Fish tanks and Abandoned Fics
Well, that's that done for the next year or so...
My son JJ has a 26gal fish tank in the living room that is his personal pride & joy - up until it comes time to tear the thing completely to pieces (kind of) and clean the thing. Just changing filter items is a "hey Mom, wanna help?" number, so something this intensive and complete means Mom (me) is fully involved and working hard, not just directing.
Mind you, JJ is functionally illiterate - and not for both lack of trying on the school system and his own determination. He knows his letters, knows the sounds they individually make, but simply canNOT make the jump to sounds in combination equally words. Here he is, 33 years old, and telling me point blank that he's getting "sick and tired of not being able to read." He wants to drive a car - something I told him he could do when he shows me that he can read street signs and traffic directions. He wants to be able to read the news - and he's finally mentally mature enough to want to vote in this year's catastrophe of an election, altho until he can read party platforms and decide which one matches his thinking, he's officially "Undeclared."
So, anyway, one golden gourami, one golden angel fish, two headlight tetras and an albino plecostomus are currently in a 1gal container (an old baby guppy tank) while the water in their big home clears after all the cleaning. A huge, space-hogging plant has been removed, and new plants now populate and punctuate the scenery. Fresh, colorful gravel is sprinkled on top, and the redundant filters are patiently pumping away.
What a job!!! I'll be glad if/when JJ is ever able to simply take charge and do all the work himself.
I used to read a lot of LOTR fanfics, altho I was generally pretty picky about the ones I did read. One fic that I was utterly addicted to had a huge following, and moved very successfully from the Pit of Voles (aka. FFN) to a Yahoo group to avoid grief from those who simply couldn't stomach anything AU. Everything was fine, but about six years ago, the authors (it was a collaboration) simply stopped posting.
Their readers nudged and prodded, and from time to time a promise "we'll have a new chapter out by Christmas" was forthcoming - and little else. In essence, it has been six years since anything has been posted.
I give you this backstory because I found this story again not that long ago, read it from beginning to where it was dropped - and my Muse kicked up a royal fuss, insisting that she knew what she wanted to happen in the story and pushing me to begin writing it since the authors apparently didn't give a damn anymore.
Now mind you, I have absolutely NO intention of posting this stuff anywhere - this is all for my own personal amusement in lieu of satisfaction from those who created the story. I'm not stupid, but I'm also getting annoyed. One doesn't promise anything if one doesn't intend to deliver, and these writers clearly have moved on and have broken promises.
So the reason I'm telling you this is that I have a question for you: Should I write to said authors telling them what I'm doing and ask if they ever intend to actually return to finish the story - or should I just write my own ending and let matters rest there?
No, I'm not telling the title of the story or the authors' names. This is more a question about the principles of fan fiction: at what point do I cross that line between that which is permitted and that which isn't?
I'll appreciate the feedback, trust me!
And that's what's going on in my neck of the woods of late.
My son JJ has a 26gal fish tank in the living room that is his personal pride & joy - up until it comes time to tear the thing completely to pieces (kind of) and clean the thing. Just changing filter items is a "hey Mom, wanna help?" number, so something this intensive and complete means Mom (me) is fully involved and working hard, not just directing.
Mind you, JJ is functionally illiterate - and not for both lack of trying on the school system and his own determination. He knows his letters, knows the sounds they individually make, but simply canNOT make the jump to sounds in combination equally words. Here he is, 33 years old, and telling me point blank that he's getting "sick and tired of not being able to read." He wants to drive a car - something I told him he could do when he shows me that he can read street signs and traffic directions. He wants to be able to read the news - and he's finally mentally mature enough to want to vote in this year's catastrophe of an election, altho until he can read party platforms and decide which one matches his thinking, he's officially "Undeclared."
So, anyway, one golden gourami, one golden angel fish, two headlight tetras and an albino plecostomus are currently in a 1gal container (an old baby guppy tank) while the water in their big home clears after all the cleaning. A huge, space-hogging plant has been removed, and new plants now populate and punctuate the scenery. Fresh, colorful gravel is sprinkled on top, and the redundant filters are patiently pumping away.
What a job!!! I'll be glad if/when JJ is ever able to simply take charge and do all the work himself.
I used to read a lot of LOTR fanfics, altho I was generally pretty picky about the ones I did read. One fic that I was utterly addicted to had a huge following, and moved very successfully from the Pit of Voles (aka. FFN) to a Yahoo group to avoid grief from those who simply couldn't stomach anything AU. Everything was fine, but about six years ago, the authors (it was a collaboration) simply stopped posting.
Their readers nudged and prodded, and from time to time a promise "we'll have a new chapter out by Christmas" was forthcoming - and little else. In essence, it has been six years since anything has been posted.
I give you this backstory because I found this story again not that long ago, read it from beginning to where it was dropped - and my Muse kicked up a royal fuss, insisting that she knew what she wanted to happen in the story and pushing me to begin writing it since the authors apparently didn't give a damn anymore.
Now mind you, I have absolutely NO intention of posting this stuff anywhere - this is all for my own personal amusement in lieu of satisfaction from those who created the story. I'm not stupid, but I'm also getting annoyed. One doesn't promise anything if one doesn't intend to deliver, and these writers clearly have moved on and have broken promises.
So the reason I'm telling you this is that I have a question for you: Should I write to said authors telling them what I'm doing and ask if they ever intend to actually return to finish the story - or should I just write my own ending and let matters rest there?
No, I'm not telling the title of the story or the authors' names. This is more a question about the principles of fan fiction: at what point do I cross that line between that which is permitted and that which isn't?
I'll appreciate the feedback, trust me!
And that's what's going on in my neck of the woods of late.