So I never post anymore (you may have noticed). But this, this was worth breaking radio silence for: fan_eunice has posted a Once A Thief vid! It's fun and it's bouncy and it's fun!

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Once A Thief, if you don't know, is a Canadian TV show that aired for one season back in 1997. It was based on a John Woo movie of the same name, and in fact the show pilot was a remake of the movie (with somewhat different characters and plot). The main characters are secret agents working for a Shadowy Government Agency. They fight evil with martial arts. The show is campy, uneven, delightfully slashy, and does not take itself very seriously at all except for when it does.

The full series aired in Canada and Australia but never, I think, in the United States. One of the agents was played by Nicholas Lea, who also played Krycek in the X-Files, and most of the fannish interest arrived via X-Files fandom. In fact I think I may be the only person in the entire world who got into fandom via Once A Thief as opposed to vice versa.

I saw bits and pieces of the series during its original run on broadcast. I liked the show very much, but had no way to catch the episodes I'd missed. These were ye olden days; I didn't even own a VCR. Watching the show, I was convinced that before every single scene, the director told all of the actors "and by the way, you secretly want to have sex with each other." It was THAT SLASHY. Except I didn't know what slash was yet. But when searching the still-relatively-young internet for episode summaries (I mean, I was probably searching with Alta Vista, folks), I stumbled across a fic about the two male leads having sex while hiding in a closet.

I was like ... OH. WOW. So I'm not the only one who thought they were totally hot for each other!

And thus I discovered fanfic. And slash. Which I didn't even realize weren't synonymous until years later when I jumped into That '70s Show fandom (a weird and brief blip between my Once A Thief and my Buffyverse stages).

Sadly, it was a very hard fandom to pimp, since barely anyone had seen the show and it wasn't out on DVD. I had a set of episodes on VHS tapes via the old-fashioned fannish copy-and-snailmail network; I also in fannish desperation paid $40 at one point for a set of DVDs that had been *ahem* pirated off of TV by some guy.

But now things have changed! The DVDs have finally been released! (They came out in June of this year; I only heard about it a couple of weeks ago and I now have my box set sitting on my desk, yippeee!)

And ... a vid! Have you watched it yet? You should go and watch it and comment, too! :-D

Comments at Dreamwidth:

reena_jenkins has posted a collection of podfics, put together in an album she has called The Intangible Residuum. I am honoured to have had a fic included—my Buffyverse Alphabet!

Also, someone has nominated my little fic Five Superpowers Xander Is Not Sorry, Upon Reflection, That He Doesn't Have for the Sunnydale Memorial Awards. Thanks, mysterious someone!


Comments at Dreamwidth:

Hello, world. How's it going? Me, I've been okay, but busy and tired and somehow drained of all creativity. I just went about three months without writing a word of fiction, which may actually be the longest fallow period I've had since I was six years old. I mean, three months without posting—sure, no big deal. Three months without writing, though? I turned around and realized I'd lost a part of myself. Eeep. But even this realization happened in a context of things opening up and my energy starting to come back—spring is here, the academic year has finished, and my husband has just quit his job (which is a good thing!).

So yesterday I realized I could write again, and it felt really good. I set the bar low: a "five things" story with drabble chapters. A gently attainable goal. And I finished it today!

500 words. Gen.

Five Superpowers Xander Is Not Sorry, Upon Reflection, That He Doesn't Have

( Read more... )

Comments at Dreamwidth:

Hello, world! Although I'm not really active in fandom these days, I have recently been quietly working on a short Spike/Xander story. My stories tend to sprawl, and at this point in my life I just don't have time for sprawling, so I challenged myself to write something self-contained and complete. And now it's finished and I get to post it. Hooray! I hope you like it.

Story Info
Fandom: BtVS & AtS
Rating: Teen & Up (for a bit of swearing, a bit of violence, a bit of sex)
Length: 8,184 words (complete!)

This is a post-Chosen AU in which Xander finds Spike's amulet in the wreckage of Sunnydale. When he picks it up, something interesting happens...

Many thanks to yourlibrarian for beta-reading, and for coming up with a few good lines that I was happy to snag!

Seeing Is His Superpower

When they went back to the Sunnydale site to make sure the Hellmouth was closed for good, Buffy and Willow nearly left Xander behind.

"You've done enough already," Buffy said to him, in that eggshell-gentle tone they'd all been taking with him lately. "Anyway, it's probably going to be really boring. Just Willow walking around doing a bunch of incantations and me standing guard."

"I want to go," Xander insisted. "Hey, you never know. Maybe I'll see something you guys miss." ( Read more... )

Comments at Dreamwidth:

Number of drabbles I have written, ever: 11

Number of these that have been about weddings: 7 (= 63.6%)

Number of words in my complete collection of posted fanfic to date, excluding drabbles: 581,000

Number of these words having to do with weddings: 450 (= 0.08%)

Comments at Dreamwidth:

Remember back when I said that I was working on finishing a seven-year-old WIP in an obscure fandom? I'm done!

