The rules of play for fkficfest will be very similar to those used successfully in the femme_fic and oldschoolfic fanfiction story exchange events.  However, there's one big difference.  Those are multifandom; this will be FK-only.  Similarly, we can't quite parallel the rules for the single-fandom Harry Potter games that leela_cat plays, because those are single-genre -- even single character -- and we'll be playing across all factions.

For fkficfest, players will submit three FK prompts.  We need to differentiate them somehow to provide some diversity of choices to the writer and aid in matching.  My co-mod and I talked about the possibilities for that, the different available categories, and we settled on: gen, ship, other.  This should, we hope, help us get compatible prompts into everyone's hands.

But do you see the challenge?  Definitions!  What should be the definition of "gen"?  Is "ship" the best collective term for that which is not "gen"?  How about "romance"?  (I have trouble accepting that we need to say "het or slash or femmeslash" every time we mean "that which is not gen.")  We need, if we can get them, definitions that help spread contentment, not contentiousness.  ( Read more... )

I don't get the Chiller channel, so everything I've learned about their Labor Day FK marathon has been second-hand, mostly from abby82.  However, I've learned some very interesting things, and I've been longing to share!

First up, the promos.  One went: "Before Edward... before Angel... there was Nick.  The original vampire with a heart is back.  The cult hit that drew first blood and proves that you can't have twilight without the Knight."  This makes me laugh with amused delight.  Yes, okay, lots to quibble with, but it's just fun for the show to be acknowledged with some perspective.  (When they were promoting Moonlight at cons, CBS representatives said they had never heard of FK.)  abby82 uploaded all three commercials for those of us beyond the channel's reach.

Next, the sequel.  Chiller will air FK again in October!  Their schedule is a bit hard to read, with the dates crimped between lines on my screen, but it looks like they're planning 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday 10/10 and Thursday 10/15.

Finally, and most excitingly, the version.  They aired the original CBS US cuts.  abby82 describes them in detail, and though I haven't seen them, I'm confident that's what they are.  In brief, all opened with the CBS surround-sound logo (like DK does on the DVDs), and they had the key scenes known to be characteristic of the original US airing.  This means that the CBS cuts survived!  If only they will release a nice new, DVD "slim set" with the differences packaged as extras, I can finally get rid of the last VHS tapes in the closet...  ( Read more... )

Natalie:	Six years ago, April 14.
Nick:	What's that?
Natalie:	Day they brought you in.
	-- "Last Knight"

When "Last Knight" first aired in May 1996, the exchange above was controversial for the date.  The night they wheeled Nick into the morgue in the flashbacks of "Only the Lonely" was Natalie's twenty-eighth birthday, of course, as the present was her thirtieth, and people like amilyn had worked long and hard to determine Natalie's birthday from the prop calendars on the morgue wall, the weather in the episode, the air date and, for some, astrology.  The date on which they had painstakingly settled was not April 14.  In the years since, we've mostly shrugged our shoulders and accepted the date Natalie said aloud in LK, presuming that she knows her own birthday.

Today, this same exchange presents a new controversy of sorts.  hearts_blood reminded me recently that people who discover the show after cancellation naturally have no memory of the hiatus.  They logically plunge straight from season one to season two to befuddlement when they finally reach this line buried in the finale at the end of season three.  What's the math?

FK was canceled after season one.  Filming ended, sets were stuck, "Love You to Death" aired in May 1993, GWD did a guest shot on Highlander, and many wonderful fans -- special wave to wiliqueen among you all -- wrote letters upon letters to convince TPTB to revive the series.  Honor and glory to those who wrote those letters, because TPTB relented and the series returned with "Killer Instinct" sixteen months after first season ended.  That's Natalie's "six years ago:" the year of the flashbacks of "Only the Lonely" (1990-1991), another year (1991-1992), season one (1992-1993), the hiatus (1993-1994), season two (1994-1995), season three (1995-1996).  ( Read more... )

Strangely, perhaps, it's my favorite time in FK: the year we shared, but didn't see.

