[18+ content] Fangirl. Writer. Probably older than you. Huge Freddie fan. I try not to take fandom too seriously, and sometimes fail. I have an army of minions who heed my every ccommand, I keep them in the basement.
hello!! i read most of the "dawn of the aquarius" ~3 years ago and i liked it A LOT. tried finding it again just now but failed, could you, please, help with that? i think it was hidden on ao3 :'( where can i read it, if it's still possible? patiently waiting for your reply, thanks in advance!
Hey! I'm glad you liked it, and sorry you couldn't find it anymore. It's gone. I took it down because I've rewritten it into an original manuscript and I'm working on getting that published. So, I'm not keen to have the fanfic out there anymore. However, if you drop me a message privately, I can send it to you.
Hi!!! How is the dawn of aquarius original novelization coming along?? I am so excited about it since years, you have no idea. All the best to youu!
Thank you! :D I'm surprised and humbled that people still remember me and the book.
It's currently waiting for responses from literary agents, is how it's going. Nothing to do but sit here and twiddle my thumbs, as literary agents take weeks and months to respond.
Hey! Do you still write Queen fanfiction? I was reading toe the line (and play their game) and it was just so good I had to come ask
Hey! That fanfic isn't by me, but by someone else who also doesn't write Queen fanfic anymore as they have since become a professional writer.
I also don't write Queen fanfic anymore and haven't in years for much the same reason. I am focusing on original fiction. But there's a treasure trove of great Queen fanfic still on AO3, so, enjoy!
What are your fav moments / quotes from each of the queen members? :)
An ask?! What is this, 2020?? Ahh, bless you, anon. Such a hard question, too. As if I still remember all those quotes off the top of my head!
I'm going to have to go with a whole decade here and say that the 70s is ALL of my favourite Queen moments because that was the time I mostly dedicated myself to researching. I have always loved every single story around them becoming Queen. From Freddie making it into a group with Roger and Brian by sheer persistence, only to completely take over creatively, haha, to the early recording sessions, the first tours, JAPAN (!), the US tours, the crazy parties once they hit it big, Freddie leaving Mary and living life more authentically, Brian and John juggling marriages and fatherhood (and in Brian's case astrophysics) with rockstardom and Roger being really mad that he accidentally dyed his hair green that one time. Haha, I don't know, it's a lot and it was a huge joy to research, I remember.
Well, well, well. This was, indeed, the year I finished the book. It's done. It's being sent off to agents. I wrote a proper book. I'm proud. Now all I can do is wait and twiddle my thumbs, haha, wish me luck.
Okay so... vomit alert at this entire discussion and the people involved in it but for paywall-climbing purposes here you go:
The Queen singerâs closest and âonlyâ friend is questioning claims in a new book that he fathered a daughter, a dispute with echoes of the S
Mary Austin: Iâd be stunned if Freddie Mercury had a secret child
The Queen singerâs closest and âonlyâ friend is questioning claims in a new book that he fathered a daughter, a dispute with echoes of the Salt Path scandal.
Freddie Mercury once said of Mary Austin: âThe only friend Iâve got is Mary, and I donât want anybody else. We believe in each other, thatâs enough for me.â The Queen frontman shared everything with Austin, from when they were a couple in the 1970s to his death some two decades later. She inherited much of his estate.
At no point did he tell her, as a new book is set to claim, that he had a daughter â and, she says today, the existence of such a secret child would be âastonishingâ.
âFreddie had a glorious openness, and I cannot imagine he would have wanted to, or been able to, keep such a joyful event a secret, either from me or other people closest to him,â Austin said.
Love, Freddie, by Lesley-Ann Jones, claims that Mercury, who died in 1991 of bronchial pneumonia caused by Aids, had an affair with the wife of a close friend in 1976, which led to the birth of a child, known in the new book only as âBâ.
The primary source appears to be what are claimed to be 17 volumes of diaries, which Mercury is said to have started writing when he found out he was going to be a father and to have handed over to B just before he died.
It also includes a letter from B, who the book says is 48 and works as a medical professional in Europe. âWe had a very close relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life,â the letter reads. âHe entrusted his collection of private notebooks to me, his only child and his next of kin.â
The letter continues: âMary Austin â the wonderful woman who was to all intents and purposes his wife until death parted them â knew absolutely everything about him, including all his undisclosed secrets.â
Austin, 74, has a wildly different take.
âThe truth is that I am simply not the guardian of such a secret,â said Austin. âIâve never known of any child, or of any diaries. If Freddie had indeed had a child without me knowing anything about it, that would be astonishing to me.â
If Mercury had had a daughter, Austin added, âit would have brought tremendous joy to Freddie, and everybody who cared about him â including Freddieâs parents. I believe that [Bomi and Jer Bulsara] would have embraced her with all the love in their hearts. But I do not remember Freddie ever speaking about creating a family.â
Austinâs doubts about the veracity of the story follows the publishing scandal last month surrounding The Salt Path. Raynor Winn, the author of the bestselling memoir, which is now a film, was accused of fabricating large parts of her account of being made homeless, her husband Mothâs illness and their coastal walk. Ros Hemmings, the wife of Winnâs former employer, accused her of embezzlement. Winn called the claims against her book âhighly misleadingâ, but the accusations have for ever tarnished The Salt Path.
