Heretic Flotsam

Zine
Title:	Heretic Flotsam
Publisher:
Editor(s):	Mary Raugh
Date(s):	1990
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	War of the Worlds
Language:	English
External Links:
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cover of issue #1, Mary Wheeler

submission request

submission request for the first issue, printed in The Blackwood Project #6, click to enlarge

Heretic Flotsam is a gen War of the Worlds anthology edited by Mary Raugh.

Summaries

From the submission request: "... accepting contributions of fiction, poetry, artwork, and practically anything else you can think of. We will take material pertaining to both season, plus any of the other manifestations of WOW."

Another submission request: "... must be based on one of the manifestations of WOW, be it radio show, record, movie, novel, or either season of the TV series."

From the Editor

In 1990, the conflict between fans who were "loyal" to the first season/didn't mind/liked the second season was reflected in a comment the editor made in a letterzine:

There doesn't seem to be many people out there who are writing second season fiction, judging by the amount I've seen in other zines. With the exception of one story in To Life Immortal #2. all of the stories set in the second season are geared towards bringing Ironhorse and Norton back. I'm not complaining about this. Bringing back our lost heroes is a good and noble thing. What concerns me is the attitude held by some towards second season based fiction. To whit, there are some zines out there which won't even consider second season fiction. This is of course the editor's prerogative and should not be disputed. But it's a shame, because if you are in the middle of working your heart out on a story, or poem, or whatever, and hear that people aren't interested in seeing the fruits of your labors, it can be very discouraging. It gets worse when you hear that there are people who won't read it, either. Am I speaking from experience? Maybe a little. I had something I very much wanted to write, and held off on it because at the time I thought no one would take anything remotely based on second season. Instead, I decided to start up my own zine and take second season based material. Which is pretty much how and why Heretic Flotsam came into being. Right now I've got one, short, non-resurrection second season which I wrote. Does it bother me that people will refuse to read it just because it's second season? Yes, it does, but I can accept that, too.

Judging a Zine By Its Production

In 1991, a fan writes of cover art and how one shouldn't judge a zine by its cover:

To avoid insulting sensitive editors in this fandom, let me use an example from STAR WARS. There was a zine some years back that sold a lot of copies on the basis of its cover. (This is what the editor told me -- she was not happy about it.) The cover, one of Faddis' acrylic paintings, was beautifully produced, protected by a plastic topsheet, first-class treatment all the way ... but the zine itself was a series of Mary Sue stories featuring Princess Leia. Not a bad zine, but it didn't live up to its cover. This is an example of form over content. The problem with form over content -- and we do have some of it in WOW, too --is that people will buy a zine that looks good and maybe pass on a more expensive zine, like Flotsam, that doesn't have the same surface flash. By contrast. Flotsam looked like a beginner's project: the cover portraits were fuzzy, the darkness of the print varied on some pages, page numbers were handwritten -- but these are cosmetic problems, the sort of thing that can be fixed with only a little practice and maybe a new printer ribbon. Most fen I know buy a zine for the writing, for the stories, and Flotsam's writing was consistently good. There was a sense of balance in the composition (between seriousness and humor, short stories and long) that you just don't see very often in the work of beginning editors.

Issue 1

Heretic Flotsam 1 was published in 1990 and has 228 pages. It has a cover by May Wheeler. Other art by May Wheeler and Lana Merkel.

• To Gather Stones by Lana Merkel (What in the Antarctic wastes is so interesting to the aliens from Mor-Tax? The Blackwood Project must go and find out before it is too late.) (38 pages)
• Aftermath by Alice Aldridge (10 pages)
• Suffer the Children by Mary Raugh (44 pages) (The Blackwood Project is called overseas to help thwart the aliens' latest plan -- building a new army out of young humans.)
• Mirror Image by Linda Watson (18 pages)
• Metal by Mary Wheeler (3 pages)
• Scenes From The Cutting-Room Floor (7 pages) (A continuing section of short scenes that were cut from other stories, should have been included in the episodes, or just weren't long enough to stand alone.)
• All that is Gold by Mary Raugh (34 pages)
• Redux Reaction by Sharon R (38 pages)
• Melzor (2 pages)
• Mana (3 pages)
• Fortunes of War (2 pages)
• Purify this Planet (8 pages)
• The Voice of Heresy (8 pages) (in the aftermath of "Terminal Rock," Harrison despairs that the aliens can be defeated. Can he find new hope?)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

This is a first publishing effort for Mary and Sharon Raugh, and it's pretty impressive when you consider the editors' average age is under 20. About 90 of HFs 228 pages are 2nd season, but the two sections are separated by the intro blurb used for the movie and TSI, respectively. And since the TSI material is mostly revival (Ironhorse in one, Norton in the other), the zine is hardly as "heretical" as the title implies.

My favorite piece of Flotsam is the first, Lana Merkel's "To Gather Stones," which sends the Blackwood team to the Antartic to deal with a real-science problem. Good plot, good characterization, and an intriguing shell-game of "who's got the alien?" that avoids the cliche resolution. Mary Wheeler's illos are a little weak as likenesses, but the composition goes beyond the more common portrait-with-dramatic expression -- these really are illustrations. "Aftermath," by Alice Aldridge, is also good. It's a follow-up to "Second Seal," and reads like what we would have seen if that episode had been two hours long and plotted by a fan. The POV changes rather frequently, but that works in this case because the characters are the story.

