Tae

I was looking up some facts for the FFVII/Black Jewels crossover I'm working on, and found out that Anne Bishop has stated that she does not give permission for others to write fanfiction using her characters or worlds.  My story idea would have placed the FFVII characters in a Black Jewels version of Gaia... and I think that probably qualifies as 'using her world' (or at least all the things about her world that make it unique), so this project will be scrapped.  I'm sorry to those who were looking forward to it. (Assuming you didn't already give up on seeing it, now that it's been so long since it was mentioned!)

I am disappointed, though.  Cloud (a Warlord Prince), falling into the Twisted Kingdom thinking he's failed to save his Queen (Tifa) from Sephiroth would make a perfect analogue to FFVII canon.  (Not to mention the humor I find at casting Aerith as a Black Widow.)

I think this was probably a hard decision -- as a writer -- for Ms. Bishop to have made.  On the one hand, fanfiction definitely keeps fandom alive, and that would help foster additional readers.  On the other, there's a definite hazard in allowing others to play in a world you may not be finished with playing in yourself.  J.K. Rowling fell afoul of this (IMO) by letting people write so much HP fiction before the series was finished.  In the end, I thought there were fanfics that told better, more interesting stories than the actual books did.  There was also the feeling that too many loose ends were tied up in ways that seemed more fanservice than anything else.  Would they have seemed that way if we hadn't seen it done so many times in fanfic?