Sheryl Martin

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Fan
Name: Sheryl Martin, Sheryl Nantus
Alias(es):
Type:
Fandoms: The X-Files
Communities: ff.net, atxc
Other:
URL: some of her fiction is here
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Sheryl Martin was an X-Files writer in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Her Dragon Series was very well-known.

Mainstream Attention

Martin was featured in a number of journalist's articles in the late 1990s:

From In TV's Dull Summer Days, Plots Take Wing on the Net:

Consider the case of Sheryl Martin, a security guard in Toronto. She created a character named Jackie St. George who accompanies the F.B.I. agents Mulder and Scully in her X-Files fiction. I get E-mail saying, 'Which show was she on?' Ms. Martin said of Jackie, about whom she has written some 200 stories. That to me is the ultimate flattery. Well, maybe the ultimate flattery was the man who fell in love with the on-line Jackie St. George but settled for becoming engaged to the real-life Ms. Martin.

Sharing the Dragon

She was described in 1998 as "one of the most recognizable names in X-fic, who has won fan awards and been cited in numerous articles"; "author of the famed "Dragon" stories - her character Jackie St. George has actually been used by other fan writers, one of the highest compliments to a fanfic author." [1]

The use of her OFC, Jackie St. George, was not without drama:

Darned flattered [that my OFC, Jackie St. George, is used in other people's fiction]- as long as they ask permission!

There was an unfortunate incident a few years ago when I tripped over a Babylon 5/XF crossover that started off with Jackie being a Ranger - and NO permission. The disclaimer stated flatly that the author didn't bother to even TRY to contact me, since he was sure I wouldn't mind.

I did.

One fast e-mail later and he pulled the story from all the archives along with a long apology.

I hate laziness. One short email and I would have given permission gladly.

But I think it's pretty lame to assume anything, especially in fanfic.

In Her Own Words: 2000

Excerpts from Working Stiffs Interview with Sheryl Nantus aka Sheryl Martin:

I actually tripped across the online community when I "bought" (as in: not paid off yet) a used Mac from an ex-boyfriend in the fall of 1994. I had been watching the show for years, but never realised that there was anything online and fell over the atxc group just before Christmas.

Actually, to be brutally honest I was appalled at the type of stories being offered for reading. Either they were multi-part epics of 25+ pieces and crossing over into every universe including Thundercats, or they were pretty well Mary Sue smut that wasn't even that much fun to read. I really just wanted a couple of fun, quick stories that wouldn't take storyboards to understand and that actually accentuated the relationship between Mulder and Scully.

Didn't find much.

Wrote my own.

'Nuff said.

I was a shipper before the phrase was coined - in fact, I think I was surprised when I was announced/denounced as a shipper, since I didn't think of myself as that way when I wrote anything other than my mind candy... chuckle... The Shipper/Noromo debate really influenced fanfic more than people think it did. I think that a lot of the Mary Sues that were writing were Noromos and with romantic smut beginning to be more common on the newsgroup, there were a lot of hurt feelings - a lot of stories began to become very Anti MSR, though we didn't see it up front - most of us just ignored it and kept on writing, which infuriated them to no end.

Oh, God… Writing in canon sucks horribly because you tend to hold yourself to a higher standard than CC does - which inevitably ends up giving you a migraine as you attempt to make sense out of something that CC and Co. blissfully ignores. I've tried to make sense out of the mytharc; tried to reason away a lot of the problems but it's horribly hard, rather like trying to ignore that huge pimple that appeared on your nose overnight. It really makes writing that much harder when you can't do exactly what you want, like kill off the LG or have Skinner grow hair...

[My advice for new writers]: Get Rid of The Awards. Get Rid of The Personal Mailing Lists. Get Rid of The Egos.

Not going to happen, but I had to say it. I think a lot of the fan fiction being written today isn't for personal exploration and fun, it's to gain acceptance into the cliques that they want to hang with - the New Kids on the Block vs. the Old Timers vs. the Youngsters vs. the (fill in your favourite character here) ists...

They don't write because they have a story to tell, they write because they want the instant fame and acclaim of being with a group who then brawls with the other group for supremacy on the boards. Yawn. They don't do it for fun and that's sad. Even the Old Timers are guilty of this; writing crap and then advertising it as the Next Coming since they miss their feedback smack and need a fix.

And don't believe anyone doesn't want feedback. It's addictive and yes, it's great to be told you're a hot writer. God, it's great. It's addictive as hell and hard to break.

How to avoid it?

Get A Life.

Really.

Step Away From The Computer and see it for what it is - fun and a great way to communicate. It's not going to Save The World, although some fanfic writers have taken up great causes and made it work wonderfully, AGAINST the outcry that met many of their writings. When the first rapefic hit the board, the screaming that came back should have scared the writer back into hiding for good. Thank god it didn't.

In Her Own Words: 2012

I’m way old-school when it comes to fanfiction – I started writing X-Files fanfiction under Sheryl Martin way, WAY back when we were still using alt.tv.x-files.creative to post our works…

*laughs*

I iz dere on fanlog as well!

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Working_Stiffs_(X-Files_website)

I can say without a doubt that fanfiction helped me hone my writing craft to the point that I now write and sell original works; not to mention having a husband I found through my fanfiction fan mail and who supports me beyond belief...

(btw, I still have a ton of stories, like 200+, on ff.net under Sheryl Martin. Because I can.)

;)[2]

In Her Own Words: 2020

From Old School X Interview: Sheryl Martin (2020):

Well… I met my husband through [X-Files fandom], so I’ll never say a bad word about it! For those who don’t know - when I originally started posting fanfiction, it was on the Usenet group alt.tv.x-files.creative newsgroup - and you could only post small segments at a time. I got a few emails back, fan mail from readers who enjoyed my writing.

[...]

One of them was from a lovely young man who really enjoyed my stories, and Jackie St. George - an original character I made up. (Yes, classic Mary Sue, but different in that she did NOT want to hook up with anyone!) I answered him back, as a good author should, and he wrote back and… We’ve been together since 1993 and married for over 20 years, so I’d say I’m pretty happy with the fandom experience. ;)

[...]

I practically lived on ATXC and Usenet - I was running on a cheap Mac, using the Toronto Freenet to zip in, grab email and post, then duck out. I was dirt poor - no AOL for me, no university email or web page! It’s hard to imagine, but back then it was hard to get online if you didn’t have money. The Toronto Freenet gave a free, easy way to pick up email and get online - but only for a short amount of time. When a generous fan asked if they could put up a Geocities page for my fanfic, I was thrilled - there was NO way I could have done that.

[...]

I do still love, despite all the bad writing, the Dragon series. They’re part of what let me become a better writer, with all the practice.

Some Fiction

References

  1. ^ from If Fans Wrote the X-Files ..., an online magazine
  2. ^ comment at How I Came to Appreciate Fan Fiction
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