You know -- don't you? -- that I owe many of my greatest delights in FK fanfiction to your recommendations, whether specifically of a single story, or by pointing me to an author of many stories, and that while you don't have sole credit for inspiring the recommendations project, now in its twelfth year, yours is not by any means the smallest share in it. Thank you.
>"I suspect that perspectives might change based on when one joined the fandom."
Oh, yes. I'm probably foolish to have thought that even a few stories would have been persistently recommended down the generations of newbies. But some, you know... how could they not have been? :-)
>" I can't imagine that someone whose FK worldview is Lacroix would find either False Heart or Kind Soul to be "important" in the sense I believe you're talking about here."
In this case, I was using "ten stories no newbie should miss" as a backdoor to measuring fame; I thought that ten might be enough to loop in a few stories outside a respondent's own faction. Just as you say, I would have to come up with a compensation for factionalism to really get to what it is we do share beyond factions.
(It's curious, but it often seems to me that FK is at once the most and the least divided fandom I've seen.)
>"False Heart/Kind Soul"
I would start there, too. No question.
>"Lizards in the Grass"
I believe that I've never read Susan's "Lizards in the Grass" or her "Dreaming of the Knight." Neither is online, and I've not had an opportunity to purchase the zines. I do own a copy of "A Little Knight Music" by Jude Wilson, to be read someday after I get hold of "Dreaming of the Knight" (or give up on getting it).
ETA: I do own "Dreaming of the Knight" and can read "A Little Knight Music." I just forgot from long habit. I am a forgetful, but lucky, lucky reader...
>"something by JMR, a story by Karin ... and Marian ... that is no longer available publicly"
I don't know what I'd pick to represent JMR because it's been so long, but perhaps one of her AU N&Ner monkey's-paw pieces. And NLVC, the whole sequence as a package: I consider its removal the biggest loss to the fandom of that sort to date (second place: Tippi's stuff).
>"a Natalie story whose title escapes me right now, but I believe it was written by a person whose name was Giselle...?
That must be "The Price of Silence." It was her only FK fanfic. Present tense, Natalie and Lacroix, unique and memorable.
>"something by Val (Icebreakers maybe?)"
Her "Icebreaking" (pre-"Dark Kngiht," Natalie and Nick) is very good, but her "Silent All These Years" (an origin for Janette, written before AFWTD) is even better, in my opinion. Still, going for enduringly significant, "Icebreaking" is still canonical, while "Silent" got roundly Jossed (as Neonhummingbird calls it in any fandom).
>"something by Chris Hunt"
I'd go with her "The Bargain," which I asked her if I could recommend, long ago when I had her email, and never received a response (it's my third-favorite never-yet-recommended story). Her Divia one is crackerjack, too, as I recall.
>"a story by Laura W... that doesn't appear to be on the fkfic website, about Nick's relationship with Lacroix"
She's got two stories on the Former FTP Site, and I don't think I've read either. I will now; if she's on your list, I doubt I'll be disappointed by anything she's done. Thank you.
>"something by Apache maybe"
Yes, both for quality and for fair representation of the third-season characters. I might go for her "Distant Thunder," but my subjective taste perhaps does not do her writing justice. She's also got that one where Vachon sees a midnight showing of the original HL movie and murders a girl...
>"and a short story set in a park in Jerusalem by Sarah something? (Rarely Beloved, I think.)"
You're spot on: "Rarely Beloved" by Sarah W. It is my very top favorite story that I've never yet been able to get permission to recommend. (My second favorite that I've never yet been able to recommend is "Users" by Kate K.)
>"My list doesn't have anything written later than 1996 or 1997, does it?"
Both Val and Apache wrote after '97, so your "something by" can be counted for their later works, if you like. ;-)
But yes, that is, among other things, about when the volume of FK fanfiction went into steep decline. There have been good stories since -- I think you'd really enjoy some of Dorothy's -- but the total volume of stories is incomparable.
thank you so much for playing with me!
>"I suspect that perspectives might change based on when one joined the fandom."
Oh, yes. I'm probably foolish to have thought that even a few stories would have been persistently recommended down the generations of newbies. But some, you know... how could they not have been? :-)
>" I can't imagine that someone whose FK worldview is Lacroix would find either False Heart or Kind Soul to be "important" in the sense I believe you're talking about here."
In this case, I was using "ten stories no newbie should miss" as a backdoor to measuring fame; I thought that ten might be enough to loop in a few stories outside a respondent's own faction. Just as you say, I would have to come up with a compensation for factionalism to really get to what it is we do share beyond factions.
(It's curious, but it often seems to me that FK is at once the most and the least divided fandom I've seen.)
>"False Heart/Kind Soul"
I would start there, too. No question.
>"Lizards in the Grass"
I believe that I've never read Susan's "Lizards in the Grass"
or her "Dreaming of the Knight."Neither is online, and I've not had an opportunity to purchase the zines. I do own a copy of "A Little Knight Music" by Jude Wilson,to be read someday after I get hold of "Dreaming of the Knight" (or give up on getting it).ETA: I do own "Dreaming of the Knight" and can read "A Little Knight Music." I just forgot from long habit. I am a forgetful, but lucky, lucky reader...
>"something by JMR, a story by Karin ... and Marian ... that is no longer available publicly"
I don't know what I'd pick to represent JMR because it's been so long, but perhaps one of her AU N&Ner monkey's-paw pieces. And NLVC, the whole sequence as a package: I consider its removal the biggest loss to the fandom of that sort to date (second place: Tippi's stuff).
>"a Natalie story whose title escapes me right now, but I believe it was written by a person whose name was Giselle...?
That must be "The Price of Silence." It was her only FK fanfic. Present tense, Natalie and Lacroix, unique and memorable.
>"something by Val (Icebreakers maybe?)"
Her "Icebreaking" (pre-"Dark Kngiht," Natalie and Nick) is very good, but her "Silent All These Years" (an origin for Janette, written before AFWTD) is even better, in my opinion. Still, going for enduringly significant, "Icebreaking" is still canonical, while "Silent" got roundly Jossed (as Neonhummingbird calls it in any fandom).
>"something by Chris Hunt"
I'd go with her "The Bargain," which I asked her if I could recommend, long ago when I had her email, and never received a response (it's my third-favorite never-yet-recommended story). Her Divia one is crackerjack, too, as I recall.
>"a story by Laura W... that doesn't appear to be on the fkfic website, about Nick's relationship with Lacroix"
She's got two stories on the Former FTP Site, and I don't think I've read either. I will now; if she's on your list, I doubt I'll be disappointed by anything she's done. Thank you.
>"something by Apache maybe"
Yes, both for quality and for fair representation of the third-season characters. I might go for her "Distant Thunder," but my subjective taste perhaps does not do her writing justice. She's also got that one where Vachon sees a midnight showing of the original HL movie and murders a girl...
>"and a short story set in a park in Jerusalem by Sarah something? (Rarely Beloved, I think.)"
You're spot on: "Rarely Beloved" by Sarah W. It is my very top favorite story that I've never yet been able to get permission to recommend. (My second favorite that I've never yet been able to recommend is "Users" by Kate K.)
>"My list doesn't have anything written later than 1996 or 1997, does it?"
Both Val and Apache wrote after '97, so your "something by" can be counted for their later works, if you like. ;-)
But yes, that is, among other things, about when the volume of FK fanfiction went into steep decline. There have been good stories since -- I think you'd really enjoy some of Dorothy's -- but the total volume of stories is incomparable.