Quarter Tome

The new songbook "Quarter Tome" was released at the convention, and is now available from Beccon Publications.

We must be mad. We're doing another songbook.

The deadline for contributions to the songbook is mid-October, so please get those songs you've been thinking of sending in to us soon!

The Quarter Tone convention is sponsoring a songbook, and once again Alison Richards has agreed to act as editor. So, we need contributions! Specifically, we're after songs and offers of artwork.

It seems likely that there will be a Worldcon in the UK about a year after Quarter Tone, and that there will be a songbook for that as well. So we're asking for contributions for both, so that when we get inundated with new material we can spread the work between the two. If for some reason there isn't a UK worldcon, we'll do one or two songbooks anyway.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Contabile, and to distinguish it from the Worldcon songbook, for the Quarter Tone songbook we're looking for a mix of current and older songs. We're hoping to gather as many as possible of the songs that have won Sams (best serious, best silly, filk gold), as well as Pegasus award-winning songs that are regularly performed in the UK. We're also looking for classic hits that are now hard to find, even if they have already been published. Of course, we're also after newer material that hasn't made it into a songbook as yet.

Songs don't have to be new. We'd like a good sampling of current material, of course, but there are plenty of good songs that date back years which have never been recorded or published. We'd like to include some of these, before they risk being forgotten.

Songs don't have to be in English. The majority of songs at a UK con are in English, but not all, and the songbook can be the same. We do ask that if you send something in a foreign language (whether it is in German, Greek or Geordie) you include a short note giving the gist of the song in English - if only so that we can get appropriate artwork.

We can handle a wide variety of formats for lyrics (and hardcopy almost always works). We're keen to publish tunes and chords for songs with original tunes - we use Noteworthy Composer and can also accept MIDI files or hardcopy; if all else fails we can attempt to transcribe from a recording. We're happy to publish songs "to the tune of" and pietry (filkish poems).

And of course we're after artists willing to contribute a few drawings. Typically these are either generic fillers, or we supply a song and a gap and invite you to fill the gap. We try to match the songs to the artist.

Songs can be sent to Alison Richards at mike.and.alison at blueyonder co uk, or by post to Alison Richards at the convention address.

Please note: we hope to get contributions from many people, so we cannot offer a free contributors copy without charging an unrealistic amount for non-contributors, sorry.

Alison and Mike Richards