stone_hill's Journal

8:25am: Vidcon Hotel Reservations, Memberships and Dinners
If you are coming to Vidcon and have not made a hotel reservation, time is running out. The deadline for reduced rate rooms is June 24. We need everyone who can possibly afford to stay in the hotel to do so. We are in danger of not making our room count and having to pay a lot of money to the hotel because of that. When we signed the hotel contract, the economy had not gone down the drain and we could expect more people to attend and stay in the hotel. Now, we could be in big trouble.

Actually, the same is true for NECRONOMICON. We need people to stay in the hotel there too, so if you can afford to stay in the Hilton, why not make your hotel reservation for NECRONOMICON at the same time by calling 727-825-7010.

Vidcon membership is $40 till July 1 and then it goes to $50, so save $10 and pay now.

If you want to attend the Vidcon dinners, they are $15 each and must be paid for by the morning of July 14.

To pay for membership or dinners, send check or money order to Vidcon at P.O. Box 2213, Plant City, FL 33565. Pay by PayPal to annmorris1 at yahoo.com (trying to discourage the spambots) and post a note in the instructions to seller box PayPal provides telling me what you are paying for and you first and last name.

Take care and have fun.

Peace,
Ann

10:50am: Book / yard sale
Since our last SH meeting yard sale several more boxes of books have been donated to the club. I'll have everything I can out at this meeting. It might be in the barn due to storms. This will be the last change to buy books before Necro.

The new books are mostly media related - ST, SW, SG, Buffy, QL, Professionals, Man from UNCLE. Get them cheap here!

Also still have SW glasses, Civil War books, other stuff.

The sale is open to anyone! It will be at the normal SH meeting on Thonotosassa Rd Sunday the 14th from 2 - 5.

Deb

3:25pm: What Some Stone Hillers Have Been up To...
Check out skynetresearch.com and click on the interview to see what some of our creative club members have been up to.

Remember that the next meeting is May 10th at the Lovers Lane Gang house in Plant City and that we'll be having a "Battlestar Galactica" trivia quiz with "Caprica" DVDs as prizes.

Peace,
Ann

10:29am: CAPRICA SPECIAL EVENT FOR STONE HILL MEETING ATTENDEES
At the May 10th Stone Hill meeting, at the Lovers Lane Gang house in Plant City we will have a special "Battlestar Galactica" trivia quiz,

Amy Sager, a representative of Universal Home Entertainment, has kindly given us several copies of the new BSG DVD movie, "Caprica" to give as prizes for the winners of our trivia quiz.

Anyone attending the meeting may enter the trivia quiz. Ann will be the trivia master for this event. The questions will focus mainly on the new incarnation of BSG but there will be a few from the original series as well.

Directions to the meeting are available at www.stonehill.org

Click on the link below for information on "Caprica."

CAPRICA DVD NEWS

6:43pm: T-shirt contest
It was decided at the last SH meeting that we will be taking t-shirt orders through the website prior to the con. What this means for artists is that entries into the t-shirt contest must be recieved by Mark Jones before June 14th. What this means for SH members is that we will be voting on the t-shirt design at the June meeting.

For more info see: http://stonehill.org/necro.htm and go the NecroFile page.

Details on ordering t-shirst will be available soon.

Deb

11:18pm: Web pages - news for Necro website
The following departments need to get Mark Jones an update for their webpages asap (that means before or at this meeting):

Filking
NecronomiProm
Art Show
Any other special event - Dr. Horrible, etc
LARP
Workshops, crafts sessions
Gaming
LAN
Con Suite

If you don't need anything changed, please let us know that too. Any current information should be checked for typos.

Advertising rates will be discussed this meeting, so don't worry about that page.

Deb

8:10pm: March 8th Meeting
We will be discussing budgets for 2009 Necro. If you are a department head, please try to be at this meeting. We will be covering: pre-ordering t-shirts, con suite and security budgets, advertising, program book cost, possible sponsorships and change in membership prices. There will be discussion on moving some areas of the con such as registration and LARP, as well as the addition of an information / signup area.

Deb

8:51pm: Yard sale at next Stone Hill meeting
Craig Comes, one of our members who moved to CA, has donated a bunch of items and books to the Necro charity yard sale. As our space in storage is limited, we're going to post some items for sale on half.com, some on craigslist and offer others to Stone Hill members at the next meeting. We'll take cash, checks or you can go inside and use Paypal.

