OK, so I recently became a member of the KSCentral yahoogroup and a few days ago one of the mods posted a list of zines she had for sale. I started looking up what those specific zines were about and ended up hurriedly e-mailing her to ask for three that sounded really good. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed the mail had been sent the previous night and therefore, I was told those zines were long gone. Well, because of that I then had many new titles of zines I felt I couldn't live without, which sent me to M & J's listing and checking more zines... Anyway, I now have an official wish list, and much more knowledge of the St Trek print zines of the last 30 years.
So, here's what I ordered from M and what else I'm on the lookout for. I have to mention the invaluable help that the Star Trek zinedex was to me in building this list; internet information about print zines is otherwise very scarce and impossibly scattered.
Ordered:
-SPLENDOR (Dovya Blacque, Time Dahlquist, Faris Vincent). 173 p. Reprinted stories that mostly seem to be first-time, my favorite :-D. The 9$ copy was still available, yay!
-STARBORNE #1 (OH): because it has a Della Van Hise story titled "Forever Autumn", described as a tearjerker (I love that, although I hope it still gets an HEA). I loved Killing Time and been looking for more DVH stories ever since. It's only during my research these last days that I found out she and Alexis Fegan Black of the very expensive Fanzines Plus were one and the same. Um. Anyway, this particular zine apparently has a beautiful foldout and is cheap.
-SPINDIZZIE #6: For a romp of a story named "Kirk enslaved" where Spock gets drunk and sells Kirk as a slave on some planet. When he sobers up, he has to buy him back. Sounds hilarious. :)
-THOSE WHO BELIEVE, Karen Humphries. No idea what it's about, but only 1$. *shrugs* Let's give it a try.
-OBSC'ZINE #3: Has the awesome K/S/McC thressome Between Friends (Feyrer), and one story with Kirk of Spock dreaming about the other or such. Plus, only 1$. Hope they still have it...
-SENSUOUS VULCAN. Adult Spock stories including 4 K/S among which Gayle Feyrer's Desert Heat (which is also available on K/S archive but nevermind). Hot Spock is always welcome, even if I have to deal with a female - let's just hope there isn't too much Chapel int the mix. Dilemma: I've already asked J & M to put aside their 10$ copy for me, but I found another site offering 3 copies for only 5$ each. But their original is missing the back cover (which has nice art on it), and the other 2 are photocopies. J & M's is an original with cardstock covers.
-MYSTIC BOND: In a homophobic universe, Kirk must deal with the consequences when he agrees to save Spock's life in pon farr. Kirk had planned to simply resume his life, but he hadn't considered the ramifications of Vulcan mysticism, or the reality of the Vulcan bond. Seems good enough, but no idea what the author is like. So, am thinking of replacing that one with:
-WORLDS APART, by M.E. Carter, 206 p. Looks like a fantastic AU where Humans and Vulcan cohabitate on the same planet without interacting, and Jim and Spock manage to make their way to each other anyway. Excerpt is well-written and sounds good, and another excerpt of a story from this author shows she is sound. Copy is expensive though, over 20$.
Thinking of adding:
-DREAMS OF THE SLEEPERS, Alexis Fegan Black. 142 p, 1st in a trilogy, Kirk and Spock stuck in the US in our time. Sounds nice and I want to see if Hise can write other good long stories. 8$.
-OBSESSION #2. The girl at Zinedex gave thumbs up to most of the stories in this zine and its seems interesting. And #3 has a sequel to one of the stories of 2 and the rest seems good too.
-INEVITABLE LOVE by Rowena Smythe. No information and 8$ so will probably pass unless I learn more.
Other zines on my wish list. Someday...
