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Author recs
by Cindershadow
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You are reading: Author recs |
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Cindershadow was a wonderful woman... one who we lost too soon. She had a joy for life and reading and teaching, and she could make a writer feel like a Pulitzer Prize winner while still making comments that would help a writer improve. I miss her. It breaks my heart to think that one day her wonderful birthday wishes to her favorite authors might disappear, so I'm archiving them here. I only wish she were around to either give me permission or tell me to leave her words alone. |
In reverse order, birthday wishes for...
Well, it’s been one of those weeks where I’ve come home from work with just enough energy to read fiction but not enough coherence to write about it, so, while I had hopes that at least one of the week’s birthday greetings would be on time, it was not to happen. However—the three-day weekend begins! So, after a decent night’s sleep and no 5:30 AM alarm, I think I can now actually try to do justice to yesterday’s birthday person, zandra_x.
In the interests of full disclosure, I need to say up front that I have the privilege of being a beta for zandra_x for some of her longer works. What is meant by that is that I offer her some of my limitless supply of commas and catch the extremely rare typo. I don’t have anything to do with the actual creation of her clever, insightful stories, but I do get to see them before most other folks and to offer early praise for them. So thanks, zandra_x, for the honor of enjoying these “sneak previews”! And, yes, this position is indeed evidence of some bias on my part; after spending my workweek reading far too much mediocre writing, I’d only (selfishly) volunteer for such a position because I know that I'm going to get to enjoy quality writing—it is always such a great treat to see her address pop up on my email.
Today, we return to the Whedonverse. First, let me say that zandra_x is a multi-talented individual. I’ll talk about her longer fiction in a minute, but she is also a prolific icon-maker and a crafter of delightfully crisp and effective drabbles. I don’t have much visual arts talent myself, but for anyone who is thinking of exploring icon-making, she’s got a number of informative items under “how to” in her Memories about that, here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=zandra_x&keyword=how-to&filter=all . And for the rest of us . . . they are just plain enjoyable to peek at.
But, much I always enjoy looking at her icons, I’m a words-person myself, so it’s the word-pictures she creates through her drabbles which truly fascinate me. You can find these in her Memories under “Drabble,” “Misc Drabble,” and “Summer of Spike” (did I miss any?). To my mind, writing a drabble requires some of the same gifts as writing poetry: the ability to pick the precise moment, often apparently random or meaningless, and then to distill the exactly right words to capture what is truly significant about it. Her collection of drabbles do this very well. They capture little scenes around the edges of what was on the screen or fill in background that was hinted about or which suddenly adds another layer to something we saw. She’s featured most of the characters at one point or another, but I particularly enjoy the way that she has fleshed out characters like Justine and Ethan, who have so much promise but got so little air time. She also has a real talent for the elliptical view—showing us a familiar character from an unfamiliar POV, or leaving us uncertain until the final line as to who the subject might be. This is never gimmicky; it’s always intriguing and effective. Usually I try to provide a link to a sample work as a point of entry, but—having reread them all from most recent back—I can’t choose just one out of these wonderful bits of the larger mosaic. However, I heartily recommend that exercise, done all at once or doled out like pieces of dark chocolate, one at a time; here’s the page where the greatest concentration is to be found, for bookmarking if you decide to treat yourself to them slowly: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=zandra_x&keyword=Drabble&filter=all . But don’t miss those at the other locations I’ve noted!
And then there is her longer fiction. These can be found in her Memories under “my stories,” here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=zandra_x&keyword=my+stories&filter=all . It’s even harder to pick one of these to recommend first, especially since I feel a completely unwarranted proprietary affection for all of them. You can read these in any order, and they are each a good length for single-sitting reads. That said . . .
A good possible starting point might be the short pieces she wrote as a “Happy Birthday” to Anthony Stewart Head, particularly the two involving cigars. You’ll get a good sense of her humor and her writing style, as well as her insight into character.
“Roman Diversions” is a delightful tale of Dawn in Rome meeting up with that ever-creative Ethan. I enjoy the fact that her Ethan is most definitely the Trickster—very much like Coyote in Native American tales. He interferes with best-laid plans and introduces a note of uncertainty; sometimes the results are benign, sometimes not, but he’s both cause and explanation of the parts of life we can’t always control. You can’t put Coyote—or Ethan—into a neat little box, and that’s what I love about her complex depiction of him. Plus, she understands his charm (and he wouldn’t be nearly so successful in creating Chaos without it).
“California Dreaming” is a lovely slice-of-life featuring Cordelia and Doyle on the Day That Angel Undid. The what-might-have been here is realistic and just poignant enough. The character voices, as usual, are excellent.
“When Ethan Met Tucker” uses a chance encounter to contrast with unobtrusive cleverness the speaking styles and thought processes of these two and to offer insights into growing up and growing old(er); as usual, she’s managed to link it logically into the larger storyline while developing something uniquely her own.
“Sadder and Wiser Girls” features an encounter between Anya and Illyria, which might just be the start of a beautiful—or at least mutually advantageous—friendship. This story demonstrates some of my favorite things about zandra_x’s style: dry, wry, often deadpan, with voices that work just right, and with the emotion going on off-stage, in the reader’s mind. What I mean by that is that she never over-writes; her style can be deceptively distanced, but one can’t help filling in what isn’t being said. This takes real talent.
Another story which has this impact is “Before,” describing Giles’ visit home for his mother’s funeral. It would be terribly easy to overdo the backstory and hand-wringing here; instead, in perfect Giles-voice (internal and external), she sketches out a rich emotional background and leads us to imagine the rest.
“Five Movies Faith Never Saw” uses this familiar format to provide thoughtful insights into Faith’s relationships with others in her life, with tantalizing glimpses of what might have been, had just a few things gone differently.
The Ethan short piece for Theatrical Muse is yet another perfectly envisioned little outtake; Ethan on the road having a cuppa, from the waitress’s perspective. A fine vignette, and excellent development of a non-series character. (She excels at “show, don’t tell,” and we see that here.)
I wouldn’t say that “Mr. Gordo’s Story” is entirely typical of her work, but I will say that it is a relief to have a story told from the perspective of a stuffed animal which actually has an internal logic and a distinctive and non-Disneyish voice!
One of the unexpected benefits of doing these birthday tributes is that I sometimes encounter a story I’ve missed, an addition to a journal I haven’t noticed, or something else I’ve overlooked. Since I’ve just been having her (main) LJ pop up on my Friends page, I’d been keeping up pretty well on icons, drabbles, and current fiction. But when I actually visited her site, I found some interesting links over to the right, and they hook one into some additional LJs, set up specifically for fiction dealing with particular characters. I’m going to be keeping my eye on them from now on, too, just to be sure I don’t miss anything! Again, what is so engaging here: her insight into character and her accurate, distinctive voices. Here are the sites:
http://giles-watching.livejournal.com/
I adore her Giles; she captures his complexities and his tone, his ability to see himself clearly and also those persistent blind spots of his.
http://belovedchaos.livejournal.com/
I don’t know if anyone else could have made me so fond of Ethan, Puritan that I am. Perhaps it’s his honesty about himself—and perhaps it’s a sneaking little desire to toss aside order and responsibility, lurking in each of our inner-Giles.
http://itsallfiction.livejournal.com/profile
Justine Cooper was well if briefly played on “Angel”—so much anger, so much strength. I really appreciate the way these short pieces bring us into her world, since we saw her mainly from the outside on the series.
I think you’ll appreciate and enjoy zandra_x’s many talents as much as I do. When I think of her work, I always think of champagne: dry, light, but with more of an impact than you initially notice. It’s been, as ever, delightful to read her work this past week, and to discover yet more that I hadn’t realized was out there was definitely a gift to me! So happy (belated) birthday and many, many thanks,zandra_x!
Saturday, April 8, was the birthday of a truly fine Sentinel slash author, mab_browne. When it became evident to me that I wasn’t willing to dash off a simple “she’s wonderful!” based on my overall feeling about her work, I gave myself the mandate of rereading her stories, knowing I had a deliriously fine weekend of reading ahead of me. What became clear immediately is that she’s one of those writers who is even better than you remember her being (and in memory she was already superb). So, really, the best use of your time (while I fumble on here, trying to use words—her tools, not so much mine!—to describe her artistry) is to go directly to http://www.852prospect.org/archive
, look under “Mab”, and just start reading. In case you follow that excellent advice, but are looking for tips, you might start with the brief, beautiful mood piece “A Little Winter Sunlight.” This apparently simple little scene displays many of her strengths: a clear sense of both characters, incisively expressed through dialogue and action; a narrative voice which is distinctive but never intrusive; a visual sense which is particularly suited to this fandom but would be a blessing in any setting; a confident mastery of a range of emotions, realistically and unsentimentally yet warmly portrayed. That none of this will be immediately obvious to the casual reader is all part of the artistry.
