From a friend of Bryan:
Bryan Puterbaugh recently joined the Washington Science Fiction Association, about which he was very enthusiastic. He went to at least a couple of meetings since April, I’m not sure how many, nor how many people with whom he interacted.

Most likely the funeral will be on October 2nd, but details will be forthcoming.

Bryan indeed did come to WSFA Meetings. He was enthusiastic and met and talked with many of us. If you got a chance to meet Bryan, I’m sure you’ll remember him.

The Washington Science Fiction Association is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2010 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction (published in 2009):

“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer, published in Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen, Norilana Books (July 2009).

“Images of Anna” by Nancy Kress, published in Fantasy Magazine, edited by Cat Rambo (September 2009).

“James and the Dark Grimoire” by Kevin Lauderdale, published in Cthulhu Unbound, edited by Thomas Brannan and John Sunseri, Permuted Press, (March 2009).

“Race to the Moon” by Kyell Gold, published in New Fables, Summer 2009,  edited by Tim Susman, Sofawolf Press  (July 2009).

“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster, published in Interzone (January 2009) / Apex Magazine (August  2009), edited by Andy Cox (Interzone,) / Catherynne M. Valente (Apex).

“Siren Beat” by Tansy Rayner Roberts, published in Twelfth Planet Press, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (October 2009).

“The Pirate Captain’s Daughter” by Yoon Ha Lee, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #27, 10/08/2009, edited Scott H. Andrews.

“The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram” by Jeff Soesbe, published in DayBreak Magazine, edited by Jetse de Vries (October 2009).

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 (2009). 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 (wsfa.org) and will be presented at their annual convention, Capclave (capclave.org), held this year on October 22-24th in Rockville, Maryland.

The First Friday meeting in July (7-2-10) opened with VP Sam Scheiner presiding. The meeting was called to order at 9:15, but Sam said his watch runs fast. “Our esteemed president is at a party so might be late or not show.” Secretary Sam summarized last meeting. Treasurer Steve told about the money.

Gayle for Capclave present said her committee is working on programming, and talking about appreciations for our GoHs. There are four or five new members. We have a person willing to do filking. Capclave future said board is reviewing hotel contract to clean up a few details. The room cost is favorable and a fixed two-year contract so it won’t go up. The date is Oct 12, 13, 14 moving back a week. Far future: ditto – two year contract.

Click the link for the full text of the August-September 2010 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the July 2, 16 / August 6, 20 2010 meetings.

WSFA Journal August-September 2010

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

This year WSFA Press is proud to publish two books in honor of the Guests of Honor of Capclave, the Washington Science Fiction Association’s yearly convention, this year being held in Rockville Maryland Oct 22-24th, 2010.

Fire Watch, by Connie Willis and The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod, by Jeff VanderMeer will be made available initially at Capclave to the members of the convention. As only 500 copies of each book (signed and numbered) will be printed, and the membership of Capclave is being capped at 500 members, we have made every effort to allow the members of Capclave to pre-order copies if they choose to do so.

If you are not already a member of Capclave, but are planning to attend the convention, you may register at our Registration Page. You may also pre-order your books at the same time.

If you are already a member of Capclave, but became one before the books were made available, you should simply contact the webmaster (that’s the username) at either wsfapressbooks.org or capclave.org (they both go to the same person). Let the webmaster know you wish to pre-order one or both of the books and you’ll be given the information you need.

UPDATE:
After several weeks, we’ve decided that we can open up pre-orders to non-members of Capclave on a limited basis. One hundred copies of each book are now available for sale from this website. Depending on the sale volume, additional copies may or may not be made available later. In any event, pre-ordered books from non-members of Capclave will be
mailed out via the USPS during the week following Capclave.

Book Sellers:
If you are a Book Seller, and are interested in pre-ordering books, please contact the webmaster as above, for further information.

First Friday in May 5/7 – President Judy started with “Let’s have a short meeting because of the election.” Colleen said that the day was officially no pants day. Sam summarized the business from the last meeting. Judy said that she had email from Warner Bros. They are doing previews of the movie Splice and invited WSFA to a screening on May 12. People debated if they wanted to go.

Click the link for the full text of the June-July 2010 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the May 7, 21 / June 4, 18 2010 meetings, including the WSFA election results for 2010/2011.

WSFA Journal June-July 2010

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

At the 1st Friday Meeting the slate of officers presented by the Trustees was voted in. There were no nominations from the floor.
Here’s the list of officers:

President: Judy Newton
Vice President: Sam Scheiner
Treasurer: Steve Smith
Secretary: Sam Lubell
Trustees: Barry Newton, Bob MacIntosh, Elspeth Kovar
Capclave 2012 Chair: George Shaner
Small Press Award (2 positions open): Colleen Cahill, Paul Haggerty

We also had one new member who heard about us via our new MeetUp page.

Tomorrow is our 1st Friday meeting at the Scheiner’s house. Directions are listed on our webcalendar.

If you’ve been considering attending a WSFA Meeting, feel free to join us. We have our business meeting first followed by socializing and talk.

In addition, it will also be our election night when the officers of the club will be chosen for the coming year. The slate put forth by our Trustees is:

President: Judy Newton
Vice President: Sam Scheiner
Treasurer: Steve Smith
Secretary: Sam Lubell
Trustees: Barry Newton, Bob MacIntosh, Elspeth Kovar
Capclave 2012 Chair: George Shaner
Small Press Award (2 positions open): Colleen Cahill, Paul Haggerty

As always, nominations from the floor are both welcome and encouraged. If you’re a WSFA member (new or slightly less new), and you’d like to run for one of the office slots, come to the meeting and put forth your name for consideration.

President Judy called the first Friday meeting in April (4/2/2010) to order at 9:16. Sec Sam Lubell summarized the last meeting. VP Sam S. had nothing to report. Sec Sam L. had a new WSFA Journal. Paul said after long time, we have now bequeathed a new design for the website, dedicated to the proposition this will make it easier to update. The board will be able to post messages and activities, as soon as board responds to request for password (but only one has). A good dozen pages still are the old style, we will translate them over time and integrate them into new design since it is easier to rewrite from scratch than to fix them. Take a look. Club thanked him. Treasurer not here but emailed. WSFA account has $Beep, Capclave $Beep, Merchant $Beep. Total checking $Beep, CDs $Beep, PayPal $Beep, for a total of $Beep. Calls for printing more books. Calls to declare bankruptcy.

Click the link for the full text of the May 2010 WSFA Journal, including the Minutes of the April 2, 16 2010 meetings.

WSFA Journal May 2010

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

Tonight is our 3rd Friday meeting at the Madigan’s house. Directions are listed on our webcalendar.

If you’ve been considering attending a WSFA Meeting, feel free to join us. We have our business meeting first followed by socializing and talk.

For 1st Friday in April, we had Tom Doyle, winner of the 2008 WSFA Small Press Award, read his short story, “Consensus Building”. The story was originally published in Futurismic in 2005. The reading took place after the business meeting and many of the members stayed for the reading. Tom is a great reader and read with intonation and a strong sense of timing and the dramatic. He even heightened the tension of waiting to find out what happens next by pausing at each section break to sip water with great deliberation.

We hung on every word. The story was set in the near future dealing with implanted chips that could allow people to interface with each other, sharpen memory/recall, and act as a personal PDA. However, things could, of course, go wrong. What happens, and how, made for a very chilling story that really stays with you.

Tom graciously answered questions after and participated in a general discussion among members about technology and society and related issue.

This is WSFA’s second guest event with a reading — for this past Friday — Thanks, Tom, for a great evening.