The words “fan fiction” mean different things to different people. To some, fan fiction is an enjoyable pastime, where people read and/or write for their favorite settings. To others, fan fiction fosters ideas about poor quality and a lack of professionalism. No matter what you personally think fan fiction is, however, the publishing industry has its own definition for fan fiction. This definition is not based on a judgment of quality, but rather – on business.

This past year I’ve been at several conventions, and I’ve interacted with many people who found out how much they love to write through fan fiction. Because these writers were not aware of the differences between fan fiction, shared world or media tie-in, I felt that they were treated a bit dismissively. In my opinion, most new authors really don’t know the first thing about the publishing industry, and I’d like to help clear up some of the confusion I’ve witnessed by sharing the definitions of fan, shared world and media tie-in fiction with some examples.

Wizards of the Coast has just posted the new Fan Site Kit Policy for those interested in putting together a fansite for D&D 4th Edition (and it apparently covers Magic: the Gathering as well). Reactions have been…rather mixed so far:

The Seven-Sided Die has a good post called Wizards’ Fan Site Kit is not a fan site policy that is worth reading.

Geek Related tells us Wizards Fan Site Policy – What It’s Good For.

Last week, I talked about the paranormal romance novels that are easy to identify. So, what about paranormal novels that have lots of romance in them but don’t follow the category formula? Or what about novels that sort of follow the formula but have really deep world-building and a plot that reads more like an urban fantasy novel? Some paranormal romances read like romances with paranormal elements slapped on for fun, and others read like serious works of urban fantasy with a romance formula moving beneath the surface. Those are the cases where it’s harder to tell what you’re reading.

I struggled with Meljean Brook’s “The Guardians” series when I first read it because the world building was much deeper than paranormal romances I’d read before, and while the hero and heroine go through the usual pattern, there’s so much at stake in the series that the couple getting together doesn’t necessarily promise an HEA. The whole series also has a larger overarching plot that thickens with each episode, instead of getting closer to a resolution.

Folks, I am pleased to share with you that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have just rolled out a brand new website located at http://www.sfwa.org. This look and feel, in my opinion, was a much needed face lift to not only bring the website’s technology and design up-to-date, but also to highlight […]

Matt and I have been talking for a long time about me doing a column here at Flames Rising about different forms of urban fantasy. How can you tell if something is a paranormal romance vs. a true urban fantasy novel (and when it’s just vampire smut)? When is urban fantasy contemporary instead of urban (or is that term out the window)? Are superhero novels actually UF, or are they a different category all together?

The more I read other people writing about defining the subgenres, the more I think that no one actually knows a real, clear cut answer. Until we get more academic papers about the history of urban fantasy and all of its bits and pieces, it’s going to stay amorphous. (And even then, how many UF fans will read the papers on the subject? I’m not sure I will.) But sometimes the subgenre terms can be useful — or, at least, thinking about genre in specific ways can help navigate the genre terrain.

We recently started a new game of Vampire: the Requiem set in Chicago. Interestingly the players decided early on that they would all be members of the same Covenant in the setting, allowing for some common interests and history for the group at the start of play.

As the Storyteller for the game I’ve been reading and making use of the published material in World of Darkness: Chicago and the Invictus Covenant book.

Of course, I will be adding a few twists and turns to keep things interesting and more fitting to our personal style of play. I’ve built up a list of interesting NPCs and ongoing plot threads throughout the city. The player characters’ goals are the main stage of this story, but nothing happens in a vacuum either. The other Covenants have plots going on in Chicago (not to forget about other members of the Invictus as well).

Voting for the 2009 ENnie Awards is about to begin. Lots of excellent titles this year so choosing among them is going to be very difficult in some categories. Let’s take a look at the Nominees one more time…wow, what a list.

You can click the “details” link on each one for more information about the particular products. I’m going to go through and pick one (or two) from each list that I think deserves a little extra attention. A lot of these categories have several titles I enjoy so this certainly is not going to be an easy task…

In recent years America’s horror cinema has been much like its cuisine: bland interpretations of foreign delights and mass produced fast food, serving the same burger over and over again. The watered down and over-produced plethora of Americanized Japanese ghost movies has actually managed to render the originals as unwatchable clichés, while last year’s Quarantine was an inferior redo of the Spanish chiller, [REC]. And to add insult to injury these movies were essentially released simultaneously (thankfully, [REC] is now available on DVD).

So, White Wolf has been releasing a series of “Ready-Made Player Characters” for each game line in the World of Darkness. Todd Cash already reviewed the Vampire: the Requiem set called Slaughterhouse Five here at Flames Rising and had some interesting things to say about why he likes the concept.

I’m going to do a little more of that, especially now that I’ve had the chance to check out a few more of them. It seems that some folks are wondering why anyone would buy such a thing. I’ve seen a couple of posts on the White Wolf Forums to this effect and had at least one IM conversation about it. To me the idea seems like an excellent one. Not all gaming groups have lots of free time to devote just to character creation. Some groups only get together once in a while and would much rather dive into playing the game, rather than working up a backstory and stating out individual characters. These products are exactly what they say, “Ready-Made” and are good to go out of the box (so to speak).

I had the chance to play in a short demo of Little Fears: Nightmare Edition at Madison Games Day on 5/30. I thought I’d share a little about my character and the game.

The game sessions at MGD were about 2 hours long each and all of the characters were pre-generated by Jason and Caz.

I played Jackson, a 10 year old who liked to swim and was taking Kung Fu lessons at a local Dojo. Jackson is Big For His Age, but he has Trouble Fighting When Small Kids Are Involved. This was a fun character to play because he had some cool personality quirks and interesting skills, but he also some specific limitation that were fun to work into play.

Steve Bennett posted in his Confessions of a Comic Book Guy column It Was Fun While It Lasted and then Michael Churchill of Pulp Nouveau Comix responded with Stop with the Doom and Gloom. Basically Diamond has raised its minimum order level quite a bit and many of the small press/indie comics don’t sell enough […]

Underland Press has the first few pages of Jemiah Jefferson’s “wovel” up on their website:

Firstworld

Like me, you were probably wonder “What the hell is a wovel?” Conveniently enough, they have a What is a Wovel? page just for us. The author posts part of the story the readers vote and things continue from there. They make claims that it is the first of its kind, but I’m not so sure that is true (for one example, Tim Buckley from Ctrl+Alt+Del did the Idiots in Space series earlier this year).

Flames Rising was fortunate to attend Wizard World Chicago this year, at the gorgeous Rosemont Convention Center in Des Plaines, Illinois.

This was our first year at the convention, and we’re happy to report that we are making plans to go back next year.

Do you enjoy fright in your InBox every morning? Do you jump with glee when blood splatters all over your web page? Well, new to Flames this year will be reviews of the good, the bad, and the horrific in new media formats that we haven’t covered before. We couldn’t think of a better place […]

On Friday I mentioned in the Flash Fire Mini-Reviews how much I liked the Storytelling Adventure System from White Wolf Game Studio. These adventures offer up tips, tools and other dark treats for Storytellers of the World of Darkness games.

Criminal Intent is the latest addition to the SAS line-up. A Vampire: the Requiem adventure written by Eddy Webb, CI offers up some new interactive features and really shows the potential of the SAS product line.