Fanzines
A fanzine (portmanteau of fan and magazine or -zine) is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest.
This quote from the Wikipedia is dry and tasteless and doesn't come close to describing what a Fanzine is.
Fanzines are the lifeblood of fans - they are the communication of shared dreams, the searing, urgent soul search of contact with others who love as you love. Fanzines keep people together, give them something to create for, something to reach for, some way to share.
Fanzines show how alive a fandom is, how popular it is. They are a way of saying "We want to be IN this universe, not just read about it!"
Here in the Sime~Gen universe we have several Fanzines that are full of the creativity of the people who love Sime~Gen. While some of them have stopped, as the Internet replaced the much needed communication that fans desired, it is telling that "A Companion in Zeor" is still current and taking new work.
It is from these Fanzines - written by the fans, for the fans, that the publisher Wildside discovered that Sime~Gen fans weren't just "fanatics" but could actually write! It is from these Fanzines that several authors had their start in professional fiction, and it is thanks to these fan published creation that the first Anthology of Sime~Gen stories is being professionally published (2015).
There are hundreds of hours of reading ahead of you, if this is your first trip down the golden road to Zeor - our Fanzines!
There is another Fanzine that we should mention - the "Tecton Inquirer". Unforunately it did not make it to the internet and all that remains of it is some wonderful cover art by Gail Barton that you can see in the Fanart Gallery.