Forever Net

Zine
Title:	Forever Knight
Publisher:	InterKnight Press Publications
Editor(s):
Date(s):
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Forever Knight
Language:	English
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Forever Net is a Forever Knight gen fanzine containing stories that were posted to the ForKNI-L and FKFIC-L lists and collected by Valery King and Karin Welss.

There were five regular issues and two special issues.

Issue 1

Forever Net 1 was published in 1994 and contains 200 pages. It was a 1994 Fan Q nominee.

cover of issue #1

From the editorial:

Welcome to issue #1 of FOREVER NET: TALES FROM FORKNI-L AND FKFIC-L.

This zine is a bit different from other zines that have gone before it. All the stories have been published before, yet I wouldn't call them reprints. How is this, you may ask (go ahead, ask). This, my friends, is a paper copy of an electronic fanzine.

The explosion of electronic bulletin boards and mailing lists on national computer networks is a bona fide phenomenon, something of an electronic revolution. There are lists on every conceivable topic, and it is only logical that media fans would get into the act It is so seductive... Almost instant communication, for a few dollars a month, with dozens (even hundreds) of other fans; an opportunity to locate others who share your obsession and whose existence validates your interest; a forum for your ideas and an outlet for your discussion; a sense of community. Well, you get the idea; I'll let the sociologists go into the societal ramifications of the computer revolution.

Yet there are many fans out there who are not a part of this electronic community, who lack the funds to purchase a computer and subscribe to a network, or don't know about the lists and have no one to explain it to them, or who are just plain intimidated by the whole thing (a perfectly understandable attitude, actually, given the mind-boggling amount of information out there).

Since you've purchased FOREVER NET, you most likely are a fan (or at least have some interest in) the television series Forever Knight. FORKNI-L and FKFIC-L, on the other hand, may be entirely unknown to you. Following this Edlntro is a delightful and informative contribution from Jean Prior, the Listowner and the person who brought the subscribers together in the first place. She explains what the list is, how it came to be, as well as why it is and who it is. She and the Production Editor, Karin Weiss, have included a clear and concise set of instructions on how you may join the list. I encourage you to do so, because a group of interesting and friendly folks will welcome you with open arms and open minds (and yellow eyes and fangs...)

The Listowner started it. We took it from there; and then, spontaneously, something wonderful began to happen. People started posting pieces of Forever Knight fiction...

I've been reading fan-produced fiction for many years, and of course Sturgeon's Law applies to it as to everything. But I was very impressed by the quality of the stories that began to appear on FORKNI-L (and later, FKFIC-L); wonderful tales that fans have been craving since the show went out of production. As these marvelous stories kept appearing.

I began to think of all the electronically-deprived fans who would love these works as much as I did, and who did not have access to them. This, and my bizarre obsession with correcting everyone's spelling and punctuation, inspired me to ask Jean and the writers if I could collect their stories and distribute them in the more traditional, paper format.

• Editor's Introduction by Valerie King (1)
• In the Beginning by Jean Prior (3)
• Missing Scenes from the US Broadcasts of Forever Knight (7)
• Mini-Fic Vignettes from FORKNI-L (17)
• Old Blood by Veronica McKnight (23)
• Kindred by Lynne Levine (35)
• Coming Across by Lisa McDavid (43)
• Confessions by Lisa McDavid (53)
• Late Knight TV by Don Bassingthwaite (59)
• Of the Blood by Margaret Newman (61)
• Dairy Blossoms by Don Bassingthwaite (105)
• Entwined by Margaret Newman

• So Lonely by Sharon S. Scott (107)
• Breathers by Barbara Reid (109)
• Schanke Cleans His Plate by Don Bassingthwaite (123)
• Sidney Meets Janette by Dionne E. Nelson (127)
• Say Goodbye to the Light by Karin Welss (133)
• Nectur du Natalie: The Forbidden Wine of Dreams by Marian Gibbons (?)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

Ain't technology grand?

For example, there's this series about this Canadian vampire cop. And it's shown in Canada and the USA. And people from Canada and the USA get to talk to one another about it via computer bulletin board systems. And on one of these systems in particular, somebody put together a listing where conversation could be exchanged and another where stories (including fragments and ideas) could be posted and downloaded by other computer users. Immediate communication, connection, reaction (no waiting for LOCs that never come or reviews from *AHEM* people to whom they can't respond), and gratification (to readers who spend their dollars on download time and computer paper and ink cartridges-no waiting for a zine to arrive by mail when the stories are THERE to be read).

