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January 2022

Happy New Year!

The new year has rolled in and with it a lot of updates!

Join the Parsec Program committee for the monthly meeting on 1/15/22 at 1:00pm EST. We bring in the New Year with a guest panel on Costuming and Cosplay!

Welcome Lisa Ashton, Karen Schnaubelt, and Pam Smith, all highly active in the costume community and willing to share their decades of experience with us, providing insights and perspectives into a rich, beautiful, and creative world.

We look forward to gaining a glimpse inside the worlds of Costuming and Cosplay and how they enrich the lives of these very talented women.

Register for the ZOOM meeting!
Meetings are free to attend and open to the public.


The 2022 Parsec Inc Short Story Contest is open to submissions!

The Parsec Short Story contest is sponsored by Parsec Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization.

The theme this year is “Hearth, Song, and Table.”

This year we’ve added a new category and prize for authors ages 19 and under!

Contest opens on January 1st and closes on May 1st 2022 at 11:59:59pm EST.

Cash prizes and never any fee to enter!

Visit the Short Story Contest page for more information.

The conference will be held in person on July 29, 30 and 31, 2022!

The Guest of Honor is Neil Clarke and the Featured music guest is Tim Griffin.

Visit the Confluence website for more information.

December 2021 Announcements

Hello Parsec-sff, Confluence and Parsec Ink people!

There are lots of great changes happening within the Parsec Inc. organization.

In January 2022, our new Parsec Program Committee meeting co-chairs will be Scot Noel and Jane Noel from DreamForge Magazine of Science and Fantasy Fiction!

Welcome Scot and Jane!

We look forward to seeing the programming you schedule for us during 2022!

Jane Noel is the Founder of Chroma Studios, a digital marketing agency located in Jeannette PA.  She holds a degree in Visual Communications from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and more years of experience than she cares to count. Before founding CME, Jane worked as an Artist, Art Lead, Art Director, and Project Manager for the computer game developer DreamForge Intertainment, where she worked on a number of early computer games, including Roger Zelazny’s Chronomaster. Jane manages Illustration, Design, and Layout for DreamForge Anvil and DreamForge Magazine.

Scot Noel is a content writer and content manager for websites, blogs, social media, e-newsletters, and the like. Speculative fiction has always been his obsession, resulting in a Writers of the Future 2nd place win in 1990, a 7-year career in computer game development, and a handful of published stories, ranging from far future and zombie fiction to the tale of a fairy sheriff fighting an evil dragon. He serves as the editor and publisher of DreamForge Anvil and DreamForge Magazine.


Parsec Ink’s 2022 Triangulation anthology is now OPEN to submissions!

Theme: Energy
Submissions close: February 28, 2022
Submission information can be found on the parsecink.com website: https://parsecink.com/index.php/2021/11/27/triangulation-energy-call-for-submissions/


Our Board of Directors has changed!

VIEW NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Our NEW Board is moving forward to bring Parsec members more information about everything happening within the organization.
Which leads us to . . .

Parsec Inc now has two groups.io groups to help you get information on ALL Parsec standing committee programming faster and easier!

Parsec Announce is for anyone!
An announcement-only, moderated email group. Members cannot send messages to each other, only to the moderators. This group will be used similar to the newsletters so you get your information faster and can respond to the moderators with questions.
Sign up asap to get the scoop on Confluence, Parsec Ink publishing, and other great Parsec programming.
Use this link to Apply For Membership In The Group: https://parsecinc.groups.io/g/ParsecAnnounce

Parsec Talk is for Parsec members only!
A chat email group for members of Parsec. Members can send messages that everyone receives, including the Board of Directors.
Use this link to Apply For Membership In The Group: https://parsecinc.groups.io/g/ParsecTalk

Check your Parsec membership status through the Google Doc database: HERE

If you need to renew your Parsec membership or want to become a Parsec member, annual dues are only $25.00! All dues go to support Parsec programs. Use the Parsec website form: https://parsec-sff.org/membership-form-2/
The form uses PayPal for payment processing. You do not need to have a PayPal account, just a credit or debit card.

