Red Thread

Zine
Title:	Red Thread
Publisher:	Jeanne DeVore (Chicago Station)
Editor:
Author(s):	Brenda Mick
Cover Artist(s):	Brenda Mick
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1997
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

cover by Brenda Mick

Red Thread is a 135-page gen Kung Fu: The Legend Continues novel by Brenda Mick.

The front cover is also by Brenda Mick. There is no interior art.

This story includes some Sarah McLachlan song lyrics.

"Red Thread" was originally posted in first-draft form on the KFFIC Internet List.

It won a FanQ in 1998.

Summary

Poisoned by a mysterious assassin, Peter Caine enters a dreamworld--a place of astonishing beauty and soul-healing peace. A world where he meets his "other half," the woman he is destined to spend eternity with. But is she real, or just a figment of his poisoned brain's wild fantasies?

Kwai Chang Caine sets out to find the truth--even if the truth may destroy his son.

As intricately woven as a Chinese tapestry, and as delicate as a lotus blossom, Red Thread takes us on a journey through dream, myth and reality, past, present and future. Where the way of the Shaolin and the Shambhala, the priest and the cop come together as Peter and Caine each seek to fulfill his own destiny.

Comments by the Author

From the zine:

Who knows how or why fate and destiny work in our lives? My life was changed by the most insignificant event: while channel surfing one evening, five years ago, I discovered Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. After seeing one episode, I was hooked. It became my favorite show and a catalyst in my life.

I took Tai Chi Chu'an lessons, read the Tao Teh Ching and started to investigate all things Chinese. And some things that weren't.

A computer has been part of our household for the past ten years and I never wanted anything to do with it. My husband tried to teach me to use the wretched thing through the years but I was resistant. "Why on earth would I want to use a computer?" His last carrot-internet access. "I can find anything now-what do you want?"

"Kung Fu, of course."

He found it and my destiny changed. That was in November of 1995. Through the internet and the Temple lists, the wonderful world of Fu Fandom opened up to me. I enjoyed the discussions and all the people I met on-line, but what truly excited me was the fiction. I began to think that maybe I could write a little something. I'd never written a word of fiction before, though the ideas had been in my head. In particular, there was one story about the "Red Thread". I knew, as soon as I read the tale in a book of Chinese legends, that this was how Peter Caine should meet his soulmate. The story spoke to me, and so I decided to give it a try. I don't remember much about writing the beginning of the story-but I do remember fearfully posting it to the fiction list, and hiding under my desk waiting for the brickbats I was sure were coming. Miraculously, they never came.

Thank You

From the zine:

I want to thank my family for their patience. I know my husband rues the day he found the Fu list for me. But at least now my kids always know where they can find me - in front of my computer.

[...]

I want to thank Jeanne for her patience and skill as an editor and a publisher. I was pretty green when I wrote this story. I had no idea where quotation marks went and I'd never heard of spell-checker. Tenses? Italics? Then there was that horrible point of view affliction that she cured me of. And finally, she found all those things that make a reader go...huh?...and made me fix them (I hope). She encouraged and corrected, and made this a wonderful experience for me.

[...]

Thank you for letting me share my work with you. Your comments are always welcomed and appreciated. Fate has treated me kindly. Five years ago, I was channel surfing, computer illiterate, and had no path. Today, I do. I don't know if writing is my destiny, but I'm happy in the now, finding my way.