That five faves meme that's going around

[katallison]

One X-Files, two Highlander, one Hard Core Logo, and one due South. Hm. I can only surmise that the longer I've written the less fond I've gotten of the results. (*g*)

1. Coming to This (XF) -- Because way way back when I was a newly-minted fangirl and mad crazy about X-Files, I had a huge, long, rambling Mulder/Krycek novel in my head, of which only two snippets, this and "Motel 3 a.m.," ever actually got finished and posted. Looking back, I can see how the themes of that never-finished monster foreshadow material I'd spend the next decade working over and over--the way that good intentions are inevitably hell-bound, that relationships are basically never going to work, and the fact that the end of the affair is often not at all a bad thing, or certainly not the worst outcome possible. I really have never been able to tell how well this little snippet comes across to someone who doesn't have in their head the whole backstory that was supposed to underlie it, but at some point I realized that, for me at least, it gets the core of what I really wanted the never-written novel to convey. And it marks the first time I ever looked at something I'd written and thought, "Huh. That's actually pretty good."

2. September Song (HL) -- Because I did more playing with language itself--assonance, rhythm, mouth-feel of words--in this story than in any other I've written, and that was great fun. I think this is the best I've done in terms of pure craft, and if I had to hold a single piece of writing up as some kind of justfication for all the cumulative years of my life I've spent diddling with fanfiction, I'd choose this.

3. The Parting Glass (HL) -- Because it gets closer than any other piece of mine to summing up my take on Life, the Universe, and Everything. Also, it gave me a chance to use the Indian monkey trap story, which I *totally* lifted from Robert Pirsig.

4. Xeriscape (HCL) --Because, even though I actually have some structural/technical issues with how this one turned out, still and all it was so damned interesting to spend several months writing from the POV of a chronic schizophrenic. And because I ended up being very fond of John, and of Mattie, and gave them as happy an ending as seemed likely for either of them under the circs.

5. End of the Road (dS) --Because this is the story that taught me why writers sometimes seem to feel their stories are their children. This one lived with me for years and years, and I struggled to help it grow and figure out who and what it was going to be, and I was ecstatic when it finally was all grown up and left home and went off on its own, and yet I still am way too overly attached to it. A big chunk of my life is enmeshed with this one, and a lot of memories. (And also, to be honest, I like this one because I get such pleasure from seeing people who are highly resistant to the basic concept of this story acknowledge that I made it work. *g*)

Comments

[aerye.livejournal.com]

"End of the Road"

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad Xeriscape and End of the Road are on your favorites list, because they are quite simply brilliant stories that I adore beyond reason.

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me of these wonderful stories. They were great to reread; the X Files one made me all nostalgic for those days of innocence. They have never shown Due South here but I have watched the videos (CKR!) and have a "feel' for the series so your stories resonate even more.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I have some vague memory of fangirling you over "End of the Road" for not only having the talent to write it, but for having the guts to give a quite realistic ending to that ride into the sunset.

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that I really owe you heaps of feedback for both "Xeriscape" and "End of the Road." I adore them both and I think they're towering achievements and real works of art (in any platform or genre). Plus they made me think. So...yeah. I'll be sending something along.

[cimmerians.livejournal.com]

Wow... so, you're not only an amazing, brilliant, ungodly talented writer, but you also have impeccable taste!

I also have grouped these particular stories together, only mine are under the heading 'Ways That I Love To Have My Heart Skewered', because that's *so* them.

Thanks for bringing these up--I had somehow forgotten how 'Parting Glass' makes me wail like a bereft banshee and snurfle and hug my kitties and suffer from intense waves of desire to give you foot massages and hand-feed you chocolate truffles...

Adoring you--
Melis

*delurks*

[kumquatweekend.livejournal.com]

Oh, I suppose this is as good a time as any...

I read End of the Road over a year ago. I've been meaning to write you feedback ever since -- I should have written it immediately -- but I had to wait until I wasn't angry anymore.

Erm. That time has yet to come. I suppose I'm irrationally attached to the due South fandom as one where Everything Works Out In The End. Because of the light-hearted nature of the show itself, and despite the darkness inherent in all three of the main characters. The show, to me, is a fantasy where anything is possible... even isolated, blue collar arctic communities accepting two cohabitating men into their midst with nary a scowl of disapproval. It appeals to the same part of my brain willing to overlook years of tension and downright enimity between the RCPM and Innuit, a topic I'm only too well aware of as a Canadian social geography student. I like my Mountie fantasy, goddamnit, and I don't want it ruined with realism!

But you had Ray and Benton behave like real people. You didn't let them accept and work through each other's personality flaws. You certainly didn't whitewash the Arctic's sensitive political climate, which would have taken its toll on even the most communicative and forgiving of same-sex couples. And, perhaps most devastating of all, you didn't let Ray compromise so many of his wants and needs for the sake of True Love. Which is right. Because he wouldn't.

It was a painful, beautifully written story. Even though I can't bring myself to visit it again, I still think about it a lot. So, in the end, I thank you for writing what is quite possibly the darkest story in the due South fandom. I call it dark because, although it doesn't have sadistic villains or what have you, it presents a relationship with no hope. And that could happen to any of us. And it most assuredly would have happened to the very flawed, very human Ray and Fraser.