Laser Rangers 2016 November Meeting

Visual Feast
Early Date

Date: November 5, 2016
Time: 4:50pm
Location: David Sooby’s home theater with 51-inch Samsung HDTV, a 5.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital sound system, a full set of audiophile-grade speakers, and upgraded seating for about 15 people without crowding.
Captain Laser: David Sooby
Food: Thanksgiving (see list)
Costume: Puritan

To learn more, please visit our Facebook Event Page.

Short features will be shown before each feature. Don't miss them!

~~~~~
Please join us for a Thanksgiving dinner! Bring something to share. We are coordinating on the Facebook group. After dinner, we will be discussing the movies we want to watch during the upcoming year.
~~~~~

Feature Presentation!
Life of Pi

(2012, 127 minutes) Directed by: Ang Lee

Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu

"The storyline revolves around an Indian man named "Pi" Patel, telling a novelist about his life story, and how at 16 he survives a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger."-Wikipedia

Watch the trailer here!










The home of the Laser Rangers is located about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway, NW of the intersection of I-70 and I-435 on the Kansas side of the Greater Kansas City area.

IMAGE CREDITS: The information for all of these shows come from the invaluable IMDB. The movie posters come from Wikipedia or the movie's respected distributors. 

The movie screen frame image used for the Laser Rangers contact information is courtesy of Psychology Today Online. Many thanks to these websites!

Actually, right in front of us . . .

Don't let Halloween sneak up on you!

IMAGE: Many thanks to Giggle Palooza, via The Funny Place, for this image.

Do you have your copy of Mechanical Failure?

The November SF&F Literati selection is Mechanical Failure, by Joe Zieja

Overview from Barnes & Noble:
A smooth-talking ex-sergeant, accustomed to an easygoing peacetime military, unexpectedly re-joins the fleet and finds soldiers preparing for the strangest thing—war.

The two hundred years’ (and counting) peace is a time of tranquility that hasn’t been seen since...well, never. Mankind in the Galactic Age had finally conquered war, so what was left for the military to do but drink and barbecue? That’s the kind of military that Sergeant R. Wilson Rogers lived in before he left the fleet to become a smuggler.

But it turns out that smuggling is hard. Like getting-arrested-for-dealing-with-pirates-and-forced-back-into-service kind of hard. It doesn’t seem so bad—the military was a perpetual tiki party anyway—but when Rogers returns after only a year away, something has changed. These are soldiers—actual soldiers doing actual soldier things like preparing for a war that Rogers is sure doesn’t exist. Rogers vows to put a stop to all this nonsense—even if it means doing actual work.

With an experienced ear for military double-speak, Zieja has created a remarkable and sarcastic adventure.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for the cover image, featuring art by Leonardo Calamati.

Extraordinary movie reveals extraordinary world

Movie Review: April and the Extraordinary World

By David Means

In the spring of this year, our family went to see the animated movie April and the Extraordinary World (2016) when it played a limited run at the Tivoli. Although several American actors were listed as voices, the version we saw was the original French (“Avril et le Monde Truqué”) with English subtitles. The film was based on a graphic novel by Jacque Tardi, who also acted as graphic designer, and his style definitely comes through. I certainly remember him from the pages of Heavy Metal in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

The movie is a steampunk/alternate history tale set mostly in and around Paris, and follows the fortunes of three generations of scientists. The first two generations are handled in two short vignettes, so they act more as prologues for the adventures of April, the third generation.

The first vignette opens in Paris in 1870. The Emperor, Napoleon III, and his bodyguard are paying a visit to a scientist’s lab. The scientist has been working on “the serum ultimate”, which is intended to render soldiers invincible. France is on the verge of war with Germany and the Emperor is desperate for an advantage. Unfortunately, the serum had a completely different and unexpected effect on the two test creatures. Enraged, the Emperor orders his bodyguard to destroy the lab. In the ensuing chaos the test creatures escape, and two liquids which should never mix, do, resulting in a large explosion. A few days later the new Emperor -- Napoleon IV -- signs a peace treaty with Germany, and the Franco-Prussian War never occurred. End of vignette one.

The second vignette takes place about forty years later. The late scientist’s daughter, Annette, is now married and has a daughter of her own: April, who appears to be about ten. Annette and her husband, Paul, are trying to continue the work of her father, but they must do so in hiding. The Empire wants all scientists to work for the military, but Paul and Annette do not want their research misused.

