Cover Total Eclipse of the Heart by Flamingo Illustrated by Suzan Lovett Edited by Barbara D., Elaine H., and Kath Moonshine. Originally published as a zine on October 1, 2001 by Flamingo ___________________________________________________________ New Intro, 2020: It's startling to go back and look through these 19-year-old files as I get ready to post an updated version of Total Eclipse of the Heart online. While it has been online since I first started writing it, its formatting was designed for 28 baud modems not the high speed internet of today. I wrote the original intro right after the events of 9/11, something I'd forgotten about; looking back, I'm surprised the task actually got done in time for ZebraCon that year. It was a big zine and producing one was something I'd never done before. Posting it as it was being written was also something new. Getting it printed provided even more drama, as the woman who offered to produce it through the professional printing company she worked for nearly lost her job over the zine's content. I was warned it wouldn't sell since it was already available on line, but it did, quite well. Over the years, fans' affection for this story has been more than encouraging and has been one of the many factors that has kept me active in Starsky and Hutch fandom for over 20 years. I am cheered to know that many of the friends I've listed in the original intro are still in my life, though some, sadly, like Rosemary and our friend Mel, have passed away. And I'd completely forgotten that I named the lawyer in the story after Rosemary. That was a jolt. Rosemary has been gone over a year already but I feel her looking over my shoulder every day, encouraging me and promising that everything will work out just fine. Enjoy. Flamingo __________________________________ Original intro from the zine: From the Bird's Beak... It's September 30, 2001, a few weeks after the tragedy at the World's Trade Center and the Pentagon. As a born and bred New Yorker who has lived 30 minutes from Washington D.C. for 20 plus years, the personal impact has been intense. But I know there isn't a person in the country that doesn't feel the same way, no matter where they were born or live now. After the attacks, I seriously doubted I'd get the zine formatted and produced, and besides, how important was it anyway? Then a tornado ripped through our neighborhood less than a week ago. Our home was unscathed, fortunately, but we lost power for days. But after 4 years writing TE, and after all the effort Suzan put into the art, I wanted it finished, in print, complete, done, fini. More important to me than the story was the desire to get Suzan's wonderful illos in the hands of S/H fans. Having a chance to work with such beautiful art that turned TE into a true illustrated novel has been both exciting and challenging. And it's brought me full circle to a day, almost 5 years ago, when Suzan showed me Starsky's "walk around the porch" from Class in Crime. As I fell hopelessly in love, she said that if I ever wrote SH, she would be happy to illustrate it. Who could turn down such an offer? After waiting so long for the novel to be finished, I was amazed Suzan hadn't lost interest in it. When she asked if I'd be willing to incorporate the illos into the text so they would fit in organically with the story, rather than produce the art in the more conventional manner, I thought it was a great idea. I still do, in spite of the problems it created for this novice zine producer. Hey, if it was easy, anyone could do it! It's amazing to see your ideas take visual shape and form. I was stunned when I realized that Suzan had produced 21 separate black and white drawings, plus a color cover and a color back cover. She also produced other preliminary drawings and sketches that I fell in love with. I'm grateful that she's let me reproduce some of them. The interior color illo is an unfinished cover prototype and there are unfinished sketches of the guys scattered throughout the zine. I'm rarely without words, but looking at the incredible portfolio Suzan produced renders me speechless. I know you'll love these lovely, haunting illos as much as I do. Suzan is responsible for my getting into SH fandom, as is my dear friend KC who plied me with zines. I'm forever grateful, as I've made some of my dearest friends in this fandom. The encouragement, stimulation, creative juices, and just plain love I've gotten from folks like Rosemary, Kath Moonshine, Kelly, Glow, Martha, Linda, Cindy L., SHaron, Solo, Viv, Janie, Barb. D., Linda R., Lucy, Elaine, Paladin, Mer, Suz, Janice, Mel, and Cherrel (to name just a few), and listsibs on our discussion list, VenicePlace--some of whom I've never met--is amazing. It keeps me going and more important, it keeps me laughing. Big love to my tireless and fabulously nit-picky editors--Barb D, Elaine H., and Kath Moonshine. Any errors in this zine are strictly my own. They did an incredible job--and in Barb's case, multiple times--on a humongous manuscript. Big thanks to my printer, Sandy. It's great working with a slash fan that has access to high tech printing equipment and has skill and patience besides. And a special big thanks and giant love goes out to my perpetually cheerful, encouraging, and upbeat roommate, Rosemary. (I may kill her for those traits some day!) But the biggest thanks and most special love are reserved for my partner, Anne, who no doubt rues the day the words "Starsky and Hutch" were uttered in our house. She's a saint, that woman. (You think it's easy living with a saint?) To encourage new forms of publication and greater accessibility for fans, I support simultaneous publication. Within a month (i.e. when I recover from ZebraCon), TE will be available as an e- zine, as downloadable files for PDAs and Palm Pilots, on CDs, and from the Starsky & Hutch Lending Library. It's almost 6 AM and I haven't been to bed yet. All night formatting is a fannish tradition Martha and Linda tell me. In 4 hours I hope to be printing this thing, holding it in my hand and calling it a zine. Please join us for lots of SH fun in October of 2002, at SHareCon in Maryland. And if you'd like to join our insane, but friendly, on-line neighborhood, VenicePlace, just drop me a note. Now I need to edit this over-long intro, and try to catch a few winks before printing starts. Thanks to everyone who has waited so patiently for this zine. Flamingo __________________________________ Frontispiece TE02.jpg "...The next report I expect to hear--the only report that I am at all concerned with--is that we have eliminated, now and forever, the two individuals who are almost single-handedly responsible for the massive damage inflicted on this organization. "Now and forever, gentlemen, now and forever gone." James Gunther to his Board of Directors in the episode Sweet Revenge _________________________________________________ Prologue When you open up your life to the living, All things come spilling in on you, And you're flowing like a river, The Changer and The Changed You've got to spill some over, over all Waterfall--Chris Williamson Detective Sergeant David Michael Starsky shed the towel carelessly knotted around his hips and stepped wearily into the precinct communal shower. Turning the water on full force, he ducked under the steaming spray, grinning. It didn't matter that he was filthy and exhausted; he'd had a good day at work. And after the last nine months, a good day at work was not something he took for granted. As soon as the steaming water struck his body, Starsky began to mutate. From a tired, grimy, battle-scarred homicide detective, he felt himself change. It started with a soft humming, then the low throaty trill of "Da-da-da-da, da-da, da-da-da-da," until, before he knew it, Starsky had miraculously transformed into a wet, soapy, naked--but lithesome--Gene Kelly. "I'm singin' in the rain!" Starsky warbled, as water cascaded through his curly hair and over his lathered body. "Just singin' in the rain! "What a glorious feeling! "I'm ha-a-a-appy again!" Oblivious to the stares of other cops, he lathered and rinsed, his voice reverberating enthusiastically around the tiled walls. "I'm la-a-a-ughin' at clouds, "so dark up above. "The sun's in my heart, "and I'm re-e-e-ady for love!" As he rinsed the day's sweat away, he added dance steps to his number. Using a stationary pole as a stand-in for Kelly's street lamp, he swung around, sliding his feet wetly along the tiles, splashing his fellow police officers. "Let the stormy clouds chase, "everyone from the place--" They took the cue and abandoned the shower as Starsky's choreography became more complicated. Oblivious to the critical walk-outs, he danced on, singing his heart out. "Come on with the rain, "I've a smi-i-i-le on my face." He swung an imaginary umbrella as he exited the shower and headed for his locker.