First of all, I would just like to say that I wrote SIXTEEN stories this year. This is a big fucking deal for me, since I write slowly and get distracted often, but it's particularly monumental when you realize I basically wrote nothing until August. I wrote sixteen stories!
What happened to me was Atlantis. I can't really explain why, but for, oh, almost a year before last August (really, ever since I wrote "Fire & Rain" over in popslash), everything I tried to write was a constant struggle. I couldn't nail anything down, I couldn't get words to line up, I didn't like them once I did, and I was basically really frustrated and slightly concerned. I've been doing this writing thing since about the fourth grade, and although this isn't the first dry spell I've hit, *it's unfun every single time.* I always worry that I won't get it back.
I started reading up on Atlantis fic last summer, but I didn't have any burning desire to write it until the sga_flashfic "Skirt" challenge came out. It was a day or two before the challenge closed, and nobody had yet written Carson in a great-kilt. Which I thought was a goddamn shame, because I love me a kilt. So I said to myself, "What the fuck, surely I can knock out one pitiful scene of kilt-porn. It's only flashfic."
From that day forth, I swear to you people, it was like someone set plastic explosives under a big, solid motherfucking door in my brain and blasted it wide open. I haven't been able to *stop* writing. About half the fic I've turned out has been Atlantis, but I quickly realized I now have the ability to open up old files that have been sitting pathetic and incomplete on my hard-drive for literally years, and run with them. You don't even know how many things I'm juggling right now, from fandoms all over the map, things I hadn't been able to make progress on since I don't even know when! I was writing so much, I actually had to update my website *g*
Anyway, I almost hate to declare a cut-off at this point, because I have a couple more stories coming out on scheduled deadlines pretty quickly, and I have at least two others that are almost done I swear it, but at some point you have to call it, so as of midnight on January 31, here's what I wrote and went live with in 2005:
Regimental (SGA, Beckett/Ford kilt-porn)
Handsome Johnny (SGA, Ford-centric gen/pre-slash)
Hope Chest (due South, Francesca-centric)
The Fortune-Teller (Firefly/BtVS, Kaylee/Tara)
Lexicon (Sentinel, Jim/Blair post-series)
Be Cool (SGA, Sheppard/McKay stoned-porn)
Outward Bound (Angel/SGA, Gunn/Ronon)
The Bee-Charmer (SGA, Teyla/Ronon schmoop)
as Betty Plotnick, Sharp (popslash, AJ/Justin)
and, of course, the 800-pound gorrilla of Hth's interior life this year, the Alpha Centauri stories -- Contact, Contraband, Conscience, Contagious, Prime, Perimeter, and Nothing Rhymes (SGA, Sheppard/McKay/Ronon)
Check me out! SIXTEEN!
Behind the cut, the same 14 questions I answered last year. Read on, those of you who just can't get enough of writers talking about their own work...
1. My favorite story this year (of my own)
Aside from the fact that, after a long dead zone as a writer, *every* story you write is your favorite just because it exists, I'm going to say Perimeter, because y'all know I love the sad ones. This was definitely a case of groundwork that had been laid paying off in the long run, because it's actually an incredibly complex, delicately balanced story that would have been murder to write, except I'd already written six other stories in this universe and devoted approximately 3.8 million hours to thinking about it, so in fact it was blissfully easy to know exactly what I wanted to do with it and how. Deciding where to stop and start the italics was pretty much the hardest part. *g* It just felt like a very graceful, rounded summation of who this version of Ronon is, growing organically out of canon and the other stories, and, uh. I like the sad ones. *g* I'm just really proud of this story.
2. My best story this year
Lexicon. There's not much in the way of Sentinel fandom anymore, which is kind of a pity, because, man, if I had written this in 1998, would I ever have looked cool doing it! *g* I could not, however, have written this story in 1998. It takes a certain control and restraint as a writer to do a very painful story, let alone one that definitively alters the characters forever, without just spraying pathos everywhere, and I don't think I've had that kind of restraint for very long (I still don't catch it with every story). This is a really intense subject for a love story -- "sickness and health" is easy to say, but how do you really face having to be somebody's caregiver forever, or receiving that kind of care when you're used to being the one who handles other people's problems? I just think it would have been very easy to fuck up, and I don't think I did. It's also a nice challenge for me because sensual detail is always such a chore for me as a writer, and writing from Jim's POV means you can't slack off on it for a second. I just think it's a story I attacked with a certain amount of precision that really makes it click.
