Echoes of the Heart

Zine
Title:	Echoes of the Heart
Publisher:
Editor:
Author(s):	Rhonda Collins
Cover Artist(s):	Kevin Barnes
Illustrator(s):	Kevin Barnes, Rosemarie Hauer, Jan Durr, Sally Perkins, Sandy Chandler Shelton, and Felicia Coffee, (a student of Jan's)
Date(s):	November 1994
Medium:	print
Genre:	het
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Language:	English
External Links:	Online as a PDF
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cover art by Kevin Barnes, reprinted in Of Things That are Not but Should Be

another version of the cover, Kevin Barnes

Echoes of the Heart is a 105-page het Beauty and the Beast novel by Rhonda Collins. It is based on the series episodes "Terrible Savior" and "Siege."

The art is by Kevin Barnes, Rosemarie Hauer, Jan Durr, Sally Perkins, Sandy Chandler Shelton, and Felicia Coffee, (a student of Jan's).

"Special thanks to George R.R. Martin for "Terrible Savior" and David Peckinpah for "Siege."

From the Author

From a flyer:

This is in small type and columns and originally approximately 160 pages) Gorgeous cover by Kevin Barnes, reproduced again inside single-sided in case anyone wants to frame it. Some of the other art is also single-sided for the same reason. A novelization of "Terrible Savior" and "Siege," this also incorporates a secondary storyline which ties the two episodes. Again, this is an expansion of the episodes which delves more into the characters.

From the zine's preface:

Echoes of the Hear! is my first full-length Classic fanzine. This didn't start out as a novelizalion. It began as an idea for a short story and kind of grew, and I realized as I went that a novelization was the only way to go. Because for me, the series is as stands — for the gentle beginning of romance to the painful end of that same romance...and on to the somehow triumphant aftermath. I find it exeedingly difficult to "tinker" with perfection. With every word - every scene - I ask myself if what I am doing conflicts with our story. Perhaps because of that, this novel took me four times longer to write than any of my other eight. Which seems exceedingly odd to me, considering that the basic storyline was already written. In any case, I hope the finished product proves interesting, entertaining - and holds "true" to the story and ethics of Beauty and the Beast.

Contents

• Title Page (1)
• Acknowledgements (2)
• Table of Contents (3)
• Author's Preface, includes a poem: "Forever Dreams" (4)
• Chapter One: Echoes (6)
• Chapter Two: Trust (13)
• Chapter Three: Visions (22)
• Chapter Four: After-Images (31)
• Chapter Five: Afterlight (56)
• Chapter Six: Shadows (70)
• Chapter Seven: Doors and Windows (82)
• Chapter Eight: Dreams (89)
• Chapter Nine: Thy Sweet Love Remembered (95)
• ten full-page ads for Beauty and the Beast fanart, zines, and calendars

Sample Interior Gallery

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  Rosemarie Hauer

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  sample text

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  Sally Perkins

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  Felicia Coffee

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  Sandy Chandler Shelton

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  Rosemarie Hauer

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  Rhonda Collins

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Reactions and Reviews

This Classic zine retells and expands on two series episodes: "Terrible Savior" and "Siege." In the former, Catherine tries to get over her fears that Vincent may truly be a beast; in the latter, she begins to face the dawning—and just as disquieting—realization that Vincent may be a man...with a man's romantic expectations of her. These novelized episodes therefore represent a crucial early phase in Vincent and Catherine's relationship.

This novel does more than repeat these episodes' dialogue and action. It offers additional insight and new scenes that more clearly bring out the issues (and the romance) involved, yet blend almost seamlessly into the stories as we know them. A subplot involving Mouse's refusal to move to allow the construction of a planned and needed aqueduct provides an appropriate counterpoint to the main action.

The writing, as always with this author, is good. Collins' portrayal of Catherine is of a woman trying to change her life, yet troubled at the demands that places on her; welcoming what she's found, yet uneasily aware of what she used to take for granted that's now lost to her. Vincent is...Vincent: certain this can't be forever, yet unable to tolerate the thought of any ending, which Catherine's blossoming romance with Elliot seems to make inevitable. He's more conscious than Catherine of the similarities between himself and Jason Walker, the vigilante "Protector" of the helpless, on the one hand, and Elliot Burch, the enamored builder, on the other. And when Catherine confidently proclaims, "There is no demon within you," he makes no reply....

Poems by the author provide headnotes for each chapter. Art by Kevin Barnes (who does the Cinemaker covers); Rosemarie Hauer; Jan Durr; Sally Perkins, Sandy Chandler Shelton, and Felicia Coffee, a student of Jan's.