Today's birthday tribute belongs to
eliade. This is one of the writers on LiveJournal who knocks me out with her talent. Primarily, she writes slash, and I've followed her from Spike/Xander in the Buffyverse to Jim/Blair in The Sentinel to Jack/Vaughn in Alias and now to Rodney/John (and even Rodney/Ronan) in Stargate Atlantis. (She also wrote Jack/Daniel in SG1 when it was the only Stargate out there.) Simply put, I'll read whatever she writes. She's an amazing stylist who writes with elegance and economy, and yet the artistry is only apparent after repeated re-readings. It's also intriguing to see the subtle differences in her style at different times and in different fandoms.
Her Sentinel stories display a lush sensuality, expressed, however, with a precise, almost mannered care in word choice; it's a style intimately suited to this particular fandom. In contrast, the Jack/Vaughn stories are leaner and use dialogue much more extensively to tell the story, while character is frequently illuminated through very simple, spare, eloquent descriptions of action. The SGA stories have yet another style, with somewhat more wryness (although it's the dry humor in much of her writing which attracts me as much as the rich sensuality so often intertwined with or juxtaposed to it).
Her BtVS, TS, and SG1 stories are at her website,
http://www.drizzle.com/~eliade/. (The Sentinel stories can also be found at 852 Prospect at
http://www.squidge.org/archive/, and the Spander can be found at
http://www.allaboutspike.com, in both cases under "Anna S" as author in the indexes.) Her website is also where you can find recommendations for both SG1 and TS. Suffice it to say that it was her Spander which led me to her TS stories, which led me to her Sentinel recs, which spun me off into my current delighted immersion in TS; it's an informative, amusing place to start if you are new to that fandom.
First, let me note that her website doesn't provide different URLs for different pages, so you'll need to follow her menus to find the various stories and recommendations. That said, a great place to start is with the charming, romantic, funny, and endearing Spander piece, "Your Horoscope for Today." There's a DVD-style commentary linked at the bottom of the story, the first I read and one I found both clever and enlightening in terms of understanding how and why writers make the choices they do. "A Week of Wrong" is another example of a great blend of humor, sexual confusion, and, much to their surprise, sweetness between Spike and Xander. "Sidelines" (with Xander rather precipitously out on his own and Spike becoming involved with a stray cat) keeps some of that warmth but also has some darker edges; I enjoy re-reading it but find the two sequels rather more unsettling in tone. "Involuntary Bodies" is a longer and sadder, though ultimately hopeful, story set in the wake of Glory, with Xander and Spike left on their own to deal with Dawn and a still-damaged Tara. If you are up for even greater length, more angst, and some powerful and dangerously-edged eroticism, try "Subtleties." She also has a long WIP entitled "Buffy: Season Noir" which is Spike/Buffy; a number of those who have read it express anguish that she has firmly stated that it is on permanent hiatus, so thus far I've resisted the temptation to become enmeshed in it, but . . .
Anna's take on TS is slightly different in both tone and content than much of what I've read, though I lack the skill to describe exactly how or why. But to get a taste and see if you want to read more, a fine place to start would be the short work entitled "Curtains," which examines a "day in the life" that involves buying curtains, answering phone calls, and having sex, all described lyrically yet realistically. "First time" stories are a TS staple, and "A Long Time Looking" takes its own unique and apparently roundabout approach to that convention; I loved the descriptions, which put me inside Jim's head perceptually without being unduly obvious. "Sex" gets there rather more quickly and a lot more explicitly and unconventionally; I really like the interplay of writing style and subject matter in this one. "The Woods" trilogy deals with traumatic subject matter, yet I find myself drawn back to it for the beauty of the writing and the painful reality of the emotions; while it is officially unfinished, I find each portion complete in itself. And if you need an optimistic closure for it, you can do as I do and read the short piece "From a Distance" as filling that role. I find the other TS stories equally powerful but often more challenging and/or potentially disturbing both sexually and psychologically, so they may not speak to those who prefer more romance and camaraderie in the Jim/Blair relationship.
Her Alias pieces are located in her LJ Memories, at
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=eliade&keyword=Jack/Vaughn&filter=all.
In May and June of 2005, she produced a wonderful flurry of Jack/Vaughn pieces. You might start with the fine (and completed) series "Shortcuts," begun on 5/27/05 . . . in some ways the most conventional relationship path she provides for this pairing--but there is nothing ordinary about the writing here. The first long piece of this "festival of J/V goodness," as I dubbed it, is a series ultimately called "The Mission" (still untitled in the Memories) beginning on 5/18--find it by that date listing. It starts from an exotic, erotic premise and, in her trademark way, expresses all sorts of complex, intricate, important things about character. And although the third series "Bona Fides" is currently unfinished, it is still well worth the trip: Jack and Vaughn are undercover as a couple, but things start to get confusingly real for Vaughn. Again, it's beautifully written with an economy and artistry which make me shudder with amazement each time I re-read it.
She's just begun venturing into SGA (although she's compiled a fine and lengthy list of recs, available in her Memories). A good sampling of her as-yet shorter list of SGA stories are tagged here:
http://eliade.livejournal.com/tag/sga+fic. I'd say these were lighter pieces, for the most part; I've enjoyed them all, and all are brief enough that any would do as a starting piece.
Fortunately,
eliade lives in my time zone, so I'll get this posted before her birthday is entirely over! Thanks, Anna, for the great pleasure your work has given me, and thanks also for your generous and cleverly written recommendations which have sucked me into TS and SGA--which is certainly not intended as a complaint . . .