Or you can mail your check to:
Parsec – Membership
PO Box 3681
Pittsburgh PA 15230-3681


There will be no Parsec Holiday Party or Zoom meeting in Dec 2021.

Unfortunately we do not have a location to hold an in-person party and there is little interest in trying a Zoom party again this year.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!

The new Parsec Inc logo was officially adopted by the Board of Directors on Dec 4th, 2021

Cat Rambo-You Sexy Thing!

Cat Rambo, educator, podcaster, former two-term SFWA president, managing editor of Fantasy magazine, editor of multiple anthologies, and author, will talk about her upcoming book release, You Sexy Thing, the difference between writing short fiction and novels, the Satanic Panic and RPGs.


She will also be giving a writing talk on Three Tools for Plotting that Every Writer Needs!

Cat offers some great online writing classes through their Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers.

Join us on Zoom, Saturday Nov 20, 2021 at 1:00pm (ET)

Register for the Zoom meeting

About the Author

Cat Rambo (they/them) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whose work has appeared in, among others, Asimov’s, Weird Tales, Chiaroscuro, Talebones, and Strange Horizons. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, where they studied with John Barth and Steve Dixon, they also attended the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop. They are currently the managing editor of Fantasy Magazine. They published a collection of stories, Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight, and their collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories, appeared in 2007. They live and write in Washington State, and “Cat Rambo” is their real name.

Upcoming:
December 18 TBD
January 15: Costume workshop with Karen Schnaubelt, Lisa Ashton, Rae Bradbury-Enslin & Pam Smith

Media notice: PARSEC staff may choose to record, live-stream, or otherwise capture or record images and comments during the Zoom event. By registering for this event you agree that Parsec may use your likeness in the screen captures and recordings to publicize, reproduce, exhibit, distribute, broadcast, or digitize the resulting content for use in marketing, promotion, and advancement efforts that may contain your likeness . This may include publications, marketing videos, advertising, websites and/or other public marketing for any purpose consistent with the Parsec status as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. If you prefer that your likeness not be used, please turn off your camera during recordings. Announcements will be made prior to the start of recordings and/or image captures.

BEWARE THE SCARE!

Join us for the October Parsec meeting
Saturday 10-16-2021 at 1:00pm EST

Our guest authors, Michael A. Arnzen, Scott A. Johnson & Frank J. Oreto will entertain us with frightful readings of their own horror stories, and feed us goodies galore about the craft of horror writing!

The Zoom moderator will open the room at 12:30 for an informal social time.

Parsec meetings are always open to the public and FREE to attend!

Register in advance for this Zoom meeting

For even more fun, wear your Halloween costume to the meeting and be entered to win a copy of the Parsec Ink 2021 anthology, Triangulation: Habitats!

About our guests:

Michael Arnzen is the four-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Grave Markings and Play Dead. Arnzen teaches fulltime in the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University, in Greensburg, PA. Known particularly for his experiments in minimalist horror, in such books as 100 Jolts and The Gorelets Omnibus, he invites readers to subscribe to his newsletter at gorelets.com, where they can get free short-shorts delivered to their inbox when they least expect them.
Creative Horror: http://www.gorelets.com
Social Network : http://michaelarnzen.com

Frank Oreto is a writer and editor of weird fiction living in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. His work has appeared or is upcoming in Pseudopod, the Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Frank also co-edited two volumes of Parsecs annual anthology Trianglulation. When not writing he spends his time creating elaborate meals for his wife and ever hungering children.
Like weird fiction? I write it. You can find links to free stories and audios at my author page: https://www.facebook.com/FrankisWriting

Scott A. Johnson writes horror, dark urban fantasy, and science fiction. He is the author of eleven novels, multiple short stories, and three books of true ghost stories. He has an MFA from Emerson College and teaches in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program. He is currently located near Austin, Texas.
Visit the website: http://www.creepylittlebastard.com

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Nov 20th: Cat Rambo talks about her upcoming new release, You Sexy Thing, the difference between writing short fiction and novels, the Satanic Panic, and RPGs. and all the great online writing classes she offers through the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers.

Dec 18th: Holiday Party! More information coming soon.

January 15, 2022: A special presentation panel on costuming!

Feb 19, 2022: The month of love and poets.

