Entries tagged with trope:historical

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Finished my FKFicFest promos (your turn); also, the history of hairbrushes

I've posted promos for

fkficfest '24 to

fandomcalendar,

fandom_on_dw, and

fksquee. That's all I plan to hit this year. If you'd like to promote the game on other appropriate communities or platforms, or on your own journal, please do.

One of our elected prompts this year involves an "antique hairbrush." That sparked my curiosity! So I've been trying, lightly, to search up the history of hairbrushes. While the invention of the modern hairbrush in the late 1700s as a luxury for aristocracy is amply documented (its inventor said he was inspired by a farm broom); and its improvement via patented inventions in the 1800s is, too; the earlier history and pre-history of hairbrushes -- specifically hairbrushes, as opposed to combs -- returns few hits, and all of the references that I found to hairbrushes in Egyptian tombs seem to trace back to a single assertion in a single haircare blog post without citations, not to museum collections or archaeological academia. Combs litter the archaeological record! Hairbrushes seem absent. (As opposed to paintbrushes, etc.) Possibly they were always made of organic materials that didn't survive. Or possibly people just didn't use brushes for hair until fairly recently; surely securing a boar bristle or the like into a handle was more difficult than carving a comb, and combs are more effective for most hair needs. (I suspect mainly the latter.)

Obviously, no one needs to hew to a story prompt so exactingly! And even those of us who enjoy being as exactingly historically accurate as possible and want to go pre-1777 can happily substitute a comb. I'm just curious.

With that curiosity, I plan to continue looking, possibly picking up some real books when I have a chance. While my first search targets were specific to FK -- middle Europe to Egypt -- my second were China and the Vikings. No ancient brushes yet. Lots and lots of combs and hair sticks (e.g. "[An] account from 1316 describes a set of four grooming instruments: mirror, comb, gravour [hair stick] and leather case purchased for the sum of 74 shillings, which was an astronomical amount of money..." (another blog post not citing its source)).

Addendum: Interesting ancient Chinese hairpin-related customs summarized in the Wikipedia "hairpin" entry.

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Fannish options & enthusiasms | February 2025

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: PBS Masterpiece
All Creatures Great and Small and Vienna Blood both rolled pleasantly through new seasons on Sunday nights on broadcast PBS (or streaming anytime on PBS Passport). ( Read more... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- trope_of_the_month is asking whether folks still want monthly themes there. If you do, let the mod know!
- halfamoon, the annual two-week fanwork fest celebrating female characters, is underway.
- kindreadspirits is a community for fans of m/m subtext in Victorian and Edwardian horror fiction, with an emphasis on identifying/recommending eligible vintage works.
- valentines_day is a holiday-themed gifting comm a la Fandom Trees, etc. Sign up through 2/12; gift through 3/02.
- femgiftboxes is a female-characters gifting comm a la Fandom Trees, etc. Sign up through 2/08; gift through 4/29.
- tv_talk recently completed a recommendations-by-genre fest. Post-fest additions are welcome.
- marvel_drabbles is running an exchange for traditional 100-words drabbles for MCU Phases 1-3. Nominate through 2/10; sign up through 2/21; due 3/31.
- fic_promptly is a comment-fic (prompt meme) community, re-launching after a hiatus.
- babylon5_100 and babylon5events are both active for Babylon 5 fans.
- pinchhitbingo is an annual year-long challenge for filling pinch hints for other events.
- genprompt_bingo is in Round 27 of its long-running challenges, where all the prompts are gen, while fills may be anything.
- trope_of_the_month's February theme is [not yet posted].
- allbingo's February theme is "Valentines Fest."
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, fffx is currently seeking pinch hitters.
- whenisitdue lists every event that I note here -- and many, many more -- in handy table format, with reminders.
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); February theme: "ambiguous relationships"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Ranking TLOZ
Ranking and re-ranking the games seems to be a fundamental custom of The Legend of Zelda players. Importantly, while everyone seems to have a "Best" ranking, most also have subsidiary rankings for every characteristic: story, music, visuals, items, puzzles, combat, dungeons, companions, etc., and folks seems encouraged to re-rank often, not only with each new game released.

