Bird of Paradise (Starsky & Hutch zine)

Zine
Title:	Bird of Paradise
Publisher:	Leviathon Press, though these other presses are cited: The Athanor Press & Mahko Root Press
Editor:	Penny Warren
Author(s):	Gloria Galasso
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):	Cynthia Mellon
Date(s):	possibly 1985, certainly 1990
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Starsky and Hutch
Language:	English
External Links:	front cover of the 1985 edition
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Bird of Paradise is a 254-page explicit slash Starsky and Hutch novel by Gloria Galasso. The story is also a coded crossover with OCs who most fans believed were based on Led Zeppelin . According to the author, however, the OCs (Derek Quinn and Allyn Sterling) were instead based on real people in a lesser known band.

Bird of Paradise is a section out of another, much larger, corpus of work called The Leviathon.

The zine was edited by Penny Warren.

"Bird of Paradise" was proposed as a zine in 1980, and despite periodic updates (and often a lot of radio silence), wasn't published until 1985, though at that time was to a very limited audience. It is possible it was not officially published at all, or it may have ended up as a story passed around to other fans through the mail. The "review" by Terri Beckett in March 1985 in APB #35 was actually a "preview," and while fans talked about "Bird of Paradise" in that letterzine, the discussion was about the premise, rather than because fans had actually read it. The plan was for this edition to have art by Freda Hyatt, something Hyatt and others wrote about extensively in letterzines.

In 1990, it was published with a different page count and different artist named Cynthia Mellon. The art, probably excellent, appears to have vanished.

"Bird of Paradise" was later rewritten as original fiction with the same title and published in 2013 under a pen name, G.J. Paterson. At that time, the author stated that "Bird of Paradise, started life as a TV script and then became "an unpublished Starsky/Hutch novel."

In 2013, the author said that the original fiction version's characters were modified and "no longer has anything at all to do with Starsky and Hutch."

Summary of the Fanfic: 1984

When rock star Allyn Sterling's seven year old daughter is kidnapped, Starsky and Hutch find themselves thrust into the bizarre and Perilous nightworld of rock and roll. Money and glamour are only a facade that crumbles away, revealing a life of desperation and old hatreds. Is the kidnapper simply after the million-dollar ransom? Or is there something more? Everyone says the singer for Leviathon has no enemies, but the coldly ambitious guitarist, Derek Quinn, has plenty. Is someone trying to destroy Derek through Allyn? Starsky and Hutch must try to protect both men, from others and from themselves, while trying to salvage the remnants of their own disintegrating friendship.

Summary of the Original Fiction: 2013

Summary:

"The year is 1978. Arena rock is at its peak, and British rock band Leviathon is at the top of the charts.

Carys Sterling, the daughter of Leviathon’s lead singer, Allyn Sterling, is kidnapped. LAPD Missing Persons’ partners for seven years, Sergeant Paul Taglia and Lieutenant Jeff Kincaid must struggle with an unexpected change in their own relationship while searching for clues to the whereabouts of the missing girl. They soon discover Sterling and his guitarist are men with secrets. Was the girl kidnapped for the ransom she can command, or is Allyn’s past coming back to haunt him?

Together in the quest for Carys Sterling, the four men must confront ten years of sex, drugs and lies in order to discover the reality of love, trust and mortality."

The Starsky and Hutch Element

The kidnapping of Sterling's daughter occurs in Los Angeles, and Starsky and Hutch are called to the scene.

Starsky sees a physical resemblance between Allyn Sterling and Hutch (both being golden beauties and all).

Starsky has many internal monologues about how he and Hutch are somewhat estranged; Starsky wishes he could go back in time to when he and Hutch had a simpler joy in each other and didn't have secrets. The Hutch in this story is hard and brittle. Starsky alludes to a drunken evening that changed their relationship, one which he and Hutch never talk about.

Hutch is very much focused on, and disapproving of, Sterling and Quinn due to Quinn's heroin use, a habit Quinn has had for seven years.

