Pollyanna (fan writer)
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Pollyanna |
| Alias(es): | anglopollyanna, cifling[1] |
| Type: | fan writer, reccer |
| Fandoms: | The X Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Highlander, Hornblower, Harry Potter, etc. |
| Communities: | The X-Files Lyric Wheel, SKINKS |
| Other: | |
| URL: | Pollyanna on AO3 anglopollyanna at LiveJournal pollyanna at Dreamwidth cifling on FanFiction.Net Pollyanna's Tifling Site (Wayback Machine link) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Pollyanna is a fanfiction writer who was primarily an X-Files fan, and was also active in a variety of other fandoms, including Highlander, Hornblower, and Star Trek: DS9.
She founded and ran The X-Files Lyric Wheel for several years. At her site, Pollyanna's Tifling Site, she posted her own fanfiction and also maintained pages for the X-Files Lyric Wheel, SKINKS (a collection of Skinner/Krycek links), and The Pest House (fanfic by Sue), until she closed the site in mid-2004.
History
Pollyanna's first fanfic posted online was the X-Files story "Eye to Eye" on May 16, 1997,[2] although she stated in 2009 that the first fanfic she ever wrote was a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine story.[3]
Pollyanna got her pseudonym from the novel—specifically, its 1973 BBC serial adaptation. She wrote in 2003 that, when searching for a nom de plume: "I spot[ted] the video Pollyanna [...] and decided that since I'm a boringly cheerful person, that would do, and I've been stuck with it ever since."[2]
She created a LiveJournal in August 2003 as "anglopollyanna" (a name to suggest "Pollyanna from England", since "pollyanna" was already taken[2]). Her primary purpose in creating a LiveJournal account was to more easily post to hp100, a Harry Potter drabble community.[4]
In 2009, she wrote about her involvement with the Star Trek, Highlander, and From Eroica with Love fandoms: Three of my fandoms.[3]
Retirement
Pollyanna announced in June 2004 that she would be "retiring from active participation in fanfic" and offered up her fanfiction for download before she took her website down. She passed off The X-Files Lyric Wheel and SKINKS to new owners.[5]
Pollyanna acknowledged in 2009, when importing content to Dreamwidth, that "this wasn't quite the end".[6] Although she stepped back her fandom activity, she continued writing the occasional fanfic for several more years, and continued to post other fannish content such as recs.
Post-Retirement
Pollyanna was a Crack Van reccer three times in 2004: for Highlander in February, The X-Files in June, and Star Trek in July.[7] (She had already signed up for Crack Van posts before she announced her retirement, and noted in her announcement that she would be "hanging around to do crack_van recs for a couple of months".[5])
In 2006, she wrote several Hornblower fics. In 2007, she wrote: "Although I did retire, I have in fact been working on a novel-length MSR."[8] In July 2008, she announced that she would "briefly come out of retirement" to participate in livelongnmarry (for which she wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean fic "No Man's Land" and won the Stargate Atlantis fic "Almost, But Not Quite" by bluflamingo).[9]
She created an Archive of Our Own account in December 2009.[10] As of September 2016, 17 of stories have been imported to AO3.
Writing Style
In 2005, she wrote about her memories involving titles for her fanfics, which she described as "THE most important part of the story for [her]": Ahhh... titles.
In 2006, she posted a response to a meme, "Ten Ways to tell you're reading a story by Pollyanna", in which she indicated a short length, abundance of adverbs, and a meaningful title among the most distinctive features of her own work.[11]
oleander9999 replied to the post with additional ways to recognize a story by Pollyanna: "it's got an air of slightly rueful, slightly melancholy sweetness, even if it's funny, and it's beautifully and lovingly crafted and polished."[12]
Fanfiction
Since Pollyanna's Tifling Site went offline, Pollyanna's fics are no longer archived in a centralized location. Several are offline, though many can be found through the Wayback Machine, at Archive of Our Own, or at other fanfiction archives. Below is a (potentially incomplete) list of her stories, with links to those still online.
