Hampton Roads Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club

Calling all sci-fi fanatics and fantasy bookworms in Hampton Roads! Let’s blast off to the future and spelunk into worlds of spectacular magic with a new book club devoted exclusively to new and classic speculative fiction.

Here’s how it will work:

WHEN AND WHERE WE MEET
We’ll meet once every two weeks on Sundays at 1pm to talk about one fantasy book and one science fiction book per month.

Our meetings will be held at local restaurants and brewpubs so we can get a bite to eat and keep the vibe casual. (Though feel free to nerd out about the book under discussion or whatever other amazing books you’re in the middle of.) All are welcome (ahem, all adults) and you don’t have to have finished that month’s book to attend, though be prepared for SPOILERS from those of us who have finished the book.

The meetings are around two hours long and we’ll likely spend an hour and a half discussing the book and the last half hour hearing about other books, movies, etc. folks have been enjoying and take nominations to select the group's next reads.

Two benefits of the twice-monthly schedule: it’s good to keep the club active and vibrant but it also provides folks with more options. Some people are only sci-fi fans or only fantasy fans (and that’s a-okay!) and we encourage folks to dip in and out as interest and time allows. We try to distribute the event locations across the Hampton Roads area for the convenience of people coming from a variety of locations. We’re capping RSVPs for each event generally at 13 for now but may increase that if demand is there and our venues can accommodate us.

HOW WE PICK THE BOOKS
We pick a new book every two weeks via a ranked choice poll featuring typically 6 nominated books. The club operates on 2 week cycles and every 2 odd numbered weeks on Sunday at 1pm one poll ends and a winner is announced, and a new poll launches, which runs for—you guessed it—2 weeks.

Typically a poll will be announced precisely 7 weeks in advance of the event, and the winner is announced 5 weeks in advance so everyone has lead time to acquire and read the upcoming book(s) (or to decide if their schedule allows and/or if that month’s books speak to them. 🤗)

We take nominations via two online forms, DMs, and in discussions on our Discord server and in person at our Meetups. There is one nomination form for SCI-FI books [ https://forms.gle/ESVR879c9qSivBtR6 ] and one nomination form for FANTASY books [ https://forms.gle/ENgJGqCF1e4t4LpD9 ], but we’re not sticklers about having nominations in the form vs. some other way of expressing a wish to nominate something.

[ABE’S NOTE: As lead Organizer, I exercise some (loose) editorial control over the nominations, like changing the middle book in a series to the first book, finding the most appealing blurbs and publisher description, and offering dedicated slots like SUBGENRE SPOTLIGHT and AROUND THE WORLD that incentivize folks to nominate books outside the mainstream big names that everyone’s heard of; which is not to say that bestselling authors won’t be well-represented in these polls too. In general, I put on the ballot the books you nominate, whether I personally feel enthusiastic about them or not. We do try to get a diverse range of nominees for each poll—diverse not only in terms of author identities but also in terms of subgenres and eras of sff—and if one or more people are enthusiastically touting a book at our meeting or on Discord, I'll often whip out my phone, nod to the group, and say, "Well that sounds like a nomination!"]

CONCLUSION
Anyway, that's how things work. We have now and deviated from the formula to hold special events like movies nights, Novella November, and our sequel series. Although the group does have a Discord page with some lively conversation [you can join here: https://discord.gg/6tJm48RG ] all of the meetings are announced on this Meetup page and you can RSVP for events here. In conclusion, please vote on the polls and we look forward to seeing you at a future event!