Courtney Gray

Fan
Name:	Courtney Gray
Alias(es):	Marie A
Type:	fan fiction writer, illustrator
Fandoms:	The Professionals, X-Files, Star Trek, Harry & Johnny, Starsky and Hutch
Communities:
Other:
URL:	Courtney's Fanfic & X-Files author page on TER/MA
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Courtney Gray was a slash fan fiction writer, who wrote fan fiction from the 1980s and into the 2000s. She is best known for her work in the Professionals fandom where her fan fiction has won awards (including the Huggy Award). In later years she also wrote in X-Files fandom focusing on the Mulder/Krycek and Skinner/Krycek pairings. Her first fandom was Star Trek where she both illustrated and wrote under the name of Marie A.

She was voted Best Author in the 2000 Lisa e Krysa Awards and her Mulder/Krycek series How to Throw a Curve Ball won Best Series and Best Romance.

Some of her more recent fiction can be found in issues of the Nick Lea Christmas Zine.

Sample Art

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  cover Still Out of Bounds, Old Friend

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  interior art Still Out of Bounds, Old Friend

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  front cover of Out of Bounds: Overflow

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  back cover of Out of Bounds: Overflow

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  front cover Trace Elements

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  back cover Trace Elements

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  cover of On the Double #33

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  interior art for Pushin' the Odds

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  interior art for Pushin' the Odds

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  back cover of Out of Bounds: Again. Note: Marked for sexual assault/rape; minimized.

Fannish Reactions

1995

Courtney Gray can put the characters practically anywhere, through any scenario or situation, and they're still *THE* characters; I still believe in them, in who they are. I never doubt that *this* is Bodie, or *this* is Doyle... my favorite example is, of course, Night Moves. "Bodie as a prostitute? Give me a break..." After I read it? "Bodie as a prostitute? Of *course* that works!" Because he was still *Bodie*. (Uh, sorry, I'm digressing into adulation here...)

2002

... it was the work of Courtney Gray that first made me want to get deeply involved with this fandom [Pros].... It's difficult for me to discuss Courtney Gray's stories without gushing, because I can't isolate any one aspect that makes them so appealing. Her dialogue and characterizations always seem wonderful to me. She knows how to make men sensual and attractive without making them women. Her AUs are the most convincing I've read (Night Moves, Torch Song). She treats first-time stories (Room 101, Rebound) and ongoing relationship stories (Object of Desire, Boyhole) with equal complexity and sensitivity. She is just as deft with third-party POVs (Tis the Season). Although I think her stories can be fairly described as "dark," they have a certain pureness ... by which I mean, they portray emotion in a very true way. Powerful without being overwrought. The way she portrays regret is especially powerful to me. Many times her characters are dealing with regrets, some major, some minor - in The Blue Figurine, Boyhole, Room 101, Torch Song, Night Moves, just to name a few off the top of my head.

And above all, I would say that she is a great storyteller. She seems to have a very sure instinct of where to go, and just how far. For example, my favorite story of hers is The Blue Figurine. I'll try not to spoil it, but I'll just say that it could have ended at the point where Doyle resigns himself to losing Bodie, and it would still have been a good story. It could have gone on longer and treated us to a reunion and reconciliation, and it would still have been a good story. But instead it stops at that scene with Bodie - and his regrets - and that, in my opinion, makes it a perfect story. Not stopping too soon, not going too far, but allowing for hope: just right.

The knocks on Courtney Gray are an overabundance of Americanisms, and ... and ... well, that's it really. (An area in which I could also stand plenty of improvement!) I know that not everyone shares my fondness for the bittersweet ending of Blue Figurine, as well. But on the whole I think a new fan would find her stories very rewarding, the main drawback being that she didn't write more.