Searching on "black leather" and "mirrored sunglasses" will turn up quite a few William Gibson wannabes. I bet you could male a whole game out of this sort of thing.

Posted March 6, 2003 4:50 PM by Karin

Bet you could. This is fun.

Posted March 6, 2003 5:02 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I've done some trial runs, and mirrorshades black leather seems to get the most cyberthingummy hits with the least noise.

Posted March 6, 2003 5:08 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I find that beautiful shyly phaser will get you a lot of bad Trek fic. I don't know whether it's optimal.

Posted March 6, 2003 5:16 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Try "noble ranger" for a lot of D&D-esque fiction, and a ton of actual gaming stuff.

Posted March 6, 2003 5:41 PM by Karin

"billowing cape" and "sword" are also good.

Posted March 6, 2003 5:44 PM by Karin

I haven't found a search string that's narrow enough to only get the fanfic, but "curse owl nimbus" gets plenty of Harry Potter fanpages. If the rules require avoiding words that are proper nouns in the story, "curse owl broomstick" works too. (Earlier attempts with "blond broomstick" were quickly discarded.)

Posted March 6, 2003 7:21 PM by Castiron

You realize, of course, that (aside from entertainment value) this is (something of) a challenge.

The moreso, as no one seems to have taken it up since your first post on the phenomenon.

(I think it could be agreed that including the relevant phrase, "She loved him. She really loved him," as dialogue would be a cheat. --How about playing a Kenosha Kid with it? Not that I can see any interesting Kenosha Kid possibilities there. Maybe I should get back to work. Enough procrastinatin'.)

Posted March 6, 2003 7:45 PM by --k.

"She loved. Him, she really loved. Him." doesn't have quite that Pynchonian swing.

"Snitch" seems to be an excellent Harry Potter tip-off. "Passionate snitch broom" is the best I've found so far without using proper nouns.

Posted March 6, 2003 11:07 PM by Steve

lingering watcher kiss

Posted March 6, 2003 11:14 PM by redfox

I also see that "get published tomorrow!" only gets about 12 hits. The impatience of this busy, busy world, I'm guessing.

Posted March 7, 2003 8:43 AM by Jon

I am pleased to see that "That Fateful Day" is also the name of a rock band.

Posted March 7, 2003 3:35 PM by Rivka Wald

Oh my goodness.

If you really want to catch the golden Snitch of Harry Potter fanfic, try Googling for american transfer student hogwarts. Sure, by this point you'll find a fair number of parodies, but there are still plenty of gems. I quote:

[the Sorting Hat, critiquing the new American transfer student:] "Hmmm.... What an interesting specimen we have here. You know quite a bit of magic already, don't you? Yes, very intelligent you are. Proud, and yet humble at the same time. Very brave, lots of courage here. And.. oh yes, definitely crafty too. Hmmm.... Where should I place you?"

Where else but Gryffindor, of course, for Mary S- uh, Ellen. Whereupon:

"You're Harry Potter! Glad to meet you," she said, extending her hand. Harry shook it. "Sorry I cut you off, Harry. I mean, I just know who you are because we learned about you in school. And I just want to let you know up front, that I'm not going to be one of those people who fawns over you all the time. No disrespect meant by it, I just know how I feel when people do it to me. So, I try hard not to do it to others."

Ellen smiled around at them, and they all felt themselves taking an instant liking to her.

Every time I read something like this I come one step closer to writing a story myself. Because really, could I possibly do worse?

Posted March 7, 2003 4:56 PM by Rivka Wald

"Steely blue gaze" gets 220 hits, the second from elfporn.com (I wasn't curious enough to visit). "Steely grey gaze" got 10, most of which appear to be sf type writing. "Steely gray gaze" got 12, one of whcih is a cowboy tale. "steely green gaze" also got 12.

There were no hits for "steely chartreuse gaze", though there were 85 without the quotes.

Posted March 7, 2003 5:01 PM by jennie

I bow to Rivka, who has won the House Cup for HP fanfic filtering.

Every time I read something like this I come one step closer to writing a story myself. Because really, could I possibly do worse?

Oh, I'm sure someone could. The bottom for fanfic quality is lower than you'd think. Adam Cadre, who did a painfully funny MSTing of "The Eye of Argon" has taken a shot at these, as have many others.

