Um. I got incredibly busy with work and I got incredibly busy (and depressed) with the book and then I got really, really ill and now it's mid-March and I'm kind of still... all of the above? I don't even know, you guys. I can't remember the last time I was on either LJ or DW. I feel like I've been in some sort of a trance. I just wanted to say Hello now - Hello!

I was going to tell you, I've been reading really good things while I've been battling the flu/thyroid from hell, but my Pinboard feed only shows a couple of things so maybe if you're curious you could look at the page itself for the 5 or so near the top that are non-original and definitely long. Like, all day today I was reading 10 year old HP fic. I don't even know.

What's good, have you seen/read good things? (With apologies for what will likely be VERY slow responses from me, I'm still not consistently upright whenever I want to be right now.) Miss you guys though, I feel so cut off!


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I've been spending a lot of time reading Original M/M fiction lately (pro fiction, too) and haven't been keeping up with bookmarks very well. This, combined with the general mood-from-hell, combined with a much higher than expected workload, combined with RL drama that just ceases to end... well, that's kind of what the silence is about. I really didn't mean to just go off the reservation for so long. I'm really not sure when I'll be back on a regular basis, either. If you know me IRL, the best way to keep up or get in touch with me is via Twitter. Or e-mail - that always works, only I can be really slow to reply right now.

Anyway, all that is beside the point of this here entry. I wanted to point you to a couple of incredible things I've read recently, in case you're into Original M/M. All of these come from bb_shousetsu - also known around these parts as the zine that keeps on giving. Every time I think I've run through its entire archive at least once, I discover something else I apparently never read and can't believe I missed somehow. Here's what's blown my mind lately:

( 3 from December 2012 + 2 olderCollapse )

There, that's... busy-making, right? Right :) :)


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I got myself a card from trope_bingo the other day. I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it, but I'm placing it under the cut for safe keeping and easy reference! And mentioning in case you want to get your own!

( OMGWTFBBQFTW!Collapse )


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Downside of doing that every day for a year: It's like I forgot how to interact with people without each conversation being mediated by someone else's stories. It's actually fascinating to me, what that project trained me into, pattern-wise. Still. I took a week and came down from it. And now I've got to figure out how to talk to people all over again, apparently.

Hi, how are you? What's going on with you? Are you back at work, back at home, back at school, back at the business of living or doing the things that you do? Isn't the post-holiday comedown the pits? Especially with the weather being dark and windy and muddy and nasty and... ugh. I'm going to a talk at Town Hall in a few minutes that promises to be... exciting. And I've got work deadlines breathing down my neck suddenly. Oh, and for reasons, I've decided to resurrect a bunch of off-LJ non-fannish writing projects, so that's what I'm expending my word-production momentum on right now. But I think I miss reccing and getting all excited at you guys :/

I'm on Pinboard as mementis by the way [ETA: I made another feed account: mementis_pinboard_feed (mementis_recs on LJ) if you'd like to follow in a journal setting]. And while I'm not writing long recs right now, I do have a tag for Yuletide stories I've loved, here: yuletide:2012 (there are a handful so far that are fantastic, IMHO, especially this one right here, wow). I'm still only reading slash, for what that's worth. But that Pinboard account contains a whole lot of other bookmarks besides, including the ones I mentioned in the last recs-365 post, as well as ongoing "stuff I'm reading and like a lot," in case you're interested.


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For those of you just landing here now, a short explanation: I set myself a goal in 2012, to rec one long slash fanfic (or original fic) story every day for the entire year. The stories had to be more than 10,000 words (and they were, for the most part), preferably slash, and good. I had 3-4 fandoms I usually read, when I started; by the time I finished yesterday, I was reading just about anything. It was awesome and somehow I pulled it off and now I'm tired. I'm trying to think up a new project for 2013.

So here's some info I just had to put out there:

The posts are all archived under the "REC: 365" tag on this journal. "REC: 365: META" will get you the random notes about the project. "REC: 365: YOURS" is the logical continuation of this whole thing :) Individual recs can also be browsed by fandom or pairing tag.

All in all, I read and recced 11,801,606 words this year (that's not a typo, either). Another 53 stories were still waiting to be recced as of yesterday (read more about that here) and still 197 more were bookmarked but (mostly) unread. I ended up reading in 64 fandoms. My head is spinning.

The project spawned a 200+ track songmix and its own child project. It's been kind of crazy.

