Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110037
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He's no fool, either.
He knows the image most people have of sci-fi fanatics - socially retarded goobers in ill-fitting Star Trek shirts, a cache of Trek-trivia in their heads and the Starship Enterprise's luscious Yeoman Rand in their hearts.
But he's not one of them.
He remembers the skit on ``Saturday Night Live'' when guest host William Shatner - that's Capt. James Tiberius Kirk of the Enterprise, to the uninitiated - told a convention of Trekkies to "get a life."
"You, you're 35 years old at least," Shatner tells one of them. "Have you ever kissed a girl?"
"I thought that skit had some merit," Allen said.
For the record, Allen, a Wal-Mart clerk with a master's degree in creative writing, is 26 and married to the former Anita Seth of Roanoke. Presumably he has kissed at least one girl on at least one occasion.
And he's just as horrified as most of us by the stereotypical image of sci-fi people, he says.
That's one reason he has published "New Dominions: Fantasy Stories by Virginia Writers." He's out to expose science-fiction of the non-geek variety. "New Dominions" is a 76-page chapbook containing eight short stories and five poems.
Allen debuted the book at the recent Rising Star 4 science-fiction convention at Glenvar High School. Allen and some of the other authors were panelists for writing discussions at the convention. Another reason for doing the book was to let the people who attend the convention see what he and the other panelists are up to.
And the attendees, geeks and non-geeks alike, snapped it up. All but 30 of the 100 copies he initially printed sold for $4.95 apiece in about a day and a half.
But then, the whole project had moved quickly. Allen, his wife and some friends conceived the idea as recently as June.
"After about two or three weeks of us all agreeing it was a good idea, I started calling people," Allen said.
Allen got hooked on sci-fi in Wise County during the fifth grade.
His father made him - yes, made him - read J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."
"What clicked in me was, `I like this, I want more of this and nothing but this.'"
Allen kept reading fantasy and sci-fi stuff after that, but he didn't start writing until he was nearly done with a liberal arts degree at Virginia Tech.
He spent 1991 in the graduate writing program at Hollins, where he was the only science fiction writer.
"No one knew how to read my stuff," he said. He wasn't surprised, though.
Allen talks about sci-fi people as "us" and "we."
There's a kinship there, he said. Sci-fi people always seem to find each other, usually at conventions like Rising Star (formerly RoVaCon).
"We're like a loose-knit family," he said.
At Hollins, Allen felt he had found at least a cousin in writing program director Richard Dillard. Dillard's only real ventures into sci-fi writing are his 1983 novel, "The First Man on the Sun," and his co-authorship of the screenplay to "Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster" in 1965, but he knows the genre.
So, Allen approached Dillard first with his idea of putting together a chapbook.
"These little books that people put out have been integral to the growth of science-fiction over the years, more so than with other genres,'' Dillard said. "He's really part of a great tradition."
Allen managed to garner contributions to his book from two of the big names in Virginia literature: Dillard and Nelson Bond. Bond was a regular in the mid-century pulp magazines and now is considered the dean of Roanoke writers.
Dillard said at first he didn't have anything he felt was right for the book. But, at what was "practically the very last minute," he came through.
"I had the whole thing laid out," Allen said, "and Richard called and said, `Hey, I've got poems.'"
The three poems might be to Dillard fans something like an old 45 rpm single with an unreleased song on the b-side would be to a record collector.
Dillard says his contribution will be viewed as more of a rhinestone than a gem.
The poems were cut from the original manuscript of "The First Man on the Sun." Billed as "The Lost Poems of Sean Siobhan, (compiled) by R.H.W. Dillard," they were actually written to be samples from the fictional Siobhan's "Confessions of an Irish Solarnaut." They have never before appeared in print.
"How nice to let them see the light of day," Dillard said.
Dillard also suggested that Allen see whether Bond, whom he calls "my literary hero," would make a contribution.
Allen agreed, believing it wouldn't be right for Roanoke's most prolific fantasy writer not to be in the collection.
Bond, 86, published his first science-fiction story in the April 1937 edition of the magazine "Astounding." That's the same monthly in which renowned sci-fi guy Isaac Asimov got his start.
He had a story in "Bluebook" magazine every month for years. He's written two novels - "Exiles of Time" and "Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman" - as well as hundreds of radio and TV scripts.
Needless to say, Allen was intimidated by the prospect of pitching his idea to Bond.
"He's like the godfather of all the writing around here," Allen said. But he called Bond and got a warm reception.
"Well, I think I managed to convince him that I wasn't some idiot," Allen said.
"I just think it's very nice of him to be interested," Bond said humbly.
Bond showed Allen around his rare-book collection, pulled out a few impressive signed first editions, and finally gave Allen something to print.
It was a major coup. Few people have published anything by Bond since the pulp magazine market dried up in the late-1960s. His first new story in years is coming out in December in a collection called "Wheel of Fortune."
The piece Allen got from Bond is called "The Ballad of Blaster Bill." It was originally published in the summer 1941 "Planet Stories."
It's a narrative poem in six cantos about spaceship crewman Bill, "a lazy, good-for-nothing ... guy without a grey cell in his head," who becomes a hero when he saves the entire crew of his ship. As is often the way with epic literature, he dies in the end.
"It's a traditional space opera," Allen said.
He tossed the term out as though it would be as familiar to everyone as Yeoman Rand.
Western movies once were called "horse operas," he explained with some coaxing. Early sci-fi flicks were often mocked for being just westerns in space. Ergo, space opera.
Allen didn't stop with Bond. He's now only the second person to have published a story by Bud Webster, a Roanoke native now living in Richmond.
Webster's very first attempt at sci-fi was published in "Analog," which used to be "Astounding," the magazine that got Asimov and Bond started. "Analog's" readers voted "Bubba Pritchert and the Space Aliens" - Webster's tale of space creatures who kidnap the world's greatest mechanic to repair their ship - 1994's best short story of the year.
His contribution to "New Dominions" is "The Slither Dee."
Allen describes it this way:
"It's about a monster eating children that meets its match in this little girl that's like 10 times as horrible."
Allen's own story, "Ancient Taboos," is about a woman who does in her husband by stealing his soul to power a robot. It's pretty grim, ironic stuff.
Other contributors include Daniel D. Adams and Cathy Reniere, two writers getting their first-time in print. Allen says they're "arguably the best in the book."
Allen's wife, Anita, contributed a poem and served as assistant editor.
There's also a story by Roanoke Times' staff writer Paul Dellinger, a sci-fi veteran who, along with Bond, has a story coming out in "Wheel of Fortune."
The whole collection is illustrated by Roanoke artist Ted Guerin.
Allen has just 30 copies left. They are available at Books Strings & Things on the Roanoke City Market. He's giving some thought to a second printing.
In the meantime, he has a novel to revise, and he's got to keep plugging away at Wal-Mart.
"Writing these days, you have to get used to the idea that you have to have another job."
by CNB