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.

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.)

I'm going over my femme_fic ("We Love Female Characters") ficathon story draft one more time today, trying for as much polish as I can achieve before posting to the community this weekend.  As part of that, I've just transcribed the key dialogue from those episodes on which the story most draws, including every word ever spoken by my favorite neck-of-the-week, the most canonically pertinent guest character we ever received (such that I am joking by lumping her into that category, naturally).  The transcriptions below are exact; I did not omit even those lines that make me throw rolled-up socks at the screen, and you know these episodes have their share of those!  But I love them anyway, as shown by the 14,000-word draft continuing them that I'm scrubbing right now, and striving to make evoke these very lines.

If I've written the story well, no one will need to rewatch any episodes in order to understand it.  But reviewing FK canon is always a delight, right? ;-)  I will get these quotations properly sorted into my FK Concordance after the ficathon story is on its way.  (Gracious, but transcribing is so much easier with the DVDs than it was with tapes!)

Transcribed excerpts, in reverse chronological order:

( Crazy Love ) ( Fallen Idol ) ( Be My Valentine ) ( Near Death )

The big project on Bright Knight over the past year has been developing the Character Directory (People of the FK Universe) and Stuff List (Places and Things of the FK Universe).

Both lists amuse me greatly, but if I have a pet of the two, it's the Stuff List.  The Character Directory shines a spotlight on cool tidbits, such as that "David" is the most common name in FK (seven uses), that Officer Lipinksi is a recurring character (three episodes), and that the anchorman who appears in "Spin Doctor" and "Only the Lonely" is named Steve Tate and so could easily be related to talk show host Jerry Tate (of "My Boyfriend is a Vampire").  But the Stuff Lists wraps me warmly in an FK so tangible, so vivid, that it's as if I've walked off screen and into a larger universe.  Surely the Kitten Club magazine in "Love You to Death" is related to the Kitten Channel that airs Foxy Boxing in "Hunters"?  The list of fictional companies reveals a story equipped with a yellow pages of canonical services.  And Azure is hardly the only restaurant in FK's fictional Toronto -- would you prefer to eat at Artie's with Schanke for the garlic special, perhaps, or Trattoria Roma with Don and Myra, Buckstar's with Tracy, Machelio's with the mob boss, or even Pizza Palace, where Natalie did not spend her twenty-eighth birthday?  What about the Cherry Street Restaurant diner or the Hog Heaven bar?  All completely canonical.  It's so neat!

Yes, I am easily amused.  :-)  I began both lists in August of 2006, taking notes one episode at a time from "Dark Knight" forward.  I slowed and temporarily stalled in third season, I'm afraid, but I'll pick up the pace again soon.  Once I've finished the series, I have a few episodes to go back and double-check (due to notes that I didn't always transcribe soon enough to remember the meaning of my own scribbled marginalia ~g~).

My script-based Forever Knight timeline was one of my first useful contributions to the fandom, I think.  Not that the justly popular and praised previous costume-derived timeline (originated by Valerie and completed by Dorothy; on which mine is based) is not wonderful -- it is! -- but you know how tangled FK can be.  I believe we discover interesting possibilities by setting the costume-derived timeline next to a script-dependent timeline, and playing with the canonical wiggle-room.  (For example, the flashback costumes of "Partners of the Month" and "Fatal Mistake" postdate the scripts' dialogue and stage directions by decades -- even centuries. Not to mention "Dead of Night" and "Last Act"!)  In cases of conflict, my timeline gives precedence to the script's text; Valerie and Dorothy's timeline gives precedence to costuming and props.  My timeline also attempts events mentioned but unseen (eg. in UTV, Lacroix suggests he saw Nick during the War of 1812).  FK canon is a jumble, and we love it that way. :-)

Years later, when I was writing "In the Light of Day," I put that flashback research into a Crusades/Canon Alignment timeline, matching early Forever Knight story elements (c.1193-1203, Nick is born) with history (1192, Richard II's peace treaty with Saladin).

It's probably time and past to update the layout and presentation of the original timeline.  It predates the ancient days in which I was still hand-coding the site (kudos to Frederic for the two years he archived it for me, before I learned HTML).