CI5hq new occasional feature - the Dear Author Discussions - starting tomorrow!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

A few weeks ago there was something of a disturbance in the Force fandom following discussion in the Reading Room of a story, because the author read and sadly didn't like all of what was said. Further discussion from there suggested what I think sounds like an intriguing potential ci5hq series - discussions about stories that specific authors would positively like to see discussed.

We have a first enthusiastic volunteer - moonlightmead would love to see any or all of her stories honestly and openly discussed, with readers free and encouraged to comment in a warts-and-all kind of way!

Because there are multiple stories, and because there may be a delay before the author joins in the discussion herself (see poll below... *g*), the Dear Author Discussions will take place over several days/a week-or-so (if not much longer!). We're going to jump straight into this first one, and tomorrow I will make a post opening the discussion and calling for one and all to take part, at the request of the author (moonlightmead aka ML Mead aka MLM... *g*)

The format will be a little unusual to make it easier for the author to read and follow threads about specific stories (and hopefully also easier for us the discussers to know where to comment on particular fics - because we may not all have a chance to read every story, of course!). The post itself will be a general description of the Dear Author Discussion, and then as mod I will make a separate comment post for each of Mead's stories, with the title and link - discussers then go to the comment thread for the fic/s they've read/are interested in chatting about. Hopefully that will be more clear when you see it!

Two more things - the first, a poll, at the request of [Poll #2025383]

And the second - a list of links to all of the author's stories, so that you can choose one or some or all to read ahead of the discussion post opening tomorrow. (Of course we don't expect everyone to be able to read and join in that quickly, it's just that the post will be there and available for us to do so... and we may well already have read some of the stories, and even read them recently - and if so we can dive right in.)

Stories by Moonlightmead for discussion
In general, her stories can be found in these archives: ML Mead at A03 and ML Mead at the Automated Hatstand - and there are specific links below (Copied from her own list on her own lj, in her own words, slightly edited but not much - and moonlightmead if there are bits you'd like me to take out, let me know!)

Long (by my standards)
Paper Chase: 25,000 words, and my first long fic, written for the Pros Big Bang of 2013. The lads are hunting the location of a book containing blackmail secrets. Before the newspapers publish it. Before the Russians acquire it. And before anyone can realise that they are in it too...
Whistle Blower: 24,280 words. Pros Big Bang of 2014. The lads are protecting a witness. Then, boom.
Will you let your cities crumble?: 16,200 words. Undercover in CND! Zine fic! Finally, I did it, and got into a zine, with an unabashed revel in the 1980s I inhabited, full of marches, leaflets, banners, and badges.


Mid-length
The lie detector: 6000 words, dialogue fic. My first effort that I shared at large, and definitely there are problems with it, but I still like it. Summary: "Doyle, do you honestly know what you're doing?" "Course I do. I am going to ask you questions, and you are going to prove to me that you really can fake a lie detector test." (Substantially - very substantially - edited AO3 version here)
Raid: 5000 words, written for a prompt involving taking drugs undercover and getting "uncharacteristically handsy". Obviously the way to achieve this involves public indecency in a dark park, and damn the risks. (Tidier AO3 version here)
Knife Edge: 4000 words. Not sure whether we should have posted this as two chapters or story and follow-up, but one part of this is mine, the other maddalia 's. It doesn't need any of the warnings the main Pros comms ask for, but I can't help feeling that it probably needs something. So we put "No warnings given". I know it did squick one friend thoroughly.
On track: 3600 words, fluff. A day out playing with trains. (Tidier AO3 version here)
Nightclub encounter: 3131 words: I think it's Bodie/Doyle, even if I actually wrote Bodie/OMC and Doyle/OMC. So there.
Extra-curricular activity: 2650 words, behind the curtains of a school stage. PWP but I hope in character. Follows on from Fight or Flight (see below).
Longest night: 2125 words. I have perpetrated Christmas fic. Well, midwinter fic. Doyle realises what all that touching is about. Expansion of a drabble - Late in Time - linked below.