Complicating the situation is a mysterious entity that seeks out scientists of every discipline, and kidnaps them. All anyone sees is a small, dense, swirling black cloud swooping out of the sky, throwing off lightning bolts, which stun the scientist. The cloud envelopes the stunned body, then speeds away, and the scientist is never seen again. So anyone researching science must dodge both the Empire and the unknown force while they try to work.

The Empire has tracked down Annette and Paul, but they flee, taking April with them. Although they evade the police for a short time, the mysterious black cloud joins the chase, and their options soon run out. Paul’s father rescues April, but Annette and Paul are captured by the cloud. April and her grandfather escape and go into hiding. End of vignette two.

The story proper opens about twenty years later. With the disappearance of the world’s researchers, mankind has been deprived of their inventions. Without radio, electricity, aviation, and the internal combustion engine, the world is mired in outdated technology, dominated by steam power. Europe has been stripped of its forests to burn for fuel, and the European countries are eagerly eyeing the vast forests of Canada for more wood. (While watching I wondered why there was not more coal being used.)

April is now an adult and on her own. She survives by stealing what she needs, including science books. April has a secret hideout where she lives and attempts to carry on the family’s research. Her work is hampered due to the general lack of scientific and technological knowledge. Her only companion is her talking cat, Darwin, who was created by her parents to keep her company.

A mid-level gendarme of the Paris police -- who was involved in the attempt to arrest Paul and Annette years ago -- has spotted April, and has set a local pick-pocket to keep an eye on her, but not interfere with her thefts. The pick-pocket finally spies April’s hideout, and the ensuing attempt to arrest her sets off a chain of events that eventually leads to a reunion, a scientific breakthrough, and the explanation of the mysterious force that has been kidnapping scientists.

Our family liked the movie and would love to own our own copy, although it’s not your typical animated movie. I especially liked that there was a logical explanation for the steam-powered world. Marisa described the story as being ‘full’. She also felt the story went sort of Jonny Quest at one point, but said it did not detract from the movie overall.

There were at least two shout-outs to SF/F movies in April. One was a recreation of the ‘Moloch’ scene in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis; and the other was seeing a broken Dalek in a pile of scrap.

The only other movies I have seen that are both hand-drawn and deal with the conflict between technological progress and maintaining nature are Steamboy (2005) and Princess Mononoke (1999). Although I prefer the animation style of Steamboy,  I thought the story for April was deeper. Steamboy did not offer a real resolution to the dichotomy between nature and progress, and Princess Mononoke was full-tilt in favor of nature. April seemed to strike a balance between the two, although the epilogue (set in 1969) seemed to show a world remarkably similar to that of the 1969 that we knew.

The movie has a 98% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics, and the average audience rating is 80% positive. The movie is available on DVD as of August 2^nd, 2016, but you can also stream the movie on Apple iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, and Sony Entertainment.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Rotoscopers for the images in this post, and to Filmisnow Movie Trailers on YouTube, for the trailer.

Can House Silverspires rise again? SF&F Literati explore the possibilities Oct. 24

Date: Monday, October 24, 2016, at 7:00 p.m.
Title: The House of Shattered Wings
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Available from: Fine Booksellers, including Barnes & Noble
Meeting Location: Barnes & Noble #2352, 2nd Floor, 11323 W. 95th Street, Overland Park, KS 66214

Plot Overview from Barnes and Noble
Multi-award winning author Aliette de Bodard, brings her story of the War in Heaven to Paris, igniting the City of Light in a fantasy of divine power and deep conspiracy. In the late twentieth century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins, the aftermath of a Great War between arcane powers. Those that survived the carnage still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France’s once grand capital.

Once the most powerful and formidable, House Silverspires now lies in disarray. Within its walls, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen angel; an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction; and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Aliette de Bodard's website for the cover image, featuring artwork by Nekro

Do you remember the Dungeon Delve?

Some photos from MidAmeriCon II, courtesy of Doug Howard, Dungeon Master:

IMAGES: All images are courtesy of Douglas Howard. Many thanks for sharing them!

Creative Corner Rises from the (almost) Dead . . .

Updated 10/16/2016
Just in time for Halloween Season! 
It's not that the Creative Friends of KaCSFFS haven't been busy--they definitely have! Unfortunately, your humble editor has had . . . distractions. I'll try not to let it happen again! 

