There's probably not anyone who hasn't heard if you knew Sandy Herrold, but she passed away early this morning from cancer.

If you didn't know her, she was a vidder, a writer, a reccer, and a person who *did* things in fandom. Her influence on vidding and meta in particular is incalculable.

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I meant to say earlier, thank you for posting this, Dana. I only met her once and I think I knew her more or better from people's reaction and emphatic love of her than from anything else. Because people loved her so damned fiercely. She was epic.

She was epic.

She was marvelous. I liked her enormously, and it's just so sad. She touched a lot of lives.

I never got to talk to her one-on-one, but she was one of those people who would walk into a room, and the energy level in the place would instantly go up by 200%. A big, generous, warm personality. She had the best laugh.

I would imagine the Vividcon staff is planning something in her memory during the con this year, the way they did with Abby after she passed. The place is going to be a wreck. She was incredibly well-loved by everyone who knew her, it seems.

I would imagine the Vividcon staff is planning something in her memory during the con this year, the way they did with Abby after she passed.

I should think so, if they have time in the schedule. Laura mentioned the possibility of a vidshow of Sandy's work, which would be entirely appropriate.

FSM save me from the fannish police.

Apparently there's this (I assume) young woman in Narnia fandom who is so affronted at the prevalence of OCs (particularly Mary Sues and self-inserts) in the fandom, that she's taken to remixing them publicly, and very mean-spiritedly. When challenged, she *sighs* and asserts that clearly none of the characters ever had a romance, because then Lewis would have written it. All fic that includes OCs or things not mentioned in the canon is, in fact, AU, by her lights, and she gets to police it.

It's all very... 17. Not to bad-mouth any 17-year-old Buffistas, but I remember being so self-righteous then. The sad thing is that she's hurting these poor enthusiastic teens and tweens, who are having great fun in their first fandom, and not only does she not care, she's enjoying the damage and the drama.

One can only hope that in three years, or five, she'll look back at this in horror at her lack of charity.

(As an aside, Narnia fandom? Really weird. There's this whole seriously evangelical side to it...)

Things not mentioned in canon? So how does she remix? By quoting bits of the book?

I know there aren't many (any?) fanartists here, but I'm trying to generate traffic for a deviantArt group I just started--I'm trying to collect art from big bangs and other challenges, pan-fandom. If anyone here would be willing to spread the word about Art For Big Bangs, I'd be grateful.

So how does she remix? By quoting bits of the book?

She -- and this is the best bit -- creates an OFC who "slays" the OC in the original story. At least once, she's driven the original writer to pull the story, and then posted her own remix anyway.

Given how many people writing in Narnia are clearly just kids, I think it's cruel--and also pointless. No one will ever defeat the power of the Mary Sue.

Also, policing fandom never works. "You shouldn't write bad fic! You shouldn't write X type of story!" Eh. I have my squicks, and there's stuff I won't read, but I know better than to think I can actually change someone else's fannish buttons.

creates an OFC who "slays" the OC in the original story.

What the Actual Fuck

I have a list of things that people shouldn't do in SPN fic, but no one listens. You mean I could just bully them out of it? Man, I didn't know it was that easy.