THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD POCKET GUIDE TO ECCENTRIC & DISCREDITED DISEASES comes to Atlanta, Sat Dec 10, 2004, 2:00 p.m., at Borders Bookstore #15 (3637 Peachtree Rd., NE, Suite C). Join discredited doctors such as the diabolical World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer, the nefarious Nebula Award winner Michael Bishop, the anti-typhoid suffering R.M. Berry, author of the NYT notable book Leonardo's Horse, the evil Robert Wexler, and the mysterious Jack Slay Jr. for a one-of-a-kind literary experience. What can you expect from the Lambshead Traveling Carnival and Fun Show? Laughter, props, giant microbes, and advanced cases of hypochondria. You can even win free stuff! "So demented and funny that it must be read to be believed." - The San Francisco Bay Guardian. "An amazing book." - Publishers Weekly. "Hilarious!" - The Village Voice.

To quote our young, new talent, "Hey! I'm Nick! I'm 16 and drive a Cadillac! Cool! Well, I'm a semi-new writer and now have a book published! It's called The Alerion Destiny: Part One. This is a book about Truth, Prophecy, War, and Religion. But of course it isn't based on any of our religions. It journeys through the lives of a half dozen heroes while they try to unravel the mysteries of the past and connecting them to stop the destruction of the present.

Travis Williams gave an excellent talk and slide show about getting to Mars. The Mars Society is strives to further the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. Starting small, with hitchhiker payloads on government funded missions, we intend to use the credibility that such activity will engender to mobilize larger resources that will enable stand-alone private robotic missions and ultimately human exploration.

"Argosy" is an antholgy magazine, a revival of the old "Argosy" that published pulp fiction starting in the 1910's. This rendition is anything but pulp. Great new stories and artwork grace the trade paperback size publication. Lou Anders, senior editor, discussed the publishing business and how to get a sci-fi magazine re-started.

The dealers room was well stocked, the panel discussions were very entertaining, the video/film room was dark and inviting, the arcade games were always going, and the costumes were as creative as ever.

Atlanta's own Stephen L. Antczak talked about his first collection of short stories, "Daydreams Undertaken," as well as his recent movie projects. We all added to the list of Sci-Fi must haves.

Local Artist Elio Guevara was born and raised in Venezuela. Elio trained at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He currently lives and teaches in metro Atlanta, and has made appearances at numerous local conventions, including Dragon*Con and Atlanta ComiCon. His professional work has appeared in Heavy Metal, Calibre Comics and Spectrum.

Laurie Anderson says, "He was very gracious; sat there and answered questions.... I wish he'd brought a projector and slides, like artists do at cons, so everyone wasn't crowded up to the table.

"...Despite prodding, he didn't have much to say about the work, but when asked, kept responding by asking people what the work meant to them. We gave him answers, but he never responded in kind. Some of it was so surrealistic (eyes hanging on strings, giant faces on walls, giraffes next to folded garments vaguely resembling roses, etc.) it begged some elaboration from the artist, if only 'I was expressing happiness.' I picture his work on a Jeff VanderMeer book cover, maybe.

"Wish he'd also talked more about how growing up in Venezuela influenced how he portrays the natural world. Wandering through the Venezuela section of the Atlanta Botanical Garden yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me how different that part of the world is from here.

"He did give a good explanation of what a commercial artist must consider (he avoids the truly alien, because no one can connect with it, instead opting to make humanoid aliens), but not what issues he tackles as a gallery-type fine artist (getting back to the question of what his art means to him; what he's trying to express personally), though there were examples of both types of work there."

GA Tech's Lisa Yaszek was our featured guest. She's a researcher working with the Bud Foote Collection, an archive of thousands of science fiction books recently bequeathed to the university. The Bud Foote Collection is an 8,000+ volume archive which includes first edition scientific romances and utopias from the late nineteenth century and most of the major novels published by science fiction authors throughout the twentieth century. Special features include first editions of David Brin's major works (both in English and in translation) and a complete run of the Ballantine Fantasy Series.

Lisa's research and teaching interests include science fiction, gender studies, and cybernetic fiction. Yaszek's first book, The Self Wired: Technology and Subjectivity in Contemporary Narrative (New York: Routledge, 2002) combines literary analysis with the cultural studies of science and technology to show how cyborg writing has developed as an important new narrative genre since World War II. Her current research project, Revisiting Galactic Suburbia: Housewife Heroines, Lady Scientists, and the Lost History of Midcentury Women's Science Fiction, uses feminist and science fiction studies to explore women's political and literary practices in the Cold War era. Yaszek's short essays on gender and science fiction have been published in Signs, Extrapolation, and Foundation.

Lisa wrote us a thank you: "Just a quick note to thank you for inviting me and my students to come speak about the Bud Foote Collection with you last weekend; we all really enjoyed meeting you. I especially appreciated all the excellent suggestions you had for ways I might continue to grow the Collection.

If you are ever in the Georgia Tech area and would like to see what we're doing with SF at Tech, please feel free to get in touch with me. Also, I'll keep you posted as we develop the Vampire Symposium for next spring; if you're still interested in visiting and participating I will definitely take you up on that!

Never pass up an excuse for a party. The library needed the meeting room for the book sale, so the most gracious Amanda offered her house for our monthly gathering. Big thanks!

Emory professor, Sidney Perkowitz, discussed his recent book "Digital People." This book is an historical overview of artificial beings (robots, cyborgs, A.I., etc.) *both* in fiction and in the real world. He shared some of his research and gave us good insights into the mechanically enhanced, from actual robots to the 'cyborg' implants that many people have today.