Weird @ Wicked

Overheard in an elevator yesterday: "You can't be a dragon -- you're my polyamorous sex slave!"  Sometimes it's better to just imagine the explanation.

I popped down to Wicked Faire in New Jersey for the day Saturday, which turned out to be a fairly odd experience as cons go and to set some sort of record for disorganization.  But it was fun anyway.  I hung out in the Steampunk room and talked to assorted old and new friends who conveniently dropped by.  I saw some really lovely Steampunk costumes but also way too many corsets-as-outerwear (I am tempted to unflatteringly abbreviate this as CaOWs.)  A new problem with that: unless the corset is cut to go over a bustle - and most purchased corsets are not - it makes a big dent in the back of the bustle, which looks kind of silly. 

I didn't take very many pictures overall, but I'll post a few here (click the images for larger versions.)  But I shopped!  I bought an overpriced black spaghetti-strap top with a suggestive statement embroidered on it.  Buying that sort of top is still novelty enough for me to accept the price.

I heard Cat Valente read from her upcoming (Tuesday!) novel Palimpsest, which I'm already recommending to everyone on the strength of the original short story and her talent for richly baroque imagery.  I got a nice picture of her Palimpsest art-corset (left), which was beautiful enough to warrant being worn as outerwear.   I bought a Jay Lake anthology at the tiny charity auction as a further contribution towards S.J. Tucker's medical bills.  I've no idea whether I'll like it or not, but almost everything else was perfume, and I am allergic to perfume.

I indulged my newly-acquired Repo fetish by going to writer-composer-actor-artist Terrance Zdunich's Q&A session (right) and lost all pretense to any savoir-faire when I somehow ended up getting photographed in an unexpectedly, um, mouth-on way.  It went something like this:

Me: And can I get a picture for my friend too?
TZ: Sure! (gestures me around the table)
Me: No, I don't need to be in it; she already knows what I look like.
TZ: (looks a little surprised)
Random passers-by: Go on!
Me: But I look terrible in pictures!
Random passer-by: (snatching camera from my hand)  Here, I'll take it.
Me: (somehow ending up behind table) But, but, but....

At this point I realize that (1) his mouth is on my neck in a pleasantly warm and non-slobbery sort of way, (2) I'm turning bright red out of sheer surprise and the fact that I have a very sensitive neck, and (3) the passer-by doesn't know how to work my camera.  After a confused break for me to set the camera properly, I somehow ended up back in exactly the same position having a photo taken.  Since I looked just as terrible in it as I expected (a fiery blush makes my camera-hates-me face look even worse) I've cropped it to the interesting bit (left).

I managed to top this moment of social disaster later in a brief exchange with him about the utility of cucumbers (there being one lying on the table next to him for no obvious reason) before turning the conversation safely to art.  So much for acquiring sophistication with age.  Or boundaries.

Continuing on the Repo theme, the last photo (right) is a fan in a rather good Blind Mag costume from the scene at the opera.  It's pretty impressive, except that she needs more hair.  Click it to see the nifty eyes!

We didn't stay late, since we were tired and had tons of stuff to do at home.

Comments

[AJ]

I like corsets as outerwear, as long as they're not worn over a bra, and as long as someone isn't trying to claim that it's somehow historically correct. I think it's an attractive garment.

(That said, I've seen a couple worn over bras (with straps!) this month, and it really annoyed the heck out of me.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I did actually see one person wearing an underbust corset with a bra. Talk about worst of all possible worlds! Though I suppose that was preferable to underbust corset with no bra, which gives the ever-charming spill-over-and-flop look if you're as curvaceous on top as that lady was.

I don't mind corsets clearly made to be outerwear like the Palimpsest one, which between the fabric and the extra rows of decorative lacing is clearly not meant as underwear. But in general, the look reads to me about the same as wearing a bra over a t-shirt does: silly! I spend too much time wearing corsets as practical undergarments to be impressed with them as a fashion trend. Especially when so many of them fit their wearers poorly or are downright unflattering, or flattening where they shouldn't be flattening.

There was a certain temptation to take pictures of people from the neck down and make a gallery of fitting embarrassments.

