The K/S Press/Issues 011-020

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The K/S Press 11 (July 1997)

• contains 24 pages
• has LoCs for About Last Night, Beyond Setarcos, And a Bottle of Rum, Comes the Rain, Come With Me, Doorways, Loneliness Has a Companion, Echoes of Forever, The Perfect Gift, Forests of the Night, Personal Property, Sacrifices of the Heart, Standing in the Shadows, Summer of Love, The Vulcan Foundling, Domestic Affections, Screw You in the zines Thrust, Way of the Warrior #3, T'hy'la #4, #9, First Time #17, #33, #38, Naked Times #8, #17, Scattered Stars #4, Charisma #1, Out of Bounds: (Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves), see those pages
• there is a thank you to a fan who donated many zines to the brand-new K/S Library
• a fan notes she has been a fan since 1987, got into K/S when she accidentally ordered an issue of As I Do Thee, and now has over 1000 Star Trek zines in her collection
• a fan writes a detailed complaint about ordering zines from a well-known publisher. She hadn't received the zines in over a year, and had only gotten what she considered a very nasty letter in responses to questions. The editor inserts: "Anybody else have any information? We know this type of thing has happened to others."
• a fan writes that she likes all K/S fiction except those that deal with housekeeping and death
• there is an announcement that Chris Soto has passed away
• the editors say:

  Buying zines is the best way to support the K/S fandom that you love. Don't borrow someone else's zine and not buy your own. You don't have to buy them all at once—spread out your purchases. We want K/S to thrive.

• a fan writes a short bio and adds the address of her website, to which the editor inserts:

  Maybe instead of putting your K/S stories on the net, send them to publishers fro their ZINES! Please.

• from a fan:

  The subject of whether Kirk and Spock are gay: I think that Kirk is bisexual and Spock gay. This seems most logical to me, because Kirk is the type who tries everything - so why not men? And Spock - no girl had ever a real chance (aside from spores etc.). He simply was never interested. But just like [a fan's name] I can see any interpretation of our fellas (well, nearly any... and I loved the story with Kirk as a cross-dresser. Not as "reality", but as a very nice phantasie!

• a fan writes of a zine series:

  A friend just lent me a First Time zine. Most were by excellent, established writers. The stories themselves were well written. But that entire zine was one long orgasm. How I longed for a plot. Just anything that didn't involve an erection. I can read a story I enjoy over and over. That zine, I never want to see again.

• a German fan writes:

  When I heard first about K/S some years ago I dismissed the idea as ridiculous at once and forgot about it. Then, two years ago at a convention I was browsing through some gen-zines when someone came crawling from under the table beside me. Being curious, I went down to investigate and found a box full of K/S-zines. They were much more beautiful then the gen-zines on the table and equally more expensive. Still curious I bought two of them. Choosing Naked Times 4/5 because I found the cover quite funny and Kalifee 2 because I liked the Spock on the front.

The K/S Press 12 (August 1997)

• contains 35 pages
• has LoCs for Brothers in Time, Fascinating Art, Holding On, Into the Light, Lovely Captain Ariel and Her Vulcan Squeeze, Never and Always Lovers, "None So Blind", Portrait of Promise, "The Power of Suggestion", Quirk of Fate, Reaching Eden, A Soul in Chains, Standing Watch, Tableau, Together, Turning Point , Catalysis from the zines Amazing Grace #3, First Time #39, #42, #45, #46, Kaleidoscope #6, T'hy'la #18, #19, Scattered Stars #9, First Light, and Naked Times #14, see those pages
• the K/S Library reports it now has 37 volumes and thanks fans for their donations
• several fans write memorials for Chris Soto
• a con report for Closet Con
• there are numerous Shore Leave con reports, which contains descriptions of the famous "Dancing Green and Pink Penii, descriptions of the dual pink and green penis cakes, remarks that there were over 50 people at the K/S Press room party, and:

  Well, my dear K/Sers—you should have seen the veritable feeding frenzy of new zines! Robin told of fights in the recent zine box ("No! This First Time is mine!") and people waving money in her face exclaiming "Take my money! Take my money!". All the publishers there with new zines practically sold out that first day... It was an excellent Dealers' Room this year, although there really was a lack of used zines. In the past,Bill Hupe had always been there with his vast resource of used zines, but as we know, he's retired.

• a description of the dancing green and pink penii:

  ...the highlight of the evening had to be the famous "Dancing Penises"! This was an idea from what had been performed at a K/S con many years ago. Actually, this time, the idea came from CD (she's extremely modest) and she put in so much work, it was amazing. This woman designed and sewed these enormous costumes all herself, fitted them to the players, made the accompanying music tape, rehearsed and choreographed. She is simply an amazing woman. The show was hilarious. [a fan's name] played Kirk's penis and her entrance was funny and scary as she knocked over a large screen on her way to Spock's penis, played by [a fan's name]. Just the sight of this giant pink penis bouncing in to strains of "Macho Man" brought the house down. And the giant double-ridged penis, sitting sadly by itself to the music of "I Am A Rock" was so funny. But the best part was their excited erections and climaxes to the tune of "The 1812 Overture"! Mere words cannot describe how funny this all was. These two huge writhing, erect and rampant penises dancing around was a sight to behold. Brava to CD! I wish I could tell you her name because she deserves to be honored for all that hard work. But most of you know of whom we speak. But two more Brava's go to [two fans]—who bemoaned their fate at having been volunteered to do this and who sweated inside the hot costumes and got a case of stage-nerves before showtime and who performed (so-to-speak) beautifully!

• a fan from Ireland describes her favorite kinds of stories:

  As regards story types I like. Well, I DON’T like either to have been abused as a child or teenager, rape stories in old age, death, long stories with little sex, and unhappy endings. First times are my favorites because you are 99% certain to get sex scenes, whereas established relationship tends to lean towards the problems etc. over-riding the sex. And I do love sex and more sex. OK, some of the scenarios are repeated umpteen times and may not be ‘realistic’ but I do not read K/S for realism or mundane details but for an escape from reality. I regard the depth of their relationship as an ideal but mostly unobtainable in reality, and I don’t want to read about domestic chores (even if I could envisage them cleaning and cooking) or about political intrigues in their work or long internal struggles with personal angst. I want something else to concentrate on and a good sex scene can concentrated the mind wonderfully. I certainly don’t mind a certain amount of angst or soul-searching but not 150 pages and a 2 page sex scene at the end. That’s why I prefer short stories to novellas, because short stories don’t require as much padding as longer ones.

• a fan says:

  I find in all my fandoms that I prefer one character over the other and it was that character who drew me to the particular show be it Kirk, Avon, Bodie, Hutch, Napoleon Solo, Templeton Peck, etc. At the start I only see the attraction of their partner through their eyes, and then he grows on me. In original Trek long before I knew of K/S I regarded Spock simply as part of the furniture; my hormones were all geared to Kirk... 99% of the time I don’t like seeing Kirk as the totally submissive partner. Ideally, I like them to be equal, but if one must be dominant, then Kirk every time, and if one has to be raped, then Spock the victim. There’s nothing remotely similar in character between Kirk and me, so I don’t really identify with him, but I guess my wish to see him in charge is indicative of my own need to always be in control of a situation.

• a fan writes:

  ... sad-ending stories have an uncomfortable habit of remaining as firmly if not firmer in the mind, as happy endings. I remember a genzine I read years and years ago, full of 'down' stories such as Kirk and Spock stranded, Spock dies and Kirk eats part of him to survive until rescue; K and S on a mining planet investigating horrible deaths, K is trapped in the tunnels by the monster and yells for Spock who is restrained from going out by the scared miners, he has to listen to K’s screams as he is torn apart and then when there is silence a stream of blood runs under the door to the chair where Spock is tied up and when the miners go to release him he is insane. I’m not sure if Gateway figured in the title but it was completely grim anyway.

