HSU IT Department

My gift posted today over at hoggywartyxmas and oh, my, is it a thing of wonder. If you like stories that break your heart and then put it back together again in a most satisfying and lyrical manner, please take a moment to go and read:

Through the Spiral of the Years

Reveals are up over at sshg_giftfest, so I can now admit to having written "The Price of a Memory" (on the fest community or on AO3) for reynardo! Her prompt was positively inspiring, and I had a wonderful time writing this for her.

I would also like to profusely and enthusiastically applaud and thank dragoon811, who wrote for ME a splendid story containing so many of my favorite elements: entangled souls and seventh year, too-clever-by-half Hermione and sarcastic biting Severus, all beautifully interwoven with canon events and a perfect, heart-tugging ending. Go and read Warmth and see for yourself!

Check out all the other artses and fics while you're there, too, because every single one is top-notch. The amount of talent in this particular 'ship continues to amaze and delight me...

I stumbled across a fic on AO3 tonight that I simply must rec. It's dark, very dark, but oh so terrifyingly credible. Every action of every person in this story is entirely in character, and if the HP books had been written for adults instead of children, this or something very like it would surely have happened. The story isn't long but it's powerful, and will make you weep for every single person involved as they fall -- or step willingly -- into the darkness.

Title: Paterfamilias
Author: Miggy, Phoebe (Emeraldwoman)
Word count: 3929
Warnings: fairly explicit violence, especially the final few lines
Summary: Arthur Weasley discovers that no matter how limited the choices, the cost of using the enemy's techniques is too high.

When he was just an infant, Fred became very sick and could
barely breathe for how clogged his lungs were. Arthur had
watched him all through the night, convinced his son couldn't
die so long as he kept his fatherly gaze trained on the crib.
As he watches the son of a hated enemy cling to life, he
realizes only one word in that label matters...

Yes, I am still alive. Real life has been ver' ver' busy of late, what with freelance editing clients, getting my minerva_fest entry in, trying to get caught up on hp_silencio (which posted a stunning and heartbreaking Minerva-centric entry on Saturday, thanks to teddyradiator for pointing me to it), birthday parties for nieces and nephews, and to top it off my online fantasy/sci fi writing workshop (which I'm now co-modding, and yes we would love to have new members) is running its twice-a-year short story in a week during the month of October.

Whew.

I have managed to cram some reading in here and there: a YA post-apoc novel about seven young children trying to survive alone following a mass epidemic (Fire-Us #1: Kindling), a highly unusual, meditative and thoughtful post-apoc tale of perhaps the last woman on earth (The Hauntings of Playing God), a mediocre suspense/horror story about a missing Karloff/Lugosi film and a few too many other things (Ancient Images), a beach-read Gilded-Age romance (American Heiress), and a somewhat disappointing Angela Carter novel (The Magic Toyshop) about orphans and creepy puppets. (Links go to my reviews, if I've done one.)

And I'm currently a third of the way through Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMOR), which is quite fun: what if Harry Potter were a child prodigy raised by a physicist and tried to apply the scientific method to magic? Very much AU; all the familiar characters are there with essentially the same characteristics (Dumbledore twinkles and is a bit mad, Hermione is brilliant, McGonagall is proper yet with underlying affection) but everything else gets twisted round in new and interesting ways. The author must know quite a lot about the fanfic world because he works in a lot of inside jokes about various fandom habits and oddities (e.g. the Harry/Draco pairing), but it's all done very affectionately.

I intend to follow it up with Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles, mentioned by kellychambliss, a spoof of the series as fundamentalist Christian. Promises to be amusing.

Ah, and last night we saw Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which was fabulous. I sympathized hugely with Vanya's rant about how we used to lick stamps and have typewriters, and the actress who was Nina (over)played her like a young female William Shatner parody, which made me and Mr Psmith laugh immoderately. A good time was had by all :)

So there you go. What's new with you, flist?

I've been madly trying to get caught up on fest reading (sshg_exchange, hoggywartyxmas, hp_holidaygen, mini_fest, whew!!). I'm doing fairly well, though I still have a long way to go on mini_fest, but I have also on occasion been seduced into other channels.

The most surprising and fascinating was Seven for a Secret (AO3). I have no recollection of how I found it, because I was following links upon links upon links (you know, like you do) and the trail is long gone cold, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that these are marvelous, dark reimaginings of seven fairy/Disney princess tales. Jasmine finds out the punishment for stealing in a Middle Eastern country; Belle witnesses the French Revolution; Sleeping Beauty awakes only to find everyone around her falling into a new kind of sleep, and more. They are disturbing, yes, but so creative and so beautifully, vividly told -- as good as Angela Carter's The Bloody Tower, or Tanith Lee's Red as Blood: Tales from the Sisters Grimmer. Luckily they're short-shorts (the total word count is only 6390) so you can get through them all during, oh, tea-and-a-cookie-or-two.

