The Eclectic Fan

I spent my formative years in northern Manitoba where three things made a lasting impression on me; turning into an icicle while walking to school in the winter cold; playing tag till almost 10 PM on long July evenings when dusk stretched on forever; the breathtaking wonder of the aurora borealis as they danced across the sky, the most amazing light show on Earth, right in my backyard. The last one convinced me I needed to be an astronaut when I grew up.

Once past the disappointment of learning NASA didn't accept Canadian schoolgirls into the space program, I settled for the next best thing, and began to follow the adventures of Captain Kirk, Major Donald West, and Commander Koenig. In my teens, my mother remarried, and we relocated to a small prairie town with zero fannish influence, where SF&F was Just. Not. Cool. In spite of this, I managed to discover many more worlds and adventures through Robert Heinlein, Madeleine L'Engle, Anne McCaffrey, Spider Robinson and other great writers. I would like to thank small town librarians everywhere, who have been responsible for saving the sanity of geeks such as myself over the years. Eventually, I escaped the frozen wastelands and made my way to British Columbia. While you rarely see the Aurora Borealis this far south, the ocean and mountains more than make up for it. Plus, it's cool to watch tourists freak out about the "flying saucers" at night when Grouse's Nest lights up.

Three things made a big impression on me when I moved to the lower mainland. Winter only comes about once every 3 or 4 years; mountains are AWESOME; and, there are a lot of geeks and fans in the Pacific Northwest - the most amazing collection of like-minded people, right in my backyard. That last once convinced me that I was finally home.

Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to find (and be found by) musical fen and introduced to the really fantastically amazing thing known as filk. There were SONGS about my favourite BOOKS and TV SHOWS, and people even wanted ME to write some of my own! It was kind of like coming home all over again.

Like many other fen, I'm quite proud to be called a geek and a nerd. I'm doubly pleased when I am able to contribute back to fandom in various ways; over the years, I've run kidcons, hospitality suites, and filk rooms at various conventions such as VCON, Westercon, NONCON, Writercon and Conflikt. A few years back, I had the chance to co-chair an SF convention, where I discovered three things; I really am happier being a minion in charge of a department; Larry Niven likes filk and has a pretty decent tenor; filk music is really my favourite thing about cons - the most amazing group of fans, all right there for me to make harmonies with. That last one – well. If you're a filker, it’s not like I need to explain it to you.