Welcome to Fantastic Planet
Meet Our Staff
Cathy Cupitt. Doing her part to help ensure that Fantastic Planet has the most over-qualified staff in the country, Cathy has recently graduated from Curtin University with a doctorate in the Creative Arts. After writing a thesis on Space Opera, which she is now thoroughly sick of, she's enjoying being surrounded by the loveliness of sci-fi and fantasy all day. Her kinks include robots, alien food, Elijah Wood, and gay superheroes. Outside of the bookshop (okay, and sometimes inside as well) she's working on her first novel -- which may or may not consist mostly of gay robots eating alien food -- and a fantasy script for television.
Ghoti Dalziel. One of the four and a half redheads here at Fantastic Planet, Ghoti (that's pronounced 'Fish' to those that haven't met him yet) is the male one." Like Elaine, Ghoti is ecstatic to have once again wandered into his dream job of 'working' at a SF/F bookstore. He's been an avid reader of SF/F since before he can remember, to the extent that the first thing he ever remembers reading is an X-Men comic at a very young age. He reads an awful lot, and revels in the challenge of finding customers a book or books that are right for their tastes.
He has entered University, twice actually, but due to his rather dilettantish nature, never stayed long, and likely wont go back. On the other hand, this has lead him to knowing a little bit about a surprisingly large range of subjects. Feel free to talk about/ask anything of him on any topic at all, and if he doesn't already know about it, he'd most likely be happy to learn.
He's had a wide range of strange jobs, including working at the same SF/F bookstore as Elaine years ago, driving drunk people home in their own cars for a living, collecting for charity door-to-door and being a 'lollipop man', or, more formally, a Road Traffic Controller.
An avid anime fan and collector, he was unknowingly exposed to, and successfully infected with, the meme as a toddler (more years ago than he cares to think about). This led to him eventually starting a club for the purpose whilst he was at University the first time, which for a few years at least, was quite successful.
A long-time eager member of the Perth SF/F fandom community, he has attended 12 Swancons and counting, and once managed to make it to the Australian Worldcon back in 1999. This involved driving from Perth to Melbourne (and back) with a couple of friends, and overall was a blast.
Having recently had a customer walk into the store while he was working and ask: "What's the best fantasy book ever written?”, he only thought about it for a couple of seconds before answering The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. If you asked him the same question about SF he'd respond with "Which sub-genre? Cyberpunk, Hard-SF, Space Opera, Alternate History, or other? And what authors do you like/dislike?". He'd most likely have a suggestion for you almost as quickly, too. However, some of his own favourite authors include Emma Bull, (Finder, War for the Oaks), Steven Gould, (Jumper, Wildisde), James Alan Gardner (Expendable, Vigilant), Charles de Lint (Someplace to be Flying, Forest of the Heart), and Will Shetterly (Elsewhere, Never Never).
His usual time whilst working at Fantastic Planet and there aren't customers to be served/stock to be processed includes reading the stock, (gotta know the product, y'know *grin* ) playing Spider Solitaire on the computer and having Firefox open with (at least) Google News, Gmail, his LJ friendslist and Amazon.com in tabs. Occasionally he'll bring a DVD in and watch it on the computer.
Stephen Dedman, buyer. I was the first person asked to work for what has become Fantastic Planet (which I also named in a screaming hurry, bouncing suggestions off Elaine and Alistair), but when it became clear that the shop needed a full-time manager, I was unable to take on the position because of other commitments (tutoring, writing, working on Ph.D. thesis, that sort of thing). I have an M.A. in Creative Writing, and hope to be Dr Dedman in another year or so, though not the sort of doctor who can prescribe medicines or save the world from Daleks. Sorry.
You probably don't want to hear about some of the things that happened when I was working as an experimental subject, but my second weirdest job was as a used dinosaur parts salesman.
Favourite books: Tiger! Tiger! (aka The Stars My Destination) by Alfred Bester. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. The Once and Future King, by T. H. White. Favourite series: The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien; A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin; Discworld (especially the Watch stories) by Terry Pratchett; the Vorkosigan saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Don't ask me to list my favourite short stories, or we'll be here all week.