• a fan says:

  I have never thought of K and S as gay (or indeed any of my slash pairings) but just attracted to only each other. Again this may be an unrealistic attitude and I know it’s regarded as a cop-out by some people, but it’s how I like to envisage them. Again, with this control fetish of mine, I want, if only one of them is experienced in gay sex, for that one to be Kirk, tho’ really with his documented onscreen lady-killer reputation, I can never see him as purely gay but rather as bisexual. I don’t want Spock to be in control because he has all the male/male sex experience, but I don’t mind if both are bisexual.

The K/S Press 13 (September 1997)

• contains 48 pages
• has LoCs for After the Rain, Call Me Master, Captain of My Dreams, A Day in the Life, A Deltan Dilemma, A Doctor's Tale, Foresight, Egyptian Dreams, Fascinating Art, Fruits and Nuts, Give Him Some Rope, Holding On, The Hunt, Trial by Ordeal, Into the Light, Just Desserts, Lovely Captain Ariel and Her Vulcan Squeeze, None So Blind, Of Nights and Pawns, The Power of Suggestion, On Being a Starship Captain, Portrait of Promise, Reaching Eden, Strong Together, The Sun Rising, Tiger by the Tail, Turning Point, Untouched, Winter Term, Worlds Apart, Homeless Hearts, Wakening from the zines First Time #46, Scattered Stars #9, The Voice #3, KaleidoScope #6, T'hy'la #4, #17, #18, Classified Assignments #1, Within the Mirror #11, In the Wilderness #2, Worlds Apart, and Twin Destiny #2, see those pages
• was the first anniversary edition
• there are many, some quite lengthy, con reports for Closet Con
• there are several photos of the Dancing Penises from Shore Leave as well as some art by Shelley Butler
• a fan writes an essay on sexual fidelity and compares and contrasts two stories, "Homeless Hearts" by Michelle Arvizu in T'hy'la #18 and "Wakening" by Vivian Gates in Twin Destiny #2
• a fan proposes a K/S con:

  For years now I’ve heard tales of the K/S conventions that were held in the Eighties. IDIC Con, Koon ut kali Con. And of course I’ve envied those gatherings of K/S enthusiasm and energy. Discovering that K/Sers attended Shore Leave in the Nineties was wonderful for me, but it was still never quite enough... So now we’ve had Shore Leave 1997, with all the numbers and enthusiasm, and the frustration in not being able to connect with everyone I wanted to, with never enough time to really talk, and on the plane on the way home I asked myself “Why not a K/S con of our very own?"

• fan talks of her introduction to K/S:

  I was lucky and the first zines I bought were hurt-comfort and I got used to the idea of a very close intimacy between them. One h-c zine called "Time is Time was Time yet to Be", where I "heard" them saying "I love you" for the first time had me shaking and trembling for hours, and I suppose I started having second thoughts about slash. Suddenly, the idea of Kirk and Spock in love with each other, kissing and caressing each other became increasingly appealing and in a few months I was in "pon farr". Well, you know what I mean. In the summer of 1995 I couldn´t stand it any longer and I ordered my first K/S fanzine. Truth to tell, since I was a newcomer and I had no idea what I was buying, my purchase was too hard-core. It was "Imaginary Lines". Even so, after several cold showers, I discovered that seeing Kirk and Spock making love was believable and above all, incredibly sexy! One lucky day, I was at the University and I bumped into a teacher I had never seen who started staring at me. I was wearing a ST bag and after a few moments she asked me if I was a Trekkie. I noticed she had a ST pin in her lapel and even more, she was clutching something tightly to her chest. I looked at it sideways and I saw it was "As I Do Thee 11". Needless to say, I knew it was a K/S zine. After that, we became fast friends. She lent me her zines and I lent her mine. I had found a gold mine!!! We were each other´s only K/S contact, so to speak. We still are. I don't know of any other Spanish K/S reader. At least in Madrid, where we live.

• a fan says of death stories:

  I hate death stories. After all, if I wanted them to die I can always watch "Generations", right? Since I never saw it, you can conclude whenever I read a story in which any of them dies I feel terrible for days. Star Trek is a fantasy of a future where you´re free to be whatever you want, where you´re accepted however you are and a place where your heroes don´t die! If you want realistic endings, go write about the 20th Century!

• a fan writes a Closet Con report and mentions that:

  Filking has never been a feature of British cons. We did have a Scottish group many years ago that lasted for a couple of years, but apart from that there has never been any filking at cons.

• a fan describes the Dancing Penises:

  Nobody so far has mentioned the technical glitch that marked the opening of the DP skit. We had to ask everybody to close their eyes while the organs in question got into position, then we were going to start the tape with the music. But the music wasn’t cued properly, and everybody was really understanding, and in the dark, while we fixed the problem... The skit opened to I Am a Rock by Simon and Garfunkel, while Spock drooped with disinterested unhappiness. Then Kirk entered, all jauntiness, to The Village People’s Macho Man. Nobody struts and turns those jaunty shoulders like [fan's name] does! And hey, guess what, Spock perked up a little! Then the guys swayed next to one another during Bread’s Baby I’ma Want You, occasionally rubbing, ah, heads and otherwise expressing the highest of emotions. This produced considerable interest and an expansion in length and energized movement during Let’s Get Physical. Finally, the event reached the heights, and its most logical conclusion, during The War of 1812 Overture.

• a fan reminisces:

  One thing I remember from the old New York cons, that I wish we had today, was a room [at cons] devoted exclusively to zines. Can you imagine it? There was so much being produced back then. Of course, that was before the dawn of printed K/S, but there were still some glorious relationship and hurt-comfort zines printed.

• a fan bemoans that there will be no more Closet Cons:

  [Name redacted] who organizes it all with stunning efficiency and brio, has said that this will be the last Closet Con ever. 'It's not the work,' said she, 'but I'm running out of original ideas.' For the record, let me state that if this con were to be repeated next year in its exact same form (well, maybe with a new photo for the caption competition …) I would be One Happy Girl.

• a fan who went to Closet Con writes:

  I could have listened to Fiona James and Ray Newton talk for hours, about anything, but especially about the early days of fandom. They traced the roots of K/S at least to the early 1970s, and talked about a cycle of stories written by Audrey Baker that ended with a decidedly K/S slant. Fiona, if you ever find them, you know I’m vitally interested. (One of the projects on my list of “things to do” is to publish a history of K/S, which, with the help of these two pillars of the international K/S community, should be considerably more accurate than I had dared to hope.)

• a fan at Closet Con writes:

  On Friday night [P R] presented a selection of K/S music videos, many of which I hadn’t seen before. They were wonderful! As many of you may know, I am a real connoisseur of K/S songtapes. I crave them, cherish them, play them, memorize them, and require frequent injections to support my habit!

• a fan writes:

  Up until two or three years ago, I didn't know that Fandom even existed. I loved Star Trek, and I always thought that K and S made a great couple, but I didn't know that others agreed with me until I read the book "Captain Quirk," by Dennis William Hauck. That book, particularly chapter 10, put me on the road to enlightenment. Mr. Hauck talked about the K/S relationship and even mentioned the zine "T'hy'la" and some of its stories. But that newfound knowledge left me in a desperate situation. I knew the zines were out there, but didn't know where. Talk about torture! Then, oh happy day, my dearly beloved bought a modem and I discovered the joys of browsing the web... Before long I was avidly reading the fan fiction posted on the Alt.startrek.creative groups. There isn't much K/S up there, or even TOS gen fan fiction. Fortunately for the TOS fans, writers such Killashandra and several others have posted some superb stories. Killashandra's Turning Point was one of the first K/S stories I read, and though I've read many K/S stories since then, "Turning Point" remains one of my favorites. I couldn't believe my luck when someone posted a "K/S zines for sale" ad on one of the newsgroups. I'll always remember the pleasure of holding that very first zine in my hands. I felt just like the cat that got the cream!