Austin hopes the story of Mercuryâs alleged love child is not taken as gospel in the way Winnâs account was. Yet since Jonesâs interview about Love, Freddie, the alleged existence of B appears on Mercuryâs Wikipedia page and the bookâs publication may make more people believe it. This is what compelled Austin to speak.
âI would hope that those claims about me which have circulated in the press that I know to be untrue will not appear in the book,â said Austin. âI hope Whitefox has rigorously investigated the veracity of the claims and satisfied itself this book aligns with its, and the industryâs, values and ethics.â
Whitefox said: âWhitefox takes issues of accuracy, legality and ethics seriously, and we work to ensure that any project we are involved with has been subject to appropriate editorial and legal scrutiny.â
Austin met Mercury when she was 19 and he 23, a year before Queen was formed. They lived together in London for years before, in late 1976, Mercury told Austin about his sexuality. The two remained close, with Austin by his side in the months before he died. In 1985, Mercury said: âAll my lovers ask me why they couldnât replace Mary, but itâs impossible. The only friend Iâve got is Mary, and I donât want anybody else. We believe in each other, thatâs enough for me.â She was left Mercuryâs home and 50 per cent of all privately owned shares in his will.
âFreddie is someone I loved deeply and, for the last 34 years since his death, I have been very cautious about speaking to the press,â Austin said. âIâve been focused on living my own life, largely out of the public eye, and, at first, I looked at these claims as simply another sensationalist story written about Freddie. However, as this particular narrative has grown, I had to say something to prevent my silence being interpreted as confirmation â speaking now is not a decision I have taken lightly. I wanted to carefully consider everything being said so I could approach the topic responsibly, most of all for Freddie, who is not here to speak for himself.â
The bulk of Love, Freddieâs claims revolve around the diaries. But Austin says she was still living with Mercury on June 20, 1976 â the date the first entry is said to have been written â and that they continued to live together for two years. âAnd at no point in the period did I see Freddie write a diary,â said Austin. She added they remained âvery much a part of each otherâs livesâ, but that she never saw him write a diary, nor mention one to her â despite the claims that he carried on writing a journal until July 31, 1991. âI would be very surprised if it turned out that from 1976 to the final months of his life, Freddie was a prolific diarist.â
Austin also expressed doubt that the journals were passed on to B when she was just 15, four months before Mercury died, given his weakened condition. One claim is that B saw Mercury three weeks before his death. âI have no knowledge of the diaries or them being âentrustedâ to a child,â said Austin. âI was with him most days in the months before his death.â
Jones is a British author and journalist, who started out working for Chrysalis Records in the 1980s. She has written numerous unofficial books on stars from Kylie Minogue to Paul McCartney. In her book, The Stone Age, Jones claims that Mick Jagger had affairs with two of his bandmates and should be considered a bisexual icon.
In an interview with the Daily Mail in May, Jones said she read Mercuryâs diaries after B brought them to a meeting in Montreux, in Switzerland. However, sources close to Austin say that Jones has not publicly presented any evidence of the diaries, nor does there appear to have been any attempt to assess if that material is genuine.
Sources also point to further claims in Love, Freddie that need further clarification. First, in her interview, Jones says that B was not provided for by Mercuryâs will, but left money by a âprivate legal arrangementâ. Secondly, when asked on social media if there was a DNA test to prove that B was Mercuryâs daughter, Jones said: âPlease rest assured that the requisite verification was obtained, legal teams have been involved, but that such measures are private and not shared publicly.â
âThere was no provision in the will for any kind of secret trust and nothing of that nature has ever gone through the estate accounts to my knowledge,â Austin said. âTo date, Ms Jones has not publicly produced any evidence for the existence of the diaries or a child, even though I understand there are a number of ways this could be done whilst protecting anonymity. The narrative thatâs circulating about this bookâs origin so far is baffling. So many things have been said about Freddie over the years, often without foundation, that it is sad to think the truth of a wonderful man might be lost as a result. I find this collection of claims implausible.â
In the interview in May, Jones said Mercury âspoke to his daughter every day when away on tour or in the recording studioâ and that the singer had a bedroom at the homes of both the childâs mother and her husband â Bâs stepfather. After the story broke, the Queen guitarist Brian Mayâs wife, Anita Dobson, said: âIt seems inconceivable he would have a child with someone we donât know about. Where is she? Step forward. If she exists.â
Austin wholly echoed that surprise. âIt is hard for me to regard the claims as plausible,â she said. âThat Freddie was in the secret childâs life most days, and Freddie had his own room at each of the houses she lived. Not least in view of his incredibly hectic schedule and extent to which he is in the public eye.â
Asked by The Sunday Times for a response to Austin, Jones replied: âI am surprised by Mary Austinâs response. I approached her for an interview countless times over many years, but she never once responded. Mary was not party to a secret that Freddie had a child? I do not suggest that she was. Nor do I suggest that she was aware of or was passed any diaries.â When asked about the letter in her book, with the line Austin âknew absolutely everything about [Freddie], including his undisclosed secretsâ, Jones replied: âFor the avoidance of doubt, I did not say this. Freddieâs daughter wrote these words. This is B, speaking for herself â as she does throughout the book ⊠She does not specify here what she means by âundisclosed secretsâ.â
Jones also provided a response from B. âI am devastated by Mary Austinâs alleged response,â she said, via Jones. âFor 34 years, the truth of Freddieâs life has been distorted, twisted and rewritten, but she said nothing ⊠Here, she has not yet read the book, yet she apparently makes this statement. I donât understand why.â B added, via Jones: âThere will be no further interviews.â
weird question to ask bc you posted this like two years ago but you said: "I think you'd be hard-pressed to find two people less similar than Mary and Jim (other than they were both more the quiet type and didn't want the spot light much)."