Speaking of cookies, I got a couple of Barnes and Noble gift cards for Xmas and promptly ran out and bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. IT IS FABULOUS. Tons of new recipes that aren't on the website, gorgeous photos, and it really does lie flat on the counter when it's open, just like advertised. Much cooking will ensue in the New Year!!

My gifts (yes, plural!) have posted on sshg_exchange, and I tell you now: RUN DO NOT WALK to read All Shadows Pass Away. I am blown away by the gorgeousness of the prose, the vivid lushness of the descriptions, the liveliness and depth of the dialog...There are cats and libraries and walled gardens, Tuscany and Wales and Hogsmeade, there are theological/philosophical debates and picnics, there are echoes of myth and legend, and most of all there is so much love in all its forms: friendship, healing, loyalty, desire, passion, faith.

As if that weren't gift enough, the same Mystery Author also created a lushly beautiful piece of art based on my story A Price Beyond Rubies which looks like a page from an illuminated manuscript and which forms a perfect linking device between that story and hers.

Even if Santa leaves me nothing but coal this year, I will consider myself supremely well-gifted indeed :)

...that there's a giant comprehensive master list for all six years of the sshg_exchange? It has 900+ fics listed and is sortable AND filterable by all sorts of characteristics: year, author, rating, etc. Wish I'd found it at the beginning of my four-day weekend instead of the end >:|

I'm plugging along on sshg_exchange and luciusbigbang, not to mention my writing group's twice-yearly Short Story In A Week which always, always, ALWAYS seems to fall during the busiest months of the year for me, in some sort of cosmic slap-down of my attempts to participate fully in it. So far we're three days into the first week and I've written king zippy nada, as a a friend of mine used to say.

But it's not my fault, really! I keep getting distracted -- not least by the aforementioned list, but also by the wonderful SS/HG AU fic Droxy's Folly, which went up on AO3 over the weekend. (If you haven't read this yet, drop everything and GO.) And of course by silly videos of cats, we all know how that goes.

Curse you, interwebz!!!!

Seems appropriate that I share one item of distraction, given (a) the current fests-in-progress, (2) the BBC's recent tut-tutting over 50 Shades of Grey (thanks, laurielover1912) and Newsweek's assertion that what's really wrong with FSoG is the lamentable quality of the prose. So, for your edification and jollification, I offer this light-hearted defense of smut, from Tom Lehrer:

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My lm_hgficxchange gift fic posted, and it's absolutely wonderful! It's from the pen of the talented rivertempest and she has outdone herself. The story has all my favorite things: clever plot, witty/snarky banter, a little UST, and Lucius in some truly monumentally funny situations. I laughed until I cried at the herbal tea and the men's wear :D

Go forth now and read Equal Opportunity -- you won't be sorry :)

I recently discovered the parodic stylings of Minerva mctabby and have laughed myself nearly into a cracked rib. Be sure to put down any beverages before proceeding...Ready? OK!

The Head of Slytherin is a delightfully demented and decadent little piece set to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." There's voyeurism, slash, and polyjuiced rhyming smut -- who could ask for more?? Apparently it was written back in 2002 for something called "the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest," which sounds fabulous and quite possibly worth reviving. Here's a sample:

(If you need a refresher on the melody)
I would never have believed it of my stooges, Crabbe and Goyle,
But I saw them sneak off somewhere with a flask of massage oil.
I pursued - and found him waiting, with a cauldron on the boil -
The Head of Slytherin.
Then there's the hilarious That Potter Slash, also by McTabby, a parody of everyone's favorite Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham:

Would you, could you
Harry/Snape?
Read it! Read it!
No escape!

Serious giggles lie ahead. Read (or sing) aloud for best effect.

I wish to heartily recommend to your attention a wonderful HG/SS fic entitled Karakuri by the talented talesofsnape. The plot is complex, clever and logical, everyone is very in-character, and the writing is top-notch with wonderful turns of phrase, lively dialog and excellent vivid description. In addition to the main characters we get an appropriately sweet/vague (and wonderfully blunt) Luna, as well as a glimpse into the strong and long-standing friendship between Severus, Lucius and Narcissa. There is romance, humor, wit, Dark magic, a mystery abduction, and -- of course -- snark, a given for any tale including our favorite Potions master:

Hermione grinned. "You have an evil tongue, Severus Snape."

"Only my tongue, Granger?" Snape growled. "I must be slipping."

Also, please to look at my flashy new icon, also courtesy of talesofsnape, which is a quote from the story. Now be off with you, go forth and read.