In the story, Starsky and Hutch have sex, as do Starsky and Sterling.

Different and Evolving Renditions

It appears to have been available in some rendition as a pass-around story. A fan in 1990 mentioned that it "will be good to read again in actual zine form.": "Good news that 'Bird of Paradise' is finally on the wing. That new editorship has achieved an effective launching... I have my original order/receipt for a copy -- almost a historical document -- dated 1981. Will be good to read again in actual zine form."

In 1982, the author describes it as being part of a much larger work: "BoP is a section out of another, much larger, corpus of work called The Leviathon which is already over fifteen hundred pages long and spans the working history of a major rock band over fifteen years... BoP originally ran right at 400 pages at a line and a half. Even allowing for the use of double space on the re-write (the 'zine will be single spaced. Indentation will have to suffice to separate paragraphs) the story in already one third longer than the original."

In 1985, the zine was published with 325 pages and illustrations by Freda Hyatt. This may have been a very, very small print run and may have only been available to UK fans as fans in the US (some who'd paid deposits years earlier) appeared to be in the dark about its publication.

In 1990, it was reprinted, this time with 254 pages and with different art. The artist of this edition was Cynthia Mellon who was mentioned as doing the illos way back in 1980.

a 1981 flyer from S and H #28

a 1984 flyer

Notable for Being Long in the Making

This zine is well known for a number of reasons, one of which how long it took to be published.

In 1985, a fan wrote a tongue-in-cheek history of Starsky and Hutch fandom for The Paul Muni Special convention program book. In it, she poked fun at two zines that stood out in her mind:

Probably, though, fandom began in Somebody's mind as an answer to the questions: what'll I do with my time? my money? my postage stamps? Soon afterwards, Somebody Else got the idea to publish S&H stories as written by unknown authors in things called fanzines. Fanzines are not run by electricity nor do they cool the air. They are entertaining, however, usually, anyway, with the possible exception of JUDGE & JURY, on which the verdict is Death by Mimeograph, and BIRD OF PARADISE, which has flown the coop (as has my deposit.)

The Road To Publication: Some Postcards from the Trip

1979

Forthcomng:

BIRD OF PARADISE/THEN WE CAN BE HEROES.

SASE to Penny Warren

1980

From Datazine #1 (January 1980):

An S/H novel by Gloria Galasso, due in maybe late spring. Age statement required.

From S and H #6 (January 1980):

If the responses I've gotten to the BIRD OF PARADISE ads are a fair indication, attitudes toward S/H range between rampant enthusiasm and reasoned willingness to give a different idea a chance. I think we have a right to be pleased with ourselves. The novel is presently in rewrite. With luck, we may get it into print in late spring or early summer of next year. I would like to be able to apologize for the probable price of the thing, but can't. It's looooong — jokes about selling it by the pound have ceased to be funny — and the art, lavish in quantity as well as quality, will all require metal plates. We were dead lucky in finding an "outside" illustrator willing to work for pleasure and challenge, and are very proud indeed of her participation in the project. In case there's anyone out there who hasn't heard (ta- da), Cynthia's just been nominated for the Best Fan Artist Hugo.

1981

From an ad in S and H #27 (November 1981):

FORTHCOMING: 'Bird of Paradise," the novella by Gloria Galasso, will be printed and available in early '82. This zine deals with adult themes.

1984

From a letter by the creators of the zine to fans who had sent SASEs and/or deposits:

We are enormously pleased by the anticipation of all who have inquired about and/or purchased Bird of Paradise. And we are very grateful for your patience! Hopefully, you will bear with us a little bit longer. Gloria swears she will have the bird flying by this summer or die trying. And we hope to include some really fantastic artwork by Freda Hyatt.

1985

From Freda Hyatt, the illustrator for the 1985 edition:

The BoP artwork is mostly done, 8 or 9 pieces so far. Gloria has sent the final rewrite but half has got lost in the post, I'm awaiting a further copy. As soon as that comes I'll see if I can come up with anything else. All being well, it looks as if Gloria will be getting it out fairly soon."

