Fan Fiction

The Midnight Murders: A Detective Mosely Mystery, by Phil Colvin
Review by Wynne

Tough. Determined. Wise. Sarcastic. Professional. Funny. Sexy. Pudgy.

All these words can be used to describe NOPD's finest officer, our beloved Detective Mosely. He is back, just as we knew him -- or perhaps even better.

"The Midnight Murders" is a sassy, slick detective tale which deserves a thorough perusal. In fact, it hooks you into giving it one right from the beginning. The case itself, though well done and intriguing, is not at all the story's real strength. What really pulls you in is the wit and the characterizations, which even without the interesting plotline would make this prose highly enjoyable. The author weaves his sly sense of humor into the story seamlessly, managing not to lighten the darker moments so much as to damage his own work. The tense scenes are not interrupted by undesired or unrealistic wisecracks; those are not necessary at the key points because by that time the reader will have been made to care what happens next. The story has its own natural momentum. As for the characters, they are everything that they should be. This writer never would have imagined that anyone could craft a really good story about Mosely. He was a minor character in "Sins of the Fathers"--nice for a laugh, but not for a starring role. It would be impossible to remain really faithful to Jane Jensen's established personality without him coming across as one dimensional and stale-crackers-bland, right?

Oh, no. How wrong that thought was! The same dear old bumbling dry-witted cop we fell in love with is brought to life and expanded like a butterfly emerging from some literary chrysalis. His love of his job is plainly apparent. He is suitably baffled by the case's stranger aspects, but he keeps slowly and surely making headway. He even screws up once or twice, adding elements of realism and suspense to the whole shebang. His loosely-covered wistful longing for his wife Annie can be seen even as he admires the ladies, not that he really expects they'll go for him.

Mostly's partner, Franks, is also very well done. She has a style and sense of humor of her own. Still better, Franks isn't portrayed as a mere helpless victim or a pawn, not even when she's abducted and rescued by Mosely. That takes skill; it is a hard task for an author to keep his main character as the hero while not demeaning or belittling the supporting characters, with the exception of the end, where Colvin seems to be gleefully rubbing his hands together behind the scenes as his man gives good ol' GK himself the boot. It's a delicious, wickedly amusing final curtain to one of the most winsome and clever fanfics out there. Bravo!

"The Midnight Murders: A Detective Mosely Mystery"
http://www.easynet.co.uk/ray/gk/fan82.html

Movies

Shakespeare in Love
Review by Maya

It's a very clever, wickedly funny, and contemporary story, brilliantly played by a wonderful ensemble cast. There. I think I got enough superlatives into that sentence. That said, I think it's been over-hyped (very smart pre-Oscar PR campaign) in the press. Nonetheless, it's a fine entertainer that deserves to be seen, and will be remembered as one of the best movies made last year. Enough has been said about the performances of Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Judi Dench, and Geoffrey Rush. I was also very impressed by Rupert Everett in a brief but very memorable role as Kit Marlowe, and Ben Affleck, who was outstanding as a vain, charismatic, leading actor of the day.

The film's greatest triumph, in my opinion, is that despite the very contemporary script (you won't hear any obscure Elizabethan dialogue in this one), it convincingly portrays both period and characters. You walk away with the feeling that you've seen a true story... (though in point of fact... er, let's not go there.)

It's a merry romp of a movie, that you can enjoy even if you haven't read Shakespeare (but it's funnier if you have.) One scene that I thought was particularly funny was the audition scene where all the actors insist on doing Marlowe's Dr. Faustus.. "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships.."

Then there's the scene where Shakespeare is lying on the apothecary's couch (!) and er, being psycho-analyzed.

So what I'm trying to say is, go see it!

The Thin Red Line
Review by Heath Smith

Beware......Spoilers

hmm...

