Welcome to Nerd Nation!

Greetings Fellow Nerds!!

Welcome to the Nerd Nation! For those of you who might not know me, my name is Dave Harlequin and I am the Editor in Chief of this brand new e-publication by nerds, for nerds, and on behalf of everyone on the NerdNation staff, allow me to thank YOU for taking the time to come check us out!

For those of you who might not know about us, here’s a little brief history…

Back in 2009, I started as Editor in Chief over at Stiff Magazine, a bi-monthly horror, sci-fi, and entertainment publication which was available in both print and digital formats across five continents, until its eventual closure in mid-2014. Simply put, print media was dying (if not already dead, just too stubborn to lay down – my opinion, of course) and our collective group had already began to shift towards bigger and better things, including launching our own multi-fandom convention in Greenville, South Carolina back in 2013, and while Stiff was set to be re-branded into a new format (complete with countless hours of captured content and compiled articles to fill its first digital “issue”), things got insanely busy and it just never came to be. While the convention had two great years (in July of 2013 and 2014, respectively) the convention management decided to go in a different direction (including a move to a rug warehouse in the small town of Gaffney, South Carolina) – one which I understood, but did not agree with, and after no small amount of public controversy surrounding this move, and the announcement that 2015 would be the last show (choosing instead to go in a more mainstream -as in, non-fandom- direction), I decided to officially resign my position as Program Director, and go my own way – refocusing on my own writing and journalism endeavors – which I continue to love to this day. I harbor absolutely no ill will towards the people who still work with this convention, and wish them the absolute best. I had an amazing five-year run there, got to travel all over the country, attend more awesome cons than I can count, meet so many great friends, make so many great professional contacts, and really grow so much – both personally and professionally. I do not regret a single day of it.

I came up with the idea for Nerd Nation based on all of my own collective interests – in writing, journalism, and fandom in general – and though I personally lack much knowledge of e-publishing as a whole, I decided to take a leap of faith, and launch this new website and web-publication… just out of my love for everything this community is all about. My good friend (and fellow former Stiff Magazine staff member) David Ward also loved this idea, and decided to come on board with me here as Operations Director (an often unsung, but very important position, especially when you’re on the road half as much as we are!) – as well as many other former staff members who chose to come over and contribute to this small, but strong little humble project of ours.

The initial response was overwhelming, with so, so many of you showing interest in what we’re doing with this, and many of my own contacts reaching out to me offering support – many of whom you’ll see publishing articles right here on Nerd Nation in the very near future!

So it’s with all of that said, that I’d like to once again welcome you all to Nerd Nation, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for reading and supporting this!

Cheers!
Dave Harlequin
Editor in Chief