Paula Smith

Paula Smith was an active member of several fandoms during the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. 
==Well-Known in Fandom==
* In 1973, Paula Smith first coined the term Mary Sue by writing a piece in "A Trekkie's Tale" in Menagerie #2. The piece was satirical in nature, lampooning the original Star Trek female characters who became love interests for the central characters in the story. 
* In 1977, Sharon Ferraro and Paula Smith created the Fan Quality Awards (FanQ) awards in conjunction with SeKwester*Con Too. The original categories were simply for Star Trek Best Writer and Best Artist.
*In 1978, Smith hosted Afro-American Con.
* In 1984 in Warped Space #50, Paula Smith contributed an essay to ongoing dialogue about characterization issues in fan fiction. She discussed something known to fanzine readers and writers called Langsam’s Law. She was quoted by Langley as saying there is a "special caveat for writing media-based fiction. Don't make an established character do or say something out of line with his established character, of if you must, give good, solid reasons why." The Times, They are a'Changing by K.S. Langley on the Fanfic Symposium, dated June 19, 2003. Accessed May 30, 2009.
* She was a convention organizer of ReKWest*Con, SeKWester*Con, SeKwester*Con Too.
* She was published in many, many, MANY fanzines; two of her more well-known, and controversial, stories are The Logical Conclusion and Surrender.
* She wrote plays at Zebracon and Connexions. 
* She was a prolific zine reviewer and essayist.
* She was a member of W.H.I.P.S..
* She ran boojums Press with Sharon Ferraro.
* She is not Harlan Ellison, but she did cook him a home-cooked chicken dinner with some fans in 1973; see A Conversation with Paula Smith
==Interviews==
* A Conversation with Paula Smith (2010)
==In Her Words (1981)==
In 1981, she was nominated for a FanQ award and submitted the following bio to The Annual Fan Q Awards Nominations Booklet: 
==In Her Words (2010)==
 
While at Media*West #30, Paula was interviewed for an issue of Transformative Works and Cultures. In it, she talks extensively about Mary Sue, letterzines, fanzines, the meld and discord between media and SF fandom, conventions, the birth of Media*West, and when she helped serve Harlan Ellison a home-cooked chicken dinner.
See A Conversation with Paula Smith.
Some excerpts:
==Paula Smith is NOT...==
* Paula Smith is PROBABLY NOT Harlan Ellison. See accompanying image, the question on quiz from Pegasus #2
* Paula Smith is NOT Harlan Ellison. See accompanying image. 
* Paula Smith is NOT H.O. Petard -- Despite both of their propensity for sharp, sometimes cruel, criticisms and reviews of fanworks, the theory that Paula Smith and H.O. Petard were the same person was denied by Petard in Implosion #5": "Last week, a local fan informed me in all seriousness that HOP is really Paula Smith. That's not true -- a fact for which both Ms. Smith and I are duly grateful." 
* Paula Smith is NOT Paula Block. For one thing, they lived in two different cities. Poblocki does not equal "Posmithi." See accompanying image from Scuttlebutt #3.
* Paula Smith is NOT Ima Fool. That is Pat Massie. When Paula wrote with Pat, Paula used the pseud of "April Fool" (Ima's "niece").
Image:warped14notpaula.jpg| This is a helpful photo of Harlan Ellison and table from Warped Space #14 proving that, despite the fact they are the same height Isaac Asimov describes meeting him in 1953: "At that same convention I met another personage, not a professional author yet, but destined to become one, and a more colorful one, perhaps, than anyone else in science fiction, even myself.... He was a little fellow. He insists he is five feet, five inches tall, but that is, I think, by a specially designed ruler. He is five feet, two inches tall by the internationally accepted yardstick. Either way he had sharp features and the livest eyes I ever saw, filled with an explosive concentration of intelligence - Asimov, Isaac. In Memory Yet Green: the Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954. New York: Doubleday, 1979. Avon Books, 1980. p. 690. Harlan Ellison stated that he is "(1) he is 5'5" and not 5'4"" -- How Much is that Harlequin in the Window? , Paula Smith and Harlan Ellison are two different people. 