M. C. Chambers

MCC-Longview Literary Festival 
This year's Longview Literary Festival is almost upon us! Located on the Longview Community College campus, 500 SW Longview Road, Lees Summit, MO, this is the 8th annual festival, headed by our own Susan Satterfield, plays host to more than 20 area writers, including M.C. Chambers, Dennis Young, Karin Gastreich, Kristin McTiernan, J.R. Boles, and many others.  Our Keynote Speakers are Latino Writers Collective.  We are also having a special presentation on the history of the poetry slam as well as poetry slam, story in a bag, and art is the word contests.   Admission is free! The hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, October 21.

The program lineup includes quite a range of interesting topics: (1) The Importance of Research and How to Do It; (2) Creating Culturally Diverse Characters; (3) Writing Creative Non-Fiction; (4) The Impact of Culturally Diverse Writers on Today’s Fiction, Poetry, Music and Scripts; (5) The Importance of Live Readings and How to do it Well: (6) Promoting Your Work in Today’s Publishing World; (7) Writing Poetry with Layered Meaning; (8) You Finished Your Draft. Now What?; (9) Writing for Fun or Profit: Is it a Hobby or Career or Both?; (10) The Power of the Written/Spoken Word; (11) Building Alien Societies; (12) Writing Believable Dialogue; (13) The Future of Short Fiction; (14) Dealing with Writer’s Block; (15) Similarities in Poems/Stories Written by Authors from Different Cultures; (16) Writing Young Adult Fiction. 

Local Artist Randal Spangler is Art Guest of Honor at World Fantasy Con 
Kansas City's own Randal Spangler is one of the headliners at World Fantasy Con in Columbus, OH, October 27-30 this year. This will be Randal's second science fiction convention ever as an attendee, to his recollection. The first was MidAmeriCon II, where he spent most of his time in the Dealers' area. 

Randal's artwork has traveled to sf conventions in previous years, through the efforts of his longtime agent Pascal Gephardt. He also is familiar to fantasy art fans all over the region because of his many appearances as art fairs and the Kansas City and Minnesota Renaissance Festivals.

Sea of Longing, by Deb Pellicano

Recent Gallery Showings by our Artist Friends
As pre-announced last June, Deb Pellicano, a.k.a. Ladyelf Pendarian, participated in Fourth Friday at Blue Heron Design in Lee's Summit on August 26, 2016. She also was involved in a showing of "Artists in the Alley." She posted a photo of her display on her Facebook Page.

The artwork of Christopher Vaughan Frye was featured at Gallery 504 in the Kansas City Crossroads on First Friday, September 2, 2016. 

See more of his work on his Facebook Page. His work also recently was displayed in Johnson County, KS, at the Young Adult section of the Central Resource Center of the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, KS.

Several paintings by Christopher Vaughn Frye, 
at the Central Resource Library, Johnson County, KS.

Throughout the month of September, artwork by Creative Friends of KaCSFFS Mitchell Bentley, David Lee Pancake, Keith Russell, and Ray VanTilburg was on display in a joint museum show in Decatur, IL. 

It was held by the Decatur Arts Council, at the Madden Arts Center in Decatur, IL The show Otherworldly: Sci-Fi and Fantasy, features works from 11 artists in all. It was sponsored by Busey Bank. Many thanks to Mitch Bentley for calling this to our attention!

Mitchell Bentley's To Catch a Fairy was a featured image in the Decatur show. 

In addition to exhibiting work in the Decatur show, Kansas City artist Keith Russell announced an offering of these two images as limited edition prints. L-R: Open Mind, and Open Mind, Too.

Xenofera Game Launches Oct. 4
Recent ConQuesT artist and MidAmeriCon II exhibitor Jeff Porter, with partner and co-creator Liz Gattra, launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new card game Xenofera, this month.

You could capture a Diamond-
Crested Peacock.

As Porter described it in his email, "Xenofera is a strategic card game where players must recruit a crew, build cages and then use their crew and cages to capture alien creatures (Xenofera).  The player with the most valuable collection of Xenofera at the end of the game wins. 

"But keeping the creatures you've caught is not easy.  Other players can sabotage your expedition by stealing your cages and creatures or enticing away your crew members.  You may need to battle them to keep what you've worked so hard to obtain.

Aaron Hollingsworth's new project is
part of this volume.

