Missing author *sob*

[thispe.livejournal.com]

Hi all! I was trying to reread some old favorites in the fandom and discovered to my horror that darkeyedseer has absconded from the internet for destination unknown and apparently taken all her stories with her! I'm devastated since she is the author of some of my most favorite Jeeves and Wooster stories. I'm especially looking for "Time and Again" which is the story where Bertie, after the bicycle disaster, gets depressed and convinced that he is useless and very rationally prepares for committing suicide by drawing up a will, buying laudanum etc. I think if I don't find this story again I'm genuinely going to shed a few tears I love it so much. Does anyone happen to know if the author just moved again (she had a livejournal which she deleted after moving to AO3) and her stories are still posted somewhere? I thought a favorite LotR author deleting all her stories even from her *own* computer so that no copy remains would have taught me to save my favorites but obviously not :(

Comments

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew the answer to your question. I remember that story, but I didn't save it.

The fandom is rather inactive these days, but maybe someone will know where she went and whether or not she still has her stories posted somewhere.

Wait — here is something similar but the author's name is different and so is the title: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10160902/1/the-very-edge

This can't be the same story, can it?

[thispe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately it's not the same story, in this one Bertie is contemplating the edge of a cliff whereas in "Time and Again" he buys laudanum. I'm so sad and cursing myself that I didn't save it :(. I also had no luck with the wayback machine. "Artistic License" (another corker of a story by the same author) was there but "Time and Again" wasn't :(.

[ancientreader]

Agh, it's horrible when one neglects to save a fic and then it disappears. You have me intrigued by these stories -- would you be willing to post the Wayback link for "Artistic License"?

[thispe.livejournal.com]

I hate it, especially because it's my own damn fault. People say that nothing ever vanishes completely on the internet but in my experience that's simply not true, especially with sites like ff.net and livejournal disallowing archiving by robots. Anyway, here's the link to Artistic License. It's a good story, I warmly recommend it even though it doesn't tug on the heartstrings like Time and Again did. I freely admit that I have a 'characters with low self esteem' kink when it comes to fanfiction and that one hit all my buttons. Never failed to make me cry :)

http://web.archive.org/web/20110103235748/http://archiveofourown.org/works/58379?view_adult=true

[ancientreader]

Thank you!

Oh the Internet -- it's only forever when you don't want it to be. I have lost any number of terrific old Kirk/Spock stories. Disappearing web pages/sites are a problem in scholarship too; I read an article recently saying that something like a third of urls in legal decisions go to dead links. I believe there's a movement afoot to set up a permanent archive specifically of online material cited in scholarly contexts.

And now to read!

[haikitteh.livejournal.com]

I've got Time & Again in an Instapaper compilation of other Jeeves (& Sherlock) stories. Wish I'd saved it as a stand-alone but alas!


https://mega.co.nz/#!BF4GiJiI!rb2Tw-6fI2u3RxLiLLP9byOE0WJCGPyt6-p8kscYIRA

[thispe.livejournal.com]

I love you and I'm only half kidding when I say that. Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you! You made my day (week! month!) and I will think fondly of you whenever I get a craving for this story and can simply pull it out of my fanfiction folder. Whenever you get a sudden warm feeling of fondness in the years to come, that might just be me sending you some mental appreciation :).

P.S. For all the people downloading this, you probably will have to change the file extension from .original_mobi to simply .mobi, then you can open it in e.g. your kindle or other e-book reader, kindle for pc, calibre or the e-book manager of your choice.