At this point, the wise reader will go directly to her major trilogy, described below, but if you need more reason to be convinced that this investment of time will be rewarded, try “Burning Clean,” a post-TSbBS stakeout discussion which perfectly captures the dynamic between Jim and Blair and the different approaches they have taken to this major crisis in their lives. “Private Universe: Shelter” is an excellent demonstration of love, through the vehicle of sex, providing healing. Another wonderful shorter work is “Pictures of Sandburg,” wherein Jim is reluctant to recognize his growing fascination with and attraction to Blair as their relationship progresses. I very much like “The Things You Like,” which is unobtrusively clever in its approach to how one’s quirks help define and endear one to that certain someone. “Far-Sighted” is the most mystical of her stories to date, but is still grounded in the realism I like so much in her work. “Vino and Veritas” uses mostly dialogue to lift a convention to the level of character study. “James and the Cold Gun” involves character death, which I know some don’t care for; I found it evocative and moving. “Worldly Goods” is another look at the aftermath of final loss. “Eight Sentinel Drabbles” provide an interesting variety of moods and topics, and the drabble form always intrigues me. “So Many Colours” is set pre-series and is another effective character piece, but this time it’s an outsider’s view of Ellison. A somewhat longer work, “Strewn Towards a Heaven” is an AU set in the previous century, which does a honest job of examining some of the challenges these characters would find in that setting while telling a moving tale.
Her tour de force, not to be missed, is the trilogy which begins with “Cloudbusting” and continues with “Crossing the Line” before concluding with “Coastal Shelf.” The only word for this work is brilliant. If this were the quality of work being published as The Modern Novel, I’d be buying more books. Unfortunately, the kinds of things I want to say in praise of it might make it seem like the sort of book you should read but won’t enjoy, and nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps knowing that I’ve read it at least five times now, start to finish, and that each time I get to the final page I want to start re-reading immediately will carry some weight. This is a story about real people, who are often imperfect, who make mistakes, who grapple with both cosmic and petty issues, not always with grace or understanding, but always displaying a fundamental decency. It is a story about love of many kinds (passionate, idealistic, sexual, familial, parental) which is always very real and moving, and always honestly complex. It is beautifully written, by which I mean the impact is equally powerful each time I read a scene, and I am never distracted by the author’s voice or presence. Although sad and difficult things happen, it never leads me to despair; instead, it affirms the best of the human spirit (without being self-consciously inspirational). See what I mean? I can’t describe it without making it seem less excellent than it is. Go—read. You’ll see why I love it so very much.
And then for something very different and yet equally in character: “Cards on the Table.” Most writers who try to emulate Georgette Heyer, the famed author of Regency tales, end up with simpering romances rather than rousing, touching character studies of the kind Heyer created. She’d appreciate this tribute, I suspect (assuming she could accept a slash version of the genre, of course . . . ). As usual with mab_browne’s writing, it was the emotional depth of the story, developed through fine characterization and effective use of plot, which hooked me here. That said, it’s fascinating to realize how authentic this Jim and Blair are; she uses the psychological truths of the characters to make that connection, as well as a deft twist on dialogue which somehow captures the rhythms of each man’s speech without falling back on the conventions of modern slang (which is always the easiest way to create “Blair-ness”). I find the depiction of Jim’s senses and how they shape his reactions to both his physical and emotional reality particularly effective here, and the writing is crisp, clear, and lovely; it’s another story I revisit often.
And, believe it or not, she can make me believe Jim as a vampire. I have to admit that I thought this would be somewhat gimmicky and perhaps mildly amusing, only to find it poignant and real. As is ever the case with her work, it is the shifting, ever-rebalancing relationship between these men which is the real focus, expressed through the vehicle of the plot. How does Jim cope with yet another way he's not so normal? How does Blair? Read them in this order: “Passing It On,” “I Married A Vampire,” “Home Late,” and “A Day Must Come.”
Her more unusual pieces are well worth reading, but I’d save them for later, or you won’t have the same sense of her talents. “Tamlin,” “Living in the Gap,” and “Shades of Grey and Blue” place her solidly realized characters in worlds more than a few degrees off traditional reality, to good effect. “Performance Art” is, as usual, effectively written, but just a bit further out than I’m entirely comfortable with in terms of kink; suit yourself. It is an intriguing experiment, however!
And, as I post this, she’s in the process of writing yet another—I guess it’s clear that I can hardly wait. So, happy belated birthday, mab_browne! Somehow, I don’t think I’ll find it difficult to make an excuse to revisit these beautiful, powerful stories again sometime soon. Thanks so much!
Well, age must be getting to me, because I’m sure not bouncing back from end-of-quarter grading and report-writing as quickly as I used to! So I offer many, many apologies to entrenous88 for being even more belated with her tribute than I’d told her I would be. That said—getting to delve into her stories has done quite a lot to restore my sense of humor, which I badly needed at this point. And, as I suspected, I’d managed to miss out on some rewarding reading, since I only friended her LJ fairly recently despite having enjoyed examples of her work in other venues over the past few months, so I’m glad I gave myself an extension. Thus, while her birthday was this past Monday, April 3, I’ve been having myself an entire entrenous88 week! Since I started with the Spander (yes, I also tunnel into the Haagen-Das to eat all the Vanilla Swiss Almonds first—you are surprised?), these will dominate my recs; there are obviously many, many more stories with other pairings that I’m going to get to explore later on.
What makes it so refreshing to read her work and why is it a pleasure to recommend it to others? entrenous88 shows her talent in two moods in particular, both done with a deft and delicate touch. She has a gift for light humor and banter, and there can never be enough of that. She also can go tender and poignant. The very first story I read by her, which (after rereading twice) I immediately saved, is “For the Count”, found in her Memories, here: http://entrenous88.livejournal.com/161503.html . (I learned about this story via a rec, so it pleases me to be passing that good deed on.) She gets the ache-iness exactly right here . . . and after you have savored it emotionally, enjoy it intellectually by reading through the comments by nwhepcat and others to gain insights into how effectively and cleverly it was constructed. Another story where she shows she can do emotional pain really, really well without descending into despair is “The Reason,” at http://community.livejournal.com/summer_of_spike/147233.html . In her other, much lighter, fluffier, funnier mood, she’s given us “A Few Changes Here and There,” where Xander is bemused as Spike begins nesting in a rather energetic way; find it here: http://entrenous88.livejournal.com/179447.html . There is a sweet and cozy sequel, “A Day at Home,” at http://entrenous88.livejournal.com/209558.html . I’d be a happy person if I could put my name as author to any of these four stories, much less all of them! New to me this week were “Waste of Breath” and its sequel “Goodnight Kiss”—I found these angsty and troubling and sexy and good. I know many folks don’t like WIPs, but you still might want to amuse yourself with the three parts currently completed of the adorable “Cuddly Predators,” wherein Xander finds himself unexpectedly with a kitten and is surprised to find that Spike’s knowledge of felines is not limited to poker. She also has posted seven of a promised nine parts of “Temporary,” written for fall_for_sx. Where it pauses is good; you won’t feel unbearably frustrated. This story offers a twist on Spike recorporealizing out of the amulet, with Xander in reluctant (and always appealing) caretaker mode. All of these pieces are Spander, and they are under the Spike/Xander section of the “Memories.” I haven’t yet had the chance to check out all the other pairings she’s got listed; go for your own favorites!
One of the many interesting things about going back and reading through an author’s work which has been written over a spread of years is that you can see changes in interests, in style, in subject, and in skill—and you can also start to identify key characteristics which shine through all those changes. I have to say that I think entrenous88 is a writer who just keeps getting better. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have favorites among her earlier stories, found on her website, “Just Between Us,” at http://www.geocities.com/entrenous88/,because I most certainly do! When you go there, check both “fiction” by title (both pages) and “updates.” Here's just a short list:
“A House, A Home.” Although there’s a logic to Xander/Andrew, it normally doesn’t do it for me. But this is a charming little relationship moment—fun.
“Favorite Things.” Lindsey plays mindgames on Angel.
“Shacking Up.” This longer series is a humorous, endearing tale of Spike and Xander as unselfconscious roommates who start thinking differently about each other after well-meaning friends start to meddle with their living situation.
“Expecting.” Okay, yes, MPREG—but fun banter, and no bad guys among the Scoobies.
“Something Blue, Something Slashy.” This verges on parody and should be read with tongue firmly in cheek. (Hey, demon wedding chapel in Vegas—what can I say?)
“Ministrations.” This is really, truly wonderfully bad badfic, and it is also a crossover with “The Sentinel.” You’ll either find it a wicked delight or just plain mean. Cliches abound!