3. Story most tragically underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion
Probably Lexicon again -- I got some wonderful feedback on it, but I think a lot of people haven't read it because of how out of fashion the fandom is. I don't know, honestly, I think my special BNF powers are really kicking in this year, because I actually wrote a lot more stories that got a much *better* response than I expected them to. Hope Chest probably didn't get its due, but I honestly didn't expect it to; Franny is one of those characters you write for yourself, not because you think a lot of people really give a shit. I think *she's* tragically underappreciated by the universe, but I've thought that for a while now.
4. Most fun story
I always struggle a bit with writing "fun" (*Oh, Christ, more banter? Do I have to? Can't I just slit somebody else's throat?*), but I think Be Cool is pretty awesomely fun. The idea for it came up, actually, at a Stargate party at this year's DragonCon, when
marythefan and I were drinking a lot of good, free booze and, as we often do, talking about how fictional characters would respond to the situation we were currently in. Somehow, John and Rodney's partying habits became John and Rodney's intoxication habits, and this sprang up pretty much fully formed in my brain and hung around patiently until the right flashfic challenge came along. I just thought this one was funny and sexy and just sweet enough to make you feel good without turning into the Huge Epic Love Affair of the Millennium, as my stories sometimes do if you don't keep an eye on them. There's not much here that I think would, you should pardon the phrase, harsh anyone's buzz. (Except for the part where I quite stupidly have Rodney think about mimosas, because that pisses me off *every time* I read it now -- damn allergy.)
5. Most sexy story
Contagious. I would really love to be able to say it was Prime, because anyone who knows me knows how I adore a good threesome -- and I do like that threesome -- but Contagious really does it for me because it has that whole "No, we can't! We mustn't! God, do it again!" tension to it that is probably my one and only truly *bulletproof* kink. All of my favorite sex scenes in stories are ones where they think they probably shouldn't be doing this, and I really worked that angle hard in Contagious -- and actually, on two levels at once, both with the threat of the retrovirus infection and in that larger metaplot sense of the potential repercussions on the John/Rodney relationship.
6. Story with single sexiest moment
I actually normally hate my sex scenes; writing sex is so damn hard, I just count myself lucky if I can get something down. My usual MO is to write a bunch of fairly standard-issue descriptions of sex and then lace them with one or two really nice moments of revelatory dialogue, so that I'm kind of obscuring the fact that the porn isn't that great with something that really gooses the relationship plotline along -- to me, the standout sex-related moments are almost always those moments of giving yourself away in the heat of it all, like Ronon's "Stay with me, with me, don't leave me, John" in Conscience or Ford trying to get Carson to say his name in Regimental or John comparing Rodney to a Puddlejumper in Be Cool. That said, as far as straight-up sex goes, there's a pretty good blowjob in Outward Bound.
7. Most unintentionally "telling" story
Some time after I wrote it, I realized that Perimeter is largely a story about depression, or rather, a description of my experiences with depression.
8. "Holy crap, that's *wrong,* even for you" story
As I age, actually, I'm writing less and less "wrong" stories and more and more full-on romances. I don't know what it is, but this year in particular (and I include in this some of the things I've worked on but that you won't see for a little bit still), I've really been working my inner, irony-free romance novelist. Honestly, I don't think I have a single freakish thing on the list.
9. Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters
I got all the way up to Conscience before I think I really had Ronon nailed down the way I wanted him (no pun intended). I went into that story with the intention of dealing with Ronon's thing about command structure, but it was only after a couple of my betas had been over it that I was really able to isolate the idea I was going at, which was that Ronon came from a very Confuscian sort of culture where he viewed knowing his proper place as a mark of honor, not as the cop-out that John, a hard-core Western individualist, is tempted to see it as. That cultural disconnect became really critical in shaping the way they dealt with each other and the very different ways they both deal with Rodney, and it was one of those things that I really had to write (several times) before I kind of got where I was going with it myself.
