Russell KirkPatrick.com

Abbreviations as follows:
SFF = science fiction and fantasy
Con = convention
Natcon = National Convention (held annually and moved around)
Panel = Fans and authors sit on a panel and discuss a topic in front of an audience
BFF = Big Fat Fantasy (usually trilogies, can be longer)

I’m relatively new to science fiction and fantasy conventions (cons for short). The first one I went to was the 2004 New Zealand Natcon. I registered and sat down, and a gentleman with a casual attitude to personal hygiene plonked himself down next to me. He spent the next hour explaining to me how I wouldn’t be accepted by NZ fandom until I’d been to twenty years’ worth of conventions, how he’d lived for six months under a bridge, how my opinions were worth nothing, and exactly what furry fandom was all about.

Even though I was booked to present a session, I nearly left and went home. Thanks for the welcome, buddy.

Fortunately I also met an extremely gracious and knowledgeable fan who put me at ease. I won’t say who it was, because Ross Temple embarrasses easily, but his kind words and demeanour kept me from running away.

That, and the fact I was once heavily involved in a charismatic church. No convention could begin to approach the deep obnoxiousness I experienced on a regular basis in the church. Surely.

Highlight of the convention had to be the Guest of Honour, Greg Benford, coming over to me and asking if that was my map on the wall. Upon confirmation, he asked if I wrote SF or fantasy. I indicated the latter, whereupon his comment was: ‘what a waste.’

So. I learned a great deal about  SFF conventions and fandom and authors and anti-fantasy snobbishness that weekend. I’ve been to NZ natcons since and found the fans immensely friendly, knowledgeable and generous. Must have been my bad luck to strike Dr. Benford and Mr. Hygiene on my first time.

I’ve attended seven cons in Australia since the first in NZ. I found Conflux 1, 2 and 3 immensely enjoyable, naturally, as these cons have a literary bent, run as they are by Canberra writers. It took me about two minutes after I registered for my first Melbourne con, though, to realise I’d stumbled on something strange: the person who took my registration was wearing an ‘I am Not an Author’ T-shirt. As were others. It may have been an in-joke, as I later heard, but it made me feel a little – er, unwanted. So, forewarned, I kept quiet about being an author. Had a good time, too.

What did I find out in Melbourne? There’s an enormous – I’m not sure of the right word: Bitterness? Hatred? Too strong. Unease? Resentment? Never mind. There’s an enormous something between a number of senior Australian fans and SFF novelists. I mean senior – there’s a definite hierarchy in fandom. Not sure how it works – some esoteric amalgam of number of years as a fan, number of unpublished manuscripts in the drawer, number of small press publications, number of failed small presses – I’m being unkind, but the hierarchy is there all the same. As is the something. There have been murmurings against Conflux by Melburnians because it’s too literary and doesn’t cater for the fans. So this year the Natcon is in Melbourne, and there has been an attempt, it seems, to balance the scales. There’s relatively little offered for authors. That’ll fix ‘em. Fine. I’ll save my dollars.

What saddens me – and what has prompted this out-of-character blog – is that Glenda Larke is travelling from Malaysia to attend this natcon. She’s not wealthy. Malaysia isn’t an economic powerhouse. She was keen to catch up with her authorial and fandom friends. But because of the program devised for the Natcon, many of her authorial friends aren’t attending. Worse, she hadn’t (as of last week) been allocated any panels to be on.

Perhaps that’s it. Authors on panels, pimping their latest Tolkien knock-off. That’s how it’s seen by some in Aussie fandom, if discussions I’ve been party to are any indication. Why should fans go to the trouble of providing conventions that become little more than authorial marketing exercises?

Fair point. Which reminds me. Those who organise conventions do so as volunteers. Unpaid. It’s an enormous amount of work, and responsibility, and the reward is to be gossiped and blogged about. Trevor Stafford knows what I mean. All we con-goers owe a huge debt of thanks to organisers. Thanks; I mean it.

