A Science Fiction Fanzine

Winter 2008

Illustration Credits

Guy Lillian   "WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFIN!" a reminiscence of ConFederation and the bid for Nolacon II, 1986   I was crazy to do it. In 1986 I was working eight hours a day at the Louisiana Unemployment Office, and attended law school for four hours almost every night. Take on a worldcon bid in the midst of such busy-ness? Madness, boy, madness. But it was unavoidable madness. I’d been an active SF fan for almost twenty years – and part of the New Orleans SF Association for most of that. Stay away? No way. So, when I remember the middle years of the 1980’s, what do I recall? Law school – the UI office – seeing my shrink – and the quest for Nolacon II, which culminated at ConFederation, the 1986 World Science Fiction Convention.

As soon as I returned from that convention, I wrote a long report on the con for the Southern Fandom Press Alliance. That which follows is adapted from that report. ConFederation was quite a moment. It brought New Orleans to the heights of science fiction fandom … and it brought me status as the butt of the greatest practical joke in modern fannish history. Read on.