“What a Timelord you’d have made.” -- Ray Holloway ”
Coming Around Again
As many of you are aware, I administer two events each autumn: the Delta Film Award (which is why I’ll be heading up to Manchester in ten days’ time) and the Nova Awards, presented every Novacon to the British or Irish fanzine editor(s), writer and artist deemed most worthy of applause for their work that year. Whilst the former has slowly built up an international reputation and a steady flow of entries, the latter has struggled over the past decade and only narrowly avoided complete cancellation on several occasions thanks to a mix of nostalgia and a vague conviction that the slump in voting figures could be turned around. Well, we’ve reached a tipping point. Thanks to John Harvey, the Nova Awards ballot form is now available online; in addition, voting has been opened to any fan currently resident in either the UK or Eire, provided they’ve read at least six eligible titles (no hardship, given most are available via eFanzines). If we don’t get a decent turnout this year, we never will. I’m currently aware of more than thirty fanzines in the running: Andromeda's Offspring (edited by Theresa Derwin), Ansible (Dave Langford), The Banksoniain (David Haddock), Banana Wings (Claire Brialey, Mark Plummer), Beam (Nic Farey, Jim Mowatt), Boomchickawahwah! (Graham Charnock), BW (Claire Brialey, Mark Plummer), Data Dump (Steve Sneyd), Detritus (Chuck Connor, Rodney Leigh- ton), Eat That Duck and Eric the Mole (both Ron Gemmell), Exhibition Hall (James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Ariane Wolfe), Fanzine Fantastique (Keith & Rosemary Walker), The FFix (and The Fortnightly Fix ), Fourth Age Lembas (Sandra Bond), Griff (Ian Milsted), Gross Encounters (Alan Dorey), Head (Doug Bell, Christina Lake), Journey Planet (James Bacon, Chris Garcia), Inca (Rob Jackson), The Little Book of 42s (Carrie & Jim Mowatt), A Meara For Observers (Mike Meara), Motorway Dreamer (John Nielsen Hall), No Sin But Ignorance (Claire Brialey), Nowhere Fan (Christina Lake), Pips (Jim Mowatt), Procrastinations (John Coxon), Quantum B*llocks (Jinnie Cracknell), Raucous Caucus (Pat Charnock), Relapse (Peter Weston), Science Fact and Science Fiction Concatenation (Jonathan Cowie), Theresa For TAFF Newsletter (Theresa Derwin), Tiny TAFFzine (Jim Mowatt), Unreliable Narrator (Doug Bell). Easily one of the best line-ups in years. The ballot form is available at http://www.novacon.org.uk/nova_award_ballot . If you fit the eligibility status, please consider voting. If not, this could be my final stint at the helm.
Down the Loccol
● Ray Holloway: “Just been chatting to one of my supplier reps: he’s recently back from Poland, attending his son’s nuptials to one of the local girls. While he was there, he went on a solemn trip to one of the local landmarks, and was as gobsmacked as I was when he im- parted this, to hear it’s now a regular venue for ‘last night of freedom’ parties. Seriously... would have your stag do in Auschwitz ????”
● Marilyn Holt: “ FFix #32 reminded me that we met f2f for the first and only time when you came to Seattle for TAFF. I enjoyed meeting you. When I read The FFix and other pieces you write, I hear you. I so enjoy having you visit here, even if it is electronically.”
● Matt Bird: “Because I am, if nothing else, an obsessive soul, this reminder led me to read the latest issue (great stuff, still, and nice to see a focus on the personal, though capsule movie reviews would still be welcome if time allowed), and following that, I felt I had to read each previous issue, too, in reverse order. Tempus really does fugit, especially if you're experiencing it in fortnightly (at best) fanzine format.”
● Andy Darlington: “Good to browse the new FFix . Always great to get updates from wher- ever your head is. Don’t know where mine is today. Know I left it around here someplace... dunno, oh well... I guess it’ll come to me. “Confusions free-falling sky-wise. In-laws across from San Francisco wanting to see what glories god’s own county has to offer, so we do the travel-guide bit through sun-blitzed Yorkshire on fast-forward. You can probably guess. Places we’ve been before stretched across decades, compressed into a week. Recall sitting outside the Black Bull, the Haworth hostelry where Branwell Brontë would sup, and by way of entertainment it’s this night offering a ‘Meatloaf Tribute Band’. What would the young poet make of that, pray tell? So yes, talking music – which we weren’t - you get to see buskers playing real good for free in the city-centre precinct or beside the subway entry. If you like it, you can toss them 50p, but it’s not obligatory. During our Yorkshire sojourn, watched a young busker – in his early twenties, maybe - stood outside the closed HMV in Wakefield, singing ‘Streets Of London’. Isn’t that, like, some kind of joke? Don’t all Buskers do ‘Streets Of London’? Isn’t it written into some secret contract signed with the Devil at the Crossroads at midnight? Or wasn’t he aware of the irony? Had he just discovered the song for himself in his Dad’s old vinyl record collection in the attic and thought, ‘Hey, this is a cool song with a neat bit of social bite to it’? I was tempted to ask. But didn’t. Just tossed the 50p. Ho-hum.”
