The Secretary Will Disavow Any Knowledge

I have a very specific way that I lose track of time. I obsessively count down minutes until about five minutes until my deadline. Then I blank out and don't regain any consciousness of "Hey, weren't you waiting for something?" until about 6-10 minutes after my deadline. It's kind of amazing. *sighs*

It's not everything, but it's a lot: How Defying Gravity Would Have Progressed, Straight From the Creator. It's not quite a Firefly hurt, that DG didn't make it, but it's pretty close. It's rare that I take such deep pleasure in a show, so quickly...but it's usually a pretty good sign that the show is DOOMED. I'm like TVphoid Mary.

I'm too tired to do either of these stories justice, but.

I had the great privilege of beta-reading darkrosetiger & telesilla's More Than One Answer; an AU of their Keptverse AU. As much as I love Question of Compromise (and it's attendant stories), I have to confess I've been wanting them to write this AU since nearly the start, give Dylan and Joe their chance to get it right, just once. Misc. Actor RPF: Dylan Neal/Joe Flanigan, Dylan Neal/Chris Pine, Dylan Neal/Joe Flanigan/Chris Pine. Slight familiarity is recommended, but it stands pretty well alone. (Link leads to Dreamwidth) ♥

I have yet to even comment on this story, but reading it was a great pleasure and I feel like I'd be terribly remiss if I didn't recommend Shameless by helen78. It's 98K+, and I read it over the weekend. If that's not a sterling recommendation, I don't know what is. Also Misc. Actor RPF with many pairings, so I'm just going to name off the main players and you can go see all the permutations: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, William Fichtner; minor roles by Viggo Mortensen (who kind of became my favorite, omg), David Wenham, Karl Urban and Wentworth Miller. Slave fic, BDSM fic, with an interesting take on the slave angle and some truly awesome kink. I really want everyone to read this just so I have people to talk about it with; it hits some really great narrative kinks right along with the kink kink. (Link goes to Dreamwidth)

Only a few hours left to sign up for mini_nanowrimo, if you're going to do it.

I've got 1400+ new words on Appetite in the last couple days. Nothing new on AKB yet, but it's in there, percolating. Definitely leaning toward yuletide (down to 11 fandoms; one was disqualified!) and considering prettylights, though I don't know if they'll be able to find me someone willing to write JDM. We are a mighty minority. *muses*

Okay. Losing functionality. Off to bed!

So, I've decided that I'm definitely not doing the official NaNo this year. It makes me really sad--much sadder than I would expect, actually--and mentally, I keep trying to figure out a way to make it work, but I know it's the smart thing to do. I haven't been writing anywhere near 1000 words a day, let alone the 1666 a day I'd need to make it. I have no idea what's going on with us (me & The Husband) in the month of November; I'll be out of work and he might be too (we're okay; it's the nature of the biz. Our project is coming to a close) or we could be moving somewhere else again for a new project. Who knows? Not us. Also, I'll be running the mini_nanowrimo community again this year (with one less mod) and it was just hell last year trying to do "official" nano and do all the modly type stuff and not live in armpit deep filth, so...I'm better off. But I'm still sad.

Which, in a roundabout way, is my way of saying, "Hey! mini_nanowrimo is open for business again!" The goal of mini-nano is to just write something every day. You can commit to as little as 100 words a day, for 30 days. It's open to all fandoms, pairings, and genres, including those red-headed stepchildren, RPF and original fiction. *g*

The really awful thing is that I'm contemplating the apocabigbang, even though a) I have all the previously mentioned problems, b) I have no idea and c) my track record with ficathons lately has been absolute suck. Clearly the lure of the apocalypse is strong. Like a riptide, one might say. I've recently been reading the collection of short stories, Wasteland and contemplating whether I finally have the mental/emotional fortitude to pick up The Road, as well as catching up on eps of The Colony, so clearly my mind is in an apocalyptic place. Unfortunately, this hasn't produced much creative spark. Ah, well.