So: Of the 21 mainline games, ranking solely for each story's literary merit -- and nothing else -- at this particular moment in time, in my opinion, the Top 5 are:

Majora's Mask
Link's Awakening
Tears of the Kingdom
Breath of the Wild
The Wind Waker

(The story I personally enjoy most at this time is Twilight Princess. Wholly different criteria!)

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aftermath of Pompeii thoughts for Lacroix

For those who like to ponder events in the existence of FK's Lacroix and Divia characters, I recently read an essay that might interest you: "How a Disaster Relief Program Changed the Roman Empire for the Better: Pompeii may symbolize catastrophe, but its aftermath provides a blueprint for rebuilding" by Annalee Newitz in The New York Times, March 6, 2021.

We naturally often focus on Pompeii for what existed before the Vesuvius eruption and what people suffered during the disaster. I, at least, had not thought to look into what happened after. According to this essay, many interesting things, including a relief and redistribution program about which Lacroix is sure to have had opinions. (I couldn't say whether Divia had opinions; she's an adolescent infused with terrible power and primordial evil; she probably didn't care much about economic and social structures.)

( some excerpts from the essay )

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1177 B.C.E.

I listened to a history podcast episode today that gave me some different thoughts on the place of HL's Horsemen in their time: "What Happened After Civilization Collapsed" from Throughline on NPR, about the end of the Bronze Age. One of the speakers even uses the phrase "the four horsemen" at one point, metaphorically of course, but on the brink.

In myself, I'm unlikely ever to embrace that part of the HL story; it wasn't built for me. But situating it/them as the aftermath of a civilizational collapse, as the face or scourge (depending which side you're on) of what their contemporaries truly saw as what we'd call a post-apocalyptic remnant... there's potential for more.

(Throughline's tagline is: "we go back in time to understand the present.")

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"The European Occultists" by me for FKFicFest 2018

The last of this year's

fkficfest stories is now available. Tomorrow will bring the "Closing Ceremonies" master-list. Then we could start thinking about next year...? Collapse in a heap? Finish reading all the stories?

The final story, this time, happens to be the one I wrote. It's for

senmut's prompt: "Crossover. Nick Knight pilot and Forever Knight series. “Perhaps it’s all a dream, as one Nick or the other (both if you’re ambitious) glimpse the subtle differences in their lives.”

My result was an FK story in which NK guest-stars. If you're unfamiliar with NK, all you need to know about NK for this story is that Rick Springfield's Nick is “Jean-Pierre” (rather than “Nicholas”) and his pilot has no flashbacks.

Many thanks to

skieswideopen for pointing out some key gaps between imagination and text.

"The European Occultists" (G, gen, ~4K words)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/238934.html

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"July 22, 1916"

In 2010, for the first-ever FKFicFest after-party,

wiliqueen wrote "July 22, 1916." On the event's 100^th anniversary this week, she mused about that story and its historical inspiration. If its subject matter doesn't cut too close to home for you when you might read, I recommend it as a beautiful little FK piece, a smart and poignant prelude to the flashbacks of "Cherry Blossoms," which I love so.

As Wiliqueen noted: On July 22, 1916, in the run-up to the US entering the First World War, San Francisco, California, so far from the fighting in Europe, held a "Preparedness Day" parade. It remains unknown to this day who planted the bomb that killed 10 and injured 40 during that parade.

Wikipedia says that the Preparedness Day bombing is still the worst terrorist attack in San Francisco's history. May it ever stay the worst. May no worse ever again happen anywhere.

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/189635.html

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Lighthouses

Any Forever Knight fans who are also lighthouse lovers reading this?

I read an essay/article in the New York Times today about lighthouses, which reminded me of an FK flashback story idea that I had ages ago — Nick as a nineteenth-century lighthouse keeper on a particularly fog-ridden stretch of the west coast of North America — but, though I did the research (and even visited the model RL lighthouse!), never got around to writing.

