Myhr's Lair Newsletters...

June 1998 - Vol 2 Issue #4

Myhr's Message:

ON THE ROAD WITH MYHR One of the perks of doing conventions is meeting people, fans and celebrities alike. And, as in normal daily life, some of those people cross your path for just a day while others remain close for years. One "celebrity" I've gotten to be good friends with is author P.N. 'Pat' Elrod...you may have read some of her vampire novels like "I, Strahd", and "Keeper of the King" {a book she co-wrote with actor Nigel Bennett}. We kept crossing paths at local conventions {she lives 30 minutes from me}, and soon that passing acquaintanceship grew to hanging out at social functions, and now traveling together to cons we're both guests at {no, not 'together' in THAT capacity... we're like brother and sister!}. Recently, we were 'guests of honor' at a con in Little Rock, and in June we travel to Vegas to do CROSSROADS... long trips go by quickly when you're deep in discussions about

relationships, publishing deals, and chocolate! Get Pat together on stage with Myhr for an auction, and you've got a red-headed tag-team that you would not believe! We've laughed about embarrassing moments on stage, cried about past relationships, pigged out on steak and french fries, and beamed proudly at having raised lots o' money for charities. Okay, so why am I writing about Pat Elrod in a newsletter about Myhr? Well, because I can!! J No, seriously, a lot of you may not even think of picking up one of her vampire novels, or recognize her at a convention, so I'm just broadening your horizons a bit! I hope you get to meet her one day... if not in person, then at least on the written page, because she's a treat! Myhr

LIGHTNING DEPARTURE Dallas, Texas -22 April 1998 Tributes are flooding in from far and wide today, for the selfless act of courage displayed by Jamie's refrigerator. During a recent storm, he fearlessly stepped in front of a lightning bolt and took the full force of the strike to protect the telephone. Many fans are familiar with the deep tones of the refrigerator who has loyally taken messages for Jamie in his absence. "He will be sadly missed", said one devoted fan. "He wasn't much of a conversationalist but he was a very good listener and a real cool guy!" Jamie was too upset to comment and has no idea how he will ever replace such a devoted member of staff.

In this issue: page 1 - Myhr's Message & "Lightning Departure" page 2 - Caption Competition, Schedule & Addresses page 3 - Roc*Kon report page 4 - Starfleet report page 5 - Minneapolis Q&A - conclusion Page 6 - "The Back Page" is your page.

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caption competition

ADDRESSES: To e-mail Jamie: - myhr@flash.net (now closed) To e-mail Sue - sueg@zetnet.co.uk Website: - http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/sueg/myhr.htm Lots of artwork and photos plus soundbytes and much more...

The final date for submissions for the September newsletter will be 17 August 1998

Up coming Cons and Artshows 1998 Jun 14-18 ………CROSSROADS, Las Vegas, NV (guest) Jul 3-5 ……… Starfleet Int'l Conference, Lubbock, TX (guest) Jul 10-12 ……… CONJURATION, Columbia, MO (artshow only) Aug 5-9 ……… BUCCONEER, Baltimore, MD (artshow only) Aug 13-16………SAN DIEGO COMIC CON, S.D., CA (artshow only) Sep 18-20 ………STELLAR OCCASION 5, Dallas, TX (guest) Oct 2-4 ……… ARCHON 21, St Louis, MO (artshow only) 1999 Jan 8-10 ……… GEORGECON 3, St Louis, MO (*guest) Feb 19-21 ………VISIONCON, Springfield, MO (guest) Jul 16-18 ………KINGDOM BY THE SEA Orlando, FL(guest) *=to be confirmed

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Jamie's visit to Little Rock and Roc*Kon ~ by Chrys Harvey

Jamie asked me to write a review of the con for you, and frankly I'm not sure just what to tell you. He was a delight, as always, and since this was his first visit to Little Rock, at least I was a familiar face. He and P.N. (Pat) Elrod, author, were the guests, along with Brad Sinor, another Sci-fi author. Jamie's print of "She Calls" won "Best in Show" and his "B-Files" and "Legacy" all went to auction. Myhr had the bidders in a tail-spin as he raced back and forth between them. It was quite like watching a tennis match. Myhr was photographed in front of St. Vincent's Infirmary. He will be sending the photos to you, I'm sure. As Jamie, he was on a couple of panels, and seemed to enjoy himself. He didn't over-indulge in the Choc-A-Con, a smorgasbord of chocolate creations, the likes of which you can only imagine! He told me chocolate made him sleepy, and it was only 9PM Friday night... Saturday the power went out in the building for several hours, so the discussion panels were re-located to the outside patio off the restaurant/bar. There we discussed the vampires we knew and loved and lusted over. Later that evening, we had the art auction to help our local Ronald McDonald House, the charity we have supported with the last 2-3 Roc*Kons.

