THE ACID DESK
A Bi-Weekly Underground XFFanfic Newsletter
Vol 1. No. 1
Welcome to THE ACID DESK, a hopefully bi-weekly (monthly?) newsletter discussing the latest fics, recs, trends, discussions, and even *gasp* gossip in the X-Files Fanfic Community and posted to XFCTalk for discussion and debate.
All opinions expressed herein belong solely to the author, CiCi Lean, and have no reflection on the opinions of the administration or owners of XFCTalk.
Write to me and tell me how wrong I am!
CiCi Lean
[email protected]
THE ACID DESK MAILROOM:
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FROM THE E-BOX:
Found this feedback letter in my in-box yesterday:
From [email protected] (and no, that's NOT her real addy)
"I was going to send back the stupidist [sic] parts to you, but I decided to send back the whole fic. What are you trying to say? Insanity can't knock on a door and come in! I'm going to go find some better fanfic...uh, huh."
I wish you luck, punkybear. BTW...I have two words for you:
"Pubic Lice."
Uh, huh.
------
From: [email protected]
"SUBJECT: Turn Your Dishwasher Into A Cash Cow!"
Sheesh. What I need is someone to turn my cow into a dishwasher! Damn!
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Re: Mama Lean
"Wait a minute. She's a *real* person? I thought you made her up."
Well, since she spent twenty hours shoving me into the world, I think you could say that she made "me" up...but that's just a matter of perspective.
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HOT BYTES:
New XFFiction & Authors & More!
XFBandit's Shtuff: Nice, short bites of first-person MSR angst. Punchy, sharp phrasing and well thought out plots (well, for vignettes, anyway.) A couple of good looks at revolving figures and shadow men. Not always consistent in quality, but quantity makes up for it. Seems like there's a new one every other day. Hate the formatting (indent/no space), but it's short enough for me to suffer through.
-- Rating: 4 Flashlights
Nascent's Land Of Actual X-Files - Love it. I love Nascent. Clean writing, characterization up the yazoo (no, that doesn't hurt) and real, honest-to-goodness cases and conspiracies. Pinch me, Goober, I'm dreaming! The slurring Krycek in "Insider Trading" is hilarious, a bad boy with a big headache. Flawless grammar and editing throughout, not a sentence out of place. Check out "Eye Of The Beholder" for an M&S I can live with.
-- Rating: 5 Flashlights
Livengoo Goes To Hell (And Back) - Pure Goo, long, harsh, scary and very well-written. Some debate if she should have posted it, because it's *gasp* unfinished (and leaves off in a *very* nasty place,) but I'm of the mind that unfinished Goo is better than no Goo at all. Now, as an assignment, everyone send Goo some inspiring feedback. Who knows? We might see the light at the end of this spook house ride yet.
-- Rating: 4-1/2 Flashlights (only because it's not done yet, most likely 5+++ when finished)
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THE GOSSAPER
Notes On The Archive of Note
UPDATING BLUES: Seems like the overwhelming amount of new (and badly formatted) fiction has been bruising the mouse fingers of the harried Gossamer Gals and their volunteers. Time between updates has fluctuated wildly, the last two being 7 weeks and 7 days respectively, with nearly 500
CATEGORY FUN: Thought of the day. If "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" was a fanfic, it would be categorized "XTHAS." (Well, that's if you find the interaction between Mulder & Blaine as, uh, "passionate" as I did.)
PHAT STATS: Congratulations to MD1016 on "Cheapened Things" becoming the "Titanic" of downloaded fics. Top of the heap for months now, with thousands of openings. Not that I'm counting, mind you.
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ATXCARAMBA!
The Latest From The Usenet Front (alt.tv.x-files.creative)
Summarization: The Final Solution?
Ah, yes, the authors and readers are at each other's throats once again. The fight? Summaries at the top of fics, of course! Readers demand 'em...authors hate 'em. Each thinks they are in control of the other. It's a fight to the death, with lace glove slaps on both cheeks and really stinky little threats of summary-less "author-avoidance."
The final solution? If you won't read a story without a summary, then you don't have to and if you don't want to write a summary, and don't care what the readers think, then you don't have to.
And it only took 300 posts to figure that out. ::::clapping::::::::
:::::slowly:::::::
On an "up" note, however, I'm noticing an increasing trend toward posted feedback and a very interesting experiment in on-line group critiquing of "works-in-progress". We had a long look at Paula Graves latest unfinished piece, along with a preview peek at Jordan's last S/Sk. There was intelligence and honesty galore. My only concern is that someday, someone will post a piece for crits and no one will come. Ouch. Now *that* would hurt.
ATXC Pointless Mystery of The Week: Is the fabulous, hard-nosed critic of atxc, Lee Burwasser, a dude or a chick? A stupid question, but I have to keep referring to him/her as "our darling Lee" instead of, well, "him" or "her". Part of me wants to know, and the other part is enjoying the mystery. Playing hard to get, Lee him/herself coyly refuses to enlighten.
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THE SLASH CAFE
Reviews From The Wild Side
"Challenges" by Te (M/Sk) - Written on dare, this *beautiful* piece has it all. Mulder eating an apple, lying on the floor reading comic books and spouting Nietzsche while Skinner can't quite understand *why* he suddenly wants to share Maudite and philosophy with him. Uh, huh. Yeah, like -that's- a big mystery. Do me a favor, folks. Drop Te a note and dare her to write some more.
