User blog:Atarumaster88/Promoting 2 FEllow Fan-Fiction Authors

Today's blog isn't about anything FE-related. Instead, I want to talk about two of the most underrated authors on Star Wars Fanon, and why reading their material is a better use of your time than just about anything else you can do on this wiki.

Both of these gentlemen are far too modest to promote their own material, so I'm giving them the endorsement they deserve. They're far better authors than this wiki deserves.

Golden Age of the Republic
First up, the fine scholar I was privileged to host the 7WA with, Professor Fiolli. I've also worked with him on the Wook, and he is both talented and helpful. I refer to this series as GAOTR and pronounce it "Gator" as in Alli. Here's why you should read it.
 * 1) It's a mystery series that's set in the GFFA. Not a lot of people can pull that off, and if you want to learn an approach on how to do it, Fiolli's work is a good place to start.
 * 2) It's set in an era that not much is known about canonically (the 700s BBY era), which allows for a lot of creative freedom. It's not the TOR/KotOR era. It's not the Prequel era. It's somewhere in between.
 * 3) The writing is really solid. There's a lot of depth to the plot and a wide range of conflicts to read and learn about.
 * 4) It's not too Jedi-heavy. One of the major annoyances in any novel-length story IMO is when the author becomes too focused on Jedi/Sith to remember the ordinary folks.
 * 5) The story is paced well.
 * 6) Fiolli is probably one of the nicest guys on this wiki.

Fiolli also has short stories you might be familiar with&mdash;The Suppression, The Call, and The Passing. They're different in tone, more of dramas than mysteries, but are high enough quality to earn awards and FW status for the most part.

Days of Dissidence
JM76 aka "Jedi Master 76"if you're an IRC regular is another unbelievably underrated writer on this wiki. He's also one of the oldest active users in terms of being on the site. He's old enough that phrases like "Darth Vacatour" mean something to him on a firsthand. We call him Vampie in IRC, and maybe he is actually immortal since he's been around so long. Or maybe he's Methuselah. Anyway, I digress.

I have a huge appreciation for what he does as an author, and if you're not familiar with his work, you should be. Also, while he doesn't have covers for most of his books, I did find this totally official cover* for one of his novels. If you need more reason than that, here's some: * The totally official state might in fact be a figment of my imagination and is actually closer to not-official-at-all.
 * 1) JM's writing style embodies the HK-47 quote: ""Statement: You are a very harsh master, master. I like you."" You never know who's going to die in his stories, and in what horrible fashion they will suffer before or during the process. JM doesn't baby his characters and he goes very minimal on the plot shields. If someone is likely to fall off a cliff and crush their face, in the event they fall off that cliff, no miracle Jedi will come save them. There's no magic resurrection. They either crush their face and die, or they crush their face and spend the rest of their miserable existence maimed and deformed.
 * 2) Days of Dissidence is the second-longest (by word count) series on Star Wars Fanon. There's a vast panoply of story and characters that JM has created to explore.
 * 3) It's KotOR era. And since it seems like 90% of this wiki's userbase are massive KotOR fanboys, it's amazing that his work isn't more celebrated.
 * 4) JM does a good job of incorporating humour into his stories without forcing it.
 * 5) Like Fiolli, JM also does a good job of balancing out Jedi/Sith characters with average Joes and even droids.
 * 6) JM writes his story with a blacker sense of morality than most, which helps break some of the molds of common SW writing. The Sith, while still evil, are largely shown to have some humanity, save for their megalomaniac leaders. The Jedi have their good and bad sides.
 * 7) JM has some of the best characterization I've read on in amateur fiction. I might not remember all the names of his characters, but they're so well written, I can recall their personality easily.
 * 8) JM is known to randomly delete his creations in a fit of nerdrage, so if you want to read it, it would serve you well to read his work before he has a fit of nerdrage. When MPK has nerdrage, he rants. When JM76 gets nerdrage, he deletes things.
 * 9) JM is the only author ever to inspire me to create a dramatic reading which I'll get around to re-uploading soontm, along with a totally official* social media campaign that impacted his writing. #JusticeForNohli2013!

So now that you're interested in checking out what they wrote, where you can find said works?
 * For Fiolli, I would check out Golden Age of the Republic: Hidden Truths first.
 * As for JM76, he used to have a central Days of Dissidence page, but surprise surprise he deleted it. If you want to start reading his series in OOU chronology, start with Convict's Dawn. For the IU order, go with Dark Covenant.

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by Atarumaster88. Feel free to comment below, and do check out these under-appreciated authors' works. Atarumaster88 ( Talk page ) 17:12, October 25, 2013 (UTC)