Fair Blows the Wind
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Fair Blows the Wind |
| Publisher: | The Nut Hatch |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Jane of Australia |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | JJ |
| Date(s): | October 1989 |
| Series?: | yes |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fair Blows the Wind is a slash elf AU 249-page Professionals story by Jane.
JJ did the art and several poems.
For more information on this series, see The Hunting Universe.
See List of Professionals Fanworks by Jane of Australia.
It Must Have Cost a Bundle
Ordering zines from The Nut Hatch was often a pricey endeavor, due to, among other thing, the cost of postage. But "Fair Blows the Wind" must have been quite expensive as per this note by the editorial in Fancy Dancing, a zine that came in under budget: "After the price of Fair Blows the Wind, it was the least we could do! The dollars and cents you save on this zine which comes to you crammed into half the space, helps to make up for the cost of Fair Blows... which is not to say the Raven/Bodie zine wasted space, at 50/50 reductions!"
From the editorial of "Fair Blows the Wind" -- regarding technical challenges:
The problems of presenting this opus in purchasable form were huge. You can't have a 540pp zine, to start with. You can't bind, mall or even handle something like that (imagine trying to post it: it would weigh over 1400g, and airmail postage on that would be A$36! The only solution was to reduce everything. This decision was not easily made, because we know full well, it makes the type difficult, wearing on the optics. But in favour of the reductions is the saving — A$18 airmail postage, and in copying, the saving another $25 or so. The purchase price of the zine is still high, but not so vastly high, given the size of the thing.
The story concept came out of letters of comment that came in after Part X of the mainstream text. That was the End Of Book Two, and because the mainstream story carries straight on, I decided to make this Book Three — and also to continue the page numbering from 847 onward. The two Companion zines fall in as Book One-And-A-half, and (predictably!) [sic] Book Two-And-A-Half. The full story list Is given herewith, and this helps to sort out what goes where.
I want to thank the people who wrote to me, giving their thoughts and feelings on the work. These letters made me think, a lot.
A Flyer's Summary
An epic story of the Syrae clan of the Kith, by Jane
The hosting of elven tribes brings a human called Urien into Morhod, and all is not what it seems...
Raphael suffers a personal and professional catastrophy [sic]; he has become a very fine healer, and not stands accused of the crime of murder. How will he be judged? It's for Raven and Bodie to become detectives, else Raphael could be exiled from the land he has come to love so much.
A Holly Year spells suffering for humans and elvenkind alike, and the Syrae take measures to prorect [sic]themselves...
A racehorse called Sunbird and a jockey called Briony enter Bodie's and Raven's chotic lives — and a Rynn chieftain is not much amused!
Sadness fetches a woman called Shiragh unto Morhod. It is the first time Falcon's mother has left her homeland, but what has brought her west?
Raven learns, with the ahaman's [sic] help, to control his fey gifts before they destroy him, and Bodie walkes [sic] an Arran path into danger, against both Raven's and Amber's advice...
Falcon is of an age now to be up to her knees in the cubs' huntings, and like her father, she finds ways to get herself into big troube [sic]. Then, there's a boy called Shrike...
Images of the past and the future haunt the present; the future not merely of the Syrae but of all Morhod could be in jeopardy. Are these dreadful visions graven in gold, or can the future be changed?
The massive text of this book continues from the stories "Arran" and "East of Midnight" which both appeared in THE HUNTING COMPANION #2.
BOOK FOUR: FAIR BLOWS THE WIND,
500 pages, loads of illustrations featuring the full cast of characters, and braid bound in the hand-crafted hard covers of your choice. NOTE: this issue is no longer published in its "reduced type" format: by general concensus [sic], the 50% reduced type was contributing to the poor standard of the eyesight on several continents. Even people who *could* read it twelve years ago find they can't read the small print now ... so the "mashed" version of this book has been withdrawn. [1]
Regarding Content
From the very lengthy editorial:
This is a story that grew and grew, and in the end had to be edited to cut it down to this length! To begin with, 'Fair Blows The Wind' is not a novel — please don't assume that it is one, and judge it as such. It does not have the plot-structure of a novel, for one thing, and was never intended to have.
I had a whole set of stories: a mystery; a romance; an actioner; a family saga. The question haunted me for many months — how to weld them into a whole? The truth was, it could only have been done as a series of shorter stories if the events of 'Fair Blows' occurred in different years of the characters' lives.
The problem with that was, each individual story ranges from half a year to two years to weave its way to conclusion. In other words, to tell each of these plots in serial fashion would have resulted in an anthology spanning a decade of our heroes' lives. At the same time, vast empty gaps between strategic events yawned like chasms.
The solution to all this was to overlap, or dovetail the stories... Each one overlaid on the others to produce an eighteen month narrative in which the events are tightly packed, the characters' lives are full and interesting, I'm not promising you a fast-paced story (no story of this length could possibly maintain pace; render and heroes alike would be worn to a nub in 500 pages' time), and I don't recommend you attempt to read 'Fair Blows in one swallow! Rather, this book is 'a summer holiday between covers.' Come with me and spend a year and a half in Raven's world.
Gallery of Characters
(fan casted Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals)
(fan casted Bodie from The Professionals)
(fan casted Raven (Doyle from 'The Professionals')
Roan
K'iri
Kevin (a fan casted Rutger Hauer as seen in Ladyhawke)
Elm (double fan casted as it's a photo reference from Robin of Sherwood)
Amber (a fan casted Michael Gothard, a cross between his appearance in 'Arthur of the Britons' and 'Warrior Queen')
Raphael (a fan casted Mel Gibson)
Feyleen (a fan casted Michelle Pfeiffer)
Dominic (a fan casted Christopher Lambert as seen in the earlier parts of 'Greystoke')
Abelard
