|

Ted R. Blasingame
has been a writer since his 8th grade Creative Reading class
in 1975. Already an avid reader before then, especially with the stories of
Kenneth Robeson, Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury, he decided to try his own
hand at storytelling. As with all new writers, the stories that began with
The Hydrazine Project were not well written, nor were many of them
seen to completion, but Ted continued to have fun with his tales.
It was not until he had
discovered ElfQuest in 1979 that he actually completed a story called
"Brothers In All But Blood" that was later published in the first issue of
WaRP Graphics' authorized Yearnings fanzine. Thereafter, he joined
twelve separate chapters of the ElfQuest National Fan Club and spent the
entire decade of the 1980s writing EQ-based stories. In 1984, he created and
operated his own ElfQuest chapter named the Timber Valley Holt
until it shut down in 1990 following a six-year run with 60+ members.
In the early 1990s, he joined
an Amateur Press Association (APA) group called Mind's Eye, which
focused on stories, poems and artwork relating to the ESPers popular in
Japanese animation programs of the 80s. It was there that Ted began work on
what would later become a novel-length esper-related tale called Treasure
Hunt - Flight of the Zephyr. At the behest of several friends, he tried
to get his book published, but was unable to find a buyer for the tale. With
a relatively new concept called POD (publish-on-demand), Treasure Hunt
was available as a self-published paperback through
Lulu Press for a short time. As of
early 2009, however, the title of the book was shortened to Flight of the
Zephyr, with a complete renovation of the opening chapters.
Following his interest in
Espers, he was introduced to anthropomorphic fiction by friends Mark Barnard
and Steve Carter in a brief membership with Tai-Pan, where he wrote
three stories which never saw print. He was then involved in writing stories
and typesetting of the 2-issue run of Mark Barnard's furry-zine, Midnight
Sonata (which later spun off the successful comic book, Havoc, Inc.).
After the end of Sonata, his interest in anthropomorphic fiction
continued and evolved into a continuing online story project called Blue
Horizon with his wife Eileen and friend Steve Carter that has lasted
twelve years. A spin-off tale in the Blue
Horizon universe under the title of Hoenix has been
submitted to several commercial publishers over a few years, but as yet it
has not yet been picked up. Hoenix has since been released
through Lulu Press as a hardcopy publication, and was a final nominee for
Best Anthropomorphic Novel of 2004 in the Ursa Major Awards.
Another related Blue Horizon tale called Twelve
Sixty-One recently completed production, recounting the first adventure
of Merlin Sinclair's ship and crew at the start of the business, and is also
available through Lulu Press.
As of May 2009, work on an
unrelated anthropomorphic novel called Sunset of Furmankind has begun
production.
Through the years, Ted has
worked with several friends in a number of publications that have seen print
and distribution and has enjoyed his life as an amateur writer for over thirty
years. |