Joanne Keating
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| Name: | Joanne Keating |
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| Fandoms: | Star Trek, The Professionals, others |
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Joanne Keating is an Australian media fan.
She was half of the zine publishing company Clarke & Keating Ink.
From a 1991 bio in the Medtrek con program, where Keating was a convention co-chair:
I first started watching Star Trek back in 1977 while still in high school.
By 1980 I was a member of Astrex, working in the city within sight of Galaxy Bookshop, and had made the aquaintance of the legendary Susan Clarke, long-time president, and co-founder of Astrex. In 1982 I attended my first, convention - Medtrek I. Not long after Medtrek II in 1984, Susan handed over the editorship of DATA, gave up the high life of Astrex politics, and we concentrated on putting out fanzines. It was compulsive and exhausting, and we were certainly doing it I for love not profit. There were the occasional rewards - Chronicles winning the ASFMA Best Media Fanzine four years in a row, not to mention its nominations for the (mythical) FanQ Award.
1987 saw Medtrek III or Eccentricon. This was my first experience at working on a convention rather than being an attendee. Despite all the horrors, traumas, lack of sleep, illnesses and such, it wasn't long afterwards before we were saying, "Who do you think would make a good guest for Medtrek IV?" And so we started all over again. This is the first time I have been on a convention committee, and the first time I have co-chaired a convention, and I only took that position out of necessity. (Honestly! Believe me, there's no fame, glory, or money attached to it. In fact, quite the opposite) And just to show how compulsive it is, we are already talking about how we can avoid some of the problems of this con when we come to do Medtrek V. (Stop whimpering, Susan. You'll love it.)
Apart from the conventions and our combined fanzines, and occasionally watching videos (to remind myself I'm a media fan). I put out my own fanzine, BACKTRACK, based on the The Professionals. I do get a lot of fun out of this zine (despite appearances), and three of the four past issues have been nominated for the FanQs. My goal naturally is to eventually nail one of these suckers down.
Overall, fandom keeps me extremely busy. It quite often takes over my work life, my family life, my life savings, my sleep, and now my house. But I wouldn't change very much even if I could. I have made too many personal achievements, and too many close friends, to ever say it wasn't worth it, now or in the past, or won't continue to be in the future.