Jane of Australia

Fan
Name:	Jane (of Australia)
Alias(es):	JJ, Kathy Keegan, Madelaine Ingram, Jade, JJ Downes, J.J. Adamson, Jennifer Downes, Jennifer Adamson-Downes , JJ Adams, Felicity Granger ) Other aliases: Shawn Gedge, Karen Jameison, Yvette Clark, Jack Heston, Barbara Jones, Sara Lansing , Viv Alexander, Adam Jenson, G.W. Conrad, Jane Sterling (sometimes Stirling), Carla Manners, and Peta Brock. Also some pro names: two are Michelle Goddard, and The One That Dares Not Say Its Name... though says it here and here.
Type:	fan writer, zine editor
Fandoms:	The Professionals, Due South, Starsky & Hutch, Star Wars, UFO
Communities:
Other:
URL:	a list of Jane's Professionals fiction and pseuds
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Jane of Australia was a BNF and a very prolific writer and artist.

She wrote and published simply as Jane, as well as under many different pseuds. The name used with most of her later art was "Jade."

The "of Australia" of "Jane of Australia" was used later by other fans to differentiate between the several Janes in fandom, especially Professionals fandom, including Jane Carnall and Jane Mailander.

Jane began her fannish writing in the early to mid 1980s and mostly wrote in The Professionals, Star Wars, and Starsky and Hutch.

When asked what her first Bodie/Doyle story was, Jane said: "I have no idea! I really can't remember! It wasn't "Old Longings," though that was one of the first opus. I just don't remember what the first story was."

Some of Jane's Pros fiction is available at The Circuit Library.

See List of Fanworks by Jane of Australia. See List of Fanworks by Kathy Keegan.

Jane's Style

Jane had a fairly distinct style. In The Professionals, she liked her Ray Doyle a bit fragile and delicate as a "fallen angel", and the bottom in his sexual relationship with William Bodie.

Her stories and novels were very much loved for their intricate plots, and very much hated by the more realism-loving fans. Whether disliked or adored, she was definitely used as an icon by both sides in the fannish culture wars in the late 80s-early 90s. One fan wrote of this fannish divide and remembered the "...great Jane of Australia debate in which opinion seems to be pretty evenly divided between those who adore her work and those loathe it."

Zine Publishing

"What — or who — in the world is Nut Hatch?!"

In the early to mid-1980s, she began writing as J.J. Adamson. Along with her brother Mike Adamson, she began to publish gen fanzines under the press name, Entropy Express.

The Adamson's empire grew to be mighty. See Nut Hatch Press.

Relationship to Gerry Downes

Jane's mother-in-law was Gerry Downes, the fan famous for her seminal slash zines.

In 2002, Jane, writing as Jennifer Downes, wrote From Alaska With Love about her relationship with Gerry Downes.

Fanartist

As Jane and JJ

Jane's art and JJ's art were hand-drawn. See Empire Star #5 and Blue Eyes and Blue Jeans #2.

As Jade

In addition to her many pen names, Jane also created and sold fan art under the name Jade. It consisted mostly of photo-manipulations. Her art was sold as bookmarks, fridge magnets, trading cards, tote bags, and later, book covers for Mel Keegan:

See Starsky & Hutch, Highlander, and LOTR art pages.

She also published The Hunting Deskmate a 1992 or 1993 Professionals calendar.

Some other examples of Jade's art is here.

Went Pro

As early as 1988, Jane delved into the area of submitting her fanfiction to be professionally published as pro fiction. In the editorial to Fantazine #1, she wrote about herself in the third person explaining her decision to allow her fiction to be available to fans along side it being submitted to a publishing house, how some of her Pros fiction was only marginally related to the show itself, and how "Kathy" and others had encouraged a reluctant "Jane" to take this action:

All the fiction in this zine is strictly copyright. Please - note that even after the stories are cleared for B/D circulation, they remain copyright to the author. We make this statement with due deliberation because the original material appearing within these pages is on professional submission to various publishers at this time. It is a 1000:1 shot against anything EVER coming of it (and Jane wanted nothing to do with such submissions, but her arm was twisted with impunity), but long shots have come up before, so — NB, these stories REMAIN copyright even after they are circuit cleared! Thanks for your attention.

It wasn't until the late 1990s, however, that Jane had success in publishing many of her Professionals fanfic novels and as gay fiction under the name Mel Keegan. In some cases, Jane changed little more than the names as the original fanfic stories were AUs, not dependent on the source's setting. While she never publicly connected her professional name to her fannish pseud(s), it's an open secret in Pros fandom.

Both Jane's fanworks and her pro works were advertised and sold on the same website: http://www.dream-craft.com/melkeegan/home.htm. See The DreamCraft Connection.

A fan in 2015 wrote:

...I've always figured [ Jane] didn't file off the serial numbers from her fanfic, but wrote original characters, then changed the names and appearance descriptions so she could market the texts as both pro m/m and fanfic. Jane's characters mostly bear little resemblance to Bodie or Doyle, either, even giving her all the slack of almost always writing in AUs.

Mapping Jane's Professionals Fanfic to Mel Keegan's Professional M/M Gay Books

• Aquamarine by Jane in Fantazine #5 (1993), later published as "Aquamarine" by Mel Keegan
• Breakheart by Jane in Other Times and Places #6 (1995), later published as Breakheart by Mel Keegan
• An East Wind Blowing by Jane in Fantazine #4, published as "An East Wind Blowing" by Mel Keegan
• A Madrigal by Jane (1987), later published as "Fortunes of War" by Mel Keegan
• The Perfect Gentleman by Jane (1991),later published as "Dangerous Moonlight" by Mel Keegan
• The Swordsman by Jane (1993), later published as "The Swordsman" by Mel Keegan
• Twilight by Jane in Fantazine #1 (1988), later published as "Twilight" by Mel Keegan
• Unfinished Melody by Jane (1988), later published as "Nocturne" by Mel Keegan
• Flood Tide by Madelaine Ingram (1992), later published as "Storm Tide" by Mel Keegan
• Ice, Wind and Fire by Kathy Keegan in Cross My Heart #1 (1987), later published as "Ice, Wind and Fire" by Mel Keegan
• Nothing Left to Lose by Jane and Madelaine Ingram (from a story by Kathy Keegan) in Leather and Blue Jeans (1993), later published as "Windrage" by Mel Keegan
• The White Rose of Night by Felicity Granger (1994), later published as "The White Rose of Night" by Mel Keegan
• Witchfires ("Legends" aka "Witchfire" series #1) by Madelaine Ingram in Cross My Heart #5 (1990), later published as "The Winds of Chance" (aka "Legends: The Fall of the Atlantean Empire")
• Hellgate

Interviews

• Interview with Jane of Australia (1997)

Pseuds

Jane published under many pseudonyms, something she often denied.