I usually try and dedicate my NaNo time to a specific project. Even though I'm going mini, rather than maxi, I think I'm going to do the same this year and see if I can make some tracks on Appetite. It won't go away, lingering around my door and mooching for scraps and I think that's a sign of something. I'm feeling wobbly about it, but I also think I may have found a way to get past my giant stumbling block with it. It's a bit of a cheat, but only in my head.

While I'm rambling, I'd like to again rec nilchance's AKB spin off, That Middle Road. There's a lot of borrowing back and forth between our stories and a lot of behind the scenes collaboration about characterization between us, and...frankly, it's just a story that makes me very happy. If you're curious about AKB Jeremy Sisto, or AKB Misha, there's a lot more answers there than I'll probably be able to get to in the main arc.

In terms of other stories that simply make me happy, devilc is writing her own AKB epic over on IJ, regarding Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and Chris Kane. She just put out a new piece and I don't think I breathed once while reading it. She really captures the jagged, restless, dangerous aspect of Kane's personality and I'm flat out fascinated by her Homme. The overall series doesn't have a name; each chapter has it's own, but they're all tagged here. It's so incredibly good and I think it deserves a hundred more times the attention than it's getting. I know IJ can be a turnoff, but it's really worth the trip over.

There are some other stories that I've gotten to read pre-posting and I really cannot wait for them to be posted so I can rec them to high heaven. But alas. *twiddles thumbs restlessly*

Okay, time to get some adult-type things done. Otherwise I'll never be ready in time for Wincon.

WINCON, BABY!

First of all, I think Ten Inch Hero was a lesson in how my expectations of a movie can skew—or even make me miss—the point of a movie. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, musing on how my (initial) viewing of Ugly Betty was deeply flawed because of the expectation that Bradford (and later, Alexis) would be redeemed and how my viewpoint on Mohinder Suresh (Heroes) altered simply by the alteration of my perception of whether he was intended to be a hero or not.

A lot of the time, when I watch something for the first time, I am watching (or trying to watch it) openly. I'm not watching it with an eye to picking my favorite character, or my favorite pairing, I'm not trying to focus on any one character (particularly if it's an ensemble piece) or any one plotline, waiting somewhat passively to see what the author-creator presents me with. That doesn't stop me from making snap judgments entirely—see the above examples of UB and Heroes—but I try to keep those judgments and my expectations to a minimum.

What I realized with TIH is that my theoretical openness changes when I am watching the media for a particular actor. I came into TIH specifically for Jensen (as did most of 'us', I guess) and, since it took me so long to finally get to watch the movie, I was pretty thoroughly spoiled about Jensen's plotline. This bias—and the spoilage—led me to make certain assumptions about the movie, including the fact that I assumed that Jensen was the A plotline.

( Clearly, I was wrong. )


In other news, wrenlet wrote some AWESOME Virginal!Reid (Criminal Minds) with Naturally Occurring Phenomenon and mickeym wrote some "kink I didn't know I had" mpreg lactation (no, seriously, READ IT) fic with Undeniable Affirmation, which is set in my The Killing Moon universe. Both are DEEPLY hot and deeply satisfying, in completely different ways. I recommend them both!

Daily Count: 1,095
Weekly Count: 7,053
YTD: 14,100

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Flesh and Blood: 1,095 words. New, original thing; the one I'm writing for the submission call. It feels good so far, if still a little slow. Even so, if I write a thousand words a day over the next 10 (well, now 9), that still gives me a week to edit and get it in. That feels doable. We shall see how I fare.

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Happy birthday to my beloved sweptawaybayou, who I fangirled before I knew and fangirl MORE now that I know her. Happy, happy, HAPPY birthday, Snow!

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I Didn't Dream of Dragons by deepad

There's been a lot of discussion of Writing the Other in fannish circles lately; I really liked--and agreed with--what deepad had to say here:

One of the most frustrating arguments I’ve encountered is—If you hate it so much, stop bitching and write your own.