• a fan comments on the differences between K/S in the UK and in the US, citing The Voice series of zines as examples:

  [British zines] represent a different “style” of K/S, one that I haven't found anywhere else except in occasional stories by the likes of [Kathy Resch] and Frances Rowes, both of whom also appear in some of the above-mentioned zines. The fiction here is almost all established-relationship set in what's known collectively as the "Voice Universe"), and worlds away from the stories in Duet or those published by The UK group. I think the difference is that the former stories are written to literary standards, the latter to K/S standards as prevalent in the US. And it is a considerable difference. In an Eva Stuart story the plot, for instance, is integral to the story, and sometimes the K/S isn't. Also, what sex there is tends to be oblique and above all, brief. Heresy! I hear you cry. But don't you ever feel glutted with all the emotional wear-and-tear, all the endless circular dialogue, misunderstanding, melodrama, self-analysis and "Guide to Gay Sex" rip-offs of the conventional K/S story? If you don't, then read no further. But I do. Usually this happens after I've read too many zines in one sitting - one First Time after another, say. Then all of a sudden I want to read something where the sex isn't the be-all and end-all, nd there's more going on in the story than "I love him but he mustn't ever know." I need “real books” - for conflict, believable angst, plot, description and what have you. The zines in the Voice Universe are closer to “real books'“ than any other K/S I've read (always excepting Courts of Honor), and so I was simply delighted to discover them... And now for the flip side: sometimes the effort is too much for me. Then I want to read a long, hot sex scene instead of five carefully oblique sentences, to give my poor overworked imagination a rest. Or I want a pleasantly sensuous Spock-and-Kirk-stuck-in-a-cave story instead of complex political machinations and wheels-within-wheels.

• a fan comments on LoCs:

  One thing I find pleasant in KSP is that in the story reviews there is no dressing down of authors who fail the expectations of a given critic. I saw too often that it can be different. In older times, as it was more common to publish LoC's in fanzines, the reviews were often enough only base flattery and cajolery from one author to another or they would rip apart a story, shred it to pieces because of grammar or too much changing of point of view or whatever gave them a fit. It was sometimes hard to digest. I always thought, who do they think they are? The nominators of the Nobel Prize for Literature? It was cruel to the discarded authors, no help at all for them to make it better, and a sure way to discourage them to ever write again. I got (and get so still when encountering them in fanzines, old or new, again) sometimes really angry while reading that kind of LoC or review. Harsh criticism should only be done in private by a trusted friend or First Reader..., but never in a public zine by virtual strangers with profile neurosises.

• a fan writes:

  I would like to pay homage to a story that I find had a profound effect on me, but I just didn’t realize it until years later. It is one of those stories you find you keep re-reading at odd moments over the years. Which story? One of those epics? A classic K/S? A one-off Gem? No. But this story was my first step into the wonderful world of K/S, but I didn’t know it at the time. It is approximately three and a half pages long and printed in a gen zine. That’s right, a gen zine. No sex … no relationship except for that of friendship (and even that appears a bit fragile). The story is titled "Incident in a City" by Beth Hallam. It’s published in Alnitah around 1975-76.

• a fan asks for help in locating a story that involved Kirk and Spock in a cabin, the line: "I don’t want to go back there, Jim," and stale crackers. The editor, who typed the letter up, inserts:

  The stale crackers are a dead giveaway. I can only think of two stories where they eat stale crackers, one is an A.T. Bush story called “Deadly Fever” in Fever #1, but the other is the story you’re looking for, called The Beast by Teri White.

• an English fan writes:

  I’m worried, I’m alarmed, I’m sorry. Over the last few months, I’ve noted an increasing number of people writing in KSP (and elsewhere) who seem to consider that for a story to be a K/S story, it must have sex as a central part. Lots of sex. Fine. O.K. Heard it before and don’t agree but over a long career (since 1980) I’m used to being the minority of a minority and I don’t mind. But what is new that really bothers me, is that some people are saying that my stories (among others) aren’t K/S at all. (Although what other name you give tales of two middle-aged Starship Captains who’ve been sleeping together for years, I can’t imagine). See reviews of "The Cook, the Captain, his Lover and the Gourmet" Now K/S is a very very small world which doesn’t need anything that reduces it further... I don’t want to set up any personal definition of what is K/S. Even the simple “a story where K and S have sex together” isn’t entirely satisfactory. Do we want to jettison the stories of Elwyn Conway in Nome from the cannon? (For those unread, our heroes don’t lay a hand on each other in a sexual context. A soulful cuddle is the best you get.) Surely the only definition of K/S is that the author consider her work to be K/S... In fact, there have been many arguments over the years as to why the sex-as-defining-factor story shouldn’t be the “be-all and end all” of K/S: the danger of repetition, K/S as mere titillation, lack of character development, the one night stand or first time as the only valid expression of love, confusion of love and lust etc.etc. but I wouldn’t wish to make a moral or value judgement over any of them. The only values I care about are those of good writing and all I wish to do is to go on producing stories that I consider to be K/S so that the readers can make up their own minds and the critics can offer their personal opinions.

• a fan writes:

  Sex, sex, sex please. Love and sex, that is. I also find it odd that anyone else would find it odd that we unquestionably want sex (or a very close facsimile) in our K/S. I know a kind of neo-puritan thing is going on these days, but I'm sure this preference in K/S is a reflection of something quite different than that, like the value of mature relationship over lustful sex? Well, I had a kind of odd coming-of-age such that sex assumed a purposely low place in the cosmic-intellectual scheme of things; and as a feminist-lesbian I also didn't focus overly on sex...but I got through that − and maybe I'm making up for lost time? Sexual energy is a divine tapping into the cosmos through our individualized physical selves in concert with another, and how much more profound can you get? Besides that, regardless of what value we place on sex in real life, this isn't reality. This is where we can have the most erotic sex imaginable, the most cosmic, the most dark, the most raunchy, the most romantic, even the most silly sex, so let's have it!

• a fan writes of her K/S journey:

  A few years ago, I finally decided to go to a convention. I had the fortune to come across 'fanzines' for the first time - it was a few Mind Meld's and the Vault of Tomorrow series (gen zines). They were great, and I was really surprised at the stories. I also noticed that the Vault series stressed the closeness between Kirk and Spock. Somehow, tho, something was missing, incomplete, I hought, about them, but I couldn't figure out what. A few months later at another convention I heard someone mention K/S zines, and I asked. I was told these were zines where Kirk and Spock were "faggots who screwed each other" (a real quote-I remember!). I couldn't believe it! Not hat I have (or had ever) had any prejudice or problems concerning homosexuals, but I couldn't believe anyone could ever think that of Kirk and Spock. Kirk was too much a womanizer, and Spock, well, the little interest he had with sex seemed to be for women (besides, I loved him!). Well, I went home and watched all the videos again, reread the Vault series again, (a good pre-K/S series I think, now) and began to think about it. Think soon became obsession - I HAD to find one these zines. I was lucky enough to stumble across Bill Hupe, who sent me boxes of K/S. The first I read was from the T'hy'la series, and that was it. Obsession became Addiction.

• a fan talks of visibility:

  I think many people these days think the whole gay thing is just all fine and dandy and that the only way to make it even more fine and dandy is to be out and make people face it and surely they'll get with it and get over it. But it's so very much not okay with so many people; I'm afraid we're at least a generation away from a majority of people starting to be honestly cool about it, if even then. I'm not trying to make this a simple answer; I'm not talking about the necessity for equality-laws and such, but as a general social and family thing, it should be a personal decision whether you want to be out or not, about K/S or anything else. But having said all that, I sure can't argue it's a good thing to have more and more gay awareness on TV and other media. And certainly on the internet, anyone who's wandering around is going to come across it, and the more ubiquitous it is the better. But speaking just about K/S, who wants the acceptance of the masses? I sure don't. This is an activity for a select sensibility, and those who are to find it, will; and the boors who don't have a clue, well who cares.

