HEART AND SOUL has a new look for this edition. When I realized I was going to have a 250-page zine, and had already advertised my price as being the same as for my earlier zines, resorting to single spacing seemed to be the only affordable solution. I'll probably stick with it for future zines, unless readers complain about it being difficult to read. I'd rather trim the white space than raise the price.

The stories for this zine were inspired from a variety of sources. I took some poetic license with the book Digging Up Butch and Sundance for the story with a similar title. The book, by Anne Meadows, was actually published in 1994 (by St. Martin's Press). I took the liberty of pretending it existed in Starsky's and Hutch's time. Because of the excessive quoting of passages from the book, I strayed away from proper use of quotation marks, as in some cases there would have been three different sets of quotation marks, which could become cumbersome for the reader. Therefore, italics were used as one set of quotation marks. I strongly recommend purchasing the book for anyone who would like to know more about the true fates of Butch and Sundance. Be forewarned, however, that my story already mentions the passages that might be of particular interest to slash fans.

Part One of "The Heart Knows" was inspired by an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. Seeing the episode shortly after publishing HAS 3 jump-started my writing of the story, which in turn jump-started the production of this zine. I never would have guessed last fall that I would have another issue of HEART AND SOUL (an over-sized one, at that) available by summer.

"Sink or Swim" was inspired, in part, by a LoC from a reader of HAS 2 who missed not being able to enjoy the slow details (mentioned in the epilogue of "Compassion's Heart") of Starsky learning how to give himself completely to Hutch, from a physical standpoint. "Sink or Swim" is dedicated to all readers who felt similarly.

"Girlfriend" and its prequel, "The General" (HAS 2), were inspired by my experiences with adopting two dogs from the Denver Dumb Friends League. Both little mutts have added a tremendous amount of joy to my life, and I hope anyone thinking about pet ownership will always consider their local shelters first. These unwanted animals need our love and care, and what they give in return cannot be measured.

The last page of this zine is my standard LoC form. With so many fans now communicating on the Internet, it has become a waste of postage for me to send out SASEs when many prefer to communicate their thoughts via email. For those who are not online, or who otherwise wish to remain anonymous, feel free to tear out the last page and mail it to the address indicated.

Next in line is a novel. The rough draft was just recently completed, and I expect the zine to be available by Zebra Con.

Charlotte Frost

July 1997

email: regmoore@earthlink.net

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