Update: Vorkosigan Saga Was Never Fanfic

Someone decided I needed to be disabused of the notion that the Vorkosigan Saga was ever Star Trek fanfiction. Damien’s comment here.

I can still see the Star Trek influences in the first book, but I’m not sure whether that means I’m still insulting Bujold by saying that. :-( I never meant to insult her and am terribly sorry if I did so.

And these days I don’t think fanfiction is an indication of not being creative and incapable of being original—indeed, the rest of the original post was about how her creation ended up being different from Star Trek even in the first book.

But hey. I love her works as their own thing, and I don’t really care if they were ever fanfiction or not.

Thinking About Things Other Than Pink Elephants

It’s actually quite hard to do with intrusive memories. If you run across a smell that reminds you of, say, a memory closely related to that smell… are you able to block that memory out before it starts? And how soon are you able to forget it?

I often think of PTSD as being like trying not to think about a pink elephant when someone says, “Don’t think about pink elephants!”

I suppose this is the Stay-Puft Marshallow Man Principle.

Nevertheless, I tried rather hard this afternoon.

It did not work very well, actually, but it was fun.

New Post at Tor.com: My Favorite and Mostly Improper Items of Holmesiana: A Letter

Dear Fans of the new Sherlock Holmes movie:

Let me apologize on the behalf of older Sherlock Holmes fandom for the bits of it that have been generating get-off-my-lawn reboot wank, not five days after the release of the movie. The Sherlock Holmes fandom has thrived for over a hundred years and multiple generations, and every generation has its… special snowflakes.

But fortunately, every generation has also produced creative fandom work (though they may not see it that way), from the solidly analytical to the wondrously fanciful. I may not agree with all of them, or even remotely like some of them, but they all occupy a place in my heart, because there wouldn’t be a Sherlock Holmes fandom without constant re-interpretation of the works. Yes, even the fic pastiche where Moriarty is a vampire who falls madly in love with Holmes.¹

I present to you the more amusing pieces of Holmesiana I’ve gathered throughout the years. I’ve strived for a varied collection here that is at the very least sometimes accessible, even if it knocks out some of my absolute favorites. Too much of the fandom is out of print; I hope that changes one day, so that reading all the ’ship wank doesn’t cost 500£.

[Love and adaptation: that's how legends survive.]