From the author, Galasso:

Well, folks, it is finished. Yes, at last, after years of waiting. Bird of Paradise is finally finished. The only things remaining are the odd edit here and there (and with a computer such things take hours instead of days), some more artwork (hopefully), and actually printing the damn thing. None of these things seem any kind of obstacle compared with the problems the past few years have seen.

Anyway, what with one thing and another, there are some people to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude. More than mere words can ever hope to adequately discharge. However, I'd like to thank those whose help, encouragement, and patience has made this book possible.

First, with the mention of patience, may I thank you, the readers, who have waited so long for this book. You will never know how far your letters went in keeping me at the task at hand, cheering me through some very dark hours, nagging (gently, of course) me when 1 got distracted with other things. This book was written for you - and it wouldn't have been written at all except by your unflagging interest.

Those of you fortunate enough to know Patti Paterson through correspondence may have an inkling of what a debt this fandom owes her. Without her the book, quite simply would never have been. Her interest, (she tracked me down over an extremely cold trail), and her devotion, (you have no idea what she's put up with over the past three years), both to the book and to me are frankly phenomenal.

Penny Warren is an amazing person. The original publisher of BoP, she never lost faith in the project even when I, in that fickle way artists have, became involved in other things. Many other things. I don't think editors get enough praise. This woman has slogged her way through a nearly impenetrable swamp of commas, semi-colons and run-on sentences that would surely have daunted a lesser individual. She has fought the minotaur of my ego (and a surprising number of bouts, too) thus reducing to a minimum my tendency towards the purplest of prose.

And then, my friends, are those of you in the UK who put me up and put up with me, through thick and thin, and made my sojourn in your lands the finest experience of my life.

First, of course, is Terri Beckett. Lord, lady, what can I say? On embarrassingly short notice you (and your incredibly patient family) took me in and gave me shelter while I got my wheels together. You, and Chris Power, showed me a thing or two [...]. No amount of thanks could ever repay my debt.

Then there's Freda. Oh boy, is there ever. Well, kid, what a passel of adventures we shared. I get dizzy just thinking about it. There's no one I would rather have sat beside, cried beside. Jumped up and down and hollered beside in the Royal Albert Hall those two nights than you . And not content with shared experience you have gone on to add enormous visual impact to Bird of Paradise, beyond my wildest expectations. You are incredible.

[...]

I know those of you who have waited for Bird of Paradise have been waiting a long time. Your patience has been greatly appreciated by me, as well. Only a little longer - we are keeping our fingers crossed that we can have this (325 page) monster printed by the end of February. So believe it or not, you will actually have BoP in your sweaty little palms in the next couple of months.

1987

From a fan in Tell Me Something I Don't Know! #4 (July 1987):

I'd just recently run across the flyer for it in my files, and was also planning to make an inquiry. Last I heard from them, which was back in '85, they were still planning to publish. And I only extracted that bit of info after about 6 months' worth of SASE's. I'm betting my $10.00 is long gone.

1989

From a fan in Frienz #5 (August 1989):

'Bird of Paradise'... who know? Every fandom has one like this? More of fandom's rich tapestry? I heard that it is still being edited/re-written, under new management. It can't have been a mirage; I have my receipt for the dollars paid for a copy ten years ago.

1990

From a fan in Snitch #18 (August 1990), an ad:

In 1982 (or thereabouts), the publication of BIRD OF PARADISE was announced. The author and publisher were immediately plunged into a life-changing whirlpool that resulted in an unprecedented nine-year wait for those faithful S/H readers who subscribed. Well, your wait is over. BIRD OF PARADISE will be released at the S&H Convention in Los Angeles in October, 1990. We still have our list of names of subscribers, but we are certain that over the past decade many of you have moved. Therefore, if you are one of our original subscribers, PLEASE WRITE TO US RIGHT AWAY! Let us know your address, phone number, whether you want to pick your copy up at the convention or if you want to receive it via UPS, and — especially important — how you would like your name to appear on the frontispiece of the book. The cost of BIRD OF PARADISE for original subscribers and depositors will remain the same: $15.00 plus postage. We feel that you will be pleased with the end result in spite of the long wait!

