Highland Fling

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Zine
Title: Highland Fling
Publisher: Solstice Press
Editor(s): Peggy Spalding and Carol J.E. Schorn
Date(s): 1994-1998
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: Highlander
Language: English
External Links:
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Highland Fling is a gen Highlander anthology.

Issue 1

Highland Fling 1 was published in 1994 and contains 105 pages.

front cover of issue #1, Marianne Howarth
cover of issue #1, Marianne Howarth
flyer for issue #1

The art is by Marianne Howarth, Joy Riddle, and Peggy Spalding.

From the editorial:

A lot of thank yous go to a number of very hard-working and very good friends who threw themselves into this at the last minute to create the product which you, dear reader, are holding. Everyone who said, "Sure, I'll contribute something," did. In a sense the title. Highland Fling, is truly appropriate because these contributors and I literally flung ourselves into creating this Highlander fanzine at the zero hour. (Thanks, Joy Riddle, for the title suggestion.) You see, once plans had been laid for attending The Gathering in Denver on the second weekend in October '94, I said, "Hey, why don't we do a fanzine for the convention?" Aaaarrrgh! Will I never learn?

So Herculean-effort kudos go to all the contributors. I hope their efforts will be as greatly appreciated by the readers as they are by coeditor Carol Schorn and yours truly. I think we're going to owe some big favors on this one.

McLeod, MacLeod, Macleod .... I made the executive decision to spell this venerable Scots moniker as the latter from the opening credits of the first episode of Highlander, the Series, "The Gathering" when Christopher Lambert is given credit as "Connor Macleod." Unless I've been amiss — or too sleepy to proofread properly — the name should appear as such consistently throughout the zine.

We hope you like it, our fellow Highlander fans. If you feel inclined to write and let us know what you think, please do so at the address listed on the title page. And may this wonderful TV show have as extended a life as its title character!

Don't lose your head!

  • Dead Men Tell No Tales by Kate Nickell ("When Duncan MacLeod runs afoul of the law in Dodge City, will the Highlander stand a chance against the quick draw of Matt Dillon? Crossover with Gunsmoke.) (4)
  • Half a Heart by Michelle L. Levigne ("A missing mortal woman’s uncanny likeness to a portrait painted long ago gets an old acquaintance of Duncan’s into trouble when she assumes the woman’s identity.") (11)
  • Sword Dance by Ruth Dempsey (46)
  • Tessa by Karen Robertson (48)
  • Oh, Those Limericks by Various Culprits (50)
  • Penny's Dreadful by She-who-will-remain-nameless (53)
  • Different Paths by Karen Robertson ("Duncan MacLeod’s travels in the Old West bring him into contact with a certain Shaolin Priest. Crossover with Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.") (57)
  • The Greater Joy by Carol J.E. Schorn ("When a vast army led by Darius approaches the city of Paris, what could possibly persuade this powerful Immortal leader to turn back his forces?") (64)
  • Leader of the Band by Carol J.E. Schorn (76)
  • The Night Weighs Heavy by Laurie Keeper ("A beautiful woman enlists the aid of a mysterious man who drives a black Corvette and works only in exchange for favors. But even Stingray may be out of his league when the man against whom she seeks protection is Duncan MacLeod." Crossover with Stingray.) (78)
  • Tessa by Ruth Dempsey (92)
  • Apace by Violet Nordstrom (94)
  • According to Maverick by Sharon Dickerson ("Two young card sharks learn a hard lesson about playing poker with strangers when a fellow riverboat traveler is a deal more than they expect." Crossover with Maverick.) (99)

  • from issue #1, Peggy Spalding

  • from issue #1, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #1, Peggy Spalding

  • from issue #1, Mariann Howarth

  • from issue #1, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #1, Peggy Spalding

Issue 2

cover of issue #2, Peggy Spalding

Highland Fling 2 was published in 1995 and is 124 pages long.

The art is by Peggy Spalding (front cover), Mariann Howarth, Joy Riddle, Laura Virgil, James Wappel, and Lynne Alisse Witten.

This zine won an Honorable Mention in the 1996 FanQ Awards.

One hundred copies were printed.

