Spent a good amount of time working at Balticon 57, first helping to unload the truck, then mostly at Registration. Worked many hours Thursday evening through Saturday, but I hit the wall Sunday morning and had to retire. Am I getting too old? Also made a first visit to the BSFS clubhouse in December. Friendly folks, a massive SF library, and a very impressive and well-maintained space. Attend two monthly meetings, pay $45, and you can become a BSFS member. My main interest in Sci-Fi is in the written word. Not precisely "Literary", because I also enjoy older, Pulpy stuff, like Edgar Rice Burroughs or Leigh Brackett. I didn't keep current on upcoming writers after about 1993, being busy with other interests, but since retiring I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to find writers who've broken into the scene since then. This year, I've found two relatively new, although hardly young, writers -- James Cambias and D. J. Butler. I will be dipping into more of thei...

    Tinker -- Wen Spencer -- 2003 My membership for Balticon 2020 was rolled over to Balticon 2021, then rolled over to Balticon 2022 . Hopefully it'll stop rolling. If it starts to gather some moss, I'll see you in Baltimore over Memorial Day weekend. One of the scheduled guests is Wen Spencer, from whom I've read nothing. I decided to try something, in my quest to discover new SF authors -- by new, I mean someone not publishing before the present century. One of her earliest novels, "Tinker", was highly recommended in on-line reviews. Even though it was awarded Best Science Fiction Romance novel of 2004, I decided to take a flyer. In the near future, the Chinese have built an orbiting inter-dimensional gateway that sends out colonists for interstellar exploration. An unexpected side effect from the gate's operation sends the city of Pittsburgh to a parallel Earth where magic exists. This mirrored Earth, Elfhome, is populated by a race of elves who have esche...