For Steve’s 50th year as a convention fan, he wanted to attend the closest one: Seattle 2025, the 83rd World convention. There is always a lot to do at a Worldcon, like panels, awards, parties, multi-track programming, films, get-togethers with old friends, etc. But Steve didn’t really do any of that. Read the column to find out why.
For his last column of 2023, Steve revisits (and revises) one he posted nine years ago. Is it still relevant? You decide.
Ah, conventions… and nametags—they go together like ham & swiss cheese! I’ve bookended my convention experiences in a way by showing a 38-year-old Spokon nametag and a new Spocon 2022 tag! Read the column to find out more.
Forty years ago, Steve (with more than A Little Help From His Friends) created MosCon. And It Was Good. But like the Living Dead, MosCon Returned! Is it Still Good? Read and find out! (Hint: You betcha!)
This week Steve repurposes and re-edits an old column, hoping it will be new to at least some of you. It’s all about conventions and nametags, anyway, so if you’re not interested, go watch the snow or something.
(Ed’s inside joke: No orcas yet…)
Steve tells you where to get a free SF book and revisits/rewrites an old column dealing with Worldcons and nametags and such.
For the last of his NaNoWriMo “redux“ columns, Steve finishes his look at Ace Doubles cover illustrators. Nostalgia, indeed! Good old stuff from the Good Old Days!
Steve reviews the current F&SF. It’s still a great magazine! Get it now while it’s still on the stands!
Steve reminisces about a writer he used to know. Maybe you know some of the things he’s done: meet Jerry Sohl!
MosCon was a Northwest Fannish Legend (perhaps in its own mind), and Steve takes you back to those “thrilling days of yesteryear,” as The Lone Ranger used to say.
This week Steve reviews books by Walter Mosley and Robert Charles Wilson. Good books!
Steve talks about artists and their Christmas cards. (Only a day late, right?) Merry Christmas!
This week’s piece covers the remainder of the main ACE Doubles cover artists and illustrators.
Steve takes us through the pages of Spacemen, Warren Publications second film-centered magazine helmed by the late, great, missed and lamented Forrest J. Ackerman.
Egoboo can be found in all kinds of strange places – including science fiction conventions!
Every con has a name badge, and most of them are well designed, like a little piece of art. Badge collecting is a great way to save convention memories
Fanzines: What the heck is a ‘zine, anyhow? Well, ‘zine (usually abbreviated without the apostrophe) is short for fanzine, which should be self-explanatory. Unless I’m very much mistaken, SF fans were the first ones to […]
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. He’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories, and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
Recent Comments