One of Jamie's sketches was used as this years logo for the Con, and he had Pat and Brad signing T-shirts....They were not as adept at writing on cloth as Jamie was..Wonder why? LOL Sunday found us re-grouping after a world-wind 2 days. He was always taking the time to talk to anyone who approached him, signing whatever was handed to him and posing for hundreds of pictures. Hugs abounded as well, as expected. I was especially proud to have him remember me from VA beach. I know he meets so many people through out the year, and it meant a lot. I was out of the room working in the art room when he and Pat Elrod started really cutting up! I'm sure you'll understand when you see the photos! I came in at the tail-end of things, DARN! If there is anything specific you need regarding this event, please let me know. I wasn't really sure just what to write! Take care, Chrys "Stay" is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary... ......................... Louisa May Alcott An excellent report, Chrys, Thank you! - Sue

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Remember in the Q&A (Dec issue), Jamie said that he and Myhr had been honored by STARFLEET?
…Here is their own report of the event:

AMBASSADOR MYHR/CAPTAIN MURRAY
TWO TRUE FRIENDS OF THE REG1ON FINALLY HONORED,
by Comm. Mark A. Vinson

At the Second Annual Region Three Summit held in Fort Worth, TX. June 20-22, 1997 two true friends of Region Three and STARFLEET, Jamie Murray and his counter-part Myhr, were finally honored for all that they have contributed to us over the last six years.

For the Region, Jamie and Myhr are always there when a chapter needs someone to host an event. In recognition of this and more things too numerous to mention, The Region presented Myhr with the first ever title of "Ambassador-At-Large for Region Three." This Appointment recognizes the love of Star Trek that Myhr has and those who share in that love. We truly thank Myhr for all his support and friendship. The Region also recognized Jamie Murray as a dear and valued friend of STARFLEET Region Three and it's parent organization STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association by bestowing upon him the Honorary rank of Captain. We truly, thank Jamie for all his support and friendship.

For those of you who do not know, here is a little history on Jamie and Myhr. Jamie Murray first entered the picture along with another interesting individual, Myhr, in mid to late 1991 when Region Three was in its infancy. At that time the only ships were the Joshua and the Rhyanna. The Lancelot and the Intangible were still shuttles. We were all just getting to know each other and trying to have fun. My first recollection of Jamie is a dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse in West End Dallas. Members of the Joshua entertained Jamie and another friend of the Region, Rusk Dorsett, after some event I cannot recall, We all told jokes, shared stories and generally made fools of ourselves. Jamie, as always, was quiet, contemplative and a little shy. I am surprised we didn't scare him off, but thank goodness, he stayed.

Through time and conversations between Jamie and members of a growing Region, we found out a lot about him. Did you know Jamie is an artist, a photographer, a singer, and a musician? Well, he is. I have only had the opportunity to see some of his artwork and, in a word, they are "magnificent". The images he conveys are breathtaking. Someday I hope to hear him sing.

I bet you didn't know he also works for Paramount 21 here in DFW? Well, he does. That's the way we all met him. At one time, Jamie, was in charge of getting Star Trek: The Next Generation ready to air on 21. As such, he was exposed to several conventions and costume contests. Around 1992 Jamie wanted to do something a bit more elaborate for Halloween and since he has been dabbling in makeup for years, the seed for Cat/Lion-man character had been growing. Eventually this character became known as "Myhr".

Most of you know Myhr as the "Pre-eminent Toast-master" of Texas. But did you know Myhr became an emcee quite by accident? Well, he never really intended to be one, but a Sci-Fi Convention needed an emcee and thought that since Jamie worked in television, he could do it. Introverted and quiet, Jamie said he could do it if he hid behind his cat mask and the history!!

Myhr as an Emcee has crashed the barriers that separated masquerade contestants on stage and the people in the audience and even the barriers between the emcee and the contestants. In costume along with the contestants Jamie/Myhr puts the nervous contestants at ease and gives the audience who are used to seeing a stuffed shirt in a tie a wonderful, funny, and suave, "Cat About Town". Now, when Myhr hosts an event the audience becomes an integral part!!

THANK YOU JAMIE and MYHR FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Minneapolis Q&A - Conclusion

