Luzula

I received this lovely gift full of UST, which I think is the first ever with this pairing! I mean, unless Broster wrote some drawer fic or something. *g* I was pretty sure it was not written by anyone I knew, though I think I recognize the name from sanguinity's Tumblr links?

the miraculous nectarine. (1088 words) by mage-pie
Fandom: "Mr Rowl" - D. K. Broster
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Raoul des Sablières/Hervey Barrington
Characters: Raoul des Sablières, Hervey Barrington, John Jeremy ("Mr Rowl" - D. K. Broster)
Additional Tags: Fluff, Unresolved Sexual Tension, John Jeremy is so so tired of these people, canon-typical gratuitous use of French
Summary: In the back garden of Fairhaven, in the shade of the wall, Hervey Barrington found himself in a peculiar position: sitting on a bench with Raoul des Sablières’ head very nearly in his lap. It was, in fact, on the bench, but the top of his head was pressed against Hervey’s thigh. Hervey was not sure how he had ended up like this—when he had sat down, Raoul had been several inches away with his head on a cushion, and the cushion was now on the grass. (Or, Hervey and Raoul, sitting in a tree garden, not doing anything because someone might see them. It’s all extremely proper and normal and English.)

I wrote this for muccamukk, which is only my second Kidnapped fic. I'd been wanting to write something from Alan's POV, and it took some work, though I'm pretty pleased with the result! My recipient has a very helpful Yuletide letter, and I latched on to this bit: I absolutely adore found documents/letters/anything that annotates/layers text. I especially love it if there are conflicting accounts from more than one source, or in more than one style, or the levels build on each other. I am grateful to sanguinity and garonne for beta reading, and to verecunda for checking the Scots for me!

Take the Bit and the Buffet (1273 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Kidnapped | David Balfour Series - Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: David Balfour/Alan Breck Stewart
Characters: David Balfour, Alan Breck Stewart
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Epistolary
Summary: Alan's beta reading comments on Davie's manuscript of Kidnapped.

Er, except for the K J Charles fic, this entry might as well be titled 'I Rec My Friends' Fics', but whatever. It's hardly a coincidence that my fannish friends are also people whose writing I enjoy.

The Red Notebook (10644 words) by Garonne
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
On a whim I decided to read one of garonne's old Sherlock Holmes fics, and wow, it was so good! This is a a Mycroft-POV fic which takes the unreliable narrator concept to such lengths that it throws out much of canon as being fiction. But the Holmes/Watson relationship remains, and I enjoyed seeing Mycroft gradually discover that through Watson's writing, which also brings them closer together.

Drunkards, Lovers, and Fools (15855 words) by sanguinity
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
This is a Keith/Ewen woke-up-married fic which is just deliciously tropey and which makes the most of using the trope to bring out all of Keith's issues--and even better, we get to see it through Ewen's eyes as he tries to figure out what's happened and what's going on in his new husband's head.

And knowing what to keep (12134 words) by regshoe
Fandom: Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
This fic is almost the opposite: though it's also very shippy, it is so in a restrained fashion which never shows the Alan/Davie couple on the page, but only through other people's eyes, who often don't realize the significance of what they're seeing. At the same time, all these other people show the rich tapestry of all the rest of Davie's life.

The Lions' Den (9976 words) by eleanor_lavish
Fandom: Think of England - K. J. Charles
One of my favorites of the Archie/Daniel fic I've read--it's an obvious premise to write given canon (that actually Archie's uncle and his best friend are lifelong lovers and partners), but it's well executed and so enjoyable!

I now have a new computer, but none of my files are gone, because I back things up. I have lost all my Firefox tabs and bookmarks though, but perhaps a clean slate is not all bad. Let it gooo, let it gooo...

I'm at the family summer place and graaaaading student essays and generally very busy. But this morning I went birdwatching with my dad and saw, among other species:
- two vigilant whooper swans with seven adorable newly hatched cygnets, who hadn't even left the nest yet,
- a red-backed shrike sitting still on a branch,
- a couple of horned grebes with their strange red eyes.

Also, I have received gifts! : D For unsent_letters_exchange I received A Former Acquaintance, where Jill and Kitty meet again post-canon when Lady Trecastle spreads malicious rumours about them, and Known Jacobite, Cameron of Ardroy, which is loosely inspired by events in GitN and where Keith has to deal with having Ewen as his prisoner, while his superior officers want information about Archie from him. I love epistolary fic, and both of these do a great job of showing what's going on even when important events happen off-page.

I thought I'd manage a few recs before the creators are revealed, and not be deterred by not having read all the stories yet, or the feeling that there ought to be more stories in a recs post...

Of Blue Devils and Red Squirrels (2835 words) is an excellent Aubrey/Maturin story--I can't imagine why it has so few comments/kudos. Perhaps because it's gen? It captures the whimsy and warmth of canon, with Jack and Stephen's friendship running through it, and Stephen has some great animal interactions. Very good sense of setting and style, too.

There are also four snippets of Watership Down fic, all of which are worth reading!

I wrote three fics for Yuletide (feel free to guess them...) and lo, I also received three! \o/

The first is an absolutely lovely Flight of the Heron fic, Hereafter. It has Ewen and Keith ascending Ben Nevis together (I have been in Glen Nevis, at least!), some really good nature descriptions, and very cool heron POV.

The second is a delightful Wounded Name fic, Seaweed and Apple Blossoms. It is a Laurent/Aymar/Avoye story which gleefully captures the over-the-top nature of canon and fills out the OT3 ending which canon gestures at.

