brightknightie | Entries tagged with fan:susan

During dinner tonight, I was re-reading some of Susan G.'s FK fanfic that I have on my Kindle. (I have most of her FK fanfic on my Kindle, and on a hard-drive, and in the Cloud. Susan G.'s FK fanfic is not just my favorite, it's nigh unto deutero-canon.)

By chance, I came across a little story called "Moving On" of which I had no conscious memory. Oh. My. Goodness. It was very nearly like getting to read a new Susan G. story.

I can't seem to find it online to link to it for you. Her family kept her site up for years after she died, but... not forever. She died before the AO3 came along. And many of the FK-specific archives have now closed.

So: Spoilers. ( Read more... )

It's so early-second-season. So classic. So ... refreshing.

Susan, we were so lucky to have you while we did. I trust you know now how much good you did, in all the ways, all your life.

If your style is that "Fever" is the last episode in the world that you'd want to watch right now :-D then perhaps head over to

fkficfest and participate in our little survey? We're asking which episodes you think correlate with our prompts for this year's game. None are "Fever!" Which episodes should they be...? For those of us writing, what should we reflect on? Vote and/or discuss!

If, on the other hand, your style is heading straight to "Fever," Contagion, and The Decameron at this time, let me recommend a curious FK fanfic by Susan: "An Invitation to the Dance" (1994). Nick and Natalie in the present; Nick, Janette, and Lacroix in the past. It's inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" (Wikipedia entry).

I hope everyone is and stays very well. Keep your distance in person. Keep close online. ♥

Something that brought delight last week: re-reading Susan G.'s FK story "Seduction of the Diligent" across 3 lunch breaks, one chapter per day. I've had it on my Kindle for years, but hadn't re-read it in a long time.

The story features Natalie, supported by Nick and Lacroix, with cameos for Grace and Tracy. It's set in the meta-alternate-reality of Tippi B.'s "Eternal Champion" and "Son of Eternal Champion," in which there's a TV show (about Nate Champion, a werewolf who wants to be human) that stands in our characters' lives where FK stood in ours, including, at that time, impending cancellation. Susan's take chronicles not only Natalie's own fall into fandom, but our collective hopes for the bridge to what could be after cancellation.

The re-reading was really a joyful surprise, nostalgia without sadness, and a new appreciation. I recommend it!

This morning, though, when I came to link to it for you, I found that Susan's own site is down at last. That makes me sad. But of course we were lucky it stayed up as many years as it did after her loss.

I haven't yet tidied up the traces of my LJ years. I will. For now, though, my account's still active. So when Susan's birthday came, LJ reminded me. I meant to post this in August. I ran out of time.

In case you've found FK fandom only recently, let me share that Susan M. Garrett was a kind and generous person, magnificent fan, and wonderful storyteller. FK fandom was blessed in her. Not alone, she tried so hard to do so much for all of us. But above all fanwriters whom I dearly love to read, I love to re-read Susan as none other. Her stories come so close, so nearly there, to the FK of my heart.

Check out Susan's FK stories. Here are just a few of my personal favorites:

"False Heart" (April 1994) & "Kind Soul" (January 1995)
"Peerless Pressure" (May 1995)
"Knight in Hell" (May 1994)

What are your favorite Susan stories?

I often say that it's never too late for feedback on fanfic! But of course I do mean before we lose the author.

For her birthday, in memory of Susan, and of FK fandom as it was, here're a few of my own favorites of Susan's wonderful FK stories:

"False Heart" (April 1994) + "Kind Soul" (January 1995)
"Seduction of the Diligent" (April 1996)
"Peerless Pressure" (May 1995)
"Knight in Hell" (May 1994)
"Where There's No Smoking" (December 1994)

Bonus: Susan's very first FK fanfic: "All That's Best of Dark and Bright" (October 1993)

Old-is-new-again bonus: Susan's FK/Pokémon story: "Nicholas, I Choose You!" (1997)

What are your favorite Susan stories? Do you have any that you reread every year, or when certain things happen or come to mind?

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/239829.html

LiveJournal recently reminded me that Susan G.'s birthday is coming soon, in that way LiveJournal has of suddenly, but gently, pinching you for not defriending your friends just for being dead.

As nearly every FK fan knows, August is Susan's Birthday Month,* a time best filled with FK fanfic — lots and lots of FK fanfic of all kinds — in honor of Susan, who meant, did and wrote so much for us. If you don't know Susan's marvelous stories, you have immense delights ahead of you! If you want recommendations, I'll gladly supply. For myself, I reread Susan's fanfiction both for sheer enjoyment and to learn to become a better FK writer.

This year, by community vote,

fkficfest/

fkficfest comes due on August 22, with stories beginning to release on August 24. We will therefore be filling the end of August and the start of September in a way that I hope Susan would (does) approve.

* Yes, PJ, it's also Lacroix's Conversion Day Month. ;-)

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/212103.html

wiliqueen, please tell us about the time that you wrote: "The only things left at the end of the world will be a twinkie, a cockroach, and Janette." :-) [Edited to add: Wiliqueen replied on LJ!]

