The Rodilla Project

Zine
Title:	The Rodilla Project
Publisher:	Chained to the Typewriter Press
Editor(s):	Caro Hedge
Date(s):	1993
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	multimedia
Language:	English
External Links:
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front cover

the "flyer" that ran in the back of the fictitious "The Blue Review"

The Rodilla Project is a slash multifandom anthology with the theme of various fandom characters moving to live in a planned gay community in Rodilla, California in 1990.

Material not accepted: "S/M, death, despair... and K/S."

Summaries from Ads

From On the Double: "A shared universe project. Who answered the ad for a gay police chief (in an established relationship), for a planned gay community in Northern California? Who gets the job? Several answers by several different writers."

From The Monthly: "An all-gay town in California advertises for policemen. The stories tell of how they responded, how they interviewed, who didn't apply!"

Submission Request

I had this idea for a zine built around a general theme and thought I'd run it up the flagpole and see who was interested. My problem is I don't know some fandoms enough to be able to write an interesting story from each point of view, and also I think there would be more of a sense of contrast if each story was from a different person.

Okay, here's the scene. An ad has appeared in a policeman's magazine asking for a gay police chief for a planned gay community in northern California. They want a policeman in an established relationship, and as it is a two-man-with-a-clerk department, the other cop can be the lover, or someone else can fill the spot (tension there, maybe?). The pay is not good, the location is semi-rural and pleasant, and it would involve coming out.

So, this ad goes out all over the USA (and out of it, even!) and various pairs in fandom read it, react, discuss, respond. Lots of possibilities! The year is 1989, the job will start in 1990. So Starsky and Hutch might like to move north. Castillo and Crockett might decided to stop keeping it all a secret in Florida. Simon and Simon might be briefly interested but decided not to, and the same might happen to Hardcastle and McCormick. Someone might send the ad along to a pair they think should consider it. Are the men from UNCLE too old? The Jump Street folks too young? Does Sheriff Truman want to retire to the south with a certain former FBI man? Is there a female pair out there, minor characters somewhere who want to make a change? Is there someone who is straight but willing to make a change? Does this cause someone to stop dragging their feet and tell their partner they love them? Is someone sure this a ploy by IAD or IA or ? to flush out gay cops?

This would need at least 5 stories to make it interesting. Stories would have to be between two and fifty pages long, and you'd have to write and tell me which one you want to do, so that I don't have several stories about one couple and none about others. First come first served and all that as to who gets to do what. Camera ready appreciated but not required.

S & M, death and despair won't fit in. K/S either, come to think of it! Also, I have no idea who gets the job! Guess we'll see who applies! Also, there is a city manager position open-- maybe there are some folks out there interested in that!

Do me the favor of passing this on to writers you know who might be interested. This flyer is being put together mid summer 1992 and I would like to print it whenever I get enough stories or summer of 1993, whichever comes first. And I might let two folks do the same characters if folks can present a good case! Ideas for a cover?

As with all Chained to the Typewriter zines, the art will be at a minimum. If you are interested, send a SASE to the address below.

And if nothing else, you can send in suggestions, in your name or your characters name, on what to call the new town! </ref>

From the Editorial

I had this idea for a zine built around a general theme and thought I'd run it up the flagpole and see who was interested. My problem is I don't know some fandoms enough to be able to write an interesting story from each point of view, and also I think there would be more of a sense of contrast if each story was from a different person.

Okay, here's the scene. An ad has appeared in a policeman's magazine asking for a gay police chief for a planned gay community in northern California. They want a policeman in an established relationship, and as it is a two-man-with-a-clerk department, the other cop can be the lover, or someone else can fill the spot (tension there, maybe?). The pay is not good, the location is semi-rural and pleasant, and it would involve coming out.

So, this ad goes out all over the USA (and out of it, even!) and various pairs in fandom read it, react, discuss, respond. Lots of possibilities! The year is 1989, the job will start in 1990. So Starsky and Hutch might like to move north. Castillo and Crockett might decided to stop keeping it all a secret in Florida. Simon and Simon might be briefly interested but decided not to, and the same might happen to Hardcastle and McCormick. Someone might send the ad along to a pair they think should consider it. Are the men from UNCLE too old? The Jump Street folks too young? Does Sheriff Truman want to retire to the south with a certain former FBI man? Is there a female pair out there, minor characters somewhere who want to make a change? Is there someone who is straight but willing to make a change? Does this cause someone to stop dragging their feet and tell their partner they love them? Is someone sure this a ploy by IAD or IA or ? to flush out gay cops?

