Pern, and the mysteries of my muse
I've been on a bit of a Pern mini-binge lately. I got copies of Skies of Pern, Dragon's Kin, and the anthology A Gift of Dragons for my birthday in December, and zipped through them during the past week and a half. They were re-reads, other than the one new story in the anthology, so that helped speed me up. Then I felt the need for more Pern, so now I'm re-reading Masterharper of Pern, which is reminding me of one of the odd things about my love for the Pern universe -- I think I'd wish to be a Harper as much as a dragonrider. Okay, maybe not quite as much...but it'd be up there. It's the whole wishing I was musical thing, combined with the want to be a teacher thing. Funny.
Anyways, thinking about Pern got me thinking about something a bit odd. I don't think I've ever actual been bitten by a Pernese plot bunny. Darkover plot bunnies (or maybe plot rabbithorns ;) ), I've experienced aplenty. Star Trek, of course -- the first story I wrote that could be considered fanfic was Star Trek-based. I've even found myself writing bits and pieces based on Tamora Pierce's Wild Magic quartet.... But never Pern. Quite strange, considering that I'm quite a devoted reader of all things Pern, and have been for as long as I've been reading Darkover and a serious fan of Star Trek (and I've read Pern books more recently than I've read anything Darkover or watched an episode of Star Trek). It could possibly be because Marion Zimmer Bradley always encouraged Darkover fans to play in her literary sandbox (to the extent of editing a bunch of anthologies of Darkover short stories written by others -- essentially high-level, semi-official fanfic). Anne McCaffrey, on the other hand, has been a bit more...posessive of the Pernese literary sandbox at times, from what I've heard around and about.
On the other hand, the first Darkover plot rabbithorn that bit me showed up when I was 12 or so -- I seem to remember handing in a story in Language Arts class in grade 7 that was firmly Darkover-based, complete with a glossary. I was still busy tracking down all the public library's Darkover and Pern books at that point, and although I may have read one or two of the Darkover anthologies I don't think I'd heard anything anywhere about how Anne McCaffrey may have felt about fan fiction. So...why the Darkover writing habit, and not Pern? It's a mystery to me...and my muse is a silly wee creature (as per the first post in this LJ of mine :) )
Anyways, thinking about Pern got me thinking about something a bit odd. I don't think I've ever actual been bitten by a Pernese plot bunny. Darkover plot bunnies (or maybe plot rabbithorns ;) ), I've experienced aplenty. Star Trek, of course -- the first story I wrote that could be considered fanfic was Star Trek-based. I've even found myself writing bits and pieces based on Tamora Pierce's Wild Magic quartet.... But never Pern. Quite strange, considering that I'm quite a devoted reader of all things Pern, and have been for as long as I've been reading Darkover and a serious fan of Star Trek (and I've read Pern books more recently than I've read anything Darkover or watched an episode of Star Trek). It could possibly be because Marion Zimmer Bradley always encouraged Darkover fans to play in her literary sandbox (to the extent of editing a bunch of anthologies of Darkover short stories written by others -- essentially high-level, semi-official fanfic). Anne McCaffrey, on the other hand, has been a bit more...posessive of the Pernese literary sandbox at times, from what I've heard around and about.
On the other hand, the first Darkover plot rabbithorn that bit me showed up when I was 12 or so -- I seem to remember handing in a story in Language Arts class in grade 7 that was firmly Darkover-based, complete with a glossary. I was still busy tracking down all the public library's Darkover and Pern books at that point, and although I may have read one or two of the Darkover anthologies I don't think I'd heard anything anywhere about how Anne McCaffrey may have felt about fan fiction. So...why the Darkover writing habit, and not Pern? It's a mystery to me...and my muse is a silly wee creature (as per the first post in this LJ of mine :) )