To fanfic or not to fanfic...that is the question by Cathy Ace

What do you think about fan fiction?

Have you ever written any yourself?

PROCESS: I’ve heard the term, believe I know what it is, I know I haven’t written any but suspect I have read some – then I decide I should find out if my suppositions are correct. As with all authorial research, I find Wiki- sources a useful starting point; not the only place to go, but often I take direction from there. Always eager to learn, this is my research path:

Wikipedia says: “Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, or fic) is fiction about characters or settings from an original work of fiction, created by fans of that work rather than by its creator. It is a popular form of fan labor, particularly since the advent of the Internet.”

I never trust Wiki-anything as a single source of “fact”, so, for more insight, I dig further.

Here’s what Merriam Webster has to say about it: 

Definition of fan fiction  :  stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet —called also fanfic, \-ˈfik\

Wanting more insight into the true nature of fan fiction, I unearth an excellent piece from The Literary Review of Canada, no less. It tells me about how the early days of Star Trek saw fans of that show creating their own storylines for the characters within the Roddenberry universe (yes, I’m a Star Trek fan, but not a Star Wars Fan), and – introducing me to a good deal of terminology I’ve never encountered before it also tackles the knotty issue of copyright – something all creators must be concerned about. http://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2008/07/friction-over-fan-fiction/

It turns out I have read fan fiction, after all: PD James’ “Death Comes To Pemberley” was a thoroughly enjoyable read, continuing the lives we’d seen being lived in Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice (PS: I absolutely LOVED the movie of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”; Val McDermid’s “Northhanger Abbey” is a masterful re-telling of the original with a modern setting which I adored; Lindsay Faye’s “Jane Steele” stands as well as it does because of previous readings of “Jane Eyre’, though it is not, itself, a retelling of that tale. 

Are you a fan fiction writer? Reader? If you were to become one, upon which string of your life of fandom would you choose to play an air to create fan fiction? (For me…that which I love, I wouldn’t mess with; that which I don’t love, I wouldn’t know enough about to try it!)

Cathy Ace writes the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (book #2 THE CASE OF THE MISSING MORRIS DANCER will be available in trade paperback on August 31st in the UK, and in November in the US/Canada, and the Cait Morgan Mysteries (book #7 THE CORPSE WITH THE GARNET FACE was published in paperback in April). Find out more about Cathy and her work, and sign up for her newsletter at http://cathyace.com/   

My Bloody Valentine

(And now for something completely different...)
 
by Paul D. Marks
 
Hmm, is there a classic love story I'd like to improve with a nice messy murder? Well, let's see. 
 
Aren't I the lucky one falling right on Valentine's Day itself. So for that special occasion, a special love story. Well, the kind of love story you might find running 24/7 on the Discovery ID channel.
 

So, as cleanup hitter for this week's question here's my Valentine's paean to love and death and some stories that could be improved with a murder or two in them:
 
In an alternate universe Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice and other stories morph into stories the Discovery ID Channel would be proud to air. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth strikes a blow for freedom and goes on a killing spree, murdering the condescending Mr. Darcy first. She then sends a text through time and space to a woman named Lizzie B. "borrow ur axe, pls?"
 
Lizzie replies "sry, already loaned 2 A Karenina."
 
Swish Pan: Volga River, Moscow. A young girl comes upon a man's body bloating in the river. Police are summoned. They pull him out.
 
He's dressed like an aristocrat.
 
"Count Vronsky," the lieutenant says.
 
"There's an axe in his back," his partner says, counting. "Forty whacks."
 
"Who would have wanted to kill Count Vronsky?"
 
"Let's check with his wife, Anna K."
 
They go to Anna's house. She is nowhere to be seen.
 
"What's that?" the lieutenant says.
 
They stare at some glittering crystals that soon disappear as A Karenina time shifts to a place called Sporks, Washington, USA. Golden hour is dying, twilight is fast upon her.
 
"Holy Guacamole," Anna says, in Russian, of course. "This place is filled with vampires and werewolves. I must off them all."
 
She finds a vampire named Bella, er, Kristen Stewart.
 
"Who-are-you?" Kristen S says.
 
"Oy!" Anna says, in Russian, of course. "You are one lousy actress."
 
She throws Lizzie B.'s silver-plated axe at Kristen cutting her head off.
 
"Ah! I have saved the world," Anna says, in Russian, of course.
 
Magically Kristen's head returns to her body. It's a little off kilter, but not so bad. Nobody can tell.
 
"Holy Cow," Anna says, in Russian, of course. "I thought I killed you."
 
"Your axe was only made with cheap nickel-plated silver, which, as we all know, is not silver at all. Ha! You can't kill me with that."
 
"Can I kill you  with a bad review?" Anna says, in Russian, of course.
 
"No, that can't kill me either."
 
"All is lost," Anna says, in Russian, of course. "This Putin guy is insane – I cannot go home again."
 
She takes Lizzie B.'s cheaply plated silver axe and whacks off her own head.
 
And everybody died happily ever after.
 
Happy Bloody Valentine's Day Everyone!
 
(Pass me my meds, please.)
 

The End

 

(This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, real or fictional persons, real or fictional actors, rivers, cities, aristocrats, axes, Russians, actors, sporks or actual events is purely coincidental.)