This naive position stems from the utopian capitalist belief that all markets are equal, and individuals are free to be what they can driven only by their inner divine spark.

and

When I was in class 7, our English teacher gave us the rare creative writing assignment, and three of my classmates wrote adventure stories about characters named Julian and Peggy and Tom. Do not tell me that this cultural fracture does not affect the odds required to produce enough healthy imaginations that can chrysalis into writers. When we call ourselves Oreos or Coconuts or Bananas (Black/Brown/Yellow on the outside, White on the inside)—understand the ruptures and bafflement that accompanies our consumption of your media while we resent and critique it.

and

It is not an equal playing field. This is like assuming that the one runner in India who perseveres in the face of poverty and institutional neglect and governmental lack-of-infrastructure will by virtue of her drive and passion be as good as the team of runners culled from the tens of thousands of children sent to athletic training camps in China for the express purpose of creating Olympic medallists.

Since I'm flitting around so much, writing-wise, I think the best thing for me to do is just post what I've worked on instead of the many, many things I'm NOT working on.

( State of the Writing. )

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Happy birthday to apieceofcake, flipmontigirl & greedy_dancer! I wish an excellent day--and year--to you all!

I read the best story last night. It was recced a while ago by svilleficrecs (who I trust pretty implicitly) and I've had it open in a tab ever since but I hadn't stirred myself to do more than glance at the first couple sentences.

I was actually thinking about closing the tab, shutting down for the night and instead...I fell into the story. HARD.

In her review, svilleficrecs said it was one of the most fucked up meet-cutes she'd ever seen...and she's completely right. But that kind of only makes the unspiraling of the story all the better. It starts off wrong (and I mean that in the absolute most complimentary way, believe me) and then gradually becomes more and more right, to an ending that left me with a huge feeling of satisfaction and a giant grin on my face.

It's original fiction, so you needn't worry about not being familiar with the fandom and it's really, incredibly good. It's I WOULD PAY FOR THIS STORY good. It's not your grandma's rom-com; there's some violence, dark, questionable sex, D/s themes, a little bit of dub-con, but OMG, it is SO INCREDIBLY good. I'm thinking I should reread it today.

Songs You Know by Heart by Dr. Noh.

And I woke up this morning to find that romanticalgirl had written MOST EXCELLENT Die Hard fic for me this morning. I don't want to say too much about this one because it's shorter, but oh. Oh, yes, that, please. All in all, it's shaping up to be a good day.

Live Free or Die Hard| Farrell/McClane| WAD Files by romanticalgirl

I've already professed my deep and profound love of inlovewithnight, but I'm about to do it again.

Her brain. Her shiny, shiny, BRILLIANT brain. OMG.

So I mentioned a while ago that she was writing a story in the AKB universe, Out of Joint. It stars Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four, Horatio Hornblower, etc.) and Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, etc.). Don't worry, you don't have to know who they are. Suffice it to say, they're pretty.

THE POINT is that she's writing this really gut-wrenching awesome story about two Brits stranded in the USNA. And, of course, when Ioan loses his job, the only way to save him is for Matthew to buy him. Kicking off a whole powder keg of complications.

But that's just the set up. What you need to know about this story is that the emotions are so thick you can't even cut them with a Ginsu knife. It's the story of a relationship on the brink of going down in flames, even though both people are trying their damndest to hang on and hold on. It's a story about really ugly, painful choices that are the best choices available to you...and they still may not be enough. It's a love story. With all the pain and glory that goes with it.

And it needs to be read.

Out of Joint 1

Out of Joint 2

Out of Joint 3 NEW!

Sometimes I wonder about a life where my idea of decadence equals "a day I didn't write anything". *laughs* But I did do a lot of reading for a change. I think I've read more fanfic in the past day than in the past six months. Decadence, indeed.

Whatever you celebrate, I hope you've had wonderful days...however you define your terms. Now let me share with you some things Wot I Have Read and Loved.

Non-Yuletide Recs:

Naughts and Crosses by girlguidejones
SPN. Sam/Dean. Heartverse.
I love when other people write in Heartverse. Especially when they do so for me. GGj asked me what I wanted and I asked for schmoopy futurefic. She gave me a piece of my favoritest schmoopy futurefic in the whole world. *g* And did so damn well. I read this whole thing with a grin on my face.