March 19, 2022: TBA

Use the registration link at the top of this post to register once for all of the upcoming Parsec meetings.

Have an article, note or announcement that you would like to see published in the Sigma newsletter?
The deadline for submissions is always the first Sunday of every month – Use our CONTACT FORM to send your information to Joe Coluccio, our Sigma editor.

Media notice: PARSEC staff may choose to record, live-stream, or otherwise capture or record images and comments during the Zoom event. By registering for this event you agree that Parsec may use your likeness in the screen captures and recordings to publicize, reproduce, exhibit, distribute, broadcast, or digitize the resulting content for use in marketing, promotion, and advancement efforts that may contain your likeness . This may include publications, marketing videos, advertising, websites and/or other public marketing for any purpose consistent with the Parsec status as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. If you prefer that your likeness not be used, please turn off your camera during recordings. Announcements will be made prior to the start of recordings and/or image captures.

Sept Parsec Meeting 9/18/21

This month we are pleased to present a talk by Diane Turnshek about the Pittsburgh Dark Skies Initiative.

The September Parsec meeting will be held on Saturday 9/18 at 1:00 pm on Zoom

REGISTER FOR THE PARSEC MEETING

Alternate History: What if today’s level of light pollution had always been?
by Diane Turnshek

The timeline of astronomy would have been severely altered if the current level of light pollution in the world extended back in time. Would we have ever discovered Neptune and Uranus? Current technology allows us to travel to and build in the most remote locations in the world, but historically, dangerous treks to distant lands were for the brave or foolhardy. How far would science have progressed without scientists being able to see stars? And how would the fallout from that loss impact the current world?

John E. Bortle is an American amateur astronomer. He is best known for creating the Bortle scale to quantify the darkness of the night sky. The Bortle Scale measures the night sky’s brightness and the interference caused by light pollution.

Are you aware how many everyday things we take for granted are due to astronomy research? Personal computers, communication satellites, mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems, solar panels, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners, and CCDs (to name a few). Join us for a vision of a different history where the skies were polluted early on and astronomy never flourished. How dark is your night sky?

Diane Turnshek teaches college astronomy classes in Pittsburgh and has been named a Dark Sky Defender by the International Dark-sky Association. She has been on the Board of Directors for both SFWA and Parsec, Pittsburgh’s premier science fiction charitable organization. For nine years, she mentored graduate students at Seton Hill’s MFA Writing Popular Fiction program. Since 2017 she has set up book signing events for over 300 authors and curated three space art galleries. She is the founder of Write or Die, a critique group running since 1996, Alpha, a teen writing workshop since 2002 and the CMU Speculative Fiction Lecture Series that began in 2014.
Her latest project is to make a high resolution, nighttime, light pollution map of Pittsburgh, PA for researchers.

Join us for the September meeting and meet our surprise Confluence 2022 guest of honor!

Upcoming Parsec meetings:

Oct 16th: Beware the Scare!
Authors, Michael Arnzen, Scott Johnson and Frank Oreto will regale us with spooky stories and talk about horror writing.


Nov 20th: Cat Rambo talks about her upcoming new release, You Sexy Thing, the difference between writing short fiction and novels, the Satanic Panic, and RPGs. And all the great online writing classes she offers through the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers.

Dec 18th: Holiday Party! More information coming soon.

Use the registration link at the top of this post to register once for all of the upcoming Parsec meetings.

Have an article, note or announcement that you would like to see published in the Sigma newsletter?
The deadline for submissions for the Oct Issue of Sigma is Sunday 10/3/21 – Send your plain text or RTF document to: joe@joecoluccio.com

Triangulation: Habitats

Available Now!

Parsec Ink is proud to announce its 18th collection of short stories. Triangulation: Habitats contains 35 stories and poems from around the world that explore the theme of sustainable habitats in tune with their surroundings. Our authors have created compelling narratives driven by characters required to make hard choices in settings that push the boundaries of imagination. A man learns where he draws the line when it comes to living sustainably. Generations discover the human cost of leapfrogging through the solar system. A woman seeks a ghostly experience at an Eco Lodge. Three people learn the difference between a home and a homestead on an asteroid. A woman lives in a treehouse designed by aliens as she nurtures both a prenatal human and a sapling house. A three-hundred-year-old house dreams of its former occupants. Includes the Theodore Sturgeon reprint, Prutzy’s Pot.

