Remembering F. M. Busby

A memorial service for F.M. Busby, who died February 17, will be held at 5
p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st
Street, Seattle.

REMEMBERING.

When I published my first fanzine early in the early 1970s, Buz was very
nearly the first person who got in touch with me eager to connect me to
live-and-in-flesh fandom, rather than just through-the-mails fandom I was
barely getting to know. An instant invitation to his and Elinor's house
was a joy and a revelation, a house packed with books, books, oh glorious
books, intelligent folk devoted to the same sorts of things that had long
obsessed me, and who were close chums to authors I'd read with tremendous
pleasure.

Entering fandom through Hugo-winning fan-editors like Elinor and Buz was
about the best way to go about it. And through Buz I was soon involved
with the Expository Lump where professional writers critiqued one
anothers' works in progress and occasionally condescended to include a
novice writer the Lump members thought worth cultivating. So that meant
Buz was one of the first people I ever knew who took for granted that I
would one day and soon be a professional writer. That's a wonderful
assumption to encounter when one is young and unproven. A few of my first
published stories had fewer stumbling-blocks between composition and
publication thanks to Buz's critiques. I doubt my critiques of his
works-in-progress were as useful, but I seriously tried.

For years I'd see Buz at least once a month and often more than that, but
at the very least monthly at the ages-old Nameless Ones when it met at
Capitol Hill's Horizon Books. I remember those faanish days with
tenderness and don't expect to experience so close-to-hand such an
extensive community of endearing caring sensitive bookish people ever
again, many of us in walking distance of each others homes, many more
short bus rides away. Buz has thus remained a permanent resident of my
memory of days marked by deep emotions and enriching friendships.

It's impossible to know what to say at a time like this, to find something
perfect that avoids the sloppily sentimental while conveying my great
affection for Buz. Since leaving Seattle almost six years ago, and since I
stopped attending conventions, I haven't hung out with Buz, I've been an
utter homebody if not hermit. I sometimes feel very far away from everyone
and everything. Yet I somehow thought I'd run into Buz again now and then,
as an eternal component of the best parts of fandom.

I'm of an age that loss of friends and family members is becoming rather
too commonplace. I will always have close to my heart the warmth and
support Buz extended to me through the years, and his eagerness to treat
me as a peer even when I was not. His goodness had a lasting impact on my
life, and I hope occasionally I've managed to be as good to people as he
was to me.
--
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http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson

"John A. Stovall" wrote:

On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:32:05 -0800,
(paghat) wrote:

A memorial service for F.M. Busby, who died February 17, will be held at 5
p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st
Street, Seattle.

First Chalker now Busby. It' look's like a bad year for Fan/Authors.

I'll get out _ Rissa Kerguelen_ this weekend and read in his memory.

************************************************** ********

"Daddy Daddy. It was just like you said
Now that the living outnumber the dead.
Where I come from it's a long thin thread
Across an ocean. Down a river of red.
Now that the living outnumber the dead. I'm one of many."

"Speak My Language"
Laurie Anderson from
"Bright Red"

My favorite Buzby was Zelde M'Tana ( sp? )...sort of a stand alone
prequel to the whole Rissa & Tregare series, it set up the Universe in
which the later works were turned loose. It was the first book in which
I remember reading about the concept of Power Armor, having somehow
never gotten around to Starship Troopers. lame grin It was also the
first book I remember reading with a Female ship's Captain.

--

'The first thing you get with nanotechnology is life after death...' -
Ian McDonald, Terminal Cafe.