New Arrivals || Authors || Titles || Specialty Indices || Site Information || FAQ
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Welcome to the Cascade Library, a place to find links to many wonderful general (GEN*) fan fiction stories for The Sentinel. This online archive was created to provide another venue to showcase Sentinel fan fiction, help readers find great stories quickly and easily, and highlight the many talented authors in our fandom. The Library officially opened on March 16, 1999.

The Library is a full-service archive subscribed to several TS fanfic mailing lists, linking to fan fiction stories with the author's permission. We also have the ability to archive full stories which do not have a home on an outside web site. Quite a number of The Sentinel fan fiction authors have given permission to have their stories archived, and the Cascade Library contains over 2,000 stories. If you're an author of The Sentinel general fan fiction, the Librarians (not Elves! dernit! ~grin~) would like to formally invite to you to give the Library permission to archive your stories. We would love to have you!

Questions, Comments, Rants, Raves? The CL staff would love to hear from you. Our email addy is tslibrary@yahoo.com.

***The Library archives general fanfiction -- this means no slash or pre-slash, regardless of rating.***

March 2009: As you may have heard geocities will be closing later in the year. The Organization For Transformative Work (OTW), a fan run group, is offering help and assistance in locating places for fans to move their fan fiction. More info here http://transformativeworks.org/news/geocities-closing

Note from CL Archivist: Writers are also welcome to communicate with the Library regarding housing their fic here. Though if I get lots of requests, it will take awhile to get everything formatted and uploaded, as there is only one of me. ~grin~

Special Notices: [CL's response to GP's closure...] [Library Statement on Plagiarism]
[Removal of stories at CL and reminder re: NC-17] [Library Policy on Bonding Scenes]
[TS Fandom Definitions] [MPAA Ratings System]

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Quick Link to Story Submission Directions

New Arrivals -- You'll find the newest story updates to the archive here.
You'll find links to the Library's specialty indices here as well: Crossovers with other shows, Holiday stories, Alternate Universe stories, and a Missing Scenes index. See also the New Arrivals Logs Index.

Authors -- Go here for an index of stories organized by author name. Authors have provided short story descriptions as well as a brief profile of themselves. The Authors' Firsts page lists the first story and date posted for many of the authors.

Titles -- Go here for an index of stories organized by titles. Follow the author's name to the author's listing for the story description.

Select Categories of Fanfic -- index for stories with a particular theme that readers ask for every so often.

Feature -- Get to know the great people behind the great stories we read! The Cascade Library chooses an author of Sentinel general fan fiction to highlight in this changing feature. You'll find an article and casual interview with the author as she discusses The Sentinel and her fan fiction writing.You can also nominate your favorite authors to be featured in the future.

Recommendations -- New to Sentinel fan fiction and don't knnow where to start reading? Go here for many reader recommendations of favorite TS stories and links to where to find them. Stories are grouped into categories (drama, humor, etc.). If you've read a story you especially liked, you can submit your own recommendation to share with other readers, too.

Writers' Services -- The Library maintains a list of volunteer beta readers and volunteer consultants willing to advise writers on various topics. Also included are the Library's Sentinel spelling guide and links particularly helpful to the Sentinel fanfic writer, including episode transcripts, floorplans, timeline, story bible, and more.

Links -- Helpful links to other web sites dedicated to The Sentinel, chosen for their usefulness to The Sentinel fan fiction readers and writers. Additionally, you'll find instructions for subscribing to several major mailing lists for general Sentinel fan fiction, including Senfic and SentinelAngst.

Site Information -- You are here! Find out about what the Library has to offer, plus information on how to get your Sentinel fan fiction stories archived here.

Linking Graphics -- An assortment of buttons and banners you can use to link back to the Library.

The Cascade Library graphics and layout were designed by the CL Chief, Robyn (for more on the background story on how the Library came to be, check out Robyn's featured author interview). To all of you who have written the Library with notes of appreciation and suggestions for making CL better, thank you!

Story Submission Directions

The Cascade Library is subscribed to Senfic, so authors don't have to send a separate email to request archiving if they post to this list. Anyone who wishes to submit stories for posting/archiving directly, please use tslibrary@yahoo.com (our one and only address).

All stories must include the following (also see additional info for stories to be stored here):

