Happy Holidays!
From Laurie, Jim and Leslie Mann
(and probably Tigra, too)
This may be one of those "thanks for sending us your Christmas cards and letters even though we haven't been very good about responding" letters. Or it may be a "thanks for contributing to this very busy year." And it has been. While work has been extraordinarily hectic for both Jim and me this year, we actually had an equally hectic life outside of work. But mostly, we wanted to wish you merry holidays, a very happy year, and a joyous and busy millennium (which may be a year early, but, what the heck why not celebrate it twice!).
The first half of the year, we worked very hard with the Science Fiction Writers of America and a number of local fans to produce the first-ever Nebula Awards Weekend in Pittsburgh. While some of the writers were a little leary about coming to Pittsburgh, just about everyone enjoyed the city and the awards weekend. I still found time to sing in a number of concerts with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh (including Elijah!), work on my various Web sites and sleep occasionally. Jim and I traveled on a few long weekends, going to New York City, Minneapolis, Providence and Boston.
The middle of the year, I organized a family reunion. I found a wonderful little bed and breakfast (Our Village Inn) in Barton, Vermont that was available by the week to small groups. Barton is in northeast Vermont, close to Canada and just a few miles from where my great-grandparents, Annie Laurie Dickinson and Fred Shonyo, married. In addition to a reunion of many Shonyo cousins, we also celebrated my father's 70th birthday. Here are a few photos:
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| Brothers George (a TV star on those "buy Vermont" commercials!), Winslow and Bill Trask | First cousins Sybil Shonyo Hazen, Ruth Shonyo Trask, Nancy Shonyo Rahm and Alice Fisher Bassett |
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| First row: Joe & Joshua Welch, Nikki, Parker & Howard Hazen, Heidi, Skip & Sybil Hazen, Trina & Cyrus Rahm. Second row: Andrea Welch, Terry Trask, Jim & Laurie Mann, Ruth Trask, Nancy Rahm, Alice Bassett Jeff Trask, and some friends of my mothers'. | |
A few weeks after the reunion, we brought Leslie up to college where she's been ever since. She seems to be enjoying it! She's also been active on the World Wide Web, writing gaming-based fiction.
Meanwhile, Jim edited two books in his spare time: The Compleat Boucher: The Complete Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of Anthony Boucher (for NESFA Press) and the Program Book for the 1999 World Fantasy Convention (for MCFI). A book that he edited in 1993, a hardback edition of Cordwainer Smith's Norstrilia, was named as one of the top 25 science fiction books of the century by Amazon. We also ran Program for this year's Boskone, and we're starting to work on the Program for the 2001 World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia.
Hope to see you in the coming millennium!