Minotaur

Minotaur was a slash fandom BNF known for his informative writings, presence on panels, and advice. Minotaur got into slash fandom in the mid-'90s when he joined the Paris/Kim Slash Party (PKSP) mailing list in Voyager fandom. He wrote his first slash story about six months laterInterview with Minotaur/WebCite, Wayback machine, February 2000. Accessed June 14, 2009.. Minotaur passed away, far too young, on June 14, 2009 only five days after his last post.
==History==
By the early '00s, Minotaur was (and remained) a BNF in the truest sense of the word -- he was known across multiple slash fandoms because of his contributions to fandom overall. He was a fan writer and an archivist, but was probably best known for his sex advice -- not in terms of how to have it, but how to write it. He earned a mention in the meta parody piece Deep Fanfic Thoughts, by Jack Handey because of it.
He was a staple panelist for years (1998 - 2004) at slash cons, giving frank, entertaining "gay boy tells all" talks that gave female slash writers a place to ask questions they might not be able to ask a non-fannish friend, while always being careful to stress that he was just one man, and that every man is different.
Online, he created the Sex Tips for Slash Writers page (and later the searchable MQA database based on it), an invaluable resource widely used by slash writers.
==In his own words:==
:"Hello, my name is minotaur, and I'm a slashaholic..."
:"So I've been looking back over my somewhat checkered career in slashdom - and quickly came to the conclusion that I'm something of a fannish butterfly. For those of you not in the know, that means I flutter from fandom to fandom, never lingering very long, but drinking deeply from whichever font I'm at. I started out in Paris/Kim, though the very first story I wrote was Ayala/Kim. Then moved on to Jim/Blair, where I hung out for quite a long time. Then came Duncan/Methos and Mulder/Krycek, with side jaunts into Richie/Methos and Krycek/Pendrell. Next up was Bodie/Doyle - which took a while, since there's sooooo much out there. Then Superman/Jimmy, which I'm still into even though there's only about a dozen stories available (including my two). After that I fell headlong into the Buffyverse... especially Xander/Spike, which segued neatly into Xander/just-about-anybody-except-Giles, with an emphasis on Xander/Graham and a special appearance by Jonathan/Devon. Somewhere in there were side trips into Dar/Tao - which took all of about 12 hours, since as far as I can tell there's not a single slash story out there, Obi-Wan/Maul - mostly due to the hysterical Sith Academy site, RayK/Turnbull - those Mounties really do need someone to loosen them up, Max/Kyle and Max/Michael - who could resist aliens with abs, and Dan/Casey - mostly for the snarky humor. The X-Men movie sparked a brief flirtation with Logan/Scott, which led to some other comics based slash, in particular the wonderful Sea and Sky series of Nightwing/Tempest stories. Recently I've been big into Darien/Bobby, since the show is just about the slashiest thing on since Sentinel, and VV is to die for." (2001)
In 1999 he participated in an ongoing interview series on the COCO CHANNEL. See An Interview with Minotaur:
:I think the real strength of slash isn't the sex, it's that the writers and readers are taking these cultural icons and twisting them, looking at them in new ways, re-interpreting them and thus the things they have come to stand for...Slash is a wonderful example of the true power of the 'Web. Anyone with access to a computer can now reach out and potentially touch millions of lives. Slash used to be much more sub-rosa, you had to know someone who was in the know, or come across it at a con. Now it's *everywhere*. You don't have to half look for it anymore. With the power of the Web, people have unleashed their inner desires, put forth the fruits of their imaginations, and connected with other like minded souls. An Interview with Minotaur, February 2000.
==Fanac==
===As a writer===
*Minotaur wrote Voyager, Sentinel, and Superman fanfic, which can be found on his website.
*In 2001, Minotaur was interviewed by The Society for Slash Diversity and The Committee of Chekov Obsessives (CC-SSD) about his experiences in Trek fandom and as the creator of the Sex Tips for Slash Writers site. 
**"I think the real strength of slash isn't the sex, it's that the writers and readers are taking these cultural icons and twisting them, looking at them in new ways, re-interpreting them and thus the things they have come to stand for."
