Cassatt
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Cassatt |
| Alias(es): | Cass-audio |
| Type: | fanwriter |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek: Voyager, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Law & Order |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | Cassatt's Fiction |
| URL: | Cassatt at AO3 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Cassatt is a Star Trek: Voyager, Law & Order, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanwriter and an original fiction author, with a writing focus on slash fic. She began in the 1990s, posting her work to Cassatt's Fiction, as well as other websites. In 2021, Cassatt closed her personal author page and migrated her slash works to Archive of Our Own.
During her time in the VOY fandom during the show's first run, both when she was a Janeway/Chakotay writer and then a Chakotay/Paris writer, she was honored to win awards in VOY story contests. She did get push-back from some in the fandom, usually expressed as: I can't see this pairing at all. Reason usually given: McCoy is (unknown decades) older than Green so therefore why would Green be attracted to McCoy? Reason occasionally implied: their racial difference.[citation needed]
Cassatt was also involved in the Law & Order slash fandom where she wrote the pairing of Jack McCoy and Ed Green. She originally paired them up as a personal challenge in what was meant to be a stand-alone: Side Bar. That short piece morphed into a mystery-romance novel with three sequels, and all of her works with Jack and Ed were ultimately well-received. The final work she wrote with Jack and Ed was Ex Post Facto, included in the zine Dyad #26 in 2013 and subsequently web-published to her website and to AO3 in 2015.
History
I began writing fanfiction in the late 1990s, in the fandom Trek:Voyager, starting in the Janeway/Chakotay fandom, then "defected" ;) to M/M slash - Chakotay/Paris "The Fantasy of Tom". Eventually created, within "Shape of Shadows", the pairing Ayala/Kim in 2001. I'm sure other folks had written Ayala/Kim before me, but I hadn't run across any stories. I wrote Ayala/Kim for awhile. I enjoyed fleshing out the lower decks Ayala, and still do.[1]
Awards
- Koffee Klub's Awesome Author Award - Honorable Mention 2001: 8 fics of different genres entered and readers voted on the collection.
- Voyager Blue Alert NC-17 Fanfic Contest 2 (2000) - Honorable Mention: Botanical Extracts (off internet) J/C; Existing Stories Category
- Voyager Blue Alert NC-17 Fanfic Contest 3 (2001) - Honorable Mention: The Fantasy of Tom J/C, C/P, P/T; Other Pairings Category
- Voyager Blue Alert NC-17 Fanfic Contest 3 (2001) - Honorable Mention: It's All In How You Play the Game J/C, C/P; New Stories Category
- Voyager Blue Alert NC-17 Fanfic Contest 5 (2002) - Second Place: The Shape of Shadows C/P; Other Pairings Category
- Astrogirl's Spooky Fanfic Contest - First Place: The Shape of Shadows
- Koffee Klub's Picnic Prose Prize - Divergent Pathways (off internet) J/C
- Winter Magic Fanfic Contest - Second Place: The Gift of Giving C/P
- Another Slashy Fic Rejected by Apocrypha - Side Bar: a tongue-in-cheek award of honor. Apocrypha was the L&O fic mailing list & zine.
Chakotay/Paris
I do not write "enemy slash" for Chakotay/Paris. I never saw Chakotay as a domineering personality, nor Tom as a submissive personality in canon. I saw their history portrayed, pre-canon: See "Secrets and Lies". I know Chakotay was introduced in early publicity as the first bisexual character in Trek. I saw two men who were passionate, complex, loyal. I chose to explore the "why" of their tension, the potential ramifications.[1]
One of the first works Cassatt shared with the C/P fandom when she initially put her toe in those waters was the stand-alone, Driftng. It is a drabble series, when "drabble" was defined as 100 words exactly. The POV changes, drabble to drabble, between Chakotay and Tom Paris. She wrote it after a conversation with Shayenne about drabble writing, and a nudge from her to write an actual story using more than one drabble. Drifting is acutely romantic. Some in the C/P fandom (via two mailing lists) responded with critical comments that the two men were not romantic, at least not with each other. The term "Enemy Slash" was not used, but the comments were meant to explain that that was how the characters were slashed. Off-list, Cassatt received emails from others in the fandom who encouraged her to continue to write Chakotay and Tom Paris as able to fall in love with each other, within the characterizations given in canon. Soon, others posted more romantic stories about the two characters, and at the time (ca 2001-2003) it seemed to be an approximate ratio of 50/50 - romantic fics / darker fics. Cassatt was surprised to see the pairing defined, here, as = "Enemy Slash."
