About This Site
Way back in the day (1997-1998), I bought my very first personal computer. Now, keep in mind, internet access meant dial-up, and dial-up was excruciatingly slow!
That was when the internet was still just a baby! No social media - just imagine, no facebook, no twitter! How about this... Google didn't even exist yet! It was a different time to be sure, as well as a different internet. But I digress.
So, one day while I was "surfin' the 'net," my husband and I were talking about the cartoons we watched as kids. Of course I said, "How about Voltron, you remember that one?" And he said, "No."
Let me just allow that to sink in for a moment.
He said, "No." He had no idea what I was talking about!
So I went through the whole spiel. "I know you know Voltron! Lion Voltron with the 5 lions that form the giant robot, Vehicle Voltron with all the little cars that form the giant robot." While he continued to look lost, I continued to rattle on... "From days of long ago? Princess Allura? Prince Lotor, Captain Keith? The creepy witch with the blue cat?"
My husband continued to look perplexed and even offered an excuse... "You know I grew up in Europe."
Well that's fine because I knew that Voltron had been on TV all around the world and I was sure he just needed his memory jogged! So I tried the thing all Voltron fans have done at least once in trying to get someone to recognize our favorite defender of the universe...I started humming/singing the theme.
And hubby looked at me like I had utterly and completely gone mad.
I couldn't believe it! He really didn't know Voltron! And a part of me felt a little crushed. I was obsessed with Voltron as a kid! I used to ride my bike all around the neighborhood with my brother and friends and we'd pretend we were the Voltron Force zooming about in our lions! I still had the toys and some coloring books out in the garage! Maybe I should go look for them, if he just saw a picture of Voltron...
That's when it hit me. I had the internet, and you could find just about anything on the 'net! So I searched for Voltron and I found him! I also found this world where there were other people just like me! They remembered Voltron and they loved him too!! These people had websites with fan art and fan fiction... Finally, I stumbled across KAEX - a mailing list dedicated to the romance between Keith and Allura.
That's when I did go dig those boxes full of Voltron memorabilia out of the garage. In those boxes, I found a notebook with several fanfics I had written as a teenager. As I grew more comfortable, I decided to dust off those fanfics and share them with the wonderful people over at KAEX. And they were so kind and gracious to me - so encouraging!
It was about this time that I decided I wanted to have a website - one dedicated to Voltron. So, naturally, I started teaching myself to code in HTML. Then I was introduced to Photoshop! O. M. G. The things you could do with Photoshop! I had always been interested in computers but this was a whole other level of fun!
So "The Lion's Keep" was born! For many, many years, I had my site online, one incarnation after the next. It changed and grew, and took on a life all its own. After quite some time, TLK became so large that I had to find it a new web host. That's where I really started having trouble. I searched around and finally found a place that worked for TLK. It seemed to be a good match and for a long time things were perfect. But, one day, TLK was simply gone. All my hard work, all my files - gone. The host had shut down with no warning at all.
That's when things really started to go downhill. The internet was changing - and free hosting companies had figured out that they could charge real money for virtual space. Thankfully I had back-ups of everything. I was able to rework the site into a minimalist version of itself and found a temporary home. But even that didn't last. It seemed like every time I thought I had it figured out, something would go wrong.
You also have to keep in mind that TLK wasn't the only massive website that I had created and was handling - Lynne ("Bonds of Love"), Caroline ("School Days") and I ("Just Allura") had also created the "Hunk's the Real Hunk" Fan Club Site (aka HRH). So the issues I had with TLK also applied to HRH... You talk about frustrating!
Well, I'm sure you can see where things are heading with this tale. Between all those aforementioned troubles, and so many Real Life struggles, eventually both TLK and HRH faded away...
But I never gave up hope! I was always trying to get the sites back up and running - but we all know about good intentions. Don't we all have that to-do list of projects that keeps getting pushed to the side? And it's not because you don't want to do those things! It's just that Real Life intrudes and you must deal with your responsibilities and all those other boring little details first.
So, here we are. Things have finally fallen into place. And, I offer up my new site... It's still The Lion's Keep - but it's also The Next Chapter.
And you better bet that my husband now knows all about Voltron.
That was when the internet was still just a baby! No social media - just imagine, no facebook, no twitter! How about this... Google didn't even exist yet! It was a different time to be sure, as well as a different internet. But I digress.
So, one day while I was "surfin' the 'net," my husband and I were talking about the cartoons we watched as kids. Of course I said, "How about Voltron, you remember that one?" And he said, "No."
Let me just allow that to sink in for a moment.
He said, "No." He had no idea what I was talking about!
