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born to be a fangirl
I was fanning before I knew what fanning was, long before I ever got online. In early high school, thanks to my town library's "YA*" paperback collection, I got into Star Trek (TOS, mostly) novels; they were my first exposure to fanfic, in particular the really gooey/sappy/smarmy/pre-slashy stuff that I'd always thought of as the "good bits" - usually a few paragraphs, at best a page or two of most books (except Lord of the Rings, which is crammed full of it). I used to keep a notebook noting the page numbers of my favorite bits. But in some of the Star Trek novels the yumminess (usually h/c) just went on and on - at least in the earlier novels; the later ones, not so much. But some of the first were most definitely written by fangirls - at the time I didn't know it; I just knew that what I was reading, while noticeably inferior in elements like plot and prose, was catering to certain tastes of mine more precisely than any book I'd read before.
* "YA" at my library apparently meant either "teen characters" or "sci-fi paperback". I think they got a sci-fi section later, but through my early teen years finding SF was a matter of browsing the unorganized paperback racks. Then I discovered 2nd-hand bookstores...
So it cracked me up when I was on Fanlore today and found that Killing Time was penned by a K/S writer who slipped what was in effect a pre-slash story past the Paramount censors by mysterious means. What gets me is that I remember this novel well - it's one of the dozen or so I bought for myself rather than just rereading the library's copy. I remember at the time of first reading it that I both adored it and thought it over the top in that ridiculous way that made me all deliciously squirmy (It involves a Romulan-made alternate time-line, in which, iffen I recall, the "golden-haired, golden-eyed" Kirk was an oft-abused drug-addict. And Spock was dreaming about him. Yeah.) Now I'm wondering if I actually read the original. Just checked and the copy I have now is the edited version, but I'm curious about the library's copy...
ETA: For my own reference: all the censored bits! (and maybe I'm hallucinating, but I swear I remember some of them...)
ETA2: And here we have a conversation about Kirk/Spock-y Star Trek novels! Should I be embarrassed or proud that almost every novel that's mentioned here is in my "dozen or so" collection? And that I want to reread them? (Nice to see Diane Duane getting credit, her take on the ST 'verse was awesome, love her aliens. --Zomg other folks like Dwellers in the Crucible! Which is really about a pair of female OCs who parallel Kirk & Spock...that being said, it is hands-down the most extreme h/c I have ever read between female chars. Am wanting to reread it just for that...(need to see Xena...))
* "YA" at my library apparently meant either "teen characters" or "sci-fi paperback". I think they got a sci-fi section later, but through my early teen years finding SF was a matter of browsing the unorganized paperback racks. Then I discovered 2nd-hand bookstores...
So it cracked me up when I was on Fanlore today and found that Killing Time was penned by a K/S writer who slipped what was in effect a pre-slash story past the Paramount censors by mysterious means. What gets me is that I remember this novel well - it's one of the dozen or so I bought for myself rather than just rereading the library's copy. I remember at the time of first reading it that I both adored it and thought it over the top in that ridiculous way that made me all deliciously squirmy (It involves a Romulan-made alternate time-line, in which, iffen I recall, the "golden-haired, golden-eyed" Kirk was an oft-abused drug-addict. And Spock was dreaming about him. Yeah.) Now I'm wondering if I actually read the original. Just checked and the copy I have now is the edited version, but I'm curious about the library's copy...
ETA: For my own reference: all the censored bits! (and maybe I'm hallucinating, but I swear I remember some of them...)
ETA2: And here we have a conversation about Kirk/Spock-y Star Trek novels! Should I be embarrassed or proud that almost every novel that's mentioned here is in my "dozen or so" collection? And that I want to reread them? (Nice to see Diane Duane getting credit, her take on the ST 'verse was awesome, love her aliens. --Zomg other folks like Dwellers in the Crucible! Which is really about a pair of female OCs who parallel Kirk & Spock...that being said, it is hands-down the most extreme h/c I have ever read between female chars. Am wanting to reread it just for that...(need to see Xena...))
Re: . I used to keep a notebook noting the page numbers of my favorite bits.
Have fun pillaging the TNG novels, hope you find fun stuff! (I loved the TNG show but didn't get into the novels as much. Unless they had Q. Much <3 for Q! ^^)