astolat

Fan
Name:	astolat
Alias(es):	shalott, the lady of shalott
Type:	archivist, developer, con runner, slasher, vidder, fanwriter
Fandoms:	multifandom, American Idol, Avengers, James Bond, BtVS, DCEU, Entourage, Harry Potter, Highlander, House, M.D., Justice League, L.A. Confidential, Merlin, Person of Interest, PotC, Sherlock Holmes, Smallville, Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural, The Sentinel, Thor, Transformers, X-Men
Communities:
Other:	Intimations The Lady of Shalott
URL:	astolat at AO3 astolat at Dreamwidth astolat at LiveJournal astolat at Pillowfort astolat at Tumblr astolat at Twitter astolat at YouTube
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

astolat is a popular fanwriter and vidder in myriad fandoms since 1994 and has contributed greatly to fannish infrastructure. As a fanfiction writer, she has written numerous Fandom Classics in large media fandoms such as Stargate: Atlantis, Supernatural, Smallville, Harry Potter and Merlin as well as crucial works in smaller fandoms (James Bond, L.A. Confidential, Master and Commander, etc.).

Some of her fannish history can be found at her userpage on Fanlore.

Regarding her pseud:

"I'm astolat here on LJ, having grudgingly accepted the name because my longtime pseud "shalott" was taken, except over time I've fallen in love with the name and now it's what I'm using almost exclusively. I've also gone by shalott and (a while ago!) the lady of shalott.

In 1998, she co-developed the Automated Archive software that powered the main archives in due South, The Sentinel and Smallville slash fandom. She created Sencrit, a Sentinel writers' workshop in 1998.

In 2002, she founded Vividcon, the fan convention dedicated to vidding and the following year in 2003, she founded Yuletide, the annual rare-fandoms gift exchange fanfic challenge.

In 2007, she wrote the post An Archive Of One's Own, proposing and subsequently developing Archive of Our Own, the fanworks archive that began in 2009.

In 2015 Gigi Kiersten wrote:

"There was never another person in fandom that most fit the description of a BNF more than Fanfic Writer, Professional Author, Vidder, Web Developer, and Fandom Activist Astolat. For the last twenty years, Astolat has not only seen the evolution of fandom from mailing lists to tumblr, but she is still here, when many of her contemporaries have disappeared from fandom altogether."

Interviews

• Ask the Author: astolat (2008)
• Slashcast, Episode 25 (2011)

Fanfiction

Stargate: Atlantis

• McKay/Sheppard
  • Transcendental
  • A Beautiful Lifetime Event
  • Time in a Bottle
  • The Dark Side
  • But Some Things Never Stop Being Funny
  • Objectives
  • Missed the Saturday Dance
  • Looking Glass
• Proof of Contradiction
• Under the Sea
• Reveille (Jack/Daniel)

Merlin

• Merlin/Arthur
  • The Beltane Cycle
  • The Crown of the Summer Court
  • Despoiled
  • Favorite
  • Injukyoshi
  • Onfindan
  • Reciprocation
  • The Tower
  • The Trouble With Unicorns

Harry Potter

• The Scholomance Series
• Old Country (SPN/HP) Sam and Dean go to Hogwarts.
• Slithering Drarry
• A Weather of the Heart (Harry/Draco) 3rd fic of the pairing posted to the internet

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• Thor: Thor/Loki
  • Athelas
  • Chaos War

The Witcher

• Geralt/Emhyr
  • Misethere
  • A Year in Toussaint
  • By Any Other Name

Supernatural

• Sam/Dean
  • Old Country - Crossover with Harry Potter - Sam and Dean go to Hogwarts.
  • Leader of the Pack - Sam and Dean adopt some Hellhounds.

Other

• Control (The Sentinel). A missing scene (or "what really happened" scene) from the Lee Brackett episode.
• Territoriality (The Sentinel)
• An Ordinary Life co written with Speranza (The Sentinel)
• Jeeves and the Blessed Indiscretion (Jeeves and Wooster)
• Queen of Spades (James Bond, Bond/M)
• The Maiden Voyage of the Tiresias (Sherlock Holmes)
• Reconcilable Differences (Smallville/DC Comics)
• House of the Living (American Idol, Adam Lambert/Kris Allen)
• Accidental (Star Trek TNG, Picard/Q)
• Past Duties (Star Trek TNG, Picard/Q)
• Misethere (The Witcher, Geralt/Emhyr)
• Aside (TCP)
• The Faces Of Hate (TCP)
• Relief (TCP)

Vids

Influential vids include:

• Bukowski (House, M.D.)
• Zebra (Due South)
• Bohemian Like You (Stargate: Atlantis)
• Passion (Highlander); early constructed reality vid
• A Day in the Life (with Speranza) (Dead Zone)
• Pon de Replay (Entourage) features a manipped kiss
• Kid Fears - a complex retelling of the Star Wars film saga across generations. This was astolat's first vid.
• Uninvited (The Silence of the Lambs vid) - an examination of Clarice's and Hannibal Hector's disturbing relationship from The Silence of the Lambs
• The Mountain (with Melina) - a LOTR vid about accepting one's destiny, and the price of doing so, as seen in the journeys of Frodo and Aragorn
• Rumble (link) with Speranza (SGA comedy vid)
• Bohemian Like You by shalott (SGA McKay/Sheppard)
• Anything_For_Love_(metavid) (with cesperanza) a multi-source metavid that shows astolat and cesperanza's journey through fandom over the years.

