Encore! (Professionals zine)

Other articles with the title Encore.

Zine
Title:	Encore!
Publisher:	The Nut Hatch
Editor(s):	Kathy Keegan
Date(s):	1991, 1994
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:	online review
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Encore! is a slash anthology with stories written by Kathy Keegan. The art is possibly by JJ.

Issue 1

Encore! 1 was published in September 1991 and contains 165 pages.

cover of issue #1

photocopy of cover of issue #1

another version of the cover, this one with: "An anthology of sequels by Kathy Keegan" on it.

From the editorial by Kathy Keegan:

Just a few words this time — a few minor clarifications which are long overdue. First, to the matter of identity. Madelaine Ingram is not the same writer as Lainie Stone! The 'pet' form of the name, 'Lainie' may have caused some confusion, but I assure you these are two different writers. Also, 'our' Jane here at Nut Hatch is not England's Jane Carnall. The Jane responsible for the Raven/Bodie stories is a resident of Australia, and not to be confused with the English lady. Also, I am not Kathy Snow! Like Jane, I am an Australian, while Kathy Snow lives in California.

Also from the editorial:

Also on the subject of clarification, I want to say that I did not 'steal' the plot of Courtney Grey's GRIFFIN when I wrote THE CASSIDY LEGACY, and I was rather hurt when it was said that I did. Especially since that piece of poison-pen mail arrived anonymously unsigned. *sigh* For the record, I did not have the opportunity to read GRIFFIN for about six months after my own story was completed, and in fact, I had not even heard of GRIFFIN until I was fifty pages through my story. If there are similarities between the two pieces — ideas are not unique, and since there are now so many thousands of stories available in B/D, we have to admit to the fact that there are very few subjects left unexplored, few stories that could be told which would have a quality of complete uniqueness. Almost everything which can be conceived of has been done in some form or another; all we can do now is rearrange the dressing and details and present a good story which hopes to entertain.

• Gentle on My Mind, Chapter 4 by Kathy Keegan -- in the Gentle on My Mind universe ("It's Christmas ... and Ray is back at work. He's developing in every way, and not only is he "aware" of women, well, women are aware of him too! Bodie is amused, but the situation blows up when a girl makes a heavy pass not at Ray, but at Bodie. Meanwhile, Murphy's about to become a father, and Brian Macklin, Ray's good friend and sometime tutor, is ailing. The problem runs in families. It's arthritis, and the situation with Towser is not making Brian's life any easier. Feel-good fiction at its best and more to come ... don't miss Chapter Five in ENCORE 2! " - "Ray is still growing, learning and developing. Largely out of Bodie's care and jurisdiction now, he is under the constant barrage of new information, ideas and viewpoints. What will he make of the world — and what will it make of him? Bodie cannot know; but he can see Ray growing, even changing. For a long time, Bodie wondered what would happen if Ray noticed women...but now, women have noticed Ray, which is not quite the same thing! A chain of not-quite-chance events leads Bodie and Ray a merry dance. Meanwhile, Murphy is about to be a father. And where does tennis pro Jenny Niven fit into all this?") (4)
• A Question of Priorities by Kathy Keegan in the Affairs of the Heart universe ("Bodie and Doyle are with M.A.N., Tony Milford's company, but leave it to George Cowley to complicate their lives! First, there's trouble of the legal kind, a brush with the law in the Fordham Magistrate's Court. This drags CI5 into the picture, and it's "the mushroom syndrome." Bodie and Doyle escape — into Russia! Tony has booked his company of models on a fashion parade tour behind the Iron Curtain. Gays are at risk in the USSR to begin with ... and then Cowley, figuring Bodie and Doyle owe him a few favors (and he's right!) coerces them to undertake some under-cover moonlighting for him, deep in the red heart of Russia. This short-novel begins a story arc concluding with a heart-stopper of a thriller in CROSS MY HEART #12: don't miss! " - "The high-flying world of international fashion transcends borders, nations and politics; or it should. Sir Tony Milton has been granted the invitation he has longed for: the opportunity to stage a show in eastern Europe. It is the chance of a lifetime, and he is guick to accept. But all too soon CI5 become aware of the unwelcome attentions of both Soviet and American intelligence agencies. All is not as it seems, and Ray Doyle finds himself a reluctant pawn in a power-game he may not survive. For Bodie, life has become a waking and sleeping struggle to decide where his priorities lie, and how much deception he can live with.") (58)
• Pas de Deux by Kathy Keegan in the Fancy Dancing universe ("Well recovered from the shooting, Ray Doyle is dancing again. He knows he'll never be quite what he was, but there's a lot of mileage left in him yet ... and the Black Velvet nightclub is in some considerable strife. They're opening again, on a budget as tight as a corset, and right before opening night, disaster. " -- "The insurance company may be strangling Black Velvet in red tape and refusing to pay out, but the dancer is resurrected. With the club under a financial cloud, since debts are owed to so many sources, partners Doyle and Bodie are placed in a difficult position. Sell the club to bail out, borrow heavily from Rod? Or will Ray accept a contract to dance in a show in Paris, which will pay a great deal of money...if his recently injured body can take the punishment; and if his pride and scruples would allow him to become involved in that kind of show! Life wasn't meant to be easy, but this one is a bitch!") (111)

