Flood Tide
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Flood Tide |
| Publisher: | The Nut Hatch |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Madelaine Ingram |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1992 |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Flood Tide is a 155-page slash novel by Madelaine Ingram. One issue states the author as Kathy Keegan, confirming another link in the Jane of Australia pseud tangle.
"Flood Tide" was reproduced as an original fiction novel with some revision and the names changed, published by the Gay Men's Press as "Storm Tide" by Mel Keegan.[1]
The Author Praises Her Own Work
From a flyer printed in Taemon's Cuckoos:
Not just one of the best novels we've published, but one of the best B/D books we've seen in recent times... A new contemporary thriller from the author of the 'Witchfires' series."
Summary
Bodie and Doyle are assigned to apprehend and retrieve a dangerous terrorist. They start a relationship while trying to track their prey through the UK countryside in the rain.
From the Nut Hatch Flyer
CI5 has been hunting the terrorist, Neil Rawlings, since they learned he was in England. Bodie has an old score to settle with this man. The scar on his back, and the memories of a woman are telltale of a scene at a diplomatic conference in Germany, which he cannot forget...
Bodie and Doyle have pursued the sociopathic terrorist into the wilds. The weather is deteriorating into electric storms, violent skies and thrashing seas. They don’t need the weather man to predict the near hurricane and flood tide which is coming.
The sultry relationship between the CI5 agents is also electric, but a sudden downpour and a wind storm won’t mend affairs between them. They are drifting apart, on the slide down to personal disaster, and neither man can see a way off this road.
Rawlings leads them a merry dance into the gale-swept hills, and they are far out of R/T range, without back-up, when they finally come upon him ... a place called Lindgate Farm, on Lightning Ridge ... a shock turn of events. This is where their troubles begin. They are on their own, save for a sociopath who is more dangerous than any ‘normal’ terrorist, a man who is as skilled, as ‘professional’ in his own field as the CI5 men are in theirs.
Madelaine Ingram moves smoothly into the contemporary thriller genre with this novel, which has the pace and many of the chill factors of her recent Eye of the Lion, as well as the invention and emotional impact of the favourite Witchfires series. Flood Tide is not to be missed if you like a sexy, angsty thriller. Possibly the best thing Madelaine has written to date!
160pp. Laser printed; A4, photocopy, coil bound. Published in September 1992.[2]
Covers and Other
one cover
another cover, September 1992
another 1992 cover
another cover, listing Kathy Keegan as the author
a flyer
From the Editors
From the title page:
THAT OLD PLEA TO READERS: for the umpteenth time we beg you not to duplicate this zine for the circuit. Also, if you discover someone doing this, gently suggest to them that they stop, because The Nut Hatch will get stuck with $1000's worth of unsold copies, and go broke all over again! If you would like to bulk-order for your group, circuit or con, please write to us, we would be delighted to give details in full!
From the editorial:
September is upon us - and this is Nut Hatch's sixth zine of the year! There's only one left to go before Christmas: Elvensongs, the fifth Raven/Bodie book.Press news is mixed this time around: after an unbelievably brilliant start to '92, sales have become very slow. We have no idea why this should be, and we're going to invest in some advertising. Also, those of you who would like to give Nut Hatch a boost (and gods know, we need it), if you're writing to your friends, mention that flood tide is out, and that full circle is available for the asking. In other words, helllppp! Obviously, the time of year (and the recession; tell us about it) will impact on zine sales - this, every press is discovering - but it's also possible that there's been a mix-up in our advertising: some folks think this issue wasn't due till February "93, and if this info is fairly widespread, no wonder the pre-orders have been slowl Next year will be busy! We've already planned the first four zines of the year, which we hope to have available in the first half year - stretch that to July, if the gremlins attack. Skip to the end of this issue for a 'long-range forecast flyer. We'll do the best we can to stick to schedule, and if the Gremlins Strike Back, we'll keep you informed. For those of you B/D purists who didn't get Full Circle, this will be the first issue you'll be seeing that's produced on the Laser. We've delighted with the quality! And we all have these two characters, Jarrat and Stone, to thank for the 'facelift.'
Lastly, I want to repeat a statement I made in FC - because so many of you chose to skip that issue, since it was a media zine, so did not see the editorial. If you didn't enjoy goblin, please don't chew chunks out of Nut Hatch! We are not responsible for writing, editing or publishing, we only printed/bound and marketed. Why? Years ago, Entropy Express passed into the hands of JJ's brother, Mike. We also agent for other presses, and are not responsible for the content of their zines either! Goblin was liked and disliked in equal numbers. If you didn't enjoy it, you have company; if you did - you have company. Mostly, those disliking it are devoted "/" fans, finely attuned to B/D, who found it hard or impossible to enjoy an 'unfannish' book. Did we like it? Why? We thought the concept and writing were brilliant; the characterisation, we saw as so close to what we saw on screen 10-15 years ago that we had to like it! Though we don't publish non-/, we can't find a way to rationalise criticising a story because it's straight, or because it's far closer to the filmed series than fandom. If you disliked Goblin, please, re-sell your copy to a friend who likes straight stories and/or series oriented plots and characterisations. And while you're passing it along, take half a second to reflect how far we've all wandered from the aired shows: so far, you couldn't like Goblin, which would probably have made a great episode, twelve years ago -- like Lawson's Last Stand, or Wild Justice... Sorry to go so sober, but after some of the mail we've been getting, I had to say that.
