Greetings, welcome to this humble hidden little shrine to...myself :) Geocities offered a free homepage, so at least one page on here is going to talk about ME!
I'm assuming that you reached this page by accident; I can't imagine why anyone would want to come here twice. So, I suppose I should start at the beginning.
Q: Tell us who you are, about your life, and what your plans are.
A: My name is Jeff Adashek, though I prefer to be called by my Internet moniker, "Shack." (Outside of family and close friends, I do everything I can to discourage the use of "Jeff.") I was born in February of 1979, and am currently residing in a midwestern state that prefers to remain nameless :) My great ambition in life is to be a novelist.
Q: Tell us what you look like.
A: What I look like?! Oh, this is supposed to be a profile of me, isn't it? :) I'm 6' tall (haven't grown an inch in three years--and yes, I have the papers to prove it), around 150 lbs. I have black hair, brown-green eyes, big ears, a bad temper, and an inferiority complex. Anything else is subject to change without notice.
To pre-empt the next question for those who didn't put the mouse over the logo up top, there will be a picture of me (well, sort of) here eventually...once I find some way to get it scanned.
Q: Tell us about your interest in fanfic.
A: I suppose a word about my obses--er, hobby :) would be in order. My introduction to the world of fanfic came in Star Wars during mid-1996, when I stumbled upon a little Star Wars fanfic called "Stuff." (For those who don't know, this now-legendary story is THE original Luke-Mara fanfic, and it's now back up on the web--those SW fans who have not had the pleasure of reading it should head for Club Jade ASAP.) That was followed in swift succession by my discovery of and initiation into the organization from which "Stuff" had sprung, one Club Jade. (Yes, this is the same Club Jade that is mentioned in the dedication to Vision of the Future. I do not speak for Club Jade, and nothing I say can be construed as being representative of the opinion of Club Jade, even on those rare occasions where it actually is.)
For the most part, my fanfic interests remained narrow--Star Wars and the Bantam novels. However, Club Jade was at some point made aware of a fanfic called X-Jedi. That was when I figured out that there was fanfic for more than just Star Wars. I happen to be a big fan of console role-playing games, the Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy series in particular; and at some point in my meandering, around September of 1997, I stumbled onto the realization that there was actually fanfic written for video games.
I think that's really when I lost my mind :)
Q: Do you write fanfiction?
A: Outside of the Metamorphosis writing project at the SquareFiction Library (I'm the author of "The Great Figaro" [yes, I admit it, I wrote that piece of crap] and "Awakening"), I don't have any fanfic on the web myself (at least, not under my own name). I prefer to spend my writing time on the fantasy novel(s) I have in progress.
Q: Tell us how the Clearinghouse came to be.
A: The concept for the Clearinghouse came to me over the '97-98 holiday break. My search for fanfic had been stymied by the search engines, and link lists were often hopelessly out of date--though one could never tell, because you never knew when the webmaster last checked a link. (You'll note that this latter problem has, to some extent at least, been dealt with here.) My goal was to create a hub, a "Central Station" for the entire fanfic universe. Unfortunately, space considerations made storing or linking to individual fanfics inopportune, so I decided to go with a link index.
Q: Why should someone come to your site, instead of another link index?
A: The thing that I really think make my site stand out as opposed to other link indices such as Karen Nicholas' famous "Fan Fiction on the 'Net" is my attention to detail. I let you know what kind of fanfic you'll find at a site, and how much of it; I also let you know the last time I double-checked the site. That means that you'll always have a good idea of exactly how accurate the links here are.
Q: "Shack's Fanfic Clearinghouse?" What kind of a name is that?
A: An often misquoted name (I've been called everything from "The Welcome Mat" to "The Fanfic Warehouse"!). "Shack's Fanfic Clearinghouse" was (I admit it) a play on the Publisher's Clearinghouse concept. I picked it because the analogy fits--we both take the product from the various sources (magazines in their case, fanfic sites in mine) and bring them together in one place for the customer's convenience.
Q: What fandoms/fanfics do you love/detest in real life?
A: Basically, I'm a fan of just about any fandom with good writing, and I'm expanding my field of interest all the time. Neon Genesis Evangelion is my newest obsession, joining Star Wars, Final Fantasy (all of them), Phantasy Star, Highlander, and Ranma.
Hated fanfics/fandoms? Well, until recently, Sailor Moon was the one fandom I couldn't stand. Thanks to certain stories, my stand on that has been softened somewhat--I'm now of the opinion that only 95% of all Sailor Moon fanfic is pure, unmitigated crap, and having seen some of the series subtitled, I can even begin to understand how one might write fanfic for it. I am still (and probably always will be) of the firmly established opinion that any Power Rangers fans/fanfic writers over the age of 15 (including the actors) should be dragged to a swamp somewhere and have a claymore driven through their skulls.
I'm indifferent to X-Files stories, for the simple reason that I don't have time to become engrossed in that fandom.
Also, I'm not all that fond of Star Trek, and by extension, its fanfic--then again, I detest textbook-caliber technobabble masquerading as plot (a.k.a. "hard" science fiction) on principle, so I'm biased.
LINKS I CHECK OUT (3/5/00)
Club Jade. It's where I started, it's probably where I'll end, and damned if I'll leave it.
Parsec12. A new Star Wars fanfic e-zine quarterly, which just released its second issue. It was founded by former CPOV head Dunc, who did the Clearinghouse logo, and I happen to be one of the editors. The third and final issue is forthcoming.
FanFiction Paradise. I love this site. What else can I say? The stories here are top notch, I adore the rants, and it's a rare day that I don't stop by at least once.
RPGamer.com. The fanfic section at this old workhorse is updated more often than it used to be, and the size of the archive is considerable.
The PS Pages. What can I say? If it's Phantasy Star, it's here. And if it's not here, you can find it from here.
Phantasy Star IV Radio Play. Now here's something interesting. Someone is using .wav files of volunteer actors to assemble a radio dramatization of Phantasy Star IV. The last anyone's heard from the head was sometime in January (of 1999), but since I'm a cast member, this is staying up here.
The Best Sailor Moon Fanfiction on the Net. If there is any one person to blame for my shift on the question of Sailor Moon, it's the webmaster of this site. With one or two notable exceptions, every quality Sailor Moon fanfic I've ever read is archived here.
