Letters of Comment

Judith Proctor, Dorset, England

Zine arrived today. First impressions look good. ... I’ll give you a final decision [about agenting it] when I’ve finished reading it, but I think the answer is very likely to be yes. The layout and general production are excellent.

[Obviously, she did say yes - after pointing out some errors in Not Dead But Sleeping! She posted a nice review to the Blake's 7 mailing list too. ed.]

Kevan Davis,Worcestershire, U.K.

The zine dropped onto my doormat last week, and I must say I was deeply impressed with it all. A nice lot of material (your Blake's 7/Highlander crossover was excellent, and I look forward to seeing the sequels), and splendid artwork, all expertly put together. Top notch. If I don’t manage to pen Cold Fire before the next issue is out, I’ll be throwing coinage at your UK distributor.

[Regarding the (lack of) illustrations in Not Dead But Sleeping ] Not to worry. I thought your reworked picture of Calder was excellent; certainly an inspirational thing for my future scribblings.

Nice to see all the plot errors and typos waiting for publication before becoming apparent to me, as well. Kudos to you for spotting the Greenacre/Greenwood nonsense, but I was more than a little horrified to see Morgan speaking of "Malton" at one point (the story was originally set in the mythical city of Malton, but I changed it to Birmingham after a while), and to see Black suddenly getting a gun during one sentence... Such is often the way of things. Never mind.

Enjoyed it thoroughly.

JJ Adamson, South Australia

Hello - and first, my profound apologies for the delay in getting back to you. When the zines arrived, I wanted to sit down and write straight back, letting you know how beautiful Refractions #1 looks!... Better late than never, here I am!

As I said, the zine looks gorgeous, even before one sits down to read. I was very impressed with all of it, from the layout (that’s Mac isn’t it??) to the art, and most definitely the stories! My favourite piece? Has to be Winning Is The Only Safety , no doubt about it. Kudos are in order! I look very much to the continuation... think of this! Blake's 7 and Highlander in the same story! Be still my beating heart. Best piece of art? I think, the Avon on p 16. That hit the spot for me! Not Dead But Sleeping was a little ‘wasted’ on me, because I never saw Alien Nation , and the same applies to Babylon 5 . But the B7 and Highlander material more than made up for this. I love Highlander . Okay, sure, the show has its flaws. But then again, nothing is perfect and Highlander has the merit of being different, setting off to be original, and sticking to that determination!

Many thanks for a wonderful zine! I look forward eagerly to your next issue, and once again, my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to you. My life has been a soap opera from hell, since about three days before Refractions arrived, and is only now getting back onto something remotely like an even keel!

[Actually, no, the zine is not done on a Mac, it is done on a breezy little IBM compatible PC running MS-Publisher in MS-Windows with a coupla hundred true-type fonts. The cover logo was done in Corell Draw, as well as part of the page- footers. Scanning courtesty of an SP Color 6000 scanner and Micrografx Picture Publisher. And unfortunately, the next part of Winning Is The Only Safety had to be put o until next issue. It is still unnished, alas. ed.]

Marina Bailey, Johannesburg, South Africa

Yes, it [Refractions #1] got here early last week. Thanks so much. I was actually waiting to email you until I had read it, but I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks that I haven’t had a chance to do anything fan-related (except read email!). But it’s sitting here on the computer patiently. <smile>

[Not much of a comment, but she never did get back to me about the zine. Our correspondence turned to other matters - like Highlander (grin). ed.]

Isoline Sanderson, USA

Yes I did [get my copy of #1 okay] – and it looks very nice! I loved the B5 story in it (had never read that one), but haven’t really been able to read the rest of it. (see above re: life...) Thank you kindly!

[No, I'm not just printing the good letters - these are all I got! Apathy strikes again. The only editing here was to cut out personal non-LoC stu. Thanks for those people who did comment. ed.]

Astrogation Log

Once again, the place where you orient yourself if you are lost while reading the pieces in this issue, where I tell you a bit about where and when they are set.

What's in a Word? is a Babylon 5 story, set early third season, but it doesn’t contain spoilers, okay?

Kosh Encounters #1 \& #2 explores the question - what is Kosh really hiding under his encounter suit?

Faith Manages? is a Babylon 5 poem, set in an as-yet-unknown future, showing Delenn’s reaction if Sheridan died in the Great War. No details, just emotions. But it won’t make much sense if you haven’t seen the second-season episodes Confessions \& Lamentations or Comes The Inquisitor .

Irregularity is set somewhere early in the first season of Blake's 7 , and early in the partnership of Sapphire \& Steel .

Coda is a coda to Irregularity : what happened next - or in four years time, anyway. Time is such a flexible thing to time-travellers.

Resolution is a Blake's 7 poem told first from the point of view of Blake, early on, and then from Avon, early fourth season.

On The Way To The Midnight Sun is set a number of years after (as related in Ladyhawke ) Isabeau of Anjou, and Etienne of Navarre, broke the curse laid upon them by the wicked Bishop of Aquila, that Isabeau would be a hawk by day, and Navarre would be a wolf by night, and never would they be in their human forms together, until there was a night without a day, and a day without a night.

Haiku For Katana is just that - a poem about a sword, inspired by Highlander .

Steele Blades is a Remington Steele/Highlander crossover, set soon before the start of the Highlander series and just after Altared Steele in season two of Remington Steele . It also explains why Steele and Laura managed to survive so many incidents during the series.

The Long Sleep is a UFO poem, relating to the incidents of the episode of the same name.

Cold Fire is set in the Alien Nation universe, where a group of alien slaves, the Tenctonese, crash- landed their space-ship in California a number of years ago. Apart from the setting, it has nothing in common with the TV series, since it follows a different set of characters altogether, in England, rather than the States. This is the second story in a series. The first story, Not Dead But Sleeping , appeared in Refractions #1 . Not that you need to have read it to understand this one.

Symbiosis is a Blake's 7 poem, set during Sarcophagus , from the point of view of the Alien, addressing Cally.

Mirror Truths is a poem, yes, that’s true. And I’m calling it a Babylon 5 poem because it was inspired by Babylon 5 . So there.

 

20pt]

Mirror Truths