This week, I've decided to help George Phillies get the word out there about the apolitical National Fantasy Fan Federation (or N3F) and its available fanzines. Since he's welcomed me aboard as a contributor for Tightbeam, I figure it's the least I can do!
Note: George wrote these for a German website that ultimately rejected his submission for BS political reasons. What a shame.
The N3F Review of Books Incorporating Prose Bono
Tell us about your site or zine.
Perhaps the N3F Review of Books Incorporating Prose Bono is a modestly long name for a fanzine. The idea for the N3F Review is entirely my creation. I have the invaluable assistance of long-time Neffer Jean Lamb as Lady High Proofreader, and a large cast of contributors (see next question). We are a fiction review zine, open in length; recent issues have run over 40 pages. We are always looking for more literate, sensible book reviewers.
Who are the people behind your site or zine?
The zine is published by The National Fantasy Fan Federation (founded 1941), the world's oldest continuously extant non-local SF club. Contributors, many of whom have their web sites, now include
Declan Finn http://www.declanfinn.com
Jason P. Hunt http://SciFi4Me.com http://SciFi4Me.tv
Mindy Hunt: http://SciFi4Me.com http://SciFi4Me.tv
Patrick Ijima-Washburn http://patokon.com
Jagi Lamplighter http://SuperversiveSF.com
Jim McCoy http://JimbosSFFreviews.blogspot.com
Chris Nuttall http://ChrisHanger.wordpress.com
Pat Patterson http://Habakkuk21.blogspot.com
George Phillies http://books-by-george.com
Cedar Sanderson: http://www.CedarWrites.com
Steven Simmons
Tamara Wilhite also appears at http://LibertyIslandmag.com
I am always looking for more reviewers, people who will write about the books, not the authors' political beliefs. (Sometimes this becomes challenging.)
Why did you decide to start your site or zine?
First, The National Fantasy Fan and Tightbeam for different reasons have fixed maximum lengths, namely 12 and 32 pages, so the number of book reviews we could publish was too limited. I had more reviews than I could publish. Second, the N3F Review was created to fill a felt but unfulfilled need, namely to generate reviews of every published SF novel. I spent a year contributing to the National Fantasy Fan a list new SF, Fantasy, horror, and occult novels. Ignoring stfnal romance novels, there were readily a hundred of these a month, not counting books from large and independent paper publishers, few of which were being reviewed. In addition, there are a lot of independently published -- indie -- writers whose work could be better. (There are also a lot whose work is superb). To serve these folks, I added Prose Bono (yes, there is a pun in there) to the mix. There are rare volumes of STFnal literary criticism and the history of fandom. Our own Harry Warner, Jr., wrote several of these. Those we also review, under their own heading. Finally, we accidentally acquired a continuing series of excellent author interviews, leaving us in the end with separate fiction, non-fiction, Prose Bono, and literary criticism sections.
What format do you use for your site or zine (blog, e-mail newsletter, PDF zine, paper zine) and why did you choose this format?
The N3F Review is circulated electronically to all N3F members; at latest count, there are over 300 of us. The N3F Review format is PDF, 8.5 x 11", Times New Roman 12 point type (larger for titles and section headings), Front and Second page being the table of contents. One somewhat narrow column appears on each page. Titles, author names, Section headings, and Table of Contents are in scarlet ink; all else are black. Unlike some other fanzines, we deliberately publish absolutely no art.
The fanzine category at the Hugos is one of the oldest, but also the category which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines and sites are important?
Fanzines are one of the important ways in which fen communicate with each other. Yes, there are also fen who go to conventions, publish web sites and blogs, and the like, but fanzine fandom including efanzines are central to the hobby. They are how we find out what is happening in our wonderful hobby. Having said that, why are there so few votes? Because so few fen are connected in an extensive way to fanzine fandom. That's why the N3F Fanzine Franking Service circulates the zines of other people to all Neffers. I could complain about the extremely well-known fanzine site that refuses to list our zines, but there would be no point to doing that.
In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online. What do you think the future of fanzines looks like?
Electronic. Some paper publishers. A few people will take advantage of modern technology to generate full-color fanzines like our Tightbeam, but electronic, especially with increasing shipping costs. I've said all the following before: More and more, fanzines will be ezines. Some paper zines will doubtless continue. There has been an enormous improvement both in the quality of cheap paper printing and in the ease with which web sites and ezines can be produced. If I were to return to 1941 with a copy of Tightbeam, most fen would find it impossible to believe – except for the tell-tale staple – that it was not a top-price prozine.
The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Are there any awesome fanzines, fancasts, fan writers and fan artists you’d like to recommend?
Among fan writers I would note our own Jon Swartz for historical articles and Pat Patterson for book reviews. Our current artists are Alan White, Jose Sanchez, and Angela K. Walker; see covers of Tightbeam for their work. Among fanzines other than our own I would note Bob Jennings’ Fadeaway and Nic Farey’s The Incompleat Register, which incidentally leads you to many other fanzines.
