All these e-mails got me curious, so I came to look at what the heck was going on despite the fact that I told Distracted to simply relay the information.
I'm not ashamed of my works. In fact, I'm quite proud of them. Of all the fanfiction I've written, I've enjoyed Enterprise the most. To suggest that I'm trying to disassociate myself with my own work hurts me. I'd like to think that I've not done anything to this fandom to suggest that I'm that arrogant or mean.
Fact of the matter is that fanfiction is a hobby and should be fun. One reason that I have a lot of stories that are incomplete is because I have a lot of ideas and many times I get stuck. Rather than stress over the fact that I've become stuck, I like to work on other projects until inspiration strikes.
Since the last update to Devil to Pay, I've been struggling to get the dialogue between Archer and Shran right. I'm not kidding. Nothing has come to me.
I have chapters of Orator that were never posted simply because Triptofan was starting to be a pain between server malfunctions and people e-mailing complaints as though I did not have a life beyond site administrator.
And, even though these stories aren't posted anywhere, I still write on them. Why not re-post them? Well, this thread here is the reason. I know I don't have the time to devote to them that I used to during my college days and the majority of e-mails I've
always received in regards to fanfiction have been to the effect of: "UPDATE NOW PLZ". How many such e-mails will I receive with the even more sporadic updates I could offer now?
That aspect of fanfiction is
not fun. If I want to meet deadlines, I can go to work.
Of course, I feel horrible that these works are incomplete. I'm more angry at myself for not devoting every scrap of free time to trying to write these things. You guys committed yourselves to reading them, and I do feel like I've let you down. But, also, try to remember... I've written over 500 pages of Enterprise fanfiction.
Anyway, I digress. To return to the original point of posting my works...
As I said, I do not want my stories posted
without permission. As in, I don't want unsolicited copies of my stories floating around on the Internet, which I'm fairly certain most authors would understand. No one has asked if they could officially host said stories - only if a) they were finished, b) they were posted anywhere and c) if I cared if a third party finished them for me.
To be clear on those points:
a) No
b) No
c) Yes (but, of course, fanfiction is fanfiction and anything is free game, including unpublished works)
So, if someone wants to host my stories on an official website... well, just ask. I'd caution about posting the incomplete works without informing people that these stories are on hiatus. I'd also not be against posting them on fanfiction.net for you guys with the underlying understanding being that a lot of these stories may not be completed any time soon, if ever.
And, for future reference, I do have an account there, though I never posted my Enterprise stories there. Look for E.M. Theis. "Ligeia" was just a nickname I used on the TrekBBS and HoT. I never actually posted any stories under that name.
I do not recall any of the e-mails or messages I received asking if they could host my stories, which is a somewhat different matter. If the question was implied, sorry! I missed it.
So, hopefully this was a bit more illuminating on the subject. Again, I apologize.
Much love,
Erin
PS: I never expected anyone to translate the Vulcan in Devil to Pay. That was a bit of the point. I didn't want the words she was speaking to matter as much as the general feeling and tone of the scene. I don't know if it was successful.