Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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Copyright © 1992 by Robert J. Sawyer
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In October 1992, so that I could concentrate on other projects, I stepped down as coordinator of Ontario Hydra, Canada's oldest association of science-fiction professionals. I'd held this position since the group's founding eight years previously, producing recruitment brochures, mailing labels, and three editions of the organization's annotated membership directory. D. Larry Hancock took over as the group's temporary coordinator until a long-term replacement, Mici Gold, was found. As my final act, I prepared this history of Hydra. —Robert J. Sawyer

Hydra was founded by Judith Merril, famous for the 13 "Year's Best" SF anthologies she edited. Early in 1984, Judy sent a memo to a bunch of what she called "good SF heads," inviting us to join her for "the First Night of Hydra North," Sunday, April 29, 1984, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Said Judy: "The Toronto area 'SF Pro' population has reached a sort of critical-social mass." She proposed what turned out to be Canada's first association of SF professionals, a group patterned after New York City's Hydra Club, founded in late 1947. That Hydra's members included founders Lester del Rey and Frederik Pohl, plus Judy, Harry Harrison, Willy Ley, Fletcher Pratt, and George O. Smith.

Of the original Hydra Club, Judy said, "The word networking was not yet current, but that's what it was, and more — supplying pleasure and stimulation, as well as useful contacts, for many of us for many years." Our own Hydra has tried to provide these same things.

Our first gathering was held at The Free Times Café, 320 College Street, Toronto. Judy's original invitation went out to 21 people, and my recollection is that 15 or so showed up. A good time was had, and we agreed to meet again.

After much discussion, we decided to hold future gatherings on Monday nights, various other nights being ruled out for a variety of reasons (I remember Thursday nights being scratched off the list because Terry Green was a big Cheers fan — ah, the days before VCRs were common).

I was given the job of being the group's coordinator, charged with organizing gatherings, inviting new members, and so on. At the outset, I did all the mailings myself, but in Hydra's second year I got the individual hosts to take care of sending out their own meeting invitations on mailing labels that I provided.

We decided that meeting in a restaurant really wasn't the atmosphere we were looking for, and adopted a policy of getting together instead in members' homes. We'd originally tried monthly gatherings, but soon found that a quarterly schedule was more to people's tastes. We agreed as a general rule to get together on the second Mondays of January, April, and July, and the first Monday (because of Canadian Thanksgiving) of October, with meetings usually beginning around 7:30 p.m.

Of those who Judy invited to that historic first gathering at Free Times, only John Robert Colombo, Phyllis Gotlieb, Terence M. Green, Robert J. Sawyer, and Andrew Weiner remain members to this day (I, in fact, have the honor of being the only person to have attended every single Hydra meeting). Members who joined in the early years and still attend regularly include short-story writer Gustav A. Richar, who comes all the way from Pointe-au-Baril for our meetings, and horror expert Bob Hadji.

Lots of interesting people have shown up at Hydra gatherings, including anthologist Alberto Manguel, Montreal author Donald Kingsbury, American SF writers Roger MacBride Allen and George Alec Effinger, University of Toronto SF professor Peter Fitting, author Robert Charles Wilson (prior to his move to B.C.), authors Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens (prior to their move to Los Angeles), Cosmos artist Jon Lomberg (in whose house we once held a meeting, even though Jon wasn't there), and Ottawa writer John Park. Sadly, two Hydrans have passed away since the forming of the group: SF novelist Edward Llewelyn-Thomas (who died in 1984) and fantasy poet Gwendolyn MacEwen (who passed in 1987).

[Founder Judith Merril passed away in 1997, and we've since also lost members Gisela Basarke (2001), Ken Basarke (2003), Phyllis Gotlieb (2009), Andrew Weiner (2019), Jan Stirling (2021), Lorna Toolis (2021), and Raymond Alexander (2024).]

Our membership has grown slowly and not always steadily. I remember our July 1987 meeting at Andrew Weiner's home at which the turnout consisted of Andrew, Terry Green, and myself. Still, I worked hard over the years to increase our numbers (including sending letters of invitation to all Canadian Members of SFWA, as well as to every previously overlooked or emerging pro I could find in the Toronto area). For the January 1988 meeting, Terry Green produced a four-page mailing in hopes of rustling up more interest in the group.

Our membership evolved as time went on: gradually, we lost most of those who didn't actually write SF — the booksellers, critics, teachers, and so on began to drift away, whereas more and more members of Toronto's burgeoning community of SF writers started to come out. Judy's original group of "good SF heads" had become almost exclusively professional writers and editors.

Early on, Hydra had been largely ignored (although Taral Wayne did make snarky comments about us in a fanzine, decrying the notion that pros should want to get together socially without fans present; see the end of this page for Judy's rebuttal to Taral).

