"Moving On" by Susan G.

[brightknightie]

During dinner tonight, I was re-reading some of Susan G.'s FK fanfic that I have on my Kindle. (I have most of her FK fanfic on my Kindle, and on a hard-drive, and in the Cloud. Susan G.'s FK fanfic is not just my favorite, it's nigh unto deutero-canon.)

By chance, I came across a little story called "Moving On" of which I had no conscious memory. Oh. My. Goodness. It was very nearly like getting to read a new Susan G. story.

I can't seem to find it online to link to it for you. Her family kept her site up for years after she died, but... not forever. She died before the AO3 came along. And many of the FK-specific archives have now closed.

So: Spoilers. Told from Natalie's perspective, "Moving On" is set (and was likely written) not long after the start of second season. Nick is helping Natalie move into her new apartment. Moving is tedious, but Nick's help makes a big difference, and Natalie is optimistic about her new place and a new start, maybe taking some time off work to really fit it out to suit herself, not to just accept what's already there and what she already has. Contrarily, she also has difficult, memory-laden reactions to unpacking a framed photo of the day her brother graduated from law school; she drops it and the glass breaks, and much is symbolized. When they're done for the evening, and Natalie declines Nick's offer to take her out to eat -- after a sweaty moving day, she doesn't feel like being seen in public -- she agrees instead to let him fetch her some Mexican fast food. But when he opens the door... there's Janette, clearly coming to tell Natalie something. Natalie, who wants to know what brought Janette to her new doorstep, persuades Nick to go get the fast food, that she will be fine. She reminds him not to run red lights. Janette plays a little at helping Natalie unpack -- just puts some books on a shelf -- and drops portentous veiled warnings of unnamed peril on the way for Natalie, and that perhaps it would be best for Nick and Natalie both if Natalie moved on out of his life. Janette leaves. Nick returns; he flew instead of driving. And Nick and Natalie chat while she eats the flight-cooled fast food, without the sauce packets that he accidentally dropped a few streets over. End.

It's so early-second-season. So classic. So ... refreshing.

Susan, we were so lucky to have you while we did. I trust you know now how much good you did, in all the ways, all your life.

Comments

[greerwatson]

"And many of the FK-specific archives have now closed."

Sad but true. Which is why, as soon as we heard that Susan had died, both Steph Kellerman and I (separately!) bolted off to save her website. It now resides in the Forever Knight Website Archive. You can find it here. And yes: "Moving On" is snugly safe in the Fan Fiction section of her site.

I reread it. On the surface a charming story, trivially domestic; yet there is so much more going on underneath.

[ride_4ever]

Thank you for saving this online.

[greerwatson]

If you're new to on-line fandom, I do suggest you browse through the archive. There are several fic archives there, as well as personal sites.

[brightknightie]

Yes, as ride_4ever wrote, thank you.

[greerwatson]

We're just glad we managed to save so much before it got lost forever.

[kirbyfest]

Oh, thank you. I'm so glad to know her wonderful writing is still available.

[kirbyfest]

I have to say, though, I wish there was a way to legitimately get her work into A03, since that seems to be where fanfic needs to live to be seen. There are still people in touch with her family, so from that aspect we could possibly get permission, but I don't know the other end of things with the Archive.

[brightknightie]

I also wish that Susan's works could be on the AO3. As long as anyone anywhere loves FK, they should have access to Susan's stories.

Once, years ago, after she died but before her website went down, someone put one of her stories up on the AO3 badly -- that is, they didn't claim it as theirs or anything, but they posted it, with her name, in a terribly messed-up copy, with chapters out of order and other dismaying problems. I reported it to the AO3 with a sincere, fervent offer to provide clean copies of Susan's stories instead...

They took down that file. They didn't say anything at the time about how to get up proper files for a deceased fan. I imagine there was no procedure/policy for that then. I wonder whether there is now.

[kirbyfest]

I wonder if anyone here works with the Archive that might be able to help? I don't know anyone (any more).

[ride_4ever]

I was not a late-comer to the show itself, but a late-comer to online fandom. Thank you for making me aware of Susan G.'s fic which I had not seen before.

[brightknightie]

Susan G.'s FK fanfiction is a joy. I hope someday to learn to write fanfiction as well as she did. And I hope all my life to have access to the stories she left us. I recommend them as highly as I possibly can.

If you want recommendations within her corpus, let me know. Her False Heart fanfic novel is perhaps a place to start if you want a long read, and her winter holiday stories if you want short, perhaps "Angel Crossing." But so many are so good, you can't go wrong. (You may possibly find yourself in a joke/prank story from time to time, but that's not wrong. It's... blooper reel. ~grin~)

[chelseagirl]

In other fandoms, one may have a favorite writer, but there is not a "best" writer because different people are looking for different things. In FK, I feel like Susan pretty much was acknowledged best.

[brightknightie]

Yes.

Many were -- are -- good. Susan remains above all.

In addition to her objective skills, I feel that Susan somehow wrote so in tune with canon that we almost all saw her stories through the same filters we saw canon, even when she moved into futures and pasts and pranks and alternates. It seems almost impossible that someone could love FK and not love what Susan shared with us.