Lots of SW stuff, including glasses sets, poster books, comics. Lots of other SF movie books such as Black Hole, Battlestar Galactica, Superman. Toys. Autographed hardbacks. Lots of paperbacks. Box of older Marvel and DC Comics. Rolling Stones and tour books. Posters and art prints. All the money goes toward the charity donation we will make at Necro to Kids n' Canines.

Deb

1:42pm: Jack Chalker
Well, well, I feel foolish now. When I looked up Jack Chalker yesterday morning to see if we could get a direct e-mail address, I ended up on his website which is there proclaiming that he is alive and well and will accept e-mail from fans. That's not the case though. After a couple of people questioned his life or death status, I Googled him and found that he did indeed pass Feb. 5, 2005. Needless to say, we will move on past his name in our potential guest list and ask the next highest vote getter if we need to. I'm hoping our first choices will be able to attend though.

Peace,
Ann

8:23am: RESULTS OF THE VOTING AT THE STONE HILL MEETING
Hi,
We voted to invite Gregory Benford and Peter DeLouise for NECRONONICON 2010. If they cannot attend, the next two on the list to be invited to be guests of honor are Jack Chalker and John Coulter.

The first choice for Florida author guest of honor is James Patterson. We may have to revisit this one if he cannot attend. There was only one other nomination and the vote for Patterson was close to, if not, unanimous.

We voted to base our costuming theme for this year's convention on Arkham Asylum (Batman). This may seem a bit narrow but if you extend it a bit to encompass superheroes and others who might inhabit or visit Gotham City, it will work.

Peace,
Ann

7:09pm: FEBRUARY 8 STONE HILL MEETING
The meeting on February 8th is at the Faber household.

At the business portion of the meeting, we will be choosing whom to invite to be guests of honor at NECRONOMICON 2010.

I will have the SFFWA directory with me so you can look up author's addresses. We need good contact information for the guest nominated, not for an agent or manager.

We will also be selecting a costuming theme for the convention. Remember, this does not have to be the same theme as the webpage them. Last year, it just happened. We have not suggested a costuming theme before but after the last convention, we had a lot of people asking what the 2009 costuming theme would be.

That's all for now. See ya there!

Peace,
Ann

10:28pm: 30th Anniversary!
A great time was had by all! Okay, we didn't have enough food because 81 people, plus 5-6 under six year old kids, came and we had only 55 RSVPs - oh, and we kind of broke the bleechers as we were trying to take a group picture - but hey, it was great!

The food was excellent, the cake was exceptional and being surrounded by dinosaurs on a beautiful day made it surreal.

Besides having a huge group to celebrate with, we also had nine of the ten original founding members attending! That kind of says it all.

To the other 20+ members who couldn't make it - just wait until the 35 anniversary party! Trust me, five years will go by a lot faster than we all want to think about.

Deb

3:49pm: 30th Anniversary Party and T-shirts
Hi,
Don't forget that the 30th Anniversary Party is this coming Sunday at Dinosaur World at 2 p.m. The cost will be $6.42 per person and the money is to be given to Melodie. You could pay by PayPal ahead of time if you want to. If you do that, use annmorris1@yahoo.com to send the money. That is the account I use only for the club and NECRONOMICON.

The t-shirts have arrived and they look great!

If you signed up to get one, please bring a check or exact change or pay by PayPal. The cost will be $9 per shirt. We only ordered shirts for those who asked for them and I will bring the list of people who ordered shirts to the party along with the shirts. I know some people will not be at the meeting (London IS too long a commute) but it would be nice to get as many of the shirts distributed and paid for on Sunday as possible.

See ya Sunday!!!

Peace,
Ann

11:48pm: Add to the anniversary count
I forgot to mention that we will have having 4 cheese mac for the kids and vegetarians.

If you hesitated to respond because you didn't like the menu, let me know by the 1st and I can add more mac.

Deb

6:19pm: Anniversary Party
If you plan on attending the Stone Hill Anniversary party at Dinosaur World on January 11th, please let me know by Friday, December 19th. I need a count to order food.

Please bring a drink. Fee to get into Dinosaur World is $6.42. Please leave your name at the front desk and give the money to Mel.

