Top Ten on AO3 and good fannish news
Multifandom: In a new interview, Lesley Sharpe (wonderful character actress; if you're a DW fan, you've last seen her in Midnight as Sky Silvestri in a role RTD wrote for her - like Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant, she had played in previous works of his) reveals she's in a new BBC drama with Christopher Ecclestone and is a Eleven fan, considering Matt Smith sexy, so there is that.:)
For fellow Neil Gaiman fans: every now and then, that rumour about Kripke (boo, hiss! curse his name!) getting to head a tv version of Sandman pops up again and scares me, and I dearly hope and pray it will not happen, but on the other hand I was delighted to hear that American Gods is developed into a HBO series, with Our Neil supposedly writing the pilot. I can see AG really working with the tv series format, HBO is the right network, and provided they get good actors (and no Eric Kripke anywhere near it), this could be splendid.
In other news, I couldn't resist doing the "my top 10 AO3 stories" meme I've seen pop up on my flist.
My ten top stories
Spinning Fate: now that was a surprise. Greek myth and/or Ovid fandom beats all the rest, it seems. *g* More seriously, this was my Yuletide story from two years ago, Arachne striking back at the Gods (co-starring Prometheus and Niobe), and I am tickled and thrilled this is the most widely read of my stories in the archive.
Vita Guineveris: aw. My very first Merlin story and the Gwen character study to boot. Again, this is a pleasant surprise.
Into the Woods: this, otoh, was not such a surprise, because it's the only one of my Merlin stories which focuses on the Arthur-Merlin (or, if you like, Arthur/Merlin) relationship which is the big ship of the fandom. It was one of my later stories and deals with a secret revealed, though not the one you're thinking of, as well as the emotional aftermath of season 2. (Clarification: the relationship between Arthur and Merlin is important in several of my other stories as well, but this is the only story where they are the two focus characters.)
Let it Be: this year's Yuletide story, a DS9 one dealing with grief and enduring connections, two incarnations of Dax, Worf, Julian Bashir and Quark (who wasn't requested but, this being me, showed up in the story anyway, inveterate scene stealer that he is). It was the first time I tackled Worf outside of cameos in other people's stories, and also the first time for Ezri (while I had written Jadzia repeatedly, and also Curzon Dax), so I'm happy it works out so well for readers. Also pleasantly surprised because DS9 isn't the central Star Trek fandom right now, but it seems to have a resurrgence. Yay!
Sui Generis: the Merlin character study in Merlin. He was actually the third of the show's regulars I tackled in a character portrait, not due to rank in liking but because getting Merlin himself right was trickier to me. I especially wanted to deal with the way Merlin feels about his own magic and the constant double life, which after s2 was far more ambiguous than after s1, so again, colour me pleased it finds many readers.
Tea and Sympathy: aka the one with Guinan and the Doctor (six of him anyway). A TNG/Doctor Who crossover written for the Multiverse ficathon, and considering TNG isn't an active fandom, Guinan is hardly written about in what there exists of it and only two of the regenerations the story deals with are New Who regenerations I am sitting here beaming at the popularity.
Five Lessons : aaand we're back to Merlin. The Arthur character study this time, which was the second story I wrote in that fandom. You know what makes me happiest about knowing the character studies are so well read? None of them is monoshippery, i.e. I felt that for each of these characters, more than one other character was important, and that's reflected in my stories.
Discordance: still Merlin, Morgana, her relationship with Gwen, and why back then I disagreed with the majority of fandom - at least fanfic-writing fandom - about the way they saw both. Which was why while s3 could have dealt with Morgana more subtly and there some instances where I thought we really needed some additional scenes, I wasn't surprised in the least by the gist of her activities. When Morgana in the s3 finale said to Gwen "I forgot you, too, had suffered" (by Uther, because, you know, Gwen only lost her father and nearly got executed twice), I immediately had a flashback to this particular story of mine.
Patterns: the Doctor Who one with Ten, Three, the Brig and Harriet Jones. Started out as meta on why Ten did what he did at the end of The Christmas Invasion. Which is one of my least favourite DW specials, not least for just that scene with Harriet Jones, but I also thought people were simplifying far too much when accusing the Doctor of having acted out of pettiness. And there was a beautiful parallel/contrast to an event in Old Who, with the Brig and the Silurians. Down to the Doctor using the exact same phrase in context. And thus this story.
Backstage Management: a Torchwood remix story from last year. I had a blast writing that one which brings back Yvonne Hartman (not exactly a popular character) and Suzie Costello (fairly popular as far as characters who aren't Ianto or Jack go in TW fandom), as well as Frobisher from CoE, and takes them on a Le Carré spin on certain events in the remixed story as well as in TW backstory. With some crack mixed in because this is Torchwood. Considering, again, the utter absence of Ianto and Jack only being talked about (sarcastically) by the on stage characters, I am delighted is is well-read.