But by 1989 we were attracting a lot of attention, and I often got requests from fans and aspirant writers for permission to attend Hydra meetings. A formal membership policy seemed to be in order, so I coined one: Hydra was to be exclusively for established professional science fiction and fantasy writers, editors, and critics; it would be open only to people who have been paid money for their work in these areas. Of course, we were still a social group and all of our current members would always be welcome.

And still Hydra grew: In 1989 we averaged 12 attendees per meeting; by 1990, that number had grown to 18; in 1991, average attendance surged to 34; and last year [1992] we averaged 30 people. In the fall of 1985, our mailing list had 26 names on it; by the end of 1991, it had grown to 49 names. Some of those, though, hadn't been to meetings for years. After written notice of my intentions, I dropped 15 names who hadn't attended at least one gathering during the previous year.

By October 1991, our frequent attendees included: Mark Askwith (Prisoners of Gravity); Carolyn Clink (On Spec); John Robert Colombo (Other Canadas); Cory Doctorow (Pulphouse); James Alan Gardner (F&SF); Phyllis Gotlieb (Sunburst); Terence M. Green (Children of the Rainbow); Robert S. Hadji (Encyclopedia of Horror); D. Larry Hancock (The Silent Invasion); Louise Hypher (Ontario Science Centre); Nancy Kilpatrick (Year's Best Horror); Dave Nickle (On Spec); Shirley Meier (Shadow's Daughter); Gustav A. Richar (Dandelion); Lance Robinson (Riverside Quarterly); Robin Rowland (Analog); Mark C. Sadler (Thin Ice); Michelle Sagara (Children of the Blood); Robert J. Sawyer (Far-Seer); Karl Schroeder (Tesseracts 3); Michael Skeet and Lorna Toolis (editors of Tesseracts 4); Mandy Slater (Son of a Dark and Stormy Night); M.R. Soderstrom (Figment); S.M. Stirling (The Stone Dogs); Jean-Louis Trudel (Solaris); Edo van Belkom (Year's Best Horror); Karen Wehrstein (Lion's Heart); and Andrew Weiner (Station Gehenna).

Despite our growing size, the same four people ended up hosting the vast bulk of our meetings: Robert J. Sawyer (eight times), John Robert Colombo and Andrew Weiner (seven times each), and Terence M. Green (six times). They also bore the costs of mailings, beer, wine, soft drinks, and munchies. Of course, those costs were minor when we were a small group, but starting with our January 1992 meeting, we introduced a policy of asking attendees to each kick in two dollars.

Over the years, Hydra members have been invited to several special events (including a book launching on April 26, 1989, for Garfield Reeves-Stevens's Nighteyes, held at Tour of the Universe in the basement of the CN Tower). We've also all been offered free admission to some area SF conventions. And at our January 1991 meeting at John Robert Colombo's place, the crew of TVOntario's Prisoners of Gravity recorded interviews with Hydra members.

Judy's original name for our group, Hydra North, lasted for a long while, but several of us objected to its branch-plant sound, so we changed it in 1987 to Toronto Hydra — Andrew Weiner's suggestion, and a pun on the name of the electric-utility company.

By 1992, we had a lot of members coming from outside Metropolitan Toronto, and so we changed our name again, this time to Ontario Hydra (still a utility-company pun, and, incidentally, an anagram for "Hardy Oration"). Hydra generated a spin-off in 1991: Freelance, a similar association for comic-book professionals, run by D. Larry Hancock [now defunct].

As far as I can tell, there have been approximately 38 Hydra meetings, up to and including the one on October 5, 1992. Below are their dates and the names and addresses of the hosts (not surprisingly, several of us have moved once or twice during Hydra's eight-year history). Figures at the far right are total attendance, where available.

Hydra has been great fun. Many friendships have been formed or strengthened through its informal get-togethers, and I think we've all learned a bit more from it about this crazy business we're in. After eight years, though, it's someone else's turn to organize things, and I do hope one of you will indeed step forward to do so. Here's to Hydra's next eight years!

On March 17, 2014, I tried to pull together a list of people who had attended Hydra meetings over the years (or attended early "Rob's Occasional Bashes," the similar gathering that continued on after Hydra folded). This list of 121 names isn't exhaustive, but gives a sense of how many people were touched by Hydra:

