It’ll certainly leave a big gap in my Sunday mornings (when I access your site to read your latest) though…

Trying to integrate the fanfic into the cannon in any real and consistent way would likely prove troublesome. Other people are likely to write characters doing and thinking things that wouldn’t fit with Alison’s vision, even in dreams. And part of the fun of fanfic is often seeing what you can do with the characters that is outside the authors vision but still fits with the published material or with some idea or scene they wrote. If it all had to be realistic enough to be imagined as a “real” part of the story that would really limit that.

As I understand it, most authors don’t read fanfic that uses their works as cannon, at least until they are sure they’ll never do anything more with that work. If they do read it and then want to write something that’s also been used in fic, everyone is left wondering if it’s properly original. The fic writers and readers end up aggrieved and the author has to chose between using perfect ideas (that sie thought of hirself), and alienating some of hir most passionate readers. That said, in a community like this I think most people would be thrilled to see tiny references to their fic in Alison’s work–things that weren’t integral to understanding the strip but would give everyone in the know the feeling of a little inside joke. I would be fascinated to see how the conversation between fic and author could happen in a shared, friendly space.

When you come back, though, Mo should wake up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette.

Sorry… I am genuinely anxious about this all.

J.

Alison, please don’t forget to come back to DTWOF!

Thank you,
J.

However I’d love to see other people’s imaginings of alternate DTWOF realities, the substitute strips sent in so far have been brilliant and really interesting, but in a separate place (a different website) which clearly defines them as companion pieces not in anyway part of the main story line. Not being part of the blog also makes them optional.

This way the blog is just a blog, something optional for Alison to do when she wants to during this sabbatical. Otherwise its not really a sabbatical is it?