[Sorcyress]

I will confess to owning three what I call "hot topic" corsets --corsety-bodicey pieces that are meant to be worn as outerwear. I don't wear them with bras, because that's stupid. I make no claims as to how sexy or rediculous I look in them (though at least part of the problem is that the best looking one is really meant to be worn strapless, and I tend to think my shoulders are a bit too broad* to really wear such a thing)

Terrace gives _awesome_ hugs. And he drew me a dinosaur, for my collection of dinosaurs drawn by awesome people! It was actually pretty fucking rad, all t-rexy and RAR!

I want to know what this suggestive statement is.

[Serge]

I bought an overpriced black spaghetti-strap top with a suggestive statement embroidered on it.

Details?

As for your supposed camera-hates-me face... I remember your saying here how terrible you looked in that photo with Lord Nelson. I guess we'll have to disagree on that subject.

[Susan de Guardiola]

It wasn't that suggestive, or particularly new and original: "What you call a fantasy, I call a plan."

This is not entirely accurate anymore, since the horizons of my plans have shrunk near to nonexistence lately for various reasons, but it used to be true enough. Maybe someday it will be again.

The hug bit was fine, I just wasn't expecting the mouth action. Not that I'm complaining.

I've an idea for something I want him to draw, but I think I will not discuss it here. Don't know if he'd do it anyway. Anyone who really wants to know can email me privately.

[Marilee J. Layman]

We discussed Watchmen at bookgroup Saturday and I thought it was awful. Not wicked, just awful. AJ reviews it on her blog today but she's at least willing to go to the movie.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Well, I loved Watchmen. I read it when it first came out and find it still holds up on reread twenty-odd years later. Maybe you had to read it at its historical moment of Reaganism and Cold War and all. Marilee and AJ, have you read Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which was the other big 1980s graphic novel?

[AJ]

Susan, you could be right about having to read it at the right place in history. It certainly felt a little dated to me.

I've never read any Batman comics, and in fact, until Watchmen just now, ElfQuest is probably the only 1980s comic I've read (not counting the kiddie comics that I know I read, but can't remember anything about).

[Raven]

... o.O ...

I really wish I had words, but I don't*. Instead, I'll just add that I heard mixed things about the actual shadow-casting on Friday night, and the clips I've seen weren't terribly good. On the other hand, it doesn't actually matter, because according to an article I read (and now can't find the link to, sorry), the Repo people really don't want fans to try and make it the "next Rocky". Which is fair, because it isn't.

Also, the Blind Mag Chromaggia costume was kind of awesome. I want to know where she got the feathers!

*I do, I'm just not going to say them.

[Susan de Guardiola]

AJ,
I haven't really read Batman comics either, but DKR is not in the main continuity and was similarly startling and trend-setting at the time (mid-1980s) in its extreme darkness.

Ah, well, perhaps one just had to be there...

[Susan de Guardiola]

Raven,
I want to hear all those words this weekend! I'm going to give Repo to Merav and Meredith tomorrow to spread the addiction.

I can probably find out on the feathers. I want to know where she gets the nifty contact lenses! (Not that I can wear them anyway, but they're pretty cool.)

If you find that article I'd be curious to see it. I'm not a big fan of shadow casts in general; it wasn't a feature of local Rocky viewings when I got into it a frighteningly long time ago, and I don't find it adds much to my experience. I want to see the real cast -- the one on the screen. And I'm not big on bad acting. Most shadow casts are not very talented that way. TZ was very polite and positive towards fan contributions, but it would have been sort of ungracious to say otherwise with a whole room full of drooling fans in front of him, including the whole shadow cast right in the front row. Maybe that's why he got drunk Friday night. :)

It must be rather odd for him. I find even little bits of social prominence (in dance) extremely weird, and no one wants to dress up as me or (guessing) write kinky fanfic about me. I can't quite imagine it.

[Serge]

If I may make a recommendation... Like I told AJ on her blog, Kurt Busiek has taken a different approach to comics with AstroCity: instead of going for realism, it embraces the silliness of various comic-book conventions and premises, but it twists them around.

[Serge]

Going back to one of Susan's comments in this entry, if I may reprint here something I had cooked up in 2007...

"Chief, we have a bit of a problem with the upcoming issue of Thrilling Space Yarns."

"Yes?"

"We were all excited about getting the latest serial from Ed Bangington, Corsairs of the Space Lanes."