But somebody-Valery King-started wondering what to do about the people who'd like to read the fiction that was posted, but didn't know about the net, or know people who had access to the net. And, her little hands itchin' to get at typos, Valery got permission from the writers to place their completed (and edited) works into a proper zine format, where it would be available for all the non-computing world to see.

Thus was born Forever Net.

There's no artwork. The layout is clean, in a very modernist "no frills, but nice choices of type can be pretty, too" way. There's a good introduction about how the zine came to be, how the Internet list came to be, and an example of how a brief bit of on-line humor can lead to fragments or entire stories. In fact, it's a continuation of one world (Forever Knight, which it's assumed you've seen, or at least whose premise you understand) and an introduction to another (the FORKNI-L and FKFIC-L listings on Internet).

The quality of the fiction is well above and beyond the fannish average. From "Old Blood," by Veronica McKnight (in which Nick is vetted by a protector of his partner's family), to a brief interlude like "Kindred," by Lynne Levine, to a rip-roaring "my vampire's back and there's gonna be trouble" story like "Of the Blood" by Margaret Newman. The historical pieces, when done, are done well (as in "Say Goodbye to the Light" by Karin Weiss) and the hysterical pieces, such as Don Bassingthwaite's "Dairy Blossoms" are well worth the time and trouble of any good shaggy-bat story.

My favorite two pieces would have to be "Sidney Meets Janette" by Dionne E. Nelson (in which Natalie's cat give a running POV dialogue about a vampiric visit to her human's apartment), and "Nectur du Natalie: the Forbidden Wine of Dreams," by Marian Gibbons. The latter is a particularly well-drawn story in which one discovers that there are certain advantages to having a vampire for a friend (and possible significant something-other), especially when you're dying of a terminal disease.

I suppose the amazing things about Forever Net are that the fiction is sooooo good (Valery having deftly culled the best from a good batch of fiction-I never stumbled once over grammar, dialogue, motivation, or setting) and that it was done so quickly (the immediacy of downloading computer compatible fiction with instant access to editorial requests). The price is a bit high ($20.00 for two hundred pages, first class), especially since there's no special priming needed for artwork. But I suppose all that immediate access does cost something more than two weeks and a twenty-nine cent stamp....

Is this the face of future zines? Possibly. I wouldn't count on every net-induced zine to come up with this quality material or presentation. But for now, it's good stuff.

So why am I going through art-withdrawal?

Issue 2

cover of issue #2

Forever Net 2 was published in 1994 and contains 280 pages.

Author's comments about "Icebreaking, which was first posted to FKFIC-L over the summer and fall of 1993:

This is the first story I wrote for the list, back in the summer of 93. I've had a couple requests to repost it since it predates the FTP archives and the Web sites, so here 'tis.

If and when I can get into the hard drive on my dead computer (I don't keep backups of stories already in zines, like an idiot), I'll also repost "Further to Fall", "Silent All These Years," and "To Drive the Cold Winter Away."

It just occurred to me that this is the only FK story I've ever finished that *isn't* named for a song title. What can I say, I live my life to a soundtrack... ;-)

• Editorial (1)
• Caroline by Sharon S. Scott (3)
• No Excuse for Not Flossing by M.J. Farrell (29)
• Heart of Darkness by Karin Weiss (33)
• Icebreaking by Valerie Meachum (65)
• Heart Within the Beast by Lisa McDavid (73)
• Forever Schanke by Don Bassingthwaite (119)
• Sleep of the Undead: or, No Rest for the Wicked by Pamela Rush (141)
• A Thirst for Vengeance: a round-robin story by the members of FKFIC-L (147)
• Which Side by Don Bassingthwaite (205)
• All That's Best of Dark and Bright by Susan M. Garrett (207)
• About the Authors and Staff (279)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

I borrowed a number of FK fanzines from a friend and read them somewhat avidly: Forever Net #1 and #2 (stories of a FK bbs)... The anthology zines were better than I had expected, given that they were coming of the net... But interestingly, from the perspective of a slash fan, they spent very little time exploring the relationship between Nick and Lacroix. There are a lot of stories about Nick and Natalie (and some of them reminded me of Vincent/Catherine stories), and a lot of stories about Lacroix. The bbs community has constructed a shared fan canon about his origin, as well as about vampire physiology and so on. But Nick and Lacroix aren't usually connected by these fans in ways that are practically the first thing a slash fan would look for. And I don't mean sex, here. (These stories are almost devoid of sex. Sometimes straight sex is present but very soft-core, and sometimes the assumption is that vampires suck blood instead of having — and are incapable of having—sex. I see no reason at all to want to make this assumption, and extremely strong evidence in canon that it's not true.) I mean that slash fen look for highly charged, conflicted or blissfully identity-blurring, mutually if sometimes unwillingly dependent relationships between the men, and none of these writers has focused on that, which just leaps of the screen to me.

