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blamebramptonBusiest week in months, up to my eyeballs in work, visitors arriving Saturday morning just as the city goes into lockdown (Why oh Why did I not organise to be in Wellington this weekend?), so what am I doing? I'm reccing fics.
(And writing 3000 words for the fic that no-one but GB reads, not that I'm bitter, and writing tips for writing ... what the hell is going on here? Fandom has eaten my brain.)
silentauror 's Graffiti and Insomnia is a witty, fast-paced fic set in the Ministry where both Harry and Draco work as adults. Communication is the key behind the action in this piece and it takes place in an unexpected yet perfectly traditional environment, for a given value of traditional. There is smut, there's humour, there's tastefully graphic boy-on-boy action, it's like HP meets QAF without the PSAs in the background. Best of all is the strong use of interior voice that creates a powerful personal narrative under the lighter action, using flippancy as an elegant cloak for revelation.
It's Our Choices bydumbys_baby was the first H/D fic I ever read, actually, it was probably the first fic I ever read. It's scenes from the life that Harry wold have led if he had shaken Malfoy's hand on the train to Hogwarts that first year. Short, fragmented, and yet oh-so revealing as an utterly different life is constructed. This story always makes me thing of Japanese calligraphy in its spare beauty, without being opaque in its underwriting. This writer is the Brampton I blame, BTW.
I was less certain of Cinnamon's Beautiful World, because I am Old, and therefore less about the Angst, and the opening of this story is All About the Angst, however once Malfoy came leaping into the narrative I was happy to give her another chapter or two to convince me, by which time the hooks were well and truly in. The set-up is bleak: Harry gives up on life, just in time to be told that it has essentially given up on him. Draco Malfoy, so used to defining himself in antithesis to Potter, finds himself trying to reconstruct the Potter that was; or else see what can be built from the remnants. It's hopelessly romantic in parts and full of High Drama, but the writing is so assured and so inventive that it sucks you back into the heady days of teenage madness and makes them seem natural, even beautiful. Long and worth the time it will take to read, it's not going to scare the horses if you're reading in a stable.
Finally,anthimaeria made my day with Unfinished Business, which starts off with the genius that is post-war Romilda Vane teaching Arthur Weasley's Ministry (!) about Muggle management techniques and ends with Draco Malfoy's hair-drying spells. In between there's a beautifully realised tale of wants and needs and working them out. I love her Harry and Draco (and yes, this fic also carries a smut warning), but it's the way she writes minor characters that really made this fic for me. So often writers let the support cast fade into the background but here she has them as distinct voices propelling much of the drama, and certainly hogging most of the best lines. I also enjoyed the fact that she has teenage Harry as a complete prick; it worked so well in the narrative structure of this piece and was a really authentic depiction.
On a completely unrelated note, some funny bugger has signed me up to the Pray For Bush mailing list. Because as an atheist Englishwoman living in the Antipodes, that makes sense, right? I've been keeping a track on the frequency of their mailouts, since Rove and Gonzales have gone, they seem to need less prayer at the White House. Maybe I've been reading this all wrong and that's what they've been praying for. If Cheney carks it and they stop mailing, I'll know I misjudged them all along.
(And writing 3000 words for the fic that no-one but GB reads, not that I'm bitter, and writing tips for writing ... what the hell is going on here? Fandom has eaten my brain.)
silentauror 's Graffiti and Insomnia is a witty, fast-paced fic set in the Ministry where both Harry and Draco work as adults. Communication is the key behind the action in this piece and it takes place in an unexpected yet perfectly traditional environment, for a given value of traditional. There is smut, there's humour, there's tastefully graphic boy-on-boy action, it's like HP meets QAF without the PSAs in the background. Best of all is the strong use of interior voice that creates a powerful personal narrative under the lighter action, using flippancy as an elegant cloak for revelation. It's Our Choices by
dumbys_baby was the first H/D fic I ever read, actually, it was probably the first fic I ever read. It's scenes from the life that Harry wold have led if he had shaken Malfoy's hand on the train to Hogwarts that first year. Short, fragmented, and yet oh-so revealing as an utterly different life is constructed. This story always makes me thing of Japanese calligraphy in its spare beauty, without being opaque in its underwriting. This writer is the Brampton I blame, BTW.I was less certain of Cinnamon's Beautiful World, because I am Old, and therefore less about the Angst, and the opening of this story is All About the Angst, however once Malfoy came leaping into the narrative I was happy to give her another chapter or two to convince me, by which time the hooks were well and truly in. The set-up is bleak: Harry gives up on life, just in time to be told that it has essentially given up on him. Draco Malfoy, so used to defining himself in antithesis to Potter, finds himself trying to reconstruct the Potter that was; or else see what can be built from the remnants. It's hopelessly romantic in parts and full of High Drama, but the writing is so assured and so inventive that it sucks you back into the heady days of teenage madness and makes them seem natural, even beautiful. Long and worth the time it will take to read, it's not going to scare the horses if you're reading in a stable.
