The Compleat Dirtie Nellie

Zine
Title:	The Compleat Dirtie Nellie
Publisher:	T'Kuhtian Press
Editor(s):	Lori Chapek-Carleton
Date(s):	1991
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:	het
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
	Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
	Contents 1 From the Author; 2 The Chapters; 3 Gallery of Dirty Nellie Art; 4 Gallery of Oriana Art;
	Contents 1 From the Author; 2 The Chapters; 3 Gallery of Dirty Nellie Art; 4 Gallery of Oriana Art;

cover by Nan Lewis

The Compleat Dirtie Nellie is a het 125-page anthology of fiction by Roberta Rogow. It has two sections. The first collects all of Roberta Rogow's Dirtie Nellie stories into a single volume. The second makes up Oriana and includes the adventures of Nellie's friends, T'Rass the Vulcan, and Yarrah Bethan, and the Andorian.

Art for Dirty Nellie is by Gordon Carleton, Joni Wagner, Leah Rosenthal, Nan Lewis, and Jeanne McClure. Art for Oriana is by Leslie Fish. Lori Chapek-Carleton was the original editor.

From the Author

From a LoC (1983):

Some day I will tell you all about "Dirty Nellie" who started out as a minor character in a standard 'whodunnit' on board the Enterprise, and wound up as a character in her own series over five years, in three fanzines! ^[1]

interior art by Leah Rosenthal

From the editorial (1991):

In the beginning, Dirty Nellie was a red herring. Myi first Star Trek story was a soppy romance between James T. Kirk and a young doctor. That one went where all such stories should go ... the trash-basket. My second Star Trek story was "The Aldebaran Jewels Affair", and I needed someone on board the Enterprise who looked l like a thief, but wasn't. Enter Dirty Nellie, Spacer slang and all. The story appeared in Starfleet Annuals/Avatar in 1975, and it was my first fan fiction to be published. Little did they know what was to come! Over the next fifteen years I turned out a string of stories that took Dirty Nellie from the Starfleet Academy to the position of Captain Kirk's Yeoman to a career as a private eye on a neutral planet named "New Lucerne". I used Dirty Nellie to spoof other fan writers; "The Affirmation of Nellie Gray" is a comment on the "Kraith" stories of Jacqueline Lichtenberg, and "The Reformation of Nellie Gray" gets her involved with the "Landing Party Six" gang of Gordon Carleton, Paula Block, Lori Chapek-Carleton et. al. I introduced several factors into the stories that were important at the time, like female bonding (a lot was being discussed about male/female relationships, and why men had to undergo certain rites of passage). Eventually, Nellie grew up, sort of, and I wanted to kill her off, but Lori insisted I give her at least a fighting chance. So the last we see of Nellie is as a plump but feisty gal, entering middle age and fighting it every step of the way. How much of Roberta Rogow is there in Nellie Gray? Like all writers, there is some of me in every character I create... but I admit that Nellie is the person I wish I had the nerve to be! Nellie has more nerve than an aching tooth, more stones than the Rocky Mountains, and the gall of an oak tree. She fears nothing, not even the wrath of Starfleet Central. She can talk her way out of almost anything, and talk her friends into almost anything. She winds up with a Klingon lover, and when he leaves her, she's able to pick up another lover half her age. Is Dirty Nellie a "Mary Sue"? In a way she is... but she's not perfect, and she can be a large pain in the butt to authority figures. Writing these stories gave me a chance to work out a few of my own hang-ups about authority, responsibility, and the advances of age. They also gave me a chance to improve my writing skills, which is one of the major functions of fan fiction. Most importantly, through the Letters of Comments the stories generated, I got to know people like Leslie Fish and Jacqueline Lichtenberg, which has led to bigger and better things... Will I ever write another Dirty Nellie story? I don't know. Right now I'm busy with other projects, but may do something about her offspring... in a New Generation. The most important thing the Dirty Nellie stories did was to enable me to have some fun, and I hope you have fun reading them...