Hopefully not sticking my foot in my mouth...

[gioiamia]

Er, could someone more knowledgeable about the Big Name Fans in the HP fandom educate me a bit?  Who was Jacquelyne?  I see fanfics dedicated to her right and left, and I gather she's a fandom author who died recently?  Anyone have a link either to her works or to something explaining the situation?

Comments

Jacquelyne

[rhetoretician]

Hi Gioia,

Jaq Hawkins was one of the founders of SIYE, as well as an archivist and (I think) and admin. Although only in her early thirties, she had a stroke a about 18 months ago -- and although she appeared to be recovering, she died suddenly this past November.

The reason you see all these dedications is because of a strange & sad cooincidence. The December Challenge for SIYE authors (which was called the "Christmas Engagement Challenge") was dreamed up by Jaq, and she created it with the specific purpose of luring some of her favorite authors (e.g., stmargarets) back in to Challenge writing. But she died very shortly after the Challenge was posted. The result was that an unusually large number of people (including Yours Truly) submitted entries to the Challenge as a memorial to Jaq. The stories where you see the dedications are probably entries to that Challenge.

You can find out more by looking at the news archives in SIYE for late November and early December.

~Ken

Re: Jacquelyne

[gioiamia]

Thank you, Ken! That explanation helps a lot. I'd seen references to her on multiple sites, so I gather she was well loved in the fandom.

Thanks!