In a late 1990s interview, she said she had written up to 500 stories using various pseuds.

art from Empire Star #5 (1982) by J.J. Adamson: it portrays Kevin Keegan (professional football player), Han Solo (professional scoundrel) and Luke Skywalker (farmboy and future Jedi) on the playing field; Kevin Keegan may have been the inspiration for one of of Jane's many pseuds, Kathy Keegan. Keegan in this illo also looks a lot like Ray Doyle, though that might just be the hair talking.

Pseuds: Probable and Confirmed

JJ and Jade, Kathy Keegan, Madelaine Ingram, Jade, JJ Downes, J.J Adamson and Jennifer Downes , JJ Adams, Felicity Granger (Felicity Granger is confirmed by Jane herself in the online version of a fic. - ) Other rumored aliases: Shawn Gedge, Jack Heston, Viv Alexander, Adam Jenson, G.W. Conrad, Jane Sterling, and Peta Brock.
Also some pro names: two are Michelle Goddard, and the one that dare not say its name...

Jane Talks About Her Pseuds

Statements by Jane from articles, interviews, and website promotions.

[unknown date, likely early 2000s]: At this moment, Nut Hatch and its gen-fanfic partner, Entropy Express, is (are?) three core people: Jennifer Adamson-Downes, Dave Downes and Mike Adamson ... and if it sounds like we're family, that's cuz we are! At the hub of the press, being the dog's body, chief-cook-and-bottlewasher, old workhorse, around whom the whole thing revolves, it's Jennifer, long known to most of fandom as "JJ." Aha! Light may have dawned!

[unknown date, likely early 2000s]: DEEP WATER that paperback novel by Michelle Goddard ... aka Jane! In 1992, Jane's thriller, DEEP WATER, was produced by the small Australian publisher, White Heron Press ...

[1997]: Combining all fandoms I've written for, under all pen names, going back to the first fannish story I produced ... (pause for thought) ... I have no real idea, but it would have to be between 300 and 500 individual stories, some of them no more than 3ppm some 500pp.

[2002]: And here was a thrill: both Gerry and I are mentioned, albeit in passing, in the TEXTUAL POACHERS book. Look for us in the index! Sure, they managed to spell our name wrongly (Downs, don't you know?) but what the heck. Look for me under my pen-name of "Jane." I get a brief mention there for The Hunting. Our fifteen minutes of fame.

[2003]: "Jane" is the pen-name of a writer who has been read, and re-read for over twenty years in many fields — including the world of professionally published fiction! The Hunting, Flesh and Steel, The Dreaming Stone and Rainy Days are only a few of Jane's better-known credits ... and then she has three other pen names which may (or may not!) surprise you.

Mel Keegan Talks About Pseuds, and Jade

From a 2011 interview:

What was your first published work? When was it written and/or published? Was it in the gay fiction genre?

My first published works were not in the gay genre, and were not on the Mel Keegan by-line; they go back to about 1980 – they’d be of no interest to anyone reading about Mel Keegan. To go into those credits, I’ll also have to disclose two or three of my pen names, and I’d rather not do this. Professional discretion!

In 2018, Keegan mentioned Jade several times:

As ill health began to overtake Mel, the volume of his writing fell away -- and at the worst possible time. He did produce the 320,000 word finale to HELLGATE, and do it on time, back in the Bookshelf years, but the immense project hurt and he took a much-needed year to recover. In this same time, Jade retired, and to save the digital backlist from vanishing, Mel bought DreamCraft for a peppercorn ... yes, MK has owned DreamCraft since 2014, so all the books at Amazon, CreateSpace, Smashwords and Lulu have remained in place.

[snipped]

A self-confessed science fiction and fantasy devotee, Keegan is known for novels across a wide range of subjects, from the historical to the future action-adventure. He still lives in South Australia with an eccentric family and a variety of pets, and for years has actually owned the DreamCraft "brand" after having been known to work as a part-time, standby editor in the "Jade and Dave years," going back two decades now.

Kathy Keegan: I Am Not Lanie Stone, Madelaine Ingram, Kathy Snow, and Jane Carnall

In 1991, some fans became confused with Jane and other fans' names, enough so to have her make this statement (as Kathy Keegan) in 1991's Encore!:

Just a few words this time — a few minor clarifications which are long overdue. First, to the matter of identity. Madelaine Ingram is not the same writer as Lainie Stone! The 'pet' form of the name, 'Lainie' may have caused some confusion, but I assure you these are two different writers. Also, 'our' Jane here at Nut Hatch is not England's Jane Carnall. The Jane responsible for the Raven/Bodie stories is a resident of Australia, and not to be confused with the English lady. Also, I am not Kathy Snow! Like Jane, I am an Australian, while Kathy Snow lives in California.

Jane: I Am Not Kathy Keegan

In 1990, Jane wrote in the forward to Clan of the White Fox

I want to thank the people who are circulating the rumour that Kathy and I are the same person. That's fabulously flattering (even if it isn't true). In fact...have you added together the number of pages Kathy writes, and Jane writes? Truth is, you're ascribing about 750,000 WORDS PER YEAR to one writer, and I don't know that that would be physically possible for any one writer. Three quarters of a million words a year! But it certainly is enormously flattering to be credited with Kathy's work. It comes as a real compliment! Unless it's Kathy being credited with mine. Hmmm.... Anyway, suffice to say, it takes two of us to wade through the amount we write, and if you stop to think about it, and add it up, it's fairly obvious. (Also, if you compare styles, Kathy's way of putting words together is much more gritty; and her characters love expletives!)

From an Interview with Jane of Australia in the early 2000s:

I HEARD THAT YOU AND KATHY KEEGAN HAD A BIG FIGHT...? Absolutely untrue! I won't speak at length about this ... suffice to say, we parted on the best of terms, but Kath just had other places to be, other things to do, and her life took her in one direction while mine took me in another!

Kathy Keegan: I Am Not Mel Keegan

In 1993, Kathy Keegan wrote in Fantazine #5:

One day, many moons after Hellgate was conceived, two characters called Jarrat and Stone took to the spaceways — and hereby hangs a tale. Or do I mean, tail?! First, a mildly astonishing fact: Mel Keegan's first NARC book, Death's Head, was penned in 1985, and went through four incarnations and six drafts before it found its way into professional print.

Special Note: don't mix old Kath up with Mel Keegan! I don't deserve the credit for those novels, didn't earn it, won't accept it if you try to say that I wrote the NARC books. I didn't! Categorically. Not one single word of them. Coincidentally, however, my unmarried name was Keegan; but there the connection ends ... like my state of wedded, uh, bliss. For want of a better word. (I know: my life is a soap opera). So, let me state for the record, a penultimate time: do not hand the credit for Mel Keegan books to me because of a coincidence of by-line, that would be unfair, unjust and just plain wrong!! Right.

