Crystalfire

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Zine
Title: Crystalfire
Publisher: CrystalFire Press
Editor(s): Debbie Nockels
Date(s): 1991-1994
Series?: yes
Medium: print
Size:
Genre: het
Fandom: Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Language: English
External Links:
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Crystalfire is a het Beauty and the Beast (TV) zine.

Issue 1

Holly Riedel
flyer for issue #1
page one of three, references at the end of the zine

Crystalfire 1 was published in October 1991, contains 200 pages, and is a novel by Debbie Nockels.

The art is by Holly Riedel, Brenda Boyd, Michelle Sayles, Sheri White, and Ann Graff.

It contains about ten full-page, untitled professional poems or song lyrics. Information about them are cited in the three pages of references at the end of the zine.

While the artists are listed on the table of contents page, they are not specifically credited to each piece of art. This leaves the viewer to have to determine the creator of the art by the style and signature.

  • from issue #1, Brenda Boyd

  • from issue #1, Ann Graff

  • from issue #1, sample text

  • from issue #1, Michelle Sayles

  • from issue #1, unknown

  • from issue #1, Holly Riedel

  • from issue #1, Michelle Sayles

  • from issue #1, Holly Riedel

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

The first two-thirds of this well-written novel is a detailed “first time” V/C story. In the final third, a fannish heroine dreams herself into “Though Lovers Be Lost” and leaps into her TV set to warn V/C to avoid the plot turns that lead to C's death. The reviewer commented that either the reader will love this plot twist or will start to giggle. Depending on whether or not this scenario appeals to you, you will or won't find the zine satisfying as a whole.[1]

This zine contains a mixed bag of story lines, some following from episodes of the 1st and 2nd seasons ; others from the zine Though They Sink Through the Sea Passionate but tasteful love scenes. This volume also contains the unique SND story, 'Perchance To Dream.' wherein a fan, unhappy with the 3rd season, suddenly finds herself transported to a different, yet very familiar universe. In it, she helps Vincent save Catherine during 'TLBL'.[2]

Issue 2

Crystalfire 2 was published in February 1993, contains 202 pages and is a series of stories by Debbie Nockels.

Cover art by Diane Leva. Interior art by Cindy Box, Sue Krinard, Diane Leva, and Sherri White.

cover of issue #2, Diane Leva
flyer for issue #2

The fiction is interspersed with poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Pierre Teilharde De Chardin, and others

From the author of "Promises to Keep:

IN ORDER TO AVOID AN UNPLEASANT SHOCK FOR SOME OF MY READERS, I THINK IT IS ONLY FAIR TO GIVE THIS WARNING: THE NEXT STORY FOLLOWS THE THIRD SEASON FORMAT. THAT IS, THE EVENTS IN IT TAKE PLACE MANY YEARS AFTER CATHERINE'S DEATH - AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, CATHERINE IS DEAD, ALTHOUGH HER MEMORY REMAINS VERY MUCH ALIVE AND INDEED IS A VITAL PART OF THE STORYLINE. HOWEVER, I WANT TO MAKE IT QUITE CLEAR THAT THERE IS NO ROMANTIC INVOLVEMENT FOR VINCENT IN THIS STORY, EITHER WITH DIANA OR ANYONE ELSE. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE SURPRISED THAT I WOULD EVEN WANT TO DO A STORY LIKE THIS, LET ME JUST SAY: SO AM I, BELIEVE ME! THE IDEA JUST POPPED INTO MY HEAD ONE NIGHT AND THE NEXT THING I KNEW I HAD HALF OF IT WRITTEN. THIS STORY, TO ME, IS BUT A FURTHER CELEBRATION OF THE LOVE OF VINCENT AND CATHERINE - ALBEIT IN A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FORM. I HOPE YOU WILL GIVE IT A CHANCE.

