panik: (DW - Fanfic Two)
panik ([personal profile] panik) wrote2010-03-21 12:00 pm
Entry tags:

Well, here's a thing.

Joanne Harris on her latest novel, Blueeyedboy.

I'd been going through some troublesome times, and my sunny disposition had taken something of a blow. I found I didn’t want to write, and spent far too much time online, hanging around various sites and searching out ever more ingenious ways of evading reality. Under a pseudonym, I made a number of online friends, wrote a great deal of fanfic, and began to take an increasing interest in the way people interact online, the communities they create and join, and the way they choose to portray themselves. I began to understand that the small communities that have always informed my writing also exist in the virtual world, with the same little cliques of insiders, outsiders, gossips, liars, exhibitionists and bullies as in the “real” world. I understood too, how emotionally dependent people can sometimes become on their virtual friends and their virtual communities, even though there can be no way of knowing how honest these avenues of communication really are.

From all this came Blueeyedboy, a dark psychological thriller set in the world of the internet, where no-one is quite what they seem to be, and every taste is catered for, even the ones to which we dare not confess...

And now I need to know what her fandom is! And, yes, since you ask, I am posting like a mad eejit today.

[identity profile] wneleh.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
And now I need to know what her fandom is!

Yeah, I've been wondering that too.

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 12:06 pm (UTC)(link)
She lives very near my Dad's place in Yorkshire and I sometimes see her in the library. I'm wondering if I dare ask...? *g*

[identity profile] wneleh.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 12:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I probably wouldn't dare, but I'd love it if you would!

(A founding writer in one of my fandoms, I discovered, lives a quarter-mile from me, right across the street from some friends of ours. I've parked in front of her house. But I've never knocked on her door and said, "Hi, you don't know me, but I write in your AU!" But I'd love to.)

I've never knocked on her door

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, I'd be tempted, I must say!

I'm very intrigued that JH took refuge in fic and fandom during what sounds like a depressive stage, I think many of us came to fandom that way. If I see her again, I'll try and pluck up the courage, I'm sure she'd be amenable. She occasionally does talks and q&a's locally, I might make a point of going to one, since the novel's all about t'internet and fandom, it'd be a perfectly legit point of discussion, wouldn't it?

Re: I've never knocked on her door

[identity profile] wneleh.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd ask privately, actually, in case she wanted to keep her fandom and pro identities separate.

I was actually a bit put-off by why she said she was writing fanfic - I get a bit defensive when people feel they have to justify their involvement. Will think more on this!

Re: I've never knocked on her door

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
It didn't read as defensive to me, more explanatory. I would never have discovered fandom unless I'd been unemployed and alone a lot of the time and rather depressed, it helped me through a bad time and I made friends I'd never have made. I - personally - don't feel there's anything negative about admitting that.

Re: I've never knocked on her door

[identity profile] wneleh.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
don't feel there's anything negative about admitting that.

Oh, I agree! (And I'm glad you landed in fandom!)

Me, I was fannish from grade school, and active and buying fanfic zines from the age of 14 or 15. And only really started to write fanfic so that I could be on SentinelAngst. I'm still not all that social fannishly, compared to how I interact on some parenting lists.

[identity profile] ledh.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 12:35 pm (UTC)(link)
i want to read that book! and yeah, what fic!? her own novels maybe? that'd be epic.

her own novels

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 12:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh LOL! Wouldn't that be spectacular! I doubt very much if she'd fess-up th that though!
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[identity profile] snailbones.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)


Oh heck - I'm dying to know which fandom now. *g*

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Me too. It's probably something drearily literary like Jane Austen, or maybe Harry Potter :o)

No offence, HP/JA fans!
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[identity profile] snailbones.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:31 pm (UTC)(link)


I can't quite imagine her slashing Merlin... but oh! it would make me so happy! *g*

::giggle::

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah well, then I won't have read it, sadly, since I harbour no Merlin- love whatsoever. I'm holding out hope for Blakes Seven myself.
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[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/ 2010-03-21 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Looks like a really interesting book - and from the looks of it, it's definitely an lj-based fandom. Interesting!

an lj-based fandom.

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm assuming it's something big and literary like Austen or HP or maybe SH but I hope not. I'd love it if it was something totally unexpected like, oh, I dunno, Being Human or something like that. ;o)

Re: an lj-based fandom.

[identity profile] hafren.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
The only pukka novelists I know who also write fanfic are not in book fandoms...

Re: an lj-based fandom.

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
The pukka novelists I know don;t write fanfic at all, they wouldn't have the time. :o)

Re: an lj-based fandom.

[identity profile] hafren.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my... the one I'm especially thinking of was an award-winning pukka novelist!

Re: award-winning pukka novelist!

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Well there you go, me too.

[identity profile] zebra363.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I would also be dying of curiosity. Good luck with finding out!

[identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 03:30 pm (UTC)(link)
If I find out I promise to lock it up tight and tell all.

[identity profile] elfinessy.livejournal.com 2010-03-21 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
so I've absolutely just pre-ordered that at play.....