While she’s consistently a slash writer, there are many different pairings on the website. She appears to be focusing on Spander in her more recent work, but that could be a mistaken impression on my part. The bulk of her works start with canon (i.e., are set in the Sunnydale or L.A. of the shows, but of course are not-so-canon in being slash). She’s also written what I truly consider AU: with the characters as human rather than vampire, and/or with the settings not being consistent with the series. I have to admit that I’ve enjoyed reading her canon stories so much that I haven’t yet gotten to, and thus can’t comment on, the others. She’s clear about labeling stories by pairing and by rating, and she gives accurate warnings; lengths are listed, but you’ll know you have encountered a longer story when there are multiple chapters listed on the story’s title page, and the majority are shorter works. Do try reading something that’s unusual for you, either here or in her “Memories” or by browsing back through her LJ; that’s how I found the delightful piece “The Hidden Significance Of Stake Whittling” (http://entrenous88.livejournal.com/354796.html#cutid1 ), which left me warm and smiling, despite the fact that Giles/Xander doesn’t normally grab me. Wonderful Xanderbabble and a sweetly scheming Andrew—just plain fun.
So now you know why I kept delaying wishing her a happy birthday: I kept finding more enjoyable fiction to take up my time. Thanks for lots of much-needed stress relief this week and the promise more fine reading to come. Happy very belated birthday, entrenous88. I wish you lots and lots of pie!
First, don’t be misled: today’s birthday person, wesleysgirl, does indeed write extensively in the Jossverse, but (1) she also has a great recs list (http://home.comcast.net/~wesleysgirl/r
ecs.html ) which includes many fine TS and SGA entries, among other fandoms, and (2) she isn’t just “Wesley’s girl,” since I originally fell in love with her writing over at AllAboutSpike (http://www.allaboutspike.com/auth.html?au=252 ), and her own webpage (http://home.comcast.net/~wesleysgirl/fanfiction.html ) includes a number of pairings, not all with Wesley, and not all (though mostly) slash. She is also writing, as well as recommending, in SGA. She is clearly an avid reader and a prolific writer, and I’m indebted to her for both reasons. This year, she’s been one of the big forces turning me on to Stargate Atlantis through her excellent story recommendations as well as her own fine stories, and last year, the series “Saturation” and “Pervasion” that she wrote along with Jane Davitt gave me something hot, involving, and moving to look forward to after work, helping to get me through some tiring and irritating days. The women active in the early labor movement used to proclaim, “Give us bread and roses!” because they knew that the spirit needs sustenance as much as does the body . . . and fiction provides the roses in my life. Plus, I really love reading about food in her LJ—I have yet to try any of the recipes, but I’ve mentally savored all of them. So she's got both parts covered! It’s a good idea to friend her to keep up with the imaginary noshing, not to mention to have the great pleasure of reading her stories as they are being written—recent examples: “Deciphering Fire” and “No Going Home.”
Where to start? Well, she has very helpfully divided up her fiction into categories by length and has then supplied ratings and pairings information, so I’d say you are safe to go with your own instincts. That said, here are just a very few of my many sentimental and critical favorites among her works:
“Seeing Distant Things As If They Were Close.” I believe that this was the first story I read by her; I know it’s one I’ve reread often. It’s Spander, ultimately, but what it is, best and most of all, is a wonderful set of character studies, of Xander and of Spike, but also, in a way, of Buffy, in the time following the loss of Xander’s eye. I find the writing very evocative, the voices pitch-perfect, and the moods and tones as finely done as a water-color. I recommend this story very highly.
“Least Obeisance.” This is another intriguing character study, in this case a very short slice-of-life encounter between Cordelia and Spike just after he’s lost the Gem of Amarra to Angel. Again, spot-on voice and characterization and effective mood--just astringent enough, with both characters at their sharpest, but never one-note.
“Ne M’oubliez pas.” This short G/W amnesia-fic really touched me, because it goes right to the heart of that difficult question: what makes one person love another, and how fragile and unlikely is that condition?
“Coming Around Again” series. This was written with Secondverse as a series of LJ tags at Christmastime; it’s heavy on the hurt/comfort and the schmoop (assuming I’m using those terms correctly!)—so if that’s what you are in the mood for, this is your dish. It made a great holiday gift, and I'm saving it up for next year, too.
“Saturation” series. Written with Jane Davitt. I’m not always comfortable with G/X, and I’m not a threesomes person, being intensely monogamous even in my fantasy life. But they did a fine, insightful job of looking at the complexities (emotional, even more than sexual) of integrating a third, wounded person (in this case, a shanshued Spike) into an already established paired relationship which is loving but complex. I found this series involving and intriguing.
“Act of Nature.” With Jane Davitt. Although this is G/X, not my favorite pairing, I found the setting beautiful and evocative and the premises of the story interesting. And it’s particularly worthy of mention because it gave rise to a novel, using the main OC, which is described here: http://wesleysgirl.livejournal.com/533574.html . I love that this can happen!
Of course, you could always start with her own selection of her shorter works; she picked what she felt was a good variety and asked her readers which might be best for the WriterCon archive. That list can be found here: http://wesleysgirl.livejournal.com/532829.html .
At the moment, her non-BtVS/AtS fic doesn’t appear to be up at her website (the location of all of the above), but can be found via the links on the right side of her LJ . . . or here:
SGA:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=wesleysgirl&keyword=Atlantis+Fic&filter=all My favorites so far: the thoughtful character study “The Way Oceans Do Not Sleep” and the powerful, painful “Two Left.”
Firefly:
http://wesleysgirl.livejournal.com/tag/firefly+fic
Supernatural:
http://wesleysgirl.livejournal.com/tag/spn+fic
(Boy, that tagging is neat!)
Thanks so much for many hours of reading pleasure, WG, both in fiction and in food! I hope your birthday has been a good one.
Well, I hope that Kimberly has been enjoying her birthday today, because I most certainly have! I’ve been hungering to re-read “Late Night Double Feature,” which I seem to do every month or so, but I made myself wait so that I could enjoy all her stories at once on this occasion. So I’ve had a wonderful overcast day of sitting inside with warm cat on lap, indulging myself in the work of a fantastic writer. As usual, they were even better than I had remembered, a characteristic common to all the stories I find myself returning to again and again. (I read once for plot, preferably accompanied by fine characterization; when I hunger to revisit a piece repeatedly, it must also evoke strong emotions and delight me with the just-exactly-right quality of the writing.) Anyone who’s heard enough and wants to get right to the reading, you’ll find her excellent Spander located at her website, http://www.nothinglikethesun.com/SX/
. I decided to relive my introduction to her writing by pursuing the stories in the order I originally read them (which is not, I believe, the order in which they were written). I think it is also a good choice for new readers. Begin with “Beholder” because it’s a shorter piece (my usual practice when encountering a new writer—I find it hard to leave a story unfinished, but I’m reluctant to commit lots of time to an unknown quantity), because it keeps the story in settings less likely to unsettle the reader, and because it emphasizes emotions like trust, friendship, and love. These are of course the lesser considerations; the important reasons I repeatedly reread it are because every word counts and it puts me right inside a Xander I care about. This is post-Chosen, post-Africa Xander, and it is thoughtful and moving.
You might go to “Closeted” next. It’s an amnesia-fic which provides more Spike POV than her other stories and has its fair share of hurt and comfort. Here, as in all her stories, her Xander-speak is delightful, and of course it’s always interesting to speculate on who one might be without all those memories shaping our actions and responses. Or, if you are already hooked (as I was after that first taste of “Beholder”), jump right into my most-favorites of these favorites, “It’s Just a Jump to the Left” and its sequel, “Late Night Double Feature.” Even after multiple rereadings, I get such a strong emotional surge out of these stories that it always threatens to eclipse the great pleasure I get in examining the cleverness of the structure and the effectiveness of the writing. She just builds these stories so darn well! My advice: sit back and let her work the magic, then on subsequent rereadings you can try to figure out how she’s done it all so well. These stories are all more sexually explicit than “Beholder,” but always in a way which illuminates character.
Her most recent Spander, the post-NFA “Through the Looking Glass,” was the first I got to watch unfold on LJ. Much as I enjoyed the anticipation I felt with the appearance of each new chapter, it was a delight to read it straight through today, and it worked quite well for me. Her Xander is never perfect, and since it’s Xander’s humanity which is his salient characteristic—his own version of a superpower, complete with Kryptonite factor—I always appreciate authors who can show his flaws and make them such a part of who he is that I’m not loving him despite them or for them, but simply with them. She also does a fine job of merging both ends of the Spike spectrum; it’s an understandable temptation for authors to stick with sexy, snarky, smooth Spike or with tortured, broody, sensitive Spike, but her Spike combines all those qualities in a way which actually makes sense.
I should also add that these final two stories contain very short sections with settings which may discomfit some readers (a club featuring unconventional sex acts, a San Francisco peep show). When I first encountered those brief scenes, I seem to remember feeling a trace anxious but trusting . . . and the trust was certainly borne out. These are, in fact, stories about love in which sexual behavior is a form of communication and miscommunication. That it is also very effectively portrayed is a plus, obviously—but the sexuality is there to advance the story, not merely to titillate or shock. And that is very much the way I prefer it! While the other stories are on her website, “Through the Looking Glass” is currently found in her writing LJ, beginning here: http://community.livejournal.com/kimberly_fan/32265.html#cutid1 . If you’d like a quick plot summary to help you choose what to read first, she’s obligingly provided one (though, characteristically, far too self-effacing) in her LJ here: http://community.livejournal.com/kimberly_fan/41658.html .
