...What day is it again?
I wrote 4,000 words of story over the long weekend and felt good about it, even though I haven't been able to get back to it yet and it needs some rehauling.
I usually put off reading fic while I'm writing it, because if I didn't I would (a) lose faith in my own abilities, (b) start unconsciously mimicking other people's styles and phrasing, (c) get into passive rather than creative mode, and (d) not be able to stop reading anyway. The result was that I had a nice pile of things to read Tuesday and yesterday, and some of them were really good.
In no particular order:
Image Heavy by deltacephei - Short and funny Fairy Tale challenge entry at sga_flashfic recommended for fans of "Darmok," mythology and/or Earth popular culture infiltrating Ronon, Teyla and the Pegasus galaxy at large.
Aspects of Divinity (the world is my oyster) by rinsbane - An incredibly well-written story about John growing up and losing innocence and hope and slowly becoming the character we see on the show. It begins with an endless college summer spent driving an ice cream truck and hanging out with Rodney, and goes from there. I can't say enough good things about this fic. Just, go read it.
Harmonic Function by shaenie - Sizzling hot John/Rodney d/s BDSM fic, with bonus math!porn in the middle and such rarities as characters actually discussing what they do/don't like in bed. AU where Rodney picks John up in a bar one night and takes him back to his hotel room for something that turns out to be much more intense than either expected. Slow, real, visceral.
A Hundred Happy Things by busaikko - An interesting AU and (seemingly, to this reader) realistic portrait of transsexuality (and parenting) while still keeping all the characters recognizable, hopelessly flawed and thoroughly lovable.
Heart of Ice by crysothemis - Another Fairy Tale challenge fic in which aliens do something to Sheppard that strips away his ability and desire to care about anything. Rodney is not okay with that at all. A fascinating and troubling look at what drives John to do (and not do) what he does (and doesn't do) every day.
Hidden Depths by lamardeuse - My favorite of hers since quite a while ago. A reimagining of the movie Splash, which works very well as a metaphor for Sheppard's alienness and also provides for some surprisingly erotic scenes (er, not while he's a fish. Mostly.).
Don't get me started on how many people have written a ton of Kink Bingo stories already when I haven't even finished one, but sardonicsmiley has done, like, nine, and I particularly liked Blessings (gangbang) and Space Super Jet Gun (enema/gun!kink).
I almost forgot-thingswithwings's John/Rodney fucking machines story, Mechanical Advantage! I had the privilege of beta-reading this piece of oh-so-dirty-and-wrong hotness, and it certainly made my weekend a little happier.
Oh oh! This awesomeness (actually entitled "Hold") by foreverdirt - a Rodney/John double sestina that is tightly constructed, hot as hell, and contains some beautiful phrasing. I was so incredibly thrilled to find out that she was partly inspired by An Unanticipated Side Effect of Dosing Oneself with Wraith Enzyme.... It sounds / like madness, letting himself feel / like this over a man who would burn / his life away on a dime. It's not. ...She hasn't crossposted anywhere; I hope she doesn't mind me reccing it here.
.
I swear I'm still a House fan. See, here's a rec: Paresthesia and Pain by the always excellent mer-duff (post-finale, House/Wilson friendship, pain as metaphor). It's just that I've been bookmarking rather than reading since the season finale.
.
I also swear that I can and will talk about more than fandom/fanfic (but not that I can start sentences with words other than "I"). I want to have discussions about things like the difficulty of writing PWPs, and just how much stupider a person becomes as a function of how long it's been since they left school (and by "a person," of course I mean "me"), and how hot Stephen Colbert was while summarizing the shortfalls of string theory before guest Brian Greene, and whether the career path I've selected for myself is the right one, and whether my Saturday would be better spent relaxing on the couch or going into the city to see Alan Alda play Richard Feynman followed by a session with feminist astrophysicist Vera Rubin, and. . . but tonight does not seem to be the right moment for it. *yawn*
I blame an overtaxed brain; I worked for 9 hours straight on a new project at work today after spending the last three-odd years learning absolutely nothing, and then got through a cassette and a half of Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell audio book in the car. (No, he does not narrate it.) Picking up unfamiliar physics aurally, while navigating traffic? Not so much my strength.
I think I will go read about how Thoughts of death make us eat more cookies.
ETA: This is news? "The authors believe people with low self-esteem use consuming as a way of subconsciously escaping self-awareness, which is heightened by thoughts of dying." I've been consciously escaping painful awareness of mortality through (fiction) consumption for as long as I can remember.