Menu - Roast chicken, bar-b-que pork, green beans almondine and mashed potatoes. We will also have a cake.

I have to know by Friday.

Deb

9:16am: 30th Anniversary T-shirts
Hi,
January 18th, 2009 will be the 30th anniversary of the Stone Hill Science Fiction Association.

To commemorate this, we are going to have new Stone Hill T-shirts printed.

Heather Dryer has given us a very nice new version of the original Stone Hill shirt design. The design is going to look best on a light colored shirt and we'll have appropriate color choices for the club to vote on at the December meeting on the 14th.

We will need to know by the meeting who wants shirts and what sizes. We will not be ordering more shirts than we have people signed up for.

The cost has not been determined yet but it will probably be around $10 or $12.

I have to give the number and sizes of shirts to Kathy at B&B Sports (our faithful t-shirt printers) Monday morning, December 15th.

So, if you want a shirt, please send me (Ann) your name, shirt size and how many you want by December 14th. The e-mail address to use is annmorris1 at yahoo dot com.

Peace,
Ann

1:01pm: January meeting changed to Anniversary Party!
Yep, Stone Hill be celebrating its 30th Anniversary on January 11th at Dinosaur World! From 2p - 6p there will be food, fun and a cheap rate to get into Dino World. Price will be $6.42 per person to get in. We also ask that you bring a drink for yourself so that we don't have to figure out what everyone likes. We are currently getting rates on catering and a cake.

Come join us for the fun!

Deb

12:51pm: Christmas party
Crazy Buffet will again be hosting our Christmas party. December 13th at 6:00pm. If you worked your 10 hours at Necro the cost is $5. If you didn't work, it's full price. Children over 12 are the same - $5 for workers and full for attendees.

Deb

11:30pm: Costume theme for next year
Since we always like fan input - what would you guys like to see as a costume theme? Some suggestions - zombie apocalypse, 50's B movies.

Deb

9:01am: SOME THANK YOU MESSAGES
Debbie suggested I post the notes I’ve gotten back from some of our guests after sending a thank you message to them for being with us.

Here is what I sent to them:

Happy New Year!

Oh, yeah, well, it's not really New Year's yet but in a sense it is a new year for those of us who were at NECRONOMICON.

Thank you for helping make our program great this year. When I looked over it after it was planned, I kept thinking, "I'd like to go to this, if only I were not working the con." It would not have been that way if we had not had you there to add your knowledge and enthusiasm to the convention.

May your holidays be both joyful and triumphant and may the "real" new year be good to you.

Peace,
Ann
***

Now, here are messages I’ve gotten in response to mine:

WILL LUDWIGSEN
Hello, Ann! I just wanted to send you a note thanking you for letting me be a panelist again at Necronomicon. This was one of the best yet, though I'm not sure what entirely was different about it: I think the space was better, and the atmosphere seemed more relaxed than usual.

Whatever the reason, I had a great time as always! Please keep me in mind for next year.

Thanks!

Will

ANDREA DEAN VAN SCOYOC
Thanks Ann!
You know how much I love Necro. I can't wait for next year!
Woo hoo!

Have a fabulous holiday season!

A

WILLIAM MIZE

Good morning Ann!
You're very welcome!
I LOVED being a Guest Author this year, and I truly plan on being one for many years to come.
I wrote up my initial report here:

necronomicon-the-first-report

And actually recorded the Self Publishing Workshop that Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc and I did on Saturday evening.
Please feel free to publicize this to whomever might be interested.
They can download it in Windows Media (smaller) or MP3 (larger) and listen to it.

self-publishing-workshop-at-necronomicon-2008

Thanks again to you and everyone at Stonehill for a great convention.

- Bill

RICK WILBER--GUEST OF HONOR

Hi, Ann. Great minds thinking alike, I was going to send you a note later today to say thanks. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend and it was great to see everyone again. Necro is a terrific con and you and everyone else in the gang do a terrific job of organizing and running things. I was extremely honored to be asked and really proud to take part.

We're moving back to St. Pete fulltime next summer, so please keep me in mind to be a pro guest for next year. With a couple of recent sf short-story sales and a bit of a fantasy element to the new novel, I'm even happily immersing myself again in sf/f, where I know I really belong as a writer.