flyer for issue #1

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

I am not a big fan of AU's, but the three different ones created by Kathy Keegan that are represented in this zine appeal to me because they are so well drawn.

Gentle On My Mind #4 I must admit that I love the GOMM series. Of course, Doyle is radically changed from the agent we know and love, but in their own way the GOMM stories tell a beautiful love story and for me is great comfort fic. GOMM #4 is the shortest of the 5 stories in the series by Kathy Keegan. Ray is working for CI5 as a therapist, is still growing up mentally, and is learning to deal with various life situations including homophobia from an unexpected source. I enjoyed the device of Bodie reading entries in Ray's diary, giving insight into the mind of his lover. However, I found this the weakest story in the series in that there is little real action to relieve the mundane day-to-day happenings in the lives of our heroes.

Pas de Deux This is the second story in the Fancy Dancing universe, which is one of my absolute favorite AUs. Slandtedlight has written a marvelous review of the first story, Fancy Dancing, and I urge you to read it. My thoughts about that story are very similar to hers, and Pas de Deux is more of the same. The action takes up some months after the eventful events at the end of Fancy Dancing. Bodie is no longer working for CI5. Doyle and Bodie are struggling to make their nightclub, Black Velvet, a money-making proposition again. This involves much much hard labor, ingenuity, and anxiety. The question is, will Ray's body be up to the challenge? Not only that, Ray has competition in the dancing arena at a nearby club. How will he cope?

As I mentioned, I adore the world of glamor and sensuality that Kathy Keegan has created in this universe. It sucks me right in and makes me want to be part of it if only to watch Doyle dance onstage. Part of this is due to the cast of supporting characters, which is wonderful and wholly believable. I found this story a very worthy and entertaining sequel to Fancy Dancing and highly recommend it.

A Question of Priorities This is story #3 in the Affairs of the Heart series (#2 is Little White Lies, found in Cross My Heart 4). I must admit I am going about this the wrong way because as of this writing I have not read the first 2 stories in the series (something that I hope to rectify in the near future!). Nevertheless, I enjoyed A Question of Priorities quite a lot, as I picked up enough of what went on the the earlier stories to understand what was happening.

When this story begins, Doyle and Bodie are working for CI5, but circumstances soon necessitate a change, bringing them into contact with acquaintances from the earlier stories. This involves Doyle working as a model for a high-powered agency with Bodie as a minder/road manager for the same company. But once a CI5 agent, always a CI5 agent, and Cowley wants to use their current occupations as a cover for a very dangerous op. Will they agree?

I imagine most readers of this zine will have already become familiar with the settings of these stories. Hard and fast CI5 action and the lads as they are in canon you will not find, but if you enjoy an AU that sucks you in and keeps your attention, and Bodie and Doyle recognizable enough care about them, then give this one a try. Each of the stories is a worthy sequel to its predecessor.