"Indeed we all were. It's a rip-roaring tale. One of his best."

"We even got Margaret Bondage to do the cover art. Unfortunately..."

"Yesss?"

"Bondage and the typesetter both got a copy of the manuscript with a slight typo in it."

"How slight?"

"Well. They all thought the title was Corsets of the Space Laces."

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge,
I'm not interested enough in superhero comics in general to look up AstroCity; too little time to read the things I really like. I did most of my comic-reading in the 1980-1987 period and have read very little since then.

[Serge]

Susan... I don't really read that many comics myself, come to think of it. Most of it is ho-hum, and aside from the above, there's Terry Moore's Echo, Captain America, Superman because it's finally doing something interesting with the character, HellBoy and its spinoffs. As for Fantastic Four, I'm not sure why I read thm anymore. Well, it's not like I'm having a shortage of prose fiction, and I probably never will, because I seem to acquire things at a faster rate than I read them. Especially magazines.

[David P. Bellamy]

These pictures reminded me...have you posted photos from Darkover?

[Sorcyress]

Watchmen! I read Watchmen last...spring? Last April, apparently. I thought it was really phenomenally good, but I can see how it could be unenjoyable, especially nowadays where it's not the first dark superhero story ever written.

I like comics a lot though. Currently, I'm reading various "John Constantine: Hellblazer" books since the library had 'em, and working my way (slowly) through Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan. Yes, yes, I am a total Vertigo fangirl. I've read all of Sandman, too.

(What I really want right now is the complete series of Middleman comics though, because it is just the best tv show ever, and I want more, however I can get it)

Say hi to Merav for me.

~Sor

[Neil Willcox]

One thing I took away from Watchmen is that if superheroes existed, they'd be monsters. I can see how this might make it difficult to care about them, so if you weren't gripped by any other aspect you probably wouldn't enjoy it.

I'll probably watch the film, as I know two people keen to see it, but if not, it's almost certain to make it's way to movie night after it's out on DVD.

[Serge]

Neil... That's why Alan Moore's approach is a dead end. In the early 1990s, Busiek brought back the 'fantasy' approach to comics. Not in the Tolkien sense of the word. More in the sense of something that we wouldn't really want to have happen in the real world, which is why we purposefully ignore (or eliminate) the unpleasant aspects.

[Serge]

Susan... "You can't be a dragon -- you're my polyamorous sex slave!"

Maybe the other person could be a firebreathing sex slave dragon who also has a thing going with a furry basilisk.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge:
You aren't changing my opinion on imagining the explanation...

[Susan de Guardiola]

Incidentally, AJ's comment above is comment #4000 on Rixo! (I don't track these things compulsively, but I do notice the odometer-flip milestones.)

[Serge]

Susan... I don't suppose we can ask what you imagine the explanation to be. No? Drat.

[Serge]

Does AJ get a prize?

[AJ]

Wooo! I'm number 4000!

Back to the topic of corsets, I do lean towards the super-decorative ones. In fact, I don't like the idea of cinching my waist in (the one time I tried, I also had a cold, and I almost passed out), but I like the structure of corsets.

I have a pattern for making very Renaissance-y bodices, and one is rather corset-shaped, and I want to make one with elaborate beading on the center panel. First, of course, I have to learn how to sew.

[Susan de Guardiola]

No prize, just a brief and undetectable awed silence on my part that I've got so many comments in less than 14 months.

AJ,
I actually use them for a bit of waist-constriction, since mostly I wear them under Victorian costumes. I make my own, generally.

I'm considering actually wearing one sort of as outerwear for the Palimpsest launch party tonight over a 1950s crinoline. The garters would be left dangling over the crinoline, which would look stupid, but the point is to look sort of trashy. It would be fairly eyecatching - the corset (1900s S-curve)is a bright peach color, the crinoline is white, and I have blue and purple accessories. I probably have to wear a chemise under the corset, too, because I think it's cut too low to get away without. (And I don't like sweating into my corsets - they aren't easy to wash.) This is all assuming this corset still fits - I haven't worn it in a couple of years.

And I may lose my nerve in the face of all those colors and stay in my usual black-on-black outfit.

