Biography of David Speakman, a Fan
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other, but they did it out of family expectations and obligation to raise the child. Two months after their marriage, mom miscarried. My Dad never forgave her. He didn’t want to marry her to begin with. It appears that at the time he got my mom pregnant, he was dating two other girls, one of which he like better than Mom. ISSUE 1 – September 15, 2008 But Grandpa was a Teamster with a temper and big muscles and Welcome to Issue #1 of “Devoid Specimen” – my new APA zine. I the type you didn’t want to cross. So, Dad married Mom. But that dumped the first name – FanDominion due to the fact it has been doesn’t mean he liked it – or was willing to give up his penchant transmogrified into a general webzine for N3F. for extra-marital girlfriends. I figure my writing here and there needs to have different identities Three years later, my oldest brother was born. By 1963, they had 4 so as not to confuse folks (mostly me). kids – two boys and two girls. Then the birth control pill was invented and my mom went on that. Please forgive the nature of this issue. It’s not a very auspicious start, but I’m in the midst of the start of my 3rd year of law school After 5 years, the doctor told my mom she needed to take a break so I’m in a semi-FAFIA due to academic demands. from the hormones in The Pill because of health reasons. She stopped taking in April 1967. As I write this, I am stealing away time that would be better suited to reading a Constitutional Law case book. As I am feeling I was conceived on May 4, 1967. My mom knows this because by naughty for doing this, I best get on with this zine and get it over that time she and Dad weren’t intimate very often – and it was one with. (Sorry no LOCs, I’ll double up next ish) of my brother’s birthdays, so she knows the exact date. Reading over past issues of this APA, I noticed that everyone – except me – gave a biography of who they were, and a rundown of their interests and ties with fandom. Being that I am a man – I’ll start out with my favorite topic: me. Biography of David Speakman, a fan I turned 40 this year. And as I type this, I’m closer to my 41st birthday than my 40th. So, let’s start at the beginning of me. My parents were forced to get married because my mom got pregnant at age 17 in 1956. Back then pregnant girls were made to drop out of high school. My mom was two months pregnant when I was born exactly 9 months later on February 4, 1968 in Fort my parents married; neither of them really wanted to wed the Wayne, Indiana. This is the town where Stephen King spent some formative years of his childhood – and it inspired the short story, “The Body,” which was turned into the film, “Stand by Me.” Rising Sign is in 02 Degrees Scorpio You tend to be quiet, reserved, secretive and, at times, Back to me. In numerology – which I do not know anything about; quite difficult to understand. Others notice your deep my birthday comes out to 2-4-68. It’s probably a bad omen. emotions and feelings and wonder how to draw you out. Stubborn and tough, you fight for any position you believe in. You are very resourceful and formidable when you For you astrologically inclined, I’m an Aquarius with a Scorpio become angered or upset about something. You enjoy Rising Sign. I do know something about this due to the Internet. living life at the cutting edge -- for you life must be experienced intensely and totally. Quite courageous, you According to one website, this combination and its associated and are willing to take calculated risks. Easily hurt by others, way-too-complex chart mean: you often strike back with bitter sarcasm. Sensitive and curious, you are concerned with the deeper mysteries of human psychology. Once you have become interested in any subject, you pursue it with total fanaticism. Sun is in 14 Degrees Aquarius. You get bored with the status quo and are generally open to new things and ideas. An individualist and a free spirit, your friends are quite important to you as long as they do not try to tie you down by making too many emotional demands on you. Your thoughts are offbeat and you're a bit eccentric, but not always very changeable. As a matter of fact, you can be quite stubborn at times. Very fair-minded when dealing with large groups or broad issues, you are not always emotionally sensitive to the needs of individuals. Extremely objective, with good powers of observation, you would be qualified to study technical and complicated subjects, like science, computers or maybe even astrology. So, I guess you could say my fannishness was written in the stars. Do I believe in astrology? No. But I’m fascinated by it, just like I am by most mythologies. Anyway, after me, my Mom and Dad had one more kid – my younger sister. That makes three boys and three girls – in the same order and age range as the Brady Bunch (where I would be Bobby Brady). although farmers drained that wetland long ago and most of Some of my earliest memories of that time before I started the swamp critters went extinct – supposedly the Beast of kindergarten were watching daytime reruns of Bewitched and Wild Busco survives to this day. Wild West and later sneaking out of bed and sitting on the stairwell trying to stay up That legend warped me but good as a child. And it sparked my with my mom – imagination and interest in cryptozoology. As a kid, I loved the unbeknownst to her legend of Sasquatch (Big Foot) and Yeti, the Loch Ness monster - to watch Star Trek and any other modern mythological creature. (Although I still reruns and Night believe the Beat of Busco existed – probably a subspecies of Gallery after the Alligator Snapping Turtle, as they can get to be hundreds of evening news, the pounds and as big as a harvest table.) latter show scared her more than me Living in Busco, I was labeled as a nerd fairly quickly. And by the once we got past the time puberty hit among my peers in the early 1980s, I was called creepy paintings. “fag” or “queer” every day until I moved away to go to college in 1986. Usually, Mom new I was there and eventually gave up trying to get me to go to bed. Our nightly ritual was she would make popcorn Not a glutton for social torture, in high and we’d watch the late night sci-fi shows together. school, I gave up on making friends and just buried myself in books by writers Dad, a fireman, was never home at night. He said it was “work.” who wrote stories about outcast young people who went on to do great things – Mom filed for divorce from my dad two years after my little sister Heinlein, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Brian was born. She got the kids and the house. When I was 6, she sold Aldus, David Eddings and Phillip Jose the house and moved all six of us to a little town called Farmer. Churubusco which is about 12 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. (It was at this time I ran across an Two things are notable about Churubusco (which is called “Busco” advertisement for N3F in an issue of one by the locals): of my science fiction magazines. I joined and stayed in until the early 1990s when 1. From K-12 you went to different parts of the same school my career and lack of money forced me into a 10-year FAFIA.) building. The town had fewer than 2,000 people and everyone knew everyone else. Once you were categorized, Even though I was called homosexual slurs in high school, I didn’t you were stuck in that niche for the rest of your life. think I was gay at all. I had never met any gay people – but I had 2. The town has a local legend, the “Beast of Busco” a giant seen what were called gay people on TV – on shows like “Soap” shelled reptile that supposedly lives in the bottom of one of and “Barney Miller” – where they dressed in women’s clothes or the many swampy muck-bottom lakes in the area. wanted sex change operations. Geographically, Churubusco lies on the western edge of what was once called the Great Black Swamp. And Being that I had no desire to wear dresses or get a sex change, I A very proud Hoosier, I had no intention to leave the Midwest. The knew I couldn’t be gay. I just wrote off my lack of interest in girls thought of moving to California was not a pleasant one for me. to the very small selection in my teeny little town and that I hadn’t And as a non-stereotypical gay guy – to move to the San Francisco found the “right girl” yet. Bay Area was unmentionable. Then I went to college at Ball State University and met actual But in 1997, I was working as a dead-end job as an Assignment real-life gay people – and gay science fiction nerds.