Only Words

I haven't recced fic in ages, because there was a time when I didn't read a lot of fanifc. I' missed a lot of good stories that way and am only now catching up.
This is an old hat for some of you, I know, but there are other drive-by lj-readers out there, and if only one or two of them catch this fabulous story, then it's worth my while pimping this story.

Title: It Never Happened
Author: Shadowscast
Fandom/Timeline: BtVS - Set during Buffy's death between S5 and S6. Fits very neatly into canon.
Genre: Slash-with-plot; hurt/comfort
Pairing: Giles/Spike; Giles/Ethan as past lovers
Rating: R - Mature
Summary: It's the summer of 2001. Buffy is buried under a stone that says "She saved the world. A lot."
Giles and the others are struggling to figure out how to live in a world without her, and how to continue to protect it. An encounter with a strange demon turns Spike into an ordinary human, which complicates matters. Meanwhile, a curious new camera shop has opened up in Sunnydale...

It Never Happened (LJ version at Summer_of_Giles)
It Never Happened (Archive of our Own)

Why I love this story: It's plotty, with a distinct gen-fic feel in that all the character voices ring true; also I can literally see all the characters; it's like watching an episode of the show - only with genuine slash. The sex scene are well-written but never gratuitous. Giles acts like a grown-up, and the hurt/comfort pushes all my buttons. Even Ethan has a cameo (I truly love his prank) and sounds as though Jane Espenson wrote him. A truly brilliant story!
If you haven't read it, do so now! If you have, well, maybe it's time to read it again.

Another lucky find! I love love love Ethan stories about his time in Initiative custody.
This one is terrific. No surprise there, after all it was written by Indri.
http://www.notanothersite.com/indri/vamerica.html

janedavitt asked for S/X recs. Several people posted links to their favorite S/X stories. These threads are always fun because they remind me of the great stories out there, some of which I read years ago. If you are like me and feel like revisiting some of these stories, or if you're wondering if your links still work, that thread is the place to go.
Of course you can also recommend great S/X fics that you read recently. You can find the thread here.

My printer ran out of ink. Thank god. Otherwise I might have considered producing even more handouts for my students. I think I'm going over the top with my 45 pages in 8 sessions... But now that I can't print anything out I can relax and just scribble a few notes on my post-its.
Ursula K. leGuin's Steering the Craft turned out to be a very interesting read with a handful of very useful exercises. I find her tone condescending, and I would have liked to see more modern examples, but on the whole the book is worth reading. I find 15 bucks a little expensive for such a slim book. I read the University's copy. I may order one for myself eventually, or I may just do the evil thing and photocopy it. If I photocopy, I feel more inclined to mark certain sections...

I watched House 2.09 and Bones 1.02 today. I'm not going to give a lot away, but I guess I better use spoiler cuts anyway. ( Snippety-snip )

Question: Does anyonone on my flist know Jack Bickham's Scene & Structure? Is it any good? The feedback at Amazon is glowing, but not informative. Thanks.
Recommendation: Witing Fiction by Gotham Writer's Workshop , a collection of essays. I am half-way through and find the book very useful. Good essays on Plot and POV, also contains a reprint of the famous short story Cathedral and a very helpful analysis of the story. Nothing mind-blowingly new, but well-phrased stuff. Also gives the reader step-by-step writing assignments.

FANFIC AUTHOR APPRECIATION WEEK

March 6 through March 13

Post to your LJ each day at least one of your favorite fanfic authors and why you love them, their work, and why they need more appreciation.

Previous posts: Day #1, Day #2, Day #3

I didn't get round to writing recs for two days in a row, so this post is somewhat longish. Several people seem to have lost steam, or they reconsidered the whole thing, thinking that memes like this are too painful for the authors who fly under the radar and don't get mentioned. I can only say that I always appreciate rec days and memes. Of course I hope that someone will mention my fic and I squee like mad when it happens, but I am just as interested in who recs whom. I am lazy, but if an author gets mentioned often enough I may check out her stuff even if she/he writes pairings other than the ones I favor. As for the pain of not being mentioned: it happens. It's the same with awards. I don't get nominated a lot and sometimes that hurts, but I try to suck it up. (Although nobody who knows me well will ever accuse me of being really good at sucking things up.)

Anyway, I'm putting my recs behind a cut this time. Post #4 covers Spuffy authors, Post #5 covers S/X authors. Post #6 I'll have to postpone till later today. It will be a self-centered love fest in which I simply list a few stories written for me, because hey, I appreciate that the authors spent their time writing something for me me me!

( Post #4 - Spuffy het )

( Post #5 - S/X authors )

PS: I've probably forgot to mention several authors. No offence intended. My memory is a very scary, untidy place, that's all. :-)

FANFIC AUTHOR APPRECIATION WEEK

March 6 through March 13

Post to your LJ each day at least one of your favorite fanfic authors and why you love them, their work, and why they need more appreciation.

