I've been reading the Amelia Peabody Emerson books by Elizabeth Peters, and a strange half-awake dream has proved that I've been utterly corrupted by slashers. Is there any Ramses/David stuff out there?

I'm sure there is, but I can't help. Be sure to post URLs if you find it though...

The new one is set in the past of the series, btw, when Ramses is about 20: Peters seems to have learned the lessons of her recent books -- too many characters, all of whom she felt compelled to reintroduce for new readers, dragged the books down. This one has mostly only the core four (David stays behind to be with Lia, then his fiancee) and is the stronger for it.

It's not the last part either, from what I gather.

Oh, God.

The thing is, it's well-plotted, but the plot gets drowned in flood of repetitive, sentimental conversation. It would have benefited hugely from a ruthless edit methinks. A clear case of Order of the Phoenix syndrome.

Order of the Phoenix was baggy and shambling, but it never had repeated scenes in which characters tell one another what the reader already knows.

Plus, and this really struck me, it's the same scene over and over, structurally. Conversation, event, more conversation. Give me a long descriptive passage to break up the monotony. A dream sequence. A fight in which no one says a word. SOMEthing. You know?

I think this is one of my biggest sins as a writer so I can't say anything.

Well, as I said above, this was a tremendous learning experience for me as a writer if not a good read -- I'm certainly going to be looking at pace a lot more closely from here on in.

I have discovered something very interesting. I jointed a X/S Yahoo group--new fics! Whee!--and I think a couple of authors there have been reading my Career Change series very closely. Nothing like plagarism--besides in fanfic that's a hollow charge--but there are elements that look darned familiar. Granted, the one author may have been working on her plot for ages before I published my alternate S5, but having the Scoobies escape from Glory by going to an alternate dimension made me blink. Am I the chicken or am I the egg? I'm not going to mention it, but I waver between dead flattered to minorly snarked. When I'm not saying, "You're taking this too seriously, woman, all that matters is if it's a decent story."

I know one author is a fan of my stories, because she's sent my very nice feedback. And, boy, wasn't that a struggle with the self-image, to claim someone as a fan. Her story is highly original, though, and I'm only seeing echoes in minor things like place names. But it has made me wonder what the protocol/etiquette of something like this is.

Huh, I read something on LJ recently, connie, that was remarkably like one of your stories, but happier and not as well written. I can't think of which story it was right now, nor whose LJ...one of those friends of friends of friends things. I was a little bothered by it because she was getting "hail the queen" kind of feedback, but anyone who read the original would know it was an imperfect, not-quite-plagiarised imitation.

Just thought I'd let you know, connie, that last night I dreamed about finding I'd been plagiarized. Mind you, I dreamed a lot of strange things (there was Michael Shanks, and the catchphrase "Celine Dion could sing the national anthem on the Today Show, and Neptune will still have flooded the streets of Athens on St. Cupid's day") but that part was clearly attributable to you. I just wanted to give proper acknowledgment.

OK, I'm going to go with the dead flattered angle, then. I'm infiltrating people's dreams. "Sing Thee To Thy Rest" was put up on an awards site, and the webmaster only had the web address to go by, so she put Riani as the author's name. I politely pointed out the proper attribution and that more people might recognize the story with the correct name, and she emailed me back and saying, "One of those people would be me. I knew I'd read that before, but I couldn't remember the author."

This is damned weird, but neat. People three steps removed from me have heard of my stories. I guess I'd better rework the website to display my nom de plume.

"One of those people would be me. I knew I'd read that before, but I couldn't remember the author."

t blinks

Your story doesn't have your name on it? I mean, how on earth could someone misattribute a story?