It’s nearly five years since I was last in North Yorkshire (the occasion was my scattering Ann’s ashes surreptitiously in the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey). I’m hoping to get up there again sometime soon, maybe in the spring, at the cottage Ann and I used to rent.
● Milt Stevens: “My reactions haven’t yet adjusted to electronic fanzines like FFix #32. An electronic fanzine arrives in my inbox and disappears off the top of the screen in a few days. It’s not like a paper fanzine that sits there and glares at me until I do something. The whole relationship with an electronic fanzine is more abstract. “I’ve never tried using dictation software. When I was in college, they said there were 375 varieties of American English. I suppose there might be around 2000 varieties of English word wide. Which ones do the software designers use for their dictation software? “In a totalitarian state, there might be a campaign to make people pronounce words so the machines could spell correctly. Strange results would be guaranteed. Dissidents begin mispronouncing words just to show their disdain for the government. A rebel manages to reprogram the dictation software to translate everything into Swedish. The government grinds to a halt and collapses. “I’ve sometimes suspected my spell checker was trying to get me into a feud. For instance, it wanted to change ‘Mike Resnick’ to ‘Mike Redneck’. You have to watch spell checkers.”
● Phil Greenaway: “Going back to running Novacon eh? “They say you should never go back. They say that in the same way that they say that you should never get flung into a prison cell wearing a saucy nurse's uniform with three beefy lifers, one of whom has acquired the nickname ‘Spread ’em Cheeks Charlie’. “They are right. “But sometimes the road you're on heads back to the motorway service station of destiny and the three-day-old dried up ham, cheese and tomato sandwich of fate. “You really don't have a choice. “Good luck: hope it goes amazingly well for you.”
● Lloyd Penney: “Once again, our condolences on the loss of Ann. Not an anniversary to celebrate, but a marker of how life happens and carries on, and how you must carry on, too. “Going through Ann’s possessions must be difficult, especially jewelry, which can recall events where they were worn. You must move at the pace most comfortable for you, and no one should urge you to go any faster. “You’re chairing the 2014 Novacon? I’d love to be there. We are hoping to go to Loncon, but if we cannot, perhaps we could go to Novacon or Eastercon in 2015. We do want to go to the UK: myself, I haven’t been there since 1968; for Yvonne, it’s a dream to go to the UK since she was a teenager. “Just wondering... after seeing Facebook messages from Theresa Derwin, are you assisting her with Andromeda One? A new convention is a challenge for anyone, and I hope she’s got someone with experience at least advising her.”
Unfortunately, Andromeda One clashed with another event I’d already committed to, but I have been asked to offer assistance with next year’s instalment.
● I also heard from: Adrian Middleton; Theresa Derwin; Jonathan Cowie; Paul Birch; Rog Peyton; Teddy Harvia (“ The FFix arrived complete and unabridged. If it is an email, at least it is a personal email, whatever that means.”); Chris Holmes; Lorely Burt MP (“I wish I had such an erudite turn of phrase!”).
This thirty-third edition of The FFix is dated Wednesday, 11 September 2013. Edited by Steve Green, [email protected] . Logo by Pete Lyon; artwork by Chris Holmes. My usual thanks to Bill Burns for hosting at eFanzines.com . This has been a Gutter Press production; guaranteed not tested on animals, just fanzine fans.
Andromeda One is a one-day SF, fantasy and horror convention taking place on Saturday 21st September 2013 from 11am to 22:00pm with Dealer's Room open at 09:00am and early bird kaffeeklatches from 08:3am.
Taking place at the Custard Factory in Birmingham, it brings together a host of science- fiction, fantasy and horror writers and publishers for a day loaded with book launches, kaffeeklatches, panels, signings, writing and publishing workshops and much more.
Single Tickets are £25 each; Group Tickets (for up to five people) are £100. Prices held until 9th August 2013.
Prices go up 10th August 2013 to £27.00 or Group ticket £110.00
GUESTS OF HONOUR include Paul Cornell and Jaine Fenn.
Plus sessions with an impressive range of speakers: Chris Amies, Jacey Bedford, Misa Buckley (SFR) Mike Chinn, Theresa Derwin, Jan Edwards (Alchemy Press & Editor/Writer) Janet Edwards SF Writer, Simon Marshall-Jones of Spectral Press, Adrian Middleton, Stan Nicholls & Anne Gay/Nicholls, Mark West and Ian Whates.
Book your tickets now at http://terror-tree.co.uk/andromeda-one/