Shorter (under 2000 words)
Blown: 1980 words. This is the story where I finally caved and started putting warnings in. Head straight to the link to avoid them; or to the trailer if you want to see who/what. (AO3 version here)
With Added Dinosaur: 1500 words, older lads and a crossover with Primeval. All you need to know about Primeval is that there are dinosaurs escaping into our time and the Primeval team's job is to put them back where they belong. (AO3 version here)
All Mod Cons: 1400 words, finally completed for a writing prompt involving nudity, but originally started as a commentary on 1970s bathrooms.
Doyle dancing: 725 words, written for the 20-min fic game. Totally utterly non-canon dancing Doyle: I don't believe a word of it myself - but I did see someone dance like this, to a rather better song, and (to my shame) I did think "Wow, if that was Doyle..." Closest I shall ever get to gen, and that's only because I didn't have time for what (really) happened next on the dancefloor. (Properly edited version on AO3.)
On the occasion of moving in with an unfinished kitchen: 725 words, written for murphybabe , who nearly did!
Wire: 623 words, written a while ago, posted to cheer up sunray45 . (AO3 version, almost completely unchanged for once!)
A Christmas thirty years ago: 525 words. Written for a card exchange, prompt was to include Bodie and Cowley. Not B/C, I note.
Four times Bodie bet on a dead cert, and one time he took long odds: 500 words, written for the +1 challenge. (AO3 version here.)
Flash in the dark: 400 words, written for the 20-min fic game. It's amazing how many of my stories take place in the dark. (Properly edited version on AO3.)
Flight or flight: 360 words, written for... yes, the 20-min fic game. (Properly edited version on AO3.)
One thing leads to another: 650 words, written for... yes... (And again, properly edited version.)

Pieces of paperwork: word count's a bit pointless, because this is a 'continue the story in comments' game over in Discovered in a LiveJournal. Bits of it are mine. We need more additions. Go and add!


Drabbles
And there's the inevitable drabbles.
From a December challenge:
Winning, for a prompt of 'poinsettia'.
En compass, prompt of 'frost giants'.
Late in time, prompt of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' (no, seriously, it's in the lyrics) - this grew into Longest Night, above.
Eggnog, prompt of... well, 'eggnog'...

And over in DIALJ:
Sure: part of the two-day drabble challenge.
Discovery: not sure about this - I know it wasn't clear to people, so perhaps it wants to be a proper story.
Pancake Tuesday: very seasonal.
Three drabbles: unconnected drabbles: One Day, Missing Piece, and Unexpected Cow in Camping Area. Moo!

And then in T&SR:
Excuses: a jubilee drabble for a prompt of 'street party'.
Breaking the cycle: 20-min fic game again, prompt of 'cycle'.
Rebel: for want of a better title, prompt was (surprise) 'rebel'.
And I have just discovered one in the Pros Box of Tricks:
Shorthand: from my 'salvaged lines from abandoned fics' files.

And in journals:
Bruises: written for a prompt of 'blue', at WinK 2014.
Fireflies: for Minori, who saw fireflies, and wondered...
Dawn: I and II: again for Minori, who read the first one, made artwork, and then than inspired the second one. Symmetry...
A Prison Make: for one of ali15son's screencaps.
Also responsible for exactly half of:
Sleeping Beauty: there are four drabbles in this. Mine were 2 and 3.
And I suppose these count as drabbles, too. Sort of:
verse capping to form drabbles: what a surprise, partner in crime is maddalia . Again.
So each of those stories/drabbles will have its own comment thread in the post tomorrow - we'll simply scroll down to find the right one.

How does all that sound? Have I forgotten anything? Do you fancy it? There's an author who's hoping you do... *g* (And authors who'd like to be a Dear Author in the future, drop me a comment or email somewhere to let me know)!

Comments

Ooo Groovy :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I was just wondering the other day if we could fit a wrinkle like this into the reading room.

So I'm game.

And, although I don't have Moonlightmead's venerable back catalogue, I'd be happy to be a willing victim. I was just thinking (again, the other day - can't have had a lot on) how I would react if we dissected one of my stories the way we've been dissecting other people's.

I know what I think is good and bad, but a couple of off-the-cuff comments, made to me in conversation, have given me to wonder if I see the same faults and strengths as others do. I can't promise to agree with everything, but I can promise to approach every comment with an open mind :0)

(And I pen the odd 'pome' - so that should be good for a laugh - nothing like bad poetry!)

RE: Ooo Groovy :0)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Jolly good - actually I had a feeling you might be keen... *g* And there will be reminders each time, that authors need to remember any comment is fair game and that even if it hurts it's a thing to deal with, not strop about... especially as almost everyone I've seen over here in the discussions would hate to think they'd hurt someone's feelings.

One thing I am going to ask tomorrow though, and since you're here right now and the current worst (or best *g*) offender, I shall ask you now - please don't use the comment subject heading boxes in the discussion! They're going to be reserved for organising the story titles, and if they get changed or new titles pop up it's going to make for confusing reading/navigating.... *g*

current worst offender :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Oh always the worst offender!

