The bios of ALBACON’s Guests of Honor are now up.  www.albacon.org  Check out our web site and see why YOU should be there next October.

We give good con!

An interesting article.   Seems a little bit like manufacturing the results one needs.  Tsk, tsk!

The scandal we see and the scandal we don’t.   Why it matters

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/30/crugate_analysis/

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. -William Styron, novelist (1925-2006)

It was this way for me when I first read The Lord of the Rings!  Exhausted, been to places new to me, and sad it was over.

I return to Middle-earth once every year or two.

When I travel, I often wonder: Where in Middle-earth am I?

I’m looking forward to moderating the panel on the Solar Updraft Tower at LOSCON on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I have 2 PhDs & a novelist on the panel.  No fuel [well, there is the sun]/no waste, just energy.  Sounds good to me.

Looking for seed money for a 15 billion dollar long term project. 

“Congress shall make no law that  applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to  the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies  to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the  citizens of the United States”.

YEA!!

Ron Miller has accepted our invitation to be the Artist GOH at Albacon 2010.

He joins Allen Steele, who is ALBACON’s Writer GoH!

ALBACON, www.albacon.org , has its hotel for 2010: Best Western Sovereign Hotel – Albany, 1228 Western Ave., Albany, NY 12203; +1-518-489-2981; http://www.sovereignhotels.com/ .

We hope to have on-line registration up and running real soon now.  Y’all come.  We give good con!  Allen Steele is our Literary Guest of Honor.

I had a very good weekend.  It started off with a huge turkey lunch en route to Rochester at my favorite turkey restaurant.  The con went well.  Met old friends and made new ones.  Did a couple panels, judged the masquerade, chatted with folk about my no fuel/no waste power source, got too little sleep, etc.  –  If you are anywhere near Rochester next NOV, you might think about the con.  –  Hey, it is almost as good as ALBACON.

For the past couple days I’ve been scanning in papers from the Tolkien conferences I ran in 1969 and 1971: The 1^st & 2^nd Conferences On Middle-earth.  I may add a couple more that I have which are contemporary with them.  It is very interesting to go thru these papers which were based solely on The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings.

These are the papers which didn’t make the cut for “A Tolkien Compass” edited by Jared Lobdell.

One idea is to publish them under the title: “A Tolkien Lodestone.”  They being sort of not quite ready for accurate directions in Middle-earth.

It might be fun to hold another Conference On Middle-earth for fans of Professor Tolkien, the books, music, art, films, etc.  A small get together in the “Green Dragon” for a nosh & a natter.