A writing hero who became a bete noire
Mar. 15th, 2019 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11There's a writer whose work I really loved by the name of Christine Morgan.
She's not famous, or at least not more than Internet-famous, and only back in the early days of the concept. I came upon her when I was in high school or so, when I was rediscovering my love for the 90s Disney animated show "Gargoyles." She was known as basically THE premier writer of Gargoyles fan fiction. She wrote over a hundred stories, including multi-installment spinoffs, building upon the existing narrative to make her own decades-spanning cosmology, and it was wonderful. Beautifully written, evocative, cohesive, engaging, and often sexy— her stories were the first erotica I ever read. I followed her obsessively for years, and she never disappointed, even when she brought her massive series to a conclusion to focus on original work. She captured the tone of the show so effectively, she used words so masterfully, she carried out character arcs so powerfully. The way she wrote Goliath and Elisa had a profound impact on the way I think of romance to this day.
When she transitioned to mostly original work, I followed her into that as well. She was an old-school roleplay gamer, and published novels that took place in a campaign setting she'd made. Generally I dislike "game fiction" for the way it tends to sacrifice literary merit for gratifying its creator, but she even made that work. I even bought horror novels— which at the time I was a little ooky about —because she wrote them. As time went by, I kind of lost track of her, but to this day I truly believe she is a great writer.
But even though she's still writing to this day, it strikes me that she never really... made it. Most if not all of her novels, including those early ones that I read, are self-published. She seems to fairly regularly get stories in fantasy, horror, or erotica anthologies, but they all appear to be what could charitably be described as "indie press." I mean no disrespect, as God knows what a rough game writing is, but I kind of expected more. She genuinely has the skill. And she could get shit DONE; she always wrote so fast, and generated an incredible amount of work. Why did she never manage to get published— at least, by any entity that seems at all serious, or at least not incredibly niche?
Was that not her goal? Did she not submit to more mainstream publishers? Was she bad at querying and couldn't get attention? Was the nature of her work— often kind of grindhouse-y in subject matter, like extreme horror or straight-up pornographic — prohibitive to that? Or did she just never get picked up, despite the fact that she really could put a story together? How could someone so talented have stayed so... small time?
I don't know. Maybe to her, she's exactly where she wants to be, with exactly the career she aimed for. But I guess, with my toxic level of ambition, I couldn't help but expect more. It kind of haunts me. If she couldn't really make it— someone with talent, creativity, and an incredible work ethic —what chance do the rest of us have?
She's not famous, or at least not more than Internet-famous, and only back in the early days of the concept. I came upon her when I was in high school or so, when I was rediscovering my love for the 90s Disney animated show "Gargoyles." She was known as basically THE premier writer of Gargoyles fan fiction. She wrote over a hundred stories, including multi-installment spinoffs, building upon the existing narrative to make her own decades-spanning cosmology, and it was wonderful. Beautifully written, evocative, cohesive, engaging, and often sexy— her stories were the first erotica I ever read. I followed her obsessively for years, and she never disappointed, even when she brought her massive series to a conclusion to focus on original work. She captured the tone of the show so effectively, she used words so masterfully, she carried out character arcs so powerfully. The way she wrote Goliath and Elisa had a profound impact on the way I think of romance to this day.
When she transitioned to mostly original work, I followed her into that as well. She was an old-school roleplay gamer, and published novels that took place in a campaign setting she'd made. Generally I dislike "game fiction" for the way it tends to sacrifice literary merit for gratifying its creator, but she even made that work. I even bought horror novels— which at the time I was a little ooky about —because she wrote them. As time went by, I kind of lost track of her, but to this day I truly believe she is a great writer.
But even though she's still writing to this day, it strikes me that she never really... made it. Most if not all of her novels, including those early ones that I read, are self-published. She seems to fairly regularly get stories in fantasy, horror, or erotica anthologies, but they all appear to be what could charitably be described as "indie press." I mean no disrespect, as God knows what a rough game writing is, but I kind of expected more. She genuinely has the skill. And she could get shit DONE; she always wrote so fast, and generated an incredible amount of work. Why did she never manage to get published— at least, by any entity that seems at all serious, or at least not incredibly niche?
Was that not her goal? Did she not submit to more mainstream publishers? Was she bad at querying and couldn't get attention? Was the nature of her work— often kind of grindhouse-y in subject matter, like extreme horror or straight-up pornographic — prohibitive to that? Or did she just never get picked up, despite the fact that she really could put a story together? How could someone so talented have stayed so... small time?
I don't know. Maybe to her, she's exactly where she wants to be, with exactly the career she aimed for. But I guess, with my toxic level of ambition, I couldn't help but expect more. It kind of haunts me. If she couldn't really make it— someone with talent, creativity, and an incredible work ethic —what chance do the rest of us have?
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}