There are times when I suspect that I am not the greatest intellect who ever put peanut butter on a banana. There are even times when I feel young and foolish. This, as it happens, is one of those times.
Just a few months ago I was celebrating the fifth anniversary of my fanzine, MOTA. Five years, I thought, is a Long Time for a fanzine to be published. Now ... now I find myself working on SCIENCE FICTION FIVE-YEARLY, a fanzine which celebrates five years of publishing with each issue. The realization that I am assistant editor for the 25th anniversary issue of SFFY is quite unnerving. (If you hold this package close to your ear, you can hear my knees knocking. Make sure the ink is dry first, though.) SCIENCE FICTION FIVE-YEARLY has been published for twenty-five years, always on schedule, always featuring the latest in lustrumly science fiction.
When LeeH asked me to be assistant editor/publisher for this issue, I felt very honored and I eagerly accepted. Since I've been assistant editor for AMAZING and FANTASTIC for a couple of years, I felt this experience should enable me to meet whatever demands SFFY might make of me. Then LeeH told me I had to write an editorial. *!!!* What about? "It is Tradition," Lee Hoffman told me, "that the editorial of SFFY deals with the problems of duplicating this issue."
Tradition. There's a word for you. "Tradition" makes me think of the flag waving in the April breezes, of the national anthem being played on a tuba, and of police officers every way I turn. The only hitch is that I haven't run off any of the issue yet so I don't know what problems I will encounter. Since I've never used white paper before, anything could happen and probably will. My Gestetner has been running fine, occasionally dribbling ink down the side of the tube from a leak in the ink-feeding mechanism somewhere above, but running fine. If I'm to write about duper problems, then I'm going to have to make them up, deviating completely from my long record of absolutely factual reporting. Such fabrication just might jinx the old Gestetner and insure disaster. It would be like a sports announcer saying a pitcher is having a perfect baseball game -- no hits, no walks, no errors -- and you know then that the next ball he throws will be slammed for a home run. It would be like allowing Gerald Ford to enter a store filled with fine china and crystal.
Anyway you have the completed product in your hands now, you've read the issue, so I'll let you the reports on duplicating problems. This, in the fan world, is known as readership participation. In mundane life it's called passing the buck.
Otherwise, things are going according to plan. We've split the work load so that Editor Hoffman takes care of the content (contributions, etc.) while Assistant Editor Hughes handles the physical package stenciling, duplicating, etc.). Since we divided the work, we also intend to divide the egoboo. LeeH gets the letters praising the fine fannish contributions and those commenting on the obvious presence of an editorial hand on SFFY. I get the letters commenting on the obvious presence of an editorial hand on SFFY which smeared the ink on a page. I also get those asking if Ye Ass't Ed knows how to collate, or how to slipsheet, or how to spell. (The answer in each case is no.)
Since I am assistant editor for three world-famous science fiction publications (AMAZING, FANTASTIC and SCIENCE FICTION FIVE-YEARLY), I was of the opinion that assistant editors must be rare and uncommon. I said as much to LeeH.
"LeeH," I said, "I am of the opinion that assistant editors must be rare and uncommon."
"No, Terry, assistant editors are very common," said Lee Hoffman. "There's one born every minute."
I wonder what she meant by that?
-- Terry Hughes
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This valuable object might be mistaken
by the Unaware as a space filler or a
desperate attempt to keep this page
from being half empty. Nothing could
be further from the truth. This is number
six in the Bicentennial Series of Numbers
Which Made America Famous. Think about
it: where would America be without the
number six? Once you do, you'll realize
the tremendous importance of this
Bicentennial Series of Numbers Which Made
America Famous, soon to be a collectors' item
at a museum near you. Collect all 200!
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Hard copy provided by Geri Sullivan
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated August 29, 2002. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.