Please join us in our explorations!

With These Authors and Stories:

Chris Hewitt, Anywhere but Elsewear

Jameyanne Fuller, Moon by Moon We Go Together

Liam Hogan, Parallel Rooms

Katherine Quevedo, Discount Night at the Haunted Eco Lodge

Cayce Osborne, Planting Trees

Octavia Cade, Metamorphosis

Andy K. Tytler, Leaf Glacier

A’liya Spinner, Homemaker

Maura Lydon, Desert Seeds

Salinda Tyson, House of Stone

Brett Kozlowski, Reduce, Repulse, Revile

Jennifer R. Povey, Homestead

Raluca Balasa, To My Grandson, From a Time in Which I Might Have Loved You

Jamie Lackey, The Voice of the Mother Whale

Jennifer Hudak, A Gardener Teaches His Son to Enrich the Soil and Plan for the Future

Kurt Newton, Tiny House

Rhian Bowley, SustainaCrock™

Oliver Smith, The Hoyle-Wickramasinghe Rose

Lisa Timpf, This Future At Least Has Cows

John C. Mannone, In Plain Sight

Sandra Kasturi, In The Future We Will Live In Broken Houses

Robert Borski, The Fauna of Lilliput

Juleigh Howard-Hobson, I am Already Tired of Earth.2

Julie Bloss Kelsey, untitled poem

Sandra Lindow, House Gravity Physics

Theodore Sturgeon, Pruzy’s Pot

CTN Von Mayendorf, Habitopiary

D. G. P. Rector, Mourn Each Blade of Grass

Greg Clumpner, Spritely Duty

Jean Martin, The Sun Makes the Van Go

Lynne Goldsmith, Crab Shells

Nora Swisher, The Bath

R Locke, Lineage

Tamara Power-Drutis, Ocera

Tom Marcinko Water, Striders

Introducing Triangulation: Habitats!

Parsec Ink’s 2021 SF/F/H anthology is due for publication at the end of July. This year we are including twenty-two original stories, eleven poems and one reprint, Pruzy’s Pot, by Theodore Sturgeon.

The Parsec Ink editor position is part of an educational program through the 501(c)(3) organization, Parsec Inc.
Our editors and editorial staff carefully read through hundreds of submissions and choose the well written stories that best capture the anthology’s theme. Other skills obtained during the term are, editing, book design, obtaining cover art, using ISBN numbers and online print and ebook publishing. Just this past week, our 2021 editor, John Thompson has learned how to create a fundraising campaign.

You can help make a difference in an aspiring author’s life. Even a small donation can go a long way to making this anthology a reality.
Your support is greatly appreciated.

This anthology relies on contributions from people like YOU!
Claim your perk before August 3, 2021

This year, we have four local Pittsburgh, PA authors that have had their stories accepted in the anthology:
Jamie Lackey hits another home run with a story of habitat symbiosis. Comfortably living inside your house takes on a whole different meaning when your house is alive.
CMU grad and WorD member CTN Von Mayendorf coined a term that I hope takes off — “Habitopiary,” noun, a home grown out of vegetation.
Jean Martin supposes a future that harkens back to the past — the romantic notion of living like gypsies, but solarized.
WorD member and C’monfluence behind-the-scenes genius Greg Clumpner wants deforestation and habitat destruction to not include the faerie realm — how can we all cohabitate?

Other authors with connections to our region:
Dr. Nora Swisher is also a CMU graduate, Jameyanne Fuller is an Alpha graduate, and poet Sandra Kasturi was deeply involved in fandom in Pittsburgh when she lived here.

Triangulation: Habitats will feature the very first short story publications of several new authors! Congratulations are due! Discovering new authors is always a joy for an editor. We can’t wait for you to read the stories by our new authors!

Finding clever writing by someone who’s work they haven’t come across before is always a nice surprise! Octavia Cade, one of our Habitats authors writes, “I’ve previously sold over 50 stories to markets including Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and Strange Horizons.” I’ll be looking out for that name in the future.

