brightknightie | "Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies."

I got off the phone with

wiliqueen a bit ago. She hugged me through my tears as best as the telephone allows. May I offer virtual hugs and hand-holding all around?

susanmgarrett has died. We were so very rich in having her while we did.

Susan was always gracious, kind and patient with me. She was responsive and generous. For many years, I've aspired to someday be as gracious as Susan in fandom, if I were lucky and tried hard for what seemed to come naturally to her. (Not to mention aspiring to write like her!) I met her in person only once, at Syndicon East '97; I remember her relating that publishers were asking her, "You do write things other than vampires, don't you? Vampires are over, and they're not coming back." She was working on an Egyptian fantasy, then.

There are newbies on my f-list. Rejoice that you have the delight of reading Susan's fanfic for the first time still ahead of you! Mourn the void of never seeing her post. Susan was the author of the second pro FK novel, Intimations of Mortality, of course, but even more importantly, you see, she was Empress of FK Fic, the most outstanding and prolific author Forever Knight has ever been privileged to see (Susan's Bookshelf). She was also... Susan. Incomparable. Many people gave and gave and gave to our beloved FK fandom, but no one quite as much as Susan. Stories. Zines. Challenges. Buttons. Time. Hospitality. Patience with pesty little newbies like me, a lifetime ago.

Her birthday was Wednesday. We used to celebrate August as Susan's Birthday Month on fkfic-l, with new fiction in her honor. I'm gonna, um, go write a Janette story, you know?

If I ever get to heaven, I expect Noble Mind to be finished there. And I expect it to be spectacular.

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She wrote a Sanctuary story for Yuletide last year, and I was just thrilled beyond measure to see a new Susan story in a fandom I loved.

I'm very sad to find out she passed away. I never got to know her as well as some, but I enjoyed seeing her when I was still going to Media*West.

Thank you for sharing that Susan wrote in Yuletide last year! That must have been such a treat for any Sanctuary fan, and it's also just nice to know that she was writing... I had thought that she hadn't written even in other fandoms in a few years, and that made me sad for her as well as for us.

I chatted with her only a few times a year, but I will miss those times for years to come. As I commented in another blog over the weekend, Susan was always behaving as the person I want to grow up to be.

I consider it to be the best story in Sanctuary fandom, period. It was just absolutely brilliant, and the characterization-- I didn't gush over it enough (though I did privately email a couple fellow Sancutary fans and tell them they had to go and read this RIGHT NOW), and then, after the reveal, was stunned (and thrilled!) to see Susan's name attached to it.

I have it bookmarked on my AO3 account and in my delicious recs: When All Points Break From Center Hold. If you haven't watched Sancutary, you might not understand everything, but Susan's writing is just so amazing, you might want to give it a try anyway. (And if you haven't seen Sanctuary, perhaps I could rec that one at you also?)

I love your idea of writing Janette fic in Susan's honor, by the way. :)

Thank you for the link. I never saw Sanctuary, though I've heard its premise; but Susan, being Susan, is an author I'm willing to follow into unfamiliar fandoms, confident that she'll make it worth my while.

>"I love your idea of writing Janette fic in Susan's honor, by the way."

Thank you. I'll see what I can do. Feel free to join in. :-)

(As an aside, one individual who was reading in

fkficfest commented that, in that person's perception, Janette had never seemed very important in the show, but that the fanfiction featuring her had been eye-opening. So. It can matter, telling those tales as well as possible.)

>"And if you haven't seen Sanctuary, perhaps I could rec that one at you also?"

My familiarity with Sanctuary is that my best friend from college, who is a huge SG1 Carter fan, and also a Vala fan, tried to follow Sanctuary, but found it unappealing. She's a scientist; she cut the Gateverse wide slack, but if I remember correctly, she found Sanctuary going too far away from credible sci-fi for her taste.

I don't mind fantasy as distinct from sci-fi, myself, obviously; I'm just noting my acquaintance with that series, pretty much solely through her comments. ~shrug~

amilyn just left another amazing FK prompt for

femme_fic, by the way. :)

(As an aside, one individual who was reading in fkficfest commented that, in that person's perception, Janette had never seemed very important in the show, but that the fanfiction featuring her had been eye-opening. So. It can matter, telling those tales as well as possible.)

I am boggled, but not really unsurprised, to hear that. *sigh* Thank goodness for Susan and all the Ravens (as well as all the NatPackers and Perks and Urs' faction), and everyone who tells the less-told, less main character centric tales.

She's a scientist; she cut the Gateverse wide slack, but if I remember correctly, she found Sanctuary going too far away from credible sci-fi for her taste.

Hee! Oh, Sanctuary is very definitely fantasy, with a wide swath of Victorian Gothic horror in the middle of it (but nothing particularly terrifying, IMO), and not nearly science fiction, for all that it's on Skiffy and has some of the trappings of sci-fi. :) So your best friend from college is absolutely right.

>"Amilyn just left another amazing FK prompt for femme_fic, by the way."

It is indeed a nice one! (And thoughtful of her; I recognize the target.) Thanks for the pointer. I have updated my post to include a link to it, and will go thank her.

(I may want to claim it myself. However, it would actually be really snazzy if all the FK prompts were snapped up by other writers. I can dream.)

"Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies."

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how wonderful that she played Yuletide!

Re: how wonderful that she played Yuletide!

Re: how wonderful that she played Yuletide!

Re: how wonderful that she played Yuletide!

Re: how wonderful that she played Yuletide!