Can you expand on this? :)
Haha, can I expand on a thought I had years ago, anon? Let me try, but keep in mind that I don't even remember having this thought.
Alright, here we go.
Well, for one, I think Mary is somebody (still is, to this day) who is intensely private in her emotional expression. That woman has a wall up ten feet tall and I, at least, always find it incredibly hard to get a sense for what she might actually be feeling about anything. She plays her cards very close her chest at all times. It's just her personality, or so it seems to me.
Jim was authentic and uncomplicated through and through. Every interview I've seen with him, everything I've read about him, he is open and honest, no bullshit, just plainly himself. He has no mask.
I think that's what it is ultimately. Some people simply cannot be around others without a "mask", without some sort of barrier, that ensures that others never know them fully (and so, they cannot be hurt). Others don't mask, or rarely mask, at all.
A little treat for all Joe Fannelli fans! Here are some adorable photos published in the Franklin High School yearbook in 1972 - the year he graduated. It appears he was a member of his high school's drama club, while also participating in math club and belonging to both the newspaper and yearbook staff. We know he went on to become a professional chef so I'm surprised he didn't list cooking as an interest <3
This raises more questions, though. Why would Roger have minor injuries if during 1989 Queen was no longer touring? Is Smoke on The Water that hard to play? Thank you for finding the source! đ„°
(Queen might not have been touring at the time, but they were recording things for 'Innuendo' roughly during the same time when the Smoke on the Water single for Rock Aid Armenia was recorded [in 5 sessions from July 8th 1989 onwards] - just as an aside.)
But, generally it's exactly the down-time that causes more injuries than regular touring & recording! because your hands get soft when you don't play. And it's anybody's guess really how much drumming Roger was actually doing apart from the scheduled studio sessions during that time...
Historically, Roger's hands were in a pretty bad shape without regular rehearsing. E.g. during Queen's 1974 USA tour:
[...] If you said Taylor attacks his drums with a blistering intensity, you wouldnât be far off. One of the consequences of his inability to practice in his home has been his perennial victimisation by the traditional drummerâs malady - blisters.
Heâs been plagued by the sores on both of Queenâs American tours, and the sight of his bloody nubs has been shocking enough to send roadies scurrying feverishly about in search of bandages and healing ointments.
âIâve really had a lot of trouble,â he confesses. âBlood everywhere and a lot of bandages. Itâs a really intense stage act. Itâs in no way laid back. Itâs pretty high energy, and yeah, itâs pretty hard on the hands. At the beginning of a tour, especially if we havenât been playing for awhile, your hands tend to soften up. Itâs just a case of hardening them. After two or three weeks they harden up pretty well.
At the beginning of the last tour it was really bad because we did a lot of double shows. That was tearing my hands to bits. I know a few other guys who get a lot trouble like that. Bonham tears his hands to shreds. The only way to get over it is to practice like hell two weeks before you come over to do a tour. Just keep playing all the time.â [...]
â Roger Taylor interviewed by Frank Rose for Circus Raves, September 1975 issue ("Roger Meddows-Taylor: his hands are soft but his beat is hard")
There are some photos of minor injuries during later tours too, e.g.:
đž: Michael Ochs archives / Gettyimages
^January 1977: Roger photographed applying liquid bandage onto his fingers
đž: Music Life / Shinko Music
^ April 1979: Roger presenting his blistered hands while being interviewed for Music Life
TL:DR - So my personal guess is that these injuries in '89 stem from inactivity & the intensity of his drumming :)
And! From the video "Tour Rehearsals: Lightning tour around Tour Village With Brian May 15/01/2015" (x). @onegoldenglance posted this short bit with Roger and Rufus here.
Screencaps and transcript by me. Brian talks to Roger and Rufus as Roger is bandaging Rufus' hands. Roger's holding a box of bandages and motions to his own fingers as he talks.
Brian: "...in fact we have two Mr. Taylors here."
Rufus: "Hello."
Roger: "Hello, hello."
Brian: "Here we are."
Roger: "Let's make it clear that the real workers around here have to bandage their hands..."
Rufus: "Yes."
Roger: "...because of the massive wear and tear."
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