That said, I have to make a confession before my own novel begins. I borrowed all the technology for this piece right out of the NARC books [by Mel Keegan]. Only steal from the best! And if an acknowledgment should go to anyone upon the writing of this book (and it darned well ought to), then I have to thank the esteemed creator of Jarrat and Stone on my bended knees for putting me right on the science for this novel.

JJ Talks About Kathy Keegan and Barbara Jones

The editorial of Fantazine #5 (1993) includes a long author's foreword by JJ regarding this zine, and the state of the press due to "attacks," and her statements state that she is not Kathy Keegan or Barbara Jones: {{Quotation| Most importantly, I have to tell you, Nut Hatch has dwindled to just two people now. It's just JJ and Barb. Kath's domestic problems are too pressing for her to come back ... and I regret to say that the maliciousness that's been directed toward us lately has impacted very heavily on Angie and Pam. Neither of them have a constitution like Arnold, and (probably wisely), they've decided to drop out. It's always painful to be attacked, verbally or in print. Some of us have been enduring this for ten years, and all of us are both sad and depressed that it continues to happen. We won't fight; we don't have the energy, the killer instinct or the endurance, which probably makes people see us as easy targets. Also, we're highly visible, which makes us a large target! And we're fairly successful in several fields, which means that it's natural that we'll draw fire. Someone once said, 'they only tackle the one with the ball." But rationalising why you're being rubbished is not the same as being untouched by it. Our instinctive reaction was to go to ground, send out subscription refunds and close the press at once; Angie and Pam just walked out, but Barb and I decided to keep going at least until we've seen out our commitments.

[...]

The 'fallout" from this is that Nut Hatch is now down to two pairs of hands, and we're going to be slow!!

Madelaine Ingram Talks About JJ, Jane and Kathy Keegan

From Cross My Heart #6:

I want thank the people who wrote letters of comment about the first chapter of the story of Beydr and Raedal, and I particularly want to thank Kathy for having enough faith in the series to go on with it, though there were almost no comments at all about the second chapter, which appeared in Fantazine #2!

To the Artist, I owe a great debt. These illustrations bring the characters to life! If I'm choosing my personal favourite, it would be 'Raedal at the Gateway to Olympus,' but it's hard to choose.

I also own a great debt to Jane, whose editing of these chapters is invaluable. When I wander off the track, she gives me a gentle nudge back on to it...

And I have to thank JJ for lending me the Time/Life book in which I read about the legend of the Jaguar Kings of Central America....

The next part of this odyssey? The Nut Hatchlings have threatened to chain me to the typewriter and stand over me till it's finished ... I promise it will be ready for the Christmas zine! (I know how much I dislike 'to he continued' stories myself, unless the continuing parts come out quick.

Jane Talks About Shawn Gedge

From the "translator's notes" of Bound to Please:

In this instance, the greater part of the work I did on this issue was, quite literally, to translate American English into ... English English! And kids, it wasn't easy. To begin with, it can be hard to spot what's US and what's UK, because we here in Australia are fairly inundated with American TV and after a while (say, the first twenty-five years or so) Americanisms have just about taken over! Secondly, I had to draw a line somewhere, because I became aware that I was about to stifle Shawn's style. And I'd given her my word of honour that this was one thing I wouldn't do. So I settled for middle ground. I changed the spellings (if I missed any, such as car-tires, shades of gray, center of the page, or something, forgive me. I have a weird idea my spell checker may be on the blink. Either that or my eyes, and looked out for things that just had to be changed, like hood of the car and so forth ... and then I racked my brains to see if what I was taking for Americanisms aren't also used by Englishmen. Transpires, they are. I'd gotten to believe... the parking lot. I've recently heard these on Brit TV shows. So I ceased to meddle in Shawn's work, and just did my editing job instead!

Kathy Talks About Jane

From the editorial of Fantazine #1 (1988), Kathy wrote:

It is a 1000:1 shot against anything EVER coming of [Jane submitting her fan fiction minus Pros names/settings to professional publishing houses) (and Jane wanted nothing to do with such submissions, but her arm was twisted with impunity).

Also from the editorial of "Fantazine" #1, Kathy wrote:

A quick flip through the zine will show you that there is scant artwork. Blame HER, because if the stories had not run longer than BEN HUR, there would have been room for the drawings!

Kathy Talks About JJ, Jane, and Barbara Jones

From the editorial of Fantazine #5 (1993):

Thanks to Jane for her inestimable help in licking this into shape. As always, kid, your touch is light as a feather and accurate as an arrow. A better editor never laid blue pencil to paper.

On a personal note, in closing: I won’t be able to participate in Nut Hatch publishing until at least the middle of ’94, but I have completed most of Gentle On My Mind Chapter Five, and I’ll try to get it done, uh, right to the end and everything, so as not to hold up the zine.

[...]

I’m going to miss my involvement with the press. I just realised, we funded and produced our first zine over five years ago! In the meantime, no matter what happens, I wish The Nut Hatchlings all the very best. I urge readers to support them, and I also urge writers to sustain them. For a press to ‘keep on keeping on’ it has to have novels and stories to publish. There’s going to be a vacuum left where my work used to be, and someone must fill it or the supply of zines will, like a spring, dry up to one degree or another, flowing that gives me horrible guilt pangs, so I’m exhorting writers to help. JJ and Barb are doing a great job of keeping the show on the road, and there’s material on file for zines through into early ’94.

In the zine, The Hunting Companion #1, Kathy Keegan, wrote that "all the fiction is by Jane; all the artwork by JJ; there are poems by Barbara Jones and Sue-Anne Hartwick, as well as by Jane, and music by JJ. Non-fiction is by Kathy Keegan, who edited this opus." When Keegan goes on to say that "it is as self-indulgent for the reader as for those of us who put it all together..."

In the first volume of "The Hunting Companion" #1, Jane made another comment about occupying several bodies: "I get to write two segments for the price of one here, so I'm going to switch hats and become someone else entirely."

Jane Reviews Kathy Keegan's Zine

Summary from the 1994 flyer for Flesh and Steel, where Jane, as Kathy Keegan, reviews her own novel:

Possibly this writer's most astonishing project yet... Imagine a world where the vampiri are as real as the discovery of gunpowder, and the First World War rages late in the Fifteenth Century; when the witch and wolven, the enchanter and sorcerer, the Moor and Saracen rise out of the night with the ancient houses of Europe that trace their lineage to a time before the pharaohs, and make their stand against the witch persecuting Church of Rome...

[much snipped, see Flesh and Steel for more]

"This novel is filled with haunting characters, magic and myth. Flesh And Steel will haunt the reader for days. I was amazed." — Kathy Keegan.

