Myriad: 1978 - 1981 -- My first apa. Used the zine name Neo for a while until popular protest that I wasn't a neo anymore. I then switched to Verities and Balderdash. This zine featured a lot of original art and covers by my twin brother Jerry, plus two running cartoon series: "Herbie How-To" (elaborate fake construction projects for kids, for example "How to Make a Light Saber") and "Amoeba Man" (a really funny comic strip about an amoeba superhero).
I joined Myriadafter meeting Atlanta fans at my first-ever convention. This bi-monthly apa started as an alternative in the era when one could languish for years on the SFPA waitlist. I was a Myriad member for many years, including through my first stint at living in Israel (during which one of the members, Cliff Biggers, converted my originals through electric stencil!) until a particularly boorish member ruined the experience for me. By that time, I had joined LASFAPA and was getting my apa thrills there.
I joined this sex-related apa through the cajoling of fellow LASFAPAn Arthur Hlavaty, the OE at the time. I realized I wasn't cut out for discussing this topic in an apa when one of the members was ranting about how unfair her landlord and neighbors were in insisting that she tone down the noises she made during sex. If it had happened to me, I would have had to leave the state immediately...
LASFAPA is a saucy little monthly apa that I joined when I moved to Los Angeles. I made a lot of close friends through this apa, and they helped the transition of my move. The apa is famous for its long-tenured OEs, its 3-D Langdon chart (tracing the sexual interconnectedness of its members through pipe cleaners and styrofoam balls), and its friendly apa number (three guesses what it notates!). I dropped out of the apa for a while when I got engaged but rejoined when I moved to Israel, and it was my fannish lifeline during my years away. Then, due to pressures at work and the difficulties of keeping up with a monthly and a bi-monthly apa (by that time I'd joined SFPA) I dropped for good.
What can I say? The premier Southern apa and my fannish spiritual home for many years now. This bi-monthly apa is noted for its close-knit membership and its attempt at an annual gathering at Deep South Con. I joined in the days when it took years to move up the waitlist (in my case, four).
Although it started in LASFAPA, I've continued my tradition of Sorta Annual Worldcon Awards in my SFPAzine. The categories include Best Button, Best T-shirt, Best Huckster Artifact, and Best Overheard Conversation. I'm also famous (or perhaps infamous) for my detailed con reports in the apa. I've currently got an unbroken string of 78 issues (13 years) and counting!
One of the briefest apa memberships on record: one mailing! Robert Lichtman had convinced me to get on the waitlist of this most storied of all apas. I figured I would get a spec issue or two to see what the apa was like and whether I'd feel comfortable in it. Lo and behold, I was invited into membership by the next issue! I did a zine but as my main interest in apas is in the give and take of mailing comments, FAPA wasn't really the apa for me, much as I enjoyed reading other people's zines.
This page brought to you by Janice Gelb. Last updated October 19, 1998.
