FIC: "Storytelling" (Minerva/Hermione) -- Hermione Big Bang
The Hermione Big Bang fest (hermionebigbang) has gone live -- 45 stories, a host of art, over one million (yes, that's 1,000,000) words. It looks to have been an amazingly complex fest to mount, and I admire the mods no end for handling it so well. They've done such a fine job. Go check out the stories: you'll be reading happily for months.
My entry is called "Storytelling," and you can find it here. It's Minerva/Hermione and Minerva/Other Canon Character (sorry to be coy about it, but the identity is a small surprise.) Yes, I've written a Minerva-centered fic. I know you're surprised.
And there's artwork! The story is wonderfully illustrated by the incomparable la_dissonance, cathybites, and ghot. Even if you don't read the fic, check out the art.
At 27,500 words, this story is the longest I've ever written. It was quite an undertaking, and I couldn't have done it without the amazingly thorough, insightful, and careful help provided by the best betas ever: therealsnape and mountainmoira. They both read the full draft twice and improved it mightily each time. (My friends, if this fic does not suck, it is all because of you! I hope you know just how much I appreciate your hard work and your support and especially your friendship.)
And many thanks, too, to my cheerleader \o/ lilmisblack
Interestingly, my story appears to be the only piece of femmeslash submitted to the Big Bang (I think there are some shorter f/f stories in the "Phase 1" section, which includes fics written specifically for pieces of art.)
The only disappointing thing is that I don't think the authors will get many reviews. Unless I'm confused (always a strong possibility), there's no way to comment or review at the actual story page(s) on the HBB archive (where all the stories are housed). To comment after you finish reading, you have to go back to the hermionebigbang LJ community, and there's no link to the that community from the story archive. So anyone who wants to comment has to find their own way back to the LJ site (multiple back-clicks, I guess). But I think the process will take more dedication than the average reader has; I doubt many will bother. (Hell, on FFN, most readers won't even leave a review when all they have to do is click on a review button at the end of the story.) But still, I can at least keep track of how many times someone opens the HBB fic, which is a nice feature.
I'm looking forward to a lot of fun reading.
