In which a new fanzine is born (maybe)

The reason I got to try out Zookas yesterday is because I was hanging around town to attend the Texas State Science Fiction and Fantasy Society meeting. I'm a staff advisor for them. Attendance wasn't great, because there was a Japanese cultural expo going on across the student center, which I'd forgotten about (embarrassing, since I'd wanted to go and even wrote the media releases for the event). But it was a productive meeting. The last fundraiser they staged actually made money (as opposed to losing money, a they have an unfortunate tradition of doing). They also discussed becoming more goal/even oriented. Meetings are currently more of a social occasion, and they don't generally have anything in particular they work towards, as opposed to, say, Cepheid Variable, which puts on Aggiecon. SFFS is too small a committee with too miniscule finances to resurrect the long-dead San MarCon, but the possibility of bringing in a major writer such as Bruce Sterling or Elizabeth Moon for a guest lecture and book signing was floated as a possibility. The Southwestern Writers Collection does this sort of thing regularly, so some sort of co-sponsorship agreement could possibly be arranged.

Elizabeth Lowe, the SFFS secretary, also announced that she was going to be launching a fanzine, and invited submissions. She's going to publish in honest-to-goodness paper copies. I think it's a brilliant idea. She wants reviews, fiction, commentary, art, cartoons--pretty much anything under the sun. Eclectic is in. Fanzines have a long and stories history in science fiction fandom, and served to link like-minded individuals way back in the dark ages before everyone had DSL. Julie Schwartz launched one of the first SF fanzines, and went on to much bigger things. Bruce Sterling published The Cheap Truth. That's pretty heady company. I think a fanzine would give the committee something tangible to work toward, and also teach useful production and editing techniques. Maybe. That last bit isn't guaranteed, but it's a possibility. At any rate, I'm behind this in a big way, and will probably contribute an article or something to help get the first issue off the ground.

Gosh, I hope I don't get a rejection!

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