Still doesn’t stop me feeling uncomfortable, though, about Melbourne cons. I don’t like it when people don’t like me, not because of who I am, but because of what I am. Sort of like being hated for being gay or fat. ‘Ewww, look Mummy, there’s an author.' 'Don’t touch him, dear, it might be contagious.’ Having my books ridiculed by those who haven’t read them. (I can take ridicule from those who have read them; from a certain point of view, I am well aware they deserve ridicule.) ‘What do you write? BFF’s published by Voyager?’ Cue rolling of eyes.

You know what this is like? It’s just like church. We look at the Christian church and laugh, all those factions devoting so much energy to opposing each other. The so-called ‘anti-smacking’ bill went through NZ’s parliament a while back, amid demonstrations from Christian groups opposing and supporting it – and each other. A good look, I don’t think. I hated that aspect of church life, the continual running down of people who thought like us, but just a bit differently. That’s why I left.

Hey, senior Australian fans. I think like you, just a bit differently. It’s up to you whether you focus on the ‘like you’ or the ‘differently’.

Er, Russell, to be quite fair to Melbourne Con organisers - the reason I wasn't on any panels was entirely my own fault. As you may have noticed, I have been thororoughly immersed in the Malaysian rainforest with an attendant lack of internet connection over the past 5 weeks or so, and I simply never indicated that I wanted to be on any panels in spite of being asked. Once I returned to civilisation and my piles of emails, I asked to be put on 3 specific panels, which was instantly done, with the question of whether I would like to do another, which I think may have been the great debate. I turned that down because it wasn't something I know anything about (other media, and me not having a TV set or going much to movies.)

I must admit that the one Melbourne con I went to did have a bit of a strange atmosphere (the same one you went to) but I still had a great time thanks to those who attended.

My first con was WA's Swancon, where I was welcomed and made to feel right at home. It was lovely, and right there and then I decided I love SFF cons.

However, it does seem to me that at any con there are some fans who are not really fans of SFF at all, but fans of being fans. If that's what floats their boat, why not? They are sometimes among the most hard-working of organisers. It is a pity, though, when the antipathy some of them have towards authors spills over into programming and other things.

I feel that the present Melbourne organisers are having a hard time through no fault of their own, what with their writer guests falling ill. It must be tough when your drawcards fail you. And they are trying to appeal to a younger audience this time around, which is a good thing.

I am curious why they haven't asked Trudi to fill in the gap, seeing as she has emerged as a stellar author in the YA field, worldwide. If I were organising a con based on YA themes, one of my guests would have been Trudi, even though she doesn't write specifically for that group.

Well gosh, a few thoughts...
a) *blush*

b) You are still going to be at Conspiracy, right? Actually, I'm chairing a panel on Aussie fandom - there is room for one more if you are interested (seriously).

c) I have seen some of the attitudes you describe. To me its almost a generational thing rather than a fan/writer thing - "senior" as you say is a key word. But I plan to go to both the Melbourne con and the next Conflux.

d) I'm doing the welcome to your first con talk at conspiracy and I will be doing my very best to make everybody feel welcome regardless of how they express their interest in SFF (SF, fantasy, reader, gamer, author or whatever). I will try to prepare them for the odd bad experience without scaring them - I was there when you encountered Greg Benford, the experience is seared on my memory too.

There are a few reasons why I haven't been asked to 'fill the gap' at Convergence. Firstly, it was the international guest who fell ill - they still have Isobelle Carmody as a local guest writer. Secondly, I decided to keep my involvement to a minimum this year for several reasons, the biggest one being stressed to the nines over the House Extension From Hell, and told them not to put me on any panels. But I have to admit to being relieved. I don't think I'll ever feel at ease volunteering for Melbourne con panels after that Why Fantasy Is Crap panel. (Which was at the con I was a guest at - boy did that teach me a lesson.) It's Conflux I'm saving my limited time and energy for.

I suspect that Convergence this year is suffering a bad case of committee exhaustion. A lot of the really good organisers (who, as Russ noted, include a few anti-writer fans) are taking a rest. There are some new people taking up the reins and naturally that's going to involve some people learning the ropes as they go.

