Reflections in the Shards
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Reflections in the Shards is a collection of fan writing by Caroline Mullan, compiled by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer (with assistance from Caroline) for Dysprosium, the 2015 British National Science Fiction Convention. Thanks to the Dysprosium committee for funding this publication. March 2015, Fishlifter Press. Contents A Dream House from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 91, August 1994) 7 It seems like a lifetime… from The Word for the World... (TWP mailing 214, November 8 2010 – March 2011) Plus ça fannish change from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 134, August 1999) 9 Fire from The Word for the World... (TWP mailing 205, October 2009) 10 Scottish Referendum, 18 September from Reflections in the Shards… (TWP mailing 234, 11 July 2014) Extract from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 126, September 1998) 11 Letter to a Departed Colleague from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 168, 12 September 2003) On a Survey to Study Why Women’s Careers Stall from The Word for the World... 14 (TWP mailing 230, December 2013) Clearing the Decks from The Word for the World... (TWP mailing 225, January 2013) 14 The Necessity of Gardening from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 133, July 14 1999) Welcome a Tree from The Word for the World... (TWP mailing 182, December 2005) 15 Wibbling gently from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 184, April 2006) 15 Giving up a daily habit from Reflections in the Shards… (TWP mailing 233, June 2014) 16 The Arthur C Clarke Award and Me from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 132, 16 May 1999) Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler (1993) from The Word for the World… (TWP 17 mailing 90, June 1994) Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison (1962) from The Word for the World... 18 (TWP mailing 220, March 2012) Extract from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 109, October 1996) 19 Diaspora, Greg Egan (1997) from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 132, May 19 1999) Star Wars from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 139, April 2000) 19 Red Plenty, Francis Spufford (2010) from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 212, 20 May – October 2010) Diana Wynne Jones, RIP from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 214, November 20 2010 – March 2011) Women, Men, and Earthsea from The City Flogger (TWP mailing 61, November 1990) 21 Extract from The Word for the Worlds… (TWP mailing 106, April 1996) 22 Fun and Fandom from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 89, May 1994) 23 What I Did on My Holidays from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 96, February 23 1995) Intersection from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 101, October 1995) 25 Eastercon at the Adelphi from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 131, April 1999) 25 Obligations to Frogs from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 131, April 1999) 26 Extract from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 94, November 1994) 26 Extract from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 137, January 2000) 26 Meriol’s Books from The Word for the World... (TWP mailing 155, March 2002) 27 Believing is Seeing from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 121, February 1998) 28 Looking at the World through New Eyes from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 28 221, June 2012) Observing the Landscape from The Word for the World... (TWP mailing 146, March 29 2001) Aim or Means? from Journey Planet #13 (2012) 30 Why Are We Here? from The Word for the World… (TWP mailing 102, November 1995) 31 Black Easter? The Day After Judgement from TWP mailing 38 (August/September 33 1987) with introduction and coda from Banana Wings #14 (August 1999) Whither the Book Room? from Banana Wings #39 (August 2009) 37 The Eastercon Is Not Your Bitch from Banana Wings #48 (December 2011) 41 Cover: Alison Scott, 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. Thanks to Flickr users agentkramer (Daniel Kramer) (chains) and Laurence Grayson (shortformvideo) (brick wall) for making their photographs available under the Creative Commons. Caroline’s photos, more or less clockwise from the title (top right): Boating for Coots, Valentines Park, Ilford, 2014 Cover, TWP 74, by Maureen Speller, 1992 Produce from the Garden, Ilford, 2011 Follow the Pink Blossom Road, Valentines Park, Ilford, May 2014 Caroline, about 1980 Reflections in the Shards – copyright (c) and by kind permission of Sabine Furlong, 2014 Sunset, Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol, 2015 Minster Court, City of London, 