Insecure Writer's Support Group: My First Piece of Writing as an Aspiring Writer

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where on the first Wednesday of every month we vent our anxieties to the world. This month's topic is our first piece of writing, which wasn't all that anxiety ridden for me.

I'm not sure how to answer this topic. My first published work came when I was still an archaeologist and had no intention of becoming the full-time writer I am today. On the other hand, when I decided to make a career change way back in 2001, I started writing for a newspaper in Tucson and now I can't remember what my first article was. I suppose I could look that up, but life's too short and I have writing to do!

So I'm going with my first published work from the mid 90s, when I dove headfirst into the second wave of the zine boom. A zine, for those who came into writing after the start of the Internet age, was a self-published or communally published small magazine. Mine was called Ichthyoelectroanalgesia, which as everyone knows means using an electric fish as a pain killer. You can read more about that wonderful word on my old blog.

My zine was entirely done by myself, using clip art for illustrations. I included travel articles and articles about archaeology, and even answered reader's questions. While it only lasted four issues, Ichthyoelectroanalgesia had a distribution of well over 100, a respectable figure for a zine although some of the more successful broke 1000. It had a cover price of $2 if I remember correctly, but few of the issues were paid for since the point of zines was to trade with other zinesters.

While I intended it as a hobby, the pure fun of writing and publishing got its hooks in me, and within a few years I decided to become a writer.

Websites for Writers: Fanac.org

Science fiction is a rare bird. I don't know of any genre that has created such a loyal and active fan base. Since Amazing Stories started a letters column back in the early 1920s, sf fans have been corresponding, arguing, publishing fanzines, and organizing meetings and conventions. Fans of other genres do this too, but not with the energy and longevity that sf fans do.

This is why this week's Website for Writers is The Fanac Fan History Project. "Fanac" is fanspeak for "fan activity", and a dictionary of fannish terminology is just one of the many goodies you'll find here. You'll also find various histories of fandom, photos from old gatherings and conventions, and lots of info on Worldcon, the granddaddy of all sf conventions that's been going since 1939.

My favorite section is for fanzines, with many rarities scanned in their entirety. I did a zine of my own back in the Nineties and I've always loved them, so I come back to this section regularly. Some famous names crop up in their pages, but they weren't famous back then!

Dedicated science fiction fans and writers will already know about this website. I'm really suggesting this to writers not in the community, so they can see what's possible. The world of sf fandom is a warm and welcoming place, and other genres need to encourage their own communities. A lot of great writers have risen from the ranks of fandom, and it's always nice to be in a network of folks with the same interests.