From Tell Me Something I Don't Know! #21 (September 1990):

Good news that 'Bird of Paradise' is finally on the wing. That new editorship has achieved an effective launching. (Is that a mixed metaphor?) I have my original order/receipt for a copy -- almost a historical document -- dated 1981. Will be good to read again in actual zine form.

Image Sample Gallery

• 

  front cover of 1990 edition

• 

  a sample page, Cynthia Mellon, portrays

• 

  a sample page, Cynthia Mellon, portrays Derek Quinn and Starsky (Starsky is supposedly the taller, dark-haired man)

• 

  a sample page, Cynthia Mellon, portrays Derek Quinn

• 

  a sample page, Cynthia Mellon, portrays Derek Quinn

• 

  a sample page

• 

  a sample page

• 

  a sample page, Cynthia Mellon

• 

  a sample page, Cynthia Mellon, Derek Quinn offers himself sexually to the jail guard

Comments By the Author 28 Years After the 1990 Zine Was Published

The author comments on the pro book this zine became:

When I started Bird of Paradise it was a contemporary story and right on the burning edge. The idea that two lovers of the same sex could have, let alone deserved to have, a story in which neither died and were relatively happy at the end, was startling and avant-garde. There were other people that I knew were writing m/m fiction, mostly fan-fiction, and mostly Kirk/Spock. It was almost as if it was okay for them – because Spock was an alien, who knew what he might do, or want, or need?

In fact, at first, BoP was meant to be fan-fic, too. The plot wasn’t, but I added them in to appeal to that readership. The main characters in my novel are fictional musicians, not characters from a television show or a movie, drawn from friends and acquaintances. Oh yeah, Starsky and Hutch were in there, mostly to lure readers from fandom into taking a look at it. In those benighted years, long before personal computers – not to mention the internet, I didn’t know who else would read it.

Now, all these years later, it is at least a “retro” story, if not all the way to “historical.” The two cops in the book don’t resemble Starsky or Hutch in the slightest. They are just two guys who have had an experience and are trying to figure out if it was just the alcohol after a party or if it is something more. The musicians have changed and grown and flourished as they have gotten farther and farther from their original inspiration. And now I think I am producing a much more nuanced and taut, maybe even more mature, story.

Today there are loads of gay light fiction books being written, published, and extensively read by a vast readership. Instead of being a front runner, Bird of Paradise will just be one more among many. But the message will still be the same: love has no gender, everyone is worthy of love, and everyone deserves to find love in their lives in whatever way it manifests for them.

Do I wish that Bird of Paradise was all behind me, published back then as fan-fic so that I could have gone on and written so much more, so much that I might really be an “author” by now? Yes, sometimes I do. It was written and re-written during a huge transition period in my own life. Maybe if I had done it that way the door on that past could have been closed long ago.

But honestly, no. No, I am glad it has taken this long. I think both of us have benefited from the years between.

It is being finished now, during another big transition in my life. So it comes full circle, and there is something almost fated in that. No, it really is better now. It’s a better book, and I am a better writer because of it. And its message, that love is for everyone, has not gotten old and will not. No matter how much time passes.

Fan Comments

1985

BIRD OF PARADISE by Gloria Galasso. Edited by Penny Warren,, illustrated by Freda Hyatt. 325pp.

Firstly, an apology. It's hard to be unbiased about a story when you know the writer. It's also hard to be coherent when you read it while prostrate with flu. I'd recommend you try to avoid that...

These reservations aside, BoP is a mammoth of a story. The plot centres around a kidnapping - the daughter of a rock star is snatched, and S&H are called in to investigate. But in the process of the investigation, a lot more comes into the open.