I'm still dubious whether anybody's going to read it (the fandom is tiny!) but I sure had fun writing it, anyway. yourlibrarian is so awesome that she actually watched the entire series so that she could beta read for me! She's always a joy to work with, and I'm really grateful for her insightful input, her encouragement, and her close reading!

So hey, how about I give you some details?

Title: Family
Author: Shadowscast
Fandom: Once A Thief
Pairing: Mac/Michael, Mac/Li Ann, Mac/Vic
Rating: Mature
Summary: Family is a complicated thing for Mac Ramsey.
Warnings: Please note that chapters 1 and 2 contain some potentially disturbing sexual scenes due to abuse and control issues. There are sexual situations involving dubious consent.
Length: Long! 172,986 words.
Status: Complete, woohoo!

Notes: It took me seven years to complete this story. I started posting it as a WIP to a Once A Thief mailing list back in 2003. Then I left it hanging for a really, really long time ... but I started working on it again in March of 2010, and I finished it last night. Yay!

I hope there are still some interested readers out there, after all this time. If you do read it, I'd love to hear from you.

Link: Family

If you don't know the fandom but might want to give the story a try anyway, here's what you really need to know: The characters are secret agents. And they're hot. :-)

Comments at Dreamwidth:

I've been watching WALL-E a lot lately (because my toddler likes it). I got to thinking about the many parallels between WALL-E and Battlestar Galactica. It amused me, so I drew up a list.

( Cut for spoilers for both WALL-E and BSG. )

For a slightly different take on it all: I checked out AO3 and was delighted to find a gorgeous little WALL-E/BSG crossover fic! Merry-Go-Round by Nope.

Comments at Dreamwidth:

Hey, so, quite recently, I finished an epic rewatch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. I use the word "epic" because I was doing this rewatch with a friend, and it took us five years to complete. (It didn't help that during that time, he moved to Seattle for a year and I had a baby and, well, life sure does get in the way of TV-watching sometimes, doesn't it?)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun! But after rewatching AtS in particular, I've found that there are a few plot points that are bugging me. And tonight, I feel like sharing, so I will describe them at length! (Um, this is my first meta in oh my goodness a long time. Please be gentle?)


1) ( The Shanshu Prophecy )

2) ( The Apocalypse )

3) ( The Perfect Happiness )

4) ( Those damn Cyborg Ninjas )

Comments at Dreamwidth:

Hello out there!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hanging out with a new RL friend who is also fannish, and she reminded me that I haven't updated this journal for quite a while. It is true! (Also she washed my dishes while I was occupied with my 2-year-old kid. the_shoshanna, you rock.)

So here's what's up with me, fandom-wise:

I'm still working on the seven-year-old stalled WIP from my first fandom, Once A Thief. It's giving me an inordinate amount of pleasure to be working on that story again, even though I'm unconvinced that anybody will read it once it's done. Better yet, yourlibrarian has offered to beta-read it for me, starting by actually watching the whole darn television series!

Speaking of friends who are wonderful (I seem to be blessed with a lot of them!), a couple of my RL friends are looking after my kid several days a week this summer, allowing me to have some relaxing solitary time during my summer hiatus from teaching. Some of this time will most certainly be spent writing, oh my yes.

I'm starting to kick a few new Buffyverse ideas around in my head, too. Of course the problem is that I find it difficult to write anything short, but I'd really like to write something that I can finish before the summer's over. So, hm, we'll see what comes of that.

Meanwhile, I'm really excited, proud and grateful to have received several fandom awards for the one story I wrote last year! Thanks to whoever out there nominated me, and also to everyone who put in the work to make these fandom awards happen.

Pretty banners behind the cut, as well as links to the awards sites so you can go find lots of good stories to read.

( Click to see. )

Oh hey, if you missed the story when I posted it last fall and want to check it out now, here it is. (Spike/Xander, circa season 7, with a time loop!)

On AO3: Longest. Day. Ever.
At Fall for S/X: Longest. Day. Ever.

*hugs* to you all. See you around!

Comments at Dreamwidth:

So, remember how I said back in November that I needed to give up fandom for a while?

I realized about three weeks ago that I need to come back.

Okay, specifically: I needed to start writing again. Writing is my creative outlet, it's my play. All work and no play make Homer go crazy. So I did (go a little crazy) and then I did (start writing again), and so here I am.

