Polly Bywater
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Polly Bywater |
| Alias(es): | polly_b, pollybywater, Akilah |
| Type: | fanwriter |
| Fandoms: | Sentinel, X-Files, Star Trek: VOY, others |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | http://geocities.com/polly_bywater/index.html (Slash Fiction by Polly Bywater) polly_b at LiveJournal polly_bywater at Dreamwidth pollybywater at AO3 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Polly Bywater is a fan writer primarily in The Sentinel and The X-Files fandoms. She has also written stories under the name Akilah.
Her fanfiction was posted at her GeoCities site, Slash Fiction by Polly Bywater, updated until 2007. She also posted X-Files stories at The Basement. Her stories are now available at her Dreamwidth and at Archive of Our Own.
Interview
Fan Comments
Cindershadow:I only discovered her a few months ago, however, my memories of what attracted me and why are pretty fresh. TS fans will definitely want to add her to their reading lists. (She also writes in Voyager, the X-Files, and other fandoms, but thus far I’ve been wallowing in the TS writing, so I can’t point anyone to specific stories in those other areas, with the exception of the “Obligation” series, a seductive TS/X-Files crossover.) Her milieu is slash, but it’s never mere PWP. Instead, as Blair might say, “It’s about the relationship, man.”
The first story I read by her was a serial she posted on sentinel_thurs with each chapter title beginning with an “R.” It’s now all in one spot under the title “Retrieval”... I found it an excellent introduction to her other work, since it combines many of the characteristics which attract me in her writing as a whole: She does a fine job of addressing the dynamics of family, both biological and constructed. She has a strong Jim/Blair relationship which treats both men fairly. She creates very effective Original Characters but doesn’t let them dominate the story disproportionately. And she tells an absorbing, unique tale. Her stories combine many of the elements about TS which I find most appealing. I like the sense of connection between the characters, which incorporates the tensions and differences as well as what draws them together. I like the sensuality, expressed in the context of that connection. In “Retrieval,” in particular, I like the way she’s squarely addressed the flaws of the parental generation but also treated William and Naomi with understanding and compassion. And I like that she’s not afraid to present a strong romantic and sexual link between Jim and Blair in “Set in Stone” (just right for the upcoming holidays) and “A Round of Tumult” (in which there is a post TSbBS “coming out” in all possible ways and an examination of what comes after). In addition to these longer works, her website includes short pieces written for sentinel_thurs challenges up through #59; since this week’s challenge is #117, you’ll want to use the link to that site noted below to catch up on what she’s written since then. I particularly enjoyed the lush “Filling the Gaps” and (especially since we get lots of "first times" but rarely a "second time" story) the sensuous “After the First.”
On her own website, you’ll find both her Jim/Blair stories and also the “Obligation” series, an X-Files crossover which is not only effectively written but is also just right for those moments when you feel Blair has had to take too much pain with too little recompense and that Jim and Simon deserve to have him just move on with his life somewhere—and with someone—else. It’s got angst, it's got hurt/comfort, it’s got hot sex, it’s got repentant Jim, it’s got a Blair who suffers yet survives and succeeds . . . and even the fact that I know nothing about this part of X-Files was not an issue. [1]
Fanworks
References
- ^ 2005 comments by Cindershadow