What I am looking forward to, is hanging out with all my friends who are visiting my home town and, of course, the guys from Orbit.

it lost my comment! It was *such* a nice comment, too. I said good things about everyone from conference organisers to New Zealanders.

Have another go, Gillian! With this blog it's best to compose a *long* comment elsewhere and import it - the blog seems to reset after a certain time limit.

Thanks, Glenda, for that. The flapping sound you can hear aremy sails without any wind in them. I should have asked you whether you'd volunteered for any panels. So, people can safely disregard that paragraph of my original rant.

Trudi, I'm still contemplating flying over just to meet the Orbit lot. I have the interclub golf finals on the Sunday - I wonder if it's doable?

Ross, I'd love to be on an Aussie fan panel. I'm a fan of many Aussies :). I'll definitely be there this weekend. Which reminds me - I'd better think of a title and blurb for my talk.

I should say nice things twice in a day? And in a teaching day at that? No. Not on. You're just going to have to imagine them. Besides, Ross will blush again.

It was such a pretty blush. I don't mind seeing it again.

I've been a reader of SFF for a long time, but a 'fan' only recently (since discovering blogs, really) and have never gone to a convention, just to let you know where I am coming from... Are there really fans who don't like authors??? Do they understand where the books come from?? Don't they understand that in order to write really bad fanfic you need to read someone else's work first??? Being from Queensland, all I can say is "those people in Melbourne have always been a little strange..."!!!!

Lots of fans don't read books, Jo. They might read short stories, or they might be into films and TV shows, or anime, or manga, or gaming like Warhammer, or just like hanging out with their friends. So authors aren't as central to the SFF fandom thing as one might expect.

But probably a little more important than some people make out.

Word, Russell. Just wordy wordy wordy word. I too have been treated like a little piece of nastiness scraped off one's shoe for daring to not only read but write BFF. By movers and shakers on the Oz scene. There is indeed a level of resentment and bitterness held towards authors in some quarters of the spec fic community. Now, I'm not saying all authors are pure as the driven snow and without certain behavioural characteristics that make you want to push them head first through a wall. Authors are human and we can have our off days and being an author does not excuse you also being a plonker. But I will never forget, shortly after the news came out that I'd got a 2 book deal with Voyager, being told by a Very Big Name in the Oz scene: "You're being published by Voyager? Yeah, but everyone knows Voyager only publishes shit."

Way to make the new girl feel welcome! Thanks for that!

Your point about the hierarchies is well made, and universally human. Also? Really tedious. You find it everywhere, not just in fandom/spec fic. I wish people would just get a clue. Spec fic is a big, big tent. You loving paranormal romance doesn't threaten me, so get over it!

And Trudi? Given the people behind that decision for that panel when you were a guest, no big surprise. But it was beyond rude, and a sad comment on the small mindedness of people who profess to love a genre that's all about The Big.

And Russ? Yes. Fly over for the day. If I can do it, you can do it!

These kind of attitudes are definately universal - I've just finished helping on the Mother's Day Craft Stall at my son's school (basically, group of mums sit in a room once a week making crappy craft items which we them proceed to emotionally blackmail the children into purchasing for their mothers to raise money for the school). The women in this group, some of whom had been doing this every year for nine years, were so bitchy, narrow-minded and unappreciative of help that it nearly put me off EVER volunteering for ANYTHING at the school again.

Well, I am truly gobsmacked at the comments posted here. To actually read that authors are treated like this is just ???? So, a Scifi convention is for all levels of the genre, gaming, manga, tv/film etc, BUT these are written in some form originally, arent they? I just cannot believe that someone who has so much talent, to write novels of any genre, that people read and enjoy world wide can be ridiculed like that and be made to feel so small. Russell knows that there is a very tiny chance I will read one of his books one day (I think I will...one day) but I sure do appreciate the fact that he is a published author who has a huge readership out there and is bringing them enjoyment. Do they not have conventions where it is just authors and fans?

