Circle's End

Fanfiction
Title:	Circle's End
Author(s):	Sandi Chapman
Date(s):	1984
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Starsky & Hutch
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
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Circle's End is a slash Starsky and Hutch story by Sandi Chapman.

illo for the zine story by the author

It was originally published in Code 7 #3 and later online.

This story is an alternative version of Liar's Dance.

Summary

Starsky and Hutch were lovers but Hutch left him and disappeared. Finally, Starsky tracks him down and tries to find out what went wrong.

Different Versions

"Liar's Dance was originally published in Uncharted Waters. This story is closer to the version of Circle's End the author had originally written. However, comments she received on the original Circle's End made her decide to rewrite that story and its published version appears here on the Archive as it appeared in Code 7 #4. Several years later, she went back to her original story, rewrote it, and had it published in Uncharted Waters."

Regarding the Two Endings

I believe it is critically important for a writer to write only for herself, to ignore the voice that says to her, as mine does constantly, "They're not going to like that!" Writers who write specifically to please an audience will invariably be disappointed since the audience is incredibly fickle and what they like and dislike changes with the wind and from individual to individual. Writers who yield to editorial demands to have a specific kind of ending only betray their own abilities and prevent their creativity from expanding. I'm referring to people who already had one kind of an ending in mind, but in order to be published changed it radically because the zine only accepts certain kinds of endings, or a specific editor thinks it's a downer or whatever.

Sometimes we do this when no one has asked us to change things, simply because we're afraid they *might*. On the slash archive are two stories, one of which has a certain ending, not the original ending the author intended, because a friend told her "no one will publish it with that ending" so she changed it before sending it to the editor. She had no way of knowing if the editor might've accepted it or not, but the editor's track record indicated she probably would have. It's interesting because I was only familiar with the published version and she offered me the original version -- never published -- so I was able to post both on the Archives. The fun of Archiving! ;-) We edit ourselves unnecessary all the time, sometimes just because we're women and have had it pounded into us what we should or should not say, act, or do, so of course, it's going to affect how we write.

Reactions and Reviews

This is the 'happy ending' version of another story by Sandi called "Liar's Dance". I like this story very much - there are no simple answers but I'm a sucker as always for this sort of well-written emotional intensity between the guys.