Charity Fanzine: The Many Worlds of Lois & Clark …

In 1999 some of L&C fanfic's favorite authors helped raise money for a FoLC who was going blind. They contributed stories to a fanzine — agreeing not to distribute them anywhere else for a full year.

Best of Both Worlds
Doris Schmill
69Kb
What begins as a routine day for Lois and for Superman becomes extraordinary as Lois and Clark celebrate a special anniversary.

HiM: The Video
Erin Klingler
41Kb
Whatever happened to the video that the bellboy made of Clark carrying Lois over the threshold of the Lexor hotel when they posed as newlyweds in the episode "Honeymoon in Metropolis"? This story delves into Lois' thoughts about her stay with Clark in the honeymoon suite and explains what became of the video.

Immaculate Preconceptions
IRC Round Robin
46Kb
A visitor from the future knows how important it is that Lois and Clark get some time alone today... but no matter how hard he tries to help, things keep going wrong.

In the Beginning
Sheila Harper
227Kb
What if ... Clark Kent doesn't arrive in Metropolis for another year? Lois Lane has become Lois Luthor, and her journalism career as destroyed as the Planet building. But when these two reporters meet, sparks fly as they embark on the investigation of their lives -- bringing down Lex Luthor.

Little Does My Lady Dream ...
Martina Koerber
51Kb
It's three weeks until their wedding and Clark finds out that Lois has a secret of her own.

My Mother Made It For Me
Chris Mulder
66Kb
In a segment from the continuation of the author's "Meet Me in Kansas City," Lois and Clark enlist the aid of the Kents in their plans for Clark's new, and as yet unnamed, alter ego.

The One That Got Away
Kathy Brown
36Kb
Clark takes it hard when he receives bad news about an old friend, which convinces Lois that this woman must have been "the one that got away."

Speeding bullets
Zoomway
56Kb
Was it fate or destiny that brought a small spacecraft to Gotham City instead of Australia, Timbuktu, or even a small farm in Kansas? This Elseworld tale explores a very different beginning to the Superman legend.

Superiority
Nicole Wolke
52Kb
What if Clark had arrived in Metropolis a few months later than he did in the show? And what if he already had a good name as a reporter then? In this Elseworld story, Lois and Clark meet on a more even level and just two weeks before Lois' wedding to the richest man in town, Lex Luthor.

The Truth About Chats And Sobs
Nekanuq
20Kb
Lois, it seems, can unearth trouble simply by sitting at home. But she and Clark had been needing this talk for some time.

Doris's Thank You:

When I began losing my sight in the beginning of 1998, one of my greatest concerns was that I would not be able to use my computer anymore. My computer was a means of communication for me and a means to keep in touch with the friends I had met all over the globe. My friends then got together and started the fanzine campaingn, the results of which enable me to write this today.

Since I cannot read the information on the computer screen, I have a talking computer. To avoid some confusion that often occurs when I say this, I am entering information into the computer just the way you do by typing on a normal keyboard. I touch type, and am just not tempted to peek at the keyboard. <g> The computer is the one that does all the talking. This is achieved with a software package called a screenreader. This program works in the background and reads out any textual information that appears on the screen. it is usually able to determine what information is new and would also be read by a sighted user. The text on the screen is then translated into synthetic speech that is output to me via a speech synthesizer.

When I received my screenreading equipment, I could see nothing on the screen anymore and had therefore lost use of my computer. Today I am back to doing most of what I had been able to before I lost my sight. I am using a Windows computer just as most of you do. I am using mainline applications like Microsoft Word, Eudora, MS Internet Explorer, mIRC. The main difference is that I do not use a mouse to operate my computer but rely solely on the keyboard for this with using menus and keyboard commands.

This technology has a few limitations. I cannot use programs that rely solely on graphical images that need to be clicked nor can I play graphical computer games or look at Dean pictures. <g> But those were things that I was never into that much anyways. I can websurf, download programs or the latest LnC fics, do email, write letters and stories, irc-chat with my friends, or use an OCR program to read hardcopy books for me. I today read faster with speech than my sighted husband does on the screen when we sometimes look at some information together. <g>

Losing my sight wasn't fun and I do miss it still, but I am grateful that what happened happened in a day and age where technology enables me to keep doing what I used to do and love doing. If anything, my computer has become more important and dearer to me today than it was before I lost my sight. It enables me to read and write and be in touch with my friends. And now it also has a voice that talks to me and has become a friend. And each time I turn it on and use it, I am reminded of the wonderful people out there that helped make this possible.

Thank you for being part of the fandom of a show that is about love and friendship and relationships and which the fans translated into real life.

Doris Schmill
<doris.schmill@berlin.de>