BLUE LIGHTS Info Pulse

First Issue | July 27, 1999 | Page 1

"Dad!" Scott exclaimed, peering through his telescope (a gift from his father on their first Christmas together). "I see a fast-moving Blip coming right in our direction!"

"That's a BLUE LIGHTS Info Pulse, Scott," the Starman replied with a smile. "It's something new under the sun, and we'll be seeing a lot of them soon."

A blue halo surrounded the object as it streaked through the heavens, glowing with energy inherited from its distinguished lineage. Entering Earth's atmosphere, its brilliance shone like a spotlight on STARMAN fans around the planet.

"Awesome," the Starchild declared. "Totally awesome."

"All right, what did you see, and where did they go?" —Wylie in Episode 4, "Blue Lights."

Greetings and welcome to Blip! What and who is a Blip? The Blip story began in March 1990. At that time BLUE LIGHTS was being published quarterly, but there was so much new fiction being written then that "How Novel" columnist Victoria Onstine (NCA) thought more frequent updates would be ideal. She secured permission from BLUE LIGHTS editor Chris Menefee (VA) to start distributing a small mid-issue mailer, which was eventually called BABY BLUE LIGHTS. This interim publication soon grew to include urgent news and other goodies. Later, in 1991, Chris retired as BL editor, and Victoria expanded her role in BLUE LIGHTS, sharing editorship with Vicki Werkley (NCA).

Victoria continued in these capacities until 1997, when she found it necessary to withdraw because of her career and other commitments. Todd Andrews (OR) took on her position as BLUE LIGHTS co-editor, but not as BABY BLUE LIGHTS editor. This left a void that was filled by two volunteers, Bruce Jividen (UT) and Chuck Simoncini (NCA). However, due to other commitments, it took until 1999 to work out the details and get the sphere rolling.

The first quandary was the name of the publication. The BLIP comittee—Todd, Vicki, Chuck, Bruce, and BLUE LIGHTS Subscriptions Manager Lil Sibley (NCA), unanimously felt that the name BABY BLUE LIGHTS should be retired in honor of the many years of effort Victoria put into that publication, just as a famous athlete's jersey number is retired after a fantastic career. Victoria, we thank you for all you did! Chuck and Bruce also thank Chris, Vicki, and Todd, for all they've done for BLUE LIGHTS—we're standing on the shoulders of giants! In honor of BLUE LIGHTS, we publish this first issue of BLIP on BL's 12th birthday!

So what's in a name? Plenty!

"I bet you put a real blip in their curve." —Scott in Episode 14, "The Probe."

The Blip Committee did a lot of brainstorming to come up with just the right name. We wanted BLUE LIGHTS to be the beginning, followed by one or two words that would make an interesting/fun acronym. One suggestion "BLUE LIGHTS Interim Publication" was discarded as too stuffy, but "B.L.I.P."—with the obvious STARMAN reference from the above quote—made a great "shortform." So the search was on to decide what Blip would stand for. A number of possibilities were discussed and rejected—we'll subtitle the future issues with some of them, just for fun. Chuck and Bruce liked "BLUE LIGHTS Intense Pulse" but some of us thought that is was too, well, intense. After all, we're very peaceful "things." Eventually the name BLUE LIGHTS Info Pulse was selected. It fit all our criteria and everyone on the committee liked it. After all, a "blip" is a "pulse" of energy, and "info" describes the publication's purpose: to deliver time-sensitive info in between issues of BLUE LIGHTS.

The next challenge was how to realize this new entity. Like all SSI projects, Blip has to be self-funded. This is a toughie because traditionally, BABY BLUE LIGHTS was included in the BLUE LIGHTS subscription price, which hasn't gone up for years despite elaborate feature like PhotoStories—not to mention postage rate hikes! Blip will likewise be included with your BL subscription. However, in order to make this economically practical, Bruce and Chuck came up with some ideas:

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