I'm starting to get caught up. The computer crash may have helped... but I'll only be a few weeks behind by next week.
Week of October 2nd - 8th
I started to work on my first story for The Writers Loft challenge. It's a tale called Y2K. I like the idea... we'll see if the final results are worthwhile. This story will likely end up on my Story page sooner or later.
My big thing the weekend was the 1998 edition of Con*Cept - the science fiction convention that I've helped to organize these past 6 years.
How to explain my feelings about the convention... I finally got to meet Forrest J. Ackerman, a legendary fan of science fiction (both print and cinematic). At 83 years young, Forry says that he plans to be the 'George Burns of Fandom'. I'm rooting for him. The man is an International treasure. He knew Isaac Asimov, Lon Chaneys both Senior and Junior, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, as well as many of the current writing and film cast of names. His home (called The Ackermansion) is a museum of the legendary props of film cinema, and a treasure trove of classic pulp magazines and rare first editions of classic s-f novels.
I sat with him in our Green Room. I got to see firsthand three classic rings that he wears: Bela Lugosi's Dracula ring, a scarab ring worn by Bela Lugosi in The Mummy and a trick ring worn by Lon Chaney Sr. (there's a hidden compartment with a fragment of Chaney's actual makeup).
I explained this with reverence to the volunteer helping at our Charity table. He knew very little about science fiction, and didn't understand the significance: I explained it thus:
It was as if I'd seen the Pope's ring, or been handed one of Elvis Presley's stage-outfits.
Y2K went over really well with my writing group - so well, in fact, that I've decided to rewrite it for submission to the big magazines. Because of this, I won't be including it on my Story page here. I will have others to share, though.
All my writing projects - as well as other plans - came to a screetching halt here. My PC had a major crash, one that would take 3 weeks to fix, leading to me having to cease most of my writing projects for awhile.
You never realize just how dependant you've become on having a computer to use until you lose it. Wish I hadn't found that out the hard way...
Turned out that the CPU fan burnt out. Without it, the CPU overheated, and melted.
The good news is that the chip was replaced with a much faster one; the bad news was that I couldn't get my machine back until early November, after I came home from my next convention, which I'll talk about in the next set of Journals.
Week of October 9th - 15th
The Rest of October
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Last Updated: December 12, 1998