Jo - you are right these attitudes do seem to be universal and they seem to stem from territorial instincts. In the case of SF fandom, way back in prehistory, there were "real" science fiction fans of "real" science fiction writers. Space ships, aliens, galactic empires written by big names from the US and England. Since then along have come these upstart fantasy writers, gamers and the like. What's more these areas have had the temerity to actually be more popular that the "original and proper" form of the genre. It becomes even more strained in Australia because these new guys become writers and start using terms like "speculative fiction". It is from the resentment from this invasion of territory that behaviour like Russell & others describe arises.

Just why fans in New Zealand, Canberra, Brisbane & Perth can get past this and encompass change more gracefully than Melbourne is a whole other question. It could be a factor that SF fandom in Melbourne has been established for longer and without interruption (an important factor in NZ) than those other places.

Ross, please refer to my earlier comment about Melbourne people - up here in god's own country, we have a saying that the only good thing about New South Wales is that it keeps Victoria away from Queensland (parochial??? *puzzled expression* is that some kind of foreign cheese???).

I just love the fact that all you authors seem to be so friendly towards each other, reading each other's blogs, etc. It makes for a feeling of community of which I feel quite chuffed to lurk on the edges. I'm betting that Asimov and Clarke wouldn't have minded 'speculative fiction', and they were the hardest of hard science fiction writers there were!!

PS. Linda, we should have a convention just for people who post to Russell's blog, we are obviously a group of such intelligent, open-minded, witty, literate and attractive people... (would you lot stop laughing!!!)

Ross makes a good point. People like myself have invaded a territory not originally ours. I was well aware of that going to my first conventions, particularly the Australian ones: as a New Zealander, a new fantasy writer, and someone who had not previously been involved in fandom, I felt I needed to be careful. And, with only a few exceptions, people were generous and came to listen to me rabbit on.

Not everyone copes with change well, I guess. Not sure how I'd feel if the genre suddenly became SFFR and romance writers began to dominate conventions. Still, senior fans and convention organisers are helping to shape the genre in Australia, and I'd like to see the pettiness factor disappear.

I think that most of it is shyness rather than pettiness. Every single older style fan I've got to know has been entirely awesome and also without most of the biasses people impute. And none of them have really, really known what to make of the vast numbers of professional writers who have appeared over the last ten years - and it is more then there have ever been in Oz at once. To get a sense of what they're expecting from fandom, read some of the establishment 'zines. You'll find intellect, humour and a sense of how things fit together. The intllect doesn't work from a 'how writers do things' point of view, but from a 'what can we read into things,' which is why groups of writers talking and groups of old-fashioned fen talking might have the subject in common and still be in different worlds.

I was thinking back to that Melbourne convention and wondering if it weren't the Neil Gaiman one? If it was, the older fans were sidelined by the Gaiman followers - they were in the worst position of anyone.

In other words: things are not what they seem.

I don't doubt you, Gillian. I'm sure each of the senior fans are excellent, and I've spoken to a few of them and found them approachable and good fun. But I'm hearing anti-author noises - and anti-Conflux noises - and my point is that we can do better.

I'm feeling a little awkward now, in that this blog could be seen as an anti-fan noise. I don't mean it to be that way. I'm about to collapse under my burgeoning guilt and repudiate all of what I said in the original blog.

No, it wasn't the Gaiman con, Gillian. This was earlier, 2004, I think. Continuum? I can't remember if my memory is as good as it used to be.

No, no, you make some very valid points there, Russell. Mind you, as authors, I feel we have an important obligation not to be plonkers when we're out on parade. It could well be that some of the anti-author sentiment arises from plonkish behaviour. I trust you to sit on me from a great height should you espy any said plonkish behaviour from this little black duck!!!

And the point about resentment over fantasy is also well made. But things change. And fans need to appreciate that. It's not fantasy writers' fault that fantasy outsells sf. Or at least, certain kinds of sf. I'm a fan and a writer. I fully expect to go all out geekgirl at the Worldcon next year. I don't see why it all can't just mishmash in there together.

You're right. The pettiness has to stop, or the experience is spoiled for everyone. Fandom is a Big Tent, and everyone should be welcome.

