Ship Wars at st_respect is having a public vote on its final challenge prompt: [link]

Come, read all the lovely fic from all your favorite ships on Star Trek. You can vote for three entries, in fact, you must vote for three entries. Voting for one, two or four will disqualify your vote. So, come vote for three stories! And, please vote for Team Jones (Jim/Bones)! I collaborated on the Team Jones entry with 5 of the best writers out there. It's a real angstfest, with a happy ending. Come check it out.

Barb,

I read your take and the original post about fan fic and I have a couple of reactions:

1) I actually knew the author online several years ago and she is not a nice person IMO. I was not surprised by her post (in tone and substance) about fan fiction.

2) I get that authors are appalled by the use of their characters, but I have always seen fan fiction like youtube mashups. As long as people aren't trying to profit from it, sometimes marvelous things can come out of the ventures. I understand copyright needs to be enforced, but people also need to have fun. There has to be some kind of playground out there where people can mutually agree not to bother each other.

I think the most reasoned response to [redacted] post was the one that Fay posted in her LJ, it's a masterpiece. [link]

I don't think there's anyone here who would disagree with Fay, but for those of you who have problems managing to come up with a most excellent analogy that will slay them dead (like me), use hers. It's awesome.

I don't think we should have to excuse ourselves for writing fanfiction. Whether we do it for practice or just because, it's a valid form of art and Fay articulates that just so damn well. I love her spicy brains.

oh thanks for that link. Fay's comments about the sycophantic commenters also got me. Too true.

In addition, I agree with some of the commenters' critique of the novels. The adjective "rapetastic" is quite apropos - at least of the first book I read and stopped there.

• I edited out the authors name in my posts because I don't think we want a swarm of her fans in here getting pissed off.

I also think she's over-reacting. The number of individual authors who get more than a handful of stories written in their universes is vanishingly small. I can think of Lewis (Narnia) (And even that only really took off after the movies came out); Bujold; Tolkein; Pratchett; Meyer; Rowling (the movies helped but there was a thriving community already); McCaffrey; Doyle (long-lived but smallish); and... that's about all I can think of.

Even phenomenonly popular people like Gaiman don't have a lot of fic written for them, by comparison with the big media fandoms. It's tv, movies, and comics that seem to drive a lot of fic, more than books. I suspect there's a master's thesis in that for someone.

So why get all spun up about the fact that someone might ask for a Morgaine/Signy Mallory story (crossover of two CJ Cherryh series) for Yuletide? It's not like there's a lot of people out there doing it, and the more fuss one makes, the more upset everyone gets.

And really, the best commentary I've seen on the whole issue is Kate Nepveu's here.

Didn't Zimmer-Bradley have a relatively thriving fic community? Not that I've thought about it since the web took control, but in 'zines, and the like.

Fay, well played. Also, in the words of the great, but fictional, Ari Gold, "Conversations end when one person calls another a douchebag, Ms. Gabaldon."(Who do I owe money to for that? Ellin? Or Piven, cause it wouldn't be half as funny if he didn't say it? Or maybe Julian Farino, for being a brilliant director or maybe just for looking and sounding exactly like one might expect a Julian Farino to look and sound, a rarity in this contradictory world?) God, Arizona is just, like, Asshole Ground Zero, lately isn't it? Sorry about that.(It's not the heat...it's the stupidity.) I'm not really a fan of her writing, but it kind of gave me a "local girl makes good" kick to know someone from this area hit it so big. But that was before I knew she was so humorless and a member of the Fun Police.

I think there's been a lot of Interview with the Vampire fanfic over the years... perhaps Anne Rice drove the authors into hiding? [link]

Is it fanfic if you go through the book with a red pen?

No, but it's damn satisfying.