Will do, no worries :0)

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to have my stories discussed in the dear author discussion.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent! With the caveat I shall make to everyone (including myself *g*) that authors must remember at all times that any comment is fair game, whether or not they want to hear it! *g* But I reckon it'll be good - glad you do too!

[jessebee.livejournal.com]

What a smashing idea! I have only one tiny Pros story but it's fair, should anybody want *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

There only needs to be one... and they do say that size isn't important... *g*

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent idea--and excellent volunteer! I like that it will go on for a bit, too, so there's time. (Although, ack, probably not able to re-read in time! There's so much going on right now. But I'll try!)

I'm another who would be happy to volunteer as a writer. (I rather suspect most of us would be happy to volunteer. *g*)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

There is a lot going on right now, but better sooner than later, I thought. And excellent for volunteering.

I think lots of people think they'd like to volunteer, but I feel as if I'm going to have to do big reminders each time that authors need to remember it's not feedback it's discussion, and that they won't always hear what they want to hear - and that any comments are fair game. The number of times someone's tried to sit on me (for example) for a perfectly legitimate comment, just cos they don't like reading particular comments - even when it's someone else's story...! So... we'll volunteer, and there'll be reminders... *g*

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, how brilliant! Absolutely brilliant initiative, yes!!!!!

I voted "other, in comments" because I wanted to vote for "author can absolutely read from the very beginning and may join in when she likes, possibly waiting for the first few comments but only to see which ones come up (because it may turn out that some stories have more people familiar with them than others).

Which is, now I come to think of it, a ridiculously long-winded way of saying I should actually have clicked on the first option in the first place ::rolleyes::

Never mind, as you were, and looking forward to it! Yay!

HOWEVER it occurs to me the following: bsl - might it be better to group the stories into slightly fewer posts? I'd be worried about us getting too scattered and diluted, as there are so many stories, which might tend to make discussions peter out when actually people would love to ramble together through a small group of tales at a time? Getting more of us around each table?
You could consider, for example: a separate post for each of the three long stories; just two or three posts for all the mid-length stories between them (which would mean each thread was covering two or three stories - if you can decide how to group them!); one or two posts for all the shorter stories between them (ditto, each post "covering" several stories) and only one post for all the drabbles as a group. I mean, I'm sure a single conversation about a group of drabbles would work better than a separate conversation for each, wouldn't it?

Or have I completely misunderstood the technical plan? Wouldn't surprise me, I blame the wind wine, dammit, with an e.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

because I wanted to vote for "author can...
Ha - that kind of makes sense to me - but authors are probably not going to jump in to reply to comments that don't exist yet (although you never know...*g*) so I didn't specify it, but... yeah, I'm kind of assuming that's understood... *g*

might it be better to group the stories into slightly fewer posts?
Well, I was only going to make one post... *g* So yeah, I've obviously not been clear about something. I thought it would be best to keep the discussions all in one place/one post, for the easiest possible reading/navigation. On the other hand it's never helpful if you have to hunt up and down for specific stories cos they've all got tangled up and inside each other and all, so I was going to give each story a comment of its own, with a big heading giving the title (and tell other people not to use comment titles in their replies!) - so to talk about a story you'd just find the comment with the title in it, and comment to that comment... if that makes any more sense? So it'll look something like this:

The Actual Post that says things like please don't use your own comment titles and so on...
Comment 1 - Story title 1
- Person one commenting
---Person two replying
---Person three replying
-Person two commenting
---Person one commenting
------Person four replying
Comment 2 - Story title 2
- Person one commenting
-Person two commenting
---Person three replying
-Person three commenting
---Person one replying
------Person four replying
Comment 3 - Story title 3
- Person one commenting
-Person two commenting
---Person three replying
-Person three commenting
---Person one replying
------Person four replying

(Now I just have to hope that comes out in the comment here rather than just being more confusing... I wish I could blame the wine. Or the wind... *g*)

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see - that does seem a lot more manageable. Do you think it's worth doing a little bit of grouping even so? Like, for the drabbles?

Anyway, it'll be smashing. :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

You mean a single comment thread for all the drabbles? I dunno... it's been a while since I read alot of them, to be honest, but I suspect some will be more discussable (*g*) than others (cos that's the nature of drabbles *g*), and what I was thinking was that having everything separate would be much easier for the author's navigation - hopefully the individual fics would be easy to recognise, and I think it should also minimise comment-concertina-ing as well... If there are groups of drabbles/stories, then there will be more comments to the single comment post, which would mean more concertina-ing/squishing of the thread, making them harder to read... at least that's the theory...