Denial, Legal Threats, and Fan Discussion

In 1991, Jane threatened legal action against by Jane to Sandy Herrold which threatened legal action, 1984, mentioned by Sandy on Virgule-L, quoted with permission, on November 24, 1996:

FYI: I wouldn't continue in this vein [of suggesting that Jane and Kathy are the same person] in public if I were you. I once mentioned the *possibility* of them being the same person in a small Pros apa, and immediately received a letter from her promising legal action if I ever insinuated anything of the sort again. And absolutely not about Jane, but about pennames in general. I think people very definitely have the right to pseuds. We even allow pseuds on this list. But I do think making comments (using one name) about your own stories (written under another name) is not kosher. It would be one thing if it's done in fun--but writing serious reviews of a zine, and throwing in fulsome gushing about your own stories...? Ick.

This discussion regarding the belief that Kathy Keegan and Jane were the same person, as well as someone who'd gone pro after repurposing her Pros fanfic caused the editor, Linda Terrell, in Short Circuit #5 to include: "NUT HATCH PRESS has made a formal request that it be noted that "Jane" is NOT "Keegan." So Noted."

Some of the 1991 discussion in Short Circuit:

[Alyx/Sandy Herrold]:

By the way, I don't feel I'm betraying a confidence by telling you Kathy Keegan and Jane are the same person. No wonder you got them confused on Gentle on My Mind.

[another fan's reply]: Alyx, I have no idea whether you were in anyone's confidence or not, but I am in no one's confidence, and am perfectly aware that Jane and Kathy Keegan (and a variety of other pseudonyms) are the same person. A study of their language, phraseology, and writing styles told me that anyway. I don't understand why anyone should get het up about identifying two pseudonyms as being the same writer. Using more than one pen-name is common enough in the realm of published fiction.

A fan in 2008 wrote:

...it's pretty certain that Jane and Kathy Keegan are the same - I think you and I've had that conversation before! *g* If not, then it's a terrible coincidence that Mel Keegan has nicked some of Jane's (and Kathy Keegan's) Pros fic word-for-word and re-published it as original fic... *g* " AND "I don't think it's rude to ask Jane's professional pen-name at all! Having matched up, almost word-for-word, various Pros fics written by Jane, with what are now original fics under another name and with the characters renamed - I'm absolutely confident myself that Jane is now writing original fiction as "Mel Keegan". Either that or MK is a nasty little plagiarist... *g* I'm thinking the former! This is her website if you're interested... (Another of Jane's pseuds in Pros was "Kathy Keegan", if you've not come across that before...)

A fan in 2015 wrote:

The thing about Mel Keegan is that it was well known, I think--pretty hard to miss!--but Jane did everything possible to keep her pro identity and her fannish ones separate. She hated when somebody drew the obvious line between Mel Keegan's m/m books (published back in the day by the now defunct Gay Man's Press, then later by her own press) and her identically titled and identical text, other than names and appearances, B/D stories.

For me, it was never a secret because I read Mel Keegan's books before I got into fandom. So when I came into Pros fandom and saw all these zines with the same titles, well! But nobody in fandom talked about it much. Instead, we argued vehemently for unbelievable lengths of time in delightfully circular iterations about whether Jane was a "good" or a "mediocre" writer. The fandom was very split between Jane lovers and Jane shruggers. Jane of Australia was kind of like the Beatles vs. Rolling Stones dichotomy. *g*

[snipped]

Anyway, Jane never passed herself off as other than a female fan like the majority of the rest of us. Mel Keegan is generally considered male, perhaps, out in the world of m/m publishing, but that didn't impact the fandom at all.

Jane's only weirdness in regards to pseuds was her insistence that Kathy Keegan is a separate person, absolutely not Jane's pseud. Jane admitted Madeleine Ingram was her pseud, but not Kathy. That Kathy and Mel Keegan share a last name is a coincidence! That Kathy Keegan and Jane/Madeleine Ingram/Mel Keegan write in identical styles is also a coincidence! Oookay. It was amusing more than anything else. Jane published her own zines, wherein Kathy Keegan edited Jane's stories and Jane edited Kathy's and Madeleine's stories and they both wrote glowing editorial introductions about the other's works. :)

There might've been other Jane pseuds, come to think about it; I vaguely recall some speculation. 1 of them might've been a male pseud. But if so, that "male" writer was so minor as to be a nonentity and was never used to leverage any kind of authority in the fandom.

More Fannish Discussion Links Regarding Pseuds

• Discovered in the Christmas Tree, Day 3 in January, January 1, 2012; reference link
• Seeking Pros list makers and readers of (name redacted) books, March 11, 2012; reference link
• Pros Finder, March 12, 2012; reference link
• Random Thursday, post by Istia, October 1, 2015; reference link

Lists of pseuds/fics:

• Palely Loitering, ^{Archived version}
• Jane & Kathy Keegan's Pros Stories, ^{Archived version}, Prosfinder March 12, 2012
• Discovered in an LJ, ^{Archived version}, January 2012
• Seeking Pros list makers and readers of Mel Keegan's books, March 11, 2012

Jane's Spectacular Gafiation

Jane left fandom in an intricate, long (3703 words!), and angry flounce on May 17, 2006 which was posted as a message to Zinelist using the specifically created email: [email protected] ("To the folks who choose to set themselves up as accusers: you may be happy to know you're rid of me. The email address at the head of this letter says it all.") It is likely this message was sent to other venues, as well.

This flounce was a 27k open letter addressed to "fans at large." The rant touched upon (among many other things):

her unhappiness with fan complaints over unfilled zine orders which Jane attributed to malice and fandom's unwillingness to stand up to negative elements

Mark Twain and Dickens quotes

"the woman from Denver," aka "Ms. Denver" and this "ugly American's verbal dysentery"

email problems

being unappreciated

gossip

fans as "rabid dogs"

the 1% of fans who needed be to scolded and the other 99% who put up with them

Jane encourages fans to skip print zines and upload fiction to fanfiction.net

Some excerpts:

