frequently asked questions
(that i just made up)

the series

who the heck is james herriot and what did he write?
james herriot was a farm veterinarian who practiced in the yorkshire dales from the 1930's onwards.  he wrote quite a few books about his experiences, winning audiences worldwide with his humility, compassion, and humor.

who are these siegfried and tristan people you keep yammering about?
siegfried farnon is james's boss, then later his partner.  tristan is siegfried's younger brother, a veterinary student.  all three live together in skeldale house for a number of years prior to (and a little bit after) james's marriage (hence the name of the site).  the farnon brothers are based on herriot's actual boss and his brother, donald and brian sinclair.

how come you sometimes call james herriot (pick one) "james," "jim," "herriot," "alf," or "wight"?
"james herriot" is actually a penname; his real name was james alfred wight, although he normally went by alf.  i use "herriot," "alf," and "wight," to denote the writer and "james" or "jim" to denote the character.

so these were real people?  don't you think it's a little sketchy to be writing fanfic about them?
not necessarily - i think of siegfried and tristan (and even james) as being distinct entities from the sinclair brothers and herriot himself.  the first three are characters found in books that are based on real life.  it may not be a big enough distinction for you; that's fine, but this site may not be your cup of tea.

i want to read these books.  which ones should i read?
the quintessential books are the quartet: all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, and the lord god made them all.  you can find them anywhere and they're a great way to get into herriot's world.  (my personal favorite is all creatures great and small.)

the site

why did you make this site?
when tsu chan and i discovered a shared love of herriotslash, we were appalled to find out that we were apparently the only people on earth who did.  this site is an attempt to build a community of herriotslash fen, or to just build herriotslash fen.  we're not picky.

how do you submit a story?
you email it to me at "poisonivory [at] gmail [dot] com," with "skeldale submission" in the subject line.  include the story as an attachment, as well as your name and email address.

what happens to it then?
i'll read it and pass it along to my co-mod, tsu chan.  if it passes both of our inspections, i'll post it on the site.  there's no guarantee for how long this process will take, but barring a natural disaster it should be under a week.

what's required for a story to pass inspection?
it must be in english.  it must follow the rules of proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and be properly formatted (no giant block paragraphs, please!).  it must be well-written, which means, among other things, good characterization.  we reserve the right to reject stories at our discretion, although if you ask we may try and explain to you why your story was not accepted.

is there a min/max word limit?
no, mostly because your mods are lazy people who write drabbles instead of sagas.  if you want to write a saga, however, that's quite all right.

do i have to write james/siegfried or james/tristan?
nope.  if you want to write james/granville or tristan/boardman or siegfried/original character, that's quite all right, as long as one of the three skeldale boys (james, siegfried, and tristan) are in the pairing (no granville/boardman, for example).
three exceptions:
1. het pairings are okay (like the obvious james/helen), but the story must also contain slash.  this is a slash archive, after all.
2. no incest.  that means no siegfried/tristan.  sorry.
3. i wouldn't normally say this, but since these men are vets...absolutely no beastiality.  yeah, that's just a big no.

other

who runs this site?
poison ivory maintains the website, with tsu chan chipping in as a co-mod where the stories are concerned.  we also write a whole bunch.

what do "jimfried" and "trames" mean?
jimfried and trames are the names of the two main slash 'ships of the herriotslash fandom (i love being the founder, i can make up all the rules i want!).  they're name smooshes, a style popularized by the "spuffy" (spike/buffy) of the buffy the vampire slayer fandom.  jim + siegfried = jimfried, and tristan + james = trames.  (i also have a whole theory about how the fact that the james/siegfried ship uses the name tristan calls james and the james/tristan ship uses the name siegfried calls james reveals the inextricable and tragic love triangle between the three men, but it's not a very good theory, since i came up with the names.)

you've destroyed my childhood books!  i hate you!
um...sorry?  hey, we grew up on these books too; we just happen to be comfortable with slashing the characters.  if you're not, that's perfectly fine.  to each their own.

um...dude...james marries helen.  he's totally not into either of the farnon brothers!/the farnon brothers are serial daters!  they're not gay!
again, your call.  personally i agree that james loves helen.  do i think that precludes loving one or both of the men he lives and works with?  no.  nor do i think that it's impossible for a man to date a lot of attractive women and still be in love with/attracted to another man.  it all depends on each reader's interpretation of the book.  but as i've said before, if you're not down with herriotslash for whatever reason, this is probably not the site for you.

what's with the no caps thing, e. e. cummings?  do you think it makes you look cool?
...you mean it doesn't?  *sniffle*

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