Beyond Dreams Press:
**-BEYOND DREAMS 1: 233 p. Got Pacing the Cage, Enemy Mine (greywolf), and stories by Deanna Gray, M.E. Carter, and a funny one about Tribbles. Plus, Shelley Butler cover - she's the bestest K/S artist ever. Excerpts and cover pic HERE. Out of print, and J & M's copy was gone. *pouts*
-LEGACY 5: Threesomes
Merry Men Press: Keep all the zines in print (yay!) but they reprint most of them without the art (WTF?). And they charge 25$ for them! So, buying any of the following is conditional to my finding 1st edition copies.
*-First Time #42: MAGNIFICENT cover by Butler, and stories Picnic by Sheridan, Diver by Spencer, and Beach to Walk On by JS Cavalcante.
-First Time #43: Mostly because of the excerpt for The Storyteller by Kate Sheridan, where Kirk is drunk and retelling naughty stories and a just as drunk and throroughly aroused Bones seems about to pounce on him. And I wanna know where Spock comes in in there. Also, a story where Jim is dreaming and fantasizing about Spock (Words, Penny Wise), another where Spock is hurt and Jim urges him to live so he can confess his feelings to him (Love song, Karla Kelly) and a crewmember's log about her K/S watching activities :) (Butler/Stanis).
-#47: stories by Gray, Sinclair, Marsh and Newton, plus one in the excerpt of which Spock is discreetly observing Kirk's bulge :-D.
-#54: includes Freely Given, plus stories by S. Butler (2nd Chance), C. Spencer (Dearest Blood) and D. Gray (Flesh & Blood)
-FIRST LIGHT, Kate Sheridan. Like the blurb and won several prizes. I do hope there is a lot of the a"taut tension of denial and overwhelming fear" before the "loving, hot, wonderful sex" comes into play; what does it for me is the buildup. But at 25$ without cover art, I'll pass until I find an original.
-TO CATCH A UNICORN, Deanna Gray. Loved Deanna's story In Any Universe at KS Archive and excerpts for her other stories in FT zines sound good. Same remark about the buildup and price as the previous.
-TRUSTING THE SPIRIT, Anna S. Greener. Excerpt is nice but no real story summary. Am a bit wary about the "old Vulcan" part, as it often translates in dom!Spock in fanfiction.
-? MORPHEUS RISING, Kathy Tipton. Pros: still has 1st edition available. Cons: Writing feels a bit amateurish, especially at $25.
Alexis Fegan Black @ Fanzines Plus
*-YEAR OF THE RAM. Won a Surak Award. Do those mean anything? 178 p, Kirk is kidnapped by the Tholians and later released, but forbidden of contact with his old life. But Spock is not giving up hope of finding his friend again and keeps looking. Sounds great and I'm almost willing to pay the 25$ for this one, but I'd prefer to know if K & S are already lovers when Kirk is taken away by the Tholians, or not. My preference goes to NOT, and they get together only after finding each other again. Adds to the tension IMO.
-COVERT ACTION. K and S go undercover on a Romulan ship with Spock playing the part of a sensuous prince. And he gets into the spirit a bit too much... Asked a girl on LJ for that one, let's hope she's got it. Otherwise, 25$ at publisher.
-ONE-NIGHT STAND #2,
-ONE-NIGHT STAND #3, 60 pages
-SOUND OF RAIN, Natasha Solten. From the excepts, that author seems good.
Asidozines/MKASHEF Enterprises
*-SHADOWS IN THE RAIN: Dovya Blacque, Faris Vincent, Arlan Symons, 173 p, 29$. Mostly first times or about the lenghts K and S will go to protect each other.
-A GATHERING OF BLACQUE, 114 p, 27$. Not interested much in the first 2 which seems to be a threesome with Edith or another 20th-century woman brough back to the 23rd, but the other 2 seem to be 1st time- one in which a dream of Kirk's leads him to reevaluate his relationship with S, and a post V'Ger discussion between the 2.
-IN TRIPLICATE, Natasha Solten & Dovya Blacque, 25$. K/S/McC stories that form a 90-pages novel. It says that it "does not insult the characters (or readers) with innocence", which makes me unwilling to pay more than a few $$ for it. I like innocence in the beginning.
