Where and how could I possibly start with this author? He's written (and still is writing, though recent events in his becoming a substitute teacher have slowed him down) so much 'Daria' fanfiction, it boggles the mind. There are some 'Daria' fanfiction authors who have and are still recently writing plenty of ficlets or full-blown stories, (you know who you are) but with all due repect to those writers, I think it's safe to say that even none of them have come close to Roger in the volumes of work he's turned out onto our fortunate fanfiction community. I'll go even further and say that with some very rare exceptions, no one in the history of 'Daria' fanfiction has turned out more 'Daria' fanfiction than Roger Moore. Yep, you read me right. I'll probably be challenged on this, but so be it. :)
And get this--the scary thing is that he didn't come into the 'Daria' genre until the show was basically over with! Imagine if he had been around when it first came on, and started writing then! Oh, Lord. I suppose the Library of Congress would be bursting at the seams... :)
Well, to be blunt, there's no way I can go through all of his work, piece by piece. Rich (the Bossman) has only so much bandwidth he can use. :D You're going to have to brave it out yourself, dear reader. Poor old Steven can only give you some of what he's done, and hopefully I can do him some justice. In the event that you haven't read these works, I'm not going to spoil the plots too much for you:
First up is what I believe is Roger's first foray into 'Daria' fanfic, and it's a very dramatic piece (some might say melodramatic) of work: "Nine-Eleven and Counting". Quinn visits Daria and Jane in Boston around September 11, 2001. A multi-part story that's set after "IICY?". Get ready to be bowled over in emotions, folks.
We see here what will become so prevalent in most (but not all necessarily) of Roger's future works, in fact it'll rival the incredible amount of work that Roger churns out, the "A" word. Yes, that word:
Angst.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, angst is "A feeling of anxiety". Well, Roger puts plenty of it in his fics. He builds up the plot to some sort of climax that you know that is going to grip you with anxiety, perhaps even having you to curse the characters. I think Roger has a torture wish for the 'Daria' cast, myself. :wink:
Take "April is the Cruelest Month", for example. Daria and Jane go to the Rockies on a vacation, on break from Raft and BFAC. Something physically bad's happened to Jane, who seems to have recovered far more than Daria, who hasn't, emotionally. Thing is, the irony is that Daria wasn't a direct victim of what happened, yet Daria's anxiety (hey, that's another "A" word, btw) slowly grows throughout the story, and explodes at the end. Heavy!
How about "Winter In Hell"? You want some angst? Read this one, and be anxious. It involves two cynical outcasts going to Lawndale High--and they ain't Daria and Jane. If you haven't read it yet, prepared to be floored when you find out who they are...
Then, of course, there's "Where No Light Breaks, Where No Sea Runs". A prisoner at the Kinsington Woman's Correctional Facility is waiting for her friend to visit her to cheer her up. That prisoner's name is Daria Morgendorffer, and yes, her friend is Jane Lane. "How did this occur?", you ask in shock. You gotta read it to find out...
If you want angst and horror, then you've gotten plenty of it in the "Omega Jane", based on Richard Matheson's novel, "I Am Legend". Short story: Jane's the last human left alive on the planet. The rest are zombies who come out at night to feast--including Daria.
All of this so far, and I haven't even mentioned "Darius", which I don't believe that he's released yet to the major "Daria" sites. It was on Thea's Sh33p board, under the storytelling section, so you'll have to read it there, if it still is there. Roger plans to re-do a later scene, or two. Renfield (another angst man) and I really rode him on those, by the way. ;D Plotline: Daria is born as a guy, and Jake's his Old Man reincarnated. That's all I'm going to let you in on. Bring on the angst, please.
Ditto for "Gone", also on the Sh33p's board. God, I think it almost rivals "Darius" in angst. Almost. The ending is strange, though...
(I'd also like to point out and warn our younger viwers that Rogers sometimes uses some very strong language in his fics. However, this doesn't diminish the deeper meanings that they convey at all, far from it.)
At this point, Roger shakes his fist at me, screaming, "You rotten, lousy, jerk! I do more than just angst, you know! Get to that! I don't want to scare people away, you know!"
Sheesh! Okay, Roger, okay! :wink:
Yes, Roger's capable of doing some non-angst work, too. He seemingly had a little of everything in "A Midsummer Nightmare's Daria". He threw in some canon elements, some Stephen King (a.k.a. horror), and some romance to boot. Ahem--there was a tiny bit of angst, I think...(Roger throws his shoe at Steven, who ducks) This is set after "IICY?", by the way.
"Die! Die! You Bastard!" Is an alternative (and to me a far superior and better) history to the events of the mega-controversial "Die! Die! My Darling!", the way it [b]should[/b] have gone! Psst! A tad of angst! (Roger's other shoe is thrown at Steven, who ducks yet again) Hey! I knew you couldn't avoid it this time, you know!
"A Certain Amount of Depth" concerns Quinn meeting by chance David Sorenson, her tutor from "IIFY?", about a year later. Let's just say that Quinn's "chance" meeting may not have been accidental...
Then there are Roger's bevy of "Iron Chef" fics and ficlets that he did here on this board, and released to the unsuspecting public. They're plenty, of course, but some that stand out to me are "The Art of Seeing", an alternative history fic. People, it's really full of angst, but it's hopeful in the end. Heck, you might even shed a tear...
Another one is "The African Queen", a ficlet where a Lane female in the jungles of Africa resides. No, it's not Jane, so you have two more guesses...
"But In Her Heart a Cold December" I believe was an Iron Chef, too. (Please correct me, somebody) Here, Ms. Li is actually written by Roger to be--gasp--sympathetic! He basically pulls it off somehow, the devious dog. :D Takes place while Ms. Li's recovering in the hospital from what happened in the episode "Fizz Ed".
"Hal Point Nine" is quite sweet. (There's a "gentle" angst to me, here, from Daria's perspective. You have to read it. Roger's shirt is thrown at Steven, and this time it hits it's mark. Steven calmly peels it from his head, and continues as he tosses it aside) I'm not quite sure that it's an Iron Chef, honestly, but it tugs at the heart a bit.
Occasionally, Roger will finally escape angst, (A shirtless and shoeless Roger screams, "hallelujah!") and will go into the insanely ridiculous (Roger frowns, confused). Take "Could Someone Turn Down the Sun?" I think Roger was on cold medicine when he wrote this. To sum it up, Tiffany's done something even stupider than Kevin, and the world pays for it. All of this takes place on the "Good Mornings with Daria and Jane Show", concerning that future alter-ego shot of them at the end of "IICY?".
Then there's "Aunt Kara", based on some unknown wanna-be writer in Hollywood who used to be a pretty good 'Daria' fanfiction writer, where she was appreciated. (Kara's pink concrete block barely misses Steven, who ducks)
"Jane Unchained" is a fic where Tinkerbell meets Jane, and Daria's thinking that she's lost it a little because of that. Enough written. Read.
"Just Desserts" hilights Roger's Stephen King-type quality, save that he somehow drags Timothy O'Neill and Janet Barch in it. Sick, but stylish. :D
Folks, I haven't even scratched the surface. Like I wrote, Roger has done so much writing on 'Daria', that Rich's site would probably crash if I tried to put down every one of Roger's works. I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks about what else he's done. What do [b]you[/b] (and the author himself) think?