This would need at least 5 stories to make it interesting. Stories would have to be between two and fifty pages long, and you'd have to write and tell me which one you want to do, so that I don't have several stories about one couple and none about others. First come first served and all that as to who gets to do what. Camera ready appreciated but not required.

Contents

The table of contents lists page count rather than page numbers.

the Hill Street Blues letter

• Table of contents and comment page (2 pages)
• Rodilla Info, the flyer that got this all started (2 pages)
• Gabgarian, part 1 and 2 by Eileen Roy (original fiction) (2 pages)
• Two Vignettes by Eileen Roy (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) (6 pages)
• Empty Nest, Full Closet by E. Roy (Empty Nest) (3 pages)
• Wanted: Two Good Men by D. Morgan (Starsky and Hutch) (6 pages)
• Growing Up by DVS (Patalliro) (7 pages)
• The Miracle by DVS (original fiction) (1 page)
• Discovery by Mary Millard (Starsky and Hutch) (17 pages)
• City Boy by E. Roy (Dirty Harry) (1 page)
• More Gabgarian, part 3 and 4 by Eileen Roy (original fiction) (2 pages)
• Just Lovers by Anna Parrish (Simon & Simon) (9 pages)
• A Quickie by DVS (Hardcastle & McCormick) (half a page)
• Gabgarian, part 5 by Eileen Roy (original fiction) (1 page)
• Working Your Way Up by DVS ("?") (2 pages)
• Circle by Charlotte Frost (Twin Peaks) (28 pages)
• Highlighting the Future by DVS (Miami Vice) (24 pages)
• The Rodilla Affair by Mary Millard (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) (6 pages)
• Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est La Meme Chose by Susan Crites (A/B) (Andy Griffith) (4 pages)
• Dreams Do Come True by Leah S. (Quantum Leap) (6 pages)
• Gabgarian, part 6 by Eileen Roy (original fiction) (1 page)
• Letter by Susan Crites (Hill Street Blues, fiction in the form of a legal letter) (1 page)

Reactions and Reviews

[Circle]: All the other Twin Peaks stories I’ve done were a series for the PLAYFELLOWS multi-media zines. This novella was a standalone. A long-time fan – one of the original slash fans, and one the first “slash sluts” who was interested in multiple fandoms (it wasn’t that common before the mid 90’s) – was doing a fanzine dedicated to my late, dear friend Jean Schnedler. So, of course, I had to contribute.

Since Jean had also been a rare “slash slut”, the zine, THE RODILLA PROJECT, was open to all fandoms. It was a “theme zine”, though I don’t remember the exact requirement. Something about how the pairing in each story was going to a town called Rodilla, to start a housing development, or solve a murder or… something. I think my story might have only tied into Rodilla toward the end. I haven’t read it in many, many years, so I don’t remember much.

UPDATE: Okay, turns out that was another multi-media zine by the same publisher -- one that I didn't have a story in -- that was the tribute to my friend, Jean. But my comments on the Rodilla flyer still apply, with the addendum that the town of Rodilla was meant to be a gay community.

This story picked up where the series left off, but I had a more pleasant outcome for our starring FBI Agent. I don't think Sheriff Truman's "easy, fella" comments work; at the very least, "easy, fellow" would have read better. In any event, Truman never used that phrase in canon, though he did have some other country-boy phrases.

I used the Rodilla flyer as merely something that Agent Cooper kept in his possession, as a symbol for a dream of a more open, tolerant society. Truman accidentally finds it and conversation then ensues. But, typical of most of my slash stories, sex doesn't happen right away.

I liked the atmosphere in this story. I liked flashing back to a few of my favorite Cooper/Truman moments in the second season (which I couldn't do in my PLAYFELLOW series, since I had started off on an AU note.) It was my last TP story, and may have been my best-written of all of them.