• red faces at the printer:

  I had the most embarrassing experience preparing the letterzine this month. I always go to Office Depot, and for months now the manager, a very competent-looking, gray-haired woman has been looking at me with a questioning look in her eye. Undoubtedly, she’s gotten a look at the material she’s printing! I asked her for help in printing the photographs, and it turned out the big machine behind the counter did the best job. I could see the smirk on her face as she turned to start. I was working on copying Courts of Honor, so I went away for a few minutes, and when I returned to the counter she had placed the picture of the Dancing Penises face up, smack in the middle of the counter, where no one could miss them. Not even a cover sheet! And a middle-aged black man (probably a minister! innocently copying material for his Sunday School class!) was gazing down at the picture and the caption with riveted interest. I walked up and reached for the stack of copies, and he was so startled to be caught staring. “Oh!” he said faintly. Pardon ….” He never did get the rest out, but backed away... The manager looked at me blandly, and darn it, I know I blushed red!

• one of the editors praises the other:

  She is one of those women that can run an entire household, bake up a storm (I'm sure), get involved in every school project for her kids, take care of her man, and write hot, erotic, fuck-me K/S in her spare time.

• one of the editors has added some additions to The K/S Library, including:

  ... a copy of Courts of Honor, with each page enlarged to regular zine size. Those of you who have found the tiny print of the digest-sized zine too small to enjoy, here’s your chance to re-read this K/S classic without straining your eyes!

The K/S Press 14 (October 1997)

• contains 29 pages
• has LoCs for After the Rain, Call Me Master, Captain of My Dreams, Holding On, A Deltan Dilemma, Fruits and Nuts, Obligations, One Foot in Paradise, Reaching Eden, Portrait of Promise, Strong Together, Turning Point, Beside the Wells, Moonlighting, The Birthday Blues: 7 Year Itch, The Rep, The Ultimate Friend from the zines First Time #46, Scattered Stars #9, Kaleidoscope #6, Styx and Stones, T'hy'la #18, Daring Attempt #5, see those pages
• con reports for Shore Leave and Closet Con
• the editor has a lengthy description of trying to print some homoerotic art at her print shop and getting into a confrontation (fairly mild) with the manager on duty
• the editors write:

  [A fan's name] has suggested that we remind everybody that signing your name and address is a good way to help other readers get in touch with you. In the K/S letterzines The LOC Connection and Come Together, folks regularly signed their real addresses, if not their real names, and many friendships were forged in this way. This is how [editor's names] got to know one another! We have tried to be sensitive to those of you who really want to keep your identities in the closet, so to speak, by just printing names and state or country, but there are also plenty of you who probably wouldn’t mind sharing more. So, please let us know with your contribution if we can print your entire address, or at least some way people can contact you. We think it’s a good idea!

• the editor shares her K/S zine database (here). On it are 454 zines:

  I’m hoping that this listing will be a launch pad for a History of K/S that I intend to write this winter, and of course share with all of you. I’d love to hear from you about the database, correcting any errors I’ve made... disputing me over classification. There’s a real problem as to what is “A K/S Zine.” I think I took a conservative approach. Therefore, none from the Obsc'zine series made my list (though I’ll be happy to reconsider if someone thinks I should), nor did pre-K/S stories such as The Beast by Teri White, or Brother's Keeper by Pat Mitchell, or Fallen Star by M.L.R. However, I did include The Sensuous Vulcan anthology, as it has two undeniably K/S stories, one of which is the classic Desert Heat. Also included is Organia, which has mixed subject matter, but about 60 of its 210 pages are K/S. I’d love to get some dates on the zines from Great Britain; so very few of them are dated! Some I was able to pin down through artwork and guesswork. Help? Also, there are several English zines that I haven’t read in a long time, and I’m not completely sure they are K/S. Perhaps pre- K/S? I’ve included them here for the sake of completeness, but I suspect there are a few that really shouldn’t be on the list. I just didn’t have the time to re-read all of them this month! If anybody can help me out here, I’d appreciate it... If anyone knows the German and the French K/S zines, I’d love to get information on them and include them in the database.

• a fan is distraught:

  K/S on the net...sigh. It just bothers me, all the boors who have access, but there's nothing to be done about it.

The K/S Press 15 (November 1997)

• contains 40 pages
• has LoCs for All This Sweet Work, Baby, Almost Legends, Beside the Wells, Doppleganger, Fathers, A Dream Walking, First Light, Go On, Give Us a Smile, Holding On, Homeless Hearts, If Kirk Had a Holodeck, Imaging Flames, The Innocent, In the Gold of the Morning, Into the Light, The Lorath, Lovely Captain Ariel and Her Vulcan Squeeze, "None So Blind", One Sundered Soul, Or Was It I?, Portrait of Promise, Proximity Breeds Contretemps, Psychic Storm, Quirk of Fate, Talisman, This Deadly Innocence, To Journey's End, Turning Point, Vigil, When Rain Comes, By Worlds Divided in the zines T'hy'la #18, #19, Charisma #7, #12, #19, First Time #28, #45, #46, Naked Times #3, #9, #20, #26, #27, First Light, Kaleidoscope #3, #6, Charisma #4, #9, Final Frontier #1 (the latter a lengthy review of Cynthia Drake's fiction), see those pages
• there are about twelve explicit limericks written by fans
• there is an announcement of some more zines for The K/S Library
• a listing of all known fan fic that deals with Tarsus IV; see that article
• a zine editor writes:

  Sorry but I’m still worrying over the bone of my stories being described as not being K/S. From a practical point of view Village Press may lose readers. New fans may well be put off reading at all. Older readers may think the writing has changed. Please may I state that all my stories and all those in every Village Press zine are K/S. Kirk and Spock are lovers. They have sex. They’ve been doing it for years. (In my stories anyway.) In The Cook, the Captain, etc. Kirk suggests that Spock lick chocolate pudding from his gorgeous body. Doesn’t that count? Yes, I know Spock declines but that was supposed to be a gentle joke! And that’s enough on the subject from me.

• from a long-time fan and zine editor:

  We managed to corner Roddenberry at a party in 1984. We asked him what he thought of fan zines. He said he approved. “All sorts of zines?” we asked with deep meaning. "All sorts of zines." He said he thought the characters were safer in the hands of the fans than those of the scriptwriters.

• a fan tries to get her head around what defines K/S:

  To me, the essence of K/S is the crossing of that currently-taboo line that does not easily allow the physical expression of love between two men. This is what distinguishes K/S from any other kind of Star Trek story, including those featuring the magical friendship between Kirk and Spock. I read plenty of relationship stories in the 70s, loads of hurt/comfort. I loved it all, as I today can enjoy some "only-emotional-relationship" stories. But it wasn't until I discovered K/S in the late 80s that I found my fannish home. It was a journey, and I knew when I'd arrived! To me the essence of K/S is the sex. Whether explicit in the story or not, it's the existence of that relationship, the implied ability of the two to acknowledge and extend the feeling between them that for me defines the genre. All those stories I read in the 70s were great, but they were in essence friendship stories, even if they died for one another, even if, as in a few I read, they actually "lived" together in sexless innocence... To me, sex whether implied or explicit is essential in categorizing a story as K/S. I can enjoy a story without the sexual relationship, of course. It can be a friendship story, or it can be straight adventure, or it can be about Sulu's latest hobby. But to me, even the most intense friendship, the greatest sacrifice between Jim and Spock, does not qualify it to be K/S without that sexual element.

• a fan comments on all the discussion about whether the actors "approved" of K/S:

  don't think any of us need William Shatner's validation for K/S, do we? Nor Leonard Nimoy's either. We exist in and of ourselves, this is one interpretation of what we see on the screen, we've taken it and created a wonderful fan community with our shared vision. (And spawned all the other slash fandoms as well.) Nothing any one says outside that community about the validity of our vision should have an effect on it. This is what we see, and that is or should be enough for us.

