AO3 hit-count meme, books, TV, and podfic!
Hi, everybody!
It's been such a kick getting to see all of these cool fics by people whose writing I like that I thought I'd give this "top ten hits" meme a whirl. So, according to AO3, here are mine (LJ links with summaries will have much more info on explaining the stories, titles, and challenges):
1 - Guns 'n' Neuroses: AHAHAHA. Yes, this piece of crack is a Supernatural/Frasier fusion in which Frasier and Niles discover that there are bad guys they never dreamed of. So they take off in Martin's old Impala to address these wrongs with science! It was a total blast to write, and I think it helped that it wasn't my proper Yuletide assignment, but a fun treat that no one would know about if I didn't finish it on time. And yes, that is Lilith Sternin standing in as Castiel, which someone should really write as a full story one of these days. Gen. ( Niles and Frasier, hunters of the supernatural.)
2 - No Bed Is Narrow: This one was a delight to write. It was my first story for sherlock_remix, the challenge I've run for the past two years, and as the mod, I got to pick an amazing story to work with each time. This one was a gorgeous John/Sherlock fic that I'd betaed that also had an amazing crew of OCs to work with. One of the OCs, Evander, became a particular favorite of mine, and I knew I wanted to write him and give him a boyfriend who'd be good with him. John/Sherlock, OMC/OMC. ( Evander's take on Sherlock bringing John home to meet the family at Christmas.)
3 - Sheep's Clothing: Aw, my very first Sherlock fic! I'd had kind of a chip on my shoulder about modernizing Sherlock Holmes canon, both because I genuinely loved the stories from the time I first read them (when I was quite young - ACD and P. G. Wodehouse were the only English-language books on the shelves when I went to visit relatives in India over the summers, leaving aside terrible spy thrillers) and also because I was not a fan of the Ritchie movie, which I probably could have enjoyed if they hadn't insisted that these characters were Holmes and Watson and Adler. Nope. But then the BBC series blew me away with how much detail it paid to the original canon and how completely masterfully Martin Freeman owned the role of Dr. John Watson, one of the characters of my heart. It took me a little longer to get on board with Sherlock himself, though that was more the writing than Benedict Cumberbatch, I think. Anyway, it makes sense that my first foray into Sherlock would be John-centric. Gen. ( Sherlock contemplates John's striped sweater.)
4 - Tear Up Your List: This might be the fic I'm proudest of on this list. It's my take on a (drastically shortened) hiatus - when Sherlock makes everyone believe he's dead - and I was really pleased with the way it turned out. The original impetus of the story was, okay, every SH writer does a take on hiatus, so what could be different about mine? I started considering what BBC canon would allow the characters to do that ACD canon couldn't, and I realized that Sherlock would no longer need Mycroft to keep him in funds and abreast of what's going on back in England - that opened up a whole different way to consider canon, to have Sherlock and Mycroft be estranged, so that no one has the whole story: Mycroft doesn't know Sherlock is alive, Sherlock doesn't know what it means that John and Mycroft are growing closer, and John has no idea what to make of any of it and is simply acting on instinct. I'm working on the sequel now, which should end my Elastic Heart series. Gen with a few John/OFC scenes and a scene where Sherlock bathes John. ( As Moriarty keeps baiting him with seemingly random acts of violence, Sherlock struggles to keep up and keep John safe, but then there's one puzzle that shakes Sherlock's support system entirely. The story is ostensibly a modern-day spin on hiatus fic - John thinks Sherlock is dead, Sherlock is trying to destroy Moriarty's criminal network. But it's really about Sherlock working through what John and Mycroft mean to him.)
5 - Fashion Forward: I'm not surprised that this one's on the list, given that it starts with Sherlock on the runway. This was my second fic in the fandom, and meant to be a companion piece to "Sheep's Clothing." While "SC" was Sherlock PoV and therefore a lot more elliptical about the intense relationship kindling between John and Sherlock, in this one I got to be much more explicit about it, given that it was John's PoV, and he's not a complete idiot about relationships. Also, I'd been wanting to use that Batman line for a really long time, and I'm glad I got to do it here. Gen. ( Sherlock Holmes, supermodel.)
