In May 1997 this story was my first attempt to write Usenet fanfiction that was long enough to be serialized (aside from a redraft of something I'd written in 1981). I crossposted the chapters weekly to alt.drwho.creative and the X-Files fanfiction newsgroup, though I didn't read the X-Files group and I don't recall whether I got any response there. I tend to count August 1997 as the beginning of my serious internet fanfiction career, because that was when I posted the first chapter of Historical Revision and initiated my commitment to post a chapter a week, which commitment lasted until I started posting daily cartoons instead. But this was really the beginning.

Title: Finders Keepers 1/5
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Mulder, Scully
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1993
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and 20th Century Fox. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: While Mulder and Scully investigate a laboratory accident with outside help during the first days of their association, Scully has a professional crisis.
This story was written backwards, or sideways. First I had several scenes occur to me that I'd like to see in a Doctor Who/X-Files crossover, and then I constructed a plot around them. The notes that will be posted with the last chapter describe which scenes they were.
crossposted scarfman dwfiction crossing_who

( ''I'm afraid you're going to have to come with us, sir,'' said Scully. ''Well,'' said the Doctor, ''I prefer to work alone, but if you want to help ...'' )

Huh. Went Friday to Friday without posting anything this week. Well, here's something I thought about posting yesterday and never did.

I see a lot of people posting with (to put it, in some cases, mildly) consternation in reaction to news that The Day The Earth Stood Still and/or that The Rocky Horror Picture Show are being remade. My comments at the first of these posts that I saw:

But that's how legends live: they get reenvisioned for new times. Where would we be today if Caxton had said to Malory, "But all you've done is retold the French romances in English"?

Mind you, I'm not denying the basic principle of Sturgeon's Law here, nor that true classics deserve and will continue to receive due veneration. But it's also true that Shakespeare never invented a plot in his life, and no one cares.

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons are on their annual summer hiatus.

( View more ... )

Thanks for reading.

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons are on their annual summer hiatus.

( View more ... )

Thanks for reading.

So I read the headline in news that they're bringing back Basic Accounts.

Then I read on my friendslist that they're not really the old-fashioned Basic Accounts like I have, they have ads, like the intermediate account type between Basic and Paid that was brought out about a year ago.

Then I'm editing at one of my old entries, and I see ads.

It'd prolly be a minimal amount of research for me to find this out myself, but it's partly a rhetorical question:

So, is there any point anymore to me not upgrading to the intermediate ad-based account type, for the additional features - or does it exist any more? (If not, do I now have the additional features along with the ads?)

Edit On second look, it's the new sitemap I'm looking at. I took it for GoogleAds.

Title: Passion 1/1
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor/Rose
Rating: G
Setting (spoilers through): framing sequence - during Journey's End; main story - aftermath of Age of Steel
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Betareader: qtrhorserider
Summary: The one criticism of Journey's End I can't ignore is that both Rose and Donna, in their ultimate fates, were (as someone on my friendslist put it) denied their own agency - the Doctor decreeing and executing their fates for them without asking and ignoring any stated objections. I already fixed that for Donna; but Rose's was trickier.
crossposted scarfman dwfiction time_and_chips loves_them_all

( ''I love you,'' whispered the man in blue. )

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons are on their annual summer hiatus.

( View more ... )

Thanks for reading.

Title: Interior Dialog 1/1
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Donna
Rating: G
Setting (spoilers through): the end of Journey's End
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: My [first] fix-it.
crossposted scarfman dwfiction marriedonmars loves_them_all

( Then, of course, he gives her a chance, because it's what she taught him to do. )

Despite one or two issues with the Doctor Who season finale that may or may not get addressed in future fanfiction, I'm secure enough in my overall enjoyment of it that I don't feel any need to rebut others' criticisms.

Title: Who Would Be King 6/6
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Picard, the Borg, surprises
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1996
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and Paramount Studios. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: My twelve-year-old asked me, "What if the Borg assimilated a Time Lord?"
crossposted scarfman dwfiction trek_fanfiction crossing_who

( ''My Queen, we have an emergency. The Time Lord you left yourself in charge to has betrayed you. And in his instability he has allowed a rival Time Lord to challenge him for his position.'' )

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons are on their annual summer hiatus.

