Heart of the West
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Heart of the West |
| Publisher: | Athelas Press, Agent With Style |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Sheila Paulson |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | spring 2005 |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Lord of the Rings |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Heart of the West is a gen Lord of the Rings novel by Sheila Paulson.
The art is by Ara. It was edited by Cathy Schlein and betaed by Elaine Batterby.
Summary
From a distributor, Agent With Style:
Nearly a year and a half after the fall of Sauron, Frodo discovers a hidden elvish artifact in Bag End that causes sensations of great joy... Little does he realize the artifact is well known to the Elves, and to several of his friends. Not only do his friends converge on the Shire, but also one who would steal the artifact for his own shadowy purpose, and woe to any who would stand in his way. This is a story of hope and redemption that challenges all those who must deal with the Heart of the West.
From the Editorial
As near as I can tell the advantage of this is to put something on the back of the title page. Here the author can babble on a bit about crises in preparing the zine for publication, or about the subject of the story, or whatever strikes her fancy.
The Lord of the Rings strikes my fancy and has since 1969 when first I read the Trilogy. When the movies came out, Iwas delighted all over again, and inspired to write, which I wasn't by the books. I will always love the books, but it was the movies that made me decide I wanted to play in this vast playground.
This is a story of hope and redemption, of learning to live with faults and frailties and to rise above them, but it is also the story of friendship and loyalty that stretches across the boundaries of race and distance to encompass all the peoples of Middle-earth. (I did leave out the ores beyond several references, but other than that, I think I've represented them all.) Writing this was great fun for me. I got to do a lot with the hobbits, which was great fun, and Gandalf is always welcome. Faramir, always my favorite character, appears as well, and finally has a chance to visit Rivendell.
I finished this story rather late to have it debut at MediaWest, but Cathy Schlien volunteered to edit it for me in the midst of the three zines she is doing and I'm very grateful to her for the fine job she did of pointing out my glitches and paring away V excessive wordiness. Look for her zines; they're always worth the read.
This is the second of my zines I've finished for the con. The first, Tales of Middle-earth, has already been turned in, and the third, Nienna's Gift, is awaiting the art at this point. Also, Cathy, L.A. Carr and Ihave done another LOTR zine. Above All Shadows, which will also debut at MediaWest. Thanks as usual to my beta reader, Elaine Batterby, who does a superb job of cleaning up my glitches, adding my missing question marks, and pointing out bits that don't make sense. I give Elaine areal workout with all the writing Ido -and another LOTR novella is in progress even as I write this editorial, so, Elaine, look out!
The gorgeous cover for Heart of the West was done for me by Ara, who also did the lovely covers for Tales of Middle-earth and Above All Shadows.
I think this is enough for this time around. I never know if people read these things anyway. Go and read the story, and I hope you have as much pleasure in reading it as I did in writing it.