Harry Potter
- HP drabbles posted at hp100 (30 August 2003)
Highlander
- A Passage of Hearts (23 August 1999) (also on AO3)
- Come the Wild Weather ("rough cut" posted 15 November 1999[13]) (also at FFN)
- Still Life (26 October 2000, revised March 2001) (also on AO3)
- Spartoi (1 June 2001, revised March 2003)
- Tithing (08 May 2002, written for the 'Where You Live' Lyric Wheel)
- A Comedy Of Heirs (October 2000, posted 1 July 2002)
- Detached (6 January 2004, written for "The End is the Beginning" Lyric Wheel)
Hornblower
- A Right Bastard (21 June 2006)
- Ship Angel (13 July 2006)
- In Loco Parentis (6 August 2006)
Star Trek: DS9
- Mission Beyond (12 June 1997)[13]
- Three Card Trick, sequel to "Mission Beyond" (27 January 1998)
The X Files
- Eye to Eye (16 May 1997)
- Acquainted With The Night (24 June 1997)
- Hors D'oeuvres (10 July 1997) (also at WalterTorture)
- Satyrical Grapes (10 September 1997) (also at WalterTorture)
- Insatiable But Patient (7 October 1997) (also at SKSA)
- Interference (9 December 1997)
- End-play, sequel to "Interference" (4 January 1998)
- "Polished Shield" (16 June 1998)
- I Could Not Love Thee (3 July 1998)
- Flowers On A Table (14 August 1998)
- Ersatz (18 August 1998)
- "Dark Seducer" ("rough cut", March 1999[13])
- "Exodos" ("rough cut", April 1999[13])
- Waiting For The Dawn (8 June 1999)
- Morality Play (17 September 2000, written for the first X-Files Lyric Wheel)
- "Remote Control" (2 June 2001)
- Dark Illumination (4 January 2001, written for the second X-Files Lyric Wheel)
- "Pipeman" (c. January 2001, written for the third X-Files Lyric Wheel)
- "Death and the A.D." (7 February 2003)[14]
- "Sweet Reason" (15 July 2003)[14]
- "Just Another Monday" (c.2003)[15]
- "Sleeping Beauty" (c.2003)[15]
- Vaccine (September 2003, written for the 13th X-Files Lyric Wheel)
- "Signs and Portents" (c. April 2004, written for the M/K Lyric Wheel[16])
- I Was An Alien Sex Slave (c. April 2004, written for the X-Files Beginnings Lyric Wheel[17])
Other Fandoms
- Bitter Sweet (The Sentinel) (December 1999)
- "The Night of the Enigmatic Parrot" (Wild, Wild West) (6 May 2000)
- The Sweetest Touch (Lawrence of Arabia) (6 May 2001)
- Thursday Night Fever (due South/Queer as Folk (UK)) (12 December 2001)
- The Mystery of Love (Shakespeare in Love) (21 December 2001) (also at FFN)
- Set Sorrows Aside (Pirates of the Caribbean) (24 December 2003)
- Close to You (From Eroica With Love) (4 October 2004) (also at FFN)
- No Man's Land (Pirates of the Caribbean) (23 October 2008, written for livelongnmarry[18])
- Mixed Messages (Blood Ties) (25 May 2009)
Meta
- Pollyanna's Pragmatic Guide To Writing Fanfic (December 1999)
- My Man Done Me Wrong, a Skinner/Krycek ship manifesto (3 January 2005)
References
- ^ pollyanna at Dreamwidth. "Close To You", posted 29 April 2009. Includes the note: "If you see this story posted to fanfiction.net under the name 'cifling' that is not a problem". (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ a b c anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. What's in a name?, posted 24 November 2003. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ a b anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. Three of my fandoms, posted 16 May 2009 (Dreamwidth cross-post). (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ anglopollyanna - Profile and Passing through, posted 27 August 2003. Pollyanna links to her "The Trifling Gateway" site several times from her LiveJournal, e.g. in this September 2nd, 2003 post. Accessed 19 September 2016.
- ^ a b anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. Retirement, posted 01 June 2004. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ pollyanna at Dreamwidth. Like Frank Sinatra, posted 26 April 2009. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ Crack_Van for February (Highlander) (DW backup), Crack_Van for June (X-Files) (DW backup), and Crack-van for July (Star Trek) (DW backup).
- ^ anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. I missed March, posted 01 April 2007. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ anglopollyanna at LiveJournal, Once more with feeling, posted 01 July 2008, and pollyanna at Dreamwidth, Interactions with SGA, posted 22 June 2009. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ pollyanna at Dreamwidth, AO3, posted 06 December 2009. See also Pollyanna - Profile at Archive of Our Own. (Accessed 18 September 2016.)
- ^ anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. Ten Ways to tell you're reading a story by Pollyanna, posted 20 January 2006. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ oleander9999, untitled reply to "Ten Ways to tell you're reading a story by Pollyanna", posted 20 January 2006. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ a b c d Pollyanna's Fan Fiction at tifling.demon.co.uk, archived by the Wayback Machine 05 August 2001.
- ^ a b 2003 Spooky Awards. Story Index at spookys2003.ditb.org. Archived 18 August 2003 by the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. An X-Files update, posted 29 September 2003. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. Couple of recent stories added, posted 22 April 2004. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ anglopollyanna at LiveJournal. The Beginning Wheel is turning, posted 16 April 2004. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)
- ^ pollyanna at Dreamwidth. Pirates of the Caribbean Fic: No Man's Land, posted 11 June 2009. (Accessed 19 September 2016.)