Here is my original comment:
Original link on Davecullen.com
http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=20812.msg763508#msg763508(quote, from elena, not repeated here)
Your English is excellent enough that it was not immediately apparent without your saying so that you are not a native speaker, Elena. Ich bin doch nicht auf Deutsch fliessig. And I agree with you: I have not understood, myself, why this is so. Though I was completely new to fan fiction when I began writing my stories, I was not new to fiction, and certainly not new to writing professionally. I was completely at a loss about why people objected to the mere basis of the story -- until someone I spoke to about this from another fandom said "What did you do, ship the OC?" ("ship the OC" meaning to invent an OC who ends up in the love relationship with the canon character.) In this case (BBM) the only way to carry on a fan fiction story without changing the ending and still keep it a story about a relationship, is to create an OC. My friend told me that any fan fic that dares "ship the OC" always runs the risk of being controversial, and at last there was one explanation. And I was completely unaware of this fact. And so there are many people who, like you, realized that their taste in slash veered away at the point where the relationship began, and it was not to their taste. And as Lori has so forthcoming about her own opinion and wrote a review to recommend the stories (there are six of them in total in the Laramie Saga series itself) there were some very heated discussions and as she said, the mere recommendation of my story led to some rather unfortunate -- and not constructive -- discussions. I withdrew some time ago from defending my story here, and then withdrew from all discussion in hopes that it would all blow over, and eventually closed my LJ to anonymous commentary because it was just getting ridiculous. I didn't want to do this, but I didn't feel I had a choice. And many others did not feel they had a choice, either. This week was the first inkling of hope that a more open discussion of fan fiction was possible here and that there was room even for "shipping the OC" for those who want to read, and try.
In this vein I would like to add my recommendations on stories that are excellently written and oft-overlooked that happen to "ship the OC" : "A Gift of Exile" a remarkable first story by TDS Editor Marge_Innavera, and "Ennis: Brokeback Sequell" by Tom Forster. Before getting into writing any fan fiction stories myself I sent a comment to Tom about "Ennis", which he wrote in December 2005, and it is one of the original fan stories about BBM. He told me at the time that he felt very strongly about making a future for Ennis after the end of BBM, and like my story, and like Marge's story, Tom's Ennis is grief-stricken, and stumbles upon a new love relationship in an unlikely (but historically probably quite accurate way) by meeting another ranch hand in the course of ranching work when he is older. He wrote the story for himself (as I initially wrote "Taking Chances" for myself), and like me, was sad to discover that it did not get much attention among other fans. That has since changed.
"Ennis"
http://www.rainbowcommunitywritingproject.com/Ennis.htmlMarge_Innavera' story "A Gift of Exile" has a quite original story line in it about the immediate future after the end of BBM in which Ennis meets a "gay man" who is a wedding guest at a marriage reception in Riverton and takes up a correspondence with him after giving him some horseback riding lessons. The truly unique take on BBM that Marge brings to this tale is the mystical element, expanding Annie Proulx's concept of "seeing Jack in his dream" into a complete mystical journey in which Jack returns to Ennis on Brokeback in a two-day-long vision -- reminiscent of vision quests of the native peoples -- and urges him to find a new life with his blessing, allowing Ennis to say goodbye at last, and enjoy the peace that comes from knowing that the dead have not truly died but live on in a spiritual sense. It is the mystical tale that I was going for myself in writing "A Warm Wind Blows", my first fan fiction about Ennis developing cancer in later life and receiving a visitation from a still young Jack Twist who reassures him he does not have to die of grief. Mine was a bit of a ghost-story fantasy romp, but Marge's is a far more serious, far more moving treatment:
"A Gift of Exile"
http://talkstocoyotes.livejournal.com/I would like to talk with and have recommendations with any other authors who have written or plan other "Ship the OC" tales. "Moving!On Ennis" is one of the terms used for this variety of story, and I think that this is a misnomer.
Thanks elena for your candor and your gentleness.
(end of quote)
