it was an error?

...guh?

Oh, right - the Tiptree, bless it, doesn't actually require its nominees to be formally published. Not sure how I feel about that, but it would solve these problems. Or is this why they ask that the long list not be published usually?

And while I should not, perhaps, publicly announce that I can write better than that, I will at least pledge not to use the phrase "pretty, snapping eyes" in anything, even fanfic.

Well, judging from this description of the Tiptree selection process, a work needs only one partisan to end up on the long list.

I think the inclusion of fanfic, especially dirty, self-indulgent fanfic, in the Tiptree longlist (or shortlist, or the award itself) is a fine fine idea, although judging from the quotes you provide, this one doesn't seem to be notably dirty or self-indulgent. Too bad. (The judges didn't just happen on this one and assume that the mpreg was a notable and original idea, rather than a flourishing subgenre, did they? I would think they'd know better, but who knows.)

It doesn't look any worse than a couple of the other choices on the lists, though. This year seems more uneven than usual. (But that makes it exciting!)

Color me equally baffled.

This makes me sad. If fanfic is going to get press/award nominations, why can't it please be fanfic that makes the genre look *good*? PLEASE?

ugh.

Please, please, please tell me that someone intended that as a parody or something.

*whimpers*

Gah! I took SAN loss.

Can we put up "Another hope" for a Tiptree too?

Gah

I've just written to them. What they don't seem to have realised is that by recognising something written in the amateur domain, acceptable *only* because it receives no "payment", they have just become complicit in a serious breach of copyright/plagiarism.

wow, and here in my ignorance i thought it was just an episode of CSI that got listed...

Um. WTF.

And the weird thing is, I usually like her fic. (Well, I did when she wrote Bab 5 stuff.)

Speaking for myself, and not for the Tiptree Motherboard, of which I am chair.

We give the jury very free rein to award, short-list, and long-list stories. We are aware that standards of good writing vary immensely by: education, class, country of origin, native language, political stance, and many more factors. We don't overrule entries on any list on the basis of quality of writing.

The question of copyright and "plagiarism" is far more complex. This is the first time it has arisen, and I think perhaps we should have considered it more carefully before transmitting the jury's long list. We'll discuss it at this year's motherboard meeting, which is (unsurprisingly) next week.

My personal opinion is that there is a place for slash fiction and a place for honoring it; and there is a place for copyright ownership.

I spend my days (and earn my salary) as a publishers' watchdog, avidly protecting copyright in all its forms. I find it interesting that my boss, far more tenacious at this than I, spends her evenings exchanging bootleg music tapes of her singer-songwriter obsession, and apparently doesn't see a contradiction.

I'm sorry this issue came out in this way, and I'm really glad it arose. Thanks, matociquala!

Blimey, guv.

Gad! When I was in slash fandom we did everything we could to keep the stuff hidden away where no-one involved with the original TV show/film/book would come across it. I - and a number of other people - even refused Henry Jenkins permission to mention or quote our work in "Textual Poachers." What's more, the lack of slash in 'Blake's Seven' during the broadcast period was simply down to a promise give to one of the actors by a fannish editor. During the height of Hatstand ('The Professionals' slash) we kept thinking about Lewis Collins and that shotgun of his...

The subject of fanfic and copyright is a complex one. In the past, we were fairly sure we were safe in the UK (though not the US) because the protection of copyright only extended to the published medium. So a story written about a TV show was safe, while a video - or, for that matter, a costume - would not have been. The disclaimers in most UK fanzines of twenty years ago would often say something like, "this story is not authorised by XXXXX and no attempt is made to pass off this work as being the work of anyone but [the author]. However, copyright law has changed, and I am not at all sure, from my reading of it, that this still applies.

Fanfic was in more trouble in the US because there you can trademark character names. Mostly, you can't do that in the UK... though there are exceptions.

Finally, it has to be said that I could (though I will not) name a couple of award winning books that were originally fan stories...

Hoorah for fanfic! I cut my teeth on it. Although it could well be said that I'm still cutting my teeth, I feel I've now upgraded to some sort of bonesaw, or perhaps the pliers dentists use when they think you're under.

I'm very taken with the "pretty, snapping eyes", anyway. No idea how it got on the Tiptree list, although I'm reminded of the presence of LAZER KILL!! on the Preditors and Editors poll.

Noooooo! ::laughs:: Oh, poor Nick.

'scuse me, I need to go bleach my brain now.

'"I don't care." The man turned his pretty, snapping eyes back in Snape's direction. '

You would have thought fan writers would have got over this obsession with actor's eyes and completely impossible and inaccurate descriptions of them by now.

(I am reminded of a very old and favourite slash parody, in which one character remarked to another:

"Your eyes are like aquariums."
"Don't you mean... aquamarines?"
"No. They're a sort of dirty green.")

Harry Potter/CSI mpreg?

((clicky linky))

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY EYEBALLS HAVE INVOLUNTARILY HOPPED AWAY FROM MY SKULL AND ARE BOUNCING ACROSS THE FLOOR HOW SHALL I CATCH THEM BEFORE THE CATS START PLAYING HOCKEY WITH THEM

I can't decide if I'm glad they haven't seen World Well Lost (which I want to scrape the serial numbers off) or not. I don't think that I am being terribly snotty by saying that I think it's a better piece of writing, if fanfiction is going to be eligible, but at the same time, it doesn't have any HP canon characters in it because it is set in 1922 in Italy, so it isn't well known. I'd like to have had a shot at the award; at the same time, I think I might prefer to get it after I've got all the Rowlingisms out... :/

And verily, this story shall have more readers than all the others combined.

While I agree with those who think this was a bad idea due to copyright issues, I suppose it accomplishes bringing the concept of literal MPREG (as written in media fandom) to a wider audience. And it's a subgenre that squicks me, but that doesn't mean the way it addresses gender and sex might not be interesting.

there is quite a bit of absolutely fabulous discussion on this thread.
(i hope you don't mind that i've 'friended' you.)

Guh? The author clearly has little understanding of the usual course of conception. Count me: disbelief, grounded.

Without getting into the whole messy issue of copyright, I have to say that this doesn't seem that original to me. Mpreg is one of those genres that crosses all fandoms, and it's been around for years. I could probably come up with fifty Mpreg stories in a ten-minute search of FFnet. Most likely more, if I went over to Fandomination.net or Adultfanfiction.com.

Mpregs are rarely written as parodies, or as a means of exploring gender identity. Most of the writers of Mpregs freely admit that it is their kink, and yes, that's how they put it.

Nevertheless, I always feel the impulse to mail MPreg writers copies of Gray's Anatomy. This is because, although for some people this is a kink, others seem to think male pregnancy might be possible in rare cases.

You would not believe the places that I have seen fictional males conceive and carry their babies. Try.

* In a temporary uterus, which develops after the sperm enters the male's body and is re-absorbed into the body after birth. (The writer in question insisted that this is normal and happens in the real world in one out of three cases.)

* In the pancreas. Because, according to that particular Suethor, that's what the pancreas is FOR. (Paging the American Diabetes Association...)

* In the spleen. Because it's healthy and full of nutrients. (BZUH?)

* In the bladder. No, I'm really NOT kidding about this. This is a common one.

* In the stomach. "That's where WOMEN carry them!"

* In the appendix. I've had numerous writers tell me in complete solemnity that appendices are actually vestigal uteruses that Nature developed for men, and there's no reason why there couldn't be an accident of Nature resulting in one man having a fully functional appendix, is there? (These writers were horrified to find that women also have appendices.)

* In the arse. "It's nicely padded and the baby will be well-protected!"

* Under the rib cage. "The baby will grow close to his pregnant father's heart." Ewww.

I've also run into MPreggers who didn't know that two sperms could not combine to create a baby, nor could two Y chromosomes combine to create a female child; who didn't know that women's bodies create eggs and contain Fallopian tubes; who believed in all seriousness that men have a vagina, only it's called something different (one writer in particular would not be convinced that there IS no male vagina--she thought that the male vagina is called the vas efferens [sic]).

If these scriveners knew about reproductive systems and were creating an alien species for a story, I could see it. But in the cases I've cited...well, there are a lot of young teenagers (and older people as well) who really don't know the difference between boys and girls.

I have to agree that this story is not Em Brunson's best work, and possibly not appropriate for Tiptree, but I am shocked about all the criticism directed at Em not for the quality of the story, but because it is crackfic, or because it ended up on Tiptree.

Crackfic is a perfectly acceptable genre within the context of most fandoms. Yes, if you drag it out to outsiders, it's mostly going to look ridiculous, but within a crackfic challenge, in a fandom where such challenges are quite common, it's just a bunch of friends having fun together.

Em herself never intended for that fic to be judged by a committee of professionals, or for it to somehow represent fandom, or even the MPREG genre, to fandom outsiders. In fact, she didn't even know about the listing for quite some time, and is certainly in no way responsible for it.

Question the quality of the story, if you have to -- I'm certainly the last person to complain about constructive critique, although I have to say, when hundreds of people start doing it on one particular story in a very public place, it begins to look a bit cruel -- but for God's sake, stop critizising the author for things that aren't her fault, or that wouldn't have bothered you if she hadn't been "volunteered" to be fandom's representative to the awards.