Pathoheterodoxy Syndrome by devilc (and it's follow up/companion stories) (IJ link)
RPF. AKB 'verse. Damien Lewis and Josh Homme.
My favorite AKB stories are when people pick up new perspectives, new points of view in the universe. Here, devilc has taken a interesting look into Commerce and its agents (something I've been HOPING someone would do) and ties it back to the events from kellifer_fic's And Paid For in ways I find both sensible and intriguing. I also really liked getting an outsider POV on Jeff, Jensen, Kane, etc.

Burn Up Hard and Bright by inlovewithnight
Friday Night Lights. Brian (Smash)/Matt.
This one was written for me for the Catchallthon. I asked for Matt in college and his 'gay renaissance'. She gave me back something that is much better than the sum of those parts. I love the way she writes Matt. Well, I love the way she writes, period. But I think that she has a really excellent FEEL for Matt and it's expressed perfectly here.

Yuletide Recs (authors as yet unknown):

Carpe Diem
Gosford Park. Mary Maceachran/Robert Parks. Okay. So here's my thing about Yuletide. I'm very polyfannish but I'm also very picky. And so I'm always looking for the story I always wanted but didn't KNOW that I wanted until I read it. The one that soothes all those places that send you looking for fanfic in the first place. This is one of those stories. The fact that it was written for me doesn't hurt either. *g*

Ten Steps Ahead as Always
Gosford Park. Mary Maceachran/Robert Parks. I really lucked out with three stories. This one was closer to the letter of my request and captures the same sweetness but also the near-invisibility of the servants and their lives, taken up in the between moments of tending their masters.

Control
Dante's Cove. Ambrosius. Ambrosius/Kevin.
Man, I thought I was going to have to kill somebody (or just use Tresum) to get some Ambrosius fic. This soothes the ache nicely and I love how...relentless the prose is. It's perfectly suited to Ambrosius's personality and really does a great job of capturing how Ambrosius sees Kevin, his unwilling knight in shining armor.

The Tender Things That We Were Working On
Breakfast Club. Brian/John. Futurefic. OMG, I just want MORE of this. I really like how it picks up; a life in medias res.

The Door in the Mountain-side Shut Fast
Footloose. Vague Ren/Willard UST.
Voice is very important to me. This captured the movie's voice, if that makes sense. Less Ren's city boy splashing into small town life than the life of the town and the people it's shaped.

Hereditas Damnosa
Rome. Octavian/Maecenas. Octavian/Anthony.
Short, sharp and brutal piece about Octavian and how he becomes who he is.

In Which Worlds Collide and Eeyore Investigates a Terrible Crime
Winnie the Pooh/Discworld. Gen.
Excellent voices for both worlds, seamless crossover. And an awesome illustration! Who could ask for anything more?

In It Wait
A Companion to Wolves. Gen(ish).
How Vethulf and Skjaldwulf work things out while Isolfr's gone.

I Could Never Be Your Woman
Ugly Betty. Christina/Daniel. Cross-dressing.
I love the absolute hot, dirtybadwrong of this. And the Christina voice is excellent. I'd love to see a whole universe of this.

One Minute, Counting
Pushing Daisies. Gen. Emerson.
Note perfect.

Harold to the Infinite Power
Stranger Than Fiction. Harold Crick gen.
Harold Crick is introduced to the world of fanfic. In general, I'm not crazy about the "so and so finds fanfic" trope, but for this fandom and with this writer it rises above the level of "trope" and is just a really good story.

The absolute absurdity of end-series items
Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves. Gen.
Great voice. Tackles the female perspective (or lack thereof) in the original.

I will confess that I haven't had time to read every story that's been written in the AKB universe, but I was really SO looking forward to this one that I kind of dropped everything to read it. And I feel like my patience and my eagerness were duly rewarded.

Horse, by trishabooms. It's Cate Blanchett/Brian Austin Green and it's extremely smart and extremely powerful for such a short piece. I really hope that everyone will read it and shower lots of love on her and I hope that her muse will be inspired to create more!

