a near future post apocalypse parallel world tale focusing on the interaction among some minority characters. Mr Burton proved to be quite charming and impressive in person, and spoke at staff meetings about his love of science fiction and the importance of literacy. Ernest Lilley wanted to know: "Is it in Braille?"

This led to a discussion of declining sales figures for science fiction and books in general, which led in turn to a long and interesting exchange of insights into education, video games, and other distractions, budget cutbacks on things like bookmobiles, libraries' attitudes towards science fiction and many other matters. It was a stimulating, multi-layer dialogue which included a number of the newcomers to the group as well as our regulars.

After a bit of discussion about our destination, a substantial contingent of the group went to the Spindletop Diner in Wayne, New Jersey. Thanks to Charles Garofalo for the refreshments at the meeting, Chris Nash for transporting the television, Pamela Webber for help on many matters and Borders for a supply of "free drink" chits.