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DIMENSIONS NEWS
November 2000 - DIMENSIONS Web Site is Up!
It took some time, but the web site is up. Take a look, it is at http://www.usfamily.net/web/sigrud/dimensions.html.
August 2000 - Carl Barks dead at 99
The man who gave 'life' to Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck and the Beagle Boys dies on Friday, August 25th 2000. He was 99. Even though Donald Duck had seen screen time for Walt Disney, it was Barks that gave him the personality that people know today. He also invented many popular characters for Walt Disney, Scrooge McDuck being one of them who went from the pages of "Walt Disney Comics and Stories" to TV and movies.
July 2000 - California, here we come!
Some interesting developments have come along for DIMENSIONS this last month that will take the organization into a new area of promotion - - KIDS! At this time we are working with Tim Dover of the Star Trek Service Alliance on making a program that will encourage kids to get into SF/F through books at the local Oceanside, California public library.
When Tim brought the DIMENSIONS plan to the library staff, they were excited with the possibility of what this could do for children and for the encouragement of promoting reading. So now work is under way of making a DIMENSIONS Youth program that we hope can spread to other libraries throughout the nation to not only get kids into reading, but to introduce them to works by Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien and others. Let face it, this is not going to be a hard battle. Just look at the popularity of Harry Potter.
For those who do not know Tim Dover , he is the man who brought me into "fandom" when he started the USS Czar'ak Star Trek fan club in the mid 80's in the Twin Cities. After moving to California, he was part of the Starfleet Academy for Starfleet International then started the Star Trek Service Alliance to promote community service.
June 2000 - Harry Potter, Watch Out!
On WCCO 4 Dimension report on May 17th, they interviewed Mary GrandPre. GrandPre is the illustrator for the Harry Potter books. Having done the first three, plus she will do four more - - until Harry is 17. GrandPre is also working on her first-time novel which she hopes "will become as popular as Harry Potter." It sounded as if her book will be a collection of short stories.
Kids flocked to GrandPre's recent public appearances. They seemed extremely excited to see her work and hear her speak. GrandPre claimed that most illustrators never meet the authors of the books they draw for. However, she has recently met J. K. Rawlings, the author of the Harry Potter books. As a former waitress, GrandPre got her start in sketching as a TV news station artist. GrandPre is from Minnesota.
May 2000 - Author Lars Walker Speaks at Dimensions-TC Meeting
Author Lars Walker was kind enough to join the Dimensions-Twin Cities for their first meeting on March 18th at the Richfield Borders book store for a two hour question and answer session. Walker has just had his third novel released by Baen Books this year entitled The Year of the Warrior, a follow up of his first book Erling's Word, which is also included with this recent release.
Walker is a native of Minnesota and a Twin Cities resident who uses his Norwegian and Viking heritage for the basis of his fantasy stories set in the Viking age and using historical figures living at that time.
Now a follow up to this story, Lars Walker was kind enough this month to donate three books to the library that Dimensions is building in its quest to preserve the the history and works of SF/F. All these books are Nebula nominated books for this year from Tor books. The first book is Starlight 2 edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden which is a collection of SF/F short stories and winner of the World Fantasy Award. The second book is The Cassini Division written by Scottish author Ken MacLeod, who has won the Prometheus Award twice for his first two novels that have sadly never been released in the US. The third book is Deepness in the Sky written by Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge.
Dimensions-Twin Cities and Dimensions-Marshall would like to thank Mister Walker for his time and gifts to the organizations.