6 - The Gambler: An appearance by a White Collar fic! This took me by surprise, since I have an issue with that show, in that its canon and my brain tend to be unmixy things - I literally cannot remember canon even while I'm watching an episode. No idea why. So the fics I've written in this fandom (all birthday treats, I believe) tend to be set in a hazy "oh, you know, at some point" kind of place and just be about the characters. This one is billed as Elizabeth/Peter/Neal but stops before any porn happens. ( prompts: time, bet)
7 - Bricoleur: This was my first long fic for Sherlock, and also the first time I used an updated version of a canon story as the spine for my fic. Having Harry, John's sister, be the latest victim of Charles Augustus Milverton, was a really rewarding idea, and I was totally happy with the way I got the relationships between John and Sherlock, John and Harry, and John and Clara from my head to the fic. Gen with some Harry/Clara scenes. ( A loose retelling of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" in which Harry, newly separated and struggling to get sober, is the one who's being blackmailed for a drunken hit-and-run. John needs Sherlock to solve the case, but not if he's going to prove Harry's guilty. Set a few months after "The Great Game," while the boys are still recovering. ("Bricoleur" means "one who uses all that he has to do what he has to do.")) [I knew I forgot something! This one was fabulously remixed!]
8 - Counter, Original, Spare, Strange: Aw, yay! I had no idea there were this many people even in Cabin Pressure fandom! Martin is the woobie, both because of the character and the actor, but I've never been a big fan of whump or hurt/comfort - I wanted Martin to be happy! So I wrote a het happily-ever-after and a gen happily-ever-after for him, and then this one, which was a slash HEA. I really enjoyed creating the OMC, David, and what took me by surprise was that I'd thought I was writing a "see how these two characters slowly fall in love" story, but David and Martin got their act together so quickly that it ended up being "look how Martin's self-confidence grows once he knows he's loved" story, which is even better. I still need to write the sequel to this, where Arthur finds his (completely dippy) soulmate. Martin/OMC. ( Happy boyfriends!)
9 - Quick Like a Bunny: The second piece of crossover crack to make the list! I dreamt this one up while I was writing my take on modern-day Irene Adler and wrote it in about a day. I'd loved the first season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and thought that while having them make over Sherlock would just be putting a match to tinder, John would have the patience to get through it and even enter into the spirit of it. The problem was that John would never call them himself, so someone else had to do it. Enter Mrs. Hudson, trying to find a free fix for all the damage Sherlock has done to 221B. This fic also had Sherlock stating very clearly that he's asexual and John is straight - which is how I write them, remix fics aside - and I'm pleased that he makes a distinction between love and sex. Gen. ( Mrs. Hudson calls in the Fab Five, for nefarious purposes. Who can blame her?)
10 - Coded To Match: Another sherlock_remix fic! I wrote four fics for this year's challenge, and of course it was the John/Sherlock one (and not the John/Lestrade one, the gen one, or the John/OMC one) that made the list! Sherlock fandom knows what it wants! Actually, I'm very fond of this story, as Sherlock is completely obtuse in a way that I can really buy him being, and John is there to be the steady heart that Sherlock needs and point out the ways they make sense together. It still makes me laugh, how much of a crankypants Sherlock is here. John/Sherlock. ( Sherlock refuses to let his love be requited.)
That was fun! It is kind of misleading, since it's AO3 counts only, and I just got around to archiving my Supernatural work on that site - there are a few SPN fics that would probably have made this list if the timing had been right, I think, like Vocabulary, Lacuna, and Sunshine State/ the Ben and Dean series. And maybe The Bones of Shelbyville, my Simpsons/Supernatural crackfic in which John brings the boys to Springfield to investigate mysterious goings-on in Shelbyville. I had so much fun writing that story.