Except what I'm writing right now isn't my current S/X WIP. It isn't even Buffyverse. I've picked up a stalled WIP from my very first fandom, Once A Thief. This is a story that I hadn't updated in seven years. It's been stuck, unfinished, since May 2003. It was about 120,000 words long when I stopped. I'd tried many times over the years to get back to it, but I never could manage a single word. And this is the story that's writing itself now whenever I get my fingers to a keyboard.

I realize there may be nobody left in the entire world who's interested in reading it, but apparently I need to write this story.

Meanwhile, I've also opened up a shiny new Archive of Our Own account, and am experimenting with uploading my old stories. I just started with a couple of really short ones, but the interface is really nice and they look very pretty there, plus it gives me a nice sense of accomplishment. So I'll probably keep going with that, as I find time.

ETA: On AO3, I'm Shadowscast, as always!

Comments at Dreamwidth:

It's my posting day at Fall for S/X! I've just posted my story:

Longest. Day. Ever.

Rating: Mature
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Length: 14,000 words
Summary: I play with the Groundhog Day trope. Spike and Xander live with the consequences.
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, and I'm not making any money.



What with having a toddler and working overtime and all, this is the only complete story I've written this year. I actually wrote it over the summer and then held onto it until now so that I'd have something for Fall for S/X. Now I'm nervous as hell—I hope it's well-received!

In my latest attempt to efficiently keep track of good stuff I've read, I've just started up a Delicious account. (At http://delicious.com/shadow.fic, because "shadowscast" was already taken, can you believe it?!) Right now all I've got marked are three Harry/Draco post-series fics, because that's what I was reading over the weekend.

I've also done a little poking around at Delicious, and it seems pretty neat. For instance, I can see who else has bookmarked the same fics I've bookmarked, and then see what other fics those same people have bookmarked with similar tags. Nifty! This seems like a promising way to find good fics. (Or at least it will be the next time I have time to read again after today, which is looking like, um, Christmas. Oh well!)

But right away I saw a dilemma -- when you use the site this way, you see the summaries that everyone else has written for their bookmarks. Such as, for instance, details about the plots of stories.

If I write my bookmark summaries with an intended audience of me, I'm liable to include all sorts of plot spoilers for the stories (since I'm trying to give myself the ability to remember which story was which if I want to reread them years from now). On the other hand, if I keep my summaries non-spoilery as a courtesy to other people who might cruise my bookmarks looking for stuff to read, then I also have to make them less informative.

So what I'm wondering is -- is there some sort of established Delicious code of conduct? Rules of etiquette, unspoken or otherwise?

Comments at Dreamwidth:

As per my recent habit, I'd like to let you know about a good fic that I read recently: The Worst Journey in the World, which shapinglight wrote for the Plot Without Porn ficathon. Post-NFA Buffy, Spike and Wesley, with sled dogs, bad weather, and a questionable plan. I enjoyed it very much.

***

So, Dreamwidth? How's that going? I still really like the idea of it, and the new reading filter functionality that they're promising to unroll this week sounds very cool, but from the looks of it, my actual flist is still pretty much LJ-based. So I guess my plan for now is to cross-post everything, and leave comments open everywhere. (On the rare occasions when I actually post, that is!)

***

Hey, I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series! I am now halfway through The Chamber of Secrets. I'm enjoying it very much. I'm getting much stronger fic-reading urges than I did the first time through—I think, when all is said and done, that I'm a closed-canon kind of girl. I like knowing the whole original story before I embark on the magical, neverending journey that is fanfic!

I don't think I'm likely to make the leap to writing Potterverse fic any time soon, though. Way too much work to figure out how to sound British enough. It's hard enough managing with Spike and Giles, and at least they're largely operating in an American environment. (Not that I'm American, either—but I can fake it much more easily!)

Comments at Dreamwidth:

I was in the mood for Harry Potter tonight, partly because of seeing the new movie a few weeks ago and partly because I was just chatting about it with a couple of RL friends.

So I went browsing through crack_van, and found a story and a vid to enjoy.

The story is The Courtship of Benjamin Jink by atdelphi, and it's Snape/Slughorn slash (seriously!), and the writing is just lovely.

Let me show you a little bit!

( The story is set post-series, so don't click if you're still avoiding spoilers. )

Secondly, a vid: Beautiful Struggle by nightchik. It's a gen vid, not a shippy one, and I'm not sure how to describe it because I totally don't have a language for talking about vids. I just liked it.

***

By the way, I'm writing! I'm working on "That Good Night." It'll be a while still before I have anything ready to post, but I just wanted to let you know. It's not dead, it's just resting!

I'm sitting in an air-conditioned coffee shop drinking a coffee slushie that is probably going to keep me up way too late tonight. And I just wrote a drabble! I hope you like it.

The Happiest Day

They make it through the vows without a hitch. The kiss is beautiful, storybook. Not a dry eye in the house.