  • Always (1)
  • Stronger Than Friendship...Or Love (11)
  • Touch Me In The Morning (35)
  • Night of Masks (V/C attend Joe's Halloween party whose theme is cats.) (43)
  • I Sing the Body Electric (67)
  • Love's Light Wings (71)
  • Back to You (proposes that C left V, at his request, after the Trilogy.) (77)
  • Promises to Keep by Lita Kimball (170)
  • What's in a Dream (has the premise that V/C are asleep in her bed.) (87)
  • Promises to Keep by Lita Kimball (170)
  • Journey's End (straight 4th season, not SND ("20-year-old Jacob returns to the tunnels after a year long European excursion.") (171)
  • References & Acknowledgments (200)

  • from issue #2, Cindy Box

  • from issue #2, Sherri White

  • from issue #2, Sue Krinard

  • from issue #2, Cindy Box

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

A series of Nockels' stories, SND fourth season, after C's recovery (apparently) from a long coma, interspersed with pro song lyrics and poems. Most of the zine consists of brief anecdotes, some graphically sexual. Their titles are “Always,” “Stronger Than Friendship...Or Love,” “Touch Me In The Morning,” and “I Sing the Body Electric.” In “Night of Masks,” a more developed story, V/C attend Joe's Halloween party whose theme is cats. Guess who doesn't need to wear makeup? The threat of a sniper, convincingly posed at the story's beginning, evaporates before the story's end. “Love's Light Wings” spins off from “A Fair and Perfect Knight” to become a rapturous "first time" V/C sexual encounter. “Back to You” proposes that C left V, at his request, after the Trilogy and finally makes the unilateral decision to return. The star here, however, is the long, fully-developed and very well written story, “What's in a Dream,” whose premise that when V/C are asleep in her bed, in “The Rest Is Silence,” C has a precognitive dream of the events of Third Season. Gradually remembering this dream, slowly becoming convinced the events she dreamed are in the process of coming true, C quite convincingly sets out to turn those events aside. Suspense is surprisingly intense over what the final result will be as the apparently fated course of events resists C attempts to derail it. A memorable and vivid story. The final story, “Journey's End,” is straight 4th season, not SND. 20-year-old Jacob returns to the tunnels after a yearlong European excursion. Friend Diana is very well portrayed here.[3]

Issue 3

Crystalfire 3 was published in 1994 and has 198 pages.

cover of issue #3

The cover art is by Sandy “Chan” Shelton, interior art by Pam Tuck, Anna Kelly, and Sandy “Chan” Shelton.

author's notes regarding the story "After Goodbye"
  • Toward Love by Debbie Nockels (1)
  • Silence Be Damned by Debbie Nockels (23)
  • Cunning Sprite by Linda Mooney (41)
  • After Goodbye by Debbie Nockels (53)

  • from issue #3, Pam Tuck

  • from issue #3, Sandy “Chan” Shelton

  • from issue #3, Anna Kelly

  • from issue #3, Sandy "Chan" Shelton, portrays a same sex couple named Lee and Ken (a very, very rare topic/portrayal in this fandom): "Lee had rubbed his cheek against Ken's arm, which lay across his shoulders much as Vincent's did Catherine's. These two were his favorite people Below, and the only straight couple, Above or Below, that he and Kenneth felt comfortable enough with to relax completely and display affection before. "It's a lovely thought, all right," he'd sighed, then glanced roguishly at Kenneth. "But I think I'd rather have a real kiss, thanks anyway."

Reactions and Reviews

The very last story in the zine, the novella After Goodbye, is a well-written story in which an adult Zach begins a homosexual relationship with a helper whose partner died of AIDS. In its time, it was considered controversial. [4]

References

  1. ^ from Helpers' Network Quality Fanzine Review -- 1997
  2. ^ from The Beauty & the Beast Buyer's Guide to Fanzines
  3. ^ from Helpers' Network Quality Fanzine Review -- 1997
  4. ^ from Crystal Rose Lending Library
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