Halloween, my favorite holiday! The creepies and crawlies are out, slithering through our fiction, and scaring the sheet off us with their little paws outstretched for that candy only you, the reader, can drop into their bags: feeeeeed baaaaaack. Don't think for a minute they won't haunt you if you don't; there's that "trick" component of the "trick or treat" we all too often forget. And remember, there's nobody as imaginative with tricks as a fanfic writer!
It's been a pretty scary season; first so few stories Feast had to take its belt in a couple notches, and then the Massive Repost Syndrome. But in among all this other stuff are some Godiva quality chocolates, and I'll x-ray what I can for you to make sure there aren't any needles or razor blades in this bag o' goodies.
One of the most impressive works by a newcomer I've seen this whole year has been "Aftershock," by Terma99, at terma99@aol.com. Terma's strongest point is in her descriptions, but also excellent is her ability to get inside Mulder's head, as when he considers:
"What sick fuck could devise a disease so insidious that he would be forced to watch her shrink before his eyes growing smaller everyday, her brightness dimmed and fading into the crumpled sheets of a hospital bed. Driving him to fight like hell against the hourglass to gather all the answers--to search, to run, to kill."
It's an involved and involving work, with professional level writing and thoughtful interaction between the characters, and a bang-up climax that I want to quote ANY part of, but can't because it would be too much of a spoiler. Suffice it to say that this is not rambling, but each word skillfully laid on the page like footprints to follow to greater and greater discoveries. I hope we see more from Terma99 in the future, because this is the kind of writing that gives fanfic a good name.
Probably not new, except to me, is wpadmirer@aol.com, who wrote, CHICAGO DISCOVERED, a Skinner/John Carter Slash tale. Now, we all know how I dislike slash, but the writing in this was so gripping from the opening paragraph, I had to read the whole thing.
This author writes the kind of Skinner I adore. Keep your Krycek, Mulder. If Skinner goes over, let it be with this Carter guy. Big, gentle, but with all his strength and dignity intact, this Skinner is everything I fell in love with and more, juxtaposed against the awkward but basically decent and sweet hero, John.
"If he chose, John knew he could put his clothes back on this minute and walk out of the room and Walter Skinner would stand there and watch him go. If he wanted to stay, he would have to be an active participant in his own....what? Seduction? De-virginization? That could not be a word."
This author has a nice tight style that takes you directly to the point, a man steeped in self pity at the point at which he begins to mature through experience; very well done, impressive work.
Impressive, too, is the short piece called "Sparring with Scully" by the assassin, at 1013@hotmail.com. The assassin renders Mulder as angst-ridden even as he's counting his blessings:
"I stood [out] among the crowd indeed. Me with my ingrained Oxford schoolish witticism suppressed by quirky mannerisms that had me locked in the basement all those years. ... I had been mysteriously singled out by her. She who was walking towards me with a soft smile. Not even noticing the stares of the others. Those with perfect noses. Clean, not spick and span males, but elegant and refined and polished."
I like this view of Mulder, and this Mulder's view of Scully. And dammit, I like Mulder's nose. It's a sweet little piece, very satisfying. And that's what Halloween candy is all about, right?
Not as sweet, but devilishly clever, is the mini- masterpiece "A Thoroughly Modern Kitchen" by Ashlea Ensro, at ashensro@my-dejanews.com. Using shifting points of view, Ensro examines the major possibilities of what could have happened in the Mulder/Samantha choices presented to their parents--whoever those parents might have been.
Ensro is a skillful writer who uses dialogue and a few deft strokes to make the characters perfectly recognizable in all their incarnations almost immediately. There's humor here, but it's drawn from the absurdity of the situation, not someone trying to be funny. Instead of "writing silly" to beg for laughs, Ensro simply points out the comedy inherent in the situation, the way Dark Nascent parodies some of the canon with such a perfectly straight face you almost feel guilty for laughing.
Not too often we get a totally original piece, but this was definitely one of them. Let's give this reader an extra dose of feedback and see what else she can do.
Another bit of giggle candy comes to us from DBKate, called "Haunted," (dbkate@yahoo.com) which to our happy surprise inspired "Haunt" by Justin Glasser, with the author's permission.
Krycek, at his own fake funeral:
"The entire affair was government sponsored.
Which government -- who knows? I got the
Sixty Dollar Red-Light Special, right down to
the sky-blue polyester pillow and ruffles lining
a white fiberglass coffin, the one with four
dolphin-shaped gold tone handles. Wasn't
that special?
I looked like I'd died and gone to K-Mart."
DbKate always cracks me up; for a quick laugh, go here, and I'm pretty sure this one isn't a repost. Real wit requires a lot more intelligence and insight into characters than most people give credit for. Credit her account and drop a few feedback candies into her bag.
All the reposts spooked me plenty, I gotta admit, but one interesting thing came of it. I came across Dasha's "Saturday Morning, Two Breakfasts" and noticed something interesting. Dasha's training wheels are definitely off. Her skill has increased until her fiction has achieved that effortless quality of long and diligent practice, and I think "Two Breakfasts" is the best piece she's come up with so far. The point of view shift looks like it just happens naturally, without a writer laboring over the words. Nice effect, good job. At least one bag of M&M's for our Dasha!
Now, I'm willing to take a chance on Elixir, by Rebecca Rusnak, rrusnak@avana.net, though I'm only up to six of nine parts. Excellent writing drew me in right away, and the premise looked like the old, "We have to pretend we're married on a case" idea, where we all know what's going to happen. But follow along with this one, and all the sudden that's just a backdrop (by the way, it's one of my favorite premises, so I'm not knocking it, and I'd read a story just for that inevitable romance). Now we have something truly original, as far as I can tell, an elixir discovered by Scully based on alien... well, I don't want to ruin the plot, just to tell you there IS a plot, and it's got that trademark Rusnak style, where you think you know what's going to happen, but you really don't. I'm willing to put my money on it; something to look forward to are the last three of nine parts.
So when November chills come, and you need to warm your heart by the fire of a nice romance, msr or Skinner/John, or whoever, download one of these stories and indulge.
The premiere is coming up and I'm sure Feast will find a rich source of reviews to come after THAT. In the meantime, keep feeding those hungry little goblins and witches with all the feedback you can, or else risk getting your monitor egged and toilet paper wrappings on your hard drive. Remember that truism of all writers: don't take chances-- they're mean when they're hungry!
As always, thanks for writing!
jordan
Feasts are archived at my site,
http://www.geocites.com/athens/parthenon/1063,
as well as by the generous Mirage, at www.ficworld.com