brightknightie | Entries tagged with trope:historical

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fkficfest will open this week! This week is also the 105^th anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. Together, these facts bring me to April's recommendation,

wiliqueen's "July 22, 1916" (2010), which she wrote as one of the generous surprise-party treats at the end of FKFicFest 2010, and which builds on a real incident in San Francisco history, achieves the feel of a first-season flashback, and foreshadows Mai Chung's fate (in "Cherry Blossoms").

The six and a half hours between the sound of the explosion and sunset were among the longest of Nick's very long life.

I'd previously refrained from spotlighting any of the great FKFicFest stories as part of the recommendation-of-the-month project, because we all read them just last year. But it's time for a reminder of how much fun the game was, don't you think? See you there!

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What's New on FKFic-L? Three new stories by one author posted to the list in March. (Unfortunately, the one author was me.) No new stories have posted in April so far. ( list with links )

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/95860.html

This is the mini-story that I wrote for Raven skieswideopen in the 2010/2011 fandom_stocking event. My thanks to ithildyn for beta-reading.

I took so long to post this piece only because I couldn't bear to archive one more story on my ancient HTML-only template. "Before" premieres a proper CSS-controlled template, which I will use on all my fanfic going forward (conversion backward... well, we'll see). This change should be nearly invisible to readers, but it's a first step in restoring my dignity as a web designer in relation to my fansite. ;-)

•	Title:	"Before" (also on AO3)
•	Length:	~200 words
•	Date:	Fandom Stocking 01/06/11, FKFic-L 02/21/11
•	Rating:	G
•	Summary:	Janette's childhood included happy days.
•	Characters:	Janette
•	Quotation:	"It was how things were — which was to say, how they always had been and always would be."

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/92982.html

I support collective bargaining rights for all workers. Surely everyone who knows the history does. Of course, those rights, like any rights, can be misused and abused; that's reason for ongoing vigilance, prudence and reform in all human institutions, not for eliminating the institutions.

Many people are out in the winter cold across the US today, seizing this "teachable moment" of the Wisconsin drama to make that point in public gatherings. I'm not doing that, but for what it's worth, I pledge to write a fanfiction with historical flashback content on what unions have done for us all and why collective bargaining rights matter. I don't commit to a deadline, but I'll aim for within 2011. The story might be either Forever Knight or Highlander, whichever yields the best story idea.

If you'd be interested in reading such a story by me, please feel free to let me know what story elements you might like to see! If you'd like to chat calmly, reasonably and relatively briefly about how the existence of collective bargaining rights does or does not benefit the entire society, we can do that, too. ;-)

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/92041.html

What's Good? I'm very happy to get to make September's recommendation-of-the-month Nancy K.'s "Deadly Stakes" (2000, PG-13), which uniquely stars Nick and Bourbon. This character study wrapped in action and suspense is set at a luxury casino resort between the second World War and the McCarthy hearings, and pits Nick against Bourbon for first one life and then another.

The budding archaeologists he taught in Chicago were under the impression he was doing research on the cave paintings at Lascaux in the Dordogne during the summer break. In reality, he was seeing to some of the properties he had owned since the mid-1700s...
You can take the boy out of the aristocracy, but you can't take the aristocracy out of the boy, he thought ruefully...

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What's New on FKFic-L? On the admin side, the upcoming FKFic-L War game has been scheduled for 10/01 through 10/15, and List Manager

lisamcdavid has a new email address. On the story side, fkfic-l saw two tales posted in August: ( list with links )

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/81701.html

This was my match story for the May 2010 fkficfest ficathon. My thanks to wiliqueen for her prompt, in which Nick "has seen artistic revolutions come and go, and has his own perspective on the group of young people calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood." My thanks also to havocthecat and natmerc for beta-reading, swiftly and on-target.

The opportunity to sweep Nick and his concerns into this milieu was delightfully consuming. The request to include real historical figures as supporting characters was a new challenge for me, and I learned a lot about balancing historical precision with storytelling momentum. I have increased respect for those who do it well!

•	Title:	"True to Life" (also on AO3)
•	Length:	14,644 words
•	Date:	Posted to fkficfest on May 16, 2010; not yet posted to FKFic-L
•	Rating:	PG-13 (gen)
•	Summary:	Janette visits Nick in his life on the edge of the Pre-Raphaelite circle; with her comes everything he is trying to escape.
•	Setting:	1857 London
•	Characters:	Nick, Janette, Others
•	Quotation:	"How often had he truly rescued her, and how often had he unwittingly used her as bait -- or had she used herself?"

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/75203.html

This set of three flashbacks was my submission to the "Claire Rankin Characters Mini-Ficathon." They're set in my "Fireweed" AU, in which Janette brought Fleur across, accelerating Nick's rejection of vampirism. (No need to read the original. That's all the context.)

I have a soft spot for Nick's sister. My 1998 "Fireweed" vampire Fleur differs from my 2008 "Starwort" human Fleur, I noticed as I revisited her. Different lives made different women from the same origin. Yoked to Lacroix, "Fireweed" Fleur's development was constrained. "Starwort" Fleur grew further faster, living human. One of these days, I will finish "Amaranth" Fleur, who goes farthest of all.

