The Writings and Musings of Heather Hobson Lewis: Pondering Blog and Recon Squadron

For the past several days, I have been feeling the urge to blog, but couldn't think of what to actually blog about. After writing about the one year anniversary of Konrad Reichenberger being missing, I just couldn't think of anything worthy to say. Updating where I am with my writing also made no sense as I am just typing and editing novels right now.

Over the last couple of years I started taking photos of beloved items around my home with the intention of archiving the photos with information on the possession, but that doesn't feel like a good topic for this particular blog.

Then the two year anniversary of Richard Hatch's passing arrived. I considered writing about that as a friend of mine did on her Facebook Battlestar Galactica page, but that didn't motivate me to come here and blog either.

Last night I had a dream where I was a character I had created years ago. This character I used in the fandom group I was a member of in the late 1980's through the 1990's. In fact for most of the 1990's I ran the group and was in charge of collecting the artwork and stories as well as cutting and pasting and photocopying the four time a year zine.

When I woke up, I realized my brain had mushed together Richard Hatch's death anniversary with the desire to archive information and my friend's complaint that people are too lazy to scan in old photos taken before digital cameras. Now I have something worthy to blog about.

Yahrens ago, I flew in Recon Squadron, a subchapter of Battlestar One International, under the name Captain Crystalrose. Back in those yahrens, at least when I started off, the internet really didn't exist. Putting together a zine meant people mailing stories and artwork through the post office, then cutting and pasting, and sometimes retyping (in WordStar) to create a page that one then photocopy (at a photocopy center). Then a giant stapler was used to combine the pages into a booklet form, which was stuffed in a handwritten envelope and mailed through the post office to the members.

One of the great challenges was always finding members. Given my club was so small that we couldn't afford any advertising in magazines like Starlog, the membership of Recon only grew through word of mouth in the early years. Later, when AOL had chat rooms, I belonged to a Battlestar Galactica chat room and that helped me find a few new members.

Though once the internet became widespread and information could be searched out easily and stories could be posted online, there was no really purpose for creating zines anymore. In the Winter of 2000 I officially shut down Recon Squadron. Battlestar One International had folded years earlier.

Now you have the backstory to go with the following. This morning I scanned in the original artwork I used in the Recon zines. Most of the artwork I used I created myself, but over the years I had members more artfully skilled than me that provided great cover art. Here are a few of the many pieces for your enjoyment.