The anti-Conflux bit explains why I don't hear it: it would be very not nice to be anti-Conflux to a Conflux committee person's face.

Just one thing confuses me...

Karen keep referring to being a plonker like it's a bad thing. Personally, I'm more likely to be a bit of a plonker at a con, since people do insist on buying me plonk - glasses of champagne or wine or port or gin & tonics or...

Is this a Sydney thing? Have we stumbled upon cultural differences in slang between our two states?

I think plonker's British, Trudi. And since I don't drink plonk ... *g*

Gillian, don't worry. Sooner or later, someone will be anti-Conflux to your face.

Anyone who's anti-Conflux to my face doesn't get chocolate. Apparently I will have very nice choc for Convergence, though we have no idea how my sister's going to get it to me.

I'm anti Conflux. I can't afford to go. So I hearby state that it will be a lousy con, so there....*sniff*. And I shall still worm some chocolate out of Gillian.

The very first con I went to was the month of the launch of my first Oz published book. Basically, no one had ever heard of me, and they were kinda of taken aback when I turned up in their midst.

I can see why - they, the fans, had been writing for years, running cons, attending or giving workshops, trying to publicise the genre, etc, etc, and all of a sudden someone steps in from outside with a published book under their arm saying, hey, look at me.

Someone - I forget who - grilled me a bit, but having ascertained that I had in fact been writing fiction for 50 years, and having heard how the rug was pulled from under my feet with my first book, made it clear I was welcome in the fold. "You have paid your dues," they said, and all was forgiven...

I can understand that. And truth be told, had I been living in Oz, I would have been one of them anyway

Now everyone needs to come to Convergence to protect me from Glenda trying to get chocolate :).

*cough*

plonker=dope, dolt, idiot, buffoon... or penis.

Also a wino.

Really, pretty much the majority of fandom.

Yes! Everyone go to Convergence! I am all for that...

It's sad to hear that this sort of thing is happening to people. I would hate for people to think there's a Convergence versus Conflux thing going on - there certainly isn't from the Conflux committee's point of view. We are well aware that we're a more literary con, because most of us organising it are writers who aren't long term fans, and I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. Why can't there be a more literary con, and one more in the tradition of old-time fandom, and one specifically about authors, and so on? Something for everyone. Gosh, if every convention was the same, and did the same stuff, why go to more than one?

As far as I'm concerned, Convergence is the natcon and in my mind, that makes them the number one convention in Australia. Next year, it will be Swancon and so on. Conflux will continue to try to put on cons that are entertaining, interesting and well worth coming along to. It's as simple as that.

And for those people going to Convergence, Conflux will be offering a special price for you, so make sure you pop into the dealers room to see me. And while you're there, buy some books from Donna :)

Nicole aka Conflux 4 Chair

A bit late for for me...but gee...wow...Russell. You realy went for it didn't you.

There are three things here...

dirty pros...you are one of those...so techincally you aren't a fan...you're the talent that goes on panels.

Fans...old fans...the ones that wear the t-shirts. I don't think they are anti fantasy at all. Most of them love Star Trek and real, good old fashioned Authur C Clarke and Asimov. They've been fans since the day they there were born.

Then there's the new fans...a lot are aspiring writers. Some have been aspiring for 10 years or more and the bitterness is beginning to show. I think it is here that you find the discontent about Voyager, BFF etc.

If you are published you are pro...no longer permitted into the hallowed halls of fandom...

Unpublished (I mean mainstream novels) then you with the rest of us.

I'm not worried about the anti-Conflux crap. The ones that don't like it, don't come...and never did to tell the truth. Those that like it come...some of those live with the literary focus and have a good time anyway. It is part of the Canberra flavour.

Now did I manage to get my argument to go in every direction?

Hugs!

kxqqL1 <a href="http://fzlmijxdxyvm.com/">fzlmijxdxyvm</a>, [url=http://dnuxsnbzlccl.com/]dnuxsnbzlccl[/url], [link=http://wegrgisswnvk.com/]wegrgisswnvk[/link], http://cflovimvksul.com/