If you’d like to be on hand for any new stories, you can friend the community she’s set up for her fiction: kimberly_fan. She also has a private, flocked journal which is mentioned on the userinfo page, here: http://community.livejournal.com/kimberly_fan/profile . And she’s provided a great list of Spander recs in her Memories and (longer version, with descriptions) on her website, here: http://www.nothinglikethesun.com/SX/recs.shtml . I can attest that the ones I’m familiar with are described quite accurately, and I look forward to reading my way through the rest.
Sorry to be so late with your birthday tribute, Kimberly—and it seems rather unfair to blame it on you, just because your stories are so absorbing that I couldn’t merely skim them (and certainly didn’t want to short-change myself or them in that way!). Anyway, thanks again for hours of pleasure, on so many levels. (I love the fact that I feel like I’m the one who is getting a present with each of these birthdays—stories, the gift that keeps on giving!)
This was another unexpected birthday; I just saw a short while ago in cesperanza’s LJ that yesterday was her special day. Fortunately, I just happened to be re-reading a number of her Sentinel stories recently, as somehow manages to happen quite frequently. And she has just recently posted a couple of wonderful new SGA McShep pieces, so I feel almost ready to say something useful about her writing . . .
Let me start by noting that, in the world of The Sentinel, she is known as Francesca. For old hands, that’s no doubt sufficient. Newer fans, as I learned, have an amazing treat in store when they first encounter her work. You can find her stories (all most definitely slash) involving Jim and Blair here: http://www.trickster.org/francesca/, which is a subset of her larger website, http://trickster.org/speranza/, where there are sections for The Dead Zone, The West Wing, and Stargate Atlantis, as well as other goodies.
Some TS authors are intriguing because they have provide a very consistent characterization of Jim and Blair, and the fascination comes from the placement of those stable characters in different circumstances facing different options. Francesca, like many TS authors, presents a number of “first time” stories, but in these she explores the interactions of a number of different Jims and Blairs, all plausible, but each bringing new perspectives and distinctive reactions which shape the situations in unique ways. All satisfying, all different: try “No Lothario,” “Nothing On,” “The Object of My Erections,” “Armchair,” “Legacy,” “Mia,” “Cheap,” “The Night Sandburg Graduated From the Academy,” “The Thought that Counts”—oh, try any of them! (For example, in one story Blair might be comfortably gay or bisexual, whereas in another he might be completely in denial or straight. Some Jims are reluctantly drawn to Blair; others know what they want but just aren’t sure it’s safe/wise/practical to reach for it. Warning: "The Fire" might disturb some readers because of age-of-character issues.) Then, if you are game for five fascinating character studies which she developed around the theme of voyeurism, try the “In the Eye of the Beholder” set. It’s not surprising that she won a number of awards in the early years of TS fandom, including, appropriately, one for “Best Use of a Sex Scene for Character Development.” If you want to settle down for a novel-length experience, check out the “Nature” series; I hunted her down online after reading eliade’s high praise of this in her set of TS recs which started me off in this fandom. After a wonderful, painful opening, these chapters develop a solid relationship between two strong, complementary individuals. She’s a wonderful, sensual, talented writer whose craft is so well-honed that it isn’t even noticeable—only the impact is. No wonder she has such a solid reputation—I know I re-read her work often.
cesperanza is yet another in the group of TS and BtVS writers who have sucked me into this new universe of Stargate Atlantis. If you don’t want to start with her two most recent longer works, “MVP” or “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead,” you can begin with the shorter “Rodney’s Last Message” to get a feel for her work in this new fandom. I enjoyed all of these; I will admit that the “Haldoria” fantasy is the least satisfying to me, so I wouldn’t recommend starting with that one, though you might find it fun. Again, she demonstrates her skill as a stylist, a master of dialogue, and a writer of steamy, relationship-building sex. Who could ask for more!
I have to admit that I haven’t yet had a chance to delve into her writing in other fandoms, but I’m looking forward to it; sort of like having a stash of goodies waiting for that moment when you need something you know will be wonderful. The “Due South” stories alone should keep one busy for weeks.
So I’d strongly urge newcomers to Sentinel fandom to discover this early TS writer; you won’t be disappointed. (But you might find yourself suddenly reading about Rodney McKay and John Sheppard on Atlantis without being exactly sure how you left Cascade . . . )
It’s so strange to remember that I didn’t even know Linda existed before last July. Such are the wonders of LiveJournal and email—I now think of her as a trusted friend whom I hope to come to know even better over time. (Since I’m not nearly as open or giving as she is, either on or off LJ, this may come as a shock to her, but I hope not an unpleasant one!) She shares herself so generously and so honestly in all areas of her life that it’s just impossible not to feel drawn to her. Because I was raised in something like the Jim Ellison school of emotions (i.e., Let’s Not Talk About Feelings, Just Get the Job Done), I’m going to do what comes naturally and analyze all the concrete, specific ways that starwatcher307 is a delightful human being. So, here goes . . .
Why StarWatcher is one of the nicest, most helpful people I’ve ever met, online or off:
As of a year ago, I still wasn’t doing much commenting or writing of thank-you notes to authors; it seemed too pushy and fawning, somehow. But after coming upon her stories via one of the LJ TS communities, I was directed to Cascade Library and found others, all of which I greatly enjoyed. And at the end of “Spreading the Word” (wherein Blair develops a short-cut guide to Microsoft Word for the folks at Major Crimes), she actually invited us to email her for a copy of the guide . . . since Blair’s creation was actually her own. So I leaped in and wrote her a fanletter along with that request. In return: Riches! She immediately emailed me the guidebook (which I recommend heartily to others, and which she’s still offering). It’s a great tip sheet, so if you are merely coasting along the top of Word but suspect there’s much more you could get out of it, I advise you to ask her for a copy.
But that wasn’t all. She also answered my request for names of additional TS authors with a fantastic and long list that I’m still, several months later, wandering through in a sort of dazed delight. You can find a slightly longer version of it in the comments here, along with recs by other TS writers and readers: http://caarianna.livejournal.com/713.html . And she responded so warmly, graciously, and enthusiastically to my comments about her stories that I felt emboldened to thank other writers more often and more directly. (So, if you’ve gotten an effusive comment or email from me since last July—she’s one of the important reasons why!)
She’s also been my most informative and helpful guide to the world of LJ: both mechanics and etiquette. If I have a question, I know I can either contact her directly or toss it out where she’ll see it (my most common practice, because I’m assured that way lots of other folks will get the benefit of her friendly and useful advice.) See below re her LJ for how to find these great tips. Suffice it to say I couldn’t have done most of the things I did to format this entry, from boldfacing on, without her help! It’s obvious that she’s a wonderful educator: knowledgeable, supportive, well-organized, and always displaying patience and a good sense of humor, attributes which are vital to our calling.
These aren’t the only ways that she helps make LJ more of a community and a better place. She betas for at least two fine TS writers that I know of, an invaluable service to them and to their readers. She’s calm, informative, and fair in face of the emotional storms which blow up periodically online. And she’s one of the most welcoming LJers I’ve encountered. She introduces us to new people and encourages us to friend them, which makes such a difference when one first ventures out into this big, scary void. She is the person who would bring the new kid on the playground into the game and make her feel immediately right at home. (In fact, that’s exactly what she’s done for me and for others!)
Why you will enjoy reading StarWatcher’s LJ:
First of all, it’s well-organized and informative. A tip for those other folks who’ve friended her for some time now and therefore just read her updates on their friends page—go back and check out her full journal. She’s crafted a really great new first entry (dated March 2, 2010, so it will always show up at the head of the other entries). Follow the cut-tag to a slew of treasures (or just click here: http://starwatcher307.livejournal.com/99651.html#cutid1 ). You'll find TS links to archives, communities, convention reports, and more; her various tips for how to use LJ features; and even some links to new fandoms (Numb3rs, Supernatural). I have been trying to put together a page of TS links for my own use; I’ll now simply link to her page!
Second, you’ll get to know her as a person (as well as an educator and an author). This same page gets you directly to a number of the entries describing her observations of the natural world that I was going to link here (thanks, Linda, for once again making my life easy!). She’s living the life I’d like to live if I were braver or more self-sufficient; I get tremendous vicarious pleasure out of reading her entries. Her tales and pictures of the doings of the flora and fauna in her area are crisp, clear, often humorous, and always engaging. She’s very matter-of-fact about her own place in that world, but it’s evident to me that she’s a good neighbor to all, two-legged and four-legged, winged or finned, quietly doing what’s right in a world where many folks would just turn their heads and walk on by. (I see bits of her in the best of both her Blair and her Jim—reaching out to help others, while demonstrating a kind humor and quiet strength.)
