Tiny apology

[itsallovernow]

This is a tiny apology to suelac for suggesting that Life During Wartime was WIP, but also a chance to pimp it for those few people out there who haven't read it. You've got all sorts of fabulous XF authors (well, fabulous authors in general. Except for cofax, I don't know that the others have written in other fandoms) writing self-contained, linked post-col. stories.

The whole series is fantastic, but the last chapter, Fimbulwinter, is really stunning (and leaves me wanting more, more, more which is how I ended up lumping it in with the typical WIP, which it's not. Anyway, for anyone who hasn't read it, go now and do so, and e-mail the very talented authors. These are the Mulder and Scully and Lone Gun Men that I fell in love with, and I'm far happier reading this series than I was watching the last two seasons. And now I'm tempted to go read it all over again.

However, that being said. Fire Sale really is a WIP (or was) and I do truly wish that haphazardmethod and Barbara D. would finish it:) Because it's sooo good.

In that same vein, what are some of your other favorite WIP's that remain unfinished, for curiousity's sake? I'm trying to think of others. There's another X-Files one that I think may even be in the novel archive that was profiley and angsty and gory, and damn, now I'm gonna have to go find it.

Comments

[infinitemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the kind words about Fimbulwinter. It's C's game, really, and she just let me play and put in the bit my dad told me about the fimbul moon and travel round the board in the shape of a boot and try not to land on the Go to Jail thingie and can someone take this metaphor away before I beat it to death?

Maria Nicole has written in Buffy, I think. I wish she would write more that I could read online because her writing is gentle and subtle but strong and very, very wise.

There's another X-Files one that I think may even be in the novel archive that was profiley and angsty and gory, and damn, now I'm gonna have to go find it.

Complicity by Morgan? One of Kronos's stories? There are a few.

I am hoping that distance and reruns of s1-7 will lend enchantment to people who weren't so keen on the latter years and make them want to finish up those older stories.

[kernezelda]

Your icon is cool beyond description.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It's a good metaphor:) but did get a little out of hand:) And I'm oh so glad that C let you play because you are such an immensely talented writer ( A Candle for Katherine, etc. are some of my favorite XF stories).

Complicity I have on my hard drive at home because I got all the way to the end before realizing it wasn't done (then I thought it was, and then there was much confusion:) I'm gonna have to go searching for the story I'm thinking of.

There are wonderful moments, and wondeful eps in the first 7 seasons that get better with age, and I agree, maybe some distance will help to beckon people back.

[cofax7]

It's C's game, really

Pshaw.

Pfeh, even.

Possibly also Humbug.

I think that covers it. I may be the one listed first (alphabetical order, you know) but I'm hardly the only one responsible, or even primarily responsible. It just sort of happened, and grew in this somewhat horrifying sprawling way, the way the spaghetti squash took over my garden that one year...

Maria is a marvelous marvelous writer and someone I'm proud to have collaborated with. Actually, that works well for K too. So I'll repeat myself: K is a marvelous and evil writer and someone I'm proud to have collaborated with.

Complicity was very good although I think the writing has suffered a bit in the more recent sections; or I've become less tolerant of descriptive emotional prose. But the story is killer, and I do wish Morgan would finish it.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Wartime is something you all should be proud of! All of you. In all of it's sprawling, sqaushy goodness:) Which it's not. Good yes, but not squashy. It's tight and intricate and compelling and painful, and weaves together fluidly.

But the story is killer, and I do wish Morgan would finish it. So do I, in part because it's too long to go back and reread between sections to catch up:) And I can't save just the new parts, I have to go back and figure out what's new and what's old. So basically, I'm lazy.

[sorlklewis.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the mention of Wartime in the comments of your earlier post, I've now got a drenload of XF fic to read when I find the time, thanks to cofax. *bg* Been a fan of the show since it first aired, but I've never taken a peek at the fandom. So thanks for suggesting it was a WIP, Thea! *g*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

AAAAhhh. Now you're gonna get me in trouble again:)

And make sure you have much time available if you're going to start reading XF fic. There is, not to put to fine a point on it, a plethora. (And some of the great FS authors were first great XF authors - particularly Fialka and Cofax and Analise, but there are several others, though we never managed to lure infinitemonkeys into the fic:)

[sorlklewis.livejournal.com]

lol. Yeah, I've bookmarked or saved the recc'ed highlights for a rainy day (alas, it's raining, but not the right rainy day). It's a lot of fic. I'm looking forward to it, though. Especially since I fell out of XF around season 7/8 and it's been yonks since I've seriously watched an episode.

(And trouble? You've gotta be kidding me... *bg*)

[vonniek.livejournal.com]

Uhm, I think one of the really old WIPs (about Scully going undercover with the Irish mafia or something) is actually getting updated after several years of hiatus. It's called "Razor's Edge", IIRC. I liked it a lot when it was coming out initially, but now, the prospect of following it up after all these years is incredibly fatigue-inducing, so I haven't.

The unfinishedness (embrace your inner neologist!) of Meredith's post-col WIP, Tangible, was a source of many jokes in one of the fic list I used to belong. Cool fic, although I can't remember too much about it at the moment, detail-wise.

The one that really had me hanging for a long time was Rachel Howard's Above Rubies. *Such* and incredible fic, with an intricate casefile, good M&S and one of the best Krycek characterizations I've ever read. She ultimately finished it after more than a year of hiatus, and it was good, but not as good as I thought it would be--I felt like the ending was rushed somewhat.