"Xenofera can support from 2 to 5 players with an average play time of 30 to 75 minutes, roughly 15 minutes per player." 

New Book Releases 
Hybrid Classes Volume 2
Still on the "game" front, Aaron Hollingsworth has announced his first "non-indie" work. He is a contributor to an upcoming RPG supplement, the creator of the Dimensionist Hybrid Class for Wayward Rogues Publishing. As the website describes this class, "The Dimensionist refolds reality with arcane spells, tamed wild talents, and sinister distortions. With the aid of an aberrant familiar, she invokes strange geometry to warp space and matter in horrific ways." 

Little Green Men--Attack!
The Amazon page for Little Green Men--Attack! is now live and open for pre-orders. This humorous anthology is a joint project between Robin Wayne Bailey and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. The Amazon page describes the project this way: "When Little Green Men Attack, It's All-out Laugh Warfare. 

"From the far reaches of outer space they come--inscrutable aliens, malicious invaders, wacky tourists from another planet--to conquer, study, and tickle us. 

"From the battlefields of the Ozarks to the marble halls of the Boston Library, from Central Park to the skies above Washington, on the moon, and in the seediest bars of Kansas City--they're here. But do they really know who they're up against? Not hardly!" 

Read a full list of authors and other information (or feel free to pre-order the book) at its Amazon page. The book officially launches on March 7, 2017.

I Am a Wondrous Thing--The World of Shijuren Book 3 
Indie author Rob Howell has announced the release of his new book, I Am a Wondrous Thing--The World of Shijuren Book 3. 

This book shifts to a broader stage from the first two books, which mostly followed the career of the honorable but frequently-frustrated Edward Aethelredson. 

Now war looms, and although Irina Ivanovna, ruler of Periaslavl, has magic to her body young, she is tired. She steps down and seeks a quieter route to use her magic, in the hope that she can stem the bloodshed. But unexpected foes stalk her. They know her magic is more important than she thinks. 

Howell is at Time Eddy in Wichita, KS on October 14-16. He also will be at World Fantasy Con in Columbus, OH, October 27-30.

IMAGES: Many thanks to M. C. Chambers for her author photo; to Randal Spangler's website for his header image; to Deb Pellicano, Christopher Vaughan Frye, and Keith Russell/Synthetic Sky Studios (via their Facebook pages) for the images of their artwork. Many thanks to Mitchell Bentley for the photo of To Catch a Fairy, and to Jeff Porter for sending me the Xenofera images. The cover photo for Hybrid Classes Vol. 2 is courtesy of Aaron Hollingsworth. The cover photo for Little Green Men--Attack! is from a Facebook post by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, via Diana J. Bailey. The cover image for I am a Wondrous Thing is courtesy of Amazon.

Creative Corner Rises from the (almost) Dead . . .

Updated 10/16/2016
Just in time for Halloween Season! 
It's not that the Creative Friends of KaCSFFS haven't been busy--they definitely have! Unfortunately, your humble editor has had . . . distractions. I'll try not to let it happen again! 

M. C. Chambers

MCC-Longview Literary Festival 
This year's Longview Literary Festival is almost upon us! Located on the Longview Community College campus, 500 SW Longview Road, Lees Summit, MO, this is the 8th annual festival, headed by our own Susan Satterfield, plays host to more than 20 area writers, including M.C. Chambers, Dennis Young, Karin Gastreich, Kristin McTiernan, J.R. Boles, and many others.  Our Keynote Speakers are Latino Writers Collective.  We are also having a special presentation on the history of the poetry slam as well as poetry slam, story in a bag, and art is the word contests.   Admission is free! The hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, October 21.

The program lineup includes quite a range of interesting topics: (1) The Importance of Research and How to Do It; (2) Creating Culturally Diverse Characters; (3) Writing Creative Non-Fiction; (4) The Impact of Culturally Diverse Writers on Today’s Fiction, Poetry, Music and Scripts; (5) The Importance of Live Readings and How to do it Well: (6) Promoting Your Work in Today’s Publishing World; (7) Writing Poetry with Layered Meaning; (8) You Finished Your Draft. Now What?; (9) Writing for Fun or Profit: Is it a Hobby or Career or Both?; (10) The Power of the Written/Spoken Word; (11) Building Alien Societies; (12) Writing Believable Dialogue; (13) The Future of Short Fiction; (14) Dealing with Writer’s Block; (15) Similarities in Poems/Stories Written by Authors from Different Cultures; (16) Writing Young Adult Fiction. 