Can't say I liked it that much.

good:
* The flashback scenes with his wife were extremely deep and touching, and her letter was devastating
* The main character's serene sense of self in the hell
* Nick Nolte/Sean Penn/the main guy were all f*cking excellent actors
* The realistic natives, both the Polynesians and the enemy

bad:
* Couldn't tell what the f*ck was going on half the time
* All the slow motion walking through jungle poetic pondering, while refreshing for the first 45 minutes, because really tedious for me after 3 hours.
* The last 45 minutes really crawled by, after the hill was taken
* Characters which were interesting, but I didn't really get involved with them, because I didn't know anything about them, so i could care less whether they lived or died.
* Just too long and repetitive. I know he was trying to make an antiwar film, but I'm already anti-war, so i just sat listening to their rants on the 'injustice of man' etc. Also felt the shots of wildlife, while interesting the first time, became a bit pretentious.

Maybe i was just tired after all that Chinese food I had beforehand, but I'd only give it about 3/5. I felt like it could have been the greatest movie ever made, but was marred by Terence's self indulgent running time and repetitive scenes/themes. And I know the critics bill it as the 'intellectual 'Private Ryan'', but I personally think 'Private Ryan' was a far superior film. I wouldn't be nominating TTRL for any Oscars, except maybe for the actors, and the nice shots of the daintree. as a whole it left me feeling tired, bored, depressed, tripped out and foggily sad (whereas Private Ryan left me shell-shocked and completely dumbstruck by its honesty). It's like comparing chalk and cheese comparing the two films, so I'm not going to anymore, suffice to say regardless of all Spielburg's hollywoody failings, I loved that film, and thought TTRL was intriguing, but ultimately rather boring and indulgent.

there you go, off my soapbox now. :)

sorry I can't say I liked it more.

Paula in Germany

Part 1:Bayreuth
by Paula Kutvonen

A year ago my parents suddenly got the idea to take a long trip around Europe with our camper van. I didn´t mind of course, especially when I was allowed to do the travel plans in Germany. As a devoted Gabriel Knight fan my plan was to drag my poor parents around Germany and see every location in The Beast Within! After months of planning, dreaming and bugging Jane with my questions, on 29th June I was finally on my way to Bavaria.

7/4/98 Bayreuth

It took us five days to get to Germany. We left Prague early in the morning and after a few hours we crossed the German border. Our first target was the Wagner Museum in Bayreuth.

Bayreuth is a surprisingly small town, famous for its festivals and universities. The first thing we noticed - they were having one of those festivals right then, which meant that there was no parking place for the car in the entire city. The clock was close to five when we finally got to the museum.

The Wagner Museum is in Wahnfried House. Wagner´s home was designed by the artist himself. In 1976 the house was given over to the Richard Wagner Foundation and it was turned into a museum. The building is made of stone and behind it is a garden, where Cosima and Richard Wagner´s graves are located.

The museum has four floors, so it´s much bigger than in the game. The exhibits consist mostly of original notations, librettos, notes and sketches for operas and Wagner´s personal letters. Every room in GK2 exists, but the exhibits are partly different. Basically all items that offer hints in GK2 are made up, like the diagram and the letters between Wagner and Ludwig. 'Wagner´s desk' actually belonged to Cosima Wagner and it´s located in a different room than the sofa. Pictures of Ludwig are different (in GK2 they were pictures of Ludwig´s actor). The rooms are bigger in reality and the colors might be a bit different. Otherwise the museum in GK2 is a replica of the original.

Unfortunately the museum was about to close when we got there and we had only about 15 minutes to go through the entire building. I had just enough time to take pictures and buy a guide book at the entrance. If you ever visit this museum, I recommend getting one of these books because all signs are only in German.

We continued our way south and for the first time I started thinking how ridiculously long trips Grace had to drive from location to another. In the game everything was one click away, but we had to drive the rest of the day to get to a camping place and Munich was still far away. In the evening it started to rain heavily and I hoped it would stop before morning. Tomorrow we would go to see AltÖtting.

And that is a tale for another day (or issue ;-)

Paula's vactation photos are wonderful and you can see many of them at her website:
Gabriel's Domain in The Beast Within ~ Backstory

If you have taken a trip to any of the Gabriel Knight Game Locations and want to write about it, we'd love to have it. Please send it to the Email ID: gkwriters @Domain: thixo.com.

