Victorian robots at the Carriage Museum

The Thrasher Carriage Museum in Frostburg, down the hill from Main and across from the depot, debuts a new exhibit on Saturday, April 14: "Meet the Driver: From Coachman to Victorian Robots." (The full name doesn't appear online, but in an ad I saw in the Times-News.) That's all I know, but it certainly sounds like steampunk, doesn't it?

Lunch with the Arts and Andy

I'll be talking about my fiction writing as the guest speaker at Lunch with the Arts, noon-1 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at the Culinaire Cafe in downtown Cumberland. The cost is $10, which includes a box lunch; to register, call Allegany College of Maryland, (301) 784-5341. Lunch with the Arts, a weekly series in April, is sponsored by the college and by the Allegany Arts Council.

sf fiction reading group meeting

just a reminder that the discussion group for the book "The Man Who Melted" will be held tuesday night March 27th at The Draft Zone. the meeting will start at 8:00 pm. see you there.

David Eddings news

Fantasy novelist David Eddings, alas, has made Chuck Shepherd's March 18 "News of the Weird" column, under the standing headline "Least Competent People":

Novelist (27 books) David Eddings, 75, accidentally destroyed his Carson City, Nev., garage and part of his next-door office in January while he was flushing out the gas tank of his idle sports car. He said later that his intention was to remove the gasoline from the car to reduce the fire risk, but then he saw that some fluid had leaked onto the garage floor. For some reason, Eddings' curiosity about the leak (water or gasoline?) caused him to light a piece of paper and toss it onto the puddle, just to find out. "One word comes to mind," he later told the Nevada Appeal. "Dumb." [Nevada Appeal, 1-26-07]

Sadly, only a month later, Eddings' wife and collaborator, Leigh Eddings, died of a series of strokes, according to Locus Online (scroll down to the March 5 update).

Win a trip to the Nebulas

AbeBooks.com and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America are giving away tickets to the Nebula Awards weekend in New York City in May, plus two nights at the awards hotel. Here's the info, with a link to the entry form.

Frostburg Book Giveaway

It looks like this year's ginormous Book Give Away will be held (approximately) from Friday, April 20 - Wednesday, April 25, or until the books are all gone. The giveaway will be located at Frostburg's City Place on Water Street. All books are free (and there are usually over 150,000 shipped in to choose from) with a good bit of everything from textbooks to novels, gardening to home improvement. I offer no guarantee that there will be large numbers of sci-fi specifically - every year is different. I have picked up a number of good titles in years past. Those who volunteer to unload trucks and help set up have first crack at the selection. Call FSU's Center for Volunteerism for more information or to volunteer (301) 687-4210.

Planning your next vacation

While you're making those summer vacation plans, you may want to consider Providence, RI, home of H.P. Lovecraft. I was surprised to find this article on the travel portion of CNN. com.

book group change

sorry folks but it looks like we will have to change the book for the spring sf read. "LIGHT" is currently between printings and will not be available till june (perhaps we can read this in the summer). so...... i spoke with andy and we decided to go with the novel "THE MAN WHO MELTED" by jack dann. the book will be available at main st. books by wednesday for those who need a copy and fred will still give us a 10% discount. is everybody agreeable with just calling march 27th at 8pm the meeting date?