Story time! Story time!

Once long ago, a young girl went to school in quiet York County, Virginia. Her strong daddy worked to save the lives of others. She lived in a nice house.

She dreamed of being an artist or performer. She went to York High School, and worked summers at the Busch Gardens amusement park in Williamsburg, VA. She then went on to Christopher Newport University and became heavily involved in SF/Fantasy fandom. She was a big fan of The Lord of the Rings! She liked to get involved in fan events and to help run and sponsor conventions that raise money for charitable organizations.

Sound just like me, doesn’t it?

Same county, same high school, same summer job, same fan group, same college, same everything.

Except for this part: the girl we are talking about is not me. Her name is Amy Player.

She is about a decade younger than me, and instead of growing up to become a happy cartoonist who gets to go to conventions and sign autographs and hang out with hobbit actors, Amy Player decided she didn’t just want to go to a convention and meet Elijah Wood, she wanted to be Elijah Wood.

In a gender bending tour de force the like of which has not been seen since Victor/Victoria, she cropped off her hair, ran away from home, and adopted the identity of Jordan Wood, Elijah Wood’s male cousin, who, inexplicably (even if you read the explanation in the book), was on the run from the Irish Republican Army. She also made extraordinary claims about being sold into child prostitution by her very-shocked-to-hear-about-it family, has psychic visions, and generally made a wahoo of herself all over the place.

This means that in some fannish circles, she was very popular.

(more…)

To the Billy Boyd and Lord of the Rings fans: I’m so glad you like this post. However, it is bad netiquette to take this post in toto and put it on other websites and message boards without prior permission. Fair use allows you to quote a limited amount, and good netiquette asks that you link back to me.

Please be considerate and use good netiquette! Thanks.

This post is from some years ago, but even so it gets scores of hits every month. So, I have brought it back from the old blog.

I have edited out the huge lead in which I describe my sad adventure trying to navigate the highways of New Jersey. The streets of New Jersey and the horrors to be found there are, apparently, not news.

I have also added the fan reactions from the original letter column, because it turned out the Fan From Hell was very well known around the country.

While I have done hundreds of shows over the years, I have rarely had problems with fans. I have said over and over that almost every problem you will ever have at a show – or anywhere else for that matter – will come in the form of an aspiring pro or frustrated pro. The Fan From Hell was just one more example of same.

And now, meet the Fan From Hell:

I’ve been saying it for awhile now. The Lord of the Rings fans are the mellowest of the mellow, the most polite and appreciative of fans, and the main reason I do so many Lord of the Rings conventions and so few others.

Sometimes the shows let us have autographs, sometimes not. You never know. Rules are different at every show. I never know with Creation Cons what to expect because at one show I may get a big packet with lots of instructions, badges for the dealer’s room, name badge, security rules, schedule, etc. At the next, they just put a wristlet on me and leave me to my business. I don’t really collect much by way of autographs, but I love the LOTR stuff.

Fangirl.

I gave Sean Astin a hello. The last time I saw JMS, he sent Astin greetings and I passed them along. Sean passed along a cryptic message back for JMS, that I cannot repeat. I felt like a courier for the CIA.

Billy Boyd is one of the best guests I have ever seen on the con circuit. Not only is he very lively and friendly, he is extremely tolerant of some extremely rude behavior.

I guess one of the reasons I feel so mellow at LOTR shows is that “academic and scholars” don’t get nearly as much attention at these shows at the actors do, so we can relax and enjoy ourselves and talk LOTR without feeling a lot of pressure.

However, I cannot believe some of the behavior that is directed toward the actors at these conventions. Almost every fan was wonderful. The few that weren’t were a horror.

Daniel Reeve was the calligrapher for the maps for LOTR and also did work on Chronicles of Narnia and Pirates of the Carribean. Lovely fellow with a very nice family, and he’s also a fine looking guy. He gets an inordinate amount of fangirl interest too, but his wife looked dead shocked at some of the girls that just thrust themselves on her husband for a hug and a grope. Mrs. Reeve had never been to a con before and really got an eyeful. My dealer’s table was down the row from his and one femmefan after another left saying “DAMN! He’s married!”

Late one night, The Reeve family, me and Billy Boyd were hanging about the bar getting a drink, and there was a particularly horrid woman who simply would not go away. Billy was incredibly polite. I mean, a martyr to manners. It was astonishing. This fan gave everyone, including other fans, the creeps.