Influential Posts

• astolat's "We Need an Archive of Our Own" Post, 17 May 2007, responding to cesperanza's post, Dear Fandom: Could You Please Stop Saying That? about the legality of fanfic, and reflecting on why we need to own the servers.

Awards

STIFfie

1998

• The Sentinel - Best Story - nominated for Model Behavior (Love and Guns 5) and Something to Talk About (Extra Touchy Frisky 4)

Stargate Fan Awards

2005

• Best Author
• Best Story -- Transcendental
• Adult - Best Action/Adventure -- Transcendental (Sheppard/McKay)

2006

• Fanfiction (Atlantis)
  • Best SGA Angst Story - Time in a Bottle (Sheppard/McKay)
  • Best SGA Drama Story -- A Beautiful Lifetime Event
• Multimedia (Atlantis) - Atlantis Music Videos
  • Pairing-Focused > Romance > Sheppard/McKay -- Bohemian Like You
• Multimedia: SG-1/Atlantis - Best Authors
  • Overall Best (SGA)
  • Slash (SGA)

McKay/Sheppard Fan Awards

2005

• Best AU - 1st place Transcendental; 3rd place A Beautiful Lifetime Event
• Best Drama - 2nd place Proof by Contradiction
• Best Future - 1st place Transcendental
• Best Proposition - 1st place Oblivious
• Best Story - 2nd place A Beautiful Lifetime Event
• Best Author

2006

• Best Crossover - 3rd place The Dark Side (Stargate/Star Wars)
• Best PWP 1st place Mostly Harmless
• Romance - 2nd place Time in a Bottle

2007

• Best Crossover - 1st place The Dark Side
• Best First Time - 1st place Touch
• Romance - 1st place No Refunds or Exchanges

2008

• Best Adventure - 1st place Ordinary Life

Merlin/Arthur Fanfic Awards

2009

• Action/Adventure Fic - first runner up - Onfindan
• Crossover Fic - winner - The Crown of the Summer Court
• Epic - winner - Onfindan
• One-Shot - first runner up - The Crown Of The Summer Court
• PWP Fic - second runner up - The Crown Of The Summer Court
• Uther Characterisation - winner - Onfindan

Merlin Slash Awards

2010

• Merlin/Arthur Best Epic - runner up - The Crown Of The Summer Court
• Merlin/Arthur Best Long - winner - Favorite
• Merlin/Arthur Best Action/Adventure - winner - The Crown Of The Summer Court
• Best Characterisation of Merlin - winner - Favorite

Reviews and Recommendations

• Pandoemonium#Recommendations
  • December 1999 "Friend of the Devil" (Highlander)
  • August 1999 "Begin Again" (Highlander)
• Madrigal's Stargate Reviews
  • Lady Of Shalott: Reveille
• Merlin/Arthur Bookshelf
• Girls on the Couch (Watching the Vividcon 2006 DVD) - Bukowski (House vid)
• Vividcon 2002 Premiere Show (Sandy Herrold review) - Solsbury Hill (SG)
• Vividcon 2002 Comedy Show (Rache review) - Blew 'Em Away (Highlander)
• Teaching With Fan Video (several of astolat's vids are included as suggestions)
• Be The Serpent
  • Be The Serpent/Episodes 1-10 (episodes 1, 5 and 6)
  • Be The Serpent/Episodes 11-20 (episodes 13 and 14)
  • Be The Serpent/Episodes 31-40 (episode 34)
  • Be The Serpent/Episodes 61-70 (episodes 61 and 69)

Archives/Mailing Lists/Zines

Archives

As Archivist

• Lady Shalott's Island
• Sherlock Holmes Lives On...
• The Dead Zone Fanfic Archive
• Intimations (website)

As Contributor

• 852 Prospect
• Issues of Consent
• Lapsus Linguae
• Tax Shelters
• Imeem (vid archive)
• The Common People Warehouse

Mailing Lists

As Moderator

• Sencrit

As Member

• Vidder (mailing list)
• Hpslash (mailing list)
• STREK-L

Zines

As Contributor

• Futures Without End (Issue 3)
• Surfacing (Volume 2)
• Love and Guns (Issue 5)
• S/nergy
• Extra Touchy Frisky (Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 7)
• The Escapade 25th Anniversary Zine
• The Supernatural Collection For Gayle

Podfic

As Creator

• Passion is a Constructed Reality vid made of the story The Seduction of the Desert Prince by Killa, Rachael Sabotini, and elynross (2002)

As Contributor

• Idol: An AI Podfic Anthology (a.k.a. The Sooper Sekrit Paraka Podfic Projekt)

• Buffyverse Music Video Database
• Chaos War performed by kalakirya for The Podfic Big Bang
• Violent Amoral Unicorn of Justice Gets Knocked Up by aphelant, chemm80, Podcath, Rhea314 which uses astolat's fic "Taken", among others (Person of Interest)

Meta

Contributing:

• AO3 is open source.
• Archive of Our Own and The Hugo Awards

About:

Re Astolat's Outing

• Agent With Style#Outing of Legal Names.2FNot Respecting Changes in Pseuds
• The outing of Astolat and Fan History
• Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy.

BNF status

• On inclusion and exclusion in vidding fandom: personal reflections
• Vividcon 2009: Some observations about race, gender, and accessibility
• Quality vs. popularity in fiction by summerfling
• Something's lost in translation
• The wisdom of the outraged masses

Slash

• Your Vagina is a Bigot; My Vagina is a Saint
• Thoughts On Incest Pairings

OTW/AO3

• An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments
• Beginnings of OTW: 2007-08 Comments