ENCORE, from Australia, I found was excellent. The fourth part of a series, Gentle On My Mind, and two other chapters of other series got me interested once again in Jane and Kathy's writing. Very inventive with storylines, and plots that are not simpering in mush. They were fast paced and well written. Gentle On My Mind is not for everyone, but I surprisingly found myself captivated with Doyle's realistic behaviour in relating to job and lover. Especially considering his mental development (For those who have never read it, the story deals with Ray having had an accident which caused brain damage. Though I haven't read the other chapters yet, it kept me intrigued.)

Issue 2

Encore! 2 was published in September 1994 and contains 154 pages.

In December 1993, Jane wrote an ad in Cross My Heart #11 for this zine and said:

ENCORE #2 will be published just as soon as Kathy is finished writing it. I'd love to be able to slot it into the above schedule, but if you want truth rather than the diplomatic hand-out, I can't guess when she'll get the disk to me! She has enormous problems at home. To the 20 people who have pre-ordered this zine: if you would like to transfer your orders to another issue, let me know. I'll automatically reserve a copy of Encore #2 for you, and notify you when it's ready, and in the meantime, ship you Hostage, FC2, or another issue of your choice, to get you a zine on-time. Rest assured, as soon as Kathy gets it written, I'll get it printed! And I can promise, it'll be well worth the wait.

cover of issue #2

From the editorial:

Or I could have begun, 'better late than never!' Yes, this zine is woefully late, and short of one of the three stories that were originally scheduled for it. And there is no one to blame, not even me! My life has been a bitch lately. In fact, it's been a Klingon of a bitch. There have been times when coping with my family problems has been like carrying an anvil, and finding ten consecutive minutes in which to write was like mounting an expedition on Everest. But I did manage to write ... even if I was so slow about it, there are people who tried to send flowers to the funeral (a nice way of asking if I'd died).

But, better late than never, here are two of the three scheduled stories of this opus, Gentle On My Mind Chapter Five, and also a story in the Fancy Dancing universe, which I've called Take The Stage. I borrowed the title from an old movie, but I know the original meaning isn't what I intend here!...

The Gentle On story this time around is fully novel length in itself! When I set out to write I had no idea that a sub-plot would take over and make off with the story, but now that it's finished, I'm quite pleased with the result. This episode is not a CI5 story; the last two Chapters were, but this time around I wanted to take Ray and Bodie out of the CIS environment and see how they cope with stresses and pressures away from work, where they're on their own devices and isolated from back-up. On the whole, I think it worked rather well.

The third story was, and is (yes!) the continuation of A Question Of Priorities, the piece that took Bodie and Doyle to Russia and then simply had to stop at the first rational punctuation point, or the zine would have been 200pp long. You know what that does to the postage! $9 turns into $23. Yes, yes, I know many people have been waiting for the supplement to A Question, and it should have been in this zine. I'd intended it to be. I wrote it right to the end, sent the disks to JJ for editing/assembly. And then the axe fell. Ladies, I blew it. There was a plotting gaff in there, a mile wide, that meant it was impossible to publish the piece in the original form. As soon as it was pointed out to me, I knew I had to rewrite ... and the problem had three faces: I had no time to undertake the work; the zine was already overdue; and even if I'd had an infinitely elastic deadline, when I fix the problem to which I was blind, I'm almost certain the story will inflate until it wouldn't have fit into this zine anyway, sigh. What I shall never be able to understand is how I missed the problem, because JJ put her finger on it immediately. Maybe I'm just stressed-out with the aforementioned domestic stuff? Anyway, whatever the reason, I shall fix the story and it will be printed in Cross My Heart #12 — either the first or second zine of the New Year.

Summaries from this flyer.

• Gentle on My Mind, Chapter 5 by Kathy Keegan in the Gentle on My Mind universe ("Ray and Bodie are back at work, full time ... busy, productive, positive and optimistic. In fact, they're working so hard that the time has come for a good vacation. They take the opportunity to go out to Uncle Albert's farm, where Ray has his horse, and where Bodie finds he has the mixed feelings that come from difficult memories. And then ... as always, trouble. Albert is having trouble with petty thieves, but even he couldn't suspect the culprit. So Bodie and Ray do some detective work, and they uncover a snakepit of trouble that will land Bodie in an emergency room ... and Ray behind the wheel of a car, driving on the open road, for the first time since the accident where he almost died. This is the final chapter in this best-loved of Kathy's stories: novel-length.") (5)

