Freezing

Fanfiction
Title:	Freezing
Author(s):	Helen Raven
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):	Bodie/Doyle
External Links:	online here
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Freezing is a Bodie/Doyle story by Helen Raven.

It is an authorized sequel and part of The Siren Series.

The Series

• Siren by Sebastian
• Bound to the Mast by Sebastian
• Going to Shore by Sebastian
• Freezing by Helen Raven
• Siren Alternate Ending by Anne Carr

From The Pre-History of Slash: a talk for Slash Night 2

My next two stories, over the next two years, were also published by Sara, but in anthology zines in her very straightforward house style. [bring out Unprofessional Conduct 3 and 6]

The first one is a novella called “Freezing" that was a happy ending to an unfinished sequence of stories by Sebastian that had been a torment to many of us for years. Left to myself, I wouldn’t have dreamed of trying to second-guess Sebastian, but a friend begged me for the story as a birthday present, and to my own surprise I did make it work. It convinced me. Those boys are happy now.

The zine as a whole won an award, and Sara sent us all photocopies of the certificate. [show photocopy]

Reactions and Reviews

2006

This is heartbreakingly good. Actually a sequel to Sebastian's Siren series, but it can stand alone. Raven has a way of getting inside the lads, so that you're looking out from their scared hearts…

2007

All I can remember about it is that the Bodie/Doyle relationship was fairly new. Bodie is away on a solo op. When he returns, he is making love to Doyle and sees bruises on his inner thighs, and realizes Doyle has fucked someone else while he was gone, so he walks out.

A typical, psychologically-driven story from one of my very favourite writers. I’ve never found it easy to explain *why* I love Helen Raven’s writing so much (apart from the obvious reason that I think she’s a damn good writer) and why, for me, it’s quite different to/from the writings of other people. I think it’s partly to do with things like: the very definite mood she creates (as opposed to atmosphere), a mood which is often sad, depressed, melancholy, introspective, low-key and tentative. A mood which is never boring and never predicable.. A mood where I feel I’m reading each line with ‘bated breath’ as though I can’t wait to get to the end of it in order to get onto the next line. And within this mood there’s the important ingredient of sexual tension – a tension which is subtle, understated and very effective. Thus she manages to create more sexual vibes with one simple, innocent touch, than many other writers manage with a full blown sex scene.

[excerpts from the story snipped]

And I think one of Helen Raven’s greatest strengths is that she treats her readers as adults, people who don’t need a constant, running monologue to explain the obvious. Instead she allows us to see what is happening, to puzzle for ourselves what is really going on between the conflicted Bodie and Doyle So my very, favourite quote is from Doyle – a Doyle who throughout the story is emotionally paralysed and tortured by his inability to assume responsibility for his real feelings for Bodie and ‘by the knowledge that he would let Bodie down’; a Doyle who is so terrified and paranoid that this love might not succeed he is prepared to delude himself into thinking that Bodie is having an affair with someone else. And the turmoil within Doyle appears to be *so* hopeless that when he finally and unconsciously articulates his own feelings for Bodie and, in his own way, admits his love for him, even though you've got a lump in your throat, the relief makes you want to cheer.

[excerpts from the story snipped]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Freezing - I cannot tell you enough that I appreciate how you cut through the nebulous confusion and highlight the heart of the matter. I love your comments about the mood Helen Raven spins; A mood where I feel I’m reading each line with ‘bated breath’ as though I can’t wait to get to the end of it in order to get onto the next line. Yes, yes, yes - that's *it*. I also absolutely agree with your insight that she "treats her readers as adults". Two giant steps closer to articulating what it is about Helen Raven's writing that we love.

I have to admit there were times in the story when I was getting quite worried about Doyle and his intentions towards Bodie, thinking things like: what *is* he playing at? How could he so casually sleep with this Alan, break Bodie's heart and think that Bodie wouldn't mind? But his final 'speech' to Bodie makes it all worthwhile and I thought that was such a brilliant way of showing us the real depth of his feelings for Bodie and the fact that he just *can't* bring himself to see this or to articulate it.

D'you know, this story was the first one I had printed out, ever, and I brought it with me up here, and I fell deeper and deeper in love with the two of them every time I read it. It's a little bit not-quite-them to me, the way Raven somehow always does, but it's a slightly slanted view of them that drags me in every time...

I absolutely agree with you about the moods that Raven creates too, there's such a depth of sadness to everything she writes, a melancholy just as you say. Even the happy bits have that tinge to them, as though they could never last. She's a real talent for twinging at your heart strings, and I think that's the most wonderful thing a writer can do - make you feel, even when you've put the pages down and are moving on to other things. Raven requires recovery time, and even if it's from melancholy, I think that's an amazing thing.

And much as I like the others of the Adagio series, I think I like Freezing best of all...

...what I get when I'm reading her stories is an effect like a heartbeat. It isn't something that's obvious when you look at plot or characterisation in themselves, but it's there for me. In 'Heat Trace',it's underpinned by the regular mentions of the shifts that Doyle is working, and (I find this hard to express properly) it creates a sense that things are moving, like a slow river. It's a realistic, kind of 'life has to go on' narrative effect.

...it's not my favourite HR story (I even love my non-favourite HR stories!) and I think it's partly because of the way she portrays Doyle's handling of Bodie (especially at the beginning) which didn't rest easily with me at all; and that's partly why I love the end so much, because the speech seems almost as though Doyle is redeeming himself.