The most interesting example along these lines is a long story set about thirty years in the future, after Nick has been cured and he and Natalie have gotten married; it's about the relationship between Lacroix and Nick's daughter Cat. Despite knowing al about her father's history and who Lacroix is and what he wants (basically, to revenge himself on Nick through his family), Cat fals in love with Lacroix, and he with her, and they work through conflict and opposition from several vampire factions as well as from Nick and Natalie before attaining true love and unity. But there is no clear motivation for this. What seems to be going on, in my analysis, is partly the common fan urge to rescue or save the damaged man, in this case Lacroix. We want to show Vincent that he doesn't have to hide and be ashamed. We want to give Avon someone he can trust. We want to see Bodie let down his guard. This story constructs Lacroix as a profoundly emotionally damaged man, who hasn t truly loved since he lost the concubine who was carrying his child in the fourth century BCE, when he was still mortal, and for whose death he has blamed himself ever since. (It's implied that Cat is his lost lover's reincarnation.)

So that's why Lacroix fals in love; because the story is structurally designed to redeem him through love. But why does Cat fall in love? Structurally, she is a stand-in for her father. She is fascinated and compelled by Lacroix because Nick £ is/was. As a mortal who understands what Lacroix is offering and may fear or welcome it, she recreates Nick's original relation with him. She recasts one of the central emotional linkages of the show in a way consistent with heterosexual romance ideology, rehabilitating it for a fan community unwilling to see the original relationship in its fully passionate, conflicted, sexually charged light.

Issue 3

cover of issue #3

Forever Net 3 was published in 1994 and is 183 pages long.

• And Memories, Like Diamonds, Shine by Susan M. Garrett (6 pages)
• Lust For Blood by Sandra Gray (34 pages)
• It’s In The Cards by Barbara Reid (2 pages)
• Ashes To Ashes by Karin Weiss and Marian Gibbons (8 pages)
• In The Night, Cries by Teleri Beaty (28 pages)
• A Novel Idea by Susan M. Garrett (6 pages)
• Knight’s Dragon: A Round-Robin Story (34 pages)
• Sleep Of The Undead, Or, Caught In Your Knightie? by Pamela Rush (4 pages)
• Bless me Father For I Have Sinned by Lizbeth Marchese (6 pages)
• What Price Mortality by Rebecca Rauscher (10 pages)
• Celebration by Margaret A. Newman (4 pages)
• A Lamentation, For Strings by Susan M. Garrett (40 pages)

Issue 4

cover of issue #4

Forever Net 4 was published in 1995 and is 202 pages long. It was a 1995 Fan Q nominee.

• Editor's Introduction by Valery King (iv)
• The Joke by Margaret Newman (1)
• Top 10 Reasons Why Nicholas is Not a Wimpy by Sharon Scott and Margaret Newman (4)
• LaCroix Takes the Wheel by Diane Trap (5)
• A Worse Curse Than Vampirism by Lynne Levine (10)
• Car Trouble by Sharon Himmanen (11)
• One Of Our Own by Siobhan (15)
• "You Are Old, Lucien LaCroix" by Celest Hotaling-Lyons (38)
• None So Blind by Diane Trap (39)
• Hill of Crows by M.E. Drive (47)

