The Tale of Windy Hollow
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Tale of Windy Hollow |
| Publisher: | Orion Publications |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Audrey Baker |
| Cover Artist(s): | Mick Eason |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | July 1977 |
| Medium: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Tale of Windy Hollow is a 48-page gen Star Trek novel written by Audrey Baker. The front cover is by Mick Eason and the interior art is by Mick Eason and Audrey Baker.
From an ad in STAG #25: "Adult fiction in the Grope tradition."
Reactions and Reviews
1982
StarTrek - thank goodness - has never been a completely serious affair and the original series ranged happily from high tragedy to low farce with total believability. Of course, being designed for television family viewing, the networked show never descended to honest vulgarity, but Audrey Baker's 'The Tale of Windy Hollow'- fills the vacancy with style and vigour.
On shore leave, the Captain and his faithful Vulcan shadow spend a few days with Kirk's hillbilly cousins, Rube and Ellen Tomsett and their children, Ezra, Sairellen and baby Wilbur, the unspeakable Grampa and Aunt Jemima - never forgetting Ichabod the pig, a character as carefully and strongly drawn as any of the Humans and even more unforgettable.
I like to lend 'Windy Hollow' to new readers, but best of all I like to be on hand while they read. Sure enough the first smile soon shows, then comes a chuckle and soon a side-aching belly-laugh that, impossibly, gets louder as the tale unfolds. It is not a story for the prudish, touching as it does on such topics as Spock's introduction to the family two-holer, the disastrous effect of an exclusive diet of beans on the Vulcan digestive system, the triumphant loss of young Ezra's virginity (aided and abetted by Kirk and SpockJ) and Aunt Jemima's conviction that Spock is the fairy prince for whom she has patiently waited all her life, Dear Aunt Jemima, you have the heart of the matter in you!
The story has its serious moments, 8 year old Sairellen's respect for Spock, sparked off by his desperate but expert retaliatory kick to her shins, grows into a tentative feeling for him that we can almost believe, along with Kirk, will last until the day she comes into space to find him.
Much of the laughter stems from the incongruous juxtaposition of the dignified Spock with the primitive, good-hearted, devastatingly frank Tomsetts, and along with him we come to find that "This dotty family-filthy, sex-obsessed, lazy, moronic-" are "at the same time so maddeningly likeable". Audrey Baker's style is witty and concise, every word telling and relevant.
And if you have ever been puzzled over what pfxtwttling is, Spock's masterly description of its intricacies will stagger you as surely as it does his audience.[1]
1988
A story with a difference, and not for the prudish! Kirk and Spock spend a few days on a farm visiting some very down-to-Earth relations of Kirk's. This tale is bawdy with lavatory humour, but all in good fun and with larger-than-life characters. Not to be taken too seriously! [2] (1988)
1989
This novelette features Kirk, Spock, and a pet pig with a noble personality. Advertised as an adult comedy, the 'adult' part refers to the language rather than events. The story deals with Kirk, accompanied by Spock, visiting Kirk's rather crude hillbilly cousins. They are a bunch of looney characters, and this story is funny, sometimes outrageously so. The ending, however, turns to a more serious thought -- the future of an intelligent child in a deprived family environment. One the whole, an interesting and very different sort of tale. [3]
Sample Interior
sample text
illo by Mick Eason
References
- ^ from Communicator #6 (1982)
- ^ from Enterprise Originals #7
- ^ from Scuttlebutt #11 (1979)