Last week was the twentieth anniversary of the original broadcast airing of Nick Knight, the pilot starring Rick Springfield that did not get picked up, but provided the basis for "Dark Knight" and "Dark Knight, the Second Chapter" when Forever Knight got its turn a few years later.  Those of you who watched the made-for-TV-movie incarnation that very first time: care to share any memories?

My Nick Knight moments came later.  My favorite may always be a passage from FKFic-L War 8 ("Cinderella's War"), in which a N&NPacker hesitantly explains to a baffled time-and-reality-displaced Nick Knight Nick that: "In your world, we would be Nick&JackPackers..."  Still makes me laugh.  (Sorry that I can't remember who wrote it!)  Another memory is the first time I read a zine that mixed NK and FK stories; I didn't at first understand which were which.  They do look so alike on the page, until you bump into Jack or Natalie, or call for "Jean-Pierre" instead of "Nicholas."

abby82 made a fun anniversary vid to the song "Los Angeles" by Sugarcult.  Inspired by her, I got out my Nick Knight DVD and actually watched it all the way through for the first time (the last time I watched NK, it was on VHS, and on a smaller screen).  It's long been my opinion that NK's Alyce "Junk Food" Hunter is superior to FK's Alyce "Hold Me" Hunter, as NK's Janette and Lacroix cannot hold candles to FK's Janette and Lacroix, and that the NK Schanke is not just a younger incarnation, but actually a completely different character, from FK's Schanke, and those haven't changed.  But several elements caught my attention for new-to-me comparisons:  ( Read more... )

I'm three weeks behind on reading blogs.  (I've been working severely excessive hours, and it had to give.)  I will do my best to thoroughly catch up.  In the meantime, if there's something I should not miss, let me know, and I'll rush it to the top of the stack!

LiveJournal sent a birthday heads-up for susanmgarrett this morning.  This made me grin, because in addition to generally wishing her well and many more when her day comes, her birthday is properly a late-summer prompt to fill fkfic-l with stories!  :-)  The "Susan's Birthday Challenge" was a good tradition.

And speaking of fkfic-l, did you notice that Mary Ch. is back and posting?  [insert Abby's Snoopy Dance icon here]  Although she is sorely plagued by =20 disease this time out, and is working on fixing that with Hotmail standing in her way.  You must hard-wrap story posts to get through the listserv clean with all recipients.  I use 60 characters these days because of listmembers who use Yahoo Mail, which wraps even more severely than the listserv.  I know how to get Eudora to hard-wrap for me at a chosen character count; do you know other tips and tricks for other email and wordprocessing applications that we could share?

I taped the two-hour premiere of Mr. Parriot's (and Ms. Cox's) new series, Defying Gravity, last Sunday, but have not yet watched it.  The next episode is tonight at 10:00 PM Eastern/Pacific on ABC in the US (and those parts of Canada that get US broadcast stations).

So we're definitely doing an FK-only fest/ficathon game!  Yes!  Details remain to be worked out, but as the current date suggestion is May 2010, we've got plenty of time.

Recently, I decided to make myself a "thank you" userpic icon.  You see the result with this post -- Magda thanking Nick at the end of "For I Have Sinned" -- but I was surprised how few choices I could call to mind.  Is "I will repay you (by not killing you while you're impaled on a meat rack)," double-entendre and all, really so expressive of the series's overall approach?  I'm satisfied with my icon, but it got me thinking about gratitude as a story element and in character development in FK.

The most powerful and straightforward "thank you" scene that I could call to mind is the tag of "1966," when Lily expresses her undying gratitude for Nick's rescue of her family, mentioning so many of the lives that are better for Nick's intervention, and hinting at the ever-expanding waves of good from his action, such as her son.  (Unfortunately for icon-making, there's nothing visual there to grab.  It's Nick listening to his answering machine.  Either you know what you're seeing in the still, or you don't.  It doesn't suggest anything to a stranger.)

