http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2878

Where do I go for Farscape fic? Anyone have recs? Ideally centered on John, Aeryn, and/or Scorpius (or Harvey).

Good: Hurt/comfort, long epics, alternate seasons, humor, darkfic, slash.

Bad: Schmoop, babyfic, agendafic, anything OOC or too AU.

Please?

Yes, everyone who tried for years to talk me into watching Farscape was right. I loved it.

I just finished the series. I began to really like it in seasons two and three, but didn’t find myself totally in love until season four. It took a while for the show to actually gel into the quality they were attempting all along, but once it did it became absolutely brilliant. I had no idea how dark, odd, twisted, and kinky the show would get! And yes, I did fall totally in love with John Crichton. He’s an insane, hilarious, fucked-up mess of a character. He ended up hitting all my fictional kinks and probably creating a few new ones. Aeryn Sun just got better and better, passionate and vulnerable without compromising her strength and competence. John and Aeryn might be the best portrayal of a relationship of equals that I’ve ever seen on television.

You were all right. I should have watched it sooner. And I would really like to smack in the face whatever moron at the Sci Fi Channel decided to cancel this amazing show!

( a couple of complaints and a bunch more things I loved )

I am so totally going to watch it again. And again.

And... fic recs? Please? Must... have... fanfiction...

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2859

Writercon is coming up soon (July 31 through August 2 in Minneapolis), and you’re coming, right?

The lovely missmurchison is in charge of the fic library in the hospitality suite. The library is a collection of hard copy fics that people can pick up and read during the con. On the last day, most of the stories are put up for “adoption” so congoers can grab something to read on the way home. It was quite popular at the last Writercon. We need more fics in a wider variety of fandoms and types, so please consider submitting a story!

This is a great way to find new readers and to help out people who are looking for something good to read. Click here for details on how to submit your fic.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

Dear clueless fanfic writers,

Please do not write out characters' accents. I already know they're from various regions of Britain. There's no need to replace every "h" with an apostrophe. Just capture the rhythm and cadence of their speech, use words that they'd be likely to use, and it'll sound like them.

Plus, I'll be able to read it without wanting to bang my head into my desk repeatedly.

Sincerely,

Me

Oh, Torchwood fandom. You do know how to bring the wank.

Have I mentioned recently that Neil Gaiman is awesome?

And yes, I proudly admit that I'm watching Torchwood S1 for the sole purpose of laughing at how awful it is. Why? Because it's funny.

***

Does anyone have recommendations for Tenth Doctor fanfiction that is just really well-written? Any pairing, rating, or genre, but no agenda (other than exploring the characters and/or telling an interesting story)?

I've been venturing beyond my comfy little Ten/Master niche, and ... maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Because if it's not blatant shipper!fic, it's like that one episode of South Park where Cartman makes a list of all the rotten things he's done in previous episodes and then goes around trying to make amends. Only instead of Butters making a list of all Cartman's sins, it's Rose/Jack/Martha/Mary Sue, and instead of Cartman apologizing in order to weasel his way into heaven, the Doctor does it in order to win his way back into the author's good graces (or maybe because she just wants to see him grovel).

The problem with "fixing" the characters is that ... then they're no longer the characters I love. *snuggles delightfully fucked-up favorite characters*

Here's a good one jaydk recced: The Man With No Name by Frostfyre7. It's a Doctor Who/Firefly crossover, gen except for some Mal/Inara (which I skimmed). Not as dark as I prefer, but it's got good characterization and a nice adventure story; it kept me entertained and I never got the urge to bang my head against the desk.

***

Tonight: Marilyn Manson! Twiggy's back! I know this band has been washed up for at least eight years, but... nostalgia! *is inordinately excited*

The big question: should I Goth it up for old times' sake, or admit that I'm a grown-up now and go the lazy jeans and t-shirt route?

***

And apparently Stone Temple Pilots are reuniting. Nifty! (As long as they don't take my Velvet Revolver away....)