• "It was Easter Sunday! My husband and I realized this ahead of time and performed the rescue, including dinner, bedding and towels). We were worried they'd be cold -- we brought a heater, as well as a bag of groceries to start them off (the stores would be shut for another 36 hours). The woman from Denver was sick; I brought her remedies next morning. She was cold in the days following; I gave her my hat to keep her ears warm, and my wrap to warm her hands. My husband handed her his cell phone for her convenience. We're on tenterhooks, waiting for the bill. We would show up at their accommodations with loaded, unexpected picnic baskets. Welent A-Z map books; I lent the Denver woman my laptop to do her emails, and we burned several CDs of her digital photos ..."
• "Little wonder, there was soon a strained atmosphere between the person from Denver and my husband. He seldom "suffers fools gladly," and many of the things which come out in the course of the Denver woman's blathering are unbearable nonsense."
• "Thankfully, this Denver person is around 30 years too late to damage me. I joined fandom in 1975, when I was in my late teens. Since then, I've been involved as a writer, artist, editor and critic in SW, ST, K/S, S/H, B/D and Pros, Due South, Sentinel, and several other fandoms. In that time, I wish I could say this last situation represents only the first time rabid attack dogs have assaulted me. However, it happens routinely, every couple of years. The reason is usually an error (and it could very possibly be mine ... who's so perfect that they never make an error? Who's so evil that they don't deserve to be asked courteously about it, and ways to repair it? And who is so stupid, or so insane, as to "go for blood" without even asking a question first? Some fans do just this; they've been doing it for decades, and they've been allowed to). I've been in fandom so long, around 1980 I was on George Lucas's Christmas card list! I've written and/or published well over 100 zines and CDs. I've filled something like 15,000 orders. So the Denver woman is decades too late to make a villain of me."
• "Many years ago, Bill Shatner coined the phrase, "Get a life." He's been almost lampooned for the remark; but lately I have begun to wonder if he was not, in fact, dead right. When people like yourselves are so engrossed in their own hermetic world that they can no longer see reality -- and the danger of letting malicious idiots reside in your space -- you've got problems."
• "... forgive me, but the fannish community has been in dire need of some plain speaking for a very long time. Most fans would agree with this ... but because they have to live with the community, they (wisely) say nothing. Someone else must do the frank speaking-up."
• "... and it's time you knew who my husband is. He is the son of "the grandmother of slash," the late Gerry Downes. It was Gerry who *started* your slash fandom! The thirty-year rollercoaster ride you have enjoyed ... the libraries of zines you read ... the online archives of fanfiction ... are, to a very large extent, all Gerry's legacy. And *this* is the man who has been impeached, called a fraud and a thief, and much more, by the Denver woman."

Fan Reaction to Jane's Flounce

Fan reaction to Jane's open letter on Zinelist was sparse and consisted of those who supported Jane, those who felt her letter was self-indulgent and poorly-conceived, and those who had no idea who Jane was.

[unknown date]: [The Nut Hatch] was closed, and its website removed from the internet, following an apparent misunderstanding on one of the discussion lists in April/May 2006. Jane declared that she was leaving Pros fandom, and would not be giving permission for anyone else to reprint her stories or zines. This means that stories printed by the Nut Hatch Collective, unless they had been previously archived online, or unless writers other than Jane give permission for their work to be printed elsewhere (and it is suspected that Jane wrote under many pseudonyms), will only be available via secondhand zines.

[2006]: Personally, when someone leaves a 27K GBCW (GoodBye Cruel World) e-mail detailing exactly WHY this person is flouncing off the opera stage, I delete it. If you get pissed at a list, I say you go out like Cartman: "Screw you guys, I'm going home." No need for the death scene from Camillle.

[2006]:

As someone who has read the entire series of posts about Nuthatch, I feel that Jane was entitled to express her rebuttal.

Since the posters were so free with their criticism and It was only fair that she answer and to let those of us who will miss Nuthatch know that it is going and why.

This is not JUST another whining fan slamming the door folks, this is someone who has done an enormous amount for writers, readers and other fans and she deserves to be heard.

If you have not walked in her shoes, you should be careful of throwing stones.

[2006]: Same old same old with Jane of Nuthatch in Australia. Always the drama queen with excuses why what's going on in her life is more important than her paying customer's problem to be addressed.

I gave up on Jane in total disgust 10 years ago after buying PROFESSIONALS zines from her and corresponding with her regularly for many years. I'm talking every month or so, as often as they were coming out. I'm talking $50-$55 a pop because (a) the zine itself was expensive and (b) the Australian Airmail on top was a killer. A zine went missing and I informed Jane of this. She went ballistic: did I expect *her* to replace it? Silly me! She had her vitamins to buy that were more important to her (than keeping a loyal, regular customer happy and replacing a zine that she should have had a contingency fund to handle, as do many responsible zine publishers with good business sense).

I agree that a 27K novel of excuses is outlandish. Poor widdle me. <yawn> Like many others, I couldn't get through all the histrionics either. Jane, you wasted your afternoon apparently.

[2015]: Speaking of Pros, are we especially, um, blessed with orig fic m/m writers playing in the fandom or does it just seem that way?

Jane of Australia = Mel Keegan

Angelfish = Harper Fox

JGL/jgraeme = Josh Lanyon = Diana Killian = an actualfax woman with some other rl name

I don't know if it's significant of something or not that, as a fandom, we managed to drive 2 of those 3 to flounce. *g* In the usual ridiculous, eye-rolly, cliched flounce ways!

Fanworks

See List of Fanworks by Jane of Australia. See List of Fanworks by Kathy Keegan.

A listing of all of Jane's Professionals fan fiction written under the various fannish pseuds can be found here.

Gallery of Art Samples as "J.J."

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  from Blue Eyes and Blue Jeans #2 (1996)

Gallery of Art Samples as "Jade"

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  cover of Cascade Visions

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  cover of Shaman

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  cover of Merging Universes

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  art for Eternal Wind

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  art for Eternal Wind

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  Sample bookmark for sale

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  cover of Legends

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  "Digital Dreams" art sold on CD

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  cover A Year with Mason

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  cover of Ménage a Enterprise

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  art for Perfect Gentlemen

Reactions/Reviews

Comprehensive reviews of Jane's body of work are rare, and almost never in the pages of letterzines, the most common form of public fannish discussion before the internet. Most fannish commentary can be found on the pages of the fanzines that Jane herself published.

For an interesting discussion about Jane's work in its time, see commentary regarding the circuit story Old Longings.

Many fans enjoyed her fiction and her stories frequently appear on rec lists.

However, some fans had mixed emotions about Jane's use of pseudonyms, the overwhelming AU nature of her universes, her characterizations (especially of Raymond Doyle), and the repetitiveness to some of her stories.

1993

I wish this guy [Adam Jenson, one of Jane's pseuds] was more prolific - I have enjoyed all four of the Blake's 7 stories of his I have found. He is obviously an Avon fan, and not in the Avon-was-mad school, so that is probably a contributing factor in my enjoyment.

[That part of The Hunting] was ghostwritten. Well, I was under the impression that The Hunting was one of the few things Jane of Australia actually admits to having written in its entirety without coming up with another few reams of pseudonyms very poorly disguised as separate people to blame the stories on. I also think it goes much farther than a few turns of phrase or repeated descriptions (she does that in her professionally published stuff, as well as under her Jane pseud, and it's a pattern shared, oddly enough, with almost every single writer at Nuthatch), it's right down in there in the characterisations, which never EVER vary. Oh, there are a few new plot twists here, a few quirks there, but the basic characterisation and depiction remain absolutely unchanged--regardless of what either one of them should experience. I must confess, though, that I am awed (or should that be appalled, given my opinion of sweet elves, brain-damaged child-like Doyles being buggered by Bodie and gutsy little four liter engines driven by Botticelli angels?) by the sheer volume the woman produces--I don't see how she can have time to do anything else. But then, perhaps that explains why no-one has ever actually met *any* of the 'individual' writers at Nuthatch.. Which, given the size of Australian slashdom makes a snake look like a real party animal. As they say, quel odd.

Subject: Jane's Addiction.

Nice musical touch, that subject header, by the bye.

Anyway, [V] said (yes, yes, I still can't persuade Delphi to pay attention to it's own instructions. Still can't get the stupid bloody thing to stop crashing half the time either. One day, Delphi will die. And I will laugh. Loudly.) but anyway, Vicki said that part of The Hunting was ghostwritten. Well, I was under the impression that The Hunting was one of the few things Jane of Australia actually admits to having written in its entirety without coming up with another few reams of pseudonyms very poorly disguised as separate people to blame the stories on. I also think it goes much farther than a few turns of phrase or repeated descriptions (she does that in her professionally published stuff, as well as under her Jane pseud, and it's a pattern shared, oddly enough, with almost every single writer at Nuthatch), it's right down in there in the characterisations, which never EVER vary. Oh, there are a few new plot twists here, a few quirks there, but the basic characterisation and depiction remain absolutely unchanged--regardless of what either one of them should experience. I must confess, though, that I am awed (or should that be appalled, given my opinion of sweet elves, brain-damaged child-like Doyles being buggered by Bodie and gutsy little four liter engines driven by Botticelli angels?) by the sheer volume the woman produces--I don't see how she can have time to do anything else. But then, perhaps that explains why no-one has ever actually met *any* of the 'individual' writers at Nuthatch.. Which, given the size of Australian slashdom makes a snake look like a real party animal. As they say, quel odd. Stirring her cauldron, [M F G]

Hey, I LOVE Ray-as-a-Morhod-elf! But then, I'm really warped...

The thing I like about the Nut Hatch PROS stuff is that her style and skill have improved so drastically in the last ten years or so. I mean, I freely admit that the first two books of The Hunting suffered from a lethal case of passive-itis. The more recent releases show a lot more care and attention to style and active voice than the first books. It's like watching a writer grow up. She makes me believe I can do it with my own original science fiction and fantasy writing.

Gee, I would have said the opposite. I think Jane's writing style has gotten ponderous and self-indulgent, if anything, these days. I find it extremely difficult getting through her longer stories because she gets so repetitive.

In that respect, I agree. By writing style, I meant use of active over passive voice. It almost hurts to read the first installments of The Hunting, because she used so much passive language. The overuse of "was," "has been," "-ly," and "-ing" words, and lackluster description. Her more recent works, though she's a bit repetitive, are better in that respect. And you also must remember, Jane herself has only written about half of what's been printed about The Hunting. I was talking to Betty Ann Brown (Nut Hatch's US rep) just last week, and she told me this. Some of the repetition is most certainly the ghost writers picking up on words and turns of phrase that appeared in other works. They have deliberately used these words in order to disguise the fact that they're writing in someone else's universe. This is similar to the way almost all writers in the Professionals realm describe Doyle's eyes in feline terms (cat-green, et al.) or as emeralds, when in fact his eyes, though a shade of green, are neither slitted like cats nor as brilliant green as emeralds. It's just an accepted universal trait that few slash writers want to argue against. I think the overuse of certain descriptive terms in The Hunting falls under this same heading.

I didn't realize that writing badly could be considered a courtesy.... disguising one's own talents in order to continue a fanfic tradition as it began, how magnanimous. I guess Jane must be really pleased and gratified at the impact she's had.

1994

"Jane" is prolific. Jane may even be more than one person, according to some rumors I've heard. Either that, or she doesn't need to work for a living and can also type 120 words per minute on a bad day. Jane churns out AUs like they're going out of style, and still has time for CI5-based stories on the side. What a gal.

My first exposure to this legend of Pros Productivity came in 1992, when, as a naive and unsuspecting new Pros fan, I avidly sought out every story ever penned with the names "Bodie" and "Doyle" somewhere within, hounding my Pros mentor, Sandy, with a relentless intensity which would have frightened lesser mortals. Sandy loaned me lots of good stuff, but one day, no doubt in a fit of temporary bad taste, she gave me "Labyrinth", an AU Novel From Hell by Jane.

Ahem. Well, okay, I was still ravenous at that point, so I actually read the thing. It was bad. The plot was absurd, the characterizations were annoying, and every other page everything stopped for a sex scene. Which may be why I kept reading it. But it took me a long, long time to finish it, since every time I picked it up I thought, "You'd have to be brain dead to really like this." At a certain point, masochism took over, forcing me to finish it just so I could sigh with relief when I was done. Never again, I thought, will I touch a novel by Jane.

I did deign to try a few random short stories by her, which did nothing to alter my previous view. "Sappy" is the word that most comes to mind.

Then someone told me about "The Hunting", and I gagged a lot. And then someone else told me the plot of "Gentle on My Mind", and when I was done vomiting, I vowed never to allow Jane to cross my threshold again.

Well, she did. What can I say, it must just be my forgiving nature. (Those of you who know me can stop laughing now.) Someone on the list offered me a copy of "Falconhurst", a novel by Jane. Someone else told me it was pretty decent, and wasn't an AU. Okay, so in a moment of weakness (and cheapness--it was free, after all), I said, Fine, send it to me.

It sat on my shelf of Unread Fanfic (legendary, that shelf is) for some weeks until I was struck by a summer cold that laid me out flat on the couch for 3 days. Searching for something with which to entertain myself, I grabbed the first thing off the top of the Unread Fanfic Tower. Yup, it was "Falconhurst." And you know what? I've discovered the secret to liking Jane. All it takes is a raging head cold which causes all of your brain cells to cease functioning. Here's my synopsis of "Falconhurst":

Bodie & Doyle wind up guarding a recuperating Kodai (you know, that hunky blond assassin from "Stopover") at this isolated mansion where spooky things are happening.

They arrive at the mansion. They have sex. They eat. They have sex. They read books. They have sex. Spooky things happen. They have sex. They climb up and down stairs a lot. They have sex. They go for walks. They have sex. They talk to Kodai about the KGB and CI5 and feel sorry for him. They have sex. They read some more books. They have sex. They talk to the housekeeper. They have sex. They talk to the folk museum owner from the village. They have sex. They go on another tour of the mansion. They have sex. More spooky things happen. They have sex. They talk to Kodai some more about the KGB and CI5 and feel sorry for him again. They have sex in a bathtub.

And so on. Hey, it was light, it was total schlock, it was conflict and angst-free, but it made absolutely perfect Brain Dead Stuffed-Up Head reading matter. Honest. Try it sometime. I mean, you can stop reading anywhere you want, take a four-hour Nyquil-induced nap, and pick it up again without ever worrying about what you'd read before or what's going on, 'cause it doesn't really matter. Perfect.

Ah, Jane, the Barbara Cartland of the Fannish world! (This woman's actually proud to say that she has lifted some of her plots from Cartland's novels!) Actually, that sounds like one of her better ones. The last thing I read of hers involved a chase through the country side of a notorious international murderer/rapist/whatever (who "just enjoyed inflicting pain"), flashfloods, sex, her idea of angst, and very little logic. Come to think of it though, it might have been by someone else (yes, actually someone else, not one of her other "selves"), just put out by her. First clue: B&D managed to keep their clothes on for at least two pages, at least once! (They did however stop in the middle of a tense chase, in the middle of a thunderstorm just as they finally spotted the guy they'd been after to have a heart to heart and a torrid fuck. Now, I have nothing against heart to hearts--and I certainly have no objections to torrid fucks--but I mean time and place...)

As y'all know already I'm shallow enough to enjoy everything that has good sex (i.e. that pushes my buttons). Therefore, I have enjoyed a lot of Jane's writing. I agree that her plots aren't always the most logical or plausible, but she seems to have a foible for writing the sex scenes with a a hint of domination and Doyle on the receiving end, and I lap that up wherever I can find it.

Okay, before everyone jumps on the net in gagging rebuttal, let me say I know some/most of the people out there don't like Jane of Australia. I do.

What's more, I love her Hunting and reread it in its entirety about once a year...

Okay, now that I have opened myself up to infinite criticism, I am going to jump off the net and watch Babylon 5.

1996

Try some "Jane" of Australia fanfic. She does ['gratuitous' or 'didn't further the plot'] constantly, and in a very, very repetitive fashion. Every three pages in most longer works, no matter what the alleged "plot" happens to be. In most cases, she could have written "and then they had sex" every three pages instead and it wouldn't have changed the story or the exploration of the characters and their relationship one whit.

OH YES!! Jane's stories are still my all time favs! I over look the repetition because the stories hook the romantic kink in me! Just thinking about them makes me smile. :)

[Sex in Jane's stories?] It's generally a case of "show and show and show and show and show and show and show and show" to, in most cases, no particular purpose. Her short stories are usually better than her longer work. The repetition of sex scenes turns up much more blatantly in things like "Falconhurst" and other novels. I've enjoyed some of her short stories. I won't read any more of her novels, though.

About stories that aren't *bad* bad, just well... not right. I tend to view almost all of Jane of Australia's work in that light. She can put together sentences, form a linear (please note: I did NOT say cohesive) story, write sex scenes, etc etc. She's not *bad* on a level of say, Daimien (sp?) or Hephaiston, but she's just not....right. Repetitive. Boring. Illogical. Infantilised characters (literally, in one of them). Formulaic to the nth degree--even by slash standards. And *pointless* a lot of the time.

But I find that sort of thing inspirational, quite often. Oh-ho, Doyle has to dress as a woman but it's not any of that icky homosexual stuff? And he's going to tie foam hip-forms on with *wire*? Oh, well, we'll just see about *that* then, won't we? Oh-ho, so Bodie's just been involved in a car crash that killed someone? Pages and pages and pages of emotional torture and angst--but what's this? Two pages from the end we find out It Was All A Mistake, and Bodie didn't do anything wrong at all? Oh yeah? Well, cop a load of *this* then.

And so on, and so forth.

Let me publicly acknowledge the depth of my obligation and gratitude to Jane of Australia. Without her inspiration, my own writing would be a lesser thing.

Hee hee hee.

Hey, I'm on *this* list--I can be a bitch!

1997

I don't really like the stories in which Doyle is feminized, so I tend not to remember them. I find that Jane of Australia tends to feminize both characters, to my mind. I think it fits a little with writers wanting to put Doyle on the hurt end of the hurt/comfort, but there's more to it than that. And I've read several stories where I'd swear Doyle was female, adolescent, and about thirteen years old.

1998

[after posting a snarky aside]: I apologize for being nasty to Jane - I sometimes don't dislike her stories, and I am sure there are worse authors. I was just trying to be funny, but I shouldn't have slammed a person wholesale just because it is unfair and Not a Good Thing To Do. So, again - apologies. Jane is not my first choice, and the problem is compounded by her prolifically: if she does something that is my anti-kink, I am bound to see it OFTEN and so I get really impatient after the umpteenth story with it... *Sigh*

A little fannish history - when I got into the fandom in the last 80's, I was told that one of the reasons that Jane of Australia was so prolific as a writer was that she felt most of the writers were pro Bodie and she wanted Doyle to have equal time, or at least equal pages. It is probably apocryphal, but still a fun story.

It wasn't the way the balance had fallen that bothered me about Jane, it was the way *both* characters were devalued, Doyle by this author invented and enforced dependence and Bodie by his willingness to pander to it.

1999

... I'm not *bothered* by it -- it's just that after one has read a certain amount of Jane of Australia's work one begins to notice the same conversation reappearing. It's a bit like the Rocky Horror Show, we wait for *that conversation* to reappear so we can cheer ironically when it does. And it does an awful lot of the time, along with what I always think of as the "Bodie on the bottom because it's expected" scene. The one where the sex isn't very well described and is only there to prove that the D character isn't a wimp.

Jane's vision is rather strong -- and by that I mean that when she writes she tends to see them the same in each story only the circumstances change. There's a bit of a formula to some of her works that tends to bug the reader if taken in large doses. It's like reading too many PWPs in a row. After a while even graphic sex gets boring.... I would definitely agree that it would be better to read other writers in between reading her stuff. But then that's often true of most authors.

2001

Many circuit stories, especially early ones, have the "one lad loves and the other doesn't (yet), so some jealousy gets them together" formula. However, usually it's Bodie who does his grunting gorilla impression, and Doyle is cast as the shrinking violet. Many Jane of Australia stories have this structure, for example. (What's the one that she recently put up on her web site? Bodie is brutal and abusive so Doyle has to go off with someone else, this way Bodie goes after him and learns to treat him properly).

2005

Poor old Jane! It doesn't surprise me at all that you might like something she's written. For example, I love the first five sections of The Hunting. I know lots of negative things have been written about her, but I think the bottom line is that she's a fine story teller which is all I ask, really. A while ago, last year I think, Justacat wrote a very eloquent piece on why it's possible to enjoy different styles of Pros writers, styles ranging from someone like Sebastian right through to Jane. (I think she'd just read Czardis - not sure of spelling).

2006

Jane's trilogy is one that... I read more an original fantasy series infused with hints of Bodie and Doyle, rather than an AU closely tied to the Pros characters. Especially in her fantasy AUs, Jane often seems to base characters on actors, driven by physical characterics rather than personality - which is the exact opposite way that I approach a story. But if you can stop looking for recognizable Pros-versions of Bodie and Doyle, the Wolfen trilogy can be a good fantasy read.

2008

The thing is - I don't remember being so eye-roll-y when I was first reading Jane's stories, and I'm starting to wonder now if perhaps it's not me, as I originally thought (getting tougher with fic - getting tougher with the causes of fic... *g*) but maybe something more to do with a change in Jane's own style over the years... I might be completely away with the fairies here (heh) but... I thought I might try and start matching up some dates, some Jane-fic and the way the lads are characterised in that Jane-fic. Aaaand... because it'll take me forever to read all the Jane-fic, I'd really appreciate anyone else's help with this!

I don't really remember Jane's work well enough to make any kind of meaningful comment on whether or not her style changes, but, as we've touched on elsewhere, I think we do seem to get more picky and more discerning as we read more Pros, so maybe it's us rather than her? I don't know. Having said that, one of her later stories, Professionals: Gambit 2000 (can't remember the exactly title) *is* quite different from her earlier stuff. And then you've got the division between her 'Hunting' period (where *I* think she shows a real gift for old-fashioned story telling) and the ci5 stuff. Thinking about the story mentioned here, there's something very appealing about the idea of Bodie in the Sudan, but if you swapped them for Bodie and a woman, or any male and female, I know I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole! Funny, really...

Erm... I have a dear old friend who is addicted to Jane. I have to admit that Jane's work is not to my taste as I can't actually wrap my head around her take on either of the lads. My friend has continued to push me toward reading certain Jane stories telling me "this is the one that will change your mind." Nothing so far has worked... Clearly and FTR, I am not questioning anyone else's interest in/support for Jane as an author it is just *not* to my taste as I relish the equality between the lads and I'm not really a reader of "traditional" romances anyway.

Oh, there are alot of people who adore Jane's writing! And the thing is that I remember liking alot of Jane stories when I was first in Pros. Granted my tastes have refined since those heady days of voracious reading, but even then I had preferences and squicks, and fainting-weepy-Doyle has always been one of them. So it seems odd that I should notice it much more now - maybe I'm reading a different period of Jane's fic, since mostly it's zines I read her in these days? One of my wonderings... *g*

...it has been my experience that *every* fandom has at least a small list of authors that are so widely loved that to be critical of them is to perhaps face more of a back lash than expected. That's why I always choose to emphasize it being an issue of personal taste. From a critical perspective, I feel she is a a pretty good storyteller, she just doesn't tell stories that interest me. I believe she has also written quite a bit of AU and I've never read any of it because I just don't care for AU no matter how well written it might be.

Some authors are using the form as "training wheels" for their own original non-canon concepts, while others enjoy the fanfic of a particular series for its own sake and are very much attached to the characters as presented in canon...with one or two very slight changes.:)

Yes, I suspect you've hit the nail on the head right here - and that probably explains why I'm not at all keen on the training-wheel sort of fic, and thus not keen on alot of Jane's fic. Fanfic is definitely good for getting people writing - although I've always always written, over the last twenty years or so I didn't finish anything, or ever persevere at anything much until I got into Pros, and I'm feeling alot more satisfied and confident about my writing now! It's also reminded me of how much I enjoy writing, and really need to make time for it around all the other "real life" things that I have to do!

That said... if someone's got an original concept/story in mind, I'm never quite sure why they don't just write it as original, rather than shoehorning fandom characters into it? I mean, there's a definite comfort in writing characters that you're familiar with, but if you're changing their personalities so much that they're no longer those characters, then... is it that the comfort stays in place, perhaps, until you change their names?

to the characters as presented in canon...with one or two very slight changes.:) Lol - I'd alter this very slightly: "to the characters they see in canon"... *g* Authors may make no changes at all to the characters they see in canon - but I might see them completely differently... *g*

As with many good original fiction writers, sticking to canon in fanfic seems to have become tedious, and she seems to long to strike out in new directions rather than just "going through the motions". Another possible reason why I get on less well with some of Jane's AUs than I do other authors... I think there are at least two reasons that authors write AUs: one is, as you say, that they're bored with canon and want to stretch out; the other is that they're interested in exploring how the characters might fit in/react in completely different situations. I can totally understand the latter motivation, because I feel that myself. It's the characters of B/D that fascinate me, rather than the CI5 universe, though that has its own fascination. So I'm perfectly happy to see those characters elsewhere, whether it's in Victorian England or the planet Mars.

I think it's generally obvious when an author is bored with the whole show, rather than just canon though - the characters become less "themselves" as the writer explores other things - not just other times and places, but other personalities. At that point - where the lads are no longer B/D - then that author has lost me, and that's one of the things I was exploring above with my "adorable" little table... where did Jane hit that point? Where do I feel that she moved on from the characters that I see in the show to some other characters entirely? Or was her view of them ever the same as mine?

So presumably there was at some point a confidence-jump for Jane - a point at which she was brave enough not only to write her own characters, but to give them their own names and claim them as her own rather than leaving some of the responsibility for those stories with someone else (Brian Clemens in this case)...

Presumably other people deal with such "boredom" in other ways - changing fandoms to something else which grabs you seems to be fairly popular!

Jane is (in)famous for making explicit WNGWJLEO statements in her fic. It would be interesting to see if that's something that was more pronounced earlier on (thinking Two-up, 1986, and Jane Carnall's response althernative ending).

One of the first things I ever read in Pros was Jane's Wolven trilogy - Flesh and Steel (1994), Blood and Fire (1994) and Soul and Storm (1999).

Bearing in mind that it's well over five years since I read these stories, my recollection of them is that Doyle is the dominant character here - he's a vampire, the leader of an army, and a man who knows exactly what he wants and doesn't hesitate to take it. Bodie is a werewolf who can foresee the future and is a far more submissive character, readily agreeing to a life in Doyle's service until such time as he can prove himself to be as great a leader of men as his master. By the end of the trilogy the two are living together as equals.

It's quite likely that the passage of time may have clouded my remembrance of these stories, but I'm fairly certain that I haven't seen this same Bodie/Doyle dynamic in any of Jane's other stories. If there are any that follow a similar pattern then I'd be very happy to read them!

2011

...she can plot an adventure story. She has a good flowing prose, a bit flowery but often very sensuous and agreeable. I disagree with you on her characterisation. I find them unrealistic, not someone I can even like or dislike, because they don't sound/look/behave like real people. I simply don't believe in them. I can dislike a character by MFae or Helen Raven, because they are godawful little shits (the characters not the writers!) but they sound/look/behave much more realistic to me in the sense of sounding like human beings, so I can always believe in them.