Claire Gabriel's Quartet Plus Two on AO3

[kathleen_dailey]

What a pleasure to see cgabriel's collection of TOS short stories, Quartet Plus Two, posted to AO3.

The work isn't a standalone novel, as the single chaptered posting might suggest, but rather a collection of separate stories, backstories, and side stories about Sarek, Amanda, Spock, and Kirk, with significant appearances by others (including an alien OC whom I'd love to see again). The last story in the collection is "The Thousandth Man," which was published in Star Trek: The New Voyages--in substantially different form--as "Ni Var."

As I said in my comment on AO3, I hope that eventually Claire's other two TOS works--"Home Before Home" and "The Porcelain of Twilight," both of which are set in the Simple Gifts universe--will also be made available.

Claire's writing is outstanding on every level.

Comments

[scarfman]

I made Quartet Plus Two a chapter work, perhaps unadvisably, because the first four stories at least never appeared except with each other, and the last two last saw print in one volume with the other four - hence the umbrella title Quartet Plus Two when they were first posted online in the Star Trek fanfiction section at Jacqueline Lichtenberg's Sime-Gen site (whence I requested and received permission to swipe these texts). I should perhaps add this note at AO3.

I would love to add The Porecelain of Twilight and Home Before Home to Mom's AO3 archive. But I don't know anywhere to find the the former (though I think a websearch once turned up a source somewhere which had it for sale). And I confess I'd forgotten the latter.

You wouldn't happen to have electronic or print copies of either of them, would you?

And as long as I've got your virtual ear, are your Romulan Commander stories online anywhere?

[kathleen_dailey]

Thank you so much for posting Quartet Plus Two on Claire's behalf! AO3 exposure will give many more readers access to these fabulous stories. Maybe also consider posting Claire's work to Ad Astra? That archive is exclusively devoted to Star Trek. (I should practice what I preach--backing up my stories to Ad Astra is one of my 2024 resolutions.)

I do have one print copy of The Porcelain of Twilight--the zine contains both "Home Before Home" and "The Porcelain of Twilight." You can send me your coordinates by email (Claire has my address), or you can DM me on Dreamwidth, and I will happily mail it to you for scanning.

My Romulan Commander stories are on AO3--thanks for asking! Through the Open Doors initiative, I was able to get them moved from my sad, moldy website earlier this year. Go to kathleen_dailey for Unspoken Truth and Any Other Lifetime. All the companion pieces are also posted there, along with a couple of (unrelated, I promise) Sunnydale Trek BTVS/TOS crossovers.

Do you think you might post your work The Legacy of Kirk to AO3 at some point? That's another story that deserves wider exposure. I included the Iglou link in the acks in Any Other Lifetime, but I haven't been able to find the story under "Scarfman" on AO3--although maybe the AO3 Scarfman is a different entity?

[scarfman]

Checking into Ad Astra and scanning a physical copy of The Porcelain of Twilight/Home Before Home are projects I may be interested in after a few months when I'm not looking at an imminent move. I'll get in touch with you about sharing your zine when I'm ready.

I'll add your AO3 stories to my to-be-read list.

By the time I had assumed control of Mom's AO3 account and sent myself an invitation, two or three months ago, the username scarfman was already taken so I'm pgadzikowski there. I'm slowly posting there some of my Usenet-era material, but none of the crossovers, because my current ongoing project the webcomic The Hero of Three Faces employs an entirely different crossover paradigm and continuity and I don't want to confuse readers. However 1) The Legacy of Kirk isn't a crossover 2) all my Usenet-era work has always remained archived at my personal website of the time, now at https://scarfman.iglouhost.com/ after a server rename a few years ago. You can find Legacy on the old site but, having the idea from your request, I'll probably have it up at AO3 with the other material I was already importing before 2023 is out.

[sixbeforelunch]

Thank you for the link! I will definitely check this one out.

[kathleen_dailey]

Most welcome! I hope you'll enjoy them.

Rereading these classic stories (and indeed all of Claire's works on AO3) makes me appreciate our pathbreaking fanfic foremothers all over again.