In books and TV news, I just finished Michelle Cooper's Montmaray Journals (A Brief History of Montmaray, The FitzOsbornes in Exile, and The FitzOsbornes at War) and they are phenomenal. I love epistolary fic, and these are a part of a nice subset (books written in journal form). The characters are compelling, and I liked that I couldn't always predict where the plots would go. This will be a big Yuletide fandom, I bet.
Having finished watching the TV series of Case Histories (mmmmmmm, Jason Isaacs), I'm now reading the books. The first one was just fabulous, though I was surprised that DI Louise Monroe (Amanda Abbington's character) wasn't in it. But it was smart and funny and created a really great character in Jackson Brodie. The second one is dragging a bit (as did the episode based on it) because some of the characters in it are so unpleasant or so irritating that I just want to skip their parts and get back to Jackson. But I really loved the third episode, so I'm looking forward to that book and the latest one, just out, as well.
I also finally caught up with the last several episodes of Chuck, which went out with a serious bang. I never thought they'd take as big a risk as they did in the last few episodes, and while I'm not sure if I loved what they did (it hurt my heart to watch Sarah struggling - she's by far my favorite character on the show), I was really impressed that they made such a bold move. Yvonne Strahovski needs to be recognized for how much heart and BAMFery she brought to the role of Sarah Walker, because she was just amazing.
Speaking of awesome ladies, I cannot believe the penultimate episode of this season of The Good Wife airs tonight. What am I supposed to do over the summer without Alicia and Will and Diane and Eli and Kalinda and Cary? Though I must admit that I've been enjoying the last few episodes all the more for being kid-free.
And I meant to link you guys to this days ago! The awesome unavoidedcrisis made a podfic of my little Community story Kicksplasher. It's romantic gen, Troy and Abed, and I was really pleasantly surprised by how much it resonated for me after the blankets-vs.-pillows episodes, because I wasn't particularly happy with the story as I wrote it (but I was on a Yuletide deadline). Anyway, go, take seven minutes and listen to the beautiful job she did!
I've got a massive theater post coming soon, too, but enough is enough for now.
How are you all doing?
It's been such a kick getting to see all of these cool fics by people whose writing I like that I thought I'd give this "top ten hits" meme a whirl. So, according to AO3, here are mine (LJ links with summaries will have much more info on explaining the stories, titles, and challenges):
1 - Guns 'n' Neuroses: AHAHAHA. Yes, this piece of crack is a Supernatural/Frasier fusion in which Frasier and Niles discover that there are bad guys they never dreamed of. So they take off in Martin's old Impala to address these wrongs with science! It was a total blast to write, and I think it helped that it wasn't my proper Yuletide assignment, but a fun treat that no one would know about if I didn't finish it on time. And yes, that is Lilith Sternin standing in as Castiel, which someone should really write as a full story one of these days. Gen. ( Niles and Frasier, hunters of the supernatural.)
2 - No Bed Is Narrow: This one was a delight to write. It was my first story for sherlock_remix, the challenge I've run for the past two years, and as the mod, I got to pick an amazing story to work with each time. This one was a gorgeous John/Sherlock fic that I'd betaed that also had an amazing crew of OCs to work with. One of the OCs, Evander, became a particular favorite of mine, and I knew I wanted to write him and give him a boyfriend who'd be good with him. John/Sherlock, OMC/OMC. ( Evander's take on Sherlock bringing John home to meet the family at Christmas.)
3 - Sheep's Clothing: Aw, my very first Sherlock fic! I'd had kind of a chip on my shoulder about modernizing Sherlock Holmes canon, both because I genuinely loved the stories from the time I first read them (when I was quite young - ACD and P. G. Wodehouse were the only English-language books on the shelves when I went to visit relatives in India over the summers, leaving aside terrible spy thrillers) and also because I was not a fan of the Ritchie movie, which I probably could have enjoyed if they hadn't insisted that these characters were Holmes and Watson and Adler. Nope. But then the BBC series blew me away with how much detail it paid to the original canon and how completely masterfully Martin Freeman owned the role of Dr. John Watson, one of the characters of my heart. It took me a little longer to get on board with Sherlock himself, though that was more the writing than Benedict Cumberbatch, I think. Anyway, it makes sense that my first foray into Sherlock would be John-centric. Gen. ( Sherlock contemplates John's striped sweater.)
