Guest of Honour: Bruce Gillespie

This bio comes from Bruce's apazines for Acnestis.

• I was born on 17 February 1947.
• Lived at Oakleigh, a suburb 13 km south-east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, then all round Melbourne; some time in the country; then inner suburbs.
• Parents: Frank (d. 1989) and Betty; two sisters: Robin (b. 1948) and Jeanette (b. 195 1).
• Went to school at Oakleigh State School (now called Oakleigh Primary School) for Grades 1 to 6 (1953 - 58). Then to Oakleigh High School (now defunct for lack of students, although it had 1100 of them in 1959) for Forms 1 to 4 (1959-62). Then to Bacchus Marsh High School (50 km west of Melbourne) for Forms 5 and 6 (1963 and 1964). Three years of Arts, majoring in English and History, at the University of Melbourne (1965-67) followed by a perfunctory year of Diploma of Education (1968).
• Bought my first copy of Australian Science FYction Review in 1966, but joined fandom only at the beginning of 1968. First convention: 1968 Melbourne Science Fiction Conference.
• Thrown to the wolves in 1969: attempted to teach for two years at Ararat Technical School. Liked teaching about as much as D. H. Lawrence did. Worst two years of my life, but ...
• Began publishing SF Commentary at the beginning of 1969. The first eighteen issues appeared in its first two years!
• Beginning of 1971: by a weird series of accidents I gained a job I liked: editor/writer for the Publications Branch of the Education Department; invaluable pressure course in learning to edit magazines and books and write for magazines.
• 1972: Gained first Ditmar Award and first Hugo nomination for SF Commentary. Kissed a woman for the first time. (Don't laugh immoderately. If it hadn't been for fandom giving a boost to my minuscule self esteem, I might never have got around to kissing.)
• 1973-74: Quit Publications Branch to do my one and only Big Overseas Trip. Four months in Canada and USA (Torcon to beginning of January 1974); one month in Britain (all of January 1974). I recovered, although most of the people I stayed with didn't. Met in America someone I wanted to marry, but for the usual complicated reasons, didn't.
• 1974: Became a freelance editor, and lived in a wonderfully grotty flat in Carlton Street, Carlton. Met Elaine for the first time, although she doesn't remember the event.
• IL975: Many exciting turn-ups, including the formation of Norstrilia Press with Carey Handfield (and, later, Rob Gerrand). Our first book was Philip K. Dick: Electric Shepherd. Also Aussiecon 1, Melbourne's first Worldcon. I was officially coordinator for Ursula Le Guin's Writers' Workshop. Rotten coordinator, but I did get to meet Ursula, attend the Workshop and write some stories. Attempted to share my life and grotty flat with a wonderful woman. This lasted from August until October.
• 1976: Did various lugubriously awful things, such as falling in love with a woman who was already in love with someone else. Wrote agonised fanzines about all this. Finished the year sans flat, sans job, sans much hope at all. Everybody should have a year like 1976 to remind them how good the rest of their life can be.
• 1977: Invited by Elaine and Frank, the bloke she was living with, to share their large flat in Collinwood. I brought with me two cats (my cat Flodnap, and Flodnap's cat Julius) to add to the household's Solomon, Ishtar and Apple Blossom. Gained a half-time freelance job as Assistant Editor of the magazine of the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association. Was flat broke most of the year. Elaine and I found that we lived quite comfortably in the same house.
• 1978: Frank finished his medical course, and was posted to Tasmania to do his internship. After what seemed to us an uninevitable series of events, what other people took as inevitable happened: in early March Elaine and I began 'living together' rather than 'living in the same house'. Early April: freelance work began to pour in, and I left the VSTAjob. Phew! Norstrilia Press bought an IBM Electronic Composer (a cross between an IBM golfball typewriter and a computer). I began several profitable years of typesetting books for NP, Paul Collins, Hyland House and several other publishers.
• 1979: Elaine and I get married almost exactly a year after we started living together. A small event, with 14 close relatives. The wedding photos show that I had lots of hair then, and Elaine had very long hair.
• 1980-84: My work began to disappear, even as Elaine decided to become a proof-reader and editor. Not enough money to publish SF Commentary, so it did not appear for eight years. In a fit of madness, I published SF Commentary Reprint Edition: First Year 1969 in an edition of 200 copies; 80 of them are still unsold.
• 1984: Macmillan offered me the arrangement I'm still working under: I stay a freelance, but work mainly for them, first as an editor, then as a desktop publisher.

With real money in my pocket for the first time in three years, I began The Metaphysical Review (and revived SFC in 1989).

Elaine rose quickly from being a freelance proof-reader to being a full-time proof-reader, to gaining a full-time job as editor.

• 1985: Financial disaster! I bought a CD player, and then began buying CDs. Lots of them. Virtually bankrupt by 1987, but Elaine rescued me (and got me to cut up my Bankcard). CDs are still my favourite waste of time.
• Not much after that except keeping our collective heads above water. Elaine's mother died in 1987, my father in 1989, and Elaine's father a year later. Grow old; wear trousers rolled; disappearing hair; much death of old cats and acquiring of new cats: present crew are TC (I 6 years old and fading), Oscar (I I years old), Theodore (10 years old), Sophie (five years old), and Polly (seven months old). Elaine became a freelance editor, also working at home, a couple of years ago. Because she's one of the few maths/science editors in Victoria, she has plenty of work.