From the editorial:

Greetings and welcome to Highland Fling 2. In the tradition of its predecessor, the first Highland Fling, this fanzine was "flung” together by two busy co-editors and a host of extremely talented contributors just in the nick of time for the second Gathering convention in Denver. We received a varied spectrum of excellent material for this issue: Duncan, Connor, and Richie appear, along with other familiar faces, in stories that are variously gripping, relaxed, triumphant, happy, sad, or just plain silly.

Many large and sincere thanks to all our contributors, writers and artists both, especially those who went above and beyond the call, through illness or a host of the other concerns that can and do affect our lives, to get his or her contribution(s) to us. Besides thanking our contributors, a hearty thank-you is also due to anyone who has ever had anything to do with inventing and implementing modems, CompuServe, AOL, and any other computer services connected by the Internet, because this fanzine came to life largely as stories bounced back and forth through e-mail, even by friends who live nearby. What a marvelous convenience.

[...]

All stories in this zine are original works of fiction based in the lore Highlander and, with a single exception, are appearing here for the first time. Only "Hold Fast" by Russet McMillan has appeared previously, being posted on the Internet. For those of you on-line who have already enjoyed it, we hope you will feel it is worth a second visit. For those who do not have access to the Internet, are you ever in for a treat.

  • from issue #2, Peggy Spalding

  • from issue #2, Laura Virgil

  • from issue #2, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #2, James Wappel

  • from issue #2, Mariann Howarth

  • from issue #2, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #2, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #2, Lynne Alisse Witten

  • from issue #2, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #2, James Wappel

  • from issue #2, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #2, James Wappel

Issue 3

cover of issue #3, by James Wappel

Highland Fling 3 was published in 1996 and contains 276 pages.

It includes crossovers with The Phantom, McCloud, Scarlet Pimpernel/Ladyhawke and X-Files.

The cover is by James Wappel.

  • Family Affair by Sandra McDonald ("A case of food poisoning drives Duncan and Richie apart." - "e unwritten rules that define a "family" are tested when Duncan, Tessa, and Richie first move to Paris.") (4)
  • The Wars We Choose to Fight by Sandra McDonald ("Methos and Connor meet for the first time in Guam on the eve of World War II." - "All Methos wanted was a little peace and quiet, but the winds of World War II blow both an old flame and Connor MacLeod into his life.") (21)
  • Methos' Daydream by Mark Kalita (34)
  • The Dark Side of the Mirror, Archived version by Russet McMillan ("Kalas is dead. MacLeod has changed. Watchers are dying. Is Duncan the killer?" Sequel to "Hold Fast" in the previous issue) (35)
  • Mouse's Story by Mark R. Whittington ("Darius knows just the man to help Phillipe Gaston (Ladyhawke) smuggle the last of the Navarres out of the French Revolution -the Scarlet Pimpernel. Sequel to "The Thief, The Wolf the Hawk..."") (97)
  • King for a Day; archive link by Russet McMillan ("Freak bolt of lightning causes Joe Dawson and Duncan MacLeod to make a very unusual switch.") (105)
  • Bright Lights in the Big City by Carol J.E. Schorn ("Investigating electrical "vandalism" in New York City, Marshal Sam McCloud discovers he has more in common with his quarry than a similar-sounding last name. A different take on Kate Nickell's story from Highland Fling #2.") (124)
  • Card Tricks by J. Ruth Dempsey ("Mysterious woman who is more than she seems steps in when Government Agent John West goes after Duncan MacLeod for having killed the Immortal psychiatrist Sean Bums.") (129)
  • Choices After Evil by Sandra McDonald ("Duncan returns to Seacouver after "Deliverance" and must deal with the effects of his Dark Quickening on his friends.") (136)
  • Ramirez's Tale by Mark Kalita ("A group of ancient Egyptians are visited by a godlike, sword-wielding stranger.") (175)
  • Limericks by Lynne Taylor (188)
  • When Legends Meet, When Legends Die by Michelle Levigne ("A villainous Immortal draws Joe Dawson, Methos, and Rhea Jones into his path of destruction when he targets an old friend of Rhea's. Sequel to "Bad Vibrations.") (189)
  • To All the Girls by Carol J.E. Schorn ("Sengh pirates are the catalyst that brings the Phantom, the Man Who Cannot Die, across the path of Duncan MacLeod, a real Immortal.") (224)
  • Ghosts Who Walk by Peggy Spalding (crossed with The Phantom) (226)
  • No Knight in Shining Armor by Kate Nickell ("Drafted to perform in a play as the price for some old documents he wants for his research, Methos is haunted by another Immortal.") (256)