2014 Spotted Eel, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 2011 Daughter in Hat, 2002 Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Tower of London, 2014 Cedar of Lebanon, Valentines Park, Ilford, 2014 Porcupine Books, Loncon 3 Dealers’ Hall, 2014 Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Festival, Greenwich, 2014 One foot in a striped sock, 2015 Convention badges, 1986 The Dry Garden, Valentines Park, Ilford 2014 A rose, Valentines Park, Ilford 2014 Caroline in the Sea Gown, Eastercon, Central Hotel, Glasgow, 1991 A note on the purity of the text and on sources Ventures such as this are so much easier nowadays as so many of the texts already exist in electronic form, minimising the potential to introduce new errors through inept copy- typing or scanning. We’ve used the text as it originally appeared, although there are a few exceptions. We’ve applied some style-guide standardisations which won’t affect how the text reads. In a few places we’ve made minor edits to provide context which wasn’t necessary in the original. And we’ve endeavoured to correct minor typographical errors as we don’t believe it does anybody any favours to repeat them. Thus you’re deprived of Caroline claiming at one point that she moved back to England in 1862. Most of the shorter pieces come from various-titled contributions to The Women’s Periodical (TWP). This is an amateur press association (APA) for which see the note at the end of ‘Aim or Means?’ on page 31. It was created by Linda Pickersgill (now Krawecke) and Chris Atkinson, following the ‘Women in Fandom’ meeting at the 1982 Eastercon, Channelcon. It continues to this day, and has generated nearly 240 mailings. Caroline is a founder member. An Introduction by Divers Hands I have a photo of Caroline, taken at my first convention. The Anne’s opinion that ‘My idea of good company … is the convention was Mexicon 2, the place was Birmingham, and company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great the specific event was an immediately-post-opening- deal of conversation.’ The slightly older Caroline fell into ceremony panel: ‘Question Time: your questions answered: fandom with the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton; she went to wisdom on the state of life, SF and fandom.’ Caroline is buy books and found her people and her conversation. wearing a moderately chunky jumper, if perhaps not quite Whenever we talk, Caroline always has a theory. I the full Sarah Lund, and she is also moderately blurred, traditionally qualify this by saying she has a theory in the something I put down to the photographer rather than sense that Imelda Marcos has a pair of shoes, but I fear that Caroline herself. She is seated next to fan veteran, author reference may be getting a little dated. So, say Caroline has and editor Ted White who is also moderately blurred, a theory in the sense that Neil Gaiman has a Twitter although I suspect he achieved that effect all on his own. follower. Her theories span the state of life, SF and fandom– I remember that Caroline spoke with no little all things she’s passionate about. Really, she was very much enthusiasm about Megan Lindholm’s novel Wizard of the at home at that 1986 panel even if – as became apparent in Pigeons; and twenty-eight years later Caroline acted as a recent conversation about memory, and Ted Chiang’s Robin Hobb’s liaison for Loncon 3. I think this speaks to ‘The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling’, and how that Caroline’s ongoing enthusiasm both for books and for relates to fan history – she doesn’t remember participating Doing Something within our fan culture. in it. My second specific memory of Caroline comes from If there’s an abiding sense about Caroline’s theories, five years later, at the 1991 Eastercon in Glasgow, and this I think it’s that she wants both things and all of us – the time it entails a conversation – and perhaps a little bit of a state of life, SF and fandom – to be better. Because she’s berating. She was minding her partner Brian Ameringen’s seen it be good, and knows it can still be good, and still is table in the dealers’ room and I was browsing the stock and good, and we need to have a continuing conversation – making polite conversation about something or other – she’s big on the conversation, is Caroline – about ensuring Caroline is not the world’s greatest bookseller, as I fear we evolve to remain good. And that might be about she’s too fond of talking with customers at the expense of invigorating the London fan pub meetings, or where the extracting their money – and somewhere along the line Eastercon is going, or talking about how the traditional Caroline, who I doubt knew me at the time, ended up telling model for the convention book room works in the Age of me that really I should be wearing a gopher badge and the Kindle.