One of my New Year's resolutions was to leave more feedback. I'm getting better at it; I still suck at saying anything interesting, but I generally at least post a brief comment to acknowledge that I enjoyed the story and thank the author for creating it.

But what about the stories that I didn't like? Not that ones where I skimmed the first paragraph and clicked away; I mean the ones where I stared in fascinated horror and couldn't keep my eyes off. The ones where I rush to read the latest update because I want to see what new kind of jaw-dropping horror the author has come up with. I feel kind of rude, getting all excited about something and then not acknowledging the author for it.

I mean, obviously I can't say "Your story has blown my mind with its awfulness; please keep writing more because I want to see what new horror your brain can create." But maybe I could just say "Thanks; I'm enjoying this!" (not admitting that the enjoyment I'm getting is certainly not what the author intends). But then I worry that someone I know could see that I commented on that fic, and think that I actually like it, and worry that I've gone insane.

Hmm. I should probably stick with silence.

What about the stories that I'm disturbed to be enjoying? (Do other people do that, read stories that they're kind of horrified with themselves for liking?) Generally my policy is that if the writing style is amazing, I'll leave feedback based on that, and not mention the subject matter. But if the writing is just mediocre, I won't say anything, because I don't want to acknowledge that I'm reading something for reasons that kind of creepify me.

Oh, I'm angsting over nothing. I'm just kind of curious what other people do in these situations.

***

Also, I think I'm starting to understand why so many people avoid het. When I scan the who_daily newsletter, I only click on the slash pairings (unless I recognize the name of a good author).

At first, I was randomly clicking on anything that had an interesting title, but whenever it was a het pairing, nine times out of ten it wasn't a story; it was an attempt to push a shipper agenda. Y'know, "Ten was so rude and mean to poor precious Martha; he needs to grovel and acknowledge her awesomeness!" or "Rose was the most important person ever in the Doctor's life, and he'll never move on because no one could ever matter as much as her!" or whatever.

Whereas if I click on a slash fic, chances are I'll be getting an actual story, or at least a hot sex scene, rather than some biased agenda-driven rant barely disguised as fiction. (And slash in general tends to avoid that "there is one person that you are meant to be with forever" meme that makes me gag in a lot of het fic.)

Yup. I'm becoming one of those "eeewwww, het!" people.

OH MY GOD.

DOCTOR WHO FANFIC IS EATING MY BRAIN.

Um, does anyone out there have Ten/Master fic recs? Please? (At this point I'll read anything Ten/Master as long as it's written well.)

...


This is all jaydk's fault. She sent me a bunch of DW fanfic recs and the next thing you know I spent my whole Thanksgiving 4-day weekend (minus the gorging on food part) devouring Doctor Who fanfic.

(You know what's completely awesome? So many Spike/BtVS writers also write Doctor Who! I kept recognizing authors' names: lordshiva, doyle_sb4, chase820... I probably knew you guys were into Doctor Who, I just never paid attention before. But now it's like, tons of new stories from authors I already love, how nifty is that?)

But anyway, this Doctor/Master obsession... see, I was reading anything with Ten in it at first... then I started skipping the Martha ones because damn, she's annoying, and then I started skipping the Rose ones because, eh, het, and then I started looking specifically for the Master because, OMG, so much hotness and wrongness and fucked-up awesomeness...!

I emailed Jane a bunch of comparisons, trying to figure out why this pairing *PINGS* something in my brain... it's that whole love turned to hate, friends turned into enemies thing... but they still know each other so well, they're so deeply connected despite everything... love and hate and betrayal and NEED.... like... Methos/Kronos... James Bond/Alec Trevelyan... Dumbledore/Grindelwald... even kinda Spike/Angel.... or dark!Wes/Angel... Xavier/Magneto... Obi-Wan/Anakin... okay, I'll stop.


I really should watch more Doctor Who before I try to talk about this, shouldn't I? I'm bound to make an ass of myself having seen so few episodes. I'm still not much further than OMG David Tennant HOT.