10. Hardest story to write
Probably Handsome Johnny, because I very badly wanted it to have that ground-level view of being a Marine, and I actually know precisely jack shit about the military. I always felt like I was struggling to figure out what Ford would have seen in his life and from what perspective he would have seen it, and since that was kind of the crux of the story, it was kind of an issue. He was supposed to be the *consummate* military kid, a real believer, and I still feel like I just don't know enough to pull it off (some people, in cases like this, will do research, but I kind of avoid that whenever possible *g*). If it hadn't been for those scenes in the research station (which I falsely called McMurdo -- see how little I know?), I think the story would have failed entirely.
11. Worst story
Hands down, Sharp. I had nothing this year for DWNOGA -- *nothing.* Actually, when I finally posted this story to the archive (not even on time, though Pet and Georgina were their usual charming and tolerant selves about it), I was literally on the verge of tears, because it's always been this huge point of pride for me that I don't post *anything* as a completed story on the internet unless I feel like I can stand behind it, and I was really pretty ashamed of Sharp. I went back and read it afterwards, after the deadline panic and all that had subsided, and I now think it's not as bad as I was originally convinced it was, but I'm still pretty irritable about it. It is fascinating in a sense, because it's so *me* in my raw state -- the one I rarely let y'all see *g*. All my habitual flaws are there -- floating dialogue with no sense of setting, time jumps to no particular purpose, very abstract, idea-centered narration with no propelling narrative arc. This is exactly the shit I'm usually very conscious about controlling and shaping up for a finished story, but because I was strapped for time and backed into a corner for story ideas, I didn't manage to do anything about them like I usually do. Guys, this is what all my writing would look like if I let myself get away with it.
12. Easiest story to write
Nothing Rhymes, because it's just purely for me, pure OT3 wish-fulfillment. I didn't worry about narrative arc or theme or canon or anything with this story, I just sat down and went, "Where would I *really like* to see AlphaCen wind up in the end?" and then I did everything just the way I felt like. It isn't even really a whole story: I'd *love* to write a whole post-AlphaCen story someday where they bring Ronon to Earth -- Rodney's cat attacks Ronon's hair! John and Ronon make out at the carnival! Teenage girls hit on Ronon at the mall! John can't get his boyfriends to fucking leave the Golden Corral! Nothing Rhymes is more like an excerpt from *that* story. *g*
13. Story I'd like to rewrite
The Fortune-Teller. There's a *ton* of really great post-Serenity character work that I burn up to use as set-up for this story, all of which could have been three times as long on its own, and the idea of Tara coming in and kind of filling Book's role as the ship's spiritual guide really appeals to me; I'd love to puzzle through how she would fit into Serenity, particularly how she'd relate to River and Mal, and as much as this story was about Kaylee's sexuality, it could have been, also or instead, about Tara's post-BtVS journey, and how she feels about the fact that it's led her to someone who is basically Willow with all of Willow's trauma and internal violence and bitterness stripped away. Is that a betrayal, to love someone who is basically a perfected version of the person you struggled so hard to make it work with? I don't know, there's like a whole fucking novel buried in this story, and while I don't kid myself that I ever really will find the time to go back and rewrite it at length, I think it would turn out pretty cool if I did.
