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selenakToday was a busy day with minimal net access due to RL reasons - anyone expecting email, it might take a while, though I'll try my best. However, in honour of the new SW trailer (which is very cool), here is the last of my contributions to fanfic author appreciation week. I know I've recced this author and several of her stories before, but it bears repeating. To me, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fernwithy is the ultimate Star Wars writer.
(For my history as an SW fan who loves the prequels, see here.)
I first discovered her through her Vader and Leia between trilogies epic, "Father's Heart". It completely changed my mind on the Leia-as-Luke's-sister revelation from RotJ and became part of my personal fanon. The relationship that builds and destructs between Vader and Leia, resulting in the animosity from A New Hope, made complete psychological sense to me; her Vader is complex without the reader ever forgetting that he's "not a nice man with a breathing problem", as one character puts it, and the prequel background of Anakin Skywalker is used superbly. (Fernwithy also gets points for almost literally predicting the Anakin and Padme conversation about politics from the meadows scene, as this was written between TPM and AotC.) Her Leia is both a credible younger version of the woman we're going to meet and sometimes uncannily like her father, which is one of the story's points.
Another story of hers about Vader and Leia, "The Only Question" (almost a very short epilogue to the earlier epic), is a missing scene from Empire Strikes Back, Vader talking to Leia on Bespin while Han gets tortured, and asking one question - and only one. Not being of the opinion that the classic trilogy is a sacred cow whom the evil Lucas should have never touched again, I have this fantasy where digital technology is advanced enough to insert this scene in ESB. Won't happen, but would be nice. It is so intense, and fitting for these characters.
Fernwithy can do intricate plots with the best of them. "Family Portrait", another epic, set after TPM and before AotC, concentrates on the Obi-Wan and Anakin relationship but in a subtle way, describing one particular mission they and a fellow Jedi, Siri Tachi (a character from the novels, but you don't need to have read them, all the necessary info about her is in the story) are on. Adventure, politics, credible and interesting OCs - I only wish this were published and could get wider recognition.
One of the many things I admire about her stories is how she melds classic trilogy and prequel canon and characters, showing how they can be used to enrich each other. One prime example of how this is possible even with the most hated prequel character of them all is "Old Friends, Long Gone", in which Luke and Leia, in the wake of RotJ encounter... well, you'll see. I encourage even the most rabid OT purist to read it, because the portrait of Leia, now that she has time to let the implications of her biological parentage sink in, is something I dearly missed in what few EU novels I read. Her interaction with Luke has just the right note of closeness and yet differences.
Lastly, an example of the way she can take a few lines from canon and come up with an interesting and fascinating backstory: "The Smart One". The lines in question were from AotC, Padme Amidala about her first crush, Palo, who became an artist instead of going into politics. Fernwithy uses this to create a story about what it is like to live as an artist in a dictatorship, about brief moments of connections between two very different men, and about the changeability of memory.
***
And speaking of fanfiction. In his newest blog, Ron Moore gets asked about his take on it. And the dear man replies:
As far as I'm concerned, fan fiction (that is, fiction written for fun, or non-professionally) should feel free to go in whatever direction it feels like going. If you want to write a story about Starbuck being Adama's illegitimate daughter and how she's carrying on an illicit affair with Laura following an accident which flings them across time and space to the Ponderosa Ranch, be my guest. It's certainly no further out there than the K/S stories in Trekdom which detailed the sexual and romantic liasons between one James Kirk and one Mr. Spock.
If you're inspired by this series and these characters and you want to turn that inspiration into artistic expression, I've proud and hope you enjoy the process. (And it should go without saying that there is a very bright and bold line between writing for fun and writing for profit and only the foolish would care to mess with NBC-Universal's legal department.)
Okay, who is up for that Starbuck/Roslin slash?
fernwithy is the ultimate Star Wars writer. (For my history as an SW fan who loves the prequels, see here.)
I first discovered her through her Vader and Leia between trilogies epic, "Father's Heart". It completely changed my mind on the Leia-as-Luke's-sister revelation from RotJ and became part of my personal fanon. The relationship that builds and destructs between Vader and Leia, resulting in the animosity from A New Hope, made complete psychological sense to me; her Vader is complex without the reader ever forgetting that he's "not a nice man with a breathing problem", as one character puts it, and the prequel background of Anakin Skywalker is used superbly. (Fernwithy also gets points for almost literally predicting the Anakin and Padme conversation about politics from the meadows scene, as this was written between TPM and AotC.) Her Leia is both a credible younger version of the woman we're going to meet and sometimes uncannily like her father, which is one of the story's points.
Another story of hers about Vader and Leia, "The Only Question" (almost a very short epilogue to the earlier epic), is a missing scene from Empire Strikes Back, Vader talking to Leia on Bespin while Han gets tortured, and asking one question - and only one. Not being of the opinion that the classic trilogy is a sacred cow whom the evil Lucas should have never touched again, I have this fantasy where digital technology is advanced enough to insert this scene in ESB. Won't happen, but would be nice. It is so intense, and fitting for these characters.
Fernwithy can do intricate plots with the best of them. "Family Portrait", another epic, set after TPM and before AotC, concentrates on the Obi-Wan and Anakin relationship but in a subtle way, describing one particular mission they and a fellow Jedi, Siri Tachi (a character from the novels, but you don't need to have read them, all the necessary info about her is in the story) are on. Adventure, politics, credible and interesting OCs - I only wish this were published and could get wider recognition.
One of the many things I admire about her stories is how she melds classic trilogy and prequel canon and characters, showing how they can be used to enrich each other. One prime example of how this is possible even with the most hated prequel character of them all is "Old Friends, Long Gone", in which Luke and Leia, in the wake of RotJ encounter... well, you'll see. I encourage even the most rabid OT purist to read it, because the portrait of Leia, now that she has time to let the implications of her biological parentage sink in, is something I dearly missed in what few EU novels I read. Her interaction with Luke has just the right note of closeness and yet differences.
Lastly, an example of the way she can take a few lines from canon and come up with an interesting and fascinating backstory: "The Smart One". The lines in question were from AotC, Padme Amidala about her first crush, Palo, who became an artist instead of going into politics. Fernwithy uses this to create a story about what it is like to live as an artist in a dictatorship, about brief moments of connections between two very different men, and about the changeability of memory.
***
And speaking of fanfiction. In his newest blog, Ron Moore gets asked about his take on it. And the dear man replies:
As far as I'm concerned, fan fiction (that is, fiction written for fun, or non-professionally) should feel free to go in whatever direction it feels like going. If you want to write a story about Starbuck being Adama's illegitimate daughter and how she's carrying on an illicit affair with Laura following an accident which flings them across time and space to the Ponderosa Ranch, be my guest. It's certainly no further out there than the K/S stories in Trekdom which detailed the sexual and romantic liasons between one James Kirk and one Mr. Spock.
If you're inspired by this series and these characters and you want to turn that inspiration into artistic expression, I've proud and hope you enjoy the process. (And it should go without saying that there is a very bright and bold line between writing for fun and writing for profit and only the foolish would care to mess with NBC-Universal's legal department.)
Okay, who is up for that Starbuck/Roslin slash?
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-12 06:44 pm (UTC)I wasn't aware of that Luke and Leia story. I'll give it a try.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-13 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-12 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-13 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-13 07:48 am (UTC)