I'm kind of exhausted, so I can't give this the superlatives it deserves, but the truly AMAZING nu_breed podficced ALL OF LIGHT 'VERSE. ALL OF IT. Can you dig it? And besides being hugely flattered, I think you should go download the file and give nu_breed LOTS AND LOTS OF LOVE. ♥

So, I'll have the next piece of AKB up later today. (You're very lucky; I've had this part done...oh, almost since I started the story, gods help me) However, before y'all get used to this kind of output, I AM going to Wincon at the end of the week. And I don't write well while traveling. So. Nothing from Thursday through Monday at the VERY least. Barring miracles or unprecedented creativity. *petpet* I'm sure that darkrosetiger, telesilla, inlovewithnight, kellifer_fic and epeeblade (and maybe others! *bounce*) will keep you occupied while I'm gone.

I'm probably not going to keep announcing new AKB spin-offs here; if you want to keep up with it, I really recommend watching or joining whatwekeep. People have been really excellent linking through it and there's already so much stuff that I'm amazed. However. kellifer_fic has been delightfully susceptible to my whispers in her ear and wrote And Paid For, which features Jeff, Jensen, Jared and Chad...but a wonderfully evil Milo Ventimiglia and a sinister behind-the-scenes Adrian Pasdar. I am not so secretly hoping for more.

telesilla has posted more of her awesome Under Lock and Key (Dylan Neal/Kyle Schmid) here and darkrosetiger wrote the Joe Flanigan POV of telesilla's As Near to Love (As Love Will Ever Be) here: Are You On Fire (From the Years)? (Joe Flanigan/Dylan Neal).

epeeblade posted a really intriguing gen piece here regarding the (or maybe 'a') Catholic stance on the 'verse.

Good stuff.

Now here's the part where I come begging. Below the cut is a list of music that I'd like/am looking for. If you have (and would be willing to upload for me) any of the music listed, I'd be ever so appreciative. I have a long plane ride ahead of.

( Help me, Flisty-Wan-Kenobi...you're my only hope. )

For those of you who might not be tracking, darkrosetiger has posted Part 3 of A Question of Compromise (David Hewlett/Jason Momoa/Joe Flanigan) and inlovewithnight has posted the second part of Out of Joint (Matthew Rhys/Ioan Gruffudd), both set in the AKB 'verse.

The spn_remix fics are up at spnremixfics! 32 shiny new fics!

You know, there's always this Christmassy element of "Oooh, I wonder what story someone's going to pick! I wonder what they're going to do with it?" Most of the time, these days, I try not to speculate too much about how the story will turn out. Mostly because I find expectation itself can ruin the experiencing of a story. If I hype something up too much in my head, then pretty much EVERYTHING is bound to be unable to live up to that level of anticipation. Whereas if I anticipate nothing, then anything that comes is a pleasant surprise.

However. This story lives up to any level of expectation or anticipation I might have had. You guys know my love of Remix. I've talked about it enough. And whoever this wonderful writer is, they've taken everything I really love about remix--and several personal quirks--and put it together in a story that I just... I just ADORE.

The original story, Where the Frighten Crawl, was something really experimental and weird, but I kind of love it anyway. And the remixer really took it and turned it inside out in a way that COMPETELY RETAINS the emotional line while transposing it to a new setting. It's great. It's just so great. Flicker.

WHOEVER YOU ARE, ANONYMOUS AUTHOR, BLESSINGS UPON YOUR HOUSE. You have made me most deliciously happy today!

(I'm totally dating myself with that, aren't I?)

Okay, so I was lying on my couch being sick and miserable when inlovewithnight (whom I now owe large sums of cash and other favors to) emailed me to tell me she was daydreaming about Matthew Rhys (Brothers and Sisters) and Ioan Gruffudd in the A Kept Boy universe.

(As usual, you really DO NOT need to know who these men are, only that they are pretty and Night is BRILLIANT)

And I whined and cried and emotionally and financially blackmailed her until she posted it (because she's indulgent with me like that). And you should ALL GO AND READ IT. The relationship here really will set all your little slasher hearts to singing, I SWEAR.