While a number of folks broke the unspoken rule of “Thou shalt not bother the celebrity guest when he is having private time”, others obliterated the rule, nabbed autographs and got photos. Billy was more than kind. Some pros don’t care much, some do. As long as all is done within reason, I say.

But after repeatedly popping into the conversation, getting autographs, photos, and generally making a nuisance of herself, this one fan did not then whisk herself away. She remained to repeatedly run her fingernails down Billy’s back every time he turned away from her, grab his arm, and start giving him a massage. My mouth about dropped on the floor and Daniel and Mrs. Reeve looked like they were witnessing the events in an alternate universe.

The fact that the woman had been hanging about all weekend and behaving extremely strangely was bad enough, but to add to the weirdness, she often ingratiated herself by pushing forward her little daughter to grab your attention and then practically daring you to tell her to get lost. She bragged about how she could induce her kid to go on crying jags so that celebrities would spend more time with her. She would push forward her kid, and if the celebrity did not respond, the little girl would boo hoo on cue. Then, she could get access, a trick she used to continue to get access repeatedly. (more…)

An executive at gaming company Decipher has plead guilty to embezzling 1.5 million dollars. Financial losses, stemming in part from the crime, have caused the company to lay off dozens of employees. However, authorities have been unable to find the stolen funds. It appears the moolah was spent on high living.

Decipher sued Eddleman. As lawyers obtained information for the case, Eddleman admitted embezzling $326,000 through personal charges on a company credit card and $529,000 through check-writing schemes.

Decipher, which held the license for Star Trek and Lord of the Rings products, has suffered money and management problems for years. A 2006 article outlining Decipher’s financial woes, showed the company had sold its office and was leasing space next door. Decipher had also lost their company health insurance.

Game tournament winners who had not been paid their prizes had threatened to sue. Many Lord of the Rings fans were annoyed at the short-lived fan club which had offered premium membership prices, but did not last more than a couple of years (I was a member, too. Sob. You can see my name on those limited editions LOTR dvd’s.)

…16 players who are owed tournament money, (were preparing) to take legal action against Decipher. He said he has heard from friends and retailers who order Decipher’s products that the company has closed down two of its three Norfolk warehouses.

Alas for the Tidewater area, there must be something in the water. That region gave rise to the horror that was Starblaze, and a few other small press schmucks I was very happy to leave in my rear view mirror.

There was a large fan community in Tidewater, and a modest, pro community there. Frank Kelly Freas once lived in Chesapeake. I once lived in York County.

The cannibalistic behavior among the worst elements in that arena was something else; Amy Player, cut a bloody swathe that reached across America and right into Middle Earth, and the desperate grasp for SMOF status among some of the fen was positively nightmarish to behold. Sad, because there were so many good people there, too.

I tried to get a job at Decipher some years back, but found the staff so surly I never pursued beyond a short interview. It appears they had very good reason to be surly.

Hat Tip: The One Ring

c

The producers of The Radio City LOTR Concert and the Official Fan Committee are pleased to present a weekend packed with LOTR happenings!
Scheduled events include:

• The official release of Doug Adams’ new book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films
• Pre-concert talks and post-concert signing sessions with Howard Shore and Doug Adams
• Discussion with Tolkien linguist David Salo, who translated all choral lyrics for The Lord of the Rings scores
• Illustrator/artist Colleen Doran talks about her work
• The Hobbit films preview/discussion – Join fans for a chat!

More to be announced soon…

Catch updates on:

http://twitter.com/RadioCityLOTR

http://www.myspace.com/theradiocitylotrconcerts

(Actually, I will be lecturing on Tolkien illustration and art in general, but I’ll be showing a few pieces, including some new and unpublished works! So excited!!!)

Found some convention photos I had up at the old blog, and thought you might get a kick out of seeing them again.

Here’s a couple of shots taken about 4 AM. Have I had too much champagne, am I sleep deprived, or am I standing in a room full of Aragorns?

Indeed I am. Lucky me.

The resemblance is uncanny. They let me take lots of fabulous reference photos, bless ‘em. Aren’t Rangers wonderful?

Behold. The king!

Manly man, with a manly sword.

c