Steve Davidson

Steve Davidson is a science fiction fan, a former Top 100 Paintball Player of All Time and the publisher of Amazing Stories magazine, the world's first science fiction magazine that debuted in 1926.

The magazine project began when Steve retired from active play and coaching in paintball and was looking to renew his interest in science fiction.

He began with a blog - The Crotchety Old Fan - that was soon joined by The Classic Science Fiction Channel (a site that curated link to classic SF film, television and radio programs); both sites enjoyed a fair degree of popularity duriing their time.

In 2008 he and his wife Karen discovered that the trademark for Amazing Stories had lapsed; following a three-year application process, they eventually acquired the mark and the newly resurrected Amazing Stories began as a multi-author blog in December of 2012.

Steve lost Karen to cancer in May of 2017; her illness caused a delay in debuting the magazine as a regular periodical, which was finally realized with the launch of the Fall 2018 issue at the 2018 Worldcon in San Jose.

The magazine is now published quarterly with the assistance of Kermit Woodall (Art Director and Web Master) and Ira Nayman as Editor-in-Chief.

Submissions can be made through the magazine's in-house, anonymizing submissions engine at https://submission.amazingstoriesmag.com/.

Additionally, the name Amazing Stories has been licensed for both book publication and for television.

FuturesPastEditions.com and editor J.M. Stine produce a series of annual anthologies, classic novels and facsimile editions under the Amazing Stories Classics imprint.

NBC/Universal Television has licensed the name for a re-make of the 1980s anthology TV show, which is now in production with Apple Television and (as of 11/18) believed to be filming in Georgia; speculation is that the Apple television service will debut sometime in the first half of 2019.

Steve began his interest in Science Fiction at an early age, his imagination inspired by his mother's story telling and early SF television fare including Fireball XL-5, Lost In Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Star Trek, all airing in the early to mid-1960s.

He would go on to discover Science Fiction fandom in the early 1970s through the pages of Amazing Stories magazine, then being published by the Ultimate Publishing Company and edited by Ted White, which would eventually find him managing the Hugo Awards Banquet at the 1977 Suncon World Science Fiction Convention.

Steve began playing paintball in the winter of 1983 as a member of an AT&T team-building exercise and was immediately hooked on the game. His AT&T co-workers returned to their desks and offices, having enjoyed an interesting weekend doing something new and different.

Steve returned to playing paintball the very next weekend and began a 35 year career in the game and the industry on that day.

In 1984, the owner of Skirmish USA (one of the premiere paintball fields in the country and Steve's home field) asked Steve to put together a competition team for an up-coming national tournament. Steve created the Muthers of Destruction, one of the first professional paintball teams in the United States. The team would go on to take first place in a regional competition and 4th place in the first national event they competed in.

For a number of years Skirmish USA in the Poconos PA and Survival New York in Plattekill NY, were the host sites for most of the major national and international competition events. As a regular attendee at both fields, the captain of a competition team and a game designer by trade, Steve quickly became involved in the development of rules, scoring systems and competition formats. Many of his early innovations are still in use, world-wide, today.

In 1986 Steve began writing for the newly released Action Pursuit Games magazine, the first nationally distributed magazine devoted to paintball. His semi-regular feature 'Tips for the Loner" would prove to be so popular that it made the transition to two other paintball publications. Steve would go on to write feature articles, regular monthly columns, product reviews and event coverage for virtually every magazine serving the paintball community. He also served as the East Coast Editor and Sports Editor for Paintball News - a bi-weekly publication and in 1991 he was the Managing Editor of Paintball Retailer, a short-lived publication devoted to the commercial side of the business.

Steve would also come to write three books on the game - MAXING: A Guide to Winning Tournament Play, considered a must-read for tournament players in the early 90's and The Complete Guide to Paintball, the world's first mass-market book on the game, and A Parent's Guide to Paintball.

In 1990 Steve created the first national organization devoted to gathering statistics and performance information on competition teams across the country. This organization - the World Paintball Federation - was instrumental in the formation of the world's first national competition paintball league - the NPPL. Steve organizad competition teams from across the United States to create the league and served as its league coordinator during the first two years of exsistence and as league Secretary in 1996. Sadly, the NPPL declared bankruptcy in late 2008.

In 1997 Steve left the NPPL to form a new league with his business partner, Biff Thiele. The new league catered to amateur teams and as a test-bed for the development of a new, more sports-like and television friendly game format. In 1999 Steve was awarded a patent for the USPL game format, and in 2000 he hosted the country's third largest event where the new format was unveiled. That event, PaintFest 2000, also hosted the country's first National College Championship. Major elements of the new format would be incorporated into what is now known as X-Ball.

Between 1994 and 2007, Steve worked and consulted in various aspects of the paintball industry, including everything from retail sales and field operations, product development, intellectual property, paintball distribution, promotions, marketing and team training.

In 1999, the readers of Paintball Games International magazine voted Steve one of the Top 100 Paintball Players of All Time. In 2004, Paintball 2Xtremes magazine voted his team - The Werewolves of NJ/PA - in as one of the Top 50 Teams of All Time and in 2006 the staff of Paintball 2Xtremes magazine named Steve the Most Influential Paintball Personality of 1992 for having created the NPPL.

Today Steve lives in New Hampshire with his Silky Terrier named Bo. His two step-sons live close by, both play paintball and both are beginning families of their own.

Which brings the bio back around to 2006 and beyond. Steve is currently working on the latest issue of Amazing Stories and on the daily blog which can be found at www.amazingstories.com.