Diplomacy
World Interview with Melinda Holley
by Phil
Reynolds
Originally
appearing in Diplomacy World #67
Take a large sampling
of Diplomacy games and you might find her name in half of them. Add a ton of games being run in both
Rebel and Starwood, plus the BNC publication Everything and it's no wonder how Melinda "Hobby"
Holley earned her nickname. To many hobbyists, though,
she is still something of a mystery. Who is Melinda Holley? Diplomacy
World decided to find out.
DW: Melinda, tell us a
little about yourself and your family.
MH: I was born August
9, 1954, in West Palm Beach, Florida. I moved to West Virginia when I was 15
months old. Both my parents were from West Virginia. I have an older sister and
a younger sister in Huntington. Since my father was the sixth of 14 children and
my mother was the youngest of ten, I have numerous cousins. I have three nieces, too. I love the
mountains of West Virginia. This is a good place to live. If I had to live
elsewhere, I think I'd choose North Carolina.
DW: What is your
occupation?
MH: l am an office manager of a firm that sells lighting equipment.
I guess we're proudest of the sports lighting. A company we represent has done
lighting for the Olympics, several movies (mobile lighting technology), a lot of
televised football games, and most recently it introduced a radical new lighting
system for nighttime car races.
DW: Despite your
extensive hobby involvement, you seem to have a reputation for being a bit of a
recluse. Why do you think this is?
MH: I do have the
reputation of being a recluse because I haven't participated in any cons. My
appearance at DipCon this year will be my first con.
Personal real life problems and conflicts basically precluded any prior
participation. Hopefully, this will change.
DW: There also seems
to be a fascination with what you look like. PDORA accepts bids on photos of you
every year. How did this start, and what do you look like?
MH: If l tell you, then the photos won't sell! Nothing spectacular:
dark hair, glasses, grey eyes. Someone (John Caruso, I think) suggested I
offer an autographed picture of myself for POORA. The next year, he suggested I
offer a few more since it was a big draw.
DW: PDORA also offers
a personal horoscope by you. How did you get interested in astrology?
MH: I've been into
astrology since I was 14. I had a crush on a guy who was into it. Learning about
astrology didn't help me with the guy, but I got interested nonetheless. I like
seeing how accurate the horoscope readings really are to people. Of course, no
one sees himself or herself as others do, so it'll
never be perfect.
DW: What other hobbies
do you have?
MH: I like music and
listen to just about anything except jazz, opera, and most country-western.
Basically, though, I like rock and roll. I'll read maybe two or three books at a
time (biography, history, and nonfiction; some mystery, science fiction and
romance novels).
I'm also into
genealogy. Because I like history so much, it's a lot of fun to track down
family members. For instance, both my father's and my mother's families were
split pretty much down the middle during the Civil War (half were Union
supporters, half were Confederacy supporters), which made for some interesting
stories.
I'm still into fantasy
role-playing games, especially Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. My other main
hobby is embroidery. My mother got me started on it when I was four years old.
It's about the only traditionally feminine pastime she was able to drum into my
hard little skull! I don't cook. I detest cleaning, but I will do laundry!
DW: Is there something
you could tell us about yourself that we might find surprising?
MH: You want a
surprise? I love WWF Wrestling! Beyond that, I'm not that extraordinary. I have
a temper which I've learned to keep under control since childhood. Despite all
the rumors, I do not have a torture chamber in my basement. I don't have a
basement. It's located in my bedroom's large walk-in closet. I don’t like cats
or most animals. I love chocolate, adore Mel Gibson, and am a closet romantic.
DW: How did you get
into the PBM Diplomacy hobby?
MH: I got into the
hobby through fantasy role-playing. I saw an ad in Aries magazine for a fantasy
role-playing-by-mail game and wrote about it. Unfortunately, the person running
the game was Elmer Hinton, about whom the least said, the better. The only
fortunate thing was Hinton said he was also running a PBM Diplomacy game and
asked if I'd like to join. I said sure, and then I went out to find the game and
see what I had agreed to do.
DW: Describe your
first game.
MH: My first game
(82-CN) was with Hinton as GM. Talk about starting out rough.... However, I was
really lucky to have Kathy Caruso (then Byrne) and Steve Courtemanche also in the game with me. I was playing Russia,
Kathy played Italy, and Steve was Austria. We had a ball, and Kathy showed me
the ropes.
I was awful in this
game. I didn't understand many of the rules. For instance, I didn't realize I
could move F Sev-Rum. I thought I had to move F Sev-Bla first before I could take Rum. Kathy told me to quit
fooling around and move that fleet into Rum. Then she took me under her wing. I
survived with one center.
The most fortunate
aspect of the game was that Steve told me there were other people who also GM'd games. Kathy gave me a start
in one of her games and passed me Steve Heinowski’s
name.
DW: How many games
have you played? Why so many?
MH: Ah, the big number
people seem fascinated by. I've played in about 350 games total since starting
in the hobby in 1982. A lot are Gunboat games. I shouldn't try to be in so many.
I really overextended myself and I wasn't able to give as much attention to each
game as I should have. That's one reason why I'm trying to cut back, but it's
sort of like staying away from chocolate-one whiff, and I'm back again.
DW: What was your
first win? How many games have you won?
MH: My first win was
as Germany in a game GM'd by Don Williams. He seemed
rather astonished that this was my first win. For some reason, I had a reputation as a
winning player before I even won a game! I've won just seven games. So much for
a winning reputation!
