For this month, we're going to do things a little bit differently than we have been. Ken J. sent me a PM suggesting we read stories written to explain the baby introduced in the series finale. In fact, he already posted a thread here compiling a list of those stories. Check back to this thread later for more details.

Okay, here it is. There are also two episodes, one from TUFS and one from Season 5 that if there is interest, I can send the individual files.

The variety of ways that the presence of the baby from "Family Hour" has been explained has varied as widely as the authors that have addressed its presence. Here is the list that I compiled from the thread.

Author - link - size

Carrie Smith –Miracle Child 14K

Crystal Wimmer – Full Circle 324

KenJ – Lori and Clark – The New New Adventures of Superman – Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 6 524K

Michelle Savage – Circle of Life 14K

Nan –Doppleganger 188K

Pat AKA Angelsgmaw- Family Hour Baby 77K

Virginia – Missing Lois 2757K (reading this monster would be a challenge. Perhaps Virginia could suggest specific chapters.)

Yvonne Connel – Kidnapped 546K

Zoomway –Persistance of Memory 381K

Yes, Missing Lois is insanely long and covers more than just where the baby came from. Since it's all so intertwined, it would be hard to jump around in without getting lost. One could try to read it from Chapter 8 onwards (as that's where S4 ends as Chapters 1-7 shows S4 mostly from Alt-Dimension's POV), but it also contains relationship WHAMs (I promise, it ends happily though). It probably is too long a story to read in it's entirity during the busy month of December, anyway.

I see that Zoomway has a story in your list. In honor of her passing, or to celebrate her life in words, I nominate her story. (Last one on Ken's list, LLF).

EDIT: Here's the description for Zoomway's story The Persistence of Memory (381 KB): Some surprising news sends Lois and Clark on a roller coaster of an adventure.

For a short story (and to stick to the "kids" theme), we could try Zoomway's story "Navigating Denial" (And 2000 Kerth Award winner) (17KB): When Lois and Clark's son, Perry, realizes he has super-powers, there is only one conclusion he can draw -- his mom had an affair ... with Superman!

Virginia,

I agree it would be nice to honor Zoomway in this way. I have never read this story but since Ken's list came out it is on my Kindle but Full Circle is such an amazing story explaining the baby that I really hate to not vote for it. That said I can always just nominate it again next month... You are right about Navigating Denial. That was hysterical and pretty appropriate for the subject matter also.

Oh well, a long winded (me??) way of saying you got my vote!

Mike

Mike

I had (I have *now* as I just read a couple over the last few minutes) not read any of Zoomway's stories when I nominated those two. I just thought it would be appropriate and a nice way to honor her.

The idea was to read a few and make comparative comments.

So, how many stories does everyone think we should attempt to read? I was thinking we might extend this into January so that we could read more stories and have more time to read those stories, but I don't want to make any decisions without getting some other opinions. Any thoughts? Is anyone opposed to turning this into a December and January event?

I like this idea. I normally read many (most?) of the stories nominated each month as it, to me, is the best way to determine which ones to vote for . Nuts, I know, but it works for me. Anyway this approach falls right into the way I normally work the Reading Club.



By the end of the weekend I will have read 5 of the 9 nominated(?) stories. I figure I can get most of them read by end of December (won't attempt Missing Lois).

Will you put out a thread for each story or one thread where we can put the discussions of all stories together? We are kind of in uncharted waters here...

Mike

I doubt I'll have time to read even one. I haven't even finished Nan's long one for November, "Halloween". As I mentioned before, during November and December most of us are too busy with RL to have time to read more than one story, let alone discuss it. People might have more time to contribute to such a discussion early in the year as opposed to during the holidays. During November and December, I personally like to read short holiday based fics, but that just may be me.

At least 4 or 5 of the stories are rather short. I do have a leg up in that I wrote one of the longer ones, but even with my writing schedule I plan to try to read as many as I can.

Does anyone wish me to send them the episodes from TUFS or Season 5?

I love your definition of "short", Ken. Only 2 of these stories are under 50K and the other 7 aren't. I guess, technically, the next two are under 200K (if we use the Kerth Award definition for mid-length category.) Then the next two are almost 400K and the 2 after that are over 500K, (which makes those 4 long to epic sized), and we'll just not mention mine.

LLF has two categories for fanfic of the month for discussion: under 50K (short) and over 51K (long). I was using LLF's definition to make my recommendations.

I have compiled all of these stories into a single file and over the weekend I will be turning them into epub and mobi format files complete with a searchable TOC. I have included episode 1 of TUFS and the first 2 episodes of Season 5 since it was a two parter. It tops out at a little more than 1300 pages and that is without Missing Lois.

Anyone wishing to have an e-reader file, simply send me an e-mail and it will com back to you in my reply. Please specify the format that you need - mobi for Kindle, epub for other.

Indeed, we are in uncharted waters. I think a thread for each story would be best, though. Any thoughts on this, anyone?


I haven’t had much time to read most of our recent fanfic club stories, either.

We could read a total of 4 stories, having the two stories that are under 50K as our short stories and another two long stories from the list chosen by a poll like we usually do. The question is, though, even if we take two months to do this, will people be too busy with the holiday season to read anything?

I posted a poll here to choose two of the longer stories to read.

I have completed the compilation.

I have the following formats available:

MS Word – compatible with most word processors
HTM – will open in a browser
Mobi – Kindle e-reader format
Epub – other e-readers.

Mobi and epub formats have searchable tables of contents.

I have started receiving requests. I will try to get the format you request out as quickly as I can.

Once you receive your copy, I would appreciate it if you would check it out and comment. I am always looking for ways to improve the presentation so all comments are welcome.

Once thing I have done is - if a long story was archived without part or chapter breaks, I have added them in to make a searchable index.

For the life of me I can't get on this thread! Will have to use the computer.

Our two short stories we'll be reading are Miracle Child by Carrie Smith and Circle of Life by Michelle Savage. Our two long stories are Full Circle by Crystal Wimmer and Persistance of Memory by Zoomway.

So far I have had one request for a compilation.

Anyone wishing the compilation in one of the formats listed above, simply send a note to - ken.janney@kjanney.com and put keyword Lois along with "Family Hour Baby" in the subject line. Please specify which format you desire, Word, htm, epub or mobi.