Local Artist Randal Spangler is Art Guest of Honor at World Fantasy Con 
Kansas City's own Randal Spangler is one of the headliners at World Fantasy Con in Columbus, OH, October 27-30 this year. This will be Randal's second science fiction convention ever as an attendee, to his recollection. The first was MidAmeriCon II, where he spent most of his time in the Dealers' area. 

Randal's artwork has traveled to sf conventions in previous years, through the efforts of his longtime agent Pascal Gephardt. He also is familiar to fantasy art fans all over the region because of his many appearances as art fairs and the Kansas City and Minnesota Renaissance Festivals.

Sea of Longing, by Deb Pellicano

Recent Gallery Showings by our Artist Friends
As pre-announced last June, Deb Pellicano, a.k.a. Ladyelf Pendarian, participated in Fourth Friday at Blue Heron Design in Lee's Summit on August 26, 2016. She also was involved in a showing of "Artists in the Alley." She posted a photo of her display on her Facebook Page.

The artwork of Christopher Vaughan Frye was featured at Gallery 504 in the Kansas City Crossroads on First Friday, September 2, 2016. 

See more of his work on his Facebook Page. His work also recently was displayed in Johnson County, KS, at the Young Adult section of the Central Resource Center of the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, KS.

Several paintings by Christopher Vaughn Frye, 
at the Central Resource Library, Johnson County, KS.

Throughout the month of September, artwork by Creative Friends of KaCSFFS Mitchell Bentley, David Lee Pancake, Keith Russell, and Ray VanTilburg was on display in a joint museum show in Decatur, IL. 

It was held by the Decatur Arts Council, at the Madden Arts Center in Decatur, IL The show Otherworldly: Sci-Fi and Fantasy, features works from 11 artists in all. It was sponsored by Busey Bank. Many thanks to Mitch Bentley for calling this to our attention!

Mitchell Bentley's To Catch a Fairy was a featured image in the Decatur show. 

In addition to exhibiting work in the Decatur show, Kansas City artist Keith Russell announced an offering of these two images as limited edition prints. L-R: Open Mind, and Open Mind, Too.

Xenofera Game Launches Oct. 4
Recent ConQuesT artist and MidAmeriCon II exhibitor Jeff Porter, with partner and co-creator Liz Gattra, launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new card game Xenofera, this month.

You could capture a Diamond-
Crested Peacock.

As Porter described it in his email, "Xenofera is a strategic card game where players must recruit a crew, build cages and then use their crew and cages to capture alien creatures (Xenofera).  The player with the most valuable collection of Xenofera at the end of the game wins. 

"But keeping the creatures you've caught is not easy.  Other players can sabotage your expedition by stealing your cages and creatures or enticing away your crew members.  You may need to battle them to keep what you've worked so hard to obtain.

Aaron Hollingsworth's new project is
part of this volume.

"Xenofera can support from 2 to 5 players with an average play time of 30 to 75 minutes, roughly 15 minutes per player." 

New Book Releases 
Hybrid Classes Volume 2
Still on the "game" front, Aaron Hollingsworth has announced his first "non-indie" work. He is a contributor to an upcoming RPG supplement, the creator of the Dimensionist Hybrid Class for Wayward Rogues Publishing. As the website describes this class, "The Dimensionist refolds reality with arcane spells, tamed wild talents, and sinister distortions. With the aid of an aberrant familiar, she invokes strange geometry to warp space and matter in horrific ways." 

Little Green Men--Attack!
The Amazon page for Little Green Men--Attack! is now live and open for pre-orders. This humorous anthology is a joint project between Robin Wayne Bailey and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. The Amazon page describes the project this way: "When Little Green Men Attack, It's All-out Laugh Warfare. 

"From the far reaches of outer space they come--inscrutable aliens, malicious invaders, wacky tourists from another planet--to conquer, study, and tickle us. 

"From the battlefields of the Ozarks to the marble halls of the Boston Library, from Central Park to the skies above Washington, on the moon, and in the seediest bars of Kansas City--they're here. But do they really know who they're up against? Not hardly!" 

Read a full list of authors and other information (or feel free to pre-order the book) at its Amazon page. The book officially launches on March 7, 2017.