-SHADES OF GREY, various. The Zinedex says #5 contains 3-somes with McCoy, Capt. Christopher, Zephrem Cochrane, Marlena Moreau, K'T'lk and other characters, but that actually applies to the full series, not #5 alone (which is most K/S/MC plus one Capt. Christopher).
Kathy Reichs:
*-T'HY'LA #1: Has story about Lori leaving Kirk when he can't stop thinking about Spock (T. C-P), one where Kirk must prostitute himself to get help for Spock asfter a shuttle crash, one where Kirk chides Spock for borrowing his porn tapes, McCoy finding out about Kirk and Spock, and a story where Spock has to meld with Jim to bring him back after he was attacked by an alien machine and his feelings for his captain are revealed.
-T'HY'LA #2: Novel by Chris Thomson and Susan Wyllie, THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE. An old enemy of Spock's decides now is the time for revenge - and chooses the one method that will hurt him most. No idea if it's good.
-T'HY'LA #14: "The Flame of Chaos" (by Carolyn Spencer, recced on KSCentral), "Thou, Under the Willow" (by JS Cavalcante) "Nothing to Sneeze At" (by Dana Austin March) plus Jenna's Son Of Sarek. (complete stories list Here.)
Others:
*-THE BEAST, Teri White. Spock is lost on 19th century Earth, his mental abilities damaged and trapped in a cage in a freak show. Feels a bit like a reverse version of Mind-sifter (Shirley Maiewski, ST the New Voyages, 1976) which I adored, so I'm definitely interested. No idea where to find.
*-RING OF SHOSHERN, Jennifer Guttridge. Was published in the anthology ALIEN BROTHERS in 87 (rare and out of price), but I've also seen it offered as a photocopy by itself. Unfortunately, too late to buy it, damn it. This is one of the oldest stories in the whole fandom, that could have been written as early as 1968; I believe I read once, although I can't track back the source of that info, that it is a Pon Farr story. I read Guttridge's stories in Star Trek: The New Voyages 1 & 2 and enjoyed their rather obvious hinting at K/S, although they still qualilfied as gen stories. I'd really like to see what her full-blown K/S is like.
-PRICE OF FREEDOM, Jean Lightfoot. Spock disappears and James Kirk risks both his career and life to find him. But when he does, the Spock he has known and loved for years is gone. Instead he finds a drug-addicted stranger. 33$ at agentwithstyle. Ha!
Sunday Smexy Deals!
1 hour ago
8 comments:
Wow, I have never heard of zines. They sound srsly cool and something I'd love to have a nosey at. Dōjinshi I've heard of though! And, I have a couple of those. Would love more though. :)
Hi Sarah!! Thanks for dropping by :). I haven't really told anyone about my blog so I'm always kind of shocked (and excited) when I realized someone's read my stuff :).
I looked up dojinshi briefly (I had never heard of those before) and from what I understand, it's a bit similar to fanzines except they have mostly original art. The fanzines like those I mentionned here are almost purely fanfiction - the equivalent of fanfiction.net in pre-internet times. People wrote fanfic of their favorite series, send it to a "publisher" (another fan in the same fandom willing to do the grunt job) who edited them and asked artists to illustrate them, and then put it all together and announced the zine's release to her buyer's list and waited for their orders. All that by mail. God, I have trouble imagining what it could have been like to do everything by mail and phone. Anyway, there ar zines for a wide variety of fandoms, from Star Trek to Starsky and Hutch and pretty much everything in between - mostly TV shows, though, I think. Some of the Star Trek fanfiction previously published in zines has now made it on the net in places like the K/S archive, but a lot of it hasn't and I'm sure there are some great stories among those...which is why I've started looking for those. Believe me, the information isn't easy to find, as most of it catalogued on the net, the zines are mostly out of print (no wonder since it was probably made in people's basements in the 70s and 80s) and is difficult to find used because only small quantities were printed.