Our cover art this year will be by CMU grad Katerina Kireeva, who created the cover for Triangulation: Extinction
Want a first peek at the Habitats cover art?
Follow the fundraiser to watch for the exciting reveal!

2021 Parsec Short Story Contest winners

1st place – Jennifer Gives her Heart to Radioland” by Matthew McHugh

Matt McHugh was born in suburban Pennsylvania, attended LaSalle University in Philadelphia, and after a few years as a Manhattanite, currently calls New Jersey home.

Website: http://mattmchugh.com 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/mattmchughdotcom


Matt will be reading his story, Jennifer Gives her Heart to Radioland, for the video reading series on the Parsec Ink YouTube channel. Subscribe today to receive the notice when the video is available!
NEW! Parsec Ink Youtube Channel
Sign up for the Parsec Ink newsletter to receive news and updates on Triangulation and the Short Story Contest.


2nd Place – Fishing by Carter Lappin

Carter Lappin is a female author from Southern California. She has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. Her writing experience includes being scheduled to appear in an upcoming WorldWeaver Press anthology.


3rd place – Living Stagnant by Lucy Gray

Lucy Gray is a fiction writer and an electrical engineering student. She began writing short stories recently to explore emotions and possibilities as a writer, just as she had previously explored as a reader. In her spare time, she enjoys embroidering, reading, and spending time with her family.

June 2021 Parsec Meeting

Join us for the June Parsec meeting on Saturday June 19 at 1:00 pm

Wulf Moon will be our guest speaker.
We will also announce the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of the annual Parsec Short Story contest! Come back after the meeting for an updated announcement on the winners and their stories.

Wulf’s topic is Perseverance Yields Rewards.
The definition of success is getting up one more time than you have fallen. Wulf Moon has fallen many times, as have other writers, but success is determined by how you deal with the setbacks, and how you find the power to stand back up and continue the climb.

The meeting will be held via Zoom: Parsec meeting REGISTRATION Link
If you previously registered, you can use the same link Zoom sent you last month. 
If you lost that link just click on the registration link and Zoom will send you a new meeting link. 

Please check into the EVENT PAGE ON FACEBOOK and let us know you will be attending.

Wulf Moon learned oral storytelling as a child when he lived with his Chippewa grandmother. He begged stories from her every night and usually got his wish—fireside tales that fired his imagination. If Moon had a time machine, those are the days he would go back to. Since he doesn’t have a time machine, he writes.
Wulf Moon wrote his first science fiction story at fifteen. It won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and became his first professional sale in Science World. He has won over forty writing awards, and thirty in public speaking. His stories have appeared in Writers of the Future, DreamForge Anvil, Future Science Fiction Digest, Best of Third Flatiron, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Best of Deep Magic Anthology 2. Moon is a professional voice-over actor and is podcast director at Future Science Fiction Digest.
Wulf Moon’s award-winning SUPER SECRETS Writing Resource and Workshops have been attributed by many aspiring writers as the secret to their success in obtaining first professional sales and international contest wins. Two of Wulf’s books on writing will be published by Mark Leslie of Stark Publishing Solutions in the fall of 2021. Want in on the Secrets? JOIN THE WULF PACK at http://thesupersecrets.com!

Feel free to invite a friend or post the information on your own social media pages.
Parsec meetings are always free to attend and open to the public
!

May Parsec meeting

Join us for the monthly Parsec meeting on Saturday May 15, 2021 at 1:00pm

Our presentation this month:
Science Fiction and Comics, A Multimedia Presentation
by Joe Coluccio

Science Fiction and Science Fiction Comics share the same heritage, strolled the same paths.
From Buck Rogers to Fiction House, Amazing Stories to Mysteries in Space, Weird Tales to Weird Science, Mad Magazine to Dangerous Visions and Beyond. Registration is required.

Register in advance for this meeting HERE

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Joe Coluccio is the President of Parsec meeting group and the Board of Directors, Pittsburgh Premier Science Fiction and Fantasy Organization. He was program director for WYEP-FM, a local community access radio station in the first years of its existence.