Floating across the dance floor with his new bride Buffy in his arms, Angel can’t remember ever feeling so happy before. So perfectly happy.

Later, once everybody’s wounds are bandaged and they’ve taken up a collection to reimburse Willow for the Orb of Thesulah, Angel sits down next to Spike on the steps out back.

Spike raises an eyebrow at him, lights a second cigarette. His knuckles are bloody.

“So,” Angel says, “Tell me about that demon in Africa.”

Comments at Dreamwidth:

Yesterday, I completed a fic! ::insert squeal of glee::

It's a standalone Spike/Xander story in which I play with the Groundhog Day trope (a thing I've wanted to do since practically forever). And man, would I like to post it right now! But ... I think I'm gonna wait. I'd really like to participate in Fall For S/X (as I have every year since my Writercon 2 roommates talked me into it, even if in the Autumn of the Newborn Baby I only managed a tiny 200 word-ish slice of life thing in place of an actual fic). And I suspect I'm not going to have a chance to complete anything else before December 21st, keeping in mind my general inability to keep a fic down to less than 10,000 words!

So hey you guys, does anybody know for sure if Fall for S/X is happening this year?

Okay, in other news, as soon as I finished writing my own Spike/Xander story, I went off and read somebody else's! So now I have a rec for you:

Xander Harris vs Destiny by cordelianne, reremouse, and savoytruffle

Okay, not that there are probably many people on my flist who missed this when it first came out, but still! I just read it this morning, so I'm reccing it, darn it. It's a lighthearted, sexy road trip with a mystery built in. Or something like that, anyway! And it all makes sense in the end. (And oh man, now I understand the title!)

ETA: I have a Fall for S/X posting date—September 23rd. Woot!

Um hey, remember when I said that I'd be trying to keep up some kind of minimal level of fannish participation by posting little recs/reviews when I read stories? (That was two entries and two months ago, here.)

Turns out even that was more than I could manage so far, but I've finally got one!

Splinters of the Past by cdybedahl
fandom: Babylon 5

This story takes place after the end of the series. Susan Ivanova is awesome in it, perfectly in character. Her relationship with Talia Winters was something that we didn't see enough of in the TV series, and it ended horribly abruptly—this story builds plausibly upon what we saw onscreen, and finally provides a kind of closure.

This entry was originally posted at http://shadowscast.dreamwidth.org/101211.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Oh wow you guys, I just spent about three hours this afternoon writing fanfic. I went to a coffee shop and opened up my netbook and Spike and Xander came to life in my head, and I wrote. It was great. I've missed this so much.

The last-edited date on the file was June 15th, but I know it's been longer than that since I actually wrote, because I remember I just did a few line edits the last time I had the file open. I think the last time I did any real writing was in mid-April. Gah.

Writing is so hard, sometimes. You know what I'm talking about. Like slogging up a muddy hill in the pouring rain wearing a big wool sweater. But today it was more like taking a running start and sliding down the muddy hill, shrieking gleefully the whole time.

Except not with actual shrieking. My fellow coffee-shop patrons probably would've objected.

Anyway. Hooray for vacation!

This entry was originally posted at http://shadowscast.dreamwidth.org/100952.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I'm not writing much these days! (You'd noticed, right?)

So here's a plan I have for not being completely invisible in fandom—I'll make an effort to post a little rec whenever I read a good fic. Well, okay, whenever I read a good fic and then still have time and energy afterwards to write even a minimal post. Heh. Do not expect a sudden deluge of rec posts.

Today I read Air by ana_grrl. (I got the link off Crack Van, which is pretty much cheating, recs-wise. You forgive me, right?) It's a Firefly story—a short, sweet Kaylee/Inara slash fic set a little while after the movie.

Gosh I love Kaylee. And this fic captures her voice really nicely.

By the way, if you're reading my posts on Livejournal or Insanejournal, you might notice that I'm redirecting comments to Dreamwidth! So, yeah, this is what I've decided to do for now:

1) Crosspost completely (ie: Dreamwidth, Livejournal, Insanejournal).

2) For meta and general musings, redirect comments to Dreamwidth.

(Why? Well, in the event that any conversations happen in comments, I'd like them to be all in one place. The place where I have lots of icons to use.)

3) For fic (when I eventually get some more written), leave comments open everywhere.

(Why? Because I want to make leaving feedback as easy as possible. I mean seriously, if I could go to your house and do the typing for you while you lounged on your sofa eating grapes, I would.)

This entry was originally posted at http://shadowscast.dreamwidth.org/100781.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Hey look, I'm posting again! And it's about Star Trek, again!

Don't worry, it's not going to be All Star Trek, All The Time around here now; it's only that I just saw the new Star Trek movie, so it's fresh in my mind.

And here's a thing I've been thinking: I want the new Sulu to be gay.

( I will explain myself! )