Posted March 7, 2003 5:33 PM by Steve

claws stripe touch bub

Posted March 7, 2003 7:32 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I tried a few phrases that would be characteristic of E. E. Smith, and hit paydirt with "gold flecked blue eyes". Not only does that turn up some Lensman fanfic, but it also brings up a pile (some might call it a steaming pile) of other fanfic too.

Posted March 7, 2003 8:25 PM by Bill G.

Good (bad) results are also found using "not just for her body" as a search string.

Posted March 7, 2003 8:38 PM by Bill G.

Rivka, you rule. That piece of HP Marysuismo is painful to read.

Has anyone else here tried Redfox's lingering watcher kiss? It turns up perfectly dreadful Buffy fic. The very first hit mentions Giles' buttocks, which is not a subject I want to know more about.

K., say what, Kenosha Kid? I thought that was supposed to be Orson Welles or summat.

Bill, that's a good one. I'm off to check it out.

Posted March 7, 2003 8:40 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I should add that, curiously, the author of that Harry Potter fic I quoted has the same name as her main character. What are the odds of that?

Bill, "not just for her body" is inspired. You frighten me.

Posted March 7, 2003 9:25 PM by Rivka Wald

Given that it's a raving Mary Sue, I'd put the odds at close to 100%.

Not just for her body is horribly apt.

Posted March 7, 2003 9:32 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

preserver kiss highthing

Oh, the horror.

"'As you remember,' intruded Washuu's voice into the still silence of the room. She cast Ayeka a meaningful, if questioning glance as she spoke. 'Leetah here possesses a healing power. I haven't quite worked out the specifics of it yet, but we've seen it in action, at least on her kind. And if my hypothesis is correct, she should be able to do the same on Mr. Masaki here?'"

Posted March 7, 2003 9:56 PM by Bryant

For the benefit of those contemplating the relative merits of steely-blue eyes as opposed to gold-flecked blue eyes as opposed to some other improbable characteristic, I've just posted MaggieFic92s Handy-Dandy Mary Sue Generator out in the main sequence.

It gives you Mary Sue's Name (Giselle de Smytheford, DeLacey Ravenwing, Felicitie de la Fleur), Eye Color (smoky azure, swirling topaz, silver jade), Hair Color (tousled mahogany, burnished bronze, abundant wheat), Signature Scent (antique tea rose, spicy peaches, summersweet patchouli), Paranormal Power (Force adept, talks to animals, Power of Love), Specialized Skill (scientific genius, linguistics expert, CEO), Distinguishing Mark (streak of white hair, flawless skin, pointed ears), and Newly Revealed Relationship to a Major Character (Xander's girlfriend, Q's long-lost twin, Captain Picard's student).

(Oh yeah, her.)

Posted March 7, 2003 9:58 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I've been subtracting poem, poems, poetry to keep things tidy.

To get a bunch of way girly fiction, google on billowing silken teardrops. Barf.

Posted March 7, 2003 10:44 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I couldn't figure out why you'd need 'stripe' in the search for
'claws stripe touch bub'
So I googled it, like a good girl, all makes sense now.

tailor doctor gaze lust

Posted March 8, 2003 7:03 PM by Sue Mason

I liked this from one site: You know something's popular when it starts to inspire new fiction based on it. Uh, no. There is fanfic about everything, no matter how obscure. Little-watched shows that lasted only a few episodes have fanfic -- The Phoenix for example, which ran 5 episodes in 1982.

Posted March 8, 2003 11:39 PM by Alan Hamilton

Alan, when I found that piece of Tony Blair/Gordon Brown slash I blogged a while back, I knew anything was possible.

Sue, claws and stripe define the characters, touch sorts for theme, and bub gets rid of a bunch of natural history websites.

Posted March 9, 2003 12:07 AM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I didn't twig 'stripe' at all, couldn't think what it refered to untill I did the google. I suppose my problem is that I wouldn't think of looking for fanfic between those two characters.

I suppose 'claw tail stroke bub' would do for me.

Not that one would, of course...

Posted March 9, 2003 5:21 AM by Sue Mason

Slightly tangential to this, http://www.theregister.co.uk likes to occasionaly run the result of googling phrases like 'staff access only' and so on, to show the wonders of website security.

Posted March 10, 2003 5:02 AM by Steve Taylor