M. Fae Glasgow

Name:	M. Fae Glasgow
Alias(es):	Gael X Ile, Edi N. Burgh, Cally Donia, L.A. Scotian, The Glaswegian
Type:	fanwriter
Fandoms:	Blake's 7, Professionals, X-Files, Phantom Menace, Due South, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Smallville
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M. Fae Glasgow is a prolific slash fanwriter and main contributor to the zines that were published by Oblique Publications, under multiple pseuds. She is known for her intensive psychological exploration of characters and frank exploration of BDSM and sexual themes.

M. Fae Glasgow was a member of the Southern California slash community for years, attending the monthly slashbashes and the local slash convention, Escapade. At Escapade she would offer "Bedtime Readings" - readings of a new slash story she had written for the occasion.

"That wee Kiltie has a brain burning with tales to tell, psyches to be psyched, and deviancy and depravity to be dangled in front of our eyes. She is a storyteller born (bred I leave out, as breeding she has none). Moreover, she is that seeming rarity among writers: someone who can write quickly and to order. She takes constructive criticism well and with editors she trusts, she lets them do their work. She is quick-witted, talented, creative, highly intelligent, blessed of a cutting sarcastic humor, extremely Scottish, and red-headed. Without her, there would be no Oblique Publications and we would all be the poorer for that."

She also was the subject of a slash filk song performed at Escapade/Escapade 1996: "MFae Glasgow, Write Me A Zine!" An excerpt (sung to the tune "Mr. Sandman"):

M Fae Glasgow,

Write me a zine!

Make it more nasty

than I've ever seen.

Tie up the hero

from London to Dover

but tie him tightly so he can't roll over!

Notable Works

Professionals

Sport Series

• Sticky Wickets by M. Fae Glasgow - in Paean to Priapus II
• Own Goal by M. Fae Glasgow - in...As a £3 Note
• A Hole in One by Edi N. Burgh - in Paean to Priapus IV
• On Thin Ice or Skate Expectations by M. Fae Glasgow - in Bene Dictum: A Dickensian Christmas
• Pulling the Other One by M. Fae Glasgow - in...As Three £3 Notes
• If I Fell by M. Fae Glasgow - in Paean to Priapus V: Multum in Parvo

Note: there are more series in other fandoms and other influential work that need to be added/fleshed out.

Other Fandoms

• Two of her Mulder/Skinner X-Files stories have been recorded as podfics here.

Reactions/Reviews

• "As usual, M. Fae Glasgow writes intelligent prose that delights me with it's grammatical perfection <g>. Her characterisations are always interesting and her stories deal with the psychological as much as the emotional - and that's definitely my cup of tea." (Inspector Dagliesh)
• " I like MFae's style for example, because she has a very unusual way to manipulate language, and an extremely strong and personal narrative voice. I don't care if this is good or not, I just like it. I also agree that sometimes this strong narrative voice does nothing to advance the plot (traditionally, this is considered a sign of a "good" story). I still like her stories, though."
• "DAMN good story! Damned good zine! "Cochineal" explores the relationship between Clark and Lex in a way that's well thought out, mature, and complex. An excellent read." (Smallville)
• "This fic is actually a part of a zine, so it's in PDF form. It's wonderful long and torturous. Obi Wan is a member of a race that periodically goes through stages that Qui Gon calls "the blessing", but really can't be described as anything other than being in heat. It's complicated, by the fact that Obi Wan is in love with Qui Gon. Unfortunately, Qui Gon has taken vows of celibacy not to mention as Obi Wan's master he, literally, cannot desire him. The writing is amazing and the story is good. M. Fae Glasgow really takes the time in this fic to allow for a slow believeable, transformation. The tension between Master and Padawan is almost palpable - at some points I felt so much anticipation that I wanted to skip to the end just to ease some of it. It's wonderfully tantalizing. Take an afternoon and dive into this story. You won't regret it." (The Phantom Menace)
• "Nanshoku: Actually, I'm not entirely comfortable recommending this, as while all the sex here is more than consensual, the age issue is just enough to mildly squick me. But considering the consensuality, the delicate preciseness of the prose, and how evoking this fic is, here on the list it is. Read...explanations of the samurai's "Beautiful Way" *coughs* or nanshoku as it is sometimes called, to better understand what the fic is basing itself on.(The Phantom Menace)
• "I love virtually everything M. Fae has written in TPM, even though I violently disagree with the premises behind some of it - and if that isn't the sign of a good writer, I don't know what is :) She's sexy, angsty, contemplative, and enamoured of the tragedy of Q/O. In a zine with two other stories that rank in my regular re-reads list, this very short piece [On Day's End and Dinner] stands out for the economy and ease with which it paints a picture of what it might actually mean to be somewhat more than human - a Jedi."(The Phantom Menace)
• "I love the fact that M. Fae Glasgow is one of the better writers in Due South fandom and has chosen to write Vecchio/Fraser slash. She's a wonderful writer, although her writing does tend to be on the dark side of the spectrum at times. She seems to be interested in finding different angles from which to explore her favourite characters and this makes her work terrifically interesting. She writes in many different fandoms but, unfortunately for net fans, mostly for zines."
• "I have heard people complain before about Mfae's work as being too bleak and, more to the point, that the way she depicts the characters, particularly in Pros, as being too mean. Now, while I think that there are definitely times she goes to far in that direction, I still think that even at her worst, her depictions of Bodie and Doyle are more accurate than all the sweet and sappy "diddums" stories. "

