Sorrow...
I found out this morning that one of the first friends I made on the Internet has passed away.
Kelly, or "Kielle" as she was known to most people online, was a "Big Name Fan": someone that everybody in fandom knows. I didn't get into fandom online until my late teens, and Kielle's comicbook fanfiction group, Subreality, was the first that I discovered.
I was just one of many fandom newbies that she encouraged. She archived my first fanfiction piece, a silly little X-Men Movieverse short story, and took the ones that followed always with a dose of encouragement and praise. She was also a very talented writer herself, and wrote some of the most popular and well-known pieces of fanfic in several fandoms. She founded multiple story archives, and some of the biggest fandom websites on the Internet.
As is often the case, I lost touch with her personally when I moved on to different fandoms, and I had not heard that she was sick. I found out from a mutual friend that she died yesterday of cancer, the onset of which was very fast. I've visited her LJ, where her husband had been posting messages from her, and finally messages of his own to keep her friends and readers updated on her condition, and there are hundreds of messages from members of the fan community.
That I never met her in person and only knew her through my fanwriting hobby doesn't matter much. Kielle was a friend, as much as any friend we make in the Real World, and losing her hurts. I've been thinking about her all morning. She showed me so many of the ropes of online communities, and those little conversations and messages that I hadn't thought about in a long time are now very vivid in my mind. She was a very funny person, in her messages and in her stories. I haven't cried yet, but I suspect I will.
I have heard about deaths in the fanfiction community before, but Kielle is the first who I knew closely. There is sorrow in multiple fandoms today. We will miss her terribly.
Kelly, or "Kielle" as she was known to most people online, was a "Big Name Fan": someone that everybody in fandom knows. I didn't get into fandom online until my late teens, and Kielle's comicbook fanfiction group, Subreality, was the first that I discovered.
I was just one of many fandom newbies that she encouraged. She archived my first fanfiction piece, a silly little X-Men Movieverse short story, and took the ones that followed always with a dose of encouragement and praise. She was also a very talented writer herself, and wrote some of the most popular and well-known pieces of fanfic in several fandoms. She founded multiple story archives, and some of the biggest fandom websites on the Internet.
As is often the case, I lost touch with her personally when I moved on to different fandoms, and I had not heard that she was sick. I found out from a mutual friend that she died yesterday of cancer, the onset of which was very fast. I've visited her LJ, where her husband had been posting messages from her, and finally messages of his own to keep her friends and readers updated on her condition, and there are hundreds of messages from members of the fan community.
That I never met her in person and only knew her through my fanwriting hobby doesn't matter much. Kielle was a friend, as much as any friend we make in the Real World, and losing her hurts. I've been thinking about her all morning. She showed me so many of the ropes of online communities, and those little conversations and messages that I hadn't thought about in a long time are now very vivid in my mind. She was a very funny person, in her messages and in her stories. I haven't cried yet, but I suspect I will.
I have heard about deaths in the fanfiction community before, but Kielle is the first who I knew closely. There is sorrow in multiple fandoms today. We will miss her terribly.
posted by Jocelyn Smith | 9:29 AM
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