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DerynifanK

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Introduction, and seeking fact-checking/beta-reading for Kelson-era fanfic

Started by Evie, June 07, 2010, 10:41:44 AM

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Evie

Hello!  First off, I don't know if you have an Introductions section on this forum, but if you do, I've managed to miss it.  So I'll just introduce myself here.  I'm Evie, and I fell in love with the Deryni books back in the mid-1980s.  Someone lent me the books that were out at that time (I think all we had then were the first set of Kelson books, the first Camber trilogy, and the first two books of the Kelson trilogy), and I raced through them over my Christmas break, finishing all eight books in something like a week and a half.  And then I tracked them all down at Waldenbooks stores throughout the city, and re-read the entire series again. And again.  And gleefully leapt upon each new title like Garfield the Cat pouncing on a pan of lasagna.

Then marriage and two children happened, and I didn't have nearly as much reading time anymore.  My Deryni books got boxed up during a move, and while I've managed to find some of them, I don't know what happened to the complete set I used to have.  I suspect a few might also have been lent out and not returned.  Recently, though, I discovered the audiobooks, and even though the narrator's voice sometimes drives me crazy, I've fallen in love with the Kelson-era books all over again.  (I haven't had a chance to revisit the Camber books yet but hope to someday.  The Kelson-reign books have always been my favorites, though, because as much as I enjoyed Evaine, Rhys, Joram, etc., I'm first and foremost a starry-eyed Duncan McLain fanbabe.)

Anyway, having recently re-visited the Deryni universe via the audiobooks, I found myself discussing them a few weeks ago with one of the few people I know who has actually read the books. We were talking about the first time we'd discovered the series, all those years ago, and I was regaling her with tales of role-playing being Deryni with my best friend at the time.  And from there, the conversation turned to which characters we liked best, and to fanfic, and by the time we ended that chat, I had a story firmly entrenched in my head that refused to go away until I wrote it down.  Which was fine; while I prefer to create original worlds these days, I don't mind setting down the occasional fanfic story to entertain myself and a friend.

Only problem is, the story that wouldn't go away, that ended up taking over the past three weeks of my life in setting it all down, is now not a short story, it's a 48K word novella or short novel!  And if I've gone through all that work to write a story--and especially one that's written in someone else's universe, that I have no hope in profiting from except for the enjoyment of sharing it with others--I'd really rather have more than one reader for it, so that's why I'm here.  

The story is already written; what I'm needing at this point is someone who can do the basic small-details facts-checking for me, since it's a lot harder for me to rewind to the exact paragraph of an audiobook I'm looking for than it is to flip a few pages of a paper book to look up such minute details as which squires were in Kelson's service at the beginning of Deryni Rising, or whether Rothana was still a novice at the end of KKB or if she'd take final vows already.  Also, I'd love to find someone willing to give the story an overall beta-reading and give me their impressions and any suggestions to make it better.  Once it's polished, I'd love to be able to post it here, or at least link to it if it's too long to post in the fanfic section.  It's primarily a Dhugal and Duncan story, although it also has appearances of other characters like Alaric and Kelson.  It might also be considered somewhat alternate-dimension, in that I've postulated an island and culture to the west of Gwynedd that's loosely based on bits of ancient Irish mythos, with a church of its own based even more extremely loosely on Celtic Christianity (and also much more accepting of Deryni), which is where my other main character comes from.  Despite this departure from the original series, I've tried to keep the rest of the story as much in keeping with the original setting and characters as I know how.

Thanks in advance if anyone is interested in helping me out with this!  The fanfic is currently saved in .doc format, but I can save it in other file formats like .rtf as well.  (I would offer to upload it for reading, but I don't have a website where I can do that.)  If you're interested in beta-reading, feel free to drop me a line here or email me at mail2evie at yahoo dot com.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

wombat1138

It sounds like you need a copy of the Codex Derynianus-- better get a paperback copy from Amazon before they're gone :)

You might be able to upload your fic to Google Documents. I'm in the middle of a mass reread of the entire series, but my brain cell's editing mode tends to be highly erratic so I'm not sure how helpful I'd be :b

Evie

Ooh, thanks for the reminder!  Finances are tight for me right now, but I found a used copy that will fit in my budget.   :)
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!