Everybody else, feel free to use that as a story prompt. ;-)

I happened to reread Susan G.'s little FK fanfic "The Last One" today (it's one of many of hers permanently on my Kindle), and it happily reminded me of how amazingly wide-ranging is FKdom's imagination, and how inspiring is our interplay with each other as we create. This story was a response to the "Asteroid Challenge," of course, the challenge to write stories set in alternate universes where the asteroid from "A More Permanent Hell" actually comes, and it was also inspired by Wiliqueen's remark (above).

Our fandom, guys. This is us! :-) One day to FKFicFest sign-ups...

P.S. If you don't yet know the FK corpus of the much-missed Susan G., go! Read! You are in for such a treat.

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/205535.html

I woke up this morning and turned on my computer to make the "Today's the day! FKFicFest stories due at 11:59 PM!" post, and... LJ had emailed me a reminder that Susan G.'s birthday is August 11, which happens to be the first day of releasing FKFicFest stories this year. I hadn't been thinking of that.

You remember and sometimes miss Susan G. (FK fic still here!) too, of course. You're an FK fan, after all. And you remember how August used to be "Susan's Birthday Month" on FKFic-L, inviting a special flood of stories to show appreciation ... for her! but also, in a way, for each other and our sharing of FK. (She didn't specify Raven stories for her birthday; she just asked for fiction, lots and lots of fiction.)

I know that I could defriend my deceased friends' accounts and duck these annual nudges. But unless it becomes a security risk, I doubt I ever will. I still write Abby's birthday on my physical wall calendar every year, just like my mom's and grandma's. You don't cease existing when you die.

But don't any of you go anywhere for quite a while, yeah?

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/185647.html

Today is Memorial Day in the US, the holiday commemorating those who have died while active in the armed forces, serving and protecting the rest of us. It began as "Decoration Day" after the Civil War, in which the "decoration" was of the graves of the war's dead. These days, sometimes, sentiment extends it also to those who have died as first-responders — police, firefighters, paramedics.

I hope that I do not in any way trivialize the holiday's solemn due by saying that its timing this year, as we gear up

fkficfest/

fkficfest, connected in my mind with some elements of FK's story.

skieswideopen made an observation this weekend that reminded me that, whatever happened later, conquistador Vachon died, a young soldier, on a battlefield far, far from his home. Though gravely wounded, crusader Nick survived his battlefields in body, and yet, as

melissatreglia noted a week or so ago, the "deutero-canon" from that venerable Jim Parriot interview is that Nick was a prisoner of war — enduring captivity in the Levant before eventually, somehow, making his way back to France — incomparably changed from Gwyneth's blithe lover into Lacroix's disillusioned prey. Lacroix, of course, as a general (probably "legate," properly) of Roman legions, perpetrated what we today recognize as war crimes.

Of course the late Susan G.'s 1995 FK poem "Old Soldiers," inspired by the Raven scene in "My Boyfriend is a Vampire," came to mind. If you haven't read it yet, don't miss it. (If you don't usually like poetry, try reading it aloud; give it a chance.)

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/161242.html

This morning,

greerwatson posted "How to Pick up a Bargain at This Time of Year" as the second entry in the "Bloor Mistletoe Challenge" at

fkcommentfic/

fkcommentfic. It stars Schanke, with appearances by Jenny, Nick and Myra, and bristles with Torontonian details. Check it out!

I had hoped to revive the recommendation-of-the-month project this December, with praise for Susan G.'s inimitable, chilling, beautiful "Angel Crossing," the sole Lacroix story in the original (1993) fkfic-l Christmas challenge, in which Susan pledged one story per character by her, as long as someone else first posted another story starring that character... and yet no one else wrote one featuring Lacroix. Hers stood alone. And stands alone, unique and stunning. With the other challenge entries, Val K. (not Wiliqueen; the other Val) published "Angel Crossing" in the remarkable Forever Net Before Christmas zine, which is my personal favorite hard-copy zine to this day, as fond as I am of several others. I have not yet managed to revive the recommendations project on my fansite as hoped, so please take this as an informal rec! And if you're looking for more FK Christmastide, please check out my "trope:holidays" tag (DW, LJ) for past recommendations of stories relating to all the red-letter days in the calendar, and especially annual posts (like this one!) chatting about and/or listing links to FK Christmas stories (2011, 2010, 2009, 2007).

I have today and tomorrow off work, and while there are other observances afoot, I also hope to write a very short story for the

fkcommentfic/

fkcommentfic "Bloor Mistletoe Challenge." If I am so lucky as to finish it, I'll come looking for a beta-reader to help speed-polish. Forewarned is forearmed... ~grin~ (Now, the challenge stays open through January 6! I would just like to produce something for the big feast day itself, even if all readers will be over at Yuletide.)

Merry Christmas, to all those celebrating! Goodwill to everyone else, too! :-)

Crosspost http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/148582.html

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Entries tagged with fan:susan

"Moving On" by Susan G.

to "Fever" or not to "Fever"

re-read Susan's "Seduction of the Diligent"

Susan's birthday is a time for FK fanfic

Susan's birthday is an FKdom holiday

It's Susan's Birthday Month

"a twinkie, a cockroach, and Janette"

August is still Susan's Birthday Month

"for Glory, God, or Spanish Gold"

New and Old Christmas FK Story Thoughts

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