===As a vidder===
Vids include: (need titles and details)
* I Want You for Big Wolf on Campus. Showed at Escapade in 2002.
*Smallville, constructed reality (Clark/Whitney).
*Superman for Lois & Clark (Jimmy/Superman). Showed at Escapade in 2002.
*Breathing for X-Men. Showed at Escapade in 2002.
===As a resource===
*author and maintainer of the resource site Sex Tips for Slash Writers and the MQA, a searchable database of sex tips for slash writers (updates the previous site). The genesis was Friscon '97, where he was very nearly the only male in attendance, and got repeatedly asked "Can two guys do that?" So after the con, he began working on an advice website.
*creator of the now defunct Slash Page Database Project
*creator of Minotaur's Giant Map of Slashers
===As a con-goer===
*Founder with 	Esprix of San Diego Queer Sci-Fi; helped put on Conjecture, a local San Diego con, and Gaylaxicon 2004 in San Diego.
* A regular (and often the only guy) at slash cons such as Escapade, CON.TXT, Friscon, Bascon, Connexions, ConStrict, and Zcon. 
**As a sort of companion to his Sex Tips for Slash Writers site, he began volunteering to hold panel discussions on "gay boy tells all", where he would give a basic talk on the sorts of things he thought would interest female slashers and slash writers, and opened the floor to questions. For many women at the con, this was their first opportunity to directly ask a gay man questions about gay sex (at least without being embarrassed about it, or having to explain why they wanted to know), and the panels were hugely popular.
===As an archivist ===
*Owner and webmaster of Slashdom.net, home of several individual sites as well as the Smallville Slash Archive; First Down, the Whitfic archive (dedicated to Whitney Fordman from Smallville); and Big Guns, the Grahamslash archive (dedicated to Graham Miller from BTVS).
===As a community moderator===
*Moderator of San Diego slash fan get-togethers through the sandiegoslash community on Livejournal.
==Testimonials & fond reminisces of his life, and reactions to his passing ==
*A livejournal community called Minotaursfriend was founded on June 15, 2009
*Elke Tanzer has written A few memories of Minotaurarchive link
*Wasabi has posted Stuart Carroll, 1964-2009, a retrospective with photosWayBack machine
*"and then your fingertips explode!" Cin1607 remembers Minotaur's description of the male orgasm: "The discussion had been about anal sex and the joys of the prostate when someone in the audience asked him to describe an orgasm from the point of view of the bottom. I wish I could remember all of it, but I do remember that, in the best story-telling traditions, he took the audience along for the entire ride. He talked about the ecstasy traveling through your entire body, with lots of "and then you can feel it move up your spine, and then it reaches your arms..." I seriously wish I could remember more of that part, but with his voice and body and facial expressions, he really created a sense of suspense and anticipation. I remember him tracing the orgasm down one arm with his fingers. And then he paused. We were all on the edge of our seats. And then he threw his arms out and his head back and waggled his fingers and said, "and then your fingertips explode!" And of course, the audience just howled over the whole thing. It was wonderful fun." Comment in Cin's LJ
 
*Links to the news of his passing were collected in a post in Elke Tanzer's DW journal. 
In July 2018, a fan wrote about Minotaur in the context of slash history which resulted in a new wave of memories
[veronica-rich reblogged kronette] 
[thebibliosphere reblogged systlin]
[alixsinclair-emt reblogged kronette]
[headstomp] reblogged thebibliosphere]
[rsasai reblogged ardwynna]
[aylathebunny reblogged yogi-bogey-box]
[teabq reblogged calystarose]
meeedeee reblogged savedmeta
[ esprix ]
You can read the full responses at History of Slash (Tumblr_Essay)
In 2019, PerpetualGayle wrote a tribute on Twitter, talking about his willingness to educate and his coding for the The Slash Page Database Project:
==References==
Category:2020 Featured Articles
Category: Deceased
Category:2009 Deaths
Category:Fanwriters
Category:Vidders
Category:Community Moderators‎