Het vs Slash Skirmishes in VOY
Cassatt joined the Voyager fandom writing Janeway/Chakotay. She wrote J/C fics for ~2 years. Frustrated by the way TPTB were characterizing Chakotay (dumping his Maquis edge and experience), she began reading Chakotay/Paris fics. She found that many of them wrote Janeway in a negative light - some extreme - which did not comport with her view of the character. In a number of J/C stories Cassatt wrote unleashed Chakotay, who expressed his anger and frustration in re: his role on the ship and continually being pushed away by Janeway. These writing experiences were temporarily satisfying, but ultimately, because of the command structure on Voyager, Janeway was always going to be the one in control of any relationship dynamic between her and Chakotay. She set the rules, always. So, Cassatt decided to try writing some Chakotay/Paris to see how it went - and started with The Fantasy of Tom. It's a story in which both J/C and P/T are in committed relationships, but Chakotay and Tom begin a sexual relationship for various reasons, which causes some unpleasant complications. Around about chapter 7, Cassatt realized the two men were falling in love with each other (for various reasons), and so added that to the story, etc.. She posted Fantasy of Tom to her J/C mailing lists and to her website. Her friends in the J/C fandom expressed some dismay (there was much rending of garments) at the subplot of the men falling in love. Some wrote her offlist to "confess" they read C/P, too, and liked it.
It was after this experience that Cassatt began to actively drift away from the J/C part of the fandom and joined C/P mailing lists, putting her efforts toward C/P fics. It was there that she received push back about her characterization of Janeway as a friend to Chakotay and to Tom Paris, and not an evil, crazy woman. Cassatt continued to straddle the two parts of the fandom for a while until she caused more consternation among the J/Cers by writing It's All In How You Play the Game for Blue Alert. It was written specifically to enter in the contest, so unread by the fandom before Blue Alert. A fellow J/C writer offered the plot bunny - in the episodes Killing Game, Janeway has her memories restored the day before Chakotay does, and makes love with Chakotay (as Miller) so she can have the experience and he'd be none the wiser. Cassatt thought Chakotay would be ultimately upset to find this out and wrote it that way. She added a Chakotay/Paris subplot (as Miller/Davis) which is the story's ending - when the two men regain some memory of the sex they had in Hirogen Hell, they ask each other, "Now what?" Though she did win an H.M. for Game in Blue Alert, she was made aware that her J/C story arc did not please - apparently this situation was supposed to be seen as (somehow) romantic. In the sequel, The Rules of the Game, Chakotay's experience with Janeway is considered by some characters as a form of sexual abuse, since it was non-con.
Cassatt would tell you that in having a foot in each part of the fandom she saw first hand the hostility some in each group felt for the other. Ultimately, she stayed with Chakotay and Tom as her pairing of choice, even reworking old J/C stories on occasion to improve the writing, and recreate them as C/P stories.
Co-writers
In the Law & Order fandom Cassatt participated in a Round Robin - Plain Sight Exception - with Cirocco, Tobias Charity, and LindaK.
After the final season of Voyager, Cassatt and Shayenne and other J/C writers (AKA The Finale Fixit Group) wrote a novel entitled Tying The Threads, published September 2001.
Tying the ThreadsWith chapters by (in alphabetical order): Anne Rose, Autopilot, Cassatt, Kayla, K.J., LA, LauraJo, Mary S., Sängerin, Shayenne and Sheri
Project Editors: Cassatt and Shayenne
Tying the Threads placed second in the J/C Index Endgame Challenge!
Voyager's final episode left a lot a lot of questions unanswered. What happened to the Maquis? Is the Doctor sentient? How does Naomi feel about being on Earth? What happened to Tuvok and T'Pel? And of course, the biggest questions of all - what happened to Kathryn and Chakotay? And Voyager herself.
"Tying The Threads" is a group project that aims to answer some of those questions, and bring the whole finale to a more pleasing... resolution.
