There are plenty of things that can cause a convention committee to lie awake at night worrying, but one you never think about because it is too awful to contemplate is having your main Guest of Honor drop dead the day before the con starts. Much sympathy therefore to the family and friends of Robert Asprin, who died yesterday of a massive heart attack, and to the committee of MarCon, whose convention he was due to grace over the weekend.
I’m not a great expert on Asprin’s work, but Kevin got his start in fandom as the founder and President of the MythAdventures Fan Club. Kevin is also a GoH at MarCon this year, and was looking forward to seeing Bob for the first time in years. And indeed Asprin’s career seemed to be taking off again after years in the doldrums. It is all very sad indeed.
And for the con committee it gets worse, because as Kevin explains, two of their other guests were Jody Lyn Nye, who has been co-writing books with Bob, and editor Bill Fawcett, who was Bob’s business manager. Understandably both of them have more important things to be doing right now than attending a convention.
At times like this there is not much you can do except try to make lemonade from the lemons that life has thrown you. Presumably there are a lot of Robert Asprin fans at Marcon. Hopefully they can show true fannish resourcefulness and come up with something that will pay tribute to Bob in a totally awesome way. I have every confidence in them.
Update: idiot spelling mistake fixed – thanks Chaz
For Aspirin, obviously, read Asprin throughout…
Beagh! Brain not working today, obviously.
-=-
Yes Cheryl —
A Sad Day indeed.
“Myth’inc a Friend” today….
First say hi to Kevin for me –
I haven’t seen him in ages. And tell him to have a “Tully” or some “Jameson’s” in his honor as will I’.
Having been friends with Bob over these many years this has come as a severe shock. Bob has been my mentor in many areas of the entertainment business, and of course my friend. My credit on the Mayfair Games “Myth Fortunes” was both humourous and wonderful. When Bob told Darwin Bromley to put it in like that – well I had hit the floor laughing. Poor Darwin never knew why I was listed as “The Butler”.
There are so many good times I had with Bob filking, and wandering shows together. Not to mention the many times he embarrassed me too. But the one thing is, he actually spent personal time with people and fans who were not afraid to wander up and just say hello. He’d tell you to pull up a chair, and then hold court… and even buy the drinks and food.
Yes I am sure Bill and Jodi are a wreck right now, not to mention Toni too.. I haven’t talked with any of them yet, but I got the call with the information late last night and just woke up. so excuse any typo’s here etc. – it was a long long night.
But a legend has passed – the first author who ever created the very first shared world series of books. Something that authors and publishers said could never be done in those days when agents and publishers held on to their authors with an iron fist.
He will definitly be missed amongst those of us that knew what great things he really accomplished for the publishing world.
Cheryl’ feel free to pass on my contact info to Kevin — and give him my best wishes and condolences. I know this has got to be affecting Kevin badly. I’m sure it is affecting a lot of others of the fan club (many of whom I have met or known).
Best wishes Cheryl, and thanks for posting this info out there for us all.
Thomas Green
(Remberasha@hotmail.com)
Service Bay 12, Inc.
(game developers) (Georgia)
Sapphire Records (Alabama)
Thomas – Thanks for dropping in. Kevin gets copied on all comments to this blog (he helps me deal with spam) so he’ll see what you wrote as soon as he gets online.
As to the whiskey, given his usual avoidance of alcohol that’s probably not a good idea. However, I’ll happily consume a tot or two in Bob’s memory on Kevin’s behalf.
Thomas:
Thanks for the kind words. As Cheryl said, I don’t like the taste of alcohol, but I do appreciate the sentiment. Alas, the Fan Club petered out after the founders handed over the reigns to another group of fans in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area to run it. (They managed one more issue of the clubzine, and then I never heard from them again.)
He had fans in places you’d never expect. For instance, at the SMOFCon conrunners convention in Toronto years ago, with (as I recall) less than 100 of fandom’s movers and shakers present, I counted at least five members of the Fan Club attending.
I know that the work I did organizing the Fan Club laid an important foundation for my later fannish work with Worldcon.
sad to see such a great author pass away. He will be missed, but he lives on in his books.