I Am a Wondrous Thing--The World of Shijuren Book 3 
Indie author Rob Howell has announced the release of his new book, I Am a Wondrous Thing--The World of Shijuren Book 3. 

This book shifts to a broader stage from the first two books, which mostly followed the career of the honorable but frequently-frustrated Edward Aethelredson. 

Now war looms, and although Irina Ivanovna, ruler of Periaslavl, has magic to her body young, she is tired. She steps down and seeks a quieter route to use her magic, in the hope that she can stem the bloodshed. But unexpected foes stalk her. They know her magic is more important than she thinks. 

Howell is at Time Eddy in Wichita, KS on October 14-16. He also will be at World Fantasy Con in Columbus, OH, October 27-30.

IMAGES: Many thanks to M. C. Chambers for her author photo; to Randal Spangler's website for his header image; to Deb Pellicano, Christopher Vaughan Frye, and Keith Russell/Synthetic Sky Studios (via their Facebook pages) for the images of their artwork. Many thanks to Mitchell Bentley for the photo of To Catch a Fairy, and to Jeff Porter for sending me the Xenofera images. The cover photo for Hybrid Classes Vol. 2 is courtesy of Aaron Hollingsworth. The cover photo for Little Green Men--Attack! is from a Facebook post by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, via Diana J. Bailey. The cover image for I am a Wondrous Thing is courtesy of Amazon.

Creative Corner Rises from the (almost) Dead . . .

Updated 10/16/2016
Just in time for Halloween Season! 
It's not that the Creative Friends of KaCSFFS haven't been busy--they definitely have! Unfortunately, your humble editor has had . . . distractions. I'll try not to let it happen again! 

M. C. Chambers

MCC-Longview Literary Festival 
This year's Longview Literary Festival is almost upon us! Located on the Longview Community College campus, 500 SW Longview Road, Lees Summit, MO, this is the 8th annual festival, headed by our own Susan Satterfield, plays host to more than 20 area writers, including M.C. Chambers, Dennis Young, Karin Gastreich, Kristin McTiernan, J.R. Boles, and many others.  Our Keynote Speakers are Latino Writers Collective.  We are also having a special presentation on the history of the poetry slam as well as poetry slam, story in a bag, and art is the word contests.   Admission is free! The hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, October 21.

The program lineup includes quite a range of interesting topics: (1) The Importance of Research and How to Do It; (2) Creating Culturally Diverse Characters; (3) Writing Creative Non-Fiction; (4) The Impact of Culturally Diverse Writers on Today’s Fiction, Poetry, Music and Scripts; (5) The Importance of Live Readings and How to do it Well: (6) Promoting Your Work in Today’s Publishing World; (7) Writing Poetry with Layered Meaning; (8) You Finished Your Draft. Now What?; (9) Writing for Fun or Profit: Is it a Hobby or Career or Both?; (10) The Power of the Written/Spoken Word; (11) Building Alien Societies; (12) Writing Believable Dialogue; (13) The Future of Short Fiction; (14) Dealing with Writer’s Block; (15) Similarities in Poems/Stories Written by Authors from Different Cultures; (16) Writing Young Adult Fiction. 

Local Artist Randal Spangler is Art Guest of Honor at World Fantasy Con 
Kansas City's own Randal Spangler is one of the headliners at World Fantasy Con in Columbus, OH, October 27-30 this year. This will be Randal's second science fiction convention ever as an attendee, to his recollection. The first was MidAmeriCon II, where he spent most of his time in the Dealers' area. 

Randal's artwork has traveled to sf conventions in previous years, through the efforts of his longtime agent Pascal Gephardt. He also is familiar to fantasy art fans all over the region because of his many appearances as art fairs and the Kansas City and Minnesota Renaissance Festivals.

Sea of Longing, by Deb Pellicano

Recent Gallery Showings by our Artist Friends
As pre-announced last June, Deb Pellicano, a.k.a. Ladyelf Pendarian, participated in Fourth Friday at Blue Heron Design in Lee's Summit on August 26, 2016. She also was involved in a showing of "Artists in the Alley." She posted a photo of her display on her Facebook Page.

The artwork of Christopher Vaughan Frye was featured at Gallery 504 in the Kansas City Crossroads on First Friday, September 2, 2016. 

See more of his work on his Facebook Page. His work also recently was displayed in Johnson County, KS, at the Young Adult section of the Central Resource Center of the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, KS.

