#rebelsandfools issue 5

[jaelijn]

Hello. Sorry to ask a silly question and I hope not too many people have asked you this endlessly, but why is it the final edition of Rebels and Fools? I mean why is it stopping? I'm not on Tumblr so I'm pretty clueless (generally, haha)

No worries at all, nor a silly question - I don't think I've explained this at length anywhere, as yet. So @rebelsandfools....

The short of it is that *if* I were to pick to stop anywhere, Issue #7 is where it would be - because Blake's 7, naturally. It feels both appropriate and a place to stop while on a high, because the last thing I want is for the zine to die a sad death for some reason or another. As in, I don't ever want to promise an issue that then never happens.

The long answer is that I never expected this zine to have anywhere near this many issues - when I had the idea, I frankly barely expected there to be *one* issue, haha! But when I realised that it could happen, reaching the appropriate 7 issues became a dream and something that seemed possible even when I was at my lowest: The zine is a massive commitment of time and effort on my part, one that I can't muster if I'm not fully committed to the project, and I don't want it to die because I fail to deliver. The seven issues also represent 7 years of my life, which is a decently long time to be in a fandom in the first place, and also a time in which - as you can probably imagine - a lot of things can change in real life (IRL) as well as in fandom. I'm still here, clearly, but when I was looking at editing issue #5 (which is when this decision was made), I thought that if I fell out of love with the fandom in any of the next two years, I could probably manage to push myself for *just one more issue* and finish it up neatly, regardless of what was happening IRL. As of yet, I haven't fallen out of love with the show/fandom, and I honestly hope that I won't, ever, but it's not always easy, and I want to conclude the project while I still feel that I want to do it. (The fact that R&F is ending doesn't necessarily mean there won't be future B7 zine projects from Rebels and Fools Press aka yours truly, by the by, if I feel like it, but the continued yearly commitment is getting A Lot, because after issue #7, there is no place that seems like a natural stopping point anymore.)

Beyond my personal stuff, the other factor is, of course, that I can't do the zine alone. I do *a lot*, but if there's no content, there's no zine, and across these 7 years, I have seen a lot of shifting in the fandom. While I have definitely also seen new people and creators join across the years, a significant number of people alongside whom I originally started this project have had less time or have moved on to other things. The tumblr community that was the original start of it doesn't really exist in this way anymore, even though a lot of the people are still around; the more active areas of the fandom seem to have moved to different shores or towards aspects that I have no personal interest and/or involvement in. As such, maintaining a connection to a community for finding submissions after the initial year has never felt easy and has, in fact, become increasingly difficult, as evidenced also by the delay to issue #6. I don't want to be at a point where I could do a zine but know nobody else who wants to and/or wants to do it with me, and after committing 7 years to this, I also don't want to just pass the zine over to someone else who might be more in touch with other parts of the fandom. But I also don't want R&F to become a one-person-project that will eventually just not happen anymore because I can't be bothered. I want to give it a grand finale as the community project that it always was - and to do that, it needs to have a fixed, predetermined end point that people can work towards, and there seemed to be no more appropriate place than the seventh issue. I do hope that people will want to join me again for a this final issue to achieve a grand finale worthy of the zine and the show/fandom. And if you're new to the zine - don't let the fact that it's the finale deter you! We may have a long history, but just because you are coming in at the final issue doesn't mean we won't love to have you (and hope that you will continue to stick around, after!)!

As for what comes after Issue #7 - who knows. I have been toying with the idea of single-issue topic and/or character/pairing specific zines, but first I want to give R&F the grand finale that a seven year project deserves. Hopefully, I'll see you as part of it!

[rebelsandfools]

Rebels and Fools: Issue 5

We did it! Our five-year anniversary issue of Rebels and Fools is out! And what a special issue it is.

I still can’t quite believe that we’ve been doing this for FIVE YEARS, but it is finally time for another zine full of lovely, brand new Blake’s 7 fanworks!

Rebels and Fools: Issue 5 is ready for your viewing/reading pleasure!

Once more a massive THANK YOU again to all contributors, without whom this zine wouldn’t exist. As our readers, please be vocal in your appreciation, in public or in private. You will find ways to contact the individual contributors in the zine, but I’m also always happy to take messages on this blog (ask box!), and appreciation posted into #rebelsandfools is most welcome and will be reblogged here (unless Tumblr eats the tagged posts because, well, Tumblr). And if you happen to be in the mood for a review - there is still space on R&F’s fanlore page!

