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SHANE TOURTELLOTTE
VIDEO: DOCTOR WHO: THE CURSE OF THE FATAL DEATH
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: March 10, 2000.
Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 34.
Meeting Program: Talk by Science Fiction Writer.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2000 Philip J De Parto:
...Author Shane Tourtellotte was our guest speaker for the evening. Mr T has had ten stories published in ANALOG, with more to follow, as well as a story accepted, but not yet published, at ARTEMIS magazine. He has a novel being considered at Tor Books and is at work on an alternate history novel.
Mr Tourtellotte was born in 1968 and his formative years were at a time when there was an intense interest in the space program. He remembers having coloring books and toys about space colonies on the moon, and fully expected these thing to be a fact by the time he grew up. He discovered that the future he expected to live in receded further away every year he aged.
Unlike many future science fiction writers, he read little of it during his youth. It was only after he began selling the stuff that he decided that he'd better do a quick study of the field. Among the classics he would read that still hold up are "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov and FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes. What both have in common, in his opinion, is that they show how people react to a scientific event.
This interplay between characters and ideas is at the heart of what he wants to do as a writer. When he read about the cloning of Dolly the sheep, it got him thinking about cloning, telemeers, and the aging process. He wrote a story from the point of view of a woman cloned from an adult who was biologically 75 years old even though she was only 45 by the calendar. Another tale was set on a watery world where the sport of choice was to be swallowed by a gigantic squid and ejected through the creature's aquatic propulsion system.
He was attracted to ANALOG magazine because it is the market most closely attuned to the border between science fact and science fiction, which is where Mr Tourtellotte's interest lies.
After he made a few sales and began to acquaint himself with the classics of the field, he decided that he should attend a convention. He saw that the World Science Fiction Convention was going to be held in Baltimore and decided that the convention was close enough to attend. The day after he sent his money in, he read an article by Susan Shwartz stating that the worst thing to do was to make the Worldcon your first science fiction convention. Too late! Naturally, the woman on line ahead of him at the Worldcon registration line turned out to be Ms Shwartz.
Since then he's attended a number of conventions. He talked about being in an elevator alone with Harlan Ellison ("Freezing up in social situations can be a good thing. It can save you a lot of trouble if you are going to say something stupid"), having his future read by Esther Friesner's hamstermancy, and meeting up and coming writer Michael Burstein ("I decided to try to pattern my career upon his").
Mr Tourtellotte is also involved with the Grudge Match Website. The website operates like a silly debating team. One person suggests a silly contest and states the opponents. Each side is assigned an advocate, the arguments are posted, website visitors vote, and a winner is declared. Past contests have included the Futility Bowl featuring Red Shirted Ensigns vs Imperial Storm Troopers, a drinking contest between Ted Kennedy and Boris Yeltsin, a hockey game between the residents of Springfield vs those of South Park, and a basketball game between the casts of WELCOME BACK, KOTTER and WKRP IN CINCINNATI. The website can be found at http://www.thefunniest.com/grudge.
The meeting was the first time the author had ever done a solo appearance in front of a science fiction audience, and it was very gratifying to see him relax and enjoy himself as the evening progressed.
There was also an unannounced second program, a Comic Relief video starring Rowan Atkinson as Dr Who and Jonathan Pryce as The Master. It was a lot of fun.