Another year, another blog, eh? Over the past few years I've started and abandoned several blogs - often after only two or three posts. Probably the longest-lived of these was my chocolate review blog (chocgourmand.wordpress.com - it's still there), but even that passed its best-before date eventually.
All my previous blogs have been themed. Chocolate, origami, music (two of those), and even a vasectomy diary, which although gratifying for the appreciative responses it generated, was by its nature a time-limited venture. And I think that's been the problem. I get the urge to write something quite frequently, but usually the topic I want to write about doesn't fit whichever blog theme(s) I'm currently running at the time. But I hope this new blog will provide me with a solution to this...
Way back in the day (OK, the early 1980s, to be precise) I was active, in a small way, in British science-fiction fandom, attending local fan group meetings, attending (and in some cases, helping to run) science-fiction conventions, and (here's the important bit) reading, publishing and exchanging science-fiction FANZINES. These were small-circulation amateur magazines, printed sometimes by photocopying but more often by the gloriously primitive process of running wax stencils through hand-cranked duplicators made by Roneo, or more often Gestetner. Fanzines were rarely sold, but more often made available for "the usual", this being either contributions, letters of comment, expression of interest, or - the key factor - swapping for someone else's fanzine. Copies could also be procured via "editorial whim", to cover everything from buying the editor a pint to (in our dreams) sexual favours!
Fanzines (and, yes, science fiction fanzines existed l-o-o-n-g before music fanzines, football fanzines, or any other johnny-come-lately genres) could be either sercon (SERious and CONstructive - book reviews, academic essays, critical analysis etc.) or fannish, the latter concerning themselves with gossip from the fan community, humorous pieces, essays about non-SF subjects dear to the authors' hearts, almost anything - even science fiction itself! My fanzines were of the fannish variety, and of the sub-species known as "genzines", which covered an unlimited range of subjects and often featured contributions from other fans, rather than being written entirely by the editor - a labour-saving arrangement for both parties!
Hence, the title of this new blog. It's a genzine in blog form, though nothing to do with science fiction (or any other) fandom. I'll write what I like, when I like, and we'll see how (indeed if) it develops from here.