In second place, I think, is Magda thanking Nick, the scene I picked for my icon.  He's just saved her life, and her gesture of gratitude includes almost forcing on him the memento of her cross necklace.  She doesn't know what it means that he can hold it, but we do.  (For icon-making, her action and stance seem to me to be visually suggestive of their emotional content.)

But beyond those?  ( Read more... )

So.  The eighteenth of May, 2009.  A forkni-l digest dropped.  A new story hit fkfic-l.  Different more in scope than substance from the eighteenth of May, 1996...

Well, sure, except for the obvious. :-)  It really is a long time past, isn't it?  I'm still deeply glad for FK and the friends I made in it.  I'm grateful to still be in touch with as many as I am.  I'm grateful that the lists still live.  I'm grateful that when I watched "Hunters" recently, it was even better than I remembered (and "Outside the Lines" even worse).

A toast to the goldenplaid parody script!  A prayer for everyone who ever loved the show.  And thanks to you, who are reading now.

I am somewhat nervously awaiting the response from my last beta reader on the BtVS story for femme_fic.  I therefore feel obliged to keep my head in BtVS, with my desktop wallpaper and screen saver showing Sunnydale, and those DVDs conveniently out.  For all I know, deep revisions will be required, and only a thick cushion of canon will let me execute them in time.

Even so, the calendar has turned my thoughts home to FK.  May 18, 2009 will be the thirteenth anniversary of the first airing of "Last Knight" (give or take; local syndication varied, etc.) and I want to post something to fkfic-l on that day again this year.  The gesture has felt good in years past.  (Feel free to join in, by the way. Excellent day for posting.)  It doesn't have to be related to LK -- I've been in a mood to ignore LK for years now -- but it must be as much worth the reader's time as I can manage, and I don't have anything on the verge of ready.  ( Just musing... )

I've spent all my hobby time for the past several weeks on my femme_fic story.  One kind beta-reader has already looked at it and, because of the grace period, it will get another scrub.  Here's hoping it will be at least the sum of its parts.

It's not FK, which is why I haven't been posting.  (Well, that and life... you know the drill.)  I've written outside FK before, of course, but this is my first go at this particular fandom (BtVS), and it's also my longest story yet outside FK.  I noticed that given an FK prompt, I tend to rewatch one relevant episode many times, but given a non-FK prompt, I tend to try to review (literally, re-view) all remotely relevant canon.  I think perhaps I must adjust my scale the next time out, as much_madness often tells me. :-)

This second femme_fic event marks the first anniversary of my ficathon participation.  They're a lot like list challenges, but the exchange aspect and the deadline are key differences that really ramped up my production.  I just wish I had more hobby time to go around!

Last week, celli described a writing exercise designed to bolster skills with perspective and setting.  In a few swift steps, it took me from pondering the exercise, to picturing the loft, to: Why does Nick have a bottle of blood hidden in his chimney?  In "Feeding the Beast," that is, the scene in which the ghost/delusion of Lacroix taunts Nick from the balcony.

I don't mean to ask "why blood," of course; we're all clear that the character is a vampire.  And I don't mean to ask "why hidden" -- the core metaphor of that episode, and the fallback metaphor of most episodes, is vampirism as addiction, and so Nick behaves like an addict when that metaphor is in force.  But why the chimney?  Above the fireplace?  What would rising heat do to wine-cut blood?  Should it even still be liquid when he goes back for it?

Further, in "Dark Knight," Alyce finds the fireplace dusty, and wonders whether Nick has ever used it at all.  When Nick first hid that bottle, did he expect the fireplace to be a safe hiding place because he intended never to use the fireplace?  However, there was most certainly a fire in "Dark Knight," and then again at least for a moment in "For I Have Sinned."  So what would that mean for the time the bottle has been hidden there before being pulled out in FtB?  Would it necessarily have been planted since the last time the fire burned, or could it have been there since Nick first moved in?  And would the carved mantle (cf. "Baby, Baby") be involved in some way?