Oh, yeah, Thanksgiving. How was yours? I went to three vegan Thanksgivings and had an awesome time. One in Woodstock at an animal sanctuary (there were adorable baby lambs!), one a potluck in Brooklyn (it went on until 3am and nearly all my vegan friends were there) and then a leftovers party with three tofurkeys (here's a pic). Good stuff.


That said, I'm also freaking out about a million real-life stresses that I don't want to think about... so I'm going to go read more fanfic instead. Yay fanfic!

I want to keep a record of Sharpe fic I've enjoyed, so why not do it here? I'll add to this when/if I find more.

These are mostly Sharpe/Harper (with a few Sharpe/Teresa, and some gen). Most are at least somewhat hurt/comfort-ish, presumably because the canon itself is basically Sharpe/Harper hurt/comfort.

If there is good Sharpe fic out there that I don't have listed here, please point me to it!

( Sharpe fic recs )

AAAHHHHH, if I open one more fic where Sharpe

* is a space captain a hundred years in the future

* is really an immortal and is sleeping with Methos and/or Duncan MacLeod

* was really a male whore sleeping with superior officers the whole time

* just needed to meet the Mary Sue of his dreams to be happy

* cries like a little girl at the slightest provocation

* thinks about nothing but sex and spends the entire Napoleonic wars plotting ways to sneak off privately with Patrick Harper

I'm going to kill someone!

Seriously, the proportion of badfic in this fandom is blowing my mind. Someone, please, help! There's got to be recs page, or a secret site of good fic, somewhere out there that I'm missing, right? Right???

(I've already been through the Sharpetorium and through ff.net and through several LJ communities.)

*deep breath*

Okay, maybe I'll get some work done instead.

The following word should be banned from fanfic forever: ministrations.

That's all.

(Seriously, it's a useless word. Has anyone used it well, in any context, ever?)

Allen conceded! Democrats have the Senate! YES! (*fingers crossed that they don't screw up, etc.*)

Happy birthday, 10zlaine! :) We're off to Boston this weekend on a random last-minute trip to see Common Rotation and to hang out since we haven't seen each other since, erm, was it DragonCon? Anyway, should be fun.

And after (three years?), I've finally managed to talk jaydk into seeing Common Rotation with me! They're playing in my neighborhood tonight. Yay! :)

Also, I'm in a good mood, because this Sharpe fic is really freaking funny. And I found it in the Pit of Voles, no less!

Last night: two Sean Bean movies, mainly because they were both so awful that I wanted to get them over with quickly.

The Dark is another one of those horror movies about scary little girls, psychically intuitive mothers, and clueless-but-well-meaning fathers. The "scariest" thing in this movie was a bunch of rampaging suicidal sheep. I'm trying to figure out which is a goofier attempt at horror; these suicidal sheep or the garbage disposal spewing applesauce in In Dreams.

Sean Bean's role was pretty much the same as in Silent Hill, although happily he got more screen time. He looked hot, as usual, but mostly I spent the movie wondering why he's been in so many bad movies.

Fool's Gold was like a tame version of Essex Boys. Sean Bean plays a tough guy criminal who gets in over his head. On the plus side, he loves his kids, and we get some cute scenes of him playing with them. But mostly he's being tough and scary and angry, which he's good at, but it's kind of limiting for such a good actor. He does get some really good scenes near the end, though, when his character starts to realize just how utterly screwed he is. And he's young in this one, which makes him extra-hot, so I enjoyed it for the eye candy. But it's not a very good movie.

South Park last night was awesome. They're having a great season; I haven't seen a single lame episode so far.

Veronica Mars yesterday ... um, what did I ever see in this show? Wallace's plot was directly out of a "cheating is bad, mmmmkay?" after school special. And feminists ... faking rapes ... does not compute ... what the fuck? *sigh*


I've been seeking out Sharpe fic. I find myself gravitating toward slash, even though I'm not really interested in reading anything sexual. I just want good fic, gen even, but slash seems far more likely to be good. I know people are always fighting about how slash is no better than het, but really, at least when I open a slash fic I don't face a 70% chance of running into a Mary Sue within the first four paragraphs.

