Being a semi-faithful transcription of pages 6 of the SwanCon 22 – Festival of the Imgination 1997 – Progress Report 1.This page is formatted in two columns, with the pull quote “He will talk on any subject at almost no notice…” slap bang in the middle of the page. There is also a tiny, white space filling advert in the bottom right corner that says “Look out for our Hawiian [sic] Shirt Pizza Banquet!!” in the kind of font that makes one wonder whether glasses would be a good idea.
The text is a little dated – one presumes that Dr. Dedman finished his Masters at some point – but an interesting read nonetheless.
Invited Guest
Stephen Dedman
Stephen Dedman has been the manager of a science fiction bookshop, an associate edictor of Eidolon, an editorial assistant for Australian Physicist, an experimental subject, a proofreader, a tutor, an actor (last seen abducting two teenage girls on Australia’s Most Wanted), a used dinosaur salesman, and a museum exhibit.
He has studied English at nearly every university in WA, graduated from the WA Institute of Technology (twice) before it became Curtin University, and has been half-way through his Master’s degree since 1985. As well as sf and horror short stories, role playing game scenarios and an urban fantasy novel, he has written stand-up comedy, a teleplay for Doctor Who, murder mystery dinner theatre scripts, and fanzine material.
He has a near-perfect attendance record for Swancons, having missed only Nos. 1 and 10, and has served on more committees than he can remember this late at night, and of all the honours bestowed upon him, his favourite is having been chosen as a genetic donor for a lesbian survivalist colony after his vasectomy.
A keen traveller, he has attended four Worldcons and a US NASFIC, and been mistaken for an Englishman, a Canadian, a German, an Italian, a Frenchman, a Welshman, a Scot, a New Zealander, a South African, a Bostonian, a Tasmanian, a criminal, and a waxwork. His other interests include startling people, reading, netsurfing, GMing, and watching movies; he has unflinchingly sat through films as undistinguished as “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman”, “Phantom Empire” and “9 1/2 Ninjas”, and once missed a good party to attend the only local screening of “Chopper Chicks in Zombie-Town”.
He will talk on any subject at almost no notice, and will take almost no notice if you choose to do the same. He has too many opinions, too few books, far too few bookshelves, too little time for reading, a wife, a wife-in-law, a modest collection of toy dinosaurs, and despite all rumours to the contrary) only one black cape.