Out of Joint. Go. Read. You won't be sorry

I have emailed my spn_remix off to the mod! Of course, that's really the only thing I've accomplished today. Whatever plague The Fiancee brought home is digging itself deeper. I slept most of the day and every time I wake up, I just feel worse. I think eating dinner may have been a major miscalculation on my part. *grumbles*

Remarkably enough, I don't have much navel gazing to do this time around. The idea for the remix came almost immediately, there was no heavy Kink-PT drama in the writing and I'm actually very satisfied with the way it turned out. My biggest source of durm und strang is that I want to unveil it NOW, because I'm so uncharacteristically happy with how it turned out. But I can be patient. Especially if I spend the rest of this week sleeping the way I did today.

It does raise the question of fannish appropriation for me, though. Sometimes when I've remixed stories--and as is the case here--I've written something that I'd actually like to springboard off of into a further story or stories. But then the proprietary issues get a little weird. Some authors don't mind when people play in or riff off their universes. Other writers are horrified by the idea (which...seems a LITTLE funny, considering what we do and our Issues with authors that make a big stink about fanfic...but that's certainly their prerogative and I'm not comfortable fucking with someone else's comfort zone, even when its not mine). And for me, at least, it's a slightly different proposition when someone wants to riff off your story or write in your universe (like the DELIGHTFUL darkrosetiger is doing with A Kept Boy--go read!) versus saying, "Hey, I remixed your story and I'd like to create a new universe from it. How do ya feel about that?"

It's possible I'm splitting the hair too fine, I don't know. When I remixed kellifer_fic's story for kamikazeremix, I actually ended up discarding my first story idea because it would change the pairings in the story in a way that I didn't feel was in the spirit of the challenge (even though Kel had offered permission for her writer to do that). But the idea still pinged me and I periodically think about trying to write something similar that isn't quite so much Kel's story...but I suspect it would just end up being too much of a rip-off and so I end up discarding it again.

I probably won't do anything further with my spn_remix story, either and it's not as though I'm lacking for universes to play in, gods know. But with the steady erosion of my various 'lines',its interesting to note those that still remain and what they're made of.

And now, for something completely different...

I tried to watch Shelter. And I was LOVING IT. And...Netflix's copy crapped out halfway through and wouldn't play. I requested a new copy. I WILL PERSEVERE.

And while we're on the topic, sort of, those of you who liked Latter Days will ADORE this original story that stoney321 wrote: And It Came To Pass. You all know me and long fics. So when I actually buckle down and read one, it's something special. This is a beautiful 7 part story about two Mormon boys that fall in love. But more than that, it's a genuine coming of age story for her protagonist, Brandon; a story that's as much about growing up and finding yourself and figuring out what you want as it is about the HEA. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Seriously.

I ran across a pimp for the community queer_as_tv on my flist and toddled over to check it out. It's clearly very fledgling; it was started by bayamiod as part of her grad school project, but it looks like it could be an interesting place to discuss the representation of LGBT characters and issues in television. Mayhap you'd like to check it out too?

Okay, *I* have spent the day trying to finish my spn_remix story, as it is due in 6 days (I have triumped, btw, \o/) and so I have no PT fic for you.

BUT.

inlovewithnight, who can only be infrequently seduced into SPN, has succumbed to the Castiel love and has written Chosen. Which, imho, is PERFECT. Just perfect.

So, to recap: inlovewithnight, Chosen. Castiel gen fic. PERFECTION.

So a little while ago, I mentioned that darkrosetiger's been working on a...spin-off (can I co-opt that word for this?) of A Kept Boy using actors from Stargate: Atlantis. And she's been TEASING me. OMG, the cock(clit?) teasing that's been going on. Torture. Pure torture.