Thanks again. It was absolutely great and I was proud to take part.

Oh, and the costumes just blew me away. Utterly amazing quality.

--Rick

TRACY AKERS

Thanks so much. I really enjoyed Necro this year, probably more than ever. I think it's because I decided to forgo selling my books at a vendor table, and decided to attend all the wonderful panels instead. I learned so much, not only from being on some of the panels, but from being a member of the audience in several of them as well. You had a fantastic lineup of guests and topics, and I appreciate the opportunity you gave me to both share my knowledge, and to learn from others also.

Thanks again, and congratulations on a fantastic year!

Tracy

BRUCE BOSTON AND MARGE SIMON

Hi, Ann,
Thanks for having us, and for putting on another great con!

You have a good holiday season, too.

Cheers,

--Bruce

GEORGE EWING

Hi, Ann...Thanks, I had a good time...both the Sunday panels were
successful...and of course,
a chance to be silly with improvised costumes is always great.

woof woof, -George M. Ewing

MICHAEL L. JOY

Ann,
The con was excellent - you did a great job - volunteers too. I was glad to be part of it.
And I like the new venue. How did the Hilton like us?

mljoy

WILLIAM R. LOGAN

Thank you! My kids had a great time and so did I. The costume building class for Steampunk Fashion still has them excited. As always the Tampa Bay area fans are my favorite.

Thanks again,

W. R. Logan.


E. ROSE SABIN

Thank YOU, Ann, and all the Stone Hill gang for a delightful, well run convention with excellent programming.

I really enjoyed the con, and felt that the facilities at the Hilton were far better than at our former hotel. Everything was close together and easy to find, yet there was far less noise interference from events in adjoining rooms.

I was very sorry to hear that there was some destruction of hotel property despite the new rules. I hope it was not Necro attendees who were responsible or that, if it was, the culprits can be found and made to pay for the damage. The whole convention should not have to suffer for the deeds of a handful, yet it seems that's always what happens. And I know the burden falls principally on you and the other organizers, who work so hard to make the convention a great experience for everyone.

ELISSA MALCOHN

Hi, Ann -- Thank you, too! And thanks to all the volunteers who made and who continue to make Necronomicon possible.

Thanks also for having me as a guest. I truly appreciate it, and please keep me in mind for next year!

Wishing you and yours peace in the New Year and beyond – Elissa

RAY HERZ

Dear Ann,

Many thanks again for taking me out of retirement for a bit and giving me the chance to go "Inside the Writer's Studio" with Julie. I've attached four useful pictures from the event on my camera Kendal and Keith took the photos.

Rick Wilber was so thrilled with the event that he was "scared" to do the Pohl interview.

Now back to the real life of remodelling and other things.

Ray
NOTE: The pictures Ray sent are included in one of the links to pictures posted earlier on LJ.

JOEL D. WYNKOOP

Ann

Thank you so much for the invite. It was a lot of fun and I really covered it with my camera crew. I think Doug has already sent you a copy. Thank you again and I hope I can twist your arm into having me back as a guest next year. Thank you again.

Your friend

Joel D. Wynkoop

M. B. WESTON

Thank you so much! I enjoyed Necro this year, and I thought it ran very smoothly.

***

That's the lot for now.

Julie Czerneda was in Florida till the Saturday after the convention. She and Roger went sailing with Kendall and they had only good things to say about NECRONOMICON.

I can only communicate with Frederik Pohl by phone or snail mail and I just sent his and his wife Elizabeth Anne Hull their thank you note a couple of days ago. We may hear from them later.

As the person whose e-mail address appears most on the website and as the one who writes to guests and who takes care of the PayPal registrations, I am the one who gets the most written feedback but it really should go to a whole bunch of people.

We don't pat ourselves on the back at the con as is done at many conventions but we know what we do.

For those who are not regular attendees of Stone Hill meetings, here's a list of some of the people who worked at the con this year and what they primarily worked on.

Debbie Hicks--hotel liaison and all around logistics person. She makes sure we have a place to have the convention and that we have all the equipment we need for all the departments.