So I went through the whole spiel. "I know you know Voltron! Lion Voltron with the 5 lions that form the giant robot, Vehicle Voltron with all the little cars that form the giant robot." While he continued to look lost, I continued to rattle on... "From days of long ago? Princess Allura? Prince Lotor, Captain Keith? The creepy witch with the blue cat?"
My husband continued to look perplexed and even offered an excuse... "You know I grew up in Europe."
Well that's fine because I knew that Voltron had been on TV all around the world and I was sure he just needed his memory jogged! So I tried the thing all Voltron fans have done at least once in trying to get someone to recognize our favorite defender of the universe...I started humming/singing the theme.
And hubby looked at me like I had utterly and completely gone mad.
I couldn't believe it! He really didn't know Voltron! And a part of me felt a little crushed. I was obsessed with Voltron as a kid! I used to ride my bike all around the neighborhood with my brother and friends and we'd pretend we were the Voltron Force zooming about in our lions! I still had the toys and some coloring books out in the garage! Maybe I should go look for them, if he just saw a picture of Voltron...
That's when it hit me. I had the internet, and you could find just about anything on the 'net! So I searched for Voltron and I found him! I also found this world where there were other people just like me! They remembered Voltron and they loved him too!! These people had websites with fan art and fan fiction... Finally, I stumbled across KAEX - a mailing list dedicated to the romance between Keith and Allura.
That's when I did go dig those boxes full of Voltron memorabilia out of the garage. In those boxes, I found a notebook with several fanfics I had written as a teenager. As I grew more comfortable, I decided to dust off those fanfics and share them with the wonderful people over at KAEX. And they were so kind and gracious to me - so encouraging!
It was about this time that I decided I wanted to have a website - one dedicated to Voltron. So, naturally, I started teaching myself to code in HTML. Then I was introduced to Photoshop! O. M. G. The things you could do with Photoshop! I had always been interested in computers but this was a whole other level of fun!
So "The Lion's Keep" was born! For many, many years, I had my site online, one incarnation after the next. It changed and grew, and took on a life all its own. After quite some time, TLK became so large that I had to find it a new web host. That's where I really started having trouble. I searched around and finally found a place that worked for TLK. It seemed to be a good match and for a long time things were perfect. But, one day, TLK was simply gone. All my hard work, all my files - gone. The host had shut down with no warning at all.
That's when things really started to go downhill. The internet was changing - and free hosting companies had figured out that they could charge real money for virtual space. Thankfully I had back-ups of everything. I was able to rework the site into a minimalist version of itself and found a temporary home. But even that didn't last. It seemed like every time I thought I had it figured out, something would go wrong.
You also have to keep in mind that TLK wasn't the only massive website that I had created and was handling - Lynne ("Bonds of Love"), Caroline ("School Days") and I ("Just Allura") had also created the "Hunk's the Real Hunk" Fan Club Site (aka HRH). So the issues I had with TLK also applied to HRH... You talk about frustrating!
Well, I'm sure you can see where things are heading with this tale. Between all those aforementioned troubles, and so many Real Life struggles, eventually both TLK and HRH faded away...
But I never gave up hope! I was always trying to get the sites back up and running - but we all know about good intentions. Don't we all have that to-do list of projects that keeps getting pushed to the side? And it's not because you don't want to do those things! It's just that Real Life intrudes and you must deal with your responsibilities and all those other boring little details first.
So, here we are. Things have finally fallen into place. And, I offer up my new site... It's still The Lion's Keep - but it's also The Next Chapter.
And you better bet that my husband now knows all about Voltron.
Advisory
Warning - while the contents of this site are of an artistic nature, some of the included works (both fanart and fanfiction) have a mature theme. Those fanworks that are of a mature nature will be clearly labeled as such, and should be restricted to viewing by individuals over the age of 18. Please understand that if you view/read these mature works it is at your own risk.
Please Note
"The Lion's Keep: The Next Chapter" is the most recent version of the "The Lion's Keep",
and was originally established November 08, 1999
Disclaimers
Voltron: Defender Of The Universe, Vehicle Voltron,
Voltron The Third Dimension, Voltron Force
Voltron: Legendary Defender
and all associated characters are owned and copyrighted © by
WEP, LLC
And licensed by
DreamWorks Animation
Stories, new and original characters, etc., copyright © their respective authors/creators. Please be kind, considerate and honest and don't use original characters or reuse/repost an artist's or writer's work without their express consent. Anything you see or read here has been posted with permission from the respective author or artist.
These pages are meant for entertainment purposes only - no infringement is intended.
I can't help it... I ❤ love ❤ Voltron!