Slash fic is much more likely to explore a premise that I'm interested in, namely the relationships between the existing characters. I'd much rather read about the powerful emotional connection between Sharpe and Harper (which is canon), and if it happens to get sexual, so what? At least it's exploring something I'm interested in, unlike random Mary Sue fic. Maybe this is because there aren't many interesting canonical female characters. Though I wouldn't mind reading Sharpe/Teresa, if was actual badass Teresa and not lame author-insertion "Teresa."

Not that all the slash is good (not even close); it's just less likely to be bad. In this fandom. In my opinion.


I realize I haven't said anything about the election yet. Obviously I'm delighted (Santorum's gone! Rumsfeld's gone! Democrats got the House! and probably the Senate!) and I'm just praying that the Democrats won't screw it up too quickly. (*fingers crossed*) Yay democracy!

Plus The Colbert Report was to die for last night. Ah, poor Stephen in denial. And you know, anytime he sings the national anthem, it's bound to be a good episode. ;)

Oh my goodness, look how good this James Bond fic is. Why can't they all be like this?

Things that are amusing me today:

* This wank.

My Personal Unbreakable Vow to Severus...
My Unbreakable Vow to Severus Snape

I promise to be always faithful in body and mind, and never love another man.

Don't miss the song parodies on page 22 of the comments.

* The fact that people are still sending me angry letters disagreeing with a Buffy essay I wrote four years ago. I guess it's kind of cool that it still occasionally strikes a nerve, but I should probably put some kind of warning up that I don't really care anymore and am not going to respond to a 20-page counter essay.

* I love fandom because it's the only place where Alec Trevelyan and Kronos work together to destroy London, James Bond, and Methos. And I so can't believe that I spent the last two days reading Bond/Trevelyan fic. For some reason, it had never occurred to me that there'd be fic about them, maybe because the movie came out so long ago (you mean there was fic before LiveJournal!? :P ).

My observations: there's a huge percentage of darkfic, presumably because the canon is so dark. Much of it reminds me of Spike/Angel, another pairing which blurs love and hate, villain and hero. Most of what isn't darkfic is straight up porn, and most of the porn reminds me that Repossession-style melodrama is not limited to Spander. There's very little pure crap (probably not too many 12-year-olds are drawn to writing fic about a ten-year-old Bond movie) but only a couple stories that I'd rate excellent. A lot of mediocrity, but most of its entertaining enough to read quickly. (I'm automatically skipping anything that says "OFC," or calls either man the other's "lover"). I am getting annoyed at how many stories were written apparently because people wanted to fantasize about Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean getting it on, without acknowledging either character or paying any attention to the fact that Trevelyan is full of hate and plotting to betray Bond. Way to remove all the interesting stuff about the pairing. :P

Funny, I like Sharpe way better than GoldenEye (actually, I disliked GoldenEye), but I haven't been inspired to read much Sharpe fic. Maybe because the canon's already satisfying, whereas GoldenEye has great ingredients (deep friendship and devastating betrayal between two ultra-hot action heroes) that it doesn't do much with on the level of character exploration--it's practically begging for fanfic.


Also, what was up with Veronica Mars last night? (I had it on in the background, because I'm not Officially Watching it.) Veronica Mars: patron show for the "I'm not a feminist, but I sure love having rights!" crowd. Seriously, what's with this cynical POV that says it's great to have social justices, but that we'll incessantly mock anyone actually cares enough about these issues to try to do something about them? I suppose activists are easy to mock, because they're the type of people who care passionately about something and don't try to hide it, but honestly, have any of these writers ever met a feminist? Most of us are capable of logic--and some of us even have senses of humor (!!).

Anyway. But the Logan plotline was entertaining. You really can't have too much angsty Logan... if only those other characters didn't keep getting in the way. My favorite thing about the show is the Echolls family, and I'm highly annoyed that most of them have been killed off, so I'm glad the writers have brought in another, even through cheesetastic long-lost-brother means. Hopefully he'll show up again.

