Forum: Lost Stories

Could it be Phil Brown's Second Time Through series?
https://storiesonline.net/a/Phil_Brown

How is the series? there aren't any reviews for it.

Fly series has all 3 do over business and politics

Where is that at? I didn't find a Series or Universe called Fly.

I must be blind (and so is my ctrl-f search). I couldn't find the Fly series there either.

Capt Zapp
10/19/2017, 1:46:02 PM

@zellus

I must be blind (and so is my ctrl-f search). I couldn't find the Fly series there either.

Guess I am blind too :(

Hmmm, FLY ?
Maybe your autocorrect feature did it again?
Do you mean FTL here on SOL?
FTL: Story of Woe by Timm
Faster Than Light universe

HM.

Hmmm, FLY ?
Maybe your autocorrect feature did it again?
Do you mean FTL here on SOL?

That makes a lot more sense.

FLY

Why is it called a fly on pants?
"Fly" does not refer to the button, specifically. "Fly" refers to the flap of material covering the opening or fastening of a garment. The term was originally used in England to refer to the flap on a tent (which flaps or flies when the wind blows if not tied down).

Time to zip your fly.

What's a fic?

Short for "Fiction Story"; in this case, he's speculating that the story might have been finished and others started since then.

I'm not sure which shortform came first, fanfic or fic; fanfic being a story set in someone else's creation without being part of the official canon, sometimes with the permission of the Universe creator, generally without. Some authors don't allow fanfiction, and will come down on the writers of fanfic set within their creation like a ton of bricks, others don't care; unless, of course, someome tries to sell their fanfic, in which case every universe creator impacted comes down on them like a ton of bricks. Most universe creators make a practice of _not_ reading fanfic set in their creation, to avoid anyone charging them with plaigerism if they happen to write something similar.

Eric Flint, on the other hand, when it became clear that there was well researched fanfic being set in his 1632 Universe, started a pro-zine to publish it, The Grantville Gazette, paying very well for the publication rights, and with the stories published there becoming canon. He's published a number of collaberative novels with individuals who got their start writing for The Grantville Gazette.

JohnBobMead:
Thank you for that very substantial answer to my query. Only problem with your answer is that it raises yet another question: What's a pro-zine? I assume from the ending it's some sort of play on magazine, but the pro-part is not obvious to me.

What's a pro-zine?

Usually when you see pro in this kind of context, it is short for professional.

What's a pro-zine?

As Dominion's Son said, it's a professional magazine, such as Analog or The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In ages past, the major diference between a Pro-zine and a fanzine, aside from Pro-zine being hypenated, was Pro-zines paid ypu money for your story. In general, both had editors who were a little picky about the quality of the story and that it needed to fit into the theme of the zine. In general, Pro-zines tend to continue in publication longer than fanzines do, as fanzine editors gain real lives, while Pro-zine editors, well, it _is_ their life. Right, fanzines. Back in the Olden Days, before the Internet, yea verily in the very dawn of time itself, fanfiction was distributed in fanzines, put together by amateur editors who, in general, raised the funds for the 'zine through advance sale subscriptions; if you wanted to read the next ish [short for issue], you ponied your money up in advance to underwrite the expenses of printing and distribution. Some fanzines were general interest, others were very specific in their focus, such as those devoted to K/S fiction; / fiction, or "slash" fiction, was devoted to non-canon same sex pairings, in this case Kirk & Spock; there was a _lot_ of K/S fic, generally written by women, some of it abysmal, some, so I am told, very well done. Not my scene. Finding out about upcoming fanzines was a bit tricky, but thanks to teh Universal Translator, published by a professor in New York, as I recollect it, there were regular updates on forthcoming 'zines; you had to subscribe to recieve it, and I think you had to pay to be included, but it had a broad distribution and allowed the various SF & F fandoms to keep track of what was coming down the pipe, and who to contact to get your pre-order in. It slowed down just a little when Usenet took off, but not all that many fen had access to Usenet, but Fanzines basically dried up and died once the WWW was developed and became readily accessable; why bother with a fanzine, when you can post your stories online, and read the stories others have posted there? After all, unless the site goes down, they'll be there forever, right? And you don't have to purchase them anymore. *snort* (how naive!) The Fanzine crowd formed the original core of a number of the various fanfiction websites that are still around today, although a number of them were started later by fen unaware of their roots in print society, for whom the words "mimeo" and "corflu" have no meaning; mimeo is short for mimeographic copying machine, an early precursor to modern day xerographic technology, and corflu is short for correction fluid, which was used to cover up mistakes in typewritten originals; "Whiteout" was the most famous brand. yes, this was far in the early dawn of recorded history, for lo! Computers had not yet reached the household, and all of these fanzines were produced on typewriters. "I remember those days fondly," I said, wiping a tear from my face. Not! Well, yes and no. They are long gone, and a part of our past that younger fen don't really comprehend, the world has changed so much. Right, fen, a term used to refer to an active member of SF Fandom. All of these terms, fanzine, Pro-zine, semi-prozine, come out of the SF fan community. A semi-prozine is something like Locus or File 770, kimda sorta maybe? Originally, it was a magazine that published fiction, paying lesss than aprozine, but still more than you'd get by contributing a story to a fanzine; as a result, there were three grades of fiction, fanfic, semipro and pro, with the quality directly bearing on which category they ended up being in, except that fanfiction that was not based upon the authors own creation, but set in another's creation, wasn't going to have a chance in hell of finding its way into a semipro or prozine, due to copyright issues; well, unless they had permission, such as a story published jusr before E.E Smith's death,set in his Lensman universe, it had his approval and was published in Analog. At that time fanfiction hadn't really differentiated between original fiction and derivative fiction to the extent it now has, it used to be a much more unified culture. Even the terminology has morphed, since fanfiction used to just mean fiction by SF fans, and could be original fiction as well as being set in someone else's creation, and now it means fiction by fans of a specific story universe, generally created by someone in the professional media, although stories set in Bill Hart's Spells R Us universe are definitely fanfiction.

Edit: Eep! Good Ghod I'm long winded!

all of these fanzines were produced on typewriters

I very briefly had a Diplomacy fan-zine that printed text from IBM cards I typed at the University of Washington computer lab. It didn't last long but I didn't use a typewriter or mimeo or Xerox. Nothing was posted on the computer. Printers printed what I had typed on the IBM cards. Multiple times.

I remember doing something similar using punched tape with a teletype to create printed forms for internal use because it was way cheaper than using photocopied forms. In later years I used the editor of a HP-1000 to create the form files and print 50 or more copies on the computer printer when ever needed.

HM.

Thank you very much. In short, a pro-zine is NOT a publication for professionals (such as a magazine for lawyers, physicians, etc.) but indicates the writers get paid (thus, presumably, making the writers pros.)
Is that the gist of it?

Yes.

HM.

The Gazette for the last few years has paid professional rates to the writers. I suggest any one here with an interest go over to see what's involved. Or the 1632 forums on Baens Bar

SNIP

Eric Flint, on the other hand, when it became clear that there was well researched fanfic being set in his 1632 Universe, started a pro-zine to publish it, The Grantville Gazette, paying very well for the publication rights, and with the stories published there becoming canon. He's published a number of collaberative novels with individuals who got their start writing for The Grantville Gazette.