New ISF Fiction Editor – Ricardo Loureiro (Portugal)

The ISF proudly presents Ricardo Loureiro as its new Fiction Editor.

Ricardo’s work (Editor of two Science Fiction Fanzines in Portugal) inspired me to create my own portuguese fanzine three years ago, and now I am really excited to be able to work with him in order to develope ISF.

So do read the text that Ricardo prepared for all of us and get to know him a little better.

Welcome to ISF Ricardo!

Roberto Mendes

Editor in Chief

RICARDO LOUREIRO – ISF FICTION EDITOR

So, a phone call later and I was left with the dreaded mission of writing a bio and, worse, pick a photo of me.

Well, I wouldn’t go so far as saying that along with watching paint dry and grass grow that may well be the most boring stuff anyone could ask of me but it surely it’s not far away from being that.

Usually I take out my satirical hat and promptly make something up along the lines of being someone up to no good. Strangely for this project I felt that was not the right aproach and after a lot of brainstorming with me and myself I came up with the solution. Incredibly I decided to play it safe and, for once, tell the truth. Or at least as near to the truth as anyone will ever get from me. So, without further ado here it is.

Born in the year of the Monkey, anyone who knows me can surely atest to the fact that from all the animals monkey is the most suitable to describe me. Always swinging from tree to tree, always looking for another prank, always making fun of everything and making a habit of taking everything in superficially as possible.

Well that describes me. As much as the iceberg we see above the waters describes the real iceberg beneath those same waters.

Because, you see, being a cynical, satirical, incredibly nauseating son of a bitch is only a third of what I am. The other two thirds you’ll have to discover through my work and what better place to judge it than right here at ISF?

So now that we cleared this up let me tell you why I chose to be a part of this team. It all boils down to three words that together mean more than the sum of their parts: International, Science and Fiction. Alone they mean something or other. Put together they mean everything that science fiction means to me ever since I read (and reread, and reread to the point of commiting to heart whole lines) Galactic Patrol from the father of them all Edward Elmer Smith in a very distant, very hazy summer at Sesimbra, a small fishing village in Portugal. Because, you see, those worlds, those brave new worlds, were always and by definition truly international. No frontiers, no boundaries, no political impositions, really, truly inter nations. Everyone and everything under one banner, united through merit, inteligence and a will to triumph and progress. Little did I know then that I was following the credo of one Gene Roddenberry, better known to the common man as the creator of Star Trek.