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Answering to either “Rod” or “Rodney,”
this Omaha, Nebraska native grew up the technophile only child
of technophobic parents. His insatiable curiosity regularly
sent his mother to the neighborhood library for science books,
particularly those about astronomy. His library reading interest
gradually shifted from toward mythology, while he became fascinated
with the superhero comic books on the local grocery store
rack. While a ninth grade classmate and his eleventh grade
physics teacher each tried to introduce him to science fiction
in print, he did not become a true reader of the genre until
his college years, at which time he made his first attempt
at a novel.
It was during his final semester in college
that he became aware of science fiction fandom when he saw
a flyer for Omacon. It would not be until three years later,
in 1984, that he attended Omacon for the first time, and then
for only a day, but that was enough for him to become a regular
attendee at local conventions thereafter. From there, it was
a short step to helping out with running conventions, by helping
out with promotions and running panels at the last Omacon
and its successor conventions, Impact and ConCussion, as well
as serving as a panelist at Maelstrom, Andromeda, and DemiCon.
It was also during college that he began his
relationship with the computer, a strange love affair that
led him to attempt to make his living writing educational
software. Lacking the resources to effectively pursue this
dream, he gradually migrated toward writing over programming,
eventually becoming a help file author at infoUSA, where he
also became the co-creator of one of the company’s software
products, Resume Plus. Having first owned an Apple IIe, today
he owns an AMD-powered desktop computer with a Star Trek theme
he put together himself, and a Gateway Solo 1450 laptop he
has dubbed “The Portable Batcomputer” and created
a complementary theme for.
A man whose stated goal is to be the next Steve
Allen, Rodney is the author of six fanfics, four involving
the misadventures of writer Walter Stock with a number of
famous characters in science fiction (and popular enough in
their day that fenasked when the next one was coming out),
and the other two, “Commercial Enterprise” and “Star
Trek: The Pepsi Generation (Q and Improved),” showing
the dangers of commercialization in the Trek universe. An
avid role-play gamer, he was named best gamemaster at Omaha’s
Nuke-Con for two consecutive years, and springboarded his
regular participation in the HERO System APAzine Haymaker!
into becoming the most prolific writer forEZ Hero and producing
an article on pregenerated characters for the first issue
of Digital Hero that was the most complimented article of
that issue. He is also the creator of Dungeons & Monopoly,
a set of twisted rules for playing Monopoly with polyhedral
dice. He has even done stints as a huxter and hall costumer,
ever ready to find new ways to display his twisted sense of
humor.
Having adopted “The Man of Trivia”
as his fannish name in 1998, Rodney has taken part in a numberof
con trivia contests as contestant, judge, or host, as well
as hosting a weekly trivia contest for his local Mensa chapter
during the early 1990s. He was the first man to win Les Roth’s
money at the DemiCon trivia contest of the same name, has
won radio call-in trivia contests over 50 times, and has been
known to change the outcome of Trivial Pursuit games he has
joined in progress. He even qualified to be a contestant on
Jeopardy! in 2000, but, sadly, did not get to appear on the
show.
His favorite con activity, however, is filksinging.
Rodney has written over 300 filksongs over the last two decades,
covering the many areas of fandom where he has an interest
and drawing on musical styles ranging from big band jazz to
hip-hop.The bulk of his works are parodies of classic oldies
and country music hits, however, many of which play on the
words in the titles or lyrics of the songs they parody, as
befits this noted punster.Not only does he perform his works
around other filkers, but he has been known to hang out at
karaoke bars and karaoke con parties, where he performs his
more accessible works. (Some of his choicest works can be
found in the filk books for WillyCon and DemiCon and have
also been performed at WillyCon’s opening ceremonies.)
Along the way, he has attended three Worldcons,
two Ohio Valley Filk Fests, and one GenCon, and has made a
legion of friends in a six-state area, with a smattering of
friends throughout the rest of the country (all while somehow
managing to remain a single man). If you see a man with glasses
wearing a distinctive straw Stetson and either carrying a
tabbed notebook full of filksongs or hunched over a laptop
giving off Bat-sounds, take the time to get to know him. You’ll
be glad you did.
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