The Genre Underground discussion

When I was five years old, my dad took me to see Star Wars. In second grade, I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In 4th grade, it was The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I spent the better part of junior high and high school as a nerdy/geeky outcast. Those were in the days before geek was chic. Then, when I was seventeen years old, I heard about this event in my home town called Ecclecticon. It was a science fiction convention held in the Sacramento Hilton. I went for one day, and I marveled at all the people who not only knew about all the same books and movies I did, they loved them just as much.

That's my story. What's yours?

I got into the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid also, and I was raised on the original Trek and comic books. As time continued I was less into sci fi and more into fantasy (due to RPG's) starting with Andre Norton and then the likes of the Belgeriad and Guardians of the Flame. Wheel of Time switched me over permanantly to Fantasy, but I have always been an avid reader since those early trips to the library at age 5.

We read the entire Chronicles of Narnia to our kids. Loved them, even as an adult. Now out kids are both readers.

I read the Narnia books as a child and my mom claims I read them all the time. But I really remember getting hooked when someone introduced me to Heinlein.

In middle school I was astounded by RA Salvatore's book Homeland, about an underground city of glowing spires housing a matriarchal culture dedicated to chaos. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of human imagination, and I've been enchanted ever since.

My dad was a software engineer, which started me on a computer path. He was also a huge fan of Star Trek: Next Generation. I have many memories of sitting in our little house, gathered around the TV together and watching Star Trek. I literally grew up with the "continuing mission" of the starship Enterprise.

My parents were also kind enough to introduce me to "cooperative storytelling" (that is, Dungeons & Dragons) at a very young age, which helped push me toward all things fantasy. At a loss for what to give me to read, my mother gave me Piers Anthony's Xanth series at age 6 or so. She also took me to Renaissance faires as a child, but I don't consider those 'fan' conventions in quite the same way.

I didn't really start getting in to cons and fandom, though, until I hit my teenage years and had a girlfriend who loved Japanese culture and anime. My first "real" modern con was Otakon in Baltimore, and now I make PAX East a yearly thing with my friends!

I didn't have much of a choice. One of my earliest movie-related memories is the Diva Dance from The Fifth Element. The I grabbed and devoured the Narnia books, Harry Potter, Pendragon, Ella Enchanted.

It got better after my first RADCon--it got me back into reading new SF/F books, and reignited my fan-liness. Then it happened again when I (finally) read The Hunger Games.

Hook them while they're young. That's how it got me.

My first intro was through all the SF books my father had lying around the house. Bradbury, van Vogt, Heinlein, Asmimov, etc. All the Golden Age of Science Fiction authors. I was immediately hooked. From there I moved onto Fantasy, first reading every book that had a unicorn in it, and then spreading out through that whole genre.

In my early 20's I joined LASFS and went to my first WorldCon. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so many fans and nerds at the same time!

I agree with Voss -- hook them while they're young. I started reading SF around 5 years old, and never looked back.

I was probably about ten when I first starting reading Robert Howard's Conan, which I thoroughly enjoyed. A year later I got into horror by reading Stephen King's It.
Carl Alves

I always enjoyed Science Fiction and fantasy in movies and on TV but I was not a reader. That was until Star Wars came out and it blew me away. The following weekend after seeing the movie I was at a family part and an older cousin told me that if I liked Star Wars I should read DUNE.

After reading Dune, I have been a non-stop reader and then started going to conventions after that.

I have always loved horror. My grandparents were very fond of telling ghost stories and fairy tales. (I don't think there's a big difference between most fairy tales and horror stories.) Also, my grandmother would let me stay up late on the weekends and watch horror flicks on cable, so I had a steady diet of 80s slashers-- Freddy, Jason, Michael, and Chuckie. I was especially fond of Friday Fright Night and Saturday Nightmares. I picked up my first Stephen King novel in 4th grade, and went on to become a huge X-Files and Buffy fan girl. I still have a weakness for all things spooky.