"Somebody New" and Sequel "Force of Nature" (by Jenna Hilary Sinclair)

[RouxB]

Pretty sure it's a legal thing. I sent her an email-which she responded to-regarding the availability of the fanzine. It is not available and all references to it where deleted from her community. I hope things get worked out and that she will be able to complete A Force of Nature.

I have both as (messy) Word docs as well-I was up until 3am copying like crazy.


 

[welliwont]

Pretty sure it's a legal thing. I sent her an email-which she responded to-regarding the availability of the fanzine. It is not available and all references to it where deleted from her community. I hope things get worked out and that she will be able to complete A Force of Nature.

I have both as (messy) Word docs as well-I was up until 3am copying like crazy.


 

Hi R!

I am hoping the same thing, that she can get the rest of her story out there somehow some day.  I am optimistically hopeful     I too have saved every word she has written, poor Jenna.   

J

[Mikaela]

I am hoping the same thing, that she can get the rest of her story out there somehow some day.  I am optimistically hopeful 

So am I. I understand that at the moment, Jenna must feel absolutely awful and down, and probably extremely worried if (as seems most likely) there is a threat of litigation too. And so, hardly able to think about how to continue her story or her writing in general. But Jenna has seemed such a levelheaded, considerate, balanced and positive person in all her writing and her dealing with SN/FoN fans.......I'm therefore hoping she'll manage to use those same characteristics in bouncing back where her writing is concerned.

This may seem far out, but I was thinking that it wouldn't take all that much for FoN to reappear as original writing. The majority of characters are OCs, after all. The locations are not the same as in BBM. And the storyline of two gay men trying to build a life together in the face of strong  internalized and societal homophobia is generic enough that it could arguably have been conceived of without BBM.

If she changed the names of the 2 main characters and their immediate family and made some other small changes to their past history and so forth... would her story then be original? Will publishers and film companies turn a blind eye if stories are written "loosely inspired by" their previous work? I'd certainly continue reading FoN if the fic's title was changed and if the main characters reappeared as Tom and Bill.

[initwithu]

I, too, would be thrilled to read the continuing story of Tom and Bill - the names matter to me not a whit, but rather the compelling relationship Jenna has written and the fantastically moving interplay between them. I just can not stand to think that I will never know how these two move forward and what happens between them and the original characters she has created.

[retropian]

I am rereading "Somebody New" for the 3rd time I think. One of my favorite Fan-fic's because it's so believable. I am finding Little things in it I missed before, like when they go horseback riding and the horses are spooked as they come up to a gully/drainage ditch. Jack says something along the lines of horses having a long memory and they may still be spooked by something that occurred there long ago. So Jack and Ennis dismount and walk the horses through the gully and the remount and continue. Well I never caught that little moment before, it's referencing Earl in the ditch. It's Ennis that spooked by something that happened long ago, but here in the story he has Jack to walk him across to the other side and continue their lives. Dores anyone have the sequel they can send me? Please? I'd love to read it.

[Monika]

yeah this is an amazong story. The first scene that comes to mind when I think back on it is when Ennis and Jack do a bit of role playing, pretending to be strangers in a bar.

In some stories where Jack is trying to move on, I think Jack appears way to fickle but this author manages so nicely to avoid that.

[souxi]

I am rereading "Somebody New" for the 3rd time I think. One of my favorite Fan-fic's because it's so believable. I am finding Little things in it I missed before, like when they go horseback riding and the horses are spooked as they come up to a gully/drainage ditch. Jack says something along the lines of horses having a long memory and they may still be spooked by something that occurred there long ago. So Jack and Ennis dismount and walk the horses through the gully and the remount and continue. Well I never caught that little moment before, it's referencing Earl in the ditch. It's Ennis that spooked by something that happened long ago, but here in the story he has Jack to walk him across to the other side and continue their lives. Dores anyone have the sequel they can send me? Please? I'd love to read it.

Sadly "Force of Nature" is no longer availiable on her LJ  due to legal reasons. It,s a great shame because Jenna is a fantastic writer and FON was shaping up to be a brilliant story. I wish that somehow she could finish it. I have the zine of SN and still read it from time to time. I don,t have any chapters of FON nature though. She had to take it all down at chapter 5. Great shame.

[Brown Eyes]

I am rereading "Somebody New" for the 3rd time I think. One of my favorite Fan-fic's because it's so believable. I am finding Little things in it I missed before, like when they go horseback riding and the horses are spooked as they come up to a gully/drainage ditch. Jack says something along the lines of horses having a long memory and they may still be spooked by something that occurred there long ago. So Jack and Ennis dismount and walk the horses through the gully and the remount and continue. Well I never caught that little moment before, it's referencing Earl in the ditch. It's Ennis that spooked by something that happened long ago, but here in the story he has Jack to walk him across to the other side and continue their lives. Dores anyone have the sequel they can send me? Please? I'd love to read it.

This is such a wonderful observation retropian!

Yes, I think Somebody New is truly brilliant.  The beginning sections with Ennis going through such intense emotional turmoil are so well written and well considered.  And, I do agree that she has a really subtle and nuanced understanding of Brokeback Mountain... which, seems particularly essential for fanfic to come out well.  I've read Somebody New twice and would gladly read it again at some point.  I always feel that this is the story to show someone who might be skeptical of fanfic in the hopes of persuading them to give fanfic a try, this story really is so strong.

I never saved any of the chapters of Force of Nature either since it was never completed.

[Mikaela]

I agree.

One of the things I remember I liked so well about FoN, was the sensitive and perceptive yet understated way it described the loving close relationship between Ennis and Junior - the slow, tentative moves in the direction of including Jack more directly in their little circle and in their connection over the long miles. Junior had just incidentally stumbled into having her first phone conversation with Jack ("Mr. Twist") when the fic had to break off.

I remember I used to make up my own mini-fics about the continuance of FoN. What was going on with the mysterious car mileage drainage and Jack's dreaful boss? When and how would Jack finally come out to his son and ex-wife? How would Ennis learn what kind of Star Trek fics Betty-Jo really was writing? What new bumps in the road and related opportunities for growth would there be in the J/E relationship? When would Jack and Junior actually meet, and how would the meeting go? Might the girls eventually travel down during some holiday to visit their dad and his partner? Etc Etc. (The "etc" includes: What new sexy makin' love scenes did Jenna have up her sleeve for J&E?)

[retropian]

I'm sorry to hear that Force of Nature is unfinished. I guess, as Annie Proulx says we'll have to finish it ourselves. I'm almost done rereading Somebody New. I'll be sorry it's over. I think her characterizations of J&E, and Junior are especially good.