Saturday, May 31, 2014

SASS panel at ArmadilloCon 36


ArmadillonCon 36, being held in Austin July 25-27, will feature the first-ever convention panel about SASS. It will be held Friday night from 8-9 p.m.

The panel description is as follows:

"The Society for the Advancement of Speculative Fiction (SASS) is a non-profit group out of Denton dedicated to encouraging and mentoring aspiring and new authors of speculative fiction."

Scott Cupp will be the moderator. Panelists will be Lou Antonelli, Bill Crider and Rie Sheridan Rose. All except Crider are SASS members.



Thursday, May 8, 2014

Praise for SASS member's collection

The Reference Library column by Don Sakers in the upcoming July-August double issue of Analog focuses on short fiction, specifically collections and anthologies, and he has high praise for "The Clock Struck None" by Lou Antonellli (Secretary of SASS):

"It’s possible that you haven’t run into the stories of Lou Antonelli. Since 2003, he’s been publishing delightful short tales of alternate history all over the nooks and crannies of the SF world. Thanks to Fantastic Books, we now have 28 of these little gems in one place.

 "Many of Antonelli’s stories have an unexpected twist ending. And many of them are what he calls “secret history” stories, which aren’t exactly alternate history—they’re set in our familiar history, but there’s always some element that contemporary observers missed. For example, take the time travelers in “Meet Me at the Grassy Knoll.”

 "As for alternate history, well, one of the included stories, “Great White Ship,” was a finalist for the 2013 Sidewise Award, which is given for outstanding works in the field of alternate history. In “Pirates of the Ozarks” the New Madrid earthquake of 1812 turned the Great Plains into a new sea. “The Starship Theodora” posits a universe in which a Christianized Roman Empire conquered the stars."

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Pittman-Hassett published in On Spec


SASS Treasurer Shedrick-Pittman Hassett has been published in the Spring 2014 issue of the Canadian speculative fiction magazine, On Spec. It is his first professional publication. "Gauntlet" took third place in the FenCon short story contest in 2010. It is the story of a freelance courier in a post-apocalyptic landscape making a very dangerous delivery.