The K/S Press 16 (December 1997)

• contains 29 pages
• has LoCs for Angel Unaware, Beginnings in Retrospect, Burning, Distrust, Coming of Age, Distrust, In Spite of Consequences, Five Days, Just the Way the Story Goes, Needles, Portraits, The Rematch, Strong Together, Replay, Snowfire, Within the Prism, Warlords, To Serve from the zines Out of Bounds Overflow, Galactic Discourse #3, As I Do Thee #15, T'hy'la #1, #18, First Time #17, #46, Way of the Warrior #3, Warlords, Naked Times #7, see those pages
• a new librarian for The K/S Library is announced. There are about 100 zines in the library with hopes to reach 300.
• there is an ad for Escapade
• includes a con report for ZebraCon October 31-November 2, 1997 where the convention skit was by Paula Smith (a musical called "Revolution 9 from Outer Space" based on the K/S mirror universe novel Revolution by Madelien Lee. The play includes this bit at the end:

  I take you for my mate, till the stars grow cold," Spock says happily. "And now, we have sex." He holds out two fingers. Kirk eagarly places his paired fingers against Spock's. Pause. Spock then puts both hands behind his back. "Is that IT???" Kirk cries, dismayed. "What did you expect, Jim, Courts of Honor?")

• fan writes:

  I don't really enjoy stories in which the author projects the notion that in the 23rd century, people will still have a problem with same-gender relationships. After all, that's 300 years from now. Social attitudes about homosexuality have changed so much in the past 15 years, I can hardly believe it. Of course, there will aways be some backward people who refuse to change, but I think in the future they will be a tiny, fringe minority. In fact, the optimist in me hopes that the label "homosexual" won't even exist. Since it was only invented a hundred years ago, I think there's a distinct possibility that people will "un-invent" it. Sexual and emotional expression will just be a natural part of life, and not something which requires labeling and research.

• a fan says she considers a story K/S if it has these qualities:

  It is not necessary for a story to have a sex scene between Kirk and Spock in it in order for me to enjoy the story. However, it is true that I only want to read stories in if which they are lovers, or stories that can be interpreted as pre-lovers, or post-lovers, or missed opportunity lovers... What I don't want to read are stories in which the author is clearly stating that Kirk and Spock are not lovers, do not choose to be lovers, don't want to be lovers.

• a fan writes:

  I consider it the ultimate in enlightenment, in this here and now, for a man to be able to open up to having a romantic, sexual, even spousal relationship with another man. Maybe in the 23rd century same-sex relationships will be so accepted as to not be remarkable, and then people really will be free to either do so or not, to have absolutely whatever kind of relationships they desire (among consenting adults, that is). But since we are coming from these times we live in, where we are already able to see the kind of emotional devotion between men who, for instance, serve in war together…well since we already have access to that, we want to go even further, into the sexual, to make them even more heroic. And we can't deny that we're also coming from a woman's sensibility, and attributing to Kirk and Spock the very best that men might be, which must include both the masculine and feminine elements. Not to mention, they're both such gorgeous numbers, they just had to be sexually attracted to each other. The deep, deep love that develops is one thing—truly at the core of the essence of the K/S relationship—but exploring sexuality together is the line-crossing that they each must do to know themselves fully.

• a fan asks writers if they like writing sex scenes, are they difficult to do? She adds:

  Do you feel that K/S writers are presenting a “realistic” vision of male to male sex, at least as far as the physical aspects are concerned?

• a writer says

  Their [Kirk and Spock's] sex is never your garden-variety, ordinary sex. They’re heroes and they have heroic sex!

• one fan is in a veritable lockdown at home, and her letter demonstrates some fans' difficulty in obtaining K/S materials and the secrecy it entails:

  Without boring you with details, I will tell you that at one time I was free to order K/S zines—and did so freely and with abandon. I spent lots of money, too. Then my little obsession was discovered to be more than starships and aliens—with the inevitable confrontation. I stopped ordering in 1992. Desperate two years later, I risked ordering a very large box of zines from Bill Hupe to be delivered where I work, figuring one box would attract less attention than multiple small brown envelopes. Then Bill Hupe quit. Of those zines I received in 1994, I have read very few. Knowing all too well that they may be the last new zines I ever see, I have rationed them. No conventions within my reach carry them anymore. All the publisher’s names are known by the person who shares my mailbox... I went in to fill out forms at one of those Mailbox stores. There were so many questions and threats regarding “illicit” items, coupled with the fact that I figured such places are watched closely by the Postal authorities, that I bolted like a scared rabbit and never went back. No, I don’t have friends that I could ask to receive mail for me. This is the bible belt, girls. Suspicion and phobias are alive and kicking... The internet—It makes me very, very apprehensive that there are K/S stories on the net—or The K/S PRESS. Again, all you liberal folks who live in the land of the free, hear me: WE DON'T ALL LIVE THERE! Some one out there searching for scriptures finds my name attached to something as vile as two men loving each other, I’m dead. I do not exaggerate, my life would be a shambles.

The K/S Press 17 (January 1998)

• contains 34 pages
• has LoCs for Call from the Past, The Consortium Series, Firewalker, Foresight, Forests of the Night, The K/S Scrolls,

'Little Sorrows", Fruits and Nuts, Give Him Some Rope, Lost Night, The Power of Suggestion, Of Nights and Pawns, The Prodigal Vulcan, Reaching Eden, Sweet Sorrow, The Sting, Untouched, The Thought That Counts, Warlords, Time Passage, Two Slaves in the zines Scattered Stars #10, Naked Times #12, #15, #16, #17, #18, #20, KaleidoScope #6, First Time #17, #46, As I Do Thee #3, #4, Charisma #17, see those pages

• includes a ballot for Philon
• some limericks, including this one: "Spock and Jim went up the hill, To fetch a pail of Dilithium. Spock fell down and got delirious, Then Jim and Spock got down and serious."
• Heartbeat bios
• a fan tells of getting burned when she sent money for zines to several agents, Bill Hupe, Peg Kennedy, a press [P F], and an author [A F B].
• tips about how to disguise K/S zines in the mail
• a long excerpt from Charlotte Frost's zine Portraits
• the editors write:

  If you want to send by subspace radio, we’ll build one to receive. Use email or send through the regular mail, write on disks (you wonderful people, you!), show us your penmanship on linen sheets, scribble inspired words on paper towels while you’re cooking dinner, call us up in the dead of night and we’ll type while you talk. Any way you want to communicate, we’re here to listen.

• discussion about what makes a story K/S and the conflict that seems to have arisen on the subject:

  f the story (or poem or filk) deals with a recognisable Kirk and a recognisable Spock with a recognisable sexual content or context, I suggest it's K/S... perhaps it's time to stop saying, 'this is not K/S' and time to start saying, 'this is not the kind of K/S I like' or even "this is K/S which would have been better if....

• gay and slash sex scenes?:

  I am aware therefore that I am not portraying a realistic publication of K/S stories in zines, but I do not think that concerns me that stories that take as a given that Kirk and version of gay sex but does it really matter? This is fiction, after all, and the gay novels I've read do not seem to worry too much about realism either.

• Do fans need Shatner's approval of K/S? -- one fan says:

  I might sound arrogant, but I don’t need their seal of approval. I love the idea of a same sex relationship between Kirk and Spock, and that’s what’s important. Shatner could be dead against it, and it won’t make the tiniest difference to me. He simply has another opinion, and that’s all, nothing more, nothing less.

• realism and K/S?:

  I don’t think that what I or we are writing is necessarily truly realistic male to male sex. Far from it. No matter how hard I might try to get some of the details 'right,' some of them I sacrifice to what K/S readers want and expect, some go the way of the understood K/S mythos. But most of all, I don’t think the emotional content of my sex scenes is 'accurate.' And I don’t care. I’m not writing about two human guys having sex, I’m writing about a love affair between a human male and a Vulcan male. And in some strange way that I don’t think any of us understand, K/S authors are also writing about ideal sex, about genderless sex, and about sex as women think they want it. All of the above and more, and there’s no way that this is, or should be, an approximation of the emotion in typical sex between two human males in the late twentieth century.