4 - Tear Up Your List: This might be the fic I'm proudest of on this list. It's my take on a (drastically shortened) hiatus - when Sherlock makes everyone believe he's dead - and I was really pleased with the way it turned out. The original impetus of the story was, okay, every SH writer does a take on hiatus, so what could be different about mine? I started considering what BBC canon would allow the characters to do that ACD canon couldn't, and I realized that Sherlock would no longer need Mycroft to keep him in funds and abreast of what's going on back in England - that opened up a whole different way to consider canon, to have Sherlock and Mycroft be estranged, so that no one has the whole story: Mycroft doesn't know Sherlock is alive, Sherlock doesn't know what it means that John and Mycroft are growing closer, and John has no idea what to make of any of it and is simply acting on instinct. I'm working on the sequel now, which should end my Elastic Heart series. Gen with a few John/OFC scenes and a scene where Sherlock bathes John. ( As Moriarty keeps baiting him with seemingly random acts of violence, Sherlock struggles to keep up and keep John safe, but then there's one puzzle that shakes Sherlock's support system entirely. The story is ostensibly a modern-day spin on hiatus fic - John thinks Sherlock is dead, Sherlock is trying to destroy Moriarty's criminal network. But it's really about Sherlock working through what John and Mycroft mean to him.)
5 - Fashion Forward: I'm not surprised that this one's on the list, given that it starts with Sherlock on the runway. This was my second fic in the fandom, and meant to be a companion piece to "Sheep's Clothing." While "SC" was Sherlock PoV and therefore a lot more elliptical about the intense relationship kindling between John and Sherlock, in this one I got to be much more explicit about it, given that it was John's PoV, and he's not a complete idiot about relationships. Also, I'd been wanting to use that Batman line for a really long time, and I'm glad I got to do it here. Gen. ( Sherlock Holmes, supermodel.)
6 - The Gambler: An appearance by a White Collar fic! This took me by surprise, since I have an issue with that show, in that its canon and my brain tend to be unmixy things - I literally cannot remember canon even while I'm watching an episode. No idea why. So the fics I've written in this fandom (all birthday treats, I believe) tend to be set in a hazy "oh, you know, at some point" kind of place and just be about the characters. This one is billed as Elizabeth/Peter/Neal but stops before any porn happens. ( prompts: time, bet)
7 - Bricoleur: This was my first long fic for Sherlock, and also the first time I used an updated version of a canon story as the spine for my fic. Having Harry, John's sister, be the latest victim of Charles Augustus Milverton, was a really rewarding idea, and I was totally happy with the way I got the relationships between John and Sherlock, John and Harry, and John and Clara from my head to the fic. Gen with some Harry/Clara scenes. ( A loose retelling of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" in which Harry, newly separated and struggling to get sober, is the one who's being blackmailed for a drunken hit-and-run. John needs Sherlock to solve the case, but not if he's going to prove Harry's guilty. Set a few months after "The Great Game," while the boys are still recovering. ("Bricoleur" means "one who uses all that he has to do what he has to do.")) [I knew I forgot something! This one was fabulously remixed!]
8 - Counter, Original, Spare, Strange: Aw, yay! I had no idea there were this many people even in Cabin Pressure fandom! Martin is the woobie, both because of the character and the actor, but I've never been a big fan of whump or hurt/comfort - I wanted Martin to be happy! So I wrote a het happily-ever-after and a gen happily-ever-after for him, and then this one, which was a slash HEA. I really enjoyed creating the OMC, David, and what took me by surprise was that I'd thought I was writing a "see how these two characters slowly fall in love" story, but David and Martin got their act together so quickly that it ended up being "look how Martin's self-confidence grows once he knows he's loved" story, which is even better. I still need to write the sequel to this, where Arthur finds his (completely dippy) soulmate. Martin/OMC. ( Happy boyfriends!)