Mark Jones--webpage, program book, main trivia contest, LAN gaming

Chris Powers and Ken Hillyard--Security

Teri Sears--Registration, D.J. at the prom

Oz Oswald--Video programming director

Stacy Lung--Art Show Director

Rolaine Smoot--Dealers room and author alley director

Dean and Heather Dryer--RPG gaming

Jack and Marna Faber--LARPs

Maria Hoffmann--Children's programming

Wayne and Heather Coffey and Sharon Schram--Con suite

Kendall Morris--Science panelist, Ygor Party host

Lawren Louli--Logistics for events at the con, especially the big events in the ballroom

Jordan Schlabach--Hosted panels, worked con suite and security (Jordan is one of our newest members and he's always ready to help out. He went to HCC in Plant City to promote the con before he'd even been to his second Stone Hill meeting.

Kent Akselsen--Photographer (Every year he makes a bunch of money we can give to our charity by taking photos for our attendees.)

Richard Byers, David Bennett, Dale Shuman--These guys go to the storage room and get all our stuff and load it up to go to the con and then they load it up and take it back to storage when the con is over.

Mike LoBue--sound and video for ballroom events

Pete Barnhill--sound and video set up and break down

Melodie Stubkjaer--Treasurer and Necronomi-Prom

Jamie Stubkjaer--arranges and takes care of babysitting

Terri Jones, Norm (crap! I can't remember his last name), Mark Callen, Jan Monroe, Jordan Shlabach and more--onsite registration

Victoria Meredith, Chris Barnhill, Dale Shuman, Richard Byers, Rya Carroll, Rose Auten, and Juan Sanmiguel--masquerade staff (I get the fun job of being the M.C. but these folks really make the whole thing work.)

Doug Blythe-art show

Ian Smoot, James Fassl, Ilsa Meridith--dealers room

Rona Wiener, Heather Cote-gaming, karaoke

Lowell Johnson--Video

This is by no means a complete list but it's the best I can do off the top of my head. There are a bazillion more people who work security, con suite, video and other departments whose names I never see. They come to the convention and work each year even though they are not people who come to the club meetings.

We are very fortunate to have all of the loyal people who help year after year.

That we have so many people who willingly give their time and talent is what makes NECRONOMICON the great convention that it is. Now, if I can just figure a way to just attend it and go to all the stuff I want to go to...

Peace,
Ann

7:15pm: Report on Necro 2008
It was a great con! It was a very well dressed con. It was as mid-sized con. In the opinion of the staff, it was prefect. With the move to St Petersburg we had hoped to get between 700-900 and ended up with the low end at 705. Whether it was the move, the change in pricing or the sinking of the economy, is hard to say. The ones who did make it though had a great time.

Highpoints:

Let’s start with the heartwarming story of the con. When I was in the dealers’ room selling raffle tickets, one dealer handed me a donation from her 7-year-old daughter. The money was her daughter’s allowance. She had told her mom that she wanted the money “to go to the puppies.” It was $4. After taking a minute to clear my voice and vision, I thanked her and told her that if everyone at the con had handed me $4 we would not need to hold the raffle or the yard sale.

The NecronomiProm!! Were you the only geek at your prom? At the NecronomiProm you could be one among many – and maybe be king, queen or other of the Prom! Our winners proudly wore their crowns all night. And the fans danced for four hours to the great music provided by our DJ Teri Sears. Big, big thanks to our prom committee! Way to go, guys. Look for the theme of next year’s prom to be announced on the website soon!

Dr. Horrible’s Singalong. Who would have thought that 120 people would want to sing along to Joss Whedon’s newest creation? This first time event was a huge success, having to expand from one section ballroom to two. We’ll be sure next year to leave it in the whole ballroom so there will be plenty of space for everyone.

The Landsknecht Lounge Oktoberfest Party! Held at Café Alma, this was not an official function but everyone had a great time. We very much appreciate Devon hosting the party for all the Necro fans. The party lasted a long time, the beer flowed like water and a great time was had by all. Our con suite guys gave it a big thumbs up.

Masquerade. The Necro masquerade had always been one of the best. This year was even better. The Steam Punk theme was a huge hit, inspiring some killer costumes. See the links to many of the masquerade winners' photos on this LJ. The dogs did a great job of adding to the evening when they accompanied the bagpipes.

The guests! We have always had the most amazing, friendly, accessible guests at Necro and this year carried on that tradition. Rick Wilbur, Julie Czerenda and Frederik Pohl were all just fantastic. The panels there were on were well attended; the questions and answers were intelligent and funny. All three were prefect guests for Necro.

