Fancy Dancing

by Kathy Keegan

Review by: Slantedlight

Review
To my complete surprise I spent hours reading Fancy Dancing when I should have been doing many other things. In the end my eyes hurt from reading the small print, it was 3.00am, and I still hadn't finished. The next morning, coffee in one hand, zine in the other, I kept going until I nearly missed my bus into town...

There are lots of other Pros fics that I've spent similar gorgeous hours with, but as I said I was surprised by this one. For a start it's an AU story - but then I always say I hate those and end up loving them. In this particular AU though, Doyle is gay and was only briefly with the police before becoming a hustler and then a dancer at his own club, Black Velvet, which caters to a mostly gay clientele. I've got to say I didn't like this premise. All together it implied that Doyle was going to be weakened somehow. He would no doubt be small and delicate, an "exotic creature" who was prone to burst into tears when things looked a bit ropey. I hate this Doyle, because it so not ep Doyle. Have ya seen his biceps? The way he threw that bloke over the railings in Hiding To Nothing? Well anyway - I'm glad to say it didn't turn out that way, and so I was able to keep on reading very very happily. It still wasn't quite Doyle of course - I really can't see him dancing, Harlequin Airs notwithstanding! - but it turns out that if someone is close enough to character or at least interesting in themselves, and the fic is "well-written" enough for me, then I can live with that.

That dread phrase "well-written" - okay, what do I mean by that? Firstly I suppose I'm not thrown off by spelling, punctuation and grammar every five minutes. It's a clean read where you can concentrate on the story. Secondly that it's "in character", or close enough. Bodie isn't an idiot, Doyle isn't - well, see above. Neither of them ramble on continually about their feelings, or make long declarations of love and explanations of why they feel that way and how their life has changed since they realised, blah, vomit, blah. (I mean, how often do they do this in the eps? Come on!). Thirdly the author isn't always explaining things to me! I don't know how universal this is, but I much prefer to be painted a picture in a story and then allowed to work out the situation for myself. Along the same lines clever-clever authors annoy me too; sure let me know how a Smith & Wesson reloads, or what colour blood is, but only if it's important to the plot, not because the author has just found out and wants to show off! And perhaps finally - unless it's specifically set elsewhere, the lads are actually English blokes in Britain rather than some weird place that the author imagines is Britain. The geography is right, the culture and language are right. And that means a fanny is not a butt is not a bum, there are no forms to fill in at the hospital, and coffee is hardly ever made fresh and definitely not as a matter of course...

There. Practically a rant that was, wasn't it? So does Fancy Dancing fit in with all my current ideals? Mostly, yes. The first and the second - yes, absolutely, no problem. Well, maybe a bit repetitive of phrase now and then, but survivable. The third - yes as well. Anything that was explained seemed to be a part of the story rather than yanking me out by my hair and leaving me to shake my head before I could dive back in. That said there were a couple of oddnesses, such as Bodie being more likely to hurt Doyle internally cos Doyle was smaller, but the other way around was okay because... see? Odd. But brief enough that I could get past it with a quick "wtf?" and stay in the story.

Now, the British bit. Or more specifically, the English bit in this case. I suppose this might only make a difference if you're British enough to notice it? (I'd love to hear ideas about this if anyone has a minute!) I worked out fairly early on in Fancy Dancing that Kathy Keegan was not British. A couple of butts, Doyle interspersing his sentences with "man" (which to me doesn't sound early '80s English, but I didn't get there until '85 so I could well be wrong about this one - again would be interested to hear from anyone who could let me know!) and then the NHS was pretty screwed up in a couple of places. No forms to fill in, but Doyle gets moved to a private room because his insurance covers it... Hmmn. I can buy CI5 in private rooms in the first place, but I really can't see Doyle having gone private - and especially because in this particular instance he's having financial problems. Oh, and Exeter is just a brief car ride from Cornwall for someone with a back injury to get to physio. Hmmn.

The thing is, these errors were interspersed fairly thinly through 165 pages of small (ouch), two-columned text. When I was annoyed by something it was over fairly quickly and then there were hours of gorgeous fic before anything else came up, so they did turn out to be little annoyances rather than major teeth-gritters. I have had to stop reading fic because it just didn't feel right as a result of too many un-Brit-isms, or being too explain-y, or just plain about two characters who happen to have the same names as our lads. I know, picky I am...

But Fancy Dancing I liked. I was (clearly) compelled to read it from beginning to end. The plot was solid but simple enough that it didn't get in the way of the relationship stuff, I thought. Characterization hit my kink of protective-Bodie-desperately-in-love-with-Doyle without making Doyle into a simpering ninny in need of protection. Doyle does keep messing up, but in that way you do when everything seems to go wrong one thing after another - personally I could empathise completely with that! I might have liked to see Doyle more obviously in love with Bodie, but it was written from Bodie's pov, and Doyle was somewhat near the end of his tether... I also thought it was good and hurt/comfort-y (another kink) without being repetitive, which some fics can be (ye gods, they've misunderstood each other again!). It went on for ever which I love in a zine/fic, but again without being repetitive - it was a good long story. Oh, and lots of good sex too!

What didn't I like then? Because I'm not saying it's perfect by any means. Apart from the little annoyances mentioned above, they seem to be constantly eating, especially Doyle - which makes complete sense energy-wise, but I just don't see them interupting what were several rather good bouts of foreplay because they'd rather eat. (Or maybe it's that I didn't want them to...) The spanking banter (not between our lads unfortunately) got a bit tedious after a while. Oh, and at one point Doyle tries to call Bodie "Daddy" while they're having sex - ew, ew, ew as luckily Bodie also thought... Finally Doyle's recovery made me wonder. He didn't actually break his back, and that said I have seen someone up and walking less than two months after they did break their back, but his recovery did seem to be rather quick - at least the bit between surgery and escape to Cornwall. And it always makes me wonder as well when an author has Bodie (usually) off living everyday life while Doyle is in a coma (or whatever) in hospital. Again, DiaG - "I'd rather stay here, sir." says our Bodie and has to be dragged away from the hospital by Cowley. And this Bodie and Doyle were in a relationship!

But then I don't expect to like every aspect of a fic, as long as most of my necessaries are catered to then I'm happy. Honest. And I think that here they were.

There is something else I'm curious about though. As I said, I picked up that Kathy Keegan wasn't British, and had her down as either American or more likely Australian (cos, not quite enough Americanisms I thought - don't ask me how I judged that exactly!). Blow me down, though, when I was searching ProsLit archives, I came across the idea/theory/assumption that Kathy Keegan is in fact Jane of Australia! Now, I've got to admit that I don't see this at all, because I've tried to read a few of Jane's fics and just not been able to get all the way through, whereas I've read a couple of KK's and enjoyed them. That said, I've by no means read enough Jane to judge properly, so I am open to instruction. Does anyone know anything about this? Please enlighten me!