The third is a Flemington ficlet, Sentimental, which does a great job of filling in Callandar's POV of the canon epilogue.

Thank you, o unknown writers, you have totally made my Yuletide! <3 And you really are unknown--I have no idea who any of you are...but I am looking forward to finding out. : )

My environmental organization is doing some legal work, where I have learned that cases in the European Court of justice often get nicknames. For example Białowieża is the case against the Polish government for logging in the Białowieża National Park. And there is, delightfully, a case with the name Grand Hamster II. It makes me giggle every time--imagine being a lawyer and being able to write a sentence like: 'According to Grand Hamster II, §4 in the Habitats Directive should be interpreted as etc etc...' : D

A Thief in the Night by E W Hornung (1905)
This is the third collection of Raffles stories, and it is definitely my favorite so far! regshoe, you were right in saying that Raffles’ feelings for Bunny come through much more clearly here. And the stories are just a lot of fun, compared to the claustrophobic feeling when Raffles is shut up in the previous book. Also, I thought Bunny’s love interest in this one was a lot more interestingly written than Raffles’ love interests in the previous book.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811)
Another hiking weekend, another Austen audiobook. It's been ages since I read Sense and Sensibility, and it was never one of my favorites. I still can't quite reconcile myself to Marianne/Brandon. For one thing, I feel like she gets such a personality transplant after her illness--having just read Persuasion, I remember the same thing happening with Louisa Musgrove. Was this a trope in literature at the time? And the whole thing with Marianne reminding Brandon of his niece (and her mother)! I just... When I was 35, I was not attracted to immature 17-year-olds. I also think the contrast between Elinor’s sense and Marianne’s sensibility is somewhat undercut when Elinor thinks that Marianne hasn't really known Willoughby long, and see what happened. But how long had Elinor known Edward? And in fact it turns out that Edward has a secret engagement! I do like that Edward is allowed to be shy and awkward, though. But regardless of these thoughts, it is very pleasurable to hike along listening to Austen prose, especially with such a delightful reader.

Fic-wise, I can recommend Les oiseaux que l’hiver exile (14896 words) by Ellen Fremedon. It is set in France during the Bourbon Restoration, the same period as The Wounded Name, but instead of being about overdramatic royalists engaged in slashy hurt/comfort, it is about struggling (but slashy!) republicans with moral shades of grey. I love the exchange where the main character is told that he should run for election in the Vendée. He protests that surely they would never vote for him, they are all royalists! And the other one retorts that the Vendée is also poor, so that their bribes will go further...

Woohoo, I'm over the minimum wordcount on my Yuletide story! \o/ Though I do have some doubts about parts of what I've written--it feels a bit on-the-nose.

Anyway, I thought I'd rec some podcasts I listen to.

I think I found Lingthusiasm via jesse_the_k; it is restful for me to listen to, since linguistics is something I find very interesting while still being unconnected to anything that worries me or requires action from me (unlike, say, if I listen to a podcast about environmental issues). The hosts are charmingly enthusiastic.

Possibly I got Skeptics with a K via melannen? It's like listening to a chatty group of friends talk about various issues touching on science and skeptical thinking, and I find it charming and interesting.

I can't remember how I stumbled on The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast, by the author of the Alpennia books, but it's very useful and interesting if one is writing fic with f/f elements in historical settings, which I spent the past year doing. There's also a connected blog with lots of resources, and also lots of recs of f/f historical fiction.

The Working Class History podcast has lots of interesting stuff; I haven't listened all the way through it, but you can, for example, listen to an interview with two pacifists who successfully mutinied on a US Navy ship during the Vietnam War, or interviews with the people who were involved in the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group (the subject of the lovely 2015 Pride film), or with members of an Australian building union who blocked building projects that were bad for the environment or local communities.

The Voice Coach podcast has lots of great stuff on how to best use your voice, with both theory and exercises. The same host also has The Voiceover Social, which is only tangentially interesting to me as a podficcer since it's for professional voice people, but occasionally they'll have really interesting episodes on different accents, or recording sex scenes, or whatever.

And I've enjoyed the sex and relationship advice podcast Savage Love for years. I also listen to some Swedish podcasts which you are probably not interested in. Do you have recs for more podcasts you think I might enjoy?

Signal-boost: garonne has completed the Gutenberg ebook of The Wounded Name by D K Broster, from 1923. Download if you want epic slashy hurt-comfort set during the Napoleonic wars.

And I, on my part, have completed my Librivox audiobook of White Cockades by Edward Prime-Stephenson, from 1887. Download if you want melodramatic and historically dubious slash set in 18th century Scotland. We can be pretty sure it is meant as m/m, since the author recommended his own book as an example of homoerotic fiction under another pen name. : ) ETA: And thanks to garonne for prooflistening for me!

regshoe's Flight of the Heron fic No Man Can Shun It is brilliant and made me cry. Great idea, great execution, just--aaaaah.

[Podfic] A Thousand Dreams in One Drop of Ink by Luzula
Fandom: Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster
Length: 46 min
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham
Characters: Ewen Cameron, Keith Windham
Additional Tags: Podfic, Podfic Length: 45-60 Minutes, Epistolary, Character Death Fix, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary: A decade-long courtship by letter.

I love epistolary fic, so obviously I was going to podfic this. It also contains a Gaelic poem, and I have done my best with this with the help of garonne and the learngaelic.scot website, but any errors are obviously my own.

Probably the last podfic for a while...but eventually I will definitely record regshoe's recently posted Flight of the Heron fic No Unfitting Harbour. Much recommended.