The Pop Tart

Back in the day (early 90's) I worked at a library branch and got to be friendly with a fellow Anne McCaffrey fan. Every time I'd see her we traded notes on the latest science fiction we'd read and whatever Anne M. stuff that came up. Though we only spoke across a check-out counter on her weekly visits to the library she came to trust me enough to tell me her deep dark secret. With a group of friends she'd created a fan 'zine devoted to the dragon worlds of Anne McCaffrey! Wow! A self-published magazine devoted to new tales of the empathic dragons and their humans. Who'd a thunk it?

The rest of this walk down memory lane has long since faded. The Pop Tart certainly never submitted any of her own stories to the 'zine. 'Course not. That was someone else and if you have copies, they're fakes.

TPT's efforts aside, ever since then I've been fascinated with the idea of 'zines and in this electronic age, fanfiction. Man the good, the bad and the ugly is all out there. And truly much of it's so bad it's good. Want examples? Check out Godawful Fan Fiction . With everything from Shakespeare to Lord of the Rings, the reviewers have got the worst covered - seems a lot of Mary Sue's want to get with Legolas. Go figure.