The Rose Journal
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Rose Journal |
| Publisher: | BF Productions |
| Editor: | Melissa Prideaux |
| Author(s): | Melissa Prideaux and Gaye Markov |
| Cover Artist(s): | Rosemarie Hauer |
| Illustrator(s): | Rosemarie Hauer |
| Date(s): | November 1996 |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | 8 ½ x 11 |
| Genre: | het |
| Fandom: | Beauty and the Beast (TV) |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Rose Journal is a 105-page Beauty and the Beast novel by Melissa Prideaux and Gaye Markov. It has art by Rosemarie Hauer (two full-page and several small pieces), as well as two poems by Deb TS Bichel and Ben Bock.
Chapters
- 'Til Truth Makes All Things Plain, story by Melissa Prideaux and Gaye Markov
- Cat to Cat, poem by Deb TS Bichel
- Treetop Tranquility, poem by Ben Bock
Sample Interior
Reactions and Reviews
Rather than being an anthology zine, 90% of The Rose Journal is a novelette, “Til’ Truth Makes All Things Plain,” by Prideau with Gaye Markov. Two poems, “Cat to Cat” by Deb TS Bichel, and “Treetop Tranquility” by Ben Bock, round off the zine.The novelette, of which a shorter version has appeared in Flame and Shadow 10, is a fairly complex and clearly written first-person tale of Mattea, who goes Above to become a veterinarian only to discover, in a neglected circus, a female creature who resembles Vincent. The creature, whom sympathetic circus worker Luke calls simply “Girl,” presents a problem simply by existing. Mattea concocts a pretext to remove “Girl” from the circus, but in the removal, “Girl” gives birth to a daughter. Then matters become really complicated and problems multiply. How can Mattea deliver animal-like “Girl” to the Tunnel community? But how can she not? Is Luke the father of “Girl’s” child? If not, who is? Where does “Girl” come from, and what is her connection to Vincent? And what can be done when it becomes obvious that “Girl” wishes to have a closer relationship with her counterpart—Vincent? A closer relationship, moreover, that Mattea has always desired with him as well, but concealed from everyone but herself?
All these questions are answered and the problems resolved in this tale of suppressed longings and connections that may be profound or only skin deep and based on appearance. The substantial tale comes to a satisfactory conclusion.
Deb Bichel’s “Cat to Cat” is an amusing vignette, in poem form, of the daring flirtation by a calico cat with the much larger feline she encounters in the park.
Ben Bock’s poem “Treetop Tranquility” celebrates Catherine climbing that huge sycamore tree at the end of “Orphans.”
Occasional pieces of art, most small, one full-page, by Rosemarie Hauer. [1]