Most egregious abuse of company time: going through books looking for info I need for my thesis.
Elaine Kemp, manager. Not once, but twice in her life, Elaine has wandered into every geek's dream job as manager of a science fiction and fantasy book store. The first time, at A Touch of Strange many years ago, she started off as a shop assistant until her ability to get out of bed in the morning reliably earnt her a promotion. When Kevin Cockroft bought Supernova Books, he found himself in the position of needing entirely new, experienced staff. This time, her partner Stephen Dedman was offered the position and declined it, but said, 'What about Elaine? She's got experience.'
Unlike many of the staff, Elaine's academic background is not in science fiction. She has a nursing degree, and her experiences nursing have given her an acute appreciation for any job that lets you sit down, and the kind of unflappable calm and good humour that only a cardiac arrest bell can disturb. She also owned an alternative therapies clinic for three years, which taught her many things, starting with how to get massage oil out of towels, and culminating in close acquaintance with small business survival.
Elaine's obsession with SF started early, with childhood memories of the Gollancz yellow covers from the library, and eight year old child demands to have Asimov explained, and progressed through a teenage addiction to Original Star Trek. She was in fact, in '89, secretary of the Star Trek fan club in Perth.
Trek fandom led directly to wider SF fandom, involving 15 Swancons, three Worldcons, one NZ con and numerous Eastern States conventions. She's also married to the genre, since she's grinning her way through a 16 year relationship with Stephen Dedman.
Nursing and retail aren't the only jobs she's held, just the more respectable ones. She once worked as Petals the Fairy, hosting children's parties, has been an artist's model, and for a while co-wrote murder mystery dinner parties with Stephen, and hosted them.
If you ask her to reccomend her favourite books, she will attempt to sell you Sword's Point by Ellen Kushner, Once and Future King by T. H. White, or anything by Neil Gaiman.
She is addicted to livejournal, and is relieved to have found a job that allows her to spend the day with her finger on the 'refresh' button.
Alistair McKie. Student by day and bookstore clerk by night, Alistair still manages to find time to... well, read, play computer games, and occasionally belt people in kenjitsu. A geek to the bone, Alistair knows how to write DOS code and make a network run off a soap box with a piece of wire. Next year he plans to study Commerce at Curtin Uni or take over the world with Erika.
Alistair spends most of the time at work talking to people about millitary sf and chatting online. If you ask him to recommend a book it would be Moonseed by Stephen Baxter, or Hunting Party by Elizabeth Moon. Or he might throw a classic at you like The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham or Man Plus by Frederik Pohl.
Erika Pearson. Who is that (un)masked figure behind the counter? She is a dynamic figure, often seen mocking the afflicted and educating the unenlightened. She woos suitors with her sensuous and godlike thighs, rides a bicycle, and eats far too much sugar. She was Wonder Woman until she realized that there was such a thing as too much red spandex. The laws of physics do not apply to her. In her spare time she enjoys herding cats and counterfeiting abstract masterpieces. She once read Neuromancer, The Hobbit and Beowulf in one day, and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. She bounces, weaves, hobbles and dances, and all her bills are paid on time. She has interviewed Elvis and Bigfoot, and once worked out the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. And if you have understood this bio, she'd love to see you drop by the counter and say hello.
In real life, Erika is a nearly-completed ph.d student (thus maintaining FP's rep as having the most highly qualified staff of any bookstore in the state). Her research interests include the social life of internet communities, thus justifying her claiming her internet account as a tax rebate. She enjoys technological or 'hard' scifi, and will cheerfully recommend to you anything involving killer robots taking over the world.
The most egregious abuse of company time Erika is anticipating while working here is (badly) drawing silly comics on topics only she finds funny and sticking them on the pinup board. Either that or reading dull, dry textbooks when surrounded by geeky goodness (though is that a waste of time or an endurance test?)
