(no subject)

[dwgm]

A year ago today
My castmember niece did say
Aunt, check this out:
There are Pirates about!
Don't you wish you could come out and play?

My niece, who works in Special Events at The Happiest Place on Earth, was actually busy up to her mouse ears a year ago, helping to organize one of the biggest events ever, the premier of Pirates of the Caribbean. Bleachers and a gigantic screen were set up by the Rivers of America. Main Street was swathed in red carpet. And a crowd of celebrities descended on the park to walk past crowds of cheering guests, field cameras and interviews, partake of an extravagant buffet set up by the French Market in New Orleans Square, and to watch the first showing of what turned out to be one of the greatest movies ever.

I was, in spite of her enthusiasm, somewhat oblivious to the whole thing, until I went and saw the movie myself when it opened in theaters on July 9th, and quite simply became obsessed. I mean, Pirates? The Caribbean? Johnny Depp? It was all too much.

I didn't discover there was such a thing as fanfiction until the following November, but have made up for it since then in the most extravagant way. To borrow a phrase from fabu, it's been All Pirates, All the Time for me since then. I started out sifting through the offerings on fanfiction.net; then found erinrua's recs page, which is replete with excellent work including her great story, The African Star, and ganeris's stories, Wait for No Man and Mark the Earth with Ruin, to name only a few. Also listed there was a link to Fortune and Favor, on firesignwriter's lj post, and it was just a matter of browsing before I discovered the mesmerizing slash-o-rama going on at Live Journal and elsewhere. Shorn, Jjail, and the amazing, heartbreaking Moonverse, followed. More browsing revealed doolabug's Flogged, webcrowmancer's Sunlight and Sunlight 2: Silver and Gold, the_stowaway's Trust and Honor, the_dala's For Want of a Nail, shrift's Hurricane Jack, Beth's Vicarious and Succubus. webcrowmancer's Pearls website has a button on my browser's personal toolbar, for its beauty and it's wealth of excellent, slashy reading. I have so many favorites, it is really mind-boggling. Such great stories. Such talented writers. elspethdixon's A Pirate's Life for Me. inkbug's WIP The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot. fabu & the_stowaway's new Be Careful What You Wish For. Eledhwen's new one, Curse-bound, with a present day setting and very intriguing premise. Ms. Brooklyn's hilarious Plums of the Caribbean, an Evanovich/PotC crossover (it works! I kid you not). One that I haven't seen recced anywhere else is Amberlin, who was one of the first authors I read over at ff.net-her Jack/Ana vignettes are beautiful. And erinrua's Horizons Lost and Found is devastating.

I started writing my own PotC sequel back in November, too, and completed Harry and the Pirate in January, a humorous romance for which I owe apologies to not only Disney, but Georgette Heyer, and P.G. Wodehouse. First story I ever completed! And erinrua put it on her recs page, to my astonishment and gratification! And the sequel, Swann's Revenge. And the sequel to the sequel, Norrington's Choice. (Nothing like a little self-pimping, eh?)

It's been an amazing year, and I look forward to writing a little less and reading even more wonderful offerings from all of you piratey authors during the next as we await the movie's sequels. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

~~Geek Mama~~

P.S. This is for linaelyn, who has a special fondness for naughty limericks...

A pretty and passionate pirate
Rarely found that he didn't desire it.
When faced with fair dames,
(Or with Commodore James!),
His taste for 'fair play', they would fire it.

Comments

[bizarra.livejournal.com]

Oh bless you for the recs. LOL I've been looking for all those since I got lost in BPS during school. And yay.. Happy B'day PoTC!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Happy to oblige! What a great bunch of people are involved in this fandom, eh? It truly amazes me.

*blush*

[ganeris.livejournal.com]

Well, gosh, thanks for recommending me all over again. I've been considering taking down my account at FF.N cos I can't stand all the fangirling and I live in fear of being lumped in with them by mistake (since one of my major plot points looks similar to a fangirl one, only their 'reason' is so they can do a self-insert with Will Turner... you probably know which one I mean). But I won't do it yet, in case anybody reading your LJ wants to go have a peek...

Only thing is, I'm not Gamine on LJ, someone else is (which would be why I am not). :)

Re: *blush*

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Only thing is, I'm not Gamine on LJ, someone else is (which would be why I am not).

Oh, so sorry--I will correct immediately. Stupid of me not to check.

No, don't take down your ff.net account! I know it's impossible difficult to sift through all the silliness to find the good stuff, but once they are found they are easily saved in one's favorite stories, all chapters in one spot, easily to read and review. It has its faults, but I still like the format.

If you have the stories posted complete somewhere else, I'd be glad to change the link. Let me know.