SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY SOCIETY OF BUCKS COUNTY
By Owen Fox Jerome

In future meetings there will be terrific guest speakers such as Ellen Datlow, renowned editor of Year’s Best Science Fiction (and many other anthologies); Gregory Frost, Nebula and Hugo nominated author of Fitcher’s Brides, Crimson Spear, Luyrec, and the recent critical smash hit Attack of the Jazz Giant and Other Stories; and many others, including some powerhouse surprise guests.

The SFFSBC was formed to allow fans and writers of science fiction and fantasy a chance to share ideas, explore new ideas, and have a lot of fun. The group is also launching a writing contest and will be awarding its own version of the Oscars with the Oscar J. Friend Awards, named for the renowned pulp author, editor and literary agent who published hundreds of short stories and novels from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Membership to the SFFSBC is open and anyone with an interest in science fiction or fantasy is welcome to join. Membership is $35.00 per year and includes a newsletter, invitation to special events, discounts for movie screenings, and other goodies.

For more information, contact CAREEER DOCTOR FOR WRITERS (PO Box 286, Jenkintown PA 19046; or email them at info@careerdoctorforwriters.com)

Crop Blight
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To reduce the affects of stalk rot diseases, follow as many of the following practices as possible:

Select corn hybrids with resistance to northern corn leaf blight and Stewart's bacterial leaf blight were planted this year, and that should have prevented much of the disease, but this tactic has not worked.

Deke Bowers, owner of the town’s largest pumpkin farm, said, “We’ve always relied on practices like crop rotation and tillage as disease-control methods. But the blight has hit nearly everywhere.”

In an interesting aside, the Guthrie farm is one of the very few farms in Pine Deep not affected by the blight despite the fact that all of the neighboring farms are affected. “I don’t have a clue why that is,” Guthrie admits, “and though I’m pretty thankful, my heart goes out to my neighbors and friends.”

If the blight continues to worsen then many of the farms may be forced into bankruptcy. “We’re working to do everything we can to save those farms,” vowed Mayor Wolfe. “These are our friends and some of these farms have been owned by the same families for generations. Pine Deep is standing united behind our farmers!”
TALES FROM THE FIRE ZONE - New Literary Novel by Jonathan Maberry

By Willard Fowler Newton

The Bucks County Review, a new literary ezine, has begun serializing Tales from the Fire Zone, a strange and dynamic new novel by author Jonathan Maberry. The novel, set in an unnamed contemporary city, follows the adventures of Indigo Heart, a man whose life has burned down around him, leaving him desperate and on the run. Heart needs to escape the version of the world that has been created for him by abusive parents and personal trauma, and his desperate need punches a hole through the walls of reality and allows him to step into the Fire Zone.

The Fire Zone, based on Maberry’s successful 1984 play of the same name, is a literary novel that nonetheless uses some elements of fantasy storytelling to tell the story of a man who has to reshape reality into a version of the world in which he can live. The novel pulls no punches and takes no prisoners when dealing with the traumatic after-effects of child abuse; but the story, dark as it is sometimes, is also one of passion and joy and profound personal growth.

“In the Fire Zone,” explains the author, “literally anything can happen. Reality is malleable. The real world and the larger world of the spirit actually coexist in a tangible way. In the Zone, a person can fight for his soul, and there he has a chance of regaining ownership of it.”

Sara Jo West, a fan of the novel, observed, “Even though the story takes you through some truly frightening territory, you always have the feeling that the author is going to see you safely through to the end.”

The novel was first produced as a play in Philadelphia in the early 1980s, then later performed on an L.A. radio station. Recently Maberry decided to turn it into a novel and it is now being serialized online in the Bucks County Review. Click here to read the first excerpt.