Anyway. I still placed an order from a place that has a lot of used zines, foudn a few in another place, and am considering 2 or 3 new ones from the few presses that still keep their zines in print. Are you interested in Kirk and Spock specifically? If so, I can tell you what I thought of the zines once I've read them and giveyou a few recs :).
By the way, I read your review of Price of Temptation, very good. It's been on my wish list for a good year but you've reawkened my interest in it ;).
Brilliant blog, so glad I found it.
All the very best.
Thank you for stopping by!! I've never been told that my blog was brilliant before, and while I think you're doing me too much honor, you did give me warm fuzzies anyway :).
My dear Mary no, you didn't tell anyone about your blog, but I found you anyway and I love it! :)
The zines sounds fascinating and fantastic! The artwork alone must be worth it.
Peace & great travels to you.
Hey Hils!! How are you? Sorry I haven't checked on your blog in a while; I cut drastically down on my blog reading since the beginning of the summer. :( I had built way too long a blog roll. But I'll try to make time for you :).
The zines are fabulous. Some shit, as with any fanfiction, but usually each zine has a few very nice stories. One I received Friday, Splendor, with all reprinted stories from the same author, has ONLY good stories. I was in heaven. And OMG yes, the art is fantastic. I'll try to post a few pics, I'll tell you when I do ;)
I don't post much about the books I read on this blog; I keep most of that Friend-locked on my LJ. There are too many authors checking out the public blogs and I don't want to bother having to mind my words when I say what I think of a book. http://marymonroe.livejournal.com/
Wow, Trek zines. That takes me back, lol. I could kick myself for tossing mine into the trash after some of them got water damaged instead of selling them. Zines can be damn pricey, but as you pointed out, the love that went into producing them, even when the writing isn't stellar, is where their charm lies. I've made myself a promise now that I'm back into Trek that I wouldn't pay for fic. As a serious bookworm, it can get to be an expensive obsession. I'd love to hear your impressions of the ones you ordered. I have a lingering fondness for a couple of zines --the authors elude me now--one took place on a damaged shuttlecraft (Hypatia, maybe--?) with Spock suffering from a nasty head wound, periodically going bonkers and attacking Kirk and McCoy, and another one called Don't Tell it to the Captain where the crew desperately hides Spock, secreting him from room to room, as an admiral inspects the Enterprise. Good memories there. :o)
I know the second story you're talking about; it's still in print at Agentwithstyle :). It did sound fun, although I don't think I'll be willing to pay what they ask for it. The first doesn't ring any bells, but if you ever remember the title, do tell, because it sounds intriguing :).
Re: paying for fiction, I think weirdly enough, it's easier for me to pay for fiction because I've never done it before... If I'd had to pay, then seen most of it become available for free, I wouldn't never have started aying again. Now it doesn't feel much different than paying for 'regular' M/M fiction, which costs anywhere from 12 to 24$ a novel. And at least, there's art in it too. I'm the kind of girl who will (and has) buy/bought a book for its gorgeous cover. Or keep it because of it. Yes, the zines are expensive, but since I've mostly given up on buying other books, it comes pretty much to the same. ;) I have finished reading 3 zines already, I'm going to review them soon. I'm not sure whether it's going to be here or on my LJ though.
Such a pity about throwing away your zines. I'd have taken them even water-damaged, so no doubt others would have been ready too. Speaking of damage, this morning when I was in the bus (5 AM at that)the sauce in my lunch leaked inside my bag and soaked everythihng in it...including my day planner, novel and the three fanzines I had with me... I was SO mad. A kind lady handed me kleenex so I manage to absorb most of it before it penetrated too deeply into the paper so only the edge is stained, but I had to tear off the back cover of Worlds Apart because it was hopelessly ruined. I'll have to replace it. :(
Post a Comment