DW: Is there one game
in particular which is memorable?
MH: It was written up
recently in The General. It was memorable because I stabbed Kathy Caruso for the
win. I'd won other games, but this one ranks the highest. As I said, I consider
Kathy to be my mentor in this game. I probably wouldn't even be playing if she
hadn't steered me in the direction of reputable GM's and zines. To stab Kathy and win made me feel like I really had
a handle on the game.
DW: Rebel has been
host to a great many games over the years. What motivated you to begin doing it?
MH: I started Rebel in
November of 1984. (Starwood began in 1987.) I saw other zines and wanted to try my hand at it. I'd talked about it
for quite a while with a friend who wasn't into Diplomacy. She fInally got tired of the topic and told me either to do it
or to forget about it-so I did it. I've run about 50 games since Rebel began.
DW: Besides games,
Rebel featured the subzine High Inertia, a popular and
entertaining letter column by the Courtemanches.
MH: High Inertia was
Rebel's first subzine, and the Courtemanches (Steve and Linda) gave Rebel a balance between
games and chit-chat Although Rebel is (and was from the start) a game-zine, I started Foxfire earlier this year as a subzine to give it balance again.
DW: What about your
experience publishing Everything. ...?
MH: I enjoy
publishing, so it's no big deal to include Everything..
.. in the roster. One big plus is that I've gotten to
work with various BNC's and people I might not have had much contact with
otherwise.
DW: Have you ever run
any hobby services?
MH: Being publisher of
Everything. ... has given me
two chances to become BNC [Boardman Number Custodian]. It's been offered twice,
and I have refused twice. Hey, I've seen the job-no, no, no, no, no! The only
other hobby service I've done was being DW's Interview Editor for a very brief
time. I was a lousy interviewer, though.
DW: You refused
despite recent BNC's being criticized?
MH: I think the hobby
has been blessed with BNC's who have tried to do an excellent job and had the
best intentions of doing a good job. Sometimes personal real life intervenes,
and it has priority. Each BNC has his or her own way of doing things. Other
people will say its should be done a different way, but these people aren't
doing the job.
DW: What has been your
experience with hobby politics and some of the more colorful episodes in hobby
history?
MH: I was an indirect
participant in the so-called Great Feud. I tried awfully hard to get a BNC
decision against Elmer Hinton (who, in my opinion, couldn't be kicked out of the
hobby quick enough), and I had a run-in with the alleged Bad Boys of the hobby
(who did leave quickly). In Hinton's case, I butted heads with him over some of
his shenanigans. In the other two cases, I got into things because my friends
were being attacked. I've never been known for staying out of a fight if I
thought I should get into it.
DW: Have you had any
pleasant surprises?
MH: There was the
write-up of a game in The General by Rex Martin. He and I were both in the game.
Neither of us did well, but Rex gave Rebel a nice little plug. The response was
tremendous! At
its height. Rebel had 185 subbers-that's when I
closed the games.
The other surprising
thing was the Melinda Ann Holley Award. I was surprised so many people managed
to keep their mouths shut about it! Mostly, though, I was surprised so many
people thought I was worthy of having an award named after me. Of course, I was
glad no one put the word "Memorial" in the name!
DW: If anything, what
would you like to change about the hobby?
MH: It would be for
new publishers to take a little more time to think about what they plan to do.
It seems that lately a lot of zines start up and then
fold within ten issues because the publishers got in
over their heads. Then games have to be rehoused, etc.
DW: What do you think
is the greatest problem facing the hobby?
MH: There seem to be a
lot of zines folding. Some are like what I've just
described, but a lot of elder zines are going, too.
Kathy's Korner just announced its fold. It seems
strange when someone tells me that Rebel is one of the older zines. If newer zines can't keep
publishing and the elder zines drop out, those of us
still publishing will be handling a lot more games if we want to keep people in
the hobby.
DW: What advice would
you give to prospective publishers?
MH: They need to think
long and hard about the time and money they are going to invest in a zine. It might be a good idea to publish a subzine for a while to get a feel for what they're doing.
DW: How have you
stayed in the hobby so long and not burn out?
MH: I just haven't
lost interest in Diplomacy either as a player or as a publisher. I get almost as
much enjoyment from following the games in Rebel and Starwood as I do from
playing in games. I guess when the day comes that I moan and groan at putting
out a zine, or I start NMRing, I'll consider dropping out. I just don't see that
happening right now or in the future.
DW: What do you think
will be your future in the hobby?
MH: I'd like to
continue publishing Rebel and Starwood. Of course, I’ll keep publishing Everything. ... as long as the
BNC wishes me to do so. I rather like publishing. Don't get me wrong-it's a lot
of work and it takes a great deal of time (in relation to the finished product),
but I enjoy it I also enjoy playing, and I think I've about reached a more
manageable level of games I'm in. I'd certainly like to improve my ability as a
player.
DW: In closing, what
do you like most and least about the hobby?
MH: What do I like the
least? I guess it's the people who take themselves so seriously. It seems those
people feel everybody else should genuflect towards their opinions. But I
dislike that sort of character outside the hobby, too.
The thing I like most
is that I've found people just as warped as (if not more than) I am! Trust me,
that's something to be treasured. Actually, friends are
easy to make in this hobby since we have such a diverse group, but you can find
something in common with others quickly. I've been extremely fortunate to make
good close friends with people I've never met!