Finally,
anthimaeria made my day with Unfinished Business, which starts off with the genius that is post-war Romilda Vane teaching Arthur Weasley's Ministry (!) about Muggle management techniques and ends with Draco Malfoy's hair-drying spells. In between there's a beautifully realised tale of wants and needs and working them out. I love her Harry and Draco (and yes, this fic also carries a smut warning), but it's the way she writes minor characters that really made this fic for me. So often writers let the support cast fade into the background but here she has them as distinct voices propelling much of the drama, and certainly hogging most of the best lines. I also enjoyed the fact that she has teenage Harry as a complete prick; it worked so well in the narrative structure of this piece and was a really authentic depiction. On a completely unrelated note, some funny bugger has signed me up to the Pray For Bush mailing list. Because as an atheist Englishwoman living in the Antipodes, that makes sense, right? I've been keeping a track on the frequency of their mailouts, since Rove and Gonzales have gone, they seem to need less prayer at the White House. Maybe I've been reading this all wrong and that's what they've been praying for. If Cheney carks it and they stop mailing, I'll know I misjudged them all along.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 03:50 pm (UTC)My flist is entitled "journals I read." Basically, I add people if I want to read their LJ and I usually leave a comment explaining why. Often, I add authors whose fics I like. Most people friend back, but if they don't, I keep them on my flist if their journals are worth reading. I recently added mistful who I am sure will never add me back, but I don't want to miss her posts. Also, there are some people who wait to add people back until they feel like they've gotten to know them- I've had the experience of being added back a year later. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't really get into the friending/defriending drama- I just friend the journals I want to read, and friend back most of those who friend me.
As far as your story- I'd be happy to take a look at it. I'm no canon expert, but I'll let you know if anything inconsistent jumps out at me. Hopefully I will have a chance tonight before things get too hectic with the move this weekend.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 04:46 pm (UTC)That's actually an excellent way of thinking about an Flist. I have another lj indentity that came about a while ago when my RL friends all started having ljs. I live far away from many of them, so it was an easy way to read and leave notes. But the difference is that I know each and every one of them.
Your very sane approach is a completely elegant solution to what was indeed a bit of a drama in my head. See! I would SO chat with you if we were ever stuck on a train. I'd probably open the conversation with: "Do you own a cat?"
I friended mistful, too. Mostly because she reminds me very much of my peer group 20 years ago. I fear she was in nursery at that time.
Off to embrace fandom a little more closely ... thanks again, you're like my fairy godmother of fandom. Let me know if you ever need Tim Tams or Berocca!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 02:40 pm (UTC)There were only a very few things I would change. One would be the references such as "the blond boy" (Draco) and "the tall man" (Snape) These generic descriptions don't gibe with your POVs- all the characters are quite familiar with each other and wouldn't think of each other in those impersonal terms, which are better to describe characters who are unknown. Harry might see Draco as "his old rival," or "his lover" (for example) not as an anonymous blond.
Also, there is some POV switching between Harry and Draco mid-scene, which is all right but might be cleaner with sticking to a single POV. Just my two cents.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 03:30 pm (UTC)Heh, you've cunningly spotted where I wussed out on good descriptors. I will have to fix that, you're my idea of what a reader should be, and if it jumps out at you, it's bad.
And yes, I am a guilty and inveterate POV switcher; I blame growing up on French New Wave cinema, or Umberto Eco, or possibly my five-second attention span. Sorry, what were you saying? When this was a short story I didn't mind that, but I think now it has following chapters, I need to go back and reread and rethink whether I want to keep some choppiness, or let the narrative have more flow.
As to gruesome (or not so) details, I cannot write a graphic sex scene without sarcasm to save my life. And no one likes sarcasm in the bedroom or on the dining room table. Therein lies a tale of twentysomething woe in RL ... One too many years of the Literary Review's Bad Sex Prize and any possibilty of even tasteful detail is destroyed. If you have not encountered the Lit Review, it is a wonderful magazine run by bad, wicked people.
Thanks again, I'm quite buoyed by that. I'll tighten it up and then face my last frontier: the fic archive. The end of the larger occurred to me today, no multi-hundred-thousand word excursions for this story!
Good luck with the move. And after tomorrow night, I am free for any editing you may still require. (It's my cunning plan to read your stuff early, subtle, no?)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 03:51 pm (UTC)Empathic Siren pointed out a major scene that needs to be deleted and completely rewritten, so I still have some work to do on my fic and am not sure when I will finish. I will send it to you when done, though. (And that's often why I volunteer to beta- I love reading new stuff by my favorite authors!)
PS- if you're looking for new fics by writers you may not have heard of, my friend (actual)