The Third Friday WSFA meeting will take place in our Maryland location this Friday, Nov 15th.

The Committee to Discuss SF will discuss the current issue of Clarkesworld featuring stories by Mathew Kessel, Gregory Feeley, and Elizabeth Bear plus more. At http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/

Remember, you don’t have to read all the stories to participate in the discussion. The stories are free. And one of them is in podcast form so you can listen instead of reading. 

Let’s get started said Prez Bob opening the 11-1-19 meeting. It is the First Friday in November. Last meeting at Capclave we had a quorum and introduced people to WSFA.

Sam S reported the treasury had almost $$$ and said year over year is up relative to this time last year, $$$ because we haven’t yet paid hotel bill from Capclave. Sam S said Collette put it on her credit card and they haven’t finalized the bill yet. They gave her a preliminary bill and then a second final that didn’t match so they are finalizing it.

Sarah read Capclave report from Bill’s email. We have a surplus.

The general response online has been positive. There was one complaint about the sign in the con suite to refrain from discussing politics. We will review and discuss this for next year as we will be less than a month from the general election.

Click the link for the full text of the November/December 2019 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the November 1st, 15th 2019 / December 6th, 20th 2019 meetings.

Note: Publication date is set to the date of the Journal, rather than the date posted, for indexing purposes

November is near. First Friday will be this Friday, Nov 1, in Virginia.

We will have a reading from new author Tom Crepeau. We will also discuss Capclave.

The committee to discuss SF will talk about the Sept/Oct issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This is their 70th-anniversary issue and it is crammed with lots of big names. Kelly Link, Paolo Bacigalupi, Michael Moorcock, Elizabeth Bear, Maureen McHugh, Ken Liu, Esther Friesner, Michael Swanwick, and Gardner Dozois. If you read only one magazine issue this year, you want to read this one.

See everyone Friday.

NOTE: Our calendar app is not working. If you need directions to the meeting, please email <webmaster@wsfa.org>. We’re working on the issue.

This is an index of past WSFA Journals published by the club as PDFs. It will be enhanced and expanded on as time permits.

November-December 2018
September-October 2018
July-August 2018
May-June 2018
March-April 2018
January-February 2018
November-December 2017
September-October 2017
July-August 2017
May-June 2017
March-April 2017
January-February 2017
November-December 2016
September-October 2016
July-August 2016
May-June 2016
March-April 2016
January-February 2016
November-December 2015
September-October 2015
July-August 2015
May-June 2015
March-April 2015
January-February 2015

The Third Friday (Where does the time go?) WSFA meeting will be held tomorrow 9/20/19 at the Maryland home of Candy and Grig Larson. The Committee to discuss SF will be reading September issue of Clarkesworld which is free online at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/

Trials and Tribulations

Bang, bang went the gavel signifying the start of the 9-6-19 WSFA meeting. “Hearye heary, we are about to start. Everyone who wants to be at the meeting get settled,” said prez Bob.

Mr. Treasurer Sam S said WSFA has $$$, year over year $$$. “Let’s throw a Capclave,” said the crowd. “Throw it where?” someone asked.

Bill said, Capclave just had a meeting; a lot of you were there. Meeting to get us going. Deadline for program book is this weekend so everything got rushed. Some things going on. Things are progressing. Program is about a third of the way done, and will be done soon. Will go on website and we could advertise it. Positive in that respect. We are on track for attendees. Hopefully when program gets up we will have more people. David Keener has workshops lined up. Nothing too major. Progressing well.

Click the link for the full text of the September/October 2019 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the September 6th, 20th 2019 / October 4th, 18th 2019 meetings.