14. Story I didn't write but will at some point, I swear
Right now, open and ongoing, I have a sga_flashfic amnesty entry for the Slave challenge -- yet another Justin/Trace epic for *my own challenge* that I blew off last summer -- a giant Teyla het epic that Terrie and Livia may rise up in revolt if I don't finish -- one and a half Instinctive Behaviors finished and two and a half more to go for a grand total of Sixteen -- a totally self-indulgent story about Nick Stokes and a small child -- a story about Willow and Tara that I've been writing since 2002 and may be the best thing I've ever written, if I can ever actually get it *written* -- a Smallville futurefic trilogy -- the Excruciatingly Long Timbertrick Magnum Opus I swore this time last year I'd finish in 2005 -- notes on a story where aliens make Rodney and Ronon get married and nobody can figure out why they won't get divorced and one where Ronon keeps trying to feed Elizabeth -- and Alpha Centauri 6, aka "The One Where John Splatters His Issues All Over Everybody (Some More)." Normally, I would consider this overambitious, but I WROTE SIXTEEN STORIES IN FIVE MONTHS. I AM A FUCKING GODDESS. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
What happened to me was Atlantis. I can't really explain why, but for, oh, almost a year before last August (really, ever since I wrote "Fire & Rain" over in popslash), everything I tried to write was a constant struggle. I couldn't nail anything down, I couldn't get words to line up, I didn't like them once I did, and I was basically really frustrated and slightly concerned. I've been doing this writing thing since about the fourth grade, and although this isn't the first dry spell I've hit, *it's unfun every single time.* I always worry that I won't get it back.
I started reading up on Atlantis fic last summer, but I didn't have any burning desire to write it until the sga_flashfic "Skirt" challenge came out. It was a day or two before the challenge closed, and nobody had yet written Carson in a great-kilt. Which I thought was a goddamn shame, because I love me a kilt. So I said to myself, "What the fuck, surely I can knock out one pitiful scene of kilt-porn. It's only flashfic."
From that day forth, I swear to you people, it was like someone set plastic explosives under a big, solid motherfucking door in my brain and blasted it wide open. I haven't been able to *stop* writing. About half the fic I've turned out has been Atlantis, but I quickly realized I now have the ability to open up old files that have been sitting pathetic and incomplete on my hard-drive for literally years, and run with them. You don't even know how many things I'm juggling right now, from fandoms all over the map, things I hadn't been able to make progress on since I don't even know when! I was writing so much, I actually had to update my website *g*
Anyway, I almost hate to declare a cut-off at this point, because I have a couple more stories coming out on scheduled deadlines pretty quickly, and I have at least two others that are almost done I swear it, but at some point you have to call it, so as of midnight on January 31, here's what I wrote and went live with in 2005:
Regimental (SGA, Beckett/Ford kilt-porn)
Handsome Johnny (SGA, Ford-centric gen/pre-slash)
Hope Chest (due South, Francesca-centric)
The Fortune-Teller (Firefly/BtVS, Kaylee/Tara)
Lexicon (Sentinel, Jim/Blair post-series)
Be Cool (SGA, Sheppard/McKay stoned-porn)
Outward Bound (Angel/SGA, Gunn/Ronon)
The Bee-Charmer (SGA, Teyla/Ronon schmoop)
as Betty Plotnick, Sharp (popslash, AJ/Justin)
and, of course, the 800-pound gorrilla of Hth's interior life this year, the Alpha Centauri stories -- Contact, Contraband, Conscience, Contagious, Prime, Perimeter, and Nothing Rhymes (SGA, Sheppard/McKay/Ronon)
Check me out! SIXTEEN!
Behind the cut, the same 14 questions I answered last year. Read on, those of you who just can't get enough of writers talking about their own work...
1. My favorite story this year (of my own)
Aside from the fact that, after a long dead zone as a writer, *every* story you write is your favorite just because it exists, I'm going to say Perimeter, because y'all know I love the sad ones. This was definitely a case of groundwork that had been laid paying off in the long run, because it's actually an incredibly complex, delicately balanced story that would have been murder to write, except I'd already written six other stories in this universe and devoted approximately 3.8 million hours to thinking about it, so in fact it was blissfully easy to know exactly what I wanted to do with it and how. Deciding where to stop and start the italics was pretty much the hardest part. *g* It just felt like a very graceful, rounded summation of who this version of Ronon is, growing organically out of canon and the other stories, and, uh. I like the sad ones. *g* I'm just really proud of this story.