Click here to get to the pdf download of the zine, or find the link for copy-pasting under this issue’s cover image of our dear huntress Dayna, drawn by @hadescavedish​​.

Here is the link to the zine again, and for copy-pasting: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c1rp9r4f9t30e8y/Rebels%20and%20Fools%20-%20Issue%205.pdf?dl=0

Enjoy the zine!

Sharing and Promotion: You are absolutely encouraged to talk about and promote the zine to Blake’s 7 fans anywhere and everywhere! If you wish to publicly share the zine off Tumblr, please link to the original of this Tumblr post, not the direct Dropbox link. I will be maintaining the link on here, but cannot guarantee that the download link won’t change over time.

One caveat on promotion: you cannot use the cover image or any content that is not your own in full or in part for the promotion of the zine (or any other purpose, really) without the explicit permission of the editor (me) and the creator of the content in question - if you plan a bigger piece on/promotion of R&F, contact the editor. You are not permitted to profit financially from this zine in any way, including but not limited to promotion and/or sharing of the zine.

Contributors: You are absolutely allowed to post your own work elsewhere, as long as you don’t submit it to another zine. I would, however, ask you to wait just one little week until August 18th 2021 before doing so, just so people have time to appreciate the zine in full first, and that you mention the zine and link back to this post when you do. There is also an AO3 collection, if you want to add your works there. For now, you can absolutely point people to the full zine and highlight where to find your content, if you want. Please do not use any submissions to the zine to make financial profit. And finally: thank you again for your wonderful submissions!

[foreignobjecticus]

2, 7, 11, 13, 18, and 29 for the writing meme!

 Thank you for the ask! God I always forget I reblog these and them BAM hello little notification - what are you doing here? :D

2. What character(s) do you find the most difficult to write for? Why?

From a third person POV, I definitely find Blake the hardest to write for – I think this might be a view shared with other writers too (although I know some people LOVE to write for him). I don’t really know what it is about him – maybe it’s just I have really practised him enough, or maybe my impressions of him have been skewed by too much uh variety of fanfic with him.

 7. What story/headcanons do you feel the proudest of?

All the ones I’ve yet to reveal! Hah! Story: I have to say it’s probably my awful Lindor Treat smut just because I genuinely didn’t expect people would even give it a passing thought let alone like it! (Non-smut? There’s one coming for @gaudaprimesocialclub GPSC that I’m even more proud of, but you’ll have to wait!)

Headcanons, I have a heap of… stuff… for one of the characters. In order to hold myself even more accountable, I’ll say now that I’ve submitted a draft for that to @rebelsandfools RnF for issue 5 in 2021, so there’s still a good 9 months before that’s refined and revealed. I also hinted at this in my latest thing because I can’t help myself.

God I’m such a fucking tease, aren’t I?

 11. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

Uh… um… uh?

I think this is probably one of those things that other people notice more than the person who writes. I do notice that I write a lot of scenery – like the wind blowing someone’s hair or the sun burning against their skin. Once I start a fic, with a specific mood in mind (introspection/action/whatever), that theme generally carries on through the whole fic, so it can vary depending on the media I’m consuming at the time - I am a sponge. 

 13. When did you start writing fanfic?

Fuck knows. My earliest memories are of me writing little headcanons and self-inserts for Madeliene of all things, so I might have been very very young – maybe 3/4 years old? I would have been 6 the first time I hauled out mum’s old electric typewriter (now THAT’S a fucking trip – have you seen these monsters? all the worst parts of using a mechanical typewriter AND a primitive computer ALL ROLLED INTO ONE – and you STILL needed fking correction tape). It was something like this.

So I wrote god knows what on this, and then later more crap (both probably original stuff) on a Windows 91 laptop. I still have the floppy disks laying around somewhere. Of course, I used pen & paper too and I still have a few notebooks here that I’ve kept with some godawful stuff in them, but it is fun to go back over them sometimes. Even when I was young, I can see the style that my current stuff developed from.

I didn’t really start posting things properly until I got into the B7 fandom (with the exception of a very small handful of Poirot/Harry Potter stuff). So thank you so much to this beautiful little fandom for being so welcoming and encouraging - god damn! Really hauled me out of 2 decades of uh no I shouldn’t post it it’s terrible. <3 You’re all beautiful.

 18. Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished?