Note: Publication date is set to the date of the Journal, rather than the date posted, for indexing purposes

The Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2019 WSFA Small Press Award:

• “Baggage,” by Leslie Burton-Lopez, published in When to Now: A Time Travel Anthology, Fairfield Scribes, (October 2018);
• “The Djinni and the Accountant,” by Hal J. Friesen, published in Fire: Demons, Dragons, and Djinn, ed. by Rhonda Parrish, Tyche Books, (August 2018);
• “Familiar in Her Angles,” by E.A. Brenner, published in Metaphorosis, ed. by Morris Allen, (September 21, 2018); 
• “The Hydraulic Emperor,” by Arkady Martine, published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 20, ed. by  Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas (January/February 2018);
• “The Spider and the Stars,” by DK Mok, published in Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers, ed. by Sarena Ulibarri, World Weaver Press (June 2018);
• “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat,” by Brooke Bolander, published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 23, ed. by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas (July/August 2018);
• “The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change,” by Virginia M. Mohlere, published in Luna Station Quarterly, Issue 34, ed. by Jennifer Lyn Parsons, (May 30, 2018); and 
• “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” by Alix E. Harrow, published in Apex Magazine, Issue 105, ed. by Jason Sizemore, (February 2018). 

 The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction.  The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2018). An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story.

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association (www.wsfa.org) and will be presented at their annual convention, Capclave (www.capclave.org), held this year on October 18-20, 2019 at the Rockville Hilton, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD.

Fiyah, Zambia, and Other Made-Up Words

Alright folks said President Bob. This is the post-fourth of July (7/5/19) WSFA meeting. Yawn.

Sam L. summed up minutes. Treasurer up $$$.

Capclave Present. Bill said, We got the contract for Capclave 2020 and submitted it to the hotel, so now we have a hotel and date. I will let Collette know that George is interested in same weekend third weekend after Columbus Day. For Capclave 19 the Dodos have started tweeting fun facts about our guests. Martha Wells’ first sf convention was Armadillo four when she was still in high school. Rob Sawyer went to university with Tanya Huff. Membership is up to 143 members, about where we should be. Drum up more business. Table at Shore Leave. Martha Wells will be in Dublin for Worldcon so we will do a photo with her. Program is progressing. The survey is out and ## people responded. Catherine Asaro is moving to NY in September so will not be able to come. People need to take bookmarks and rack cards. Hand them out. Both Rob and Martha are interested and excited. Sam S will be getting flight information from Rob soon. He wants to know which airport is best. We are still on track to hit our publishing deadline with the understanding that things can change. We brought up the idea of using big foyer area for mass signing. It depends on if it is available. So won’t know where put the AV equipment until a month out. If you haven’t got your room please get it. If we get 110% of room block $$$.

Click the link for the full text of the July/August 2019 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the July 5th, 19th 2019 / August 2nd, 16th 2019 meetings.

Note: Publication date is set to the date of the Journal, rather than the date posted, for indexing purposes

As has been readily apparent, wsfa.org has been off-line for a considerable amount of time, and there’s no point beating around the bush. We got hacked. We got hacked bad. It has taken all this time to methodically go through every directory and file on the site and clean out the mess.

But we are back, security has been greatly increased, and we hope to stay on-line for the future.

The site has been mostly restored, but there are some older manual html files that are still being cleansed, and those will take a little longer. If a link is broken, it will be one of these older files.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

WSFA’s Officers Acclaimed

Bob banged the gavel to start the 5/3/19 May First Friday with a “Hear ye, hear ye, it’s meeting time. Let’s go guys. Alright folks. We’re going to forgo the minutes from the last meeting since we didn’t do any business. There is a fifth Friday this month and Eva Whitley volunteered. Sam S said we have an election tonight, if anyone wants to legally vote see me after the meeting. Treasurers report. We still have lots of money. $$$. Year over year $$$$.

Capclaves: Bill said we’re on target for 2019. You can register online since the site is up Sam S. said or I can take your credit card. Need people for the table at Balticon and the Gaithersburg book festival, see Cathy.

Other news. Bill gave current list of people coming. Connie Willis confirmed. Stan Robinson and I connected. His wife is retiring so he is a maybe. Due to health, Harry Turtledove declined. Paolo and Holly have conflicting events. George has responded. Not taking any new conventions until the book is out. Kaaron Warren, a GoH from World Fantasy is here and brought the notebook WFC gave her for people here to sign.

Click the link for the full text of the May/June 2019 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the May 3rd, 17th 2019 / June 7th, 21st 2019 meetings.

Note: Publication date is set to the date of the Journal, rather than the date posted, for indexing purposes