For now, what follows is a novel that is the total opposite of Sara Lansing's. Lainie Ingram is at her best between these covers! Warning: don't start reading this at ten pm, because you won't put it down till three in the morning. It's taut, it's tense, and it's rich with both relationship, insight and action. Let me close here and let you get right into it!
From the Author
From the zine's forward:
As usual I start out saying 'thank you' - this time to JJ, who 'slogged through this' as my editor. If there is any correct grammar or spelling in this book, you know who to thank...or do 1 mean whom?Also, thanks to JJ for having her brother Mike (the Entropy Express Mike...yes, that's the one) provide information on old freighters and new helicopters, and firearms. It's great when you can stop guessing and refer to an article in a book or magazine! Echoing the Textual Disclaimer in the opening of the zine, what I know about British geography isn't much. This story takes place in an imaginary part of the country, the villages and hills westward of Southampton, but eastward of Devon and Dorset. It would have been totally impossible to get the details right, if I'd tried to use existing places (the story would never have been begun, never mind finished), so please, take this piece for what it is and don't throw things at me. It's, uh, fiction, right? Thanks to Andrea Vyland for all her help while I was writing this. I sprang it on The Nut Hatch in a 90% finished form. Andrea took time to read segments (oh, the joys of compatible computers...) and keep me on track. Acknowledgments to Kathy Keegan for her editorial input (story editing rather than the intensive copy editing JJ lashed on for me). At her cajoling, I wrote in the lengthy Epilogue. She was dead right. After all that angst, pain and tension, I needed a segment at the end to show how they remade their lives. Also, after writing all that angst, I really enjoyed composing the last section. It was like writing a whole new short story as a postscript. Lastly, thanks to Barb Jones who lent me the video of North Sea Hijack, which gave me a glimpse of how a freighter works, and how nasty the sea can be. It's nothing like The Popeye, this I discovered!
I hope you've enjoyed this one, and I want to grab the opportunity to thank people for the response to the 'Legends' series. If anyone is interested, I've been looking at another story about the Atlanteans...??
Republished as Pro Original Fiction
From Mel Keegan's website:
STORM TIDE is a modern-day gay thriller, set in the 1990s, and described by Scotsgay as 'gripping.' The story is set, in part, aboard a creaky (also creepy) old 'break bulk' freighter, in 'the storm of the decade' off the coast of MK's own South Australia. This time, our gay heroes are of the reluctant variety, and there's also a gay (or maybe bi; and definitely sociopathic) villain who's weird enough, dangerous enough, to stand your hair on end. Millivres called Mel Keegan 'the master of gay thrillers,' and with STORM TIDE, Mel earns the accolade. [3]
From a fan in 1997:
I think I saw on this very several months ago that STORMTIDE is a re-hash of FLOODTIDE - and for that reason was of interest to the list. As far as I could tell from the blurb on the back, the stories were fairly similar - involving foul weather, cottages in the middle of nowhere and drug dealers. Cover art was kinda Pros-esque (but then again, not enough to convince me that this was a must buy. [4]
Fan Reactions and Reviews
1995
For those of you who read zines for the plot: Flood Tide by Madelaine Ingram (from Nuthatch Press) kept me high on adrenalin from the first page to the end (except the Epilogue which was a bit too old-married-couple-with-flowers-and-curtains for my taste).
It's a 150 page novel about Bodie and Doyle chasing an insane terrorist through a part of England that is being devastated in a flood catastrophe. The baddie is just as clever as they are and it takes a lot of breathtaking fighting, tricking, ruses, violence, and what not until the happy end. Both B and D get battered quite a bit (I think h/c fans will love this. Well, I did, anyway).
There's also a relationship plot. The story starts with them being already in a sexual relationship but having communication problems and being afraid that they'll break up.
There isn't much sex (unfortunately, sob; but what is there is fairly good), but I loved the zine anyway (that really says something for the quality of the plot :-) ). [5]
1999
I read "Flood Tide" and "Storm Tide" back-to-back recently... ("Flood Tide" is Madelaine Ingram's Pros novel and "Storm Tide" is Mel Keegan's professionally-published gay suspense novel; they're virtually identical, plot-wise) The ending of "Flood Tide" was a chapter-long "happily ever after" that felt entirely unnecessary to me.
Lo and behold, "Storm Tide" didn't have that ending, but still ended happily and satisfyingly. [6]