She is gay, but would have been about 5 years old when QAF first aired, I think she just knew her grandmother's twitter account, since Carol used that account for her TV reviews that post with the Carol Tacker by-line. So when Stesha posted on twitter about sleeping in the hospital room, she wasn't posting about Brian, she was posting about Carol. She may have known her grandmother wrote stories under pen names, but am guessing she didn't know about the ruse.
I did love Swamp Fever and Burn. I even enjoyed reading everyone's comments. It was fun to see the names of "friends" pop up in the comments. I knew after someone told me that Brian and Randall weren't real so I stopped reading the stories. But, even so I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around it all.
I know a lot of people are just happy with the stories and don't care that a hoax was perpetrated on the fandom and all of Brian and Randall's avid readers. I'm not one of them. I feel betrayed because she didn't need to make up this wonderful gay couple and their son and their lives to get people to read her stories. She could have just used a pen name and posted. She was a good writer and the best story she ever penned was the Brian and Ran saga but she lied to us all not just with the anonymity of the internet but with phone calls and private correspondence to some. Today I feel that Randall Morgan and Brian Hennessey died and I mourn them and the loss of their stories but not Carol and that's a sad thing to admit.
What gets to me is the fact that so many people are really hurt by this. For the past two days I have been seeing comments that show how much. Especially Ran must have been like a friend or confident in the very old days and I would have a real problem just processing this. I have met some people from this fandom and have always treasured this - it felt like "soulmates" meeting because we had "this common ground" that bound us in a way. It was like meeting old friends, people that you could trust instantly. I guess that is what is so devastating as well as humiliating in all this.
I feel for you as it seems to be so personal for you too, Gael!
While the counselor in me wants to know what drove someone like Carol in her decision making processes, the reader in me is sad that there won't be any more stories by Brian and Randall. I read "their" work and followed them for a number of years, and I also followed Brian's twitter account. I know like a lot of people, this will take time to process and right now it feels weird.
I posted on another site that I feel like I just tried to swallow an elephant -- without salt.
Blessings to you, Gael, and to all you wonderful people!
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I did love Swamp Fever and Burn. I even enjoyed reading everyone's comments. It was fun to see the names of "friends" pop up in the comments. I knew after someone told me that Brian and Randall weren't real so I stopped reading the stories. But, even so I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around it all.
Just wow.
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I feel for you as it seems to be so personal for you too, Gael!
Nicki
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I posted on another site that I feel like I just tried to swallow an elephant -- without salt.
Blessings to you, Gael, and to all you wonderful people!
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