ChimeraCon VI Guests and Club Officers

Some words from the eventual ChimeraCon VI manager, me: Late August 1989 approached, and I got ready for a last year in the warm embrace of the university and its safety net. I was active in College Bowl and was intent on winning a coveted place on the varsity team, which would mean a trip to the regional College Bowl tournament in Memphis, TN - the same weekend that ChimeraCon VI was scheduled.

This didn't present a problem for me. The original con manager and assistant manager for ChimeraCon VI were Shannon Turlington and Cindy Bowman, respectively. I was nowhere on the list. I'm not sure what happened to Shannon and Cindy. Somehow, Emily Keys became the con manager, and when she started looking for an assistant manager, I didn't run away fast enough, I guess (sports were never my forte).

I made it clear that if I won a place on the College Bowl team, I would be in Memphis the weekend of the con. "No problem", they said. Murphy's Law prevailed, and Emily turned the con over to me. By this point, I had won a spot on the College Bowl team, and was in fact the Team Captain. I pointed this out to both Emily and Chimera. Repeatedly. I would not be in Chapel Hill the weekend of March 2-4, 1990 (in fact, I would be on a looooong bus ride to and from Memphis, with the NC State Billiards and Bowling teams - but that's another story). We were left with this - either I would find an assistant to run the actual event in my absence, or there would be no ChimeraCon that year. We took the chance, I named Susan Keeler to be my assistant, and off we went.

• Guest of Honor: Rob Bell (writer for Hero Games, did Champions supplements)


• John Kessel


• Allen Wold


• Paul B. Thompson


• Tonya R. Carter


• Dr. Sheridan Simon


• Mark L. Van Name


• Doctors in the House


• Cheralyn Lambeth


• Gaming Guest: Joanne Wyrick

It's 3:00 AM on Thursday morning. I've slept eight hours in the last three days and I'm so tired I could cry. For the last few weeks we (the Con Committee) have busted our asses to get this Convention ready to roll, and now, at roughly T-minus 36 hours, there is nothing to do but wait (and get this Program to Copytron). So whatever happens now is out of our hands. Nihilism rules.

It all began last spring when Emily Keys agreed to manage ChimeraCon VI. "Naturally, everyone was overjoyed to find a victim," she said in retrospect. But Emily's strenuous load of schoolwork began weighing her down. "I have to do 30 hours of Irish translating by tomorrow!" was an oft-heard comment at the lunch table. So, rather than flunk out of school, she transferred her duties to the capable Laura Haywood, who was then Assistant Con Manager. Laura recalls, "I watched impending doom lurch toward me as Emily's desision to resign crept ever more certainly over the horizon. 'thump shuffle, thump shuffle.' Then, 'AAIIEEEEE!' it had gotten me!" When Susan Keeler returned from a semester of exile in Spain, she assumed the role of Assistant Con Manager and has performed her duties well.

We were a desparate lot in the beginning. The previous year's disastrous Film Fest (the failure of which no one in Chimera is innocent) had drained all the funds from our bank account. We thought The Rocky Horror Picture Show would be a draw, so we shelled out 300 smackers. We got 50 back. So we started out the year 20 dollars in the hole and set the machinery of fundraising in motion. The Chimera Halloween Dance was a considerable success, thanks to the funky folk rock of Harlequin Jones. But most of the bread came from the Hellacious Dean Dome Cleanups. Who can forget those thrilling three-hour tours of Purgatory, picking up nachos and popcorn and spilled drinks and who knows what else? And who can forget that wacko chick from Blethen Temporaries who skipped town with all our checks, on the run from her boyfriend, the cops and probably space aliens as well? Everyone who attended these hell-fests deserves a gold star, and you can quote me on that.