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EDITORIAL Welcome to HEART AND SOUL 5. It's been eighteen months since my last zine, but the wait won't be near as long for the next one. HAS 6 is three-quarters complete and I expect it to be finished in time to debut at MountainMedia Con in July. All four stories in this zine are quite different from each other. I usually like to fill up this space with mention of the various things that inspired some of the stories, but I can't do that this time around. This is an unusual group in that the origination of the stories can't be linked to any particular creative jump-start; only that the separated-and-thinking-each-other-dead theme that starts "Sanctuary" was something that I used to imagine when I was a teenager and the Starsky & Hutch originally aired. The novella turned out to be quite different than I ever thought back then. The face of fandom seems to have changed a lot since the publication of PHANTOMS. There is now considerably more activity online, and I have enjoyed participating in a few of the lists. One topic that received discussion last Autumn was that of feedback. I complained about the lack of it, and others shared their thoughts and experiences. Readers' reasons for not writing LoCs ("letters of comment") ranged from not realizing that fandom writers in general receive very little feedback; to being discouraged from writing a LoC for fear of not being able to talk "up to" the author's level; to being reluctant to give feedback because of past experience with the recipient reacting badly to constructive criticism; to simply being too lazy to share their thoughts on the stories with the authors and editors who created them. For those who weren't privy to that discussion, I'll reiterate here that there is nothing more discouraging to a fan writer than total silence after putting so much effort into creating a story and bringing it to print. If you enjoy what you're reading - in any fandom - make sure the people who bring those stories to you know how you feel. I can't speak for others, but for myself, I am also interested in what the readers dislike. I don't see much point in bringing to print those stories, themes, or ideas that appeal only to a small minority. I don't know what readers like and dislike unless they tell me. Contrary to popular belief, authors and editors do not automatically know what the readers think. For the sake of the newer online generation, I'd like to mention that it was customary in the past to write a "Letter of Comment" (LoC) to the editor of a zine after reading it, giving their thoughts, feelings, and constructive critiques of the stories in the zine. Such a LoC does not need to be an English essay in order to be helpful and worthwhile for the recipients. There is no particular format that needs to followed. Simply sharing your thoughts, feelings, enthusiasms, disagreements, etc. regarding the stories is all that is needed -- whether in person, via a letter, or via an email message. At the very least, such feedback lets the authors know the stories were read - something that silence does not. I'd like to welcome Flamingo to my list of editors. An extra set of red ink on the rough drafts can only serve to make my stories better, and I appreciate her help with this issue. Beth and Trish have been lending their assistance since my first efforts at publishing, and I feel I've done them an injustice by having referred to them in the past as "proofreaders". All those who have assisted with my zines do so much more than that, so I've correctly labeled everyone as editors this time around. I take sole responsibility for any typos or other readability mistakes, as I was the last proofreader after the manuscript was tweaked a final time. As mentioned above, HAS 6 is well on its way to fruition. I'm also pecking at a novel that I've had in progress for over a year now. Perhaps that will follow in the new millennium. Charlotte Frost March 1999
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