I have typed "Nanette" (Natalie/Janette or Natalie&Janette affiliation, you know) three times this morning. This may be the first time in years I've used the word, and suddenly it's everywhere. :-)

I have a few little questions that have cropped up recently, but I've been too busy to catch up and take them home to forkni-l, where I'm sure the answers are known, so:

• Do you remember whether anyone ever seriously named an Aristotle affiliation?  dj_clawson wondered.  I thought one had been named, but I could so easily be confused -- of course the fancy that Susan's unforgettable Dorian has a faction called the "Archivists" could help confuse me on that (as if the confusion needs assistance).
  
  
• You remember the "Center Stage Challenge," yes?  The '95ish fkfic-l challenge in which stories were written from the perspectives of the minor characters, such as Elisabeth's Feliks and Miklos stories?  Well, I would like to track down the Grace story, but I can't remember either the author or title.  I seem to remember it making Grace a fully-rounded character, with a complete set of connections and obligations beyond Natalie and the morgue, including a date and community involvement.  Can you place it?
  
  
• And while we're on the "Center Stage Challenge," what other minor characters were written specifically for it?  I was a newbie on the lists then, and I remember only Elisabeth's stories and the Grace one.
  
  
• Finally, does anyone remember the collective term for Nick, Schanke and Natalie that is the equal and opposite of "Fang Gang" for Nick, Lacroix and Janette?

Thanks!

Recently, in FK on my Friends List:

• On August 11, graphiteslog sketched out a Forever Knight/Sapphire & Steel crossover that sounds quite sensible and intriguing.  (And if any of you have ever heard of Sapphire & Steel before, she would probably be gratified to learn of your existence.)
  
  
• On August 8, ithildyn pondered an FK/HL story she wrote in March, called "Shattered," which, to her surprise, ended up featuring Nick.  She mentioned an eventual sequel.
  
  
• On August 5, someone posted something noteworthy, under a lock.
  
  
• On August 2, abby82 recapped aspects of a recent "Curiouser & Curiouser" discussion on forkni-l.
  
  
• On July 20, abby82 recommended two FK f/f stories: Havoc's untitled Fleur/Kate piece, and also "What Makes a Mortal Interesting," a Janette/Natalie story I'd never seen before.

Today, Friday 08/15, is the last day to submit prompts for the oldschoolfic back-to-school themed ficathon for out-of-production fandoms (rules, submissions).  It's also the last day to submit nominations for the forsaken_fandom awards project, for selected fandoms that no longer have multiple regular awards of their own (rules, submissions, FK nominees so far).

I gather that today is also the first day of Vividcon.  Have a marvelous time!

At the end of July, I posted about the forsaken_fandom community, and their project to recognize and encourage fanfiction in fandoms (including FK) that no longer have multiple regular award projects of their own.  This week (through Friday 08/15) is the last week they're accepting nominations for this round.  Looking at their FK nominations list, I currently see 31 stories by 11 authors.  Several sub-categories (including slash, erotica and fluff) as yet show no nominations, but all genres are eligible in the overall categories.

Any story originally posted or substantially revised in the past five years is eligible (so: 2003-2008).  They will confirm approval for all nominations with the authors, and the stories must be available online.

If you're interested, see their community profile, nominating rules, award categories, and the nominations post itself (to nominate, you post a screened reply to that post).  Note that there's an eligibility password in the rules.

Please consider checking their nominations to see which contemporary FK authors are missing, and then nominating excellent stories by them.  Please encourage FK authors to write more FK fanfiction!  Nominating them for awards is one good way to show we would like to read more.

[I will be cross-posting this to forkni-l.  I'm posting it here first this time, though.]

First, a word of caution.  I do not know the people running this project, and neither do the friends I asked.  The moderators of this community are strangers.

That said, there is a project called "The Forsaken Fandom Awards" (forsaken_fandom).  Their goal is to encourage fiction in fandoms that have few or no active awards projects of their own.  This includes us: FK fandom.  This is their second round; stories from the past three years [Correction 08/09: five years] are eligible.  In their previous round, few FK authors were nominated, none of whom post to fkfic-l these days, if I'm interpreting correctly (Fenris, Nancy W., and a Mel M. whom I think is not our Mel M.), though a special WIP award went to Lisa S., who posted part of a story to the list.

