sail your sea meet your storm

[raven]

Hi, I am a crazy person. I spent Thursday afternoon sitting by the river, under the bridge where the people take their canoes down, watching the geese and the pleasure craft and the occasional solemn, athletic canoeist. One of the large passenger boats from Iffley had cut power and drifted into the middle of the river in order to turn around; there was also an elderly, very fit man sculling furiously. Backwards. After the shouting and crashing were over, I sat back against my tree on the bank and though, huh, I am the only person in the world who saw that coming, maybe I should have said something.. And then started cackling like a loon. I related this story to my long-suffering headshrink dude the next day, and he noted that was very healthy, sitting by the water watching the boats go by. I may have, um, shouted at him.

Basically: I am not very well, I am in that place where you don't think life is worth living at all, blah blah blah whatever.

There are still quite a few days of posting for lgbtfest, but I thought it was worth noting a few of my favourites while we go:

We Few, We Happy Few by toujours_nigel, Harry Potter.
Aurors, and institutionalised homophobia. This is stylish.

Time (of change), by soft_princess, Merlin.
Uther prefers not to father bastards. It's all very logical. Unexpectedly sweet and lovely.

The Rules, by gilesonnen, Discworld.
A new wizard at Unseen University has questions about the celibacy policy. Ridcully is very literal. The story is a gentle, rollicking delight.

Love Like A Djelibeybian, by gehayi, Discworld.
Ptraci is enjoying being queen. But people have strange ideas about what handmaidens ought and ought not to do.

And these two you must read, if nothing else:

Modern Love, by penknife, Discworld.
Show me something of Penknife's I haven't loved, but this is special. This is the Disc's dwarfs getting used to gender, and sex, and not getting used to it, and embracing the human notions, and rejecting the human notions, and it is... not beautiful, but right, and shaped perfectly into a few thousand words. It's a wonderful, wonderful piece of writing, and something I hope Pratchett nods at, later.

The Pattern of the Process, by raedbard, The West Wing.
This is about Toby's babies-who-come-with-hats, Huck and Molly, only they're not babies, any more - and more than that I wouldn't want to say, because this story is perfect and complete and self-contained. It's immaculately thought-out and immaculately executed, and at something like 19,000 words, an astonishing achievement for a few months' work.

Comments

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for these recs! I'm really excited about lgbtfest, and it's great to have a place to start reading.

Also, *hugs*

Also, also, your final link is not to the West Wing one but to the Discworld one again.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, I hope you like them, and thank you for hugs, too. :)

fixed, thankyou!

[tau_sigma]

Recs! Queer recs! You are lovely. *hugs* I haven't read a lot of fic in a long time, I've realised, and while I don't miss reading it as avidly as I used to - I've exchanged fic for books again, which is nice - it is nice to read the odd good thing. :)

And I'm sorry that you're feeling awful again/still/more. *loves* You are wonderful. Don't forget that.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I hope you like these... they're very good! And I hear you on the fic-or-books thing - I quite often don't read both at the same time, it's odd.

Thanks, honey. It's really appreciated. :)

[tau_sigma]

Oh, I did, I did. (I didn't read the Merlin/West Wing ones, since I'm not in those fandoms at all, of course, and I see people think tWW one was particularly great ... ah well; what I read, I enjoyed.)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

The Pattern of Process, by [info]raedbard, The West Wing.
This is about Toby's babies-who-come-with-hats, Huck and Molly, only they're not babies, any more - and more than that I wouldn't want to say, because this story is perfect and complete and self-contained. It's immaculately thought-out and immaculately executed, and at something like 19,000 words, an astonishing achievement for a few months' work.

Um. Thank you for that rec. For a number of reasons, it's not a fic I ever would have clicked on and yet...it just kicked me in the gut multiple times. I can't even...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so glad you liked that one! It was the reason I made this post to start with, I just... yeah. Was blown away.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

Thanks muchly for recs! I too was looking at the LGBT list and thinking OMG so much fic, where to start....

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, my dear!

[janne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Discworld rec's, somehow it's never occurred to me to look for fics from that setting. Hope you feel better.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) And yes, yes, I hope you enjoy them! Discworld only ever seems to be written in the large multifandom-ficathon context, seems to me, and it's a treat to see it done well.

[janne.livejournal.com]

Loved the dwarf story! (Want to come see my savings? heehee). Though the Ptraci story seems to have interpreted the end of Pyramids differently than me -- I thought it was subtly stating that Ptraci and Teppic were an item. Ohwell, makes for reasonable fanon, and well written.

[tieleen.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for the recs! I've never read any of these, and they sound fascinating, especially the Penknife one (which I have no idea how I missed).

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Enjoy!

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

I am trying so hard to ignore that TWW rec until finals are over.

(it looks incredibly excellent, though, thank you)

[toujours-nigel.livejournal.com]

I am, almost exactly, a year late, but I just found this, and I wanted to thank you for the rec.