As far as I know, Maria Nicole has written one beautiful Tara vignette under another pen name; not sure whether she's written in other fandoms.

Everytime people bring up XF fanfic, I marvel at the excess of riches in that fandom. No other fandom has quite measured up fic-wise, much as I love my other shows.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It really did produce amazing fic, with so much complexity in approaches and levels of emotion. Sigh. But there was so much to explore, with such a base of things left unsaid, or unexplored on screen by the characters. Nothing else does that in the same way (at least nothing I watch - which is good for satisfying my with the show, but not so good for fic:)

And I don't think I've read Above Rubies, and I thought I'd read everything! Now I'll have something new to read!

[vonniek.livejournal.com]

Huh, that link I provided to "Above Rubies" doesn't seem to work directly. But if you copy and paste the address onto a new window, it takes you to the main page for the fic.

I can recommend pretty much everything Rachel's ever written, from her longer casefiles (Goodnight, Newton! Antidote! My, I haven't thought of these fic for ages.) to her vignettes. Although, it's been so long since I read them, I guess it's possible that my tastes/standards have changed. Maybe it's time for me to revisit some of my old favorites, like Kiper's stuff, to see if they have the same resonance now as they did then. If only I had some more free time....

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I've read other things by Rachel Howard, but I don't remember reading Above Rubies (that being said, I kind of OD'd on XF fic, and somethings are a vast gaping hole in my memory.) And my tastes have changed as well. I want plot, and pain, and laughter, and am less interested in them having sex. All of which was a surprise to discover:)

[cofax7]

Antidote is one of my alltime favorite XF stories. I have a guilty fondness for any stories involving bioweapons. Plus, smut! Mytharc! Smut! Plot! Smut! And so forth.

Plus Rachel Howard wrote one of the classic post-col stories, "Ask About the Weather". She's marvelous.

Kipler's as good as she ever was. I tend to believe "Stranger and the Strange Dead" may be the best story ever posted in the fandom. Certainly top 5.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Stranger and the Strange Dead is on of my favorite fics, ever, of any fandom, and I do love Ask About the Weather. That and K.'s Burning the Maps and A Candle for Katherine are total post-col comfort fic for me>

[ropo.livejournal.com]

//Uhm, I think one of the really old WIPs (about Scully going undercover with the Irish mafia or something) is actually getting updated after several years of hiatus. It's called "Razor's Edge", IIRC. I liked it a lot when it was coming out initially, but now, the prospect of following it up after all these years is incredibly fatigue-inducing, so I haven't.//

I believe it's being entirely rehauled, that story, and Blueswirl's not going to post until it's all done. She says she wrote herself into a corner and has started all over! So don't read the old one since apparently it's going to be muchly changed when it's all done. That story was the first (and really the only) WIP that broke my little heart. I read it in my early fic-reading days and didn't really understand what a WIP was, and when no more chapters were posted... I was adrift! And Scully was deep, DEEP undercover as Jamie, and she was hooked on coke! And she and Mulder had a very angst-filled talk on a rock! And, and, and....

*weeps herself into a corner*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I think starting it over again has got to be a daunting prospect, but good for her. And I still get that open mouthed, but, but, but what do you mean there aren't any more chapters with unfinished WIP's. Willpower. I need to develop willpower.

[cofax7]

Grrr, argh. Dingoes ate my response.

You're very generous about Wartime. The entire collective consisted of Magdeleine, K, Maria, Fialka, and myself, and the plotting was done by all of us in concert, even if only three of us have "officially" posted any stories. Fi does have an unposted story about Sam on her hard drive I hope she'll get around to posting one of these days.

I too would love to see Fire Sale finished. Also Complicity, Morgan's other story on her site -- the sequel to The Last Gift, Tangible, Razor's Edge, Khyber's Sokol, and LoneGunGuy's Blood of Angels (which never will be finished, but nevermind).

I'm sure there's plenty more but I forget what they were. Razor's Edge is one of the primary reasons I stopped reading WIPs. That and the sense I was getting from some writers that they had no idea where they were going as they posted the WIP, which made me uncomfortable that the ending would make sense. Just because Carter does it that way doesn't make it always a good idea! *grin*

Again, thanks -- you're very generous.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It's not generosity, it's true. I don't read much XF anymore, but absolutely pounced on Fimbulwinter.

In FS, I have no willpower with the WIP's. We're such a small fandom that I gobble up any offerings from authors I like and respect.

But I don't read them anymore in XF, probably because Fire Sale and Complicity and (Dea Ex Machina by Pusher, which I just remember being really pissed off that it said there was more, but there wasn't, I'm not even sure I liked the story that well) were so good, and then not done. I will read Syntax6, because so far, she's always finished her stories.

[haphazardmethod.livejournal.com]

Life During Wartime rocks like a great rocking thing. (My leap into Buffy fandom has done little for my vocabulary. *g*) As far as Fire Sale goes... I appreciate the kind feedback/prod but... It's all plotted out but I have my doubts it will ever be done. Maybe when Sci starts sleeping through the night. :(

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Fire Sale is wonderful, and I do hope that you guys finish it someday. That being said, obviously there are other things that need to take priority. I'll still read it, if or when you finish it:)