sounds West Coast to me. Definitely not Texan

Texans don't have the nasal Chicago A, and neither do southerners. (You don't have to be from Chicago to have that A, since I gather it's spread pretty far through the rust belt and beyond, but, that's not a southern accent.)

I will say, though, that I (and possibly many other people) say "drawl" when they mean "speak in a slow, drawn-out manner" -- not necessarily with an accent. The southern accent has slow vowels, so we say "southern drawl", but that means "drawling in a particularly southern way" rather than "all drawls are southern."

Somebody saying, coyly, "Well, I coooooould, buuuuuut, I'll keep you in suspense" is drawling, even if they're from Nova Scotia.

What Nutty said.

Sheppard has a drawl, but it's definitely a western/Plainsy drawl, maybe with some California in it. That having been said, I've seen more than one writer describe his accent as Southern, so I'm thinking that there are a lot of people who can't really differentiate between "a drawl" and "a Southern drawl."

Pru I mostly don't read, because I don't usually read WiPs, and *really* won't read a WiP by an author who has multiple WiPs going simultaneously. But when I've read her finished stuff, my reaction is Dana's.

(On a semi-related note, "Boom Boom Room" gets so much so very wrong about academia that I found it even harder to read than most academic AUs, which usually get stuff wrong. Astolat's recent badfic challenge response, though, with the bitching about where people's funding comes from? Perfect.)

I often find stories that were originally posted as WiPs tend to run on too long for my tastes, and not be as well-made, even when they're by authors whose stuff I really like. I wonder if that's just a necessary aftereffect of posting as you go. God knows, in my own writing, I'm all about the rewrite draft.

I'm thinking that there are a lot of people who can't really differentiate between "a drawl" and "a Southern drawl."

True. And with all the Canadian accents rolling around the galaxies out there, anybody from the lower 48 starts to sound positively -- still not southern. But the Chicago A is definitely non-Canadian sounding.

Huh. One of my fics just got nominated for an award. I'm flattered, but it's kind of hard to take fanfic awards all that seriously, especially when your fic is the only one nominated for a particular category. What really means something to me is having my fics recced and/or pimped by people whose taste and/or writing ability I admire.

People who think Sheppard has a southern accent have clearly never heard any real southern accents.

Exactly, sumi. I'm not sure how I would describe his accent, but 'Southern' would be nowhere on the list of possibilities.

Also, unless you were describing the character from the pov of someone who was unfamiliar with John or showing us another character's thoughts on him, why would you even need to mention anything about the accent?

I think it's a "he's really laconic -- how do I say that if I am not actually familiar with the word 'laconic'?" issue.

Or, it could be a secret badfic competition. I wonder how the scary Le Femme Nikita author (courtesy Dana) would describe him?

I read a story last night that ... well, it really struck home the way some pieces of fiction are just an open door to all the most interesting parts of the writer's psyche. I mean, check it out--It's an AU in which the US military practices sexual slavery of military prisoners (yes, this is going where you think it is):

• Daniel as woobie, inable to protect himself (despite having a body described as lean and athletic);
• Daniel is convicted of treason for refusing to return to Earth after Apophis attacks Abydos, and made into Jack's sex slave;
• Jack as hardass but fond of Daniel;
• Daniel multiply raped by military men, including Jack;
• No women to be seen at all, except for one hooker that someone gives to Daniel as a gift;
• Several suicide attempts by Daniel;
• Jack saves the galaxy by bonding with the Asgard and helping defeat the Replicators (by himself: there is no team);
• Daniel is raped and beaten up by another guy when Jack is away saving the galaxy with the Asgard;
• Jack comes back and sees how badly Daniel was treated, so he decides to become his friend instead of his master;
• Daniel realizes he loves his master Jack and they live happily ever in a world without women or psychological realism.

It's like a case study for all those people who claim slash is misogynistic. But it's not like women are badly treated: they simply don't exist at all. (Except in memory: in this world Daniel married Sha're but she was killed by Apophis, not taken.)

I read something like this (okay, skimmed), and I can't help thinking the writer can't possibly be aware of how she's exposed everything about her own kinks. Cause there's kinks, and there's kinks. I dunno.

Weirdness.

And no, it's not a particularly good story. I need to not click on links that don't say "highly recommended" by someone I trust.