Do you want to write for Marion Z.B.?

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Fanwork
Title: Do you want to write for Marion Z.B.?
Creator: Patricia n'ha Myrtis
Date(s): June 1988
Medium: print
Fandom:
External Links:
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Do you want to write for Marion Z.B.? is a meta poem by Patricia n'ha Myrtis.

It was printed in Darkover Newsletter #41.

front page of issue #41

The topic was Darkover and was about fans sending their fanfiction to DAW Books to be professionally published by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

The next item in the newsletter is an essay by the editor, Ann Sharp, which is about writing well, plotting and avoiding cliches and stereotypes; it concludes with a plug for fans to submit their fiction to the DAW Darkover Anthology, "Domains of Darkover."

The Poem

"Do you want to write for Marion Z.B.?" [1]
"Do you want to write for Marion Z.B.?"
"Join the Amazons [2]today,"
"Comparable worth and equal pay!" [3]
"Then you could write for Marion Z.B."
"Is your heroine a damsel in distress?"
"Is your heroine a damsel in distress?"
"Then forget the whole dumb thing,"
"Save the envelope and string,"
"And go out and spend the postage on a dress."
"Do you have a macho hero in a skirt?" [4]
"Do you have a macho hero in a skirt?"
"Then prepare to weep and wail, "
"As she mutters, "Trash this tale,""
"And your fertile soil becomes a pile of dirt."
"Do your characters enjoy pillage and rape?"
"Do your characters enjoy pillage and rape?"
"If you would get out alive,"
"Then ignore the Fifty Five" [5]
"Open throttle, flee, and make a fast escape"
"Do you still want to write for Marion Z.B.?"
"Do you still want to write for Marion Z.B.?"
"It's a genre -- S & S --" [6]
"That can be a holy mess,"
"But can also earn an Amazon her fee."

References

  1. ^ Could be referring to Starstone or the DAW Darkover Anthologies.
  2. ^ "Amazons" is not a reference to Amazon.com, as that hadn't been invented yet, but instead a nod to Bradley's society, "Free Amazons."
  3. ^ Actual pay was: "Would you like to win $20 --$15--or $10?" -- from the rules for the first Starstone Darkover Short Story Contest in 1979. Or "2-6 cents a word as an advance against royalties" for the DAW Darkover Anthologies.
  4. ^ Perhaps a reference to an effeminate man? Or crossdressing?
  5. ^ A reference to the speed limit on highways.
  6. ^ "S&S" refers to "Sword & Sorcery."
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