I learned of the project last week, when someone kindly nominated my "Starwort" from earlier this year.  A moderator emailed me, asking whether I would give permission for them to list the story and link to it on my site; without my asking, they promised not to post my email address and not to repost my story.  I spent the week hoping to find someone who knew them; I failed, but emailed back and gave permission anyway.

As this active awards project includes FK, we can certainly participate.  And it's downright silly for "Starwort" to be the lone FK nomination, which it apparently is at the moment.  Nancy K., Ell, PJ, Jarvinia, Elena, Kristen, and many others have posted excellent new FK fiction in the designated period!

Again, I'm not acquainted with the moderators, and that makes me anxious.  (I'm a Knightie; I angst.)  But encouraging more FK fanfiction is a worthy goal.  So here's their posted schedule:

• Nominations: July 11, 2008 to August 15, 2008
• Voting & Judging: August 16, 2008 to September 20, 2008
• Winners Announced & Banners Posted: September 27, 2008

An overview with links to their rules is on their profile.  You do not have to have a LiveJournal account to participate in nominating or voting, but if you don't, they will verify your email address before counting your contribution.

That's all I know.  If someone else knows more, by all means...?

Because I posted about it a few weeks ago, I want to follow-up and say that the FanHistory.com experiment has turned out unfortunately.  Its problems most importantly seemed to include violating the value of not posting real-life information against people's wishes.  If you're interested in all the details, this initial summary here with follow-up here was recommended to me by a good friend.

There is some talk on forkni-l about Gaylin's FK Wiki as an alternative.

For myself, just personally, I think I'll stick with working on my own site and ongoing projects for now.  I have a lot of work to do on the Character Directory, FK Universe List, and Quotations Concordance -- as well as stories to write!  As long as FK is forging on, I'm happy in fandom.

Recently, in FK on my Friends List:

• On July 16, amilyn posted "Somewhat Useful," a traditional drabble (100 words) featuring Schanke and Urs.  (Yes, you read that right.  It says, "Schanke and Urs."  Honest.  Credit the prompt to wiliqueen.)
  
  
• On July 14, ithildyn made remarks about a FK/Iron Man, Janette and Tony crossover idea.  I can only assume that egging her on would be a positive step, even though the story could never be posted to fkfic-l (rules, rules).
  
  
• On July 11, abby82 posted her Schanke vid "The Rockafella Skank" to a song by Fatboy Slim.  I am not familiar with this music genre, but the Schankeness is pure.  It's a light-hearted, totally pre-"Black Buddha" production.  (And it's the first vid she ever made.)

As for me, after a hectic, horrid, work week, I've used up just about all my hobby time this weekend reading and remarking on oldschoolfic ficathon stories by my fellow players, and thanking those who kindly replied to my story.  What I want to be doing now is taking greerwatson's advice and adding a "Relative Reality" column to my Places & Things of the FK Universe list.  Honestly, when I began it, I meant to list only the fictional things unique to FK (e.g. the Borchiver Award from "Can't Run, Can't Hide").  But I blundered into some that are quite real (e.g. Humbar Nurseries from "Only the Lonely") and greerwatson is very generously sharing her Toronto expertise to make the distinctions for the benefit of FK writers.  I hope to get that scrubbed and up this week, if not this weekend.  (What is it with Real Life, eternally interfering with fandom? ~g~)

Are there other FK-eligible ficathons on the horizon?  If not, I've promised much_madness that I'll try to address her taste for ficlets (101-1000 words) in some way.  And I still owe hearts_blood that NCIS/FK unbirthday crossover.

[Cross-posted from forkni-l.]