The hall costumes! The Steam Punk theme was very, very noticeable the whole weekend. From Wild West, steam punk gunslingers, to explorers of dark regions to well coiffed, goggled ladies, we had it all. The idea seemed to resonate with a lot of people.

Gaming! The location of gaming this year seemed especially good. The non-gamers walked around and got an idea for maybe joining a game and the gamers found out there were events outside gaming!

Charity donation. Despite a drop in memberships, we raised $5000 for Kids and Canines! This brings out 25-year total of charity donations to $136,500! Not bad for a bunch of geeks.

General comments:

The panels had higher attendance this year. Especially popular panels were The Brain Computer Interface, Keeping Science in SF, Gay Issues in SF, Can We Go to Mars and Fan Favorites.

The Adult Scavenger Hunt, new this year, had a lot of people doing weird, though completely legal things. Look for it to return next year. The prudish need not attend.

Movie One-Liners and SF Name That Tune were packed as always. And then there was the singing, along with the Dr. Horrible; there was the Once More with Feeling Buffy sing along and Karaoke. I won’t make the mistake of wandering into the room again during karaoke. Fortunately, for everyone in the room, I ran rather than subject them to my singing.

The rules sheets were a pain for everyone. Trust me, I understand. However, since the goal was to calm things down in the function areas, it seems to have worked. The hotel reported only two “questionable costumes” that they ignored. There were no complaints about drinking, noise or porn shots.

The Con Suite was small but mostly worked out. The Ygor Party had some great beer, but was a little crowded. We will probably move the party downstairs next year.

Two big questions that we heard all weekend – What is the theme for next year? Where’s the food map? Normally, the theme of the program book and the t-shirt are similar, but we haven’t always had a “con theme”. Next year we will have a costume theme, a prom theme and a program book theme. Details will be announced here and on our website! As for the food map, we had a city map from the St Petersburg Chamber of Commerce but most folks wanted more details. I am happy to say that we have a volunteer who will be working on a food map for next year.

The Dealers’ Room has a new director for next year. Dr. Amber Hollingsworth will be getting in touch with the dealers in December about some new procedures. To the dealers who had a great year; we’ll look forward to seeing you next year.

The art show was excellent. We had many new artists and some long time favorites. Despite the slumping economy some artists had a very good weekend of sales.

As with any first year at a new hotel, there were some minor problems. Because of the lower membership, we will be making some cuts in spending. We will be meeting and discussing changes to panels, function rooms, procedures and ideas for raising charity money, as well as cutting costs. We invite anyone interested in the discussions to come to the Stone Hill meetings. Joining SH is easy – come, bring food. That’s it.

Finally – a big, big, big thank you to all the volunteers! Necro has a staff of over 100 volunteers, all working without pay, food or sleep. We could not run the con with out all those great people. Here’s to another good year and looking forward to next year.

Hilton Bayfront
October 20-22, 2009
Pre-reg $30, at door $50
Room prices to be announced.
www.stonehill.org
Website will be updated in Feb.

Deb

1:38pm: UPDATED NECRONOMICON PICTURE LINKS
The slide show link now goes directly to my slide show on Photobucket and the NECRONOMICON album on Photobucket has had a lot of new pictures added.

Ann Morris's slide show on Photobucket

costume pictures taken by Mike Darmanin

NEW PICTURES as of 10.15.08
Pictures taken by Ranuel

Pictures from Julie Czerneda Q & A taken by Kendall Morris and a bunch of great around the con pics taken by Judy Darnell

Peace,
Ann

5:32pm: PICTURES FROM NECRONOMICON with NEW LINKS ADDED 10.15.08
slide show by Ann Morris

costume pictures taken by Mike Darmanin

NEW PICTURES as of 10.15.08
Pictures taken by Ranuel

Pictures from Julie Czerneda Q & A at NECRONOMICON

If you have pictures from the con to share, please send a link to them to raggedyann@stonehill.org and she'll post it here.

11:09am: Traffic warning
Be sure to check Rays' game time as this may effect traffic getting to Necro on Fri and Sat.

Deb

11:08am: Some rooms open up
There have been some cancellations at the Hilton which has opened up a few rooms. The Rays are in town though so the rooms will go fast.

Deb