•	Title:	"Three Fireweed Seeds"
•	Length:	~3,300 words
•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L March 5, 2009
•	Rating:	PG-13 (gen, f/f, m/f)
•	Summary:	"Reconnection:" Nick watches over Fleur. "Responses:" Fleur tries to comfort Erica. "Recoil:" Lacroix has driven Fleur away.
•	Setting:	1229 Paris, 1700 London, 1966 Bonn
•	Characters:	Fleur, Nick, Erica, Lacroix
•	Quotation:	"So then why, why, why had he burned the Abbarratt without letting her read it first?"

"Responses," the second of the three ficlets, replied to an f/f prompt. It is my first try at such, and I suspect I failed the prompt's intention. One lesson I'm taking is that a fully successful run at that prompt would require its own custom AU.

I posted my second oldschoolfic story to fkfic-l this weekend. A few scenes have been rewritten since the ficathon, but it's largely the same. I'm grateful to abby82 for the ficathon prompt! And I'm obliged to my beta-readers (see the story's endnote, as always).

"Fearful Symmetry" is entirely from Nick's perspective. I don't often narrate from Nick's point of view, and that's curious to me. I've been wondering from where that comes (among what the series presents, what I'm any good at writing, and what people seem to like to read).

•	Title:	"Fearful Symmetry"
•	Length:	~9,900 words
•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L November 1-2, 2008
•	Rating:	PG (gen)
•	Summary:	As the asteroid panic gets a second wind, Nick revisits his experiences during the 1950s Red Scare.
•	Setting:	Flashbacks to 1954 ("Spin Doctor"). Present after "A More Permanent Hell."
•	Characters:	Nick, Natalie, Lacroix, Janette, Others.
•	Quotation:	"He had been so proud to be awarded tenure last year, to be recognized as a worthy and wanted permanent member of the faculty."

Please bear with me through one last post here about this story. I sent "Starwort" to fkfic-l early this week, then archived it on my own site. It's my longest fanfiction in almost five years, and my first starring Fleur in almost seven. My sincere thanks to those who helped it come into being, and those who have let me know that they read it!

•	Title:	"Starwort"
•	Length:	~14,000 words
•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L April 20-22, 2008
•	Rating:	PG-13 (m/f)
•	Summary:	While Fleur is pregnant with Andre, a stranger named Lacroix arrives uninvited at a hunting party.
•	Setting:	1236, Artois
•	Characters:	Fleur, Lacroix, Original Characters
•	Quotation:	"How my ladies would laugh, to hear I had a successful flirtation and don't even remember it."

Happy Easter! With this installment, we come to the end of my little fanfiction retrospective. From now on, it's new or nothing! (Unless I retype two or three dusty 'zine properties, perhaps.)

In December, much_madness challenged me to produce something short on a deadline, noting that she enjoys vignettes and "ficlets," and that I rarely write them. She's right. I have a tough time letting FK scenarios go when they're still small. In reply to her, and inspired by something wiliqueen said while analyzing Blood Ties, I managed this:

•	Title:	"Steamer Trunk Space"
•	Length:	~1,400 words
•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L February 7, 2008
•	Rating:	PG (gen)
•	Summary:	Between the scenes of "Father's Day," Janette packs for the trip in pursuit of Nick.
•	Setting:	1925 Paris
•	Characters:	Janette, Lacroix
•	Quotation:	"Prudence often dimmed and drifted, when it came to Nicolas."

Someday, I may write a sequel to this novella, and it may be called "Under a Long Shadow." Someday. If I figure out the theme. I know what happens next, you see, but I'm not sure it matters, because "In the Light of Day" fulfills its whole original purpose. To write, I must have purpose.

"In the Light of Day" is a parallel-reality tale. The break with canon comes after "Fever," and the story then progresses through "Dead of Night," "The Games Vampires Play" and "The Human Factor," reworking each episode given Nick's new mortality, until things are so different that the parallel snaps, and the alternate reality floats free.

One tidbit of which I'm fond here is Natalie's on-the-fly psychoanalysis of Lacroix, in which she concludes that no one will ever love another person as much as he has, over eight centuries, convinced himself he loved Fleur. I also like the garden I built for Feliks Twist (but I really owe him a nice story of his own for his fate here). And the flashbacks! I did more research for them than any before or since (so far). For this story, I became queen of a certain slice of Trivial Pursuit questions. :-)

•	Title:	"In the Light of Day"
•	Length:	~53,000 words
•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L in October 2003
•	Rating:	PG-13 (m/f)
•	Summary:	Nick regains his humanity, but he's not the only one. And no one is prepared for all the consequences.
•	Setting:	After "Fever," with flashbacks 1226-1228
•	Characters:	Natalie, Nick, Norma, Stonetree, Urs, Tracy, Reese, Vachon, Feliks Twist, Lacroix, Myra Schanke, Janette, Others
•	Quotation:	"Nick strolled back to his loft in the crisp morning light, feeling everything was right with his world. Granted, his arm was in a sling, his shoulder throbbed like thunder, he remained on enforced medical leave, his partner might never again pass a police physical, and the Enforcers could well be coming to get him and the woman he loved..."

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Entries tagged with trope:historical

FK Recommendation April 2011

FK Fanfic: "Before"

Collective Bargaining Story

FK Recommendation September 2010

FK Fanfic: "True to Life"

FK Fanfic: "Three Fireweed Seeds"

FK Fanfic: "Fearful Symmetry"

FK Fanfic: "Starwort"

FK Fanfic: "Steamer Trunk Space"

FK Fanfic: "In the Light of Day"

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