I write and write and write whatever the fuck comes out (and it doesn’t even come out of my brain – just flows from my fingers as gibberish as people watching me writing in real time will know), and as I go I backspace and edit a sentence. Mainly, they do come out pretty much as well formed as I think they’re going to be, and the only editing I do later is altering the multiple repetitions of the same word and replacing them with synonyms for flavour. People who re-write stuff they’ve already written/accidentally deleted? Fucking props to you. I just can’t.

 29. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

The actual writing is my favourite, because [see last question]. I’m learning to use outlining a bit more than I have in the past, and brainstorming can be great, but while I’m brainstorming I find that chunks – if not whole ficlets – just suddenly form in my mind and it’s then a race to hammer them out onto the page before the vibe is gone forever.

[jaelijn]

Blake’s 7 - Rebels and Fools #5: “At Fault”

It’s time to post my @rebelsandfools art for this year, and there’s a whole bunch of it! Many of these I’ve been itching to share, some for literally months, but I’m starting off with this one because it goes well with the fanfic from R&F #5 I have also just posted, “Strays”, though it isn’t an illustration in any way.

This was inspired by one of my favourite Elfquest panels, though of course I made some changes, so instead of Skywise and his wolf you get Avon and his snow leopard.

[jaelijn]

Blake’s 7 - Avon/Vila: “Partners”

It’s the seventh, so it’s time for the first little special treat! This little piece of artwork I’ve been hanging on to for ages (since May, apparently!) - first because it wasn’t quite done, then because I thought I might need it for @rebelsandfools​ Issue 5, but then I ended up doing a lot of other things for R&F, so this just... slipped through the cracks - but it’s finally time to share it!

Some of you may recognise the behind the scenes pic this is based on, but I took some liberties with it. Enjoy the sappy (late season!) softness!

Gauda Prime Day Calendar 2021 Masterpost

[jaelijn]

Blake’s 7 - Rebels and Fools #5: “Stained Glass”

More from @rebelsandfools issue #5.

This is one of the ones I have been wanting to share for ages. It was finished back in May and I love everything about it. Doing something with a stained glass effect has been on my list for so long and I couldn’t be happier with how it worked out.

[rebelsandfools]

Under 2 months!

We’ve just broken the 2 months mark until the deadline - which means there is still time to get your submissions in for Issue #5, but also there’s only 2 more months left to do so! Time to panic yet?

The deadline for all submissions is midnight in the westernmost timezone on August 1st 2021.

It’s also come to our attention that several people have tried to contact us about zine business through Tumblr, but the messages either didn’t arrive at all or were hidden by Tumblr to be discovered only by chance. We do generally respond to all zine queries in a reasonably short time.

So here’s what to do if you don’t hear from us:

If you have sent in any kind of message through Tumblr and have not heard back in two weeks at the latest, please email us under the editorial email (rebelsandfools[ A T ]protonmail[D OT]com). Emails are less likely to be lost and I try to get to any email communications within a few days if at all possible.

(Also if you have emailed in a submission and have not had a confirmation of receipt, feel free to send along an email without attachments or links to check whether we’ve got it; we won’t mind. No confirmation at all shouldn’t normally happen unless there was a technical issue and we want to make sure all submissions reach us safe and sound!)

[rebelsandfools]

Under 2 months to go...

As it has just dropped under the 2 months mark until our August 1st submission deadline for issue #4, here’s a couple of reminders and an announcement.

You can submit any time before the deadline. That means, if you have something finished, submit it right now! You don’t have to submit all your things at once, so if one is done but you’re still working on another - submit the one!

There is no limit to submissions per person. You can submit 1 thing, you can submit 10 things. In case of multiple submissions, feel free to specify which you definitely want to see in Issue #4, which can be put on a back burner for issue #5, and which you would rather withdraw if they don’t fit in issue #4.

If you have any questions about the zine, check out the FAQ and/or ask! We don’t bite.

On July 1st (in your own timezone), there will be an early bird check-in. What does this mean? 

If you have something ready for the zine already but need an official specific date to submit it by, submit it on July 1st as early-bird submission. Your editor will love you. (Again, you can submit finished things ANY TIME, there is no need to wait for August or July.)

If you have something for the zine more or less ready on July 1st that will definitely* be fully finished by August 1st, submit it on July 1st as a draft. Clearly state that it is a draft! You can still make changes to drafts and resubmit at any time before August 1st, but submitting a draft will give the editor a sense of what kind of submissions are coming in.

