brightknightie | Some Fanfic Discussion on ForKni-L

Very unusually, possibly bending all laws of time, space and reality, I posted to forkni-l twice on Sunday, both times in reply to a post from a digest only ten days old. Omitting the quoted remarks that belong to someone else, here's my text for those of you who have wandered off into the wilderness of not being on list ;-) but may yet be interested. (In this particular case,

havocthecat and

tv_elf, this means you; see post one below.)

(1) Upcoming New FK Fanfic
(The question this post addressed is, is anyone working on new stories?)

Several people answered this question positively, including Nancy and Kristen, and that's wonderful to know -- these are marvelous treats, and like everyone else, I'm looking forward to them! I get behind on reading fanfic all too easily, but while I'm slow, I'm always thrilled to see new posts, and I will read them.

I'm also very lucky to be looking forward to an FK story a friend promised to write me as a combined birthday/Christmas gift this year. I don't know when she'll finish it, but I'll do my best to pull her home to fkfic-l with great joy. I'm also naggi-- uh, pester-- um, reminding another friend to post her very imaginative SG:A/FK crossovers to fkfic-l; there's no reason that only those active in Stargate: Atlantis fandom should get to enjoy them when they'd be so welcome here [on list].

And for what it's worth, I've got a few stories in progress myself. "In progress" being key, perhaps. A good friend recently, very gently, suggested that I make waaaaay too big a deal of fanfiction creation, agonizing for months over themes, morals, flashbacks and cop plots for every story, and thus never finishing any of the incipient novellas sleeping on my hard drive. She dared me to produce a "ficlet" or drabble; I'm going to give it a try. It's not that I don't love reading very short FK fiction! But I never seem to imagine that way for writing; when I'm so lucky as to imagine a new scenario, it quickly spirals out of control, a universe of its own, and I have to fight it down into a feasible form I can actually finish and you might possibly wish to read. Otherwise: just another half-started story on the hard drive. Does anyone else have that problem? Is it FK-related, do you think, because the series has such a strong, multi-layered formula? Just curious.

Good luck and thanks to everyone writing! (And everyone reading, too!)

(2) Forever Net Before Christmas Zine
(The post to which this replies wished for more winter-holiday fanfic, and lamented the loss of the "Dark N&N Yuletide Awards" of the past several years.)

Perhaps we could have a seasonal FK challenge again next year, but perhaps it can be more informal -- just a challenge, not a contest -- and perhaps it could be open to all factions and all interpretations? I'm afraid that while I read the stories and voted conscientiously, I never contributed to the "Dark N&N Yuletide Awards" stories myself simply because I cannot personally manage "dark." (My site is called "Bright Knight" for good reason. ~g~ Room for all of us to play? ~g~)

I know this was a request for new stories, not old ones, but it got me thinking about all the many wonderful old holiday stories, and especially the original fkfic-l holiday challenge back at Christmas of 1993. Nope, I wasn't yet on list then (I came along in third season) but I am very lucky to own a copy of the Forever Net Before Christmas zine that Valery K. put together, enshrining some of the story responses to that magnificent early challenge issued by Susan Garrett.

Here's what happened, as described in Valery's zine intro: Susan "would write five stories, each featuring a different FK character in a Christmas-themed tale, if other writers would answer by posting their own Christmas FK fiction. She didn't ask each one to write five (good thing, too!) but each time she posted a story she would wait until a challenge answer appeared before posting her next one. . . . And the list writers came through with some very delightful, poignant, funny, and touching work. . .", some of which Valery then put into this great zine [With the authors' permission! -- Ed.]. I reread at least one of the stories every year; they're so much fun.

Some of the stories from that challenge are still available online. Others -- including Marian's memorable Hanukkah story, possibly the only FK Hanukkah story ever, as far as I know -- are not. Here is the zine table of contents, with links to those stories I could find:

Janette
"Neither Flesh, Nor Fowl, Nor Good Red Herring" by Susan G.
"A Vampire in my Stocking" by Jenise H. and Margaret N.

Lacroix
"Angel Crossing" by Susan G.

Nick
"Coin of the Realm" by Susan G.
"Flowers in the Night" by Scottie

Natalie
"Trick or Treat" by Susan G.
"I'll be Home for Christmas" by Marian G. (no longer online)

Schanke
"'Tis the Seasoning" by Susan G.

Bonus
"It's a Wonderful Knight" by Mary J.F.
"O Mighty Town of Toronto" by Edith C. (couldn't find it)

Yep, there was only the one Lacroix story in the challenge that year. [And only one Schanke story! -- Ed.] That would never happen today, right? :-)

And of course these stories are only the tiniest fraction of all the FK winter-holiday stories that have been written since! Nancy noted in her reply to Deborah that she has written many herself over the years; Bonnie P. has a series of them featuring the third-season characters; Dorothy has at least two; and April at least one -- and so does Lisa McD for that matter! ("Father Christmas Figure" is a sequel to Lisa McD's "Heart Within the Beast.") I could go on and on and on. It would be a great project, if someone wanted to undertake maintaining a linked listing of all available FK holiday stories!

Happy holidays, everybody. :-)