Image:scuttlepaula.jpg| notice from Scuttlebutt #3, click to read 
Image:harlansupp.jpg| From one of the questions on the hypothetical quiz in Pegasus, printed in a supplement for issue #3: "Is Paula Smith really Harlan Ellision?" 1. None of the below. 2. No. Harlan Ellison could never live in Kalamazoo. 3. Yes. The real question is, Which of them Turned About and Intruded the Other? 4. No. But Paula Smith is proof positive that Harlan Ellison exists. 
==Paula and Controversy==
If there was a hot topic brewing, Paula was there, right in the middle. She could be as adept at stirring it up as she was of trying to calm it down. 
In 1975, Paula Block wrote: 
===Tackling Difficult Fiction Subjects===
Paula wrote many stories just to get people talking and to simply see if she could pull off a difficult subject. Her fic, Surrender was one of them, as was The Logical Conclusion.
===Her Fanwork Reviews===
Her zine and fanfic reviews were entertaining, and often spot-on, but also had the reputation of being unnecessarily harsh. A fan in 1981 wrote: "I don't know if I'm looking forward to Paula Smith's 'zine review columns ... she seems to hate everything." from an LoC in Warped Space #45 
In 2010, Paula said:
See Bored of Review, a column of Smith's reviews in Warped Space.
===Censorship and Sex===
When the issue of explicit art and other material being displayed at cons arose for the first time, Paula took on the subject of censorship and sex: 
When the subject of slash was tearing the letterzine S and H apart, Paula (as temporary editor) wrote: 
===Her Desire to See Treklit "Legitimized" and Be of Higher Quality===
Paula felt very strongly that fans should aim higher, that without better aspirations regarding quality, their writing would forever remain in the fan-written media ghetto. 
* No Trekkies allowed, gang, and this means you! 
* I (and Sharon) have been backed into a corner defending a single position over quality controls. Frankly, I rather resent this.
==An Editor Reviews Her Own Zine==
In her final editorial to Menagerie, Paula writes:
==Influential Works==
* A Trekkie's Tale, fiction (1973) [http://web.archive.org/web/20100111141712/http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/dark/1000/marysue.htm A Trekkie’s Tale (archived link) 
* The Tollian Affair, review of this fic (1974)
* The Logical Conclusion, fiction (1975)
* No Trekkies allowed, gang, and this means you!, essay (1975)
* The Trekzine Alphabet (or 26 Steps to a Shittier Attitude), essay (1977)
* Surrender, fiction (1982)
* Why Review, essay (1992)
* The Worst Zine in the World, essay (1985)
* Satisfied?, essay (1992)
* many, many, many, many more
==Zines==
11 & 2 | A to Zine | Babel | Best Little Valentine Zine in Texas | Blood Agent | Celebration | Chalk and Cheese | Code 7 | The Compleat Faulwell/Landing Party 6 | Eel-Bird Banders' Bulletin | Escape from New York | The Fan's Little Golden Guide to Throwing Your Own Con | Fruit Cocktail | Future Wings | Galactic Discourse | Guardian | The Hole in the Deck Gang Newsletter | Interphase | Klingon Empire Appointment Calendar | Kraith Collected | Masiform D | Menagerie | Mixed Media | Obsc'zine | Pegasus | Play by Playbook: Collected ZebraCon Plays | Rerun | Romulan Wine | S and H | Shadowplay | The Sleeping Beauty Affair | The St. Crispin's Day Society | Star Trek Primer: A Child's Garden of Space | Strange Justice | Strokes | T-Negative | Ten-Thirteen | The Thousandth Man | The U.N.C.L.E. Chronicles | Warped Space
==References==
Category:Fanwriters
Category:Convention Organizers