I'm having a crappy day (long story) but suddenly I'm grinning from ear to ear because I just found forengland. It's a James Bond/Alec Trevelyan slash community. This is why I love the internet; no matter how weird my obsessions, chances are there's an entire LJ community out there devoted to them.

Most of this fic is on the, er, amusing side, but here's a drabble that's actually quite good.

::loves fandom::

( In which I ramble on about Sharpe's Sword, Sharpe's Eagle, Bernard Cornwell's writing style, and why Richard Sharpe is like Spike. Oh, and point you towards some delightful Sharpe/Methos porn. )

chase820 has (finally!) finished her wonderful Queer as Folk fic "The Man Who Sold the World."

I pretty much gave up on Queer as Folk (the show, and the fic) because so much of it is mind-numbingly awful. (So awful that even the hotness of Brian Kinney failed to redeem it.) Chase's fic is the rare exception, because she's one of the best writers I've encountered, in fic or elsewhere.

This is Brian/Michael as it should have been, dark and beautiful. It's also one of the best examples I've seen of music worked into a story, perfectly evoking a mood and an era. And it's finished, so you can read the whole thing now!

It's also got an excellent sequel-in-progress, The Man Who Wasn't There, which is a crossover with Angel (imagine throwing Brian Kinney in with Angel, Spike, and Wesley...). ;)

I was without internet for four whole days. *sob*

It feels so good to be back.

jaydk and I spent most of the time watching the first season of Veronica Mars, so now I'm all into it again. A couple of VM-related questions for anyone who can answer:

1) Is there a new episode this week?

2) Where do I go for spoilers?

3) Pleeeeease recommend me some good Logan fic that is either gen or slash. (No het.) Angsty is good, long and plotty is better. (I'm not looking for one of those long rambly introspective second-person things that never goes anywhere and drives me insane with its vagueness and self-absorption.) Does such a thing exist? ETA: preferably current fic, at least post 1x22.

(It's weird how I was happy to read anything well-written that featured Spike. I'm much pickier when it comes to Logan--I've tried the recs over at vm_fic, but so much is centered on Veronica. I basically like her as a [very flawed] character, but I have zero desire to read about her in fic. I'm mainly interested in the fucked-up Echolls family, and in Logan's relationships with Duncan or Weevil.)

voodoo_in_tx tagged me to do a meme. I never get tagged to do memes--I'm not sure whether to be flattered or disturbed by this.

Anyway...

List 5 reasons why you are a dork. And make them good reasons.
Justify them. Explain them. Be loud and proud about how big of a dork
you are! Then pick the 5 biggest dorks you know and have them do the
meme.

1. I read massive amounts of fanfiction. For almost three years, I read nearly every decent story written about Spike that I could find, and I archived many at my very own fanfiction website. I get into arguments with people about whether fanfiction counts as a legitimate form of art (it absolutely does). And I'll read almost anything if it's written well, no matter how NC-17 or taboo. (RPF is the only exception; it's a personal squick.)

2. My idea of a really good time is to have friends over to stay up really late, eat snack food, watch movies/TV shows, and get into deep involving discussions about what we're watching.

3. I refuse to buy the DVD versions of Star Wars because they've been corrupted by stupid digital crap. I'm sticking with the real movies for the rest of my life, no matter how worn out these VHS tapes get. (And, related: I've seen the originals something like 500 times each.)

4. I don't dress up at conventions (aside from my usual semi-goth regalia), but I think it's awesome when other people do.

5. Sometimes I'm late for work because I'm listening to a really good song and can't bear to turn it off in the middle.

[I'm not tagging people; I can never remember who has already done it. If you're intrigued, then consider yourself tagged. You're on LiveJournal--you're all dorks. ;) ]

Also: Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker. Hilarious.

New Star Wars tomorrow!! I'm excited, and praying that it'll be good. And if it sucks, well, it's not like my estimation of the prequels could get any lower....