The K/S Press 18 (February 1998)

• contains 29 pages
• has LoCs for Angel Unaware, Anchorage, Call from the Past, Coming of Age, Foresight, For the Man Who Has Everything, Echoes, Endymion, Give Him Some Rope, The Heart Has Its Logic, He Who Loves Last, His is the Only Music, Hide and Seek, Holding On, In Any Reality, Joseph's Brother, Journey's End, Lovely Captain Ariel and Her Vulcan Squeeze, Just for Old Times' Sake, Kirk's Decision, Magic Heart, The K/S Scrolls, Of Nights and Pawns, "None So Blind", Penetration, Poses, Two Blind Mice, "Reminiscence", Replay, Unicorn Horn, Steadfast, Waiting, We Learn by Doing from the zines As I Do Thee #9, #11, Out of Bounds Overflow, Scattered Stars #7, #10, KaleidoScope #6, Charisma #4, Naked Times #22, #25, First Time, #6, #13, #41, #46, T'hy'la #17, Obsc'zine #1, see those pages
• some lengthy excerpts from "His Only Music" in First Time, "Anchorage" from As I Do Thee #9
• the editors write:

  This is the month for lovers! Happy February to all. Think red. Think love and kisses and true devotion. Victoria’s Secret and Frederick’s of Hollywood. Think Kirk and Spock and red lace and teddies and garter belts … er, not necessarily together. Hmm, got to reconsider that one. (Crash! Sound of 72 of our subscribers dashing for their computers as another story idea hits, hard.)

• an age statement/disclaimer from the editors:

  From the Big Brother is Watching You Dept.: Is everybody reading this at least the age of 18? We sure hope so. The K/S Press is adult material published only for paid subscribers the age of 18 and over. If you don’t qualify, drop this page like a hot Horta! Or, turn off that computer faster than Jim can wink at Spock. By subscribing to this letterzine, you are telling us you are of legal age to receive it.

• a fan writes:

  You mean K/S sex scenes are supposed to resemble reality? It’s kind of like how terribly romantic it sounds to fall asleep in each other’s arms (you’ve usually got one, or possibly two, too many arms for comfort) or with one’s head pillowed on the other’s shoulder (you might as well amputate your arm in the morning). But, if I was reading K/S for the accuracy of the sex acts described, I’d just read a medical text. To summarize, I’d have to say that K/S sex scenes are more ideal than real. Which is just fine by me.

• a fan writes of a con memory:

  [F's] memories of the con that Shatner came to in ‘82 brought back a few of my own. As soon as we saw those 'Fans Against K/S' badges, we made some of our own, viz: 'Fans Upholding the Concept of K/S!' and wore them with pride. If memory serves, the woman who asked the fatal question was also the one who paid the U.K. record price for Spock Enslaved, 105 pounds. ($180 current rate) but this was in 1982/3.

• a fan writes:

  I want to believe that that kind of love exists: fidelity, honesty, truth and all that stuff, and by extension that all women and men (in any combination) can have relationships like this — that it’s possible. It is what shapes my writing. I want to prove it, to test the relationship against situations that we would recognise, in the same way that the series pitched the Enterprise and crew against 20th century problems. I want our boys to triumph but I want those victories at least to seem 'real.' Of course, that also rules out 'cosmic sex' (on the whole. I guess we all have our moments) but in my universe at least, I don’t feel that two serving officers on a Starship are going to turn into their bunks and have the experiences so often described in zines night after night. I want them tired, irritable, gloriously happy, furiously angry and still together, after all these years. If that’s fantasy so be it! End of rather breathless hobby horse!

• a zine editor and reader try to come to a solution to keep her K/S zines from being confiscated by Customs (UK to US):

  I can always split a zine into small sections. Mine are slide bound and don’t get damaged by gutting. All envelopes are hand addressed and have no identity sticker. There is a customs sticker but I can put newsletter or printed matter on that. Maybe you should have another go at getting a PO box. As I understand it, you would not be breaking any law in the U.S. by receiving zines through the post. (Unlike here, where the transmission of pornographic matter in the post is an offence quite separate from possession.)

• MUCH discussion as to what makes a story K/S:

  I’ve said before, I worry sometimes that authors who have ideas which do not fit a specific definition will hesitate to share their stories with others or that they will reshape their stories to fit a vision which is not their own. Is that what we really want?

• what makes a story K/S?:

  I’ve been thinking about what might be done about this problem of defining K/S too narrowly (besides having discussions like this one), and it occurs to me that the more people who write LOCs, the greater the chance for diversity. With many different preferences and opinions on the table, I think we will run less danger of digging ourselves a formulaic rut. For a long time I didn’t write any LOCs.

• a fan artist, S B, writes of her experience at WorldCon:

  I, too, have experienced some prejudice and ignorance concerning K/S. The most shocking and surprising incident for me was at WorldCon in LA of all places. I was so astonished that the seemingly free-thinking community of science fiction aficionados turned out to be one of the narrowest, most ignorant of thinkers that I will never forget it. They looked upon my K/S artwork (only the tamest, most non-suggestive works, mind you) with great horror and disgust at such obscene subject matter. One miserable moment that’s frozen in my memory was my sitting there in tears arguing with some stupid committee member.

• online fic vs zine fic and "important understanding":

  All definitions aside, I feel one of the most important aspects of enjoying K/S is to know K/S—that is, to have read as much of the 20-some year collection of zines as possible. I’ve still only read a fraction of the collection, but enough to know a little of K/S background and history. There’s so much out there that needs to be read before you can really understand K/S. I was urged early on to read various classic stories and zines, and I’m so glad. If I hadn’t, I know I’d be missing some important understanding of K/S. There’ve been so many different authors with so many different points of view. So I strongly suggest especially to those of you who mostly read online posted stories—you’ve got to see what’s really K/S! You’ll be inspired, for sure.

• slash and the real actor... a fan recounts a negative comment about K/S made by William Shatner at a con and writes:

  In my opinion, there’s nothing here that should concern anybody about his reaction to K/S. We’ve already talked in the letterzine about how we are independent of needing Shatner’s or Nimoy’s or anybody else’s approval, but it’s only human to wish that we had it. Especially from the actors who created the characters.

• discussion about songtape videos, especially the ones by Chris Soto and Mary van Deusen:

  Likewise, there are some Mary van Deusen tapes that are absolute classics. What do you think of trying to get permission from her and compile a few hours and selling them, at cost and a little extra for time, to anyone who wants them? And there are others, like the Jersey Trek tapes, so clever and funny and moving, and those we discovered last summer from a very unassuming fan who doesn’t want her name mentioned, but who made some fantastic songtapes including one with the Kirk and Spock dolls undressing each other on the bridge.

• the letterzine's editor introduces the idea of "The K/S Press" making their own songtapes, the ones that become K/S Press Songtapes:

  I want to get some comments and ideas from you all on the subject of songtape videos. Such as the ones created by the late great Chris Soto, by Mary Van Deusen and many others. I absolutely adore the videos, and have a nice collection, and I know that there are others who like them as much as I do. I think there were several folks who really appreciated the ones we presented at The K/S Press party last year, and weren't there some on Saturday night as well? However, I'm sure people have asked, how does one get these tapes? What about the many new fans who haven't seen any of them at all? How could they be distributed? I was very fortunate, and diligent, and sometimes a little ruthless in gathering my own collection, but not everybody could do the same. Especially now that Chris is no longer with us, I would absolutely love to make her exceptional, moving songtape videos available to everybody who might want a copy. But I sure don't have the authority to do that. Does anybody? Nor do I have the facilities, such as a second VCR, or a really good pristine tape from which to copy, but somebody might be interested in doing this. What do you all think?

The K/S Press 19 (March 1998)

• contains 30 pages
• has LoCs for And Yet Afraid, "Babes in the Woods", A Different Obsession, Blue Courage, Five Days, The Flavor of Gold, Green Dreams, Noon Tomorrow, The Healing, Letting Go, One Flesh, One Small Berry, Odds and Abbs, The Prize, Spur of the Moment, Stay Till Morning, Rites, Tango, Unfinished Business, Surveillance, Taaz Avine, The Tirizan, Waiting for Rain in the zines As I Do Thee #6, #11, Kaleidoscope #7, First Time #13, #14, #17, #18, #35, #36, #37, Alien Brothers, The Price and the Prize, In the Wilderness #2, Twin Destiny #1, see those pages
• a fan writes: "If you want to know what K/S is, read the 20-some years of zines!"
• this issue includes a missing page from T'hy'la #18 from the story "Distrust"
• the editor adds some brief warnings to some zine titles in The K/S Library as she received a zine back with a note from a fan who said it wasn't the sort of story she wanted to read
• a fan writes that for a story to be K/S, Kirk or Spock has to tell the other one that he loves him. And that what matters is how:

  ... two men feel for each other that’s important, not how fast they jump into bed together. I know my interest in K/S would be very short-lived indeed. I really don’t care who’s on top or who has whose cock stuffed up his ass, it’s what these guys are feeling while this is all going on that is important to me. That is the essence of K/S.