There have been a few posts lately asking for the names of middling-to-minor characters, like Amy Lambert from "I Will Repay" and Cynthia Lambert Luce from "Undue Process."  I thought I'd mention the FK Character Directory that I've been working on for a few years now.  It's alphabetical by first name, and includes every character ever named aloud, or in the credits after first season (if the credit can be confidently matched to a person on screen).  I believe it's easy to search, using a browser's "Find" function.  It's complete up to "Night in Question" so far.  I will finish it, but have not just yet for the typical reason that third season can be an emotional slog; still, I'm getting there.

In parallel to that list of people, I've been working on a list of the places and things unique to the FK universe.  It is also complete up to NiQ, so far, and it's my favorite.  These are tidbits that can really make a story pop.  I find them tremendously fun.

And of course there are the character FAQs that I originally made in '97.

They are all intended to be of use to people writing FK fanfiction.

[Crossposted from forkni-l.  In Saturday's digest, a long-time listmember reminisced about running dual VCRs to discover the differences between the Canadian and US cuts long ago, and pondered doing it again now to pin down what's missing from the DVDs, in response to what wiliqueen and I discovered missing from "I Will Repay" on the DVD.]

That would be a great favor to the fandom!  I would follow your progress eagerly.  But I'm afraid it might even take three TVs this time: US cut, Canadian cut and the DVDs.  Four if we can circulate the first-run German cut.  (Is it lucky or unlucky that only first season comes in quite so many flavors?)

When the first-season DVDs came out, I checked "Last Act" to reassure myself that no footage was missing, even though the run-times clearly indicated the first-run Canadian cuts.  I picked "Last Act" because it's peculiar in having some footage that aired only in the US as well as some that aired only in Canada (and, besides, it's so good! ~g~).  ( Read more... ) I should have checked more episodes, obviously. :-)  Why, why, why would anyone cut Nick and Lacroix's exchange about souls from the flashbacks of "False Witness"?  Madness!

Golly, but I love first season.  I rewatched "Fatal Mistake" recently, and kept thinking that while it was perhaps the least admired episode of first season, and surely suffers two painful script burbles as well as arguably one of the worst necks-of-the-week ever, it is nevertheless smart, well-constructed and satisfying.

Someone who found my "Bright Knight" website this week emailed to ask if I could recall a story about Lacroix going to Natalie after being attacked by Nick, and developing appendicitis.  This didn't ring a bell for me.  Does it for you?  People often talk about how difficult it is to injure or sicken FK's vampire characters for stories -- hurt/comfort is hard to render with all that supernatural healing going on! -- so I'd suppose that accomplishing a convincing illness for Lacroix would be memorable.  Whatever the story is, I must have missed it the first time around.

Over in oldschoolfic ficathon news, my first draft is complete.  ~9,000 words.  FK's first season.  Now for polishing diligently until the deadline this coming weekend.

In recommendations project news, I've procrastinated requesting permission to feature the desired story to the last minute again.  Why do I do this almost every month?  Procrastination isn't even a standard Knightie personality flaw! ;-)

I have had this goofy curiosity for ages, but kept forgetting to ask!  Those of you who live in multi-fan households, what is the FK affiliation distribution?  For example, among my best friends, I am privileged to count a Raven/Raven couple and a Natpacker/FoD couple.  What faction do you face across the breakfast table, and how do you cope?  :-)

[Cross-posted from fkfic-l, where one person referred to the vintage rumor of racier footage in the German cuts, and one of the German fans once again pointed out that there is no such footage, but in my opinion went a bit far by asserting that there is no extra footage at all.  This was my reply.]

I don't mean to disagree, and of course you are absolutely right about there being no no "flesh shots," but I have seen dubbed VHS copies of one German airing of FK's first season, and what I saw does have some brief footage that is additional to the Canadian airings.  In almost all cases, those shots are "atmosphere" extending the existing scenes -- the camera lingers longer on a set or prop, or a character walks a few more steps across a room or down a street.  I do not recall any of them including dialogue.  Nevertheless, those bits are additional to all the North American airings.

