The Crotchety Old Fan is Steve Davidson, also know as Rimworlder on many SF forums.
Steve maintains the Rim Worlds Concordance project which is devoted to the works of A. Bertram Chandler and his most enduring character – Commodore John Grimes of the Rim Worlds Naval Reserve. Grimes is science fiction’s original ‘Horatio Hornblower of Space’. More information about Chandler, Grimes and the Rim Worlds can be found at www.rimworlds.com.
Steve also maintains a visual index of volume 1, number 1 pulp science fiction magazines on the same website and is a devoted collector of the same.
‘I’m an ‘old’ SF fan, which you can take whichever way you like, as I love the old masters (Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, E.F. Russell, Piper, Cordwainer Smith) and I’m well beyond the age you’re not supposed to trust anymore’.
This blog is devoted to an investigation of the growing divide between ‘old’ – or ‘classic’ science fiction and the moderan literary genre that is currently sold under the same name.
Steve has also begun writing reviews for www.SFReader.com, expects to be doing the same for www.SFSignal.com, and is contributing various non-fiction pieces to various other websites, all of them concerned with science fiction of one stripe or another.
Early in 2008 he became completely disappointed with the SciFi Channel and created The Classic Science Fiction Channel website that gathers links to public domain radio, television, film and literary properties.
Steve had a successful non-fiction writing career – writing articles and books dealing primarily with the paintball industry (Four books and several hundred articles including editorializing, product reviews, sports reporting, educational and more) – which he has since given up in favor of blogging and fiction. (Leaving the paintball industry after 25 years.) One final book on this subjected is scheduled to be released in early 2009 (A Parent’s Guide To Paintball).
Current work on fiction includes several completed novellettes/novellas curently in submission hell and various chapters of three novels. Freely distributed current work – including several chapters of a science fiction/paintball novel and a pulp/comic book/fairy tale mashup can be found on his website.
Like the blog! I’ve posted a link to it on my blog. 🙂
As for your favorite authors, I must admit, to my shame, that I’ve only ever read Asimov. 😦 Even then I only really liked his short stories and not his novels. Sadly, the only sci-fi I tend to be into these days is Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, though I’ve still a weakness for Star Trek and Star Wars. I just find that most other sci-fi tends to really annoy me, especially almost anything broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. You know, their one-word-title movies about the monster-of-the-week devouring a small town or whatever. Awful.
Oh, and at first I read Cordwainer Smith as Cordwainer Bird and was about to make a smart-ass reply about how Bird’s writing puts me too much in mind of Harlan Ellison’s. 😉
Tried to email you, got rejected. Anyway, just wanted to do some shameless self-promotion. Cheers.
Does anyone happen to recall the 1950’s short story about a man who had the nevous system of a bat. If I recall it was done surgically to him. He was in a boxing ring and was eluding his boxing challenger with ease…at least that’s in part of the story.