• a fan says:

  The last item I would like to add my opinion to is the subject [a fan] brought up on what is and what is not a K/S story. As someone who has been collecting K/S zines right from the beginning of K/S, I have to I have to admit that for me personally (as someone who has been involved in K/S right from the beginning) I prefer the days when K/S was strictly underground—when K/S zines weren’t openly distributed at conventions, and when Leonard and Bill could go to those conventions and not have to be worried about answering such questions. After all, it is their faces that are being drawn in all that K/S art and if I were in their place, I would be somewhat embarrassed by that... I really don’t care what Leonard or Bill think about K/S, I don’t think any K/S fan does, and even if Leonard and Bill came right out and said they hated the whole idea of K/S and thought it was really sick or whatever, I don’t think that would stop any of us from writing, drawing or buying K/S. And since I believe this to be the case, maybe we should all do our best to be sure Bill and Leonard aren’t exposed to it anymore. written of these two men... To me, it seems we are doing ourselves a serious disservice by trying to bring K/S into the mainstream of Trek.

• a fan writes:

  ...if I am in the mood for a Star Trek story I look for gen, if I want a caring, loving story I reach for HC, and if I want sex acts I get K/S. I know a lot of people will not agree with me, but this is my personal view of what I call K/S.

• a fan states:

  I really don’t understand all the arguments for or against sex scenes in K/S. If you only want a science fiction story, all you have to do is go to your local bookstore and pick up any one of 150 plus pocketbooks, and hardback books that have been published about Classic Trek. These pocketbooks cost about $5.50 and have well over 200 pages of printed material, all having to do with Kirk, Spock, etc. When I plunk down $20 for a zine, I want something in it that I can’t get elsewhere. A K/S story without at least one good, hot sex scene is totally illogical!

The K/S Press 20 (April 1998)

• contains 34 pages
• has LoCs from" Babes in the Woods", Before I Die, Blind Fool, Bright Star, Catharsis, Coming of Age, Courts of Honor, Enterprising Tours, The Heart is Forever, In the Beginning, Empire Reflections, A Private Obsession, From Rags to Riches, Stay Till Morning, Still Waters, A Study in Green, Sure Thing, The Taking, A View from the Tower, When Johnny Comes Marching Home from the zines Coming of Age, KaleidoScope #1, #7, First Time #7, #23, #47, KSX, As I Do Thee #12, Daybreak, Dreams of the Sleepers, The Fifth Hour of Night, Daring Attempt #3, and Broken Images, see those pages
• a fan celebrates K/S Day by listening to Star Trek: The Lost Episode:

  How am I celebrating Kirk & Spock's month? Well, just two days ago, a friend sent me a file named 'lovetrek'. I had no idea what it was about. We had just discovered our love for Star Trek and all of a sudden, he's sending me this file. I downloaded it and just before going to bed, I played it. Imagine my expression when I hear Kirk talking about Spock's strength, then Spock comes in talking about human emotions. Then Kirk asks Spock's point and our Vulcan replies; 'I love you. I can love you'. I spluttered and I spent the rest of the 'performance' spluttering; the fly being opened, Kirk's screams. By the way, Spock's "If you'll excuse the intrusion, Captain", just prior to Kirk's yell had me rolling on the floor. Well, you can imagine. One thing is imagining them doing it and another thing is 'hearing' them at the top of their voices! Now I keep the file as a treasure.

• another fan celebrates K/S Day:

  I started off K/S day in the wee small hours by wishing Liz a happy K/S day at 0015 in the morning. Finished a story I was reading, slept a bit and dreamed I was a mouse in the woodwork watching the boys have their own, very private, K/S Day celebration. (Fill in your own details.) Later I decide to get caught up on long overdue letters and to a couple of K/S sisters and did manage to get that accomplished plus a few more mundane chores. Originally I'd planned to fix a Vulcan meal to honor Spock but would you believe it - the local market was completely out of fresh plomeek, and that canned stuff is no good at all. Somehow split pea just didn't seem like a viable substitute, so I decided I'd have to settle for a nice leafy green salad, with plenty of rosy red tomatoes covered with cream. Creamy ranch that is. I thought about Jenna and Shelley's suggestion of dancing down the street in my negligee singing 'Kirk and Spock Forever* but there are a lot of elderly retired people in my neighborhood and I didn't want to either give someone a heart attack or get myself hauled off to the looney bin. Besides I don't own a negligee, so instead I wound up the evening spending some quiet time with my copy of Chris Soto's K/S video and thinking good thoughts of her.

• more celebrating:

  ... the highlight of my celebration came through my family. Each of my kids and my husband wished me "Happy K/S Day!" at various times during the day. (Hey, it isn't as if I hadn't prepped them or anything, I'd written it on the family calendar!) I served dinner on my Star Trek stoneware plates (from STVI—my secret agent friend found them for me at a real bargain one day) using the cups and saucers and the glasses, too. Found some blue napkins to match. Contemplated putting the Enterprise in the center of the table, then one daughter suggested featuring my pewter Kirk and Spock statues there instead. Finally decided not to push this Star Trek thing too far (too late! the daughter quipped), and besides we were running out of room on the table, there wouldn't be any space for the food. I served peas and cranberry sauce with the main course for the obligatory green and red. And for dessert, we had green mint chocolate chip and pink strawberry ice cream, served together, nestled around each other, in pristine crystal bowls. I never eat ice cream! For this occasion, I unbent.

• another fan's celebration:

  In keeping with the intensely personal nature of the holiday, I intend to take the phone off the hook and disconnect the doorbell. Then I will pour myself a glass of Midori (green melon) liqueur and a dish of strawberry sorbet. Then I will reread [Gayle F's] "The Cosmic Collected" from cover to cover. "Desert Heat", which begins this collection, is the first K/S story I ever read and is still a damn good place to start.

• a fan contemplates the definition of K/S:

  about what's K/S? Well, for me it's simple. A K/S story is a story where Kirk and Spock are in love with each other. The sex has nothing to do with it. In many K/S stories they only share a kiss, sometimes they just embrace, but you know that sometime in the future they're going to make love/bond/whatever. Sex is not an essential ingredient in a K/S story, at least, not for me. To me, it's simple; when they're very close friends and they help each other during a rough time, then it's a hurt-comfort story, and when they're in love with each other is a K/S story. They may end up separating at the end, one of them or both may get killed, Kirk may become a priest and Spock may become the bass player in a heavy-metal band, but if they shared a love story, whether they consummated it or not, then it is a K/S story. I stress, in my opinion. One of the greatest things about K/S is that there are as many definitions of K/S as people who read the fanzines. It has a lot to do with people's liking, of course. As I said once, I prefer caring, sweet, romantic, loving stories where they fall in love, they act upon it and they live happily ever after.

• some really interesting stats on online K/S and zine K/S:

  According to the Philon ballot, 48 K/S stories by 31 different authors appeared in K/S fanzines in 1997. According to the Golden Orgasm ballot, 40 K/S stories by 16 different authors were posted to ASCEM in the same year. The numbers disguise some significant differences between K/S on the net and K/S in zines. Hardly any K/S poetry appeared on the net, in contrast to the large volume of poetry published in K/S fanzines. And of course fan artwork graced the zines and is missing from the net. The K/S stories posted on the net were considerably shorter, on average, than the K/S stories published in zines. (I can't compare page counts, unfortunately, because I did not download all the stories on the net.) Only a few authors published in both media-notably Killashandra, who swept the Golden O awards (thus winning the title "multi-orgasmic") with three long, exquisitely written stories.

