Subject:

Feast of Fanfic 04

Date:

Tue, 26 May 1998 18:47:47

-0700

From:

jordan <jordan@jetson.uh.edu>

Newsgroups:

alt.tv.x-files.creative

Feast of Fanfic 04

Another week, another feast. This

time the mix is spiced with

an off-topic thread that demonstrated

a great deal about our fanfic community.

You all know what I mean: jenroses'

"Moment of Silence" thread. From the

choices, I suggest one post in particular, from:

"Dragan Antulov" dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr

Through a personal vignette, Dragan

reminds us that tragedy and adversity

are the black backdrop to that which is

bright and shining about the human spirit,

our courage and our dignity and our refusal

to succumb to despair. Go Dragan!

***************

Danielle Stevens, at dfstevens@yahoo.com,

has come up with quite an intriquing idea:

she wants to recreate the Canterbury Tales

using X-Files fanfic. Anyone tired of waiting

for the Renaissance Festival to re-open:

consider writing a story that emphasizes both

the teller and the tale, as Chaucer did. She

will then unite the stories into tales told on a

pilgrimage. I can hardly wait to see how it

comes out!

A great challenge for your narrative skills!

(from her Prologue)

A drought of dull evenings without a new plot

And days where the weather is all that is hot.

Worse still for the poor fans who were trapped

Discovering that their whole series had

wrapped

With that last episode tying up the loose ends

Somehow less satisfying than the fan fiction

sends.

Her parody of the Prologue is superb, and

quite true to the intention of the original,

remaining faithful in meter and couplet

arrangement. Very nicely done.

Anyone interested can reach her at the

above address, and if you don't want to

play, at least treat yourself to the rest

of this lovely poem.

*********************

Everybody seems to be a comedienne

these days. First, there's "Quag Quag"

(1/1) by Zanzibuku, a hilarious piece

on what might have been going through

our heroes' minds as they sat on that

rock in Quagmire, done ala MST3K style:

M:<I wonder why the moon is bright enough to

shine over this rock we're on and not over the

rest of this relatively small lake and its

surrounding forest?

>"Yeah, you know, living in the city you

forget

that night is actually so, uh...dark."

I don't spew much liquid, but I do laugh out

loud at cleverly written prose, and this piece

made me roar.

Read it, laugh and/or spew, as is your

wont, and then write: Nezray@hotmail.com

and cry for more, please. And in the

not-too-distant future, if possible.

******************

Then there's Friends by Te (1/1) From:

daddy793@aol.com (Daddy793)

If you're a Lone Gunman fan, this one's

for you. I wasn't much of a LG fan until

I read this, but Te has hooked me, and now

there's something extra to look for in

the show. And something ELSE to

wonder about...

Very skillfully written, wonderful attention to

detail:

(Byers opened his...beard kit and

trimmed the aggressive hair just below the

left side of his chin that always grew so much

faste r than the others. It was always a conflict

to

do so for him, the warring impulses to...

neatness and the fierce and somehow primitive

pride he felt at the rebellious follicle's urge

to ambition creasing his forehead a little

further with each brisk snip! of the scissors.

You know you're a damn good writer when

you can make a FACIAL HAIR interesting...

For the Krycek fans, Te has also written

"Time," another excellent piece, and I was

torn between which to review. I went, as

always, with the sex, and if it didn't turn

our the way I expected--well, it never hurts

to expand our horizons...

*******************

And yet another nifty piece:

"Breaking" by J. C. Sun:

Incredibly, incredibly warm, he was, the

heat pushing at the boundaries of my

skin, nipping, a giant flat front, with the

air beating around, radiating in

the still grey emptiness.

Sun's strength lies in her seamless

interweaving of description and narration,

so that the speaker in the story is sensually

bound to his or her surroundings. It provides

the effect of drawing the reader into an

almost tangible situation, in which you only

have to turn your head a little to see what's

off camera--the logical continuity of a black

and white floor in a diner, for instance.

Nice work, as always.

But just in case she's insecure, let her know

this at:valeanna1@aol.com)

******************

You want angst? We got angst! We got

GOOD angst here, folks, with:

Memorial Day

by Judy Gayle

A little detail about cancer some of you

may have forgotten:

"Practically a

100% cure rate. Oh, pardon me. That's

a 100% five-year survival rate."

That whole invasive, mutilation, violation,

creep-you-out true to life thing is going on

here, and it's a quick but chilling read

addressing some of our darkest fears both

for Scully and for ourselves.

What's it got to do with Memorial Day?

Well...that's the day we honor heroes who

die for our country, right? (Or "from" our

country, depending on how far you lean to

the right to look at it...)

Download it. Read it. Say thanks at:

JKGayle@aol.com

***************

Now, speaking of descriptions,

"Brighid" of earthstone@goplay.com

has given us her first piece of fanfic,

and a nice start it is:

"Often I wait

by a phone, wondering if it will be him,

or if this time it will be the call, the last

call, the lonely call. Other times, I have sat

and listened to the thump and hiss of

hospital machinery, telling me he was

still alive, despite his bull-headed pursuit

of the Truth.

This story has an amazing ending, with

excellent, lyrical language throughout, and

a sort of incantatory prose thing going,

the use of repetition of certain sounds to

bring on a magical mood.

I see a couple of people have already posted

some feedback, which I usually multiply by

three to see how much private e-mail the

author gets on a story. But it bears repeating:

this is a story you will enjoy reading, and an

author to keep an eye on.

***************

And Heaven Forbid I should stop before

mentioning those pesky seven deadlies,

from the story by Rhondda Lake:

Dance of The Damned

E-Mail: rhonilak@icontech.com

Rhondda has taken six or seven of the sins,

and done some interesting things with them.

It

isn't just the unique idea that makes Rhondda's

work so good, it's the language and execution,

and a very well handled ending. Definitely a

must read, with a few references familiar to

anyone who's "done" the Inferno thing...and

yet completely accessible to anyone who has

not.

"The sixth sin, for me is Anger. Rage that

this moment which should taste of

the song of angels and sound of the

sweetest ambrosia has become this hell

for me. "

Read em, learn em, commit em.

(applause)

*****************

As always, stories I missed reviewing are

in no way "silent censure." So many

stories, so little time!

thanks for writing,

jordan