Wow. There's a ton of amazing Veronica Mars fic out there. I read a bunch last night (and left some half-assed one line feedback comments, sorry). This is so much more satisfying than my expedition into Queer as Folk fic.

Queer as Folk has been on the air much longer, but has very little in the way of decent fic. I wonder if it has to with audience--does VM appeal to a demographic that is more likely to write good fanfiction? Or is it that VM is a better show? Or maybe it's just that I like a popular character on VM--Logan--whereas I have an unpopular viewpoint regarding QaF--I don't want Brian to "settle down," and if he does, it should be with Michael.

Oh, and, sidenote: it's amazing how many Buffy fans are also in VM fandom. I think that more Buffy fans than I realized watched BtVS in spite of the supernatural, not because of it. Whereas it's not very likely that I'll get into something that doesn't have sci-fi or supernatural or at least action.

I thought this was funny. My friend jaydk reads LJ, but hasn't seen VM. So she calls me:

jaydk: I'm bored, entertain me.
rusty_halo: You should try watching Veronica Mars; I just watched the whole first season, and it's decent.
jaydk: Oh god, you're not one of those mad obsessed Logan fans now, are you?

Oh, yeah, I keep meaning to post about this. In addition to watching the first season of Veronica Mars this weekend, I also went to three concerts.

( Saturday - Velvet Revolver )

( Sunday - Nine Inch Nails )

( Monday - Nine Inch Nails )

( ...and a bunch of memes and quiz results )

Queer as Folk fic doesn't seem to be working for me. Probably because most fic is a reflection of the genre of the show itself: schmoopy soapy goo, or melodramatic soapy goo. Ick. I don't like schmoop at all, and I like my angst violent and fucked-up, not melodramatic and ridiculous. *sigh*

The other problem is with pairing. I haven't found a single Brian & Michael friendship story that captured the characters, was written well, and was interesting. And when it comes to relationships, well, Brian/Justin is hot, but their relationship is completely uninteresting to me. And Brian/Michael is incredibly interesting, but not at all hot.

I've enjoyed a few stories, but entirely because the authors are so good that they can make anything work. And (big surprise) they're all authors I know from Buffy fandom, and have in fact archived on my website: Mint Witch, Valerie, Rachel Anton. They all write Brian well, which is great to read. But, alas, I'm just never going to be into the Brian/Justin thing.

The exception to all this is Chase's story. By moving Brian (and Michael, sort of) into the Angelverse, she has free reign to bring in all the violent and supernatural stuff that I love. Plus, she gets rid of Justin (yay!) and makes the angsty stuff about Brian/Michael (yay!). Plus it's also just a really good story; I've probably gotten more enjoyment out of it than I've gotten from the actual show.

So is there any other writers I should be reading? Anyone out there at all who writes dark/angsty/violent Brian/Michael, well?

*sigh*

Yeah, didn't think so.

(I'm such a picky reader. Years of reading almost literally every Spike fic I could find have left me with very little tolerance for bad writing. Misspelled word, cheesy line, too much exposition? Nope, sorry, not wasting my time by reading further. I probably close 90% of the stories I start after the first paragraph. Looking through general QaF archives has reminded me of how lucky we were in Spike fandom, and how much of the vast majority of fanfic sucks.)

( Meme: What my birthday says about me )

Tonight, jaydk and I are going to dinner and then seeing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm looking forward to it, though it's gotten mixed reviews. The last time I read the book, I was probably no more than 12, so hopefully I won't remember enough to be disappointed at whatever's lacking.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut. I'm thinking about maybe getting bangs. (I think the last time I had bangs, I was 9.) I feel the need for a change, though. Plus my hair currently looks terrible, the way it's grown out.

Then tomorrow I'm going to see Audioslave. I've never heard them; guess I ought to pick up a CD tonight. All I know is that Chris Cornell sings, and one of the great unresolved issues of my life is the fact that I never saw Soundgarden live. (They were one of my all-time favorite bands.) So I couldn't resist this opportunity, even if it's not really the same thing.