Snowflake Challenge: Day One

I decided I was going to do this this year, then promptly missed the first day. Woo! It's meant to be low-pressure, right, so I'm completing Days One and Two on Day Two. Take that, complicated and busy life!

So, Day One: In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

Okay, let's see. Let the navel-gazing begin!

That Dear Octopus (PG, Severus/Remus, Eileen/Tobias, Minerva/OFC, AU- post-war)
Summary: Severus has cultivated a life isolated from his family, but now his estranged mother and grandmother have rescued him from the brink of death. Oh, and then there is Remus...

At least right now, this is the piece I am most proud of. It was the one I wrote when I felt the most like I was finding my own voice and didn't need to be derivative of any other fics I'd read. Also, the characters were speaking loud and clear to me in my head, and I managed to get them to speak out on the page just as clearly as they spoke in my imagination. It also contains some of the best lines I've written, at least according to me. It is one of the last long pieces I wrote in what I think of as my "heyday" as a fandom writer, and I still re-read it when I'm in a mood and need to cheer up. Plus, I really do love Eileen and Leo, and wish they would come visit me again.

An Ecstasy of Fumbling (NC-17, Severus/Remus, Remus/OMCs, Remus/Sirius, Remus/Charlie, AU- WWI, warning: open-relationship infidelity)
Summary: After eight years together, Remus needs something or someone to shake up his relationship with Severus. In the aftermath of war, how do two people find themselves, and each other, again?

This fic was such a joy to write, at the height of my beta partnership with blpaintchart. We talked every day and worked through every detail of life during the post-WWI era, and had a blast doing it. I am particularly proud of responses I got to this one in regards to historical detail and historical views of homosexuality. Also, I do love Charlie Weasley, the undergardener...mmm, yes. I know the infidelity keeps readers away from it, but I like to think that this is not so much about infidelity, as about finding fidelity again when it has been lost, if that makes sense. Anyway, in my current state of brain melt and parenthood, I look at this one and can't believe that I once wrote it. I did? Wow. I'm proud of myself!

You Can Run but You Can't (NC-17, Charlie/Viktor, Charlie/OFC, Bill/Fleur, warning: infidelity)
Summary: Charlie's life veers off course, but Bill and Viktor are there to set him, um, straight.

I had to include my other favorite pairing to write, Charlie and Viktor. It was hard to select one from my various fics about them, but I think this is my current favorite. There's that blasted infidelity again, but here it is all about Charlie panicking about his sexuality and unable to deal, and Bill being an awesome and honest brother, and Viktor being a hot slab of man. Yum. Charlie makes some bad decisions in this one, but they are also good decisions in the end, and I love a conflicted Weasley trying to deal with life while being a bit of an ass. They do that so well! :)

On to Day Two!

Snowflake Challenge: Day Two

Onward!

Day 2: In your own space, promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, Twitters, Tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them.

Oy! This one is hard for me because part of why I'm doing the challenge is to look at others' responses and broaden my fandom horizons. Let's see though, I'll just be honest, if not that original:

The thing I use CONSTANTLY now is Archive of Our Own. I do almost all of my reading there, using the various filters to help me find what I want. My best experiences, especially in treading into new fandoms recently, is to go to the Ao3 page for the fandom, sort for the pairing/character I want, and then sort for kudos or bookmarks. This gets me going on the "classics," if you will, of the fandom. Then I can search from there and follow authors, etc, as I wish. I completely lost myself in Torchwood fandom with this method...

Back in LJ land, I have to promote my dear old Quibbler Report an HP rare-pair and gen recs letter that I was an editor on for years (though not any more). I love QR for bringing attention to unusual pairings, great art, and comms that might otherwise fly under the radar. It is a recs letter, so the editors actually read many, many things and then decide what to suggest in the newsletter, so you can expect what is linked there to be of good quality. It's a labor of love for those who do it, and I still use it all the time to try out new and different pairings and characters.

Last, I'll point anyone reading this to one of my favorite yearly events, lgbtq_recs! This is a comm where every June reccers sign up to recommend favorite LGBTQ-themed, well, anything. Here's the list from the comm information of what can be rec'ed: "books, movies, music, performances, websites, fiction, non-fiction, children's and young adult's books, academic articles, non-academic articles, television shows, you name it"! The yearly master lists are all very well organized and are a great resource at any time of year if you want to find a great movie, book, etc with a queer theme. I visit regularly to find a new text or film to experience. Check it out!