Why you will enjoy StarWatcher’s Sentinel stories:
She did the meme “Top 10 Ways to Recognize My Fic” [actually, 12] here, http://starwatcher307.livejournal.com/91509.html , and it’s a very accurate (though typically modest) summary of many of the reasons I enjoy her stories so much. She’s also set up a separate LJ found at http://starwatcher-fic.livejournal.com/to serve as an archive for her stories, which I originally located via Cascade Library and in her Memories. (Fine scholar that she is, she’s cited the source of the idea as well, crediting orion2303.) She appears to be listing the stories in the order they were written, although posting them in a different order, and she kindly provides the length of each. One of the many advantages of the new site is that she’s included Author’s Notes as the first “comment” after each story; I always enjoy learning more about what motivates and shapes a writer’s efforts.
Of course, I can’t resist adding just a bit more to her own evaluation of her work. What she does is to give us the “real life” moments which are hinted at in the series but which, woven together, make relationships work. Many of these may seem like casual, informal incidents, but they are the glue which hold people and communities together. Her most recent story, “Years May Come, Years May Go,” written for sentinelsecrets and not yet posted at her site, is a fine example. On the surface, it’s a description of Blair’s efforts to put together a 25th anniversary party for Joel Taggart and his wife. It’s actually a quiet, subtle ensemble piece which lets us think about the meaning of relationships of all kinds. Similarly, “The Honor of Friendship” explores grief, comradeship, and reconciliation, all in an understated and non-angsty manner. While only one story so far is officially a “missing scene” (and if you think “nice” means “unfamiliar with/unable to write about anger” . . . “You Damn Well Better” will prove you wrong), I like to think of all of these as missing scenes, reinforcing the non-explosion/human interaction moments which drew us to the series. (“It’s about friendship,” indeed!) In my fanletter to Linda, I said that I found her stories a source of comfort (which isn’t the same thing as “comfortable,” although some also fit that description). What I mean by that is that, in fiction as in real life, she always manages to see and expect the best in people, without shutting her eyes to human flaws or imperfections. She doesn’t feel a need to let one character shine at the expense of others; she treats all of them fairly, without an agenda. She understands that they have the defects of their virtues—and vice versa. These are people I want to spend time with and can like and admire. (And I particularly appreciate the way she has Jim express his feelings about Blair in a very practical manner in “Windsong”—rising above his own needs to put his friend first.)
We get to know writers through their stories. It is, really, an astonishingly intimate relationship, which is why I find LJ so amazing: we can actually communicate directly, responding to these people whose words, ideas, and emotions have come to life inside our minds. Even in the absence of all the concrete actions of friendliness and thoughtfulness I’ve noted above, I’d feel very close to and fond of Linda because of her writing alone. It’s well-crafted, direct, warm, decent, thoughtful, not afraid of pain or complexity but not dwelling on them, healing, self-effacing and modest, and just plain good in every sense of the word. Those adjectives apply to her, as well.
So happy birthday and thank you, Linda, for all you’ve given us of yourself and all you continue to give. The world (virtual and face-to-face) is a better place because you are here. (And I apologize if I’ve embarrassed you with the praise—as I suspect I have!—but I know it’s an assessment many others share.) It's delightfully appropriate that your birthday falls on the anniversary of the debut of the show you've enjoyed so much and honored with your efforts.
Today’s birthday person is the author who writes in TS fandom as charlottefrost. (She has another LJ identity, too, but since I can’t remember whether she wants them officially connected, I’ll leave it up to her to disclose it if she chooses.) As I have been reading my way through Sentinel fiction, old and new, hers was a name I kept running across as a “don’t miss” writer, but I couldn’t seem to find the stories. Then, to my delight, a notice popped up on one of the TS LJ accounts that she had created a new journal to house her stories. This is a very clever way of getting around the lack-of-website issue, so even writers in other fandoms might want to take a peek at what she’s done here: http://charlottefrost.livejournal.com/
. She just added a new story earlier this month, and it looks like she maintained this site as a single page by deleting the previous entry which had served as an index and replacing it with a newly updated one, currently dated March 3. I’m not conversant enough with different LJ styles to know if she had to get a paid account in order to be able to create the links to her stories which run along the left side. However, I’d think that something similarly functional if not quite so attractive and convenient could be done even with a free account by those of us less gifted in this area. This is a very classy and attractive layout, and it’s quite handy that the summaries of the stories are on the same page as these links, which are placed in the order the stories are written (something I always find interesting, since one of the intriguing things about LJ is the way it lets one get insights into how writers work and develop over time). She’s also indicated the specific date for each story in the summary section, as well as the length. As I’ve said before, these are touches I really appreciate; sometimes you want a long story, but sometimes you need just a little short piece to read before going to bed.
This is a good place for readers of gen, pre-slash, and slash; she’s got fine examples of each, and they are clearly and accurately labeled (another plus!). What I like most about charlottefrost’s writing is, I think, her psychological insight into the behavior of the characters. The stories focus overwhelmingly on Blair and Jim, although Simon and occasionally Naomi make appearances; the other series characters play only minor roles, with the exception of a couple of shorter pieces such as (not surprisingly) “Like Their Mothers.” Readers who like Simon to consistently be a warm, fatherly figure to Blair will need to go elsewhere, but those who are fascinated by all the possible Simons that can be created consistent with canon will be intrigued. One of the many things I’ve appreciated about fanfiction is that writers can and do interpret the behaviors documented on the show in so many different ways, and in the looser confines of print they can spin out those behaviors into very divergent characterizations. Such is the case here: her Simon ranges from a somewhat distant boss who exhibits some frustration with and even jealousy of Blair to a solid professional who willingly and unhesitatingly crosses the line to support the pair when danger threatens. On the other hand, I find her characterizations of Jim and Blair to be somewhat more consistent, story to story, while still allowing for an interesting range of responses and adapting to a variety of plotlines. This can be quite comforting to a reader; it’s enjoyable to enter a reading experience knowing that you aren’t quite sure what will happen or how the relationship will develop under these particular circumstances, while still feeling confident that the central characters aren’t suddenly going to alienate you by changing who they fundamentally are. Her style is laconic and dialogue-driven, which appeals to me. She is more inclined to show what the emotions are through action and speech than to explain them, and I like that as well. And her plots are logical, realistic, and never repetitive—another plus! With the exception of one pair of stories, all of her works are set in the familiar world of Cascade PD and Rainier University, although many of them are AU in that they depart from canon at different points and develop different, very plausible and interesting “might have been” scenarios. This is yet another thing I enjoy so much about fanfiction: the multiple, branching realities, very much a Star Trek image in action!
Where to start reading? Hmmm . . . My particular favorite is “Self-Discovery 101”—her first story, interestingly enough. (That’s a good sign: a high level of quality from the start!) Why? I particularly enjoy post-TSbBS; I really like depictions of Jim using his senses, especially when sensuality and sexuality overlap; I’m intrigued by Blair’s spiritual odyssey. It’s also a sentimental favorite because it is the first thing by her that I read, which led me to go on . . . sad but true that one can hit just the wrong story (often in terms of one’s own biases, not the writer’s talent) the first time out and then miss out on lots of potential reading pleasure. “Truths that Wake” and “Heart and Home” appeal to me in that they address very honestly some of the tensions that can arise even when things seem to be going better than expected in the wake of the dissertation fiasco. For those who’d prefer something short and gen for an initial experience, any of the episode-based stories here would provide a good feel for her style and her understanding of the thought processes of our two protagonists. “Drop by Drop” and “Concessions” are the more emotionally intense of the bunch.
So, thank you, charlottefrost, for making your justly well-known stories readily available once again to Sentinel readers, and thanks for continuing to add new ones (most recently, “Admire and Desire”—with, as I've noted, keen psychological insights, this time into the dynamic between adult student and teacher). And thank you for having a birthday and thus giving me the excuse to spend this rainy, squally weekend re-reading these fine tales, warm cat in lap!
Well, I should have known that this would end up being late . . . although I knew better than to attempt to re-read all her stories—or even my most favorite of favorites—because I wouldn’t have been done for weeks, I should have anticipated that I would succumb to the temptation to revisit “just a few of them.” But since she’s written so very many stories, and I enjoy them so much . . .
I have to admit that I often feel a bit abashed, writing tributes to so many fine writers who have been admired by lots of folks long before I learned about them. If nothing else, I hope I’m creating a quick go-to page for folks who love the stories by that particular author. That’s certainly all I can hope to do for this birthday girl! Because alyburns, a.k.a. alyjude in TS and sideburns in SG1, is both talented and amazingly prolific. What’s stunning to me is that she can write so much, from short pieces to long, across so many moods and themes from humor to angst, and never seems to repeat herself. Her stories are all slash, by the way.
