Shadow Unit
1 January 2014 23:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enismirdalI have discovered a new Thing. This Thing is bringing me enormous happiness. This Thing is Shadow Unit.
It combines three of my favourite other things into an overdose of awesome, namely:
1. Criminal Minds
2. Elizabeth Bear
3. Sarah Monette
It started off when some published authors started encouraging each other to write Criminal Minds fanfic to reinvigorate themselves and remind themselves of writing purely for fun.
And then they sat down together and said, "Wouldn't it be awesome if we could be screenwriters on Criminal Minds?"
And then they more or less figured, "Well, why don't we be?" Except they threw in a bit of a supernatural element, so instead of setting stories in the regular BAU, they created the Shadow Unit, a mirror unit who specialise in "anomalous" crimes with a supernatural element, but otherwise work the same way. Some of the characters are sort of alternate-versions of Criminal Minds characters, though not the same, and others are totally original, and all are brilliant. The plots are of the same genre but with the literary talents of the brilliant writing team involved and without the restrictions of 15-rated television constraining what can be done. Basically, they've produced a book version of a hypothetical spin-off TV series.
The books (mostly eBooks) are pretty cheap and are like the discs you get in a box set, with about 4 "episodes" per book, with "deleted scenes". The stories seem to be taking me just over an hour each to real, so better value for money than your typical 37-42 minute long Criminal Minds episode!
It seems they've got really into this and there are now 3 "seasons" of the "show". Awesome! It has its own fan wiki, the characters have livejournals (not all of them updated frequently, but still), Twitter feeds, and because it's a fun project for the writers, they contribute regularly to the fan forums.
Altogether, I think it's a really exciting project, a fantastic concept from the start and a really cool way for writers to keep themselves enthusiastic. I am on to book two less than a week after starting this (having, in the meantime, demolished one and a half paper books as well - hooray being on holiday), and thoroughly hooked.
It combines three of my favourite other things into an overdose of awesome, namely:
1. Criminal Minds
2. Elizabeth Bear
3. Sarah Monette
It started off when some published authors started encouraging each other to write Criminal Minds fanfic to reinvigorate themselves and remind themselves of writing purely for fun.
And then they sat down together and said, "Wouldn't it be awesome if we could be screenwriters on Criminal Minds?"
And then they more or less figured, "Well, why don't we be?" Except they threw in a bit of a supernatural element, so instead of setting stories in the regular BAU, they created the Shadow Unit, a mirror unit who specialise in "anomalous" crimes with a supernatural element, but otherwise work the same way. Some of the characters are sort of alternate-versions of Criminal Minds characters, though not the same, and others are totally original, and all are brilliant. The plots are of the same genre but with the literary talents of the brilliant writing team involved and without the restrictions of 15-rated television constraining what can be done. Basically, they've produced a book version of a hypothetical spin-off TV series.
The books (mostly eBooks) are pretty cheap and are like the discs you get in a box set, with about 4 "episodes" per book, with "deleted scenes". The stories seem to be taking me just over an hour each to real, so better value for money than your typical 37-42 minute long Criminal Minds episode!
It seems they've got really into this and there are now 3 "seasons" of the "show". Awesome! It has its own fan wiki, the characters have livejournals (not all of them updated frequently, but still), Twitter feeds, and because it's a fun project for the writers, they contribute regularly to the fan forums.
Altogether, I think it's a really exciting project, a fantastic concept from the start and a really cool way for writers to keep themselves enthusiastic. I am on to book two less than a week after starting this (having, in the meantime, demolished one and a half paper books as well - hooray being on holiday), and thoroughly hooked.
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Date: 2 Jan 2014 10:21 (UTC)