[Serge]

Susan... I probably have to wear a chemise under the corset

Did you know that, in French, a 'chemise' is a shirt, any kind of shirt? Well, you-Susan probably already know that, but you-not-Susan may not.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Yes. There are cognates in other languages as well - camisole, camisa, etc. I suspect people in the 19thc were trying to sound ritzy by using a French word for what used to be called a shift.

At any rate, mine is a bit of lacy cotton underwear, not what you'd think of as a shirt.

[Serge]

Speaking of camisoles, in French, they usually refer to a man's undershirt - at least where I come from. There is also the 'camisole de force', which is known here as a straightjacket.

[AJ]

Camisole de Force would be a great name for a Steampunk band, don't you think?

Susan, I wore my one corset over a blouse. The problem was that it was a very see-through blouse, so that when I had the emergency corsetectomy, I was left in the position of being uncomfortably trashy. Lucky, there were t-shirts for sale, so I bought one and saved myself from being the Bead Booth Bunny.

I think the real problem (aside from me being sick) is that said corset had hooks and eyes, instead of lacing. This resulted in it being large and gappy at the top, and way too tight across the tummy. Any future corsets that I buy will be more adjustable, but this one was $5 at the thrift shop.

[Serge]

AJ shall henceforth be known as the Bead Booth Bunny and, yes, Camisole de Force does sound quite steampunky.

[Susan de Guardiola]

AJ,
Cheap and easy fitting tip: the lines of the opening(s) (back and/or front) should be vertical. If they are much further apart at the top than the bottom, or vice-versa, or if they are so tight in the middle they look like an X instead of two parallel lines, or are bowed out like parentheses, the corset doesn't fit correctly.

That doesn't signify much for a $5 thrift shop corset but if you ever spend serious money on one, don't get one that doesn't fit correctly.

(There are other elements to consider, like length, but that's a major one.)

[Raven]

If I ever need to start another Burlesque troupe, I'm naming it Camisole de Force.

Susan,
I'll tell you anything you want to know this weekend, as well as discuss Repo! boards if you want...my account is nurselilliv, so if you see posts from that they're mine. I don't think I have very many, though. I tend to use it more for research than for sharing.

I just looked around in my history for the article, but I can't find it. However, I just got the next issue of Vanity and Vein (Repo! mailing list), and there are a couple of permanent midnight showings opening on the west coast. I don't think I'm particularly happy about that...I love going to see shadowcasts of Rocky, but that's a whole separate thing and I don't think I'm ready to see that happen to Repo! yet. I'd love it to just stay quirky and cool for a while longer without all the crazy tourist/fandom overlap that Rocky seems to have become.

But I love both, so no complaints.

[Neil Willcox]

Susan: ...no one wants to dress up as me or (guessing) write kinky fanfic about me. I can't quite imagine it.

I can imagine it! But... no. If I'm going to write weird things, I should pull out my Major Squick Meets Food Taboos notes.

And I may lose my nerve in the face of all those colors and stay in my usual black-on-black outfit.

I may be too late to influence you on this, but if you lose your nerve I'll ask for black-on-black photos*, while if you don't I'll just use my imagination. But not to write fanfic. Probably.

(Susan burst through the door, breathless. "Sorry I'm late!" she cried, "You won't believe what happened to me on the way here. I was wearing a completely different outfit when I left the house!"

The assembled crowd looked at her, silent. None of the faces looked familiar. As her eyes rose to the banner, Susan realised she was at the wrong party. "Hotel Le Grand Smut Welcomes The Buggy Whip Manufacturers of North America" she read.

Not to be continued...)

* Have I phrased this badly?

[Sorcyress]

Camisole de Force

Fourthing (I think) that this would be an awesome band name.

Heh, maybe I should start a burlesque troupe!

Neil: *giggles* Man, fics based on real live people always seem a step stranger than your generic fanfiction to me. It's almost a dirty feeling.

[Serge]

Neil... Hotel Le Grand Smut? Is that the one right next door to Benny Hill's Hotel Sordide?

[Neil Willcox]

I thought "Hmm, this hotel need a smutty name" and... well I'm not quite on top form this evening. Too tired, coughing too much and I had my fair share of wine with dinner with my parents and my uncle.

[Serge]

Speaking of Benny amnd whips... Here is one, at about the 1:30 moment.

