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Voice of the Imagination (VOM), v. 1, issue 4, December 1939

4E-WORD:  Dec. 1.  It is nite.  9 o'cl.  I have been hard at work since 8 this morning.  Hm, 13 hrs--&today is Friday--that's unlucky!  Morojo sits yonder on a sofa--sewing!  She says I sound sleepy, yawning as I do every other word.  I guess I am pretty tired at that as "sew" & "sofa" suggest such appalling puns to me as "& sew far, far into the nite" or "sofa so good"!  Awk: (Awk cut it out.)

To the bewildered unintitiate; U, friend, who "saw the announcement in Startling";  we bid welcome to our family circle!  The co-ed (Morojo) & I are about to endeavor to throw together another number of the quarterly "forum of fandom" on behalf of the imaginatives of Los Angeles, club-publishers.  Just now the dummy is begun.  Come mid-Dec we have to have a dozen or more pgs mimeod, stapled & in the mail, wishing U a Merry all X-mas & Happy New Yr. We have a new typewryter, now, wich we hope will produce superior stenciling.  As we've a lot of letter--about a quarter hundred, it looks like--for the 2d time we shall omit all signatures excepting those our regulars havent seen bfor. This will save some time & space, cause--by the Lens!--we're sleep-happy enuf as is!
& so--let's go!

Concluding the causticomments of ALAN P. ROBERTS, 14-yr-old ex-fan of 67 Thistle St, Lutwyche N3, Brisbane, Q, Australia:....But I am far from the land of S-F. It's steeped in the pulp. It is essentially formula stuff. Like all other magazine types, it asks for hack-work and allows little formula stuff. Like all other magazine types, it asks for hack-work and allows little play for dram or characterization. Personally, from a writer's stand-point I'd rather author detective yarns. There's melodrama for you! And thereis nothing so effective a s melodrama handled well... No, you can keep your S-F. (Thanx, pal; we sure will!)

[signature] Joe Kurera
(the name is Ceskoslovenskan, Joe tells us; pronounced Kuhcheh'ruh; & the accent's called a Farka), who went all the way from 710E S 35 St, Omaha/Nebr, to the WSFC just for 2 hrs to see METROPOLIS. & the next wk chased across the continent to the Pacificeast where, with Pogo, Morojo & Fojuk, was held the "1st Chevrolet SF Convention", has this to say: "I've wanted to write many times before this, no feelin'. but it just wasn't to be. ~~ I spent a devil of an interesting hour or so with Mr. Palmer at Ziff-Davis and learned a lot more than I could ever have gotten thru correspondence. The biggest surprise I received was to hear that there are only about one hundred manuscripts submitted each month for both AMAZING and FANTASTIC! I had no idea that the market was so wide open! Right now I'm in the midst of whipping up a 20,000 worder for FANTASTIC about Konstantin Monotok, an interplanetary slaver. The slave slant's been used before, but I believe the yarn's wnding justifies its production. ~~ Palmer asked me how I liked the latest AMAZING. I told him how much I enjoyed Bond's Priestess Who Rebelled, and told him that I thought it was the finest bit of off-trail stf. I'd read in months. He rose, took me into the next room and said, 'Tell him that!' He pointed to a gentleman who was busy going over a manuscript. The man wanted to know what Palmer meant. It turned out that he was the gentleman who read Pond's mss. first and wanted to reject it... ~~ The first Chevrolet stf. convention! Talk about fun, I really enjoyed myself those two evenings, no kiddin'. That was the first time I'd ever seen four stf. fans together outside of the convention. Of course, Morojo, Pogo,and myself were force to duck a few times under Perry's barrage of puns, but I guess we're still all right. 'Might make Polton Cross.' Wow! ~~ How about this: 'Hello, Karl mein Freund!' ~~ 'Hello, Fritz! Lang time no see!' ~~ Doesn't that stink? (Fritz & Fraund respectively directed & filmd METROPOLIS.) ~~ Another thing: The first stf. convention was held at Caravan Hall. We held our convention in my Chevrolet. The car was part of a long caravan that went thru Yosemite park. It hauled us over the mountains. Caravan...... haul........... That's not funny either. (Haul rite, haul rite...) ~~ Speaking of Caravan Hall........ Listen while I quote from a letter I got the other day............ First, do you recall the gentleman from Vancouver, B.C., whose name was called off from the convention's attendance roll? Well, he was not a fan. At least not an enthusiastic one. I had to coax him to attend the gathering. Anyhow, the purpose of

