Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 20:38:26 -0700
From: mzelaine
Subject: Re: S&H Olympics.  And a Question.

Linda said....  
>I also have one question.  If VP has sixty-six members, where 
the heck are
>the other sixty of you?  I'm not just talking about scoring for 
the Olympics;
>I'm talking about responding to the general run of posts.  I 
could be wrong,
>but it seems like only about ten people ever post to this list.
>
Okay, here's another lurker sticking her head out from beneath 
her rock.  I gotta tell all you guys that I've been *loving* the 
S&H Olympics.  Some of the comments are hilarious, and many of 
them have made me reach for those tapes.  

I've only been lurking here for just over a month, so maybe it's 
time to become visible after all.  

For those of you who don't know me, I've been an S/H fan since 
about 1980, and my first venture into zine publishing was with 
"Who You Know, What You Know & How You Know It" in 1983 (God, can 
it be that long ago?).  (And by the way, the zine is still 
available.)  I also published the S&H l/z called "Between 
Friends" for several years in the early '80's.  These days, I 
share a house with Kendra and function as her "in-house editor", 
and I've assumed the publishing duties of her S/H and VBS 
fiction.  My main "hot" fandom these days is WG, but my love for 
Curley and the Blintz still endures.  It's like a comfortable 
love, always there in my heart.

I finally got a (used) computer of my own last month, and that's 
when I began reading this list each day, and enjoying the 
conversations immensely.  Somebody recently said this is a very 
friendly list, and they are absolutely right!  

Now that I'm getting a little more confident of my ability to 
"impose my will" on this confusing machine, perhaps I'll be a bit 
more inclined to send the occasional comment.  Nobody is more 
computer illiterate than I am, but I'm trying!

So...hello to all, and I'm very glad to be here.

      Cops do it with nightsticks...

      Elaine



Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 20:49:36 -0700
From: mzelaine
Subject: Re: [VP] A Brand New Project (long)


Our MomBird dreamed up this new project, and I've been enjoying 
reading everybody else's intros, or even re-intros, while I 
lurked in the bushes. I was actually thinkin' I might just ignore 
the whole thing and not send one in, until I read a wonderful 
Intro today from a listsib that made me yell "Me, too!". So, here 
I am, and we have Donna Burns to thank (or blame!) for this.

Donna said two wonderful things that definitely describe me as 
well:  she said (1) she's over 50, and (2) she's not a writer. 
God, I thought I was the only one who fit into both of these 
"categories"!  Sometimes, when I hear our younger sisters talking 
about their wonderful *young energetic* lives, I feel as old as 
Methusulah. And when I read wonderful S&H zines, or hear all you 
guys talk about the stories you're writing, I wish I had the 
talent to write, too. So, I second Donna's statement that without 
all of us *readers*, where would all you *writers* be??!!

I can't actually remember if I posted an Intro when I first 
joined the list, but you already know a bit about me from the 2-
part description of the trip I made to see PMG in the play in the 
early 80's. 

Okay, here's the basics:  I'm 53, single, retired (former legal 
secretary), and just moved back to the Houston area after living 
in Sacramento, CA for the past 9 years. I started in ST fandom in 
the mid-70's, and honestly thought I was the *only* ST fan in the 
whole Houston area, until I went to a con somewhere around 1977 
and began meeting other fans. My entire life changed in 1978 when 
I discovered ZINES (my God, what a wonderful concept!!!), and it 
completely changed again the day I got my first 2 slash zines in 
the mail. Yes, folks, "Thrust" and "Companion" arrived on the 
same day! And for those of you new fans who might not be familiar 
with these ancient ST zines, Thrust had a very explicit f**k 
scene on its cover!  I was boggled! (Of course, I read that one 
first. :-)))  

Although I watched S&H from the beginning, and would occasionally 
stay home from work to watch DS on Merv (and try to take photos 
off the TV screen), I wasn't really in the fandom until 1979 when 
I took my very first plane ride -- to go visit fan who had become 
a dear friend through letters, and we went to August Party in 
D.C. During the course of that life-altering trip, I went with my 
friend to visit a friend of hers -- Teri White in Ohio, and Ruth 
Kurz was also there that day (hi Ruth!). I'll never forgot how 
wonderful Teri's office was that day, as it was decorated from 
floor to ceiling and wall to wall with photos/posters of DS and 
PMG. I had never seen such a wonderful sight, or met two such 
friendly people!  My mind was completely blown away, and also by 
the short stack of zines she loaned me to take home, even though 
she had never met me before. After that, it was definitely a case 
of Kirk and Spock who?

I attended a few of the early Z-Cons, I think the ones in 1980 
and 1981, and maybe 1983. There were always so many unpublished 
stories being passed around at those cons, and it was common not 
to see a friend for the whole weekend, and learn later she had 
been holed up somewhere, possibly in somebody's bathtub, just 
reading reading reading. After reading one such story, I turned 
to good friend Lucy Cribb and said something like "God, this is 
good, we should ask her if we can publish it!" That story was 
Rosemary Callahan's "The Last Charade" and is the first story in 
"Who You Know, What You Know & How You Know It". A zine (and a 
partnership) was born!  Lucy would edit, and I would 
type/publish. I knew instantly exactly how I wanted the zine to 
look, and immediately went and found Ruth, and asked her to draw 
the covers, which she agreed to do.  It took at least a year and 
a half to get that zine published, and it was a massive amount of 
work, but I loved everything about it (and still do!). We wanted 
to publish the most romantic loving gentle zine we possibly 
could, and that's exactly what we did.

After the zine was done, I was feeling at loose ends, so decided 
to pick up the S&H letterzine when Diana B. and Kendra 
H. (who published the very first and only S&H l/z for years) 
decided they could no longer do it. I called mine "Between 
Friends", and it was a labor of love for 2 years. It was a 
tremendous amount of work to do all alone, so after that I 
"passed the torch" to others, and there is, in fact, a S&H l/z 
still being published today.   

My love for S&H never went away, but sort of died down to glowing 
embers through the last 80's and early 90's, as RL problems 
intruded. But all the passion is back now, which is the important 
thing. I haven't bought S&H zines in quite a few years, so have a 
bunch to catch up on. But I've never been in a friendlier place 
than on this list, so thanks for having me.

   Elaine  