2. My best story this year
Lexicon. There's not much in the way of Sentinel fandom anymore, which is kind of a pity, because, man, if I had written this in 1998, would I ever have looked cool doing it! *g* I could not, however, have written this story in 1998. It takes a certain control and restraint as a writer to do a very painful story, let alone one that definitively alters the characters forever, without just spraying pathos everywhere, and I don't think I've had that kind of restraint for very long (I still don't catch it with every story). This is a really intense subject for a love story -- "sickness and health" is easy to say, but how do you really face having to be somebody's caregiver forever, or receiving that kind of care when you're used to being the one who handles other people's problems? I just think it would have been very easy to fuck up, and I don't think I did. It's also a nice challenge for me because sensual detail is always such a chore for me as a writer, and writing from Jim's POV means you can't slack off on it for a second. I just think it's a story I attacked with a certain amount of precision that really makes it click.
3. Story most tragically underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion
Probably Lexicon again -- I got some wonderful feedback on it, but I think a lot of people haven't read it because of how out of fashion the fandom is. I don't know, honestly, I think my special BNF powers are really kicking in this year, because I actually wrote a lot more stories that got a much *better* response than I expected them to. Hope Chest probably didn't get its due, but I honestly didn't expect it to; Franny is one of those characters you write for yourself, not because you think a lot of people really give a shit. I think *she's* tragically underappreciated by the universe, but I've thought that for a while now.
4. Most fun story
I always struggle a bit with writing "fun" (*Oh, Christ, more banter? Do I have to? Can't I just slit somebody else's throat?*), but I think Be Cool is pretty awesomely fun. The idea for it came up, actually, at a Stargate party at this year's DragonCon, when
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5. Most sexy story
Contagious. I would really love to be able to say it was Prime, because anyone who knows me knows how I adore a good threesome -- and I do like that threesome -- but Contagious really does it for me because it has that whole "No, we can't! We mustn't! God, do it again!" tension to it that is probably my one and only truly *bulletproof* kink. All of my favorite sex scenes in stories are ones where they think they probably shouldn't be doing this, and I really worked that angle hard in Contagious -- and actually, on two levels at once, both with the threat of the retrovirus infection and in that larger metaplot sense of the potential repercussions on the John/Rodney relationship.
6. Story with single sexiest moment
I actually normally hate my sex scenes; writing sex is so damn hard, I just count myself lucky if I can get something down. My usual MO is to write a bunch of fairly standard-issue descriptions of sex and then lace them with one or two really nice moments of revelatory dialogue, so that I'm kind of obscuring the fact that the porn isn't that great with something that really gooses the relationship plotline along -- to me, the standout sex-related moments are almost always those moments of giving yourself away in the heat of it all, like Ronon's "Stay with me, with me, don't leave me, John" in Conscience or Ford trying to get Carson to say his name in Regimental or John comparing Rodney to a Puddlejumper in Be Cool. That said, as far as straight-up sex goes, there's a pretty good blowjob in Outward Bound.
7. Most unintentionally "telling" story
Some time after I wrote it, I realized that Perimeter is largely a story about depression, or rather, a description of my experiences with depression.
8. "Holy crap, that's *wrong,* even for you" story
As I age, actually, I'm writing less and less "wrong" stories and more and more full-on romances. I don't know what it is, but this year in particular (and I include in this some of the things I've worked on but that you won't see for a little bit still), I've really been working my inner, irony-free romance novelist. Honestly, I don't think I have a single freakish thing on the list.
9. Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters
I got all the way up to Conscience before I think I really had Ronon nailed down the way I wanted him (no pun intended). I went into that story with the intention of dealing with Ronon's thing about command structure, but it was only after a couple of my betas had been over it that I was really able to isolate the idea I was going at, which was that Ronon came from a very Confuscian sort of culture where he viewed knowing his proper place as a mark of honor, not as the cop-out that John, a hard-core Western individualist, is tempted to see it as. That cultural disconnect became really critical in shaping the way they dealt with each other and the very different ways they both deal with Rodney, and it was one of those things that I really had to write (several times) before I kind of got where I was going with it myself.
