4 stories I'm grateful for: 3 I loved, 2 I've written, 1 I'm writing, and the One We Don't Mention
This was going to be a long meta post (see icon) about reflections of war in fanfiction, but I haven't time. So instead, a very belated and late thank-you note:
For The Christmas Present. This was my Yuletide story, and it's lovely. It's Georgette Heyer, who is deceptively difficult to write without sentiment, but doctoraicha manged with style. It's These Old Shades, Avon and Leonie after marriage.
But I was awfully embarrassed to also receive two Yuletide madness stories in fandoms I've written, for I've never done the madness thing and doubt I'll ever have time. So I'm really, stupidly gleeful about wasabi_girl1's Shaadi (marriage), Bollywoood RPF, which in very few words links practically everyone I've ever thought about writing through the convention of a wedding party. It's so neatly done, and I loved it. Then .. oh, then there is also derryderrydown's Good Country, which is Rosemary Sutcliff, Frontier Wolf, and very gently sinister in the way really good Sutcliff fiction should be. And perfectly written. It ... made me want to write Sutcliff again, not the best idea at the moment.
In addition, before Yuletide,
unovis wrote Sciocchi for me in hlh_shortcuts, which I loved. The words are ... as only she can write, but what really caught me was the tone, which is knowing and amused and utterly, personally appealing. I thought when I read it, with astonishment, this person knows me: but then I was thrown when
unovis also posted Ice Wine, which is the first of the three seasonal recs. This ... ah. It's Highlander as only she can write it, cynical and lovesome.
The two other stories I read and can't forget, this winter, are both different views of war - hence the meta. In hl_shortcuts ishafel (fierce, intelligent, risky writing) wrote Preemptive Strike. I haven't read a story in years that says so much, so hard. And then there was ellen_fremdon's Dorothy L.Sayers / Torchwood crossover for Yuletide, No Man's Land, which was rec'd everywhere and utterly deserved the recognition.
I really wasn't happy with either of the stories I wrote clawing my way up to Christmas - man walks into a bar for fractured_sun (Highlander) and Kimono Dreams for tenar (Ziggy Stardust). My mind was elsewhere, and I should have done better for both of them. But after Christmas ... the apocabigbang story (gen, can't mention fandom) has just gone off to beta, all 19K (since 28th Dec!) words of it, amazing and ... it had to be done because I did sign up for spn_j2_bigbang. Fuck, fuck, fuck, 20K words for May 1st.
- crosspost from DW.
For The Christmas Present. This was my Yuletide story, and it's lovely. It's Georgette Heyer, who is deceptively difficult to write without sentiment, but doctoraicha manged with style. It's These Old Shades, Avon and Leonie after marriage.
But I was awfully embarrassed to also receive two Yuletide madness stories in fandoms I've written, for I've never done the madness thing and doubt I'll ever have time. So I'm really, stupidly gleeful about wasabi_girl1's Shaadi (marriage), Bollywoood RPF, which in very few words links practically everyone I've ever thought about writing through the convention of a wedding party. It's so neatly done, and I loved it. Then .. oh, then there is also derryderrydown's Good Country, which is Rosemary Sutcliff, Frontier Wolf, and very gently sinister in the way really good Sutcliff fiction should be. And perfectly written. It ... made me want to write Sutcliff again, not the best idea at the moment.
In addition, before Yuletide,
unovis wrote Sciocchi for me in hlh_shortcuts, which I loved. The words are ... as only she can write, but what really caught me was the tone, which is knowing and amused and utterly, personally appealing. I thought when I read it, with astonishment, this person knows me: but then I was thrown when
unovis also posted Ice Wine, which is the first of the three seasonal recs. This ... ah. It's Highlander as only she can write it, cynical and lovesome.
The two other stories I read and can't forget, this winter, are both different views of war - hence the meta. In hl_shortcuts ishafel (fierce, intelligent, risky writing) wrote Preemptive Strike. I haven't read a story in years that says so much, so hard. And then there was ellen_fremdon's Dorothy L.Sayers / Torchwood crossover for Yuletide, No Man's Land, which was rec'd everywhere and utterly deserved the recognition.
I really wasn't happy with either of the stories I wrote clawing my way up to Christmas - man walks into a bar for fractured_sun (Highlander) and Kimono Dreams for tenar (Ziggy Stardust). My mind was elsewhere, and I should have done better for both of them. But after Christmas ... the apocabigbang story (gen, can't mention fandom) has just gone off to beta, all 19K (since 28th Dec!) words of it, amazing and ... it had to be done because I did sign up for spn_j2_bigbang. Fuck, fuck, fuck, 20K words for May 1st.
- crosspost from DW.