I couldn't have kept up with it if I didn't know people were reading, so: thank you for reading. Thank you also for cheerleading; a handful of you were consistently encouraging and always ready to discuss and dissect and squee right along with me. You were amazing and I love you. You know who you are. :)


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According to my kid's 4th grade teacher (this was back when my kid was actually in 4th grade, which is... no longer the case) anything can be made fun when you do it with a friend. Granted, I think she was actually referring to long division at the time, but hey, whatever works, right? And it's not as if reading fanfiction isn't fun already, obviously, but I've found over the past year that when you can do it in full view of everyone, and post all about how reading something made you feel that day, or what you took from a piece of writing, or just sharing what the reading experience was like, with your friends, it's freakin' fantastic. I've been told that from the perspective of the writers of said pieces, it's kind of a neat thing to see too. So even though the recs project is over now, I'd kind of like to keep going.

So here's the deal. I'll continue reccing, but I can't do it every day, I have to think up a new project now. But I still have all these bookmarks left over, some for stories I haven't even read! And I'm pretty sure these stories are awesome and deserve a ton of praise, in that same way that pretty much every story was awesome if I got as far as bookmarking it for the recs project. I don't want to just keep these to myself. I would also love to read some recs about them, even if I don't write all of them up myself. So, here's my challenge to you:

Pick a story. Read it if you haven't already. If you like it, rec it. Leave a comment here, or send me a PM or an email or a pigeon or whatnot, and I'll update this list to point to your rec. Multiple recs for the same story are welcome! If I might ask a favor: please be generous, and kind, and remember to tell us all about the good parts :) And feel free to pass this on!

( The stories. Now with handy shortcuts!Collapse )

I hope you take me up on this little reccing project, and we manage to fill this all in by the end of 2013. But even if you don't, I hope you read some of the stories, and enjoy them, and just... have a good time ♥

P.S. A big, heartfelt THANK YOU to every one of you who recced me a story this year. I couldn't have found all of these without you. You are AWESOME.


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The second batch of stories I wasn't able to finish reading this year is under the cut. As before, some of these are beloved and familiar, but I just wanted to read them again. Others I started and got excited about. Still others I haven't read at all, but they sounded amazing. Give them a try, and consider writing up a rec; if you do, and you tell me about it, I'll link to it here. Please? (And if you're confused about that request or what's going on, see this post here.)

All other fandoms, in some semblance of order. I think:

( Another 92. But that's it, no more!Collapse )

« back to Stories For Reading And Sharing With Friends


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There were so many stories I hadn't finished reading by the time the end of the year rolled around. Here are some of them. I'm almost certain they're marvelous. Some I've read and wanted to re-read; others I started and had to interrupt; still others I never even started but they sounded so good. If you read them, consider writing up a rec? Let me know, too, because I'd love to include it here. (And if you're not sure what's going on or why I'm asking this, see this post.)

This part has my oldest or most commonly read fandoms:

( 105 stories or so. Not enough time!Collapse )

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Here's the list of fics I'd have loved to rec, if I had 53 more days to go in the project. I'm going to try to talk about them at some point. But as it is, if you feel like writing these up, or know of a particularly good rec for any of them, feel free to share and I'll add the appropriate links! (And if you're not sure why I'm asking that or what's going on, see this post here.)

Alphabetical by Fandom, Author, and then Title:

( the stories (53!)Collapse )

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Confetti, people! Woot! I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow with more stuff and notes and presents and Even More Fic (yep!) but in the meantime, I figured I'd post this now in case I don't make it back home until late (unlikely, but I'm paranoid). The following story happens to be the most brilliantly realized fic I've read in a few weeks, certainly now among my two or three top favorites in this fandom. It's by turns beautiful and angry and tender and rough and frustrating and hot and everything under the sun it seems, much like these two characters can be, simultaneously too much and not enough. I loved it so much I didn't know where to put myself for a few days after. I wanted to start over and didn't have the time. I have the time now, for sure :)

It's all so fitting, too. On this day last year, I was dying for the holiday to be over, so it could be January 1st, so Series 2 could air in the UK, so I could download it and put it on the memory stick and plug it into the Xbox and watch it too. I had the whole mechanism down to a science, and was usually watching within a couple of hours after it aired (and yes, I did buy the series after, too). But since Messrs Freeman and Cumberbatch are busy being Bilbo and Smaug and not-speculating-which Star Trek baddie at the moment, and we don't get a Series 3 tomorrow (or maybe at all in 2013, sigh) well... let's call this a bit of nostalgia, shall we? It's absolutely brilliant.

End of the Story (Sherlock/John (BBC) | NC-17 | 54,029 words)
Post-Reichenbach. The return, the fallout, the pieces you pick up.
Author: kres

( ***Collapse )

Further bits in my 2012 one-a-day slash recs experiment can be found on my rec: 365 tag (LJ/DW)

That's all she wrote, guys! Thank you so much for following along, you've been brilliant. Happy New Year! :)


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