Comment concertina-ing

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Two thoughts:

Firstly: I voted for the first option because:

a) I thought some stories (I know I have one almost no-one likes) may never get up to three comments, but that doesn't mean I might not want to respond/explain myself if a story only gets one comment.
Plus, it would be frustrating/discourteous not to engage with the single comment it may garner, and;

b) Just because an author can comment straight away, doesn't mean they have to comment straight away, it just gives the author the greatest possible leeway. I think my own instinct would be to wait a bit and ponder, in order to be able to give a considered response (or count to ten!).
But there may be comments where I might want to jump in straight away with 'Ooo I never thought that bit worked either, but for the life of me, I couldn't think of another way to go'.

Secondly: I think the whole, 'follow-the-comments-thread-by-the-story-title' thing makes sense, but I also think heliophile_oxon has a point.

Lj tends to misbehave if the comments get too un-wieldy; and in the 'normal' Reading Room even short stories can garner over a hundred comments as people explore the themes. So perhaps covering an author's output in more than one post might be a good idea especially if, like the lovely MLM, they have an impressive body of work.

Separate thoughts:

Firstly: I think the reminder you intend to give every time is a very good idea; good, bad and ugly, people invest a lot in their stories. Sometimes I think more in the bad ones than the good ones, because it's easier to get it right when you're flying.

Nobody here would want to hurt someone else's feelings, but we're all passionate about our subject and sometimes that can lead to things getting a bit heated :0)

Secondly: I second every comment which says Moonlightmead is a great choice to kick us all off with!

RE: Comment concertina-ing

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Plus, it would be frustrating/discourteous not to engage with the single comment it may garner
I must admit I wasn't assuming the three-comment thing would be taken so literally! Obviously if there's only a single comment lingering somewhere, then the author should feel free to respond at any time...

Just because an author can comment straight away, doesn't mean they have to comment straight away
Absolutely! And it goes without saying (*she says*) that there's never a have to about anything! The idea of the pause before the author jumps in though is because (as has been noted in bits of the discussions/various comments previously) there are worries (particularly from authors) that it can sometimes be a bit inhibiting if readers know that an author is lurking in the wings waiting to jump on comments - it's a slightly different thing to having a discussion where people know an author might be reading, might join in later, but feel free to discuss things without waiting for them to do so.

Lj tends to misbehave if the comments get too un-wieldy
Well it doesn't misbehave exactly, it behaves in exactly the way it's been programmed for, which is to collapse long threads of comments, and to align comments on the same level - but it's also true that can be a pain! That tends to happen though when there are lots of replies to replies to replies, rather than when there are lots of comments. A page can take fifty comments - and within those it can take a reasonable number before collapsing.

But that's why i want to keep the comment headers for the Fic Titles - so that readers can go to the fic, and then just expand the threads under that comment/fic title. I think it should work pretty well - but if not, we'll try something different next time! (Actually next time I would expect an author to perhaps choose a selection of her stories for discussion, with the proviso that others could be mentioned too of course - it's just that at such short notice it seemed fairer to say that all Mead's stories were available for discussion.

I think multiple posts would actually be much more difficult for people to keep an eye on, to be honest. Heliophile was actually wondering the opposite at first, cos she thought I meant to make separate posts for each story (when I mean one post, separate comments within that post).

RE: Comment concertina-ing

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - suck it and see :0)

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

You can add my name to the list too!

I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion of The Secrets Beneath in the Reading Room recently so I'd be more than happy to take part!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent - and very glad to hear it! *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Also, I'd consider doing this, because I'd love the opportunity for concrit...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

That's just what such discussions should be - interesting for readers, but useful as constructive criticism for writers!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Aaaand I'd volunteer for later too. Of course I would. And hey, I've only got a small number of stories so I'm easy ;-) *bg*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent - though you're not that easy, my lass...! *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

And replying to my own post, to add my name to the list of Prosfic authors who'd like to see their work discussed!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

And replying, cos that way the replies stay even-looking and it's easier for me to spot where I've forgotten to reply to someone... *g*

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

There is this FABULOUS FANTASTIC WONDERFUL letter MLM wrote found last year, which she sent to some people from the Christmas Card exchange.
I would so love to see it up and published officially by her, and discussed admired by everybody, because it's hilarious and full of warmth and laughter and hints.

Maybe she is willing to ad that to the list, too?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sorry to take so long replying. It sounds as if it would be lovely if she was happy for that to happen!

[melanieathene.livejournal.com]

Could you add me to the list, please? I've never done anything like this, but curiosity has won out over nervousness. :)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Certainly can - and you can always change your mind later, you know. It's good to see so many people interested in this! *g*