Darkover Summer Snow
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Darkover Summer Snow |
| Author(s): | Eileen Ledbetter |
| Date(s): | January 1978 |
| Length: | |
| Genre(s): | |
| Fandom(s): | Darkover |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | |
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Darkover Summer Snow is a Darkover fan story by Eileen Ledbetter. The art is by Diana L. Paxson and Walter Breen.
At least one fan suggests it is a m/m story, but this would be due to a subtle, close reading, and one perhaps seen in hindsight.
It was printed in the first issue of Starstone.
In a September 1977 blurb for this story in Darkover Newsletter #7: "A long and poignant story of the first meeting between Lew Alton and Regis Hastur, of which MZB says "I'm sure that's the way it really happened."
Editor's Intro
From Starstone #1 (January 1978):
EILEEN LEDBETTER, author of DARKOVER SUMMER SNOW, says that her story "has been in my head for over a year. I probably started mulling it over the day I finished THE HERITAGE OF HASTUR... I can remember wishing I knew what had really happened between Regis and Lew. The seed of a story from Lew's point of view began to grow and grow until I was composing whole paragraphs in my mind, and finally a whole continuity began to take shape. One day, without even planning it, I sat down and began to write. Because I had done so much work in my head it seemed deceptively easy...one thing I learned while working on this story -- writing is damn hard work!
The First Darkover Fic
While fans, as fans do, certainly wrote Darkover drawerfic previous to "Darkover Summer Snow," this fic is the first that was apparently the first shown to, and then published, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
A fan, Linda Frankel, wrote: "[It] told the story of Regis' earlier relationship that had left him so shattered in Heritage of Hastur and in the alternate universe of "Ten Minutes or So". The essentially heterosexual Lew Alton had sex and telepathic intimacy with Regis, but then withdrew on the grounds that he didn't want to hurt the boy, causing Regis more anguish than the older youth could possibly guess. It is interesting to note that "Darkover Summer Snow" was the first amateur story about Darkover. When Marion Zimmer Bradley received it, she was so impressed that she decided to establish Starstone, the first Darkover fanzine." [1]
from Starstone #1, Diana L. Paxson
from Starstone #1, Diana L. Paxson
from Starstone #1, Diana L. Paxson
from Starstone #1, Walter Breen
Reactions and Reviews
DARKOVER SUMMER SNOW is very special. For one thing I can see that Lew and that Regis as younqer versions of the ones in HERITAGE OF HASTUR. And that is very hard to do. It is a marvelous story too. Yes, it must have happened much like that. Two sad young boys and a lot of misunderstanding, and no time to straighten it all out.[2]
DARKOVER SUMMER SNOW is a beautiful story: Regis makes almost as good a "poor little kid" as he does a Hastur of Hasturs. I enjoyed the story very much, particularly the scene in which Regis leaves Thendara for Armida. I can see very clearly the "small, little boy" in Comyn regalia, and the character of Lew is very consistent with that outlined in HH and SA.[3]
Eileen Ledbetter made me like her story and I was prepared not to. Lew Alton is my favorite Darkover character and I resent anyone writing about him except Marion Zimmer Bradley.[4]