Sisters in Smut

Archive
Name:	Sisters in Smut
Date(s):	January 1998 to 2005 in its original form, February 2005-? in its new form
Archivist:
Founder:	Red Valerian
Type:	het
Fandom:	The X-Files
URL:	http://sis-fic.50megs.com/index.htm http://sis-skinnerotica.org/ (2005) http://augusta.otago.ac.nz/~sis/index.htm (2001-2003) http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/hg83/skinner.htm (1999-2002) http://skinnerotica.livejournal.com/
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Sisters in Smut is an archive for Skinnercentric het fanfiction.

2001 version of the page

The site also sponsored the extensive Sisters in Smut Interview Project.

As of February 7, 2005 the page moved to its new location at sis-skinnerotica.org.

The original Sisters In Smut site run by the wonderful Red Valerian is now closed. We have sought permission from and been blessed by Red in establishing this new archive and are very keen to continue her good work, accepting all the Skinnerotica out there!* Let's not forget that if it weren't for Red's hard work and dedication over the years we would not have this great place to enjoy and appreciate our favorite AD in all his glory!

Description from Skinner's Debriefing Room: "Always the best site for Skinner-centric fiction. The best, most regularly updated archive of Skinner fiction on the Internet today."

A 1998-ish Description and Review of the Site

The Skinnerotica archive is a collection of glorious skinnersmut lovingly compiled by the Sisters in Smut as a tribute to the "surly one".

Webmistress Red Valerian describes the archive's creation and what it means to her...

About a year and a half ago I discovered the Gossamer Project Fan Fiction sites on the Internet. I came to scoff but stayed to read and read and read.

So I first became hooked on the fiction and then *after* that came the obsession with watching the programme. Many of the stories on Gossamer assumed a prior knowledge of various episodes so it soon became essential to see every episode I could possibly get my hands on. I had a lot of catching up to do. I bought all of the available videos, rented others and in the end, even subscribed to Sky specifically so that I could catch up.

See - by then I'd started writing fiction myself too - and I felt that I really needed to have seen all the episodes in order to get my details accurate.

Initially my focus was MSR (Mulder/Scully Romance) but then I gradually fell under Skinner's spell. There's an ambiguity about his character that constantly keeps you wondering whose side he's on. Then there's his physical presence - the breadth of his chest; the scowl; the rasping voice; the snarl. He began to look like the sort of man who'd shove you against a hard wall and give you what you'd always been afraid to admit you really wanted. Him.

Skinner started 'starring' in more and more of my fiction. It was such fun playing with him, and I always put him back in the box afterwards. He was only a tiny bit disheveled. You'd hardly notice.

By then I had become friendly with a few other women who also posted Skinner erotica to Gossamer. One was a Canadian, but the others were all American. We found ourselves sharing stories, and constantly bemoaning the fact that there wasn't enough Skinner-based fiction out there on the web. We'd spend hours and hours scouring the archives looking for it.

That's when inspiration stuck.

Why not start an archive devoted to the sort of stories I wanted to read? I could archive Skinner/female erotica from a range of authors, including myself PLUS invite new authors to come over to the Skinner side.

I put out some feelers, and everyone was very positive about the idea. Within four days the archive was up and running. It proved an immediate hit.

Since the Sisters-in-Smut Skinnerotica Archive went online in January 1998, it's had over 25,000 hits. There are a lot of Skinner-obsessed folks out there in cyberland.

I would say I spend at least three hours a day answering mail related to the SIS archive - sending feedback, formatting and uploading stories; updating links; answering queries etc. It's far more than that at the weekend, when it takes all my time to catch up with back correspondence.

That's not counting the time it takes me to write myself. One story might take as much as six weeks to complete. Once I start writing I get almost frenzied until I complete the thing. I've sometimes stayed up all night writing in a desperate effort to get everything down on paper before the muse packs her bag and departs.

Bizarrely, the Skinnerotica site has given me a focus for my creativity as well as a whole new identity. By day a staid middle-aged English teacher, by night Red Valerian - writer of hot hot Skinnerotica. Imagine getting feedback where you are referred to in the subject line as 'A Goddess of Erotica'! Especially if at the time you are sitting slumped at the computer with dirty hair and thinking ..... yes ..... tomorrow .... tomorrow, I *really* will go back on that diet.

Feedback is what keeps us going. Feedback is seductive and addictive and no matter how much you get, you always want more. A fellow author says that we've all become 'feedback whores' and she's quite right. I had over one hundred letters for one of my stories, but it still wasn't enough.

Even as we speak, I'm in feedback withdrawal, as I haven't been able to get any writing done for a few months. I intend to rectify that by spending the entire summer vacation writing - primarily so that I can get more feedback. As I said. Whores. Every one of us.

This obsession has also given me a kind of fame too. I recently posted a request to an altogether different news group, but I signed my SIS name to it. A few minutes later I had a response from a teacher in Massachusetts, asking me excitedly if I were *the* Red Valerian of the Skinnerotica site. When I said 'yes' the woman, who was positively effusive in her praise of SIS, told me that I was providing "an INVALUABLE service to the women of the world." Well - I know it's not equal to Mother Theresa's contribution, but mine does give quite a lot of pleasure all the same.

She finished by begging me to keep the site up and running, as she said that it was helping her to maintain her sanity.

I'd say that it's doing the same for me.

I would just like to add that running SIS has allowed me to make some wonderful friends and to get a first look at some of the best fan fiction being written on the net.

I've also had the great pleasure of encouraging new authors and the satisfaction of watching them grow in confidence and skill through writing for SIS. I couldn't imagine ever giving up the site now. Even if Skinner's character is gradually eased out of the series (as rumours are suggesting) I still feel that SIS will be a haven for the Skinner hungry, as someone once put it.