S.O.P. The meat of the story, however is less concerned with the kidnapping (and in fact I found the protagonists remarkably UNconcerned with the missing child) and more with the relationships between the two pairs of protagonists - Starsky and Hutch, and Derek Quinn and Allyn Sterling. Both pairs are undergoing a stressful period in their affairs, and parallels are subtly drawn between them. The main difference is that whereas Allyn and Derek have been involved in an on-off love-affair for years, Starsky and Hutch are just coming to terms with this new and unexpected facet to their lives.

On the debit side - this story is 325pp long. The story could have been told in half that length, though not, admittedly, in such leisurely detail. The main characters AREN'T Starsky and Hutch, but the two rock musicians - somewhat of an innovation in fanfic to read a story where the writer ISN'T in love with S&H, and thereby treating us to loving descriptions of them. Here we get loving descriptions of the other two. Neat turnaround. And while the American dialogue is faultless, the British dialogue leans towards stilted and strange. I dunno - maybe rock-stars do talk that way... It's a lifestyle about which I am woefully ignorant.

Credits - the writing style is all one would expect from a professional. It's fluent, expressive and coherent. The editing has been done by a mistress of the art. The artwork ranges from good to superb (some of it brilliantly erotic) but we expect no less from our homegrown talent.

Also there are some moments in this story which shine like gems - the bits that the reader will remember long after putting the zine on the shelf. Starsky, regarding the rock-guitarist - '...I always thought you'd be a lot taller close up,' Hutch's reaction to a blue and white Chinese bowl casually used as an ashtray. BIRD OF PARADISE is full of moments like these. You may not agree with all the premises, you may dislike or disbelieve the characters, you may question plot and motive and general behaviour. But you won't forget the experience.

Gloria, I'm sure you're glad to get the monster off your back. I know BOP been a long time a-coming, but just think how virtuous you've made us all feel, when our zines are only six months or a year behind schedule...

[comments by Freda Hyatt, one of the artists]:

Well, BOP certainly was worth waiting for. As one of those privileged to see it before it goes into print, I can say that it brings out every sort of emotion, and that Allyn and Derek will become very popular. They'll all be asking for further tales, you know.

Hope that you like the rest of the illos. I've been living with most of them for so long that I'm beginning to wonder if I could have done them better...but if you're happy then that's the main thing.

Really looking forward to BoP - I'm sure it will have been well worth the wait.

I am dismayed that S&H are not the main characters. If they had been, 325pp would have been fine, as it is, I'm not so sure. I'm not into the rock scene at all, so will probably have difficulty.

[comments by Freda Hyatt, one of the artists]: The preview [of [Bird of Paradise] was very fair, I thought. Here's hoping we'll get to see the finished thing this year. If Allyn would stop suggesting further illos that he'd like of himself, we'd have had it months ago, I'm sure. Still, he's a joy to draw.

[comments by Freda Hyatt, one of the artists]:

I hope you DO get Bird of Paradise when its finally published. I agree, Starsky and Hutch are not as large in this story as they are in many others, but the story does work, provided you work with it. I agree that Derek Quinn and Allyn Sterling are treated as much as S&H and that that is not usually the norm in fan fic, but their story is one of great power, and worth exploring. I must admit I'm a rock fan, have been for more years than I care to remember (or admit to), so I may be biased in a small way, but I have to say that this zine explores a lifestyle that most of us can only dimly imagine, great wealth, the thrusting into the limelight of men who could never have dreampt that they would one day be as famous or as powerful as they find themselves. It's a fascinating insight into the lives of such men, and as such deserves the reading.

1994

There are all sorts of things to like about Bird of Paradise, a alternate LZ crossed with Starsky and Hutch novel, but I'll contain myself.