I really enjoy the dynamic between her Jim and her Blair. She writes a smart, feisty, funny, earthy Blair, although she also shows him feeling pain and rejection and anger. And her Jim is big and warm, just like I like him, and with a full share of the imperfections that make him human, and more of a sense of humor than we sometimes see. Often there are pangs and chuckles in the same story, although in varying degrees. (There are also some food descriptions which really make my mouth water!) Since I’ve been wallowing in her TS, I haven’t even attempted to start in on her SG1 tales, but she offers information on where to find them in the bio section on her userinfo page, along with references to the following locations for her TS stories. I’d like to offer an important warning here—although she’s got so many stories I can’t be absolutely positive, it’s my sense that you will not find all the same stories on all three of these sites. So check all of them! (I keep trying to verify this, but I keep getting sidetracked into re-reading, and since they aren’t posted in the same order in each archive . . .)
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/Alyjude.htm (her own TS webpage)
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/cgi-bin/search.cgi?ShortResults=0&Title=&Author=Alyjude&Summary=&Date=0&SortBy=0&SortOrder=0&NumToList=0&FastSearch=0 (the new 852 Prospect site; it appears to have many—most? all?—of the stories from the skeeter site)
http://www.squidge.org/archive/cgi-bin/search.cgi?ShortResults=0&Title=&Author=alyjude&Summary=&Date=0&SortBy=0&SortOrder=0&NumToList=0&FastSearch=0 (the old 852 Prospect site, now the mirror archive . . . the stories here are not in the same order as those on the new site, and there appear to be some on one which aren’t on the other, and vice versa)
I thought another good deed I might do, for myself as well as others, would be to post all the links to her popular Jakeverse stories here in one place and in order. (And if I miss any, somebody please note in a comment or email, so I can fix it!) I will say it up front: I never thought I’d care for kid-fic. But I adore Jake, and I’m hopelessly stuck on this loving, committed, sexy relationship between Jim and Blair. While it starts out achey, and there are some crises along the way, most of this is domestic fiction at its warmest. You can trust your emotions to Aly; it’s safe to feel the pains, because the payoff is there. If you aren’t willing to risk getting involved in a long story right off (though I suspect the first page of the substantial opening tale “Everything’s Jake” will hook you, as it did me), you could try one of the shorter, later episodes first. The versions archived at 852 Prospect show story length; those at skeeter do not.
“Everything’s Jake”
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/1_2000_firsts/everythingsjake.html
(this appears to be the only place to find this start of the Jakeverse)
“We Gather Together: Thanksgiving”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/WGTThanksgiving.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/11/wegather.html
“We Gather Together: Christmas and Chanuakah”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/WGTChristmasandChanuakah.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/11/wegather2.html
“The Bestest, Most Perfectedness Vally Times Day Card Ever”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/Jake_valentine.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/1_2000_holiday/bestestmost.html
“Fireworks”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/Fireworks.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/0/fireworks.html
“Junior Guppy”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/juniorguppy.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/9/juniorguppy.html
“Full Circle” (a trilogy containing “Cold Case,” “Three for the Road,” and “In the Name of the Father”) begins in her LJ here:
http://alyburns.livejournal.com/61355.html
You can simply follow day-to-day from here, or use her archive as an index:
http://alyburns.livejournal.com/2005/10/
“The Big Five”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/TheBigFive.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/20/bigfive.html
“A Day at the Zoo”
http://k9kennel.skeeter63.org/ADayattheZoo.htm or
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/20/dayat.html
E.T.A. 3/28/06: "A Strange Anniversary" is now up at the 10th Anniversary site and fits here, chronologically
http://www.lasgalen.net/sen10th/fiction/strange_anniversary.htm
She also has a lovely short story which comes chronologically well after all of these but which actually inspired the rest of the series. However, although I very carefully saved it to disk, I don’t remember at the moment where I found it! I’ll post a link here later if/when I relocate it . . . or if one of you lovely folks can pass it on to me . . .
Part of my tardiness is due to my foolish thought that I could pick just a very few of the stories I tend to go back to again and again to use them as samples of her range. Since this plan has turned into a seductive sort of quicksand, I’ll just name a couple of the many I seem addicted to (more of an ink-blot test of my emotional needs than a clinical overview of her work!). These should all be findable on both the newer 852 Prospect site and her own webpage. I’m particularly fond of “-30-” with its depiction of a Blair facing . . . and making . . . some changes when the Big Birthday hits. It has her trademark combination of pangs and warmth. When I want lots and lots of pangs before the pay-off, I go to “You’re Already Gone” (short) or “Polar Ice Caps” or “Future Tense” (both long). And if I need a bit of humor . . . well, lots of options! (And since attempting to pick titles here has led to several hours of detours into reading already, I'm going to quit and let people find their own way.)
She’s also contributed to SVS (Sentinel Virtual Season). While her contributions are at the 852 Prospect site, the series itself can be found here: http://www.squidge.org/5Senses/. I’m saving this for when I have time to devote to it (this summer?), because there are three seasons listed, and I recognize a number of the names of authors of different parts. I suspect this will trigger even more exploration on my part of those different writers, so I’ll need the time. But those of you with more self-control are welcome to check it out now!
Although, as I’ve said, I haven’t yet delved into her SG1, she has a SG1/TS crossover series which I have indeed been enjoying. At the moment, it’s not yet all in one place, so use these links to read it in this, the correct order:
“Comedy of Errors”
http://www.squidge.org/archive/archive/15/comedyof.html
“Measure for Measure”
http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/21/measurefor.html
She’s at work on the third story in this series; it’s currently friends-locked in her journal.
And now I’m going to go back and read just one more story before starting my Sunday tasks . . . though I’d better post this first, or it will become even more belated! I hope you and Lucy had a lovely birthday, Aly!
After being late in my last two greetings, I'm going to jump the gun here, rather than risk forgetting to post after both school and a visit to the dentist tomorrow . . .
I only began to read _beetle_'s writing recently, having run into her work on bloodclaim. But she well and truly hooked me with the wonderful (and completed) "Awakenings," which can be found here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=_beetle_&keyword=%22Awakenings%22&filter=all . Not surprisingly, it has been nominated for an award. I'd think that anyone who enjoys Spander would fall for this story, which has become one of my favorites. It is a loving yet realistic depiction of a post-shanshued Spike who regains his lost memory only to discover that his alter ego William is living with . . . and in love with . . . Xander. Spike's flaws—as well as his virtues—are very authentically portrayed here. She's indicated that she might continue it, and I certainly hope she will, but it comes to a very emotionally effective conclusion here.
After you've read this story, you will no doubt want to read others.I must admit that I didn't have much luck at the website indicated on her userinfo page; maybe I am just clueless, but her Memories appear to be the way to go. They are here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memori
es.bml?user=_beetle_ Be aware that the list is long, however, so you'll just sort of have to go on a treasure hunt through them. Some are WIPs, so you might want to check out the final posted chapter to see if it really is a final chapter, if you don't like committing before a story is done. Since I'm still just starting the fun process of going through her Memories myself, I apologize for having so few specific recs just now. I feel particularly apologetic, because, as I learned upon friending her, she's very, very generous about recommending other people's stories. (And people pay attention: my little one-and-only picked up six of the total fifteen commenting readers it has due to her rec! I'm still breathless with thanks for that generosity.)
Since I began reading her work on bloodclaim, I'm most familiar with her Spander, though I get the sense that she's written other pairings. I will say that if you like your S/X funny and sexy, with an unrepentant Spike, you should get a kick out of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation." Xander's spending that summer in Oxnard, and guess who turns up and complicates things in his own inimitable way? The story is complete, and it can be found here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=_beetle_&keyword=%22How+I+Spent+My+Summer+Vacatio n%22&filter=all
I've also gotten hooked by two of her WIPs. "Demon Magnet" has great snark and Xander getting some of the kind of quality attention we know he deserves, but maybe the Scoobies should be listening to Spike's concerns . . . There are nine wonderful parts as of last December, and I'm eagerly awaiting more. "Taken" has a rather darker mood and an interesting, effective structure; it oscillates between an earlier relationship between Xander and Jesse and a later one between Xander and Spike which is threatened by the previous events. It was most recently updated last July. Although I often shy away from WIPs, these have been interesting and distinctive enough that I am glad I succumbed, and I'll willingly do so again!
And I just learned by going through her Memories that she has done a handful of lovely Sentinel drabbles and ficlets, which can be found in her Memories, here: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=_beetle_&keyword=Sentinel&filter=all . Clever, sensual: excellent little pieces. Since I’ve really been enjoying my excursion into that fandom, this was like a delightful unexpected gift!
So, happy birthday-in-advance, _beetle_! I'm really enjoying getting to know you through your LJ and your stories.
