Shoshanna
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Shoshanna |
| Alias(es): | the-shoshanna |
| Type: | fanwriter, reccer, betareader |
| Fandoms: | ...er, many. See User:Shoshanna |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | Dreamwidth: the-shoshanna |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Shoshanna has been writing fan fiction (including the Pros novel Never Let Me Down and the SAAB novel Chains of Being) since the late '80s. She has been editing and beta-reading just as long, and helped put on Escapade, ZebraCon, Vividcon, and other conventions.
She is particularly known for her saucy moderation of the Escapade art show, which she ran from 1992 through 2014, and for coordinating volunteers at Vividcon.
Interviews
- Fanlore Live!: 2009 Escapade Panel Notes: Shoshanna (2009)
- Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Shoshanna (2015)
Regarding Zines and The Pros Circuit
When I began writing Pros I deliberately wrote only for the circuit. I did this because I wanted to support the circuit, which was already under threat from zine competition. But now almost all my Pros writing goes in zines. Why the change? you ask. Well...
The first Pros story I put into a zine went there because it had been written as a deliberate homage to M. Fae. Where else could it go, but to Oblique Publications? (If they had turned it down, I might have put it on the circuit; I'm not sure.) Since then, other Pros stories have gone to zines for a number of reasons. One is that I like writing for zines more than for the circuit. I get immediate feedback from the editors, and greater visibility among readers, which leads to more reader feedback. Another is that I offer stories primarily to editors with whom I'm friends, and I enjoy collaborating on a zine with them. A third is that I absolutely treasure the editing I have gotten, from Manacles Press in particular. I submitted NEVER LET ME DOWN to them partly, but not wholly, because I knew I wanted (and needed!) their editing, and it seemed churlish to ask them to put all that work into it and not get to publish it.
On the other hand, I put "View from the Top" on the circuit, and it's a recent story. (Well, I haven't written much of anything recently, but it's *comparatively* recent.) I did that because the story was for fun, a joke, a romp; the circuit just felt right for it. (Yes, I *know* there are lots of serious circuit stories; I'm describing my emotional reasoning, not making a coherent argument.) Plus I wanted to send it out right away; it didn't need editing (at least, I thought not; sarky comments will be happily ignored) and I wanted to show it to people asap. Especially [Melody C], from whom I took the term "enmeshment," which was what inspired the whole thing. (I think she told me that it's actually a real FBI term, but at the time I thought she had invented it.)
So for all those reasons, I doubt I'll put anything substantial I write for Pros in the future on the circuit. I liked it a lot, but I think its day is past. [1]