• LucienLaCwocky by Celeste Hotaling-Lyons (52)
• In the Black by Susan M. Garrett (53)
• Christmas Trypitich (54)
  • ’Twas A Nightie For Christmas by Pamela Rush (55)
  • Sidney Vs. Treezilla by Susan M. Garrett (65)
  • Twelfth Night by Pamela Rush (75)
• A More Permanent Atch-Ed-Double Hockey Sticks by Celeste Hotaling-Lyons (88)
• Why Nick Became A Police Officer and Not An Academic Again or Forever Python,: The Bruces by Don Bassingthwaite (89)
• Memories by Lynne Levine (4 pages)
• The Clearing by Margaret Newman (4 pages)
• Nicholas and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Night by Diane Echelbarger (4 pages)
• Experiment by Sharon S. Scott (3 pages)
• Walk On By by Susan M. Garrett (2 pages)
• Partners Of The Month: The Unseen Scenes by Pamela Rush (12 pages)
• Those Left Behind by Diane Trap (5 pages)
• To My Dearest Children, Who Have Had a Close Call by Celeste Hotaling-Lyons
• Justice, Being Blind by Susan M. Garrett (74 pages)

Issue 5

cover of issue #5

Forever Net 5 is 192 pages long and contains 23 stories. It was published in 1997 and contains 192 pages.

• Remember by Jill Kirby
• LaCroix's Valentine by A.C. Chapin
• Love You To Death by J.R.
• Where There's a Will by Marcia Tucker
• Gay Vampire Toronto Cop Fathers Alien Love Child by The Lurkers--Maddog and Rastro
• The New Life by Apache
• Apricots and Mortal Tears by Apache
• Company's Coming, Dear by J.R.
• In the Age of Transparent Aluminum, A Brick Is Still a Brick by J.R.
• Time Is A Three Lane Highway by Margaret Newman
• Forever Freud by Catherine Siemann
• A Third-Season Script, or Remember It Could Be Worse by Sarah Welsh
• When Life Hands You A Lemon, Rewrite History by J.R.
• Welcome to the Family by J.R.
• Night Train by L.D. Steele
• Teddy Bares by Pamela Rush
• Echo by Apache
• Special by Celeste Hotaling-Lyons
• Red Dreams by Jane
• Revenge by Jane
• I've Got A CRUSH On You! by Catherine Siemann
• Contemplating Mortality by TJ Goldstein and Sorcha O'Faolin

Special Issue 1: Forever Net Before Christmas

Forever Net Special Challenge Issue 1 is subtitled, "Special Holiday Issue" and "Forever Net Before Christmas." It was published in 1994 and contains 140 pages. The story, "Angel Crossing", was nominated for a 1995 FanQ.

cover of Special Issue #1

• Five Christmas "Challenge" Stories by Susan M. Garrett: "Neither Flesh, Nor Fowl, Nor Good Red Herring" (Janette); "Angel Crossing" (LaCroix); "Coin of the Realm" (Nick); "Trick or Treat" (Natalie); "'Tis the Seasoning" (Schanke)

• Five "Challenge" answers: "A Vampire in My Stocking" (a script by Jennise Hall and Margaret Newman); "Flowers in the Night" (Sharon S. Scott); "I'll Be Home for Christmas: a Forever Nat story" (Marian Gibbons); "It's a Wonderful Knight" (Mary J. Farrell); "O Mighty Town of Toronto" (a poem by Edith Crowe).

Special Issue 2: Special Challenge

Forever Net Special Challenge Issue 2 was published in October 1995 and contains 183 pages. It is subtitled, "Special Challenge Stories".

cover of the Special Challenge Issue #2

Featuring 36 stories from the Snakebits, Vampires Anonymous and Forever Not challenge stories from the fan fiction mailing list, three of the list "challenges": "Forever Not," "Vampires Anonymous," and "Put Down the Snake and We'll Talk."

• Forever Not Stories: Don't Call Me Buffy (Marian Gibbons). The Evening After and Choices (both by Sharon Himmanen). Hose Were the Nights, My Friend (Celeste Hotaling-Lyons). Domestic Tranquility (Jill Kirby). Deuces Wild, or To Have One's Cake and Eat It, Too (Lisa McDavid). Fatherhood (Margaret Newman). Ne M'Oubliez Pas (M.E. Orive). Valentine From Another Planet (Pamela Rush). More.

• Snakebits (Variations on a Scale): Water, Water; Over Boa-ed; The Barest Slip Twixt Fang and Lip; Getting it Straight (all four by Susan Garrett). The Cure (Sandra Gray). A Share of Darkness (Robin Carroll-Mann). More.

• Vampires Anonymous: Special Delivery; 500 Channels and Nothing to Watch (three by Susan Garrett). Business Cards (Dawn Steele). Vampire Quarterly (Beth Marchese). Harry King Undead (Valery King). Variations on a Theme: Moonlighting (Karin Welss). More.