DASFA

Big author event coming up Friday, September 9, 2011 at the Renaissance Hotel, I-70 and Quebec, Denver. 3801 Quebec Street, west side of Quebec – phone hotel at 303-399-7500 if you get lost.

The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers will be holding their wonderful weekend-long annual Colorado Gold Conference. If you want to attend the whole weekend, there may still be a few spaces left; info is at www.rmfw.org. However, there’s one free event that the public is welcome to attend.

Monthly meetings and a monthly fanzine-style newsletter have always been central to the identity of DASFA. The table below lists the programs for all of the DASFA meetings from March 2009 to the present. We bring in guest speakers for most of the meetings, with the exceptions of the summer picnic and the Christmas party.

The list also includes feature articles included in the newsletter ("DASFAx") each month. Besides the articles, DASFAx contains artwork, club news, and a schedule of local literary events. It is currently emailed to members in PDF format.

This month, John Stith is our guest. He has written a number of novels in the hard-science vein, including Redshift Rendezvous (Nebula Award nominee), Manhattan Transfer (Hugo Award Honorable Mention), Reunion on Neverend, and Reckoning Infinity (on Science Fiction Chronicle's Best Science Fiction Novels list for its publication year, on the Nebula Award preliminary ballot), Scapescope, Memory Blank, Death Tolls, and Deep Quarry.

Last week I saw a story in the Denver Post about acoustic testing of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Canyon facility.  The purpose of acoustic testing is to see if a spacecraft can survive the vibrations that occur during takeoff by blasting it with 150 decibels of sound for an extended period of time.

Work on the list of science fiction and fantasy settings in Colorado will continue at MileHiCon.

Time for our annual picnic!

Location: Sheridan Community Park / Recreation Center
Address:
3325 W. Oxford Ave.,
Sheridan, CO (303) 761-2241

Features:

• Drinking Fountain
• Handicap accessible
• Horseshoe Pit
• Indoor Pool
• Lighted Ball-field
• Multipurpose Fields
• Natural Open Space
• Parking Lot
• Playground
• Rentable shelter
• Restrooms

This is the list of sites that are on the DASFA map, last updated 8/14/2011.  (The map is still in it's temporary location http://www.aupsd.com/Map_of_SciFi_Fantasy_Settings_near_Denver).

DASFA - I challenge DASFA to name at least 100 books, stories, TV shows, and movies that have been set in DASFA Country (DC). How do we define DC? Where are you now?

You can respond on the Yahoo group, the DASFA Facebook, dasfa.org, or jim_crawford@aupsd.com. We will eventually post the results on a map at dasfa.org. For now, I have an example at my old (dead) site (Please let me know if you have trouble with this)
http://www.aupsd.com/Map_of_SciFi_Fantasy_Settings_near_Denver

You get points for your answers, much like the old TV series "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" I will compile (make up) the points just like Drew Carey.

There are only three rules (listed below):

This month, Dr. Steve Lee will talk on some of his latest Mars research … always interesting and entertaining!

This month we will also finalize plans (meeting time, any other details) for the August picnic.

I didn’t make it to the July alternate (heat wipes me out) but the DASFA Facebook page is up and running … if you haven’t joined and arranged to Like/Follow us there, please do so!

June 2011 DASFA Director-y

This month, we are lucky to have Connie Willis as our speaker. Fresh from her latest Nebula ward win (best novel for Blackout / All Clear), she may be talking about classics that are being neglected … or something else. Whatever it is, it’s bound to be both entertaining and enlightening, so don’t miss the meeting!