[Serge]

Manwhile, at the Grand Smutrepolitan Hotel...

[Susan de Guardiola]

AJ,
Last night's corset (yes, I wore it) was a c1904 one (sort of like this one), and thus cut pretty low. I was wearing a chemise but the cotton was sufficiently thin that I sort of draped a blue scarf artistically around my shoulders as an added layer. See-through wouldn't have shocked anyone at the party (which featured, among other things, two burlesque strip-teases and a rope bondage/suspension demo) but I'm not that exhibitionist.

I apparently did not succeed in looking trashy; people kept saying I looked good. Oh, well.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I may be too late to influence you on this, but if you lose your nerve I'll ask for black-on-black photos*, while if you don't I'll just use my imagination. But not to write fanfic. Probably.

Well, I kept my nerve, mostly because Cat said it would enhance her party if I dressed. So I dressed, and it caused me to become crazy and outgoing and people brought me chocolate. And guess who turned up at the party?

So no black-on-black pics from last night, if that's what you were looking for. (I can't quite figure out whether that's an actual request or where you're going with this, and I'm almost afraid to ask.)

I'm not able to conceive of myself as having fans other than fans of my dance teaching, of which I have a few. That doesn't seem to lend itself to fanfic.

[Neil Willcox]

I'm sure my plan/request/idea made sense last night. I just can't figure it out now.

I assume that if I had carried on my fanfic, the buggy whip manufacturers would offer you cocoa and cucumber sandwiches, and you'd teach them some dances and then they'd award you the Henry Ford Memorial prize for making relevant something people wrongly think is obselete, which would be a brand new buggy whip, and then you ride home in a horse and buggy.

I suspect the newly invented dance teaching fiction genre would tend to involve one or more of the following elements:
- the teacher turns up somewhere full of non-dancers and gets them all dancing;
- someone thinks dancing is a waste of time, but is converted after a lesson;
- a rival dancer or dance teacher claims their style of dancing is superior, but some sort of event or competition proves them wrong*;
- someone thinks dancing is a waste of time, but then real world events prove them wrong, as the dancers stops bank robbers in their tracks, and the bank robbers, all the people who mocked dancing, and maybe everyone who was ever rude to the author as well, ends up in a giant bowl of custard floating down the river Clyde, while people point and laugh and dance with glee.

Assmuming that last plot is actually 2+3, then we have 3 possible eelments, which gives us 7 permutations of plot**. So I've just proved that dance teaching fiction has 7 basic plots.

Does anyone else think that a day of teaching maths might be leaking into this comment?

* Optional everyone learns something from both styles, and the ending is filled with hugs, puppies and kisses.
**(1, 2, 3, 1+2, 1+3, 2+3, 1+2+3)

[AJ]

Neil, there's quite a few series of themed mysteries. There could definitely be one about a dance teacher who travels around to different dance conferences to teach, and at every one there's a murder! Our plucky heroine solves them all, due to her sly intuition, eye for detail, and impressive knowledge of dance trivia.

Unfortunately, the convention organizers eventually notice the string of murders that crop up whenever the amateur detective is around, and they stop inviting her to teach, thus ruining her career.

No, no, wait, murder mysteries are never that grounded in reality. Carry on.

(Also, Susan, thank you for the handy tips about proper corset fitting. Armed with that knowledge, I probably *won't* be buying any of the gorgeous ones on Etsy, since I wouldn't be able to test the fit before buying)

[Serge]

There could always be fanfic based on Susan's years in F/SF costuming. I haven't forgotten 1984's LAcon masquerade where some lady came dressed as Princess Aura.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge,
Whoever it was at LACon, it wasn't me. I was in the audience.

[Serge]

Susan... Oh, I knew it wasn't you although you could have pulled it off. I think it was someone called Angélique Trouvère.

[Serge]

...but we could have done fanfic where we pretended it was you.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Is it too much to hope for that in fanfic I would have a life that isn't exactly what I have now or used to have? And I don't like cucumber sandwiches! That was sort of the subject of my bizarre exchange with TZ at Wicked Faire. (And an even more bizarre exchange in the car heading to Grand Central after the Palimpsest party which was just too risqué to quote.)

I want to hear about the kinky fanfic Neil was imagining upthread.