Poetry

Free Verse inspired by Blood of the Sacred-Blood of the Damned
by Maya

1. He prowls the streets where mysteries roam
She follows, sure and fleet of mind
When shadows crawl by day and night
Can their hunters be far behind?

2. Arcadia where I lay content
My happy shining plain
Lovely land where I once went
And cannot go again.

3. Some see only night for ever
They see no morning light
No more sun, no more, not ever
But only stars that burn by night.

Gabriel's Journey
Another BOTS-BOTD inspired verse by Maya

Around the brooding village
The voiceless hillside roars
The undead stalk the living
And linger at the doors

Old mysteries stir from slumber
When the darkest night is nigh
There are shadows in the valley
And danger fills the sky

The corpses they are waking
That will not turn to mould
The fair pale faces gleaming
With hunger strange and cold

Blood's the thread that draws them
And the chain that binds me too
The damned pursue the sacred
The old moon stalks the new

Oh, up the slumbering hillside
Beyond the ancient tomb
I must walk the secret way
Into the world's own womb

The night is long and perilous
But I am not alone
We'll seek and find the answers
Till darkness yields to dawn

Until the foe is fallen
And dead the dead remain
So babes may sleep in safety
And day breaks without pain.

The Tongue of Skulls
by Wynne

Peeling away the shadows of night
He cuts through the woods, opposing the light
Blackness through blackness, too dim to blur
Nothing's so dark as his bristling fur

What irony, then, is that yellow-eyed gaze
Which captures gold fire, the sun's brilliant blaze
Entrancing, hypnotic, it traps your last breath
His razor-edged jaw speaks the language of death.

Rhapsody in Red
by Wynne

The voice of an angel rang through the tower
Piercing dark souls on the thirteenth hour
Her aria crafted to tear them apart
Demolish defenses and shatter the heart.

Only one cared for this elegant lady
A man born of shadows, his character shady
In time grew to love her and tell her his past;
To swear that his passion was hers till the last.

Two seasons they shared; one gentle, one cruel
A bright golden autumn led into cold yule
His secrets he gave her, she guarded them all
And peace it was theirs till the first snowfall

For meanwhile, the death of some youths in the wild
Had made all the townsfolk grow wretched and riled
Some swore that a Beast was the creature to blame,
And the spark of their hatred was fanned to a flame.

They set out to find him, their bloodlust appease
Sure that they knew him; would find him with ease
But half the way up, blocking passage above
Was none other girl than the master's young love.

With fiery indignance she said she would know
Their reason for traversing here through the snow
They spoke of the Beast and the dire murders too
When they had finished, she knew what she'd do...

And the voice of an angel rose up to the tower
Howling and screaming 'Farewell!' to von Glower
The sound of the music near-killed him with dread
He threw on his robe and deserted his bed.

But as he had feared it, help came just too late
Her sacrifice; seized by the covetous Fate
He cradled her body where they cast her down
A Rhapsody red on the bloody ground.

Untitled
by Sorrow

scrubbed his hands until
they bled
into the clean clean water
from the pool under the
stars so cold and far above so
far
that they
laughed and giggled down on the man
mad-man
and made the man mad and
he saved all of
them
from their sins
and scrubbed
the blood off
his hands and wore that
burned flesh right
off

Pitiful Poetry
by Veluan

I'm very bad at this, it's a dialog between gabe and the mime:

Stop following me!
-...
Stop following me!
-....

Jokes

Top Fifteen Cases Gabriel Turned Down Before "The Beast Within"
title submitted by Joseph Nobles

15. The Mysterious, Yet Strangely Annoying Phantom Clowns
14. The Financial Wrath of a Poor Cop Called Mostly
13. Strange Learers At A Window
12. The Morning Paper Boy (Girl? Its so hard to tell) Assassin
11. Screaming Whispers
10. "The Bowel Complaint Within."
09. "Murder On The Dilapidated Russian Space Station."
08. "The Case Of The Missing Sierra Development Studio."
07. "Fetal Attraction"
06. "The Chicken Vampire of Katmandu"
05. "The X-Files: Bite The Futon."
04. "Dark City Because Of Y2K"
03. "Incontinence Day."
02. Sins of the Father Part 2
01. "Sins Of The Interns."

by Joseph Nobles, Heath Smith and Voodoo Ray.