Several paintings by Christopher Vaughn Frye, 
at the Central Resource Library, Johnson County, KS.

Throughout the month of September, artwork by Creative Friends of KaCSFFS Mitchell Bentley, David Lee Pancake, Keith Russell, and Ray VanTilburg was on display in a joint museum show in Decatur, IL. 

It was held by the Decatur Arts Council, at the Madden Arts Center in Decatur, IL The show Otherworldly: Sci-Fi and Fantasy, features works from 11 artists in all. It was sponsored by Busey Bank. Many thanks to Mitch Bentley for calling this to our attention!

Mitchell Bentley's To Catch a Fairy was a featured image in the Decatur show. 

In addition to exhibiting work in the Decatur show, Kansas City artist Keith Russell announced an offering of these two images as limited edition prints. L-R: Open Mind, and Open Mind, Too.

Xenofera Game Launches Oct. 4
Recent ConQuesT artist and MidAmeriCon II exhibitor Jeff Porter, with partner and co-creator Liz Gattra, launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new card game Xenofera, this month.

You could capture a Diamond-
Crested Peacock.

As Porter described it in his email, "Xenofera is a strategic card game where players must recruit a crew, build cages and then use their crew and cages to capture alien creatures (Xenofera).  The player with the most valuable collection of Xenofera at the end of the game wins. 

"But keeping the creatures you've caught is not easy.  Other players can sabotage your expedition by stealing your cages and creatures or enticing away your crew members.  You may need to battle them to keep what you've worked so hard to obtain.

Aaron Hollingsworth's new project is
part of this volume.

"Xenofera can support from 2 to 5 players with an average play time of 30 to 75 minutes, roughly 15 minutes per player." 

New Book Releases 
Hybrid Classes Volume 2
Still on the "game" front, Aaron Hollingsworth has announced his first "non-indie" work. He is a contributor to an upcoming RPG supplement, the creator of the Dimensionist Hybrid Class for Wayward Rogues Publishing. As the website describes this class, "The Dimensionist refolds reality with arcane spells, tamed wild talents, and sinister distortions. With the aid of an aberrant familiar, she invokes strange geometry to warp space and matter in horrific ways." 

Little Green Men--Attack!
The Amazon page for Little Green Men--Attack! is now live and open for pre-orders. This humorous anthology is a joint project between Robin Wayne Bailey and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. The Amazon page describes the project this way: "When Little Green Men Attack, It's All-out Laugh Warfare. 

"From the far reaches of outer space they come--inscrutable aliens, malicious invaders, wacky tourists from another planet--to conquer, study, and tickle us. 

"From the battlefields of the Ozarks to the marble halls of the Boston Library, from Central Park to the skies above Washington, on the moon, and in the seediest bars of Kansas City--they're here. But do they really know who they're up against? Not hardly!" 

Read a full list of authors and other information (or feel free to pre-order the book) at its Amazon page. The book officially launches on March 7, 2017.

I Am a Wondrous Thing--The World of Shijuren Book 3 
Indie author Rob Howell has announced the release of his new book, I Am a Wondrous Thing--The World of Shijuren Book 3. 

This book shifts to a broader stage from the first two books, which mostly followed the career of the honorable but frequently-frustrated Edward Aethelredson. 

Now war looms, and although Irina Ivanovna, ruler of Periaslavl, has magic to her body young, she is tired. She steps down and seeks a quieter route to use her magic, in the hope that she can stem the bloodshed. But unexpected foes stalk her. They know her magic is more important than she thinks. 

Howell is at Time Eddy in Wichita, KS on October 14-16. He also will be at World Fantasy Con in Columbus, OH, October 27-30.

IMAGES: Many thanks to M. C. Chambers for her author photo; to Randal Spangler's website for his header image; to Deb Pellicano, Christopher Vaughan Frye, and Keith Russell/Synthetic Sky Studios (via their Facebook pages) for the images of their artwork. Many thanks to Mitchell Bentley for the photo of To Catch a Fairy, and to Jeff Porter for sending me the Xenofera images. The cover photo for Hybrid Classes Vol. 2 is courtesy of Aaron Hollingsworth. The cover photo for Little Green Men--Attack! is from a Facebook post by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, via Diana J. Bailey. The cover image for I am a Wondrous Thing is courtesy of Amazon.