Previous posts: Day #1, Day #2

Apparently it's also Super!sekrit!Fandom Shame Day today, thanks to kita0610, so I'll grab the opportunity to rec and appreciate two authors who have lured me out of my comfort zone. I will rec someone who made me read *gap* RPS. (I am not dissing other people's pleasure here, it was just my no-go zone, that's all) Okay, so the story I am about to rec is more of a human AU than a Real Person Slash, but the characters bear the name of the actors who represent them, and normally that makes my hair stand on end. Anyway, I'm talking about travellingblind by sangpassionne and evilmaniclaugh. I very much appreciate the visual pleasure of James Marsters and Adam Baldwin in one story and I shall blissfully ignore the fact that their real names are used. I like the story, so there. And while I'm at it: sangpassionne deserves extra appreciation because she wrote the most wonderful Spike/Angel AU for me, a layered and plotty Wild West AU that is just totally wonderful: In the Rough. And this rec really has nothing to do with the fact that Josey is a fantastic friend, a treasured beta, and a wonderful person to chat with. If you think I only name her because we're chums, think again and try reading her drabble set Hellbound or her awesome story Follow me Down. Come on, I dare you.

My second rec for today goes to another collaborative team: itsabigrock aaaaand again sangpassionne. And there's no super!sekrit!shame in it. I am recommending Proof and all the other stories in their Coming to Conclusions S/A series. Both are of course fabulous writers in their own right, not just when they collaborate (although I have to admit that I'm a bad friend and haven't gotten around to reading all their earlier works). itsabigrock aka Tania has written lovely stories like Pinch Me (S/A) and Depressed There. I usually read her stories in her LJ, so I was a bit overwhelmed when I visited her archive and saw just how much she's written. *makes mental note to read more fanfic*

And since I'm talking about able collaborators: My final rec for today goes to ladycat777 who I had the pleasure to collaborate with on the 2003 Christmas series Who's Afraid or Red, White, Green and a S/X story called Checkmate. She greatly influenced my own S/X stories. I particularly love her Shadowverse stories and the Spike-turns-into-a-girl series One, Two, Three, Soul, and the hottest S/X smut ever Shush. Some of Ladycat's stories don't exactly hit my kink, but that's my loss. Not many people have her skill at slo-mo physical description. You practically see the characters move. There's something very Ridley Scott about the way she writes. She's also a great friend!

Okay, I recced ensemble fic writers, collaborators, and slashers, guess it's time to rec a few het authors tomorrow. :-)

FANFIC AUTHOR'S APPRECIATION DAY

March 6 through March 13

Post to your LJ each day at least one of your favorite fanfic authors and why you love them, their work, and why they need more appreciation.

I thought long and hard about who to name and decided to name several - and to focus on authors who do ensemble stories.

Let me start with mikelesq. Not many people will have read his stories because he focuses on stories that fill in gaps in canon. He is well-versed in canon, great at plotting, and gives excellent dialogue, but he does not write shipper fics. You can expect friendship but not romance when you read his stuff. He also writes lesser characters with aplomb. His fics are smart and funny. My favorites are: The Teaser Pony (Firefly), Half A League Onward (Xander, Halfrek, basement!Spike), and The Long Walk Home (Clem, Spike, Sophie).

Another author I have been openly admiring for a long time is lordshiva, aka Kalima. Because she is not the fastest writer of the herd it's possible she is under the radar for some people. If you haven't read her stories, you should give them a try. I particularly love Nicolette Says Jump (Spike/Xander/OC) and Thick as Thieves (Spike & Dawn), but I adore Daemons Luminati (Spike/Buffy)

Okay, one more author before it's midnight and Sunday is officially over. I would also like to name inlovewithnight. She is something of a recent acquisition. She started out writing relatively short BtVS and AtS ficlets and drabbles, but recently she's written a nice plotty Firefly fic called Homestead, which I've previously recommended. I like how versatile she is. I always admire authors who pull off gen fics with a large cast, because, believe me, I know how hard they are.

Right, tomorrow I shall try to recommend a few slash authors.

redbrickrose wrote in ats_endofdays: 2.15 Reprise - The Signs That we Missed - an amazing, enlightening patchwork tapestry of past, present, and future, exploring fate, destiny, and free will in the context of that episode, embedding it in the greater context of the whole five seasons. Excellent hybrid between essay, prose poem, and episode analysis. IMHO the opening paragraph is a bit heavy if you walk in unprepared, but the 'fic' soon gains impetus and becomes more tangible. Go read, shoo shoo!

pinkdormouse wrote a lovely set of 10 drabbles called Not Quite the Emerald City. It is an Ethan/Lorne story (yup, the pairing works), slashy but not too explicit, and somehow it tugged at my heart-strings. She posted it to rayne_n_chaos, the exact post can be found here. Yeah, I know, it's an odd pairing but the story is enticing, in places witty, and very wistful. At only 1000 words it's definitely worth your time.