Confession: I am two of the 70+ members of the Class of 1972 Facebook group. I am Nancy Ashmore, whose 250 friends include family, high school and college classmates, and Minnesota friends and neighbors. I am also Medora MacDougall (a Facebook alias), whose 315 friends include several hundred authors and readers of lesbian romances, mysteries, and science fiction.
I owe the latter identity to a quirky TV series, Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001). Its main character was “a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle.” Accompanied by Gabrielle, a spunky bard, Xena traveled the ancient world, facing off against warlords and mythical critters – and inspiring legions of stories written by fans who used the show’s characters and settings as a basis for their plots. In most stories Xena and Gabrielle (and “uber” alternatives whose stories played out in a different time period, place, or reality) were lovers. Many of these fanfiction authors were lesbians, looking to create stories that provided the enjoyment that mainstream romances and mysteries did but also reflected their lives.
I stumbled upon these stories on the Internet, and before I knew it, I was proofreading and then coaching emerging authors on writing. I even wrote fanfiction myself – under the pen name my sister and I concocted when we were contemplating writing trashy romances together: Medora – a town in North Dakota. MacDougall – the name of the ancestral clan.
When these fledgling writers eventually began penning original stories and self-publishing them or founding publishing companies, my hobby morphed into a minor part of my work as a freelance editor. I spend most of my time editing the quarterly magazine of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and local histories (likely pastimes for all Asian history majors, right?), but since 2007, under my pen name, I’ve also been editing 10+ books a year for Bella Books, where I’ve had the pleasure of helping some very talented writers develop and polish prize-winning (and well-punctuated) novels.
Oh, the unexpected places this has taken me: Xena/fanfic gatherings in L.A., Chicago, Atlanta, Portland, and DC and a number of wonderful, improbable friendships. Since 1972 I’ve done many things I wouldn’t have predicted – working in the Japanese Consulate in NYC, becoming editor of The Voice, working at St. Olaf. But editing 100+ lesbian novels thanks to being a fan of a TV show? Yeah, like that was ever gonna happen!
— Nancy Ashmore