So, did I mention that
cuddy_fest is now open for business?
I can't believe this is the third year of the fest. It feels like just a few days ago when I said, 'We should have a Cuddy fic fest. I'm just saying.' And
ijemanja and
hihoplastic said 'OMG yes!'-and even agreed when I said that I had an irresistible urge to call it 'She's the Boss'-and that's how it all started. And now it's the third round.
We started off with the fest with one clear intention in our minds: the world needed more Cuddy-centric stories. We needed more Cuddy-centric stories, and since we couldn't possibly force people to write at gunpoint, we would just have to trick them into it instead. This was at the end of Season 3-which, despite its Tritter-related weaknesses-will always be the season that had More Screentime For Cuddy in my head. More screentime, however, had not necessarily translated into more fic. The House/Cuddy fandom had swelled substantially after 'Forever/Who's Your Daddy', but all it had done was produce some more House/Cuddy fiction. And that's not what we wanted-as
hihoplastic said, 'The only thing I fear is that we'd get a ton of HouseCuddy fics (which, don't get me wrong I love) and not a whole lot of Cuddy-based fics.' Femslash was non-existent. There was some genfic, but it wasn't enough. Cuddy/Other than House pairings were non-existent (they still are).
Going back a little further: I came into the fandom somewhere in the middle of Season 2; began to really participate just before 'Forever'. I had fallen like a ton of bricks for Cuddy ever since I watched the pilot, so I naturally wanted to read Cuddy-centric stories. But that proved to be very difficult in a House/Wilson and House/Cameron dominated fandom. If you asked for Cuddy-centric recs, you would be recced the same three stories over and over again (and when I say three, I kid you not; the stories were 'Ill Season'; 'Eight Things'; 'Come True'-three very fine stories), and some House/Cuddy which I did not enjoy. As I dived headfirst into the fandom, I discovered that there *were* stories out there-mostly House/Cuddy, but written by authors I could admire (like
ijemanja and
hihoplastic, for instance; even then, I suppose, the fandom was, to borrow
topaz_eyes's term, very insular). I sort of made it my mission to save the links to each and every one of them, so that when some other newbie came into fandom, I could just hit them with my del.icio.us. I started writing in the fandom. I got to know more people. And then
foreman_fest happened.
There had been
hw_fest before that, but writing for
foreman_fest made me realize what these fic fests could do for neglected characters. And at that time, after Foreman, the most neglected character in fanfic was Cuddy. And so we set about organizing the fest with extreme greediness missionary zeal.
Now, though: things have changed since we organized the first round of the fest. Meanwhile, a few things happened in fandom. The fandom grew bigger. The show itself began to expand Cuddy's role. This also meant an expansion of her role as the person House hit on most often, which meant an expansion in the House/Cuddy fandom. But even outside House/Cuddy, the expansion of her role meant that there was more fiction exploring her role as House's only other friend, as the woman who wanted a child she couldn't have, as the doctor with deep misgivings about her doctor-ness. By the time season four rolled around, another interesting thing happened: we suddenly had more female characters. And one of them was canonically bisexual (and played by OW). Thus began the rise of the femslashers-to the point where now, House is one of the main fandoms in
femslash09. This, again, meant more stories about Cuddy. The new characters did not receive a lot of love, which meant that outside femslash fandom, Thirteen is still an under-written character, as are Kutner and Taub (and, of course, Amber)-Cuddy, despite the virulent hate post-'Joy', receives far more love (and fanfic) than that.
Which, of course, brings up the question: do we still need another fest, when there are already so many cluttering up our fannish schedules? Especially when our dream of producing more Cuddy-centric stories has come true to a certain extent? The answer, of course, is yes, we do. Because, all said and done, outside of House/Cuddy, there is *still* a dearth of Cuddy-centric fiction (unlike, say, Wilson-centric fiction) as far as I'm concerned. I still want to read more Cuddy/Other pairings. I still want to read more genfic. More crackfic. More AUs. And since I can't force other people to write them for me, I have to trick them into it-hence, fest.
And the most gratifying thing about this is that there are people (people other than us!) want the ficathon to happen. Every now and then I receive e-mails and pms asking about the fest (which never fail to make my day). Post-finale, when
house_cuddy became a very busy comm suddenly, I happened to mention another round of the fest, and again I heard the same things: 'Ooh, awesome!' The comm has 172 members. And that, you know, is enough encouragement for us-not that we needed any to begin with, because we love this ficathon so. That makes me very happy.
In conclusion: Round 3
cuddy_fest. Do you have your prompts ready?