I usually put off reading fic while I'm writing it, because if I didn't I would (a) lose faith in my own abilities, (b) start unconsciously mimicking other people's styles and phrasing, (c) get into passive rather than creative mode, and (d) not be able to stop reading anyway. The result was that I had a nice pile of things to read Tuesday and yesterday, and some of them were really good.
In no particular order:
Image Heavy by deltacephei - Short and funny Fairy Tale challenge entry at sga_flashfic recommended for fans of "Darmok," mythology and/or Earth popular culture infiltrating Ronon, Teyla and the Pegasus galaxy at large.
Aspects of Divinity (the world is my oyster) by rinsbane - An incredibly well-written story about John growing up and losing innocence and hope and slowly becoming the character we see on the show. It begins with an endless college summer spent driving an ice cream truck and hanging out with Rodney, and goes from there. I can't say enough good things about this fic. Just, go read it.
Harmonic Function by shaenie - Sizzling hot John/Rodney d/s BDSM fic, with bonus math!porn in the middle and such rarities as characters actually discussing what they do/don't like in bed. AU where Rodney picks John up in a bar one night and takes him back to his hotel room for something that turns out to be much more intense than either expected. Slow, real, visceral.
A Hundred Happy Things by busaikko - An interesting AU and (seemingly, to this reader) realistic portrait of transsexuality (and parenting) while still keeping all the characters recognizable, hopelessly flawed and thoroughly lovable.
Heart of Ice by crysothemis - Another Fairy Tale challenge fic in which aliens do something to Sheppard that strips away his ability and desire to care about anything. Rodney is not okay with that at all. A fascinating and troubling look at what drives John to do (and not do) what he does (and doesn't do) every day.
Hidden Depths by lamardeuse - My favorite of hers since quite a while ago. A reimagining of the movie Splash, which works very well as a metaphor for Sheppard's alienness and also provides for some surprisingly erotic scenes (er, not while he's a fish. Mostly.).
Don't get me started on how many people have written a ton of Kink Bingo stories already when I haven't even finished one, but sardonicsmiley has done, like, nine, and I particularly liked Blessings (gangbang) and Space Super Jet Gun (enema/gun!kink).
I almost forgot-thingswithwings's John/Rodney fucking machines story, Mechanical Advantage! I had the privilege of beta-reading this piece of oh-so-dirty-and-wrong hotness, and it certainly made my weekend a little happier.
Oh oh! This awesomeness (actually entitled "Hold") by foreverdirt - a Rodney/John double sestina that is tightly constructed, hot as hell, and contains some beautiful phrasing. I was so incredibly thrilled to find out that she was partly inspired by An Unanticipated Side Effect of Dosing Oneself with Wraith Enzyme.... It sounds / like madness, letting himself feel / like this over a man who would burn / his life away on a dime. It's not. ...She hasn't crossposted anywhere; I hope she doesn't mind me reccing it here.
.
I swear I'm still a House fan. See, here's a rec: Paresthesia and Pain by the always excellent mer-duff (post-finale, House/Wilson friendship, pain as metaphor). It's just that I've been bookmarking rather than reading since the season finale.
.
I also swear that I can and will talk about more than fandom/fanfic (but not that I can start sentences with words other than "I"). I want to have discussions about things like the difficulty of writing PWPs, and just how much stupider a person becomes as a function of how long it's been since they left school (and by "a person," of course I mean "me"), and how hot Stephen Colbert was while summarizing the shortfalls of string theory before guest Brian Greene, and whether the career path I've selected for myself is the right one, and whether my Saturday would be better spent relaxing on the couch or going into the city to see Alan Alda play Richard Feynman followed by a session with feminist astrophysicist Vera Rubin, and. . . but tonight does not seem to be the right moment for it. *yawn*
I blame an overtaxed brain; I worked for 9 hours straight on a new project at work today after spending the last three-odd years learning absolutely nothing, and then got through a cassette and a half of Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell audio book in the car. (No, he does not narrate it.) Picking up unfamiliar physics aurally, while navigating traffic? Not so much my strength.
I think I will go read about how Thoughts of death make us eat more cookies.
ETA: This is news? "The authors believe people with low self-esteem use consuming as a way of subconsciously escaping self-awareness, which is heightened by thoughts of dying." I've been consciously escaping painful awareness of mortality through (fiction) consumption for as long as I can remember.