Thorn Wilde

I think Brink has a good point, too. A lot of people might not really think about it. If something doesn't matter to you, it might be hard to see why it would matter to other people. Years and years ago, I outed my best friend's general anxiety disorder to a new acquaintance. I was seventeen at the time, I think. It didn't even occur to me that there was a stigma for mental illness, and my friend tended to tell everyone anyway, so I didn't realise that telling someone about it would be a breach of confidence. But it was. We remained friends and still are, but I don't think she ever trusted me in quite the same way again. Sometimes it can be easy to overlook stigma and discrimination in society, not because you don't believe it can exist, but because you yourself see everyone as equal and it doesn't occur to you that others you speak to might not. So, your boss might know, rationally, that there are homophobes and dickheads out there who might want to hurt you or be cruel to you, but he won't consider the fact that they might be on his staff, in his own backyard, so to speak. Because, 'Surely, I don't know anyone who's still so short-sighted and stupid?'

This means so much to me, you have no idea. Thank you so much! It makes me really happy to know that you're enjoying this story, and that you find it original and realistic. Thank you!

True, the Babel Fish would be very helpful.

I'm glad you've enjoyed this story, and that you find the characters engaging. I'm really quite liking them myself. Thank you so much for reviewing!

Thank you! Makes me happy to know that people are still reading this. I'm really very happy that you enjoyed it!

That's why you need your time machine to be a TARDIS, which has a translation circuit that gets in your head and translates everything.

You know, me too. I'm really enjoying writing these unsentimental stories. It all feels really genuine to me. I'm glad people enjoy reading them, too. Thank you!

Thank you! I'm gad you can sympathise with Marcus, even though he's a piece of work. I empathise with him immensely myself, but then he's my character. Thank you, once again, for such a long and lovely review!

No, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Glad to hear it! We will corrupt you yet! Thanks for reviewing!

One of the hands down best stories I've read this year was a The Thick of It fanfic in which Malcolm Tucker gets cancer. The dialogue was amazing, the characterisations spot-on. The writer could have done with an editor, there were some typos and stuff, but all in all it was a marvellous piece of art, and I cried. Twice.

Marcus slams down a blue binder of material for next week’s edition on the desk and glares around at his team. ‘All right, then, my little cumbuckets! This week’s issue is out. What bits of journalistic fuckery have you got for me today? Glenn!’ ‘Er . . .’ The second year IT student shuffles his notes nervously. ‘I was, er, I was thinking of maybe writing a piece on, er, you know, the state of the, er, cafeteria food—’ ‘Fine, good, go for it. Fucking own those dinner ladies. Sami?’ ‘

Marcus manages his stressful life by being in control of, and on top of, everything at all times, including his lover, Jacob. But everything becomes just a little bit too much when Marcus has to deal with his dying father, the man who made his childhood a living hell, and in the end there's only one person Marcus can turn to. Contains gratuitous swearing. Part 2 of The F*cking Trilogy.

I AM a slasher, and proud of it too. That doesn't make me any less of a fanfictioneer, does it? I have read and written lots of fanfic that wasn't slash as well. I even have one or two heterosexual canon pairings that I love to explore (almost all my BtVS fanfic is centred on Spike/Buffy). *I've heard it referred to as Spork, and I think it's a lovely pairing, even though I never really got into Star Trek TOS.

So it about 95% of fan fiction. Your point?

Don't worry, bro, it happens to the best of us.

I just realised... Shouldn't this be in the video gamers forum?

I agree with pretty much all of this. Back when I was writing a lot of HP fanfic, part of the challenge was to keep the narrative as close to that of the books as possible, albeit with added swearing and often quite a bit of sex. I hear from a lot of people who don't read fanfic at all (boyfriend included) that fan fiction is just an excuse to put two hot characters together, keeping them in character be damned. But I find that all the best fanfic, even of that genre, is written by people who are slaves to how the characters are originally portrayed and write them so true to form that you see every action and hear every word in your head exactly the same as when you read the original work or watch the film or television show the story is based on. I would also like to add that pastiche and parody are very closely related to fan fiction, and the tradition for that goes back centuries. It's not unusual to find creative published authors who have written a pastiche of a work they enjoy (I could mention Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald, which is a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes mixed with H.P. Lovecraft and a very enjoyable read).

I know I'm not the only one here who has roots in fan fiction. I didn't start out there (I started out at the age of 5 writing a story about a rabbit, as many authors before me), but in many ways it was through fan fiction that I learned to write properly, mimicking the works of others to find my own style. For me, this happened through the Harry Potter fandom (which may or may not be the reason why my stories are so very British despite the fact that I'm not). I still dabble a bit, though not as much as I used to, and I read fan fiction still (though not so much based on literary works, most of it is for TV-series after they've been cancelled or I've run out of episodes and need a fix). I've always thought that the day people are writing fan fiction based on my work will be the day I'll know I've made it. Some authors have always encouraged fan fiction writing, J.K. Rowling among them. Neil Gaiman also states that though he doesn't read fan fiction (and occasionally finds the things people come up with quite disturbing) he thinks it's a good way for people to get into writing and takes no issue with it. Other authors never address the topic and mostly just turn a blind eye, while others still strongly discourage the practice. Anne Rice, for instance, made herself very unpopular by sending lawyers to harass fans who posted fan fiction online. Now, I'm curious to know how people here feel about this phenomenon. As a reader, is it something that interests you? Do you read fan fiction for fun? Why or why not? As a writer, have you ever written it? And perhaps more importantly, how would you feel about people writing fan fiction based on your work?

Spoilers...

Yay! Happy birthday!!

Yes, ma'am, working on it! The next chapter is with the editor. Thank you so much for all your reviews!! Made me really happy to see them all. As for the strangulation fetish, it's very possible that it sounds a lot worse than it actually is.

Yeah, the media circus doesn't make it easy to be famous... It's a trade off, I guess. Poor Ben. Thanks for reviewing!