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4E-WORD: Dec. 1. It is nite. 9 o'cl. I have been hard at work since 8 this morning. Hm, 13 hrs--&today is Friday--that's unlucky! Morojo sits yonder on a sofa--sewing! She says I sound sleepy, yawning as I do every other word. I guess I am pretty tired at that as "sew" & "sofa" suggest such appalling puns to me as "& sew far, far into the nite" or "sofa so good"! Awk: (Awk cut it out.) To the bewildered unintitiate; U, friend, who "saw the announcement in Startling"; we bid welcome to our family circle! The co-ed (Morojo) & I are about to endeavor to throw together another number of the quarterly "forum of fandom" on behalf of the imaginatives of Los Angeles, club-publishers. Just now the dummy is begun. Come mid-Dec we have to have a dozen or more pgs mimeod, stapled & in the mail, wishing U a Merry all X-mas & Happy New Yr. We have a new typewryter, now, wich we hope will produce superior stenciling. As we've a lot of letter--about a quarter hundred, it looks like--for the 2d time we shall omit all signatures excepting those our regulars havent seen bfor. This will save some time & space, cause--by the Lens!--we're sleep-happy enuf as is! & so--let's go! Concluding the causticomments of ALAN P. ROBERTS, 14-yr-old ex-fan of 67 Thistle St, Lutwyche N3, Brisbane, Q, Australia:....But I am far from the land of S-F. It's steeped in the pulp. It is essentially formula stuff. Like all other magazine types, it asks for hack-work and allows little formula stuff. Like all other magazine types, it asks for hack-work and allows little play for dram or characterization. Personally, from a writer's stand-point I'd rather author detective yarns. There's melodrama for you! And thereis nothing so effective a s melodrama handled well... No, you can keep your S-F. (Thanx, pal; we sure will!) [signature] Joe Kurera (the name is Ceskoslovenskan, Joe tells us; pronounced Kuhcheh'ruh; & the accent's called a Farka), who went all the way from 710E S 35 St, Omaha/Nebr, to the WSFC just for 2 hrs to see METROPOLIS. & the next wk chased across the continent to the Pacificeast where, with Pogo, Morojo & Fojuk, was held the "1st Chevrolet SF Convention", has this to say: "I've wanted to write many times before this, no feelin'. but it just wasn't to be. ~~ I spent a devil of an interesting hour or so with Mr. Palmer at Ziff-Davis and learned a lot more than I could ever have gotten thru correspondence. The biggest surprise I received was to hear that there are only about one hundred manuscripts submitted each month for both AMAZING and FANTASTIC! I had no idea that the market was so wide open! Right now I'm in the midst of whipping up a 20,000 worder for FANTASTIC about Konstantin Monotok, an interplanetary slaver. The slave slant's been used before, but I believe the yarn's wnding justifies its production. ~~ Palmer asked me how I liked the latest AMAZING. I told him how much I enjoyed Bond's Priestess Who Rebelled, and told him that I thought it was the finest bit of off-trail stf. I'd read in months. He rose, took me into the next room and said, 'Tell him that!' He pointed to a gentleman who was busy going over a manuscript. The man wanted to know what Palmer meant. It turned out that he was the gentleman who read Pond's mss. first and wanted to reject it... ~~ The first Chevrolet stf. convention! Talk about fun, I really enjoyed myself those two evenings, no kiddin'. That was the first time I'd ever seen four stf. fans together outside of the convention. Of course, Morojo, Pogo,and myself were force to duck a few times under Perry's barrage of puns, but I guess we're still all right. 'Might make Polton Cross.' Wow! ~~ How about this: 'Hello, Karl mein Freund!' ~~ 'Hello, Fritz! Lang time no see!' ~~ Doesn't that stink? (Fritz & Fraund respectively directed & filmd METROPOLIS.) ~~ Another thing: The first stf. convention was held at Caravan Hall. We held our convention in my Chevrolet. The car was part of a long caravan that went thru Yosemite park. It hauled us over the mountains. Caravan...... haul........... That's not funny either. (Haul rite, haul rite...) ~~ Speaking of Caravan Hall........ Listen while I quote from a letter I got the other day............ First, do you recall the gentleman from Vancouver, B.C., whose name was called off from the convention's attendance roll? Well, he was not a fan. At least not an enthusiastic one. I had to coax him to attend the gathering. Anyhow, the purpose of