One More Mountain
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| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | One More Mountain |
| Publisher: | 10-13 Enterprises |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Terri Beckett and Chris Powers |
| Cover Artist(s): | |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1981 |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Starsky and Hutch |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | online here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
a 1981 flyer advertising "One More Mountain" -- "Post S'Rev. Not S/H theme but age statement required. (Because of the violence and other such considerations. God forbid we should corrupt anyone.) SASE or 2 IRCs for availability and price details."
One More Mountain is a 79-page gen Starsky and Hutch novel by Terri Beckett and Chris Power. Cover by T'Vas. Interior art by Chris Ripley.
"Red Light Universe"
- One More Mountain (gen)
- One More River (slash)
- No Easy Answers (slash)
From the Writers
1982
One More Mountain is not S/H. It is, however, the first part of our Red Light Universe. The second part will be published this summer, and it is S/H. That is provisionally titled One More River. The third part (don't ask when!) will be No Easy Answers. Have we got that (forgive the word) straight? I'll state here and now that anyone who feels strongly about / in a relationship, or who may be offended by explicit scenes, should NOT order either OMR or NEA.[1]
1990
Too much S/H concerns itself with the 'gazing at each other'. What I particularly liked about Lynna Bright's WINTER (in the last CODE SEVEN) was that her heros were 'looking outward'. I might not have agreed with her reading of their characters and decisions, but at least they weren't solely wrapped up in each other, to the exclusion of all else. should point out that I'm as guilty as the next person in writing the other stuff. That is the basic flaw in OMR. I excuse it only because the love-affair was so new that for a time they couldn't see anything else. But that stage doesn't last. Can't, or they'd live their lives in a hermetically sealed box, and wouldn't do any policework at all, and then who's paying the rent? At some stage they have to get out of bed and get to the mundane details of living. Okay, I don't need to know every time Hutch goes to the john, or Starsky waxes the Torino; I know they do these things, these are a given. I don't need to know, either, how many times they make it in bed, who does what and to whom and in what position. This, too, is a 'given'. I do need to know how they deal with their world, how their changed relationship changes their lives, their attitudes, their feelings.[2]
The Slash Element
One More Mountain is not S/H. It is, however, the first part of our Red Light Universe. The second part will be published this summer, and it is S/H. That is provisionally titled One More River. The third part (don't ask when!) will be No Easy Answers. Have we got that (forgive the word) straight? I'll state here and now that anyone who feels strongly about / in a relationship, or who may be offended by explicit scenes, should NOT order either OMR or NEA.[3]
The first story in the trilogy was gen, but the second two were slash, something that was stated up front. A fan comments on this in 1993:
Pseudonyms and anonymity featured more in those first SH publications whose producers felt vulnerable, faced with hostile disapproval - and the threats - from some of those who didn't agree with what they were writing and publishing. I recall issue 27 of that first 'S&H L/Z' (November, 1981) in which Terri made a special announcement of her intention to publish S/H slash fiction in her 'Red Light universe' — and how, at that time, there were people who wished they might share the same freedom to follow that course, but for whom job-security and other practicalities were real obstacles. Those threats weren't make-believe. But, happily, those old S&H vs. S/H confrontations are hardly relevant now. Many readers enjoy both genres; good zines are never short of readers.[4]
The following three S/H novels, written by Terri Beckett and Chris Power, form a series known collectively as "The Red Light Trilogy" (beginning as gen with the first zine and developing into slash in the second), constructing a tale that is tender, sexy, romantic and, to use the modern fannish parlance, "angsty" as all heck.[5]
Summary
One More Mountain opens with Starsky and Hutch at a Greek wedding in New York for Hutch's buddy. The boys are drinking retsina and for those of you in the know, you're aware that this will end in a very bad hangover. But, in the meantime, they're gonna have a little fun... Hutch has been dating a woman, Jaqi, who has a two year old daughter named Emma. It looks like he's headed for a good commitment, but remember this is Hutch, so don't count your weddings before they happen. To add to the problems, Nick calls them from LA and asks them to come home and help him. Nick has supposedly gone straight, working in Vegas, but trouble follows him wherever he goes. So, it's up to big brother and his partner to make Nick's troubles go away. Hutch is concerned about Starsky's health, so is Nick, but Me and Thee is determined to see this through so off to Vegas they go. The problem is, old habits die hard and that's the case once again. Lives are left in shambles, once again, in the path of Hurricane Nick.[6]