"....when I think [MFae]'s perfect, she's my second-favorite writer in fandom, and I'd guess on my top ten list of writers, period. When I think she's off (my interpretation of "off" equals hurried, bored, possibily uninterested in the story she's writing--and these are ALL my opinions, I have *not* discussed this story-by-story with M Fae--then she's still better than most but I become very frustrated with those stories. (It's my old "man, this could have been *so* much better"problem.)...

Stories I *loved* include "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", a story where Bodie hit these kids with his car while he was chasing a bad guy... I read it again about a year ago and actually found things wrong; over the top description, a slightly too-emotional Bodie... but *none* of my quibbles slowed me down in the loving of Bodie repressed and on the edge of utter breakdown. I also loved Kate Ross' characterization: she was a professional in every sense of the word, and at one point Bodie goes berserk and hits her and after he's dragged out of her office she's holding a hanky to her profusely bleeding nose and scribbling notes *furiously*, before she takes care of her injury. Tough person. I liked that.

"Mental Traveller": I've always said this was the best ST:TNG story I have ever read, and I stand by it. Picard's characterization was very sophisticated, very empathetic; his friendship (and his reasons for it) with Data were very believable and exemplary of not only his personality, but Data's. The sex was interesting, in part because of the machine aspect; it wasn't sidestepped or ignored, and for that there was this odd, slightly kinky weirdness that in NO way detracted from the scene, the sex or their personalities."

Most people (even those who don't like her stories) agree that MFae is one of the better writers in fandom. (Ironically, some of those who don't like her stories, use that as further evidence that writing quality in fandom doesn't have any particular value for them.) I'm going to start with that as a given: she's a great writer, and not even talk about her writing skill or style.

Bodie's character traits shown graphically

Figure 1)Bodie's character traits shown graphically

Say these are the character traits we saw of Bodie in the aired eps of The Professionals. If you were writing a novel (even a fan novel), you'd be able to (hopefully) justify all of those dots: make a three-dimensional character (a plane, for the purposes of this analogy).

For a short story, you have to make choices; you can't show all his facets. (For the purposes of this analogy), you have to just draw a line.

Bodie as dead soulless killer

One writer draws the line 1-3-6, and writes a Bodie where those are the three most important character traits (say, the sick joke in the Bieberman ep, the time he punches his girlfriend in Close Quarters, and the time he insists on fighting Krivas hand-to-hand in Where the Jungle Ends). This gives us Bodie the 1/2 dead soulless killer....

Another author looks at these data points, and picks 2-3-5 (Three 'nice Bodie' moments. Thus we get teddy bear stories.)

M.Fae, on the other hand, (imho) sometimes deliberately chooses 1-2 or 5-6 or 6-7. Just a couple of data points, ones that may be directly contradicted in other episodes, and then hangs a story on those observed behaviors and actions.

Bodie as teddy bear

There are times when this works wonderfully. When we have seen Bodie do or say something but it was so far out of the ordinary for him that no one has known what to do with it, for example, she will write a whole story around it that no one else would have written.

I think it also works great for well-known characters that have been nearly written to death; she finds new ways to explore them.

On the other hand, this can lead to stories with extremes of characterization that seem 'off' to some, especially in Professionals stories."

How MFae approaches characterization