World Science Fiction Convention to Invade Boston Labor Day Weekend

Noreascon Four

August 7, 2004

Noreascon Four
The 62nd World Science Fiction Convention
P.O. Box 1010
Framingham, MA 01701
info@noreascon.org
http://www.noreascon.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Boston will be invaded Labor Day Weekend. The world's most renowned science fiction and fantasy writers, scientists, artists, editors, filmmakers and fans will descend upon Boston from countries around the world. This diverse gathering, with people from all walks of life, will come together for a celebration of science fiction and fantasy literature, art, music and media.

They will all have one thing in common: stars in their eyes, the future in their dreams, and a sense of wonder in their minds. They will be in Boston, MA to attend the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention, September 2-6.

Confirmed convention attendees will arrive from more than 25 different countries and all 50 of the United States. Even the Guests of Honor are multi-national as well as multi-dimensional: Terry Pratchett and Peter Weston are from the U.K. while Philip Klass (known to several generations of science fiction readers as William Tenn) and Jack Speer live in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, respectively.

Lasting for five days, Noreascon Four will include a wide range of activities including writers reading their own works, popular authors signing their books, numerous simultaneous tracks of programming with demonstrations, debates, speeches and discussions about everything from recent scientific discoveries to alternative histories and the writing secrets of best-selling authors.

In addition, members may enjoy traditional and electronic games; movies; anime and videos; and theatrical performances as well as have the opportunity to participate in intimate kaffeeklatches and "literary beers" with science fiction professionals.

Four science fiction luminaries have been chosen as the 62nd Worldcon's Guests of Honor:

Terry Pratchett is Britain's best-selling living novelist and is the creator of numerous science fiction, young adult and fantasy novels, including the richly humorous "Discworld" series. His delightful and varied writing includes 35 novels, as well as short stories, non-fiction and even a cook book. Recent books, best-sellers in the U.S. and around the world include The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and The Monstrous Regiment.

William Tenn [the pseudonym for Philip Klass] is both an educator/scholar and a crafter of "mordantly sardonic" short stories. Tenn published his first story in 1946, in Astounding Science Fiction, then the premier magazine of the field. He wrote many short stories, often for Galaxy magazine, throughout the late 40s and early 50s. Among his best-known stories is the chilling "Down Among the Dead Men" (1954), dealing with the use of reanimated corpses as front-line troops in a savage interstellar war. Tenn's sole full-length novel, Of Men and Monsters, serialized in Galaxy in 1963 and published in book form in 1968, deals with an alien-occupied Earth in which humans live, mouse-like, in the walls of the aliens' dwellings. He is emeritus professor of English and comparative literature at the Pennsylvania State University, where he taught a popular course in science fiction. His non-fiction work has recently been collected in a publication which will be available for sale at Noreascon Four.

Jack Speer is one of the "founding dinosaurs" of science fiction fandom, whose influential work includes writing fandom's first history, codifying the "fanspeak" language of fandom, writing the first Fancyclopedia, writing and editing small magazines called fanzines and developing the Fantasy Fiction Decimal Classification.

Peter Weston's fame as a British "fan of all trades" includes founding the longest-lived fan group in the U.K., chairing the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton, England, representing England at American conventions and lovingly creating and editing the fanzine Speculation. His company, in the U.K., also produces the actual rockets for the Hugo Awards.

Other major highlights include: