Clan of the White Fox

Zine
Title:	Clan of the White Fox
Publisher:	The Nut Hatch
Editor:
Author(s):	Jane of Australia
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):	Suzan Lovett, JJ and Victoria
Date(s):	1990
Series?:	yes
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Clan of the White Fox is a slash, elf AU novel by Jane. It was published in 1990 contains 260 pages along with 13 art pieces by JJ, Victoria, and Suzan Lovett.

See List of Professionals Fanworks by Jane of Australia.

For more on this series, see The Hunting Universe.

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  front cover

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  sample text

The Flyer

A novel of the Syrae clan of the Kith, by Jane

A journey into the northcountry is complicated when storms wash out a bridge, and Raven is swept away ... and though Bodie knows full well he is alive, even Amber cannot find him.

The wild, hasr north is not the place to be, for human or elf, but bodie has little choice. Through the bonded link between them, he feels his mate as not even Amber can recognize him. For Raven Syrae-an is ... no longer Raven.

Who he is, Bodie does not know. He knows only that he must follow his mate into the boreal cold, far to the north of Fen country, where all that is gentle and easy is left behing, and the tribes, even the elven trives, are a savage breed apart.

Into this world, and alone, the human princeling from the elven westcountry chases all he holds dear. behind him, he leaves grieving, bewildered friends. All he has left is the faith that he can win through, and that his instincts have not played him false out of longing.

But winter comes early this year, as the old folk have often foretold. The wild north of Morhod is a bad place to be lost, and to hunt. Worse are the barbarian camps. The old goldmines under the blazing aurorae...

It is a world far more alien than anything Bodie saw in Phaedri, or in the high deserts above Fresca. A world of ice and snow, in which Bodie is alone, and Raven...

Who is Shurri? And what of Firistel, whose name, in the half-wild language of the northern tribes, means 'Emerald?' Where do the dreams of the past -- and the future -- meet? What can possibly become of a battered outcast promised, as a bribe, to a chieftain, for his bed? Will Firistel return to his patchwork, dreamed-of yesterday? Or will he run with Khe-Khe, out into the timberland, and let all that is mortal end?

And what of Bodie, human prince of Morhod, who has followed his nose to what seems like the end of the world?

The Editorial

[From the editorial]: This novel is as different from Fair Blows The Wind as you could imagine. To begin with, it probably qualifies as 'the longest short story ever written'! Believe.it or not, it was actually conceived as a sort story. It's mono-thematic and mono-directional, where Fair Blows was a dozen themes and stories worked into one novel-like volume. The problem with Fair Blows was that each individual story concept took from two months to eighteen months of the characters' lives to mature, and unless Raven and Bodie were to live largely uneventful lives for over a decade, so as to experience each quirk of plot sequentially, they all had to be woven together concurrently. The result of all that was -- Fair Blows!

Here, you have the reverse. The whole of Clan Of The White Fox takes place in a little over eight weeks...but what weeks they are. The text obeys basic short story rules (a beginning, a middle and an end, et cetera and so forth), and as you read, you'll see that it was initially intended to be just that — a short story. I began it with the idea in mind of sending it to the Other Times And Places alternate-B/D zine. By page eight, I knew It was never going to work that way. I was just throwing the material away, trivializing it. So, instead, I shelved this plot for over six months, and submitted the little piece, The Snowbird, which was indeed published. Interest in Raven/Bodie has, if anything, magnified in 1990, and all of us here at The Nut Hatch are astonished by the sales of Fair Blows The Wind. Okay; Fancy Dancing, by Kathy Keegan herself, is the press' all-time best seller (and deservedly so!), with Falconhurst right behind it, and Unfinished Melody and Affairs Of The Heart neck and neck behind that. But the Raven/Bodie zines are next, and we are totally delighted that these characters have been so loved. I love them dearly, just can't leave them alone, and it's tremendously gratifying that other people (and so many others') have fallen in love with Raven and this Bodie also. Some of you wanted to know, where in the chronology does The Snowbird fit in? And that's a good question! I can only say, Falcon is about nine or ten by the time we reach that winter, so it would be about two years after this story. The trouble with setting a date on that one is that the characters' lives are so hectic...which winter would it fit well into? I thought it would be safest to set it a couple of years down the road.

A few notes about this story might be of interest. The plot came to me while I was reading The Call Of The Wild and watching a golden-oldie ('52) Stewart Granger film, The Wild North, at the same time as helping to edit and proofread the final draft of Fair Blows. Something clicked Raven and Bodie into the arctic, and the plot formed itself.

Jane Wants to Clear Up a Rumor

From the zine's foreword:

I want to thank the people who are circulating the rumour that Kathy and I are the same person. That's fabulously flattering (even if it isn't true). In fact...have you added together the number of pages Kathy writes, and Jane writes? Truth is, you're ascribing about 750,000 WORDS PER YEAR to one writer, and I don't know that that would be physically possible for any one writer. Three quarters of a million words a year! But it certainly is enormously flattering to be credited with Kathy's work. It comes as a real compliment! Unless it's Kathy being credited with mine. Hmmm.... Anyway, suffice to say, it takes two of us to wade through the amount we write, and if you stop to think about it, and add it up, it's fairly obvious. (Also, if you compare styles, Kathy's way of putting words together is much more gritty; and her characters love expletives!)

Sample Gallery of Art

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  "Fennech's Children" by Suzan Lovett -- from Jane of Australia in the zine's forward: "An enormous thanks to Suzan Lovett, who produced the most glorious portrait of Raven and Bodie, which is entitled Fennech's Children, and which is reproduced here -- the final illustration in this volume. A kind of homecoming burst of sunshine, we thought. Fennech's Children is reproduced by kind permission of the owner, Laura Lee. Prints of the work are available from Laura Lee."

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  Victoria

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  JJ

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  JJ

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  JJ

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  JJ

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  JJ

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  Victoria

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  JJ

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  JJ, also used as the cover of Elvensongs #1

Fan Comments

[zine]:

This is the latest installment in ’The Hunting' universe of Raven and Bodie. An accident causes Raven to lose his memory and Bodie must seek his mate in strange lands while the rest of the family think them both dead.

This episode in the saga introduces some new characters who are OK but nothing special. I was quite glad to see Raphael (whom I sometimes find tiresome) relegated to the beginning and end of the tale along with Kevin, Feyleen et al, while the main thrust (excuse me!) is Raven and Bodie. Even Amber only plays a small part, being otherwise occupied elsewhere. This is a valid if obvious plot device, since normally with the help of his magic stone he could have located Raven fairly quickly, even though his amnesia was affecting his known aura. Small Amber's part may be (oh oh! Perhaps that sentence is somewhat of a faux pas!) but it's important, as he saves Bodie from suiciding and confirms that Raven may indeed be alive.

Well, nine years on from their first joining Raven and Bodie are still at it like rabbits - or should I say elves. Not that I mind one little bit!

Bodie is in character in his determined search for his mate.

But I felt Raven (once his memory was regained) should have had more trust and expected Bodie to come after him rather then remain at home grieving. And if he imagined Bodie to think he was dead, did he really expect him not to kill himself, but be there for him to escape to years ahead? If circumstances had been reversed, what would he have done? I totally agreed with the character who told him (on Bodie's appearance), "You should have known."

As an aside, I wasn't totally surprised that Raven regained his memory while dreaming of making love with Bodie.

One unexpected and cute twist is that after 5 weeks of non-intercourse Raven is a virgin again! I wasn't sure whether to laugh, or be glad that he could now give to Bodie the same gift he'd given Raven. It was a definitely contrived romantic, if improbable, twist. But then again, Raven's metabolism and physiology are so different that I suppose it's viable, given elves' ability to heal injuries and replace teeth, etc. However, I found Raven's apprehension of being penetrated by Bodie after 9 years of regular and lusty usage a bit hard to accept.

But, apart from these few quibbles, the story is enjoyable. It doesn't really advance their relationship -- I suppose after 9 years they’ve come as far as they ever will -- but I like seeing Bodie as the hero, and this episode adds nicely to the legend.