In my defense, I didn’t know when Martha’s birthday was, until I saw a comment that very day in her LJ, saffronhouse. Certainly, Martha is so well-known and admired as a Sentinel author that I could have just said: Go—read! But of course anyone who knows her work has already done that, whereas it’s my hope that these tributes introduce my favorite writers to people who haven’t yet had the experience of enjoying their work . . . and, selfishly, I wanted to engage in my version of these online birthday parties, which involves re-reading as much as possible of an author’s work and then explaining to everyone on my flist just exactly why I fell in love with that person’s writing in the first place. She has some great long, involving, suspenseful tales that demand to be read through in a single sitting—and which can leave you rather too jumpy to sleep—not the best thing for a school night. So, since I was already late, I figured . . . just go ahead and read the shorter pieces first, then dive back into the long ones over the weekend . . . and I’m still in the middle of that rewarding experience. (Believe it or not, this is actually intended to be an apology . . . )
So . . . assuming you’ve never had the delight of reading Martha’s work, where should you start? Well, first, you should know that she is a master of both horror and smarm—she runs the gamut, and she runs it incredibly well. While I love all of her writing, because it all combines great and subtle artistry with fine characterization and emotion, some people will prefer one mood but might be less drawn to the other. So now I can at least become somewhat useful by identifying which story is which! I’ll also note relative length, because Martha has some wonderfully long and complex tales, and she also has some delicious short pieces. Again, she’s hitting both ends of the spectrum. And she writes gen and also slash; I’ll identify those which are clearly and intentionally slash or pre-slash (since much of the smarm can be read either way).
Martha’s Sentinel stories can be found at her website, http://soulcake.skeeter63.org/#Stargate , an address which is a bit misleading since it contains mainly Sentinel stories. Some of the shorter pieces fall into what she calls “smarm.” It is not slash, which had been a matter of confusion to me. (Since I’m always worrying that I will display my newbie status by misusing all these terms, I was pitifully grateful that she includes a helpful definition of this term, as well as other interesting information, in her Cascade Library Featured Author profile, found here: http://tslibrary.skeeter63.org/featured-author/featured-author-martha.htm )However, she also has sensual, erotic stories here. I would think that any lover of TS would find all of these simply too beautiful to be missed.
“Grail” takes what can easily be a cliché and shows what a master of the craft does with it. From wet and cold to burning up, you feel every moment. Definitely gen and what she would call smarm. “Voir Dire” is yet another moment when the fragility of life hits Jim hard; smarm again, according to her definition, though I have to say that the sound of that term doesn’t do these emotions justice. “The Anthropologist on the Edge of Forever” is another precise and perfect portrait of the relationship between these two men. Gen or not isn’t clear—unless you think no kiss can be fraternal—and it frankly doesn’t matter, because this is about love, not sex. (It also incidentally addresses the question, just how useful is Star Trek as a guide to building a personal philosophy?) Not on her website for some reason is the perfect, pain-edged “In Thicket,” which depicts what might have happened (and probably should have happened) after Jim read Blair’s first chapter of his dissertation. It’s, ultimately, pre-slash. Find it at: http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/1_2000_episode/inthicket.html
She also has some fine collaborations, including examples of her definition of smarm, which is to say, stories about the nature of relationship, not intended to be sexual, although some could be read that way. “Drunken Goo” is classic in vino veritas. “Borneo Eyes” examines the fear we have of failing those we love. “Listening” explores the question: how do you deal with the fact that the person who eases your pain takes it into himself?
Writing on her own, Martha has three beautiful short pieces which use Jack Kerouac’s writing to great effect. “Kneeling” is itself a poem, set in the everyday world; “pre-slash” seems too sharp-edged a term for a piece that is so lyrical. “ “The Portable Jack Kerouac” can be read as either gen or pre-slash, and it is so beautiful, so perfectly written, so clear in its insights into both men that no one should miss it. “Something or Other” is an erotic continuation of that story, wherein Jim and Blair examine, among other things, what is it to zone; this is a sensual, sensory exploration which, as is always the case with her stories, is ultimately about understanding character. It also exemplifies, perfectly, the term “love-making.”
Martha also writes in a darker vein, but these stories are ultimately reaffirming and always show in the characters the fine qualities that drew us to them. They also tend to be longer . . . much longer, so leave enough time, because you won't want to stop once you've started one. They range from an examination of the all-too-human evils which fill the nightly news to explorations of the supernatural. I found them all well-worth the commitment of time and emotion. It’s not surprising that a number of these are award-winners. One of the many, many things I appreciate about Martha is that she’s not writing horror just to see how much she can scare or shock the reader. She uses this genre to explore the inner lives of the characters and to help us understand how they grapple with the bigger questions. “Plank” is the most reality-based and thus the most easily accessible of the longer works. The structure of the story serves the characterization perfectly, without ever seeming intrusive or artificial. It involves a Waco/David Koresh-type cult. She does a brilliant job of putting the reader inside the minds of both Blair and Jim. “Unsleeping” straddles the line of realism and the supernatural . . . and it may be the more familiar horrors which strike the reader most deeply. As an academic myself, I’m always interested in stories which use the University setting and show Blair as a scholar; fortunately, I’ve never had anything like the experiences chronicled here. “Ordeal,” “Snake Oil,” and “Cake” are listed as a trilogy, but each works perfectly as a standalone. “Ordeal” is another excellent character study, showing the conflicting tangle of emotions and obligations Blair feels as Jim’s friend and as scholar and student of The Sentinel; it blends spiritual elements with a realistic core. “Snake Oil” is definitely creepier. “Cake” is long and emotionally and chronologically complex, and it deserves the time it will take me to read it again . . . something to look forward to this coming weekend! If you need a step back closer to “normal” which still has a foot in other worlds, try her post-TSbBS collaboration with Lemon Drop, “Distant Journey, Unknown Lands,” found at http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/3/distantjourney.html . Again, what matters here is the human story.
She’s also done some work with SG1 and has a new SGA story out. “Lovely” is a TS crossover with SG1, with all the characters incisively drawn and the supernatural circumstances bringing out the very human frailties and strengths of each. “Danny Can’t Dance” is pure SG1, a character study which has Daniel Jackson and Jack out on the town for the evening, trying to sort out the aftermath of a particularly unpleasant occupational hazard. Even though I haven’t kept up with this series and thus didn’t know the events being addressed, the writing here is so effective that it simply didn’t matter. While these are on her website, the newest is over at the SGA archive “Wraithbait”: you’ll find “Moka” at http://www.wraithbait.com/viewstory.php?sid=4992 , and you’ll enjoy it!
She also has three original works posted on her website. I just began them this past weekend with “Monkey Brains.” This is classic Martha, providing great characterization combined with her trademark creepiness . . . never shock for shock’s sake, but rather to help us understand a bit better what it means to be human. Since, like all her work, this was too good too rush through, I haven’t yet finished the next two . . . but I’m looking forward to next weekend, when I’ll get the chance.
A whole weekend of reading Martha, with yet another ahead of me—now that’s what I call an incredible gift! Thanks so much for the brilliance and humanity of your work, and happy very belated birthday.
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 . . .
I encountered danawoods over at, you guessed it, the place I began my immersion in the Buffyverse: http://www.allaboutspike.com. She was one of the writers I followed over to LiveJournal, so I owe her not only for writing some pretty darn fine fiction but also for tempting me into this wonderful place which has become a gigantic candy store for me. What I find so appealing about her work is that these are all character studies . . . plot and structure vary, in intriguing though never stilted ways, but they always exist to help us understand these individuals more deeply. She's got BtVS stories on her website, which can be found here, http://www.brokensymmetry.net/index1.ph
p , but that's not all. So if you have a taste for Jossverse RPS or lean more toward AtS or are curious about what she can do with "Firefly," you've definitely got options.
If you are willing to start with a longer, extremely rewarding piece, here's where I'd go: "Medlar and Sorb Apple," Part 3 of the "After the Opera" series, which just blows me away on several levels. Yes, you should read the first two parts first, as I did . . . or read this first, then go back for them, or read it all on its own. It works any of these ways, it's that well done. This was the first story I read that put me inside Faith's head, and it set a standard that only a very few authors have been able to come close to since. She's used an usual approach to express character in a just-about-perfect way, and without ever making it seem like an artificial sort of exercise. Officially there's one more part of the series to come, and I'd certainly leap at the chance to read more in this series. But since, to me, at least, what's happening of importance here is indeed the development of character, with plot primarily serving to advance that process, I don't think you'll be left feeling hanging. I certainly wasn't. This was one of those works that I reread immediately and have gone back to again and again. The series can be found here: http://www.brokensymmetry.net/fic/ato.php .
If you feel more comfortable starting with something shorter before committing yourself (my usual practice when encountering a writer new to me), here are some fine and varied options, listed alphabetically. You'll find that they differ in style, but all illuminate character in intriguing ways.
"Doable." Can Faith help Spike survive surviving the big battle in L.A.? The voices are spot-on, and she understands not to pound a message home. It's at http://www.brokensymmetry.net/fic/doable.php .
"Grid Systems." Graham/Riley. I wouldn't have read this by another author; I'm glad I read it. See why at http://www.brokensymmetry.net/fic/grid.php .