If you have a submission planned but it’s not ready for an early bird / draft submission BUT will definitely* be by August 1st, let us know what you are submitting. This can be completely informal, an ask, an email, a Discord message. Again, just to give the editor a sense of what is coming in (and how much).

If you are considering sharing a teaser of your R&F submission, consider doing it on July 1st! Use the hashtag #rebelsandfools and all teasers will be reblogged here to generate some excitement for the zine! 

You can still submit by August 1st without doing any of this, but it helps immensely for editing if we can get a sense of what and how many submissions are coming in, and we want to create a little excitement, so tease away!

*”definitely” means: It will 100% be submitted August 1st, unforeseeable circumstances excepted (such as: “my entire computer was eaten by space enzyme on July 31st and I lost all my files”).

[rebelsandfools]

This is a general reference post for the ongoing work on a digital Blake’s 7 fanzine (issue #1?)!

This is completely fanmade, for fun and not for profit. Once the zine issue is done, it will be a full-colour pdf free to download (and home-print for personal use, if so inclined).

Project tag (tracked): #rebelsandfools

I’m @castielslight / Jaelijn.

GETTING IN TOUCH:

For now, use tumblr ask or submit to get in touch. If needed (and it probably will be for submission), I will set up an email address specifically for zine business.

And please do get in touch! I want this project to be as collaborative as we can possibly make it.

(I try to answer queries as quickly as I’m able. Bear in mind that my “battery” sometimes runs low.)

A note on promotion: If you want to promote the zine on tumblr, just reblog any posts - this is a good one for it! If you want to promote the zine on other sides, please contact me, the editor, first. I will let you know how to go about it.

WORKING SCHEDULE:

Ambitious / ideal deadline for content submissions: end of July 2017.

Absolute deadline for content submission: end of August 2017.

This gives you 5 months. You can submit at any time before then.

This schedule is to allow me to finalise editing in the course of August and get the zine out before my RL gets chaotic in September and I have no idea when the editing might be done after that.

If this turns out to be completely undoable, we can talk about pushing the deadline back to October, and hope that I might have time to get the editing done by the New Year.

WHAT CAN I SUBMIT?

Short answer: any self-created B7 content that fits into a static format. I want this to be a zine for which everyone can find *something* to contribute.

Long answer:

art, fic, meta, filk, poetry, crafts, recipes, fic recs, zine recs, character-themed song rec lists, etc etc etc (whatever else you can think of!)

no gifs (they move and therefore can’t be printed), videos (they also move), or stand-alone screencaps (we don’t want to invite copyright issues beyond the usual for fanworks; elaborate edits, photomanips and caps as meta evidence are all fine)

all work should be new for the zine (i.e. not previously published).

theme-wise, I would exclude nothing, but ask that visual submissions be SFW (some light nudity etc is fine, but let’s avoid the very explicit things)

there will be a separate post with more specific rules for wordcounts, file size etc and for what I need from artists and writers in terms of “meta data” - e.g. summaries, titles, ratings, warnings…

as this is a digital zine, I see no reason why we should limit ourselves in numbers of submissions, but if we get a lot of material, there might be an issue #2 (or #3…)

OTHER THINGS

You’ll see that I have titled this project “Rebels and Fools”, which is the title I picked for my B7 livestreaming. This does not have to be the title of the zine unless people like it; I think of it primarily as the name of the “publishing house”. Feel free to suggest a title for the zine!

If people would like a specific theme or themes for the zine or for elements of it (such as optional themes for art and fic), I’m happy to take suggestions!

If you want to collaborate on fic and art, or write a joined meta, it is up to you to organise it in a way that it’ll be ready by the deadline. I’m happy to fascilitate via this blog - i.e. if you’re an artist looking for someone to fic your art, I can give a shoutout etc.

I’m absolutely serious about the ficrecs. This should be something everyone can contribute a favourite to, and we’d end up with a whole list of great B7 fic to explore after we’ve read through our own zine! I imagine this to be quite simple in format, so it doesn‘t require reviewing skills (though if you want to submit a page length fic review too, knock yourself out!). Details HERE.

Remember to refer to the detail post (HERE) re: specifics for different types of submission.

If you have your own beta, please please use them. Or if someone is willing to offer proofreading services for this zine specifically, please let me know. I will casually proofread for spelling and grammar as I edit, but I won’t have the time to give a detailed proofread to every submission.

Want to help with editing / handling submissions / answering questions? Let me know. This is a sideblog, so I can add multiple users to it.