Colleen Thomas Tribute Stories

[sweetnpetite]

I was thinking, if several authors were thinking of doing any sort of tribute story to Colleen (and I've heard that some have, had or will) it would be a good idea to link them all into a *chain* so that they would all be together rather than scattered. As for poems, they can't be linked in a chain in the conventional way, but a composit profile could be created and severeal poems could be grouped together as a story.

Just a thought. What does everyone think?

 

[AchtungNight]

My tribute story's already written, so it can't be part of a chain since it's a little late. But I'm quite willing to do another one. Then again, I didn't really know Colly. I only came here after her unfortunate passing and got to know her in retrospect. I think I can say she was a damn fine woman, that's obvious to anyone. However, I think I'd prefer it if such a tribute were written by folks who actually knew her and what she liked rather than some poor lonely detective remembering the day that Laura died when he didn't even know Laura... Okay, enough Twin Peaks homage, AN! {slaps self}

Seriously, I think it's a good idea. I invite other writers to participate in such an event. Me, I'm just glad to have someone I can dedicate a hot femslash story to and have it appreciated more for doing so. That, and I'm thankful Colly's stories have taught me how to better write FF relationships. Somewhere I'm sure she's glad to know she's had this effect.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't know Sweets. I loved Colly as a friend, admired and respected her, but I can't say that I knew her well enough to write a story about her. That would just be terribly presumptuous, a story of what I imagined she might be like rather than a tribute to who she really was.

That isn't to say people that who knew her well shouldn't do it, and in fact it would be sweet to get to know her even now, but I can't help but wonder how Colly herself would feel about being canonized after her passing.

I'm still missing her and I was kind of thinking this morning how it might be nice to have a special Colleen Thomas Memorial Award for excellence in lesbian fiction, maybe handed out at the year end awards. I don't know how it would work or what Laurel would think of such an idea, and I'm kind of afraid of starting a dangerous precedent (I could envision a sudden rash of memorial awards: The Chilled Vodka Award for Literary Incomprehensibility, The Ogg Bashan Award for Fetishistic Outrageousness, &c. &c.) but I can't help but feel that Colly deserves some permanent monument on this site.

--Zoot

 

[impressive]

... starting a dangerous precedent (I could envision a sudden rash of memorial awards: The Chilled Vodka Award for Literary Incomprehensibility, The Ogg Bashan Award for Fetishistic Outrageousness, &c. &c.)

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I knew her quite well, and I'm not sure how I'd even go about it. I actually think I'd have a much easier time of drawing a character of her as she was on the boards and in public than I would of how I knew her offline. As for how she'd feel, I think it would depend entirely on how she was portrayed and in what context but that lends to limiting an author's creativity and I'm not much for that. I think a better idea would be to write more of a eulogy or memorial piece and many have already done that.

I like Zoot's idea of an award in her honor. If Laurel and Manu don't want to expand the year end awards to include it, perhaps they'd consider letting us create a new AH sticky for the award and we could collectively come up with criteria and nominees.

 

[matriarch]

I knew her quite well, and I'm not sure how I'd even go about it. I actually think I'd have a much easier time of drawing a character of her as she was on the boards and in public than I would of how I knew her offline. As for how she'd feel, I think it would depend entirely on how she was portrayed and in what context but that lends to limiting an author's creativity and I'm not much for that. I think a better idea would be to write more of a eulogy or memorial piece and many have already done that.

I like Zoot's idea of an award in her honor. If Laurel and Manu don't want to expand the year end awards to include it, perhaps they'd consider letting us create a new AH sticky for the award and we could collectively come up with criteria and nominees.

I agree completely, I wouldn't know where to start without the person I knew on the boards, and the person I knew off the boards melding into a kind of Colly hybrid.

As for the annual award, this has already been suggested a couple of times, either a special award for the best newcomer of the year, or the best lesbian writer of the year. Whether it be from an amalgam of their scores over the year, or simply on a voting system, not sure. I personally would prefer an award for the best 'newcomer' ( a relative term), as she was always so very supportive of any new writers, helping them to overcome the misgivings and doubts. Although she wrote predominantly lesbian fiction, Colly herself was a consumate 'writer', and I feel sure she could have turned her hand to any kind of writing. Her wonderful novels. 'Furies I', and 'The Spy who wore petticoats' showed just how far she had moved in this direction.

I don't know if anyone contacted Laurel to suggest this, but I think an annual award of some kind would be an enduring memorial to her memory.

 

[Lisa Denton]

I don't know Sweets. I loved Colly as a friend, admired and respected her, but I can't say that I knew her well enough to write a story about her. That would just be terribly presumptuous, a story of what I imagined she might be like rather than a tribute to who she really was.

That isn't to say people that who knew her well shouldn't do it, and in fact it would be sweet to get to know her even now, but I can't help but wonder how Colly herself would feel about being canonized after her passing.

I'm still missing her and I was kind of thinking this morning how it might be nice to have a special Colleen Thomas Memorial Award for excellence in lesbian fiction, maybe handed out at the year end awards. I don't know how it would work or what Laurel would think of such an idea, and I'm kind of afraid of starting a dangerous precedent (I could envision a sudden rash of memorial awards: The Chilled Vodka Award for Literary Incomprehensibility, The Ogg Bashan Award for Fetishistic Outrageousness, &c. &c.) but I can't help but feel that Colly deserves some permanent monument on this site.

--Zoot

Here is a pic I made for Colly, or leastwise I put a caption in it while thinking of her and she liked it.

It was after she went scuba diving not long ago, seems like yesterday.

Anywho, I think its a great idea, and a hundred other peoples prolly have pics and stuff that could be made into an award, maybe an award where we would all see a small pic in somebodies sig line and think of Colly and smile. This is just an example, a lil something I made for Colly because of her love for diving.

But ...........

Presented to Zoot, for a great idea ..........

An example of an Colly award .........

Fulll size ...............


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/LisaDenton/Untitled-1a.jpg