Top 10 Reasons why you should create a GK Web Site
by Voodoo Ray

01. For learning HTML
02. For the glory and adulation, Mwuahahaha!
03. To show Sierra how to do things
04. To show everyone else how to do things
05. To be picked as "Gabe's Fave"
06. To be responsible for obtaining the most amount of hits on a commercial web server
07. To get every other GK web site to link to your site
08. To see your name in *FONT SIZE="2"* HTML
09. To take up a new hobby which won't spiral out of control (Hah!)
10. For the hell of it

Top 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Create a GK Web Site
also By Voodoo Ray :)

01. You have to learn HTML.
02. The time you spend on the site will increase exponentially...
03. ...while your free time will decrease logarithmically
04. Whatever addition you make to your site, it will never be enough
05. You will come up with new ideas for the site which you will always feel the urge to implement IMMEDIATELY
06. You will feel compelled to regularly verify all your links to GK resources...
07. ...in real time
08. You will forget to eat and sleep
09. After 10 days work on your web site, you will dream that you are about to be killed by Dr John, for sleeping on the job.
10. Soon after that, you will be pronounced clinically dead after failing to wake up from your coma.
Then you come back as an undead Webmaster, like the rest of us. Welcome! Mwuahahaha!

Top Thirteen Questions (on the message board) most likely
to make adb go on a killing spree
title by Lynne Vettel

13. What does the d stand for?
12. Has GK3 been canceled due to changes at Sierra?
11. When is the GK3 site going to be updated?
10. When will we get a playable GK3 demo?
09. What do I have to do to become a GK3 Beta Tester?
08. Why wasn't I selected as a beta tester?
07. When is the release date for GK3?
06. When is GK4 coming out?
05. Tim Curry sucks. Why isn't Dean Erickson in GK3?
04. When is the #%*!! GK3 site going to be updated?
03. What 3D cards will work with GK3?
02. What's the plot for GK4?
01. 3D sucks. Why isn't GK3 FMV?

list by Tim Pooz and Joseph Nobles

Mosely's Nicknames
title by Joseph Nobles

15. Coffee Boy
14. Lovemaster 101
13. Bald Dude
12. Shovel Boy
11. Frankie Baby
10. Drachen Breath (but only if he understands it)
09. Spanky
08. God's Gift to Polyester
07. Not just the hair club president, but also a client.
06. Mostly
05. Real Estate Boy
04. Second Banana - complete with matching coat.
03. Yellow Submarine
02. Ko-joke.
and the number one insulting name for Detective Mosely:
01. Officer Mosely.

list by Nyteman and Joseph Nobles

If you have any ideas for top 10 lists or jokes, please send them to the Email ID: gkwriters @Domain: thixo.com.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY

~ Once Again I'd Like to Say to the Webmasters ~

If you would like to add any part of PITW to your own webpage, this would be fine. All we ask is that you email the author to ask permission. If you don't know how to contact the author directly you can submit a request to the Email ID: gkwriters @Domain: thixo.com and we will forward it accordingly.

If you are interested in archiving the newsletter as a whole, this is fine too, but please only post the past issues. i.e. as soon as the current issue is sent out, the previous issues may be posted. This way the subscribers have first priority to the newsletter. Also please let the Email ID: gkwriters @Domain: thixo.com know that you intend to archive them. :)

~ To Everyone ~

If you would like to contribute to next month's issue,
If you have suggestions or comments.
If you want to send money,
It all goes to the:

Email ID: gkwriters @Domain: thixo.com

And never forget:

"There's nothing wrong with writing, as long as you do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."
--Robert Heinlein in "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"