Aelfgyfu

Time for the year-end recap. I'm a little disappointed at my fic writing in 2009, but I had a lot of real life going on, including a lot of academic writing, that made it hard to keep up. I'm doing a sort of mash-up of at least two different versions of the year-end roundup, taken from aurora_novarum and sg_fignewton.

( My stories and my answers to some questions )

Just passing on some interesting tidbits:

An interview with Alexander Siddig; thanks to hestia8.

A Whedon tidbit from beanpot, with a pithy comment.

From gatechic: Michael Shanks will appear as Hawkman on Smallville.

The winners of the Stargate Fan Awards have been announced! Go here to see the winners; I won't reproduce the list, but congratulations to all the winners! Many, many good stories this year—I had an awfully hard time choosing in some categories. I didn't even get through most of the SGA stories, but I did get through most SG-1 Gen. The nominations are still visible, so we can all continue to read our way through these!

(Thanks again to whoever nominated my stories, one each of SG-1 and SGA. I didn't win anything this year, but I had really stiff competition. I can honestly say I am pleased and honored to have competed with these works!)

I suppose I really need a more cheerful team icon. Well, don't think of them as looking worried. Think of our gang as looking thoughtful as they consider the wealth of good fic and the impossibility of choosing among some of these!

For sg_fignewton's Gen Fic Day:

TITLE:"Vale, amice"
AUTHOR: Aelfgyfu
RATING: Teen (references to violence and its aftermath)
CATEGORIES: Some drama, some angst, episode-related
SUMMARY: Jacob and Selmak...well, see "Spoilers":
SPOILERS: through "Threads"
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to Brilliant Husband (aka dudethemath), who proofread two different versions of it, and to redbyrd_sgfic, who gave a quick but very helpful beta reading. I think the strengths are due largely to Redbyrd and the weaknesses are mostly mine. The typos are definitely mine, all of them. ETA: Thanks also to night_spear1287 for reminding me about the vocative.

( Take me to the story already! )

Gen Fic Day at Fig's, featuring Jacob Alphabet Soup! (Or use this link for Jacob Alphabet Soup; that's at Dreamwidth but includes all the stories in full, thanks to Dreamwidth's greater length allowances.)

This year's Stargate Fan Awards have opened for voting, but only through the month of July! Go! Register! Read! Vote!

I can tell you myself that the awards team are very nice and quick to help if you have a problem. I should know. I've had a few already. (I don't know if it's just me. I'm telling myself that I'm being really helpful to the wonderful team of volunteers by pointing out various the little errors to them.)

As I said before: Go! Register! Read! Vote!

I've been reading about the edges of what seems to be a big dispute about warnings on fanfic. I don't want to argue here about anyone else's warnings; instead, I'm wondering whether mine are sufficient. I don't write a lot of the hot-button issues for people: I don't kill major characters, I don't want rape or any kind of non-con in my stories (heck, I hardly have even implications of sex in my stories!). I do get into some medical details, and a couple of my stories deal with PTSD, which I realized only recently I never labeled as such.

Ought I to label PTSD as such, or give any other kind of warning? For anyone who wants to look, do you think my warnings are sufficient, too vague, too idiosyncratic, or helpful?

On a related note, sg_fignewton has asked people what kinds of summaries make them read stories, and I was also discussing this on another LJ (I've forgotten whose; if you've seen my comments there, please remind me!). I realized that I've been describing as summaries I don't like exactly the sort of summaries I give for my own stories. I mean, really:
• Is "'Menace' retold from a crucial point of view" actually a useful summary, or too vague to be any help? (If I've done my job right, you figure out whose point of view within a few sentences--am I wrong to hold onto that element of surprise?).
• "Sam and her brother talk after 'Threads'"--I don't want to spoil "Threads" for anyone who hasn't seen it and so might not know of what I consider a major character and arc development, but I doubt I would read this story, if it were written by an author I didn't know and I stumbled across it on a day when I already have several tabs' worth of fic open!

My stories can all be found at Aelfgyfu's Mead Hall. (That's actually the link to the right-hand side of the bar above my entries on my LJ page, but I've noticed that people keep missing it, perhaps because they read my entries on their friends' page or in their own style rather than on my page in my style. Or maybe they miss it because it's not differentiated from the "Previous Entries" "Next Entries" etc. standard info in the bar.)

Feel free to comment on my warnings, summaries, etc.; I don't feel that I get a lot of readers, and I'd appreciate anything that could help me attract more. I'm also curious about what my friends do, and happy to talk about your descriptions, either in comments or on your LJ, if you make a similar post. (Dang, I suppose this entry is too long to start a meme! We could do:
1. Are my warnings too detailed, too vague, or just right?
2. Which of my summaries do you like best? Least?)

From or_mabinogi: they let some Air Force geeks play around with a couple of cars--you have got to see the photos! Sam Carter would so love this!

WARNING: I posted this at Dreamwidth an hour ago; it was supposed to crosspost, but it hasn't appeared. LJ might possibly get around to approving the crossposting at some point, and then there may temporarily be two of this story. There's only one story. I will remove a duplicate if it appears.

TITLE: Zephyr
AUTHOR: Aelfgyfu
RATING: G
CATEGORIES: episode-related (for "Unending," the final episode of the series)
SUMMARY: You didn't really think SG-1 saved the Asgard time after time for it to end like this, did you? A brief visit with Thor and Loki—after "Unending."
SPOILERS: The whole run of the series, especially "Fragile Balance" (season 7) and "Unending" (season 10)
WARNINGS: None, aside from the spoilers.
Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM-UA, Gekko, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions, Stargate SG-1, Showtime/Viacom, NBC/Sci Fi, and no doubt other persons or entities whom I've forgotten (this list keeps getting longer). No copyright infringement is intended. In fact, my stories make no sense if you haven't seen the shows, so I encourage you to watch! And get all the DVDs! Just like I do!
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to redbyrd_sgfic and to my Brilliant Husband (dudethemath) for reading drafts of this and making many helpful suggestions.
All remaining errors, infelicities, and incoherences are my own.

Read "Zephyr" at my website (you can come back here to leave comments!) or go ( On to the story on LJ )

TITLE: Zephyr
AUTHOR: Aelfgyfu
RATING: G
CATEGORIES: episode-related (for "Unending," the final episode of the series)
SUMMARY: You didn't really think SG-1 saved the Asgard time after time for it to end like this, did you? A brief visit with Thor and Loki—after "Unending."
SPOILERS: The whole run of the series, especially "Fragile Balance" (season 7) and "Unending" (season 10)
WARNINGS: None, aside from the spoilers.
Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM-UA, Gekko, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions, Stargate SG-1, Showtime/Viacom, NBC/Sci Fi, and no doubt other persons or entities whom I've forgotten (this list keeps getting longer). No copyright infringement is intended. In fact, my stories make no sense if you haven't seen the shows, so I encourage you to watch! And get all the DVDs! Just like I do!
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to redbyrd_sgfic and to my Brilliant Husband (dudethemath) for reading drafts of this and making many helpful suggestions.
All remaining errors, infelicities, and incoherences are my own.( On to the story )

From astrogirl2:

Comment to this entry and I'll pick up to three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?

Astro chose: SG1, Doctor Who, and Blake's 7. ( answers below the cut )