10. Hardest story to write
Probably Handsome Johnny, because I very badly wanted it to have that ground-level view of being a Marine, and I actually know precisely jack shit about the military. I always felt like I was struggling to figure out what Ford would have seen in his life and from what perspective he would have seen it, and since that was kind of the crux of the story, it was kind of an issue. He was supposed to be the *consummate* military kid, a real believer, and I still feel like I just don't know enough to pull it off (some people, in cases like this, will do research, but I kind of avoid that whenever possible *g*). If it hadn't been for those scenes in the research station (which I falsely called McMurdo -- see how little I know?), I think the story would have failed entirely.
11. Worst story
Hands down, Sharp. I had nothing this year for DWNOGA -- *nothing.* Actually, when I finally posted this story to the archive (not even on time, though Pet and Georgina were their usual charming and tolerant selves about it), I was literally on the verge of tears, because it's always been this huge point of pride for me that I don't post *anything* as a completed story on the internet unless I feel like I can stand behind it, and I was really pretty ashamed of Sharp. I went back and read it afterwards, after the deadline panic and all that had subsided, and I now think it's not as bad as I was originally convinced it was, but I'm still pretty irritable about it. It is fascinating in a sense, because it's so *me* in my raw state -- the one I rarely let y'all see *g*. All my habitual flaws are there -- floating dialogue with no sense of setting, time jumps to no particular purpose, very abstract, idea-centered narration with no propelling narrative arc. This is exactly the shit I'm usually very conscious about controlling and shaping up for a finished story, but because I was strapped for time and backed into a corner for story ideas, I didn't manage to do anything about them like I usually do. Guys, this is what all my writing would look like if I let myself get away with it.
12. Easiest story to write
Nothing Rhymes, because it's just purely for me, pure OT3 wish-fulfillment. I didn't worry about narrative arc or theme or canon or anything with this story, I just sat down and went, "Where would I *really like* to see AlphaCen wind up in the end?" and then I did everything just the way I felt like. It isn't even really a whole story: I'd *love* to write a whole post-AlphaCen story someday where they bring Ronon to Earth -- Rodney's cat attacks Ronon's hair! John and Ronon make out at the carnival! Teenage girls hit on Ronon at the mall! John can't get his boyfriends to fucking leave the Golden Corral! Nothing Rhymes is more like an excerpt from *that* story. *g*
13. Story I'd like to rewrite
The Fortune-Teller. There's a *ton* of really great post-Serenity character work that I burn up to use as set-up for this story, all of which could have been three times as long on its own, and the idea of Tara coming in and kind of filling Book's role as the ship's spiritual guide really appeals to me; I'd love to puzzle through how she would fit into Serenity, particularly how she'd relate to River and Mal, and as much as this story was about Kaylee's sexuality, it could have been, also or instead, about Tara's post-BtVS journey, and how she feels about the fact that it's led her to someone who is basically Willow with all of Willow's trauma and internal violence and bitterness stripped away. Is that a betrayal, to love someone who is basically a perfected version of the person you struggled so hard to make it work with? I don't know, there's like a whole fucking novel buried in this story, and while I don't kid myself that I ever really will find the time to go back and rewrite it at length, I think it would turn out pretty cool if I did.