Cassatt also participated in a Voyager fandom-wide project entitled Voyager Virtual Season 8.
Bibliography
| Title | Published | Fandom |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 2000-2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| 21st Century Fun and Games | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Avalanche | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| A Break in the Action | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Change of Seasons (orig J/C version) | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Christmas in Indiana | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Disease | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Fight | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Furiously Yours Trilogy +1 | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Firewalk | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Fun With Chuckles and Kathy | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Galley Raid | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| To A Logical Conclusion (orig J/C version) | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Long Nights | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Night Vision | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| No One Knows But You (orig J/C version) | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Parenthood | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| What A Pip | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Thief (orig J/C version) | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Working in Bed | 2000 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Botanical Extracts | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Cupid's Phaser | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Dance | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Divergent Pathways | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Double Dare | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Other Dynamic Duo | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Experiment | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| To Force the Truth | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Out Hunting, Late One Night (orig J/C version) | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Hollow Intaglio (orig J/C version) | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| In the End | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Life Lessons | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| A Big Human Mistake | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Season Seven Chakotay | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Season Seven Chakotay II; No Longer Working | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Once More, With Feeling | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Chakotay's Revenge | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Fantasy of Tom (J/C, C/P, P/T) | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Drifting | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| A Kiss Is Just A Kiss | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Gift of Giving | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Off Shift Concerns | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Il Pleur Dans Mon Coeur | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Seduction | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| John Wayne vs. James Bond | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Shape of Shadows | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Wild Stallion | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| It's All In How You Play The Game (J/C, C/P) | 2001 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Rules of the Game(C/P) | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Completely His (w/Shayenne) | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Redux (3 chapts w/Shayenne) | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| A Sporting Chance | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Unbeknownst | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Undone | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Unmailed, Unwritten Logs | 2002 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Gordian Knot (w/Shayenne) | 2003 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Off Shift Concerns, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Seduction, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Shape of Shadows, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| A Sporting Chance, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Undone, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| It's All In How You Play the Game, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Rules of the Game, Rev. Edition | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Morning | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| One In A Million | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Unless and Until | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Carl Jung Walks Into A Bar | 2021 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Redux, Rev. Edition | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Wild Stallion, Rev. Edition | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Secrets and Lies | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| When Cut Below the Surface | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Incandescence; An Alpha/Delta Diptych | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Dream A Little Dream | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| All Things Seen As They Are | 2022 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| The Moon Has Beams | 2023 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| No One Knows But You (C/P version) | 2023 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Coming to Terms, Late One Night | 2023 | Star Trek: Voyager |
| Breathing Space | 2023 | Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Picard - No Man's Land |
| He, Him or It | 2002 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Playing Favorites | 2003 | Star Trek: Voyager, Law & Order |
| Choices Made | 2002-2004 | Law & Order |
| Uberpout | 2002 | Law & Order |
| Plain Sight Exception | 2003 | Law & Order |
| A Question of Romance | 2003 | Law & Order |
| In A Stranger's Guise | 2003 | Law & Order |
| Lost In The Woods | 2004 | Law & Order |
| Doors, Unlocked | 2004 | Law & Order |
| Burning | 2004 | Law & Order |
| Elan Vital | 2004 | Law & Order |
| Electrical Impulses | 2004 | Law & Order |
| Pre-Nuptial Agreement | 2004 | Law & Order |
| Inevitability | 2004 | Law & Order |
| The Investigation (SVU Remix) | 2004 | Law & Order SVU |
| Tag, You're It! | 2005 | Law & Order |
| In the Pink | 2005 | Law & Order |
| Insurmountable | 2005 | Law & Order |
| Incurable | 2005 | Law & Order |
| In Media Res | 2005 | Law & Order |
| Snowed In | 2005 | Law & Order |
| Ancient Airs & Dances | 2005 | Law & Order |
| Inevitability Redux | 2005 | Law & Order |
| A Persistence of Vision | 2006 | Law & Order |
| Falling Down on the Job | 2006 | Law & Order |
| Plausible Deniability | 2011 | Law & Order |
| No Choice In The Matter | 2011 | Law & Order |
| Ex Post Facto | 2013 | Law & Order |
References
- ^ a b c "Cassatt - Author Profile". AO3. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18.