Today’s discussion is a bit of a tribute to the Life the Universe and Everything symposium and to the Leading Edge Magazine.
First of all a little history, around 1981 at BYU University a group of students took a SF/F writing class from a teacher named Marian K. Smith. The class had the perfect homework assignments: write SF/F stories. Once the stories were written, other students would critique each other’s submissions.
The class was so fun, that after the end of term, many of the students didn’t want to stop meeting together. So they created a writing group called Xenobia. The group later became known as ‘the class that wouldn’t die’. They met once a week for years. Some members left and new people joined.
In the early years certain members of Xenobia started a magazine called: The Leading Edge and the symposium: Life The Universe and Everything. Eventually those students graduated and the reigns of the symposium and the magazine got transferred to a new set of students who came to show as much devotion and dedication to these projects as the founders. The cycle repeated itself and another new batch of people would join.
This year, 2012 represents the 30th anniversary of LTUE. The symposium has grown and blossomed to become an exceptional writers’ symposium. The Leading Edge magazine has also continued to prosper.
The interesting thing is that the people who started these two wonderful products did not think ‘this is going to last 30 years’. The staffs of each worked to make a particular issue or symposium the best they could do for that given year. New members drawn by the increasing quality of the product and the mission of both wanted to add their support. And as a result you now see both that have survived 30 years.
Many of those who contributed to LTUE and TLE later pursued professional careers as writers, editors and artists. So this is just an encouragement to work on making what you may think to be a temporary pet project to be the best it can be. Others may catch the same vision as you and may contribute their talents to making sure that your chosen pet project will celebrate its 30th anniversary.