"The Periodic Table of Wesley." Fred contemplates the various incarnations of Wesley in imagery that speaks to the scientist in her. Here: http://www.brokensymmetry.net/fic/periodic.php .
"Sixfold Symmetry." An incisive, insightful look inside Faith and Buffy—like and unlike. It's at http://www.brokensymmetry.net/fic/sixfold.php .
"Visiting Privileges." What do Angel and Wes talk about with Cordelia in that room at Wolfram and Hart? http://www.brokensymmetry.net/fic/visiting.php .
So here's hoping you had a lovely birthday, danawoods! Thanks for thoughtful, well-written stories which have given me new insights into Faith, Wesley, Fred, Lindsey, and Gunn, as well as Buffy, Spike, Angel, Cordelia, and Dawn. And Willow, Tara, and Oz. And that's not all. (So, readers, start with what you know and love, then branch out, as I did. It's worth it.)
Well, late in the day, but I'm still on the right day in my time zone . . .
Today's birthday tribute is in honor of the delightful makd. Among her claims to fame is, as I'm sure everyone knows, the compiling of fantastic, specific, detailed rec lists for BtVS/AtS fanfic. This is a very impressive feat, and it's invaluable to us readers, especially but not merely those new to the fandom. There's a whole lot out there to read, and it can be pretty confusing and a little scary trying to figure out where to start . . . and encountering too much unintentional badfic as a newbie is more than enough to drive away the faint-of-heart or refined-of-palate. I don't recall ever being disappointed by a story I've read due to one of her recommendations, and I've lost count of how many of my now-favorite authors I found because of her. This kind of generosity and organization really help to build and connect the online community . . . we all owe her big-time, both readers and writers alike! So if you are eager to find a good read, head on over to her LJ, and you will be sure to find exactly what you are looking for.
Here's just one example: http://www.livejournal.com/users/makd/39280.html#cutid1 . You can find more, similarly clearly labeled, just by scanning forward and backward in her LJ or, since she's put the relevant info in her subject line, by clicking on "Calendar View" when on her journal entries page, then tapping "View Subjects"--just a tip for people like me, who are still trying to figure out their way around LJ. Like I said, organized, and very user-friendly!
I really can't thank you enough, makd, for leading me to such fine fiction! I hope it was a great birthday (and continues to be, for however many hours you have left of it).
Here's to another of my favorite writers. (She also made me my very first icon, of my lovely grey guy. Obviously, this is not her major Claim to Fame, but it is indicative of her generous spirit and is much appreciated!) Speaking as a reader to fellow readers, if you enjoy character studies which consistently display versatility and quality, you'll definitely want to explore her work. (Frankly, that's much more important information than the more pedestrian facts that it's BtVS/AtS, and when there's a pairing it's het B/S. What it is, is darn fine writing.)
I first encountered shadowlass's writing at http://allaboutspike.com, where I read the absorbing longer piece "Bag of Bones" and the haunting short sketch "Tabula Mortis." "Bag of Bones" finds Spike back from Africa, but someone isn’t happy to see him in Sunnydale again; it's an insightful mix of character study, romance, and mystery, one so clever constructed that I couldn't figure it out and yet, once you know whodunit, turns out to be exactly right. "Tabula Mortis" is a selection of character voices and emotions in the aftermath of . . . something. It is painful and poignant and perfect. These, and many more, can be found at her website, the unduly modestly titled "Small Bites," located at http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/shadowlass/index2.html . One of the longer works is the achingly effective "Scar Tissue," with Wesley, seeking redemption after the loss of Connor, encountering a Faith taken captive by Wolfram and Hart. Another I always find moving is "Settling In," which examines the impact of a post-"Chosen" Shanshued Spike from seven different POVs. This is a powerful way to explore character and plot, not a mere writerly device. You'll also find the delightful "A Very Joan and Randy Christmas," a light-hearted piece which uses the memory wipe in "Tabula Rasa" to set up a charming, funny story. These descriptions give some sense of her talent and versatility: the works indexed here range from G to NC-17, from light comedy to angst, from character study to carefully plotted longer work. There's never repetition; the only constant is the high quality of the writing and the depth of the development. Her mastery of voice and character: awesome. You simply can't go wrong with any of these. She's been gracious enough to let me spell-check some of the recent chapters of her current WIP, "Possession." (In all honesty, I can’t really call myself a beta here, since there's no way I'm qualified to give a writer of this caliber editorial advice . . . and she almost never lets a typo slip by, either, so mainly it's just a great excuse for me to get to read the newest chapters before anybody else--and I love that!) This is a very distinctive story, so one can easily follow the roughly monthly updates, but if you are simply philosophically opposed to WIPs, you'll find plenty to keep you busy among the other fascinating works I've noted above, and the many more I haven't. I could rave on and on about them . . . but since your time would be much better (and more enjoyably) spent reading them . . .
So happy birthday, shadowlass! Although I've tried here, I really can’t tell you how much I admire your writing. But thanks so much for giving it to us!
(Okay, one of these days I'm going to do a better job of thinking through this time zone business . . . so it's more like "happy belated birthday" now!)
Not only is today's birthday person yet another individual with a fantastic LJ name . . . she has also written a charming romance involving a grown-up Dawn and Spike, which, as the title indicates, is set "Ten Years After" the events in "Chosen." You can find it in the "Wombatzone" at http://www.speaker-to-customers.me.uk/wombatzone/cwfiction.htm . This story won Best Romance Fic Winner and Best Het Fic Runner up in Round 3 of the Love’s Bitch Awards . Some of us had the delightful experience of reading this as it unfolded on LJ; for the rest of you, settle in for a nice, long, cozy time, since there are 22 chapters of this lovely tale. (Suffice it to say that, among other things, it instilled in me a still-unfufilled desire to go out and buy frilly undergarments . . . those who know me in RL would do a double-take at that and say, “Wow, that’s a successful romance!”)
She's also a resident of the Isle of Man, and I've enjoyed following her journal to learn more about the life of someone half a globe away from me! While some of the superficial aspects of our lives seem quite different, her comments and descriptions always make me feel comfortable and right at home. It's really been a pleasure getting to know you, curiouswombat, and I look forward to another year of LJing together.
(Although maybe not if you’re like my colleagues who needed a definition for "luddite" when it got bandied about by the history and science types when we were first setting up the school computer network . . . unfortunately, these confused folks were not helped by the suggestion that they "just 'google' it" . . . )
In case you'd like to get right to the reading rather than listen to me ramble, you'll find the Buffyverse fiction of ludditerobot in two places; since there's overlap but not an identical list of entries, you'll want to check both. Some are here: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/384948/and others are in his LJ memories, here:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=ludditerobot .
In "Memories":
"Children of the Sun" (6 parts)
"Eyeless" (4 parts)
"Faith Fiction” (4 of the 5 stories listed are by him)
“Five Faithless Moments"
"Kill City" (WIP with 3 parts up; this is a prequel to "Eyeless" and involves Faith's Watcher)
"Questions Answered" (5 entries where readers ask a question about a character in a story and the author answers. I find these exercises fascinating, as a part of my quest to learn more about how writers actually do what they do . . . plus, it's more of a favorite story, so, hey!)
"Snowblind" (this is the sequel to "Eyeless." WIP, with the 7th part up in February of 2005; I look forward to seeing more of this interesting tale.)
Since I hadn't known about the stories on the fanfiction.net site until tracking it down for this tribute, I can't speak about all the stories there . . . yet! Because now I have the pleasure of more to read—one of the delightful unintended consequences of these hunting expeditions. But I did steal a moment to read "Perishable," and I'm glad I did. It's a fine Buffy/Xander character study, poignant and well-written. So I know I'll enjoy the ones I haven't yet gotten to as much as those I've already discovered.
ludditerobot's writing is a very good place to go for fine Xander and Faith, sometimes with a side order of Dawn or Kennedy or others. I first came on over off of a rec by one of "my" other Xander/Faith authors (was it nwhepcat or lizmarcs?) which brought me to the "Eyeless" series. This begins with "Eyeless," which is complete and works wonderfully as a stand-alone story. The shifts in voices are exactly right, and it is an excellent set of character studies—of Xander, of Faith, but also of Dawn, Willow, Kennedy, and Andrew. I strongly recommend it! "Snowblind" is actually the first story I read by him; suffice it to say that I began at about 10 PM, read eagerly without stopping, and surfaced, in the early hours of the morning, hungry for more. (So be warned, if you avoid WIPs, because it will indeed suck you in! But if you read for characterization even more than for completion of plot, as I do, you'll find this well worth your time.)
E.T.A. 1/7/06: "Snowblind" is now complete!
ludditerobot also deserves high praise for originating two clever ficathon ideas. (I really enjoy ficathons, because they are a great way of discovering writers.) The first challenge was to write about one of those newly activated slayers brought online by the spell Willow did. It was called "When the