in EveryWoman '22, I wrote "Conjunction" (BSG78) (G, gen) for Merfilly

[brightknightie]

The everywoman mods have revealed the authors, so I can share that I wrote "Conjunction" (BSG78) (Cassiopeia & Serina, w/Paye, Dietra, Salik, Rigel) (G, gen, ~2K words) for senmut's prompt: “sisterhood,” “friendship,” “making a life out of tragedy,” and “true caring between characters.”

If you feel inclined, please read. If you have constructive criticism and don't want to put it in public, DM me.

Yep, it was one of those double-match exchange situations. I wrote for the author who wrote for me, and we both wrote BSG78 (rec). I appreciate having more BSG78 around! Did you know that it has only 244 works by 92 authors on the AO3? Check it out. I've been told that people just didn't write fanfiction back then, completely aside from whether it could have been preserved and propagated, and that I shouldn't expect more, but... only 244? For BSG78? I understand that I'm biased in favor of a story I love so much, but how could they all have resisted the urge to fill in those blanks? With the abrupt cancellation and the despised sequel? Humans have been fanficcing -- I mean, intertextualizing, yeah -- at least since Homer. We have 3 separate versions of what happened to Iphigenia, and those are just the works that survived millennia. Heck, I personally wrote fanfic before I had a clue what it was! I feel it's much more likely that some people did write BSG78 stories, if only for themselves, and those diaries and spiral notebooks and letters just never made it to us here and now.

I bet some of those diaries and spiral notebooks and letters were awesome.

Comments

[malinaldarose]

They didn't write fanfiction back then? Uh huh. What about all those stories we have about Star Trek fanzines? Or was that supposed to be only for Trek?

Also "back then," like it was 200 years ago. *shakes cane* Get offa my lawn, you damn kids!

[brightknightie]

The individual who asserted that particular thing to me appeared to believe, at the time of saying it, that, yes, emergent zine culture was a born-of-Trek, driven-by-Trek thing, and that BSG78 specifically simply wouldn't have had many fanwriters. Probably this individual simply does not understand BSG78 as you and I do. :-D

I don't personally have any evidence either way, zine-wise! But I find it hard to believe that there's been an hour in human history that someone wasn't adding to a story someone else began, especially one cut off without an ending. And granted that BSG78 isn't TOS... you don't have to be TOS (or The Iliad or Daniel Deronda) to inspire stories.

[senmut]

I have vague memories of a 'zine in my possession, alongside the BSG novels, because Dad enabled me finding more reading in sci-fi, and he never split hairs over pro and amateur writing.

But yes, there is a dearth, Galactica '80 was not my cuppa, and while BSG'03 had some interesting concepts, I stand by the idea they should have tweaked it enough to be its own thing, instead of it being a 'reimagining' that was so grim and dark.

[brightknightie]

I'm happy to hear of that BSG78 zine! I like knowing that it exists for sure. :-D

[chelseagirl]

I'm sure there was lots in zines -- I was active in ST and SW fandom when BSG came out. I was the odd one out who found it disappointing and quit a few episodes in, but my high school geek pals all loved it, and there was definitely representation at the last cons I went to before college intervened (and one after freshman year).

[brightknightie]

Thank you for sharing this anecdote!

Granted that it's not ST or SW... surely it had to have been more beloved than 200 total AO3 stories would seem to suggest.