• Take the Stage by Kathy Keegan ("The last segment of the story that began in FANCY DANCING. As always, Doyle's life is compex [sic]... and Bodie's is so interwoven with Doyle's, what affects one affects the other. Doyle is dancing, and dancing well, but he's feeling the strain. Dangerfield is doing his best to get him work, exposure and money ... and now there's a lecherous French director who wants to hire Doyle to dance in Paris, if his body will stand up to the work — and if he will "go along" with the material. Bodie is worried. Doyle could eaisly [sic] cripple himself all over again with this ... yet Black Velvet needs the money.") (112)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

Gentle on my Mind 5 This is the final installment in the GOMM series written by Kathy Keegan. (There is one more story in the series called Life Goes On written by Joana Dey, but that is for another review.) As 111 pages of the zine are devoted to this fic, it satisfies my penchant for long stories. Ray is now 14 or 15 years old mentally and is holding down a job as a physical therapist at CI5, while Bodie continues to work as an agent, albeit a married one with a limited number of dangerous assignments. Much of the action takes place at Ray's Uncle Albert's farm in Dorset, a setting familiar to anyone who has read the earlier GOMM stories. Ray and Bodie come to the aid of an unfortunate boy.

One thing that I found very boring in this story is Bodie's various interviews with Dr. Ross in his attempts to understand how his partner's mind works now; much psychobabble ensues. However, the excellence of the rest of the story more than made up for it.

Take the Stage This is a sequel to Pas de Deux and is the third and final story in the Fancy Dancing universe. I love this universe, where Ray and Bodie own a nightclub called Black Velvet. Ray is a very talented and sensuous dancer who has had a lot of bad breaks but perseveres and manages to overcome with the help and love of his partner, Bodie. Please refer to Slantedlight's excellent review of Fancy Dancing for more details.

This story picks up 6 months after the action of Pas de Deux ends. Ray has helped the career of a former rival, but now the young dancer is in trouble. This story is basically about the elaborate sting operation that Bodie, Doyle, and several friends (including Murphy) conduct to punish the man responsible for the young dancer's situation. I was on the edge of my seat right up until the end to see how they would manage to pull it off, and the ending was quite satisfying.

I was sorry indeed to come to the last page of this zine, knowing that there would be no new adventures of our lads in these wonderful worlds the author has created. I believe that the stories in these series are some of Kathy Keegan's finest writing.

From the Nut Hatch flyer: Issue 2

Featured in this issue are two novel-length sequels to *Gentle On My Mind* and *Fancy Dancing*. A third sequel , continuing from the end of *A Question of Priorities*, has had to be held over till *Cross My Heart #12*.

• GENTLE ON MY MIND* Chapter Five

Bodie and Ray are ‘down on the farm’, enjoying the first warm weather of the year. The setting is idyllic, and so should their holiday have been. But since when was anything ever simple? Even as they arrive, Ray’s Uncle Albert has a problem. There’s a thief in the area, and someone is prowling around the arm at night. Soon, things take a turn for the worse when the cavalcade of ‘bus people’ who have been haunting the area turn up in the next paddock. Suddenly, Bodie’s worst nightmares are coming true all at once.

• TAKE THE STAGE*

Black Velvet has been re-open for six months, and financially Bodie and Doyle are doing fine. The club is once again a Mecca, and Doyle is healed and healthy... with only one dark cloud on the horizon. He’s not getting any younger. As a professional dancer, he’s already thinking about retirement when Jacques Falco’s road company arrives in London and *Spartacus* opens for a season in the West End. Given tickets, Doyle and Bodie can hardly refuse to attend, and at the party following a brilliant show they remake the acquaintance of ’Robbo’ Simmonds, who scored the part that Doyle was unable to dance following his injury. Simmonds’ star is rising, and his work is superb ... so why I s the young dancer miserable, and desperate for the help of men he trusts? As Doyle and Bodie accept a glass of champagne at the backstage party, the lid flies off Pandora’s Box - again!

A4, 161pp, photocopy, coil bound, colour cover.