14. Story I didn't write but will at some point, I swear
Right now, open and ongoing, I have a sga_flashfic amnesty entry for the Slave challenge -- yet another Justin/Trace epic for *my own challenge* that I blew off last summer -- a giant Teyla het epic that Terrie and Livia may rise up in revolt if I don't finish -- one and a half Instinctive Behaviors finished and two and a half more to go for a grand total of Sixteen -- a totally self-indulgent story about Nick Stokes and a small child -- a story about Willow and Tara that I've been writing since 2002 and may be the best thing I've ever written, if I can ever actually get it *written* -- a Smallville futurefic trilogy -- the Excruciatingly Long Timbertrick Magnum Opus I swore this time last year I'd finish in 2005 -- notes on a story where aliens make Rodney and Ronon get married and nobody can figure out why they won't get divorced and one where Ronon keeps trying to feed Elizabeth -- and Alpha Centauri 6, aka "The One Where John Splatters His Issues All Over Everybody (Some More)." Normally, I would consider this overambitious, but I WROTE SIXTEEN STORIES IN FIVE MONTHS. I AM A FUCKING GODDESS. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 04:13 pm (UTC)From:YES! YES! NOW YOU SEE THE GENIUS OF MY EVIL PLAN!! *cackles maniacally, rubbing hands and running around sekret underground lair, past giant
thronechair of doom and bubbling beakers of sekret formula!*no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 05:51 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 04:30 pm (UTC)From:Why, yes you are. Yes, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 05:52 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 07:03 pm (UTC)From:this is so totally one of the lines that dragged me into SGA fandom. I swear I walked around murmuring it to myself for a week solid and it keeps popping up randomly TO THIS DAY.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 05:54 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 06:03 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 07:41 pm (UTC)From:I've been avoiding SGA - I don't have cable (or a TV) right now, and I'm a starving grad student who can't afford the DVDs, so I thought I was safe, at least for a while, from being sucked into The Fandom That Ate My Friends List.
However, I did a last-minute beta for a friend's SeSa and got kinda-sorta a handle on who John and Ronon are, and then, just now, JUST BECAUSE YOU WROTE THEM, I read my way through the entire Alpha Centauri series and LIKED THEM. A WHOLE HECK OF A LOT.
*cries*
They really are quite wonderful (and ohmygoodness but they satisfy my threesome kink - and with only one actual threesome! how do you do it?), and I would love to see more of them and your characters are so richly developed and I would have been sad if I'd known avoiding SGA fandom meant avoiding these stories.
CurseThank you for sharing them.no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 05:56 pm (UTC)From:Glad to hear that you like AlphaCen! And it totally thrills my threesome kink, too, even with just the one technical threesome. I think of the whole thing as one *big* threesome, because, you know, wherever any of them are, the rest of them are so *present,* in one way or another. It totally counts!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 02:16 am (UTC)From:And TS is still very much a list oriented fandom, not as much on the LJ. You should post it to 852 or at least an announcement on SXF. I think there were so many stories at once in the ficathon that people got a little overloaded. (And anyone not on LJ would have missed it.)
It is wonderful that you haven't abandoned Instinctive Behaviors! You may remember my gushing on Prospect-L in the day ::blushes:: Still ranks among my all time favourite TS - even unfinished!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 05:59 pm (UTC)From:And don't worry about being bad at feedback. Really, pretty much nobody sucks at it as bad as me. (Anyway, gushing public recs are even better *g*)
*waves*
Date: 2006-01-06 01:38 am (UTC)From:So Hey! Happy Belated Secular New Year. *confetti dance*
Re: *waves*
Date: 2006-01-06 08:47 am (UTC)From:Feedback! :)
Date: 2007-02-26 12:41 am (UTC)From:Oh, please, with cherries on top?
Can I just say how much I loved Alpha Centauri? I finished it in 2 days (allright, yes, I mainlined it) and it was wonderful. Rodney/Ronon didn't used to be my thing, but you made me like it. With the Confucian vs Western independence, and PTSD, and how of them all Rodney could be considered the most emotionally stable. Oh, m'boys.
There were parts of it that I loved because of how they relate to my own life. (I can't remember if this is from AlphaCen specifically, because really I finished it and went on to your other stories) There was a part where Rodney's talking about the redhead skater he used to know, and how she's like John because he hadn't wanted anythin from them other than to make the world better by existing in it. And I thought, yes, that's it exactly, and maybe those would be the words that would get through to my girlfriend with.
Also, in case you ever wondered? The sex scenes are smokin'. Purely for the reason of all the dialogue, in my opinion; that part reads true to me (it's possible I'm just talkative in bed, but this is Rodney, right?). When it's a written medium like fic, purely descriptive terms of sex get old, fast. Your scenes don't, because the dialogue is always new.
I'm going to friend your journal, if that's OK. So that if you ever write more snippets or that sequel, I will be notified to commence fangirling immediately. :)