Raymond Alexander • Roger MacBride Allen • Mark Askwith • Chris Atack • Evelyn Baker • Gisela Basarke • Ken Basarke • Don Bassie • Stephanie Bedwell-Grime • Peter Bloch-Hansen • Shirley Brady • Jack Brooks • Linda Carson • Merle Casci • Laurie Lee Channer • Carolyn Clink • David Clink • David Coatsworth • John Robert Colombo • Ruth Colombo • Chandler Davis • Peter de Jager • Nick DiChario • Cory Doctorow • Marcos Donnelly • Lydia Dotto • George Alec Effinger • Ross Fattori • Paul Fayter • Karen Fernandez • Peter Fitting • Marcel Gagni • James Alan Gardner • Brian Gaston • Mike Glicksohn • Marv Gold • Mici Gold • Kelly Gotlieb • Phyllis Gotlieb • Daniel Green • Rick Green • Terence M. Green • Derek Grime • Peter Halasz • Jody Hancock • D. Larry Hancock • Joanne Hansen • Reg Hartt • Tanya Huff • Marian Hughes • Don Hutchison • Jean Hutchison • Louise Hypher • Greg Ioannou • Sandra Kasturi • Guy Gavriel Kay • Nancy Kilpatrick • Donald Kingsbury • Bob Knowlton • Mark Leslie Lefebvre • Michael Lennick • Edward Llewelyn-Thomas • Jon Lomberg • Susan Manchester • Gwendolyn MacEwen • Scott Mackay • Paul MacRae • Derwin Mak • Alberto Manguel • Russell Martin • Jo-Anne McBride • Shirley Meier • Judith Merril • Henry Mietkiewicz • Barbara Moses • Matthew Mutch • Dave Nickle • John Park • Frank Rambeau • Garfield Reeves-Stevens • Judith Reeves-Stevens • Gustav A. Richar • Lance Robinson • Michael Rowe • Robin Rowland • Mark C. Sadler • Robert J. Sawyer • Karl Schroeder • Shlomo Schwartzberg • Michelle Sagara • Peter Sellers • David Shtogryn • Michael Skeet • Mandy Slater • David Smith • Douglas A. Smith • Marty Soderstrom • Robin Soderstrom • Hugh A.D. Spencer • Gary Stephens • Lorina J. Stephens • Jan Stirling • S.M. Stirling • Isaac Szpindel • Gregg Thurlbeck • Sally Tomasevic • Lorna Toolis • Jean-Louis Trudel • Paul Valcour • Edo van Belkom • Roberta van Belkom • Jennifer Ward • Andrew Weiner • Karen Wehrstein • Tom West • David Widdicombe • Ian Wilson • Robert Charles Wilson • Sharry Wilson • Sue Witts • Theresa Wojciewecz.

Judith Merril, 40 St. George St., Toronto, Ont. M5S 2E4 (18 Sept [1984].)

Thanks for an entertaining issue of MLR. I particularly enjoy the eclectic nature of your calendar.

I am stirred from my usual unletter-writing apathy by the delicately poisoned typewriter ribbon of Taral Wayne MacDonald. Let me try to set the record straight.

"AUTHORS ORGANIZE": by no means. Authors meet, yes. Hydra North is neither particularly for authors, nor is it either organized (by any definition) nor meant to be an organizing force.*

"professional writers' group": No. Professional-level involvement in SF, yes: writers, artists, booksellers, teachers, librarians, editors, etc.

"The Hydra Club North": Hydra North, so far.*

"People invited to attend ... " listed were six of approximately 25 who received the first notice. They included everyone I knew of at that time as professionally involved in the field in the Toronto area. (I did not know Bob Hadji was editor of a forthcoming magazine.)

"The aims ... are a little obscure." Right on. There are no aims, beyond association and conversation. There are no goals to clarify.*

"connections between Judy's sponsoring ... and her editing an anthology of Canadian SF": Sponsoring, no. Connection, yes. My "sponsorship" consisted of calling an initial meeting to see if people were interested. At that meeting Robert Sawyer became Secretary or High Muckamuck, or whatever we decided to call him. The "connection" was made explicit in the invitations: collecting names and addresses for announcements of the anthology had made me aware for the first time that Toronto now has a respectable-size pro SF community.

"apparently a person is deemed unsuitable if they have a background in fandom": This policy is "attributed to Judy". I am not making membership policy, and I myself have a background in fandom, as do Rob, Bob, and a number of others.

*It may be difficult for TWM to credit the idea of a social club for people with certain SF interests, a club with no power-game goals, no plans to host, publish, or sway opinions. At this stage, at least, that is precisely what Hydra North is. But I should make clear that everything about Hydra North, including the name, is still fluid. There has been talk about a constitution, about a membership committee, etc.; one of these months we may in fact confirm or change the tentative (branch planty) name, and decide on the title for our executive officer. Then again we may not.

I should also make clear that although membership is for professionals only, persons-of sfannish persuasion who wish to visit a meeting will, in most cases, be welcome. Apply to Rob Sawyer for location of meetings, which are held on the second Monday of each month.

I hope you find space to print all this. Thanks.

Rob Sawyer and Carolyn Clink hosted a 40th-anniversary reunion party for Hydra on Saturday, May 25, 2024, at their home in Mississauga. Of course, a glass was raised to the memory of the late great Judith Merril and the other members who have passed away.

More Good Reading

More about Canadian SF
Remembering Judith Merril
Rob's SFWA Presidential Platform

My Very Occasional Newsletter