( Story Structure and Real Historical Figure Considerations )

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/176807.html

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FK Fanfic: "Wake and Remember"

In the rarewomen game this year, I received falconhorus's prompt slate. I very seriously considered her Sleepy Hollow request for Katrina (I rewatched every episode!), but naturally, as you doubtless could have predicted all along and saved me the fuss and fretting, I instead ended up writing for her Forever Knight request for Fleur.

On the AO3:	"Wake and Remember"
Length:	6,265 words
Date:	May 2013
Rating:	PG-13 (vampire behavior)
Characters:	Fleur, Nick, Original Characters; off-screen references to Lacroix, Janette, Andre, Lord Delabar
Setting:	1247 Artois (before "Fallen Idol") and 1229 Brabant (after "Be My Valentine")
Summary:	Fleur's memory of her own youthful romantic rebellion does not create great sympathy with her daughter's.
Quotation:	"You wanted to save me. Do you want to save yourself?"

I got to leverage research that I've done for previous stories set in Europe's middle ages, but my discovery of the Paston Letters was new just for this game; it inspired this tale. My thanks to skieswideopen, V. and argentum_ls for helping at various stages of brainstorming, unblocking and proofreading!

Fleur is arguably the most important guest star in Forever Knight, but she is, indubitably, only a guest star. I know. I'm very lucky that kind people like falconhorus, and my brainstormers, beta-readers and you are willing to play with the character with me! Thank you, all!

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/122302.html

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FK Fanfic: "Scrubbed Clean"

This is the fandom_stocking story that I wrote for skieswideopen this year. She wrote that she likes “outsider POVs,” “slice of life” and “bittersweet endings” (and, of course, Forever Knight). I'm pretty satisfied with it. I think it's different, and that it achieves an appropriate structure.

My thanks to celli for her supportive beta-reading and perceptive suggestion!

	Available:	My Fansite \| The AO3
	Length:	1,996 words
	Date:	Fandom Stocking 01/07/12, FKFic-L 01/18/12
	Rating:	PG
	Characters:	OFC, Janette, Nick, Lacroix
	Summary:	In 1275 Troyes, Janette's laundress discerns the hidden nature of her household.
	Quotation:	"She had learned just what combination of wood ashes and caustic soda salvaged a gentleman's tunic soaked in blood, precisely how much fine Spanish hard soap rescued a lady's choicest linen spattered with blood, and the secret technique of restoring furs stiffened by blood."

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/97033.html

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FK Fanfic: "Cuts Deep"

I wrote this story for pj1228 in the oldschoolfic winter 2011 event. (This is the one with the Turkish bath, the blood supplier, and the teenage murder victim.) Thanks to lastscorpion, skieswideopen and amilyn for beta-reading! Thanks to celli and wiliqueen for brainstorming!

PJ is a Cousin, Dark Knightie and UFer who prefers "dark," so I found this assignment extremely challenging. I aimed close to canon, hoping to achieve its openness to being read both ways; the crimes solved in this tale are more disturbing than my usual, and some may find them triggering, though all could have aired as written.

	• Title:	"Cuts Deep" (also on AO3)
	• Length:	~11,000 words
	• Date:	Oldschoolfic 02/02/11, FKFic-L 05/02/11
	• Rating:	PG-13
	• Summary:	Nick and Schanke solve a vicious murder that reminds Nick of a miscarriage of justice in 1885 London.
	• Characters:	Nick, Schanke, Natalie, Lacroix, Janette, Stonetree, Norma, Others
	• Quotation:	"Schanke was right; Nick did know that feeling. He took a deep breath of the clear spring night. 'We give the families closure, Schank. And sometimes, with these high profile cases, the whole community needs that closure, too."

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

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FK Recommendation April 2011

What's Good? Sign-ups for

fkficfest/

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 )

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

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FK Fanfic: "Before"

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."

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

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Collective Bargaining Story

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. ;-)

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

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FK Recommendation September 2010

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 )

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

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FK Fanfic: "True to Life"

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?"

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FK Fanfic: "Three Fireweed Seeds"

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.

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FK Fanfic: "Fearful Symmetry"

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."

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FK Fanfic: "Starwort"

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."

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FK Fanfic: "Steamer Trunk Space"

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."

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FK Fanfic: "In the Light of Day"

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..."