• Permission to CL for archiving. Sorry, but we can't archive a story unless given express permission. Note: for current authors, it is understood that all stories (that fit our parameters) by them will be archived, unless told otherwise.
• Subject line of email: As of October 2005, to prevent legitimate fic archiving requests from being put in folders other than the inbox, the Librarian has set up a filter for any emails with the words "new fic" in the subject line to be automatically put in the CL inbox. I'm hoping this will help and would like authors who directly submit (which most of you do) to take note of this. As an addendum for those who will ask (and someone always does), (a) this filter is not cap-sensitive, (b) it does not require the subject line be limited to just those words, and (c) authors are not required to use it for new fic to be archived.
• Title, author name (and email if not a current author), story summary/description, and location (URL) where story resides if on an outside web page. These must be included *every time* you send a story to be archived. It saves us time and effort to go hunting down a missing piece of a submission.
• As of January 2002 -- if you don't send a summary, one will not be listed. The Librarians will no longer hunt down missing information. What the author sends is what will get posted.
• Note added in Feb 2009 -- I've based many a decision on whether or not to read a story based on its summary. Here's a link to an *excellent* article (on LJ) about story summaries.
• For the URL, *please* send the entire URL, including the http part. It's so much easier just to be able to copy and paste the location rather than have to type in parts of it.
• Additional note for author names -- for new authors, you may want to check the authors page to be sure the name you've chosen isn't already in use. And please, pick a name and *stick with it*. The Librarian can get cranky if you change your mind since that requires fixing a mulititude of pages.
• LiveJournal and Dreamwidth -- Yes, the Library will archive stories listed on LiveJournal (LJ) or Dreamwidth (DW) pages. These are becoming very popular so it's to be expected that authors will begin to migrate there more often.
• Main site will be linked on the individual author's page at the top.
• Story links will be directly to that entry (if provided) to make it easier for readers to find a particular story.
• An indication will also be shown at CL for LJ links, as requested by readers who have difficulties with LJ pages.
• We understand that many authors depend on other kind folks to post their stories to an outside web page. If for some reason your web page maintainer is not able to post your story to the web right away (in other words, the story is not yet available on the web when you post to the mailing list), please indicate this at the top of the story and drop us a note when the story does become available on the web so we can link it on the New Arrivals page at that time. Thanks!
• Ratings and warnings if applicable. Please see the Library's statement below regarding adult story content, ratings, and warnings. See also any applicable policies/notices. Also please note that as of early 2005, there has been debate over using the MPAA's rating system. A link has been provided on the links page under references for a internet-fandom-wide developed system.
• If you are a new author to the Library, please send us a brief author profile (1-4 sentences, approximately -- we don't need your life story!) that will go underneath your name on your story listing page. You can include anything in this -- your occupation, hobbies outside of writing, favorite kinds of fan fiction stories, whatever you think of! Be creative. Check out the other author pages for examples of what other authors have written for their profiles.
• Important note: The Library only stores fanfic on the site that is NOT posted elsewhere, like on the author's actual webpage or another mini-archive such as Wolfpup's Den or Starfox's Mansion. If you have your stories stored here, then create a webpage of your own with your fanfic on it, we will simply link to your page and remove the stories from being *stored* at our site.

For authors who would like their stories to actually reside at the Cascade Library:

The Library is happy to serve you! The following also applies:

• Most important -- Remember to spell check and preferably have your stories beta-read. The Librarians do not check for spelling and errors. We'll post the story just as we receive it. If you've had a story posted here and later have it beta'ed and want to repost, we will repost your story *once*, though not re-announce unless there have been significant changes.
• Send fic as attached documents as copying and pasting text from emails is no longer workable. Your fic will then be viewed and copied from there. Please note that this method will still NOT bring over any special formatting, such as italics or bolding.
  
• If you want italics or bolding noticed, use astericks to indicate emphasis. We do not have the time to give each and every story special formatting, so therefore none will be done. If italics and/or bolding is important to you, we would highly suggest and encourage you that you create your own site.
• PLEASE NOTE: The archivist does finally have Word on her computer, but it's Word 2010 and it causes strange issues (like lines and lines and lines of extra code) with copying Word text into a HTML document, so special characters may or may not show u when copying/pasting.  (WordPerfect is still more streamlined than weird Word...)
• Block paragraphs are a must (separate paragraphs by 2 hard returns) -- no tabs, because tabs do not convert into HTML. And use scene breaks (such as a line of astericks); saving the file into an HTML file will delete any blank extra lines between scenes.
• No smart quotes (curly quotes), since these don't convert into HTML well either. Saving the file as a text file (rather than Word or WordPerfect) will make them normal quotes.
• No "m" or "n" dashes (long dashes as opposed to hyphens) -- those are special characters and don't always convert well. Use regular hyphens.
• Disclaimer of some sort stating that Jim, Blair, Simon, and The Sentinel belong to Pet Fly, UPN, and Paramount and no copyright infringement is intended.
• 
  

NOTE: For authors who have their stories stored at the Library and then later get a webpage of their own to have their stories on, we don't typically keep the stories stored here at that point. We'll simply list the URL for readers to go to your page.

See also the Library Statement on Plagiarism

Library Policy Regarding Adult Story Content, Warnings, and Ratings

See also CL's response to GP's closure...

Because of some confusion, the Library staff has composed a brief, more specific policy on this topic. The Cascade Library is an archive only for general Sentinel fan fiction (meaning we do not archive "slash" or "non-slash adult" pieces). Essentially, we have chosen not to archive any story which could be rated slash or NC-17. Please note that by our definition, NC-17 includes any story containing graphic or explicit ("on-camera") descriptions of sexual encounters of ANY nature.

6/01 update: In keeping with the Library's mission to provide an archive appropriate for general audiences, the Library has chosen to no longer archive stories involving domestic discipline or corporal punishment. For the Library's purposes, domestic discipline/corporal punishment includes relationships involving physical punishment or discipline (spankings, etc.) between two adult characters. Stories falling into this category have been removed and their authors notified.

6/03 update: See also the Library Policy on Bonding Scenes.

This is not a censorship issue; it is simply our policy for fan fiction archiving in this GEN (non-slash, non-adult) archive.

Further clarification: This policy is especially relevant with the new internet law regarding children and access to the internet that recently went into effect.

The Library depends heavily on the author to rate stories responsibly and present only gen-appropriate ones for archiving here, and we also recognize that ratings (what is/is not "explicit") are subjective. We have not had a problem in the past, but should a disagreement arise, the Library staff would ultimately determine whether a story would be more appropriately archived elsewhere. Other Sentinel fanfic archives are already set up to handle adult stories, and authors will be directed to these sites if necessary.

Authors are strongly encouraged to rate stories responsibly and honestly, and to clearly provide any necessary warnings at the top of the story with specifics as necessary. Ratings and warnings are not required for all stories, but should be included if necessary as a courtesy to readers. Some common examples include "Death Story," "Spoilers for such-and-such episode," "Rated R for language/violence/adult situations/etc."

If you have any questions, please feel free to email the Library and we will be happy to answer them. Thanks!