• more stats:

  The great majority of the K/S stories that appeared on the net in this last year were posted in the last five months of 1997. This sudden flowering of K/S fiction on the net coincided with the establishment of ASCEM as a moderated, spam-free newsgroup managed by some very dedicated fans. With the new year, K/S fiction has flourished and multiplied even further. The sheer volume of stories has increased rapidly, and many new K/S authors have emerged in 1998. In a recent week, at least six new K/S stories were posted to the newsgroups, and just today (March 24), I read two new stories that appeared in the last 24 hours. If K/S fiction continues to be posted on the net at its present rate, the volume of new K/S on the net will outstrip the volume in zines this year by any measure.

• about online and print fic:

  Thus, it's fair to say that K/S is thriving online, and no one seems to be the worse for it. I hope that by now, the fears and concerns expressed last year in the K/S Press about the impact of online K/S on K/S in zines have subsided. The majority of K/S fans I know read just about everything published in both media. And some of the new K/S writers on the net are submitting their work to zine editors. Why do K/S authors continue to post their work online, even when they could choose to publish those stories in a zine instead? I can't speak for others, but I suspect that the sense of community in the newsgroups, especially ASCEM, may be part of the answer. Reading and posting to ASCEM is like being in a lively pub or cafe. There's a constant hum of spirited discussion of all manner of topics both ribald and serious. From time to time, someone stands up and reads a story and is warmly applauded. Conversation flows into stories and back again...

• a fan disagrees with the above statement, citing among other things, the definition of "published":

  Also, she states that: "The majority of K/S fans I know read just about everything published in both media." First of all, the story is not published if it's posted online. Second of all, that is not my experience. The online fans I communicate with and many who contribute to The K/S Press are greatly unfamiliar with zines and even some have admitted to almost never having purchased a zine. So, no the concerns about online K/S impacting on zines has not subsided. The stories being posted on the net are important, too. I am certainly not discounting or ignoring the huge impact that the on-line arena has made on K/S. But if net stories are all you write and if net stories are all you read, then you are living in a mere fraction of the K/S world, and indeed missing out on so many beautiful and exciting K/S stories and poetry written by so many terrific authors with unique visions of K/S. And not to forget some extraordinary artwork drawn by some of fandom's top artists, all put together in some beautifully designed zines that you can actually put in your bookcase or sit in a cozy chair on a rainy day and read to your heart's content. The electronic on-line K/S fandom has helped bring in many new fans and writers who may have otherwise not found K/S. But most of us, for the past 22 years, found K/S long before the advent of the net, let alone computers! We all found K/S through publishers and the world of zines. Getting to know K/S zines is important not only for yourself—to expand your understanding, taste, and enjoyment of K/S—but also for the fandom itself. K/S needs both electronic and print in order to survive and flourish. And perhaps the truth is that on-line K/S doesn't need any help to grow and flourish, but print K/S does. And another truth is that The K/S Press that you know and love so much, could not and would not exist without zines. I'm sure I don't need to tell you the hours that Jenna and I put in just to format this newsletter in order to print it. This is a newsletter for published K/S.

• regarding the appeal of newsgroups:

  Perhaps the newsgroups' appeal lies in the very nature of online communication; its immediacy, diversity and polycentric character. When you post a K/S story to ASCEM or its sister newsgroup, alt.startrek.creative, you can expect to get feedback from readers in Europe and Asia, from male as well as female fans, and from readers whose primary interest is in another Star Trek fandom. Conversation in the newsgroups tends to be direct and candid, not to mention boisterous and wildly funny, but it also tends to be deeply respectful of members' differences. It's hard to pin down the difference between online stories and zine stories, but I feel that online stories tend to push the envelope more, that online authors tend to give old themes a relatively fresh approach, and that a wider range of aesthetic values is tolerated in the newsgroups. Writers can get solid literary criticism online, but faultfinding of the "this doesn't fit my definition of K/S" variety is rare to nonexistent.

• is more K/S better, especially when it's at the mercy of mundanes?:

  Putting a glut of K/S out there for all the boors isn't my preference, either. I've always liked it underground, as it were; except that with the internet these days, underground isn't quite what it used to be. I also have personal feelings about rarity and privacy making something more special, but this is the antithesis of the net-ways of thinking, where ubiquity and free access are what's happening. Well, I'm sure not trying to try to fight the big Net, so I'll have to find my way of meshing with it to my preferences.

• a fan is wondering about whether certain people are predisposed to some fannish interests:

  I was writing, albert in my head, an action/adventure saga about two very close male friends who seemed to get shot a lot and spend much time tenderly binding each other's wounds when I was about ten. At sixteen I was dipping fascinatedly into the pages of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and thinking about what an interesting person Lawrence of Arabia must have been. I followed that with The Charioteer by Mary Renault and my fate was sealed really. Listening to Sheila and Valerie's intriguing and funny account of their formative years, as told at Closet Con, I wonder if there is a type of personality which is predisposed towards a) media fiction, b) slash fiction.

• a fan is wondering about author intent and the morality of reading gen as slash:

  On the subject of K/S or not K/S, years ago I began to find when reading genzine stories that I couldn't read them if they hadn't the potential or at least the hidden opportunity to be K/S whatever the author's views on the subject. For example the Sahaj series (if you can get hold of these, do so, they are classics in the best sense.) I disliked the original premise, that Spock has an illegitimate son by a woman who has no interest in him or later in the boy. (Too complicated to explain here but it works and Sahaj is a wonderful character.) The author, Leslye Lilker wrote a series of stories detailing Spock's learning of the child's existence, Sahaj's upbringing, and the eventual coming closer of father and son. Not much chance of K/S here and I didn't fancy reading it but I was talked into it by a friend who said that you could put your own slant (if you see what I mean) on the relationship—and she was right— you can. You see Spock has no interest in the woman, his loyalty to his Captain is overwhelming and they share a mind link. Spock says to Sahaj that Kirk is more than his friend. When in The Forging (which is the finest of the works), Kirk beams down to join Spock and Sahaj on a Vulcan desert journey, I have no trouble in seeing a K/S relationship between them, even though Spock tells Sahaj that his bond with Jim is fraternal. Well, he would, wouldn't he? The boy is only 11 or so. The problem with all this is that I believe that Leslye was very anti K/S. So where does that leave us? Is it 'immoral' to read someone's story in a way that is against her/his express wishes?

• there is some progress on The K/S Press Songtapes:

  Great news on the songtape front! Many thanks to [name redacted], and others who have volunteered their services. Right now it looks like the best way to go is through using something called a Go Machine, owned by Carol Davis here in the Dallas metroplex... These machines have dual decks and make copies with almost no loss of quality from the original. It also looks like we have a pretty good copy of Chris Soto's songtapes, though if anybody has a really good, clear copy that's an early generation, and would like to lend it to us strictly for the purposes of copying for others, we would certainly appreciate it. Here's what Carol will do. Send her $6 and ask for the Chris Soto songtape. Do not send her a tape. Carol will make a copy on an extra-fine quality tape for you (the only kind she will use on her machine), and include a few other song videos. These are songs where the creator already granted someone the right to copy and sell or distribute. They include "Can Do Anything" and "Almost Remember It Now", each by Kandy Fong, the slide shows Time Warp and Amok Time, also by Kandy (these were the way songtapes were done before VCRs), and In the Air Tonight by T'Rhys Gonzalez-Knight. Plus, Carol is filling out this two hour tape with an edited version of the first presentations of The Dancing Penises: The Quickie, as performed at Idicon 2 and 3, several years ago.... Right now I'm uncomfortable with reproducing and selling (even if it is just at cost) songtapes that were produced by somebody else. I'm hoping to get permission from the creators, and make other songtapes, besides those of Chris Soto, available for our subscribers to either borrow or to buy. If you are a songtape creator, or know someone who is, let us know!