Comments | xf_book_club: Story 65: "The Beginner's Guide to Tight-rope Walking" by Kel

wendelah1 in xf_book_club

Story 65: "The Beginner's Guide to Tight-rope Walking" by Kel

Nov 17, 2008 18:53

This week's story was nominated by hlbr but it easily could have been nominated by me. Kel is one of my favorite authors in The X-Files fandom. She writes superb dialog, her plots are tight, her characterizations are excellent, and her stories are by turns funny and suspenseful ( Read more... )

au, msr

Comments 17

great choice! estella_c November 22 2008, 16:45:24 UTC

I'd read this fic recently and meant to skim, but ended up savoring every word. It is so proficient on so many levels. Kel really is one of our could-be-pro writers ( ... )

Re: great choice! estella_c November 22 2008, 16:47:03 UTC

Double post. How humiliating. My computer went off-line and I wrote the whole damn thing over. Now this! Curses.

Re: great choice! wendelah1 November 22 2008, 16:50:18 UTC

How about if I just delete one for you? I'll delete the first. I am Oz, the Great and Terrible.

Re: great choice! estella_c November 22 2008, 17:12:37 UTC

Thank you, Oz. It pays to have an in with the great and terrible. I keep baking cookies for computer nerds, but...

Thread 13

The humour was the thing that got to me hlbr November 22 2008, 19:15:44 UTC

Others have spoken eloquently about the quality of the writing. It is amazingly good. And for me, it's exactly the writing that makes the humour work. I actually stopped and called my brother to read him aloud a couple of sentences.

I mean, even the sad as hell parts have their upbeat touch:

But she did. You know, there's a lot of stuff up there. Nerves,
arteries, bones. And the brain is right there too.

"Lucky we found a medical doctor for that part," I said.

"A gynecologist. I wonder if he's planning to take the scenic
route."

The fact it featured heavily original characters made expect that I would be jumping ahead a lot (I, uh.. mhh, do that sometimes), but no way! Both Jerry and his wife are fantastical, realistic and plenty entertaining on their own. This part is one of my favourites:

She frowned. "Just how big is this?" she asked ( ... )

Re: The humour was the thing that got to me estella_c November 22 2008, 20:32:08 UTC

Thanks for the quotes, hlbr. Kel is so damn quotable. With her, God is in the details.

Also about the gays and accompanying attitudes. Kel is wise without being irritatingly pc. Billy calling something "gay" in the car was realistic and funny.

Re: The humour was the thing that got to me wendelah1 November 22 2008, 22:16:52 UTC

Kel is very funny, and she is able to work humor into the tense moments of her fic in a way that is very like the show itself. She gets Mulder and Scully, and she renders them accurately and poignantly, with rare grace and intelligence.

A terrific nomination, hlbr.

Re: The humour was the thing that got to me hlbr November 25 2008, 11:22:44 UTC

Thanks you, hlbr. I'm glad you appreciate Roz's pointed humor.

I've been playing with Jerry as a character for so long that a lot of the details of his life formed and jelled without much conscious intervention on my part. I've known for a long time that Jerry's son was gay.

I read somewhere that when Rufus Wainwright told his mother (Kate McGarrigle--I'm a big fan) that he was gay, her response was something like, "That's a hard life." I think that's about 80% of Jerry's reaction, with maybe 15% regret and 5% homophobia. More than anything, Jerry wants everyone safe and settled.