I grew up in a small town in north-central Illinois, not far from Starved Rock State Park.

After a year at Millikin University in Decatur, IL, during which I ran through all my savings, I moved to Chicago to be nearer the cultural attractions I loved so much - the ballet, concerts, theatre, nightlife, etc. Eventually, I graduated from Roosevelt University with a degree in English Education, but got tired of waiting for the NTE to be offered in my discipline and took a "temporary" job with a trade association - where I've remained for more than a quarter of a century.

My life since that time has been defined by several influences - I joined my first science fiction club in the late 70s and began working conventions - and there are still very few I can attend without wanting to work them instead. I started my first club - the Disciples of Rassilon (Doctor Who) and migrated into Blake's 7 fandom. I held positions in a couple of major cons - Visions (Doctor Who) and Scorpio (Blake's 7 & Robin of Sherwood) and worked a few Worldcons. I started going to baseball games, and spent 9 years moonlighting as an usher (evenings and weekends) for the Chicago Cubs. I attended a lot of dance events, and eventually became active in figure skating fandom, as a writer, photographer, and fan. Through skating photography, I eventually drifted into photography in general - but always as a hobby, albeit one at which I occasionally made enough money to pay some of the expenses of attending the events!.

And when the skaters who had become my main focus were about to win their Olympic gold, I found a new fandom: Lord of the Rings. And when that wound down, I moved into 30 Seconds to Mars fandom, and my first full-scale foray into music fandom (I had previously dabbled in Duran Duran fandom, and remain on the fringes of fandoms for Erasure and Midge Ure).

For some people, fandom is a hobby. For others, it's something they drift into unintentionally, dabble in for a time, and eventually leave. For me, the fandom acronym "FIAWOL" best describes it - Fandom Is A Way Of Life

I hope you enjoy your visit here. If you'd like to get in touch, my apologies for not having a direct "mailto" link, but I trust you can figure this one out!

mckelwood ~ at ~ gmail ~ dot ~ com