Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

From the our-pron-is-erotica files: a British slash writer is up on obscenity charges for “a kind of splatter-core horror-porn tribute to a British girl band who can’t sing in tune without digital processing.” Hide your Twincest, fellas…

Sometime last week I added four more episode additions to the Firefly page. (Apparently you can watch Firefly free now on Hulu.)

If you’d like a little more existential angst and ennui than my fic can provide, try garfield minus garfield.

There are four more new drabbles on the Stargate page, mostly under Season Six. I’m not actually churning them out this fast; I just found three old S6 drabbles that I’d never posted.

Thanks to Jade for the beta!

Yes, after over two years of not ficcing, I have returned, in a small, 100-word way, to writing fanfic. In fact, I’ve been working on an old Stargate novel on the side, and for research I’ve been rewatching Stargate season 7. About nine episodes in I realized that I have an unfinished Stargate drabble project that could be benefiting from my so-called research.

Don’t expect too much from my first official piece of fanfic in twenty-eight months: Double Standard, a coda to “Birthright.”

[Update:] They’re like popcorn! Backups, a coda to “Revisions.”

If you’re missing the allegedly-defunct Strange New Worlds contest already, here’s a chance to write for Doctor Who. Send them up to 2,500 words by January 31st. Paid published authors need not apply.

Sci Fi Wire has some good links to the Star Wars fanfic issue. I think if you don’t expect a lot of buyers, publishing your fanfic on Amazon isn’t all that different from charging for fanfic fanzines–something that goes on all the time in fandom. Amazon is just easier to link.

Seema wants to wax nostalgic again. I’m still too post-fandom to put any work into gathering titles and links, so let me redirect you once again to The Jemima’s Trek Fanfic Awards.

Ok, I’ve succumbed to the infectious first lines
meme, but only so far as to post some first lines from my
stories. The first set are what was intended by the meme; the rest
are there for fun. Feel free to fic with any of them.

Generic first lines:

(more…)

Writing link of the day: The Theory and Practice of Titles by B.W. Clough

I know I’m late to the title meme, which I spotted in Sara’s LJ. Since I’ve done this meme before and chimed in on other title rants, I’ll try to focus on newer titles.

Pick five, or ten, or more, of your fic titles. List them in your journal and explain how you came up with each one. Post this prompt as well, so that the meme spreads.

1. The Lamne’rau: Everyone’s heard this story before - the title that took longer than the fic. I explained it in “The Lamne’rau” Unplugged as a Romulan verb in the acquiescent mood, meaning “let them collect; let us gather together.” I made up the name of the mood, but there’s a real Romulan root (so to speak), *lamne*, meaning “collect,” taken from the online Rihannsu - English Dictionary V. 3.1. The postfix *rau* (let) is from the online Introduction to Rihannsu Morphology and Syntax.
2. The Other Side of the Gate: This was my first real SG-1 fic, written in response to a crossover request, and the big issue was how to cross SG over with the other show, while keeping the technobabble consistent with both canons. I decided to send the team through the back of a Stargate rather than the usual flushing side, since that hadn’t been done and anything could happen. Daniel whines about going through the “wrong side” of the gate but I thought “other side” had a more ethereal, titlelike flavor to it.
3. Goodbye to VOY: This one is a typical filked filk title, for a filk of the Carpenters’ “Goodbye to Love.” It’s notable mainly for the use of a fannish abbreviation (VOY) as a real word. Fortunately, I didn’t need to rhyme anything with it.
4. Raj of Rage: Although I Will Revive is my most popular Khan filk, this one has my favorite title. It’s a filk of “Turn the Page,” and I owe the title to Seema.
5. One Brass Horus: This one was another filky titling challenge, for “One Tin Soldier.” Horus guards are those Jaffa soldiers with the silly brass hats.
6. I do not love you Thursday and And why you come complaining: I adored the episode “2010,” and I wanted something special to put at the top of my Bitter!Jack codas. Nothing says I loved you and you stabbed me in the back but I’m cool with that because bitter becomes me like Edna St. Vincent Millay. Both titles are from her poem “Thursday”.
7. We Call Them Angels, Theoretically Possible, The Highest Risk, Cordesh Is No Longer, Hail, Dorothy, The Petty Needs of the Goa’uld, and We have no joy on the burn: Drabbling has led to no end of titles, but my favorites are the ones stolen directly from episode dialogue.
8. A White Dove: Not my best titling work, but since it was just recced at BSO I feel that I ought to explain. This songfic was inspired by “Blowin’ in the Wind” and that was the working title as well. I wanted something a little better, but still taken from the song. Since the story turned out to be about Sam, as was the scene for the verse How many seas must a white dove sail / before she sleeps in the sand?, I decided to name it after her - though I’m still not quite satisfied with it.

I gather from various responses I’ve seen, such as Rocky’s, that the point is to list all the pairings you’ve written. Here goes: