L.R. Bowen

Fan
Name:	L.R. Bowen
Alias(es):	Laura Bowen, LR Bowen
Type:
Fandoms:	Star Trek: VOY
Communities:
Other:
URL:	Home Page
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

L.R. Bowen is a fanwriter.

Fans Comments

Macedon and Laura both know how to tell a story, and have it be about people. I have no objection to "action and adventure" in which the primary characters mainly "do cool stuff" in an interesting environment...someties I get a real wild kick out of it. But at heart I'm a character watcher, a character actress, and a character writer. If I'm gonna have an adventure, I want to care about the folks in the adventure, and for that I personally need them to be more than just action figures with familiar names. And I'm *just* as happy with "intimate character play" as I am with adventure; in fact I suppose ultimately I'm happier. Macedon and Laura give me that, and still give me enough plot and happening to keep the ball rolling.

[...]

Laura is talent too. Her work tends to have a stronger "plot" or "concept" element than Macedon's and mine, but that is actually a strength, and one I admire and would like to match in time. The ability to make a single clear series of actions or a single central idea work without damaging the character aspect of a piece is a skill in it's own right. Her character work is sound. Even when I fail to *agree* with it, in the sense of it being what *I'd* do with the characters, I'm always convinced that it is a valid and legitimate interpretation, and one I'm comfortable with. Her personal vision of the characters meshes well with canon, and carries them in ways I can believe and enjoy. Again, her sense of structure and dramatic line is wonderful, her scenes are clean, and sell themselves. Her dialogue is convincing, and if her premises are sometimes a bit wild, she makes them work in the face of my sceptic's mind, which is saying a *lot*. Anyone who can get me to delightedly and willingly suspend my disbelief in the idea of three people, buck naked, hypothermic, injured, in shock, two of them having had to be revived with CPR, one of them with a concusion, all of them having to flee cross country through snow... anyone who can make me accept that these three people have the energy and interest to have wild sex all night *has* to be a good writer. <G> Me, I'm afraid *I* would never have been able to write "Snow Queen", so it's a good thing Laura is out there to do it for all of us, and delight us in the process.

As for "The Lily White Boys", that one is still my favorite piece from Laura. A gem, in which she manages to parlay a peculiarity in canonical continuity into a rich, perceptive and haunting little character piece, with sex serving a function above and beyond the valid goal of being arousing, and on to the level of being revealing of the character's personal strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Gorgeous.

Some of the first Voyager fanfic I ever read was by LR Bowen, which spoiled me something fierce. It's a high standard to live up to. Most writers just can't touch her for emotional content, and her lyrical, descriptive passages simply sing with passion. She's one of the few writers I'll actually drop everything and read right online.

I'd place Laura Bowen as one of our very best High Formula writers. She's absolutely magnificent, and completely in control of the forms in combination with the characters. Cardassian Mask is structurally a Bodice Ripper-but it's a brilliantly done bodice ripper. Bowen knows how to blend the Formula with the necessities of the characters, play every change on the drama/melodrama, and come out the other end having given the reader a Grand Nantucket Sleigh-Ride without ever missing a step, or betraying her characters or her readers. She can take a Formula tub/voyeur scene, and make it

delightful by never betraying a single one of your expectations, but still startling you, dressing it up fresh, using wit, and the glitter of clever presentation and razzle-dazzle to hold you riveted. Your mind may know damned well where it's all going-but the show is so provocative and well done you're just as happy to follow along for the ride. (For what it's worth, Bowen can turn out one hell of a "lit" story, too. The Lily-White Boys Her Paris/Lorcano slash, which I've gone and blanked the title of, is one of my all time favorites of hers, and is a "lit" piece, not a Formula piece.) But Laura has to be magnificent when she does het-if she isn't every cliché will stand out like a sore thumb. She's great evidence that formula need not be evil, though. It merely has to be brilliantly done as formula.

L.R. Bowen: from "What is Slash?" (1998)

An amusing tale of my first exposure to slash:

The year: 1977. My very first Star Trek convention, as a young teen. It was in the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, and I went with my even younger sister. I had on my best approximation of a Trek costume--a pink velour shirt of my mother's, black Levi's, and a pair of vinyl boots I got from the thrift store. No, we didn't have a lot of money to spend on things like that. We got in the door, got our tickets and programs, and looked around wide-eyed, trying to decide what to do first. So much to choose from! Art show, panels, uncut original series shows, guest appearances...this con had the entire TOS cast with the exception of Shatner and Nimoy, plus Mark Lenard (R.I.P. November 1996), Arlene Martel, Robert Heinlein, Jacqueline Lichtenberg... I didn't care about them, because Bones was my main man! I was there for De Kelley. So here I stood, innocent and excited...and I felt a tickle on my leg. Faint, light--just a twinge, perhaps. I shifted my stance. There it was again. I looked down.

Hello!

Here is a fellow, early twenties perhaps, mustached and trim, kneeling on the floor beside me and...getting acquainted with my $2.95 vinyl boots. They were brown and crinkly and had big block heels of the kind that are so much in style again. He liked them VERY much, obviously. And he had knelt down so quietly and stroked them so tenderly that I had barely noticed the touch.

YUUCCKK!!

My sister, twelve years old, and I stared at each other for a moment, having vaguely heard of such things, but certainly never having come into personal contact with them or their practitioners in public. Then we grabbed each other by the hand and bolted. Well, that was totally gross and weird, but he's gone now...let's look at our programs again, shall we? Oh, there's the art show...and the dealer's tables...and a wee, faint tickle on my leg.

Great Bird have mercy, he was at it again. And a real pro, sneaking up like that without a sound. I had the feeling he'd done this before. If I had been a few years older, I would have mashed his sneaky little fingers under my blocky vinyl heel. As it was, we bolted again and didn't see him after that. But you'll forgive me if my adrenaline was a little high, and my tolerance for out-of-the-way sexual attractions a little low.

Ah, the dealer's room. Zines? Oh, yes, stories written by fans. Huh, I bet they're pretty bad. I've never seen any, but I've written some pretty dreadful stuff myself and never shown it to anyone...I was curious. I picked up something from a rack...

YUUCCKK!!

Kirk and Spock doing WHAT!? GROSS!

And that was it, for slash and for all fan fiction alike, until 1995...

Example Works

• The Lily-White Boys (has a copyright date of 1995)
• Rain Dance, a 1996 (?) Star Trek: VOY story
• Resignation