Live Fire Zone

Zine
Title:	Live Fire Zone
Publisher:	Neon Rainbow Press
Editor(s):	Cinda Gillilan
Type:	letterzine
Date(s):	mid-1990s
Frequency:	bi-monthly
Fandom:	multifandom
Language:	English
External Links:
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Live Fire Zone is a bi-monthly multifandom letterzine.

Its focus was TV series with a military flavor, or that had a major character who was in the military or who was a veteran, so shows like War of the Worlds, Riptide, Stingray, Counterstrike, etc. It was a way to pass along research on a variety of military topics.

There were four issues. This was a slash-friendly publication.

See List of Letterzines.

Issue 4

What gets me is how TV shows hint at relationships between the male characters. We get a concerned gaze here, a pat on the back there, but they don't do anything with it. That's where fan fic comes in. We see hints and we run with them. We spin them out to a logical end.

I think one thing that makes fans different is the way we watch TV. I mean, first of all I watch new shows with an eye toward whether it would be a series I could write fiction for. And if it is, then I go back and re-watch the episodes, looking for bits and pieces of information I can use to understand the characters, the setting, etc. I have to build up an understanding of the whole world the characters are living in. And that usually means that I have to go out and learn something I didn't know before — like learning about all things Navy SEAL, Marine Corp snipers. Delta Force, about weapons and tactics, GPS equipment, you name it so I can understand how the characters think, what they'd do in the situation I want to write them into. And at the same time I end up thinking about what their childhoods would have been like; how did they become the people we see on the screen. I project back into their pasts and then write about that and their futures. Oh, and I really like to do stories that explain things that we see like, where did that scar come from? What's that ring all about?

Fandom has its politics, sure, but on the whole it's less than what I've experienced anywhere else -- work, school, church. People are more willing to accept disagreement and respect opinions and values in fandom. And when things can't be worked out, people agree to disagree and get on with it. Fandom always seems to bounce back in a way that I don't see anywhere else.