Or maybe I don't.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I know Angélique from way back in costuming. She lives down in Maryland now; I hear from her now and then.

I can't remember what thread we were discussing Blackadder on back in the fall, but Angie did a nifty costume pair back in 1991 at CostumeCon. Pics here and here. I thought there was an official pic of the two of them together, but I can't seem to locate it online.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Sor,
Do you have a dinosaur drawn by Bob Eggleton yet? I'd think that would be an obvious one, given how much he likes drawing reptiles and monsters.

[Sorcyress]

Susan: I do not! This is because I don't think I've ever met him --the focus of the collection is on webcartoonists, but I've got one drawn by my little sister, and dinosaurs from five of the MST3K titans (Joel, Trace, Frank, Mary-Jo, and J.Elvis) as well. Perhaps I shall have to force you into drawing me one.

Man, the fun of fanfiction based off real life is that you can go ahead and have a much more interesting life than in the real world. My fanfic self is much better at casting spells than I am. >.>

[Susan de Guardiola]

Sor,
If you're coming to Lunacon I could introduce you. Or I could get the dino drawing, but I imagine meeting them personally is part of the fun. (And I already have a dino drawing from him.)

more interesting life than in the real world

Exactly. I can't imagine the interest of me teaching dance or doing costumes. BTDT.

[Raven]

two burlesque strip-teases

Do you know who the performers were/what the troupe was? just curious...

[Susan de Guardiola]

Raven,
I think one of the performers was Jo Weldon; her Godzilla striptease number is pretty distinctive. I don't know who the others were. I can probably find out if you're really curious.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Raven,
I looked up at a couple of the shadowcast clips from Wicked Faire. Yeah, they pretty much sucked. I'm so glad that was not my first experience of Repo. And I would rather have my toenails pulled out slowly than participate in such a thing, myself.

[Neil Willcox]

I'm awake, and probably more coherent today so:

Sor, do you write your fanfic or do your fans?

Is it too much to hope for that in fanfic I would have a life that isn't exactly what I have now or used to have?

Your life in fanfic would be the life your fans wished you had*. I guess that would be a combination of the highlights of whatever aspects most appeal to them with things they wished they could do or watch** you doing.

I want to hear about the kinky fanfic Neil was imagining upthread.

It's (generic plot) + (fanfic entitlement and license) with a few highlights from here and Kickery thrown in to personalise the protagonist. I had an outline in my head, but no details. At the risk of revealing Too Much about my own kinks, the scene I wrote does come in the middle; I don't know the exact adventures that end up with you having to change from one glam outfit to another (possibly several times, each time getting a little more risqué) but I know they're interesting. Similarily, the impromptu Buggy Whip Manufacturers dance might not end with cocoa, sandwiches and a ride home; not all of the manufacturers there make whips because of their interest in equestrianism.

If you really wanted fanfiction, you probably need to get on TV. I can imagine if there was some sort of series about society and culture in the 18th and 19th centuries, and every week you were on doing dances, and it was a big hit, there'd probably be a bunch of teenage girls who thought that dressing in fabulous outfits and standing in front of everyone telling them what to do in the dance would be brilliant and write their own stories about it.***

* After some hesitation I'll also phrase that as your fans would "fix" the "mistakes" you made. These will probably not correspond to any mistakes you think you've made, but me more like the "mistake" of not having a crossover with the cast of Lost.
** Or hear about
*** Actually this could be a fanfic story right now; How Susan Got On TV

[Susan de Guardiola]

Oooh-kay. Yeah, Too Much about one's own kinks should never be revealed on a blog. That sort of thing goes in email.

(Private joke for Raven: pony play is period!)

I've been on TV, very briefly, at least twice. Once dancing on a morning news show in New Orleans, once on Sci-Fi Channel before a Hugo ceremony. TV cameras don't like my face any better than normal ones, so being on TV is not an overarching ambition of mine. (Nor is having fanfic written about me. So far it sounds too much like my real life!)

[Serge]

Neil... Fanfic about how Susan got on TV? I want fanfic about how Susan got a TV. That wouldn't be too much like Susan's real life.

[Serge]

Susan... "...TV cameras don't like my face..."