But TODAY, she has put an end to my suffering and posted the first chapter of her opus. And I NEED MOAR. So. I am asking--nay, BEGGING--all you kind people to hop on over to THIS POST RIGHT HERE and read it and tell her how brilliant she is. Truly, you don't even HAVE to be familiar with the actors in question, though Jason Momoa is the very hot dreadlocked guy in my icon there. *points* You know, if that helps at all. *coughs*

I know it's Rex Manning Day and all, but trust me, it's worth it.

So I think it's pretty obvious that I'm fairly well obsessed with the whole A Kept Boy universe right now. And darkrosetiger has been teasing and thrilling me with the idea that she's going to write me some Jason Momoa/Joe Flanigan/David Hewlett fic set in that universe. Which...WOW. Yay! I mean...there's just NO BAD THERE.

So she's been teasing me, like I said, coming up with awesome ideas--both about what she wants to do, and stuff about world building that I am shamelessly stealing overjoyed at collaborating with her on. But. It's all a WIP. There's been no actual, you know, FIC.

Well. Then she laid THIS on me today. Oh, YEAH. Yeah, like THAT.

Please, mistress, may I have another?

Okay, after some HEROIC EFFORTS on our part, all the assignments for kamikazeremix have been sent! If you signed up and did NOT get you assignment, please let me or girlguidejones know IMMEDIATELY.

Okay, so I've recced kishuku's last Sundown fic because I'm constantly amazed at how well she NAILED Sundown's version of Michael Weatherly and humanized a character that's often the villain of the piece without making him any less complex. Or nicer. It takes a really fine hand to do that, imo, and I geek out on it every time. Her Michael is MY Michael. Well, she went and did it again.

One of the things I really like about kishuku's Michael stories is that she doesn't gloss over the ugliness of the situation at La Hacienda. It's a sanctuary but it's also a prison in many ways and she doesn't shirk that balance of safety and peril. If you like sundownverse, I really highly reccommend reading her latest, Picture This. And I recommend giving her LOTS of love, because damn, she can write the hell out of Michael. For serious.

It's been a good day.

Reminder! Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to sign up for kamikazeremix! We're really excited about the people who've already signed up, but there's always room for a few more!

I also come bearing recs:

Morning Coffee by kellifer_fic

Kel is on the short list of people who is welcome to write in any of my universes, any time and this short, sweet ficlet is the reason why. Kel told me she had a wee bunny for my Die Hard universe and I begged shamelessly encouraged her to go with it. Morning Coffee is the result and it's...just perfect. Go. Read. And give feedback.

Whoever Brings the Night by epeeblade

It's JDM/JA AU wherein epeeblade takes a pretty cracky cliche premise (but one I still fall for over and over again) of the Space Opera and then infuses it with a deeper sense of chararcter than one normally sees in the genre.

It's a kink premise (Dom/sub), but she doesn't fall into the stereotypical trap of dom=strong/sub=weak. It's an interesting character study and I hope she continues with it.

There are times that I feel really bad that Michael Weatherly ended up being the/a villain of sundownverse. I mean, first of all, I'm sure he's a very nice person, really. And secondly, you know, VILLAIN. It was my idea to include him and to make his relationship with Jensen (and by extension, Jared) less than harmonious. And, as the stories brynwulf and I have written are from Jared or Jensen's POV, it's been pretty impossible to present Michael as much more than "The Villain", but I always knew that there was more to Michael than that.

Enter kishuku.

What amazes me most about what she's done here is that--without previously talking to me or brynwulf about what makes Michael tick, she's completely NAILED the Michael I've always had in my mind. Just...stuck it like an Olympic gymnast's landing. And what I love even more is that, in doing so, she didn't "fix" him. I really don't like it (most of the time) when someone takes an asshole character and turns him into a giant misunderstood woobie when, canonically, it just doesn't fit. But kishuku doesn't do that! She makes Michael a complicated, messed-up three dimensional character...who is still the same person he is in "canon" (clearly, for a given value of canon).

It's impossible to describe my glee, but if you like sundownverse at all...even if you don't like "our" Michael...I think you'll really like this:

All In a Day's Work by kishuku.

(and let's not even get me STARTED on how excited it makes me to have someone playing in the Sundown universe! *bounces*)