Issue 4

Highland Fling 4 was published in 1998 and contains 181 pages.

cover of issue #4, James Wappel

The art is by James Wappel (front cover), Mariann Howarth, Joy Riddle, Leah Rosenthal, Peggy Spalding, Liz Stewart, and Sandy Williams.

From the editorial:

By the time you read this, the last episodes of Highlander: The Series will have aired.

In some ways, it's the end of an era: we will no longer have our weekly glimpse into the life of Duncan MacLeod and friends. On the other hand, we still have the fourth Highlander movie to look forward to, and the new series with Elizabeth Gracen. May the flight of Highlander: the Raven (whatever it is eventually named) be high and long. On the literary front, we will have several new professional Highlander novels to read in the coming months, and if sales are good, (BUY BOOKS!) we'll have even more. And as long as we fans hold awarm spot in our hearts for Highlander, the fandom will be as undying as the Immortals themselves.

Ahuge and sincere thank you to the wonderful people who gave us years of emotion-engaging, thought-provoking entertainment: the producers, writers, cast, crew, and everyone else connected with Highlander. We also greatly appreciate the generosity of their understanding of such bursts of unofficial Highlander-inspired creativity as the zine you are now holding.

[...]

Highland Fling 4 could be subtitled "Our Methos Issue" since so much came in on everyone's favorite 5000 year old. But the other characters are here, too: Duncan, Connor, Darius, Amanda, Richie, Joe, and others, with some familiar faces from other shows also (Sentinel, Forever Knight, Xena, and Kung Fu fans, take notice!). We have received another wonderful mix of material: adventure to tragedy to comedy, settings from hundreds of years ago to the present, locations as diverse as Revolutionary Paris, war-tom Greece, and Washington's Cascade Mountains.

Only two of the stories presented here have appeared on the Net before. "Adam", by Russet McMillan, written before the episodes "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelations 6:8," tangles Methos in a web of deception while speculating on the nature of the oldest Immortal; "The Victories We Claim", by Sandra McDonald, shows us the healing power of friendship. Two more stories, "A Matter of Faith" and "A Love of Death", appeared first in the zine Infinity...

  • A Matter of Faith by Roxanne Longstreet (5)
  • A Time of Remembrance by Mary T. Ewing (19)
  • Encounters on Dellas by Mark R. Whittington (crossover with Xena: Princess Warrior) (29)
  • The Victories We Claim by Sandra McDonald ("WWII is over. But for Methos, in Manhattan, a different war continues...") (36)
  • Scent and Sensibility by Carol J.E. Schorn (crossover with The Sentinel) (53)
  • An Immortal, By Any Other Name by Mark R. Whittington (crossover with Forever Knight) (74)
  • Adam by Russet McMillan (80)
  • An Immortal in the Hand by Lynne Alysse Witten (125)
  • Worlds Enough and Time by Michelle L. Levigne 129
  • Personal Affects by Rebecca Ann Brothers (152)
  • Crossing Paths by Karen Robertson (crossover with Kung Fu: The Legend Continues) (166)
  • Duncan by Mary T. Ewing (170)
  • A Love of Death by Roxanne Longstreet (172)

  • from issue #4, Sandy Williams

  • from issue #4, Leah Rosenthal

  • from issue #4, Liz Stewart

  • from issue #4, Mariann Howarth

  • from issue #4, Peggy Spalding

  • from issue #4, Mariann Howarth

  • from issue #4, Joy Riddle

  • from issue #4, Peggy Spalding

  • from issue #4, Leah Rosenthal

References

  1. ^ archive link
  2. ^ archive link
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