Q: You mentioned playing in rock bands...? Jamie: Yea! Some friends... we got together and formed a basement band or garage band in High School and started doing dances and proms every weekend, all through High School. But - I never considered myself a musician; I wasn't into music, I didn't sit around and jam all day long with the other guys, I wanted to be out doing other things, you know: taking pictures or reading books or just sitting under a tree. Singing came easily, I was able to do it well enough and that's as far as it went. So when it came time for the band to break up, I didn't want to go through the hassle of finding more compatible musicians so I dropped that and moved on to photography... And then I did a Star Trek convention where Keith Birdsong was the artist guest of honour and Keith does the Star Trek book covers and collector plates and stuff. And our personalities are very similar and it turned out our art styles are very similar and so we hit it off that weekend and we talked a lot and he looked at my photography portfolio and some pencil sketches I had done. And he saw some potential in me that I had never thought I could do so he literally kicked me in the butt and taught me the basics of how he'd paint with airbrush acrylics and details with coloured pencils. And it was a natural for me because, sketching since I was a little kid, I took the airbrush and essentially sketched with the airbrush - it was just changing tools. So I tried a few paintings and I thought "This is pretty cool" and so I continued. So I started doing 'extensions' of my photography, 'cos it was frustrating to photograph a woman in a studio with a bare background when I could picture her, like, out on a cliff or something. And so this way I was able to expand on the photographs and literally complete the idea that I had. So then doing the conventions people had seen some of my paintings and said "Why don't you do Worf?" or "Why don't you do so-and-so?" So then I started doing some fantasy stuff and stuff like you see in convention artshows and suddenly I'm doing convention artshows,

that's how THAT took off... it's like a little snowball that turns into a boulder and it takes off and I just ride with it and see where it goes... it makes life exciting. Q: You mentioned Keith Birdsong does collector plates, and with the beautiful, beautiful artwork that you do, have you thought of doing plates? Jamie: It was discussed. Keith introduced me to his contact at the Hamilton Collection 'cos they do the Star Trek plates there... and we discussed for about three months, a Beauty & the Beast series. The development person there was real excited about it and she pitched it to their marketing department. Now you gotta remember marketing departments, they're in their own little world - all they see are dollars and cents, NOT creativity, NOT ideas. They just said ''It's an old show. It's dead.... and that's it!'' And it died right there. Q: What TV station do you work for? Jamie: The station is KTXA UPN21 in Dallas Texas. It's pretty much the flagship station of all of the Paramount-owned UPN stations now. But, in the early days we started out as a small independent company and we got bought by Paramount and so now we are 'Paramount UPN' but it's still a small company. So literally, you have a few people that do a lot of different things... My background is in production; cameraman, lighting director, producer, the whole bit! But I also handle some of the shipping, you know and it's... it's... like I said it's... Arnold Schwarzenegger doing True Lives! I mean I zip off to another city, party with celebrities... and then I go BACK to work the next day and I'm pushing a stack of grungy videotapes and filling out paperwork and hanging out with the guys and it's great because it keeps your head in place. (comment: Grounded) Yeah, VERY grounded! If I get just a little bit of this ego/celebrity thing the guys just SLAM ME GOOD! But I do a lot of stuff at the station and I love it because it's different every day - I never get bored with it. It's flexible enough to allow me to do all of this great stuff and I've got a great life! And I thank you all for sharing your life with mine and allowing me to connect with yours. I've blathered on long enough and thank you for sitting and sharing and I'm having a WONDERFUL weekend! Thank you. ;-)

This is the final report. I have edited the text slightly to fit the space available - Sue

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THE BACK PAGE

Members' Letters

WHY EAT OUT? by Pat Kelley So you want a Myhr tail. Well I have a really good one. It was the first time I met Myhr. Opening day of the Great Expectations con in Austin Texas 1993.... Sara Conklin, Cindy Riddles and I were looking over the flyer table waiting for the dealers room to open. The door to the dealers room opened and out came the greatest looking Cat Man I had ever seen, since Vincent of course. He walked straight toward us. I thought he might be going to introduce himself, but he didn't. He walked right up to me, wrapped his arms around me and gave me a big kiss. Behind us on the wall was this sign advertising the hotel restaurant, it said "Why Eat Out?" Here we were looking to all the world like we were eating each other with this sign right behind us. Sara took pictures and Cindy got it on video. A few weeks later in the mail came this package of photos from Sara, among them was a set of two photos wrapped separately in white paper. On the paper was written this: Warning - Warning - Warning Follow Instructions! 1 - Look over your left shoulder! 2 - Look over your right shoulder! 3 - Check every nook and cranny. 4 - Open this only if no parents are present. 5 - Okay - You have 5 minutes to think up an explanation for this photo. 6 - Now you can show it to your parents. The 2 photos are of Myhr's Kiss and of me hugging Myhr. I've kept the instructions together with the photos and each time I look at them I laugh. Everyone who looks through my photo albums wants to know the whole story behind the 2 photos. Thanks, Pat, for telling us about your first meeting with Myhr. I think you have succeeded in making *most* of us well and truly jealous! :-) ~ Sue ~

The ''Team''

Jamie : Myhr : Sue Haley : Jackie Hunt : Karen Quattlebaum The Refrigerator:

''an artsy fartsy kinda guy'' One year on Myhr is seven years on Jamie!! Co-ordinator and Editor Executive Producer (& Distribution) Producer (Merchandise) Whom we mourn - see front page.

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