9 - Quick Like a Bunny: The second piece of crossover crack to make the list! I dreamt this one up while I was writing my take on modern-day Irene Adler and wrote it in about a day. I'd loved the first season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and thought that while having them make over Sherlock would just be putting a match to tinder, John would have the patience to get through it and even enter into the spirit of it. The problem was that John would never call them himself, so someone else had to do it. Enter Mrs. Hudson, trying to find a free fix for all the damage Sherlock has done to 221B. This fic also had Sherlock stating very clearly that he's asexual and John is straight - which is how I write them, remix fics aside - and I'm pleased that he makes a distinction between love and sex. Gen. ( Mrs. Hudson calls in the Fab Five, for nefarious purposes. Who can blame her?)
10 - Coded To Match: Another sherlock_remix fic! I wrote four fics for this year's challenge, and of course it was the John/Sherlock one (and not the John/Lestrade one, the gen one, or the John/OMC one) that made the list! Sherlock fandom knows what it wants! Actually, I'm very fond of this story, as Sherlock is completely obtuse in a way that I can really buy him being, and John is there to be the steady heart that Sherlock needs and point out the ways they make sense together. It still makes me laugh, how much of a crankypants Sherlock is here. John/Sherlock. ( Sherlock refuses to let his love be requited.)
That was fun! It is kind of misleading, since it's AO3 counts only, and I just got around to archiving my Supernatural work on that site - there are a few SPN fics that would probably have made this list if the timing had been right, I think, like Vocabulary, Lacuna, and Sunshine State/ the Ben and Dean series. And maybe The Bones of Shelbyville, my Simpsons/Supernatural crackfic in which John brings the boys to Springfield to investigate mysterious goings-on in Shelbyville. I had so much fun writing that story.
In books and TV news, I just finished Michelle Cooper's Montmaray Journals (A Brief History of Montmaray, The FitzOsbornes in Exile, and The FitzOsbornes at War) and they are phenomenal. I love epistolary fic, and these are a part of a nice subset (books written in journal form). The characters are compelling, and I liked that I couldn't always predict where the plots would go. This will be a big Yuletide fandom, I bet.
Having finished watching the TV series of Case Histories (mmmmmmm, Jason Isaacs), I'm now reading the books. The first one was just fabulous, though I was surprised that DI Louise Monroe (Amanda Abbington's character) wasn't in it. But it was smart and funny and created a really great character in Jackson Brodie. The second one is dragging a bit (as did the episode based on it) because some of the characters in it are so unpleasant or so irritating that I just want to skip their parts and get back to Jackson. But I really loved the third episode, so I'm looking forward to that book and the latest one, just out, as well.
I also finally caught up with the last several episodes of Chuck, which went out with a serious bang. I never thought they'd take as big a risk as they did in the last few episodes, and while I'm not sure if I loved what they did (it hurt my heart to watch Sarah struggling - she's by far my favorite character on the show), I was really impressed that they made such a bold move. Yvonne Strahovski needs to be recognized for how much heart and BAMFery she brought to the role of Sarah Walker, because she was just amazing.
Speaking of awesome ladies, I cannot believe the penultimate episode of this season of The Good Wife airs tonight. What am I supposed to do over the summer without Alicia and Will and Diane and Eli and Kalinda and Cary? Though I must admit that I've been enjoying the last few episodes all the more for being kid-free.
And I meant to link you guys to this days ago! The awesome unavoidedcrisis made a podfic of my little Community story Kicksplasher. It's romantic gen, Troy and Abed, and I was really pleasantly surprised by how much it resonated for me after the blankets-vs.-pillows episodes, because I wasn't particularly happy with the story as I wrote it (but I was on a Yuletide deadline). Anyway, go, take seven minutes and listen to the beautiful job she did!
I've got a massive theater post coming soon, too, but enough is enough for now.
How are you all doing?