And Jane Austen fanfic??? I'm astonished. Is it as good as the real thing?
Well, naturally not
- though that doesn't keep it from being fun, IMO, especially since Miss Austen's body of work is so limited. I started in the fandom just interested in reading the sequels - the 'what happened next' stories - but gradually came to accept the 'what if's' and even some of the modern retellings, though I'm pretty selective about those.
I would be interested in knowing the url of the Jane Austen site, though.
Well, there's not just one, unfortunately; it's not as centralized as L&C even though there are probably a similar number of fics/authors. So here are a few:
Firthness is an invitation-only archive with fics of all ratings, though I think you need a password for R & up.
The Derbyshire Writers Guild hosts fics up to PG-13, with completed fics archived and WIP's updated at the message board.
The Hyacinth Gardens originated as a place for authors to post R & NC17 fics but hosts fics of lower ratings, too.
Austen Interlude is a nice little private archive. I'm not crazy about everything there, but I do enjoy Lucy's sequels, and Abigail writes an engaging Regency romance.
If you decide to give them a look, my only caution would be to beware WiP's - especially at Firthness - as some of them update at an absolutely glacial pace.
A couple of years ago I found some fanfic for Remington Steele but it was poor quality and there was no organized way to find it.
Agreed. I tried this too and gave up in frustration. I don't remember much about the stories now except that I encountered some of the most poorly-written smut I've ever read.
I've never thought re-reading books was odd behaviour, but maybe it is. And I'm beginning to wonder if it's a common habit amoungst folcs. It might even go some way to explain why we like, sorry no, love, the small universe we inhabit.
I don't know if I'd call it odd behavior, but I do think it's probably common among people who gravitate to fan fiction. And to
write fan fic, you just about have to be willing to re-read (or re-watch, in the case of a TV fandom) until you practically have the canon memorized, or at least until you're hearing those voices in your head. Or I do, anyway. There's just no other way for me to make the dialogue sound realistic or to avoid the kinds of canon mistakes that make faithful readers crazy. And yes, I like the feeling that I'm inhabiting a world I enjoy and know well
Caroline