My favorite is Nick picking up and setting down a book on the credenza next to his answering machine.  Just a few seconds -- but what a prize! :-) Nick reading! In his home! Knightie-bookworm joy. ;-)

The one scene in all of first season in which I found a substantive content addition in the German episodes I saw was what I think of as Ilsa's flashback inside Nick's flashback in "Dead Issue."  ( Read more... )

I do know, from a recent conversation with wiliqueen, that the DVDs are missing footage I have on my VHS tapes.  We discovered missing dialogue in the flashbacks of "False Witness," darn it.  My copy of the DVD completely lacks Lacroix and Nick's exchange about souls ("Why do you think that is, Nicholas? Is it because they have souls?" / "And you do not." / "We do not."). Instead, it just stops early with Lacroix saying, "I should play again, but I'll never compare to them."  What a loss...

On Friday, abby82 posted a selection of FK colorbars.  I'm not familiar with this genre of fan art -- anyone want to fill me in? -- but her FK ones are a great deal of fun.  (And they remind me that I need to get back to my quotations concordance project one of these days.)

Additionally, it turns out that Medie extended her comment-fic fest through midnight tonight (05/11/08), so you still have time to whip up an FK entry! ;-)  FK prompts here.  (I'm sorry I didn't know earlier, to pass the news on.)

wiliqueen revived the "DVD Commentary" meme, and shared commentaries on her classic Forever Knight fanfiction "Color of the Night" (pure story / commented-upon) (second-ever entry in the recommendations project, by the way), and on a stirring portion of her recent Blood Ties fanfiction "Five Times Coreen Fennel Did Not Kiss Henry Fitzroy..." (pure story / commented-upon), and has generously promised me comments on one more FK scene to be named later, to boot.

Honoring the meme exchange, I hereby make a similar offer: pick any of my fanfiction (list), and I'll repost it with a "DVD commentary."  (However, I must add a caveat; if you choose a larger story -- especially one so big that I divided it into chapters or sections -- please choose just a scene, not the whole thing.  This is a little meme, not a giant project to consume the next several months, right? ~g~)

In other news, my last beta reader kindly came in on "Starwort," and I will make her adjustments -- she recommends a specific small new scene in the middle of the long conversation scene, among a few other tweaks -- and then start preparing the story for fkfic-l posting (that is, dividing it into <500-line ASCII posts wrapped at <60 characters-per-line and counting them; I love the list dearly and devotedly, but optimal list posting is both an art and a chore).

Icons.  My FK activity this week was creating a small flock of NatPack icons for wiliqueen.  I hope at least one strikes her fancy; any that do not catch her eye, I will recycle for general "up for grabs" consumption for any other icon-deprived NatPackers.  (I'll mark them so, when the time comes.)  I hope I'm building my icon-making skills as I go; it's a new craft, and I have a lot to learn!  In and around the new icons for wiliqueen, I also created just a few more for myself, including this (Gratuitous Icon Post!) one with Natalie, Nick and the Caddie from "The Fix."

Fanfiction.  Writing "Starwort" (that long Fleur story) for the ficathon was a bit of a "high," and I'm experiencing a low in its wake.  A friend who did not have time to beta before the ficathon is taking a look at the story now, and will let me know what I can fix in her areas of expertise before taking the story home to fkfic-l.  Trying to figure out where to begin a completely different new story, and not succumb to the morass of not writing for fun (only work), I'm playing with hearts_blood's request for a NCIS/FK crossover for her birthday; we'll see.

Analysis.  The last forkni-l digest I read came on March 22.  That's not far behind, by my standards these days, but there was this one post that week to which I would really like to respond -- at length, citing a whole alphabet soup of episodes, in the good old way -- but I can't well do so until I catch up on all the digests since, to see if someone has beaten me to the punch.  Ah, well.  Key thought?  The thing the poster assumed is true, well, it appears only in Lacroix's dialogue, and only after first season.  This leaves the very strong interpretive possibility that, as Nick and Janette's dialogue in the first season explicitly contradicts Lacroix on this point, Lacroix is either mistaken or lying, and either way, most probably trying to manipulate Nick!  Ah, well. :-)