Sample Interior
Reactions and Reviews
"One More Mountain" is my all-time favorite story ever! And I do mean ever! That story is my prime example of exactly what we were talking about - that caring that the hurt brings out. That's the big thing. I've read stories, ostensibly h/c, but all I remember about them was the hurt. Very little comfort. Hated them. I tend to skim over the hurt myself - kind of a fade to black thing - and go straight for the comfort. Purely wish there were more stories of that type. Never could get enough.[7]
Somebody at the Z-con writers panel said that there were two kinds of fan fiction produced — stories by fans who write and stories by writers who are fans. OMM is one of the latter; it would stand on its own even without the S&H world to support it. The story opens after Starsky has been released from the hospital after the Gunther fiasco. He's not well enough to go back to work, but when Little Brother Nick shows up with his neck on the line for some strangely vague business troubles, Starsky still feels it's his responsibility to try to help...so S&H are off to Las Vegas, where they discover that Nicky wasn't telling then the whole truth about his business. Naturally, they find a solution to the problem — or rather. Hutch does. The majority of the story is carried by Hutch, in a continuation of the White-Knight-with-a-Vengeance that we saw in S'Rev. He is not happy with Nick for lying to them, and is even angrier at being manipulated through Starsky. The bad guys don't have a chance. With an inside informer provided by Huggy's calling in a favor, Hutch digs out the real problem and solves it almost before Starsky is aware of what's going on. The ending is somewhat abrupt — this was originally part I of a novel, of which One More River is part II — but the story is complete in itself, the secondary characters are interesting, and the emotions ring true throughout. This is not a story for people who like Nick, however — Hutch's attitude toward the younger Starsky brother, "The only thing I'd like to do to his ass it kick it." seems to sum up the attitude of the authors. (And this reader, as well.) Artwork is by Chris Ripley, a new comer to this fandom whose style, though reminiscent of Gayle F, is quite original, and surprisingly evocative for its simplicity. The morning-after hangover drawing is one of the best pieces of visual humor I've ever seen, and the desert illo has a feeling of desolation that fits the scene perfectly. We ought to see more of this artist in the future, and can expect Great Things. This 'zine is probably R-rated —there's no S/H, but Anita Bryant would not have approved of some of Nick's activities, which are mentioned in passing but not in detail. I enjoyed OMM very much, and think it's definitely worth the cost of overseas postage.[8]
One More Mountain is part one of three, in a trilogy that covers what happens to Starsky and Hutch after "Sweet Revenge." As Beckett explained last month, the trilogy predicates that S&H eventually become lovers, but it doesn't occur in OHM. In fact, It is scarcely hinted at in OKM, which may turn out to be a problem for the next third of the trilogy. But sex, or it’s lack, is not the true difficulty here. The writing quality is. The plot is awfully thin for 79 pages. While there is a whole story, with beginning, middle, and end, Power and Beckett insist upon telling us the story, with great chunks of narrative exposition… Not everything is exposition; the writing oscillates between pages of narrative and pages of dialogue like a metronome, instead of smoothly blending the two together, as the authors had done—noticeably well—in "Somebody Up There." The plot ends abruptly: Hutch gives the bad guys some tapes they want, the end, as if Power and Beckett had run out of PG story. Most of the characterizations, especially Nick's, don't feel fully real, and some unhappily reveal their ancestry in 30's gangster films and 70'o cop shows. And yet, and yet...dam, OMM was an entertaining story. While reading it, I didn't want to put it down; there was such a lot of liveliness in the sheer multiplicity of characters and their various concerns. Though OKM's Starsky and Hutch were slightly flat, were not markedly realistic, they were likeable, and this likeability makes me want to read more about then. If the writing ability was far from top-notch, at least it was consistent throughout. Had OMM been more tightly written and less dependent on old movies for its characters, I could recommend it unreservedly. As it goes, it's a ripping yarn, and to the reader whose first concern is not literary merit, worth the price, even with overseas postage.[9]
I rediscovered Starsky and Hutch only last March at my first multi-media"/" convention. (Devacons 3 and 4 in Chester were very enjoyable weekends). On the journey to the con I found myself hoping I would find S/H zines, although I don't know why; K/S was my reason for attending, and I hadn't thought about David or Paul since my schooldays. Fortunately, the zine trilogy "One More Mountain", "One More River" and "No Easy Answers" was on sale in the dealer's room. Although I had never seen "Sweet Revenge" and thought the shooting was "fan-fictional", I thought the story was wonderful and couldn't put down the zines until I had devoured every word.[10]