Anji Valenza

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Fan
Name: Anji Valenza
Alias(es): Fa Shimbo, Fara Shimbo
Type: fanzine publisher, fan writer, tribber, fan artist
Fandoms: Star Trek: TOS, Klysadel, Darkover, original fiction
Communities:
Other:
URL:
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from Probe #10 (1977)

Anji Valenza was a Star Trek: TOS writer, zine publisher, and artist.

Valenza also illustrated some Darkover zines.

Valenza (later Fa Shimbo) also published a series of written and drawn stories set in her Klysadel universe.

cover of Warped Space #28

Shimbo also operated Special Rates To Fen Press.

Bios

1977

In 1977, she submitted the following bio to Who's Who in Star Trek Fandom.

Anji Valenza aka "You," 'Fang' and "The Tall One,"...Anji entered SF fandom in 1972 and got into STrekdom in 1974 through various friends and conventions and through working on Germaine Best's zine. She is a member of The Alien Inquisition, the NYFed, and the National Fantasy Fan Federation.

Anji has published "Monkey of the Inkpot" and "Universes in SF Vol. 1." She is currently writing and doing illos for several fanzines including Probe, Mindsifter and some N3F publications. Anji's other interests include astronomy, horseback, riding, and lab rats. Her motto is: "Oh, if it were only as simple as that in real life," said by Groucho Marx.

2021

I got into fandom after responding to a flier Germaine posted at Brooklyn College, and has had a long and checkered fannish career since then, both in Trek and general SF fandom. I claim the distinction of being "The Only 'Fara Shimbo' On The Internet."

Thanks to Germaine's faith in the stories, I gained a fleeting fame as the creator of the Klysadel universe, which currently consists of numerous short stories, four novels and a comic strip that was nominated for an Ursa Major Award in 2003. I'm so, so grateful we've found each other again, after a decades long hiatus to get "real life" out of our systems!

I was editor of the N3F's Tightbeam magazine in the early 1980s, and did illustrations for Galaxy magazine in the late 1970s. (Also read the slush pile for that magazine, which scarred me for life.)

I met Bob Shimbo at the IguanaCon Costume Contest in 1978 (a weird story in itself!), and we were married two years later. (The Italian/Japanese food at our wedding dinner was... interesting.) Past professions have included potter, tack-maker, editor of The Weasel Help Monthly, assistant professor of domestic animal genetics, computer-game designer and programmer, 2D and 3D Design and Animation, and now just a general dog's-body to 9 cats and two Akhal-Teke horses.

Back in a past life I went by "Anji" but that's over now. Besides, I liked Cardinal Biggles better. [1]

Star Trek Was Simply a Hook; The Author Makes a 1978 Statement

In the zine, Snow on the Moon, the author explains her connection to Star Trek fandom and how it was a planned hook to get readers for her Klysadel Universe:

All the stuff which I wrote when I was tirading against the "Prime Directive" and those who "fought to uphold it" — that is, the ST related stuff I'd written, was out.

I no longer want even to remember that I once inserted ST characters into my universe, even though doing this was what made my stuff "salable" to the only people who seemed interested in it at the time, the trekfolk. Not that I'm not grateful that they published it at all; no sir, for unless they did I'd have no reason to be writing this now, for there'd be no anthology; sf fandom does not have an outlet for a new writer who writes long stories. But unfortunately, many people now think I'm an ST writer— PLEEEZ, this is not the case. I was trying to get your attention, folks, and now that I have, he he he, well, welcone to the world of sf for some of you out there, and I have accomplished that which I set out to do.

Zines to Which Valenza Contributed

Gallery

References

  1. ^ Retrozine: Two Fandom Elders, One More Time! Vol.1 No. 1, Summer 2021 Who's Responsible Here?; archive link
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