My favorite part of the novel, is the comparison of the two couple's relationship. Derek and Allyn have great sex, which they are relatively open about; they both know that the other is bi-sexual. Unfortunately, neither of them is willing to talk about their feelings for each other; after 10 years of deliberate emotional guarding, each one believes he is the only one who loves the other... Starsky and Hutch have no doubt that they each are loved by each other. However, they have recently had sex together for the first time, were both enormously freaked out by it, and have been unable to talk about it ever since, calling in to question everything they thought they knew about each other, including their ability to work together.

The comparison between the two couple's problems is what makes the novel.

A quick comment: someone said that many crossovers do not work if you don't know both fandoms. This is not necessarily a flaw. Most first wave stories (anyone remember the wave theory? Copies available upon request) set in universes you don't know, won't work for you. Writing a Pros/Sandbaggers story that will only work for fans of both shows is not necessarily a *bad* thing.

When [we] talk about vids, we use the term 'promoter vid.' Some vids help 'sell' the fandom to people who have never seen the show--comedy vids are often promoter vids, but even serious ones can be, as long as they don't rely too much on the context of each clip to carry the meaning of the vid. Well, not all vids are promoters; not all stories should work without an underlying knowledge of the fandom, and not all crossovers are/should be designed to work if you have just seen one of the fandoms.

Hmmp! Don't I sound like I'm writing ex cathedra! Never mind me.

2000

If you use several points of view, and especially if you use *both* Starsky's and Hutch's in a story where each is wondering about the other's feelings, it has to be done very carefully or you'll lose all the narrative tension. There are ways of giving several different points of view without giving away too much - Gloria G. did it very well in Bird of Paradise. I think the way she did it was to make each person's pov so *intensely* personal, full of references that meant something only to that individual and not to the reader, that the reader still had to figure out the very complex picture from slightly obscure, disjointed references.

I don't mean obscure in a negative way here. It was like being allowed right into somebody's mind, right down to individual thought patterns. I don't, for example, think to myself 'What's happening here reminds me of that New Year's Eve in 1977 when the bottle of champagne exploded and we had to redecorate the entire living room' --- instead, I would think something like 'just like 77, what a mess!' And of course that still leaves a lot for the reader to figure out.

I enjoyed that kind of style very much, but it must be very difficult to do.

2002

I don't believe the net invented "immediate gratification" -- I think television did that long before the net existed. As fan readers and writers we do have a tendency to want more fiction *right away* -- but I think we always did. However, the reality of zine culture, where it took a lot of time and expense to collect stories, edit them, type them up, produce them into a zine and then *hand collate* them, meant that fans accepted that they had to wait. Sometimes years. Ask any veteran fan about Bird of Paradise. ;-) However, I don't believe that if pre-net print zines had been easy to produce that fans wouldn't have been impatient for more of them and to have them produced quicker -- they just didn't have that choice.

2005

Starsky and Hutch is my first, and was for years my only, fandom. Although I had watched the first season during it's original airing, I didn't know TV shows other than Star Trek had "fans." I found S&H by accident, when I went on the Internet trying to find out if Teri White had any new books coming out, and happened upon her stories in the S&H Gen Archive. I added Tris and Alex a year ago (it was BIRD OF PARADISE'S fault, an S&H crossover which might as well be Tris & Alex as far as I'm concerned), which I found out about at last year's SHareCon when Rosemary mentioned it during a discussion of Real People slash. The only Tris & Alex story I could find online was a crossover with "From Eroica With Love," which is now my third fandom. The author of that story was kind enough to make me copies of all her collected Tris and Alex stories...

2009

With apologies to any rabid Hulk fans out there--mercifully, no. It's SH and avatars for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. The story

focuses more on them than on SH. Which is okay if you like Zep, not so much if not.

2011

About all I remember of the zine is that after waiting ten years for it, I was terribly disappointed to discover it wasn't an SH story, but a story about a couple of rock stars in which Starsky and Hutch merely appeared.

It definitely wasn't focused on SH, and at that time, that's what we were expecting. If you liked the other characters (tropes of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page), it was pretty good. IF I recall correctly! 8-/ I haven't reread it, though it's around here somewhere.