I feel the need to post here today to make a couple of important points...I have become an avid fan fiction reader, thanks largely due to Leslie's
A Love Born From Steel and then later on, to other recommendations she's passed my way. I don't contribute a whole lot to the threads because, until there are 36-hour days, it's just not possible.
Point #1:I had the pleasure of meeting Leslie in person this weekend at the Brokie get-together in New England. She is as wonderful as we all knew!! If you haven't yet had the opportunity, the next time Leslie goes somewhere, red-line it all the way. It was a terrific experience. I once said in chat to Leslie that 'I want to be like you when I grow up.' I can now say with 100% certainty my instincts were dead-on. Of course, the ironies are that we're close enough in age, and I doubt anyone is planning to actually grow up anytime soon.
Point #2:Leslie was generous enough to provide us NE attendees with bound copies of
A Love Born From Steel. So, Sunday night I read it again (3rd time). Yes, Leslie, thanks again for ANOTHER sleepless night. This would be payback for me 'encouraging' you have one more wine/spritzer Saturday night
(or was it 2 more? or 3??)
Seriously, when I read fanfic, I'm usually reading it on-line, in small segments, a chapter a week or however frequently the author updates. And I'm reading more than one author at a time. It made an enormous difference to read
A Love Born From Steel as a complete work from cover to cover. I'm not saying it was not a terrific read before - because obviously it is! However, the complete read in one attentive single session truly makes evident the overall construction of the story, the tight plotting, and what a terrific work of art the entire piece is.
So, the moral of the story is - for fanfics you *LOVE*, if you do not already do this, print paper copies and save them and read them in their entirety without distraction. It truly makes a difference. In this way, the author's talent shines brightly through in a way that reading at your monitor in periodic installments just doesn't permit.
-Lynne