Mary Raugh has two cross-universes (WOW/ DR. WHO) featuring an original GalHfreyan character. "Suffer the Children" introduces this character, and "All That is Gold" brings her back to rescue Norton and Ironhorse from the second wave. Alexandria Randall is a bit of a Mary Sue and I really hadn't expected to like the stories much -- but the plot held my attention, and while it sounds outrageous, the notion that Dr. Who might have a niece is plausible; he had a granddaughter when the series first started, some 20+ years ago. This character is bloodthirstier than one would expect of a timelady -- she acts a lot like an Earthling. Dialog tends to ramble in places, but characterization of the regulars is believable and the method "Dr." Randall uses to rescue Ironhorse is certainly creative. So is the unexpected twist that winds the story up with an embarrassment of riches. "Mirror Images," by Linda Watson, puts Iron-horse and Watson through an alien time machine. The idea's interesting, but I found it hard to believe that the facial genes ran that strong for three generations. The dialog and characterization are both believable, though Watson's "said-ism" is distracting at times. ("Saidism," not "sadism": strenuous avoidance of the verb "said".) In one typical page, Ironhorse "retorts" twice, also exclaims, questions, argues, suggests, objects, utters... It gets a bit lively. But there are scenes that would've made good illos: Ironhorse identifies himself as U.S. Army and finds himself starting the business end of his ancestors' rifles. "Good going," Harrison tells him. "Mirror" takes some determined suspension of disbelief, but it's fun. Mary Wheeler's "Metal" is another short character study, this time of the relationship between Ironhorse and Kensington. Wheeler's quote key was working overtime; I think the reader would understand that Ironhorse's "armor," "demons" and all other quoted words were metaphors; in a story this brief all those """s were an unnecessary distraction. But it wouldn't have been a bad idea for the show itself to have had a few scenes like this in place of some of the goo.

Reading "Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor," a collection of very short (and very silly) bits, was something like eating six Snickers bars in a row. But it's balanced by placement between two more serious stories... we do have an editor at work here.

I had a chance to read an earlier draft of Sharon R's "Redux Reaction," and while this version shows a lot of improvement, a few loose ends remain. For example, the main original character is a mercenary, fighting aliens "for a price." But we never learn who's paying the price... and a page later, we find that this mercenary and her team are not fighting the aliens now. Eh? But it's tough to write for an produce a zine simultaneously, especially with a deadline looming, and even harder to edit a sibling's work. However, once you get past the shaky rationale of these urban guerillas' existence, the story starts to move. This is the Ironhorse-rescue story that Sharon mentioned in an earlier TBP. It works, and while the overall tone is serious, there are spots of comic relief -- an old friend of Kincaid's taking Harrison's tuning fork at gunpoint, a clone and a real Suzanne trying to kill and save Ironhorse, respectively, various team members showing scars like college ID's in a campus bar.... This story isn't perfect by a long shot, but I wish I'd been able to write this long shot, but I wish I'd been able to write this well at in my teens. The characters — the real ones, not the clones -- sounded like themselves. And one thing I enjoyed, in both Sharon and Mary's stories, is the fact that their heroines are incurable smartasses -- a refreshing departure from Mary Sue earnestness.

Production values could stand a little improvement, like a new ribbon for the printer, and a more effective binding in future issues, because there are already bits of escaped Flotsam on my floor. (Or is it jetsam now? It's only "flotsam" as long as it's floating....) Whichever, the glue-backing isn't capable of holding a zine this big -- a plastic spine would be more effective, or maybe a monster stapler. But the selection and arrangement of stories shows a good sense of balance; I'm glad there are more of these in the works.

Issue 2

cover of issue #2, Mary Wheeler

Heretic Flotsam 2 was published in 1990.

• Top 12 Reasons Aliens Invaded Earth (2)
• The Prize by Susan Asselin (4)
• The Names of Fools Live on in Vain by David J. Koukol (16)
• Undertow by Lana G. Merkel (24)
• Battle Zone by Gena Fisher (25)
• Sneak Attack by Gillian Holt (32)
• The Colonel in 3/4 Time by Gillian Holt (32)
• Time of the Promise by Debra Hicks (40)
• Counterpoint by M.S.C. Raugh (53)
• Forging Bonds by Gena Fisher (54)
• Tacet by M.S.C. Raugh (58)
• All Our Days by Susan M. Asselin (60)
• Love They Neighbor, Smite Thine Enemy by Scott Springer (76)
• Derriman by Lana G. Merkel (90)
• Hell's Spawn by Lana G. Merkel (90)
• Jagged Edges by Gena Fisher (130
• Problems of an Alien Nature by Scott Springer (134)
• Close Your Eyes by M.S.C. Raugh (158)
• In Parting by M.S.C. Raugh (159)
• art by Lana Merkel, Mary Wheeler (cover), and Mary Raugh