-- Rating: 5 Lashes
"Key West" by Alicia (K/P) - All right, all right...I'm biased. This is my fave pairing and written as a companion to my work, but who cares? Clean writing, beautiful setting and ha-ha-ha-HOT smut! And not a plot to get in the way anywhere. To heck with canon! New State Motto: Labcoats & Leather Are Perfect Together. You betcha!
-- Rating: 5 Lashes
"Ghosts 2: Lovers" by torch (M/K) - All right, I'll come right out and say it. If you don't read torch's work, you're nuts. Long, intricate, BRILLIANT stuff with characterizations so right, they hurt. If she wrote MSR or gen, we'd have to kill her. The writing is so clean, it squeaks. (torch is a copy editor in RL, so you don't have to worry about mentally correcting as you go.) Beautiful.
-- Rating: 5+++ Lashes
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TALK, TALK
Discussing The Discussion Lists
XFCTalk - The new babe in the woods, with posts a bit slow to middling. Methinks some advertising is in order to get it hopping. But then again... (see below)
CHAOS FICTALK: It's pretty slow here for the Big Boy too, with the Book Club taking up most of the room (kinda disappointing if you haven't read the piece of the month) and the recs are slow and sparse. Noticing a trend toward re-hash of safe, quiet, staple subjects (original characters, re-reads, favorite fics) which is a little too dull for my taste, but, as always, it's still the place where you check the recs to get peeved when your fic ain't mentioned AGAIN. (That's *so* much fun, isn't it?) I'm curious if the Great Exodus after the horrific flame wars of '97 has soothed the wild beast or if the spring weather isn't the source of all this good will toward men. We'll see.
AOL FANFIC JUNKIES BOARD: Recs galore and such *sweet* readers to boot. Too nice a place to even think of a starting flame war, this is the genteel tea party of fanfic discussion, where bad manners are simply ignored. My last snarky post was merely giggled at and I was called "a darling curmudgeon." Pass the ladyfingers and the Earl Grey, sweeties, I've learned my lesson. (Look, even my white gloves are clean!) Latest talk revolves around XFBandit and trends in "honest MSR." (See Rant-O-Rama) Also includes good slash talk from the Slash Junkies.
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FANFIC LINE OF THE WEEK:
(Where The Names Have Been Changed to Protect...well, Everyone.)
From: "The Kitchen Of Their Love" by [email protected]
"Their lips were sealed together like matching pieces of Tupperware."
Warning: Don't try this at home kids. Remember, Tupperware is airtight. And it "burps."
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GRATUITOUS PENDY MENTION OF THE WEEK:
"Allegiance" by Lacadiva: Post-Colonization Pendrell complete with black uniform, snazzy military cap, buzz cut and real shiny boots. Even contains nice, heaping helping of that rare and beautiful animal...PendrellTorture. I love you, Laca. Marry me.
- Rating: 5+++ Labmice
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RANT-O-RAMA:
Ravings From The Acid Desk:
While there is always much to complain about in XFFanfic, there are some *hopeful* trends that I'm really impressed with lately.
And the most hopeful is...
The virtual disappearance of *whoo-hee-nelly!* sap from MSR's. No, the usual sweet kisses and cuddles are still there, but the real horrible, god awful stuff, like the FBI masquerade ball, the deathbed weddings, and the screaming kiddies, with Ma & Pa Scully-Skinner coming over for babysitting duties, appear, for the most part, to have gone the way of All Schmaltz. (I throw mine down the toilet; it clogs up my sink, doncha know?
There's a nice hard edge in MSR coming into focus here, no doubt reflecting the *truly* dark turn the show has taken in the last two seasons. (Yeah, it was dark before, but now even those super-duper flashlights can barely cut through the murk.) There is also a burgeoning trend toward plotting and honest characterization, the likes I haven't in a while. IMHO, people are realizing that Scully isn't just a gorgeous, smiling saint and Mulder isn't just a sweet, tormented little boy in a hunk's body and no, they aren't running toward each other through a field of daisies in slow-mo like some sort of cheesy margarine commercial, that's for darn sure. But, does that mean that a good MSR fanfic is impossible to write without this sort of obvious character manipulation?
No way. I think they have definite romantic possibilities these two (in fanfic at least), but only in the darkest, cruelest of worlds. These characters are intricate, tormented, with a host of problems literally the size of the Earth itself. Sure, they might kiss someday, but dollars to donuts, there'll be blood on their lips when they're done.
And yes, there's still the occasional groaner (read a *serious* FBI ball fic just yesterday, in fact), but there's also Nascent ("Eye of The Beholder"), Jill Selby ("Ever After"), Rivka T, Mustang Sally ("Iolokus 1&2), and even Paula Graves, who's latest unfinished fic was more hard-edged than any fic I've read from her so far. Perhaps these aren't your *typical* M&S fics, sometimes they are downright scary in their dark intensity, but they are very hot in their own way (even without actual smut) and a hell of a lot more honest.
So here's to "Noir MSR". Long may it depress us.
-- CiCi Lean
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And that's it for this edition.
Come again next time, and I'll have some more snarky rants, squealing raves, gratuitous Pendrell rubbing and a whole lot more! If I'm not killed for posting this volume, that is.
THE ACID DESK is, hopefully, a bi-weekly newsletter, written & created by CiCi Lean and posted to XFCTalk for discussion and debate. All opinions expressed within belong solely to the author and have no reflection on the opinions of the administration or owners of XFCTalk.
This newsletter may NOT be copied, forwarded or posted to any other list, USENET newsgroup of web page without express permission of the author, CiCi Lean ( [email protected] ). In short, if you sneak it around, I'll catch you and eat you alive. (And I chew 100 times per bite, just like Mama Lean taught me to.)