[AJ]

* After some hesitation I'll also phrase that as your fans would "fix" the "mistakes" you made. These will probably not correspond to any mistakes you think you've made, but me more like the "mistake" of not having a crossover with the cast of Lost.

That was a genuine laugh out loud moment! I went through a brief stage of interest in X-Men fan fic on the 90s, and there were several crossovers where it was as if the writer had taken everything they love and put it in a blender. I never read any of them, and now I kind of wish I had, just to see how silly they were.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I was moderately amused by some Modesty Blaise/Buffy crossover fiction I read, but usually crossovers don't do much for me.

[Serge]

I remember seeing (but not reading) a novel that was a crossover between ST-TNG and X-men. Yes, that was before the first X-men movie, but the inspiration (or blame) may have come from the (highly recommended) comics mini-series Marvels of 1993: the artist went for a photorealistic painted style, and guess who he used as a model?

[Susan de Guardiola]

Raven:
The performers were Mary Cyn (burlesque), Sarah Jezebel Wood (tribal fusion bellydance), and Jo Weldon ("Jo Boobs"). There was also a rope bondage performance that didn't impress me as much as it did other people.

Cat has an LJ post up here about the show from which I pulled this information.

[Sorcyress]

Susan: I'm really torn about Lunacon. I don't think I can afford travel/room/vanishing the first weekend after coming back to Boston from break. Also, it's the same weekend as the first ever Webcomics Weekend, which has oh, just a *few* people I'm interested in meeting.

On the flip side, Mercedes Lackey. She was my first fantasy author --I don't even *know* how much I've stolen from her over the years. Having a chance to say thank you would be really really nice.

Also, pony play is period, frickin' lawl!

***

Neil: I was all set to say that I was the only one who ever wrote fanfic about my life (well, what do *you* call daydreaming?) but then I remembered that my clone/girlfriend wrote something like a dozen chapters of a hitchhikers guide fanfiction where the two of us manage to get out into space when the Vogons come and steal the Heart of Gold.

Oh, and *then* there's the collaborative lifefic me and her and another friend of ours were writing --that got left off with the two of us being stranded in Victorian England, meeting our steampunk mad scientist counterparts.

...now I can't decide whether it's creepier to have fanfiction about you that you've read, or that you don't know about. Probably the latter? Maybe?

~Sor

*periocidy?

[Susan de Guardiola]

Long ago, a friend and I wrote fiction about our fantasy alter egos, but I don't think that counts. I believe she has actually posted it on the web, but I have steadfastly refused to go look. (Don't bother asking whom or where; it's all aliased and I'm not telling.)

[Susan de Guardiola]

Sor,
I don't think Ms. Lackey does very many cons, so you might want to seize your opportunity. And did I mention we're having a Steampunk ball Friday night?

[AJ]

Poor Sor, it's really not fair to make her choose between Webcomics Weekend and a Steampunk Ball.

(And now I'm going to sulk because I don't get to go to either one.)

[Neil Willcox]

I've just remembered that I used to draw cartoons of my friends' crime-fighting alter egos when I was bored in lectures, so have put the first five up on Flickr. If you stretch the definitions a bit you might call them fanfic. (They form a continuous if incoherent narrative, so start with Cartoon-01 and go forwards) I'm slightly embarassed by the poor quality, especially the first one, but I still think the line "It'll take more than an obviously plagirised relativistic superweapon to stop me" is pretty good.

It had a readership of about 12 at it's height, although that was basically the people who sat with me in boring lectures, my flatmates and the unofficial flatmates who would come and stay in London most weekends, for very loose values of weekend.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Sor, I have a picture of a T-Rex by Kip Williams. You probably don't know him, but he's an excellent cartoonist.

[Neil Willcox]

I want fanfic about how Susan got a TV.

I'm drawing a blank on this one Serge. I'm watching more TV than I was last year, but that's more to do with having a regular working schedule; I know I'm going to be knackered and useless on a Thursday night, so if there's a series of interest on that night, I can commit to dozing in front of it for the whole season. I'm not any more enthusiastic about TV, it's just something to watch while I decompress, and maybe keep half an eye on while I make some notes for the next day.

Which doesn't mean I couldn't just make something up, but it would involve ignoring the actual Susan entirely and creating a character who looks just like her, but has completely different views on TV to both Susan and me. I guess she'd be some sort of Anti-Susan*.

