Where did that decade go?

[julesjones]

This weekend marks ten years since I was bitten by the writing bug. I went to a science fiction con, and saw my first fanfiction zines, ones for a political sf show from the BBC. Something clicked, and not long after that, I started writing my own fanfic stories. And submitting them to zines with editors who edited. The first story I ever wrote was submitted to someone who tore it apart, showed me why it didn't work -- and how to fix it. I learnt a lot from that, however painful it might have been at the time, and when I started writing original fiction three years later it showed. I sold the second original story I wrote, to the second editor I submitted it to. For forty two pounds, a number which amused me and will amuse a lot of other science fiction fans.

Ten years on, and I've got ten books out with a small press. It's still mostly political sf crossed with gay romance, and it's still a lot of fun to write. I hope everyone else has had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Cheers.

Comments

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your anniversary! I wish I were as prolific - ten books in ten years is pretty good going.

You've got me trying to recall when I started, now. I know I joined Fc in autumn 2000. I'd only written one thing before then, which was on Liberated at the time, and I think I'd sent that to whoever then ran the site in January 2006. So I've got a while to go until my 10 years in fandom...

[julesjones]

It's a bit of a cheat, in that one of the books is a short story published as a very *small* book, and some of the others are novellas. I think all of them together still add up to one of Mary Gentle's recent doorstops -- rasfc has the unofficial unit of the Ash for measuring how heavy a book is or isn't. :-)

I haven't written any fanfic in the last four years, although it's not obvious that it's that long because some of them didn't come out in zines until a couple of years later, and I was still editing zines for another two years after I stopped writing. But there are one or two unpublished ones that might see an appearance with the serial numbers filed off, and then there's that Avon/Turing HEX I've been mumbling about for years...

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

The tenth anniversary of my arrival on Lysator and Space City must have passed a few months ago, because this weekend is ten years since my first con - Who's 7 '96. I remember because the clocks went back. So I presume that's where julesjones got bitten, though I don't remember meeting her in person until we shared a room at Neutral Zone in early 1998. Happy Anniversary [to her]!

[julesjones]

Yup, it was Who's 7 96, which was my third ever con. My first was Neutral Zone 96 (which is where I first met Gareth, so I've actually known him longer than I've known most of the fans), and my second was the first Discworld con. But I didn't get a home internet account and join the B7 lists and afp until sometime around April or May 97. (Though I was intermittently reading the Lyst archives for some months before then whenever I had web access via Other Half's access at work, and corresponding with watervole via my work email account after I met her at Who's 7.)

watervole is one of the few people I can actually remember from that con, because I didn't know anyone at the time apart from Gareth. But it's hard to forget the person who spent some time persuading me to try a slashzine. At the time I didn't quite like to say out loud in public that the reason I wasn't entirely certain about the idea of A/B was that I simply didn't see Avon as gay, and that yes, I did actually like the idea of two guys in bed. Liked it quite a lot, in fact. :-)

I was so glad the clocks went back that weekend, because I'd been helping Gareth prop up the bar on Saturday night, and didn't go to bed until around 2:30. The extra hour in bed the next morning was much appreciated.

Remember the guy who phoned our room at NZ at 3 am with the demand to speak to Paul? "Are you *sure* Paul isn't there?" And I hung up, and we looked at each other, and said, "We wish..."

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

How could I forget? Particularly given that Paul was at the con, wasn't he?

Who's 7 '96 was where I first met watervole and steverogerson. And Pred (not sure if she's on LJ?) And there were a lot of other people who I found out later had been there, but I missed them.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

And Pred (not sure if she's on LJ?)

I think she still is, though she rarely posts.

[julesjones]

He'd been there the year before, but I don't think he was there that year. Of course, a week later we were all at Deliverance...

Pred's at predatrix, although it only gets updated about once a quarter, usually after I have nagged her for several days in a row.

I know that a lot of people I knew later on were at the con and I'm sure I talked to a lot of them, but I can only remember a few who stood out for various reasons. watervole, for the dealer's table and the Just A Minute game. David "Servalan" Walsh, for being David "Servalan" Walsh. :-) lexin and the_magician for various committeeish things, not least of which being the breakfast conversation in which it became apparent that they *had* noticed a steward doing her best to stop a crowd blocking the fire exits, and had marked it down for future reference when looking for arms to twist. (Though nobody has yet managed to twist my arm hard enough to get me onto a concom. I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not going on a concom.) Val Westall, who noticed me drooling over a zine cover, and got a photocopy of her own copy when she got home and posted it to me. Gareth, who seriously startled me by remembering me from a con six months earlier. That man's got a prodigous memory. Saturday night in the bar was the first time I saw him pull his trick of demonstrating acting by scaring someone half to death. I have a feeling I may have met temeres as well, but may be confusing it with a later con at the same hotel. If I dug out my prgramme book and checked the panels I'd probably turn up a few more people I remember as panelists even if I didn't know them at the time.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I think I did meet temeres. Or did I? It's a bit blurred. I remember someone else, who was around on the lists at that time, kindly drove some of us into town to look for a restaurant, but we couldn't agree on the restaurant so split our forces. But now I've forgotten her name, which is sad. Someone tried to teach me to juggle. And Chris B was there, of course, that was when we played our first cricket match.