( View more ... )

Thanks for reading.

Title: Who Would Be King 5/6
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Picard, the Borg, surprises
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1996
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and Paramount Studios. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: My twelve-year-old asked me, "What if the Borg assimilated a Time Lord?"
crossposted scarfman dwfiction trek_fanfiction crossing_who

( The drones now moved on the Doctor. They surrounded him quickly, and one of them extruded a tube and briefly injected assimilation nanites into the Doctor's neck. )

Title: Who Would Be King 4/6
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Picard, the Borg, surprises
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1996
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and Paramount Studios. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: My twelve-year-old asked me, "What if the Borg assimilated a Time Lord?"
crossposted scarfman dwfiction trek_fanfiction crossing_who

( ''Can you handle it?'' ''Can you handle the Master if I don't try?'' )

Title: Who Would Be King 3/6
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Picard, the Borg, surprises
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1996
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and Paramount Studios. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: My twelve-year-old asked me, "What if the Borg assimilated a Time Lord?"
crossposted scarfman dwfiction trek_fanfiction crossing_who

( ''We shall assimilate you and your Starfleet allies. You will watch from the back of your own mind as you yourself do the same to the Time Lords.'' )

Title: Who Would Be King 2/6
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Picard, the Borg, surprises
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1996
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and Paramount Studios. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: My twelve-year-old asked me, "What if the Borg assimilated a Time Lord?"
crossposted scarfman dwfiction trek_fanfiction crossing_who

( ''The complexity of such subjects as quantum information theory is exactly why the Borg will want to back up the time travel knowledge of their assimiliated Time Lord by assimilating more Time Lords, rather than by spending all the drone-hours it would take to document it all properly.'' )

Title: Who Would Be King 1/6
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Picard, the Borg, surprises
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): both franchises c. 1996
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC and Paramount Studios. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: How did the Borg discover time-travel and, more importantly, can they be permitted to keep it?
crossposted scarfman dwfiction trek_fanfiction crossing_who

( ''Captain's log, stardate 50900.0: The Enterprise has returned to the present after our stay in 2063. I am fairly certain that the rest of my staff believes our adventure with the time-traveling Borg is over ...'' )

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons are on their anual summer hiatus.

( View more ... )

Following up on what I wrote earlier in the week, the judges have ruled me out of the Daily Grind on violation of the single-panel rule.

In other news, as of tomorrow I'll have posted a cartoon a day at AKOTAS 1500 days in a row since the start.

Thanks for reading.

1. Asked a celebrity role model a question and been told, "I'm glad you asked me that."
2. Rode to Milwaukee from Chicago in the back of a hatchback, for ice cream.
3. Updated a webcomic for fifteen hundred days in a row (as of Saturday).

The Daily Grind rules disallow single-panel cartoons more often than once in two weeks. I drew a single-panel gag for Monday 6/16 and failed, as has been my practice, to make note of it in my reminders spreadsheet. I don't remember that I even thought of it - I guess, since I was drawing on a Sunday, maybe I forgot that this cartoon was a weekday, Grind cartoon.

I drew another single-panel gag two days ago, Tuesday 6/24, a week and a day after the other one. (This one I did enter into my reminders spreadsheet.) It was noted on the Daily Grind message board, three hours before the 6/24 deadline, that I was in danger. But lately I only check that message board on Fridays. I was sent a private message on the subject by one of the message board members. But it didn't come until about an hour and a half before the deadline. So I didn't see notice of the private message till the morning of the 25th, too late to throw together a rescue panel.

At this writing, as of the last time I looked at the message board the judges haven't ruled. There was some talk on the message board that I may still be alright, on the grounds that I uploaded my cartoon for the 25th before the deadline for the 24th. But I recall that the judges recently set a rule that all panels for a given day's Grind cartoon must be the same image file, so they can tell which portions of a multiple-day upload are to be counted for which days. Or perhaps that ruling only applies to multiple-day uploads; but I still don't think that that hairsplitting is going to save me.

I feel a little stupid, but I'll also feel relieved if I no longer have to contrive extra panels out of gags whose delivery is naturally single-paneled if they fall on weekdays.

Of course I'm still committed to putting up a cartoon every day, just as I already was before the Daily Grind.