All in all: the dominance of Merlin wasn't a surprise, not just because it's the newest of my fandoms but because it's a big living and thriving one. Otoh I was knocked out by my Graeco-Roman myth doing so well, and ditto by the DS9 tale and the DW/TNG crossover being there, together with the non-shippery Torchwood and Doctor Who tales.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/672402.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
For fellow Neil Gaiman fans: every now and then, that rumour about Kripke (boo, hiss! curse his name!) getting to head a tv version of Sandman pops up again and scares me, and I dearly hope and pray it will not happen, but on the other hand I was delighted to hear that American Gods is developed into a HBO series, with Our Neil supposedly writing the pilot. I can see AG really working with the tv series format, HBO is the right network, and provided they get good actors (and no Eric Kripke anywhere near it), this could be splendid.
In other news, I couldn't resist doing the "my top 10 AO3 stories" meme I've seen pop up on my flist.
My ten top stories
Spinning Fate: now that was a surprise. Greek myth and/or Ovid fandom beats all the rest, it seems. *g* More seriously, this was my Yuletide story from two years ago, Arachne striking back at the Gods (co-starring Prometheus and Niobe), and I am tickled and thrilled this is the most widely read of my stories in the archive.
Vita Guineveris: aw. My very first Merlin story and the Gwen character study to boot. Again, this is a pleasant surprise.
Into the Woods: this, otoh, was not such a surprise, because it's the only one of my Merlin stories which focuses on the Arthur-Merlin (or, if you like, Arthur/Merlin) relationship which is the big ship of the fandom. It was one of my later stories and deals with a secret revealed, though not the one you're thinking of, as well as the emotional aftermath of season 2. (Clarification: the relationship between Arthur and Merlin is important in several of my other stories as well, but this is the only story where they are the two focus characters.)
Let it Be: this year's Yuletide story, a DS9 one dealing with grief and enduring connections, two incarnations of Dax, Worf, Julian Bashir and Quark (who wasn't requested but, this being me, showed up in the story anyway, inveterate scene stealer that he is). It was the first time I tackled Worf outside of cameos in other people's stories, and also the first time for Ezri (while I had written Jadzia repeatedly, and also Curzon Dax), so I'm happy it works out so well for readers. Also pleasantly surprised because DS9 isn't the central Star Trek fandom right now, but it seems to have a resurrgence. Yay!
Sui Generis: the Merlin character study in Merlin. He was actually the third of the show's regulars I tackled in a character portrait, not due to rank in liking but because getting Merlin himself right was trickier to me. I especially wanted to deal with the way Merlin feels about his own magic and the constant double life, which after s2 was far more ambiguous than after s1, so again, colour me pleased it finds many readers.
Tea and Sympathy: aka the one with Guinan and the Doctor (six of him anyway). A TNG/Doctor Who crossover written for the Multiverse ficathon, and considering TNG isn't an active fandom, Guinan is hardly written about in what there exists of it and only two of the regenerations the story deals with are New Who regenerations I am sitting here beaming at the popularity.
Five Lessons : aaand we're back to Merlin. The Arthur character study this time, which was the second story I wrote in that fandom. You know what makes me happiest about knowing the character studies are so well read? None of them is monoshippery, i.e. I felt that for each of these characters, more than one other character was important, and that's reflected in my stories.
Discordance: still Merlin, Morgana, her relationship with Gwen, and why back then I disagreed with the majority of fandom - at least fanfic-writing fandom - about the way they saw both. Which was why while s3 could have dealt with Morgana more subtly and there some instances where I thought we really needed some additional scenes, I wasn't surprised in the least by the gist of her activities. When Morgana in the s3 finale said to Gwen "I forgot you, too, had suffered" (by Uther, because, you know, Gwen only lost her father and nearly got executed twice), I immediately had a flashback to this particular story of mine.
Patterns: the Doctor Who one with Ten, Three, the Brig and Harriet Jones. Started out as meta on why Ten did what he did at the end of The Christmas Invasion. Which is one of my least favourite DW specials, not least for just that scene with Harriet Jones, but I also thought people were simplifying far too much when accusing the Doctor of having acted out of pettiness. And there was a beautiful parallel/contrast to an event in Old Who, with the Brig and the Silurians. Down to the Doctor using the exact same phrase in context. And thus this story.
Backstage Management: a Torchwood remix story from last year. I had a blast writing that one which brings back Yvonne Hartman (not exactly a popular character) and Suzie Costello (fairly popular as far as characters who aren't Ianto or Jack go in TW fandom), as well as Frobisher from CoE, and takes them on a Le Carré spin on certain events in the remixed story as well as in TW backstory. With some crack mixed in because this is Torchwood. Considering, again, the utter absence of Ianto and Jack only being talked about (sarcastically) by the on stage characters, I am delighted is is well-read.
All in all: the dominance of Merlin wasn't a surprise, not just because it's the newest of my fandoms but because it's a big living and thriving one. Otoh I was knocked out by my Graeco-Roman myth doing so well, and ditto by the DS9 tale and the DW/TNG crossover being there, together with the non-shippery Torchwood and Doctor Who tales.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/672402.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.