Jean Hinson
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Jean Hinson |
| Alias(es): | D.J. Hinson |
| Type: | fanzine publisher, fan writer |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Jean Hinson was a Star Trek fan writer.
She also published numerous fanzines as FireTrine Press.
Hinson was fan A.V. Wilde's mother.
Hinson passed away in March 2006.
Zine Contributions
Beauty and the Beast
- The Faces of Darkness (1991)
- The Promise (Beauty and the Beast (TV)) (1989)
Star Trek: TOS
- Between Friends (1990)
- Impact (1985)
- Nightmare Road (1991)
- Nor No Man Ever Loved (the US edition) (1989)
- Off the Wall (1991-1993)
- Sojourns (1988)
- Twilight Trek (1990-1992)
- The Way of the Warrior (1987-1996)
Other
- Satyrnalia (1992-1997)
- The Zine Connection (1991-1995)
Some of Hinson's Fannish Journey
In November 1990, she offered the following biographical glimpse in The LOC Connection:
Actually, it started for me in 1966. September 8th. I think it was. I sat down in front of my TV set and fell in love. No, not with Kirk or Spock — with the Enterprise. With an ideal, a concept, whatever you call the basic Star Trek premise. The romance continued for fifteen years while I pursued my life as an architectural design draftsman, mother, grandmother, etc.
I guess I was a K/S fan before I ever heard of K/S; there are a few scenes in various episodes of ST where the chemistry between Kirk and Spock jump off the screen at you. When I discovered conventions — and K/S zines, in 1982, my first reaction was "of course", and I naturally read everything I could get my hands on.
K/S fandom has been likened to a virus, with stages of contagion: First, you read. After a while you think, "I could write, couldn't I?' So you do. Later, writing gives way to mentally editing what you're reading—and again, you think, "I could edit. I could publish a zine. When you reach that point, you're locked into the cycle. You're a zine editor.
[...]
I have two grown daughters — one of whom is a computer security analyst, and the other is "A.V. Wilde" (a Beauty and the Beast fandom author in her spare time). I have three grown grand daughters who think grandma is a few cards short of a full deck.
Maybe they're right. [1]
Ceased Publications: 1995
In July 1995, a fan implored fans to support The Zine Connection, and others by Jean Hinson in order to keep Hinson from gafiating.
Everyone: Just wanted to pas on some disturbing news that recently reached me. One of our most consistent and enduring zine editors is thinking of ceasing publication due to lack of orders and more importantly, lack of interest.
Jean Hinson, who publishers Way of the Warrior and "The Zine Connection" among others, under the name FireTrine Press is considering getting out of fan publishing.
How about sending a SASE for some flyers, If not, how about just dropping her a line to tell her how much you have appreciated her zines in the past and want her to continue.
Zine editors: Jean cannot keep tZC up to date without you sending periodic updates on your publications.
See last page of CT for her address. Come on people, lets keep Jean in fandom.[2]
This earnest letter was too late, as Hinson had ceased publishing her zines earlier that year.
A fan wrote:
Jean: I truly wish you would reconsider your intention of ceasing publication. Ever zine adds to world of diversity. K/S in particular, enriching it thus, enriching me (if I solely speak for myself.) "Way of the Warrior" has it's own place in that world, and I for one, would sorely miss it.
I think I have fallen into the trap of taking things for granted, and I sincerely apologize. I can't and won't speak for someone else, but still I don't think I'm alone when I say that it would be a loss. [3]
Hinson's Comments in June 1996
A year after folding The Zine Connection, Hinson offered her opinions on why she (and others) felt that K/S fandom, as well as print zine fandom, were floundering. She named lack of feedback, lack of venues for feedback, zine piracy, the Internet, skipping the postal service:
For a long time now, response from the readers of slash zines has been dropping off, yet everyone I know says that there is a shortage of new zines.
One of the reasons for this apparent anomaly is that there is a severe shortage of dependable advertising forums, probable due to a falling off of subscriptions (the reason for my cancellation of TZC.)
Another reason might be that there seems to be a new generation of zine readers, who are too impatient to wait a few weeks (we used to wait YEARS) for a new zine, so they buy only at cons. [4] The problem with that is that not all zine editors attend cons any more; we can't afford it. The mail is our only contact with our readers.
I suspect that are other reasons for the lagging response from readers, such as the pirates (an old problem), and now I understand that transfer of stories is taking place on the Internet.
Zine editors (and zines) are becoming an endangered species, I'll spare you a lesson on the economics of zine production - ask any zine editor what it takes to produce a new zine.
But for those of you who weren't around when zine fandom began: I've said this before, but I'll say it once more. Production and readership is a symbiotic relationship: one can't exist without the other.
You - the readers of fanzines - are the reason zines exist. When you stop communications with the editors, whether with comments or complaints, we begin to wonder why we're doing this. And when we have to wonder too long, we begin to find other things to do.
In Memory
Hinson passed away in March 2006.
Jean was the author of the novel Sojourns as well as a few other stories under various pennames. She published the K/S zine series Way of the Warrior (eight issues), at first collaborating with her friend Pat Friedman until Pat died, and then on her own under the Firetrine Press name. Firetrine also published the mixed gen and K/S zines Between Friends, Off the Wall, and Twilight Trek, as well as the K/S zine Impact.
References
- ^ from The LOC Connection #23
- ^ from Come Together #19
- ^ from Come Together #21
- ^ Many fans had been burned by the long wait/non delivery of zines in the mail by some high-profile publishers such as Pon Farr Press, and had scaled back on getting zines in the mail, choosing instead to buy them at conventions.