* Not to be confused with Auntie Susan.

[Serge]

Neil... You could write about the Susan of Star Trek's Evil Universe, who, unlike her counterpart in the Good Universe, watches TV constantly, even "American Idol". I had to put up with that show last week while staying at my in-laws. Luckily I had a good book to read, but it was alas not possible to completely tune out that dreadful waste of airtime. The horror. The horror!

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge,
I am completely confused about why this sort of fanfic would be remotely interesting. You're making my life even more boring than it is now!

Neil,
I actually am an aunt, though since my sister is a nutcase and lives in England (those are separate issues), I've never actually laid eyes on my nieces and certainly have no desire to be called "auntie" or any such nauseating epithet.

[Susan de Guardiola]

By the way, there are pix from the ball I ran Saturday night here. I'm in one of them, looking cylindrical in my black shawl - aarrgh! I actually look quite curvy in the costume, but since I was calling rather than dancing I was freezing and ended up wrapped up in a shawl all night. You can see Raven going by in a blur of green in the first photo, though!

[Serge]

Susan...

Maybe that TV set turns out to be a gate that takes you to another Reality where you are a warrior princess.

Come to think of it, I wonder if, for some pro writers, their literary output isn't fanfic about themselves, or what they wish they'd be.

[Serge]

Susan... "auntie" or any such nauseating epithet

My wife originally wasn't thrilled, but is now resigned, that to our three nephews, she is Auntie Suzy.

[Neil Willcox]

If evil Susan watched TV constantly she wouldn't have much time for doing evil as she'd just sit watching TV. No the evil Susan would watch TV and be immediately influenced by it. So after American Idol, she would arrange an evil karaoke night with the most evil songs of history merged into one evil medley. Following that maybe she'd watch 24 and evily blow some stuff up and shoot bad guys with evil intent. Then she'll watch The Hairy Bikers Cookbook and go off on an evil roadtrip on a motorbike and cook delicious but evil meals.

Finally Desperate Housewives will come on.

[AJ]

Seriously, there's a TV show called The Hairy Bikers Cookbook? One more reason not to have a TV.

I'm technically an aunt, in that my husband's stepsister has a baby, and his other stepsister has one on the way, but his father and stepmother are separated, and we only see his stepsisters once a year at the best of times, so it's a very tenuous aunthood. I do not wish to be called "Aunt AJ" either by genuine nieces/nephews, or by the children of my friends (theoretical children, since none of them are procreating yet). I grew up calling my favorite aunt and uncle by their first names alone, and that's what I expect other peoples' kids to call me.

[Neil Willcox]

Actually the Hairy Bikers are brilliant - two bearded Northern men ride all over the world on motorbikes cooking and eating stuff. Youtube seems to be a bit short on clips of them actually cooking, but here they are watching one of Ireland's top chefs making Peking Duck.

Somehow I've missed mentioning Strictly Come Dancing, which in America I believe goes by the name Dancing With The Stars. Evil Susan definitely watches that.

In fact, it's probably watching that that turned evil Susan evil... for god's sake someone get that TV remote away from her!

[Serge]

Neil... Shouldn't fanfic be about Susan as a heroic figure? What you describe is horror, or at least very dark fantasy. I suppose you'll next propose a Reality where Susan loves being called Auntie Suzie. The horror. The horror!

[Susan de Guardiola]

I am starting to get why some people hate fanfic...

[Serge]

Heheheh...

[Serge]

Neil... You might want to tell Frazetta we don't need that art of his for the cover of Susan of Mars after all.

[Neil Willcox]

We're going with my fanart?

[Serge]

Off topic... Marilee has been spending the last few days at hospitals. You can send your good wishes here.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge,

Thanks for the heads-up about Marilee!

[Susan de Guardiola]

Then she'll...cook delicious but evil meals.

This is where it becomes unconvincing. :)

[Susan de Guardiola]

...Dancing With The Stars. Evil Susan definitely watches that.

I've never watched any of it except this clip, which made me laugh and find a copy of the music to use for my dance evenings. I love the, ah, non-military haircut on the pretty boy playing Major Nelson.

(Why yes, I'm once again trying to catch up on old comments that I'd marked for response before they begin to grow electronic moss...)